Dr Jackson said in fact, hazardous binge-drinking had been getting worse, and the government needed to raise the price of alcohol.
“Since 2011 we haven’t seen any positive change in 18 to 24 year old drinking so you know this is great, they’re protecting their brains while they’re very very vulnerable but we’ve got to make sure that when they hit that age they’re not just stepping into that culture,” she said.
People in more equal societies are far less likely to experience mental illness.
Blaming inanimate substances for the damage that right wing economists do just makes finding solutions more difficult. It’s a waste of resources and a sop to moralising curtain-twitchers.
Not according to the MoH – alcohol rates have been steadily dropping rather rising under neo-liberalism (not a defense of neo-liberalism, just the facts don’t align with your opinion)
To be fair, most social ills are at the very least exacerbated by it.
I’m having a bit of difficulty thinking of a social ill that doesn’t have a large proportion of its present prevalence attributable to neoliberalism, i.e. it would be much less of an issue if we’d kept our social democratic / democratic socialist ideals of Savage and Kirk and even Muldoon.
edit: I suppose the starting point would be some sort of congenital condition that’s not due to antenatal factors or genetic damage to a parent from environmental factors. But even then you have the affordability of ongoing life-course care for the baby.
Executive director of Alcohol Healthwatch Nicki Jackson is just trying to justify the grants her organization receives, it can never improve otherwise she puts herself out of a job.
An interesting article, Ed, but it would be helpful if you had included in your summary that this Australian study (considered by the NZ Alcohol Healthwatch to be in line with what is happening to NZ) also found that more teenagers are choosing to turn away from alcohol.
The remarks you quoted from Dr Jackson, Executive Director of Alcohol Healthwatch were in fact preceded by this statement in respect of New Zealand:
“”Yes, there’s been declines in young people choosing to take up drinking but we’ve seen no declines whatsoever in the style in which young people drink, they’re still drinking very heavily so that culture hasn’t changed.”
I agree with you ED alcohol is A DRUG that cause more damage to OUR worlds society as the law says its safe to consume this poison yes ITS a poison
1I know of at least 5 people whom have died from drinking to much alcohol one of them was a famous Rock Star .
2 Our youth think its safe until next minute they are locked up for something they did while pissed and can not remember what happened and if that person was not pissed they would be a good person and never commit a crime.
3 Other people whom are experienced drinkers can wait untill one is tiddly and then encourage them to drink up hotties usually and they have got you pissed and can get the you to do what they want
4 drinks can be spiked with other drugs never leave your drinks unattended make sure you go drinking with people you trust as If one is pissed I say you are mental as most don’t remember what they did when one is rolling blind drunk this is why they call it blind drunk and there are reports of people losing one sight temporary when one has consumed to much alcohol .
5 I think its a sin to let OUR Mokos think alcohol is a safe drug and then let them find out all the negative effects alcohol has on them while they are in a unsafe environment all the bad side effects of alcohol should be advertize so OUR mokos know to sip the stuff or it will fuck them up.
6 What about all the violence that happens when people are pissed check the hospital records
7 Car crashes other people being killed by drunks drivers what a waste of lives
8 All the disabled people who got there injuries while pissed
9 Every year we have two big events and everyone is encouraging everyone to get pissed I could not work that out logically I drink a little I learnt through trial and error If one is in a good mood when drinking alcohol its not to bad but if one is in a bad mood while drinking that’s when the violence starts I have never hit any of my loved ones while being drunk most of the time I would not bother to go and drink it was others that got me to go out with them I was happy watching videos at home.
10 The neoliberal used alcohol to break MAORI MANA my te puna Sir Apirana Ngata new this was happening and in 1920 got a ban on alcohol on the east coast for 10 years He was the one person who saved a lot of Maoris Mana need
I say more Ka kite ano
Quite a list of damage to our people in this country.
It makes me both angry and sad to see the devastation this repulsive drug does.
It would be so simple to apply a more sensible drug policy for alcohol.
Your comment is an example of the logical fallacy “non-sequitur.”
Your argument is:
Premise: some yoofs still drink a lot of alcohol.
Conclusion: therefore, alcohol is a blight on our society.
But the conclusion you’ve drawn doesn’t logically follow from the premise you’ve provided. I guess there’s an implied premise in there that alcohol is a Bad Thing, but that would merely change the logical fallacy to “begging the question.”
I can’t really blame you though, as non-sequitur is also Dr Jackson’s mode of operation – it’s fairly hard to endorse her views without falling into logical fallacies yourself.
The people who can’t handle their piss and cause problems are a blight on society.
The best option is to ban the people who abuse alcohol and leave the vast majority of people who like a beer, wine or whatever your drink of choice is, alone.
Here is some evidence of the damage alcohol does to society …..
In 2012, driver alcohol was a contributing factor in 73 fatal crashes, 331 serious injury crashes and 933 minor injury crashes. These crashes resulted in 93 deaths, 454 serious injuries and 1,331 minor injuries.
A third of violent offences, including family violence, and 44 per cent of homicides involve someone who has been drinking. As do 62,000 physical assaults and 10,000 sexual assaults, per year.
According to alcohol.org.nz, between 18 per cent and 35 per cent of injury-based emergency department presentations in New Zealand are estimated to be alcohol-related. This rises to between 60 per cent and 70 per cent during the weekend.
Approximately 45 per cent of fire fatalities are alcohol-related, as are approximately 11 per cent of drowning deaths
around 10 per cent of New Zealand’s population of 4.4 million was alcoholic.
New Zealanders spend about $85 million a week on alcohol, but it costs the country about $5 billion a year in damage.
Yeah, but it’s spent locally and probably mostly on NZ products (beer and wine), so there’d be a hefty multiplier on the strict sale value for the economic activity. Not to mention exports.
So the profit/loss ledger could well swing either way.
The NZ wine industry is not as local as you might realise.
Author Peter Howland writes in his book Social, Cultural and Economic Impacts of Wine in New Zealand that more than 80 per cent of New Zealand wine production is foreign-owned.
The maker of Tui beer, which is marketed as an iconic New Zealand brand, is owned by Asia Pacific Breweries, which is being shaken up by a multi-billion-dollar deal.
The Dutch beer maker Heineken is spending $S5.1 billion ($NZ5 billion) to buy 40 percent of Asia Pacific Breweries from Singapore-based Fraser and Neave, taking its stake to 82 percent. It will attempt to move to full control.
DB, which competes against Lion Breweries, has declined to comment on the ownership shakeup, which was first signalled in July. Lion Breweries is owned by Japan’s Kirin Holdings, which was seen as a rival for Asia Pacific Breweries.
Yes all those profits are going overseas, leaving behind a litany of social damage.
Did you watch Nigel Latta’s documentaty on alcohol in New Zealand?
I recommend you do so you are more aware of the level of foreign ownership of the liquor industry.
So it’s just the manufacturing and sale costs that get recirculated. Big whoop, it doesn’t alter the fact that economic activity is more than just the point of sale transaction.
Thank you for doing the Maths.
So we as a society subsidise the international liquor corporations to the tune of #11 million a week.
No wonder they lobby so hard to control our politicians.
The Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 was a pitiful response by the National Party-led government to the monumental review of alcohol in New Zealand by the Law Commission in 2009/2010. All of the most effective recommendations of the Commission’s final report Alcohol in our Lives: Curbing the Harm were ignored. Of particular note, there were no new substantial measures addressing the demand side of alcohol consumption—marketing and pricing.
It’s not that they can’t handle their piss but that they’ve been taught that getting drunk is the thing to do.
To change that we need to change our drinking culture away from weekend binge drinking. Many European nations drink more per capita than we do but don’t have the same problems as they don’t drink it all on Saturday night as we do.
To change that we need to change our drinking culture away from weekend binge drinking.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Also, we don’t “need” to do anything in response to people choosing to do things we personally would rather they didn’t.
Also, we don’t “need” to do anything in response to people choosing to do things we personally would rather they didn’t.
this is another one of those things where people are choosing to do things that harms others and they don’t actually have a right to do that. So, yes, we do actually need to do something about it.
But it is certainly a cultural change that we need to bring about and that will take years and even decades.
We do have rules about harming others, variously classed as offences, crimes etc. Which is, not coincidentally, also a way to teach/propagate acceptable behaviour.
Don’t you think alcohol is a blight on our society?
No. Complaining about people taking recreational drugs is pointless – people like recreational drugs and are going to take them. Also: my experience of alcohol is of skilled craftspeople making excellent drinks that I enjoy drinking, so if anyone wants to declare those fine artists “a blight on society,” I’m going to disagree.
Not just that PM, but therefore, alcohol is a blight on our society, caused by neo liberalism, so without actually addressing the binge drinking culture, let’s just put the price up and make more profits for the liquor companies.
It’s not a blight on people like me who drink responsibly.
There are, of course, those who fail to show common sense, drink to excess, and cause a multitude of costly issues. But a broad broom sweep approach won’t fix a surgical strike issue.
Hoons and a lot of kiwis in cars drive like shit, causing a multitude of accidents and death each year, a very real societal problem.
Environmental arguments to one side, you’ll be up for banning under 25s and most drivers from our roads then?
I commented it was a blight on society.
Not you individually.
I think this thread proves New Zealanders are in denial about the severity of the problem.
On this site, there are people in denial or disinterested about quite a few things…..
Alcohol and its impacts on society.
The welfare of animals in industrial farming.
A meat diet’s impact on climate change.
The media’s bias over news from Syria, Ukraine, Yemen.
Those of us who address these subjects are subject to vile abuse.
Alcohol is a vital part of my life, is a massive part of our economy and a whole bunch less damaging to our land as a productive export than dairy, is a free choice, is regular by local government through democratic hearings about their location, and of course strongly regulated through central government with tax that is fairly up there.
That’s before you get to enforcement.
One of the biggest new enforcements is the random drug testing within the Worksafe framework. It really does regulate your life on Friday and Sunday as well as Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Not a bad thing overall.
The only way you are going to make a successful argument for more regulation of alcohol is if you set out the benefits with the costs and do an evaluation, rather than just bleating on about the costs.
It is hardly a controversial opinion to say that alcohol is a blight on our society.
It is hardly a controversial opinion to say that animals are treated cruelly in the industrial farming model.
And even if you disagree with those opinions, there is no need for abuse.
I wrote “It is hardly a controversial opinion to say that animals are treated cruelly in the industrial farming model.”
However, the number of animals living a ‘Life of Riley’ until they are slaughtered is a minuscule fraction.
Food is undoubtedly a very contentious issue that divides the American public, with no shortage of opinions on what’s right or wrong, healthy or unhealthy and eco-friendly or unsustainable. However, even when it comes to such a polarizing topic, there is common ground to be found by everyone ranging from vegans to die-hard meat eaters. No one can deny the destructive nature of the force that dominates our food system (i.e. industrial animal agriculture or factory farming). When you take into account the fact that factory farms raise 99.9 percent of chickens for meat, 97 percent of laying hens, 99 percent of turkeys, 95 percent of pigs, and 78 percent of cattle currently sold in the United States, it’s shocking how much time we waste debating each other, rather than trying to actually change the system.
“I commented it was a blight on society.
Not you individually.”
And I answered accordingly, to me personally it’s not a blight, but for some, who have no self control or a modicum of common sense, it’s a big problem. There are solutions, I’m sure, but prohibition won’t work, especially when it’s cheap as chips to home brew or distil.
As for the rest of your reply, well, as noted above, it’s not vile abuse but disagreement, and yeah, we get it, you want to be the summer bbq killer. 🙄
PM
To make the argument/discussion clearer when you refer to a commenter can you say their name. Your comment was put up today at 9.21 am and finishes after ecomaori’s at 8.35 pm. I guess it is in relation to veutoviper’s but why not make it easier to connect the dots?
I will try to remember to do that. In my defence, when I posted comment 1.4 at 9:21am in response to comment 1 from Ed at 8:09am, it was fairly obvious who I was referring to – I didn’t anticipate the lengthy subthreads that would push my comment well down the page. Not an excuse though, I should have quoted him.
Yes PM
That is what I have noticed happening to me and have had to resort occasionally to shifting my comment by deleting the original and copying it to where I knew it would sit better.
Pot, meet kettle. Your ad nauseam moralising isn’t a “debate”. When people point out your logical fallacies (which are numerous) you pack a sad, play the victim card and start smearing them.
Your behaviour is more reminiscent of Peter George than CV and PU.
Urophagia, by the way, is a trait attributed* to such as Ghandi. What’s the matter Ed, don’t you like being compared to the Mahatma?
I eat a plant based diet and Ed is insulting me. His attempt to cast himself as an extra in The Crucible is another insult, given the behaviour and temperament of the Salem persecutors.
So perhaps it’s you who doesn't get it: when Ed either stops abusing people, or stops whinging when he can’t handle the response, I'll stop pointing it out.
I’m considerably, CONSIDERABLY C O N S I D E R A B L Y more pompous, utterly more wise and wearied, and most extensively more full of myself than ya lot of ya.
Why I’m so gorgeous I can’t look in a mirror for fear of having an orgasm.
Yet another sign of fake jobs and fake businesses and dodgy work permits. Sarabjit Singh managed by Payal Kumar and employed on a work visa for a low level cafe job by Ben Singh Holdings, in a area of high unemployment.
The worker was only paid $150 a week in cash. There were no records of the cash payments because the ledger that recorded the payments was “allegedly” stolen during a break-in.
No wonder NZ is going down the toilet in productivity and employment practises when this is the ‘new’ culture that has been fostered under the National government.
Not enough crack down by the new government – they should be urgently reviewing all the work permits given out to check they are not being abused and actually if they are real jobs with real businesses and not this type of carry on.
Not only that but wrecking our tourist industry when there are so many tourist businesses now operating without knowledge of NZ rules and regulations.
Stayed at an upmarket hotel in the holidays, same type of thing that is turning NZ into a poorly regulated tourist market seemingly operated entirely by migrant workers. In this instance stayed at a so called upmarket hotel that turned out to have poor cleaning, and poor maintenance of a formerly beautiful hotel on a lake. It appeared to have been bought by an offshore chain and staffed with beaten down migrants who don’t seem to understand purpose or method of hospitality.
Seems to be the new way to run down NZ image, as part of globalism. A race to the bottom and to exploit local resources and remove local culture and charm to save an offshore $.
Another article referring to the oncoming financial crash.
“Many believe 2018 could be the year that country finally does something about its own huge debt problems.
When just one asset is going up, you explain it by the characteristics of that asset. But if you have an everything bubble, you need to look at the trend behind the trend.
Cast your mind back a few years and you may recall the expression “quantitative easing”. This is where central banks pumped money into the economy to try to help us recover from the global financial crisis. It happened in the US, Japan and Europe.
It worked, more or less. But the effect was similar to what you see in a game of Monopoly. The amount of money in circulation kept going up, but the number of assets to buy remained stubbornly still. As anyone who has forked out $600 in Monopoly money for Old Kent Road knows, asset prices go up as the ratio of money to assets goes up.
Quantitative easing is really just an extreme version of cutting interest rates. In both cases, the idea is to make people borrow more and spend more. So even though Australia didn’t have quantitative easing, low interest rates and the record amounts of household debt Aussies are shouldering represent its part of the everything bubble.
The problem with loose monetary policy is that while it is supposed to make people do productive things like start a new company, it has a side effect of making them buy assets at crazy prices. If the everything bubble pops, it may turn out that the cure for the global financial crisis is what caused the next crisis.”
Ed, that whole article is cast in terms of “if” and what “many (unidentified people) believe”. It’s conjecture for the slow news season.
Also note this, from the final paragraph: “The exciting thing about this question is we don’t know. Immediate panic is not necessary — it is unlikely each asset class will fall together like synchronised divers. More likely, a decline in one will overlap with a decline in another, creating a long period of uncertainty.”
You could be right that 2018 will bring a crash, but you seem determined to only see the negative possibilities and seem to simply discount anything that isn’t a disaster scenario.
Yes, well I’m in Ed’s camp on this. Plenty would not believe that 2008 would happen!! But it did. We are at similar pressure points in the system again.
Of course vested interest bodies call us “chicken little” LOL.
Predicting 200 of the last two crashes is easy. Of course they happen, and of course that means there’ll be another. So far, so ‘peak oil theory’.
Actually predicting them requires a lot more hard work than reading articles in the media. If The Big Short can be believed, Michael Burry hired people to literally pore through all the individual sub-prime mortgage records. Yes, all of them.
and even then it was just a more educated bet than the other bets. If the timing had been off, the shorted packages would have increased in price and needed repayment.
it’s all reducing confidence intervals, but never eliminating them. And most people never get enough information to close them all that much in the first place.
Thank you. Good to hear there are those who agree with this point of view.
There are reputable independent economists who are telling us about an oncoming crash.
Steve Keen
“The bubble will burst in the next one to two years – there’s been a real acceleration in house prices since 2012, they’ve increased by about 60 percent. But what I’m seeing now is the motivating force for rising house prices is rising mortgage credit. The wind in that bubble is starting to run out.”
You claim to want a discussion, Ed. But when I engaged with your comment at 1, you pretended to agree with me, then went right back to reciting your litany as though our exchange hadn’t happened.
You then went on to describe the counter arguments as abuse, itself an insult to those who had indulged your alleged desire for discussion.
While you continue to misrepresent the counter arguments to your narrative, I guarantee you that people will continue to notice and comment on that misrepresentation.
I’m not surprised you’re feeling beleaguered though. Perhaps if you engaged in better faith you might find people a little less persistent.
What do you think of my argument that sloppily-presented narratives provide comfort to “the enemy”?*
*One Two, please try and discover what inverted commas are for before your knee starts jerking at “the enemy”.
“I’m not surprised you’re feeling beleaguered though.”
Astute, AOB. If I’d received these responses on ‘Open Mike’ today, I’d feel the same:
“a sop to moralising curtain-twitchers”
“All because you don’t get the nodding dogs you’re looking for. Sob sob.”
“So why do you smear and abuse people then?”
“Pot, meet kettle. Your ad nauseam moralising isn’t a “debate”. When people point out your logical fallacies (which are numerous) you pack a sad, play the victim card and start smearing them.”
“What’s the matter Ed, don’t you like being compared to the Mahatma?”
The antipathy of AOB (aided by BM) towards Ed’s comments on today’s Open Mike is painfully obvious. Thankfully, they refrain from personal abuse.
Another day in paradise Kia ora Graham Norton I watch your show guite regularly
Now you know I’m backing Joseph Parker camp to win. Well everyone knows this fact we’re Kiwis after all I like my pies to we can’t all have the time to think about our physique if I did one knows that my Maori genetic would easily rip up. I like to watch Jimmy Barns son David Campbell on sky news. I know Iv got a big following in Australia to many thanks to all the people around OUR WORLD For your support. I know that the house that Mama raised me in Gisborne and the one buy the Waiapu river will be oneday a place that a lot of people will visit to honour me. PS to the red headed sandfly you smoke you like stake to go pinch off rich people you dick ECO doesn’t miss anything and do not kid yourself that you can pull a trick with out me noticeing. Ka kite ano
On the topic of suspicious work visas (savenz @2 ), could someone please enlighten me?
I just had 3 days of dealing with a couple of tradies, I’ll spare the details, a major complaint has already be made to the Property Manager and is being dealt with. But I’m somewhat curious about how one of them is allowed to be working here, ie what visa?
Main contractor originally from a South-East Asian country. His younger off-sider, same nationality but literally doesn’t speak a word of English, and isn’t exactly even close to being ‘skilled” in his trade (it’s painting btw)
So…are painters a skill shortage category?
Could he be sponsored here by family if they can say there’s a job for him and that’s a way in for residency?
Family reunification scheme of some sort? (It’s not a country involving refugees)
Genuinely ignorant on the matters, and curious if anyone knows about these things.
I could hazard a guess…and it would be that the younger guy is being paid a pittance and not technically entitled to be working here.
He’s probably also been bullshitted to, and found that on arrival, things are not what was promised.
Now that he’s here though, the choices are either to beg, or to do whatever work is available.
Btw…I hope you’ve not succumbed to the latest exploitative sector involving immigrant slave labour (home renovation). They’re now even trying to sell franchises
@OWT, that’s what I was a bit worried about. I’m not even totally convinced the guy was being given adequate breaks for 10hr day work.
I’m not sure what- if anything I can do about this. I’m just the renter, these guys are contractors used by the property managers so I don’t get to pick and choose. I get the idea the latter has known the former for some time.
it’s a hard decision but it were me, I’d try and get a phone #, then get in touch with somebody such as the Immigrant Workers Association.
Until such time as MoBIE/INZ start caring more about the victims of exploitation rsther than those doing the exploiting, I wouldn’t go near them
Whereupon the contractor may, or may not be prosecuted-depending on resources available, and the victim will likely be deported, whilst the ripoff artist will not lose his recently acquired PR, and will simply move on to the next.
Meanwhile, the consultants, many of whom have vested and financial interest in the racket will continue to get their percentage.
It’s a nice idea @Craig H, but unless something has radically changed since last September, it doesn’t quite work like that or as you intend
Kay, in Aus tradies need a blue card to work, and have to produce it. This can be checked, so you don’t get your situation happening. Huge fines ensue for cheats and employers. NZ needs that to protect the public.
@Kay – welcome to a world where exploitation seems to be rife. Firstly exploitation of work permits, then getting more people in who are either working illegally or have a fake permit or even legitimate one, but speak no English so therefore hard to know what is going on.
Then the property manager is employing them probably through another firm that organises the work who charge a percentage fee, the property agency is probably charging around 10% on top of that for their labour to the owner of the rental. Being two people there there will be two labour charges even if one can’t do the job and is being trained, or the supervisor one leaves the other one in charge and left to their own devices.
So simple work turns into hundreds or thousands of dollars pretty quickly more than it should, and often a very bad job which takes longer than it should and generates complaints from all concerned. People forced to work long hours for a pittance don’t tend to do a very good job or if they do, it catches up on them and they start having accidents and needing ACC.
The terrible shortages of rentals are also related to the burgeoning costs of being able to get legitimate labour who can do a good job without it being some sort of scam rather than doing a decent days work for a decent wage.
I like the German system where tradespeople have to guarantee their work for 10 years and faulty work can actually lead to jail.
The NZ way, seems to be to do as little as possible, for as much money as possible with as many people as possible taking a cut along the way, even for very small amounts of un or semi-skilled work and the end worker is on minimum wages or less and often incompetent.
On the building front even when you insure work through master builders or whatever, you still do not get a real guarantee that the work will be fixed. So you essentially pay before hand, an extra fee, in the knowledge the builder will make mistakes and have to fix them and it can be a lot of work even getting the work fixed even with the insurance that you pay for.
We have a system in NZ that exploits everyday in the construction industry. That is why I don’t think that we can simply build these affordable houses to stem the shortage of houses.
Even the houses being built under the NZ system are faulty or have faulty materials even before you put forward the constant stream of contractors and sub contractors and the amount of cheap labour being utilised at expensive rates.
Standard work visas include working holiday visas, partner visas ( both of NZers and of work visa holders), work visas for students who have passed their courses, or even student visas.
Oh dear!!!! Sir John Key has been caught up in that false missile attack alert in Hawaii!
How ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIC.
THANKFULLY Granny has been in contact apparently, and we can all rest assured that he didn’t panic.
Wow! That’s a big load off my mind.
shonky key is a neolibreal in reality he would have shit his pants and been trying to get the first flight out of there with tears running down his face he Hawii can have the bigot we don’t want his type in New Zealand .Some people say NZ is not paradise well caste your eyes around our world and find better and I will prove you wrong.
Ana to kai
“So, we all know in our hearts that rodeo is wrong. But with Michael Laws speaking up for it, we now know it’s got to be even wronger-er than we originally thought.”
shonky key is a neolibreal in reality he would have shit his pants and been trying to get the first flight out of there with tears running down his face he Hawii can have the bigot we don’t want his type in New Zealand .Some people say NZ is not paradise well caste your eyes around our world and find better and I will prove you wrong.
Ana to kai
We are in a lot of trouble.
Unless significant action is taken by governments and people in the next 10 years, extinction beckons.
Take action today to save the planet and life on it.
I quote from the Guardian.
We are on a Planet that is heating up quickly.
“The years 2017, 2016 and 2015 will make up the three hottest years on record for the planet. But there’s no convincing some people.
When the global temperature readings are in for 2017, it’s going to be a very hard sell for climate-science deniers: 2017 will likely be ranked either side of 2015 as the second or third hottest year on record, with 2016 still in top spot.
The hottest five-year period recorded in the modern era will be the one we’ve just had.
Communities around the world, and the flora and fauna we share it with, feel the effects of that steady rise through extreme weather, droughts, heatwaves, shifting rains, melting ice and rising sea levels.
Levels of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels, deforestation and land clearing keep climbing.”
Trump’s America.
Let’s not hear any more hypocritical lectures or abuse to Iran, Syria, Russia, Haiti or the continent of Africa.
The US is a failed state.
“BALTIMORE — Overnight, Imamu Baraka was walking past a Baltimore hospital when he noticed something he says he’ll never forget.
The hospital’s security guards had just wheeled a patient to a bus stop, and in the freezing temperatures they left her there. The only thing she had on was a hospital gown.
“It’s about 30 degrees out here right now,” Baraka says in a recording of the encounter. “Are you OK, ma’am? Do you need me to call the police?” he asks.
It’s called “patient dumping” and it doesn’t just happen in Baltimore. In 2007, “60 Minutes” investigated the practice of removing homeless patients from Los Angeles hospitals and leaving them downtown.”
Trump is playing a game with all US people of the world that alam warning that scared the shit out of Hawaii was known accident. You know why I say that because that is what neoliberalism does they play games with other people lives like what the sandflys are doing to me and my whano. But when things are Fucked up like the world at the moment I can see a thew thing in play from trump around our world. He is a racist bigot it will turn to shit fast with the way he is running the white house. Mother nature and mother earth does not like whats happening in the world that’s why Americans are getting hammer by them. You can’t restart the game donald it you fuck the world. It amazed me to see that a man like that could get the controls to one of the most powerful countries in the world . You know what it amazed donald and his family that he won look at the night they won they were all gobsmacked mouths open they couldn’t believe that donald won an never could the world. This cannot be allowed to happen again WTF. KIA KAHA
A listing of 25 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 15, 2024 thru Sat, December 21, 2024. Based on feedback we received, this week's roundup is the first one published soleley by category. We are still interested in ...
Well, I've been there, sitting in that same chairWhispering that same prayer half a million timesIt's a lie, though buried in disciplesOne page of the Bible isn't worth a lifeThere's nothing wrong with youIt's true, it's trueThere's something wrong with the villageWith the villageSomething wrong with the villageSongwriters: Andrew Jackson ...
ACT would like to dictate what universities can and can’t say. We knew it was coming. It was outlined in the coalition agreement and has become part of Seymour’s strategy of “emphasising public funding” to prevent people from opposing him and his views—something he also uses to try and de-platform ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Are we heading ...
So the Solstice has arrived – Summer in this part of the world, Winter for the Northern Hemisphere. And with it, the publication my new Norse dark-fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens at Eternal Haunted Summer: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2024/as-our-power-lessens/ As previously noted, this one is very ‘wyrd’, and Northern Theory of Courage. ...
The Natural Choice: As a starter for ten percent of the Party Vote, “saving the planet” is a very respectable objective. Young voters, in particular, raised on the dire (if unheeded) warnings of climate scientists, and the irrefutable evidence of devastating weather events linked to global warming, vote Green. After ...
The Government cancelled 60% of Kāinga Ora’s new builds next year, even though the land for them was already bought, the consents were consented and there are builders unemployed all over the place. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political ...
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashEvery morning I get up at 3am to go around the traps of news sites in Aotearoa and globally. I pick out the top ones from my point of view and have been putting them into my Dawn Chorus email, which goes out with a podcast. ...
Over on Kikorangi Newsroom's Marc Daalder has published his annual OIA stats. So I thought I'd do mine: 82 OIA requests sent in 2024 7 posts based on those requests 20 average working days to receive a response Ministry of Justice was my most-requested entity, ...
Welcome to the December 2024 Economic Bulletin. We have two monthly features in this edition. In the first, we discuss what the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from Treasury and the Budget Policy Statement from the Minister of Finance tell us about the fiscal position and what to ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua. “This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are ...
I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate.I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...
Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...
Hi,“What I love about New Zealanders is that sometimes you use these expressions that as Americans we have no idea what those things mean!"I am watching a 30-something year old American ramble on about how different New Zealanders are to Americans. It’s his podcast, and this man is doing a ...
What Chris Penk has granted holocaust-denier and equal-opportunity-bigot Candace Owens is not “freedom of speech”. It’s not even really freedom of movement, though that technically is the right she has been granted. What he has given her is permission to perform. Freedom of SpeechIn New Zealand, the right to freedom ...
All those tears on your cheeksJust like deja vu flow nowWhen grandmother speaksSo tell me a story (I'll tell you a story)Spell it out, I can't hear (What do you want to hear?)Why you wear black in the morning?Why there's smoke in the air? Songwriter: Greg Johnson.Mōrena all ☀️Something a ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...
The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...
The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...
Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...
Today the House agreed to Brendan Horsley being appointed Inspector-General of Defence, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Mr Horsley’s experience will be invaluable in overseeing the establishment of the new office and its support networks. “He is currently Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, having held that role since June 2020. ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...
The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed further progress on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS), with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approving funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.“The Government is moving at ...
The Government today released a request for information (RFI) to seeking interest in partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned land with low farming and conservation value (excluding National Parks) Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced. “Planting trees on Crown-owned land will drive economic growth by creating more forestry jobs in our regions, providing more wood ...
Court timeliness, access to justice, and improving the quality of existing regulation are the focus of a series of law changes introduced to Parliament today by Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee. The three Bills in the Regulatory Systems (Justice) Amendment Bill package each improve a different part of the ...
A total of 41 appointments and reappointments have been made to the 12 community trusts around New Zealand that serve their regions, Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones says. “These trusts, and the communities they serve from the Far North to the deep south, will benefit from the rich experience, knowledge, ...
The Government has confirmed how it will provide redress to survivors who were tortured at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (the Lake Alice Unit). “The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that many of the 362 children who went through the Lake Alice Unit between 1972 and ...
It has been a busy, productive year in the House as the coalition Government works hard to get New Zealand back on track, Leader of the House Chris Bishop says. “This Government promised to rebuild the economy, restore law and order and reduce the cost of living. Our record this ...
“Accelerated silicosis is an emerging occupational disease caused by unsafe work such as engineered stone benchtops. I am running a standalone consultation on engineered stone to understand what the industry is currently doing to manage the risks, and whether further regulatory intervention is needed,” says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister ...
Mehemea he pai mō te tangata, mahia – if it’s good for the people, get on with it. Enhanced reporting on the public sector’s delivery of Treaty settlement commitments will help improve outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders, Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka says. Compiled together for the ...
Mr Roger Holmes Miller and Ms Tarita Hutchinson have been appointed to the Charities Registration Board, Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Louise Upston says. “I would like to welcome the new members joining the Charities Registration Board. “The appointment of Ms Hutchinson and Mr Miller will strengthen the Board’s capacity ...
More building consent and code compliance applications are being processed within the statutory timeframe since the Government required councils to submit quarterly data, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “In the midst of a housing shortage we need to look at every step of the build process for efficiencies ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is proud to announce the first three recipients of the Government’s $10 million Mental Health and Addiction Community Sector Innovation Fund which will enable more Kiwis faster access to mental health and addiction support. “This fund is part of the Government’s commitment to investing in ...
New Zealand is providing Vanuatu assistance following yesterday's devastating earthquake, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. "Vanuatu is a member of our Pacific family and we are supporting it in this time of acute need," Mr Peters says. "Our thoughts are with the people of Vanuatu, and we will be ...
The Government welcomes the Commerce Commission’s plan to reduce card fees for Kiwis by an estimated $260 million a year, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says.“The Government is relentlessly focused on reducing the cost of living, so Kiwis can keep more of their hard-earned income and live a ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour has welcomed the Early Childhood Education (ECE) regulatory review report, the first major report from the Ministry for Regulation. The report makes 15 recommendations to modernise and simplify regulations across ECE so services can get on with what they do best – providing safe, high-quality care ...
The Government‘s Offshore Renewable Energy Bill to create a new regulatory regime that will enable firms to construct offshore wind generation has passed its first reading in Parliament, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says.“New Zealand currently does not have a regulatory regime for offshore renewable energy as the previous government failed ...
Legislation to enable new water service delivery models that will drive critical investment in infrastructure has passed its first reading in Parliament, marking a significant step towards the delivery of Local Water Done Well, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly say.“Councils and voters ...
New Zealand is one step closer to reaping the benefits of gene technology with the passing of the first reading of the Gene Technology Bill, Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins says. "This legislation will end New Zealand's near 30-year ban on gene technology outside the lab and is ...
ByKoroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor New Zealand’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) says impending bad weather for Port Vila is now the most significant post-quake hazard. A tropical low in the Coral Sea is expected to move into Vanuatu waters, bringing heavy rainfall. Authorities have issued warnings to people ...
Cosmic CatastropheThe year draws to a close.King Luxon has grown tired of the long eveningsListening to the dreary squabbling of his Triumvirate.He strolls up to the top floor of the PalaceTo consult with his Astronomer Royal.The Royal Telescope scans the skies,And King Luxon stares up into the heavensFrom the terrestrial ...
Spinoff editor Mad Chapman and books editor Claire Mabey debate Carl Shuker’s new novel about… an editor. Claire: Hello Mad, you just finished The Royal Free – overall impressions? Mad: Hi Claire, I literally just put the book down and I would have to say my immediate impression is ...
Christmas and its buildup are often lonely, hard and full of unreasonable expectations. Here’s how to make it to Jesus’s birthday and find the little bit of joy we all deserve. Have you found this year relentless? Has the latest Apple update “fucked up your life”? Have you lost two ...
Despite overwhelming public and corporate support, the government has stalled progress on a modern day slavery law. That puts us behind other countries – and makes Christmas a time of tragedy rather than joy, argues Shanti Mathias. Picture the scene on Christmas Day. Everyone replete with nice things to eat, ...
Asia Pacific Report “It looks like Hiroshima. It looks like Germany at the end of World War Two,” says an Israeli-American historian and professor of holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University about the horrifying reality of Gaza. Professor Omer Bartov, has described Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza as an ...
The New Zealand government coalition is tweaking university regulations to curb what it says is an increasingly “risk-averse approach” to free speech. The proposed changes will set clear expectations on how universities should approach freedom of speech issues. Each university will then have to adopt a “freedom of speech statement” ...
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – COMMENTARY: By Caitlin Johnstone New York prosecutors have charged Luigi Mangione with “murder as an act of terrorism” in his alleged shooting of health insurance CEO Brian Thompson earlier this month. This news comes out at the same time as ...
Pacific Media Watch The union for Australian journalists has welcomed the delivery by the federal government of more than $150 million to support the sustainability of public interest journalism over the next four years. Combined with the announcement of the revamped News Bargaining Initiative, this could result in up to ...
MONDAY“Merry Xmas, and praise the Lord,” said Sheriff Luxon, and smiled for the camera. There was a flash of smoke when the shutter pressed down on the magnesium powder. The sheriff had arranged for a photographer from the Dodge Gazette to attend a ceremony where he handed out food parcels to ...
It’s a little under two months since the White Ferns shocked the cricketing world, deservedly taking home the T20 World Cup. Since then the trophy has had a tour around the country, five of the squad have played in the WBBL in Australia while most others have returned to domestic ...
Comment: If we say the word ‘dementia’, many will picture an older person struggling to remember the names of their loved ones, maybe a grandparent living out their final years in an aged care facility. Dementia can also occur in people younger than 65, but it can take time before ...
Piracy is a reality of modern life – but copyright law has struggled to play catch-up for as long as the entertainment industry has existed. As far back as 1988, the House of Lords criticised copyright law’s conflict with the reality of human behaviour in the context of burning cassette ...
As he makes a surprise return to Shortland Street, actor Craig Parker takes us through his life in television. Craig Parker has been a fixture on television in Aotearoa for nearly four decades. He had starring roles in iconic local series like Gloss, Mercy Peak and Diplomatic Immunity, featured in ...
The Ōtautahi musician shares the 10 tracks he loves to spin, including the folk classic that cured him of a ‘case of the give-ups’. When singer-songwriter Adam McGrath returns to Kumeu’s Auckland Folk Festival from January 24-27, he’s not planning on simply idling his way through – he wants the late ...
Alex Casey spends an afternoon on the job with River, the rescue dog on a mission to spread joy to Ōtautahi rest homes.Almost everyone says it is never enough time. But River the rescue dog, a jet black huntaway border collie cross, has to keep a tight pace to ...
Asia Pacific Report Fiji activists have recreated the nativity scene at a solidarity for Palestine gathering in Fiji’s capital Suva just days before Christmas. The Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre and Fijians for Palestine Solidarity Network recreated the scene at the FWCC compound — a baby Jesus figurine lies amidst the ...
By 1News Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver and 1News reporters A number of Kiwis have been successfully evacuated from Vanuatu after a devastating earthquake shook the Pacific island nation earlier this week. The death toll was still unclear, though at least 14 people were killed according to an earlier statement from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Scully, Professor in Modern History, University of New England Bunker.Image courtesy of Michael Leunig, CC BY-NC-SA Michael Leunig – who died in the early hours of Thursday December 19, surrounded by “his children, loved ones, and sunflowers” – was the ...
The House - On Parliament's last day of the year, there was the rare occurrence of a personal (conscience) vote on selling booze over the Easter weekend. While it didn't have the numbers to pass, it was a chance to get a rare glimpse of the fact ...
A new poem by Holly Fletcher. bejeweled log i was dreaming about wasps / wee darlings that followed me / ducking under objects / that i was fated to pickup / my fingers seeking / and meeting with tiny proboscis’s / but instead / i wake up / roll sideways ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Flora Hui, Research Fellow, Centre for Eye Research Australia and Honorary Fellow, Department of Surgery (Ophthalmology), The University of Melbourne Versta/Shutterstock Australians are exposed to some of the highest levels of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation in the world. While we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Terry, Professor of Business Regulation, University of Sydney Michael von Aichberger/Shutterstock Even if you’ve no idea how the business model underpinning franchises works, there’s a good chance you’ve spent money at one. Franchising is essentially a strategy for cloning ...
If something big is going to happen in Ferndale, it’s going to happen at Christmas. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If there’s one episode of Shortland Street you should watch each year, it’s the annual Christmas cliffhanger. The final episode of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William A. Stoltz, Lecturer and expert Associate, National Security College, Australian National University US President-elect Donald Trump has named most of the members of his proposed cabinet. However, he’s yet to reveal key appointees to America’s powerful cyber warfare and intelligence institutions. ...
Announcing the top 10 books of the the year at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, $37) The phenomenal Irish writer is the unsurprising chart topper for 2024 with her fourth novel that, much like her first ...
Alcohol
A blight on our society
#3
Young drinkers consuming more alcohol than ever.
However, what is it that causes people to abuse booze and other drugs?
Economics.
Blaming inanimate substances for the damage that right wing economists do just makes finding solutions more difficult. It’s a waste of resources and a sop to moralising curtain-twitchers.
Straight out of the NRA handbook!
Do you have any substantive objection to the observation that alcohol abuse is connected to the GINI?
Where alcohol is priced out of people’s reach – or prohibited altogether – they make it themselves, at home.
No.
I think that sounds right.
I agree.
The extent of alcohol abuse in New Zealand is caused by neo-liberalism.
What was the cause of the extensive alcoholism in the USSR?
The Edbots CPU has just exploded.
I would imagine poverty and deprivation.
Not according to the MoH – alcohol rates have been steadily dropping rather rising under neo-liberalism (not a defense of neo-liberalism, just the facts don’t align with your opinion)
http://www.moh.govt.nz/notebook/nbbooks.nsf/0/66f2e1f58796381e4c2566de0005fcf3/$FILE/phot_145_153.pdf
Edit – report only covers 1980 – 2000 but nonetheless clearly shows neo-liberalism and alcohol use doesn’t. It seem to be correlated
Is there any societal Ill you believe is not caused by neo liberalism?
To be fair, most social ills are at the very least exacerbated by it.
I’m having a bit of difficulty thinking of a social ill that doesn’t have a large proportion of its present prevalence attributable to neoliberalism, i.e. it would be much less of an issue if we’d kept our social democratic / democratic socialist ideals of Savage and Kirk and even Muldoon.
edit: I suppose the starting point would be some sort of congenital condition that’s not due to antenatal factors or genetic damage to a parent from environmental factors. But even then you have the affordability of ongoing life-course care for the baby.
This interview with ‘The Spirit Level’ author Richard Wilkinson explains how inequality creates societal ills.
What a load of bullshit that article was.
Executive director of Alcohol Healthwatch Nicki Jackson is just trying to justify the grants her organization receives, it can never improve otherwise she puts herself out of a job.
An interesting article, Ed, but it would be helpful if you had included in your summary that this Australian study (considered by the NZ Alcohol Healthwatch to be in line with what is happening to NZ) also found that more teenagers are choosing to turn away from alcohol.
The remarks you quoted from Dr Jackson, Executive Director of Alcohol Healthwatch were in fact preceded by this statement in respect of New Zealand:
“”Yes, there’s been declines in young people choosing to take up drinking but we’ve seen no declines whatsoever in the style in which young people drink, they’re still drinking very heavily so that culture hasn’t changed.”
Good point.
I agree with you ED alcohol is A DRUG that cause more damage to OUR worlds society as the law says its safe to consume this poison yes ITS a poison
1I know of at least 5 people whom have died from drinking to much alcohol one of them was a famous Rock Star .
2 Our youth think its safe until next minute they are locked up for something they did while pissed and can not remember what happened and if that person was not pissed they would be a good person and never commit a crime.
3 Other people whom are experienced drinkers can wait untill one is tiddly and then encourage them to drink up hotties usually and they have got you pissed and can get the you to do what they want
4 drinks can be spiked with other drugs never leave your drinks unattended make sure you go drinking with people you trust as If one is pissed I say you are mental as most don’t remember what they did when one is rolling blind drunk this is why they call it blind drunk and there are reports of people losing one sight temporary when one has consumed to much alcohol .
5 I think its a sin to let OUR Mokos think alcohol is a safe drug and then let them find out all the negative effects alcohol has on them while they are in a unsafe environment all the bad side effects of alcohol should be advertize so OUR mokos know to sip the stuff or it will fuck them up.
6 What about all the violence that happens when people are pissed check the hospital records
7 Car crashes other people being killed by drunks drivers what a waste of lives
8 All the disabled people who got there injuries while pissed
9 Every year we have two big events and everyone is encouraging everyone to get pissed I could not work that out logically I drink a little I learnt through trial and error If one is in a good mood when drinking alcohol its not to bad but if one is in a bad mood while drinking that’s when the violence starts I have never hit any of my loved ones while being drunk most of the time I would not bother to go and drink it was others that got me to go out with them I was happy watching videos at home.
10 The neoliberal used alcohol to break MAORI MANA my te puna Sir Apirana Ngata new this was happening and in 1920 got a ban on alcohol on the east coast for 10 years He was the one person who saved a lot of Maoris Mana need
I say more Ka kite ano
Quite a list of damage to our people in this country.
It makes me both angry and sad to see the devastation this repulsive drug does.
It would be so simple to apply a more sensible drug policy for alcohol.
Your comment is an example of the logical fallacy “non-sequitur.”
Your argument is:
Premise: some yoofs still drink a lot of alcohol.
Conclusion: therefore, alcohol is a blight on our society.
But the conclusion you’ve drawn doesn’t logically follow from the premise you’ve provided. I guess there’s an implied premise in there that alcohol is a Bad Thing, but that would merely change the logical fallacy to “begging the question.”
I can’t really blame you though, as non-sequitur is also Dr Jackson’s mode of operation – it’s fairly hard to endorse her views without falling into logical fallacies yourself.
Don’t you think alcohol is a blight on our society?
No.
The people who can’t handle their piss and cause problems are a blight on society.
The best option is to ban the people who abuse alcohol and leave the vast majority of people who like a beer, wine or whatever your drink of choice is, alone.
Here is some evidence of the damage alcohol does to society …..
New Zealand is no paradise, we’re all drunk
Latta goes easy on alcohol. Yeah, right
I really do hate people who change the measurement when talking about something. It’s poor language skills that can produce misunderstanding.
That five billion per year equates to about 96 million per week. Which means that we’re seriously subsiding the alcohol industry.
Yeah, but it’s spent locally and probably mostly on NZ products (beer and wine), so there’d be a hefty multiplier on the strict sale value for the economic activity. Not to mention exports.
So the profit/loss ledger could well swing either way.
The NZ wine industry is not as local as you might realise.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/65932216/how-the-land-lies-in-foreign-hands
Nor is our ‘local’ beer.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/business/db-set-to-come-under-full-heineken-control-2012080414
Yes all those profits are going overseas, leaving behind a litany of social damage.
Did you watch Nigel Latta’s documentaty on alcohol in New Zealand?
I recommend you do so you are more aware of the level of foreign ownership of the liquor industry.
Nigel Latta: The Trouble With Booze
So it’s just the manufacturing and sale costs that get recirculated. Big whoop, it doesn’t alter the fact that economic activity is more than just the point of sale transaction.
No Knighthood for this man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHI-4NWB8n0
Karl du frense in super stupid mode ….. called for Sgt Lawn to shut up or get out of our police force.
How dare Sgt Lawn speak about the single biggest generator of police ‘work’ …..
Cheap piss was a sign sir john key loved us ……
Thank you for doing the Maths.
So we as a society subsidise the international liquor corporations to the tune of #11 million a week.
No wonder they lobby so hard to control our politicians.
I don’t think you can call calculations involving a made-up number “doing the maths.” It’s more like “making shit up.”
As for solutions, the Law Commission disagreed with you.
Alcohol in our lives: Curbing the harm
Sadly, the National Party did not care.
https://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/read-the-journal/all-issues/2010-2019/2014/vol-127-no-1401/6270
It’s not that they can’t handle their piss but that they’ve been taught that getting drunk is the thing to do.
To change that we need to change our drinking culture away from weekend binge drinking. Many European nations drink more per capita than we do but don’t have the same problems as they don’t drink it all on Saturday night as we do.
To change that we need to change our drinking culture away from weekend binge drinking.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Also, we don’t “need” to do anything in response to people choosing to do things we personally would rather they didn’t.
this is another one of those things where people are choosing to do things that harms others and they don’t actually have a right to do that. So, yes, we do actually need to do something about it.
But it is certainly a cultural change that we need to bring about and that will take years and even decades.
People doing things that harm others can be taken up directly with the perpetrators.
How if we don’t have rules about it?
How if the culture that we have says it’s all right?
How are we going to take it up with the perpetrators if we don’t have a way to teach/propagate acceptable behaviour?
The perpetrators of NZ’s mental health crisis will never be held to account. All we can do is repair their vandalism.
We do have rules about harming others, variously classed as offences, crimes etc. Which is, not coincidentally, also a way to teach/propagate acceptable behaviour.
So, why are you so against refining them?
The various proposals for “doing something” aren’t aimed at people who harm others, or about refining the existing rules against harming others.
See ecomaori’s list of damage.
Not a blight.
What a joke.
Don’t you think alcohol is a blight on our society?
No. Complaining about people taking recreational drugs is pointless – people like recreational drugs and are going to take them. Also: my experience of alcohol is of skilled craftspeople making excellent drinks that I enjoy drinking, so if anyone wants to declare those fine artists “a blight on society,” I’m going to disagree.
Not just that PM, but therefore, alcohol is a blight on our society, caused by neo liberalism, so without actually addressing the binge drinking culture, let’s just put the price up and make more profits for the liquor companies.
The Law Commission made several recommendations.
Pricing was but one of the solutions proposed.
Don’t you think alcohol is a blight on our society?
It’s not a blight on people like me who drink responsibly.
There are, of course, those who fail to show common sense, drink to excess, and cause a multitude of costly issues. But a broad broom sweep approach won’t fix a surgical strike issue.
Hoons and a lot of kiwis in cars drive like shit, causing a multitude of accidents and death each year, a very real societal problem.
Environmental arguments to one side, you’ll be up for banning under 25s and most drivers from our roads then?
I commented it was a blight on society.
Not you individually.
I think this thread proves New Zealanders are in denial about the severity of the problem.
On this site, there are people in denial or disinterested about quite a few things…..
Alcohol and its impacts on society.
The welfare of animals in industrial farming.
A meat diet’s impact on climate change.
The media’s bias over news from Syria, Ukraine, Yemen.
Those of us who address these subjects are subject to vile abuse.
Back to throwing insulting smears around again I see.
All because you don’t get the nodding dogs you’re looking for. Sob sob.
Alcohol is a vital part of my life, is a massive part of our economy and a whole bunch less damaging to our land as a productive export than dairy, is a free choice, is regular by local government through democratic hearings about their location, and of course strongly regulated through central government with tax that is fairly up there.
That’s before you get to enforcement.
One of the biggest new enforcements is the random drug testing within the Worksafe framework. It really does regulate your life on Friday and Sunday as well as Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Not a bad thing overall.
The only way you are going to make a successful argument for more regulation of alcohol is if you set out the benefits with the costs and do an evaluation, rather than just bleating on about the costs.
You put forward controversial opinions and are subject to disagreement, not vile abuse.
Oh how unfair, Ed played the victim card and you just ruined it for him 😈
It is hardly a controversial opinion to say that alcohol is a blight on our society.
It is hardly a controversial opinion to say that animals are treated cruelly in the industrial farming model.
And even if you disagree with those opinions, there is no need for abuse.
Isn’t this called Open Mike?
Some animals aren’t treated cruelly. For example, James’ free range beasts weren’t. Life of Riley until the butchers knife.
I wrote “It is hardly a controversial opinion to say that animals are treated cruelly in the industrial farming model.”
However, the number of animals living a ‘Life of Riley’ until they are slaughtered is a minuscule fraction.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/nil-zacharias/its-time-to-end-factory-f_b_1018840.html
But you’re a reformed smoker type of vegenaut. You’re too emotional to be be relevant.
Your road to Damascus experience taints your objectivity.
I quoted facts.
Whatever gets you through the night, man
So why do you smear and abuse people then?
It is hardly a controversial opinion to say that alcohol is a blight on our society.
Surely the responses you’ve had to that claim on this thread have revealed to you that actually yes it is a controversial opinion.
“I commented it was a blight on society.
Not you individually.”
And I answered accordingly, to me personally it’s not a blight, but for some, who have no self control or a modicum of common sense, it’s a big problem. There are solutions, I’m sure, but prohibition won’t work, especially when it’s cheap as chips to home brew or distil.
As for the rest of your reply, well, as noted above, it’s not vile abuse but disagreement, and yeah, we get it, you want to be the summer bbq killer. 🙄
PM
To make the argument/discussion clearer when you refer to a commenter can you say their name. Your comment was put up today at 9.21 am and finishes after ecomaori’s at 8.35 pm. I guess it is in relation to veutoviper’s but why not make it easier to connect the dots?
I will try to remember to do that. In my defence, when I posted comment 1.4 at 9:21am in response to comment 1 from Ed at 8:09am, it was fairly obvious who I was referring to – I didn’t anticipate the lengthy subthreads that would push my comment well down the page. Not an excuse though, I should have quoted him.
Yes PM
That is what I have noticed happening to me and have had to resort occasionally to shifting my comment by deleting the original and copying it to where I knew it would sit better.
Do you drink at all ?? Ever ?
Ed drinks the urine donated by Phillip Ure 😈
Further unpleasant insults made against peolple on plant based diets.
Debate the issue.
There seems to be a group of people on this site who would happily participate in the witchhunt at Salem.
I recall the unpleasant treatment of Phil and cv on this site.
Pot, meet kettle. Your ad nauseam moralising isn’t a “debate”. When people point out your logical fallacies (which are numerous) you pack a sad, play the victim card and start smearing them.
Your behaviour is more reminiscent of Peter George than CV and PU.
Urophagia, by the way, is a trait attributed* to such as Ghandi. What’s the matter Ed, don’t you like being compared to the Mahatma?
*probably inaccurately.
Testify, bro dude.
I think the responses have proved your point but they don’t get it.
I eat a plant based diet and Ed is insulting me. His attempt to cast himself as an extra in The Crucible is another insult, given the behaviour and temperament of the Salem persecutors.
So perhaps it’s you who doesn't get it: when Ed either stops abusing people, or stops whinging when he can’t handle the response, I'll stop pointing it out.
I’m considerably, CONSIDERABLY C O N S I D E R A B L Y more pompous, utterly more wise and wearied, and most extensively more full of myself than ya lot of ya.
Why I’m so gorgeous I can’t look in a mirror for fear of having an orgasm.
Lordy, that’s funny, Tim!
Yet another sign of fake jobs and fake businesses and dodgy work permits. Sarabjit Singh managed by Payal Kumar and employed on a work visa for a low level cafe job by Ben Singh Holdings, in a area of high unemployment.
The worker was only paid $150 a week in cash. There were no records of the cash payments because the ledger that recorded the payments was “allegedly” stolen during a break-in.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/100532075/dargaville-cafe-worker-awarded-20k-after-exboss-paid-him-just-150-a-week
No wonder NZ is going down the toilet in productivity and employment practises when this is the ‘new’ culture that has been fostered under the National government.
Not enough crack down by the new government – they should be urgently reviewing all the work permits given out to check they are not being abused and actually if they are real jobs with real businesses and not this type of carry on.
Not only that but wrecking our tourist industry when there are so many tourist businesses now operating without knowledge of NZ rules and regulations.
Stayed at an upmarket hotel in the holidays, same type of thing that is turning NZ into a poorly regulated tourist market seemingly operated entirely by migrant workers. In this instance stayed at a so called upmarket hotel that turned out to have poor cleaning, and poor maintenance of a formerly beautiful hotel on a lake. It appeared to have been bought by an offshore chain and staffed with beaten down migrants who don’t seem to understand purpose or method of hospitality.
Seems to be the new way to run down NZ image, as part of globalism. A race to the bottom and to exploit local resources and remove local culture and charm to save an offshore $.
Our aging population 🙂
https://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/100509084/celebrating-our-southlanders-robert-guyton
Valuable oldies!!
We are, Patricia! At least, our grandchildren believe so, for now…
That beard should make chimney sweeping a breeze Robert 😀
Ha!
Hours of rinsing afterwards though!
Another article referring to the oncoming financial crash.
“Many believe 2018 could be the year that country finally does something about its own huge debt problems.
When just one asset is going up, you explain it by the characteristics of that asset. But if you have an everything bubble, you need to look at the trend behind the trend.
Cast your mind back a few years and you may recall the expression “quantitative easing”. This is where central banks pumped money into the economy to try to help us recover from the global financial crisis. It happened in the US, Japan and Europe.
It worked, more or less. But the effect was similar to what you see in a game of Monopoly. The amount of money in circulation kept going up, but the number of assets to buy remained stubbornly still. As anyone who has forked out $600 in Monopoly money for Old Kent Road knows, asset prices go up as the ratio of money to assets goes up.
Quantitative easing is really just an extreme version of cutting interest rates. In both cases, the idea is to make people borrow more and spend more. So even though Australia didn’t have quantitative easing, low interest rates and the record amounts of household debt Aussies are shouldering represent its part of the everything bubble.
The problem with loose monetary policy is that while it is supposed to make people do productive things like start a new company, it has a side effect of making them buy assets at crazy prices. If the everything bubble pops, it may turn out that the cure for the global financial crisis is what caused the next crisis.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11974827
Ed, that whole article is cast in terms of “if” and what “many (unidentified people) believe”. It’s conjecture for the slow news season.
Also note this, from the final paragraph: “The exciting thing about this question is we don’t know. Immediate panic is not necessary — it is unlikely each asset class will fall together like synchronised divers. More likely, a decline in one will overlap with a decline in another, creating a long period of uncertainty.”
You could be right that 2018 will bring a crash, but you seem determined to only see the negative possibilities and seem to simply discount anything that isn’t a disaster scenario.
Yes, well I’m in Ed’s camp on this. Plenty would not believe that 2008 would happen!! But it did. We are at similar pressure points in the system again.
Of course vested interest bodies call us “chicken little” LOL.
Predicting 200 of the last two crashes is easy. Of course they happen, and of course that means there’ll be another. So far, so ‘peak oil theory’.
Actually predicting them requires a lot more hard work than reading articles in the media. If The Big Short can be believed, Michael Burry hired people to literally pore through all the individual sub-prime mortgage records. Yes, all of them.
and even then it was just a more educated bet than the other bets. If the timing had been off, the shorted packages would have increased in price and needed repayment.
I turn my back for an instant and I’m endorsing notions of meritocracy! Shame on me.
lol
it’s all reducing confidence intervals, but never eliminating them. And most people never get enough information to close them all that much in the first place.
Then there’s survivorship bias …
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it.
Thank you. Good to hear there are those who agree with this point of view.
There are reputable independent economists who are telling us about an oncoming crash.
Steve Keen
Listen here
Steve Keen: The coming crash
or read this article
Steve Keen: The coming crash
Feeling a bit beleaguered by the way oab and others are now stalking my every post, be it the economy, climate change, animal cruelty….
You claim to want a discussion, Ed. But when I engaged with your comment at 1, you pretended to agree with me, then went right back to reciting your litany as though our exchange hadn’t happened.
You then went on to describe the counter arguments as abuse, itself an insult to those who had indulged your alleged desire for discussion.
While you continue to misrepresent the counter arguments to your narrative, I guarantee you that people will continue to notice and comment on that misrepresentation.
I’m not surprised you’re feeling beleaguered though. Perhaps if you engaged in better faith you might find people a little less persistent.
What do you think of my argument that sloppily-presented narratives provide comfort to “the enemy”?*
*One Two, please try and discover what inverted commas are for before your knee starts jerking at “the enemy”.
“I’m not surprised you’re feeling beleaguered though.”
Astute, AOB. If I’d received these responses on ‘Open Mike’ today, I’d feel the same:
The antipathy of AOB (aided by BM) towards Ed’s comments on today’s Open Mike is painfully obvious. Thankfully, they refrain from personal abuse.
Another day in paradise Kia ora Graham Norton I watch your show guite regularly
Now you know I’m backing Joseph Parker camp to win. Well everyone knows this fact we’re Kiwis after all I like my pies to we can’t all have the time to think about our physique if I did one knows that my Maori genetic would easily rip up. I like to watch Jimmy Barns son David Campbell on sky news. I know Iv got a big following in Australia to many thanks to all the people around OUR WORLD For your support. I know that the house that Mama raised me in Gisborne and the one buy the Waiapu river will be oneday a place that a lot of people will visit to honour me. PS to the red headed sandfly you smoke you like stake to go pinch off rich people you dick ECO doesn’t miss anything and do not kid yourself that you can pull a trick with out me noticeing. Ka kite ano
On the topic of suspicious work visas (savenz @2 ), could someone please enlighten me?
I just had 3 days of dealing with a couple of tradies, I’ll spare the details, a major complaint has already be made to the Property Manager and is being dealt with. But I’m somewhat curious about how one of them is allowed to be working here, ie what visa?
Main contractor originally from a South-East Asian country. His younger off-sider, same nationality but literally doesn’t speak a word of English, and isn’t exactly even close to being ‘skilled” in his trade (it’s painting btw)
So…are painters a skill shortage category?
Could he be sponsored here by family if they can say there’s a job for him and that’s a way in for residency?
Family reunification scheme of some sort? (It’s not a country involving refugees)
Genuinely ignorant on the matters, and curious if anyone knows about these things.
Could be here on a tourist visa and is working illegally?
I could hazard a guess…and it would be that the younger guy is being paid a pittance and not technically entitled to be working here.
He’s probably also been bullshitted to, and found that on arrival, things are not what was promised.
Now that he’s here though, the choices are either to beg, or to do whatever work is available.
Btw…I hope you’ve not succumbed to the latest exploitative sector involving immigrant slave labour (home renovation). They’re now even trying to sell franchises
@OWT, that’s what I was a bit worried about. I’m not even totally convinced the guy was being given adequate breaks for 10hr day work.
I’m not sure what- if anything I can do about this. I’m just the renter, these guys are contractors used by the property managers so I don’t get to pick and choose. I get the idea the latter has known the former for some time.
it’s a hard decision but it were me, I’d try and get a phone #, then get in touch with somebody such as the Immigrant Workers Association.
Until such time as MoBIE/INZ start caring more about the victims of exploitation rsther than those doing the exploiting, I wouldn’t go near them
Get the name of the contractor business and report them to MBIE or to Crime Stoppers.
Whereupon the contractor may, or may not be prosecuted-depending on resources available, and the victim will likely be deported, whilst the ripoff artist will not lose his recently acquired PR, and will simply move on to the next.
Meanwhile, the consultants, many of whom have vested and financial interest in the racket will continue to get their percentage.
It’s a nice idea @Craig H, but unless something has radically changed since last September, it doesn’t quite work like that or as you intend
Still better than doing nothing at all.
Kay, in Aus tradies need a blue card to work, and have to produce it. This can be checked, so you don’t get your situation happening. Huge fines ensue for cheats and employers. NZ needs that to protect the public.
Sounds like a good idea patricia bremner – of course photo id should be used so people aren’t using the same ID number.
Yes sorry I didn’t mention it has photo ID.
@Kay – welcome to a world where exploitation seems to be rife. Firstly exploitation of work permits, then getting more people in who are either working illegally or have a fake permit or even legitimate one, but speak no English so therefore hard to know what is going on.
Then the property manager is employing them probably through another firm that organises the work who charge a percentage fee, the property agency is probably charging around 10% on top of that for their labour to the owner of the rental. Being two people there there will be two labour charges even if one can’t do the job and is being trained, or the supervisor one leaves the other one in charge and left to their own devices.
So simple work turns into hundreds or thousands of dollars pretty quickly more than it should, and often a very bad job which takes longer than it should and generates complaints from all concerned. People forced to work long hours for a pittance don’t tend to do a very good job or if they do, it catches up on them and they start having accidents and needing ACC.
The terrible shortages of rentals are also related to the burgeoning costs of being able to get legitimate labour who can do a good job without it being some sort of scam rather than doing a decent days work for a decent wage.
I like the German system where tradespeople have to guarantee their work for 10 years and faulty work can actually lead to jail.
The NZ way, seems to be to do as little as possible, for as much money as possible with as many people as possible taking a cut along the way, even for very small amounts of un or semi-skilled work and the end worker is on minimum wages or less and often incompetent.
On the building front even when you insure work through master builders or whatever, you still do not get a real guarantee that the work will be fixed. So you essentially pay before hand, an extra fee, in the knowledge the builder will make mistakes and have to fix them and it can be a lot of work even getting the work fixed even with the insurance that you pay for.
We have a system in NZ that exploits everyday in the construction industry. That is why I don’t think that we can simply build these affordable houses to stem the shortage of houses.
Even the houses being built under the NZ system are faulty or have faulty materials even before you put forward the constant stream of contractors and sub contractors and the amount of cheap labour being utilised at expensive rates.
Standard work visas include working holiday visas, partner visas ( both of NZers and of work visa holders), work visas for students who have passed their courses, or even student visas.
I get that you are well in tune with the theory.
Oh dear!!!! Sir John Key has been caught up in that false missile attack alert in Hawaii!
How ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIC.
THANKFULLY Granny has been in contact apparently, and we can all rest assured that he didn’t panic.
Wow! That’s a big load off my mind.
Then we’re told ‘A man shoots dead parents…..’ after a video game, only to find out they were actually alive and he killed them
Ah yes, video games me do it. But never seen anyone dressed up like mario twatting mushrooms and turtles with a hammer.
shonky key is a neolibreal in reality he would have shit his pants and been trying to get the first flight out of there with tears running down his face he Hawii can have the bigot we don’t want his type in New Zealand .Some people say NZ is not paradise well caste your eyes around our world and find better and I will prove you wrong.
Ana to kai
Rachel Stewart on twitter.
“So, we all know in our hearts that rodeo is wrong. But with Michael Laws speaking up for it, we now know it’s got to be even wronger-er than we originally thought.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/RFStew
thread
https://twitter.com/williamcson/status/951663586329407488
As the Herald would say ‘weird weather.’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/348068/invercargill-has-hottest-day-on-record-at-32-point-3-degreesc
Not sure if anyone shared this before.
shonky key is a neolibreal in reality he would have shit his pants and been trying to get the first flight out of there with tears running down his face he Hawii can have the bigot we don’t want his type in New Zealand .Some people say NZ is not paradise well caste your eyes around our world and find better and I will prove you wrong.
Ana to kai
We are in a lot of trouble.
Unless significant action is taken by governments and people in the next 10 years, extinction beckons.
Take action today to save the planet and life on it.
I quote from the Guardian.
We are on a Planet that is heating up quickly.
“The years 2017, 2016 and 2015 will make up the three hottest years on record for the planet. But there’s no convincing some people.
When the global temperature readings are in for 2017, it’s going to be a very hard sell for climate-science deniers: 2017 will likely be ranked either side of 2015 as the second or third hottest year on record, with 2016 still in top spot.
The hottest five-year period recorded in the modern era will be the one we’ve just had.
Communities around the world, and the flora and fauna we share it with, feel the effects of that steady rise through extreme weather, droughts, heatwaves, shifting rains, melting ice and rising sea levels.
Levels of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels, deforestation and land clearing keep climbing.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2017/dec/19/checkmate-how-do-climate-science-deniers-predictions-stack-up
Trump’s America.
Let’s not hear any more hypocritical lectures or abuse to Iran, Syria, Russia, Haiti or the continent of Africa.
The US is a failed state.
“BALTIMORE — Overnight, Imamu Baraka was walking past a Baltimore hospital when he noticed something he says he’ll never forget.
The hospital’s security guards had just wheeled a patient to a bus stop, and in the freezing temperatures they left her there. The only thing she had on was a hospital gown.
“It’s about 30 degrees out here right now,” Baraka says in a recording of the encounter. “Are you OK, ma’am? Do you need me to call the police?” he asks.
It’s called “patient dumping” and it doesn’t just happen in Baltimore. In 2007, “60 Minutes” investigated the practice of removing homeless patients from Los Angeles hospitals and leaving them downtown.”
http://cbsn.ws/2qWzdvt
Trump is playing a game with all US people of the world that alam warning that scared the shit out of Hawaii was known accident. You know why I say that because that is what neoliberalism does they play games with other people lives like what the sandflys are doing to me and my whano. But when things are Fucked up like the world at the moment I can see a thew thing in play from trump around our world. He is a racist bigot it will turn to shit fast with the way he is running the white house. Mother nature and mother earth does not like whats happening in the world that’s why Americans are getting hammer by them. You can’t restart the game donald it you fuck the world. It amazed me to see that a man like that could get the controls to one of the most powerful countries in the world . You know what it amazed donald and his family that he won look at the night they won they were all gobsmacked mouths open they couldn’t believe that donald won an never could the world. This cannot be allowed to happen again WTF. KIA KAHA