The idea of a level playing field is certainly not new. It just does not mention that in the 3 dimensional it is slanted towards poverty lane for many.
There are 3 articles today in Staff that catches the eye:
1/ A whole generation has been failed in Mathematic. And English lets just add this too.
This has been pointed out more than 20 years ago by University Lecturers, the estimated that some 30% of entry students are functionally illiterate. Why? Any answers?
2/ Where did the wage subsidy really go?
Well we know that the rich just made a grab for money that is now missing to remedy poverty, infrastructure etc. I am still in utter disbelieve that a finance minister can approve so much money without thinking through foreseeable consequences. In my view, something does not make sense. But what does make sense is that the blackmailing money class has NZ by the short and curlies.
3/New Zealand is a ridiculous name.
No its not. It reflects the history of this country over the last 380 odd years.
Maori would translate NZ: Nu Tereni. Aotearoa traditionally was used as a name for the North Island. (Land of the long white cloud). It is a beautiful name but it neither of them are inclusive. NZ has a long tradition of immigrants from all over the world. If this is to be seen as a partnership, any new name should reflect this and put to a referendum. Just not the laser kiwi please.
One reason for the increase in the estimates of functional illiteracy might be the increase in volumes of students following the introduction of student loans and opening up of universities to all.
"A whole generation has been failed in Mathematic. And English lets just add this too."(Sic.)
The answer is simple. We need to revolutionise the way things are done in primary schools. Tell you what, we'll have a system to improve standards. It'll be nationwide, schools must use the system.
Since it's about standards and it's nationwide we'll call it 'National Standards.' That has a lovely ring to it. Yes, 'National,' sounds good. It will be brilliant, it will work wonders and it'll keep tabs on teachers, make them accountable. Results will be on the rise.
The results of international testing from about 2015 on should show the results of this great innovative move as the cohorts advantaged by the wisdom move through the schooling system.
I think we should look at teachers and their standard. Weather they understand the subject to start with. True story: a teacher told a 15 year old student that they will learn a mathematical solution by research and do it themselves! ???? true response. No wonder the kids need to grow additional fingers, (sarc) Reading? Yep… easy, "recognize the word" that will be extremely helpful when reading a manual of all things with some mathematic tables. This method of teaching is just lazy. And to top it all off the number of school breaks is just ridiculous. Unless your child is in a private school, it will be disadvantaged from the start.
"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn". Benjamin Franklin
Yes it is, my apologies. Was a bit in the hurry to get the dog reigned in. Weather certainly played a role . And may I add, here is a word that can be easily misspelled, misread and added to the infamous “recognize the word” vocabulary. 🙂
Pretty funny you choose to shoot the messenger, over what could be a result of poor education, rather than engage. Because you know, teachers feelings are far more important than kids achieving
Teachers are part of the equation, and I doubt there are many NZ teachers who want their students to fail. If the profession had higher status then we might make progress, but in NZ the single biggest metric for ranking occupations is not work-life balance, satisfaction and/or contribution to society, but rather how much money you can make. And so it goes.
Finland’s high level of education and expertise is based on high-quality teacher education. Teachers in Finland are highly educated and respected professionals. Teaching is a popular profession and universities can select the most motivated and talented applicants. The profession has high status and teachers are autonomous in their work, as the system is based on trust rather than control.
There is learning mathematics and there is learning how to learn. Both can be taught at the same time – and it's easier to do in maths because a student can see if they are right and wrong. For a 15 year old, researching how to do something should be well within their abilities.
Yep. It is common to think that Teaching is the transfer of knowledge from the Teacher to the student.
If that is all we, as a Teacher are doing, then we have failed.
No one person “knows” enough for a start.
The aim is to Teach students to learn and go beyond our knowledge.
When a student takes off and begins to research for themselves, question, argue and analyse what I've taught them, and delves deeper into the subject. I know I'm winning. I want the student to end up more "educated' than me. Not less!
Yes, this is true but mathematical formula are better not learned by browsing through the internet. Or maybe we can all forget about Pythagoras, Galileo Galilei, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, Paul Erdős, Newton, Albert Einstein etc. We don't need them, we can research this all by ourselves. (sarc) By extension, maybe we don't need teachers at all?
"True story: a teacher told a 15 year old student that they will learn a mathematical solution by research and do it themselves! ???? true response."
What was the context? What was the teacher trying to get the pupil to achieve with that kid at that time? Did the teacher use that strategy only and with all lessons?
Using that as an example of why our kids don't score well in international tests?
The comment about children being disadvantaged from the start by not being in a private school is nonsense.
No, the teacher was actually calling for a parent evening and in that context it was mentioned that this is what is expected. Now, if a teacher does not want to teach then maybe he/she should do something else? It is for many parents very frustrating to deal with this kind let down. I am not the only one saying this. But naturally, there will be a lot of defensiveness. I also do know that many parents who are able to afford this, send their children to private schools to make sure that they succeed in an every increasing competitive world.
All I am saying is that, if we don't equip the teacher we cant expect the kids to succeed.
Are the Uyghur muslims the first muslims the right wing of New Zealand have paid any attention to?
It would seem the right wing of New Zealand are using the Uyghur muslims for political purposes.
These people might very well be persecuted. But I find it interesting The West has happily trades with, and profited from that trade with China for some decades now despite clear human rights abuses, and now suddenly it's all a big problem.
I think some people have deliberately not been paying attention until it is politically expedient to do so.
According to the right wing Uyghur muslims are suddenly the most important muslims, for some strange reason.
For instance, you wouldn’t find the same right wing of New Zealand advocating for Palestinian muslims, would you?
Suddenly China's human rights abuses are a big problem but in reality we've turned a blind eye for decades. We've worn their cheap goods and happily heated our meals in their cheap microwave ovens for years without a thought to justice.
We've even got rich off their cheap money by allowing their citizens to buy up vast swathes of NZ residential property!
New Zealand’s Overseas Investment Amendment Bill came into force in October 2018, officially banning foreigners not intending to live in New Zealand from buying existing homes. The aim was to make residential properties more affordable to locals as the government blamed foreign buyers for driving up home prices beyond the reach of locals.
This spooked Chinese buyers and home transfers to people who didn’t hold New Zealand citizenship, or a resident visa fell by 81 per cent in the March 2019 quarter compared with the same quarter a year ago, according to Statistics New Zealand. The number of sales to Chinese buyers also plunged by 80 per cent.1
In the past before the ban, New Zealand was a hotspot for Chinese home buyers.
Thanks, but that doesn’t state what you think it states. For example, what was the proportion of all sales? The text in (your) bold was simply marketing clickbait.
Aucklanders like to brag that Chinese buyers will pay more for their property. For the first time leaked sales figures suggest they may be right.
It seems everyone in Auckland has a story to tell about Chinese buyers wanting their house.
One elderly Takapuna man was startled to hear a Chinese syndicate was interested in buying his well-established family home.
His place wasn't even on the market when a real estate agent door-knocked the 82-year-old last month, said a relative.
"A Chinese syndicate was wanting to buy a series of sections to build a block of apartments. The hard-sell was on apparently, but thankfully he resisted the temptation."
Thanks again, but not compelling. Mostly urban legend stuff, and Phil Twyford’s infamous surname ‘analysis’, based on a small sample from “one unidentified real estate company from February to April”. You’re just continuing the propaganda BS and flawed factoids from the past 🙁
That was Twyford at his zenith. It brought about real change when the government of the time sought to ignore the issue. The last decent thing he did. It's all been downhill from there.
You asked for links to mainland Chinese buying lots of New Zealand property. I have provided that. A simple thank you would suffice.
You asked for links to mainland Chinese buying lots of New Zealand property. I have provided that.
You’re sadly misguided and misinformed. I can now understand better your assertion, which is based on your misconception and ignorance. However, not everybody likes to spread BS and some even push back on it. Maybe it was too much to ask you for a proper analysis with facts, e.g. from Stat NZ, but you took the piece of rope and showed yourself to be a spreader of populist memes instead of a critical independent thinker and commenter.
This comment shows you didn't read the link I posted at 5.1.1.1.1 because the information in the StatsNZ link is the same.
But on top of that your criticism tries to say that a drop in offshore ownership means that there was not a problem in the first place???
I can't work this one out.
Back to the original point at 5 which was to draw attention to the hypocrisy of the West engaging with China the way we have for 3 decades now despite obvious and ongoing human rights and worker rights breaches.
I watched Tiananmen Square as a 19 year old and was shocked like everyone else. What censure or punishment for China? Nothing. There was no punishment, only reward. The reward was a huge increase in trade, and a proliferation of sweatshops and dodgy manufacturers with which a few players in the West got rich and we all got nice shoes.
I find it gross that some people cry about Uyghur muslims now while for years they conveniently ignored years of China's abuses, because they benefitted from those same abuses.
That money funnelled into the New Zealand residential property market by mainland Chinese and new resident property purchases was tainted with corruption, poor justice, and the abused rights of manual workers.
Over 30 years of civil rights abuse was ignored by us because it was convenient. So for some on the political right to suddenly have newfound sympathy for a group of muslims sticks in the craw.
I did read the link and it did not answer my question and thus it did not support your assertion that Chinese citizens “buy up vast swathes of NZ residential property”.
If you had actually bother to delve into the NZ Stats link I provided you would have known that the percentage of overseas buyers is actually very low. For example, in the March-2019 Quarter, only 0.6% (i.e. 204 from a total of 31,728) so-called Home transfers involved buyers who were not NZ citizens or NZ resident visa holders. Only 90 buyers in that period had the PRC as Country of tax residence (which is not the same as nationality!).
If you had said that there is no NZ register of property owned by overseas people, you’d be 100% correct, which is also mentioned in the NZ Stats link.
I understand your views on PRC but these should not cloud your views on the few Chinese buyers in the NZ housing market, IMO, which you used to support your anti-China narrative and sentiments.
As to whether the Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2018 addressed a problem, which may have been overblown for a number of reasons, remains to be seen. The worsening situation since its introduction and even more so since Covid, when overseas buyers cannot even enter into NZ, suggests that it was a red herring and possibly more of a political stunt.
You've picked numbers post Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2018. It did what it was designed to do.
That house prices have increased this year is not proof that offshore investors, including those from China, did not have a significant effect on our housing market.
Back to my original point, that we've so long been happy for cheap and tainted foreign cash to prop up our economy, so getting upset for persecuted peoples in China now is more than a little ironic.
You didn’t click on the NZ Stats link because it contains a nice wee bar graph with before and after Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2018 came into place. Overseas buyers came from a high (!) of 3.3%, a whopping 3.3% and that includes more than just Chinese buyers.
Getting back to my original point, your assertion is piss-poor and you have no evidence to support it other than your belief. Such a shame that you don’t want to face the facts 🙁
And even that is not the true story because trusts are included as NZ citizens if just one trustee is a NZ citizen.
As always with housing data in this country, this is not a complete picture.
It also shows in March 2018, 7.8% of Auckland homes were sold to people with no NZ citizenship or residency. Not even including the above points, that is significant.
Imagine how much worse the situation would be right now if we hadn't put a stop to it.
Inquiries from Chinese buyers looking at New Zealand real estate have increased 32 per cent since the outbreak of coronavirus, property website Juwai's executive chairman says.
The website offers international property listings to Chinese purchasers.
Executive chairman Georg Chmiel said only Vietnam had seen a bigger increase in activity, up 43 per cent.
But he said in-person activity was likely to remain subdued because Chinese consumers were restricting their travel.
The piece is based on increased interest, i.e. literally just clicks on a website. As such, it does not support your assertion at all.
I do question whether you actually read it before you copied & pasted it here!?
New Zealand's foreign buyer restrictions mean people who are not ordinarily resident can only buy new build properties in large developments.
"Most so-called 'Chinese' buyers in New Zealand today actually are either legal residents or have even become citizens. We don't have the data, but we do believe that most of these inquiries are from Chinese speakers with legal residence in New Zealand who intend to buy for their own use."
In other words, just speculation about speculation.
NZ is not the only property market to have been affected by Chinese buyers. Being a relatively small market, such groups can have disproportionate influence. This from Vancouver:
@Incognito – you are, without contrary facts, trying to dismiss Muttonbird's thesis, that Chinese property accumulation has become a problem.
We know the Key government declined to collect such statistics, most probably because it would embarrass the group concerned, who were major funders.
You have dismissed the Chinese names data – but I am, among other things, in linguistics. It is quite possible, and perfectly proper to obtain meaningful data from names in that fashion.
Stuart talked about Vancouver and I asked about NZ, just as I’ve asked you about NZ. But nothing useful so far. Meanwhile, “mainland Chinese buying lots of New Zealand property” according to you @ 3:35 pm and seemingly also according to Stuart!? But you now claim there are no data to back this up!? So, did you pluck that assertion out of your orifice just as Phil Twyford did?
It wasn't dismissed because it was crap, but because the usual media suspects weren't up to understanding how it worked. The failure was political, not factual.
In a field where data is scarce, imperfect data is better than none. It may well be corrected by subsequent full data, if it were collected. But what can be learned from partial data doesn't go away just because the Chinese speculators howled 'racism!' Just as the Indian prospective husbands, denied the end-run allowed under the Key administration, made similar claims of oppression, but went silent as the trope surfaced.
Our property register has (irresponsibly) not been collecting the data. Comparative data sets like behaviours of the same expatriate community in other countries form a reasonable estimate of their activity here, in the absence of the figures any responsible administration would collect as a matter of course. As do name frequency analyses, which revealed a disproportionate activity level among Chinese purchasers.
Phil Twyford’s ‘data analysis’ was crap. Crap data in, crap ‘conclusions’ out. Pretty much what happened 🙁
Blablablah, irrelevant diversion.
As do name frequency analyses, which revealed a disproportionate activity level among Chinese purchasers.
Did they now? So, a “name frequency” analysis equals a “linguistic” analysis? Shame that they, which or whatever they (any links besides to Twyford’s crap one?), seem to be inconsistent with Stats NZ data. You didn’t read my comment @ 10:11 pm, did you? Or you didn’t understand it, or wilfully ignored it.
The data it generated is consistent with market behaviour, which is not even discernable from Stats' failure to measure.
“name frequency” analysis equals a “linguistic” analysis?
Yes, in fact. Ethnicity is reasonably correlated with names, which are linguistic data. We can predict Irish ancestry from names with an O patronymic, or Georgian from a -shvili, or Chinese from a surname like Zhou. Though the match is not perfect, as people change their names, emigrate, or intermarry, the correlation is strong enough to use for some purposes, such as determining whether the NZ property market has enjoyed an inexplicable immunity from the problems created by an inflow of Chinese real estate investment in comparable communities like Vancouver.
Mainland Chinese purchased $1.5 billion of residential real estate in New Zealand last year, according to a real estate website for Chinese investors.
Juwai.com said that was an increase of US$130 million (NZ$197.2m) on the year before, although there was a lack of reliable data in 2016.
Carrie Law, chief executive and director of Juwai.com said the $1.5b estimate was based on official data which showed mainland Chinese buyers made nearly 1600 purchases in New Zealand last year, not including corporations.
This is getting tedious. The only ‘hard’ number is “nearly 1600” but it does not state where that figure came from and what fraction of the total number it represents. The piece also suggests that the number was what it was because “a desire to beat New Zealand's new partial foreign buyers ban buoyed the local market”.
Data released by Labour suggests impact of Chinese buyers on Auckland property market much bigger than expected, the party's housing spokeman says.
While ethnic Chinese make up 9% of Auckland's population, 39.5% of Auckland houses sold from February to April this year were to buyers with Chinese surnames, according to figures from one large real estate firm that represent a significant minority of all Auckland sales, Phil Twyford says.
To be honest, the crocodile tears shed by the right about what is happening in Xinjiang province seem to happen when the Chinese government is starting to:
1) slow its privatisation and market reform programs
Mediaworks are in trouble again. They have failed to recognise an abuser in their ranks, probably one which delivers some sort of profit to them.
Staff have gone to directly to social media to out this predator such is their power and now the bigwigs are scrambling to cover their tracks.
I'm reminded of the popularity of such 'boys will be boys' behaviour at radio stations such as this which were so very popular with the serial pony-tail puller, Sir John Key.
What the Key government did when it came to not fully acknowledging though ACC the damage (not addressing the full impact) which a schedule 3 event can cause showed me how out of touch Key was when it came to a sexual offence causing a mental injury.
I am going to call out the Ardern government for not addressing the damage and impact which a person who has PTSD is not covered unless they have a physical injury.
Little should not have been given the job to implement changes due to 15 March 2019. How can Little be impartial when he is the Minister of the SIS and GCSB?
Fair go,Treetop, how the fuck was Little supposed to know what the arsehole was up to when his own mother and other people he lived with didn’t have a clue?
You are just sniping for snipings sake.
Anker you or I could go into the city highly intoxicated and fall over and smash our face in and ACC will cover you.
ACC give cover using the 1961 Crimes Act, which they refer to as a schedule 3 injury for mental injury cover. Some physical accidents also have a mental injury component such as pain and they are assessed for this. A lot of interpretation goes on. Is this what parliament intended when they deny cover for a no fault accident?
In 1992 the then National government took cover away for a mental injury which did not have a physical cause.
Most people are not aware of what PTSD can do to the body. The physical effects need to be acknowledged such as autoimmune conditions and the effects that the trauma has on the central nervous system. This is what exposure to a high magnitude event will do.
This is WA, the opportunity to tell the eastern states, and especially Federal Government / Canberra to go forth and multiply is electoral gold for any incumbent politician. A complete separation / secession would be just fine with most of the State's residents.
That is a big stretch for you to think that I hold Little responsible for the actions of a deranged gunman. Little is the face of the government on the direction of the matter.
The President of the Islamic Council of NZ on The Nation yesterday everything she said I agree with.
Little cannot drag his heels when it comes to not looking into the future of those who have PTSD but are not covered because they do not have a so called physical injury. It needs to be fully acknowledged that the PTSD was caused by a high magnitude event which government agencies were unprepared for.
Hi Treetop, just remember that right now there are voices asking for extended cover for those who are contributing to the system. ACC is funded by taxpayers under a model of user pay, i.e. payroll deduction, employer contribution, car rego. etc. Do not confuse any welfare provision that is being paid by setting aside a fund from general taxation with this self funding mechanism.
Also remember, in NZ medical services and not even the Ambulance service is being fully funded by the tax allocations. ACC is NOT part of that at all.
Interesting interview with an old school diplomate re; China/USA (ie the rest of the western world)..
Biden’s China Policy: A More Polite Trump – Amb. Chas Freeman
"Retired Ambassador Chas Freeman, Nixon's translator during his 1972 trip to China, says U.S. policy to China remains a desire to hold on to primacy globally and regionally. Biden's approach so far is not much different than the aggressive posture of Trump."
Their chosen instrument: the Covid restrictions (which weren't actually being violated till the flatfoots themselves invaded the bandstand where the organisers were). I suppose it’s at least different from the usual "fire regulations" catch-all.
Worth noting because the same sort of crap might be tried on by our own boys in blue at some point when they see something going down that offends their ideas of order.
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This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
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The idea of a level playing field is certainly not new. It just does not mention that in the 3 dimensional it is slanted towards poverty lane for many.
There are 3 articles today in Staff that catches the eye:
1/ A whole generation has been failed in Mathematic. And English lets just add this too.
This has been pointed out more than 20 years ago by University Lecturers, the estimated that some 30% of entry students are functionally illiterate. Why? Any answers?
2/ Where did the wage subsidy really go?
Well we know that the rich just made a grab for money that is now missing to remedy poverty, infrastructure etc. I am still in utter disbelieve that a finance minister can approve so much money without thinking through foreseeable consequences. In my view, something does not make sense. But what does make sense is that the blackmailing money class has NZ by the short and curlies.
3/New Zealand is a ridiculous name.
No its not. It reflects the history of this country over the last 380 odd years.
Maori would translate NZ: Nu Tereni. Aotearoa traditionally was used as a name for the North Island. (Land of the long white cloud). It is a beautiful name but it neither of them are inclusive. NZ has a long tradition of immigrants from all over the world. If this is to be seen as a partnership, any new name should reflect this and put to a referendum. Just not the laser kiwi please.
One reason for the increase in the estimates of functional illiteracy might be the increase in volumes of students following the introduction of student loans and opening up of universities to all.
Inclusion matters.
https://www.tiktok.com/@skanassa/video/6938628132861676805
"A whole generation has been failed in Mathematic. And English lets just add this too."(Sic.)
The answer is simple. We need to revolutionise the way things are done in primary schools. Tell you what, we'll have a system to improve standards. It'll be nationwide, schools must use the system.
Since it's about standards and it's nationwide we'll call it 'National Standards.' That has a lovely ring to it. Yes, 'National,' sounds good. It will be brilliant, it will work wonders and it'll keep tabs on teachers, make them accountable. Results will be on the rise.
The results of international testing from about 2015 on should show the results of this great innovative move as the cohorts advantaged by the wisdom move through the schooling system.
Ah…..
Yes Hekia Parata did really well as the Minister of Ed with her 'Learnings'.
I think we should look at teachers and their standard. Weather they understand the subject to start with. True story: a teacher told a 15 year old student that they will learn a mathematical solution by research and do it themselves! ???? true response. No wonder the kids need to grow additional fingers, (sarc) Reading? Yep… easy, "recognize the word" that will be extremely helpful when reading a manual of all things with some mathematic tables. This method of teaching is just lazy. And to top it all off the number of school breaks is just ridiculous. Unless your child is in a private school, it will be disadvantaged from the start.
"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn". Benjamin Franklin
"Weather they understand the subject to start with."
Ironic in a post about declining English surely the word is whether.
Yes it is, my apologies. Was a bit in the hurry to get the dog reigned in. Weather certainly played a role . And may I add, here is a word that can be easily misspelled, misread and added to the infamous “recognize the word” vocabulary. 🙂
"Reigned" is the appropriate word if you're describing how a cat interacts with its hooman.
"Reined" is the appropriate word for a human attempting to control their dog.
“Rained” is the appropriate word when it rains cats and dogs.
Surely the word "surely" commences a new sentence.
Indeed, and sentence adverbs are followed by a comma.
Did I make my point yet? Or has none cottoned on to what this was about? Were you able to "recognize" words?
Pretty funny you choose to shoot the messenger, over what could be a result of poor education, rather than engage. Because you know, teachers feelings are far more important than kids achieving
Teachers are part of the equation, and I doubt there are many NZ teachers who want their students to fail. If the profession had higher status then we might make progress, but in NZ the single biggest metric for ranking occupations is not work-life balance, satisfaction and/or contribution to society, but rather how much money you can make. And so it goes.
And. Only 3% private schools, and no “for profit schools”..
So the wealthy have an incentive to support a good State system.
As successive Governments refuse to listen to Teachers, or evidence, you can hardly put the blame on Teachers.
There is learning mathematics and there is learning how to learn. Both can be taught at the same time – and it's easier to do in maths because a student can see if they are right and wrong. For a 15 year old, researching how to do something should be well within their abilities.
Yep. It is common to think that Teaching is the transfer of knowledge from the Teacher to the student.
If that is all we, as a Teacher are doing, then we have failed.
No one person “knows” enough for a start.
The aim is to Teach students to learn and go beyond our knowledge.
When a student takes off and begins to research for themselves, question, argue and analyse what I've taught them, and delves deeper into the subject. I know I'm winning. I want the student to end up more "educated' than me. Not less!
Yes, this is true but mathematical formula are better not learned by browsing through the internet. Or maybe we can all forget about Pythagoras, Galileo Galilei, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, Paul Erdős, Newton, Albert Einstein etc. We don't need them, we can research this all by ourselves. (sarc) By extension, maybe we don't need teachers at all?
See above.
This is just yet another effort to step up privatisation of education in this country.
"True story: a teacher told a 15 year old student that they will learn a mathematical solution by research and do it themselves! ???? true response."
What was the context? What was the teacher trying to get the pupil to achieve with that kid at that time? Did the teacher use that strategy only and with all lessons?
Using that as an example of why our kids don't score well in international tests?
The comment about children being disadvantaged from the start by not being in a private school is nonsense.
No, the teacher was actually calling for a parent evening and in that context it was mentioned that this is what is expected. Now, if a teacher does not want to teach then maybe he/she should do something else? It is for many parents very frustrating to deal with this kind let down. I am not the only one saying this. But naturally, there will be a lot of defensiveness. I also do know that many parents who are able to afford this, send their children to private schools to make sure that they succeed in an every increasing competitive world.
All I am saying is that, if we don't equip the teacher we cant expect the kids to succeed.
Noting that if you control for socio economic background, private schools do not do as well as State schools.
The contacts made and the access to the "old boy network" is, of course, invaluable.
Question:
Are the Uyghur muslims the first muslims the right wing of New Zealand have paid any attention to?
It would seem the right wing of New Zealand are using the Uyghur muslims for political purposes.
These people might very well be persecuted. But I find it interesting The West has happily trades with, and profited from that trade with China for some decades now despite clear human rights abuses, and now suddenly it's all a big problem.
I think some people have deliberately not been paying attention until it is politically expedient to do so.
According to the right wing Uyghur muslims are suddenly the most important muslims, for some strange reason.
For instance, you wouldn’t find the same right wing of New Zealand advocating for Palestinian muslims, would you?
Can you please point to millions Pakistani Muslim’s suffering genocide by a communist government?
Suddenly China's human rights abuses are a big problem but in reality we've turned a blind eye for decades. We've worn their cheap goods and happily heated our meals in their cheap microwave ovens for years without a thought to justice.
We've even got rich off their cheap money by allowing their citizens to buy up vast swathes of NZ residential property!
It's all too convenient to be crying foul now.
Given that you asserted that as a statement of fact, please back it up with a link.
https://list.juwai.com/news/2020/01/chinese-show-interest-new-zealand-properties-despite-ban
Thanks, but that doesn’t state what you think it states. For example, what was the proportion of all sales? The text in (your) bold was simply marketing clickbait.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/weve-got-chinese-buyers/RQR6KUAUKMNJ5VPBAYKCMNIZLI/
Thanks again, but not compelling. Mostly urban legend stuff, and Phil Twyford’s infamous surname ‘analysis’, based on a small sample from “one unidentified real estate company from February to April”. You’re just continuing the propaganda BS and flawed factoids from the past 🙁
That was Twyford at his zenith. It brought about real change when the government of the time sought to ignore the issue. The last decent thing he did. It's all been downhill from there.
You asked for links to mainland Chinese buying lots of New Zealand property. I have provided that. A simple thank you would suffice.
You’re sadly misguided and misinformed. I can now understand better your assertion, which is based on your misconception and ignorance. However, not everybody likes to spread BS and some even push back on it. Maybe it was too much to ask you for a proper analysis with facts, e.g. from Stat NZ, but you took the piece of rope and showed yourself to be a spreader of populist memes instead of a critical independent thinker and commenter.
For your perusal and edification:
https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/drop-in-home-transfers-to-overseas-buyers
This comment shows you didn't read the link I posted at 5.1.1.1.1 because the information in the StatsNZ link is the same.
But on top of that your criticism tries to say that a drop in offshore ownership means that there was not a problem in the first place???
I can't work this one out.
Back to the original point at 5 which was to draw attention to the hypocrisy of the West engaging with China the way we have for 3 decades now despite obvious and ongoing human rights and worker rights breaches.
I watched Tiananmen Square as a 19 year old and was shocked like everyone else. What censure or punishment for China? Nothing. There was no punishment, only reward. The reward was a huge increase in trade, and a proliferation of sweatshops and dodgy manufacturers with which a few players in the West got rich and we all got nice shoes.
I find it gross that some people cry about Uyghur muslims now while for years they conveniently ignored years of China's abuses, because they benefitted from those same abuses.
That money funnelled into the New Zealand residential property market by mainland Chinese and new resident property purchases was tainted with corruption, poor justice, and the abused rights of manual workers.
Over 30 years of civil rights abuse was ignored by us because it was convenient. So for some on the political right to suddenly have newfound sympathy for a group of muslims sticks in the craw.
I did read the link and it did not answer my question and thus it did not support your assertion that Chinese citizens “buy up vast swathes of NZ residential property”.
If you had actually bother to delve into the NZ Stats link I provided you would have known that the percentage of overseas buyers is actually very low. For example, in the March-2019 Quarter, only 0.6% (i.e. 204 from a total of 31,728) so-called Home transfers involved buyers who were not NZ citizens or NZ resident visa holders. Only 90 buyers in that period had the PRC as Country of tax residence (which is not the same as nationality!).
If you had said that there is no NZ register of property owned by overseas people, you’d be 100% correct, which is also mentioned in the NZ Stats link.
I understand your views on PRC but these should not cloud your views on the few Chinese buyers in the NZ housing market, IMO, which you used to support your anti-China narrative and sentiments.
As to whether the Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2018 addressed a problem, which may have been overblown for a number of reasons, remains to be seen. The worsening situation since its introduction and even more so since Covid, when overseas buyers cannot even enter into NZ, suggests that it was a red herring and possibly more of a political stunt.
You've picked numbers post Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2018. It did what it was designed to do.
That house prices have increased this year is not proof that offshore investors, including those from China, did not have a significant effect on our housing market.
Back to my original point, that we've so long been happy for cheap and tainted foreign cash to prop up our economy, so getting upset for persecuted peoples in China now is more than a little ironic.
You didn’t click on the NZ Stats link because it contains a nice wee bar graph with before and after Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2018 came into place. Overseas buyers came from a high (!) of 3.3%, a whopping 3.3% and that includes more than just Chinese buyers.
Getting back to my original point, your assertion is piss-poor and you have no evidence to support it other than your belief. Such a shame that you don’t want to face the facts 🙁
That bar graphs shows under 80% of NZ houses were sold to Kiwis before the Overseas Investment Act amendment 2018.
Not good enough.
And even that is not the true story because trusts are included as NZ citizens if just one trustee is a NZ citizen.
As always with housing data in this country, this is not a complete picture.
It also shows in March 2018, 7.8% of Auckland homes were sold to people with no NZ citizenship or residency. Not even including the above points, that is significant.
Imagine how much worse the situation would be right now if we hadn't put a stop to it.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/residential/119643341/chinese-buyers-seek-boltholes-in-new-zealand-property-market
More variations on the same theme 🙁
The piece is based on increased interest, i.e. literally just clicks on a website. As such, it does not support your assertion at all.
I do question whether you actually read it before you copied & pasted it here!?
In other words, just speculation about speculation.
NZ is not the only property market to have been affected by Chinese buyers. Being a relatively small market, such groups can have disproportionate influence. This from Vancouver:
Why Vancouver's Housing Market Hinges on China's Economy | Smart Cities Dive
Sure, but do you have some solid numbers (AKA stats) for the NZ situation?
Not being a demographer, no. Do you have figures that show the contrary?
You joined this discussion thread and I assumed because you have information to share on NZ.
The contrary of what?? Your Q makes no sense.
@Incognito – you are, without contrary facts, trying to dismiss Muttonbird's thesis, that Chinese property accumulation has become a problem.
We know the Key government declined to collect such statistics, most probably because it would embarrass the group concerned, who were major funders.
You have dismissed the Chinese names data – but I am, among other things, in linguistics. It is quite possible, and perfectly proper to obtain meaningful data from names in that fashion.
Nice of you to join the convo again but please have a coffee first before you start talking nonsense.
Muttonbird asserted a fact.
I asked them to back it up.
I’m still waiting but it looks like I’ll be waiting till the cows come up because they’re not playing ball.
Waiting =//= dismissing.
Feel free to apply your linguistics skills and tools to the question. What/which database(s) are you going to use? The same crap one as Phil Twyford?
Further, see my comment @ 10:11 pm (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-14-03-2021/#comment-1783274).
This is the New Zealand residential property market, there are no stats.
Have you been in a coma the last 10 years?
Huh?
Stuart talked about Vancouver and I asked about NZ, just as I’ve asked you about NZ. But nothing useful so far. Meanwhile, “mainland Chinese buying lots of New Zealand property” according to you @ 3:35 pm and seemingly also according to Stuart!? But you now claim there are no data to back this up!? So, did you pluck that assertion out of your orifice just as Phil Twyford did?
The same crap one as Phil Twyford?
It wasn't dismissed because it was crap, but because the usual media suspects weren't up to understanding how it worked. The failure was political, not factual.
In a field where data is scarce, imperfect data is better than none. It may well be corrected by subsequent full data, if it were collected. But what can be learned from partial data doesn't go away just because the Chinese speculators howled 'racism!' Just as the Indian prospective husbands, denied the end-run allowed under the Key administration, made similar claims of oppression, but went silent as the trope surfaced.
Our property register has (irresponsibly) not been collecting the data. Comparative data sets like behaviours of the same expatriate community in other countries form a reasonable estimate of their activity here, in the absence of the figures any responsible administration would collect as a matter of course. As do name frequency analyses, which revealed a disproportionate activity level among Chinese purchasers.
Phil Twyford’s ‘data analysis’ was crap. Crap data in, crap ‘conclusions’ out. Pretty much what happened 🙁
Blablablah, irrelevant diversion.
Did they now? So, a “name frequency” analysis equals a “linguistic” analysis? Shame that they, which or whatever they (any links besides to Twyford’s crap one?), seem to be inconsistent with Stats NZ data. You didn’t read my comment @ 10:11 pm, did you? Or you didn’t understand it, or wilfully ignored it.
The data it generated is consistent with market behaviour, which is not even discernable from Stats' failure to measure.
“name frequency” analysis equals a “linguistic” analysis?
Yes, in fact. Ethnicity is reasonably correlated with names, which are linguistic data. We can predict Irish ancestry from names with an O patronymic, or Georgian from a -shvili, or Chinese from a surname like Zhou. Though the match is not perfect, as people change their names, emigrate, or intermarry, the correlation is strong enough to use for some purposes, such as determining whether the NZ property market has enjoyed an inexplicable immunity from the problems created by an inflow of Chinese real estate investment in comparable communities like Vancouver.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/106836362/chinese-pour-15-billion-into-nz-housing-market-last-year
This is getting tedious. The only ‘hard’ number is “nearly 1600” but it does not state where that figure came from and what fraction of the total number it represents. The piece also suggests that the number was what it was because “a desire to beat New Zealand's new partial foreign buyers ban buoyed the local market”.
https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/leaked-data-shows-chinese-offshore-buyers-fuelling-rampant-auckland-property-speculation
What percentage were sold to wealthy offshore buyers, from places other than China?
No idea. But for the purposes of this argument, were those other offshore buyers from countries with such appalling human rights records as China???
I know several from the country that is currently bombing Syria, and supplying weapons to Saudi Arabia.
As well as starving Venezuala and Iran into submission.
But. They are our "friends".
I know Chinese immigrants, and Chinese Kiwi’s, that are not at all happy with the CCP, BTW.
FFS!
To be honest, the crocodile tears shed by the right about what is happening in Xinjiang province seem to happen when the Chinese government is starting to:
1) slow its privatisation and market reform programs
2) jail corrupt billionaires
3) have SOE's invest in 3rd World nations.
Thanks Millsy – my fave comment so far.
Mediaworks are in trouble again. They have failed to recognise an abuser in their ranks, probably one which delivers some sort of profit to them.
Staff have gone to directly to social media to out this predator such is their power and now the bigwigs are scrambling to cover their tracks.
I'm reminded of the popularity of such 'boys will be boys' behaviour at radio stations such as this which were so very popular with the serial pony-tail puller, Sir John Key.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/radios-prison-rape-joke-with-pm-falls-flat/YZJQMY3CSUKDUSVG4K4UQUC6YY/
Seems The Rock and Mediaworks still haven't cleaned up their act.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/investigation-into-sexual-harassment-allegations-at-the-rock-mediaworks-radio-station/YV5UT4VMNU6DTKS2IW5OVUIRGA/
What the Key government did when it came to not fully acknowledging though ACC the damage (not addressing the full impact) which a schedule 3 event can cause showed me how out of touch Key was when it came to a sexual offence causing a mental injury.
I am going to call out the Ardern government for not addressing the damage and impact which a person who has PTSD is not covered unless they have a physical injury.
Little should not have been given the job to implement changes due to 15 March 2019. How can Little be impartial when he is the Minister of the SIS and GCSB?
Fair go,Treetop, how the fuck was Little supposed to know what the arsehole was up to when his own mother and other people he lived with didn’t have a clue?
You are just sniping for snipings sake.
Anker you or I could go into the city highly intoxicated and fall over and smash our face in and ACC will cover you.
ACC give cover using the 1961 Crimes Act, which they refer to as a schedule 3 injury for mental injury cover. Some physical accidents also have a mental injury component such as pain and they are assessed for this. A lot of interpretation goes on. Is this what parliament intended when they deny cover for a no fault accident?
In 1992 the then National government took cover away for a mental injury which did not have a physical cause.
Most people are not aware of what PTSD can do to the body. The physical effects need to be acknowledged such as autoimmune conditions and the effects that the trauma has on the central nervous system. This is what exposure to a high magnitude event will do.
Surprise surprise, border closures are winning strategy.
https://www.9news.com.au/national/wa-election-bloodbath-as-labor-triumph-historic-landslide-victory/f9575b08-8eb3-447c-8b41-316f334cd896
This is WA, the opportunity to tell the eastern states, and especially Federal Government / Canberra to go forth and multiply is electoral gold for any incumbent politician. A complete separation / secession would be just fine with most of the State's residents.
Poor dear's doing it tough.
/
https://twitter.com/mrJeffHowell/status/1370846696054292480
Reply to Adrian @8
That is a big stretch for you to think that I hold Little responsible for the actions of a deranged gunman. Little is the face of the government on the direction of the matter.
The President of the Islamic Council of NZ on The Nation yesterday everything she said I agree with.
Little cannot drag his heels when it comes to not looking into the future of those who have PTSD but are not covered because they do not have a so called physical injury. It needs to be fully acknowledged that the PTSD was caused by a high magnitude event which government agencies were unprepared for.
Correction Islamic Women's Council of NZ
Hi Treetop, just remember that right now there are voices asking for extended cover for those who are contributing to the system. ACC is funded by taxpayers under a model of user pay, i.e. payroll deduction, employer contribution, car rego. etc. Do not confuse any welfare provision that is being paid by setting aside a fund from general taxation with this self funding mechanism.
Also remember, in NZ medical services and not even the Ambulance service is being fully funded by the tax allocations. ACC is NOT part of that at all.
Interesting interview with an old school diplomate re; China/USA (ie the rest of the western world)..
Biden’s China Policy: A More Polite Trump – Amb. Chas Freeman
"Retired Ambassador Chas Freeman, Nixon's translator during his 1972 trip to China, says U.S. policy to China remains a desire to hold on to primacy globally and regionally. Biden's approach so far is not much different than the aggressive posture of Trump."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjmvxeShO2Q&t=29s
UK police trying to shut down publicity for a crime committed by one of their own:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/mar/13/sarah-everard-pressure-for-new-laws-to-curb-violence-against-women
Their chosen instrument: the Covid restrictions (which weren't actually being violated till the flatfoots themselves invaded the bandstand where the organisers were). I suppose it’s at least different from the usual "fire regulations" catch-all.
Worth noting because the same sort of crap might be tried on by our own boys in blue at some point when they see something going down that offends their ideas of order.