So, Peter Jackson just demonstrated that a rich man can buy a city! If that doesn’t ring alarm bells throughout the country, I’m buggered if I know what will.
Labour and Jacinda are down in the latest Reid poll. National Party attack ads have appeared on large electronic bill boards in Christchurch and other cities, plugging away at a theme. There’s big money behind this National campaign, not just 1 Chinese = 2 Indians. This is a threat to our democracy, as real as the Trump fiasco in the US.
After all, Josef Goebbels, in a quote attributed to him, nailed it: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
Hence the narrative: National Government all good, Coalition government all bad.
Us baby boomers, comfortable smug pricks as most of us are, vote National. Milleniums and X, Y generations, with all the problems of the world to face, tend to vote left. The government should aim at policies which appeal to those on the left.
The Coalition should promise tax cuts – but aim them at the poorer parts of our society, to encourage them to vote (and vote left). Remove GST on fresh fruit and vegetables. That will have a real impact on those struggling, while the rich will hardly notice. More of the poor’s income is spent on food and survival.
Make the first $20,000 or so of income tax free. Again, the poor will benefit most and the well off will think it’s just an accounting error.
Frankly, this country cannot afford another National government – ever!
It will take time (and perhaps the absence of Winnie) for a Labor Greens coalition to make real changes to New Zealand – we must do everything we can to ensure a left wing victory in 2020.
PS. I’d like to see a crowd funded attack ad, appearing immediately after a National attack add on the electronic billboards, like this:
Woops – won't let me post pictures. The first one reads Caution: likelihood of National Party lies – extreme.
or this one:
Reads: Is that the truth, or something Simon Bridges says.
Both taken from comments on Siomuns Twitter pages.
Tax free $20000 yes, messing with GST no. There is no doubt in my mind that the 15% reduction would disappear in the first 3 months by the way of increased margins etc at the supermarket.
Or can someone convince me competition between Progressive and Foodstuffs will prevent that?
Yes, on this subject the right-wingers have a point. The government would be guaranteed to experience the lost tax revenue and increased admin costs of exempting fruit and veg from GST, but the customers would by no means be guaranteed lower prices for fruit and veg. I'd expect supermarket owners to put out press releases saying the increased complexity of dealing with GST meant increased costs for them so they were unable to pass savings on to their customers.
Grocery items are normally at price points which is why $2.99 etc is so common. Removing the GST just means they might drop for a while then find their way back to the old price point.
Another marketing trick Ive seen Pak N Save do is have a special for a week or more of 2 for $5 with the normal price of $2.69.
Yet when the special ends they have moved to a higher price , $2.99@.
Clearly its done to cover their tracks on rising prices as regular customers might think they have returned to old price
In the last decade or so owning a grocery store has become a ticket for the billionaire bus. Pak n Save, New World and 4 Square owners are only allowed to own 1 store at a time. Something is wrong when a grocery store owner has 60 million in the bank. Prolific wallet rapists.
Tax free thresholds become money pits exploited by the well off who can redirect income and have dividend refunds to reduce their taxable income below a certain point.
Rebates are better, the old way when you had to file a tax return , which most people didnt do, to claim meant a lot missed out. But with the new IRD computerised system where they know all your income and can refund without a person taking action to claim a rebate.
The other way is through 'winter energy payments' ( a marketing name) to beneficiaries, which is a 6 months of increase, where you dont have to get on your knees to Winz.
Could never work out why some here were claiming Labour hasnt given beneficiaries anything
@Duke, because $20/week for 6 months ISN'T anything when it's been eaten up right away by the rent, or prescription costs, or anything other than the winter heating. Hardly what I'd call an increase in real terms to benefit levels. Then it goes away again and for the next 6 months things are just as bad.
That's really OTT. You know that Peter Jackson helped fund Andy whotsname with his run for Mayor. You don't know where other aspiring pollies got their money from! They have been upfront about it, unlike others, some of whom are very sneaky. Every aspiring pollie needs funding to pay for advertising and the extra costs involved with essentially working for democracy, as opposed to their everyday work to support themselves. If they get elected, then those costs are covered.
Even if they are wealthy they will get funding from others of their strata who have money to spare for someone who will advance in the direction envisaged by the donor, or at least replace someone insensitive to their needs.
Peter Jackson is a NZr who has built a business in NZ. A lot of previous NZ businesses have been sold off completely to overseas pension funds etc. Don't get shitty with Peter. You may think he has done things that means he deserves to be called a bastard – but he is our bastard who happens to work for NZ interests as a whole.
A wider view needs to be taken by people who have never made or built a big business in a new milieu. The Jacksons have exceeded other clever and successful businesspeople, and coped with the negative response from workers wanting more before the project was finalised and financially successful. Dealing with the financial giants in the world requires superman mind-muscles of steel. Just watch and learn.
The whole of NZ is just a project to the financiers, and we all need to be as wily as Jackson to gain any advantage from dealings with them. They are buying the country piecemeal at the present; what project have we in mind that will result from our enabling of this activity? Are we going to end up with a winning income-earner like Lord of the Rings films? I doubt it – we seem to be too small-minded and bent on getting feathers for our own nests while the whole environment changes in negative ways to limit our lives.
Birds are lucky to have bird-brains and not have the means to understand everything that goes on in the wide world. We are cursed with bigger brains, giving less response to the basic survival information we need to extract from our available vast inputs of information. We could at least aim at kea-intelligence: curious (questioning and thoughtful), inclined to dismantle machinery (recycling) and able to cope with a variety of climate conditions (flexible, wise and practical) which increasingly is our scenario.
How Idiocracy comes about: when the untalented offspring of the wealthy and powerful are protected from downward mobility, then it damages us all. Because they clog up the positions at the top, preventing new actual talent from rising.
And though it may be understandable for wealthy parents to use their power to insulate their children from downward mobility, the broader effect of this trend could be severe. According to Reeves, dozens of studies have estimated the negative effects of failing to tap into the talents of low-income students. Far fewer, however, have considered the drag on the gross domestic product caused by unintelligent CEOs and Ivy League HR staffers hiring people just like themselves.
“No one is in favor of downward mobility,” Reeves said. “But if there isn’t enough circulation of elites at the top of their professions, you’re going to get stagnation.”
I believe that the seeds of the intellectual decay of Individualistic Capitalism are to be found in an institution which is not in the least characteristic of itself, but which it took over from the social system of Feudalism which preceded it,—namely, the hereditary principle. The hereditary principle in the transmission of wealth and the control of business is the reason why the leadership of the Capitalist Cause is weak and stupid. It is too much dominated by third-generation men. Nothing will cause a social institution to decay with more certainty than its attachment to the hereditary principle. It is an illustration of this that by far the oldest of our institutions, the Church, is the one which has always kept itself free from the hereditary taint.
joining the dots – how long before the mortal danger is accepted and we sort out the people doing this to us – how long will we tolerate being destroyed? These 'people' should be in court and then jail imo
The Guardian today reveals the 20 fossil fuel companies whose relentless exploitation of the world’s oil, gas and coal reserves can be directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern era.
The world’s largest investment banks have provided more than $700bn of financing for the fossil fuel companies most aggressively expanding in new coal, oil and gas projects since the Paris climate change agreement, figures show.
The financing has been led by the Wall Street giant JPMorgan Chase, which has provided $75bn (£61bn) to companies expanding in sectors such as fracking and Arctic oil and gas exploration, according to the analysis.
The New York bank is one of 33 powerful financial institutions to have provided an estimated total of $1.9tn to the fossil fuel sector between 2016 and 2018.
Note the H2O2 is well researched and accepted system as shown in their scientific research technical bulletin attachment, and we lived for five years in Florida and they used H2O2 in their water supply and in public pools also in our area, and we never got any disease or complications from drinking that water.
.. http://www.h2o2.com/files/DrinkingWater-Municipal-Tech-Bulletin-15-HR.pdf
Household peroxide is sold in brown bottles in drugstores and supermarkets. It contains 3 percent hydrogen peroxide.
Hair bleach is about 6 to 10% hydrogen peroxide.
"Food grade" hydrogen peroxide is 35%. Despite its name, "food grade" hydrogen peroxide should never be taken internally, unless it is extremely dilute.
Higher concentrations of hydrogen peroxide, up to 90 percent, are used in industry.
Mind telling us what you think is toxic about the chlorine-containing compounds used for water treatment when used in appropriate concentrations? After all, your body contains approximately 0.2% chlorine, and it's an essential element.
Hell, even the IARC doesn't have concerns about chlorinating water (in appropriate concentrations), and there aren't many substances that IARC doesn't have on its lists of possibly, probably and definitely causes cancer.
Andre I know you love chemicals so I choose not to engage with you on this.
It's like talking to a wall.
Can I ask why you never responded to me on the toxic result of "substitution reaction" please feel free to offer your option on this dangerous inter-reaction between the atoms in the original molecule of those elements you love?
You got nuthin? Just a bunch of sciencey scary words you don't really understand, but can put into a sentence that sounds scary to you and you think others should be scared by too?
BTW, a while ago cleangreen more or less doxxed themself, and as a result I did a little looking into that organisation they're so fond of posting long unlinked unattributed press releases from. It appears to be entirely an astroturfing effort from cleangreen and family. So if I had to guess, I'd speculate those were indeed cleangreen's own words pasted here alongside a bunch of other places.
The simple reason why chlorine is used is persistence.
Chlorine is typically added at the treatment plant at around 0.6 to 0.8 ppm depending on various factors such as temperature. From this point it while persist for about 3 – 6 days
By the the time it's reached your local reservoir about a day later it's dropped to about 0.4 ppm.
By the time it gets through the local distribution system to your taps it's usually less than 0.2ppm. But this minute amount is still sufficient to ensure the system remains sterile and safe.
And as Andre points out this is less than the concentration of Cl2 in your own body. Consider for instance that your stomach acid is essentially hydrochloric acid, HCl, potassium chloride KCl and salt, NaCl. Chlorine ions are everywhere, their highly dilute presence in drinking water is by itself absolutely not an issue.
There are two potential problems, both of which are well understood by the NZDWS authority. The big one is to ensure that organics (such as forest tannins )are removed from the water before chlorination at the plant. Otherwise a minute but non-zero quantity of organo-chlorides which are potential carcinogens will be produced. This only applies to plants that source their water from rivers with heavily forested catchments. This is well understood and tightly controlled for in all major city treatment plants.
I spent some of my life writing the complex software to that monitors and controls this process.
Overseas its is also reasonably common to sterilise with an alternative called chloramine, essentially the same thing but with ammonia molecules attached. It's common in the USA and Australia, but the NZDWS does not permit it's use as its chemical behaviour is less well understood and in my view at least, somewhat less desirable than pure chlorine.
The big limitation with UV and H2O2 sterilisation is that neither of them persist in the distribution system after the treatment plant. UV obviously has zero persistence and hydrogen peroxide breaks down spontaneously far too quickly.
The advent of safe drinking water (and waste disposal) on an industrial scale was one of the handful of major engineering advances that has most dramatically extended human life expectancy everywhere, and one of the key enablers of our modern economic and social world. Chlorination is one of the critical elements in that story.
"Revelation of hidden callous nature of NZ government by not backing PM Ardern – "
No it isnt . The decision was made not to have a a new special category for relatives of those not in NZ at the time of the Mosque attack but to process them sympathetically by the ministerial discretion method. These widows would be a prime example.
Electricity – Another own goal for Labour making improvements to help lower-income public which are unhelpful?
Indeed, greywarshark. The Government plans to phase out the requirement for electricity companies to sell plans that offer a low fixed daily charge.
However, it's been reported about 60% of consumers are on such low-fixed charges. Bringing into question whether or not the Government's reform will actually lower their overall electricity costs?
It also brings into question the incentive for consumers to cut down on their power use via insulation, double glazing, solar power, etc.
Another rule in the reform will temporarily ban electricity companies from offering discounts to win back customers who have given notice they intend to switch suppliers. This restrains market competition while robbing consumers of playing companies off as a means of securing a better price.
Electricity companies will also be encouraged (under threat of regulation) to stop offering prompt payment discounts. However, we are yet to see if a lower price will eventuate from the removal of this current discount.
If the Government's reforms don't result in lowering power costs and in fact drives them up, it will piss off thousands of households thus will really hurt them (the Government) come next election. This is one they really need to get right.
BBC News has some info buttons and a long piece setting out various matters. Brexit: 'Intense technical' talks between UK and EU in Brussels https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-50025931
In UK they are still slugging it out. Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn is still making his cautious way through the bog, and he and his Shadow Brexit Secretary have announced different thoughts on Brexit moves.
Jeremy Corbyn has poured cold water on the idea that Labour could support an attempt to attach a referendum to Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal at next Saturday’s emergency sitting of parliament….
He [Corbyn] said he would instead be keen to see a Labour-style Brexit deal, including a customs union, and guarantees on workers’ rights and environmental standards, put to the public.
Corbyn’s comments appeared to put him at odds with the shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, who said in a speech in Glasgow on Saturday that Labour would press for any deal Johnson secures to be subject to a referendum.
“Next week our priorities are clear: if Boris Johnson does manage to negotiate a deal, then we will insist that it is put back to the people in a confirmatory vote,” Starmer said.
No – but 'Accountable Capitalism' illustrates why Warren is a (thoroughly likeable) nerdy technocrat unable to escape the "mind-forged manacles" that limit her vision. What she suggests is good and will be bitterly opposed – but any change from BAU, no matter how minor, will be bitterly opposed. So you may as well go the whole hog and radically equalise the distribution of economic power – so that you are no longer having to continually police these disgusting swine.
Except that you can't know a priori what constitutes something electable and what doesn't. Within certain limits anyway. Given that reality, " subtle, understated and concise" might simply be "smug, untested and condescending".
What can I say, I wasn't feeling smug or condescending when I wrote it. I agree with you that radically equalising power is what needs to happen.
It's also true that knowing what will win in any given election cannot be known absolutely. But likewise, theories about centre left parties/people going strongly left and winning are theories. I think it's reasonable to speculate on what might happen, but it's also reasonable to assume that Warren has a plan based on evidence and research and who she is as a person i.e. she might not be convincing or good at radically equalising power.
The may as well go strongly left argument is one of radical change not assuming power to make less radical change. I'm ok with either given the situation in the US.
What interested me about her tweets was that that plan does seem radical by US political standards but I haven't been following closely so I'm unclear if it's radical for her or fits easily within the other things she is doing.
No wonder she gets so few donations. Meanwhile Trump is getting donations greater than her and the rest of the dem candidates combined.
Overt power and control over free enterprise is off-putting to many in the capitalist loving USA. Yes there needs to be some reform in tax evasion but her ideas are scary. Next step from her ideas is nationalisation. IE communism.
She is also unelectable. Endless gaffs and her lies are like a ball and chain. First her American Indian claim, now her proven false claim of being fired for being pregnant. No thanks.
In the debates Trump will crush her, exposing her week personality.
Trump couldn't crush Warren in a debate if you gave him a running start and a hydraulic ram. He'll likely just follow her round like a creepy uncle, giving her the death stare and occasionally embarking on unhinged tirades about conspiracies and fake news. That's how the tangerine behemoth 'debates'. Rational thought and reasoned debate have never been long-term residents of Trumpland.
Facts don't necessarily decide debates though. Pocahontas is going to face an uphill battle taking on one of the canniest political operators of this time.
Supposed left wingers running Trump attack lines on the most left democratic candidate likely to get the Dem nomination, and admitting they'd vote four more years of Trump ahead of Warren because it's not Bernie or that one who polls 2%
Yeah, I stick, you're really showing your left credentials there, maui.
So you’ll be voting national in 2020 if you don’t get John Minto running the labour party? 🙄
I just checked for you, and TRMPKN is still available if you want it as a personalised plate. May as well be loud and proud about being a trumpkin.
DRUMPF is too, but I'm trying to decide if I'm willing to pony up a G for it along with big plate surrounds that say "The sound a fat New York pigeon makes when it splats into a window"
so yeah, you should re-read your comment and maybe tone it down on the 'liar' thing a bit. But then it goes hand in hand with the shitshows doctrine of accuse others of what you are guilty of. Right 🙂
Thank goodness he can't sing like that. All the women would swoon over his beautiful voice, he would get away with anything.
Aren't these guys great – having their mock battle of the voices. So good, the lot of them.
I think the song for Boorish is Nessun Dorma – None Will Sleep isn't it? Dangerous to even shut your eyes for a moment while he is around, willing to pickpocket your society from your pocket while you're distracted.
Do you know the Giles cartoons? I think the public need to be like Grandma with her portmanteau with a padlock and chain on it, and her hefty umbrella with a parrot beak that would leave a dent on any pollie with thoughts of purloining the People's Purse.
Nessun Dorma ends with a bold prediction of victory 🙂
My favourite Giles cartoon was from the time of three mile island – grandma's sitting under a tree, and a kid has dropped a spanner out of the tree house. Someone is saying "if that spanner hits Grandma's head it'll cause more than a nuclear meltdown".
My favourite was when the Queen and Prince Phillip payed a State Visit to Italy where they visited the ancient Roman statues (male) with top hats hanging on their fundamentals in the interest of royal decorum.
Yes there was always more than one humorous thread running through them. In the statue cartoon there were a bunch of 'spivvy' looking workers watching proceedings and an officious Italiano cop was gesticulating at them with the threat… don't you dare pinch da royal bottom.
Wouldn't get away with it these days.
Then there was the one where Grandma (in her black regalia) was mounting Westminster Abbey steps to attend Charles' and Di's wedding. The place was deserted and a couple of cops tried to tell her the wedding was at St. Pauls. She was having none of it – royal weddings were always at the Abbey – so she cast them aside and proceeded inside. Not even the cops dared mess with Grandma.
Cheeky Giles – Always aware of the social niceties that he could send up.
Another good one about Royalty is when a stableboy leads a herd of camels to the Household Cavalry yard with a note saying that a Royal Middle East person has donated these to Us and We wish you to look after them carefully, which leads to a state of shock. One is eating the hat of a horse attendant and another sneers superciliously at a barking corgi leaping around, with a yawning mouth ready to bite it in half.
One cannot applaud the behaviour of the ordinary people! Like going on a canal trip and the boys make a hole in the fence of the animal park and entice the tigers out to jump through a hoop while mop-head with the camera gets a shot. But the tiger has a glint in its eye as it looks at the small morsel in trousers.
And Grandma has had various things dropped from a great height ie bags of flour. But she is tough!
Then there is the newly married couple who are advised their best man has found them a quiet, covered private corner on the Heathrow concourse where there is a mass of other waiting hopeful travellers affected by a strike/bad weather.
Another one shows the same patient travellers, who have been entertained by a Punch and Judy show ad-libbing and a passenger asks the stewardess if the Captain can just wait a few minutes till they find out what is going to happen to Judy.
At Christmas time they all line up to decide whether to kill the turkey Sebastian that they have been fattening. Mother takes a vote whether it will live or die and everyone chickens out. So she sends the kids down to the dairy for dozen tins of spam.
They are wonderful bits of humour poking fun at everyone and good to look at when the world is bruising.
"leads a herd of camels to the Household Cavalry yard with a note saying that a Royal Middle East person has donated these to Us"
Middle Eastern persons are just as big horse buffs as the Royals, maybe bigger.
Have you never heard of Arabian horse breed?
Yes, you are repeating a old fashioned British stereotype of Arabs as being culturally unaware.
Do you have some stories from the Black and White Minstrels to regale us with too?
Some random thoughts on education and the new 'New Age' that we need to gear ourselves up for.
The idea of children remaining at school until well into first-stage maturity is now redundant I think. We need to be into the world earlier, all putting something in, and being able to take time out when appropriate for studying particular subjects for specialisation.
Being able to learn things throughout life, take time out to study something new, perhaps a one month course, every now and then, but also being expected to contribute time and skills to the community in some way throughout life. That would make us less of zombies, and the me-first generation.
First general education and life setting and experience as well as literacy, love of books and reading where imagination is ignited. Then the attraction of maths as a system, and how to work out heights and shade areas during different times of the year – useful for planning gardens and house positions. How to work out the number of rolls of wallpaper for a room making allowance for pattern repeat, or how many litres of paint, and what the different types are valuable for, priming, light or dark top coat. Useful stuff – that requires knowledge of chemistry, maths, and probably physics, colour effects, heat retention, etc. Gardening – the soil, mycrophiyllia? and the unseen community below ground – fascinating.
So secondary schools having everyone involved in understanding politics would be a good start. Primary could start with projects suggested and then participated in by the kids as part of their learning. Doing rather than being theoretical chair sitters, seeing the start of an idea, and learning about unintended consequences and problems.
and i must remember to stand well back when you find out about the inaction in response to global-warming..eh..?
that really puts the 'id' in idiotic…
whereas yr minor supermarket inconvenience – is just that..eh..?
[How does your ad hom relate to the article that Barfly linked to? What does it have to do with “the inaction in response to global-warming”? Are you a wind-up artist or do you want to engage with the topic started by another commenter? Take the rest of the day off – Incognito]
You had better stick to getting your beer or non-beer at a bar! The rules aren't meant to be worked out by those on the counter, just followed. So the intelligent thing would be to say there seems to be a problem so I'll pay for the other groceries and see a Supervisor about the beer. You don't argue with the poor person on the counter and probably hold a line of people up with your botheration.
GWS….it wasn't me in the article I can understand the liquor rules in my sleep…it's company rules which have no relation to the sale of liquor act…its company policy – which is likely in breach of human rights discrimination in relation to age as there is no restriction on non alcoholic product sales. i repeat it wasn't me…but it is barking bloody mental to put age restriction on NON ALCOHOLIC BEER FFS!
Tories have had three years to put the question, in a referendum… which of these types of brexit do you want. It hasn't. It's not a democracy, when it's rule by stupid.
"When Green Party Ministers speak about matters outside their portfolios, they may speak as political party leaders or members of Parliament (MPs) rather than as Ministers, and do not necessarily represent the government position."
and NZ First
"As provided for in the Cabinet Manual and coalition agreement, the parties may decide to “agree to disagree” on some particular issues or policies where negotiated between the party leaders. In such circumstances, the parties may express alternative views publicly and in Parliament
Observer, it is misleading to cite a newspaper article under your own heading as that then seems to be what the Herald said in its article.
It would have been clearer and less misleading if you had stated your opinion that Jones was saying screw you to the PM and then linked using its own link.
No . None of your comments seem to be based on facts , instead this sort of fantatsy.
'Sack him, and call NZF's bluff. Election now? Labour-Green majority."
The other choice is National keeps its vote high as they 'seem stable' and NZ First gets back too and becomes the partner national doesnt have. They could even chose the Nats next year at the normal GE
Edit
Did Shane Jones say that observer? If not you are a stirrer and should not edit-in your own bad mouth sayings, we don't need loose lips round here shooting off their mouths! It’s you who is at fault not Jones.
If PM Ardern told him off that sounds reasonable – she has to put up with so much negative stuff it probably makes her cross when someone on her side adds something smelly to the soup always bubbling on the MSM cauldron.
"have committed to work together in coalition government in good faith and with no surprises, reflecting appropriate notice and consultation on important matters, including the ongoing development of policy."
Holiday snaps arent 'surprises' but may be oopsies
Our response to the out of control NZTA that the National Party "Mr Fix It Steven Joyce setup in 2008-9 as everything he did was a disaster.
CEAC accuses NZTA management of extravagance and calls Gov’t to reset NZTA. Monday, 14th October 2019, 12.50 pm. Press Release: Citizens Environmental Advocacy Centre
[As far as I can tell, this is another copy & paste job without link (e.g. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1910/S00141/ceac-accuses-nzta-management-of-extravagance.htm) and without quotation marks and again with sloppy or no formatting that makes it hard to read, which is not helped by the length because you decided to paste the whole text again and without adding a personal comment. You have been warned and warned and warned before. Take a week off and the bans will escalate for repeat offences – Incognito]
bwaghorn Thanks for that. Good direction from the Special Agricultural Trade Envoy Mike Petersen (and I give his title capital letters as it deserves.)
Peterson said “If people think this is being dreamed up by NZ politicians to get at NZ farmers then you need to think again.”
It is being driven by those who buy our food.
“Companies and consumers are driving climate change.
“We know governments are slow to react and are often behind the private sector and commercial drivers.”
Unless New Zealanders act sooner rather than later they run the risk of alienating affluent customers in the United States, Europe, Britain and here.
“This is more than just a movement.
But this made me smile. Talking about having your cake and eating it too. Government are slow and behind business in recognising the importance of various measures? More because farmers in positions of power are stone-walling them, and don't even know how to do that!
Farmers are now being presented with an image of themselves being bold and up with the play. Just as long as they do get on with what's been proved to be needed 'because companies and customers' demand it. Not because it is the sensible and right thing to do and what farmers do who love their land blah blah.
Looking at the proposed new road for the Manawatu Gorge, saw a 2018 piece on it and glanced at the comments below. I think they give a good example of the average NZ driver, complaining, fault-finding, all-knowing and wanting everything now. A really unpleasant tone, and possibly what NZ is at baseline when not putting on an act for the media.
Considering that in 2010 when the Gorge closed for some months and the new route option wasnt chosen by National , as they wanted to save the money for their RONS.
Thats over $200 mill spent on fixes , when the new route could have been built by now.
"So, I want to hear from the urban folk (of which I am one) as to where we are going to earn export income to pay for all of those items we use in our daily life (cars, trucks, buses, planes, computers, smart phones, pharmaceuticals, overseas travel, and so on) but for which we have no international competitive advantage, and which we do not produce ourselves."
It's a question that's based on a false dichotomy: either we're OK with intensification of farming that's destroying our waterways, increasing foreign ownership of NZ farms, business models predicated entirely on capital gain and the ability to externalise environmental costs to future generations etc, or NZ can't earn decent export income. Those aren't the only two choices.
We diversify industries that earn us export income.
We build a competitive advantage of quality for efficiency, rather than quantity for efficiency.
We favour truly efficient export industries, rather than subsidising them by having everyone (and every other industry) absorb the negative externalities without fault.
Lovely words….and the question remains…of what? and if we are so capable why arnt we already doing so….why do we rely on ag (and tourism) for over 50% of our export receipts?….in a trade balance that is permanently in deficit to the tune of billions per annum and has been for decades
Short answer is because for the last thirty years we deregulated the economy so much that the only industries that remained subsidised were the ones with unregulated negative externalities: shit in our waterways, cattle wallowing in mud, tourbuses everywhere, helicopters and cruise ships overloading our national parks.
But have a trained fabricator build a decent, asbestos-free rail coach in Dunedin? Oooo, fuck, that's government favouritism and anticompetitive.
and were we exporting asbestos free decent rail coaches prior to Roger's wet dream?
The question is valid because while we have to address the environment it needs to be done with foresight…so again,
"…where we are going to earn export income to pay for all of those items we use in our daily life (cars, trucks, buses, planes, computers, smart phones, pharmaceuticals, overseas travel, and so on)…."
We tended to build what we needed with NZ steel.
As for where the money comes from, it's not a simply "dollars in must equal dollars out" equation. The ways of international finance are mysterious to me, but your suggestion that we've had deficits for thirty years suggests a natural response of "so? The dollar value seems, if anything, a little bit high. If we've spent a generation throwing more NZD at people than they knew what to do with, shouldn't it be comparable to the Zimbabwe dollar?"
the coach question was rhetorical for we did not export railway wagons , not even ones containing asbestos.
Ask yourself why we have spent the post Douglas decades touting for FDI, selling residency and paying Japanese housewives above market rate interest if not to support the NZD….and then consider what will happen to that NZD should a good portion of that FDI need/choose to be repatriated due to 'events'
Should "events" happen, we will need to restructure our economic dependencies regardless of our exchange rate.
And again, FDI is the result of deregulation (and minimal enforcement of the regulations that remain). There's no big mystery here. US or Chinese investment funds buy NZ farms because they're highly profitasble because there are few rules against intensive farming and it was cheaper to pay the fines than to eliminate the runoff.
"The ways of international finance are mysterious to me, but your suggestion that we've had deficits for thirty years suggests a natural response of "so? The dollar value seems, if anything, a little bit high. If we've spent a generation throwing more NZD at people than they knew what to do with, shouldn't it be comparable to the Zimbabwe dollar?"
If anyone strays from the rose lined path for suitable exports and chosen countries to deal with, having radical ideas like Dr Sutch they will chase the rascal round and round the raspberry bush till he drops.
…if we are so capable why arnt we already doing so…
Why aren't the world's industries virtuously denying themselves the readily-available option of externalising environmental costs onto future generations, rather than bearing the full costs and the accompanying harder work for lower profitability? Again, is that a serious question?
What choices are open to agriculture other than over-stocking farms, externalising environmental costs to future generations and farming capital gain? Is that really a serious question?
I guess an implied argument was a bit much. The other choices are not overstocking farms, not externalising environmental costs onto future generations and not farming capital gain. The first and last of them should be pretty straightforward, since they were the norm in farming not that long ago. The second is more difficult, but can be started on in small chunks and worked through a bit at a time – there are already farmers doing that, after all.
agree that would be a partial solution and should therefore be being modelled , supported as necessary and (importantly) promoted ….is it being?…..Id suggest not.
Instead we appear to have endless increasingly polarised uninformed rhetoric instead of realistic proposals that have some chance of being adopted and succeeding…..and all that does is waste more time we dont have
My reference to Dr Sutch was passed over. In his time he was trying to see how we could increase our exports, diversify to have a balanced economy, one that was quick on the uptake and not just reliant on commodities and price-taking. There was talk about value-adding and diversification. But that was crushed when the Douglas troika invited in the Trojan horse of neoliberalism and free markets and dropped our trousers leaving us naked by abandoning quickly all our tariffs that underpinned our working economy that enabled the citizens of NZ to have a life. A sort of ‘wedgie’ that we still suffer effects from.
I did a simple business course and understanding the NZ economy was part of it. Our tutor alarmed me. He said that no country in the world had been able to become 'developed' relying on agriculture, food production. He thought we were only at the edge of being developed. What has happened since is that the wealthy here have used what leverage they had to manipulate the economy to apparently match developed countries level, by adopting free market systems bringing in cheaper goods that benefitted them including the importers, but changing distribution patterns for the citizens so the rest of us could moulder with mini wage rises, low inflation with low interest on secure investments, and at the bottom, be left to fester in confusion and poverty, under an overwhelming cloud of disdain and rejection.
Now only some citizens have a living wage, and the rest have to scrabble or worse, pay WINZ back for the money they have borrowed enabling them to live. There is probably a nice little graph showing pensions and average family living costs, with a shaded area in the middle where there is a deficit.
It has probably become a Treasury wall decoration showing how successful they have been in squeezing all the money efficiently from the lower income to ensure they get maximum work for minimum income to the lower strata of the country.
In Sutch's time we were looking at Russia to trade with; I think they were being sanctioned. We traded butter for Lardas, and conducted diplomatic discussions on our own behalf to allow this new market. We weren't tied down to rigid trade agreements with open borders inviting people to come in and buy the family silver. He was trying to find new avenues for trade, make changes, give us a wide base, turn the pyramid over so we weren't reliant on a narrow line of exports requiring large volumes to give the national income we needed. We have always been hungry for imported goods beyond the returns received from exports.
Our exchange rate is high for many reasons, one apparently being that we are stable and a good parking place for hot money in between one international entity's financial coup and another. And so much of what we have is for sale which keeps us under scrutiny and interest from the world. Australia mines its land, we are up to mining everything when National is in power.
And Labour can't yet get enough lackadaisical thinkers here to vote for them sufficient to be able to move with certainty and confidence of support. These new voters would have to apply themselves to understand the economy, and realise what damage present ways do to the country they profess to love; a great number of NZs are too comfortable and incurious to make the effort.
Sutch was before my time and I cant say I have read any of his work….something I should probably amend….but the 'added value' mantra has been promoted for all of my adult life ….to little effect.
The post was not necessarily to promote any specific policy but to encourage some discussion around the fact there can be no transformation without specific planning and pathways….and the absence of by the current gov
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
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 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
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So, Peter Jackson just demonstrated that a rich man can buy a city! If that doesn’t ring alarm bells throughout the country, I’m buggered if I know what will.
Labour and Jacinda are down in the latest Reid poll. National Party attack ads have appeared on large electronic bill boards in Christchurch and other cities, plugging away at a theme. There’s big money behind this National campaign, not just 1 Chinese = 2 Indians. This is a threat to our democracy, as real as the Trump fiasco in the US.
After all, Josef Goebbels, in a quote attributed to him, nailed it: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
Hence the narrative: National Government all good, Coalition government all bad.
Us baby boomers, comfortable smug pricks as most of us are, vote National. Milleniums and X, Y generations, with all the problems of the world to face, tend to vote left. The government should aim at policies which appeal to those on the left.
The Coalition should promise tax cuts – but aim them at the poorer parts of our society, to encourage them to vote (and vote left). Remove GST on fresh fruit and vegetables. That will have a real impact on those struggling, while the rich will hardly notice. More of the poor’s income is spent on food and survival.
Make the first $20,000 or so of income tax free. Again, the poor will benefit most and the well off will think it’s just an accounting error.
Frankly, this country cannot afford another National government – ever!
It will take time (and perhaps the absence of Winnie) for a Labor Greens coalition to make real changes to New Zealand – we must do everything we can to ensure a left wing victory in 2020.
PS. I’d like to see a crowd funded attack ad, appearing immediately after a National attack add on the electronic billboards, like this:
Woops – won't let me post pictures. The first one reads Caution: likelihood of National Party lies – extreme.
or this one:
Reads: Is that the truth, or something Simon Bridges says.
Both taken from comments on Siomuns Twitter pages.
I’d certainly contribute a few dollars.
Tax free $20000 yes, messing with GST no. There is no doubt in my mind that the 15% reduction would disappear in the first 3 months by the way of increased margins etc at the supermarket.
Or can someone convince me competition between Progressive and Foodstuffs will prevent that?
Yes, on this subject the right-wingers have a point. The government would be guaranteed to experience the lost tax revenue and increased admin costs of exempting fruit and veg from GST, but the customers would by no means be guaranteed lower prices for fruit and veg. I'd expect supermarket owners to put out press releases saying the increased complexity of dealing with GST meant increased costs for them so they were unable to pass savings on to their customers.
Grocery items are normally at price points which is why $2.99 etc is so common. Removing the GST just means they might drop for a while then find their way back to the old price point.
Another marketing trick Ive seen Pak N Save do is have a special for a week or more of 2 for $5 with the normal price of $2.69.
Yet when the special ends they have moved to a higher price , $2.99@.
Clearly its done to cover their tracks on rising prices as regular customers might think they have returned to old price
In the last decade or so owning a grocery store has become a ticket for the billionaire bus. Pak n Save, New World and 4 Square owners are only allowed to own 1 store at a time. Something is wrong when a grocery store owner has 60 million in the bank. Prolific wallet rapists.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/106288425/supermarket-owners-banking-super-profits-nbr-rich-list-shows
Tax free thresholds become money pits exploited by the well off who can redirect income and have dividend refunds to reduce their taxable income below a certain point.
Rebates are better, the old way when you had to file a tax return , which most people didnt do, to claim meant a lot missed out. But with the new IRD computerised system where they know all your income and can refund without a person taking action to claim a rebate.
The other way is through 'winter energy payments' ( a marketing name) to beneficiaries, which is a 6 months of increase, where you dont have to get on your knees to Winz.
Could never work out why some here were claiming Labour hasnt given beneficiaries anything
@Duke, because $20/week for 6 months ISN'T anything when it's been eaten up right away by the rent, or prescription costs, or anything other than the winter heating. Hardly what I'd call an increase in real terms to benefit levels. Then it goes away again and for the next 6 months things are just as bad.
@ duke..
''Could never work out why some here were claiming Labour hasnt given beneficiaries anything..'
well..seeing as that twenty dollar winter-pittance has ended..
we are back in the position of the key govts' basic increase of $20 per wk..
..being much more than has been done by this 'it's gonna be transforming!' labour government..
what in the basic mathematics of that are you apparantly finding so difficult to understand..?
or are you just spinning for them..again/still..?
The governments concerns are bigger that your own daily struggles. Just dont say 'we got nothing'
Indeed the 'families package' for low income families far exceeded the 'beneficiaries bump' ?
Did you miss out on that …Sad .
Tony Veitch (not etc)
That's really OTT. You know that Peter Jackson helped fund Andy whotsname with his run for Mayor. You don't know where other aspiring pollies got their money from! They have been upfront about it, unlike others, some of whom are very sneaky. Every aspiring pollie needs funding to pay for advertising and the extra costs involved with essentially working for democracy, as opposed to their everyday work to support themselves. If they get elected, then those costs are covered.
Even if they are wealthy they will get funding from others of their strata who have money to spare for someone who will advance in the direction envisaged by the donor, or at least replace someone insensitive to their needs.
Peter Jackson is a NZr who has built a business in NZ. A lot of previous NZ businesses have been sold off completely to overseas pension funds etc. Don't get shitty with Peter. You may think he has done things that means he deserves to be called a bastard – but he is our bastard who happens to work for NZ interests as a whole.
A wider view needs to be taken by people who have never made or built a big business in a new milieu. The Jacksons have exceeded other clever and successful businesspeople, and coped with the negative response from workers wanting more before the project was finalised and financially successful. Dealing with the financial giants in the world requires superman mind-muscles of steel. Just watch and learn.
The whole of NZ is just a project to the financiers, and we all need to be as wily as Jackson to gain any advantage from dealings with them. They are buying the country piecemeal at the present; what project have we in mind that will result from our enabling of this activity? Are we going to end up with a winning income-earner like Lord of the Rings films? I doubt it – we seem to be too small-minded and bent on getting feathers for our own nests while the whole environment changes in negative ways to limit our lives.
Birds are lucky to have bird-brains and not have the means to understand everything that goes on in the wide world. We are cursed with bigger brains, giving less response to the basic survival information we need to extract from our available vast inputs of information. We could at least aim at kea-intelligence: curious (questioning and thoughtful), inclined to dismantle machinery (recycling) and able to cope with a variety of climate conditions (flexible, wise and practical) which increasingly is our scenario.
Hear hear, well said.
Yes I agree.'greywarshark.
Is Climate change in his policy as I don't know what he stands for yet besides wanting more roads.
How Idiocracy comes about: when the untalented offspring of the wealthy and powerful are protected from downward mobility, then it damages us all. Because they clog up the positions at the top, preventing new actual talent from rising.
The rich have always been stupid.
I believe that the seeds of the intellectual decay of Individualistic Capitalism are to be found in an institution which is not in the least characteristic of itself, but which it took over from the social system of Feudalism which preceded it,—namely, the hereditary principle. The hereditary principle in the transmission of wealth and the control of business is the reason why the leadership of the Capitalist Cause is weak and stupid. It is too much dominated by third-generation men. Nothing will cause a social institution to decay with more certainty than its attachment to the hereditary principle. It is an illustration of this that by far the oldest of our institutions, the Church, is the one which has always kept itself free from the hereditary taint.
– Essays in Persuasion, John Maynard Keynes 1925
heh..!
elton john sez if he could be any woman – he'd be jacinda ardern..
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2019/10/sir-elton-john-says-if-he-could-be-any-woman-alive-he-d-be-jacinda-ardern.html
joining the dots – how long before the mortal danger is accepted and we sort out the people doing this to us – how long will we tolerate being destroyed? These 'people' should be in court and then jail imo
Why don't we clean up our drinking water quality in NZ?
As for using 'toxic Chlorine' in our municipal water supply is sadly the wrong move for public health and safety.
What about these clever non- toxic easy on the environment options instead?
• Ultraviolet Sterilisation. – https://www.purewater.co.nz/Online-Store/Ultraviolet-Sterilisation
• Hydrogen peroxide. (H2O2) – http://www.h2o2.com/files/DrinkingWater-Municipal-Tech-Bulletin-15-HR.pdf
Note the H2O2 is well researched and accepted system as shown in their scientific research technical bulletin attachment, and we lived for five years in Florida and they used H2O2 in their water supply and in public pools also in our area, and we never got any disease or complications from drinking that water.
..
http://www.h2o2.com/files/DrinkingWater-Municipal-Tech-Bulletin-15-HR.pdf
and H2O2 isnt toxic compared to NaOCl Sodium Hypochlorite ?
Where do you get that information
Chemist walks into a bar and says "give me an H2O", and receives a refreshing drink.
Economist beside him thinks "that's a nice cheap drink", says "give me an H2O too", and dies a horrible death.
Dukeofoul.
H2O2 (food grade HP) is used everywhere in many foodstuffs, particularity dairy products.
<What use of what in particular are you asking me for information exactly?
"
https://www.poison.org/articles/2012-jun/hydrogen-peroxide
Thats what I mean . You only have limited information or understanding
Mind telling us what you think is toxic about the chlorine-containing compounds used for water treatment when used in appropriate concentrations? After all, your body contains approximately 0.2% chlorine, and it's an essential element.
Hell, even the IARC doesn't have concerns about chlorinating water (in appropriate concentrations), and there aren't many substances that IARC doesn't have on its lists of possibly, probably and definitely causes cancer.
Andre I know you love chemicals so I choose not to engage with you on this.
It's like talking to a wall.
Can I ask why you never responded to me on the toxic result of "substitution reaction" please feel free to offer your option on this dangerous inter-reaction between the atoms in the original molecule of those elements you love?
Food grade ! hahahaha
You got nuthin? Just a bunch of sciencey scary words you don't really understand, but can put into a sentence that sounds scary to you and you think others should be scared by too?
Cleangreen is on garden leave for a week so keep your powder dry.
Ooops.
BTW, a while ago cleangreen more or less doxxed themself, and as a result I did a little looking into that organisation they're so fond of posting long unlinked unattributed press releases from. It appears to be entirely an astroturfing effort from cleangreen and family. So if I had to guess, I'd speculate those were indeed cleangreen's own words pasted here alongside a bunch of other places.
I think you are right and he is indeed astroturfing. Thank you for the tip-off.
The simple reason why chlorine is used is persistence.
Chlorine is typically added at the treatment plant at around 0.6 to 0.8 ppm depending on various factors such as temperature. From this point it while persist for about 3 – 6 days
By the the time it's reached your local reservoir about a day later it's dropped to about 0.4 ppm.
By the time it gets through the local distribution system to your taps it's usually less than 0.2ppm. But this minute amount is still sufficient to ensure the system remains sterile and safe.
And as Andre points out this is less than the concentration of Cl2 in your own body. Consider for instance that your stomach acid is essentially hydrochloric acid, HCl, potassium chloride KCl and salt, NaCl. Chlorine ions are everywhere, their highly dilute presence in drinking water is by itself absolutely not an issue.
There are two potential problems, both of which are well understood by the NZDWS authority. The big one is to ensure that organics (such as forest tannins )are removed from the water before chlorination at the plant. Otherwise a minute but non-zero quantity of organo-chlorides which are potential carcinogens will be produced. This only applies to plants that source their water from rivers with heavily forested catchments. This is well understood and tightly controlled for in all major city treatment plants.
I spent some of my life writing the complex software to that monitors and controls this process.
Overseas its is also reasonably common to sterilise with an alternative called chloramine, essentially the same thing but with ammonia molecules attached. It's common in the USA and Australia, but the NZDWS does not permit it's use as its chemical behaviour is less well understood and in my view at least, somewhat less desirable than pure chlorine.
The big limitation with UV and H2O2 sterilisation is that neither of them persist in the distribution system after the treatment plant. UV obviously has zero persistence and hydrogen peroxide breaks down spontaneously far too quickly.
The advent of safe drinking water (and waste disposal) on an industrial scale was one of the handful of major engineering advances that has most dramatically extended human life expectancy everywhere, and one of the key enablers of our modern economic and social world. Chlorination is one of the critical elements in that story.
NZ strikes the gong again! Radionz had a range of important news items this morning.
Concrete buildings – not reliable and safe. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018717563/widespread-defective-or-missing-concrete-or-reinforcing-steel-revealed
Electricity – Another own goal for Labour making improvements to help lower-income public which are unhelpful? – https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018717596/what-s-the-impact-of-scrapping-power-users-fixed-low-charge
Education – New measures on school donations not well defined. Integrating education and world relevance off-school experiences, school camps, under threat of being unsustainable. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018717597/school-principals-warning-over-confusing-donation-scheme
Health services – Example of young person not getting timely health services. A young woman died because not operated on quickly enough to stop a noticeably growing tumour from suffocating her. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018717568/coroner-rules-suffocation-death-could-have-been-prevented
Revelation of hidden callous nature of NZ government by not backing PM Ardern – https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/voices/audio/2018716927/two-mosque-attack-widows-plea-for-residency
Self-respect for NZ ethical worldview? Support for Kurdish – https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018717587/kurdish-community-protest-in-auckland
"Revelation of hidden callous nature of NZ government by not backing PM Ardern – "
No it isnt . The decision was made not to have a a new special category for relatives of those not in NZ at the time of the Mosque attack but to process them sympathetically by the ministerial discretion method. These widows would be a prime example.
Indeed, greywarshark. The Government plans to phase out the requirement for electricity companies to sell plans that offer a low fixed daily charge.
However, it's been reported about 60% of consumers are on such low-fixed charges. Bringing into question whether or not the Government's reform will actually lower their overall electricity costs?
It also brings into question the incentive for consumers to cut down on their power use via insulation, double glazing, solar power, etc.
Another rule in the reform will temporarily ban electricity companies from offering discounts to win back customers who have given notice they intend to switch suppliers. This restrains market competition while robbing consumers of playing companies off as a means of securing a better price.
Electricity companies will also be encouraged (under threat of regulation) to stop offering prompt payment discounts. However, we are yet to see if a lower price will eventuate from the removal of this current discount.
If the Government's reforms don't result in lowering power costs and in fact drives them up, it will piss off thousands of households thus will really hurt them (the Government) come next election. This is one they really need to get right.
Brexit –
BBC News has some info buttons and a long piece setting out various matters.
Brexit: 'Intense technical' talks between UK and EU in Brussels
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-50025931
In UK they are still slugging it out. Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn is still making his cautious way through the bog, and he and his Shadow Brexit Secretary have announced different thoughts on Brexit moves.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/13/jeremy-corbyn-rejects-idea-public-vote-boris-johnson-brexit-deal-second-referendum
Corbyn cautions against public vote on Johnson's Brexit deal
Labour leader says he would prefer to fight election before any second referendum is held.
Jeremy Corbyn has poured cold water on the idea that Labour could support an attempt to attach a referendum to Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal at next Saturday’s emergency sitting of parliament….
He [Corbyn] said he would instead be keen to see a Labour-style Brexit deal, including a customs union, and guarantees on workers’ rights and environmental standards, put to the public.
Corbyn’s comments appeared to put him at odds with the shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, who said in a speech in Glasgow on Saturday that Labour would press for any deal Johnson secures to be subject to a referendum.
“Next week our priorities are clear: if Boris Johnson does manage to negotiate a deal, then we will insist that it is put back to the people in a confirmatory vote,” Starmer said.
and
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018717598/crunch-week-for-brexit-and-scottish-independence-hopes-revived
European correspondent, Seamus Kearney joins Kathryn to talk about the critical week looming for Boris Johnson as he tries to get a Brexit deal done before an EU summit on Thursday and Friday. Amid the Brexit drama, the leader of the Scottish National Party says she'll make a request for a new referendum on independence "within weeks".
Anyone following what's happening with this?
https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/1182741569373462533
https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/1182741572770816002
No – but 'Accountable Capitalism' illustrates why Warren is a (thoroughly likeable) nerdy technocrat unable to escape the "mind-forged manacles" that limit her vision. What she suggests is good and will be bitterly opposed – but any change from BAU, no matter how minor, will be bitterly opposed. So you may as well go the whole hog and radically equalise the distribution of economic power – so that you are no longer having to continually police these disgusting swine.
I understand, but I assume she wants to get elected.
Subtle, understated, concise. Love it.
Something I aspire to. Doesn't happen very often 🙂
Except that you can't know a priori what constitutes something electable and what doesn't. Within certain limits anyway. Given that reality, " subtle, understated and concise" might simply be "smug, untested and condescending".
What can I say, I wasn't feeling smug or condescending when I wrote it. I agree with you that radically equalising power is what needs to happen.
It's also true that knowing what will win in any given election cannot be known absolutely. But likewise, theories about centre left parties/people going strongly left and winning are theories. I think it's reasonable to speculate on what might happen, but it's also reasonable to assume that Warren has a plan based on evidence and research and who she is as a person i.e. she might not be convincing or good at radically equalising power.
The may as well go strongly left argument is one of radical change not assuming power to make less radical change. I'm ok with either given the situation in the US.
What interested me about her tweets was that that plan does seem radical by US political standards but I haven't been following closely so I'm unclear if it's radical for her or fits easily within the other things she is doing.
OK – apologies. I mistook Andre's interpretation for your intention. Always a mistake.
No wonder she gets so few donations. Meanwhile Trump is getting donations greater than her and the rest of the dem candidates combined.
Overt power and control over free enterprise is off-putting to many in the capitalist loving USA. Yes there needs to be some reform in tax evasion but her ideas are scary. Next step from her ideas is nationalisation. IE communism.
She is also unelectable. Endless gaffs and her lies are like a ball and chain. First her American Indian claim, now her proven false claim of being fired for being pregnant. No thanks.
In the debates Trump will crush her, exposing her week personality.
I gotta know; did you keep a straight face while you wrote that?
Can I ask the same of you?
No I didn't have a straight face when I read it, thanks for asking. It was an actual laugh out loud from me.
Trump couldn't crush Warren in a debate if you gave him a running start and a hydraulic ram. He'll likely just follow her round like a creepy uncle, giving her the death stare and occasionally embarking on unhinged tirades about conspiracies and fake news. That's how the tangerine behemoth 'debates'. Rational thought and reasoned debate have never been long-term residents of Trumpland.
Don't forget the sniffs.
Facts don't necessarily decide debates though. Pocahontas is going to face an uphill battle taking on one of the canniest political operators of this time.
“Pocahontas”
You running with Trump attack lines now, maui?
Showing your true left credentials there 🙄
I'm left of the left… and in alignment with these 2 comments I found on youtube…
Supposed left wingers running Trump attack lines on the most left democratic candidate likely to get the Dem nomination, and admitting they'd vote four more years of Trump ahead of Warren because it's not Bernie or that one who polls 2%
Yeah, I stick, you're really showing your left credentials there, maui.
So you’ll be voting national in 2020 if you don’t get John Minto running the labour party? 🙄
I'm glad you bought up Minto…
3 years of communism followed by 3 years of enforced tithing to build the "Kingdom of Tamaki". Many great things could be achieved…
So you’ll be voting national in 2020 if you don’t get John Minto running the labour party?
Both are odious neoliberal parties of the centre, so no.
I just checked for you, and TRMPKN is still available if you want it as a personalised plate. May as well be loud and proud about being a trumpkin.
DRUMPF is too, but I'm trying to decide if I'm willing to pony up a G for it along with big plate surrounds that say "The sound a fat New York pigeon makes when it splats into a window"
You p.o.s. using that attempt to insult and shame – your opinion is worthless and a joke.
I'm also gobsmacked that you used the name Pocahontas in this way. Might want to rethink that mauī.
Liar.
At the time teachers were shown the door when they showed signs of being pregnant.
https://twitter.com/JennBinis/status/1181345486835466240
https://twitter.com/JennBinis/status/1181345486835466240
so yeah, you should re-read your comment and maybe tone it down on the 'liar' thing a bit. But then it goes hand in hand with the shitshows doctrine of accuse others of what you are guilty of. Right 🙂
Will all the actors in the great Brexit production be able to gather together and sing from the same songbook – I Did it My Way!?
Boris sings this one when looking in a mirror.
Linked version still brings a smile to my face to this day.
Thank goodness he can't sing like that. All the women would swoon over his beautiful voice, he would get away with anything.
Aren't these guys great – having their mock battle of the voices. So good, the lot of them.
I think the song for Boorish is Nessun Dorma – None Will Sleep isn't it? Dangerous to even shut your eyes for a moment while he is around, willing to pickpocket your society from your pocket while you're distracted.
Do you know the Giles cartoons? I think the public need to be like Grandma with her portmanteau with a padlock and chain on it, and her hefty umbrella with a parrot beak that would leave a dent on any pollie with thoughts of purloining the People's Purse.
Nessun Dorma ends with a bold prediction of victory 🙂
My favourite Giles cartoon was from the time of three mile island – grandma's sitting under a tree, and a kid has dropped a spanner out of the tree house. Someone is saying "if that spanner hits Grandma's head it'll cause more than a nuclear meltdown".
On the subject of Giles:
My favourite was when the Queen and Prince Phillip payed a State Visit to Italy where they visited the ancient Roman statues (male) with top hats hanging on their fundamentals in the interest of royal decorum.
lol I think I recall the one, yeah
and the amount of detail he put into some of the frames was amazing – always something happening in the background.
Yes there was always more than one humorous thread running through them. In the statue cartoon there were a bunch of 'spivvy' looking workers watching proceedings and an officious Italiano cop was gesticulating at them with the threat… don't you dare pinch da royal bottom.
Wouldn't get away with it these days.
Then there was the one where Grandma (in her black regalia) was mounting Westminster Abbey steps to attend Charles' and Di's wedding. The place was deserted and a couple of cops tried to tell her the wedding was at St. Pauls. She was having none of it – royal weddings were always at the Abbey – so she cast them aside and proceeded inside. Not even the cops dared mess with Grandma.
Cheeky Giles – Always aware of the social niceties that he could send up.
Another good one about Royalty is when a stableboy leads a herd of camels to the Household Cavalry yard with a note saying that a Royal Middle East person has donated these to Us and We wish you to look after them carefully, which leads to a state of shock. One is eating the hat of a horse attendant and another sneers superciliously at a barking corgi leaping around, with a yawning mouth ready to bite it in half.
One cannot applaud the behaviour of the ordinary people! Like going on a canal trip and the boys make a hole in the fence of the animal park and entice the tigers out to jump through a hoop while mop-head with the camera gets a shot. But the tiger has a glint in its eye as it looks at the small morsel in trousers.
And Grandma has had various things dropped from a great height ie bags of flour. But she is tough!
Then there is the newly married couple who are advised their best man has found them a quiet, covered private corner on the Heathrow concourse where there is a mass of other waiting hopeful travellers affected by a strike/bad weather.
Another one shows the same patient travellers, who have been entertained by a Punch and Judy show ad-libbing and a passenger asks the stewardess if the Captain can just wait a few minutes till they find out what is going to happen to Judy.
At Christmas time they all line up to decide whether to kill the turkey Sebastian that they have been fattening. Mother takes a vote whether it will live or die and everyone chickens out. So she sends the kids down to the dairy for dozen tins of spam.
They are wonderful bits of humour poking fun at everyone and good to look at when the world is bruising.
Odd comment
"leads a herd of camels to the Household Cavalry yard with a note saying that a Royal Middle East person has donated these to Us"
Middle Eastern persons are just as big horse buffs as the Royals, maybe bigger.
Have you never heard of Arabian horse breed?
Yes, you are repeating a old fashioned British stereotype of Arabs as being culturally unaware.
Do you have some stories from the Black and White Minstrels to regale us with too?
Some random thoughts on education and the new 'New Age' that we need to gear ourselves up for.
The idea of children remaining at school until well into first-stage maturity is now redundant I think. We need to be into the world earlier, all putting something in, and being able to take time out when appropriate for studying particular subjects for specialisation.
Being able to learn things throughout life, take time out to study something new, perhaps a one month course, every now and then, but also being expected to contribute time and skills to the community in some way throughout life. That would make us less of zombies, and the me-first generation.
First general education and life setting and experience as well as literacy, love of books and reading where imagination is ignited. Then the attraction of maths as a system, and how to work out heights and shade areas during different times of the year – useful for planning gardens and house positions. How to work out the number of rolls of wallpaper for a room making allowance for pattern repeat, or how many litres of paint, and what the different types are valuable for, priming, light or dark top coat. Useful stuff – that requires knowledge of chemistry, maths, and probably physics, colour effects, heat retention, etc. Gardening – the soil, mycrophiyllia? and the unseen community below ground – fascinating.
So secondary schools having everyone involved in understanding politics would be a good start. Primary could start with projects suggested and then participated in by the kids as part of their learning. Doing rather than being theoretical chair sitters, seeing the start of an idea, and learning about unintended consequences and problems.
wtf?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12276056
This has to be the most bloody idiotic thing I have seen in ages.
really..?
i envy you for the sheltered life you must lead..
and i must remember to stand well back when you find out about the inaction in response to global-warming..eh..?
that really puts the 'id' in idiotic…
whereas yr minor supermarket inconvenience – is just that..eh..?
[How does your ad hom relate to the article that Barfly linked to? What does it have to do with “the inaction in response to global-warming”? Are you a wind-up artist or do you want to engage with the topic started by another commenter? Take the rest of the day off – Incognito]
really..?
i envy you for your inability to think beyond your "hot button" issues what a limited life you must lead..
and i must remember that when engaging in anything other than what you deem unimportant to expect smart ass comments from you
that really puts the Phil in Philip Ure…
whereas yr sarcastic drivel – is just that..eh..?
See my Moderation note @ 1:45 PM.
Phil, I didn’t censor your reply. You were given the remainder of the day off and your comments automatically end up in Trash. Get over yourself.
You had better stick to getting your beer or non-beer at a bar! The rules aren't meant to be worked out by those on the counter, just followed. So the intelligent thing would be to say there seems to be a problem so I'll pay for the other groceries and see a Supervisor about the beer. You don't argue with the poor person on the counter and probably hold a line of people up with your botheration.
GWS….it wasn't me in the article I can understand the liquor rules in my sleep…it's company rules which have no relation to the sale of liquor act…its company policy – which is likely in breach of human rights discrimination in relation to age as there is no restriction on non alcoholic product sales. i repeat it wasn't me…but it is barking bloody mental to put age restriction on NON ALCOHOLIC BEER FFS!
Buy Ginger Beer next time 😉
I honestly don’t understand why some conflate your link with you in person!?
Ginger beer? Well dodgy, there are variants with alcohol in them…
Not in my supermarket.
Tories have had three years to put the question, in a referendum… which of these types of brexit do you want. It hasn't. It's not a democracy, when it's rule by stupid.
Shane Jones should be sacked:
Jones says "Screw you" to PM
The headline is misleading. He wasn't "spotted". It's not a mistake. He wanted the world to know. Specifically, NZF voters.
Violates "no surprises" and tries to make a fool of his boss. Serial offender, after many warnings.
Sack him, and if NZF protest, call a snap election.
Observer; maybe you want the entire Government also sacked?
Un-believable.
Can you tell me what is "unbelievable"?
Yes, I can work it out. A leads to B leads to C. It's not hard.
PM keeps giving Jones second, third, multiple chances. If the reason is "because election" she is going to keep being undermined.
Sack him, and call NZF's bluff. Election now? Labour-Green majority.
Do you think a year of looking weak is going to make Ardern look stronger?
The agreements between labour and its support parties allow 'private views' of ministers
eg Greens
"When Green Party Ministers speak about matters outside their portfolios, they may speak as political party leaders or members of Parliament (MPs) rather than as Ministers, and do not necessarily represent the government position."
and NZ First
"As provided for in the Cabinet Manual and coalition agreement, the parties may decide to “agree to disagree” on some particular issues or policies where negotiated between the party leaders. In such circumstances, the parties may express alternative views publicly and in Parliament
Observer, it is misleading to cite a newspaper article under your own heading as that then seems to be what the Herald said in its article.
It would have been clearer and less misleading if you had stated your opinion that Jones was saying screw you to the PM and then linked using its own link.
It would then have read somrhing like this.
"I believe Jones has given the finger so the PM. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12276364."
Using speech mrks around the words "screw you" also gives the impression that you werr quoting Jones.
He didn't say that. It's your interpretation of his actions, 'observer'.
Yes, that's the real issue here. My phrasing. FFS.
Are you OK with Jones' actions or not?
Did you not get past the $ paywall to this
"decisions that our Cabinet have made as to what types of arsenal are and are not legal is something I thoroughly agree with"
Did you not get past the word "updated"?
No . None of your comments seem to be based on facts , instead this sort of fantatsy.
'Sack him, and call NZF's bluff. Election now? Labour-Green majority."
The other choice is National keeps its vote high as they 'seem stable' and NZ First gets back too and becomes the partner national doesnt have. They could even chose the Nats next year at the normal GE
Edit
Did Shane Jones say that observer? If not you are a stirrer and should not edit-in your own bad mouth sayings, we don't need loose lips round here shooting off their mouths! It’s you who is at fault not Jones.
If PM Ardern told him off that sounds reasonable – she has to put up with so much negative stuff it probably makes her cross when someone on her side adds something smelly to the soup always bubbling on the MSM cauldron.
So a comment on the Standard riles you up but a Minister of the Crown doesn't.
Do you think the PM is OK with Jones' actions? It violates the "no surprises" agreement, it's brazen and boorish.
I suspect her view of her Minister will be much less indulgent than yours.
And at post-Cab PM gives Jones a clear serve – points out that Jones supports a ban on the weapons, and that has not changed.
Translation: Shane can grandstand but can't deny his votes on the legislation, which is what matters. Smart.
Cabinet manual on the Coalition agreements allow Ministers from non labour parties to have 'private views'
Nothing to do with 'no surprises ' , which is policy based .
Cabinet office Circular here
"have committed to work together in coalition government in good faith and with no surprises, reflecting appropriate notice and consultation on important matters, including the ongoing development of policy."
Holiday snaps arent 'surprises' but may be oopsies
But you know perfectly well what Jones is doing. Or if you don't, Jones certainly does.
It's not a mistake. It's a very unsubtle message.
And – at the very least – a crass and insensitive one.
I think you are just trolling him.
You may not have been aware of his comments behind the paywall of support 'wholeheartedly' of the NZ gun ban
You may not have been aware of the Cabinet office Circular that allows private views of non labour ministers including Greens and NZ First
You clearly had no idea of what political surprises meant.
Why do you continue digging a hole into the rock of facts
He doesn't appear to have murdered anyone obbytokki.
Our response to the out of control NZTA that the National Party "Mr Fix It Steven Joyce setup in 2008-9 as everything he did was a disaster.
CEAC accuses NZTA management of extravagance and calls Gov’t to reset NZTA. Monday, 14th October 2019, 12.50 pm. Press Release: Citizens Environmental Advocacy Centre
[deleted]
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1910/S00141/ceac-accuses-nzta-management-of-extravagance.htm
[As far as I can tell, this is another copy & paste job without link (e.g. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1910/S00141/ceac-accuses-nzta-management-of-extravagance.htm) and without quotation marks and again with sloppy or no formatting that makes it hard to read, which is not helped by the length because you decided to paste the whole text again and without adding a personal comment. You have been warned and warned and warned before. Take a week off and the bans will escalate for repeat offences – Incognito]
[long text replaced with a link – weka]
See my Moderation note @ 3:07 PM.
Sorry we doubled this by mistake.''Will be more careful in future apologies.
https://farmersweekly.co.nz/section/agribusiness/view/get-on-with-it
This is how you sell carbon reduction to the laggards.
bwaghorn Thanks for that. Good direction from the Special Agricultural Trade Envoy Mike Petersen (and I give his title capital letters as it deserves.)
Peterson said “If people think this is being dreamed up by NZ politicians to get at NZ farmers then you need to think again.”
It is being driven by those who buy our food.
“Companies and consumers are driving climate change.
“We know governments are slow to react and are often behind the private sector and commercial drivers.”
Unless New Zealanders act sooner rather than later they run the risk of alienating affluent customers in the United States, Europe, Britain and here.
“This is more than just a movement.
But this made me smile. Talking about having your cake and eating it too. Government are slow and behind business in recognising the importance of various measures? More because farmers in positions of power are stone-walling them, and don't even know how to do that!
Farmers are now being presented with an image of themselves being bold and up with the play. Just as long as they do get on with what's been proved to be needed 'because companies and customers' demand it. Not because it is the sensible and right thing to do and what farmers do who love their land blah blah.
Looking at the proposed new road for the Manawatu Gorge, saw a 2018 piece on it and glanced at the comments below. I think they give a good example of the average NZ driver, complaining, fault-finding, all-knowing and wanting everything now. A really unpleasant tone, and possibly what NZ is at baseline when not putting on an act for the media.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/105795271/virtual-flyover-of-manawat-gorge-replacement-route-released
Considering that in 2010 when the Gorge closed for some months and the new route option wasnt chosen by National , as they wanted to save the money for their RONS.
Thats over $200 mill spent on fixes , when the new route could have been built by now.
"So, I want to hear from the urban folk (of which I am one) as to where we are going to earn export income to pay for all of those items we use in our daily life (cars, trucks, buses, planes, computers, smart phones, pharmaceuticals, overseas travel, and so on) but for which we have no international competitive advantage, and which we do not produce ourselves."
https://www.interest.co.nz/rural-news/102105/agricultural-gdp-catches-well-under-one-quarter-agribusiness-system-such-it-fails
a fair enough question
It's a question that's based on a false dichotomy: either we're OK with intensification of farming that's destroying our waterways, increasing foreign ownership of NZ farms, business models predicated entirely on capital gain and the ability to externalise environmental costs to future generations etc, or NZ can't earn decent export income. Those aren't the only two choices.
and the other choices are…?
We diversify industries that earn us export income.
We build a competitive advantage of quality for efficiency, rather than quantity for efficiency.
We favour truly efficient export industries, rather than subsidising them by having everyone (and every other industry) absorb the negative externalities without fault.
Lovely words….and the question remains…of what? and if we are so capable why arnt we already doing so….why do we rely on ag (and tourism) for over 50% of our export receipts?….in a trade balance that is permanently in deficit to the tune of billions per annum and has been for decades
Short answer is because for the last thirty years we deregulated the economy so much that the only industries that remained subsidised were the ones with unregulated negative externalities: shit in our waterways, cattle wallowing in mud, tourbuses everywhere, helicopters and cruise ships overloading our national parks.
But have a trained fabricator build a decent, asbestos-free rail coach in Dunedin? Oooo, fuck, that's government favouritism and anticompetitive.
Besides there are 101 reasons why we should get China to manufacture it.
none of them good.
and were we exporting asbestos free decent rail coaches prior to Roger's wet dream?
The question is valid because while we have to address the environment it needs to be done with foresight…so again,
"…where we are going to earn export income to pay for all of those items we use in our daily life (cars, trucks, buses, planes, computers, smart phones, pharmaceuticals, overseas travel, and so on)…."
We tended to build what we needed with NZ steel.
As for where the money comes from, it's not a simply "dollars in must equal dollars out" equation. The ways of international finance are mysterious to me, but your suggestion that we've had deficits for thirty years suggests a natural response of "so? The dollar value seems, if anything, a little bit high. If we've spent a generation throwing more NZD at people than they knew what to do with, shouldn't it be comparable to the Zimbabwe dollar?"
the coach question was rhetorical for we did not export railway wagons , not even ones containing asbestos.
Ask yourself why we have spent the post Douglas decades touting for FDI, selling residency and paying Japanese housewives above market rate interest if not to support the NZD….and then consider what will happen to that NZD should a good portion of that FDI need/choose to be repatriated due to 'events'
Should "events" happen, we will need to restructure our economic dependencies regardless of our exchange rate.
And again, FDI is the result of deregulation (and minimal enforcement of the regulations that remain). There's no big mystery here. US or Chinese investment funds buy NZ farms because they're highly profitasble because there are few rules against intensive farming and it was cheaper to pay the fines than to eliminate the runoff.
"The ways of international finance are mysterious to me, but your suggestion that we've had deficits for thirty years suggests a natural response of "so? The dollar value seems, if anything, a little bit high. If we've spent a generation throwing more NZD at people than they knew what to do with, shouldn't it be comparable to the Zimbabwe dollar?"
If anyone strays from the rose lined path for suitable exports and chosen countries to deal with, having radical ideas like Dr Sutch they will chase the rascal round and round the raspberry bush till he drops.
…if we are so capable why arnt we already doing so…
Why aren't the world's industries virtuously denying themselves the readily-available option of externalising environmental costs onto future generations, rather than bearing the full costs and the accompanying harder work for lower profitability? Again, is that a serious question?
and the other choices are…?
What choices are open to agriculture other than over-stocking farms, externalising environmental costs to future generations and farming capital gain? Is that really a serious question?
so serious you appear incapable of addressing it
I guess an implied argument was a bit much. The other choices are not overstocking farms, not externalising environmental costs onto future generations and not farming capital gain. The first and last of them should be pretty straightforward, since they were the norm in farming not that long ago. The second is more difficult, but can be started on in small chunks and worked through a bit at a time – there are already farmers doing that, after all.
agree that would be a partial solution and should therefore be being modelled , supported as necessary and (importantly) promoted ….is it being?…..Id suggest not.
Instead we appear to have endless increasingly polarised uninformed rhetoric instead of realistic proposals that have some chance of being adopted and succeeding…..and all that does is waste more time we dont have
My reference to Dr Sutch was passed over. In his time he was trying to see how we could increase our exports, diversify to have a balanced economy, one that was quick on the uptake and not just reliant on commodities and price-taking. There was talk about value-adding and diversification. But that was crushed when the Douglas troika invited in the Trojan horse of neoliberalism and free markets and dropped our trousers leaving us naked by abandoning quickly all our tariffs that underpinned our working economy that enabled the citizens of NZ to have a life. A sort of ‘wedgie’ that we still suffer effects from.
I did a simple business course and understanding the NZ economy was part of it. Our tutor alarmed me. He said that no country in the world had been able to become 'developed' relying on agriculture, food production. He thought we were only at the edge of being developed. What has happened since is that the wealthy here have used what leverage they had to manipulate the economy to apparently match developed countries level, by adopting free market systems bringing in cheaper goods that benefitted them including the importers, but changing distribution patterns for the citizens so the rest of us could moulder with mini wage rises, low inflation with low interest on secure investments, and at the bottom, be left to fester in confusion and poverty, under an overwhelming cloud of disdain and rejection.
Now only some citizens have a living wage, and the rest have to scrabble or worse, pay WINZ back for the money they have borrowed enabling them to live. There is probably a nice little graph showing pensions and average family living costs, with a shaded area in the middle where there is a deficit.
It has probably become a Treasury wall decoration showing how successful they have been in squeezing all the money efficiently from the lower income to ensure they get maximum work for minimum income to the lower strata of the country.
In Sutch's time we were looking at Russia to trade with; I think they were being sanctioned. We traded butter for Lardas, and conducted diplomatic discussions on our own behalf to allow this new market. We weren't tied down to rigid trade agreements with open borders inviting people to come in and buy the family silver. He was trying to find new avenues for trade, make changes, give us a wide base, turn the pyramid over so we weren't reliant on a narrow line of exports requiring large volumes to give the national income we needed. We have always been hungry for imported goods beyond the returns received from exports.
Our exchange rate is high for many reasons, one apparently being that we are stable and a good parking place for hot money in between one international entity's financial coup and another. And so much of what we have is for sale which keeps us under scrutiny and interest from the world. Australia mines its land, we are up to mining everything when National is in power.
And Labour can't yet get enough lackadaisical thinkers here to vote for them sufficient to be able to move with certainty and confidence of support. These new voters would have to apply themselves to understand the economy, and realise what damage present ways do to the country they profess to love; a great number of NZs are too comfortable and incurious to make the effort.
Sutch was before my time and I cant say I have read any of his work….something I should probably amend….but the 'added value' mantra has been promoted for all of my adult life ….to little effect.
The post was not necessarily to promote any specific policy but to encourage some discussion around the fact there can be no transformation without specific planning and pathways….and the absence of by the current gov