Oh dear… red haired giants and Lovelock cave… them dang redheads….
Well hec,… Sasquatch ( Can , USA ) , Mahoe man ( NZ ) , Yowies ( Aus ) , Yetis (Himilaya’s ) and Yeren ( China ) … Mound Builders that the Smithonian’s do away with the bones cos it threatens Darwin …
Lets take a look at what our ancestors ( Homo sapiens ) had to deal with , shall we ?…
And reflect on what influence they may have had … in our modern world … and why we have so many problems with psychopathic rulers today…
Wild Katipo – take a gander at this !!! https://twitter.com/ZonePhysics
(scroll down to the image with this accompanying text:
“What you see is a myosin protein dragging an endorphin along a filament to the inner part of the brain’s parietal cortex which creates happiness. Happiness. You’re looking at happiness”
Just a little bit more for the case of an ancient remnant…. who may or may not have … ramifications for modern man…and his seemingly inability to plan rationally or do so with socially amiable outcomes…
I have listened to Stuff’s podcast ‘The District’. The District refers to the local area.
It looks at the death of a digger operator, who was retrieving a stuck tractor, with the aid of a bulldozer.
The official line is the victim was run over, other sources say he was crushed.
Anyhow, a tenacious sister has been investigating.
Things aren’t adding up, and in her enquiries she meets Des Thomas.
Des is youngest brother of Arthur Thomas, wrongly convicted twice of the homicide of Jeanette and Harvey Crewe.
Amongst other things revealed is a 22 calibre rifle, pushed barrel down into the mud in a dam. This gets handed to police, who cut the barrel into three pieces, making testing impossible. This rifle is found a few kilometres from where the murders took place.
The 2014 ‘review’ police held into the homicides, did not mention the rifle discovery, and seemed to just pile up more stuff casting doubt on Thomas’s innocence.
This affair, for me, was when the police lost their innocence and a lot of mana.
It occurs to me The District may also refer to how police are organised and have a more sinister implication.
Congratulations to Paula Penfold, Eugene Bingham and others for this piece of investigative journalism.
“Another instructive example is housing policy. The new government’s view was that New Zealand’s housing crisis (identified by John Key in 2007) required state-sponsored building of more houses. It is not an easy strategy to get under way, especially as the preceding government‘s approach was much more laissez faire. (In contrast, the First Labour Government’s housing program was grounded in work carried out by the preceding Minister of Finance, Gordon Coates.) Instructively, the Minister of Housing, Phil Twyford, has had to create a new government agency to implement his ambition.
Public understanding of the program has not been helped by the commentariat. Undoubtedly some of the uninformed critics are ideologically opposed to state intervention (and are as enamoured with Judith Collins, National’s spokesperson on housing, as some Labour supporters are with Jacinda Ardern) but most, I think, have been as unprepared for the change in policy direction as the public service, and default to the position they learned under National. They are not National aligned, but creatures of limited habit, repeating what they learned under Key.
The Minister of Health, David Clark, has faced a different problem. Whatever his analysis or ambitions, he has been overwhelmed by problems left from his National predecessor. (It is called ‘alligator country’; dealing with them means forgetting that the point is to drain the swamp.)”
That’s a good read and clearly shows the problem that is managerialism:
Following Enteman’s 1993 classic on Managerialism: The Emergence of a New Ideology,[5] American management experts Robert Locke and J C Spender see managerialism as an expression of a special group – management – that entrenches itself ruthlessly and systemically in an organization.[6] It deprives owners of decision-making power and workers of their ability to resist managerialism. In fact the rise of managerialism may in itself be a response to people’s resistance in society and more specifically to workers’ opposition against managerial regimes.
The rise of managerialism seems to have come along, hand in hand, with neo-liberalism.
Re Budget well-being measures introduced by Grant Robertson. Amy Adams said on TV Breakfast this morning …
“The country, the Government, has always measured these things and has always cared about how New Zealanders are doing. That’s the ultimate measure for any government.”…
Puckish Rogue has introduced the analogy of cricket and politics. I offer this mid-season review of the NCC.
Simon Bridges is a medium pacer whose stock ball is two feet outside leg stump. Yet to take a wicket, though he opens the bowling when on the field. As captain does not know when to remove himself from the attack. Has an awkward delivery style and often challenged by the umpire for appealing when the delivery is half way down the pitch.
Paula Bennett has been known to run herself out, deflecting the ball onto the stumps. Opens the bowling in Bridges’s absence. She likes to pack the catching cordon in hopes of a mis-hit but, like her understanding, most of her deliveries are returned straight back over her head.
Nick Smith has a full of effort and red-faced approach to the wicket but his deliveries are too short of any length. He has an earnest yet temperamental style and indeed is easily wound up into too many loose deliveries.
Michael Woodhouse is an earnest off-spinner with a dangerous straight ball that looks like it will drift away but demands bat and pad played close together.
Gerry Browning appeals often for LBW from his unsighted position at square leg but the umpire has learnt to wave away his vociferous appeals.
Mark Mitchell runs in a bristling fashion, and is all aggression, with many deliveries spearing in at the throat. Seen as a possible captain, but too many wide deliveries from this right-armer cause him to be of little threat but to his own team fielding in close catching positions.
Judith Collins has fulfilled the 12th man role on occasion and is seen as captain of the ‘B’ team. Her glare at a turned down appeal makes a 22 yard pitch seem far too short for safety. Her strike ball is a yorker designed to dent toes and reputations.
Jonathon Coleman is retiring soon. His steady nit-picking length and parsimonious style made him hard to score off. His legacy as the team medic meant that a new first aid room had to be built by his successors.
Fielding in the deep, Amy Adams, dislikes cyclists on the boundary near her eight favourite fielding positions. Her NOMBY stance (Not On My Boundary) has the lycra-clad in an uproar.
The former captain, Bill English, was gifted the leadership at a time when the former captain , John Key, was facing prospective defeat and charges of ball tampering.
Club treasurer, Stephen Joyce, thought he had detected a hole in the opposition’s score card with an extra 11 runs short but when even the friendly media saw the error in his accounting, his attempt failed.
The search for a wicket-keeper is still being conducted, as no-one with a safe pair of hands can be found.
Allegations of bullying in the dressing room, tantrums, hair-pulling, match-fixing, dodgy donations to the beer fund, and unflattering references to the ethnic origins of fellow team members plague the team.
Best estimates are that the NCC (National Cricket Club) will return to near winning form in about another decade.
No. Do they get finished with polyurethane? Watching Pucky’s video I got the impression they’d be polished by getting rubbed in a player’s crotch like the balls, or something else equally bizarre.
Thanks Mac1. Just to add:
Current head coach, Lynton Crosby, has managed successful teams in Australia and England often using identical methods and messaging (“brighter future”). However while his methods have produced spectacular short-term successes, the long-term results are starting to look disappointing. Many attribute this to the complete moral vacuum that is the centrepiece of his approach. The aggressive self-interested accumulation of runs (and cash) has been very effective when focused outward on the opposition and society at large, but has shown a tendency to turn inwards and foment disloyalty.
Thanks, AB. I said they’ll get near winning form in a decade but now it’s “whining form” as blame and whingeing replace the formerly moderate and relatively decent values of the old National Party, the one that Winston Peters knew.
As Australian cricket has shown, if you lose your best three batsmen the brittleness shows.
Politics and cricket are about many of the same things. Attack and defence. Team spirit. Team cooperation. Batting for the team. Long practice and preparation. Team selection. Captaincy. Coaching. Competitive but fair-minded play. Respect for the opposition. Fickle fans. Media interest. Magic moments. Short sound bites. Weather. Hours of play. Touring. PR. The public. Balanced teams. Good support staff. Even playing fields. Prepared pitches.
The downsides are the same. Match fixing, cronyism, favouritism, factionalism, imbalance, poor administration, egotism, social climbing, inequality of opportunity and resources, sledging, disrespect in all its forms of racism, mysogyny, class, education, ethnicity.
Cricket is great preparation for life. A sport where both individual and team performances matter, where dedication and skill matter, where disappointment and unfairness in luck and in decisions, perceived or real, have to be dealt with.
My personal favorite because it demonstrates putting aside ones own ego to get the best out of people, how to manage egos effectively and how to work together to achieve your goals (when you probably want to throttle each other)
Richard Hadlee v Jeremy Coney II – Shuttle diplomacy, 1986-87
John Wright said he felt like renowned American diplomat Henry Kissinger delivering requests and instructions from Coney at slip to Hadlee the bowler during the third test against the West Indies in Christchurch. The pair had a falling out after a Hadlee Truth newspaper column criticised the New Zealand team’s alleged sloppy practice habits and tardy attitude. Coney believed such remarks should have stayed within the team.
As veteran journalist Don Cameron recalled on cricinfo.com: “Hadlee was not impressed with his short opening spell, so took himself off, and Wright had to pass the information to Coney. But the team recovered from the drama. Hadlee returned to take six for 50 – three of them from Coney slip catches – and the New Zealanders’ mood improved, if not completely, by the fact they won the test by five wickets.” Wright concluded the pair must have resolved their differences because he couldn’t remember telling Hadlee “the captain says ‘well bowled”‘.
Woodhouse is also gaining a reputation for ‘sledging’, albeit in sophisticated style but with fuck all substance, in the hope pomposity and various angles of attack will eventually see a wicket fall.
And Chris is happier to just watch from the sidelines and offer moral support for the tactics employed like a dutiful little school boy, while Gerry is still slicing the oranges and contemplating the wicket (if he can find it) also from the sidelines.
Gerry and Chris are also busy discussing the technicalities – with Chris as the expert, and Gerry mulling over the best means of delivery.
Soimon is wondering whether it’s all worth it and whether or not a bit of fixing might not be in order. He’s got JK on speed dial.
Thanks, gsays. What of interest also are those inside the park.
Village cricket eccentrics found here on the Standard.
The little mascot brought by the blonde lady with the big glasses that bounds yapping onto the field wanting to chase the ball but runs back to its mistress to be fed little tit bits and bark at passers-by?
The adolescent in mid-puberty on the bank who knows nothing about cricket but annoys the adults around him asking questions all the time which he thinks will show how knowledgeable he is, always commenting but never able to discuss?
The boy with the score book annotating every run and keeping statistics?
The grumpy Yorkshireman who asserts that the only true cricket is played in LeEDs?
The groundsman who likes to bring out the heavy roller when faced with spectators who don’t keep the ground rules and who deals with pitch invaders the same way.
The green-keeper whose uses horse manure and a scythe to maintain lawn order and never is asked what’s growing in the green house…..
Mac 1 This is classic.
Here’s to the Coalition Cricket Club winning the next 3 tests.
My cricket loving husband laughed out loud. Hearing me chuckling away, he wanted in on the joke. An enjoyable read, and yes a reflection of life.
N says “The National Cricket team doesn’t do well on a sticky wicket”.
Wallace Chapman will be taking over “The Panel” from Jan.14 next year. I expect there will be some refreshing newcomers in the line up of guests. Might start listening again.
Guyon is leaving Morning Report to do more long-term field work. I think that has been a big part of his problem. He doesn’t like being cooped up in a studio and takes it out on his guests – especially those on the left.
Mora I want no more of. Sunday morning reflected Wallace Chapman’s thoughtful, ethical and religious background. Mora is just the thinking man’s Mike Hosking. So no more of him, I don’t want Sunday morning dumbed down by Mora’s interests and tendencies.
It is interesting how people in Radionz have their favourites –
Mora and Noelle McCarthy for instance. Jim has an aura of sanctity about him after he became front man for a garden and hardware franchise which funded the projects undertaken in doing up worthy peoples’ gardens. McCarthy has tried to widen her approach but would be best for what to do in the holidays, and why working women are so stressed, and do teeth whiteners harm your teeth and leave you toothless in old age, and of course a biggie subject, how old can you live with new scientific findings and drugs being developed.
Are there other people who have done nationally recognised things regarded positively, and who broadcasts well that people could think of as alternative to Mora? People with huge interests, who can be incisive, light-hearted, querulous at times, interesting always, chat with others and bring out their interesting thoughts and reactions. And don’t mention Kim Hill, I am looking for someone of the same calibre who would be 40-50. I don’t know if Bryan Crump would like a change but he is so good on nights and I think very popular there. What about one of the two who take over Radionz on holiday afternoons and are a bit crazy, they are wide-ranging and presumably have strong interests about people being wonderful and creative around the world.
Very sorry to hear Guyon Espiner leaving the show.
He has taken te reo seriously and it’s been awesome.
Personally I think RNZ morning report has been far too soft on this government, except for the sustained reporting on NZTA’s failing regulatory arm, which in no small part brought down the Chief Executive.
RNZ reporting also led directly to the Ministry of Transport investigation directed by the Minister that will blow NZTA out of the water when it reports back to Parliament in late March 2019. No one else really gave a damn about it, but Morning Report was consistently at it over months.
The very bad news is that Mora will be doing Sunday morning – but there’s a silver lining: The sleep-in and the Sunday Market at Te Papa.
I might even go have a healthy breakfast at a Subway somewhere.
Actually there’s even MORE good news. My idol (Kim) has come out unscathed and it appears she’ll continue on a Saturday – and maybe (fingers crossed) as the Clingon’s replacement on Morning Report until a replacement is found.
Hopefully the replacement is an escaped Okker called Alex
By the way @ VV. I thought of you and @ Anne as I was perusing this virtual ‘space’ going forward.
There’s a thing on PUNDIT by Brian Easton, and it sums things up nicely re our Public Service and the state it’s in but it’s a good analysis.
I think there are one or two things that he’s being a fucking sight more charitable than I would have been – to do with culture and the effects of the career-minded generic manager.
The longer term effects of that don’t seem to have been answered adequately in my opinion.
Have a read when you get time and let us all know what you think.
And when you do, think of the record of the past 10 or so years – especially in relation to Ministries, departments and agencies like NZTA, WINZ, Housing COrp, Health, ALL that comprises the Ministry for EVERTHING (from radio frequencies and interferance, to ripped off employees to immigrants to shitty steel FFS, and a lot more).
I read a couple of PEBs! They just fucking STUNNED me.
Will do, OWT. Won’t be today as I am a bit tired. Have done quite a bit of going down rabbit holes over the last week to do with a subject I have commented on here quite a bit. But have had to be selective in what I say. Still a bit more rabbit holing to do but need a break and to get some housework, shopping etc done pre-weekend.
Hi OWT.
Read the article. It’s spot on. One minor correction. Easton talks about “generic managers” as though it is a relatively recent phenomenon. It’s not. I worked for a smallish specialist department which came under the umbrella of ‘Transport’ in the 1980s. It was one of the first to be restructured under the direction of the then minister, Richard Prebble.
Out the door went the dedicated management who had devoted their lives to the specialist skills required, and in came the careerist, generic managers who had little to no knowledge of the subject matter in hand.
The first thing they did was embark on a cost cutting exercise which saw a large number of field stations close. This made it difficult for the specialists to do their job properly and the department came perilously close to falling apart. What saved it in the end was the incoming Bolger government who turfed out the ‘new management’ and replaced with people who had knowledge of the specialist skills involved. At the same time it became an SOE which, in this case, was the best thing to have happened.
In Easton’s words:
How to address the problem? Clearly there needs to be a discounting of the significance of generic managers in appointment assessments and a higher priority for those who are fit-for-purpose with the particular skills the department needs.
And that sums up the fundamental problem of today’s Public Service.
/agreed @Anne that there’s always been a problem.
However 30 or so years of neo-liberalism, a culture that places bean-counting over public service and welfare has compounded the problems, and this is especially evident over the past 10 years or so.
Coalition Ministers publicly appear to have “confidence in their officials”. When you read some of those “pathetic PEBs” (as Easton calls them), you have to wonder whether some Ministers are bloody masochists who might as well be saying “beat me, beat me!”
One of the few things I had to agree with Mathew Hooton on was when I heard him say that the bureacrats had a vested interest in preserving the status quo (On Nine to Noon from memory) – and that status quo was at the upper echelon’s preoccupation of career advancement/salary increase/impressive CV that exists – and of course that culture affects/denigrates the subordinates who generally do most of the hard yards. Most of our Ministries/Departments/Agencies have become the CEO/Snr Managment’s little feifdom where they can take credit for any successes whilst blaming the peons for any failings.
As we’ve seen, especially over the past decade, there is very little accountability. The recent NZTA debacle is about the only example I can think of where someone has fallen on their sword – it might not even be the right person who has done so.
I actually pity the new CEO of MBIE a tiny, tiny bit- what a poison chalice to have inherited. But you could pick any number of these departments/agencies/ministries to do with health, social welfare, education, etc. etc. etc.
Shouldn’t have got me started ;p.
There is a glimmer of hope in Chippie’s proposal for reform and Jacinda’s wish for a ‘kinder’ approach, but I doubt reforms will go far enough. In some cases there needs to be a complete rout.
Oh, and by the way – look how long the NZTA shit went on.
But again on a brighter note – look what happens when we get things right – with an agency that isn’t all about bean counting, managerialism and the things Easton is critical of. The Pike River Mine re-entry people – if ever there was something that might succeed in its intent, this is it.
nzherald should interview the RWs here if they are looking for bum-biters. There are some really rabid Opposition supporters here; we have a nice selection NZHerald, one of these would be excellent for your purposes.
Maybe he could catch her calling her ministers effing useless and selling electorate seats for cash, particularly the Chinese ones, Indian ones, not so valuable. Oh wait, that’s already happened, but not to her.
Except National DID do THAT, and Labour HASN’T done THIS. You’re just wishing they have and casting innuendo based on nothing but desperate blue barking at cars. Come back when you have proof not innuendo.
No wonder they went bust, their recruitment style sounds like the government recruiting Handley. Professional tech people won’t go for jobs and companies and their time wasted by a bunch of idiots who don’t understand tech and over compensate by ridiculous recruitment measures…
“Appster’s gruelling 22-hour job interview, featuring eight stages, four interviews, up to 10 reference checks and even a body language assessment.’
(wonder if it takes over 6 months like marketing, Handley’s non recruitment of a role he had never done before, but was deemed the best candidate as presumably being qualified does not count as much as a good video?)
You also generally find that firms that have ridiculous recruitment methods and interviewers who are in marketing, also like to under pay. Only most desperate or with visa issues, left standing?
“Bandara, who started his firm in 2010, blamed Appster’s demise on “unsustainable growth” and said the founders came from “marketing backgrounds”.
“When you are a tech business just marketing is not enough, you have to have that management and technical background to be successful,” he said.”
Marketing people learn from the first that what a successful salesperson aims to do and achieves is selling yourself and your ideas. You have to believe in your product completely.
Not much ability to assess anything dispassionately there, even week-long interviews wouldn’t help them. The marketers and PRs are perfect people to introduce the robotised society to us, practically mindless. They ought to get a program to do the people checking for them, it would produce a short-list in a morning, with recommendations and the basis for these, indicating the strong and weak points of each candidate.
Nice long piece from The Age showing all the different Five Eyes intelligence security leaders working together against 5G risks. Usefully pulls quotes from a variety of security agency leaders into a cooperative narrative:
What a lovely bit of boys own or even Enid Blightons Famous Five. Such a fabulous lot those five eyes lads and lasses. Especially that lovely Gina Haspel. She has worked so tirelessly to make us all safe…
The real story is that China has leapt ahead in this transformational technology and the west can only catch up by seriosly delaying their rollout. Capitalism always runs up against other expansionist states when all its internal contradictions become apparent. For one the free market level playing field is only for when you are winning.
With the Government’s cap on spending coupled with their targeted debt to GDP ratio, it’s difficult to expect too much from their Well-being budget.
While it will help reshuffle expenditure, it won’t lead to more net spending overall, which is largely required to get the country back on track. It’s just more tinkering around the edges.
With John Kelly exiting, Agent Drumpfski needs a new chief of staff. But the pool of people interested in getting a cheeto-tinged skidmark smeared down their CV has got very small. So apparently the Kush-kiddy wants a crack at it.
Personally, I’m rooting for Chris Christie to get the job. Given he put the Kush-daddy in the slammer, it would add a fascinating new dynamic to the reality show.
Young people are into instant gratification and don’t want to go through due process and restrain themselves so they don’t care about the restrainsts of the law and why they aid good process.
If Ms Millane had been careful and checked out this guy that she apparently met through an App, which would have required a wary and closer inspection and longer introduction amongst her peers, this might have been avoided. But Apps cater for instant gratification, everything must be fast and that service, accepted like an innocent child completely trustingly without sensible safety concerns, cocoons a person from the real world of bad events and sad disasters happening all the time.
And did she do something or say something to trigger him to violence?
And was she drunk?
And any of the other forms of victim blaming ….
I cannot believe the lack of awareness of some people especially as you said after all the recent discussion – but then in the case of one or two here I can.
The beige blog also has some interesting reading in that regard today. I see Casual Jacket is back here today, possibly as a result of the responses to some of his comments there ….
Oh sorry every woman is a queen and all the ills and bads of the world bow down to her and give her safe passage. In your dreams. Women in the early 20th century had more go and pluck and nous than today’s easy-riders going forward on the back of the hard work put in by fighters for the right of women to have autonomy. Well women have got it, but modern lasses can’t handle it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWSx0bBiNIs
Oh get real Sacha. Women have always had to be careful about whom they consort and comport with. The recent discussion is a bunch of wet-eyed soppy people who have chosen to get really emotional about someone who had everything in life, except a an understanding of how to care for her own safety. It’s a pity that the women-lovers who carry on about the pick of the month, can’t stretch out their compassion and concern to all the other women in NZ who are doing it hard. I guess they are the wrong class or something.
Complete sop. There is no reason he should have been given name suppression in the first place and just got it on a technicality. If our justice system is so fragile that someone over in the never never may know his name? They just need to be careful in the jury selection that none of them got his name before hand. No doubt it will be public knowledge shortly anyway so a few weeks makes zero difference to his case.
His name is certainly not wide spread knowledge like if his name was printed in the paper or he was on NZ TV news. just goes to show some of our justice rules are not fit for purpose anymore if this type of scaremongering has validity.
If he has any decency he will spare the family a trial.
Agree. UK news pisses me off. A simple search online and the details are right there.
Hope they get pawned in court. NZ law may not apply in the UK BUT the fact is their actions have a predictable ripple effect causing the name disclosed here.
How would knowing his name affect someone’s ability to do the jury thing? Is name suppression ever granted to enable a fair trial? Isn’t it usually to protect family members?
The Dorian Gray Husk writes approvingly of the way the coalition government has forecasts of rising budget surpluses for the post 2020 period – falling debt and unable to spend more than 30% of GDP. The Husk can see, this along with National ending the $1B pa first year free year tertiary spending and cancelling the free second year the potential for National to offer a really big tax cut in their 2020 election manifesto.
The right wing media was very favourable to Roger Douglas back in the day (of course he actually delivered a really big tax on the high income earners and then decided against any CGT as part of a balanced package – which began the trend towards larger new builds and a substantial rise in property values in the more desirable areas).
With over $1.2tn going through the financial markets every year, a financial transaction tax of 1% will give the govt an income of $120bn a year.
The current raft of taxes generates just $85bn a year.
It is not hard to see that scrapping all forms of taxes and implementing an FTT of 1% will let to higher govt revenue and more money for consumers to spend as they see fit.
“has always cared about how New Zealanders are doing. That’s the ultimate measure for any government.”…”
Trouble is the meaning of the word ‘measure’. How to measure, and what? You need good, appropriate statistics, counting, to do that ‘measure’ properly, not just choose a sample that shows the government in the best light (an 8 watt bulb). A government that celebrates individualism, and then takes stats that ignore how individuals are doing and doesn’t report on each spectrum of the nation’s pie, isn’t giving measure for measure.
That is using statistics fraudulently Ms Adams, and that is how exteme poverty can be unnoticed by those Nationals celebrating a rock-star economy. Gnat ministers would likely say, “Don’t tell me about it in your report, I don’t want to know that!”
On Google, Measure for Measure shows up a promotion for Nottingham actors – this sounds a good rollicking Shakespearean play that National gals and guys would enjoy!
Measure for Measure – Pop-up Globe https://popupglobe.co.nz/shows/measure-for-measure/
Measure for Measure – a searing expose of sexual exploitation and abuse of power presented in a timely and provocative production.
Oh for true measure for measure for the National Party. What does the title Measure for Measure mean?
of Measure for Measure: “Its temper is ironic as its title: ‘Measure,’ as there used. is a judicial term for the measuring out of justice; hence the title means, ‘justice for justice.’ But Angelo does not receive measure for measure, an eye for. an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Measure for Measure: The Significance of the Title – jstor https://www.jstor.org/stable/2866753
Test
Please note – that though I have got the Test word onto the post, I have had four tries at sending my comment on Amy Adams quote in No.5, it has not shown up. Where has it gone? Is something putting it into spam? This is another test to see what triggers rejection.
A resident in southwest China’s Guizhou Province has been planting trees on a barren mountain for more than 30 years on end, without cutting a single tree for profit. He has, together with his wife, planted 76.67 hectares of trees since 1985.
Amazing determination in Mongolia Save NZ. We in great old NZ have so many labour saving devices and yet it an up hill battle to get heaps planted and of course it is against bluddy minded Opposition who oppose planting because …? Wonder why?
What has Simon got against trees.
Not just the Natz hatred of trees here, the councils and transport agencies are also major tree haters and can’t wait to destroy trees at any opportunity.
Even nicer story for the weekend where we are trying to run a post to be an archive with ideas for helping a better environmental future for us all. The last one was called The Future Is… but it may change title. Everyone please visit and put up something helpful and interesting and links to save etc.
savenz I copies it and put it over in the post as it is just the sort of story that we want to get on record with link. Thanks.
We are in a boat off Fraser Island down wind from you. Forecast is now for TC Owen to fizzle out before it gets here. Summer in Oz is always a little crazy!
Get them on camera so you can have fond memories! Sometimes dull is good eh.
Interesting location very far north. Is there anything you have heard of interesting going on in the environment field up there? We are gathering ideas and putting on post on how to conserve water for droughts, fresh water, tree planting to bring shade and stop erosion etc.
The Australian government need’s to heed to the call of the people and plan to stop burning coal in the prosess they will be drowning thee neighbor all the Pacific Island are in great danger of sea level rise. Australia is a cause of refugee and there solution is to lock the people in cages on a Island . Its not all doom and gloom as it looks like a new government next year in Australia .
The call from 15 small Pacific island states came one day after the Australian government called for expressions of interest in new power generation projects, indicating it would be prepared to use taxpayer money to underwrite new coal plants.
Leaders warned Australia’s relations in the Pacific were being eroded by a perceived intransigence in Canberra over coalmining.
As the COP24 UN climate talks in Poland remained stalled over an unwillingness from major emitters to commit to further carbon emissions cuts, frustrated Pacific states, traditional allies of Australia, said the world must abandon coal-powered energy generation.
Australia’s carbon emissions highest on record, data shows
Read more
The Fijian prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, the outgoing president of COP23, said: “We call on all OECD countries to quickly phase out their use of coal by 2030 and for all other countries to phase out their use of coal by 2040. There must be no expansion of existing coal mines or the creation of new mines.”
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Australia and the US have both this week said publicly they have no plans to begin phasing out coal-generated power. Ka kite ano
NZ business are the biggest beneficiaries of NZ
John is being politically correct and polite in his story about Aotearoa inequality and how the uber rich made there riches .
I say they made there money by back room deals trading information they were ultimately taking from the people of Aotearoa cheating in my words hence my dislike of dilly joyce and his associates . Eco Maori say that the NZ benefit system is a direct subside to all the business in NZ and hence any poor people with out these benefit are struggling the young and the old in Aotearoa . There’s a global conversation raging over the massive growth in inequality and poverty. At home, that conversation is being led by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who has seized on this agenda. Part of that national conversation is under way, via the Child Poverty Bill presently before Parliament.
It is sobering to reflect on New Zealand and what the once great promise of an egalitarian society has finally come to look like and represent. It has all happened in the last 30 years.
Many of the Kiwi folk who make up our rich list did not make their money simply by being sharp and clever innovators or entrepreneurs.
The richest man in New Zealand, Graeme Hart, gained his boarding pass to becoming the country’s richest man in some respects by being in the right place at the right time when the New Zealand Printing Office was privatised. We all know the story of the merchant bankers Michael Fay and David Richwhite, and one-time transport tycoons Alan Gibbs and Trevor Farmer, who made their money in part by being well positioned around deregulation — therefore privatisation.
Even the recently retired National Party politician Steven Joyce made his money before politics out of privatised radio bandwidths which were previously owned in the Government estate. Ana to kai Ka kite ano Links below. P.S I hope you get it no benefits min wage would be $25 a hour I don’t mean to scrap all benefits just a correction
The sandflys are commiting the same offenses against me the bank staff are blinded by there shiny badges shonky has given them to much power and they are flouting it .Eco Maori is going to WIN in the end
New Zealand’s Security and Intelligence Service (NZSIS) has been found to be “very intrusive” in some of its requests to banks for customers’ information.
Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Cheryl Gwyn appears before the select committee.
Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Cheryl Gwyn RNZ / Diego Opatowski
The spy agency watchdog, Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Cheryl Gwyn, has released a report on a three month assessment of the service’s policy and practices of acquiring personal information from banks.
She found that despite using voluntary disclosure requests, rather than getting official warrants to obtain the information, the voluntary aspect wasn’t always made clear.
“Some of the past collection by the NZSIS would have constituted unreasonable searches contrary to the Bill of Rights,” Ms Gwyn said.
The law was changed last year with the enactment of the Intelligence and Security Act 2017, which has resolved some of the issues identified, she said. Ka kite ano links below.
Here is why health cost are so enormously expensive in America some people buy smaller drug companies change the name of the drugs and hike the prices of the health drugs by 5000% hence millions of people in America can not afford health care .
We must never let ANYONE stop Aotearoa Pharma if we do the mutuality national neo liberals capitalist will drain Aotearoa of money. PURE GREED. Ana to kai ka kite ano links below
This is a video for the above post I could not get any storys on Valeant any were else except youtube ka pai youtube ka kite ano P.S YOU NEED TO watch Dirty Money on NetFlix
I seen this person on Tv a few months back and I DID NOT like what I saw I got the same feeling when I seen him on the Millane case but out of respect for Millane whano I held my words back than the gods have answered my concerns when I found this story on News Room website
Detective Inspector Scott Beard’s handling of the Millane case touched some New Zealanders and the Millane family, and has won praise from colleagues and politicians, but he has been working under internal scrutiny after Auckland Area Commander Gary Davey investigated four allegations against him pre-dating the Millane case – and upheld them.
Davey had been asked by Police Commissioner Mike Bush to inquire into a complaint against Beard. The four counts include sharing confidential police information of a sensitive nature, breaching the confidentiality of his team members and supervisors, breaching the privacy of a victim’s parent, and separately selling or supplying alcohol at his Hibiscus Coast Football Club. Ana to kai ka kite ano link below
Kia ora Newshub there are a lot of fool about poisoning those pohutukawa trees they take at least 50 years to get to the size of the ones poisoned up North.
I seen a story on this sight TSD about the J&J talcom baby powder there was a lady who died of cancer she put it on everyday capitalism at its best No.
Good on the young fella for being so industrious and selling his services to preforming a haka.
Shakira one can not hid anything now days just pay your tax’s to your country.
That good a good story White Stone cheese winning a prize in France that is what we should be doing with a lot of our foods high value markets ka pai.
I think that people need to be polite with mowing the berm issues there is a point to mow or not to mow one is good for the environment and ones not lol .
Those pounamu are a awesome sight and the story about the tiki tiki is cool.
Kate that is a good story line of Aquaman being rescued by a wahine we need to raze everyone respect for wahine
Mike someone told me that Ruamoko was singing his waiata and preforming a haka loud and proud last night I missed it went to sleep early last night.
Ka kite ano
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
Reacting to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s refusal to rule out introducing new taxes at the budget, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “Today’s refusal to rule out new taxes suggests the Government is nothing more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne Aila Images/Shutterstock Aged-care workers will receive a significant pay increase after the Fair Work Commission ruled they ...
He’s bringing ‘Sophie’ back, yeah. Goodshirt’s ‘Sophie’ music video is one of the most instantly recognisable New Zealand music videos of all time. Featuring a woman listening to the song on headphones while her entire house is burgled behind her, the video won the New Zealand music award for Best ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University A year ago, the AUKUS agreement was formally announced between Australian and UK Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden. The agreement mapped out the “optimal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Helwig, Associate Professor, Electro-Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern Queensland SmartS/Shutterstock Steam locomotives clattering along railway tracks. Paddle steamers churning down the Murray. Dreadnought battleships powered by steam engines. Many of us think the age of steam has ended. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carrie Leonetti, Associate Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Victims who experience family violence in Aotearoa New Zealand are treated differently, depending on which part of the justice system they turn to for help. But a new member’s bill ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Tesch, Visiting Fellow at the ANU Centre for European Studies, Australian National University In perhaps the least surprising news of the year, Vladimir Putin has triumphed at the Russian ballot box and been enthroned for the fifth time as president. He ...
The Papua New Guinea Supreme Court has stopped a byelection for the Madang Open seat being held until an appeal filed by former MP Bryan Kramer is concluded. Kramer had appealed to the Supreme Court over a National Court decision not to review his application of the Leadership Tribunal decision ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Despite a “historic” ceasefire agreement in Papua New Guinea between Enga authorities and tribal leaders after months of bitter warfare, a young woman has been found brutally killed near Kaekin village, Wapenamanda. Despite the peace agreement and signing concluded in Port Moresby last Thursday ...
The second season of Ryan Murphy’s Feud is a sadder and slower entry into his canon of true story-telling, leaning heavily on a verdict about the cost of a single work of art. Hollywood heavyweight Ryan Murphy has had a bit of “ick” about him in the last few years. ...
Oh dear… red haired giants and Lovelock cave… them dang redheads….
Well hec,… Sasquatch ( Can , USA ) , Mahoe man ( NZ ) , Yowies ( Aus ) , Yetis (Himilaya’s ) and Yeren ( China ) … Mound Builders that the Smithonian’s do away with the bones cos it threatens Darwin …
Lets take a look at what our ancestors ( Homo sapiens ) had to deal with , shall we ?…
And reflect on what influence they may have had … in our modern world … and why we have so many problems with psychopathic rulers today…
M.K.Davis discusses the giant hand print on a cave wall. – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG-kLpC2ED4
Traditional Lakota/Dakota Sundance Songs 3/6 – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=car9pBXHXKQ
#6 – Chief Joseph – Episode 6 – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC3as_3I79g
Lakota 🙂 Aho!!!!!
Blessings .
Wild Katipo – take a gander at this !!!
https://twitter.com/ZonePhysics
(scroll down to the image with this accompanying text:
“What you see is a myosin protein dragging an endorphin along a filament to the inner part of the brain’s parietal cortex which creates happiness. Happiness. You’re looking at happiness”
I prefer people who have actually been there…
Tim Coonbo Baker
Former NASA scientist Tim Coonbo Baker speaks about Bigfoot …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNQenXySOjU
Just a little bit more for the case of an ancient remnant…. who may or may not have … ramifications for modern man…and his seemingly inability to plan rationally or do so with socially amiable outcomes…
A closer look at – Guy Chases Bigfoot In The Woods – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnJwBAskrf8
And why ?…
I’ll let you be the judge….
Neanderthal: Profile of a super predator – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZbmywzGAVs
There well may be a reason for all this psychopathic behavior due to rape and oppression. Who can say ? DNA ?
But it just might be well worth some kind of unbiased scientific reports… do we even have that these days?
Back to the days of Nimrod….
Darwinian science and evolution…. yeah right….”
The Smithsonian: We Destroyed the Skeletons of Giant … – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzUxDu-j4f8
That’s wild Wild Katipo. Makes a change from studying the anthropomorphic tracings that can be viewed around NZ Parliament Buildings.
Massive praise to Bernie Sanders and others for standing up and calling out the War in Yemen during a senate debate on the subject.
Thank you for speaking up, may it be the catalyst for change, fingers crossed re the vote over there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAOKXTYZak8
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/senate-rebukes-saudi-arabia-yemen-war-khashoggi-murder-181213004802358.html
I have listened to Stuff’s podcast ‘The District’. The District refers to the local area.
It looks at the death of a digger operator, who was retrieving a stuck tractor, with the aid of a bulldozer.
The official line is the victim was run over, other sources say he was crushed.
Anyhow, a tenacious sister has been investigating.
Things aren’t adding up, and in her enquiries she meets Des Thomas.
Des is youngest brother of Arthur Thomas, wrongly convicted twice of the homicide of Jeanette and Harvey Crewe.
Amongst other things revealed is a 22 calibre rifle, pushed barrel down into the mud in a dam. This gets handed to police, who cut the barrel into three pieces, making testing impossible. This rifle is found a few kilometres from where the murders took place.
The 2014 ‘review’ police held into the homicides, did not mention the rifle discovery, and seemed to just pile up more stuff casting doubt on Thomas’s innocence.
This affair, for me, was when the police lost their innocence and a lot of mana.
It occurs to me The District may also refer to how police are organised and have a more sinister implication.
Congratulations to Paula Penfold, Eugene Bingham and others for this piece of investigative journalism.
“The unprepared” – a very interesting read from Brian Easton
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/the-unprepared
“Another instructive example is housing policy. The new government’s view was that New Zealand’s housing crisis (identified by John Key in 2007) required state-sponsored building of more houses. It is not an easy strategy to get under way, especially as the preceding government‘s approach was much more laissez faire. (In contrast, the First Labour Government’s housing program was grounded in work carried out by the preceding Minister of Finance, Gordon Coates.) Instructively, the Minister of Housing, Phil Twyford, has had to create a new government agency to implement his ambition.
Public understanding of the program has not been helped by the commentariat. Undoubtedly some of the uninformed critics are ideologically opposed to state intervention (and are as enamoured with Judith Collins, National’s spokesperson on housing, as some Labour supporters are with Jacinda Ardern) but most, I think, have been as unprepared for the change in policy direction as the public service, and default to the position they learned under National. They are not National aligned, but creatures of limited habit, repeating what they learned under Key.
The Minister of Health, David Clark, has faced a different problem. Whatever his analysis or ambitions, he has been overwhelmed by problems left from his National predecessor. (It is called ‘alligator country’; dealing with them means forgetting that the point is to drain the swamp.)”
That’s a good read and clearly shows the problem that is managerialism:
The rise of managerialism seems to have come along, hand in hand, with neo-liberalism.
Re Budget well-being measures introduced by Grant Robertson. Amy Adams said on TV Breakfast this morning …
“The country, the Government, has always measured these things and has always cared about how New Zealanders are doing. That’s the ultimate measure for any government.”…
Ahem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdFOhwo48IY
Ew! Did you have to do that?
The ‘re-imaging’ that’s occurred though since that Bennett extravaganza, and today is quite startling (and I don’t necessarily mean aesthetically).
I wonder if Paula Bennett stands by all her statements in whatever context they were given
Sorry, OWT… This just sprung to mind as soon as I heard Adams
It seems both can tell lies so easily.
The National Cricket Club.
Puckish Rogue has introduced the analogy of cricket and politics. I offer this mid-season review of the NCC.
Simon Bridges is a medium pacer whose stock ball is two feet outside leg stump. Yet to take a wicket, though he opens the bowling when on the field. As captain does not know when to remove himself from the attack. Has an awkward delivery style and often challenged by the umpire for appealing when the delivery is half way down the pitch.
Paula Bennett has been known to run herself out, deflecting the ball onto the stumps. Opens the bowling in Bridges’s absence. She likes to pack the catching cordon in hopes of a mis-hit but, like her understanding, most of her deliveries are returned straight back over her head.
Nick Smith has a full of effort and red-faced approach to the wicket but his deliveries are too short of any length. He has an earnest yet temperamental style and indeed is easily wound up into too many loose deliveries.
Michael Woodhouse is an earnest off-spinner with a dangerous straight ball that looks like it will drift away but demands bat and pad played close together.
Gerry Browning appeals often for LBW from his unsighted position at square leg but the umpire has learnt to wave away his vociferous appeals.
Mark Mitchell runs in a bristling fashion, and is all aggression, with many deliveries spearing in at the throat. Seen as a possible captain, but too many wide deliveries from this right-armer cause him to be of little threat but to his own team fielding in close catching positions.
Judith Collins has fulfilled the 12th man role on occasion and is seen as captain of the ‘B’ team. Her glare at a turned down appeal makes a 22 yard pitch seem far too short for safety. Her strike ball is a yorker designed to dent toes and reputations.
Jonathon Coleman is retiring soon. His steady nit-picking length and parsimonious style made him hard to score off. His legacy as the team medic meant that a new first aid room had to be built by his successors.
Fielding in the deep, Amy Adams, dislikes cyclists on the boundary near her eight favourite fielding positions. Her NOMBY stance (Not On My Boundary) has the lycra-clad in an uproar.
The former captain, Bill English, was gifted the leadership at a time when the former captain , John Key, was facing prospective defeat and charges of ball tampering.
Club treasurer, Stephen Joyce, thought he had detected a hole in the opposition’s score card with an extra 11 runs short but when even the friendly media saw the error in his accounting, his attempt failed.
The search for a wicket-keeper is still being conducted, as no-one with a safe pair of hands can be found.
Allegations of bullying in the dressing room, tantrums, hair-pulling, match-fixing, dodgy donations to the beer fund, and unflattering references to the ethnic origins of fellow team members plague the team.
Best estimates are that the NCC (National Cricket Club) will return to near winning form in about another decade.
Wonderful!!!!!!!!
Even though I HATE cricket – and would rather watch paint dry.
Thanks. ROFL.
Such an ugly word, the ‘H’ Word…
In my opinion..the ugliest word of all…
I feel the same about “Twi”.
Watch this then, it’ll change your mind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-gREag2J3Y
I got too bored to continue watching at 1:28.
There’s fascinating colour and texture changes happening on a piece of wood I just polyurethaned that are much more interesting.
It’s that moment that it starts to coagulate …..
Blink – and the moment is gone forever.
By crikey when I get crowned Emperor of the Earth (by our alien overlords) there’ll be some changes round I can tell you
However if you start your penance I might, I stress might, be merciful…your penance starts right here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30krqhGe9v4
Is it on a cricket bat?
No. Do they get finished with polyurethane? Watching Pucky’s video I got the impression they’d be polished by getting rubbed in a player’s crotch like the balls, or something else equally bizarre.
Andre
VF. LOL.
LOL excellent!!!
Love it!!!
I suggest every member of this hapless team play in the position of left right out.
Good work there
🙂
(Also go the Black Caps!)
Thanks Mac1. Just to add:
Current head coach, Lynton Crosby, has managed successful teams in Australia and England often using identical methods and messaging (“brighter future”). However while his methods have produced spectacular short-term successes, the long-term results are starting to look disappointing. Many attribute this to the complete moral vacuum that is the centrepiece of his approach. The aggressive self-interested accumulation of runs (and cash) has been very effective when focused outward on the opposition and society at large, but has shown a tendency to turn inwards and foment disloyalty.
Thanks, AB. I said they’ll get near winning form in a decade but now it’s “whining form” as blame and whingeing replace the formerly moderate and relatively decent values of the old National Party, the one that Winston Peters knew.
As Australian cricket has shown, if you lose your best three batsmen the brittleness shows.
Politics and cricket are about many of the same things. Attack and defence. Team spirit. Team cooperation. Batting for the team. Long practice and preparation. Team selection. Captaincy. Coaching. Competitive but fair-minded play. Respect for the opposition. Fickle fans. Media interest. Magic moments. Short sound bites. Weather. Hours of play. Touring. PR. The public. Balanced teams. Good support staff. Even playing fields. Prepared pitches.
The downsides are the same. Match fixing, cronyism, favouritism, factionalism, imbalance, poor administration, egotism, social climbing, inequality of opportunity and resources, sledging, disrespect in all its forms of racism, mysogyny, class, education, ethnicity.
Cricket is great preparation for life. A sport where both individual and team performances matter, where dedication and skill matter, where disappointment and unfairness in luck and in decisions, perceived or real, have to be dealt with.
Yup, all to this (well most of it 😉 )
Why cricket is a metaphor for life, politics…anything
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10854330
My personal favorite because it demonstrates putting aside ones own ego to get the best out of people, how to manage egos effectively and how to work together to achieve your goals (when you probably want to throttle each other)
Richard Hadlee v Jeremy Coney II – Shuttle diplomacy, 1986-87
John Wright said he felt like renowned American diplomat Henry Kissinger delivering requests and instructions from Coney at slip to Hadlee the bowler during the third test against the West Indies in Christchurch. The pair had a falling out after a Hadlee Truth newspaper column criticised the New Zealand team’s alleged sloppy practice habits and tardy attitude. Coney believed such remarks should have stayed within the team.
As veteran journalist Don Cameron recalled on cricinfo.com: “Hadlee was not impressed with his short opening spell, so took himself off, and Wright had to pass the information to Coney. But the team recovered from the drama. Hadlee returned to take six for 50 – three of them from Coney slip catches – and the New Zealanders’ mood improved, if not completely, by the fact they won the test by five wickets.” Wright concluded the pair must have resolved their differences because he couldn’t remember telling Hadlee “the captain says ‘well bowled”‘.
Agreed 🙂
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10854330
Even when players don’t want to talk to each other (Hadlee and Coney) you can still get the result you want if you know how to manage properly
Could be something in that for political parties
Yes Mac 1. Bluddy clever and funny. And probably true.
Woodhouse is also gaining a reputation for ‘sledging’, albeit in sophisticated style but with fuck all substance, in the hope pomposity and various angles of attack will eventually see a wicket fall.
And Chris is happier to just watch from the sidelines and offer moral support for the tactics employed like a dutiful little school boy, while Gerry is still slicing the oranges and contemplating the wicket (if he can find it) also from the sidelines.
Gerry and Chris are also busy discussing the technicalities – with Chris as the expert, and Gerry mulling over the best means of delivery.
Soimon is wondering whether it’s all worth it and whether or not a bit of fixing might not be in order. He’s got JK on speed dial.
Soimon should just send JK at text ….
Excellent mac1, out of the park.
Thanks, gsays. What of interest also are those inside the park.
Village cricket eccentrics found here on the Standard.
The little mascot brought by the blonde lady with the big glasses that bounds yapping onto the field wanting to chase the ball but runs back to its mistress to be fed little tit bits and bark at passers-by?
The adolescent in mid-puberty on the bank who knows nothing about cricket but annoys the adults around him asking questions all the time which he thinks will show how knowledgeable he is, always commenting but never able to discuss?
The boy with the score book annotating every run and keeping statistics?
The grumpy Yorkshireman who asserts that the only true cricket is played in LeEDs?
The groundsman who likes to bring out the heavy roller when faced with spectators who don’t keep the ground rules and who deals with pitch invaders the same way.
The green-keeper whose uses horse manure and a scythe to maintain lawn order and never is asked what’s growing in the green house…..
Any takers?
Don’t forget the students at Molyneux Park in summer with the chilly bin 🙂
The woman with the knitting and the newspaper shade-hunting in the stands.
The bearded sage dozing under a sun hat in a post-prandial snooze but awake to the beckoning call of humanity……..
Sounds rather Wodehouse.
Thanks. I rather like PG. “He forked a moody eggs and b.”
He’s OTT with the whimsy but I like some whimsy done well. So top hole etc.
Mate, I am not even going to try.
This is one occasion I know I am out of my league.
Well done.
Mac 1 This is classic.
Here’s to the Coalition Cricket Club winning the next 3 tests.
My cricket loving husband laughed out loud. Hearing me chuckling away, he wanted in on the joke. An enjoyable read, and yes a reflection of life.
N says “The National Cricket team doesn’t do well on a sticky wicket”.
Good news:
Wallace Chapman will be taking over “The Panel” from Jan.14 next year. I expect there will be some refreshing newcomers in the line up of guests. Might start listening again.
Guyon is leaving Morning Report to do more long-term field work. I think that has been a big part of his problem. He doesn’t like being cooped up in a studio and takes it out on his guests – especially those on the left.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/378252/guyon-espiner-moves-from-morning-report-in-rnz-changes
I am happy with those two changes – but Mora on Sunday Mornings??????
NONONONONONONO
Reminds me of something
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z0QUygjr2w
Me too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCz3ZaqNtME
For those of a masochist bent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7Xu-3_42fQ
Mora I want no more of. Sunday morning reflected Wallace Chapman’s thoughtful, ethical and religious background. Mora is just the thinking man’s Mike Hosking. So no more of him, I don’t want Sunday morning dumbed down by Mora’s interests and tendencies.
It is interesting how people in Radionz have their favourites –
Mora and Noelle McCarthy for instance. Jim has an aura of sanctity about him after he became front man for a garden and hardware franchise which funded the projects undertaken in doing up worthy peoples’ gardens. McCarthy has tried to widen her approach but would be best for what to do in the holidays, and why working women are so stressed, and do teeth whiteners harm your teeth and leave you toothless in old age, and of course a biggie subject, how old can you live with new scientific findings and drugs being developed.
Are there other people who have done nationally recognised things regarded positively, and who broadcasts well that people could think of as alternative to Mora? People with huge interests, who can be incisive, light-hearted, querulous at times, interesting always, chat with others and bring out their interesting thoughts and reactions. And don’t mention Kim Hill, I am looking for someone of the same calibre who would be 40-50. I don’t know if Bryan Crump would like a change but he is so good on nights and I think very popular there. What about one of the two who take over Radionz on holiday afternoons and are a bit crazy, they are wide-ranging and presumably have strong interests about people being wonderful and creative around the world.
“What about one of the two who take over Radionz on holiday afternoons”
Just on grounds of musical taste, no.
Are you afficianados, they deliberately draw you out saying ‘No No No’.
OMG! Mora on Sunday mornings
aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Very sorry to hear Guyon Espiner leaving the show.
He has taken te reo seriously and it’s been awesome.
Personally I think RNZ morning report has been far too soft on this government, except for the sustained reporting on NZTA’s failing regulatory arm, which in no small part brought down the Chief Executive.
RNZ reporting also led directly to the Ministry of Transport investigation directed by the Minister that will blow NZTA out of the water when it reports back to Parliament in late March 2019. No one else really gave a damn about it, but Morning Report was consistently at it over months.
The very bad news is that Mora will be doing Sunday morning – but there’s a silver lining: The sleep-in and the Sunday Market at Te Papa.
I might even go have a healthy breakfast at a Subway somewhere.
Actually there’s even MORE good news. My idol (Kim) has come out unscathed and it appears she’ll continue on a Saturday – and maybe (fingers crossed) as the Clingon’s replacement on Morning Report until a replacement is found.
Hopefully the replacement is an escaped Okker called Alex
‘I might even go have a healthy breakfast at a Subway somewhere.’
Recent Reddit expose about Subway ,suggests you ..might not.
Snap @ VV above!.
By the way @ VV. I thought of you and @ Anne as I was perusing this virtual ‘space’ going forward.
There’s a thing on PUNDIT by Brian Easton, and it sums things up nicely re our Public Service and the state it’s in but it’s a good analysis.
I think there are one or two things that he’s being a fucking sight more charitable than I would have been – to do with culture and the effects of the career-minded generic manager.
The longer term effects of that don’t seem to have been answered adequately in my opinion.
Have a read when you get time and let us all know what you think.
And when you do, think of the record of the past 10 or so years – especially in relation to Ministries, departments and agencies like NZTA, WINZ, Housing COrp, Health, ALL that comprises the Ministry for EVERTHING (from radio frequencies and interferance, to ripped off employees to immigrants to shitty steel FFS, and a lot more).
I read a couple of PEBs! They just fucking STUNNED me.
Let me know what you think
Will do, OWT. Won’t be today as I am a bit tired. Have done quite a bit of going down rabbit holes over the last week to do with a subject I have commented on here quite a bit. But have had to be selective in what I say. Still a bit more rabbit holing to do but need a break and to get some housework, shopping etc done pre-weekend.
Hi OWT.
Read the article. It’s spot on. One minor correction. Easton talks about “generic managers” as though it is a relatively recent phenomenon. It’s not. I worked for a smallish specialist department which came under the umbrella of ‘Transport’ in the 1980s. It was one of the first to be restructured under the direction of the then minister, Richard Prebble.
Out the door went the dedicated management who had devoted their lives to the specialist skills required, and in came the careerist, generic managers who had little to no knowledge of the subject matter in hand.
The first thing they did was embark on a cost cutting exercise which saw a large number of field stations close. This made it difficult for the specialists to do their job properly and the department came perilously close to falling apart. What saved it in the end was the incoming Bolger government who turfed out the ‘new management’ and replaced with people who had knowledge of the specialist skills involved. At the same time it became an SOE which, in this case, was the best thing to have happened.
In Easton’s words:
And that sums up the fundamental problem of today’s Public Service.
/agreed @Anne that there’s always been a problem.
However 30 or so years of neo-liberalism, a culture that places bean-counting over public service and welfare has compounded the problems, and this is especially evident over the past 10 years or so.
Coalition Ministers publicly appear to have “confidence in their officials”. When you read some of those “pathetic PEBs” (as Easton calls them), you have to wonder whether some Ministers are bloody masochists who might as well be saying “beat me, beat me!”
One of the few things I had to agree with Mathew Hooton on was when I heard him say that the bureacrats had a vested interest in preserving the status quo (On Nine to Noon from memory) – and that status quo was at the upper echelon’s preoccupation of career advancement/salary increase/impressive CV that exists – and of course that culture affects/denigrates the subordinates who generally do most of the hard yards. Most of our Ministries/Departments/Agencies have become the CEO/Snr Managment’s little feifdom where they can take credit for any successes whilst blaming the peons for any failings.
As we’ve seen, especially over the past decade, there is very little accountability. The recent NZTA debacle is about the only example I can think of where someone has fallen on their sword – it might not even be the right person who has done so.
I actually pity the new CEO of MBIE a tiny, tiny bit- what a poison chalice to have inherited. But you could pick any number of these departments/agencies/ministries to do with health, social welfare, education, etc. etc. etc.
Shouldn’t have got me started ;p.
There is a glimmer of hope in Chippie’s proposal for reform and Jacinda’s wish for a ‘kinder’ approach, but I doubt reforms will go far enough. In some cases there needs to be a complete rout.
Oh, and by the way – look how long the NZTA shit went on.
But again on a brighter note – look what happens when we get things right – with an agency that isn’t all about bean counting, managerialism and the things Easton is critical of. The Pike River Mine re-entry people – if ever there was something that might succeed in its intent, this is it.
Well I hope RNZ shouts Wafflish some speech lessons. That gibbering whine of his gets tired real fast.
Some sanity on the coverage of US politics minus the propaganda.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiZnJd0yWaI
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12176820
Asked whether there was “anything more to come that might bite you in the bum,” Ardern said, “absolutely not”.
We shall see 🙂
nzherald should interview the RWs here if they are looking for bum-biters. There are some really rabid Opposition supporters here; we have a nice selection NZHerald, one of these would be excellent for your purposes.
If they really are looking for bum biters then look no further 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1ialVG0NZw
Wombats are cute but not to be messed with. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL6XyVqnjcU
Attacking or wanting attention 🙂
probably both
But I’ve heard of one who would knock down doors to get inside to be fed!
When you are an endangered species, you have to look out for yourself. Expect more human aggression over wanting to be fed!
I’m not into porn thank you not very much PR!
Simon Bridges won’t get caught rooting a goat. We shall see !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDn-jJH3rY4
Simon Bridges won’t get caught being honest and reasonable – ever!
Yes however he only needs to catch out the PM once
Maybe he could catch her calling her ministers effing useless and selling electorate seats for cash, particularly the Chinese ones, Indian ones, not so valuable. Oh wait, that’s already happened, but not to her.
I’m guessing you’re thinking that because National did that therefore Labour can do this?
Well the voting public maybe more forgiving, but I doubt it
Except National DID do THAT, and Labour HASN’T done THIS. You’re just wishing they have and casting innuendo based on nothing but desperate blue barking at cars. Come back when you have proof not innuendo.
Bit hard to find proof when the PM won’t release the texts
She was wearing another hat at the time – so nah nah nah nah nah.
🙂
Good one Macro.
Young marketing millionaires doing tech outsourced to India – what could go wrong? sarcasm.
‘Spiralled out of control very quickly’: Kiwi rich-lister behind Appster speaks out after collapse
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12176329
No wonder they went bust, their recruitment style sounds like the government recruiting Handley. Professional tech people won’t go for jobs and companies and their time wasted by a bunch of idiots who don’t understand tech and over compensate by ridiculous recruitment measures…
“Appster’s gruelling 22-hour job interview, featuring eight stages, four interviews, up to 10 reference checks and even a body language assessment.’
(wonder if it takes over 6 months like marketing, Handley’s non recruitment of a role he had never done before, but was deemed the best candidate as presumably being qualified does not count as much as a good video?)
You also generally find that firms that have ridiculous recruitment methods and interviewers who are in marketing, also like to under pay. Only most desperate or with visa issues, left standing?
“Bandara, who started his firm in 2010, blamed Appster’s demise on “unsustainable growth” and said the founders came from “marketing backgrounds”.
“When you are a tech business just marketing is not enough, you have to have that management and technical background to be successful,” he said.”
Doh!
Marketing people learn from the first that what a successful salesperson aims to do and achieves is selling yourself and your ideas. You have to believe in your product completely.
Not much ability to assess anything dispassionately there, even week-long interviews wouldn’t help them. The marketers and PRs are perfect people to introduce the robotised society to us, practically mindless. They ought to get a program to do the people checking for them, it would produce a short-list in a morning, with recommendations and the basis for these, indicating the strong and weak points of each candidate.
Nice long piece from The Age showing all the different Five Eyes intelligence security leaders working together against 5G risks. Usefully pulls quotes from a variety of security agency leaders into a cooperative narrative:
https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/how-the-five-eyes-cooked-up-the-campaign-to-kill-huawei-20181213-p50m24.html
What a lovely bit of boys own or even Enid Blightons Famous Five. Such a fabulous lot those five eyes lads and lasses. Especially that lovely Gina Haspel. She has worked so tirelessly to make us all safe…
The real story is that China has leapt ahead in this transformational technology and the west can only catch up by seriosly delaying their rollout. Capitalism always runs up against other expansionist states when all its internal contradictions become apparent. For one the free market level playing field is only for when you are winning.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/12/14/huaw-d14.html
With the Government’s cap on spending coupled with their targeted debt to GDP ratio, it’s difficult to expect too much from their Well-being budget.
While it will help reshuffle expenditure, it won’t lead to more net spending overall, which is largely required to get the country back on track. It’s just more tinkering around the edges.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018675561/grant-robertson-discusses-wellbeing-budget
With John Kelly exiting, Agent Drumpfski needs a new chief of staff. But the pool of people interested in getting a cheeto-tinged skidmark smeared down their CV has got very small. So apparently the Kush-kiddy wants a crack at it.
Personally, I’m rooting for Chris Christie to get the job. Given he put the Kush-daddy in the slammer, it would add a fascinating new dynamic to the reality show.
Lawyers are concerned that the alleged killer of Grace Millane will walk away on the grounds that he could not be given a fair trial.
I get that people are angry and I get that they want justice for Grace. I do too, but I know that it does not happen at the expense of due process.
https://willnewzealandberight.com/2018/12/14/the-need-to-respect-due-process-in-new-zealand-courts/
Young people are into instant gratification and don’t want to go through due process and restrain themselves so they don’t care about the restrainsts of the law and why they aid good process.
If Ms Millane had been careful and checked out this guy that she apparently met through an App, which would have required a wary and closer inspection and longer introduction amongst her peers, this might have been avoided. But Apps cater for instant gratification, everything must be fast and that service, accepted like an innocent child completely trustingly without sensible safety concerns, cocoons a person from the real world of bad events and sad disasters happening all the time.
“If Ms Millane had been careful”
Really? Still pushing that line after all the recent discussion.
And what was she wearing?
And did she do something or say something to trigger him to violence?
And was she drunk?
And any of the other forms of victim blaming ….
I cannot believe the lack of awareness of some people especially as you said after all the recent discussion – but then in the case of one or two here I can.
The beige blog also has some interesting reading in that regard today. I see Casual Jacket is back here today, possibly as a result of the responses to some of his comments there ….
Oh sorry every woman is a queen and all the ills and bads of the world bow down to her and give her safe passage. In your dreams. Women in the early 20th century had more go and pluck and nous than today’s easy-riders going forward on the back of the hard work put in by fighters for the right of women to have autonomy. Well women have got it, but modern lasses can’t handle it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWSx0bBiNIs
Oh get real Sacha. Women have always had to be careful about whom they consort and comport with. The recent discussion is a bunch of wet-eyed soppy people who have chosen to get really emotional about someone who had everything in life, except a an understanding of how to care for her own safety. It’s a pity that the women-lovers who carry on about the pick of the month, can’t stretch out their compassion and concern to all the other women in NZ who are doing it hard. I guess they are the wrong class or something.
Complete sop. There is no reason he should have been given name suppression in the first place and just got it on a technicality. If our justice system is so fragile that someone over in the never never may know his name? They just need to be careful in the jury selection that none of them got his name before hand. No doubt it will be public knowledge shortly anyway so a few weeks makes zero difference to his case.
His name is certainly not wide spread knowledge like if his name was printed in the paper or he was on NZ TV news. just goes to show some of our justice rules are not fit for purpose anymore if this type of scaremongering has validity.
If he has any decency he will spare the family a trial.
Agree. UK news pisses me off. A simple search online and the details are right there.
Hope they get pawned in court. NZ law may not apply in the UK BUT the fact is their actions have a predictable ripple effect causing the name disclosed here.
His lawyer will advise him to plead not guilty in order to extract maximum payment from his client.
A pleading of guilty will dry up the lawyers income stream.
Sad truth, but is the reality.
How would knowing his name affect someone’s ability to do the jury thing? Is name suppression ever granted to enable a fair trial? Isn’t it usually to protect family members?
The Dorian Gray Husk writes approvingly of the way the coalition government has forecasts of rising budget surpluses for the post 2020 period – falling debt and unable to spend more than 30% of GDP. The Husk can see, this along with National ending the $1B pa first year free year tertiary spending and cancelling the free second year the potential for National to offer a really big tax cut in their 2020 election manifesto.
The right wing media was very favourable to Roger Douglas back in the day (of course he actually delivered a really big tax on the high income earners and then decided against any CGT as part of a balanced package – which began the trend towards larger new builds and a substantial rise in property values in the more desirable areas).
With over $1.2tn going through the financial markets every year, a financial transaction tax of 1% will give the govt an income of $120bn a year.
The current raft of taxes generates just $85bn a year.
It is not hard to see that scrapping all forms of taxes and implementing an FTT of 1% will let to higher govt revenue and more money for consumers to spend as they see fit.
> With over $1.2tn going through the financial markets every year, a financial transaction tax of 1% will give the govt an income of $120bn a year.
That it will not, see upthread.
A.
Test
Now let’s see if this will go through – 4th try!
“has always cared about how New Zealanders are doing. That’s the ultimate measure for any government.”…”
Trouble is the meaning of the word ‘measure’. How to measure, and what? You need good, appropriate statistics, counting, to do that ‘measure’ properly, not just choose a sample that shows the government in the best light (an 8 watt bulb). A government that celebrates individualism, and then takes stats that ignore how individuals are doing and doesn’t report on each spectrum of the nation’s pie, isn’t giving measure for measure.
That is using statistics fraudulently Ms Adams, and that is how exteme poverty can be unnoticed by those Nationals celebrating a rock-star economy. Gnat ministers would likely say, “Don’t tell me about it in your report, I don’t want to know that!”
On Google, Measure for Measure shows up a promotion for Nottingham actors – this sounds a good rollicking Shakespearean play that National gals and guys would enjoy!
Measure for Measure – Pop-up Globe
https://popupglobe.co.nz/shows/measure-for-measure/
Measure for Measure – a searing expose of sexual exploitation and abuse of power presented in a timely and provocative production.
Oh for true measure for measure for the National Party.
What does the title Measure for Measure mean?
of Measure for Measure: “Its temper is ironic as its title: ‘Measure,’ as there used. is a judicial term for the measuring out of justice; hence the title means, ‘justice for justice.’ But Angelo does not receive measure for measure, an eye for. an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Measure for Measure: The Significance of the Title – jstor
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2866753
Test
Please note – that though I have got the Test word onto the post, I have had four tries at sending my comment on Amy Adams quote in No.5, it has not shown up. Where has it gone? Is something putting it into spam? This is another test to see what triggers rejection.
GCSB
Wishful thinking? LOL
What does wishful thinking mean? We certainly don’t want the GCSB present.
Nice story for a Friday afternoon.
Desert turns into oasis: Man plants 50,000 trees in 15 years in N China
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM2SZ8NS8EM
A resident in southwest China’s Guizhou Province has been planting trees on a barren mountain for more than 30 years on end, without cutting a single tree for profit. He has, together with his wife, planted 76.67 hectares of trees since 1985.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/man-creates-a-forest-after-planting-trees-for-more-than-30-years
Amazing determination in Mongolia Save NZ. We in great old NZ have so many labour saving devices and yet it an up hill battle to get heaps planted and of course it is against bluddy minded Opposition who oppose planting because …? Wonder why?
What has Simon got against trees.
Not just the Natz hatred of trees here, the councils and transport agencies are also major tree haters and can’t wait to destroy trees at any opportunity.
Even nicer story for the weekend where we are trying to run a post to be an archive with ideas for helping a better environmental future for us all. The last one was called The Future Is… but it may change title. Everyone please visit and put up something helpful and interesting and links to save etc.
savenz I copies it and put it over in the post as it is just the sort of story that we want to get on record with link. Thanks.
Thanks Greywarshark. Have a great weekend!
Health warning for the day:
https://www.pluralist.com/posts/2132-being-vegan-makes-you-mentally-disabled-warns-top-danish-doctor
I’m sure its nothing though 🙂
Sounds like a chicken and egg situation to me .
Which came 1st mental illness or veganism.
Sorry but if it’s vegan, neither the chicken nor any eggs were involved.
🙂
Lewis Hamilton, the five times and reigning world F1 champion is a vegan.
Just imagine how much more dominant he would be if he wasn’t vegan.
There have only been two drivers to win five F1 world championships, Juan Manuel Fangio and Lewis Hamilton.
Michael Schumacher won the F1 title seven times and I have no idea what he ate. Probably raw meat carved straight from a cows ass.
You got to be next level crazy to drive a car at airplane speeds .
Well according to this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Formula_One_Grand_Prix_winners#By_driver
There have been 76 F1 champions so it seems being vegan is a hindrance to being a F1 champion, was that the point you’re trying tomake?
Shit Stirrer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRQV92PjzuU
As proven by Mythbusters (and Labour) you can polish a turd:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rax27_ZIVM
Crazy country, last week catastrophic bush fires to dodge, this week I’m on the edge of a Cat 4 cyclone.
Everything is tied down, and outside its hammering lightening and rain. Visible ground strokes just a few hundred metres away. Yee hah😀
Good luck. I’m all good with the elemental forces of nature, but cat4 is putting the “mental” into it…
We are in a boat off Fraser Island down wind from you. Forecast is now for TC Owen to fizzle out before it gets here. Summer in Oz is always a little crazy!
That’s a big island – should give some protection from wind? Iguess it might be better to be at sea than right by coastline.
Let us know how you get on RL. We can’t do much but can commiserate! What part of Oz?
About 100k south of Weipa. We should be OK here, but it’s still spectacular.
Get them on camera so you can have fond memories! Sometimes dull is good eh.
Interesting location very far north. Is there anything you have heard of interesting going on in the environment field up there? We are gathering ideas and putting on post on how to conserve water for droughts, fresh water, tree planting to bring shade and stop erosion etc.
The Australian government need’s to heed to the call of the people and plan to stop burning coal in the prosess they will be drowning thee neighbor all the Pacific Island are in great danger of sea level rise. Australia is a cause of refugee and there solution is to lock the people in cages on a Island . Its not all doom and gloom as it looks like a new government next year in Australia .
The call from 15 small Pacific island states came one day after the Australian government called for expressions of interest in new power generation projects, indicating it would be prepared to use taxpayer money to underwrite new coal plants.
Leaders warned Australia’s relations in the Pacific were being eroded by a perceived intransigence in Canberra over coalmining.
As the COP24 UN climate talks in Poland remained stalled over an unwillingness from major emitters to commit to further carbon emissions cuts, frustrated Pacific states, traditional allies of Australia, said the world must abandon coal-powered energy generation.
Australia’s carbon emissions highest on record, data shows
Read more
The Fijian prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, the outgoing president of COP23, said: “We call on all OECD countries to quickly phase out their use of coal by 2030 and for all other countries to phase out their use of coal by 2040. There must be no expansion of existing coal mines or the creation of new mines.”
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Australia and the US have both this week said publicly they have no plans to begin phasing out coal-generated power. Ka kite ano
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/14/pacific-nations-under-climate-threat-urge-australia-to-abandon-coal-within-12-years
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwIVuEOXnyo
NZ business are the biggest beneficiaries of NZ
John is being politically correct and polite in his story about Aotearoa inequality and how the uber rich made there riches .
I say they made there money by back room deals trading information they were ultimately taking from the people of Aotearoa cheating in my words hence my dislike of dilly joyce and his associates . Eco Maori say that the NZ benefit system is a direct subside to all the business in NZ and hence any poor people with out these benefit are struggling the young and the old in Aotearoa . There’s a global conversation raging over the massive growth in inequality and poverty. At home, that conversation is being led by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who has seized on this agenda. Part of that national conversation is under way, via the Child Poverty Bill presently before Parliament.
It is sobering to reflect on New Zealand and what the once great promise of an egalitarian society has finally come to look like and represent. It has all happened in the last 30 years.
Many of the Kiwi folk who make up our rich list did not make their money simply by being sharp and clever innovators or entrepreneurs.
The richest man in New Zealand, Graeme Hart, gained his boarding pass to becoming the country’s richest man in some respects by being in the right place at the right time when the New Zealand Printing Office was privatised. We all know the story of the merchant bankers Michael Fay and David Richwhite, and one-time transport tycoons Alan Gibbs and Trevor Farmer, who made their money in part by being well positioned around deregulation — therefore privatisation.
Even the recently retired National Party politician Steven Joyce made his money before politics out of privatised radio bandwidths which were previously owned in the Government estate. Ana to kai Ka kite ano Links below. P.S I hope you get it no benefits min wage would be $25 a hour I don’t mean to scrap all benefits just a correction
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12078939
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMh_6WZh3OE
The sandflys are commiting the same offenses against me the bank staff are blinded by there shiny badges shonky has given them to much power and they are flouting it .Eco Maori is going to WIN in the end
New Zealand’s Security and Intelligence Service (NZSIS) has been found to be “very intrusive” in some of its requests to banks for customers’ information.
Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Cheryl Gwyn appears before the select committee.
Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Cheryl Gwyn RNZ / Diego Opatowski
The spy agency watchdog, Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Cheryl Gwyn, has released a report on a three month assessment of the service’s policy and practices of acquiring personal information from banks.
She found that despite using voluntary disclosure requests, rather than getting official warrants to obtain the information, the voluntary aspect wasn’t always made clear.
“Some of the past collection by the NZSIS would have constituted unreasonable searches contrary to the Bill of Rights,” Ms Gwyn said.
The law was changed last year with the enactment of the Intelligence and Security Act 2017, which has resolved some of the issues identified, she said. Ka kite ano links below.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/378274/sis-very-intrusive-in-some-requests-for-bank-customer-info
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cbcVFSajOM
Here is why health cost are so enormously expensive in America some people buy smaller drug companies change the name of the drugs and hike the prices of the health drugs by 5000% hence millions of people in America can not afford health care .
We must never let ANYONE stop Aotearoa Pharma if we do the mutuality national neo liberals capitalist will drain Aotearoa of money. PURE GREED. Ana to kai ka kite ano links below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ix3etCeSHQ
This is a video for the above post I could not get any storys on Valeant any were else except youtube ka pai youtube ka kite ano P.S YOU NEED TO watch Dirty Money on NetFlix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdBsVl-P8wM
I seen this person on Tv a few months back and I DID NOT like what I saw I got the same feeling when I seen him on the Millane case but out of respect for Millane whano I held my words back than the gods have answered my concerns when I found this story on News Room website
Detective Inspector Scott Beard’s handling of the Millane case touched some New Zealanders and the Millane family, and has won praise from colleagues and politicians, but he has been working under internal scrutiny after Auckland Area Commander Gary Davey investigated four allegations against him pre-dating the Millane case – and upheld them.
Davey had been asked by Police Commissioner Mike Bush to inquire into a complaint against Beard. The four counts include sharing confidential police information of a sensitive nature, breaching the confidentiality of his team members and supervisors, breaching the privacy of a victim’s parent, and separately selling or supplying alcohol at his Hibiscus Coast Football Club. Ana to kai ka kite ano link below
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/12/14/363361/grace-cop-subject-of-internal-inquiry
Kia ora Newshub there are a lot of fool about poisoning those pohutukawa trees they take at least 50 years to get to the size of the ones poisoned up North.
I seen a story on this sight TSD about the J&J talcom baby powder there was a lady who died of cancer she put it on everyday capitalism at its best No.
Good on the young fella for being so industrious and selling his services to preforming a haka.
Shakira one can not hid anything now days just pay your tax’s to your country.
That good a good story White Stone cheese winning a prize in France that is what we should be doing with a lot of our foods high value markets ka pai.
I think that people need to be polite with mowing the berm issues there is a point to mow or not to mow one is good for the environment and ones not lol .
Those pounamu are a awesome sight and the story about the tiki tiki is cool.
Kate that is a good story line of Aquaman being rescued by a wahine we need to raze everyone respect for wahine
Mike someone told me that Ruamoko was singing his waiata and preforming a haka loud and proud last night I missed it went to sleep early last night.
Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94dBVPpymac