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
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…
A closer look at – Guy Chases Bigfoot In The Woods – YouTube
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!
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.
Desert turns into oasis: Man plants 50,000 trees in 15 years in N China
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
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
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
Traditional Lakota/Dakota Sundance Songs 3/6 – YouTube
#6 – Chief Joseph – Episode 6 – YouTube
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 …
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
And why ?…
I’ll let you be the judge….
Neanderthal: Profile of a super predator – YouTube
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
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.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:
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
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:
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
Me too
For those of a masochist bent
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.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 🙂
Wombats are cute but not to be messed with. 🙂
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 !
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!
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
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
As proven by Mythbusters (and Labour) you can polish a turd:
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
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
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
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
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.