" Public Affairs Committee is helping to fund a Super PAC launching attack ads against Sen. Bernie Sanders in Nevada on Saturday, according to two sources with knowledge of the arrangement. The ads are being run by a group called Democratic Majority for Israel, founded by longtime AIPAC strategist Mark Mellman "
For over five decades New Zealand has had to put up with Jones’ racist rants being widely disseminated. Even though there’s nothing new or significant about what he’s been saying, Jones has had free reign to pontificate about a country and topics he appears to know very little about. In effect he’s been running around lighting the fires of hatred that has assuredly caused people harm.
It’s not just Jones who is to blame though. Many media outlets facilitated his racism through publication. Editors could have easily put a stop to Jones’ animosity towards Maori, but instead idealised him and allowed their syndications to be used as propaganda tools for a privileged bigot! In my opinion these complicit editors need to be moved on.
Excerpts from a report on the propaganda war against Assange. UN special rapporteur on torture Melzer "admits that he was himself initially taken in by the propaganda campaign."
"Four democratic countries joined forces – the U.S., Ecuador, Sweden and the UK – to leverage their power to portray one man as a monster so that he could later be burned at the stake without any outcry. The case is a huge scandal and represents the failure of Western rule of law. If Julian Assange is convicted, it will be a death sentence for freedom of the press."
"There is only a single explanation for everything – for the refusal to grant diplomatic assurances, for the refusal to question him in London: They wanted to apprehend him so they could extradite him to the U.S. The number of breaches of law that accumulated in Sweden within just a few weeks during the preliminary criminal investigation is simply grotesque."
"We have to stop believing that there was really an interest in leading an investigation into a sexual offense. What Wikileaks did is a threat to the political elite in the U.S., Britain, France and Russia in equal measure."
"I have seen lots of horrors and violence and have seen how quickly peaceful countries like Yugoslavia or Rwanda can transform into infernos. At the roots of such developments are always a lack of transparency and unbridled political or economic power combined with the naivete, indifference and malleability of the population. Suddenly, that which always happened to the other – unpunished torture, rape, expulsion and murder – can just as easily happen to us or our children. And nobody will care. I can promise you that."
Here is an interesting piece on the sorry saga of the 737 Max airliner, where Boeing management put profits first before people including the SME business as well and their own people from the 737 Max management team to the workers on the hanger floor.
Boeing once had a culture of customer and its work force from the hanger floor up to the broad room come first before profit. Now the current broad has trash not only its culture of safety first, putting customers and workers first culture, but the entire culture, legacy and history of Boeing as a aircraft manufacturer all because of putting profits and shareholders first.
Obviously they don’t teach history, ethics and culture anymore at business school or wherever they get their fancy certificates/ training these days.
Other sources I've read confirm the problem and specifically date it back to when Boeing purchased McDonnell Douglas … who then inexplicably managed to get many of it's executives into positions of power and then methodically dismantle the engineer-led culture of Boeing.
By contrast one large US company I’ve been associated with much of my working life has almost always appointed engineers as it’s CEO … and so far it’s worked.
But yes, overall the culture of the ‘generic manager’ who doesn’t have industry specific expertise has been a disaster. Competency counts for way more than the ideologues on all sides like to think.
The saga of the DC10 cargo doors failing has long been used in engineering education around an engineer's professional duties, ethics, reporting problems to the chain of command and whistleblowing when no actions were taken to correct known safety problems.
"speeches and before workshops could begin, Mair said the group did not support refugees coming into its tribal domain until it had sorted out its own backyard."
Yes so true Ken Mair, but true of all New Zealand these days. What a mess our politicians have created over the last 25 years through immigration in one form or another.It is a way past time to stop, consolidate and recreate New Zealand to the pleasant place it used to be for most of us to live in.
Yep, and I suppose we could start by getting rid of all those immigrants from Britain who have really buggered the joint up since their arrival a couple of centuries ago. I'd start with anyone with a stereotypical Anglo Saxon name, like, for example, Janet.
Alternatively, we could keep the immigrants and boot out the bigots. There's a lot less bigots than immigrants so it would be less time consuming and easier to manage and if they didn't want to go back to wherever they came from, there's plenty of room on the Auckland Islands. Diet's a bit limited though, mainly dead penguins and guano paste, but I'm sure they'd adapt.
I know there is a difference between refugees and immigrants generally but until we have our free health service , our education systems, our state led housing programs and our general infrastructure all up and running again properly then tax payers money used to assist yet more people to come into this currently dysfunctional country is wrongly budgeted and spent.
You do realise that migrants pay tax – and prop up the housing 'market' that successive govts have indulged?
Subtract migration and NZ has been in deep trouble for decades. Swapping houses, with banks clipping the ticket, has not produced sustainable wealth – or built the decent services you are missing. Cutting migration now does not fix that, let alone taking even fewer refugees than our share.
The globalists would be proud of you… Fortunately there's a big trend in populist politics that pushes back on immigration policy that undermines a country.
I wouldn't use the term undermine, because we run the economy we want and none of it is ideal at the moment. But immigration does have impacts. People with assets and the exchange rate in their favour can and do bump up land/property prices. There's also the ongoing issue that the left doesn't want to talk about yet, about what the real world (as in nature) carrying capacity of NZ is. This is about population, and obviously immigration policy ties into that.
The left's general position that immigration is always good is stopping us having the harder conversations about *how we should design our immigration policy. I have no doubt that the Key's govt's motivations and how they ran immigration policy caused problems. Labour's clumsy handling hasn't helped either.
Now the acolytes of the high church of the hidden hand may postulate that this (with increased global trade) is good for growth.Adam Smith in the inquiry suggested that high profits and not high wages are a constraint on the economy.
Immigration might not always be good – especially too fast for infrastructure development (not just immigrating into somewhere with shitty infrastructure planning). But in the NZ context with our controlled immigration policy, I've yet to see anyone raise a solidly decent objection to our current rate. Especially the ones who use words like "undermine".
Not it isn't, but all too often when the left discusses this, we don't make the proposed boundaries clear at all. All too often it just reads as 'open borders'.
I would have thought that when discussing current immigration to NZ the current boundaries would be implicit, unless someone is specifically discussing "open borders".
We also have international obligations in respect of refugees and stateless persons and at a measly 750 refugees a year for some decade,s we (NZ) have not been doing our fair share compared to other countries – including Australia from memory. I really cannot be bothered checking the latest figures but I did work in govt for many years, including in areas relating to our refugee and other international obligations.
However, before replying I did do a quick check of your comments here on TS and immigration generally seems to be a longstanding bugbear with you in relation to maintaining a status quo nice life etc. as once existed in the 1950s/60s for example but which is long gone and unlikely to ever return as it was in those days.
Alternatively, we could keep the immigrants and boot out the bigots.
I suppose you get to determine the difference?
Yep, and I suppose we could start by getting rid of all those immigrants from Britain who have really buggered the joint up since their arrival a couple of centuries ago.
Because if I got to choose that statement would fall firmly into the bigot camp.
Yep, and I suppose we could start by getting rid of all those immigrants from Britain who have really buggered the joint up since their arrival a couple of centuries ago.
Not a very elegant statement.
Great leaders such as Te Rangi Hiroa thought different.
My mother was a full Maori of the Ngati-Mutunga tribe of North Taranaki in New Zealand. She had the arresting name of Ngarongo-ki-tua (Tidings-that-reach-afar). I hope for the sake of her memory that, by gathering tidings from afar, I may be worthy the honour of being her son …
…My father belonged to a north of Ireland family that lived in Armagh, so I am entitled to his family name. I am binomial, bilingual, and inherit a mixture of two bloods that I would not change for a total of either. I mention this brief family history to show that from my birth I was endowed with a background for the study of Polynesian manners and customs that no university could have given me. My mother's blood enables me to appreciate a culture to which I belong, and my father's speech helps me to interpret it, inadequate though the rendering be at times.
Lets keep forcing Māori to accept more immigrants so white liberals like yourself can throw around the term racist to anyone who wants to have a debate about immigration.
And rather than have a debate with janet you go all cock sure arshole. I'd get a ban for trying to shut down a debate like that – but you…
Janet has been a commenter on TS for some years and I doubt that she is a shrinking violet who will disappear. She contributes some very good ideas etc on sustainability, environment, and similar issues and I admire and respect her for her views and actions in these areas. She also grows my favourite fruit of all time, tamarillos, on a small commercial basis. Sadly, hard to come by and very expensive these days with the dieback of tamarillo trees due to a nasty insect whose name escapes me. So I also admire her for continuing to carry on growing them.
However, I have also followed her views on immigration also expressed on any number of occasions here on TS over the same period and have not been impressed and consider these at odds with the NZ we have become and will continue to become. These include that NZ should only take permanent immigrants from first world countries such as the UK, Canada, USA etc; and not from second and third world countries; our FTAs with countries such as China and India should not provide any provisions for immigration from these countries, all "non-contributing illegal immigrants' should immediately be thrown out of NZ; and NZ shouuld only take in the barest minimun of immigrants to meet special skills needs. I won't provide links but just one example is the interesting discussion held under a Post on 27 April 2017 concerning Immigration and Winston Peters.
Obviously Janet is entitled to her views and to express them; but IMHO she should also then be prepared to face robust challenges to these views.
She was after all the one who started the thread @ 7 re blocks people such as Ken Mair are putting in the way of settling refugees – not immigrants per se – in the Whanganui area.
Fair enough, but unless Janet does decide to reply we can only assume TRP's response was more likely to discourage participation than not.
The really interesting question arises in the context of cultural integrity. The history of colonisation informs us quite clearly what happens when an existing (indigenous) people are out numbered by new arrivals from an entirely different culture. It's well understood to be exceedingly detrimental. This is pretty much where Ken Mair is coming from.
Yet for some reason this does not apply to white cultures.
Janet self-identified back on 17 April 2017 as "I am a fourth generation NZ fulltime farmer." No mention of any indigeous connections
I understand where Ken Mair is coming from to a degree. Despite being white myself, I am really pleased that my wider whanau now includes quite a few younger mixed Pakeha/Maori (Mahuta) cousins.
I also understand the strength of feeling associated with Turangawaewae as sadly I am having to sell up my family home of over 65 years where I spent most of my childhood and returned to after my father's death, and probably move away from the wider area of South Wellington my family/families have been associated with for c 150 years. Our once lower/middleclass neighbouthood is so sought after that it has become too expensive for many of us (mainly white) families/pensioners associated with the area for generations.
But we all have to move with the times and accept these changes and challenges.
I may be wrong but I get a bit of a whiff of protectionism of a commenter because she is female or even mansplaining. Please don't. I am a woman.
I understand where Ken Mair is coming from to a degree.
Doubt it.Mairs argument is that the housing problems in Whanganui need to be resolved first,prior to Refugee settlement (its called localisim)
The government needs to address both the failure under its watch to provide adequate social housing in Whanganui,and to constrain investor greed and avarice (another failure) first.
Landlords Link managing director Tracey Onishenko said rents had shot up off the back of investor interest in the city.
"Rents have skyrocketed. I do think some of them are over the top for what you are getting. I mean the average three-bedroom home would be about … $350 to $370 [a week] so that's a lot of money for a lot of people."
Ms Onishenko thought Mr Mair had a point.
"I think he does because at the end of the day we're going to be worried about the refugees coming here and if they are not going to have paid employment they're going to find it hard to live. Where are they going to live?
"There are people here that are employed, they're struggling and they're getting probably okay money and they're struggling to secure a house."
Thanks for the links. Janet provided a quote in the comment at 7 but did not provide a link to where the quote came from.
As I said I do understand what Ken Mair is saying as I already knew many of the grounds that various communities have been making for not having refugees in their communities – and most are genuine constraints such as housing costs and availability.
However, with or without refugee considerations, Whanganui is certainly not alone in facing a major shortage of social housing and/or skyrocketing rentals.
A reasonable three bedroom house in my own Wellington suburb would have cost c $400 – 500 about three years ago. Those same properties with a lick of paint and a heat pump installed are now going for upwards of $700/800, even a $1000 per week. The actual availability of rental property has fallen dramatically with many rental now being let out as short-term B&Bs etc.
So yes, there are a lot of factors involved, and it would be great if the government could flash a wand and conjure up lots more social housing, higher wages etc etc overnight but thse things take time. Just imagine what the situation would have been if National were still the government…
I do think some of them are over the top for what you are getting. I mean the average three-bedroom home would be about … $350 to $370 [a week]
Indeed but here is the kicker … costs are going through the roof as well. $400pw is indeed a lot of money for many people, and while this amounts to a gross rental income of around $20k pa, costs such as rates ($3k), insurance($3k), property management($2k) and maintenance (2% of gross value) doesn't leave much left over. And that's before any borrowings or tax are paid. This is why rents have been increasing; your bastard landlord is not rolling in it.
And yes the new govt regulations are having an impact. I need to consider what to do with a family property that my brother has lived in for almost 30 years but he now needs to move on from. But because it's got a 70's style cathedral ceiling it's ridiculously expensive (and largely pointless) to put modern 'compliant' insulation in. What's there works perfectly well, but the rules don't allow for it now.
Renting has just become too hard and our options are to short term it with AirBnB or sell. Either way a tenant doesn't get a look in.
I have recently ( november) downsized to an 80m^2 townhouse in chch.(under 8yrs old) fully double glazed,and double insulated.
My living costs (rates,insurance,electricity,phone and broadband) are under $ 125.00 per week.Solar power this year with plug in hybrid will also incorporate vehicle costs in that figure.
RL, it highlights how poorly aligned housing costs and income have become since Rogernomics.
That landlords are supposedly on the bones of their arse (despite making huge capital gains for nearly 20 years now), while young families struggle to pay rent is a clear indication of a failed economic system.
Yes incomes and housing costs are out of kilter, I've always agreed with this. In my view the big problem is a deeply structural one; in this country the Wages Share to GDP ratio is remarkably low for a developed nation and have been for a very long time. This flows primarily from govt policies and relatively low labour productivity, more than hordes of greedy landlords trying to screw everyone over.
Australia and Canada have both experienced similar property booms (especially in their gateway cities Sydney, Melbourne and Vancouver) but because wages are significantly higher it has caused somewhat less social pain. Also being larger countries there remain plenty of regional cities where property is still good value. By contrast in NZ, rising property prices in Auckland soon flow through everywhere.
This is a complex topic and nothing written in one blog comment is going to be without omission or flaw, but in my view the big problem is that NZ remains a relatively low wage country and this is why our housing costs are hurting so much.
PS. We chat to many kiwis here in Aus, and the one thing they all agree on is the ‘sticker shock’ when they make the trip back home to NZ to see family. Not only are wages low in NZ, the cost of living is significantly higher. It’s a very unhappy double whammy for anyone living on less than the median income.
Lets look at a tale of 2 cities (ak and chch) both experienced exogenous shocks to housing,one natural and one man made.
Nearly 170,000 properties were damaged in the earthquakes, about three quarters of Canterbury’s housing stock; the proportion was even higher within Christchurch City. The consequent shortage in housing has resulted in a sharp increase in house prices in Christchurch. House prices in the city are more than 40 percent higher than their pre-quake levels (figure 6). While this increase in house prices is smaller than the increase that has occurred in Auckland, where there is also a shortage of housing, it is more than double the increase that has occurred in the rest of New Zealand.
The shortage of housing has contributed to a sharp increase in rents, which had increased by almost 50 percent in Christchurch City by the start of 2015, compared with a nationwide increase of about 15 percent during that time (figure 7). The increase in rents has been concentrated in the relatively unaffected suburbs to the west and south of Christchurch as people have moved away from harder hit areas. Rental increases in the more heavily affected coastal and riverside suburbs are in line with the nationwide increase. More recently, rents have started to decline in Christchurch – by about 9 percent in the first 11 months of 2015.In part, the decline in rents reflects the increase in residential construction under way. The number of residential consents has increased from about 500 consents per month before the quake to a peak of more than 1200 consents per month at the end of 2014, around the time the Bank estimates residential construction activity peaked as a percent of potential GDP.
Chch has now equated to historical norms (excluding social housing) hence there is little capital gains.Ak now has an infrastructure deficit greater the chch EQ .
This flows primarily from govt policies and relatively low labour productivity
Let's not confuse labour productivity with business productivity. The problem is not caused by workers.
The share of profits trousered by owners and not re-invested in things that make businesses more productive (like training, IT systems, better roles) has increased since the 1980s up-ended the previous social contract.
That's where change is needed but nobody seems to be proposing much of it, are they.
Yes you can. We are supposed to have the very closest relationship of all countries. Their policy acts as if that is not the case at all. It acts as if AUS and NZ were independent of one another.
It's an incredibly disruptive and irresponsible policy by right wing Australian governments who seek to export their misery to their closest partner solely for political reasons.
I can’t think of a worse example of destructive trans Tasman relationships than this. And it is happening right now.
Yep. What happened to reciprocity in this relationship?
Bit by bit the balance of the 'most special relationship in the world' is being destroyed by successive right wing Australian parliamentarians.
NZ is left to suffer while Australia get the benefit of tens or hundreds of thousands of lower paid Kiwi workers without having to provide any kind of social assistance.
They also get to chop off the worst bit and sent them back.
It's free ride for Australia and in fact in my industry they are now flooding the worker market at the expense of Kiwis.
Aussies are naturally Trumpian and racist. We should let them know that and fight for once.
Probably not much will happen overnight Cinny as it is all the usual bullshit and bluster from Esper. For a start, the US is not a democracy, its representation is decided by an electoral college one a one person one vote democracy. It is further polluted as there are no constraints on the electoral vote buying and influence rorts. Secondly, when did the US ever subscribe to and respect international law or a rules based system of international trade and transactional relationships? If China is in the process of developing its military capability, why would they do that? Even North Korea knows the answer to that one. Mr. Esper should have saved his breath as the US is increasingly providing proof of its decline into the status of a rapidly dying empire – as his utterances prove.
I read a bit of this article by Aussie hack Sam Clench.
I read up the the word 'humungous' and realised Sam wasn't worth reading anymore.
I was taken back to when I moved to a new school in 5th Form and wrote an English essay which was well received except for a solid red line through the word 'humungous' and an accompanying note, "too colloquial".
35 Years later I remember it clearly as it was a pivotal moment in my life.
I see Sam Clench using this word in a paid column attacking Bernie Sanders for wanting to be too human and I can't help thinking he is a fraud.
He links Castro and Corbyn, Sanders and the Soviet Union in his MOR diatribe.
I'd rather Bernie failed against Trump than Sam's reasonable, functioning adult in the White House again soft Republican solution.
Whenever I go to yum cha it is 95% Chinese customer. This suggests Chinese New Zealanders themselves are abandoning Chinese restaurants.
This also suggests Chinese New Zealanders are either worried about the movements of other Chinese, or are superstitious, or don't trust the advice of New Zealand authorities.
David says, "National should promise to do the same here, if elected".
And what is he referring to? The Bojo government’s think process.
If universities don’t take action, the government will. If necessary, I’ll look at changing the underpinning legal framework, perhaps to clarify the duties of students’ unions.
So, not only is David Farrar advocating government intervention in university policy (the horror), but specifically the subjugation of student unions to government will.
So, what kind of free speech does Farrar believe in? Right wing free speech, and right wing free speech only.
Elbridge Colby’s senate confirmation hearing in early March holds more important implications for US partners than most observers in Canberra, Wellington or Suva realise. As President Donald Trump’s nominee for under secretary of defence for ...
China’s defence budget is rising heftily yet again. The 2025 rise will be 7.2 percent, the same as in 2024, the government said on 5 March. But the allocation, officially US$245 billion, is just the ...
Concern is growing about wide-ranging local repercussions of the new Setting of Speed Limits rule, rewritten in 2024 by former transport minister Simeon Brown. In particular, there’s growing fears about what this means for children in particular. A key paradox of the new rule is that NZTA-controlled roads have the ...
Speilmeister:Christopher Luxon’s prime-ministerial pitches notwithstanding, are institutions with billions of dollars at their disposal really going to invest them in a country so obviously in a deep funk?HAVING WOOED THE WORLD’s investors, what, if anything, has New Zealand won? Did Christopher Luxon’s guests board their private jets fizzing with enthusiasm for ...
Christchurch City Council is one of 18 councils and three council-controlled organisations (CCOs) downgraded by ratings agency S&P. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories shortest:Standard & Poor’s has cut the credit ratings of 18 councils, blaming the new Government’s abrupt reversal of 3 Waters, cuts to capital ...
Figures released by Statistics New Zealand today showed that the economy grew by 0.7% ending the very deep recession seen over the past year, said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “Even though GDP grew in the three months to December, our economy is still 1.1% smaller than it ...
What is going on with the price of butter?, RNZ, 19 march 2025: If you have bought butter recently you might have noticed something - it is a lot more expensive. Stats NZ said last week that the price of butter was up 60 percent in February compared to ...
I agree with Will Leben, who wrote in The Strategist about his mistakes, that an important element of being a commentator is being accountable and taking responsibility for things you got wrong. In that spirit, ...
You’d beDrunk by noon, no one would knowJust like the pandemicWithout the sourdoughIf I were there, I’d find a wayTo get treated for hysteriaEvery dayLyrics Riki Lindhome.A varied selection today in Nick’s Kōrero:Thou shalt have no other gods - with Christopher Luxon.Doctors should be seen and not heard - with ...
Two recent foreign challenges suggest that Australia needs urgently to increase its level of defence self-reliance and to ensure that the increased funding that this would require is available. First, the circumnavigation of our continent ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom/$3, NZ Herald/$, Stuff, BusinessDesk/$, Politik-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT/$, WSJ/$, Bloomberg/$, New York Times/$, The Atlantic-$, The ...
According to RNZ’s embedded reporter, the importance of Winston Peters’ talks in Washington this week “cannot be overstated.” Right. “Exceptionally important.” said the maestro himself. This epic importance doesn’t seem to have culminated in anything more than us expressing our “concern” to the Americans about a series of issues that ...
Up until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of "Climate Fresk" and at a guess, this will also be the case for many of you. I stumbled upon it in the self-service training catalog for employees at the company I work at in Germany where it was announced ...
Japan and Australia talk of ‘collective deterrence,’ but they don’t seem to have specific objectives. The relationship needs a clearer direction. The two countries should identify how they complement each other. Each country has two ...
The NZCTU strongly supports the OPC’s decision to issue a code of practice for biometric processing. Our view is that the draft code currently being consulted on is stronger and will be more effective than the exposure code released in early 2024. We are pleased that some of the revisions ...
Australia’s export-oriented industries, particularly agriculture, need to diversify their markets, with a focus on Southeast Asia. This could strengthen economic security and resilience while deepening regional relationships. The Trump administration’s decision to impose tariffs on ...
Minister Shane Jones is introducing fastrack ‘reforms’ to the our fishing industry that will ensure the big players squeeze out the small fishers and entrench an already bankrupt quota system.Our fisheries are under severe stress: the recent decision by theHigh Court ruling that the ...
In what has become regular news, the quarterly ETS auction has failed, with nobody even bothering to bid. The immediate reason is that the carbon price has fallen to around $60, below the auction minimum of $68. And the cause of that is a government which has basically given up ...
US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats have dominated headlines in India in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Trump announced that his reciprocal tariffs—matching other countries’ tariffs on American goods—will go into effect on 2 April, ...
Hi,Back in June of 2021, James Gardner-Hopkins — a former partner at law firm Russell McVeagh — was found guilty of misconduct over sexually inappropriate behaviour with interns.The events all related to law students working as summer interns at Russell McVeagh:As well as intimate touching with a student at his ...
Climate sceptic MP Mark Cameron has slammed National for being ‘out of touch’ by sticking to our climate commitments. Photo: Lynn GrievesonMōrena. Long stories shortest:ACT’s renowned climate sceptic MP Mark Cameron has accused National of being 'out of touch' with farmers by sticking with New Zealand’s Paris accord pledges ...
Now I've heard there was a secret chordThat David played, and it pleased the LordBut you don't really care for music, do you?It goes like this, the fourth, the fifthThe minor falls, the major liftsThe baffled king composing HallelujahSongwriter: Leonard CohenI always thought the lyrics of that great song by ...
People are getting carried away with the virtues of small warship crews. We need to remember the great vice of having few people to run a ship: they’ll quickly tire. Yes, the navy is struggling ...
Mōrena. Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom/$3, NZ Herald/$, Stuff, BusinessDesk/$, Politik-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT/$, WSJ/$, Bloomberg/$, New York Times/$, The Atlantic-$, ...
US President Donald Trump’s hostile regime has finally forced Europe to wake up. With US officials calling into question the transatlantic alliance, Germany’s incoming chancellor, Friedrich Merz, recently persuaded lawmakers to revise the country’s debt ...
We need to establish clearer political boundaries around national security to avoid politicising ongoing security issues and to better manage secondary effects. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) revealed on 10 March that the Dural caravan ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have reiterated their call for Government to protect workers by banning engineered stone in a submission on MBIE’s silica dust consultation. “If Brooke van Velden is genuine when she calls for an evidence-based approach to this issue, then she must support a full ban on ...
The Labour Inspectorate could soon be knocking on the door of hundreds of businesses nation-wide, as it launches a major crackdown on those not abiding by the law. NorthTec staff are on edge as Northland’s leading polytechnic proposes to stop 11 programmes across primary industries, forestry, and construction. Union coverage ...
It’s one thing for military personnel to hone skills with first-person view (FPV) drones in racing competitions. It’s quite another for them to transition to the complexities of the battlefield. Drone racing has become a ...
Seymour says there will be no other exemptions granted to schools wanting to opt out of the Compass contract. Photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories shortest:David Seymour has denied a request from a Christchurch school and any other schools to be exempted from the Compass school lunch programme, saying the contract ...
Russian President Boris Yeltsin, U.S. President Bill Clinton, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, and British Prime Minister John Major signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in ...
Edit: The original story said “Palette Cleanser” in both the story, and the headline. I am never, ever going to live this down. Chain me up, throw me into the pit.Hi,With the world burning — literally and figuratively — I felt like Webworm needed a little palate cleanser at the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah Wesseler(Image credit: Antonio Huerta) Growing up in suburban Ohio, I was used to seeing farmland and woods disappear to make room for new subdivisions, strip malls, and big box stores. I didn’t usually welcome the changes, but I assumed others ...
Myanmar was a key global site for criminal activity well before the 2021 military coup. Today, illicit industry, especially heroin and methamphetamine production, still defines much of the economy. Nowhere, not even the leafiest districts ...
What've I gotta do to make you love me?What've I gotta do to make you care?What do I do when lightning strikes me?And I wake up and find that you're not thereWhat've I gotta do to make you want me?Mmm hmm, what've I gotta do to be heard?What do I ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom3, NZ Herald, Stuff, BusinessDesk-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT-$, WSJ-$, Bloomberg-$, New York Times-$, The Atlantic-$, The Economist-$ ...
Whenever Christopher Luxon drops a classically fatuous clanger or whenever the government has a bad poll – i.e. every week – the talk resumes that he is about to be rolled. This is unlikely for several reasons. For starters, there is no successor. Nicola Willis? Chris Bishop? Simeon Brown? Mark ...
Australia, Britain and European countries should loosen budget rules to allow borrowing to fund higher defence spending, a new study by the Kiel Institute suggests. Currently, budget debt rules are forcing governments to finance increases ...
The NZCTU remains strongly committed to banning engineered stone in New Zealand and implementing better occupational health protections for all workers working with silica-containing materials. In this submission to MBIE, the NZCTU outlines that we have an opportunity to learn from Australia’s experience by implementing a full ban of engineered ...
The Prime Minister has announced a big win in trade negotiations with India.It’s huge, he told reporters. We didn't get everything we came for but we were able to agree on free trade in clothing, fabrics, car components, software, IT consulting, spices, tea, rice, and leather goods.He said that for ...
I have been trying to figure out the logic of Trump’s tariff policies and apparent desire for a global trade war. Although he does not appear to comprehend that tariffs are a tax on consumers in the country doing the tariffing, I can (sort of) understand that he may think ...
As Syria and international partners negotiate the country’s future, France has sought to be a convening power. While France has a history of influence in the Middle East, it will have to balance competing Syrian ...
One of the eternal truths about Aotearoa's economy is that we are "capital poor": there's not enough money sloshing around here to fund the expansion of local businesses, or to build the things we want to. Which gets used as an excuse for all sorts of things, like setting up ...
National held its ground until late 2023 Verion, Talbot Mills & Curia Polls (Red = Labour, Blue = National)If we remove outlier results from Curia (National Party November 2023) National started trending down in October 2024.Verion Polls (Red = Labour, Blue = National)Verian alone shows a clearer deterioration in early ...
In a recent presentation, I recommended, quite unoriginally, that governments should have a greater focus on higher-impact, lower-probability climate risks. My reasoning was that current climate model projections have blind spots, meaning we are betting ...
Daddy, are you out there?Daddy, won't you come and play?Daddy, do you not care?Is there nothing that you want to say?Songwriters: Mark Batson / Beyonce Giselle Knowles.This morning, a look at the much-maligned NZ Herald. Despised by many on the left as little more than a mouthpiece for the National ...
Employers, unions and health and safety advocates are calling for engineered stone to be banned, a day before consultation on regulations closes. On Friday the PSA lodged a pay equity claim for library assistants with the Employment Relations Authority, after the stalling of a claim lodged with six councils in ...
Long stories shortest in Aotearoa’s political economy:Christopher Luxon surprises by announcing trade deal talks with India will start next month, and include beef and dairy. Napier is set to join Whakatane, Dunedin and Westport in staging a protest march against health spending restraints hitting their hospital services. Winston Peters ...
At a time of rising geopolitical tensions and deepening global fragmentation, the Ukraine war has proved particularly divisive. From the start, the battle lines were clearly drawn: Russia on one side, Ukraine and the West ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom3, NZ Herald, Stuff, BusinessDesk-$, Newsroom-$, Politik-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT-$, WSJ-$, Bloomberg-$, New York Times-$, The Atlantic-$, ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 9, 2025 thru Sat, March 15, 2025. This week's roundup is again published by category and sorted by number of articles included in each. We are still interested ...
Max Harris and Max Rashbrooke discuss how we turn around the right wing slogans like nanny state, woke identity politics, and the inefficiency of the public sector – and how we build a progressive agenda. From Donald Trump to David Seymour, from Peter Dutton to Christopher Luxon, we are subject to a ...
The Government dominated the political agenda this week with its two-day conference pitching all manner of public infrastructure projects for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories shortest in our political economy this week: The Government ploughed ahead with offers of PPPs to pension fund managers ...
You know that it's a snake eat snake worldWe slither and serpentine throughWe all took a bite, and six thousand years laterThese apples getting harder to chewSongwriters: Shawn Mavrides.“Please be Jack Tame”, I thought when I saw it was Seymour appearing on Q&A. I’d had a guts full of the ...
So here we are at the wedding of Alexandra Vincent Martelli and David Seymour.Look at all the happy prosperous guests! How proud Nick Mowbray looks of the gift he has made of a mountain of crap plastic toys stuffed into a Cybertruck.How they drink, how they laugh, how they mug ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is waste heat from industrial activity the reason the planet is warming? Waste heat’s contribution to global warming is a small fraction of ...
Some continue to defend David Seymour on school lunches, sidestepping his errors to say:“Well the parents should pack their lunch” and/or “Kids should be grateful for free food.”One of these people is the sitting Prime Minister.So I put together a quick list of why complaint is not only appropriate - ...
“Bugger the pollsters!”WHEN EVERYBODY LIVED in villages, and every village had a graveyard, the expression “whistling past the graveyard” made more sense. Even so, it’s hard to describe the Coalition Government’s response to the latest Taxpayers’ Union/Curia Research poll any better. Regardless of whether they wanted to go there, or ...
Prof Jane Kelsey examines what the ACT party and the NZ Initiative are up to as they seek to impose on the country their hardline, right wing, neoliberal ideology. A progressive government elected in 2026 would have a huge job putting Humpty Dumpty together again and rebuilding a state that ...
See I try to make a differenceBut the heads of the high keep turning awayThere ain't no useWhen the world that you love has goneOoh, gotta make a changeSongwriters: Arapekanga Adams-Tamatea / Brad Kora / Hiriini Kora / Joel Shadbolt.Aotearoa for Sale.This week saw the much-heralded and somewhat alarming sight ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom3, NZ Herald, Stuff, BusinessDesk-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT-$, WSJ-$, Bloomberg-$, New York Times-$, The Atlantic-$, The Economist-$ ...
By international standards the New Zealand healthcare system appears satisfactory – certainly no worse generally than average. Yet it is undergoing another redisorganisation.While doing some unrelated work, I came across some international data on the healthcare sector which seemed to contradict my – and the conventional wisdom’s – view of ...
When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he knew that he was upending Europe’s security order. But this was more of a tactical gambit than a calculated strategy ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Over the last year, I’ve been warning about Luxon’s pitch to privatise our public assets.He had told reporters in October that nothing was off the cards:Schools, hospitals, prisons, and ...
When ASPI’s Cyclone Tracy: 50 Years On was published last year, it wasn’t just a historical reflection; it was a warning. Just months later, we are already watching history repeat itself. We need to bake ...
1. Why was school lunch provider The Libelle Group in the news this week?a. Grand Winner in Pie of The Yearb. Scored a record 108% on YELP c. Bought by Oravida d. Went into liquidation2. What did our Prime Minister offer prospective investors at his infrastructure investment jamboree?a. The Libelle ...
South Korea has suspended new downloads of DeepSeek, and it was were right to do so. Chinese tech firms operate under the shadow of state influence, misusing data for surveillance and geopolitical advantage. Any country ...
Previous big infrastructure PPPs such as Transmission Gully were fiendishly complicated to negotiate, generated massive litigation and were eventually rewritten anyway. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesLong stories shortest: The Government’s international investment conference ignores the facts that PPPs cost twice as much as vanilla debt-funded public infrastructure, often take ...
Woolworths has proposed a major restructure of its New Zealand store operating model, leaving workers worried their hours and pay could be cut. Public servants are being asked how productive their office is, how much they use AI, and whether they’re overloaded with meetings as part of a “census”. An ...
National is looking to cut hundreds of jobs at New Zealand’s Defence Force, while at the same time it talks up plans to increase focus and spending in Defence. ...
It’s been revealed that the Government is secretly trying to bring back a ‘one-size fits all’ standardised test – a decision that has shocked school principals. ...
The Green Party is calling for the compassionate release of Dean Wickliffe, a 77-year-old kaumātua on hunger strike at the Spring Hill Corrections Facility, after visiting him at the prison. ...
The Green Party is calling on Government MPs to support Chlöe Swarbrick’s Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence and illegal actions in Palestine, following another day of appalling violence against civilians in Gaza. ...
The Green Party stands in support of volunteer firefighters petitioning the Government to step up and change legislation to provide volunteers the same ACC coverage and benefits as their paid counterparts. ...
At 2.30am local time, Israel launched a treacherous attack on Gaza killing more than 300 defenceless civilians while they slept. Many of them were children. This followed a more than 2 week-long blockade by Israel on the entry of all goods and aid into Gaza. Israel deliberately targeted densely populated ...
Living Strong, Aging Well There is much discussion around the health of our older New Zealanders and how we can age well. In reality, the delivery of health services accounts for only a relatively small percentage of health outcomes as we age. Significantly, dry warm housing, nutrition, exercise, social connection, ...
Shane Jones’ display on Q&A showed how out of touch he and this Government are with our communities and how in sync they are with companies with little concern for people and planet. ...
Labour does not support the private ownership of core infrastructure like schools, hospitals and prisons, which will only see worse outcomes for Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is disappointed the Government voted down Hūhana Lyndon’s member’s Bill, which would have prevented further alienation of Māori land through the Public Works Act. ...
The Labour Party will support Chloe Swarbrick’s member’s bill which would allow sanctions against Israel for its illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories. ...
The Government’s new procurement rules are a blatant attack on workers and the environment, showing once again that National’s priorities are completely out of touch with everyday Kiwis. ...
With Labour and Te Pāti Māori’s official support, Opposition parties are officially aligned to progress Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick’s Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in Palestine. ...
Te Pāti Māori extends our deepest aroha to the 500 plus Whānau Ora workers who have been advised today that the govt will be dismantling their contracts. For twenty years , Whānau Ora has been helping families, delivering life-changing support through a kaupapa Māori approach. It has built trust where ...
Labour welcomes Simeon Brown’s move to reinstate a board at Health New Zealand, bringing the destructive and secretive tenure of commissioner Lester Levy to an end. ...
This morning’s announcement by the Health Minister regarding a major overhaul of the public health sector levels yet another blow to the country’s essential services. ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill that will ensure employment decisions in the public service are based on merit and not on forced woke ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ targets. “This Bill would put an end to the woke left-wing social engineering and diversity targets in the public sector. ...
Police have referred 20 offenders to Destiny Church-affiliated programmes Man Up and Legacy as ‘wellness providers’ in the last year, raising concerns that those seeking help are being recruited into a harmful organisation. ...
Te Pāti Māori welcomes the resignation of Richard Prebble from the Waitangi Tribunal. His appointment in October 2024 was a disgrace- another example of this government undermining Te Tiriti o Waitangi by appointing a former ACT leader who has spent his career attacking Māori rights. “Regardless of the reason for ...
Police Minister Mark Mitchell is avoiding accountability by refusing to answer key questions in the House as his Government faces criticism over their dangerous citizen’s arrest policy, firearm reform, and broken promises to recruit more police. ...
The number of building consents issued under this Government continues to spiral, taking a toll on the infrastructure sector, tradies, and future generations of Kiwi homeowners. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Prime Minister to rule out joining the AUKUS military pact in any capacity following the scenes in the White House over the weekend. ...
Analysis - Most New Zealanders support the country meeting its international climate targets, according to a poll commissioned for the environment ministry. ...
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – Pacific Media WatchEarthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths of Plains FM96.9 radio talk to Dr David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report, about heightened global fears of nuclear war as tensions have mounted since US President Donald Trump has ...
“New Zealanders want sanctions on Israel for genocide but Mr Peters refuses to say anything, let alone impose any form of sanction at all. That is appeasement,” Minto says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erin Brannigan, Associate Professor Theatre and Performance, UNSW Sydney Mass Movement.Morgan Sette/Adelaide Festival I arrived at Stephanie Lake’s premiere of Mass Movement a little late on my first day at Adelaide Festival. Walking down the hill from King William road ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rossana Ruggeri, Lecturer and ARC DECRA Fellow, Queensland University of Technology KPNO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURAB / Tafreshi The universe has been expanding ever since the Big Bang almost 14 billion years ago, and astronomers believe a kind of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natalie Elms, Senior Lecturer, School of Accountancy, Queensland University of Technology Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock Steering a large company successfully is no mean feat. As companies grow more complex in an increasingly turbulent business environment – so, too, do the responsibilities of their board ...
Analysis: Peters heads home from Washington DC armed with fresh intel on what the new US administration is thinking, and the impact it might have on New Zealand and the wider Pacific. ...
The application to the ERA asks it to decide rates of remuneration for probation officers that are free from gender-based discrimination. The ERA has the power to fix those rates. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cosette Saunders, PhD candidate, Sydney Placebo Lab, University of Sydney Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock In 1998, shortly after arriving for work, a Tennessee high-school teacher reported a “gasoline-like smell” and feeling dizzy. Soon after, many students and staff began reporting symptoms of chemical poisoning. ...
NZDF told staff today of plans for a major restructure of the civilian workforce resulting in a net reduction of 374 roles. This comes on top of cuts late last year which saw 144 civilian workers take voluntary redundancy. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Smith, Associate Professor in American Politics and Foreign Policy, US Studies Centre, University of Sydney US President Donald Trump has exploited American nationalism as effectively as anyone in living memory. What sets him apart is his use of national humiliation as ...
The Hīkoi is intended to pressure the Government and Ministry of Health to reverse moves towards restrictions, and guarantee access to puberty blockers and hormones. Protesters are set to assemble at 10am at Waitangi Park, before marching through ...
Three different sporting codes share the same venue over the space of four days. Here’s how they all stack up. Is it too late to reschedule Friday night’s Warriors game to a Sunday afternoon kickoff at Eden Park? This is all it would take to create a total sporting eclipse: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jon Whittle, Director, Data61, CSIRO Anton Vierietin/Shutterstock In February this year, Google announced it was launching “a new AI system for scientists”. It said this system was a collaborative tool designed to help scientists “in creating novel hypotheses and research plans”. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Haswell, Professor of Practice (Environmental Wellbeing), Indigenous Strategy and Services, Honorary Professor (Geosciences) at University of Sydney & Professor of Health, Safety and Environment, Queensland University of Technology, University of Sydney Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has indicated a Coalition government would ...
Alex Casey reviews The Rule of Jenny Pen, a new local nightmare set within the four walls of a rest home. Mortality and danger seep in from the very first scene of The Rule of Jenny Pen. As Judge Stefan Mortensen ONZM (Geoffrey Rush) squashes fly innards into his judge’s ...
Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more intense, but New Zealand doesn’t have a dedicated disaster loss database – and this lack of data is increasingly detrimental to our long-term prosperity. Following the Trump administration’s abrupt cuts to USAID funding last month, the online international disaster database EM-DAT ...
I’ve been turned down once. Should I confess my love again? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,Writing in with a common lesbian problem. I have a friend – let’s call her B. We have been friends for a few years now. Fairly early into our ...
Outgoing Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has today released a report about his reflections over the past nine years, on the Official Information Act 1982, along with separate investigations into seven agencies, and two new case notes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aaron Camens, Lecturer in Palaeontology, Flinders University Musky rat-kangaroo.Amy Tschirn In the remnant rainforests of coastal far-north Queensland, bushwalkers may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a diminutive marsupial that’s the last living representative of its family. The musky ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Visitor, School of History, Australian National University The world had its eyes on Sydney in 2000. A million people lined the harbour to ring in the new millennium (though some said it was actually the final year of the old ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland The most striking feature of the Australian economy in the 21st century has been the exceptionally long period of fairly steady, though not rapid, economic growth. The deep recession of 1989–91, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Moran, Lecturer in the Department of English, Creative Writing and Film, University of Adelaide German Vizulis/Shutterstock If you peruse the philosophy section of your local bookshop, you’ll probably find a number of books on Stoicism – an ancient philosophy enjoying ...
An 11-storey timber building planned for the thoroughfare has been denied consent, and it’s not just the passionate yimbies who are up in arms, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. K Road developer to appeal council decision ...
Going into the Prime Minister’s first trip to India, NZ Indian Central Association president Narendra Bhana said one of the key indicators of success would be whether or not New Zealand managed to secure a direct flight to India.“The absence of direct flights between New Zealand and India makes travel ...
Oh dear…
https://twitter.com/ColinBrowning14/status/1227906931450425344
lol who would have thought it! Obviously not Colin.
" Public Affairs Committee is helping to fund a Super PAC launching attack ads against Sen. Bernie Sanders in Nevada on Saturday, according to two sources with knowledge of the arrangement. The ads are being run by a group called Democratic Majority for Israel, founded by longtime AIPAC strategist Mark Mellman "
https://theintercept.com/2020/02/14/aipac-anti-bernie-sanders-ads-nevada/
What to do in the wake of the Jones disgrace? http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2020/02/we-need-to-fix-defamation-law.html
From the sidebar, Jackal notes who else needs to be made accountable: http://thejackalman.blogspot.com/2020/02/nz-mainstream-media-promotes-racism.html
AH…so that's one way China can track citizens who are likely to have been exposed to nCoV
https://youtu.be/vE4pBkslqS4?t=336
Very clever or diabolical depending on your perspective.
Excerpts from a report on the propaganda war against Assange. UN special rapporteur on torture Melzer "admits that he was himself initially taken in by the propaganda campaign."
Here is an interesting piece on the sorry saga of the 737 Max airliner, where Boeing management put profits first before people including the SME business as well and their own people from the 737 Max management team to the workers on the hanger floor.
Boeing once had a culture of customer and its work force from the hanger floor up to the broad room come first before profit. Now the current broad has trash not only its culture of safety first, putting customers and workers first culture, but the entire culture, legacy and history of Boeing as a aircraft manufacturer all because of putting profits and shareholders first.
Obviously they don’t teach history, ethics and culture anymore at business school or wherever they get their fancy certificates/ training these days.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-15/ex-boeing-manager-says-one-in-25-737-max-had-safety-incident/11957634
Other sources I've read confirm the problem and specifically date it back to when Boeing purchased McDonnell Douglas … who then inexplicably managed to get many of it's executives into positions of power and then methodically dismantle the engineer-led culture of Boeing.
By contrast one large US company I’ve been associated with much of my working life has almost always appointed engineers as it’s CEO … and so far it’s worked.
But yes, overall the culture of the ‘generic manager’ who doesn’t have industry specific expertise has been a disaster. Competency counts for way more than the ideologues on all sides like to think.
The saga of the DC10 cargo doors failing has long been used in engineering education around an engineer's professional duties, ethics, reporting problems to the chain of command and whistleblowing when no actions were taken to correct known safety problems.
But yes, overall the culture of the ‘generic manager’ who doesn’t have industry specific expertise has been a disaster.
Look at the disaster with public institutions here.
Re refugee settlement in Whanganui
"speeches and before workshops could begin, Mair said the group did not support refugees coming into its tribal domain until it had sorted out its own backyard."
Yes so true Ken Mair, but true of all New Zealand these days. What a mess our politicians have created over the last 25 years through immigration in one form or another.It is a way past time to stop, consolidate and recreate New Zealand to the pleasant place it used to be for most of us to live in.
Yep, and I suppose we could start by getting rid of all those immigrants from Britain who have really buggered the joint up since their arrival a couple of centuries ago. I'd start with anyone with a stereotypical Anglo Saxon name, like, for example, Janet.
Alternatively, we could keep the immigrants and boot out the bigots. There's a lot less bigots than immigrants so it would be less time consuming and easier to manage and if they didn't want to go back to wherever they came from, there's plenty of room on the Auckland Islands. Diet's a bit limited though, mainly dead penguins and guano paste, but I'm sure they'd adapt.
LOL – wellsaid! And there is a big difference between 'refugees' and 'migrants/immigrants' but none so blind etc etc
Good to see you back here, hope you do so more often.
I know there is a difference between refugees and immigrants generally but until we have our free health service , our education systems, our state led housing programs and our general infrastructure all up and running again properly then tax payers money used to assist yet more people to come into this currently dysfunctional country is wrongly budgeted and spent.
You do realise that migrants pay tax – and prop up the housing 'market' that successive govts have indulged?
Subtract migration and NZ has been in deep trouble for decades. Swapping houses, with banks clipping the ticket, has not produced sustainable wealth – or built the decent services you are missing. Cutting migration now does not fix that, let alone taking even fewer refugees than our share.
"Subtract migration and NZ has been in deep trouble for decades"
How do you mean?
Can't recall who did it but some local economist showed GDP minus migration impacts since the 90s and it was not pretty. Oram?
Shamubeel
If Shamubeel says something, the opposite is probably true…………
Don't buy a house in Auckland he said, it's better to rent. Nek Minute……guess who decides to buy. One of the worst economists IMO.
How was it not pretty though?
Going backwards.
I don't know what that means in this context. We're already going backwards.
Managing migration now and managing the infrastructure required for that managed migration plan does fix it in the long term though.
We should be starting this now (and at the very least this government has started) because it's been amateur hour for the last decade.
The globalists would be proud of you… Fortunately there's a big trend in populist politics that pushes back on immigration policy that undermines a country.
How does immigration "undermine" a country? Especially non-refugee immigration (because refugees are a shameful fuck-all of our immigration stats).
I wouldn't use the term undermine, because we run the economy we want and none of it is ideal at the moment. But immigration does have impacts. People with assets and the exchange rate in their favour can and do bump up land/property prices. There's also the ongoing issue that the left doesn't want to talk about yet, about what the real world (as in nature) carrying capacity of NZ is. This is about population, and obviously immigration policy ties into that.
The left's general position that immigration is always good is stopping us having the harder conversations about *how we should design our immigration policy. I have no doubt that the Key's govt's motivations and how they ran immigration policy caused problems. Labour's clumsy handling hasn't helped either.
The lefts position (eg Sanders) is unbounded immigration depresses wages and increases profits for corporates.
https://twitter.com/ColumbiaBugle/status/1228310760582873088
Now the acolytes of the high church of the hidden hand may postulate that this (with increased global trade) is good for growth.Adam Smith in the inquiry suggested that high profits and not high wages are a constraint on the economy.
Is NZ immigration "unbounded"?
Immigration has impacts.
We also have a non-replacement reproductive rate, which also has impacts.
Immigration might not always be good – especially too fast for infrastructure development (not just immigrating into somewhere with shitty infrastructure planning). But in the NZ context with our controlled immigration policy, I've yet to see anyone raise a solidly decent objection to our current rate. Especially the ones who use words like "undermine".
Is NZ immigration "unbounded"?
Not it isn't, but all too often when the left discusses this, we don't make the proposed boundaries clear at all. All too often it just reads as 'open borders'.
I would have thought that when discussing current immigration to NZ the current boundaries would be implicit, unless someone is specifically discussing "open borders".
We also have international obligations in respect of refugees and stateless persons and at a measly 750 refugees a year for some decade,s we (NZ) have not been doing our fair share compared to other countries – including Australia from memory. I really cannot be bothered checking the latest figures but I did work in govt for many years, including in areas relating to our refugee and other international obligations.
However, before replying I did do a quick check of your comments here on TS and immigration generally seems to be a longstanding bugbear with you in relation to maintaining a status quo nice life etc. as once existed in the 1950s/60s for example but which is long gone and unlikely to ever return as it was in those days.
Alternatively, we could keep the immigrants and boot out the bigots.
I suppose you get to determine the difference?
Yep, and I suppose we could start by getting rid of all those immigrants from Britain who have really buggered the joint up since their arrival a couple of centuries ago.
Because if I got to choose that statement would fall firmly into the bigot camp.
Yep, and I suppose we could start by getting rid of all those immigrants from Britain who have really buggered the joint up since their arrival a couple of centuries ago.
Not a very elegant statement.
Great leaders such as Te Rangi Hiroa thought different.
My mother was a full Maori of the Ngati-Mutunga tribe of North Taranaki in New Zealand. She had the arresting name of Ngarongo-ki-tua (Tidings-that-reach-afar). I hope for the sake of her memory that, by gathering tidings from afar, I may be worthy the honour of being her son …
… My father belonged to a north of Ireland family that lived in Armagh, so I am entitled to his family name. I am binomial, bilingual, and inherit a mixture of two bloods that I would not change for a total of either. I mention this brief family history to show that from my birth I was endowed with a background for the study of Polynesian manners and customs that no university could have given me. My mother's blood enables me to appreciate a culture to which I belong, and my father's speech helps me to interpret it, inadequate though the rendering be at times.
Yeah lets the immigrants run over Māori culture.
Lets keep forcing Māori to accept more immigrants so white liberals like yourself can throw around the term racist to anyone who wants to have a debate about immigration.
And rather than have a debate with janet you go all cock sure arshole. I'd get a ban for trying to shut down a debate like that – but you…
"shutting down debate", Adam says, only 11 debaters and 14 comments later.
you white liberal, you
Ha! The lesser spotted white liberal, number 94 on Unesco's Most Endangered Species list
I think the point is that Janet whom you directed that 'inelegant' little diatribe to has indeed gone silent.
Janet has been a commenter on TS for some years and I doubt that she is a shrinking violet who will disappear. She contributes some very good ideas etc on sustainability, environment, and similar issues and I admire and respect her for her views and actions in these areas. She also grows my favourite fruit of all time, tamarillos, on a small commercial basis. Sadly, hard to come by and very expensive these days with the dieback of tamarillo trees due to a nasty insect whose name escapes me. So I also admire her for continuing to carry on growing them.
However, I have also followed her views on immigration also expressed on any number of occasions here on TS over the same period and have not been impressed and consider these at odds with the NZ we have become and will continue to become. These include that NZ should only take permanent immigrants from first world countries such as the UK, Canada, USA etc; and not from second and third world countries; our FTAs with countries such as China and India should not provide any provisions for immigration from these countries, all "non-contributing illegal immigrants' should immediately be thrown out of NZ; and NZ shouuld only take in the barest minimun of immigrants to meet special skills needs. I won't provide links but just one example is the interesting discussion held under a Post on 27 April 2017 concerning Immigration and Winston Peters.
Obviously Janet is entitled to her views and to express them; but IMHO she should also then be prepared to face robust challenges to these views.
She was after all the one who started the thread @ 7 re blocks people such as Ken Mair are putting in the way of settling refugees – not immigrants per se – in the Whanganui area.
Fair enough, but unless Janet does decide to reply we can only assume TRP's response was more likely to discourage participation than not.
The really interesting question arises in the context of cultural integrity. The history of colonisation informs us quite clearly what happens when an existing (indigenous) people are out numbered by new arrivals from an entirely different culture. It's well understood to be exceedingly detrimental. This is pretty much where Ken Mair is coming from.
Yet for some reason this does not apply to white cultures.
Janet self-identified back on 17 April 2017 as "I am a fourth generation NZ fulltime farmer." No mention of any indigeous connections
I understand where Ken Mair is coming from to a degree. Despite being white myself, I am really pleased that my wider whanau now includes quite a few younger mixed Pakeha/Maori (Mahuta) cousins.
I also understand the strength of feeling associated with Turangawaewae as sadly I am having to sell up my family home of over 65 years where I spent most of my childhood and returned to after my father's death, and probably move away from the wider area of South Wellington my family/families have been associated with for c 150 years. Our once lower/middleclass neighbouthood is so sought after that it has become too expensive for many of us (mainly white) families/pensioners associated with the area for generations.
But we all have to move with the times and accept these changes and challenges.
I may be wrong but I get a bit of a whiff of protectionism of a commenter because she is female or even mansplaining. Please don't. I am a woman.
I may be wrong but I get a bit of a whiff of protectionism of a commenter because she is female
lol … fuck off.
"Fair enough, but unless Janet does decide to reply we can only assume TRP's response was more likely to discourage participation than not."
"lol … fuck off."
I understand where Ken Mair is coming from to a degree.
Doubt it.Mairs argument is that the housing problems in Whanganui need to be resolved first,prior to Refugee settlement (its called localisim)
The government needs to address both the failure under its watch to provide adequate social housing in Whanganui,and to constrain investor greed and avarice (another failure) first.
Landlords Link managing director Tracey Onishenko said rents had shot up off the back of investor interest in the city.
"Rents have skyrocketed. I do think some of them are over the top for what you are getting. I mean the average three-bedroom home would be about … $350 to $370 [a week] so that's a lot of money for a lot of people."
Ms Onishenko thought Mr Mair had a point.
"I think he does because at the end of the day we're going to be worried about the refugees coming here and if they are not going to have paid employment they're going to find it hard to live. Where are they going to live?
"There are people here that are employed, they're struggling and they're getting probably okay money and they're struggling to secure a house."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/395707/focus-on-housing-squeeze-not-refugees-whanganui-mayor
https://www.whanganui.govt.nz/files/assets/public/guides-and-information/housing-snapshot-report-5-december-2018.pdf
Thanks for the links. Janet provided a quote in the comment at 7 but did not provide a link to where the quote came from.
As I said I do understand what Ken Mair is saying as I already knew many of the grounds that various communities have been making for not having refugees in their communities – and most are genuine constraints such as housing costs and availability.
However, with or without refugee considerations, Whanganui is certainly not alone in facing a major shortage of social housing and/or skyrocketing rentals.
A reasonable three bedroom house in my own Wellington suburb would have cost c $400 – 500 about three years ago. Those same properties with a lick of paint and a heat pump installed are now going for upwards of $700/800, even a $1000 per week. The actual availability of rental property has fallen dramatically with many rental now being let out as short-term B&Bs etc.
So yes, there are a lot of factors involved, and it would be great if the government could flash a wand and conjure up lots more social housing, higher wages etc etc overnight but thse things take time. Just imagine what the situation would have been if National were still the government…
I do think some of them are over the top for what you are getting. I mean the average three-bedroom home would be about … $350 to $370 [a week]
Indeed but here is the kicker … costs are going through the roof as well. $400pw is indeed a lot of money for many people, and while this amounts to a gross rental income of around $20k pa, costs such as rates ($3k), insurance($3k), property management($2k) and maintenance (2% of gross value) doesn't leave much left over. And that's before any borrowings or tax are paid. This is why rents have been increasing; your bastard landlord is not rolling in it.
And yes the new govt regulations are having an impact. I need to consider what to do with a family property that my brother has lived in for almost 30 years but he now needs to move on from. But because it's got a 70's style cathedral ceiling it's ridiculously expensive (and largely pointless) to put modern 'compliant' insulation in. What's there works perfectly well, but the rules don't allow for it now.
Renting has just become too hard and our options are to short term it with AirBnB or sell. Either way a tenant doesn't get a look in.
I have recently ( november) downsized to an 80m^2 townhouse in chch.(under 8yrs old) fully double glazed,and double insulated.
My living costs (rates,insurance,electricity,phone and broadband) are under $ 125.00 per week.Solar power this year with plug in hybrid will also incorporate vehicle costs in that figure.
Its a home not an investment.
RL, it highlights how poorly aligned housing costs and income have become since Rogernomics.
That landlords are supposedly on the bones of their arse (despite making huge capital gains for nearly 20 years now), while young families struggle to pay rent is a clear indication of a failed economic system.
@MB
Yes incomes and housing costs are out of kilter, I've always agreed with this. In my view the big problem is a deeply structural one; in this country the Wages Share to GDP ratio is remarkably low for a developed nation and have been for a very long time. This flows primarily from govt policies and relatively low labour productivity, more than hordes of greedy landlords trying to screw everyone over.
Australia and Canada have both experienced similar property booms (especially in their gateway cities Sydney, Melbourne and Vancouver) but because wages are significantly higher it has caused somewhat less social pain. Also being larger countries there remain plenty of regional cities where property is still good value. By contrast in NZ, rising property prices in Auckland soon flow through everywhere.
This is a complex topic and nothing written in one blog comment is going to be without omission or flaw, but in my view the big problem is that NZ remains a relatively low wage country and this is why our housing costs are hurting so much.
PS. We chat to many kiwis here in Aus, and the one thing they all agree on is the ‘sticker shock’ when they make the trip back home to NZ to see family. Not only are wages low in NZ, the cost of living is significantly higher. It’s a very unhappy double whammy for anyone living on less than the median income.
Rl
Lets look at a tale of 2 cities (ak and chch) both experienced exogenous shocks to housing,one natural and one man made.
Nearly 170,000 properties were damaged in the earthquakes, about three quarters of Canterbury’s housing stock; the proportion was even higher within Christchurch City. The consequent shortage in housing has resulted in a sharp increase in house prices in Christchurch. House prices in the city are more than 40 percent higher than their pre-quake levels (figure 6). While this increase in house prices is smaller than the increase that has occurred in Auckland, where there is also a shortage of housing, it is more than double the increase that has occurred in the rest of New Zealand.
The shortage of housing has contributed to a sharp increase in rents, which had increased by almost 50 percent in Christchurch City by the start of 2015, compared with a nationwide increase of about 15 percent during that time (figure 7). The increase in rents has been concentrated in the relatively unaffected suburbs to the west and south of Christchurch as people have moved away from harder hit areas. Rental increases in the more heavily affected coastal and riverside suburbs are in line with the nationwide increase. More recently, rents have started to decline in Christchurch – by about 9 percent in the first 11 months of 2015.In part, the decline in rents reflects the increase in residential construction under way. The number of residential consents has increased from about 500 consents per month before the quake to a peak of more than 1200 consents per month at the end of 2014, around the time the Bank estimates residential construction activity peaked as a percent of potential GDP.
https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/-/media/ReserveBank/Files/Publications/Bulletins/2016/2016feb79-3.pdf?revision=98c011a5-c4aa-4d71-b6dd-a3e436620734
Chch has now equated to historical norms (excluding social housing) hence there is little capital gains.Ak now has an infrastructure deficit greater the chch EQ .
RL:
Let's not confuse labour productivity with business productivity. The problem is not caused by workers.
The share of profits trousered by owners and not re-invested in things that make businesses more productive (like training, IT systems, better roles) has increased since the 1980s up-ended the previous social contract.
That's where change is needed but nobody seems to be proposing much of it, are they.
Happily, the Gov't is finally going to crack down on the gangs. Couldn't happen too soon.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10509500
I wonder how they are going to crack down on them … send them to the Auckland Islands too ?
I had forgotten what a stable genius that guy's govt were – look how embedded gangs and P are now.
And he accepted Dutton's eviction policy with barely a whimper. Despite it having a profoundly negative effect on NZ communities.
John Key didn't care though, because it didn't affect him.
And the dolts around him like McCully probably couldn't see a lucrative enough angle to be arsed with either.
You can't blame Australia for putting out the trash.
Yes you can. We are supposed to have the very closest relationship of all countries. Their policy acts as if that is not the case at all. It acts as if AUS and NZ were independent of one another.
They are independent of one another.
That is not true. Australians and New Zealanders are able to move, live and work freely between the two countries.
In terms of labour, residency, earning and contribution the two peoples are indistinguishable.
Only when character is involved has the Australian determined the relationship ends.
You seem happy with the exploding gang violence though. Weird.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/119467711/change-in-gang-landscape-adds-to-rising-tensions
It's an incredibly disruptive and irresponsible policy by right wing Australian governments who seek to export their misery to their closest partner solely for political reasons.
I can’t think of a worse example of destructive trans Tasman relationships than this. And it is happening right now.
We are mugs to put up with it.
Denying NZ residents in Australia access to welfare, education, etc is at least as despicable – and with way less justification.
Yep. What happened to reciprocity in this relationship?
Bit by bit the balance of the 'most special relationship in the world' is being destroyed by successive right wing Australian parliamentarians.
NZ is left to suffer while Australia get the benefit of tens or hundreds of thousands of lower paid Kiwi workers without having to provide any kind of social assistance.
They also get to chop off the worst bit and sent them back.
It's free ride for Australia and in fact in my industry they are now flooding the worker market at the expense of Kiwis.
Aussies are naturally Trumpian and racist. We should let them know that and fight for once.
The invaders he referred to back then were the motorcycle biker gangs, like the Mongols, which came amid the wave of deportees from Australia.
Its the mob and bp who have been brawling in HB and they are still at it today.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/119559957/mongrel-mob-and-black-power-clash-again-in-hawkes-bay
The response by the MM to enhanced competition in CHCH suggests their business model needs external review.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/119513308/christchurch-barbershop-damaged-by-fire-in-overnight-breakin
Prince Andrew linked to yet another child rapist.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2020/02/prince-andrew-linked-to-fashion-mogul-peter-nygard-facing-rape-sex-trafficking-claims.html
Tune in live now, USA calling out China big time, it's going to be all on…..
Esper is speaking at the Munich Security Conference
Fork….. Russia is no longer our biggest threat, it's now China…. says Esper…suggesting democracy
He said that xi jinping had basically been ruining China at the begining of the speech.
Anyways, nighty nite… wonder what will come of this by the morrow….stunning speech.
Probably not much will happen overnight Cinny as it is all the usual bullshit and bluster from Esper. For a start, the US is not a democracy, its representation is decided by an electoral college one a one person one vote democracy. It is further polluted as there are no constraints on the electoral vote buying and influence rorts. Secondly, when did the US ever subscribe to and respect international law or a rules based system of international trade and transactional relationships? If China is in the process of developing its military capability, why would they do that? Even North Korea knows the answer to that one. Mr. Esper should have saved his breath as the US is increasingly providing proof of its decline into the status of a rapidly dying empire – as his utterances prove.
I read a bit of this article by Aussie hack Sam Clench.
I read up the the word 'humungous' and realised Sam wasn't worth reading anymore.
I was taken back to when I moved to a new school in 5th Form and wrote an English essay which was well received except for a solid red line through the word 'humungous' and an accompanying note, "too colloquial".
35 Years later I remember it clearly as it was a pivotal moment in my life.
I see Sam Clench using this word in a paid column attacking Bernie Sanders for wanting to be too human and I can't help thinking he is a fraud.
He links Castro and Corbyn, Sanders and the Soviet Union in his MOR diatribe.
I'd rather Bernie failed against Trump than Sam's reasonable, functioning adult in the White House again soft Republican solution.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12308861
Whenever I go to yum cha it is 95% Chinese customer. This suggests Chinese New Zealanders themselves are abandoning Chinese restaurants.
This also suggests Chinese New Zealanders are either worried about the movements of other Chinese, or are superstitious, or don't trust the advice of New Zealand authorities.
Probably a combination of all three.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12308733
Farrar watch:
David says, "National should promise to do the same here, if elected".
And what is he referring to? The Bojo government’s think process.
So, not only is David Farrar advocating government intervention in university policy (the horror), but specifically the subjugation of student unions to government will.
So, what kind of free speech does Farrar believe in? Right wing free speech, and right wing free speech only.
Tell you what I wouldn't mind, you for once explaining why you call me names on threads
Bro. This is why I address you by those names on threads.
You from another forum today:
And you from this forum today:
Feign ignorance if you wish, Dark.
Kia Ora Newshub.
Grandparents are good teachers for their mokopuna as they have more experience and time.
Formula E is about promoting a sestanable future Electric everything.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Newshub.
Good advertising is the best way to bring in the putea.
Lolly scramble.
He's never stopped campaigning .
The floodings were pridicted hope no one is lost in the United Kingdom floods I see they had flooding in Los Angeles.
Funny.????.
Holiday what's that I've got EdTV 24/7.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
That's is cool telling the story of Ngāti Porou signing of the Waitangi treaty and the story up to the settlement.
Its good to see other Iwi gaining traction on their Treaty Settlement process.
The system is corupt how do you TRUST that
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora The Am Show.
I've owned a few Holdens they are classic now.
Racist are haters some people use hate to float their toilets.
We must plan for being 70s.
Gliding on was a good classic TV series.
Newshub 430 news had a power outage.?????.
Rents are just shorting going up I seen a good program on Maori TV last night about shonky and his m8s.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Newshub.
The Prefab House construction process needs to be ramped up.
War is for idiots the woman and children are the ones that pay the price in suffering.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
,, I,, I do get a itchy ear when I hear Te reo pronounced terrible wrong.
Ka pai
That's the way The Indigenous Rugby League All Stars making a stand. Times are changing Kia Kaha.
Ka kite Ano