" 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.
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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 ...
Robert Kaplan’s book Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis paints a portrait of civilisation in flux. Drawing insights from history, literature and art, he examines the effect of modern technology, globalisation and urbanisation on ...
Sexuality - Strong and warm and wild and freeSexuality - Your laws do not apply to meSexuality - Don't threaten me with miserySexuality - I demand equalitySong: Billy Bragg.First, thank you to everyone who took part in yesterday’s survey. Some questions worked better than others, but I found them interesting, ...
Hi,I just got back from a week in Japan thanks to the power of cheap flights and years of accumulated credit card points.The last time I was in Japan the government held a press conference saying they might take legal action against me and Netflix, so there was a little ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on the week in geopolitics, including Donald Trump’s wrecking of the post-WW II political landscape; andHealth Coalition Aotearoa co-chair Lisa ...
Hi,I just got back from a short trip to Japan, mostly spending time in Tokyo.I haven’t been there since we shot Dark Tourist back in 2017 — and that landed us in a bit of hot water with the Japanese government.I am glad to report I was not thrown into ...
I’ve been on Substack for almost 8 months now.It’s been good in terms of the many great individuals that populate its space. So much variety and intelligence and humour and depth.I joined because someone suggested I should ‘start a Substack,’ whatever that meant.So I did.Turning on payments seemed like the ...
Open access notables Would Adding the Anthropocene to the Geologic Time Scale Matter?, McCarthy et al., AGU Advances:The extraordinary fossil fuel-driven outburst of consumption and production since the mid-twentieth century has fundamentally altered the way the Earth System works. Although humans have impacted their environment for millennia, justification for ...
Australia should buy equipment to cheaply and temporarily convert military transport aircraft into waterbombers. On current planning, the Australian Defence Force will have a total of 34 Chinook helicopters and Hercules airlifters. They should be ...
Photo by Gareth Davies on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guest , and special ...
Indonesia’s government has slashed its counterterrorism (CT) budgets, despite the persistent and evolving threat of violent extremism. Australia can support regional CT efforts by filling this funding void. Reducing funding to the National Counterterrorism Agency ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Resource Management (Prohibition on Extraction of Freshwater for On-selling) Amendment Bill (Debbie Ngarewa-Packer) The bill does exactly what it says on the label, and would effectively end the rapacious water-bottling industry ...
Twilight Time Lighthouse Cuba, Wigan Street, Wellington, Sunday 6 April, 5:30pm for 6pm start. Twilight Time looks at the life and work of Desmond Ball, (1947-2016), a barefooted academic from ‘down under’ who was hailed by Jimmy Carter as “the man who saved the world”, as he proved the fallacy ...
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. ...
The Green Party is appalled by the Government’s plan to disestablish Resource Teachers of Māori (RTM) roles, a move that takes another swing at kaupapa Māori education. ...
The Government’s levies announcement is a step in the right direction, but they must be upfront about who will pay its new infrastructure levies and ensure that first-home buyers are protected from hidden costs. ...
The Government’s levies announcement is a step in the right direction, but they must be upfront about who will pay its new infrastructure levies and ensure that first-home buyers are protected from hidden costs. ...
Asia Pacific Report At least 400 people have been killed after a surprise Israeli attack on Gaza in the early hours of Tuesday. The Israeli government vows to continue escalating these military attacks, claiming it is in response to Hamas’ refusal to extend the ceasefire, which has been in place ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jon Richardson, Visiting Fellow, Centre for European Studies, Australian National University US President Donald Trump’s phone call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, didn’t take a tangible step towards ending the hostilities in Ukraine, let alone finding an enduring peace. Rather, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vincent Ho, Associate Professor and clinical academic gastroenterologist, Western Sydney University Popovo Bros/Shutterstock You might’ve heard too many eggs make you constipated. Influencers on Instagram claim it too. The United Kingdom has slang for it – being “egg bound”. Eggs were ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew King, Associate Professor in Climate Science, ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather, The University of Melbourne Climate change is the most pressing problem humanity will face this century. Tracking how the climate is actually changing has never been more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Tiedemann, Professor of Physical Activity and Health, University of Sydney shurkin_son/Shutterstock We all recognise the benefits of regular aerobic or cardiovascular exercise to support our heart and lung health. Being active is also good for our social and mental health. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Moran, Lecturer in the Department of English, Creative Writing and Film, University of Adelaide MK2 Films Chinese independent director Jia Zhangke’s new film Caught by the Tides, now in select Australian cinemas, provides a unique vision of China’s rapid social ...
RNZ News New Zealand opposition Labour leader Chris Hipkins is accusing the prime minister of reversing a long-held foreign policy during his current trip to India to help secure a free trade agreement between the two countries. “It seems our foreign policy is up for grabs at the moment,” he ...
A fortnight of mixed fortunes for the prime minister. After a drum beat of conjecture about his job security, the prime minister enjoyed something of an elixir in the investment summit and a trip to India that began with a breakthrough announcement: the launch of talks on a comprehensive ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Beck, Professor of Constitutional Law, Monash University Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has floated the idea of amending the Australian Constitution to allow government ministers to strip dual citizens of their Australian citizenship if they commit serious crimes related to terrorism. Almost ...
Alex Casey talks to James Ashcroft about making his new rest home chiller The Rule of Jenny Pen, and finding an early fan in Stephen King. James Ashcroft was browsing the horror section of a Hollywood bookshop when he got the email from Stephen King. He’d sent the godfather of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Gaviglio, Lecturer Strength and Conditioning, University of Southern Queensland Dziurek/Shutterstock During Australia’s winter sports seasons, hundreds of thousands of children will take to the field in contact sports like rugby league, rugby union, Australian rules and soccer. With ...
Israel says President Donald Trump green lit a scorched-earth bombing of Gaza that wiped out entire families and killed dozens of infants and other children.By Abubaker Abed in Deil Al-Balah, Gaza, and Jeremy Scahill of Drop Site News The US-backed Israeli government resumed its intense genocidal attacks on Gaza ...
Each of the past eight years has set a new record for ocean heat and ice cover is shrinking to new lows, the State of the Global Climate Report says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yuhao Dai, Research Fellow in Earth Sciences, Australian National University N-2-s/Shutterstock Between 18,000 and 11,000 years ago, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere suddenly shot up. This caused rapid global warming, the mass melting of glaciers, and the end ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Toone, Lecturer in Social Work, University of South Australia Nine Married at First Sight Australia (colloquially known as “MAFS”) is one of Australia’s most popular reality TV shows, averaging two million viewers an episode. But this year’s season has come ...
Asia Pacific Report A West Papuan liberation advocacy group has condemned the arrest of 12 activists by Indonesian police and demanded their immediate release. The West Papuan activists from the West Papua People’s Liberation Movement (GR-PWP) were arrested for handing out pamphlets supporting the new “Boycott Indonesia” campaign. The GR-PWP ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits of Aotearoa writers, and guests. This week: the minister of finance, Nicola Willis. This week’s confessional is slightly different in that books editor Claire Mabey interviewed Willis via phone and took the opportunity to expand ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Marie Brennan, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Waikato Getty Images Now back on Earth thanks to Space X’s Dragon capsule, astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will be breathing fresh air again after a gruelling nine months onboard the ...
Lots of councils find reasons to stop construction. Few do it with as much panache as Auckland.When the developer James Kirkpatrick Group ordered a design for an 11-storey building on Karangahape Road, it probably believed resource consent would be a formality. The commercial building, with offices up top and ...
The anniversary of New Zealand’s worst mass shooting—which the United Nations designated in 2022 as an International Day to Combat Islamophobia—attracted minimal media coverage. ...
Voters who find themselves disappointed in the current government should realise that these parties are actually delivering what they promised – for all the talk of efficiency, they never promised real change. ...
While zoomers are skewering millennials online, the results of market research are damning: copious amounts of optimism, superfanning and fairy smut define Gen Z. Hello. It’s a 1991 baby here, a millennial. I’ve been happily scrolling on Instagram, trying to dodge algorithmic exposure to cortisol bellies, body transformations and how-to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharha Sharha, PhD Candidate in Kamasutra Feminism, Cardiff Metropolitan University A carved erotic scene on the outer wall of temple in Khajuraho complex, India.Cortyn/Shutterstock For some people, the Kamasutra is little more than a name associated with condom brands, scented oils ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Cantrell, Senior Lecturer – Writing, Editing, and Publishing, University of Southern Queensland Netflix Filmed in a one-take style, Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s new crime drama Adolescence is being hailed by critics as a technical masterpiece. Out now on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yucong Wang, Lecturer, School of Law and Justice, University of Newcastle In the first few months of 2025, there’s been a flurry of private venture space missions. Some have been successful, such as American company Firefly Aerospace landing its spacecraft Blue Ghost ...
Comment: It was all going so well. Then Christopher Luxon threatened to get in his own way.Luxon went into his India trip hoping to accumulate a few singles and keep the scoreboard ticking over, but ended up clearing the boundary.Launching free trade negotiations, deepening his leader-to-leader ties with Indian Prime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grant Duncan, Teaching Fellow in Politics and International Relations, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images We’re roughly half way through this parliamentary term, and it looks as though the 2026 election could deliver “Christopher vs Chris: the sequel”. Neither ...
After months of bad headlines, Chris Luxon’s trip to India seems to be reaping dividends – and not just economically, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. PM puts wins on the board Christopher Luxon is having a ...
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