Stalkers come in different guises and cover both genders. They are not always motivated by romantic obsessions or broken relationships. My stalker from years back was a woman who was prone to obsessive jealousies of others she perceived to be more successful in life than herself.
They usually have other types of personality disorders and can be extremely cunning at carrying out their covert activities. Hence most of them get clean away with it. The situation is not helped by a NZ Police Force who don't seem to have much knowledge or understanding of the nature of covert stalking.
More often than not it is the stalked who end up getting the blame and not the stalker.
From the link:
Frustrated, stigmatised, blamed
Compounding victims' misery was a lack of help stopping their stalkers' reign of terror. Most said their experiences with police were negative.
One wrote that trying to report her stalker was a "total joke".
Only a small majority (54 per cent) of those who took part in the survey reported the stalking to police at any stage.
Harassment has a legal definition — on at least two separate occasions within a period of 12 months, the harasser needs to have committed "specific acts", like:
following you
entering your property without your permission
unwanted or threatening phone calls or letters
giving you offensive material
doing something that makes you fear for your safety.
Saying things like NZ doesnt have a stalkers law, is misleading, as casual readers might think you are referring to something you know about
Anybody can get a restraining order from the Court , doesnt require the police consent or even a judges order
Bridges/National defied the Speaker's ruling on National's attack ads just before 2pm. Today Mallard is expected to announce decision on what next. Could be $1000 fine or imprisonment but that is unlikely. More likely is a consultation and a bringing forward a discussion on the rules.
I think Bridges will carry on in the meantime as perhaps the recent poll might have been a cause/effect of those ads?
Everyone agreed to the rules (or were bound by them) yet someone broke them.
I wonder what the reaction will be if Irish rugby players against New Zealand this weekend smack people around the head unpunished and win the match.
I'm sure in that event all the National supporters will say the rules are stupid and the assaults on the head were okay.
Surely it was only after good intellectual consideration and probity discussions they agreed to the use of video rule. Intellectual and probity factors have changed dramatically. i.e. they aren't in Government.
They are as deep as a glob of phlegm in the gutter.
Megans Woods lost for words on Ninetonoon. No surprises there. Without nationalising the electricity industry there's nothing she or her government can say.
If she's a disciple of Jim Anderton she probably knows her government's attempts to bring electricity prices down won't work. Anderton wanted to nationalise the industry so she's possibly in a tight spot having to sell what she knows is bullshit.
Shonky knew exactly what the impact of getting private equity into the SOE generators would have and he told no end of porkys to ensure it came to pass.
The numbers would be intruiging, take out the 4 levels of profit/external audit/regulatory/internal audit/management/duplicated systems (mostly the stonkingly expensive SAP) across generator/grid/lines/retailer.
You could probably freeze power prices for some years, payout the private equity then consolidate them back to the NZED model.
Labour lacks the bollocks to go anywhere near this.
"Labour lacks the bollocks to go anywhere near this."
Agree…though addressing the distribution would be a major step in the right direction….and it was the distribution she really appeared unwilling/unable to address in that interview
Apologies Dukeofurl. I should've said Woods' couldn't explain how the changes will bring prices down. And as far as what she should've said goes, well, she should've said the changes won't bring prices down because they won't.
For the 60% of consumers on low-fixed charges and whom pay their bills on time it doesn't seem (going off that interview) prices will go down for them.
In fact, it sounds as if prices will increase for this grouping so as to offset a drop in price for a number of high use consumers.
Considering only 40% of power consumers are on a high use tariff, it seems the Government are going to piss off the majority of low use consumers when faced with power price hikes as a result of the Government's reform.
That's going to hurt the Government come election time. Talk about shooting oneself in the foot. And talk about giving National another club to bash them with.
Well, well, well. "this is going to hurt the Government" yet again…
By the way, please stop using the word 'whom'. It is correct only in a few uses, and you tend to get it wrong. 'Who' is almost never wrong in modern English – much safer.
The Government is already copping the blame for higher fuel costs, rising rents/housing costs (via the lack of state homes being built, increased rental standards along with the talk of a CGT and the dropping of it encouraging investors, not to mention the Kiwibuild failure/reset) and now it seems they want to add higher power costs to the list.
If they can't see the potential voter backlash from this (higher power costs) they are clearly out of touch. And the list is growing, there is now talk of higher rubbish disposal charges. They can't afford a growing list of costs they are adding onto voters while they sit on a surplus, thus they need to get this one (power reform) right and lower costs for the majority if not all.
Here we go again. According to the DomPost headline, 'Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern distances Labour from failed Wellington mayoral candidate Justin Lester'. This is in the same realm of reality as depicting her as an apologist for sexual abuse. Lester didn't need to be thrown under a bus, he walked in the way and went under by himself. In essence, he never was a Labour man. In office, he proved to be at the beck and call of the likes of the developers and the Chamber of Commerce and appeared to be subservient to his CEO. Obviously, the PM has a better nose for reality than those of the party who compromised the 'Labour' brand by supporting Lester, who proved to many, that his self-belief exceeded his abilities. If any more proof is required that he wasn't up to it, it is provided by the election of Labour branded Councillors, including two new ones who were relative 'unknowns'. One of these succeeded in a 'true blue' ward and neither replaced 'red' predecessors.
And now I think about it, nor was Lester that worried about standing up for the other elected representatives when they were calling out the administration’s inadequacies. (Case in point, Simon Woolf DARING to comment on street lighting problems. How very dare him to have pointed out the bleeding obvious!. And there are quite a few other examples)
The perennial schoolboy. Just shows what can happen if you hang around long enough. Sights set high. Career councillor. Got there in the end. "Well, I started off mopping the floor…"
There were no other viable options apart from Diane Calvert, whose votes ended up going to Foster under STV anyway – her votes swung it for him. Seemingly, the Wellington voters were pretty savvy. Andy Foster's agenda will have to get past a far more critical and muscular Council than the previous one. Predictably, more than a few of his proposals will struggle to survive.
[that many links is spam (which is why your comment got caught in the spam filter). Feel free to post again, but with some commentary of your own and less links – weka]
Digital is rapidly becoming the norm, transforming our work and behaviour across all sectors. It is now embedded in business models, integrated with processes and practices as organisations move towards digital-as-usual businesses. While organisations employ technology to increase productivity and efficiency, the big elephant in the room is ‘’Ethics’’. Organisations must be mindful of the risks of unethical practices, whose adverse impact can be amplified by digital connectivity.
At ACCA’s Ethics Film Festival 2019, we will explore the “ABCD” of Ethics in a digital environment: AI, Blockchain, Cybersecurity and Data Governance; as we explore and discuss good practices and guidelines in the responsible adoption of technology and what accountants, financial and IT professionals of the future need to know.
That sounds interesting. ACCA is in Singapore. Perhaps some of the films can be accessed after the Festival and there are a bunch from previous years. Those trying to keep up with the thinking of the digital age may like to take this further – can they be seen here in NZ? On-line?
MPs at Westminster are more likely to have mental health issues than either the general public or other people in comparable professions/managerial posts, suggest the responses to a survey of parliamentarians, published in the online journal BMJ Open.
One of your comments is held up in the Moderation queue because it contains way too many links and no commentary at all from you as to why anyone should click on those links.
NZ Herald Article states Organised Crime Evolving Rapidly in NZ
I am not sure what the answer is obviously our Intelligence Services are analyzing this threat. The drug problem is helping breakdown NZ Society with much of the damage unseen ?
The gangsters we see on the street and in the newspapers are mere cogs in the wheel or the tip of the iceberg ?
Is it a reverse of the opium war on China? I have heard that you can phone in an order to a number connected with the Chinese supplier as if to the supermarket.
But good old alcohol always has a place. Where are the transport cops when they are really needed? If they could have a drone keeping an eye on this guy, and removed the distributor or something when he stopped, they would have done good in this case.
I've noticed an increase of patched gang- members here in the Housing Corp suburb of Riverdale in Gisborne the last 3 years. Pretty bloody understandable to me since NZ has abandoned the lowest whatever percent. The country doesn't understand itself anymore — sticks knives into its vitals for short-term self-interest.
" Indeed, the real question that is left hanging in the air after half-an-hour listening to Stephen Mills is not why anyone wanting real change would vote for the parties of the Left, but why they would bother voting at all."
a few of us have been saying that, and literally we end up voting for 'kinder' and 'gentler' cause that is all they got. A bit of lube, a red ribbon, and see the screwing over of you does not hurt that much anymore, Right?
there is absolutly no reason for anyone to vote for either of the assorted clown show that is NZ politics and its enablers.
i don't really care about news and articles and polls.
i do however see what is happening around me, and literally what is happening around me is nothing. And i guess i am not the only one to see that.
There is very little difference between either party – and i include all parties. they are more worried about keeping their jobs then they are worried about actually delivering measurable changes.
In saying that we can have ineffective J.A or bullshit S.B or worse Paula Benefits.
Great choices we have here, right? kinder gentler do nothing, or rude and brutal do nothing. and online voting or purple thumbs is not gonna change the fact that we are run by selfserving morons.
the news articles and polls can serve a purpose….I only see and interact with a tiny proportion of the country and therefore ask myself if what I observe is typical or not.
Perhaps we should pay politicians less. I know they say if you pay peanuts you get monkeys, but look at the lot of overpaid monkeys we have (and I am talking all parties). Many of these people will never get a job in the real world paying any near as much as they currently earn. Too many are just there for themselves milking it for as long as possible as they no they will never get as high paying a job.
they should earn no more then minimum wage. That would go long ways towards weeding the likes of Paula Benefits and such out for ever. Only the truly dedicated would run, or the min wage would go to 75 $ per hour and ruin everyone who ever created a job.
flipside is that you'll get MPs who will be even more blatant about getting the payoffs on the back end.
I don't mind paying MPs a couple of hundred thousand a year. I do mind it when they immediately get private sector jobs in the policy area they were negligent about, lobbying their former colleagues.
i do mind paying wages to people who don't deliver.
but then i do pay wages to people, and i do know that i have to make a whole lot of money already to just pay someone min wage +8 % holiday + 3 kiwi saver, and it bothers me endlessly if i have to pay someone for not pulling their weight and literally just occupying seats.
as for pulling one in the back or the front or by the side, they already do that quite openly and happily irrespective of their chosen side.
they don't perform, they get voted out. Nobody will drop a mid-range career for a pay cut in a role that will probably only last three years, and then go back to what they were doing.
We have lots of low-level corruption in NZ, but we're beginning to get the US-style movement of politicians between elected representatives to profiting from special interests.
I'd keep the pay high, but think of something like registering lobbyists and banning former mps from such a role for at least three years.
I note Simon Bridges's rival in his party, Judith Collins, seems to go to the left of him despite her reputation. At least the foulie rightos over the ditch haven't yet got a foothold here.
Immanuel Kant coined the term “radical evil.” It was the privileging of one’s own interest over that of others, effectively reducing those around you to objects to be manipulated and used for your own ends. But Hannah Arendt, who also used the term “radical evil,” saw that it was worse than merely treating others as objects. Radical evil, she wrote, rendered vast numbers of people superfluous. They possessed no value at all. They were, once they could not be utilized by the powerful, discarded as human refuse.
We live in an age of radical evil.
and i think really that once we see the current happenings world wide, we can see that clearly our overlords – elected, selected, instated, and tolerated – do see at best a profit centre – child care, education, health care, at worst a cost centre, aged care, unemployment / other benefits, pensions and such. And once us the public realises that we can start looking at these goons in parliaments and see them for what they are. Goons, that would let us die if only they could, so as long as they get re-selected/instated, so as long as they can cash in, in the hopes that when they turn in to cost centres they have amassed enough wealth and connections to go by. But it should be remembered that our 'human rights' that we like to claim are nothing more then artificial construct that we give each other, either to all of us, or them giving it to some of us.
this one came out before the selection of the shitshow in the US
might be a good reminder that nothing is new under the sun.
Old birds slower to think around problems, whereas juvenile birds much better.
And what she found was that young kaka are innovative and persistent problem solvers – whereas older birds are so set in their ways that they failed to solve several of the experiments. It turns out you can’t teach an old parrot new tricks, after all.
Surely they would've known about this shit when the engaged him.
.@BernieSanders hired Matt Orfalea @Ofrf as part of his video team. Orfalea is the creator of “I Have a Wet Dream. It is vile, disgusting, disrespectful and racist.
There is no such thing as evil. There are bad choices, very bad choices, that individuals can and do make. Dr Julia Shaw from University College London says heinous crimes are generally circus shows, not evil.
Julia uses research to explain why we do terrible things in her book, Evil: The Science Behind Humanity's Dark Side.
Haha – caught her out – she used the word 'evil' to describe evil. If we choose to describe 'terrible things' as 'evil' which involves the feeling of OTT viciousness of which we disapprove, that word is a valid choice from all other words to convey our opinion about something.
Women with long hair with curls in it cannot, because they have been to university and call themselves (probably) an academic, state that a word does not apply to something to which it obviously refers and describes.
There are more ways of looking at anything rather than one. Someone else will consider my pointing out that Dr Julia Shaw has long curly hair is inappropriate, and actually sexist. I wouldn't deign to say that there is no such word as sexist, and that instead I am just a silly, muddled, confused person.
yep – they all bend the knee to money – sad bastards
A day later, the ramifications of the momentous week that preceded the Kurds allowing the Assad regime to retake the province is still sinking in, across Syria and far beyond in Riyadh, Baghdad, Cairo and the Gulf.
Something far bigger was at play here; the end of US influence in Syria and the plunge in its status elsewhere. The public handover on show was that between the Assad regime and the Kurds, but the real power shift was between Washington – whose fighting troops have all but left the region, 16 years after invading Iraq – and Moscow, whose reach and influence across the Middle East has now been cemented.
As if to celebrate the moment, Vladimir Putin arrived in Riyadh for a state visit on Monday, his first in 12 years, hosted by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who three weeks earlier had similarly felt the humiliation of abandonment by US allies.
How can it be that the brutal "regime" is the Kurds only saviour? What happened to those "opposition rebels" fighting for freedom alongside IS, surely they would help…
In Vlad's wildest dreams the U.S. would stand aside and green light Turkey's invasion, the Kurds would turn to Assad/Russia for support, the US would sanction Turkey, driving a wedge into NATO, strengthening a Russia/Iran/Turkey alliance.
Syria and Russia are basically the only ones who can fix this mess, pushing the Turks out of Syria and returning the region to pre-coup stability.
The Kurds made their own bed, supporting the US in destabilizing Syria, taking their oil and reneging on agreements. In response the regime is being very unregime like for not severely punishing them for that.
Under the thuggish Assad dynasty Kurds have been discriminated against because of their ethnicity, denied Syrian citizenship, had their language and culture suppressed and their land and property seized and resettled by Arabs.
But then, you're a POS with a boner for authoritarian thugs so it's no surprise you think these people deserve to be the victims of the horrors of the Assad's inter-generational punishment.
[Please control your language and please no more personal insults thanks – Incognito]
And over the weekend, State and Energy Department officials were quietly reviewing plans for evacuating roughly 50 tactical nuclear weapons that the United States had long stored, under American control, at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, about 250 miles from the Syrian border, according to two American officials.
Today marks the 12 year anniversary since the police raids in Tuhoe. On that day some 300 police descended on the community of Ruatoki. The police then terrorised the community locking up women and children, arresting community leaders and leaving the whole country in shock. As the sham history celebration of #Tuia250 rolls around the country sailing the death ship Endeavour, let us not forget the struggle against colonisation has never ended, either here or overseas. #Resist250 #EndWhiteSupremacy
The question of the attack ads by the National party has been referred to the Committee for revision soon.
However Bridges will be restricted to just 5 supplementary questions each day this week in punishment for challenging the Speaker given that the Speaker is responsible for following the rules set by Parliament. No response yet from Opposition.
PS: So the Deputy Leader of National was able to just ask the supplementary questions which would have been otherwise asked by Bridges. Just a blip then.
Five supplementary questions? A number reaching the IQ score of those who think can't see the vacuity, gormlessness and hypocrisy of the position of Bridges and his motley crew regarding the use of Parliamentary video.
Saying that the response to CC will open new frontiers for profiteering. Which means that without a Green New Deal, CC doesn’t just involve the world becoming hotter, but also that it becomes meaner and more unequal – a place where resource scarcity is forced first onto the underserving (the poor, people of colour or the ‘wrong’ religion) in a new configuration of austerity. The coming “climate barbarism." She also links this to the “eco-fascism” of the Christchurch shooter as part of a larger movement to eliminate those who don’t deserve to survive in the new world of scarcity.
(Before that there’s also the brilliant Elif Sarican on Rojava)
Oh. That's the sort of thing I have been thinking. How mean we have got in NZ and for instance, thinking how willing we are to put up with the oppressive WINZ moralistic actually neoliberal puritan-like approach that is invasive of women's freedom and right to be a person. All that work for feminism and it only seems to have continued in the ability of some women who fit into the system getting to the upper echelons and getting big salaries.
Unfortunately, that kind of position just gives ammo to the deniers and the let's-be-fast-followers claiming climate activists are just using climate change as a stalking horse for social engineering.
I think Klein's point is that we inevitably face a choice between two different forms of social engineering. That there isn't
going to be a 'no social engineering' option.
Maybe if you take Klein's position at the moment in isolation. But anyone that takes even a cursory look at Klein's history will soon become aware she's long been about social engineering. In contrast, she's a relative latecomer to climate activism, and her transition was clearly about using climate change to leverage her social views.
I consider that any reasoned person would consider that considering climate change and society culture are interlocked as the vital areas of focus in thinking about the path to whatever future we will have, and may help to get us closer to the one we hope for.
That's great if you're just looking for a rousing "right on" from already committed activists. But if you're interested in persuading undecideds that action is necessary, it's not helpful to link two unrelated issues. The negatives an undecided may feel about one of the issues transfers too easily into rejection of arguments about the other.
When each of the two separate issues has standalone arguments about their merits, far better to argue each issue separately.
In the case of climate change, there really are conservative-oriented arguments for taking action against climate change change that don't require wholesale rejection of the existing economic framework. Just like there are very good arguments for seriously modifying the current socio-economic framework that is currently so heavily tilted in favour of the already wealthy and powerful that don’t require reference to climate change. The likes of Klein and Sanders have been making those arguments for decades before climate change became a popular issue.
That climate change as a factual problem has been turned into a political identity issue is as much the fault of activists like Klein falsely conflating them as it is the fault of big corporate underhanded manipulation.
Yes, wise folks will look at every avenue for pushing change that is good for us including the planet, And to be aware that many people can't see it holistically is a necessary to getting effective action quickly. I agree that tackling the problem at whatever level people are on is more essential than harping on about the connectedness of all. No time for campfies and singing kumbaya, jut choose your group, and add your tuppence worth of sense to ensure that a workable plan with a defined goal and a practice and method of courteious delivery, that is spelled out with regular checks for design flaws is adopted.
Defence Minister Ron Mark has over written an Environment Court decision on noise restrictions for aircraft engine testing at Whenuapai Airbase, and advised anyone moving into the area to accept military aircraft noise.
Pre-existing land usage should be spelled out to possible purchasers, and made very clear to house speculators. Live near the rural area, know that in winter they will have helicopters or giant fans stirring the air to keep the frost from killing the crop. Orchards do a lot of spraying etc.
But they don't look out the window till they have purchased or built and then can act on unreasonable laws that allow them to complain and try to alter pre-existing conditions that are the resuslt of whatever business or enterprise is established there or should be able under intelligent town planning to be in a suitable business zone there.
It is really hard, if not realistically impossible, to alter pre-existing conditions where these were well known and part of the existing legal rights before a new purchaser started to occupy their property. Which is the case here.
The reason for this is obvious. The litigants trying to gain a property right at the expense of another without permission or recompense. Now the environment court can look at it without looking at property rights, but the courts it would have been immediately appealed to have would not.
It is possible where the original occupiers are doing something outside their rights, or doing something illegal, or doing something that is dangerous.
If a council wants to change the conditions of someone's property rights, then they will ultimately have to recompense for taking those rights unless they can show immediate danger.
Which is why councils try not to do it because the compensation is usually pretty extreme. What usually happens instead is that the rates rise with the value of the property as it gets built up, eventually the cost plus the value of the property rises to the point where someone sells up.
In this case Ron Mark will have simply short-circuited it. Had the environmental courts decision been taken to appeal (and it would have been), it would have been overturned on property rights and prior usage alone. The environmental court decision and the factors behind it probably wouldn’t have even really entered into the legal argument.
In the event that the appeal court decided that there was a public health or safety issue, then the blame should have fallen squarely on the council for letting those housing buildings to be built. Personally as a Auckland city ratepayer, I wouldn’t have wanted to pay for the NIMBYs on the North Shore. I’d have been wanting that the whole cost of compensation to the defense department be levied directly in the suburbs concerned.
They help set/frame a narrative. And tend to stick in people's minds.
When taken together, the two misleading headlines used for the two recent polls paint a picture that Labour have taken a huge drop in the polls with National increasing and as a result, National (along with ACT) are currently in a position to win.
Unfortunately, for a good number of those that don't follow politics too heavily, this is the picture that will now stick in their minds and may influence their support going forward.
As swordfish highlighted the other day, Newshub's headline for their Jan 2018 Poll (which recorded near-identical results to their most recent poll) was dramatically different.
Its great that pressure is getting put on the companys that makes our clothes too provide a living wage and a humane work environment.
That is a great idea getting Wahine in the trades carpenter plummer electricion. These days with the Lithuaniam battery powered tools the jobs are no were as labour intensive as they used to be actually I say that the jobs are quite easy now days . We just need to teach the Tane to respect Wahine on the job site actually teach Tane to respect Wahine fullstop.
Tiny houses is the way of the future lowering the cost to get into a Whare and drastically lowering our carbon footprint.
All consumer products need to be made in a sustainable way. I agree closed loop system for consumer goods. We have to learn to stop making a MESS of our own back YARD.
Papatuanuku food day there is no reason for tangata to be starving on the Papatuanuku in the year 2019. There is enough food growing on Papatuanuku to feed everything.
We came from our natural environment we depend on the other creatures of our environment for food there are many factors of our Papatuanuku that needs all the diverse creatures to function effectively. It baffles me why a lot of people don't get those facts that people need other creatures to survive.
Biodiversity touches every aspect of our lives – so why has its loss been ignored?
The evidence is unequivocal: biodiversity, important in its own right and essential for current and future generations, is being destroyed by human activities at a rate unprecedented in human history.
Governments around the world recognised this at the Earth summit in Brazil in 1992 and established the Convention on Biological Diversity to protect and conserve biodiversity. But the situation has become more and more dire. I have chaired or co-chaired three international assessments on the state of knowledge of biodiversity, and all have repeated the same message – we are destroying it at an alarming rate. Each time we have called for action, only to be largely ignored
The continued loss of biodiversity is not only an environmental issue. It risks undermining the achievement of most of the UN sustainable development goals. It is central to development, through food, water and energy security. It has significant economic value, which should be recognised in national accounting systems. It is a security issue in so far as loss of natural resources, especially in developing countries, can lead to conflict. It is an ethical issue because loss of biodiversity hurts the poorest people, further exacerbating an already inequitable world. And it is also a moral issue, because we should not destroy the living planet.
In addition to playing a critical role in providing food, fibre, water, energy, medicines and other genetic materials, biodiversity is equally important in regulating climate, water quality, pollution, pollination, flooding and storm surges. It has vital social value, providing wellbeing when walking through forests or by rivers, or green spaces in cities.
The youth of today are standing up and demanding action. School strikes and marches are sending a loud and clear message: “You are destroying our future, we demand action now”. Every one of us who lives in a democratic society must vote for politicians who care about these issues.
• Robert Watson is the former chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
I think this is a great idea for energy companies to have Open source software to help speed up the process in changing to a low /no carbon environment
To Go Green, the Energy Industry Goes Open Source
Challenges around renewables are prompting players in the “traditional” sector to collaborate on software they can modify to address their changing needs
The European Union aims to reduce carbon emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050. Former California Governor Jerry Brown signed an executive order last year calling for the state, the fifth-largest economy in the world, to go carbon neutral by 2045. Meeting these goals, or even the less ambitious goals set by other governments, will require utilities to buy more energy from sustainable sources like wind and solar power. That shift is already creating logistical challenges for utilities. Unlike more predictable sources of energy, the energy produced by a wind farm can vary from day to day, forcing utilities to offload excess supplies and make up for shortages. The solar panels on residential rooftops that feed into the grid pose their own challenges because the grid wasn't designed to facilitate a two-way flow of energy
To meet those technological challenges, the energy sector is turning to open source software. Open source, which anyone can modify or share, helped power the rise of internet giants like Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Ostensible competitors worked together to develop software like the data-crunching platform Hadoop because it enabled them to solve difficult computing problems. Now all sorts of companies, ranging from Microsoft to Walmart to JP Morgan Chase use and make open source software.
I agree that that Oranga tamariki should work with the local Iwi.
It would be good to see more Maori donating there organs when they pass.
Yes that is a high number of tangata whenua tamariki passing by there own hands and still some organisations keep putting the bads things about Maori to the front.????.
The Mit teaching Rangatahi there cultures is awesome one must know there culture and whakapapa.
Maori and Pacific are over represented in the tangata needing to get food donations .
Wai is A taonga of life if we taonga our NATURAL environment Te Papatuanuku will pay a premium to enjoy our Taonga everything will be excellent so long as Te rewards are shared with Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa.
There you go Hone.
I new were that was coming from Mr Poneke Te Carbon
Tiny Whare is the way to go low cost low carbon.
Archeologyst find 20 Sarcophagus that's cool they are a very ancient culture.
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The media is reporting that an Auckland man has been charged with terrorism. Unfortunately, that's all we know, because all details have been suppressed. Who are they? What are they alleged to have done? Its all secret. There may be good reason for some of this (e.g. protection of the ...
Dr David ChagnéNew Zealand is involved in a US$12.8 million USDA grant to improve the quality of blueberry and cranberry. The four-year project, led by North Carolina State University, is part of the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture Specialty Crop Research Initiative, which funds multi-year, multi-institutional collaborative ...
The Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change book is now available! The book uses cartoons, humor, and critical thinking to expose how and why some people reject climate science. It's now available for sale on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other book outlets. If you're near the DC area, you're very welcome to ...
by the Council of Disobedient Women When Moana Maniapoto recently lamented that Rachel Stewart was no longer writing for the Herald, political commentator Morgan Godfery was quick to brag on Twitter, like a schoolyard bully, how proud he was of “driving Rachel Stewart from the Herald”. What a contrast Morgan ...
You’re probably aware that the Achievement Standards used to assess senior school students’ learning are being reviewed. Science is one of the ‘pilot’ subjects in this process, where a ‘Subject Expert Group’ has developed 4 draft Science standards¹ (a significant step away from the current 30+, and a response to ...
John MacCormickTo succeed in an unpredictable and changing world, adaptability is the key. Let’s be chameleons. Technology continues to change people’s jobs and work environments. But change so far is not as fast and extensive as some pundits claim. Nor is it as fast and extensive as it needs ...
It seems we can’t even get through a week these days without the National Party's leader, Simon Bridges, making some sort of silly announcement about a policy that doesn’t actually exist.Usually concerning Bridges’ gut instinct and the undoing of whatever the Government has recently announced, National’s reactionary opinions and uncosted ...
Oh look! NZ First's secret slush fund was laundering donations from Talley's:One of the country's biggest fishing companies, Talley's, and its managing director donated nearly $27,000 to the New Zealand First Foundation, which has been bankrolling the New Zealand First Party. The foundation received $26,950 from seafood giant Talley's and ...
Janet Hoek, Richard Edwards, Andrew Waa, Nick Wilson, George ThomsonMinister Jenny Salesa announced the Government’s long-awaited Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Bill on Sunday 23 February. The Bill contains some important provisions as it works to strike a balance between ensuring regulated products are available to ...
Surprisingly enough, one could argue (as I often do) that the day inserted into a leap year is not that we label 29th February, but actually the 24th of February. Here I explain why, briefly. Almost everyone assumes that the day added into February in a leap year is the ...
If you haven’t watched Newsroom’s video showing Oranga Tamariki staff attempting to uplift a newborn baby yet you should do so. Although it's not the worst case as far as interventions go, it’s certainly not a good look for the Government. Because of this controversy there’s been a plethora of ...
Genesis Energy is planning to build the country's biggest PV solar farm:Power generator and retailer Genesis Energy says it is in advanced discussions to build New Zealand's biggest solar farm in northern Waikato. The company, which earlier reported a 15 per cent decline in operating earnings to $167.2 million, said ...
Transport is our second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Any credible effort to reduce emissions to net-zero has to target it. So what is the government doing? Subsidising some of the dirtiest, most inefficient vehicles on the roads:New Zealand's favourite cars - double cab utes - are largely exempt ...
You’ve really got to wonder what the NZ First Party was thinking and drinking last Friday? Not only did they hamstring the Greens by halting one of their main environmental policies, the electric vehicle fee-bate scheme, a policy that the public was led to believe was a done deal…but they ...
High Risk Call: Insensitive though it may seem to even pose the question: how will the electorate respond to what the Prime Minister’s opponents will undoubtedly characterise as an attack on New Zealanders’ freedom of speech? At more than twelve month’s remove from the terrible events of 15 March 2019, ...
Story of the Week... Opinion of the Week... El Niño/La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... Climate change leads to more violence against women, girlsRape, domestic violence, forced marriages: A new ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 16, 2020 through Sat, Feb 22, 2020 Editor's Pick JP Morgan economists warn climate crisis is threat to human raceLeaked report for world’s major fossil fuel financier says ...
Last week the Wall Street Journal published an article ‘The Dangerous Denial of Sex by two scientists Colin Wright and Emma Hilton. Write is an evolutionary biologist at Penn State and Hilton is a developmental biologist at the University of Manchester. It is well worth reading the article in full. Here ...
I am about to mail my overseas ballot to Florida so that it can be counted in the Democratic primary on March 17. In Florida you have closed as opposed to open primaries, which means that one must declare a party preference in order to vote in a party primary. ...
Winston Peters - Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the NZ First PartyWe all know that politics can be pretty messy at times. Just look at the Dirty Politics saga in New Zealand, the misgovernment of the Australian bushfires or the recent Trump impeachment debacle in the US. In a ...
Last Monday SpaceX launched another clutch of Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit, bringing up to 300 the number of these units intended to bring 5G internet to the whole globe. In this post I present a movie showing how all 300 such satellites will be zipping around our planet over ...
The recent floods in Southland have highlighted the issue of Rio Tinto's illegal toxic waste dump in Mataura. But according to Newsroom, there's an even worse mess in Ruakaka near Whangarei:A Northland property stockpiled one million litres of flammable and toxic chemicals. Almost two years since the situation came to ...
It’s amazing just how many attack ads $100,000 buys you these days. The National Party has really been going to town lately, with their latest Twitter campaign making a number of questionable and blatantly false assertions, one being that poverty has worsened under the Labour led Government.The National Party's claim ...
OMV's exploratory drilling in the Great South Basin has failed to find oil. Good. Firstly, because we can't afford to burn the oil and gas we've already found, so there's just no point looking for more. And secondly, because offshore, deep-water drilling poses a risk of an environmental catastrophe, which ...
The government has announced it will strengthen whistleblower protections. The major change is "allowing people to report serious wrongdoing direct to an external authority if they wish", which fixes one of the big flaws in the Act. At present, whistleblowers must generally make their disclosure direct to the body they ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bruce Lieberman CARLSBAD, CA. – When it comes to paying the electric bill, most people don’t give it a second thought – it’s something that in effect is “baked in.” But across California and several other states, local governments increasingly are ...
Excerpts from Being and Being Bought, by Kajsa Ekis Ekman, Spinifex Press, 2013. Part 4 Ekman, a Swedish journalist and critic, brings together a Marxist and feminist analysis of prostitution and surrogacy in this groundbreaking book. This is the fourth part of a synopsis and brief commentary of the book by Daphna ...
The Democracy Virus: China’s authoritarian political system enables a level of social surveillance and control that liberal democratic societies cannot match. The Chinese Government makes full use of the latest digital technology to both punish – and reward – its citizens. The plans it formulates cannot be challenged, or hindered. Where ...
Another day, another IPCA report on criminal conduct by policy. This time they kicked a child in the head when he was handcuffed:Police chased him and yelled out for him to stop. When he turned to face the police, he threatened them with a hammer. That's when the officers tasered ...
The investigation of two of the five parties in Parliament for fraud around their election donations has pushed the issue of party funding back into the spotlight. And while there are obvious things we can do to tighten up the donations regime - a much lower declaration threshold, realtime disclosure ...
While the south of New Zealand has been struggling with too much rain in recent days, here in the north we are so very short of it (though Saturday’s forecast looks promising). Basically, we have had almost none since Christmas.As someone who relies on rain to wash the car, ...
Former National Party MP Jami-Lee RossIt comes as no surprise that Jami-Lee Ross has been named as one of the defendants in the X2 $100,000 National Party donations case currently before the courts. Click bait journalists who were chaffing at the bit to discredit the former senior whip had already ...
Stand Clear! Winston Peters is encouraging voters to think of RNZ as belonging to “The Media Party”. He wants them to see it as a politically partisan institution with its own, vicious attack-dogs in the electoral fight. If he succeeds, it will be, and probably should be, the end of ...
"You're going to need a longer runway" Gratton et al explore the ongoing effects of upward-creeping temperatures on aviation in Greece in the period since 1955 at a range of airports in that country. For longer runways impacts are measurable but with little impact on operations. For airports with shorter runways, ...
In mid-December the Israeli secret police, the Shin Beit, revealed it had arrested dozens of Palestinian left-wing activists, including members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in the previous few months. Among those arrested was one of the central leaders of the PFLP, Khalida Jarrar. As ...
Former National Party chief whip Jami-Lee Ross is one of the four people charged over National's multiple fraudulent donations. How unsurprising. Meanwhile, just days ago National leader Simon Bridges was trying to pretend the charges were nothing to do with his party. Yeah, right. When your chief whip effectively publicly ...
If you've been watching FYI for a while, you'll have noticed that the police have a bad habit of demanding ID from requesters. They have apparently been repeatedly told to stop doing this by the Ombudsman, but we all know what law enforcement thinks of the law, so thye keep ...
Collateral Damage: For the Green Phoenix to be reborn, the funeral pyre so patiently assembled by its identity politicians over the course of many fractious years – but with growing intensity over the past three – first has to be ignited. The terrible probability, of course, is that, in setting ...
If you follow politics in New Zealand you've likely noticed that the right wing have been going on and on about the Coalition Government failing to reduce poverty. In fact they’ve been incessantly claiming, in the absence of any conclusive data, that poverty has been getting worse.Yesterday, NewstalkZB reported:Mike Hosking: ...
The Herald reported over the weekend that an Auckland business owner is being targeted with asset forfeiture laws over a workplace death:A workplace fatality has seen police use a law usually associated with drugs and organised crime to seize millions of dollars in assets from a business owner because of ...
Just days after talking about how people feel "squeezed" and promising tax and service cuts as a "solution", National is talking about cancelling a rise in the minimum wage if elected: National is considering scrapping the Government's planned minimum wage increase if it wins this year's election, the party's finance ...
Nobody thinks about the next century anymore. That at least is Sci-Fi writer William Gibson’s observation (in this BBC 4 short interview, starting at 1:43:50 ). He calls it “Futures Fatigue”, but isn’t judgemental about it. Gibson notes that in the 20th century speculation about the 21st (and beyond) was common. Now ...
A Labour government desperate for the numbers crawls into bed with Winston Peters. Winston ignores the law and secretly takes money under the table from someone. When it is exposed just months out from an election, he is investigated by the Serious Fraud Office. That's what happened back in 2008. ...
So the Serious Fraud Office has another secret $100,050 National Party donation before the Courts in a major scandal that looks set to quash any chances Simon Bridges had of winning the 2020 election.Yesterday, Newsroom reported:The Serious Fraud Office prosecution of four people over donations to the National Party involves ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Iceberg twice the size of Washington, D.C., breaks off Pine Island glacier in Antarctica Story Highlights: The Pine Island ...
Prof Philippa Howden-ChapmanHousing policy is building up to be the key election issue again. In this blog I reflect on the importance of the role of the New Zealand Government in improving access to affordable housing. I look at what the Government has been doing to increase quality public housing ...
Writing on The Spinoff, Danyl Mclauchlan argues that we have a vacuum in our political system, in that there is no longer an anti-establishment party anymore:I think there’s a vacuum in our political system. There are obvious problems with the status quo but no real critics offering reform. It’s a ...
Stuff today has a piece about the government discovering it has been oversubsidising polluters for a decade under the Emissions Trading scheme:The Government is pledging to urgently fix an issue within the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), after it emerged some polluters are likely being over-compensated with taxpayer-funded carbon credits. [...] ...
The Marlborough District Council, tired of public scrutiny, wants to increase the amount it charges for LGOIMA requests:The cost of requesting official information from Marlborough's government agency could almost double after a jump in "fishing expeditions". Charges could be raised from $60 to $100 an hour for information supplied by ...
When Winston Peters was caught money laundering donations and stalking journalists, the Greens were conspicuous by their silence. It was another example of how getting along with their government partners was eroding their values and their own reputation. It was obviously unsustainable, and so now James Shaw has finally spoken ...
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...
With over 69,000 confirmed cases and 1,600 deaths, here’s your round-up of the latest coronavirus news. New disease and virus have now officially been named On the 11th February, the WHO Director General announced a new name for the disease: COVID-19 which is short for coronavirus disease 2019. The naming ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 9, 2020 through Sat, Feb 15, 2020 Editor's Pick ANALYSIS-Climate change opens up 'frontier' farmland, but at what cost to the planet?Climate change could expand farmland globally by ...
After cross-examination Jones knew he would lose the defamation case he took against film maker Renae Maihi. That’s why he threw in the towel. The weight of evidence was clearly against the old tycoon with the defense presenting fifty articles to confirm Jones’ racist views.Being unable to harass somebody into ...
Sprung! Former NZ First president, Lester Gray, chats with RNZ's Guyon Espiner in the carpark of a Tauranga shopping centre.(Photo supplied anonymously to NZ First and The BFD.)IT’S CLEAR THAT an important aspect of Jacinda Ardern’s political success is her willingness to seek – and take – advice. This ...
Ruth Cunningham, Charlotte Paul, Andrew MoorePublic health responses to infectious diseases such as COVID-19 require us to draw on our common humanity and be explicit about our values. Recognising this will help us make good decisions in difficult situations so that, for example, the need to impose restrictive measures ...
The Helen Clark Foundation has released its report on the housing crisis, and found that house-hoarders are to blame for it:Property investors are to blame for New Zealand's high house prices, a new research paper published by the Helen Clark Foundation says. [...] McArthur said previous attempts to address housing ...
The Abortion Legislation Committee has reported back on the Abortion Legislation Bill and recommended that it be passed with some amendments. Unfortunately, the latter include even more hoops to jump through for those seeking abortions after 20 weeks, including a time-wasting requirement to consult a second doctor. No-one casually seeks ...
Brexit is likely to be a disaster for the UK (how sad, never mind). But now that they're out of the EU, the latter has finaly taken the opportunity to blacklist one of their key tax havens:The Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory, is to be put on an EU ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, New Zealand First Deputy Leader A total delivery of 2,000 new Police Officers has been achieved. New Zealand First Deputy Leader, Fletcher Tabuteau attended the latest police graduation of Recruit Wing 335 in Porirua today. Mr Tabuteau said, “Increasing police numbers and boosting their resources was one of ...
Taupō District mayor David Trewavas has welcomed today’s announcement from regional economic development minister Shane Jones outlining $5.87m of funding for the re-development of the Taupō Airport. The bulk of the investment ($5 million) will come from the Provincial Growth Fund, while the rest will be from the New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has defended multi-million dollar provincial growth fund money for Northland water storage. The New Zealand First leader, along with Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones, were recently in Dargaville to announce up to $12.745 million PGF funding top-up for water storage initiatives in the ...
One of our most immediate priorities upon forming Government was to get people out of sleeping in cars, garages, or on the street and into safe and warm housing. Since then, we've made major progress towards breaking the cycle of homelessness, including expanding Housing First, building more state houses, and ...
Kids learn better with a full stomach. That's why we launched our Lunches in Schools programme, which is already providing free and healthy school lunches to thousands of children so they can focus on what's important - learning. ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP based in Clutha-Southland This afternoon to a crowd of over 100 people in Mataura -- Mark Patterson, New Zealand First List MP based in Clutha-Southland launched a parliamentary petition regarding the aluminium dross issue in Mataura, Southland. The petition asks that the ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Spokesperson for Finance, Fletcher Tabuteau has welcomed Statistics New Zealand’s latest report as a timely reminder of the value that this Coalition Government brings to every day New Zealanders: “This Coalition Government has meant a ...
Today New Zealand First made a pledge to campaign at the election to fund St John Ambulance the 90 per cent it has asked for. Government funding would allow St. John’s to achieve fully funded status. Leader of New Zealand First, Rt Hon Winston Peters publicly declared his determination to deliver ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order Newly released Police data shows once again the number of fleeing drivers have continued to skyrocket with a record 512 incidents occurring in December – almost tripling the number of incidents occurring just ten years ago, says New Zealand First Law and ...
While the Provincial Growth Fund has provided $2 million to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia, Regional Economic Minister Shane Jones said he is greatly concerned that there are “issues” in implementing the projects. The Minister said the immediate solution was to pipe water from a bore ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP for Clutha-Southland NZ First is calling on Rio Tinto to accept its responsibilities to the Southland community and enable the immediate removal of the toxic Aluminium Dross from the Mataura Paper Mill site. New Zealand First List MP for Clutha-Southland, Mark Patterson ...
The Coalition Government has announced that a further $500,000 will be given to help residents in Southland and Otago to speed up recovery efforts from the floods. It follows prior government assistance of $200,000 earlier this month where the Southland Mayoral Relief Fund received $100,000 to support communities impacted by ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones was on RNZ’s Morning Report talking about the recent droughts in the Northland region and what the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is doing to alleviate its impact. The PGF recently announced a funding of $2 million for temporary water supplies to Kaikohe and Kaitaia, ...
Speaking to The Country’s Jamie Mackay, New Zealand First MP and Cabinet Minister Shane Jones talks water storage, plant-based meat imitation, and superstar Hollywood director James Cameron. While water storage may have its critics, Minister Jones defended the scheme by saying: “unless we invest and continue to invest” in this ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones is accusing northern iwi leaders of selling out Māori by voting for ideologically-driven court cases rather than practical steps to increase water supply. “I just think that iwi leaders who think that water issues are going to be solved by perpetually fighting in the ...
A dairy owner in St Kilda, Dunedin was delighted to hear that an attempted robbery of his establishment was foiled by a government-funded security system. Sean Lee was delighted at how well the anti-theft smoke system worked. When a knife-wielding man entered the store, the shop assistant immediately pressed a ...
Customs says it stopped more than three tonnes of illegal drugs coming into New Zealand last year. This includes 1,180kg of methamphetamine, 329kg of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine precursors, which could have been converted into 246kg of methamphetamine, 739kg and 6469 pills of MDMA or Ecstasy and 60kg of cocaine. Offshore, ...
Hon. Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Up to $2 million will be allocated from the Provincial Growth Fund to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia where drought is biting hard, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Drought conditions in Northland have led to ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Law and Order New Zealand First welcomes the deployment of an Eagle Police helicopter in Christchurch in what is a step towards fulfilling its long-standing goal to increase the use of police helicopters for the front line, particularly in addressing the scourge of fleeing drivers. Christchurch leads ...
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...
In a heated debate in Parliament, National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett claimed that “nearly 1600 patched gang members have been added” since the Coalition Government took power. To illustrate her point, she altered a chart used by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to show her government’s progress in housing to instead ...
Speech by the Rt Hon Winston Peters at Parliament’s Opening 2020 "We all need insurance" This year New Zealanders are going to have a clear choice to make That choice is between: Optimism versus pessimism; More progress versus back to the future; Investment versus divestment; Unity versus division. New Zealand ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has slammed the Board of Auckland Airport following the airport's runway closing twice within two weeks due to maintenance. Around 2,000 passengers were affected by last week’s runway closures, according to 1NEWS. Another maintenance closure on January 24 saw two international flights and three domestic flights ...
A milestone has been reached with the graduation of more than 2,000 new Police officers since the Coalition Government took office in October 2017. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the graduation today of Wing 335 marks a surge of 2,023 new officers, and coincides with some significant breakthroughs against organised ...
Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Minister, Kris Faafoi, and the Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins, have welcomed a new cyber security qualification as a step towards countering cyber threats and keeping New Zealanders safe. Attending the launch of the new Level 6 Diploma of Cyber Security at Auckland’s Unitec Institute ...
Government Ministers today celebrated 20 years of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park/ Ko te Pataka kai o Tikapa Moana/ Te Moananui a Toi, and recognise there is much to celebrate and so much more to do to give nature a helping hand. Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage said “New Zealanders care deeply about nature.I want to ...
Prepared remarks on coronavirus by Finance Minister Grant Robertson to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and Massey University. Good morning ladies and gentlemen, The topic of this speech is the Budget 2020 priorities. But, given the considerable interest that I imagine is in the room about COVID-19 coronavirus, I do ...
E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā iwi, e ngā rau rangatira ma. Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa. Ni sa bula vinaka. Namaste Thank you Shamima, Hon. Minister Vuniwaqa, community leaders and Women’s Crisis Centre staff for your warm welcome. It’s an honour and privilege to officially ...
The Government has released a comprehensive response to ensuring New Zealanders get a fairer deal at the petrol pump. This follows the Commerce Commission fuel market study which found motorists were paying more than they should for petrol and includes: Fuel Market Bill drafting, to pass mid-year Industry consultation in ...
E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā iwi, e ngā rau rangatira ma Tēnā koutou katoa Ni sa bula vinaka As-salaam alaikum It is a privilege to be here today. Thank you for welcoming us to your house of prayer. Thank you for your warmth. Thank you for greeting ...
Taupō Airport is to be upgraded and expanded through a $5.9 million Government funding boost, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. “Taupō Airport is the gateway to the Central North Island. It is essential for both keeping local people and businesses connected, but also to bring more people ...
The Minister of Housing Megan Woods has confirmed the Government is working with Rotorua Lakes District Council and Te Arawa for the second place-based assessment to better understand the housing and urban issues affecting the city. “Every New Zealander has a right to a warm, safe and secure place to ...
19 new community homes (in addition to 14 opened in December) delivered in Takanini, Auckland 500 people housed by CORT Housing Trust by end of March 2,290 new public housing homes delivered in Auckland (November 2017 – December 2019). Another nineteen new public housing homes are being delivered in Auckland, ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker met today with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to discuss ways to strengthen ties between New Zealand and India. “India is a priority relationship for New Zealand. We share common democratic traditions, growing two-way trade, extensive people-to-people links, ...
Speech to the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) Delhi, India Wednesday 26 February 2020 [CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY] The Indo-Pacific: from principles to partnerships Distinguished guests, good afternoon and thank you for your invitation. It is good to be here at a time where New Zealand needs less of an introduction than ...
Tihei mauri ora Te Whare e tu nei Te Papa e takoto Tēnā korua No reira tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa Ni sa bula Vinaka It is a real pleasure to be here today, and to have the honour of addressing you all. If you’ll indulge me I’m ...
Improved air quality to support better health and environmental wellbeing is the focus of proposed amendments to air quality regulations, says the Associate Minister for the Environment, Hon Nanaia Mahuta. “Although our air quality is good in most places, during winter certain places have spikes in air pollution, mainly from ...
The remote eastern Bay of Plenty community of Raukokere will receive a Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) investment of $10.6 million for a water storage facility, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says. “This is great news for the rural community. The landowner, Te Whānau a Maruhaeremuri Hapū Trust, will use ...
The Lake Ōkaro lakebed has transferred to Te Arawa Lakes Trust, Minister for Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti Kelvin Davis announced today. Kelvin Davis joined Te Arawa at Te Papaiōuru Marae in Rotorua to celebrate the reinstatement of Te Arawa Lakes Trust as a key decision maker over the bed ...
New legislation is being proposed which aims to reduce the stress and financial hardship caused by late payments to small businesses. The Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash is considering stricter rules around payment practices between businesses. “Late payments from large organisations to smaller suppliers can be crippling for these ...
A new partnership programme between the New Zealand Police and Fiji Police will focus on combatting transnational organised crime and enhancing investigative skills, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on the first day of her visit to Fiji. The programme will see: · New Zealand Institute of Environmental Science and Research ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama met today in Suva, and renewed their commitment to continue to strengthen Fiji-New Zealand relations on a foundation of shared values and equal partnership. The Prime Ministers acknowledged the kinship between Fijians and New Zealanders, one that has endured over ...
A $19.9 million investment from the Provincial Growth Fund will help develop essential infrastructure for an industrial hub in the Bay of Plenty town of Kawerau, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says. “The funding will go to three projects to further develop the Putauaki Trust Industrial Hub, an industrial ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing $8.3 million on a roading package for Mahia that will lead to greater and wider economic benefits for the region and beyond, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced at an event in Mahia today. The $8.3 million announced consists of: $7 ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has welcomed new reporting showing the Coalition Government is on track to meet its child poverty targets, with 18,400 children lifted out of poverty as a result of the Families Package. Stats NZ has released the first set of comprehensive child poverty statistics since the Government ...
Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter today announced that Bikes in Schools facilities have been rolled out to 20,000 more kiwi kids under this Government. She made the announcement at the opening of a new bike track at Henderson North School in Auckland. “Bikes in Schools facilities give kids ...
Benefit settings rise in line with wages as of 1 April Main benefits will increase by over 3 percent, instead of 1.66 percent, on 1 April with the Government’s decision to annually adjust benefit rates to increases in the average wage. The Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni, said ...
Strengthening New Zealand’s political and business ties with India will be the focus of Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters’ and Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker’s visit to India this week. The Ministers are co-leading a high level business delegation to India to support increased people and economic engagement ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio continues to champion for greater Pacific participation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers with the announcement of the Toloa Awards, with 8 recipients of the Toloa Community Fund and 13 Toloa Tertiary Scholarships. “The Toloa Programme encourages more Pacific peoples ...
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage has extended the date for people to have their say on proposed changes to improve management of whitebait across New Zealand. Submissions were due to close on 2 March 2020 but will now remain open until 9am on Monday 16 March 2020. “I have ...
The endangered toroa/Antipodean albatross has new international protection for its 100,000km annual migration, thanks to collaborative efforts led by New Zealand, Australia and Chile. Today, 130 countries agreed to strictly protect Antipodean albatross at the Conference of Parties on the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild ...
No sales to under-18-year-olds No advertising and sponsorship of vaping products and e-cigarettes No vaping or smokeless tobacco in smokefree areas Regulates vaping product safety comprehensively, - including devices, flavours and ingredients Ensure vaping products are available for those who want to quit smoking Vaping regulation that balances ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little will travel to Berlin tomorrow to represent New Zealand at a high-level summit on nuclear disarmament. This year, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) celebrates 50 years since it entered into force. “New Zealand’s proud record and leadership on nuclear disarmament is unwavering, so it’s important we are present ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will visit two of New Zealand’s most important Pacific partners, Fiji and Australia, next week. The visit to Fiji will be the first by a New Zealand Prime Minister in four years and comes during the 50th anniversary of Fijian independence and diplomatic relations between our ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little and New Zealand First MP Darroch Ball, have today announced the appointment of the Chief Commissioner of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the location, and the membership of the Establishment Advisory Group. Colin Carruthers QC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of the CCRC for an ...
Māori Development Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta and Agriculture Minister Hon Damien O’Connor co-announced the first horticultural finalists for the Ahuwhenua Trophy celebrating excellence in the Māori agricultural sector. The three finalists are Ngai Tukairangi Trust from Mt Maunganui, Otama Marere Trust from Tauranga, and Hineora Orchard Te Kaha 15B Ahuwhenua ...
A new kete of resources to strengthen support for students with dyslexia will provide extra tools for the new Learning Support Coordinators (LSCs) as they start in schools, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin announced today. The Minister launched the kete in Wellington this morning, at the first of three induction ...
The Government continues to make progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the First Reading of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill and its referral to the Social Services and Community Select Committee. “Now is the opportunity for landlords, tenants and others who want ...
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Hon James Marape will visit New Zealand from 21-25 February, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “New Zealand and Papua New Guinea have a warm and friendly relationship. I look forward to welcoming Prime Minister Marape here and strengthening the relationship between our two countries,” ...
Thousands of children have begun receiving a free lunch on every day of the school week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. The Government’s free and healthy school lunch programme is under way for 7,000 students at 31 schools in Hawke’s Bay / Tairāwhiti and Bay of Plenty / Waiariki, extending ...
The Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni today announced a new approach that continues to broaden the Government’s social sector focus from a narrow, investment approach to one centred on people and wellbeing. Minister Sepuloni said redefining the previous approach to social investment by combining science, data and lived experience ...
The Government is strengthening the Protected Disclosures Act to provide better protection for whistle blowers, Minister of State Services Chris Hipkins said today. “The Protected Disclosures Act is meant to encourage people to speak up about serious wrongdoing in the workplace and protect them from losing their jobs or being ...
Nǐn hǎo (Hello in Mandarin). Xīn Nián Kuài Lè (Happy New Year in Mandarin) Néi Hóu (Hello in Cantonese). Sun Nin Fai Lok (Happy New Year in Cantonese) Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Thank you for your invitation to attend this celebration today. I would like to acknowledge ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Ardern gets diplomatic, fuel market legislation released, and police pinged over employment records breach.There hasn’t really been much coverage of it in The Bulletin, but it’s worth looking back at quite an important diplomatic week for the PM. She has been ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by Steve Braunias.Fiction 1 The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox (Victoria University Press, $35) ReadingRoom broke the storydetailing how Knox’s novel was fought over by US publishers in a ...
Sky Sport News presenters Kate King and Goran Paladin deliver the latest news of Kiwi sporting women at home and around the globe. *WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE* Hurdler Portia Bing has reinvented herself in a bid to make the Tokyo Olympics and take another step towards putting last year's disqualification at ...
Embarrassingly for the Department of Conservation, a scheduled ministerial announcement last year was postponed. David Williams reports A much-delayed project to better protect the Mackenzie Basin’s stunning landscapes and bolster biodiversity has a new boss. In the 2018 Budget, Conservation and Lands Minister Eugenie Sage announced $2.6 million to find ...
Trying to reduce drownings - and bring on a new generation of surfers - the Wave Warriors teach kids from low-decile schools water safety wrapped in a surf lesson. Eight-year-old Athena Talavai is less than half the height of the surfboard she’s expected to stand on, and probably only a quarter of the weight. She ...
The decision to give Ihumātao the highest heritage listing available sends a strong signal to the Government and Auckland Council, write Dr Frances Hancock and Nicola Short Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (HNZPT) has upgraded the heritage listing of the Ōtuataua Stonefields Reserve and included adjacent and long-contested land at ...
If Simon Bridges manages to pull off an election victory, his next headache will be choosing his Cabinet from a somewhat uninspiring line-up, writes Peter Dunne Every election year there is a call to use the election as a chance to refresh Parliament and get rid of at least some ...
An anonymous Department of Conservation staff member, who wishes to be known only as the Carefree Vigilante, provides a handy guide to dealing with menstruation, and menstrual products, in the wild.This post was first published on the Department of Conservation blog.I’ve got six or seven rational fears and about 900 ...
There is a surge of cases of the virus outside China. Australia says it expects Covid-19 to turn into a global pandemic. We cannot afford to panic in New Zealand. But we must prepare, writes Dr Siouxsie Wiles.It’s now clear to me that the new coronavirus responsible for Covid-19 is ...
The Serious Fraud Office is once again investigating a headline-generating case. But is it prosecuting the right crimes - or just the winnable ones? Compared with previous famous finance company collapses involving hundreds of millions of dollars the numbers are small; sitting MP Jami-Lee Ross and three Auckland businessmen face SFO charges ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The government would be looking for the private sector to put in four or five times as much as it invests in research and development of particular technologies to reduce emissions, Energy Minister Angus Taylor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Two issues are currently presenting the Morrison government with fast-moving targets. One is the fallout from the coronavirus, where the picture has been altering on a near-daily basis. The other is very different – the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The federal government has activated its emergency response plan to deal with a spread of the coronavirus locally, in anticipation of it becoming a “pandemic”. It is also considering limited assistance for those hardest hit ...
In an apparent change of tune, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expects to raise the topic of climate change with Australian counterpart Scott Morrison tomorrow. ...
The Government says it wants to protect small businesses from getting shafted by big companies who don’t or won’t pay their bills on time. The move can’t come too soon. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Muecke, Clinical senior lecturer in Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Adelaide Humans are physiologically hardwired to love and seek out sweet things. It’s an ancient survival mechanism that evolved to prepare our bodies for periods of fasting when food supplies ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marilyn McMahon, Deputy Dean, School of Law, Deakin University The NSW government has just introduced a bill that will, among other significant reforms, make it easier for a jury to be informed about the prior convictions of a person on trial for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marilyn McMahon, Deputy Dean, School of Law, Deakin University The NSW government has just introduced a bill that will, among other significant reforms, make it easier for a jury to be informed about the prior convictions of a person on trial for ...
By RNZ Pacific Jacinda Ardern has paid tribute to the three Fijians who died in last year’s Christchurch mosque shootings. Ardern spoke today at Lautoka Mosque as part of her trip to Fiji to remember Imam Hafiz Musa Patel, Ashraf Ali Razak and Ashraf Ali, who died almost a ...
The Real Pod reassembles to dissect the cultured fourth week of The Bachelorette NZ with special thanks to Nando’s.This week on The Bachelorette NZ, a burrito bust-up ends in anaphylaxis, Steve chows down on some one-ply, and the Buenos Aires hostel goes full Lord of the Flies. It’s become abundantly ...
Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand, the Catholic Bishops' agency for justice, peace and development, is concerned that the latestchild poverty numbers show that there has been anincrease in material hardship,with 4100 more children living in ...
Dr Bryce Edwards.Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni described this year’s annual benefit increases of 3 per cent as “significant”, and “a way of sharing the wealth”. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also heralded them as the biggest increase to benefits in nine years, if National’s 2015 one-off adjustments are excluded. ...
Is it the kind of headline that will win votes at the general election? “Rock-star reception in Fijian village” followed by a sub-head “Rapturous greeting for Ardern during visit to launch $3m sanitation project”. The reporter (veteran Barry Soper, Newstalk ZB’s political editor) poses the rhetorical question: “Is there any ...
The New Zealand First Foundation received $100,000 in just one week from two rich-listers, whose donations remained secret because the individual payments fell below the disclosure threshold. ...
BusinessNZ says legislation requiring more transparent petrol pricing will probably be well-received, but there are concerns about the market study that prompted it. The Government has announced it is drafting a Fuel Market Bill to introduce requirements ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Andrea Watson, Sparrows CEO and founder, and Simon Yarrow, who leads Callaghan Innovation’s ...
LGNZ say a new report from the Deep South National Science Challenge is a reminder for central government policy makers to step up the pace on progressing a national strategy on climate change adaption. LGNZ is the peak body representing New Zealand’s ...
Art schools are seen by many as beacons of liberalism. But is this the reality? Former Māori student Anna McAllister recounts her fraught journey through an Auckland art school.In high school, the only subjects I was remotely good at were the practical arts. I stayed in the art block during ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Madeline Taylor, Academic Fellow, University of Sydney This week’s decision by Norwegian company Equinor to abandon a A$200 million plan to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight surprised both its critics and backers. Equinor says it abandoned the project off ...
Finance Minister sees serious, short-term impact on economy from Covid-19. He says the Government is able to deliver more general fiscal stimulus and sector-specific help if the economic hit is longer and harder. Finance Minister Grant Robertson has given his first comprehensive update on the economic effects expected from the ...
In response to reports that 30,000 New Zealanders earning over $100,000 are taking superannuation, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson Casey Russell says: “It’s clear that many wealthy New Zealanders are collecting superannuation they don’t ...
Fancy a quick trip to Europe without leaving the comfort of your own couch? Tara Ward rounds up the best European drama for your viewing pleasure. Anyone who reckons travel is the only way to expand your mind has never had the pleasure of lying on a couch for three days ...
Child protection social work involves risk. It always will. The right decisions cannot always be made and sometimes it can be a question of choosing between the least damaging alternatives. We have had a long list of child abuse tragedies for over 30 years now – in Aotearoa New Zealand and ...
SFO scrutiny of National and NZ First donations sparked debate about party funding and electoral laws. Now, Transparency International has a warning. ...
Not paying NZ Super out to those on incomes of $100,000 or more would save taxpayers around $608 million. Is it time we shake up who gets paid and what? RNZ‘s Nita Blake-Persen reports.The number of New Zealand retirees getting their superannuation while earning more than $100,000 has topped 30,000, ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentCoronavirus John Gibb (ODT): Otago academic fears ‘massive’ impact Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Nothing Xenophobic Or Racist About The Chinese ...
Dr Bryce Edwards.Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won power in 2017 on the basis of statements such as “My goal is to eradicate child poverty in New Zealand”. The Government’s progress on child poverty will be under scrutiny at this year’s general election, but progress is slow, and many are claiming ...
New Zealand King Salmon has had a better-than-expected first half, driven by record prices for its fish products. The Marlborough-based salmon farmer's net profit rose nearly 38 percent to $20.8 million in the six months to December, with the average sale price up 6.6 percent. However, revenue of $84.2m was ...
Reform of superannuation is overdue, with new figures showing more than 30,000 superannuitants are earning more than $100,000 per year. This number is growing fast as more people keep working past 65. More than 126,000 superannuitants (17% of the total) are earning ...
Funding to give nature a helping hand and support community conservation projects opens this week, with $5.6m available for community-led projects. “The Department of Conservation (DOC) Community Fund enables us to go further and faster in our conservation ...
Police acknowledge the findings of the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) in relation to decision-making in a sexual assault investigation in Palmerston North. The IPCA found that the decision-making was sound, and there was no conflict of interest ...
Thursday, February 27: Greenpeace has published an open letter calling on the organisers of music festival WOMAD to dump oil industry sponsorship. Todd Energy and Austrian oil giant OMV are on the bill again this year, despite persistent criticism from ...
The clash between urban cyclists and car drivers has been brewing for several years now. But pedestrians have been advocating for their rights for far longer, writesNot so long ago, the journalist Bernard Hickey predicted that cyclists vs motorists will become one of the political issues of our age. “We ...
A2 Milk has delivered a strong financial result, with increased sales in its infant nutrition business and with better than expected profit margins. The specialty milk company's net profit rose 21 percent in the six months to December to $184.9m, with an underlying sales margin of 32.6 percent. Sales rose ...
Air New Zealand's half year profit has taken a larger hit than expected, falling 33 percent amid slowing demand for air travel and increased costs. Its net profit was $101 million in the six months ended December, compared with $150m the year before. Costs rose due to price hikes for ...
You might be trying to reduce your carbon footprint in everyday life, but what about in death? Alex Casey talks to Becs Bartells, founder of Outside the Box about creating the perfect cardboard casket. Becs Bartells often forgets she has an empty coffin sitting in the back of her station wagon, ...
As government services shut their doors in communities and drive people to interact online, the wellbeing of New Zealand's most vulnerable people is being diminished, says the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB). CAB has released the report 'Face to Face ...
New research from justice advocacy group JustSpeak released today shows that structural bias in policing continues to disproportionately harm Māori and demonstrates the urgent need for transformative change across our justice system. Using the Statistics ...
A Spinoff article last year rightly raised concerns that citizens’ assemblies could be yet another imposition of Western ideas on Māori. But assemblies and tino rangatiratanga-based visions in fact share a critique of our current democratic system – and could together transform politics, write Emily Beausoleil and Max Rashbrooke.Nadine Anne ...
More new coronavirus cases have for the first time been reported outside China than inside, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said. ...
Simon Bridges wouldn't deport mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant if found guilty despite calling for reciprocal policy; and Why climate change should be on the agenda for Jacinda meet Morrison. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David A. Savage, Associate Professor of Behavioural Economics , Newcastle Business School, University of Newcastle Recent days have brought reports of shoppers clearing out supermarket shelves from Wuhan and Hong Kong to Singapore and Milan in response to the spread of coronavirus. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato The Christchurch mosque attacks on March 15 last year have prompted a significant rise in tip-offs about people expressing extremist views, according to a report by New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS). During the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Beirman, Senior Lecturer, Tourism, University of Technology Sydney The coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) has now reached more than 80,000 recorded cases, largely concentrated in China, with a death toll over 2,700 and rising. There are few signs the epidemic is abating. In ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tessa Copp, PhD candidate, University of Sydney Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common hormonal condition. When using the definition supported by the international guidelines, it affects just under one in six young Australian women. To meet the diagnostic criteria of PCOS, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul McGorrery, PhD Candidate in Criminal Law, Deakin University The recent killing of Hannah Clarke and her three children by her estranged husband has raised national attention to the types of behaviour that might lead to such a horrific crime, and how ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominique Hes, Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Architecture, University of Melbourne Despite a wealth of evidence to the contrary, some still propagate the myth that the world will need Australian coal for decades to come. Last weekend Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese joined in, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mehmet Ulubasoglu, Professor of Economics, Head of the Department of Economics and Director of the Centre for Energy, the Environment and Natural Disasters, Deakin University My team and I have analysed the incomes of people affected by some of Australia’s worst bushfires, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tiffani J. Howell, Research Fellow, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University Australians are slightly obsessed with our dogs. But are we obsessed enough to watch a reality doggy makeover show? The reality makeover concept has a long history, from ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Saving water becomes crucial amid drought, means testing Super back in the news, and a hard look at a Special Purpose Vehicle.Aucklanders need to get serious about saving water or restrictions will come in. Newshub reports that’s the message from Watercare, who ...
Up-and-coming teenage freeskiier Ruby Andrews has shown she has the boldness and the bravery to become one of the world's top women in not one, but three, different events. There’s no questioning Ruby Andrews’ grit and determination. While most 15-year-olds are spending this summer hanging with friends on the beach, Andrews ...
An anonymous international student at the University of Auckland grapples with when and how she might return to NZ amid the coronavirus outbreak, and what challenges she will face if she makes it back. I am a Chinese international student at the University of Auckland. Having completed my language course and ...
When will there be a vaccine? What can we do and how do we stay up to date? Helen Petousis-Harris gives an update on the COVID-19 global health emergency Less than two months after China told the World Health Organisation there was a problem, a lot has happened. Sadly, deaths, confirmed ...
From February 28, Kiwibank will be cheque-free. Mark Jennings looks at how it has been preparing its customers for the big change. It’s raining heavily in Nelson, something it hasn’t done for a while. Local MP and former cabinet minister Nick Smith hurriedly climbs into an old bus parked outside the city’s library. ...
Experts in far-right extremism see a number of similarities between the Christchurch terror attack and last week's mass shooting in Hanau, Germany. Marc Daalder reports. On the evening of February 19, a man shot up two shisha bars frequented by Muslims in Hanau, Germany. It later emerged that he had released ...
ReadingRoom has devoted all week to the biggest-selling book in New Zealand right now, In The Clearing, a brilliant thriller by Ngāpuhi author JP Pomare, based on creepy Australian cult The Family. We conclude the series with a review by Bill Ralston.JP Pomare's second novel In ...
New Zealand’s travel ban on China has been extended another week. The president of the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations argues for a student exemption.The loss of lives and poor health caused by coronavirus is devastating. We must acknowledge the families, across the globe, who have lost loved ones ...
Open mike 15/10/2019 
Here is the speech that Maya Forstater gave at the Woman’s Place UK Women’s Liberation 2020 conference at UCL on February 1st In a recent newsletter she wrote: it was an amazing day (and brilliant to meet so many people in real life). I talked about what makes people and ...10 hours ago
A New Hope from the National Party leader ...18 hours ago
NZ First portrays itself as an anti-establishment party, standing up for "the little guy" (always a guy) against Big Auckland Money and its tool-parties. But it turns out that its secret slush fund is funded by the very people it claims to oppose:Stuff can reveal a longer list of donors ...19 hours ago
20 hours ago
Will She, Or Won't She? Jacinda’s white vestments may look impressive on the cover of the international edition of TIME magazine, but every day Labour’s relationship with Winston Peters and NZ First continues, her ability to go on wearing them back home in New Zealand – without exciting derision – diminishes.IT WAS ...20 hours ago
BAMS survey of 2018 extreme weather The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society has published a collection of articles examining unusually extreme weather events of 2018 and connections of those to climate change. These investigations are listed separately below but thanks to the generosity of AMS appear free for ...1 day ago
Fans are outraged at the prospect of Destiny Church pastor Hannah Tamaki joining the Black Caps ...2 days ago
Less than two months after China told the WHO there was a problem, a lot has happened. Sadly, deaths, confirmed cases and countries affected are increasing every day. However, on a scientific and medical level, what is going on to contain, cure and prevent this new disease is truly inspirational. ...2 days ago
I am about to mail my overseas ballot to Florida so that it can be counted in the Democratic primary on March 17. In Florida you have closed as opposed to open primaries, which means that one must declare a party preference in order to vote in a party primary. ...6 days ago
In mid-December the Israeli secret police, the Shin Beit, revealed it had arrested dozens of Palestinian left-wing activists, including members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in the previous few months. Among those arrested was one of the central leaders of the PFLP, Khalida Jarrar. As ...1 week ago
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...2 weeks ago
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, New Zealand First Deputy Leader A total delivery of 2,000 new Police Officers has been achieved. New Zealand First Deputy Leader, Fletcher Tabuteau attended the latest police graduation of Recruit Wing 335 in Porirua today. Mr Tabuteau said, “Increasing police numbers and boosting their resources was one of ...17 hours ago
One of our most immediate priorities upon forming Government was to get people out of sleeping in cars, garages, or on the street and into safe and warm housing. Since then, we've made major progress towards breaking the cycle of homelessness, including expanding Housing First, building more state houses, and ...2 days ago
A milestone has been reached with the graduation of more than 2,000 new Police officers since the Coalition Government took office in October 2017. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the graduation today of Wing 335 marks a surge of 2,023 new officers, and coincides with some significant breakthroughs against organised ...16 hours ago
Cycling the length of NZ has got Rod Oram thinking about farming in the climate change era ...23 mins ago
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Ardern gets diplomatic, fuel market legislation released, and police pinged over employment records breach.There hasn’t really been much coverage of it in The Bulletin, but it’s worth looking back at quite an important diplomatic week for the PM. She has been ...25 mins ago
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by Steve Braunias. Fiction 1 The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox (Victoria University Press, $35) ReadingRoom broke the story detailing how Knox’s novel was fought over by US publishers in a ...1 hour ago
Sky Sport News presenters Kate King and Goran Paladin deliver the latest news of Kiwi sporting women at home and around the globe. *WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE* Hurdler Portia Bing has reinvented herself in a bid to make the Tokyo Olympics and take another step towards putting last year's disqualification at ...2 hours ago
Embarrassingly for the Department of Conservation, a scheduled ministerial announcement last year was postponed. David Williams reports A much-delayed project to better protect the Mackenzie Basin’s stunning landscapes and bolster biodiversity has a new boss. In the 2018 Budget, Conservation and Lands Minister Eugenie Sage announced $2.6 million to find ...2 hours ago
Trying to reduce drownings - and bring on a new generation of surfers - the Wave Warriors teach kids from low-decile schools water safety wrapped in a surf lesson. Eight-year-old Athena Talavai is less than half the height of the surfboard she’s expected to stand on, and probably only a quarter of the weight. She ...2 hours ago
The decision to give Ihumātao the highest heritage listing available sends a strong signal to the Government and Auckland Council, write Dr Frances Hancock and Nicola Short Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (HNZPT) has upgraded the heritage listing of the Ōtuataua Stonefields Reserve and included adjacent and long-contested land at ...2 hours ago
If Simon Bridges manages to pull off an election victory, his next headache will be choosing his Cabinet from a somewhat uninspiring line-up, writes Peter Dunne Every election year there is a call to use the election as a chance to refresh Parliament and get rid of at least some ...2 hours ago
The Serious Fraud Office is once again investigating a headline-generating case. But is it prosecuting the right crimes - or just the winnable ones? Compared with previous famous finance company collapses involving hundreds of millions of dollars the numbers are small; sitting MP Jami-Lee Ross and three Auckland businessmen face SFO charges ...3 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The government would be looking for the private sector to put in four or five times as much as it invests in research and development of particular technologies to reduce emissions, Energy Minister Angus Taylor ...6 hours ago
In an apparent change of tune, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expects to raise the topic of climate change with Australian counterpart Scott Morrison tomorrow. ...11 hours ago
The Government says it wants to protect small businesses from getting shafted by big companies who don’t or won’t pay their bills on time. The move can’t come too soon. ...13 hours ago
Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand, the Catholic Bishops' agency for justice, peace and development, is concerned that the latestchild poverty numbers show that there has been anincrease in material hardship,with 4100 more children living in ...15 hours ago
Is it the kind of headline that will win votes at the general election? “Rock-star reception in Fijian village” followed by a sub-head “Rapturous greeting for Ardern during visit to launch $3m sanitation project”. The reporter (veteran Barry Soper, Newstalk ZB’s political editor) poses the rhetorical question: “Is there any ...16 hours ago
Jacinda Ardern has paid tribute to the three Fijians who died in last year's Christchurch mosque shootings. ...18 hours ago
Finance Minister sees serious, short-term impact on economy from Covid-19. He says the Government is able to deliver more general fiscal stimulus and sector-specific help if the economic hit is longer and harder. Finance Minister Grant Robertson has given his first comprehensive update on the economic effects expected from the ...18 hours ago
Child protection social work involves risk. It always will. The right decisions cannot always be made and sometimes it can be a question of choosing between the least damaging alternatives. We have had a long list of child abuse tragedies for over 30 years now – in Aotearoa New Zealand and ...19 hours ago
New Zealand King Salmon has had a better-than-expected first half, driven by record prices for its fish products. The Marlborough-based salmon farmer's net profit rose nearly 38 percent to $20.8 million in the six months to December, with the average sale price up 6.6 percent. However, revenue of $84.2m was ...20 hours ago
The Government has accepted a majority of the recommendations of the Commerce Commission's retail fuel market study, Marc Daalder reports Energy Minister Megan Woods announced today that the Government will regulate the wholesale fuel market, in line with recommendations from the Commerce Commission. In legislation due to be passed by ...21 hours ago
A2 Milk has delivered a strong financial result, with increased sales in its infant nutrition business and with better than expected profit margins. The specialty milk company's net profit rose 21 percent in the six months to December to $184.9m, with an underlying sales margin of 32.6 percent. Sales rose ...21 hours ago
Air New Zealand's half year profit has taken a larger hit than expected, falling 33 percent amid slowing demand for air travel and increased costs. Its net profit was $101 million in the six months ended December, compared with $150m the year before. Costs rose due to price hikes for ...21 hours ago
More new coronavirus cases have for the first time been reported outside China than inside, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said. ...23 hours ago
New Zealand is flush with Lotto fever, with a $50 million must-win record jackpot up for grabs this Saturday. ...23 hours ago
Simon Bridges wouldn't deport mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant if found guilty despite calling for reciprocal policy; and Why climate change should be on the agenda for Jacinda meet Morrison. ...23 hours ago
Up-and-coming teenage freeskiier Ruby Andrews has shown she has the boldness and the bravery to become one of the world's top women in not one, but three, different events. There’s no questioning Ruby Andrews’ grit and determination. While most 15-year-olds are spending this summer hanging with friends on the beach, Andrews ...1 day ago
An anonymous international student at the University of Auckland grapples with when and how she might return to NZ amid the coronavirus outbreak, and what challenges she will face if she makes it back. I am a Chinese international student at the University of Auckland. Having completed my language course and ...1 day ago
When will there be a vaccine? What can we do and how do we stay up to date? Helen Petousis-Harris gives an update on the COVID-19 global health emergency Less than two months after China told the World Health Organisation there was a problem, a lot has happened. Sadly, deaths, confirmed ...1 day ago
From February 28, Kiwibank will be cheque-free. Mark Jennings looks at how it has been preparing its customers for the big change. It’s raining heavily in Nelson, something it hasn’t done for a while. Local MP and former cabinet minister Nick Smith hurriedly climbs into an old bus parked outside the city’s library. ...1 day ago
Experts in far-right extremism see a number of similarities between the Christchurch terror attack and last week's mass shooting in Hanau, Germany. Marc Daalder reports. On the evening of February 19, a man shot up two shisha bars frequented by Muslims in Hanau, Germany. It later emerged that he had released ...1 day ago
ReadingRoom has devoted all week to the biggest-selling book in New Zealand right now, In The Clearing, a brilliant thriller by Ngāpuhi author JP Pomare, based on creepy Australian cult The Family. We conclude the series with a review by Bill Ralston. JP Pomare's second novel In ...1 day ago
I can't believe NZ doesn't have a stalking law. Needs sorting asap
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/116378537/i-love-you-i-hate-you–stalkers-reign-of-terror
Stalkers come in different guises and cover both genders. They are not always motivated by romantic obsessions or broken relationships. My stalker from years back was a woman who was prone to obsessive jealousies of others she perceived to be more successful in life than herself.
They usually have other types of personality disorders and can be extremely cunning at carrying out their covert activities. Hence most of them get clean away with it. The situation is not helped by a NZ Police Force who don't seem to have much knowledge or understanding of the nature of covert stalking.
More often than not it is the stalked who end up getting the blame and not the stalker.
From the link:
Yes . NZ does have a 'stalkers law'
https://www.govt.nz/browse/law-crime-and-justice/abuse-harassment-domestic-violence/stalking-and-harassment/
Harassment has a legal definition — on at least two separate occasions within a period of 12 months, the harasser needs to have committed "specific acts", like:
Saying things like NZ doesnt have a stalkers law, is misleading, as casual readers might think you are referring to something you know about
Anybody can get a restraining order from the Court , doesnt require the police consent or even a judges order
"Anybody can get a restraining order from the Court , doesnt require the police consent or even a judges order"
Really? I thought an application for a restraining order required a determination by a DC judge.
Bridges/National defied the Speaker's ruling on National's attack ads just before 2pm. Today Mallard is expected to announce decision on what next. Could be $1000 fine or imprisonment but that is unlikely. More likely is a consultation and a bringing forward a discussion on the rules.
I think Bridges will carry on in the meantime as perhaps the recent poll might have been a cause/effect of those ads?
Everyone agreed to the rules (or were bound by them) yet someone broke them.
I wonder what the reaction will be if Irish rugby players against New Zealand this weekend smack people around the head unpunished and win the match.
I'm sure in that event all the National supporters will say the rules are stupid and the assaults on the head were okay.
Surely it was only after good intellectual consideration and probity discussions they agreed to the use of video rule. Intellectual and probity factors have changed dramatically. i.e. they aren't in Government.
They are as deep as a glob of phlegm in the gutter.
Megans Woods lost for words on Ninetonoon. No surprises there. Without nationalising the electricity industry there's nothing she or her government can say.
The Minister either didnt understand the questions or chose not too…..concerning
If she's a disciple of Jim Anderton she probably knows her government's attempts to bring electricity prices down won't work. Anderton wanted to nationalise the industry so she's possibly in a tight spot having to sell what she knows is bullshit.
possibly so….although she has performed similarly before…EQC springs to mind
Shonky knew exactly what the impact of getting private equity into the SOE generators would have and he told no end of porkys to ensure it came to pass.
The numbers would be intruiging, take out the 4 levels of profit/external audit/regulatory/internal audit/management/duplicated systems (mostly the stonkingly expensive SAP) across generator/grid/lines/retailer.
You could probably freeze power prices for some years, payout the private equity then consolidate them back to the NZED model.
Labour lacks the bollocks to go anywhere near this.
"Labour lacks the bollocks to go anywhere near this."
Agree…though addressing the distribution would be a major step in the right direction….and it was the distribution she really appeared unwilling/unable to address in that interview
"Megans Woods lost for words on Ninetonoon"
Thats a bold claim. Any sort of background to the questions or even the words 'she should have said'
At the moment all we have is a claim of silence ……
Apologies Dukeofurl. I should've said Woods' couldn't explain how the changes will bring prices down. And as far as what she should've said goes, well, she should've said the changes won't bring prices down because they won't.
For the 60% of consumers on low-fixed charges and whom pay their bills on time it doesn't seem (going off that interview) prices will go down for them.
In fact, it sounds as if prices will increase for this grouping so as to offset a drop in price for a number of high use consumers.
Considering only 40% of power consumers are on a high use tariff, it seems the Government are going to piss off the majority of low use consumers when faced with power price hikes as a result of the Government's reform.
That's going to hurt the Government come election time. Talk about shooting oneself in the foot. And talk about giving National another club to bash them with.
Well, well, well. "this is going to hurt the Government" yet again…
By the way, please stop using the word 'whom'. It is correct only in a few uses, and you tend to get it wrong. 'Who' is almost never wrong in modern English – much safer.
The Government is already copping the blame for higher fuel costs, rising rents/housing costs (via the lack of state homes being built, increased rental standards along with the talk of a CGT and the dropping of it encouraging investors, not to mention the Kiwibuild failure/reset) and now it seems they want to add higher power costs to the list.
If they can't see the potential voter backlash from this (higher power costs) they are clearly out of touch. And the list is growing, there is now talk of higher rubbish disposal charges. They can't afford a growing list of costs they are adding onto voters while they sit on a surplus, thus they need to get this one (power reform) right and lower costs for the majority if not all.
Yes, you have great form for repetition of such boring cacklemush.
Here we go again. According to the DomPost headline, 'Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern distances Labour from failed Wellington mayoral candidate Justin Lester'. This is in the same realm of reality as depicting her as an apologist for sexual abuse. Lester didn't need to be thrown under a bus, he walked in the way and went under by himself. In essence, he never was a Labour man. In office, he proved to be at the beck and call of the likes of the developers and the Chamber of Commerce and appeared to be subservient to his CEO. Obviously, the PM has a better nose for reality than those of the party who compromised the 'Labour' brand by supporting Lester, who proved to many, that his self-belief exceeded his abilities. If any more proof is required that he wasn't up to it, it is provided by the election of Labour branded Councillors, including two new ones who were relative 'unknowns'. One of these succeeded in a 'true blue' ward and neither replaced 'red' predecessors.
+100 !
And now I think about it, nor was Lester that worried about standing up for the other elected representatives when they were calling out the administration’s inadequacies. (Case in point, Simon Woolf DARING to comment on street lighting problems. How very dare him to have pointed out the bleeding obvious!. And there are quite a few other examples)
Forster's grinning pale blue image confronting Miramar travellers was an aesthetic crime and deserved a proportionate response.
The perennial schoolboy. Just shows what can happen if you hang around long enough. Sights set high. Career councillor. Got there in the end. "Well, I started off mopping the floor…"
If that was the case why did they need to replace him with Andy ?
Andy's a Winston man, a conservative through and through.
There were no other viable options apart from Diane Calvert, whose votes ended up going to Foster under STV anyway – her votes swung it for him. Seemingly, the Wellington voters were pretty savvy. Andy Foster's agenda will have to get past a far more critical and muscular Council than the previous one. Predictably, more than a few of his proposals will struggle to survive.
The Ethics of Film.
https://www.ethicsfilmfestival.com/
[deleted links]
[that many links is spam (which is why your comment got caught in the spam filter). Feel free to post again, but with some commentary of your own and less links – weka]
Digital is rapidly becoming the norm, transforming our work and behaviour across all sectors. It is now embedded in business models, integrated with processes and practices as organisations move towards digital-as-usual businesses. While organisations employ technology to increase productivity and efficiency, the big elephant in the room is ‘’Ethics’’. Organisations must be mindful of the risks of unethical practices, whose adverse impact can be amplified by digital connectivity.
At ACCA’s Ethics Film Festival 2019, we will explore the “ABCD” of Ethics in a digital environment: AI, Blockchain, Cybersecurity and Data Governance; as we explore and discuss good practices and guidelines in the responsible adoption of technology and what accountants, financial and IT professionals of the future need to know.
That sounds interesting. ACCA is in Singapore. Perhaps some of the films can be accessed after the Festival and there are a bunch from previous years. Those trying to keep up with the thinking of the digital age may like to take this further – can they be seen here in NZ? On-line?
MPs at Westminster are more likely to have mental health issues than either the general public or other people in comparable professions/managerial posts, suggest the responses to a survey of parliamentarians, published in the online journal BMJ Open.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190701184622.htm
One of your comments is held up in the Moderation queue because it contains way too many links and no commentary at all from you as to why anyone should click on those links.
The one that got away ..
NZ Herald Article states Organised Crime Evolving Rapidly in NZ
I am not sure what the answer is obviously our Intelligence Services are analyzing this threat. The drug problem is helping breakdown NZ Society with much of the damage unseen ?
The gangsters we see on the street and in the newspapers are mere cogs in the wheel or the tip of the iceberg ?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12276597
Is it a reverse of the opium war on China? I have heard that you can phone in an order to a number connected with the Chinese supplier as if to the supermarket.
Does make one wonder especially when most of the methamphetamine is supposedly coming out of Asia ?
But good old alcohol always has a place. Where are the transport cops when they are really needed? If they could have a drone keeping an eye on this guy, and removed the distributor or something when he stopped, they would have done good in this case.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/401021/killer-driver-cries-at-sentencing-for-121km-h-in-50km-h-zone-crash
"removed the distributor"
My 1989 corona didn't have a distributor, have you looked under the bonnet of a car in the last 20 years??
My Commodore had a distributor and some GM vehicles didn't lose theirs until the mid 2000s.
I've noticed an increase of patched gang- members here in the Housing Corp suburb of Riverdale in Gisborne the last 3 years. Pretty bloody understandable to me since NZ has abandoned the lowest whatever percent. The country doesn't understand itself anymore — sticks knives into its vitals for short-term self-interest.
" Indeed, the real question that is left hanging in the air after half-an-hour listening to Stephen Mills is not why anyone wanting real change would vote for the parties of the Left, but why they would bother voting at all."
OUCH!
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2019/10/losing-labours-mills-tone.html
a few of us have been saying that, and literally we end up voting for 'kinder' and 'gentler' cause that is all they got. A bit of lube, a red ribbon, and see the screwing over of you does not hurt that much anymore, Right?
there is absolutly no reason for anyone to vote for either of the assorted clown show that is NZ politics and its enablers.
And the onus is on the current gov to provide one….sadly they seem incapable of such as the article notes (and recent polls indicate)
i don't really care about news and articles and polls.
i do however see what is happening around me, and literally what is happening around me is nothing. And i guess i am not the only one to see that.
There is very little difference between either party – and i include all parties. they are more worried about keeping their jobs then they are worried about actually delivering measurable changes.
In saying that we can have ineffective J.A or bullshit S.B or worse Paula Benefits.
Great choices we have here, right? kinder gentler do nothing, or rude and brutal do nothing. and online voting or purple thumbs is not gonna change the fact that we are run by selfserving morons.
the news articles and polls can serve a purpose….I only see and interact with a tiny proportion of the country and therefore ask myself if what I observe is typical or not.
Perhaps we should pay politicians less. I know they say if you pay peanuts you get monkeys, but look at the lot of overpaid monkeys we have (and I am talking all parties). Many of these people will never get a job in the real world paying any near as much as they currently earn. Too many are just there for themselves milking it for as long as possible as they no they will never get as high paying a job.
i have been saying that for a while.
they should earn no more then minimum wage. That would go long ways towards weeding the likes of Paula Benefits and such out for ever. Only the truly dedicated would run, or the min wage would go to 75 $ per hour and ruin everyone who ever created a job.
flipside is that you'll get MPs who will be even more blatant about getting the payoffs on the back end.
I don't mind paying MPs a couple of hundred thousand a year. I do mind it when they immediately get private sector jobs in the policy area they were negligent about, lobbying their former colleagues.
i do mind paying wages to people who don't deliver.
but then i do pay wages to people, and i do know that i have to make a whole lot of money already to just pay someone min wage +8 % holiday + 3 kiwi saver, and it bothers me endlessly if i have to pay someone for not pulling their weight and literally just occupying seats.
as for pulling one in the back or the front or by the side, they already do that quite openly and happily irrespective of their chosen side.
they don't perform, they get voted out. Nobody will drop a mid-range career for a pay cut in a role that will probably only last three years, and then go back to what they were doing.
We have lots of low-level corruption in NZ, but we're beginning to get the US-style movement of politicians between elected representatives to profiting from special interests.
I'd keep the pay high, but think of something like registering lobbyists and banning former mps from such a role for at least three years.
they do perform,
and we delude ourself into thinking we have choice by 'voting'. lol
but yeah, what ever makes you happy
better than any other system people have tried.
I note Simon Bridges's rival in his party, Judith Collins, seems to go to the left of him despite her reputation. At least the foulie rightos over the ditch haven't yet got a foothold here.
If she went right, she'd be in on ACT's territory. By going 2008-ish labour-lite, she boosts her preferred PM ratings.
Long time Green Christine Dann has a long memory
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/10/15/guest-blog-christine-dann-full-steam-ahead-for-the-climate-change-corporation/
and thank god she has….is a very good piece.
people might enjoy reading this article.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-age-of-radical-evil/
and i think really that once we see the current happenings world wide, we can see that clearly our overlords – elected, selected, instated, and tolerated – do see at best a profit centre – child care, education, health care, at worst a cost centre, aged care, unemployment / other benefits, pensions and such. And once us the public realises that we can start looking at these goons in parliaments and see them for what they are. Goons, that would let us die if only they could, so as long as they get re-selected/instated, so as long as they can cash in, in the hopes that when they turn in to cost centres they have amassed enough wealth and connections to go by. But it should be remembered that our 'human rights' that we like to claim are nothing more then artificial construct that we give each other, either to all of us, or them giving it to some of us.
this one came out before the selection of the shitshow in the US
might be a good reminder that nothing is new under the sun.
good vid ta
Old birds slower to think around problems, whereas juvenile birds much better.
And what she found was that young kaka are innovative and persistent problem solvers – whereas older birds are so set in their ways that they failed to solve several of the experiments. It turns out you can’t teach an old parrot new tricks, after all.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ourchangingworld/audio/201802744/smart-kaka-can-you-teach-old-parrots-new-tricks
Surely they would've known about this shit when the engaged him.
Orf doing some career damage limitation (he's not very good at it) https://medium.com/@0rf/my-first-day-in-politics-bcd93ff7f53c
oh bless, the poor thing – he sure did mean only well.
Why can't we take academics seriously all the time? When they play at semantics that's when.
author interview Why do we do terrible things? Listen duration 19′ :19″
From Afternoons with Jesse Mulligan, 3:10 pm on 14 October 2019 https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018717648/why-do-we-do-terrible-things
There is no such thing as evil. There are bad choices, very bad choices, that individuals can and do make. Dr Julia Shaw from University College London says heinous crimes are generally circus shows, not evil.
Julia uses research to explain why we do terrible things in her book, Evil: The Science Behind Humanity's Dark Side.
Haha – caught her out – she used the word 'evil' to describe evil. If we choose to describe 'terrible things' as 'evil' which involves the feeling of OTT viciousness of which we disapprove, that word is a valid choice from all other words to convey our opinion about something.
Women with long hair with curls in it cannot, because they have been to university and call themselves (probably) an academic, state that a word does not apply to something to which it obviously refers and describes.
There are more ways of looking at anything rather than one. Someone else will consider my pointing out that Dr Julia Shaw has long curly hair is inappropriate, and actually sexist. I wouldn't deign to say that there is no such word as sexist, and that instead I am just a silly, muddled, confused person.
Heard part of the interview, and your last sentence sums up what I casually wondered about Dr Julia Shaw.
yep – they all bend the knee to money – sad bastards
How can it be that the brutal "regime" is the Kurds only saviour? What happened to those "opposition rebels" fighting for freedom alongside IS, surely they would help…
dunno maybe they are all crisis actors eh spongehead bobpants
In Vlad's wildest dreams the U.S. would stand aside and green light Turkey's invasion, the Kurds would turn to Assad/Russia for support, the US would sanction Turkey, driving a wedge into NATO, strengthening a Russia/Iran/Turkey alliance.
And lo!, his boy delivered.
Syria and Russia are basically the only ones who can fix this mess, pushing the Turks out of Syria and returning the region to pre-coup stability.
The Kurds made their own bed, supporting the US in destabilizing Syria, taking their oil and reneging on agreements. In response the regime is being very unregime like for not severely punishing them for that.
Syrian Kurds are an historically suppressed ethnic minority and you're on the same side as their oppressors.
You really are a POS, aren't you.
Well, well, well… if it isn't Joe… How did the debate go today Joe? Avoid the questions on Ukraine did you?
You know the Kurds were involved in the Armenian genocide and Saladins conquest…eh Joe? Probably not as oppressed as you think….
Under the thuggish Assad dynasty Kurds have been discriminated against because of their ethnicity, denied Syrian citizenship, had their language and culture suppressed and their land and property seized and resettled by Arabs.
But then, you're a POS with a boner for authoritarian thugs so it's no surprise you think these people deserve to be the victims of the horrors of the Assad's inter-generational punishment.
[Please control your language and please no more personal insults thanks – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 9:09 PM.
And where have those White Helmets got to.
Surely there's a dead
babymannequin around they could be filming at least.Fifty. Nuclear. Weapons.
And over the weekend, State and Energy Department officials were quietly reviewing plans for evacuating roughly 50 tactical nuclear weapons that the United States had long stored, under American control, at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, about 250 miles from the Syrian border, according to two American officials.
http://archive.li/cciES
learn to love the bomb dude.
Nice post on fbook by Auckland Peace Action
What a crock of shit #endwhitesupremacy
yep exactly sj – end that white supremacy bullshit NOW!
The question of the attack ads by the National party has been referred to the Committee for revision soon.
However Bridges will be restricted to just 5 supplementary questions each day this week in punishment for challenging the Speaker given that the Speaker is responsible for following the rules set by Parliament. No response yet from Opposition.
PS: So the Deputy Leader of National was able to just ask the supplementary questions which would have been otherwise asked by Bridges. Just a blip then.
Five supplementary questions? A number reaching the IQ score of those who think can't see the vacuity, gormlessness and hypocrisy of the position of Bridges and his motley crew regarding the use of Parliamentary video.
Naomi Klein from 35:30 onwards on her new book ‘On Fire’
Saying that the response to CC will open new frontiers for profiteering. Which means that without a Green New Deal, CC doesn’t just involve the world becoming hotter, but also that it becomes meaner and more unequal – a place where resource scarcity is forced first onto the underserving (the poor, people of colour or the ‘wrong’ religion) in a new configuration of austerity. The coming “climate barbarism." She also links this to the “eco-fascism” of the Christchurch shooter as part of a larger movement to eliminate those who don’t deserve to survive in the new world of scarcity.
(Before that there’s also the brilliant Elif Sarican on Rojava)
Oh. That's the sort of thing I have been thinking. How mean we have got in NZ and for instance, thinking how willing we are to put up with the oppressive WINZ moralistic actually neoliberal puritan-like approach that is invasive of women's freedom and right to be a person. All that work for feminism and it only seems to have continued in the ability of some women who fit into the system getting to the upper echelons and getting big salaries.
Unfortunately, that kind of position just gives ammo to the deniers and the let's-be-fast-followers claiming climate activists are just using climate change as a stalking horse for social engineering.
Ignoring, in their denying-thought inept way, that we are being socially engineered all the time, including by them.
I think Klein's point is that we inevitably face a choice between two different forms of social engineering. That there isn't
going to be a 'no social engineering' option.
Maybe if you take Klein's position at the moment in isolation. But anyone that takes even a cursory look at Klein's history will soon become aware she's long been about social engineering. In contrast, she's a relative latecomer to climate activism, and her transition was clearly about using climate change to leverage her social views.
I consider that any reasoned person would consider that considering climate change and society culture are interlocked as the vital areas of focus in thinking about the path to whatever future we will have, and may help to get us closer to the one we hope for.
That's great if you're just looking for a rousing "right on" from already committed activists. But if you're interested in persuading undecideds that action is necessary, it's not helpful to link two unrelated issues. The negatives an undecided may feel about one of the issues transfers too easily into rejection of arguments about the other.
When each of the two separate issues has standalone arguments about their merits, far better to argue each issue separately.
In the case of climate change, there really are conservative-oriented arguments for taking action against climate change change that don't require wholesale rejection of the existing economic framework. Just like there are very good arguments for seriously modifying the current socio-economic framework that is currently so heavily tilted in favour of the already wealthy and powerful that don’t require reference to climate change. The likes of Klein and Sanders have been making those arguments for decades before climate change became a popular issue.
That climate change as a factual problem has been turned into a political identity issue is as much the fault of activists like Klein falsely conflating them as it is the fault of big corporate underhanded manipulation.
Yes, wise folks will look at every avenue for pushing change that is good for us including the planet, And to be aware that many people can't see it holistically is a necessary to getting effective action quickly. I agree that tackling the problem at whatever level people are on is more essential than harping on about the connectedness of all. No time for campfies and singing kumbaya, jut choose your group, and add your tuppence worth of sense to ensure that a workable plan with a defined goal and a practice and method of courteious delivery, that is spelled out with regular checks for design flaws is adopted.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/116574054/defence-minister-trumps-environment-court-decision-on-whenuapai-airbase-engine-noise
pre-existing land usage.
I’d get as far if I started to try to be that kind of a NIMBY about the eagle helicopter that hangs around the motorway junctions a lot.
Or since I’m in a mixed use area, if I started to complain about the bin pickups at 0400 at the businesses in our area.
Pre-existing land usage should be spelled out to possible purchasers, and made very clear to house speculators. Live near the rural area, know that in winter they will have helicopters or giant fans stirring the air to keep the frost from killing the crop. Orchards do a lot of spraying etc.
OMG Whenuapai purchasers could have it explained by looking out the fucking window.
And have done so since 1937.
But they don't look out the window till they have purchased or built and then can act on unreasonable laws that allow them to complain and try to alter pre-existing conditions that are the resuslt of whatever business or enterprise is established there or should be able under intelligent town planning to be in a suitable business zone there.
It is really hard, if not realistically impossible, to alter pre-existing conditions where these were well known and part of the existing legal rights before a new purchaser started to occupy their property. Which is the case here.
The reason for this is obvious. The litigants trying to gain a property right at the expense of another without permission or recompense. Now the environment court can look at it without looking at property rights, but the courts it would have been immediately appealed to have would not.
It is possible where the original occupiers are doing something outside their rights, or doing something illegal, or doing something that is dangerous.
If a council wants to change the conditions of someone's property rights, then they will ultimately have to recompense for taking those rights unless they can show immediate danger.
Which is why councils try not to do it because the compensation is usually pretty extreme. What usually happens instead is that the rates rise with the value of the property as it gets built up, eventually the cost plus the value of the property rises to the point where someone sells up.
In this case Ron Mark will have simply short-circuited it. Had the environmental courts decision been taken to appeal (and it would have been), it would have been overturned on property rights and prior usage alone. The environmental court decision and the factors behind it probably wouldn’t have even really entered into the legal argument.
In the event that the appeal court decided that there was a public health or safety issue, then the blame should have fallen squarely on the council for letting those housing buildings to be built. Personally as a Auckland city ratepayer, I wouldn’t have wanted to pay for the NIMBYs on the North Shore. I’d have been wanting that the whole cost of compensation to the defense department be levied directly in the suburbs concerned.
News headlines are used to grab your attention.
They help set/frame a narrative. And tend to stick in people's minds.
When taken together, the two misleading headlines used for the two recent polls paint a picture that Labour have taken a huge drop in the polls with National increasing and as a result, National (along with ACT) are currently in a position to win.
Unfortunately, for a good number of those that don't follow politics too heavily, this is the picture that will now stick in their minds and may influence their support going forward.
As swordfish highlighted the other day, Newshub's headline for their Jan 2018 Poll (which recorded near-identical results to their most recent poll) was dramatically different.
TV1 had a rather different addenda to the Colman Poll on News tonight.
For the first time they used the Approval minus the Disapproval ratings to get anew figure.
Can't be sure of the detail from memory approx
Jacinda was plus 30
Simon was minus 21
Trump minus 16
Merkle plus 4
Hay! found it.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/ardern-and-bridges-approval-ratings-revealed-in-1-news-colmar-brunton-poll?auto=6094851582001
Kia Ora Breakfast.
Its great that pressure is getting put on the companys that makes our clothes too provide a living wage and a humane work environment.
That is a great idea getting Wahine in the trades carpenter plummer electricion. These days with the Lithuaniam battery powered tools the jobs are no were as labour intensive as they used to be actually I say that the jobs are quite easy now days . We just need to teach the Tane to respect Wahine on the job site actually teach Tane to respect Wahine fullstop.
Tiny houses is the way of the future lowering the cost to get into a Whare and drastically lowering our carbon footprint.
All consumer products need to be made in a sustainable way. I agree closed loop system for consumer goods. We have to learn to stop making a MESS of our own back YARD.
Papatuanuku food day there is no reason for tangata to be starving on the Papatuanuku in the year 2019. There is enough food growing on Papatuanuku to feed everything.
Ka kite Ano
We came from our natural environment we depend on the other creatures of our environment for food there are many factors of our Papatuanuku that needs all the diverse creatures to function effectively. It baffles me why a lot of people don't get those facts that people need other creatures to survive.
The age of extinction
Biodiversity touches every aspect of our lives – so why has its loss been ignored?
The evidence is unequivocal: biodiversity, important in its own right and essential for current and future generations, is being destroyed by human activities at a rate unprecedented in human history.
Governments around the world recognised this at the Earth summit in Brazil in 1992 and established the Convention on Biological Diversity to protect and conserve biodiversity. But the situation has become more and more dire. I have chaired or co-chaired three international assessments on the state of knowledge of biodiversity, and all have repeated the same message – we are destroying it at an alarming rate. Each time we have called for action, only to be largely ignored
The continued loss of biodiversity is not only an environmental issue. It risks undermining the achievement of most of the UN sustainable development goals. It is central to development, through food, water and energy security. It has significant economic value, which should be recognised in national accounting systems. It is a security issue in so far as loss of natural resources, especially in developing countries, can lead to conflict. It is an ethical issue because loss of biodiversity hurts the poorest people, further exacerbating an already inequitable world. And it is also a moral issue, because we should not destroy the living planet.
In addition to playing a critical role in providing food, fibre, water, energy, medicines and other genetic materials, biodiversity is equally important in regulating climate, water quality, pollution, pollination, flooding and storm surges. It has vital social value, providing wellbeing when walking through forests or by rivers, or green spaces in cities.
The youth of today are standing up and demanding action. School strikes and marches are sending a loud and clear message: “You are destroying our future, we demand action now”. Every one of us who lives in a democratic society must vote for politicians who care about these issues.
• Robert Watson is the former chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/19/biodiversity-touches-every-aspect-of-our-lives-so-why-has-its-loss-been-ignored
I think this is a great idea for energy companies to have Open source software to help speed up the process in changing to a low /no carbon environment
To Go Green, the Energy Industry Goes Open Source
Challenges around renewables are prompting players in the “traditional” sector to collaborate on software they can modify to address their changing needs
The European Union aims to reduce carbon emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050. Former California Governor Jerry Brown signed an executive order last year calling for the state, the fifth-largest economy in the world, to go carbon neutral by 2045. Meeting these goals, or even the less ambitious goals set by other governments, will require utilities to buy more energy from sustainable sources like wind and solar power. That shift is already creating logistical challenges for utilities. Unlike more predictable sources of energy, the energy produced by a wind farm can vary from day to day, forcing utilities to offload excess supplies and make up for shortages. The solar panels on residential rooftops that feed into the grid pose their own challenges because the grid wasn't designed to facilitate a two-way flow of energy
To meet those technological challenges, the energy sector is turning to open source software. Open source, which anyone can modify or share, helped power the rise of internet giants like Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Ostensible competitors worked together to develop software like the data-crunching platform Hadoop because it enabled them to solve difficult computing problems. Now all sorts of companies, ranging from Microsoft to Walmart to JP Morgan Chase use and make open source software.
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.wired.com/story/go-green-energy-industry-open-source/
Kia Ora 1 News
Its great that Japans passion for Wahine and Tane Rugby is rising.
Condolences to Blairs Vining Whanau.
Its great that a New Space radar is being built in Aotearoa to track space debris.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
I agree that that Oranga tamariki should work with the local Iwi.
It would be good to see more Maori donating there organs when they pass.
Yes that is a high number of tangata whenua tamariki passing by there own hands and still some organisations keep putting the bads things about Maori to the front.????.
The Mit teaching Rangatahi there cultures is awesome one must know there culture and whakapapa.
Maori and Pacific are over represented in the tangata needing to get food donations .
Te Arawa buying Makatu pies is great.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora The Breakfast Show.
Wai is A taonga of life if we taonga our NATURAL environment Te Papatuanuku will pay a premium to enjoy our Taonga everything will be excellent so long as Te rewards are shared with Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa.
There you go Hone.
I new were that was coming from Mr Poneke Te Carbon
Tiny Whare is the way to go low cost low carbon.
Archeologyst find 20 Sarcophagus that's cool they are a very ancient culture.
Sharlet is qute looks like a wild one
Assumption.
Ka kite Ano