Good to see evidence of life returning to Porirua Stream. Further up toward Glenside my partner and I have good memories of helping the local bush replanting group on it's streamside project. Just at the area where the old main highway crosses the stream and there is a small side road heading back toward the rail tunnel – we cleared and planted about 500m of steep bank between the road and the stream on the true left from the bridge downstream.
And another area tackled is further upstream underneath the large flood control embankment. I got to pass through briefly in 2019 and it's quite stunning how successful it's been.
One of the outcomes is to increase the amount of shading over the stream itself, which lowers water temps and benefits stream life. At least that was the theory.
If you mean the streamside restoration project at Stebbings Dam, entering at Churton Park, the community replanting team have done a magnificent job.
I perhaps broke our first lockdown level 4 (possibly, I’d argue it was still within my local area) to do the streamside walk there & check it out in 2020. Was a brilliant sunny day. One young pre-teen girl on a bike cycled past me on my walk there and back; most people were obeying lockdown rules & staying home.
All the native harakeke & other flaxes, toetoe, & other native trees, grasses & shrubs are thriving along the stream, which is reportedly full of our diminutive & rarely seen native freshwater fish.
Yes – Stebbings Dam. I couldn't remember the name.
There were two areas, one immediately under the dam and the other on the old highway near the rail tunnel entrance. We worked on them over a period of 2 or 3 winters.
We would get a contractor in to clear the worst of the old man blackberry, wait a few months, then work over the area to clear the big weeds, poison the re-emerging blackberry and prepare planting patches.
The seeds were all sourced locally so as we could be sure they were adapted to the area. One of the members – a remarkable lady – had prepared the seedlings the previous year. The first step is to plant pioneer species that would grow quickly and create shelter. Once these were established we could plant a month or two later the slower, longer growing species and used various forms of matting and mulching when it was available to ensure the seedling was both sheltered from wind and sun, but also from being overrun by weeds. Creating tiny, damp micro-climates is essential to these normally forest adapted species surviving.
The other lesson learned was not to tackle too large an area, it was better to get one area – say 50 m long – done well than open too much up that we couldn't stay on top of. Once planted and watered for the next few weeks, we typically had to go back over it 3-4 times to weed release over the next 18 months.
Once the pioneer species got away and started shading the weeds the entire system looked after itself.
That the fish have returned is excellent to hear. They certainly were not to be seen when we were there.
One day just over a year ago, down at my fairly private little Eel Spot, I’d chummed the water to summon Elvira Longfin up the rapids and over for a stick-feed, & altho I’d looked for native fish often in the wonderfully clear Porirua Stream water here at Pookden Manor without success, this particular morning I just happened to look down at the reddish tree roots splayed out into the water, in case Elvira was already lurking underneath the bank – and there, hovering in the shade, was an unmistakeable Redfin Bully !
First one I’ve ever seen. Man they’re small. Felt like I’d won the lottery ❤️ 👍🏼 🐧
They went for the easy decision and ignored the real problem.
Instead of cracking down hard on gangs and hauling the police over the coals over the firearms checking system they forced people all ready following the laws to give up their weapons
I respectfully disagree. The way the world is going – good to have semi-autos taken out of general issue & also out of the legit firearms market.
Agree with you about Labour not cracking down hard enuf on gangs & not visibly having hauled police over the coals over their atrociously failed firearms checking regime.
Hell, they even had guns stolen from a bloody POLICE STATION during the damn buy back!
Less chance of them getting into the hands of folk (particularly blokes) with huge egos, chips on their shoulder, & poor impulse control, people suffering homicidal psychoses, violent or desperate criminals & hate-filled people like gang members & The Christchurch Mass Shooter.
If you can’t reduce the risk of gun killings to zero, you can reduce the severity of the impact by taking such high capacity firearms out of easy reach.
'Less chance of them getting into the hands of folk (particularly blokes) with huge egos, chips on their shoulder, & poor impulse control, people suffering homicidal psychoses, violent or desperate criminals & hate-filled people like gang members & The Christchurch Mass Shooter.'
But it doesn't.
All it does is make the gangs richer and if anyone believes the gangs main source of weapons was from people buying them legally then I have a bridge to sell you
Plus in the case of Brenton Tarrant that blame can be laid at the feet of the people not doing their jobs correctly in issuing him a firearms licence
Easy way to sort out human error with jobs is to remove the job.
I'm trying to think of the last afternoon a gang in NZ killed 51 people – or even half a dozen people, for that matter.
Law-abiding firearms owners, on the other hand… seems every decade or two, someone kills a bunch of people in one outing. Not just sprees in public, families as well.
Neighbours in our first house in Tawa lost their son to the psychotic killer of the Raurimu massacre. They never really got over it. Altho I don’t think he used a semi-auto.
I've been a regular firearms user for over 30 years, I'm happy to see the back end of semiauto firearms. Doesn't significantly impact 90% of legitimate firearm use. And they do appeal psychologically to the handful of f-wits who would like to cause mayhem.
One thing I notice when the police show firearms confiscated from gangs – a lot of the guns are rubbish – held together with tape and rough bits of pipe and wood. But still dangerous unfortunately.
'Between 2007 – 2017 there were 737 people killed by homicide (ie murder and manslaughter offences
Firearms are not the problem, the enforcement of laws were the problem and it got all ignored and instead we got bans and buy backs which everyone complied with and went so well:
Mate, one afternoon a couple of years ago skewed our 5-year murder rates in multiple age brackets, so excuse me if I don't have a problem with the govt plucking that particular low-hanging fruit.
The govt haven't finished gun law reform John Banks regretted not changing gun laws back in 1992 when David Grey went on the rampage with a cache of automatic guns.
Every gun will have to be registered just like in Australia ( and was formerly the case in NZ)where they have cut gun violence by making it tougher.Most guns used by criminals are stolen untraceable unreported by owners.
Australia enacted these laws much earlier than and have much lower gun violence rates than NZ.given we have one of the highest gun ownership rates in the World the potential for stolen arms to fall into criminal hands and mentally unstable people is huge.Especially the laid back attitude of many gun owners especially rural gun owners who only make up a small percentage of gun owners but where 40% of guns are stolen from.
Guns are made to kill rules and regulations are needed.
Trying to shift the blame elsewhere is completely irresponsible.
How many millions/billions does the govt spend every year on road safety? Health interventions for all of the conditions you mention?
Govt allocated a billion a year in new road safety spending alone in 2019. In addition to the usual programme. The one-off $120mil buyback is barely a twitch icompared to that, and the road safety thing doesn't even include things like the cost of drink-driving checkpoints or ads.
(Reply intended for PR, but had to piggyback on McFlock's button)
Regarding the high road toll, that is largely on the previous National Government. It lowered the alcohol limit (low-cost, just a few strokes of the pen) to pretend it was doing something – then, to pretend it was a good manager of the economy, it made a big song and dance about balancing the books.
In balancing the books, it underfunded the Police to the point that the police had to set priorities, and in doing so felt forced to quietly scrap all alcohol checkpoints.
Note that the National Govt did not directly instruct the Police to do this, they just gave the so little bulk-funding that the police found themselves in an impossible position.
A year or two later, stats came out showing that NZ was almost unique in the world for having lowered the alcohol limit, but subsequently increased the rate of alcohol-related accidents and deaths.
The research had quite clearly shown (both in France and New South Wales) that deaths and accidents had declined after increased numbers of alcohol checkpoints.
The only useful thing that the National Government did with the road toll was to prove that lowering alcohol limits did nothing to reduce deaths.
Only enforcement through many more alcohol checkpoints does that. Since then I have seen a few checkpoints, but not been checked myself, and I do quite a bit of driving.
We have also proven that silly TV ads saying 'You will be caught' are also totally ineffective. The only effective way to lower drink driving is to permanently set up lots of checkpoints so that people actually know they will be caught, – something this Labour Govt., has yet to do.
51 died in a massacre yet that same year approximately 6-7 times the amount of people died on our roads
So what. We should prevent both modes of dying if we can. To say that 300 road deaths excuses acceptance of 51 deaths by shooting is plainly ridiculous.
Dutton keeps sending the gang members back here no matter how tenuous the citizenship. They are cracking down over there as world wide these types are taking advantage. If you believe that Jacinda Ardern has caused this in 4 years "You're Dreaming"
PR most of the guns that end up in criminal hands are stolen from lax legal firearms owners 40% from rural gun owners who claim they need to leave their guns lying around ready to use.
P has upped the anti for gangs and p users ,the govt has increased the number of police targeting gangs and increased the search and seize markedly.But P use in the community has increased exponentially. The cost of illegal drugs in NZ is amongst the highest in the World.P addicts need the drug constantly and it costs big money so they tick up steal prostitute etc.
The P addicts run up huge debts with dealer's / gangs with guns so users are carrying guns as well.So Until we decriminalised all drugs make those drugs available as a prescription taking the money away from gangs and the desperation away from users its only going to get worse.The tougher the laws against drugs are the price goes up making it more profitable for gangs who don't give a shit about being locked up in Prison.Thats Corporate headquarters.
If anyone should know a Switched on corrections officer should know.
Continuing down the simplistic Road of more policing filling up more prisons is a failing policy. Prisoners come out of prison sooner or later Prisons are the universities of Crime and Criminal networking. PR blinkered by your job.
'PR most of the guns that end up in criminal hands are stolen from lax legal firearms owners 40% from rural gun owners who claim they need to leave their guns lying around ready to use.'
Some are, sure but most come the same way drugs come in, via boats due to the increased value of guns
'P has upped the anti for gangs and p users ,the govt has increased the number of police targeting gangs and increased the search and seize markedly.'
'The P addicts run up huge debts with dealer's / gangs with guns so users are carrying guns as well.'
'So Until we decriminalised all drugs make those drugs available as a prescription taking the money away from gangs and the desperation away from users its only going to get worse.'
Thats another tool in the tool box to be used
'The tougher the laws against drugs are the price goes up making it more profitable for gangs who don't give a shit about being locked up in Prison.'
'Thats Corporate headquarters.'
I'm well aware of supply and demand, which is why gangs are making more money off guns
'If anyone should know a Switched on corrections officer should know.'
Pointless statement but ok
'Continuing down the simplistic Road of more policing filling up more prisons is a failing policy. Prisoners come out of prison sooner or later Prisons are the universities of Crime and Criminal networking. PR blinkered by your job.'
Ok lets not send anyone to prison lest they come out worse
But seriously yes they come out sooner or later but while they are in they commit less crimes outside so really the more time they spend in prison the better, for the community.
Yet its this government proudly stating that less people are going to jail and getting rid of the three strikes law
Prison terms should be longer, early release should be something that is earned not a given and all Correction Officers should have penal rates reinstated and only work four shifts per week, not counting call backs (thats just a personal viewpoint)
Now I would have agreed with you if you'd said much more effort, and money, should be put into the rehabilitation side of things which is where the system is lacking
Also the guy in prison learned his ways from family, whanau, wider community whatever so what happens when he leaves?
Straight back to where he came from
But heres the little secret everyone knows but won't say out loud, are you ready?
The crim won't change until the crim wants to change.
You can give the crim all the money in the world, all the training, all the rehabilitation you want and it won't make a blind bit of difference until the crim wants to stop being a crim
Sure giving an illiterate crim the ability to read and write is all well and good but then what?
Is it easier to work a 40 hour a week job, weekends, late nights etc or knock over someones house, deal a bit drugs here and there, steal a car etc etc
I am not saying send no one to prison you are twisting my words.
I said it first crims don't change read my post the secret read carefully is to prevent them becoming crims in the first place.
Fix the family good stable housing direct involvement in that family having live social workers that keep alcohol and drugs out of the house.Canterbury University ran such a program for nearly 10 yrs the National govt canned the program even though it had 72 % success rate .I lobbied Judith Collins personally she promised she would look into it and get back no reply ever.Then it was canned.
The existing system is a failure prevention is better but doesn't have an immediate impact it takes years and lots of resources that no govt wants to spend because of the election cycles.
I had worked voluntarily in front line social work trying to help street kids for nearly 30 years.
Most of those children ended up in gangs because that was the only place they felt wanted.
Going to a job and doing crime is a very poor simplistic equivalence.
Those street kids didn't have anything like a stable home to feel safe have routines love or parents feeding and sending them to the same school let alone school every day.
So your solution is not to fix the problem before but just to keep building more very expensive prisons that cost a $100,000 plus a year to house prisoner plus the huge cost of policing and legal work on top of that cost.
Your solution has been tried for 50 years and all that's happened is gangs have become more entrenched and locking them up forever is the answer.
Prison is gang headquarters as a Prison officer you should know this.
Gang members see this as obtaining a degree in crime the longer you serve and the more serious the crime the higher you rise up the hierarchy. Gang leaders can pull leavers from inside Prison easier than if they are outside.
They are doing this right under the nose of Prison officers who they can out smart out manipulate most of the time.As they have all day and all night to outscheme any controls put in place.
'Fix the family good stable housing direct involvement in that family having live social workers that keep alcohol and drugs out of the house. Canterbury University ran such a program for nearly 10 yrs the National govt canned the program even though it had 72 % success rate .I lobbied Judith Collins personally she promised she would look into it and get back no reply ever. Then it was canned.'
This sounds like a good idea, must be a reason it hasn't been reimplemented
'The existing system is a failure prevention is better but doesn't have an immediate impact it takes years and lots of resources that no govt wants to spend because of the election cycles.'
I agree.
'So your solution is not to fix the problem before but just to keep building more very expensive prisons that cost a $100,000 plus a year to house prisoner plus the huge cost of policing and legal work on top of that cost.'
Incorrect.
I want them locked up longer and I want more resources put into rehabilitation plus I want more work done before they get to prison.
Plus I want maximum security hospitals, staffed by doctors, nurses, psychs etc and Corrections Officers to treat those with mental health and addictions.
None of which has been done.
'Prison is gang headquarters as a Prison officer you should know this.'
My rank is Corrections Officer, my job contract states Corrections Officer. I am not Prison Officer, I am not a Prison Guard, I am a Corrections Officer. It may not mean much to you but it means quite a bit to me.
'They are doing this right under the nose of Prison officers who they can out smart out manipulate most of the time. As they have all day and all night to out scheme any controls put in place.'
Do not forget that our hands are mostly tied as well. We could easily solve most of the issues in prisons very quickly if allowed but we're not.
Its not that we can't, its that we're not allowed.
This is perhaps the most useful conversation I've seen in ages. You both have real world experience (that I don't) and while you have differing experiences and ideas – I want to hear more from you both.
What's interesting is that (I think) people on here generally agree more on the problem of gangs than disagree and even in how to deal with them there's more agreement than disagreement
Which gives me the slightest bit of encouragement that maybe, someday, a government might make it a priority rather than paying lip service (looking at you National)
Corrections officer is just a corporate name to placate the failure of the prison system.
Your wish list is going to be fulfilled by St Jude who cut police funding so John Key could find enough money for a we election bribe that gave somebody $35 a week on the average wage. The rich got $100's and $1,000's the poor got a few crumbs a corrections officer at the time got maybe $28 a week.
St Jude was sacked by John Key because she was incompetent .
As a corrections officer your not in the monied league of a National supporter .Its not a very well paid job.
My brother left after 10 yrs of prison service got a job double the pay and never looked back.
He said what's the point of putting yourself through all that stress for next to nothing. He was brought in to run a rehab program but the National govt canned it. He stayed on for far to long it cost him his marriage.Since he left he has become a multi millionaire and has never been so happy.
I wouldn't work for so low wages in any job let alone a high stress job like a corrections officer.
No govt is going to fully fund rehab programs. No body wants to pay the rate of taxes needed to be raised to run a full prevention and rehab program.
Now I can't and no ones actually safer now then when they were before
Should have made MSSAs (which is a great designation) more restrictive but to out right ban all semi-auto rifles was just bad knee jerk policy because "something had to be done"
Yet anyone heard anything about the police vetting cock up which caused this?
Learn to shoot straight pucky and all you need is a bolt action!!
Imagine if that scum from Christchurch had to stop to put 4 mor bullets in his bolt action, one of those Braves that ran towards him would have dragged his sorry arse down .
Thats 22 rounds of .357 before he switches to his other weapons which were a semi auto and pump shot gun, another lever action (same calibre and make as above actually though not sure if same model) and a bolt action
@bwaghorn,this trope about semi-autos of yours,clearly you don't shoot because when I'm out pest eradicating,If my first shot is not a clean kill,for the sack of humanity I would fire a second or even a third ,making sure the creature is dead and not dying down a burrow too die a slow and cruel death,it might surprise the hoi polloi,that some of our pests a small and move about,making it a challenge,but a job needing doing.
I've shot about 50 deer ,12 pigs ,alot of rabbits and possums. Semis are ok for small game I guess but you can work a bolt or lever action pretty quick if needled, go read the books ok the old time cullers using open sight 303 lee Enfields. They seemed to cope.
Thanks for your insight,but you may want too address the need to make sure you despatch small game/pests.For my rec I use open sights on lever and pump,being a lefty hard finding and then paying for good bolt action .
Oh, please. One firearms officer who literally phoned in the job should not be the only point of failure between a fuckwit and his ability to murder 51 people. There were something like 20 years where law-abiding firearms owners could have pointed out the hole in being able to buy MSSA magazines without an MSSA license. Where the fuck were they – and what did they think would happen?
Now there are two points of failure: getting a license, and getting a semiauto license.
Let's say fucko wouldn't have had access to firearms if one cop had managed to do everything properly – doesn't that just mean that the cops couldn't follow those regulations, so the safest course of action was to make the regs more simple and ban semi-autos?
Sure ok in that case the CTV building collapsed (115 dead) because the building regulations weren't followed, so should we simplify building regulations as well or take steps to ensure they're done correctly?
But let's assume it was someone professionally competent. Then maybe something of that complexity should be simplified, if it can't consistently be done safely on a day to day basis.
Especially if there are bad actors trying to create the catastrophic outcome despite the role of professionally competent people.
Yes the number of firearm incidents at the moment is very high. Don't know if this one is gang related, but I do agree with Puckish Rogue, Govt needs to get tougher on gangs.
It isn't the gangs which are the problem, it is the underlying political settings over the last decades which led to the rise of gangs which are the problem.
You're half right: 'it is the underlying political settings over the last decades which led to the rise of gangs which are the problem'
Unfortunately gangs are the problem right now, hopefully some government in the future will make changes to society so gang membership becomes less enticing (thats interesting I've just seen some pigs flying across my backyard…) but until that time gang membership will continue to rise
First things first is to crackdown on gangs and before anyone warms up their keyboard the answer is NO, governments haven't gone hard or cracked down on gangs, people might like to say hard lines have been taken against gangs but in reality there hasn't been a proper crackdown or at least not for decades
The very first thing that needs to be done is to designate these gangs criminal organisations and, again before anyone asks the question, start with the biggest, most obvious (the Mob and Black Power) and work your way down the chain
Most ordinary people, especially working people who are the most exposed to them, absolutely loath gangs. (I had one process operator speak to me about them with so much venom, he came and apologised later.) They perceive elitist pandering to them as just one more betrayal.
Every intelligent person accepts that gangs don't appear from a vacuum – there are of course root causes that we can and should think about. But right now the symptom needs dealing with. The more govts pander to them, the more success and mana they gain, the more attractive they become, the more momentum they gain – the more they grow. It's a positive feedback loop that has to be broken before root causes can be addressed.
Yes agreed. The money needs to be cut off, no more government contracts, no more housing, no more benefits, no nothing while they're members of the gang
Even if they're driven underground and stop wearing their regalia in public its a start
The main issue I have with these talking heads is they don't live next door to the gangs (unless its the top leaders in which case they'll be very good neighbours) they're removed from every day interactions
I videoed Mongrel Mob members sharing a joint in the No Smoking front of Welly Hospital from the 7th floor liftwell full length window. They’re not wearing their patches. They don’t need to. Hanging together as a group all wearing trademark Red gear they transmit their gang membership & affiliations effortlessly.
That’s my point, Puckish. In the communities they live in & control or terrorise, their colour IS their advertising. The patches are just their Dress Uniform. Everybody knows which gang they belong to.
Red:.Mongies. Don’t go there wearing Blue.
Blue: Black Power. Don’t go there wearing Red.
The main issue I have with these talking heads is they don't live next door to the gangs (unless its the top leaders in which case they'll be very good neighbours) they're removed from every day interactions
Yup. My daughter and partner are both working courier drivers in a provincial area. They get to see glimpses of all sorts of things gang related. It's been an education for her.
I tend not to think of the talking heads and elites as necessarily bad people, just insulated from the realities on the ground. This happens in all organisations – the formal chain of authority always dilutes and sanitises the message as it filters upward. My father who worked as an accountant much of his life once told me that he'd learn more from a weekly walk around the factory than all the reports that came over his desk put together.
They come out of Prison more hardened more educated in how get away with Crime forging huge Networks of fellow criminals.
The best way to break down gangs is to take away their income as Portugal drug related crime has reduced by huge amounts.
Drug related murders down from 95 a year to 4 a year.
I'm not suggesting we go soft on gangs, Continuing down the existing ways it's only going to get worse. No politician who says we are getting tough on Crime has ever succeeded in achieving any change from Muldoon to who ever.
I'm saying that going hard on gangs (and I don't believe any government has gone hard on gangs by the way) is the one and only way but its another needed tool to break down the gangs
Yes take away their income, absolutely but more tools are needed is what I'm saying
Stopping giving official legitimacy to gangs is another tool
Banning gang patches is another tool
Banning (if possible) gang advertising on social media is another tool
Taking away big ticket items if they can't prove how they got them
By themselves none of these will work but you keep adding to the tools, you keep harassing the gangs and taking away their money, taking away their legitimacy, taking away their notoriety
Eventually it'll get to the point where, for some of them, its just not worth it
There'll always be gangs and gang members but it doesn't mean we have to learn to live with them as this government seems to want us to do
Oh please,put suits on them and they will blend in with the other crocks,maybe not so obvious here,world wide they kill and rob all the same and with more alacrity.
The money needs to be cut off, no more government contracts, no more housing, no more benefits, no nothing while they're members of the gang
Then what happens? How will they eat, where will they live? As the pressure on them increases, who will they take that out on?
I'm not suggesting doing nothing, but if people put up suggestions there needs to be a plan for the whole thing. Cracking down is easy, dealing with what comes next is more important.
I suspect your suggestion is ideological rather than strategic.
sounds ideological to me. Nothing wrong with that, it just needs to be acknowledged, and the ideas run through the real world.
We have a permanent unemployment rate, so the idea that anyone can get a job any time is false. And gang members will obviously face additional challenges in getting jobs.
It's not blackmail, it's empathy for victims and not wanting to increase their problems.
You have to make it uncomfortable for them otherwise whats the rational for them to change?
How is this no ideological? Right = stick, left = carrot.
Absolutely. The problem Kiwiland faces is the biggest gangs are predominantly of Māori membership. There wouldn’t be one whanau in the country thay doesn’t have family members who are in the gangs proper, are prospects, or are associates.
Getting Māoridom onside with a crackdown is going to be very hard work because of whanaungatanga, which the gangs ruthlessly exploit, of course, but which is a very real & really strong bond of family connection & whanau/marae/hapu/iwi support to offending (and offended) gang members.
With Pākehā, a ruthless bad apple is likely to be rejected by their family unless & until they change their ways.
With Māori, OTOH, you take on the gangs, you take on the iwi.
How we bridge this cultural divide to reduce the gang problem, I’m not sure.
How we bridge this cultural divide to reduce the gang problem, I’m not sure.
I don't either. Because gangs and ethnicity have become so entangled in NZ the kind of path taken by the WA govt isn't so easily taken. But one thing I want to see is the iwi leadership stand up and firmly, repeatedly repudiate the gangs and everything to do with them.
Yup. But the blighters won’t.
And pollies like Marama Davidson & Te Pāti Māori will kick up a stink & play the race card & 150 years of colonial oppression rather than deal with what the gang problem has morphed into – preying on their own.
Labour’s Māori Caucus will be notably equally reluctant to alienate themselves from Māori voters & iwi leaders too. Can’t think of a single member with the gonads to stand up and insist they HAVE to do something about the gangs & to get out there & get Māori behind them.
Simon Bridges might actually be the best at this – altho I think few Māori regard him as Māori.
I really don't like using the "I know people and they say" etc argument but in this case the only Maori I've met that weren't anti gangs were in gangs themselves
Well, if they’re a representative sample of Māoridom at large, that’s a hopeful sign. But it makes it even odder that Māori political leaders very clearly never want to be seen to attack or criticise the gangs, for some reason.
They do but once somebody joins a gangs it's extremely hard to change their thinking many many studies have shown that if a new member is involved in a gang for as little as 3 month's the chance of that person leaving is near Zero.
Why do people join gangs,poverty family violence and sexual abuse,family alcohol abuse the biggest of the drug related reasons ,heavy drug use etc.intinerant and unaffordable housing ,itinerant education.longterm unemployment.The 1987 Ropa report proved all of the above.since then none of the recommendations have been followed through.instead we have the US style of corporate corrections where the corporations profit from growing prison populations.
None of the above problems have been anywhere near solved or even attempted to be solved since the mid 1970's.
The ambulance at the bottom of the cliff ie lockemup and throw away the Key is
I know – if any of this was easy we'd have done it by now. One of the reasons why solutions keep eluding us is that binary thinking doesn't apply here.
We all know that locking them up is only a short-term solution that probably makes matters worse in the long-term. Punishment alone merely compounds the root causes.
We also know that ignoring the gangs and hoping to 'social welfare' them away doesn't work either. Gangs offer more power and status to young men than any other path possible.
If there is a solution it involves both individual and collective responsibility working in synergy. That would take a great deal of honesty and political courage to openly address – but for the moment what I'm seeing is too many players who have an interest in the problem not being solved.
'First things first is to crackdown on white collar criminals and before anyone warms up their keyboard the answer is NO, governments haven't gone hard or cracked down on white collar criminals, people might like to say hard lines have been taken against white collar criminals but in reality there hasn't been a proper crackdown or at least not for decades'
This is what you get if you leave a political vacuum, not filled by policy but by appeasement. It will get worse as the gangs have now plenty of help from their Aussie cousins who will give them some hints and tips how to do really bring society to its knees.
We are slowly becoming little Brazil. A case of cooking the frog slowly.
I guess I see it as being like someone who is obese and gets diabetes, heart disease etc. Its all well and good saying "the settings need to change, we need to have minimal junk food outlets, surgery drinks etc. All worthy of course and need to be done, But meanwhile the horse has bolted for the obese person who now has multiple health problems.
Sometimes it is important to treat the symptom. I read an article today about a guy in Auckland who had to sell his house a move because of anti social, criminalbehavior by his neighbors who were Kainga Ora tennants. I thought of Sword Fish who raised a similar issue here regarding his elderly parents being intimated by other anti social tenants. I think it is well and good to think about the root causes of anti social behaviour, but most of us would be going spare if we had such neighbours.
I don't know what the solutions are, but interested to here a diverse range of views in these discussions. Although I don't agree with it, no wonder Australia want to deport their criminals back here.
I think we are in agreement PR. We need to do something about the gangs now.
Trying to fix the "causes" which are likely hugely complex will not alleviate the problems with the guys who are signed up and committing all sorts of mayham, messing with other peoples lives.
Might be, but when I used it quarter of a century ago (gasp!) my experience was a not particularly helpful tick box exercise. Has anyone else used it recently?
Thats a shame because on the tick list of keeping people away from prison (aka not committing crimes) Plunkets right up there
I would certainly like to see a holistic? (not sure if thats the correct term) where a group look after high risk kids, ones who stay with the mothers (removing kids and taking them into care is another story)
Basically making sure the kid gets what the kid needs when the kid needs it
Basic cooking, cleaning and child raising courses if needed
Budgeting advice
Medical check ups are adhered to
That kind of thing. It'd be expensive but would save money down the line and, might, break some cycles of abuse
Interesting that you bring up plunket. We are involved with a 16 yr old who spent some years making money out of the distribution of drugs in WA, most weekends earning $1000s! Recently he was sent by his family there to his family here to start to learn to live a normal life. He spends most of his time buried in his room on a computer at night and asleep through the day. He is not interested in training for a job, doing a job or even helping much about the place because it does not reward him the same ! Is this how many get streamed into gangs ? Do we cut his bread and bed ?
The last govt cut police numbers by 20% by not increasing numbers as the population increased and a massive P epidemic which has only got worse.
Remember one of John Keys mains promises he said he was going to get rid of the P surge at any cost.
It was nothing more than an empty feel good promise.
Gun crime has escalated as a direct result then add in the 501's who have corporatism gangs franchising International crime organisations in NZ.
The 501's have upped the anti by making guns virtually mandatory for franchisees.
These internationally connected crime gangs have learned how to maximise their growth.By getting their members addicted to drugs that are very hard to kick the habit.NZ's high Street prices make NZ a prime target. We can't even stop a few deranged protesters let alone the Drug epidemic,and the growth of gangs.
Never said it would be easy (not trying to be flippant) but I'm assuming someone with greater knowledge of the laws could get advice from police, Greg Newbold etc to work it out
Mind you the palaver over trying to ban gang patches makes you realise it'll never happen
Gezza said, (above) "They’re not wearing their patches. They don’t need to. Hanging together as a group all wearing trademark Red gear they transmit their gang membership & affiliations effortlessly."
Ban people from wearing patches? From wearing red?
There are laws to deal with crimes. There are laws about unlawful assembly. There are rules about peaceful assembly. Knowledgeable, experienced people would have a most difficult task wording things too achieve what is desired.
You appreciate the task is difficult. Some think the law should simply be "The Mongrel Mob, Black Power, Headhunters, etc. are illegal."
“Get Tough on crime!!”, “working for the clampdown!!”, read it and weep–still.
Jeez, even Labour’s big Norman Kirk campaigned on “taking the bikes off the bikies” (as they were then called), not many if any were ever taken, as per Crusher Collins mood swing on “boy racers”.
No politician has tamed gangs & dealers for good, not even the psychopathic Philippines leader Mr Duterte who has actually ordered thousands of summary executions during his time in office.
Roger and Ruth swung a wrecking ball through this country–50% of the population now own just 2% of the wealth–get used to the effects of that and the still unresolved matters arising from post colonial fall out. https://teara.govt.nz/en/map/36362/maori-land-loss-north-island
Sure some like the bravado and gangster chic of dealing, fencing, riding, intimidating and partying, but it is not a great career for the children of neo liberalism in what should be a land of plenty.
It's become an iwi (of sorts) for some gang whanau now.
Popa & Nani are long term gang members, mum & dad are (so far) life-long gang members, their rangatahi are all or nearly all members, prospects, or just affiliates.
Agree that Rogernomics (then Ruthenasia) ripped the guts out of rural Māori communities. Where I come from (Taranaki) scores of Māori lived generally happy & satisfying marae-based working lives emoloyed in the myriad small local freezing works & dairy products companies based in the rural towns that circle that ataahua Maunga.
Freezing works & dairy factory work (becos collective & unionised) was well-paid, & Māori were able to stay in their hapu's nga rohe, get plenty of kai moana, & keep their collective & cooperative way of life ticking over quite well. Plus, transpor & other needs were simpler & cheaper.
Rogernomics/Ruthenasia gutted those industries, wrecking the traditional relationships & lifestyle, forcing migrations to the cities and accelerating gang growth in the urban conglomerations as well as the local towns cos poverty, welfare dependence, idle hands of young people.
Will take some time, but I believe that situation can be turned around by a government of smart Pākehā folk working together with educated & hands-on Māori successful entrepreneurs, professionals & dependable MPs & Cabinet Ministers.
It's become an iwi (of sorts) for some gang whanau now.
Popa & Nani are long term gang members, mum & dad are (so far) life-long gang members, their rangatahi are all or nearly all members, prospects, or just affiliates.
Agree that Rogernomics (then Ruthenasia) ripped the guts out of rural Māori communities. Where I come from (Taranaki) scores of Māori lived generally happy & satisfying marae-based working lives emoloyed in the myriad small local freezing works & dairy products companies based in the rural towns that circle that ataahua Maunga.
Freezing works & dairy factory work (becos collective & unionised) was well-paid, & Māori were able to stay in their hapu's nga rohe, get plenty of kai moana, & keep their collective & cooperative way of life ticking over quite well. Plus, transpor & other needs were simpler & cheaper.
Rogernomics/Ruthenasia gutted those industries, wrecking the traditional relationships & lifestyle, forcing migrations to the cities and accelerating gang growth in the urban conglomerations as well as the local towns cos poverty, welfare dependence, idle hands of young people.
Will take some time, but I believe that situation can be turned around by a government of smart Pākehā folk working together with educated & hands-on Māori successful entrepreneurs, professionals & dependable MPs & Cabinet Ministers.
From a quick read it focussed on the actions (crimes), patterns (acting in a criminal enterprise). It was not necessary to specify the names but to look at the actions. In the US, as usual, it provided a happy hunting ground for the litigious but here in NZ if we enacted something focussing on certain crimes, the enterprises behind them then it can sweep up all types of gang related activity.
So a focus on the crime and the damage crime has in society rather than on individual gangs. This may make it easier for Iwi to work with their members in the gangs as 'someone' else has possibly designated the actions a RICO action. This kind of approach would need to be run past the people who deal with Treaty grievances/human rights as we would not want to set the Govt up for a claim in times to come
I'm not a great fan of Jackson – although I acknowledge his prodigious talents – but in this instance he is doing WW1 military history a huge favour. Without people like him who are able to bring large scale memorability back to life, so much is lost for future generations to learn and understand.
Omaka is indeed amazing. I was there and saw a bird that was nesting in the roof timber fly down to get some water from a boggy tyre track in a display. It dipped its beak into the 'water' to find it was tapping on a hard plastic. I was impressed that a display could fool even a bird with its verisimilitude.
Lord Jackson misled the country over the timeline and much more regarding the infamous “Hobbit Affair” when he put the US film industry’s needs well before local workers. He is welcome to his creepy war museum, certainly looks like he has been sampling ample quantities of “bully beef”.
Lord Jackson misled the country over the timeline and much more regarding the infamous “Hobbit Affair” when he put the US film industry’s needs well before local workers.
Jackson is a 'special effects' specialist. Special effects can enhance a movie that would have been a good movie anyway, but Jackson's movies, apart from those special effects are pretty mediocre. At least one of his films, Heavenly Creatures, which might otherwise have been reasonable, was spoiled by the 'special effects'.
Jackson seems to me a bit like an overgrown child. He's not really interested in WW1 itself, neither its causes (imperial rivalry, resource competition, arms races, military alliances) nor its effects (Sykes-Picot, Balfour, the rise of Hitler, the opportunity it presented to the regressive, authoritarian Bolsheviks, etc.) He just likes all the techno stuff – the same way his later movies are crammed with special effects to the detriment of real examination of human character. To be fair – some of the WW1 planes are really beautiful, but in general why are the rich and famous frequently so undistinguished?
Good video from Nicola Willis about the goings on at Kainga Ora, can't wait for part two and its good to, finally, see an opposition do something like this.
Doesn't 't matter who is leader if National get in next election privatising prisons will be high on their agenda Unions will be busted wages and conditions cut.
Not so sure. I have long had the view she has done a deal to stay in the role until there is a natural successor ready. From a purely political perspective, they can't go into an election with a bald, middle aged man (Luxon) as leader. The best option is Nicola Willis. It will happen late 2022.
A national inquiry has taken place, but the bodies remain in situ – in the septic system in which they were discovered. Approx 800 in Tuam, but conservative estimates for 9000 unmarked burials.
The catalyst of the story was, of course, the discovery by the historian Catherine Corless of a secret burial site at the Tuam mother-and-baby home, where the remains of an as-yet-undermined number of children had been dumped in what appears to have been a row of septic tanks. The callousness is beyond comprehension.
This is a stain on the Catholic Church and the Bon Secours order of nuns, which ran the home. And, yes, on Ireland, although it is crucial not to lose sight of the fact that the mothers and children were mistreated not only by “society” but also by individuals who chose cruelty rather than humanity.
This exposure came about due to a woman investigating her local history, and finding an anomaly in the death certificates and birth records.
I can't find a link to the latest documentary, but there is a good one on Youtube.
I loved visiting Ireland and staying in the homes of my Irish friends.
My generation follows those in the final years of operation. The geographical distance between there and here is immense, but nowhere near as vast as the difference in experience of those women and mine as an unmarried mother.
If you click on the video at 48:40, you will see how the cruelty of Bon Secours continued by their denial of burials, which has since been proven to be false.
The comments remind me of a movie I've seen a couple of times. As much as it made me angry I loved it.
Philomena
"Based on a powerful true story and led by note-perfect performances from Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, Philomena offers a profoundly affecting drama for adult filmgoers of all ages.
In 1952, Irish teenager Philomena (Judi Dench) became pregnant out of wedlock and was sent to a convent. When her baby, Anthony, was a toddler, the nuns took Philomena's child away from her and put him up for adoption in the United States. For the next 50 years, she searched tirelessly for her son. When former BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) learns of the story, he becomes her ally. They travel together to America to find Anthony and become unexpectedly close in the process."
The Catholic church has done so much damage with its disgusting state sanctioned brutalising of women and children and yet the pope, as a representative of desirable morals, is still quoted.
It's a demonstration of the hypocrisy of humankind which calls for the prohibition of gangs while the Catholic Church which has practised untold cruelty for such a long time, remains not held to account or punished.
Interesting comment in video that 90% of primary schools are state funded Catholic ones, and 60% of secondary schools. The power and influence remains.
@41:00 is one woman's story, as a pregnant 18 yr old in England, she was kidnapped by the clergy and taken to Ireland. This sanctioned abduction had a name "The Crusade of Rescue", where "fallen women" were denounced and then taken back to Ireland to be assimilated into the homes.
I have to admit Molly, I could only watch a few minutes of the youtube video.
Poor poor little kids.
My sisters attended the local Catholic convent and while their experience was miles from the experience of the kids in Irish 'homes', the nuns in the typical NZ primary school were nasty fuckers.
My sister-in-law's large Catholic family was involved in the church out of habit rather than faith. At their mother's funeral they joked about the priests their mother told them never to be alone with. They found it funny.
Sabine, I know you have spoken often of your sexual abuse as a child, but I don't know if I've ever responded.
I recently attended the funeral of a dear friend's mother, and got to meet the brother that sexually abused her from the ages of seven to eleven. The love in that family is easy and palpable.
I don't know how or if you ever fully recover from such betrayal or brutality.
I just wanted to say I grieve for both those girls that once were, and value the acquaintance of the women they became. I consider her a sister of the heart, and you are definitely a sister on The Standard.
IU spend time with my family, after i came back to them after 10+ years away. – It took me many years to go from fucked up transient teen to somewhat functioning adults. I pretended to be nice to my rapist, that was the price i paid to see my little sister and reconnect with whom i was in the homeland. I never harmed the man, but not because i did not wanted to, but i understood that he is not worth me going to prison for murder.
There was no love in my family. Just booze, fear, and disgust. And i am the one that sorted her life to some extend. And no the trust never comes back, and the disgust never leaves.
When I said the love in that family is easy and palpable, I should almost mention that from the outside I think it comes at a very high cost. That cost is borne completely by my friend. The family had/and still has high standing within the church and community, and all the siblings (bar my friend) are successful professionals and businesspeople.
Any harm to her has been ignored, it has to be so in order for the rest of the family to remain intact. So the harm continues. Thanks for sharing your story.
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
The unidentified foreign intelligence operation discussed in a scathing report by New Zealand’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) last week appears to be a controversial United States intelligence system. The IGIS report said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) decision to host a foreign system from 2012-2020 was “improper” ...
Happy Monday all. Looks a nice day in Welly
https://vimeo.com/269571815
Good to see evidence of life returning to Porirua Stream. Further up toward Glenside my partner and I have good memories of helping the local bush replanting group on it's streamside project. Just at the area where the old main highway crosses the stream and there is a small side road heading back toward the rail tunnel – we cleared and planted about 500m of steep bank between the road and the stream on the true left from the bridge downstream.
And another area tackled is further upstream underneath the large flood control embankment. I got to pass through briefly in 2019 and it's quite stunning how successful it's been.
One of the outcomes is to increase the amount of shading over the stream itself, which lowers water temps and benefits stream life. At least that was the theory.
If you mean the streamside restoration project at Stebbings Dam, entering at Churton Park, the community replanting team have done a magnificent job.
I perhaps broke our first lockdown level 4 (possibly, I’d argue it was still within my local area) to do the streamside walk there & check it out in 2020. Was a brilliant sunny day. One young pre-teen girl on a bike cycled past me on my walk there and back; most people were obeying lockdown rules & staying home.
All the native harakeke & other flaxes, toetoe, & other native trees, grasses & shrubs are thriving along the stream, which is reportedly full of our diminutive & rarely seen native freshwater fish.
Yes – Stebbings Dam. I couldn't remember the name.
There were two areas, one immediately under the dam and the other on the old highway near the rail tunnel entrance. We worked on them over a period of 2 or 3 winters.
We would get a contractor in to clear the worst of the old man blackberry, wait a few months, then work over the area to clear the big weeds, poison the re-emerging blackberry and prepare planting patches.
The seeds were all sourced locally so as we could be sure they were adapted to the area. One of the members – a remarkable lady – had prepared the seedlings the previous year. The first step is to plant pioneer species that would grow quickly and create shelter. Once these were established we could plant a month or two later the slower, longer growing species and used various forms of matting and mulching when it was available to ensure the seedling was both sheltered from wind and sun, but also from being overrun by weeds. Creating tiny, damp micro-climates is essential to these normally forest adapted species surviving.
The other lesson learned was not to tackle too large an area, it was better to get one area – say 50 m long – done well than open too much up that we couldn't stay on top of. Once planted and watered for the next few weeks, we typically had to go back over it 3-4 times to weed release over the next 18 months.
Once the pioneer species got away and started shading the weeds the entire system looked after itself.
That the fish have returned is excellent to hear. They certainly were not to be seen when we were there.
One day just over a year ago, down at my fairly private little Eel Spot, I’d chummed the water to summon Elvira Longfin up the rapids and over for a stick-feed, & altho I’d looked for native fish often in the wonderfully clear Porirua Stream water here at Pookden Manor without success, this particular morning I just happened to look down at the reddish tree roots splayed out into the water, in case Elvira was already lurking underneath the bank – and there, hovering in the shade, was an unmistakeable Redfin Bully !
First one I’ve ever seen. Man they’re small. Felt like I’d won the lottery ❤️ 👍🏼 🐧
https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/freshwater-fish/bullies/
Farkinell. 😠 NZ’s firearm carnage continues.
Are we averaging one a day yet? 😕
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland-shooting-woman-critically-injured-in-new-lynn-firearms-incident/7UZDI5JJ5XAVPDYF2STVY4XQCA/
“26-year-old man has been arrested and charged with unlawful possession of a firearm.
Police say he is assisting officers with ongoing inquiries and that no one else is being sought in relation to the incident.”
The government got it all wrong, 100% wrong.
They went for the easy decision and ignored the real problem.
Instead of cracking down hard on gangs and hauling the police over the coals over the firearms checking system they forced people all ready following the laws to give up their weapons
This is a, continued, failure of Jacinda Ardern
I respectfully disagree. The way the world is going – good to have semi-autos taken out of general issue & also out of the legit firearms market.
Agree with you about Labour not cracking down hard enuf on gangs & not visibly having hauled police over the coals over their atrociously failed firearms checking regime.
Hell, they even had guns stolen from a bloody POLICE STATION during the damn buy back!
"good to have semi-autos taken out of general issue & also out of the legit firearms market."
Why do you think this, just out of curiosity?
Less chance of them getting into the hands of folk (particularly blokes) with huge egos, chips on their shoulder, & poor impulse control, people suffering homicidal psychoses, violent or desperate criminals & hate-filled people like gang members & The Christchurch Mass Shooter.
If you can’t reduce the risk of gun killings to zero, you can reduce the severity of the impact by taking such high capacity firearms out of easy reach.
'Less chance of them getting into the hands of folk (particularly blokes) with huge egos, chips on their shoulder, & poor impulse control, people suffering homicidal psychoses, violent or desperate criminals & hate-filled people like gang members & The Christchurch Mass Shooter.'
But it doesn't.
All it does is make the gangs richer and if anyone believes the gangs main source of weapons was from people buying them legally then I have a bridge to sell you
Plus in the case of Brenton Tarrant that blame can be laid at the feet of the people not doing their jobs correctly in issuing him a firearms licence
Fair enuf. I have no problem at all with agreeing to disagree with you, Puckish, when I am right. As in this case. 😉
Easy way to sort out human error with jobs is to remove the job.
I'm trying to think of the last afternoon a gang in NZ killed 51 people – or even half a dozen people, for that matter.
Law-abiding firearms owners, on the other hand… seems every decade or two, someone kills a bunch of people in one outing. Not just sprees in public, families as well.
Yep.
Neighbours in our first house in Tawa lost their son to the psychotic killer of the Raurimu massacre. They never really got over it. Altho I don’t think he used a semi-auto.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/raurimu-20-years-on-the-madman-the-massacre-and-the-memories/2FGFIGPFPXMX3IPPIXD6VCW2NI/
They say it was a "single-barreled shotgun", which usually means a single shot shotgun.
I've been a regular firearms user for over 30 years, I'm happy to see the back end of semiauto firearms. Doesn't significantly impact 90% of legitimate firearm use. And they do appeal psychologically to the handful of f-wits who would like to cause mayhem.
One thing I notice when the police show firearms confiscated from gangs – a lot of the guns are rubbish – held together with tape and rough bits of pipe and wood. But still dangerous unfortunately.
'seems every decade or two, someone kills a bunch of people in one outing. '
How does murder by firearm actually stack up:
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/populations/maori-health/tatau-kahukura-maori-health-statistics/nga-mana-hauora-tutohu-health-status-indicators/major-causes-death
Lung cancers pretty high, got any ideas of what could be causing that and if that could be stopped
Heart disease is up there, diabetes, motor vehicle accidents, jeepers theres a lot
I don't see the government banning high fat fast foods and alcohol, cigarettes still legal, could limit the speed limit…
Know what the average rate of murder by firearm is: 7 per year
https://www.police.govt.nz/sites/default/files/publications/25-nov-2018-ir-01-18-17024.pdf
How does that stack up with total homicides over the same period:
https://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/publication/homicide-victims-report-2018-and-historic-nz-murder-rate-report-1926-2017
'Between 2007 – 2017 there were 737 people killed by homicide (ie murder and manslaughter offences
Firearms are not the problem, the enforcement of laws were the problem and it got all ignored and instead we got bans and buy backs which everyone complied with and went so well:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/mongrel-mob-leader-says-members-wont-hand-in-their-guns/DY3UKD2J3XFQJAYXOJXMWAE27M/
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/438377/rise-in-gun-crime-despite-government-clampdown-after-terror-attack
Mate, one afternoon a couple of years ago skewed our 5-year murder rates in multiple age brackets, so excuse me if I don't have a problem with the govt plucking that particular low-hanging fruit.
No I don't excuse you at all
51 died in a massacre yet that same year approximately 6-7 times the amount of people died on our roads
Don't you think safer roads, lower speed limits etc etc would save more lives?
https://www.healthnavigator.org.nz/health-a-z/c/coronary-artery-disease/
'Every 90 minutes a New Zealander dies from heart disease. Many of these deaths are premature (the person dies too early) and could be prevented.'
'You can reduce your risk by being smokefree and physically active, eating heart healthy foods, keeping to a healthy weight and having your blood pressure and cholesterol checked.'
What could the government do about this?
To hard basket?
The gun buy back and new laws have not made us safer but they have allowed people like you to think we are.
The govt haven't finished gun law reform John Banks regretted not changing gun laws back in 1992 when David Grey went on the rampage with a cache of automatic guns.
Every gun will have to be registered just like in Australia ( and was formerly the case in NZ)where they have cut gun violence by making it tougher.Most guns used by criminals are stolen untraceable unreported by owners.
Australia enacted these laws much earlier than and have much lower gun violence rates than NZ.given we have one of the highest gun ownership rates in the World the potential for stolen arms to fall into criminal hands and mentally unstable people is huge.Especially the laid back attitude of many gun owners especially rural gun owners who only make up a small percentage of gun owners but where 40% of guns are stolen from.
Guns are made to kill rules and regulations are needed.
Trying to shift the blame elsewhere is completely irresponsible.
So you've moved on from gangs. Good for you.
How many millions/billions does the govt spend every year on road safety? Health interventions for all of the conditions you mention?
Govt allocated a billion a year in new road safety spending alone in 2019. In addition to the usual programme. The one-off $120mil buyback is barely a twitch icompared to that, and the road safety thing doesn't even include things like the cost of drink-driving checkpoints or ads.
(Reply intended for PR, but had to piggyback on McFlock's button)
Regarding the high road toll, that is largely on the previous National Government. It lowered the alcohol limit (low-cost, just a few strokes of the pen) to pretend it was doing something – then, to pretend it was a good manager of the economy, it made a big song and dance about balancing the books.
In balancing the books, it underfunded the Police to the point that the police had to set priorities, and in doing so felt forced to quietly scrap all alcohol checkpoints.
Note that the National Govt did not directly instruct the Police to do this, they just gave the so little bulk-funding that the police found themselves in an impossible position.
A year or two later, stats came out showing that NZ was almost unique in the world for having lowered the alcohol limit, but subsequently increased the rate of alcohol-related accidents and deaths.
The research had quite clearly shown (both in France and New South Wales) that deaths and accidents had declined after increased numbers of alcohol checkpoints.
The only useful thing that the National Government did with the road toll was to prove that lowering alcohol limits did nothing to reduce deaths.
Only enforcement through many more alcohol checkpoints does that. Since then I have seen a few checkpoints, but not been checked myself, and I do quite a bit of driving.
We have also proven that silly TV ads saying 'You will be caught' are also totally ineffective. The only effective way to lower drink driving is to permanently set up lots of checkpoints so that people actually know they will be caught, – something this Labour Govt., has yet to do.
51 died in a massacre yet that same year approximately 6-7 times the amount of people died on our roads
So what. We should prevent both modes of dying if we can. To say that 300 road deaths excuses acceptance of 51 deaths by shooting is plainly ridiculous.
Dutton keeps sending the gang members back here no matter how tenuous the citizenship. They are cracking down over there as world wide these types are taking advantage. If you believe that Jacinda Ardern has caused this in 4 years "You're Dreaming"
Wonder whether Dutton will be sending white collar criminals like Mark Bryers of Blue Chip fame ,who is facing charges!
The Gold Coast is a happy haven for white collar Kiwis.
The Qland Govt has no concerns ,provided the crimes are committed in…NZ.
I wonder if they'll 501 Ron Brierly?
Apparantly not.Unlike garden variety gangsters,the sophisticated do make substantial political …donations.
Plus the fact that he is an Australian citizen.
PR most of the guns that end up in criminal hands are stolen from lax legal firearms owners 40% from rural gun owners who claim they need to leave their guns lying around ready to use.
P has upped the anti for gangs and p users ,the govt has increased the number of police targeting gangs and increased the search and seize markedly.But P use in the community has increased exponentially. The cost of illegal drugs in NZ is amongst the highest in the World.P addicts need the drug constantly and it costs big money so they tick up steal prostitute etc.
The P addicts run up huge debts with dealer's / gangs with guns so users are carrying guns as well.So Until we decriminalised all drugs make those drugs available as a prescription taking the money away from gangs and the desperation away from users its only going to get worse.The tougher the laws against drugs are the price goes up making it more profitable for gangs who don't give a shit about being locked up in Prison.Thats Corporate headquarters.
If anyone should know a Switched on corrections officer should know.
Continuing down the simplistic Road of more policing filling up more prisons is a failing policy. Prisoners come out of prison sooner or later Prisons are the universities of Crime and Criminal networking. PR blinkered by your job.
'PR most of the guns that end up in criminal hands are stolen from lax legal firearms owners 40% from rural gun owners who claim they need to leave their guns lying around ready to use.'
Some are, sure but most come the same way drugs come in, via boats due to the increased value of guns
'P has upped the anti for gangs and p users ,the govt has increased the number of police targeting gangs and increased the search and seize markedly.'
'The P addicts run up huge debts with dealer's / gangs with guns so users are carrying guns as well.'
'So Until we decriminalised all drugs make those drugs available as a prescription taking the money away from gangs and the desperation away from users its only going to get worse.'
Thats another tool in the tool box to be used
'The tougher the laws against drugs are the price goes up making it more profitable for gangs who don't give a shit about being locked up in Prison.'
'Thats Corporate headquarters.'
I'm well aware of supply and demand, which is why gangs are making more money off guns
'If anyone should know a Switched on corrections officer should know.'
Pointless statement but ok
'Continuing down the simplistic Road of more policing filling up more prisons is a failing policy. Prisoners come out of prison sooner or later Prisons are the universities of Crime and Criminal networking. PR blinkered by your job.'
Ok lets not send anyone to prison lest they come out worse
But seriously yes they come out sooner or later but while they are in they commit less crimes outside so really the more time they spend in prison the better, for the community.
Yet its this government proudly stating that less people are going to jail and getting rid of the three strikes law
Prison terms should be longer, early release should be something that is earned not a given and all Correction Officers should have penal rates reinstated and only work four shifts per week, not counting call backs (thats just a personal viewpoint)
Now I would have agreed with you if you'd said much more effort, and money, should be put into the rehabilitation side of things which is where the system is lacking
Also the guy in prison learned his ways from family, whanau, wider community whatever so what happens when he leaves?
Straight back to where he came from
But heres the little secret everyone knows but won't say out loud, are you ready?
The crim won't change until the crim wants to change.
You can give the crim all the money in the world, all the training, all the rehabilitation you want and it won't make a blind bit of difference until the crim wants to stop being a crim
Sure giving an illiterate crim the ability to read and write is all well and good but then what?
Is it easier to work a 40 hour a week job, weekends, late nights etc or knock over someones house, deal a bit drugs here and there, steal a car etc etc
I am not saying send no one to prison you are twisting my words.
I said it first crims don't change read my post the secret read carefully is to prevent them becoming crims in the first place.
Fix the family good stable housing direct involvement in that family having live social workers that keep alcohol and drugs out of the house.Canterbury University ran such a program for nearly 10 yrs the National govt canned the program even though it had 72 % success rate .I lobbied Judith Collins personally she promised she would look into it and get back no reply ever.Then it was canned.
The existing system is a failure prevention is better but doesn't have an immediate impact it takes years and lots of resources that no govt wants to spend because of the election cycles.
I had worked voluntarily in front line social work trying to help street kids for nearly 30 years.
Most of those children ended up in gangs because that was the only place they felt wanted.
Going to a job and doing crime is a very poor simplistic equivalence.
Those street kids didn't have anything like a stable home to feel safe have routines love or parents feeding and sending them to the same school let alone school every day.
So your solution is not to fix the problem before but just to keep building more very expensive prisons that cost a $100,000 plus a year to house prisoner plus the huge cost of policing and legal work on top of that cost.
Your solution has been tried for 50 years and all that's happened is gangs have become more entrenched and locking them up forever is the answer.
Prison is gang headquarters as a Prison officer you should know this.
Gang members see this as obtaining a degree in crime the longer you serve and the more serious the crime the higher you rise up the hierarchy. Gang leaders can pull leavers from inside Prison easier than if they are outside.
They are doing this right under the nose of Prison officers who they can out smart out manipulate most of the time.As they have all day and all night to outscheme any controls put in place.
'Fix the family good stable housing direct involvement in that family having live social workers that keep alcohol and drugs out of the house. Canterbury University ran such a program for nearly 10 yrs the National govt canned the program even though it had 72 % success rate .I lobbied Judith Collins personally she promised she would look into it and get back no reply ever. Then it was canned.'
This sounds like a good idea, must be a reason it hasn't been reimplemented
'The existing system is a failure prevention is better but doesn't have an immediate impact it takes years and lots of resources that no govt wants to spend because of the election cycles.'
I agree.
'So your solution is not to fix the problem before but just to keep building more very expensive prisons that cost a $100,000 plus a year to house prisoner plus the huge cost of policing and legal work on top of that cost.'
Incorrect.
I want them locked up longer and I want more resources put into rehabilitation plus I want more work done before they get to prison.
Plus I want maximum security hospitals, staffed by doctors, nurses, psychs etc and Corrections Officers to treat those with mental health and addictions.
None of which has been done.
'Prison is gang headquarters as a Prison officer you should know this.'
My rank is Corrections Officer, my job contract states Corrections Officer. I am not Prison Officer, I am not a Prison Guard, I am a Corrections Officer. It may not mean much to you but it means quite a bit to me.
'They are doing this right under the nose of Prison officers who they can out smart out manipulate most of the time. As they have all day and all night to out scheme any controls put in place.'
Do not forget that our hands are mostly tied as well. We could easily solve most of the issues in prisons very quickly if allowed but we're not.
Its not that we can't, its that we're not allowed.
This is perhaps the most useful conversation I've seen in ages. You both have real world experience (that I don't) and while you have differing experiences and ideas – I want to hear more from you both.
I only comment on my days off, I certainly won't post this on a work computer
I never use work computers for this. But otherwise I was hoping to encourage, not create expectation.
What's interesting is that (I think) people on here generally agree more on the problem of gangs than disagree and even in how to deal with them there's more agreement than disagreement
Which gives me the slightest bit of encouragement that maybe, someday, a government might make it a priority rather than paying lip service (looking at you National)
Corrections officer is just a corporate name to placate the failure of the prison system.
Your wish list is going to be fulfilled by St Jude who cut police funding so John Key could find enough money for a we election bribe that gave somebody $35 a week on the average wage. The rich got $100's and $1,000's the poor got a few crumbs a corrections officer at the time got maybe $28 a week.
St Jude was sacked by John Key because she was incompetent .
As a corrections officer your not in the monied league of a National supporter .Its not a very well paid job.
My brother left after 10 yrs of prison service got a job double the pay and never looked back.
He said what's the point of putting yourself through all that stress for next to nothing. He was brought in to run a rehab program but the National govt canned it. He stayed on for far to long it cost him his marriage.Since he left he has become a multi millionaire and has never been so happy.
I wouldn't work for so low wages in any job let alone a high stress job like a corrections officer.
No govt is going to fully fund rehab programs. No body wants to pay the rate of taxes needed to be raised to run a full prevention and rehab program.
TD,,, maybe you brother should go back"to prison.Broken marriage and now a multi millionaire,Sarc
I totally believe the story, no really I do. I believe it because it just sounds so completely realistic.
@PR…. thanks for your service.
Na they didn't go far enough ,every gun should be registered to its owner, if they had kept that system of old there would be traceability.
Cracking down on the gangs won't hurt aswell mind you.
NZ actually had a pretty good balance of gun laws imho then the police screwed up and 51 people paid the price
I was seriously thinking of buying one of these beauties:
https://www.browning.com/products/firearms/rifles/bar.html
Now I can't and no ones actually safer now then when they were before
Should have made MSSAs (which is a great designation) more restrictive but to out right ban all semi-auto rifles was just bad knee jerk policy because "something had to be done"
Yet anyone heard anything about the police vetting cock up which caused this?
Learn to shoot straight pucky and all you need is a bolt action!!
Imagine if that scum from Christchurch had to stop to put 4 mor bullets in his bolt action, one of those Braves that ran towards him would have dragged his sorry arse down .
I can shoot very well thanks but thats a real nice piece of engineering
Now imagine if he'd used some of the massive amount of money he had and bought a semi-auto on the black market
Or
being that he used 6 weapons, 4 of which are still legal, imagine if instead of the two semi-auto rifles he had two lever actions like this:
https://www.guncity.com/357-uberti-1873-competition-lever-action-367218
Thats 22 rounds of .357 before he switches to his other weapons which were a semi auto and pump shot gun, another lever action (same calibre and make as above actually though not sure if same model) and a bolt action
Still feel safe?
@bwaghorn,this trope about semi-autos of yours,clearly you don't shoot because when I'm out pest eradicating,If my first shot is not a clean kill,for the sack of humanity I would fire a second or even a third ,making sure the creature is dead and not dying down a burrow too die a slow and cruel death,it might surprise the hoi polloi,that some of our pests a small and move about,making it a challenge,but a job needing doing.
I've shot about 50 deer ,12 pigs ,alot of rabbits and possums. Semis are ok for small game I guess but you can work a bolt or lever action pretty quick if needled, go read the books ok the old time cullers using open sight 303 lee Enfields. They seemed to cope.
Thanks for your insight,but you may want too address the need to make sure you despatch small game/pests.For my rec I use open sights on lever and pump,being a lefty hard finding and then paying for good bolt action .
Oh, please. One firearms officer who literally phoned in the job should not be the only point of failure between a fuckwit and his ability to murder 51 people. There were something like 20 years where law-abiding firearms owners could have pointed out the hole in being able to buy MSSA magazines without an MSSA license. Where the fuck were they – and what did they think would happen?
Now there are two points of failure: getting a license, and getting a semiauto license.
Heard anything about the fuck up from the police?
Nope, me neither.
Anything to do with them completely agreeing with this in the hope the media won't point the finger at them?
Surely the police wouldn't do anything like that.
Let's say fucko wouldn't have had access to firearms if one cop had managed to do everything properly – doesn't that just mean that the cops couldn't follow those regulations, so the safest course of action was to make the regs more simple and ban semi-autos?
Sure ok in that case the CTV building collapsed (115 dead) because the building regulations weren't followed, so should we simplify building regulations as well or take steps to ensure they're done correctly?
The CTV construction was overseen by someone with fraudulently-obtained credentials.
But let's assume it was someone professionally competent. Then maybe something of that complexity should be simplified, if it can't consistently be done safely on a day to day basis.
Especially if there are bad actors trying to create the catastrophic outcome despite the role of professionally competent people.
What about ,so-called health professional not reporting a gun shot wound.their were many at fault here.
Yes the number of firearm incidents at the moment is very high. Don't know if this one is gang related, but I do agree with Puckish Rogue, Govt needs to get tougher on gangs.
It isn't the gangs which are the problem, it is the underlying political settings over the last decades which led to the rise of gangs which are the problem.
yeah, and non of the governments of the previous years / decades did anything, so when can a government start doing something?
The gangs are a problem. They are a very big problem.
You're half right: 'it is the underlying political settings over the last decades which led to the rise of gangs which are the problem'
Unfortunately gangs are the problem right now, hopefully some government in the future will make changes to society so gang membership becomes less enticing (thats interesting I've just seen some pigs flying across my backyard…) but until that time gang membership will continue to rise
First things first is to crackdown on gangs and before anyone warms up their keyboard the answer is NO, governments haven't gone hard or cracked down on gangs, people might like to say hard lines have been taken against gangs but in reality there hasn't been a proper crackdown or at least not for decades
The very first thing that needs to be done is to designate these gangs criminal organisations and, again before anyone asks the question, start with the biggest, most obvious (the Mob and Black Power) and work your way down the chain
In WA we have an incredibly popular Labour state govt. So popular that in the last election they wound up with 53 out of 59 seats – eat that Jacinda. This govt is passing new legislation intended to put the gangs out of business. Everyone I've spoken to fully supports this.
Most ordinary people, especially working people who are the most exposed to them, absolutely loath gangs. (I had one process operator speak to me about them with so much venom, he came and apologised later.) They perceive elitist pandering to them as just one more betrayal.
Every intelligent person accepts that gangs don't appear from a vacuum – there are of course root causes that we can and should think about. But right now the symptom needs dealing with. The more govts pander to them, the more success and mana they gain, the more attractive they become, the more momentum they gain – the more they grow. It's a positive feedback loop that has to be broken before root causes can be addressed.
Yes agreed. The money needs to be cut off, no more government contracts, no more housing, no more benefits, no nothing while they're members of the gang
Even if they're driven underground and stop wearing their regalia in public its a start
The main issue I have with these talking heads is they don't live next door to the gangs (unless its the top leaders in which case they'll be very good neighbours) they're removed from every day interactions
I videoed Mongrel Mob members sharing a joint in the No Smoking front of Welly Hospital from the 7th floor liftwell full length window. They’re not wearing their patches. They don’t need to. Hanging together as a group all wearing trademark Red gear they transmit their gang membership & affiliations effortlessly.
No they don't need to but it cuts down on advertising, think of it as another tool in the toolbox to use against them
That’s my point, Puckish. In the communities they live in & control or terrorise, their colour IS their advertising. The patches are just their Dress Uniform. Everybody knows which gang they belong to.
Red:.Mongies. Don’t go there wearing Blue.
Blue: Black Power. Don’t go there wearing Red.
I'm not saying its the only thing, just one of many things that should be done
👍🏼
Fair enuf. Agreed.
The main issue I have with these talking heads is they don't live next door to the gangs (unless its the top leaders in which case they'll be very good neighbours) they're removed from every day interactions
Yup. My daughter and partner are both working courier drivers in a provincial area. They get to see glimpses of all sorts of things gang related. It's been an education for her.
I tend not to think of the talking heads and elites as necessarily bad people, just insulated from the realities on the ground. This happens in all organisations – the formal chain of authority always dilutes and sanitises the message as it filters upward. My father who worked as an accountant much of his life once told me that he'd learn more from a weekly walk around the factory than all the reports that came over his desk put together.
I always wondered how lenient judges would be if some of the people they failed to incarcerate moved in next door
How long do you lock the gangs up for PR.
They come out of Prison more hardened more educated in how get away with Crime forging huge Networks of fellow criminals.
The best way to break down gangs is to take away their income as Portugal drug related crime has reduced by huge amounts.
Drug related murders down from 95 a year to 4 a year.
I'm not suggesting we go soft on gangs, Continuing down the existing ways it's only going to get worse. No politician who says we are getting tough on Crime has ever succeeded in achieving any change from Muldoon to who ever.
I'm saying that going hard on gangs (and I don't believe any government has gone hard on gangs by the way) is the one and only way but its another needed tool to break down the gangs
Yes take away their income, absolutely but more tools are needed is what I'm saying
Stopping giving official legitimacy to gangs is another tool
Banning gang patches is another tool
Banning (if possible) gang advertising on social media is another tool
Taking away big ticket items if they can't prove how they got them
By themselves none of these will work but you keep adding to the tools, you keep harassing the gangs and taking away their money, taking away their legitimacy, taking away their notoriety
Eventually it'll get to the point where, for some of them, its just not worth it
There'll always be gangs and gang members but it doesn't mean we have to learn to live with them as this government seems to want us to do
Oh please,put suits on them and they will blend in with the other crocks,maybe not so obvious here,world wide they kill and rob all the same and with more alacrity.
Perhaps the Govt could prohibit gang members leaving home except under very stringent control … except for going to super markets?
I mean to say they are doing that for people not participating in vaxecution!
Then what happens? How will they eat, where will they live? As the pressure on them increases, who will they take that out on?
I'm not suggesting doing nothing, but if people put up suggestions there needs to be a plan for the whole thing. Cracking down is easy, dealing with what comes next is more important.
I suspect your suggestion is ideological rather than strategic.
'I suspect your suggestion is ideological rather than strategic'
You suggest wrong.
You have to make it uncomfortable for them otherwise whats the rational for them to change?
'How will they eat, where will they live?'
Get a job like anyone else (plenty of them do)
'As the pressure on them increases, who will they take that out on?'
Which is blackmail anyway you look at it but again all they have to do is remove the patch and leave the gang
sounds ideological to me. Nothing wrong with that, it just needs to be acknowledged, and the ideas run through the real world.
We have a permanent unemployment rate, so the idea that anyone can get a job any time is false. And gang members will obviously face additional challenges in getting jobs.
It's not blackmail, it's empathy for victims and not wanting to increase their problems.
How is this no ideological? Right = stick, left = carrot.
Absolutely. The problem Kiwiland faces is the biggest gangs are predominantly of Māori membership. There wouldn’t be one whanau in the country thay doesn’t have family members who are in the gangs proper, are prospects, or are associates.
Getting Māoridom onside with a crackdown is going to be very hard work because of whanaungatanga, which the gangs ruthlessly exploit, of course, but which is a very real & really strong bond of family connection & whanau/marae/hapu/iwi support to offending (and offended) gang members.
With Pākehā, a ruthless bad apple is likely to be rejected by their family unless & until they change their ways.
With Māori, OTOH, you take on the gangs, you take on the iwi.
How we bridge this cultural divide to reduce the gang problem, I’m not sure.
Which is interesting because at the start the gangs went out of their way to reject their culture, wanted nothing to do with it
Damn shame really
How we bridge this cultural divide to reduce the gang problem, I’m not sure.
I don't either. Because gangs and ethnicity have become so entangled in NZ the kind of path taken by the WA govt isn't so easily taken. But one thing I want to see is the iwi leadership stand up and firmly, repeatedly repudiate the gangs and everything to do with them.
Yup. But the blighters won’t.
And pollies like Marama Davidson & Te Pāti Māori will kick up a stink & play the race card & 150 years of colonial oppression rather than deal with what the gang problem has morphed into – preying on their own.
Labour’s Māori Caucus will be notably equally reluctant to alienate themselves from Māori voters & iwi leaders too. Can’t think of a single member with the gonads to stand up and insist they HAVE to do something about the gangs & to get out there & get Māori behind them.
Simon Bridges might actually be the best at this – altho I think few Māori regard him as Māori.
I really don't like using the "I know people and they say" etc argument but in this case the only Maori I've met that weren't anti gangs were in gangs themselves
Well, if they’re a representative sample of Māoridom at large, that’s a hopeful sign. But it makes it even odder that Māori political leaders very clearly never want to be seen to attack or criticise the gangs, for some reason.
I genuinely believe it is.
Most of my working life has been military, labouring and now Corrections so a reasonable cross section I'd have thought
They do but once somebody joins a gangs it's extremely hard to change their thinking many many studies have shown that if a new member is involved in a gang for as little as 3 month's the chance of that person leaving is near Zero.
Why do people join gangs,poverty family violence and sexual abuse,family alcohol abuse the biggest of the drug related reasons ,heavy drug use etc.intinerant and unaffordable housing ,itinerant education.longterm unemployment.The 1987 Ropa report proved all of the above.since then none of the recommendations have been followed through.instead we have the US style of corporate corrections where the corporations profit from growing prison populations.
None of the above problems have been anywhere near solved or even attempted to be solved since the mid 1970's.
The ambulance at the bottom of the cliff ie lockemup and throw away the Key is
None of thes
I know – if any of this was easy we'd have done it by now. One of the reasons why solutions keep eluding us is that binary thinking doesn't apply here.
We all know that locking them up is only a short-term solution that probably makes matters worse in the long-term. Punishment alone merely compounds the root causes.
We also know that ignoring the gangs and hoping to 'social welfare' them away doesn't work either. Gangs offer more power and status to young men than any other path possible.
If there is a solution it involves both individual and collective responsibility working in synergy. That would take a great deal of honesty and political courage to openly address – but for the moment what I'm seeing is too many players who have an interest in the problem not being solved.
'but for the moment what I'm seeing is too many players who have an interest in the problem not being solved.'
I think thats a lot of the issue
'First things first is to crackdown on white collar criminals and before anyone warms up their keyboard the answer is NO, governments haven't gone hard or cracked down on white collar criminals, people might like to say hard lines have been taken against white collar criminals but in reality there hasn't been a proper crackdown or at least not for decades'
Doesn't have to be one or the other, my preference would be both at the same time.
So PR have you any proof of this approach working in any other jurisdiction.We would need a cop on every corner in the country.
Massive goals and never let them out.
That's just a low paid govt paid low ranking prison officers wet dream.
When you can't keep drugs or violence our of prisons your going to need a regime like Sadam Hussein or the CCP to get rid of gangs.
Fuck off
Sounds like what a gang member would say
[RL: You both have far more to contribute than this.]
See mod note.
Apologies PR looking at your comments and mine they aren't that far apart over all.
Noted and accepted, lets move on.
This is what you get if you leave a political vacuum, not filled by policy but by appeasement. It will get worse as the gangs have now plenty of help from their Aussie cousins who will give them some hints and tips how to do really bring society to its knees.
We are slowly becoming little Brazil. A case of cooking the frog slowly.
Gangs have existed for decades, but the escalation in violence is comparatively recent.
I guess I see it as being like someone who is obese and gets diabetes, heart disease etc. Its all well and good saying "the settings need to change, we need to have minimal junk food outlets, surgery drinks etc. All worthy of course and need to be done, But meanwhile the horse has bolted for the obese person who now has multiple health problems.
Sometimes it is important to treat the symptom. I read an article today about a guy in Auckland who had to sell his house a move because of anti social, criminalbehavior by his neighbors who were Kainga Ora tennants. I thought of Sword Fish who raised a similar issue here regarding his elderly parents being intimated by other anti social tenants. I think it is well and good to think about the root causes of anti social behaviour, but most of us would be going spare if we had such neighbours.
I don't know what the solutions are, but interested to here a diverse range of views in these discussions. Although I don't agree with it, no wonder Australia want to deport their criminals back here.
'But meanwhile the horse has bolted for the obese person who now has multiple health problems.'
Sure ok well then lets subsidise bariatric surgery, meal plans and a gym membership then
Cost now versus bigger cost later and lives saved
I think we are in agreement PR. We need to do something about the gangs now.
Trying to fix the "causes" which are likely hugely complex will not alleviate the problems with the guys who are signed up and committing all sorts of mayham, messing with other peoples lives.
I'm a big believer in spending more now to spend less later.
Is Plunket still a thing?
More social workers (less management)
Basically pumping more resources into services like that would certainly pay dividends down the road later
Is Plunket still a thing?
Might be, but when I used it quarter of a century ago (gasp!) my experience was a not particularly helpful tick box exercise. Has anyone else used it recently?
Thats a shame because on the tick list of keeping people away from prison (aka not committing crimes) Plunkets right up there
I would certainly like to see a holistic? (not sure if thats the correct term) where a group look after high risk kids, ones who stay with the mothers (removing kids and taking them into care is another story)
Basically making sure the kid gets what the kid needs when the kid needs it
Basic cooking, cleaning and child raising courses if needed
Budgeting advice
Medical check ups are adhered to
That kind of thing. It'd be expensive but would save money down the line and, might, break some cycles of abuse
From my limited experience of prisoners (Rimutaka) the lack of literacy was startling.
So for me one of the longer term fixes is getting kids in school and educated by any and all means necessary.
Charter schools, Special Character schools, Schools that are 1 teacher to 5 students, free transport to school, free food etc.
Helluva lot cheaper to spend up front on children.
To Cricklewood.
Absolutely agree 100%
Interesting that you bring up plunket. We are involved with a 16 yr old who spent some years making money out of the distribution of drugs in WA, most weekends earning $1000s! Recently he was sent by his family there to his family here to start to learn to live a normal life. He spends most of his time buried in his room on a computer at night and asleep through the day. He is not interested in training for a job, doing a job or even helping much about the place because it does not reward him the same ! Is this how many get streamed into gangs ? Do we cut his bread and bed ?
Yeah thats tough, I don't envy you at all
Get up at a time you don't want, go to a place of work you don't want to go, work where you don't want to work and do it all over again 5 days a week
or
make more money and spend less time dealing drugs
Well for once I agree with your sentiment but which govt is more likely to put something like that in place.
None.
National don't think money should be spent on crims
Labour don't like Corrections so don't want to spend money on them
The Greens don't think there should be prisons so don't want to spend money on them
Act probably all of the above
The last govt cut police numbers by 20% by not increasing numbers as the population increased and a massive P epidemic which has only got worse.
Remember one of John Keys mains promises he said he was going to get rid of the P surge at any cost.
It was nothing more than an empty feel good promise.
Gun crime has escalated as a direct result then add in the 501's who have corporatism gangs franchising International crime organisations in NZ.
The 501's have upped the anti by making guns virtually mandatory for franchisees.
These internationally connected crime gangs have learned how to maximise their growth.By getting their members addicted to drugs that are very hard to kick the habit.NZ's high Street prices make NZ a prime target. We can't even stop a few deranged protesters let alone the Drug epidemic,and the growth of gangs.
What new laws should be introduced for that?
Designate gangs as illegal and membership of gangs illegal would be a good start
How would you 'designate' gangs? Mention them by name?
Would you say e.g. it is illegal to belong to the 'Mongrel Mob'? Take the right off people to call themselves some particular name?
What if they then change their name to the "Golf Mob"?
If having membership of a 'gang' is illegal what would you have as a definition of a gang?
I'm not rubbishing the sentiment, I'm trying to think of practicalities.
Like, Rotary, The Chamber of Commerce, Lodge, etc, etc.
Never said it would be easy (not trying to be flippant) but I'm assuming someone with greater knowledge of the laws could get advice from police, Greg Newbold etc to work it out
Mind you the palaver over trying to ban gang patches makes you realise it'll never happen
Gezza said, (above) "They’re not wearing their patches. They don’t need to. Hanging together as a group all wearing trademark Red gear they transmit their gang membership & affiliations effortlessly."
Ban people from wearing patches? From wearing red?
There are laws to deal with crimes. There are laws about unlawful assembly. There are rules about peaceful assembly. Knowledgeable, experienced people would have a most difficult task wording things too achieve what is desired.
You appreciate the task is difficult. Some think the law should simply be "The Mongrel Mob, Black Power, Headhunters, etc. are illegal."
https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1961/0043/latest/DLM328559.html
https://communitylaw.org.nz/community-law-manual/chapter-4-activism/protesting-and-organising-fundamental-rights/
“Get Tough on crime!!”, “working for the clampdown!!”, read it and weep–still.
Jeez, even Labour’s big Norman Kirk campaigned on “taking the bikes off the bikies” (as they were then called), not many if any were ever taken, as per Crusher Collins mood swing on “boy racers”.
No politician has tamed gangs & dealers for good, not even the psychopathic Philippines leader Mr Duterte who has actually ordered thousands of summary executions during his time in office.
Roger and Ruth swung a wrecking ball through this country–50% of the population now own just 2% of the wealth–get used to the effects of that and the still unresolved matters arising from post colonial fall out.
https://teara.govt.nz/en/map/36362/maori-land-loss-north-island
Sure some like the bravado and gangster chic of dealing, fencing, riding, intimidating and partying, but it is not a great career for the children of neo liberalism in what should be a land of plenty.
It's become an iwi (of sorts) for some gang whanau now.
Popa & Nani are long term gang members, mum & dad are (so far) life-long gang members, their rangatahi are all or nearly all members, prospects, or just affiliates.
Agree that Rogernomics (then Ruthenasia) ripped the guts out of rural Māori communities. Where I come from (Taranaki) scores of Māori lived generally happy & satisfying marae-based working lives emoloyed in the myriad small local freezing works & dairy products companies based in the rural towns that circle that ataahua Maunga.
Freezing works & dairy factory work (becos collective & unionised) was well-paid, & Māori were able to stay in their hapu's nga rohe, get plenty of kai moana, & keep their collective & cooperative way of life ticking over quite well. Plus, transpor & other needs were simpler & cheaper.
Rogernomics/Ruthenasia gutted those industries, wrecking the traditional relationships & lifestyle, forcing migrations to the cities and accelerating gang growth in the urban conglomerations as well as the local towns cos poverty, welfare dependence, idle hands of young people.
Will take some time, but I believe that situation can be turned around by a government of smart Pākehā folk working together with educated & hands-on Māori successful entrepreneurs, professionals & dependable MPs & Cabinet Ministers.
It's become an iwi (of sorts) for some gang whanau now.
Popa & Nani are long term gang members, mum & dad are (so far) life-long gang members, their rangatahi are all or nearly all members, prospects, or just affiliates.
Agree that Rogernomics (then Ruthenasia) ripped the guts out of rural Māori communities. Where I come from (Taranaki) scores of Māori lived generally happy & satisfying marae-based working lives emoloyed in the myriad small local freezing works & dairy products companies based in the rural towns that circle that ataahua Maunga.
Freezing works & dairy factory work (becos collective & unionised) was well-paid, & Māori were able to stay in their hapu's nga rohe, get plenty of kai moana, & keep their collective & cooperative way of life ticking over quite well. Plus, transpor & other needs were simpler & cheaper.
Rogernomics/Ruthenasia gutted those industries, wrecking the traditional relationships & lifestyle, forcing migrations to the cities and accelerating gang growth in the urban conglomerations as well as the local towns cos poverty, welfare dependence, idle hands of young people.
Will take some time, but I believe that situation can be turned around by a government of smart Pākehā folk working together with educated & hands-on Māori successful entrepreneurs, professionals & dependable MPs & Cabinet Ministers.
Sorry Mod. Dunno how a double post happened. Usually get a pop up saying "You've already said that", that prevents a duplicate comment. Gremlins?
One way is to adopt laws such as the RICO laws that are used in the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeer_Influenced_and_Corrupt_Organizations_Act
From a quick read it focussed on the actions (crimes), patterns (acting in a criminal enterprise). It was not necessary to specify the names but to look at the actions. In the US, as usual, it provided a happy hunting ground for the litigious but here in NZ if we enacted something focussing on certain crimes, the enterprises behind them then it can sweep up all types of gang related activity.
So a focus on the crime and the damage crime has in society rather than on individual gangs. This may make it easier for Iwi to work with their members in the gangs as 'someone' else has possibly designated the actions a RICO action. This kind of approach would need to be run past the people who deal with Treaty grievances/human rights as we would not want to set the Govt up for a claim in times to come
Ah, to be a member of the billionaire class.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gmZ9X9Aplk
Ah, the politics of envy.
Not sure whether its the politics of envy.
I'm not a great fan of Jackson – although I acknowledge his prodigious talents – but in this instance he is doing WW1 military history a huge favour. Without people like him who are able to bring large scale memorability back to life, so much is lost for future generations to learn and understand.
Agreed.
https://www.omaka.org.nz/ is well worth a visit
Omaka is indeed amazing. I was there and saw a bird that was nesting in the roof timber fly down to get some water from a boggy tyre track in a display. It dipped its beak into the 'water' to find it was tapping on a hard plastic. I was impressed that a display could fool even a bird with its verisimilitude.
Money and passion is a helluva combination
Lord Jackson misled the country over the timeline and much more regarding the infamous “Hobbit Affair” when he put the US film industry’s needs well before local workers. He is welcome to his creepy war museum, certainly looks like he has been sampling ample quantities of “bully beef”.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1104/S00081/helen-kelly-the-hobbit-dispute.htm
Fat shaming? Really, you had to go there?
I will never spend a penny on him for this
Jackson is a 'special effects' specialist. Special effects can enhance a movie that would have been a good movie anyway, but Jackson's movies, apart from those special effects are pretty mediocre. At least one of his films, Heavenly Creatures, which might otherwise have been reasonable, was spoiled by the 'special effects'.
Well I liked Bad Taste, Meet The Feebles and The Lord Of The Rings trilogy
Did you read the book?
I thought it was actually quite good. The only one of Jacksons films I've seen any point in watching.
Oops That was meant to be 'memorabilia'.
All good
My question about Jackson is how much tax does he pay?
Best addressed to Jackson. Don’t expect anyone here knows or could say.
“If you are trying to contact Peter Jackson, please email: reception@wingnutfilms.co.nz.”
Let us know what he replies? 😐
Oh. Email reception@wingnutfilms, (with the usual remaining two nz company url suffixes).
Jeez. Ring wingnut films for their email address.
LOL Gezza. Well I could but try!
Jackson seems to me a bit like an overgrown child. He's not really interested in WW1 itself, neither its causes (imperial rivalry, resource competition, arms races, military alliances) nor its effects (Sykes-Picot, Balfour, the rise of Hitler, the opportunity it presented to the regressive, authoritarian Bolsheviks, etc.) He just likes all the techno stuff – the same way his later movies are crammed with special effects to the detriment of real examination of human character. To be fair – some of the WW1 planes are really beautiful, but in general why are the rich and famous frequently so undistinguished?
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2021/11/a_video_worth_watching.html
Good video from Nicola Willis about the goings on at Kainga Ora, can't wait for part two and its good to, finally, see an opposition do something like this.
Nicola has been my pick for the next Nat leader for some time. But knowing them, they'll stuff it up and go back to Bridges.
JC needs to stay until the next election, far too many leaders coming and going at the moment
…and beyond…please!
Yes, surely she is good for three or four?
I'm glad you've seen the light and understand that St Jude the Immaculately Dressed well be the next PM of NZ
It is known
Seriously, she won't. She's a placeholder until the candidates finish sorting themselves out.
La la la I can't hear you
Doesn't 't matter who is leader if National get in next election privatising prisons will be high on their agenda Unions will be busted wages and conditions cut.
So it's like turkey's voting for xmas
Everyone may think that, but amongst the same group not one is prepared to be the one to kick her out. I don't think she'll leave quietly.
Not so sure. I have long had the view she has done a deal to stay in the role until there is a natural successor ready. From a purely political perspective, they can't go into an election with a bald, middle aged man (Luxon) as leader. The best option is Nicola Willis. It will happen late 2022.
I'm not really invested in the outcome of the National Party , but it will be interesting to see how it happens.
Nor am I, but I am a bit of a political junkie. I find it all so machiavellian.
i can see that happening actually.
Bring Back Todd!
Blackadder?
Rundgren.
Howard
I don't know if anyone else is following the story on the Irish Mother and Baby homes, and the incremental progress of exhumation and answers.
There's been a new documentary released, which is reported on in the Irish Times:
Don’t numb yourself to the callousness at Tuam mother and baby home. Stay angry
A national inquiry has taken place, but the bodies remain in situ – in the septic system in which they were discovered. Approx 800 in Tuam, but conservative estimates for 9000 unmarked burials.
This exposure came about due to a woman investigating her local history, and finding an anomaly in the death certificates and birth records.
I can't find a link to the latest documentary, but there is a good one on Youtube.
https://youtu.be/kWBwjR6QPhI
I loved visiting Ireland and staying in the homes of my Irish friends.
My generation follows those in the final years of operation. The geographical distance between there and here is immense, but nowhere near as vast as the difference in experience of those women and mine as an unmarried mother.
Here I was thinking The Magdalene Sisters was bad enough, now this tops it
If you click on the video at 48:40, you will see how the cruelty of Bon Secours continued by their denial of burials, which has since been proven to be false.
Sorry, meant to be a reply to Puckish Rogue @ 5.1
Light entertainment on a sunny Monday afternoon
Avoiding the Covid debacle and other things…
(My partner heard what I was watching and said, "Distracting yourself, and you choose that?")
The atrocities committed by these mainstream religions seems to be …endless.
The comments remind me of a movie I've seen a couple of times. As much as it made me angry I loved it.
Philomena
"Based on a powerful true story and led by note-perfect performances from Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, Philomena offers a profoundly affecting drama for adult filmgoers of all ages.
In 1952, Irish teenager Philomena (Judi Dench) became pregnant out of wedlock and was sent to a convent. When her baby, Anthony, was a toddler, the nuns took Philomena's child away from her and put him up for adoption in the United States. For the next 50 years, she searched tirelessly for her son. When former BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) learns of the story, he becomes her ally. They travel together to America to find Anthony and become unexpectedly close in the process."
References from https://www.rottentomatoes.com
I watched that, too. Good movie about the compelled adoptions.
The Catholic church has done so much damage with its disgusting state sanctioned brutalising of women and children and yet the pope, as a representative of desirable morals, is still quoted.
It's a demonstration of the hypocrisy of humankind which calls for the prohibition of gangs while the Catholic Church which has practised untold cruelty for such a long time, remains not held to account or punished.
Interesting comment in video that 90% of primary schools are state funded Catholic ones, and 60% of secondary schools. The power and influence remains.
@41:00 is one woman's story, as a pregnant 18 yr old in England, she was kidnapped by the clergy and taken to Ireland. This sanctioned abduction had a name "The Crusade of Rescue", where "fallen women" were denounced and then taken back to Ireland to be assimilated into the homes.
I have to admit Molly, I could only watch a few minutes of the youtube video.
Poor poor little kids.
My sisters attended the local Catholic convent and while their experience was miles from the experience of the kids in Irish 'homes', the nuns in the typical NZ primary school were nasty fuckers.
My sister-in-law's large Catholic family was involved in the church out of habit rather than faith. At their mother's funeral they joked about the priests their mother told them never to be alone with. They found it funny.
People know, and do nothing.
the sway they hold, the receipts too.
Sabine, I know you have spoken often of your sexual abuse as a child, but I don't know if I've ever responded.
I recently attended the funeral of a dear friend's mother, and got to meet the brother that sexually abused her from the ages of seven to eleven. The love in that family is easy and palpable.
I don't know how or if you ever fully recover from such betrayal or brutality.
I just wanted to say I grieve for both those girls that once were, and value the acquaintance of the women they became. I consider her a sister of the heart, and you are definitely a sister on The Standard.
IU spend time with my family, after i came back to them after 10+ years away. – It took me many years to go from fucked up transient teen to somewhat functioning adults. I pretended to be nice to my rapist, that was the price i paid to see my little sister and reconnect with whom i was in the homeland. I never harmed the man, but not because i did not wanted to, but i understood that he is not worth me going to prison for murder.
There was no love in my family. Just booze, fear, and disgust. And i am the one that sorted her life to some extend. And no the trust never comes back, and the disgust never leaves.
thanks for considering me a sister in spirit.
Thanks, Sabine.
When I said the love in that family is easy and palpable, I should almost mention that from the outside I think it comes at a very high cost. That cost is borne completely by my friend. The family had/and still has high standing within the church and community, and all the siblings (bar my friend) are successful professionals and businesspeople.
Any harm to her has been ignored, it has to be so in order for the rest of the family to remain intact. So the harm continues. Thanks for sharing your story.
This applies to society in general.
Unfortunately true.
TV1 poll at 6 pm. Guessing game:
Labour 40, Greens 9 TPM 2
National 29 ACT 16 Others 4
Ardern's body language at post-Cab isn't giving much away (she will have known the results beforehand, for the pre-recorded clip on the news tonight).
Ironically a good boost for National/Collins could be bad news for them … they need a pretext for the coup.
I'll award myself a solid 8 out of 10 for that forecast.
Skite!
looks like some more antivax 'gridlock' events coming our way soon