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.
Seymour describes sushi as too woke for school meals. There are no fish sushi meals recommended by the School Lunches programme. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Government will swap out hot meals for packaged sandwiches to save $107 million on school lunches for poor kids. MSD has pulled ...
I don't mind stealin' bread from the mouths of decadenceBut I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled, yeahBut it's on the table, the fire's cookin'And they're farmin' babies, while slaves are workin'The blood is on the table and the mouths are chokin'But I'm goin' hungry, yeahSome ...
The Ardern Government’s chickens came home to roost yesterday with the news that the country is short of natural gas. In 2018, Labour banned offshore petroleum exploration, and industry executives say that the attendant loss of confidence by the industry impacted overall investment in onshore gas fields. Energy Resources Minister ...
Hi,If you’ve been digging through the newly launched Webworm store (orders are being dispatched worldwide as I type!) you’ll have noticed the best model we had was Calvin.This is Calvin.Calvin.Calvin is 7, and is the son of my producer over on Flightless Bird, Rob — aka “Wobby Wob”. Rob also ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Climate change is everywhere. And when something's everywhere it can feel like it's nowhere. So how do we get our heads ...
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
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 ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
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A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
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The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Photo by Jari Hytönen on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
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The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leah Williams Veazey, ARC DECRA Research Fellow, University of Sydney DavideAngelini/Shutterstock In the 2007 film The Bucket List Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman play two main characters who respond to their terminal cancer diagnoses by rejecting experimental treatment. Instead, they go ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mohan Singh, Professor of Agri-Food Biotechnology, School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences at the University of Melbourne., The University of Melbourne Tanja Esser/Shutterstock Australia’s vital agriculture sector will be hit hard by steadily rising global temperatures. Our climate is already ...
The Acumen Edelman Trust barometer reported that New Zealand’s political trust score now sits below the global average, a topic explored in a recent discussion paper by Maxim Institute. ...
Greenpeace Aotearoa executive director Russel Norman says, "The Fast-Track Bill is the most damaging piece of environmental legislation any Government has introduced in living memory. People are angry, and it’s time to march." ...
The school lunches programme has been retained – and will be extended to some preschoolers. So how is it going to cost $107 million less? To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. The minister with many hats David Seymour wears a number of hats, but this week ...
“Show us the bird,” I found myself muttering at times while reading Hard by the Cloud House by Peter Walker, a deeply thoughtful, often hilarious, at times rambling – but somehow delightfully so – search for the story of a big bird. But not just any bird: the bird. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack Marley, Environment + Energy Editor, UK edition DPVUE .images/Shutterstock Your home was probably designed for a climate that no longer exists. As long as humanity continues to burn fossil fuel, padding the heat-trapping blanket of gases in Earth’s atmosphere, the ...
A senior lawyer has filed a complaint about tikanga becoming a required law school module. Law lecturer Carwyn Jones explains what he’s getting wrong. “…the first law of Aotearoa, a law that served the needs of tangata whenua for a thousand years before the arrival of tauiwi.”– Ani Mikaere ...
In 2019, an Auckland woman woke up from surgery to find that she had undergone a treatment she didn’t consent to. She tells Alex Casey about her experience. From her very first period at the age of 14, Laura experienced “debilitating” levels of pain that forced her to withdraw from ...
In the gloom following director-general Al Morrison’s job cuts in 2013, the Department of Conservation restructured its operations arm. Eleven conservancy districts were whittled into six new “conservation delivery” regions, under which the Rēkohu/Wharekauri/Chatham Islands area, comprising 40 scattered islands more than 800km east of Christchurch, was tethered to the ...
One of th e country’s top litigation lawyers says New Zealand is seeing a lift in court action between companies. Chapman Tripp partner Justin Graham, who oversees a team of around 80 litigation specialists, says the courts are now so log-jammed that it’s taking over two years to get cases ...
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Comment: Concerns about the state of the economy are creeping up to the top of firms’ list of challenges. That’s evident in both surveys and the tone of our recent client discussions. Skimming the past few weeks of eco-news, it’s not hard to see why. – Retail card spending fell ...
Opinion: Could former co-leader James Shaw still make a difference to working with National? The post How the Greens could be contenders appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: What if we got rid of our existing drug laws and replaced them with a new law that legalised and carefully regulated all psychoactive substances, from cannabis to MDMA, methamphetamine and LSD to magic mushrooms? And which also included legal drugs such as alcohol and nicotine. “Wow,” you might ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government is talking up the crucial role of gas as a transition fuel “through to 2050 and beyond”. In a gas strategy to be released on Thursday, the government envisages the fuel’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Next week the government will again next try to get its legislation through to deal with non-citizens who won’t cooperate with efforts to deport them. The bill, which the opposition and crossbench refused to rush ...
A long-term project that will set out an alternative vision for Aotearoa that looks beyond the narrow confines of the policy straight jacket adopted by successive governments. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bree Hurst, Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Law, QUT, Queensland University of Technology TK Kurikawa/Shutterstock A much-awaited report into Coles and Woolworths has found what many customers have long believed – Australia’s big supermarkets engage in price gouging. What started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Ghezelbash, Associate Professor and Deputy Director, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney The Albanese government wanted to avoid an inquiry into its migration amendment bill. The report, handed down yesterday by a senate committee that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joo-Cheong Tham, Professor, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne Lobbying is at the heart of government. Who has access to and influence over key government officials shapes the decisions governments make – and how they make them. The ability to influence ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Myfany Turpin, Associate Professor, Ethnomusicology, Linguistics and Ethnobiology, University of Sydney The act representing Australia at this year’s Eurovision contest has sadly not qualified for the grand final. Yet for Zaachariaha Fielding and Michael Ross, the duo that makes up Electric Fields, ...
In announcing changes to the school lunches programme, David Seymour said kids would no longer be served ‘woke’ foods. To clear up any confusion, The Spinoff has compiled a guide to the wokeness levels of some common food items. Apple = NOT WOKE Avocado = WOKE Avocado, smashed = EVEN ...
The Minister Responsible for GCSB and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security have been notified of this review, and have been provided a finalised Terms of Reference. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Minglu Chen, Senior Lecturer, Government and International Relations, University of Sydney Robert Way/Shutterstock As the past few years have illustrated so clearly, the Australia-China relationship is complicated. As such, it is crucial for Australians to develop a more nuanced understanding of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mariana Campbell, Research Lecturer, Conservation, Charles Darwin University Marilyn Connell Australian freshwater turtles are facing an alarming trend. Almost half of these species are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. The Mary River turtle (Elusor macrurus) is one of Australia’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Debbie Passey, Digital Health Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Josephine Barbaro, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, Psychologist, La Trobe University Unsplash We’ve come a long way in terms of understanding that everyone thinks, interacts and experiences the world differently. In the past, autistic people, people with attention deficit hyperactive disorder ...
PNG Post-Courier Papua New Guinea’s deputy opposition leader James Nomane has accused the government of “reckless economic management” that has forced devaluation to manage loan repayments in foreign currency and placate the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Prime Minister James Marape “must stop lying to the people of Papua New Guinea”, ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Jane Arthur, author of Brown Bird, and former bookseller at Good Books.The book I wish I’d writtenI have been working on not comparing myself to others. On accepting that what I can ...
The final decision on the Wellington District Plan makes it official: High-density housing is legal across most of Wellington. Housing minister Chris Bishop has announced his decision on the Wellington District Plan, approving a series of amendments to radically upzone most of Wellington, allowing tens of thousands of new townhouses ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to ...
RNZ News As Israel presses ahead with strikes in Rafah and seizing the Rafah crossing from Egypt, aid agencies are sounding the alarm of a “catastrophic humanitarian situation”. Rafah was “significant” because it was the only part in Gaza that had not been terribly damaged by the conflict, United Nations ...
With funding set to be scrapped for the Hamilton-Auckland commuter train, Te Huia enthusiast Georgie Dansey argues for it to be thrown a lifeline. It’s 5.45am and the chain of my crappy old bike falls off slugging up the one hill in Hamilton. I contemplate yeeting the bike into the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Cooke, Honorary Fellow, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland We feel ecological grief when we lose places, species or ecosystems we value and love. These losses are a growing threat to mental health and wellbeing globally. We all see ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shauna Brail, Associate Professor, Institute for Management & Innovation, University of Toronto A shift to hybrid and remote work continues to affect worker presence in Toronto’s downtown.(Shutterstock) Downtown Toronto, the core of Canada’s largest city, continues to reel from the lingering ...
Responding to an Auditor-General's report slamming failures in the administration of the 2023 General Election, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said: ...
Productivity apps now make up a big chunk of the software market. But do they work? And why do they all have AI integrations?Despite being firmly on the record as a physical planner fan, I sometimes dream of something better than my pretty diary and its scrawled, ugly, interior ...
The Taxpayers’ Union says the Beehive need to lead by example, following reports of more than $50,000 spent upgrading video conferencing equipment and furniture in the Prime Minister’s office. Taxpayers’ Union Campaign Manager, Connor Molloy, ...
An objective list of the 50 most powerful people in New Zealand, as judged by the Spinoff Editorial Board. It’s power list season, baby, and we want in on the action. Sure, there’s the rich list and the powerful “c-suite” list and the young people with power (hmmm) but here, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney ShutterstockThis article contains information on deaths in custody and the names of deceased people, and describes ongoing colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. First Nations people in Australia ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Macquarie University Netflix Baby Reindeer’s phenomenal success has much to do with its writer and lead, Richard Gadd, who plays Donny in a tender semi-autobiographical account of sexual abuse, harassment and stalking. Gadd’s story has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle KarolinaGrabowska/Pexels If you didn’t have food allergies as a child, is it possible to develop them as an adult? The short answer is yes. But the reasons why are much ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Moon, Professor of History, Auckland University of Technology Ans Westra, self-portrait, c. 1963. National Library ref AWM-0705-F They try but invariably fail – those writers who believe they are capable of encapsulating in prose or verse the essence of ...
Stewart Sowman-Lund looks at the growing concern around the world in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. What’s all this? When Covid-19 arrived on our shores in early 2020, some argued we were too slow, or crucially, ill-prepared for a pandemic. So ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Franco Montalto, Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and Director, Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Laboratory, Drexel University Water runs into a storm drain in a Los Angeles alley on Aug. 19, 2023, during Tropical Storm Hilary.Citizen of the Planet/Universal Images ...
The inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones has turned up a new witness who says he saw two teenagers and a small child in a high vis vest in the area where the boy’s body was found the day he died. Lachie’s body was discovered face up ...
Happy Monday all. Looks a nice day in Welly
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.
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