We need a better media.
One not owned by foreign billionaires and multinational finance corporations.
No wonder so many New Zealanders are only capable of infantile political conversations.
This is the garbage they are fed.
It would appear that the only thing about the French elections that interests our 4th estate is the age of the President’s wife.
Personally, if I were looking for analysis of overseas elections, I wouldn’t go to the lifestyle section and read the opinion columnists therein, but maybe that’s just me?
Garner and Espiner running 2 separate branches of the National Party’s comms team on this morning’s radio at 7.10 a.m.
Both with the same message.
Labour’s housing party is bad.
Espiner a puppet of the establishment and Garner a muppet.
Rich speculators need muppets and puppets like them.
LIttles housing proposals is a GREAT IDEA with disasterous unintended consequences for the ordinary working renter like rent increases between $80 and $400 per week …. but of course the government will make it up one way or the other , figures depend on which RNZ commentator is correct.
Thank goodness I am an owner with his own home and nothing else or I would be stung by this GREAT IDEA 🙂
Unless Labour also built 100,000 additional houses along with 20-30,000 Housing NZ houses (2-3K p.a. over 10 years), in which case private landlords who try increasing rents too much might just find that they have empty houses instead.
This guy Rob Quist is trying to get Montana to turn Democrat.
Something like trying to overturn Jackie Blue in Waitaki.
He does it with some policy tendencies that would make an urban lefties’ hair curl – such as protecting the Second Amendment by shooting his tv – but his core message is reversing economic inequality. Also too many millionaires trying to represent good folk. And then taking a risk on medical marijuana. Plus wear a Stetson.
Montana isn’t particularly solid Republican. As the article points out, currently the governor and one of the senators are Democrats. It’s more of a mystery why Montanans reliably go Republican for their one House seat.
Winston’s already shown one way to win in deep-blue New Zealand. High profile with local roots. But with MMP there’s even the question of whether winning the seat is a worthwhile goal if it means the local MP has to go significantly off-message from the rest of the party.
>>”Te Waikoropupu Springs is the southern hemisphere’s largest coldwater springs and has some of the clearest waters ever measured on earth.
Levels as high as 20,000 E-coli per 100 ml were discovered at the boundary where the creek runs into the reserve after testing by by Friends of Golden Bay at four different sites from November 2016 – April, 2017.
The new National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management states that safe swimmable levels should not exceed 540 E-coli per 100 ml and for drinking it is less than 1 E-coli per 100 ml. “<<
The only development needed in this area is to improve access…both the road from the main highway (it may have improved since last I visited) and to perhaps raise the category of at least some of the tracks from ‘easy’ to ‘wheelchair friendly’.
An MP from which party presented this list at a conference in the weekend?
An MP from which party presented this list at a conference in the weekend?
1. People living in warmer, drier homes.
2. Grants for first-home buyers.
3. Better healthcare.
4. More paid parental leave.
5. More jobs and higher incomes.
6. Benefits raised to help children and others in hardship.
7. More police to keep communities safer.
8. Putting more money in your pockets.
9. Breakfasts in schools.
10. Better education for our children.
[link from whence PG plagiarised now added – weka]
I do know, Pete, yes. I also know this is the Open Mike thread, where all sorts of issues can be discussed. So, not Alfred “The Don” Ngaro, eh!
Chester Borrows? Nah, he’s been tied up in the courts and hasn’t had much to say since…Mike Sabin? Not sure what happened to him and haven’t heard a peep from him for a while…John Key? Was it John “Dunnarunna” Key? Joyce and al have also been busy defending this and that in the court lately; the copyright stuff, remember, so probably not them…I give up. Willie Jackson? He’s ascending at the moment. It might have been him.
Give us another clue: did the MP announce a coherent way to put each or any of those goals within reach of lower income NZers or other NZers in need, or was it a thinly- disguised way to funnel more money to their private-sector chums and throw a few crumbes to everyone else?
Times up,–no reply so must have been the Maori party.
[lprent: Beware of the pwned heresy. My instinctive response to fools who use it like you appear to have just done is to demonstrate exactly how long I can ‘pwn’ them for with a substantial ban. It is not useful in online debates and usually leads to tiresome stupidly repetitive flame wars of the type that I detest. Don’t try to set the victory conditions. Learn to agree to disagree. Or you’ll find that I and other moderators will demonstrate our lack of agreement with your choice of tactic. This is your warning. ]
Perhaps a better question is which party has a history of actually substantially delivering on their actual promises. Conversely which party has a history of promising and never delivering even a fraction of what they promised.
Looking at the overall levels of actual police relative to population is probably a good place to start.
National is busy promising more police yet again. Of course if you look at their performance over the last 3 National governments, all you ever see is a static level of police staff against a rising population. At the end of their term of office, we always find rising crime levels and a drop in solving crimes as the inevitable consequence….
God, I remember 1999. That was the era when you couldn’t get police to attend any burglaries unless someone got sent to hospital. Consequently burglaries were endemic. It looks like the same thing is happening again – but in South Auckland it is aggravated robbery.
Not stealing anything. It’s simple to find where it came from, but as an exercise in seeing how overlapped party policies have become it was better to put a bit of distance to the source.
Including the link initially would have defeated the purpose.
[you cut and pasted without attribution and now you have this moderator’s attention. I don’t care what your rationales or intent were, if you are going to take other people’s work, then link or cite. If you can’t figure out how to do that without ruining your personal fun for the day, maybe find something else to do – weka]
Dude, you literally cut&pasted someone else’s list without any attribution whatsoever, or even any indication that it was someone else’s list and you’d say whose after we played your wee game.
No, I thought you were just a bit shit at pasting. Sometimes if I really want to hack out a thought or a comment and know it’ll take a few edits, I’ll write it in a text editor rather than using the wordpress comment box, and then paste it in as a complete comment. But I try to always clearly identify which bits are mine and which bits are other peoples’. And is the line you pasted twice even from the post you plagiarised? I couldn’t find it. So are you arguing that your comment obviously contained unoriginal work because an original line was pasted twice?
But even so, the concept of oh look I’m just a bit shit at pasting, so you should have inferred that not a single word of ‘my’ comment was original work by me is still a piss-poor excuse for plagiarism.
Hmmm. It’s not really plagiarising, though, because after the teaser the Spinoff author writes :”The list was reeled off by education minister Nikki Kaye.” That looks like an attribution to me.
Basically, you tried to do teasing question thing that the Spinoff did, but the only thing you didn’t steal was actually doing it properly and without plagiarism.
Mike King, member of the New Zealand Suicide Prevention External Advisory Panel has told Coleman that the new draft plan is a crock…and he’s quit the panel.
>>”The plan has buried all new ideas in such impenetrable language they are beyond recognition and unlikely to ever see the light of day. It is a strategy that is so broad in its effort to please everyone it will eventually collapse under the weight of public expectation. This will please no one except you and the politicians you serve,”<<
“pwn” pronounced in the same way as the verb own, the tail of the p being “silent”.
I’d never seen the idea of “the tail of the p being “silent”. What a curiosity!
Hard to keep up Robert. Before something comes to mean anything it is replaced by a new slang word. I’ve just looked up pwn which seems to mean I’ve power-won-owned from you.
And leetspeak is supposed to come from elite speak which apparently comes from hacker elites and includes a sense of humour so you don’t have to say a joke. Must be like the elite jokes of commercial travellers so often repeated that they were numbered, and a bloke just had to say that reminds me of #14 to have everyone rolling on the floor.
It was probably originally a typo of ‘owned’. However it was picked up by several online communities starting in the early online games.
I think that I ran across it on the BBS’es or usenet in the mid-90s. Apparently it fell out of the modem or early net games like doom or quake.
Those games were the reason that I had multiple phone lines at home (later followed by ISDN lines) in the early 90s. Some serious hours ‘wasted’ socialising online whilst exploring graphic effects. 🙂
Incidentally, this opinion piece from the NY Times amused me this morning. An addiction to Zelda rather than the rocket launcher.
I have not actually touched a Nintendo Switch with my own hands or even been in the same room as one, but from my sophisticated online snooping, I can tell you that the controller vibrates and can be detached, and the graphics are elaborate, unlike the pixelated eight-bit renderings of my memories, punctuated by a primitive synthesizer score. In the several decades I’ve been out of the game, the Nintendo has grown up. What a reunion it would be, the two of us together again as adults, I often think.
I’m at a point in my life when a lot of big decisions need to be made. My partner, Michael, annoyingly wants to talk about them. I want the opiate release of a Nintendo Switch.
I’ve dropped Michael many hints to this effect. I’ve signed him up for the notification, too. If he is the one who actually buys it, then I am absolved of responsibility, and my life of lying on the couch absorbed in escapist gameplay can begin.
TYT has a good video looking at Sweden’s booming economy.
They have upped their Taxes and social welfare and unemployment has dropped and their economy is growing.
As for architecture – have you been to Auckland weka? It has to be in the top ten ugliest cities in the world. You can’t walk down a street in this place without some nightmare slapping your eyes with ugly acid. As for the city center’s, shining example of Muppet’s with no taste. Albany has to take the cake, being a grey monstrosity devoted to bad taste and cost cutting.
This is one ugly city, thank goodness the folk who live in it are nice.
haven’t been in Auckland for 25 year 🙂 The thing about NZ is that we had beautiful buildings like in that picture and we just tossed that out. Even the plain, mid range buildings are ugly, how did we manage that?
Pretty good summary of Sweden’s socialist Economy NZJ. And they didn’t even mention the Free Public Health System or the falling Prison rates. Shock in USA to have Public Health for all. Impossible.
Wonder how NZ ers would respond to higher taxes to fund Mental Health, Hospitals, Employment and Housing. Reckon many would applaud that on condition that the money was so spent.
Sweden’s growth is like what we used to have in New Zealand before the National Party tore it all down with their mantra of trickle-down economics and lowering taxes. It shows how higher taxes actually improve an economy rather than stagnate it like the trickle-down economics model does. New Zealand needs to only look at the results from our past when we used to do what Sweden has now done to see it is the way to go here also. Up the P.A.Y.E. and dump the G.S.T.
At the end of the day, the lower wages after tax will be more than made up for in the lower cost of food and colthing, as well as the enormous savings in free healthcare for the average worker. Businesses will be able to afford higher wages due to increased profits from more money kept flowing in our economy, instead of being siphoned off overseas.
After his first cabinet meeting as top dog, Chris ‘Chippy’ Hipkins gave his first speech from the podium as Prime Minister. Since his election as Labour leader he has been clear that the government’s agenda would be pared back to “bread and butter issues”. So the decision to can ...
Hipkins says the Government was doing “too much too fast”. Now it’s praying clearing the decks will also clear the way to a better election result. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: He’s done it. New PM Chris Hipkins has ‘cleared the decks’ of all manner of flotsam and ...
A deeply-statistically-flawed poll the other day reported that 43.8 percent do not trust the National Party leader. I say deeply-statistically-flawed because it can be empirically proven that this data is non-correct.Let me show my working.The Newshub-Reid Research poll asks 1,000 random New Zealanders what they reckon. Thus we can infer ...
Hipkins held his expected bonfire of the policies today, ditching the RNZ/TVNZ merger, punting hate speech legislation to the Law Commission (which basicly means it will never happen), and dumping the "bougie dole" social insurance scheme. But along the way, he also shitcanned a key part of the government's emissions ...
Fonterra’s farmers will be relieved that prices in the Global Dairy Trade auction this week have rebounded – up 3.2% across the board. It is the first rise since December 6 The index had fallen 2.8% on January 3 and 0.1% on January 17, to kick off 2023 on a ...
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There’s a 19th century flavour to National’s “social investment” strategy, in that it aims to seek capital from philanthropists and charitable organisations – some of them having their own religious agendas- to fund and deliver the provision of social services. Beyond that point, the details are remarkably scarce. Regardless, “social ...
Karl du Fresne writes – The jury has returned its verdict, and it’s emphatic. New Zealanders want the country’s name left as it is. In a Newshub-Reid Research poll, respondents were asked what they thought New Zealand should be known as. Fifty-two percent wanted the country to be ...
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* Dr Bryce Edwards writes- In recent decades the Labour Party has lost its traditional connection with working-class voters, becoming more of a middle-class party of liberalism. This is especially true of Labour’s historic connection with working-class Māori. This is a constituency that the party used to monopolise. ...
In recent decades the Labour Party has lost its traditional connection with working class voters, becoming more of a middle class party of liberalism. This is especially true of Labour’s historic connection with working class Māori. This is a constituency that the party used to monopolise. But ever since the ...
Hi,I wanted to thank everyone who responded to A New Day, a New Cease & Desistover the last five days or so. So many readers have brushed up against MLMs — and they’re something I want to push further into. Did I hear from good old Jonathan Callinan, the ...
As the planet continues to cook, extreme weather events like those we experienced over the last two weeks are set to become more frequent. How we plan our cities to mitigate the risks of climate change will inevitably be more salient going forward, and that will only increase over time. ...
TLDR: For paying subscribers, here’s the key scoops, breaking news and key links I’ve picked up this morning, as at 6.40 am, including:the Reserve Bank of Australia hiked its official cash rate to a 10-year high and warned of more hikes to come, which was more hawkish than expected; RBABP ...
A year ago this week we saw the headline “Mask-wearing 17-year-old egged by aggressive convoy protesters”. As the protestors settled in for their long campout in opposition to vaccination requirements they demonstrated their commitment to standing up for the rights of the individual by verbally abusing, and throwing eggs at, ...
Chris Hipkins has become New Zealand’s 41st prime minister following Ardern’s unexpected resignation—perhaps the bold and unpredictable move Labour needed to improve its election chances. Just six days into his premiership and Labour had its first lead over National in thirteen weeks. National has had a largely uninterrupted run of ...
Good people can come into your life imperceptibly. It can seem they’re just there one day being remarkable. Nat Torkington, for instance.We were both online from the early days, I’m assuming that’s where we first connected; maybe in the UseNet newsgroups, or maybe later through Public Address.But it was when ...
One of New Zealand’s biggest electricity generators, Genesis Energy, has given the go-ahead for a large solar farm near Lauriston on the Canterbury Plains, an hour’s drive south of Christchurch. It is part of Genesis’ strategy of replacing thermal baseload with renewable generation – a mix of wind and solar. ...
Buzz from the Beehive We found just one fresh announcement on the Beehive website this morning, when we made our first visit since 4 February. It was posted in the name of Nanaia Mahuta, our Minister of Foreign Affairs, and explained why she was not at Waitangi at the weekend. ...
Hipkins is doing the right thing for New Zealanders already living in Australia, but there’s now a growing risk of a fresh surge of net emigration of frustrated young Kiwis across the Tasman. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Employers here in Aotearoa are desperate to keep their best-trained, most-productive ...
This post contains two guest posts from readers, both of which were sent to us after the flooding on Friday 27 January, both of which discuss how we handle our stormwater. This is a guest post from Ed Clayton, who’s written for us before about Auckland’s relationship with freshwater, ...
TLDR: For paying subscribers, here’s the key breaking news, scoops and links I’ve found since 4 am this morning, as of 7 am, including:A 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed more than 2,200 in Turkey near its border with Syria; ReutersMetService has warned a new cyclone is forming north of Aotearoa that ...
The politics of Waitangi and the Treaty evident over the weekend have moved into a new space. The politics of Waitangi and the Treaty evident over the weekend have moved into a new space. There is a new wave of Maori activism, which sees the Treaty as a living ...
Originally published by The Hill After decades of failure to pass major federal climate legislation, Congress finally broke through last year with the Inflation Reduction Act and its close to $400 billion in clean energy investments. Energy modeling experts estimated that these provisions would help the U.S. cut its carbon pollution ...
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At first blush, Christopher Luxon’s comment at the parliamentary powhiri at Waitangi this year sounded tone deaf. The Leader of the Opposition in talking about the Treaty of Waitangi described New Zealand as “a little experiment”. It seemed to diminish the treaty and the very idea of our nation. Yet ...
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A brief postscript to yesterday’s newsletter…Watching the predawn speeches just now, the reverence of those speaking and the respectful nature of those listening under umbrellas in the dark. I felt a great sadness at the words from Christopher Luxon last evening still in my head. The singing in the dark accompanied ...
by Don Franks While on holiday,I stayed a few days in Scotland with a friend who showed me one of the country’s great working-class achievements. It was a few miles out of central Edinburgh, a huge cantilever bridge across the river Forth. The Forth Bridge was the first major structure ...
Time To Call A Halt: Chris Hipkins knows that iwi leaders possess the means to make life very difficult for his government. Notwithstanding their objections, however, the Prime Minister’s direction of travel – already clearly signalled by his very public demotion of Nanaia Mahuta – must be confirmed by an emphatic and ...
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So Long - And Thanks For All The Fish: In the two-and-a-bit years since Jacinda Ardern’s electoral triumph of 2020, virtually every decision she made had gone politically awry. In the minds of many thousands of voters a chilling metamorphosis had taken place. The Faerie Queen had become the Wicked ...
Look at us here on our beautiful islands in the South Pacific at the start of 2023, we have come so far.Ten days ago we saw a Māori Governor General swearing in our new PM and our first Pasifika Deputy PM, ahead of this year’s parliament where they will be ...
The Herald’s headline writers are at it again! A sensible and balanced piece by Liam Dann on the battle against inflation carries a headline that suggests that NZ is doing worse than the rest of the world. Check it out and see for yourself if I am right. Is this ...
Photo by Anna Demianenko on UnsplashTLDR: Here’s my longer reads and listens for the weekend for sharing with The Kaka’s paying subscribers. I’ve opened this one up for all to give everyone a taste of the sorts of extras you get as a full paying subscriber.Subscribe nowDeeper reads and listens ...
Hello from the middle of a long weekend where I’m letting the last few days unspool, not ready, not yet, to give words to the hardest of what we heard.Instead, today, here are some good words from other people.Mother CourageWhen I wrote last year about Mum and Dad’s move to ...
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Our Cranky Uncle Game can already be played in eight languages: English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. About 15 more languages are in the works at various stages of completion or have been offered to be done. To kick off the new year, we checked with how ...
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It’s that time of the week again when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kaka. Jump on this link for our chat about the week’s news with special guests Auckland Central MP Chloe Swarbrick and Auckland City Councillor Julie Fairey, including:Auckland’s catastrophic floods, which ...
In March last year, in a panic over rising petrol prices caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the government made a poor decision, "temporarily" cutting fuel excise tax by 25 cents a litre. Of course, it turned out not to be temporary at all, having been extended in May, July, ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Two fresh press releases had been posted when we checked the Beehive website at noon, both of them posted yesterday. In one statement, in the runup to Waitangi Day, Maori Crown Relations Minister Kelvin Davis drew attention to happenings on a Northland battle site in 1845. ...
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Hi,At 4.43pm yesterday it arrived — a cease and desist letter from the guy I mentioned in my last newsletter. I’d written an article about “WEWE”, a global multi-level marketing scam making in-roads into New Zealand. MLMs are terrible for many of the same reasons megachurches are terrible, and I ...
Time To Call A Halt: Chris Hipkins knows that iwi leaders possess the means to make life very difficult for his government. Notwithstanding their objections, however, the Prime Minister’s direction of travel – already clearly signalled by his very public demotion of Nanaia Mahuta – must be confirmed by an emphatic ...
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Mark White from the Left free speech organisation Plebity looks at the disturbing trend of ‘book burning’ on US campuses In the abstract, people mostly agree that book banning is a bad thing. The Nazis did us the favor of being very clear about it and literally burning books, but ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Cost-of-living pressures loomed large in Beehive announcements over the past 24 hours. The PM was obviously keen to announce further measures to keep those costs in check and demonstrate he means business when he talks of focusing his government on bread-and-butter issues. His statement was headed ...
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TLDR: Including my pick of the news and other links in my checks around the news sites since 4am. Paying subscribers can see them all below the fold.In Aotearoa’s political economyBrown vs Fish Read more ...
TLDR: Including my pick of the news and other links in my checks around the news sites since 4am. Paying subscribers can see them all below the fold.In Aotearoa’s political economyBrown vs Fish Read more ...
In other countries, the target-rich cohorts of swinging voters are given labels such as ‘Mondeo Man’, ‘White Van Man,’ ‘Soccer Moms’ and ‘Little Aussie Battlers.’ Here, the easiest shorthand is ‘Ford Ranger Man’ – as seen here parked outside a Herne Bay restaurant, inbetween two SUVs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / ...
In other countries, the target-rich cohorts of swinging voters are given labels such as ‘Mondeo Man’, ‘White Van Man,’ ‘Soccer Moms’ and ‘Little Aussie Battlers.’ Here, the easiest shorthand is ‘Ford Ranger Man’ – as seen here parked outside a Herne Bay restaurant, inbetween two SUVs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / ...
Transport Minister and now also Minister for Auckland, Michael Wood has confirmed that the light rail project is part of the government’s policy refocus. Wood said the light rail project was under review as part of a ministerial refocus on key Government projects. “We are undertaking a stocktake about how ...
Sometime before the new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced that this year would be about “bread and butter issues”, National’s finance spokesperson Nicola Willis decided to move from Wellington Central and stand for Ohariu, which spreads across north Wellington from the central city to Johnsonville and Tawa. It’s an ...
They say a week is a long time in politics. For Mayor Wayne Brown, turns out 24 hours was long enough for many of us to see, quite obviously, “something isn’t right here…”. That in fact, a lot was going wrong. Very wrong indeed.Mainly because it turns ...
One of the most effective, and successful, graphics developed by Skeptical Science is the escalator. The escalator shows how global surface temperature anomalies vary with time, and illustrates how "contrarians" tend to cherry-pick short time intervals so as to argue that there has been no recent warming, while "realists" recognise ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Here’s a quick roundup of the news today for paying subscribers on a slightly frantic, very wet, and then very warm day. In Aotearoa’s political economy today Read more ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Here’s a quick roundup of the news today for paying subscribers on a slightly frantic, very wet, and then very warm day. In Aotearoa’s political economy today Read more ...
Tomorrow we have a funeral, and thank you all of you for your very kind words and thoughts — flowers, even.Our friend Michèle messaged: we never get to feel one thing at a time, us grownups, and oh boy is that ever the truth. Tomorrow we have the funeral, and ...
Kia ora e te whānau. Today, we mark the anniversary of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi - and our commitment to working in partnership with Māori to deliver better outcomes and tackle the big issues, together. ...
We’ve just announced a massive infrastructure investment to kick-start new housing developments across New Zealand. Through our Infrastructure Acceleration Fund, we’re making sure that critical infrastructure - like pipes, roads and wastewater connections - is in place, so thousands more homes can be built. ...
The Green Party is joining more than 20 community organisations to call for an immediate rent freeze in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, after reports of landlords intending to hike rents after flooding. ...
When Chris Hipkins took on the job of Prime Minister, he said bread and butter issues like the cost of living would be the Government’s top priority – and this week, we’ve set out extra support for families and businesses. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to provide direct support to low-income households and to stop subsidising fossil fuels during a climate crisis. ...
The tools exist to help families with surging costs – and as costs continue to rise it is more urgent than ever that we use them, the Green Party says. ...
Work on the TVNZ/RNZ public media entity to stop; Radio NZ and NZ on Air to receive additional funding Social insurance scheme will not proceed this term The Human Rights (Incitement on Ground of Religious Belief) Amendment Bill to be withdrawn and not progressed this term. The matter to be ...
The Government is providing a $5 million package of emergency support to help businesses significantly affected by the recent flooding in Auckland. This includes: $3 million for flood recovery payments to help significantly affected businesses $1 million for mental wellbeing support through a boost to the First Steps programme $1 ...
The Government’s Temporary Accommodation Service (TAS) has been activated to support people displaced by the severe flooding and landslips in the Auckland region, Housing Minister Megan Woods says. “TAS is now accepting registrations for people who cannot return to their homes and need assistance finding temporary accommodation. The team will work ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today held their first bilateral meeting in Canberra. It was Chris Hipkins’ first overseas visit since he took office, reflecting the close relationship between New Zealand and Australia. “New Zealand has no closer partner than Australia. I was pleased to ...
New Zealand will immediately provide humanitarian support to those affected by the earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. “Aotearoa New Zealand is deeply saddened by the loss of life and devastation caused by these earthquakes. Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones affected,” ...
An historic Northland pā site with links to Ngāpuhi chief Hongi Hika is to be handed back to iwi, after collaboration by government, private landowners and local hapū. “It is fitting that the ceremony for the return of the Pākinga Pā site is during Waitangi weekend,” said Regional Development Minister ...
The Government is investing in a suite of initiatives to unlock Māori and Pacific resources, talent and knowledge across the science and research sector, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Two new funds – He tipu ka hua and He aka ka toro – set to ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta departs for India tomorrow as she continues to reconnect Aotearoa New Zealand to the world. The visit will begin in New Delhi where the Foreign Minister will meet with the Vice President Hon Jagdeep Dhankar and her Indian Government counterparts, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and ...
Over $10 million infrastructure funding to unlock housing in Whangārei The purchase of a 3.279 hectare site in Kerikeri to enable 56 new homes Northland becomes eligible for $100 million scheme for affordable rentals Multiple Northland communities will benefit from multiple Government housing investments, delivering thousands of new homes for ...
The Government is supporting one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most significant historic sites, the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, as it continues to recover from the impacts of COVID-19. “The Waitangi Treaty Grounds are a taonga that we should protect and look after. This additional support will mean people can continue to ...
A memorial event at a key battle site in the New Zealand land wars is an important event to mark the progress in relations between Māori and the Crown as we head towards Waitangi Day, Minister for Te Arawhiti Kelvin Davis said. The Battle of Ohaeawai in June 1845 saw ...
More Police officers are being deployed to the frontline with the graduation of 54 new constables from the Royal New Zealand Police College today. The graduation ceremony for Recruit Wing 362 at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua was the first official event for Stuart Nash since his reappointment as Police ...
The Government is unlocking an additional $700,000 in support for regions that have been badly hit by the recent flooding and storm damage in the upper North Island. “We’re supporting the response and recovery of Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel, Northland, and Bay of Plenty regions, through activating Enhanced Taskforce Green to ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has welcomed the announcement that Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, will visit New Zealand this month. “Princess Anne is travelling to Aotearoa at the request of the NZ Army’s Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals, of which she is Colonel in Chief, to ...
A new Government and industry strategy launched today has its sights on growing the value of New Zealand’s horticultural production to $12 billion by 2035, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said. “Our food and fibre exports are vital to New Zealand’s economic security. We’re focussed on long-term strategies that build on ...
25 cents per litre petrol excise duty cut extended to 30 June 2023 – reducing an average 60 litre tank of petrol by $17.25 Road User Charge discount will be re-introduced and continue through until 30 June Half price public transport fares extended to the end of June 2023 saving ...
The strong economy has attracted more people into the workforce, with a record number of New Zealanders in paid work and wages rising to help with cost of living pressures. “The Government’s economic plan is delivering on more better-paid jobs, growing wages and creating more opportunities for more New Zealanders,” ...
The Government is providing a further $1 million to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced today. “Cabinet today agreed that, given the severity of the event, a further $1 million contribution be made. Cabinet wishes to be proactive ...
The new Cabinet will be focused on core bread and butter issues like the cost of living, education, health, housing and keeping communities and businesses safe, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has announced. “We need a greater focus on what’s in front of New Zealanders right now. The new Cabinet line ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will travel to Canberra next week for an in person meeting with Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. “The trans-Tasman relationship is New Zealand’s closest and most important, and it was crucial to me that my first overseas trip as Prime Minister was to Australia,” Chris Hipkins ...
The Government is providing establishment funding of $100,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “We moved quickly to make available this funding to support Aucklanders while the full extent of the damage is being assessed,” Kieran McAnulty ...
As the Mayor of Auckland has announced a state of emergency, the Government, through NEMA, is able to step up support for those affected by flooding in Auckland. “I’d urge people to follow the advice of authorities and check Auckland Emergency Management for the latest information. As always, the Government ...
Ka papā te whatitiri, Hikohiko ana te uira, wāhi rua mai ana rā runga mai o Huruiki maunga Kua hinga te māreikura o te Nota, a Titewhai Harawira Nā reira, e te kahurangi, takoto, e moe Ka mōwai koa a Whakapara, kua uhia te Tai Tokerau e te kapua pōuri ...
Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has activated Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG) in response to flooding and damaged caused by Cyclone Hale in the Tairāwhiti region. Up to $500,000 will be made available to employ job seekers to support the clean-up. We are still investigating whether other parts ...
There’s a storm a’brewing on Treasure Island, and Alex and Jane are here to break it all down. The fans are rocked by a new team member, and the faves face the consequences of their Dame’s early morning strolls. Matty McLean is playing his heart out, Susan’s eyelids are inverted ...
It’s only week two, but already our fans and faves are feeling the strain. Tara Ward power ranks. Like a pair of Josh Kronfeld’s undies sent out to sea, our Treasure Island castaways have found themselves bobbing around on choppy waters. This was a tense week that saw one contestant ...
Chris Hipkins’ policy purge gives far more insight into how he will govern than the reshuffle he announced last week. Hate speech, biofuels, media mergers and social insurance have been dumped in the worthy, but not important bin, writes political editor Jo Moir. The front bench under Chris Hipkins’ leadership ...
You might be able to solve a delivery problem by cutting the number of packages you send. But is that enough, wonders Toby Manhire. If there’s one thing Chris Hipkins isn’t afraid of, it’s repeating himself to make the point. The first three sentences of his statement unveiling the policy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sathana Dushyanthen, Academic Specialist & Lecturer in Cancer Sciences & Digital Health| Superstar of STEM| Science Communicator, The University of Melbourne CDC/Unsplash Australians aged 18 and over will be eligible for a COVID booster from February 20 if they have ...
The state-owned radio broadcaster will keep its independence and get a cash injection after the Government scrapped the proposal to merge it with TVNZ Normal transmission has resumed for the country’s media industry. RNZ and TVNZ will remain as separate entities and the bogeyman of a monolithic public media entity ...
The EMA is relieved the Government has dedicated $5m to support Auckland businesses impacted by the recent flooding. Chief Executive Brett O’Riley says that is consistent with discussions the EMA and the Auckland Business Roundtable had been having with ...
The prime minister has unveiled what he calls a ‘new direction’ for the Labour government, and it involves launching a wrecking ball into Jacinda Ardern’s extensive policy programme. Stewart Sowman-Lund reports from parliament.We knew something was coming, but we perhaps weren’t expecting quite so much policy carnage at parliament ...
Organisations directly affected by this afternoon’s announcement that the media merger will not go ahead have issued statements in response, with a common thread of welcoming clarity after months of uncertainty and speculation. RNZ chair Jim Mather said: “Media in New Zealand is being challenged by rapidly changing commercial models, the ...
The decision to halt legislation that would bring religious grounds into existing hate speech rules, pending a referral to the Law Commission, has been rebuked by Amnesty International NZ. “We are deeply disappointed and frustrated that the government is taking so long to strengthen the country’s legislation against incitement to ...
The biggest private sector union in Aotearoa New Zealand, E tū, is concerned by the Prime Minister’s announcement today that the New Zealand Income Insurance Scheme (NZIIS) will be delayed indefinitely. The announcement was part of the new Prime ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has welcomed the Government’s decision to take the proposed social insurance scheme off the table for the rest of this parliament but has warned against bringing back similar proposals in future. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, ...
NZ On Air welcomes the decision from Cabinet today providing certainty for the public media sector. “Our funding strategy is flexible and future-focused, and we are able to quickly respond both to audience and media environment changes, without being ...
In an email to staff distributed shortly after Chris Hipkins’ announcement that the media merger will be scrapped, RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson has said: “It is good to have clarity after recent uncertainty.” The boost in funding for RNZ, details of which are to be determined, was “an endorsement ...
Pāmu is committed to reducing its climate impact through emissions reduction and strengthening climate resilience through adaption. Doubling down on its commitment , the state-owned enterprise has now signed a second sustainability-linked loan, ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is delighted at the news that the TVNZ/RNZ media merger is to be scrapped. Taxpayers' Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, said: “Our former Chairman, a former TVNZ board member, Barrie Saunders was among the first ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justin O’Connor, Professor of Cultural Economy, University of South Australia Federal Labor is engaged in urgent reform, making up for the “lost decade” under the Coalition. The Voice, industrial relations, climate change, universities, health, Asian-Pacific diplomacy, research and development are all undergoing ...
Prime minister Chris Hipkins has announced the end of the planned merger of TVNZ and RNZ. It’s been in the works for more than three years and was set to be up and running this year. However, speaking at a post-cabinet press conference this afternoon, Hipkins confirmed it would not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julia Talbot-Jones, Senior lecturer, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Shutterstock/Dr Ajay Kumar Singh As New Zealand’s new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins embarks on reprioritising policies to focus on “bread and butter issues”, the details of the contentious ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political Roundup: Labour’s reorientation to working class MāoriPolitical scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. In recent decades the Labour Party has lost its traditional connection with working class voters, becoming more of a middle class party of liberalism. This is especially true of Labour’s historic connection with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Uri Gal, Professor in Business Information Systems, University of Sydney Shutterstock ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. Within two months of its release it reached 100 million active users, making it the fastest-growing consumer application ever launched. Users are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bill Madden, Adjunct Professor, Australian Centre for Health Law Research, School of Law, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock This week’s ABC Four Corners investigation revealed the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra), or tribunals determining such complaints, allowed a number ...
It appears the proposed merger of TVNZ and RNZ will indeed be scrapped in under an hour’s time. A source from within the media industry has told Te Ao Māori News that the planned entity has been abandoned by the government as new prime minister Chris Hipkins attempts to reign ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Livingstone, Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University Bianca de Marchi/AAP The New South Wales government has embraced a sweeping set of reforms to the state’s massive poker machine business. These reforms are centred on ...
At a magnitude of 7.8, this week’s horrific earthquake near the Turkish border was 177 times stronger than Christchurch’s in 2011. This week an extremely large earthquake occurred in the southeast of Turkey, near the border with Syria. Data from seismometers which measure shaking of the ground caused by ...
In the life-cycle of a reader we bet it’s the childhood reading memories that matter most. Here are Unity’s bestselling books for January.AUCKLAND1 Sleepy Kiwi by Kat Quin (Tikitibu, $20, babies) A bold, black and white board book for newborns and up.2 Midnight Adventures of Ruru and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hal Pawson, Professor of Housing Research and Policy, and Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock The Albanese government’s housing package moved a step closer to delivery with the recent release of draft legislation. The bills are expected ...
It’s Wednesday, February 8 and welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates – coming to you today from Wellington. I’m Stewart Sowman-Lund, reach me on [email protected] What you need to know Chris Hipkins will chair the first meeting of his new cabinet. He will front a post-cabinet press ...
It’s been a rough ride since Louisa Opeteia hopped out of bed to find herself standing in a rising tide, but she’s grateful for the little things: a hot meal and the helping hands of friends, family and kind strangers.Friday morning, January 27. Louisa Opetaia of Māngere noticed the ...
Paved-over rivers, covered-up shorelines and filled-in wetlands reemerged during Auckland’s devastating deluge – taking the city 200 years back into the past.Tāmaki Makaurau’s recent flooding has stirred up plenty of kōrero about our biggest city. Architecture and urban planning professor Timothy Welch reminded us that we built Auckland in ...
PM Chris Hipkins is back in Wellington after his big day in Canberra. He’s chairing the first meeting of his new cabinet after last week’s reshuffle. That reshuffle saw ministers like Andrew Little and Peeni Henare demoted, while newer players like Ayesha Verrall soared up the ranks. According to the ...
Whittaker’s are putting five special “Ed-ition” blocks of their classic milk chocolate on Trade Me, with all proceeds going to help the Auckland flood relief. What makes it a special Ed-ition? The fact that pop star Ed Sheeran has come onboard, providing a selfie for the packaging and signing the ...
In the digital age, online activity can be a conduit for abusive behaviours. But secure digital tools can also offer a lifeline for victims. It’s no secret that New Zealand has a family violence epidemic, with one third of women physically or sexually assaulted by a partner over their lifetimes. ...
Thousands of people mistakenly paid the government’s cost of living payment have chosen not to repay it. And while the department responsible for sending out that money won’t say whether it’s disappointed by the lack of repayments, the prime minister was happy to express his views. Stuff has today revealed ...
A pair of Auckland councillors have leveraged the city’s flood disaster to protest government’s legislation enabling more medium density housing. Hayden Donnell says our elected representatives would be better off pointing the finger at themselves. As residents across her ward worked to clean out their waterlogged houses, Mt Eden-Puketāpapa councillor ...
Researchers from the University of Otago are “strongly” recommending the $5 fee to get a prescription filled be removed as a “simple way to reduce health inequities”. A new study has found removing the fee could significantly reduce the number of hospital admissions and length of hospital stays. The findings, published ...
We’ve known since the earliest moments of Chris Hipkins’ premiership that some of the unwieldy policy agenda of Jacinda Ardern was up for the chop. And now, about two weeks since being sworn in, the prime minister has confirmed the chopping block will be on display at today’s 3pm post-cabinet ...
The death toll for the quake that hit Turkey and Northern Syria may reach 20,000. For Syrians, the quake has struck a population already overwhelmed by the impacts of war, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full ...
Norton, a leading Cyber Safety brand of Gen, today published the New Zealand findings from a global study about online dating, associated scams, and attitudes about online stalking. The 2023 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report (NCSIR), conducted online ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University The United States’ shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina over the weekend points to international security affairs being on a knife edge. It follows ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Liknaitzky, Head of Clinical Psychedelic Research, Monash University Collaborative care teams will need to be established for safe treatment.Author provided A few days ago, the Australian drug regulator – the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) – surprised experts around the world ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kimberley Crofts, Doctoral Student, School of Design, University of Technology Sydney Shutterstock The decline of the coal industry means 17 mines in the New South Wales Hunter Valley will close over the next two decades. More than 130,000 hectares of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Jefferson, Senior Lecturer in Education, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock The first signs were the half-eaten lunches coming home from high school. This was in stark contrast to the primary school years, where the box looked as if a demolition ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Sparkes, Senior Lecturer (Media Studies and Production), University of Southern Queensland Disney When it was released 25 years ago, James Cameron’s Titanic was enormous. It made stars of its two leads, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Reviews overwhelmingly heaped ...
AI writing tools are free, easy to use and already everywhere. But is it cheating to use them to help write an essay? Shanti Mathias spoke to New Zealand academics about AI’s place in education.When California company Open AI released its ChatGPT tool to the public last November, social ...
Chris Hipkins’ first overseas trip as prime minister heralded few surprises. But, as Stewart Sowman-Lund reports from Canberra, that’s exactly what he will have wanted. It’s been just two weeks since Chris Hipkins was sworn in as prime minister, a fortnight that has seen him deal with devastating flooding, formalise ...
The Green Party wants the government to double the maximum amount it is paying out to flood-affected Aucklanders, through the Civil Defence payments. ...
Felicity Goodyear-Smith looks back at just how political the issue of abortion was in New Zealand On Wednesday March 25, 2020 New Zealand moved to nationwide self-isolation in response to the Covid 19 pandemic. Unless essential, there were to be no face-to-face primary care consultations. I work full-time as a professor of general ...
From purging possums and saving kiwi, to leading the Tui and turning out for the Blues, rugby record breaker Krysten Cottrell has a fascinating combination of careers, Suzanne McFadden discovers. Krysten Cottrell spends her week deep in the bush of the Kaweka Range, searching for dead rats and possums - and then ...
The money the health system has to fight Covid-19 in the first half of 2023 is less than half of what it had in the second half of 2022, Marc Daalder reports Staff on the Covid-19 response have been terminated or quietly reassigned to other health issues as funding to ...
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A successful Minister for Auckland could foreshadow a substantially revised Cities and Regions government focusOpinion: There’s little doubt Auckland is in need of substantial ministering. It’s not just the biblical-scale deluge and resulting significant damage the region has experienced. It’s the historical sins of omission and some of commission ...
Chris Hipkins’ first offshore trip as leader went without a hitch, albeit with a low bar to clear. The challenge now is ensuring that Australian rhetoric around expat rights becomes reality, while Hipkins himself needs to figure out his own foreign policy agenda. Sam Sachdeva reports, in Canberra. Given the ...
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By Ian Chute in Suva Fijian Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) board chairman Ajay Bhai Amrit says he has receipts to prove former FBC chief executive officer Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum received an annual package of $387,790 including benefits and entitlements. He said this worked out to $32,315 a month and that the board ...
PNG Post-Courier PNG Defence Force Commander Major-General Mark Goina says “appropriate force” will be dealt to the gunmen who ambushed and wounded two soldiers in Saugurap, Enga Province, last week. In a statement Major-General Goina said: “A section from the PNGDF contingent deployed in Enga Province were on routine duty, ...
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We need a better media.
One not owned by foreign billionaires and multinational finance corporations.
No wonder so many New Zealanders are only capable of infantile political conversations.
This is the garbage they are fed.
It would appear that the only thing about the French elections that interests our 4th estate is the age of the President’s wife.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11855835
The kardashians must have been busy then.
Personally, if I were looking for analysis of overseas elections, I wouldn’t go to the lifestyle section and read the opinion columnists therein, but maybe that’s just me?
It was number 2 story online.
it was opinion and if you don’t like it don’t read it – rather than read it and then moan about it.
Garner and Espiner running 2 separate branches of the National Party’s comms team on this morning’s radio at 7.10 a.m.
Both with the same message.
Labour’s housing party is bad.
Espiner a puppet of the establishment and Garner a muppet.
Rich speculators need muppets and puppets like them.
Figures… Here’s Hosking to cheer us up:
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/video.cfm?c_id=466&gal_cid=466&gallery_id=175950
Actually reasonably positive!
LIttles housing proposals is a GREAT IDEA with disasterous unintended consequences for the ordinary working renter like rent increases between $80 and $400 per week …. but of course the government will make it up one way or the other , figures depend on which RNZ commentator is correct.
Thank goodness I am an owner with his own home and nothing else or I would be stung by this GREAT IDEA 🙂
Unless Labour also built 100,000 additional houses along with 20-30,000 Housing NZ houses (2-3K p.a. over 10 years), in which case private landlords who try increasing rents too much might just find that they have empty houses instead.
This guy Rob Quist is trying to get Montana to turn Democrat.
Something like trying to overturn Jackie Blue in Waitaki.
He does it with some policy tendencies that would make an urban lefties’ hair curl – such as protecting the Second Amendment by shooting his tv – but his core message is reversing economic inequality. Also too many millionaires trying to represent good folk. And then taking a risk on medical marijuana. Plus wear a Stetson.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/05/13/montana-special-election-rob-quist-democrat-215128
It made me think about the kind of candidate it would take to really pull away a hard-held rural seat away from National.
Montana isn’t particularly solid Republican. As the article points out, currently the governor and one of the senators are Democrats. It’s more of a mystery why Montanans reliably go Republican for their one House seat.
Winston’s already shown one way to win in deep-blue New Zealand. High profile with local roots. But with MMP there’s even the question of whether winning the seat is a worthwhile goal if it means the local MP has to go significantly off-message from the rest of the party.
he does live there.
he is a respected folks musician there.
he is a ‘montana’an”
hence he does as people in Montana do and still likes to advocate for social justice?
Oh dear, let’s all clutch our pearls. 🙂
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11855979
councils having to turn a blind eye to dodgy flats , no housing crisis in nz !
“Our members are not going to subsidise public transport by taking a cut in their terms and conditions of employment.”
Union threatens industrial action on a scale never seen before
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/92573940/wellington-bus-services-will-stop-as-drivers-meet-to-discuss-dire-new-employer
More shitting in our pond…will we ever learn?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/92472364/high-levels-of-ecoli-found-in-creek-that-runs-into-treasured-springs
>>”Te Waikoropupu Springs is the southern hemisphere’s largest coldwater springs and has some of the clearest waters ever measured on earth.
Levels as high as 20,000 E-coli per 100 ml were discovered at the boundary where the creek runs into the reserve after testing by by Friends of Golden Bay at four different sites from November 2016 – April, 2017.
The new National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management states that safe swimmable levels should not exceed 540 E-coli per 100 ml and for drinking it is less than 1 E-coli per 100 ml. “<<
And on the subject of degrading our ‘pristine’ environment…
…DOC achieves what must surely be an all time low….or conversely an all time high (on the tacky scale.)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/330769/doc's-'moa-town'-plan-doesn't-fly-with-conservationists
The only development needed in this area is to improve access…both the road from the main highway (it may have improved since last I visited) and to perhaps raise the category of at least some of the tracks from ‘easy’ to ‘wheelchair friendly’.
http://www.doc.govt.nz/Documents/parks-and-recreation/tracks-and-walks/west-coast/karamea-walks-brochure.pdf
The concrete earmarked for giant moa could be redeployed to facilitate this.
Please.
An MP from which party presented this list at a conference in the weekend?
An MP from which party presented this list at a conference in the weekend?
1. People living in warmer, drier homes.
2. Grants for first-home buyers.
3. Better healthcare.
4. More paid parental leave.
5. More jobs and higher incomes.
6. Benefits raised to help children and others in hardship.
7. More police to keep communities safer.
8. Putting more money in your pockets.
9. Breakfasts in schools.
10. Better education for our children.
[link from whence PG plagiarised now added – weka]
https://thespinoff.co.nz/auckland/15-05-2017/national-is-cloning-labours-identity-and-other-lessons-from-its-weekend-conference/
I’ll have a go; was it Alfred Ngaro of the “Mafiosa Party”?
No. What Ngaro said has been widely publicised and widely and strongly criticised (as it should have been), as I’m sure you know.
In case you weren’t aware there’s another post for bagging Ngaro here:
– https://thestandard.org.nz/alfred-ngaro-reprimanded-for-being-naive/#comment-1329484
I do know, Pete, yes. I also know this is the Open Mike thread, where all sorts of issues can be discussed. So, not Alfred “The Don” Ngaro, eh!
Chester Borrows? Nah, he’s been tied up in the courts and hasn’t had much to say since…Mike Sabin? Not sure what happened to him and haven’t heard a peep from him for a while…John Key? Was it John “Dunnarunna” Key? Joyce and al have also been busy defending this and that in the court lately; the copyright stuff, remember, so probably not them…I give up. Willie Jackson? He’s ascending at the moment. It might have been him.
The first one
Give us another clue: did the MP announce a coherent way to put each or any of those goals within reach of lower income NZers or other NZers in need, or was it a thinly- disguised way to funnel more money to their private-sector chums and throw a few crumbes to everyone else?
Pete. What do you want me to say? Slip me a backhander and I can help . Seems like it probably is national . If not you won’t reply.
Times up,–no reply so must have been the Maori party.
[lprent: Beware of the pwned heresy. My instinctive response to fools who use it like you appear to have just done is to demonstrate exactly how long I can ‘pwn’ them for with a substantial ban. It is not useful in online debates and usually leads to tiresome stupidly repetitive flame wars of the type that I detest. Don’t try to set the victory conditions. Learn to agree to disagree. Or you’ll find that I and other moderators will demonstrate our lack of agreement with your choice of tactic. This is your warning. ]
Has to be the WunderKid – Seymour.
Perhaps a better question is which party has a history of actually substantially delivering on their actual promises. Conversely which party has a history of promising and never delivering even a fraction of what they promised.
Looking at the overall levels of actual police relative to population is probably a good place to start.
National is busy promising more police yet again. Of course if you look at their performance over the last 3 National governments, all you ever see is a static level of police staff against a rising population. At the end of their term of office, we always find rising crime levels and a drop in solving crimes as the inevitable consequence….
God, I remember 1999. That was the era when you couldn’t get police to attend any burglaries unless someone got sent to hospital. Consequently burglaries were endemic. It looks like the same thing is happening again – but in South Auckland it is aggravated robbery.
It was Nikki Kaye and she was saying what she wished she had concentrated on in her years in Parliament, but unfortunately she joined the wrong party.
Not very ethical misrepresenting what someone was saying.
I presume you knew that was how it was described at The Spinoff, is so you’ve been deceitful.
Kaye’s whole list is a deceitful, cherry-picked attribution fail. No wonder you admire it.
Stealing copy from The SpinOff, typical Pete. https://thespinoff.co.nz/auckland/15-05-2017/national-is-cloning-labours-identity-and-other-lessons-from-its-weekend-conference/
Not stealing anything. It’s simple to find where it came from, but as an exercise in seeing how overlapped party policies have become it was better to put a bit of distance to the source.
Including the link initially would have defeated the purpose.
[you cut and pasted without attribution and now you have this moderator’s attention. I don’t care what your rationales or intent were, if you are going to take other people’s work, then link or cite. If you can’t figure out how to do that without ruining your personal fun for the day, maybe find something else to do – weka]
Dude, you literally cut&pasted someone else’s list without any attribution whatsoever, or even any indication that it was someone else’s list and you’d say whose after we played your wee game.
You really didn’t know it was someone else’s list?
My comment actually repeated this twice (accidentally): “An MP from which party presented this list at a conference in the weekend?”
No, I thought you were just a bit shit at pasting. Sometimes if I really want to hack out a thought or a comment and know it’ll take a few edits, I’ll write it in a text editor rather than using the wordpress comment box, and then paste it in as a complete comment. But I try to always clearly identify which bits are mine and which bits are other peoples’. And is the line you pasted twice even from the post you plagiarised? I couldn’t find it. So are you arguing that your comment obviously contained unoriginal work because an original line was pasted twice?
But even so, the concept of oh look I’m just a bit shit at pasting, so you should have inferred that not a single word of ‘my’ comment was original work by me is still a piss-poor excuse for plagiarism.
see my moderator note above.
Whatever, but do you realise the list has been copied from somewhere else and maybe was just copy/pasted into that article with no linked provided?
Much ado about nothing (not my own words).
Oh, so you maybe only plagiarised a plagiarist?
Hmmm. It’s not really plagiarising, though, because after the teaser the Spinoff author writes :”The list was reeled off by education minister Nikki Kaye.” That looks like an attribution to me.
Basically, you tried to do teasing question thing that the Spinoff did, but the only thing you didn’t steal was actually doing it properly and without plagiarism.
roflnui. I’m so glad you wrote that because it’s way better than anything I could have done 😀
Like picking lint off an old cardy?
(something else for Pete to do, that is).
This is original source: https://www.national.org.nz/10_ways_national_is_helping_families_get_ahead
jeez, now nikki kaye is a plagiarist, too? You’re in a big club, petey boy
Mike King, member of the New Zealand Suicide Prevention External Advisory Panel has told Coleman that the new draft plan is a crock…and he’s quit the panel.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11856284
>>”The plan has buried all new ideas in such impenetrable language they are beyond recognition and unlikely to ever see the light of day. It is a strategy that is so broad in its effort to please everyone it will eventually collapse under the weight of public expectation. This will please no one except you and the politicians you serve,”<<
“pwn” pronounced in the same way as the verb own, the tail of the p being “silent”.
I’d never seen the idea of “the tail of the p being “silent”. What a curiosity!
lol
one way to explain away a coding typo, I guess 🙂
Hard to keep up Robert. Before something comes to mean anything it is replaced by a new slang word. I’ve just looked up pwn which seems to mean I’ve power-won-owned from you.
And leetspeak is supposed to come from elite speak which apparently comes from hacker elites and includes a sense of humour so you don’t have to say a joke. Must be like the elite jokes of commercial travellers so often repeated that they were numbered, and a bloke just had to say that reminds me of #14 to have everyone rolling on the floor.
It was probably originally a typo of ‘owned’. However it was picked up by several online communities starting in the early online games.
I think that I ran across it on the BBS’es or usenet in the mid-90s. Apparently it fell out of the modem or early net games like doom or quake.
Those games were the reason that I had multiple phone lines at home (later followed by ISDN lines) in the early 90s. Some serious hours ‘wasted’ socialising online whilst exploring graphic effects. 🙂
Incidentally, this opinion piece from the NY Times amused me this morning. An addiction to Zelda rather than the rocket launcher.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/opinion/the-nintendo-switch-of-my-dreams.html?_r=0
TYT has a good video looking at Sweden’s booming economy.
They have upped their Taxes and social welfare and unemployment has dropped and their economy is growing.
looking at that, can NZ please get some decent architects and town planning rules too?
As for architecture – have you been to Auckland weka? It has to be in the top ten ugliest cities in the world. You can’t walk down a street in this place without some nightmare slapping your eyes with ugly acid. As for the city center’s, shining example of Muppet’s with no taste. Albany has to take the cake, being a grey monstrosity devoted to bad taste and cost cutting.
This is one ugly city, thank goodness the folk who live in it are nice.
haven’t been in Auckland for 25 year 🙂 The thing about NZ is that we had beautiful buildings like in that picture and we just tossed that out. Even the plain, mid range buildings are ugly, how did we manage that?
That pretty much describes a lot of what NZ has been doing for decades.
IIRC, the outside of the Skytower was supposed to be either tiled or painted to make it look better. Still bare concrete and looking bloody horrible.
Pretty good summary of Sweden’s socialist Economy NZJ. And they didn’t even mention the Free Public Health System or the falling Prison rates. Shock in USA to have Public Health for all. Impossible.
Wonder how NZ ers would respond to higher taxes to fund Mental Health, Hospitals, Employment and Housing. Reckon many would applaud that on condition that the money was so spent.
Sweden’s growth is like what we used to have in New Zealand before the National Party tore it all down with their mantra of trickle-down economics and lowering taxes. It shows how higher taxes actually improve an economy rather than stagnate it like the trickle-down economics model does. New Zealand needs to only look at the results from our past when we used to do what Sweden has now done to see it is the way to go here also. Up the P.A.Y.E. and dump the G.S.T.
At the end of the day, the lower wages after tax will be more than made up for in the lower cost of food and colthing, as well as the enormous savings in free healthcare for the average worker. Businesses will be able to afford higher wages due to increased profits from more money kept flowing in our economy, instead of being siphoned off overseas.
John Oliver lets rip on Trump, Congress and then moving on to our Blinglish (starting at 10.15 to 15.20):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voMtHigbU9Y