Christ on a bike. The Greens and Labour and NZF have discussions and government policy comes out of that. That then ties all three parties to a line – that might be expressed by saying “Our policy is what the Government’s policy is. So now we’re in Government, we need to do what Government policy says”
It’s really not that hard, is it?
Not saying it’s good and not saying it’s healthy. I think coalitions are dog breakfast affairs and reckon we’d be far better served having a Fixed Term Parliament Act that did away with the need for coalitions.
But in the meantime, the Greens put forward their priorities in discussions and they get however far with them and then toe the agreed line afterwards.
“The Greens and Labour and NZF have discussions and government policy comes out of that. That then ties all three parties to a line – that might be expressed by saying ‘Our policy is what the Government’s policy is. So now we’re in Government, we need to do what Government policy says'”
In that regard, the thing is, with the Greens being merely a support partner, they don’t have to tow the party line. As shown by their opposing position on the TPP.
Therefore, if Government policy fails to live up to Green Party principle, should they really be spouting such a line (our policy is what the Government’s policy is. So now we’re in Government, we need to do what Government policy says)? And won’t doing so risk costing them support?
Well, I’m not sure where the different lines would run in terms of when they are expected to be more than merely a support partner in terms of public perception (in areas where they have ministerial positions?).
And sure, given the nature of coalitions, the smaller always winds up orbiting the larger. So NZF and the Greens will be being constantly eclipsed by NZ Labour.
Like I’ve been saying on and off for quite some time now, we’d be much better served having a Fixed Term Parliament Act that gave full voice and agency to smaller parties.
Prime Minister Ardern was weak on this herself even in late December.
She was clear that there is no process for differing from the Cabinet line – neither the media nor the public are ready for major dissent., managed or unmanaged. TBH neither would I be if it happened too often.
I think the left broadly will remain patient with Coalition dissent if they really roll out the goods consistently.
Actually this lot are far less racist than the last lot, so bit of a fail their Puckish Rouge.
Only real problem I’m seeing is the slowness of some tory mp’s in setting up electoral offices.
Did anyone tell Denise Lee she won the election months ago, and part of her job is to have an electorate office. Or do we have another local body politician transfer to being an MP who is going to do bugger all?
No like she cost the city of Auckland more money in a by election or anything….
I see Iceland has passed a law where companies are required to prove that there is equal pay for equal work to deal with the gender gap.
We could either talk about the gender gap for the next 20 years or just pass a similar law. It’s 2018 after all.
Should have no problem getting it passed – after all many deny it is an issue so they can see it as redundant legislation. And what better way to improve our economic performance
The bit that seems ironic to me is, if the NZ government bought that farm there would be great screams and outrage from the right about NATIONALISATION. But it is OK then for a foreign government to buy it, no doubt for the benefit of the people of that country.
Also not a worry, for the benefit of the people of that country they are planning to go ahead and pollute this country further by increasing the herd size by 400 cows.
All future land and asset sales should be bought by companies created by the NZ government,
“The bit that seems ironic to me is” that if this had happened in August last year it would have been reported immediately and the Labour, Green and New Zealand First parties would have been spraying bile all over the place.
Didn’t they promise that this was going to STOP?
No New Zealand land would be allowed to be sold to those bloody foreigners.
Now look how quiet they all are. Nothing to see here. Time to move on. Their only real complaint is going to be why this was announced at all.
Here is a scandal. …. Tiwai smelter toxic waste “stockpiled” around southland … “sold” to another company, went bust recievers walked away, tip of an iceburg it is thought.
Issue of rail transportation to lower the climate change emissions and make our truck gridlocked roads safer with far less truck accidents and deaths.
Just released today by our NGO to the Labour lead government today.
Public COMMUNITY letter;
16th January. 2018.
Dear Ministers, – IMPORTANT This was a social blog sent today for your consideration ahead of your first 100 days summary coming soon.
Labour Government in their last term in 2008 bought the rail back for us all to run an efficient rail service and to reduce truck freight and lower climate change affects while making the roads safer with less truck gridlocked roads and make our air quality cleaner ion our cities.
“Earlier, Robertson said the Government had identified a number of capital pressures that had built up over a significant number of years and it was looking at ways to fund urban infrastructure in Auckland, which would include rail, roading and housing infrastructure.” (QUOTE)
Bernard Hickey WHO is the Managing Editor of Newsroom Pro and writes about politics and economics from the Parliamentary Press Gallery in Wellington
Grant Robinson said;
“We have made it clear we are looking at a variety of funding instruments there — infrastructure bonds, partnership with the private sector to develop the transport and housing infrastructure that is required to allow us to make that growth sustainable,” he said.
“We are looking at some innovative financing mechanisms in those areas.”
So we call now on the new Labour coalition now since we are reaching our first 100 days we do need the Labour lead government to reopen all regional rail systems to begin making their safety and climate change policies realty to work for our health and welfare and our environment please!!!!!!
Use the evidence in the new found EY (Ernest Young) rail report on the ‘Value of rail in NZ’ as your evidence to complete the move back to rail now as we need this urgently.
We have seen or heard nothing about this very important study since that time when it was released by Labour to the press, so the time is now clearly to use this report national party had hidden to use to justify the funding of regional rail services urgently needed now.
She is, shes thought provoking but also writes in an entertaining and accessible manner.
But the whole thing with Hollywood is just a giant joke, how many of the same actors that are now talking (both male and female) knew all about whats going on but kept quiet
But look at who they go after, or rather who they don’t and ask yourself how is that Woody Allen is still adored and gets all the big names in his movies even though the allegations against him have a lot more substance than most
When an industry is run by predators who require silence, it’s hardly surprising that the people who work in it are those who can tolerate its conditions.
After all, this is how “free trade” is practised, eh: you remain silent about human rights abuses, and human rights abusers will buy your export goods.
This and that. There is safety in numbers, but also danger.
Safety for women to come forward, too many for the powerful in the industry to example for it, so they have to accept change.
But also risk, women will share their various Me Too stories and men will fear being named. So come forward the she for he brigade who do not want to see injustice to men/a man.
In most cases it is not a matter of allegation and investigation for a court case (even where it was a criminal matter it is time expired or difficult evidence wise). More a matter of unjust impact on the careers of accused men, an irony as for near a century women’s careers (and some younger males) have depended on not complaining.
And another irony, for the aging males involved, most would have been retired off years ago, if they were female.
The balanced view is that, Me Too results in women citing all sorts of experiences, but a blanket response to all those named would be unjust.
But I think most of the public realise that. Most of those coming forward realise that, and most of those named realise that.
And given this is America, the usual process will be to confess (to being a participant in an industry with a tradition of sexual harassment and abuse of power
in the workplace), and seek to change (rehab, the industry and personally).
Celebrate the death of the old regime by wearing black … and finance Times Up and take the victory across the workplaces of the world.
Me Too is not a threat to adult behaviour and social relations, sexual harassment and abuse of power, over the objections of a women is not flirting – displays of entitlement end in partner violence and the stalking of exes.
The issue is that before the election Twyford highlighted the issue and condemned then Associate Housing Minister Alfred Ngaro for not of helping Lilley.
But now hes in government he says he can’t get involved due to the conflict of interest
But its ok because but he hopes a solution could be found 🙂
given some of the comments of some of the meatless folk on here lately- here is a nice post (wIth citations) from sustainable table about the benefits of raising and slaughtering your own livestock
“No downsides”
Downsides for the cow.
Downsides for the planet.
And , (and this part will appeal to you) downsides for you too. A plant based diet is better for your health.
In How Not to Die, Dr. Michael Greger, the internationally-recognized lecturer, physician, and founder of NutritionFacts.org, examines the fifteen top causes of death in America—heart disease, various cancers, diabetes, Parkinson’s, high blood pressure, and more—and explains how nutritional and lifestyle interventions can sometimes trump prescription pills and other pharmaceutical and surgical approaches, freeing us to live healthier lives.
How not to die by Michael Greger, m.d. – animated summary
That was interesting PR. I thought this bit makes particular sense.
A mixed agricultural economy that uses meat thriftily and integrates arable and livestock farming – with the animals’ manure feeding the soil so that the crops will grow to feed the animals in turn – is efficient, sustainable and protective of the landscape. Moreover, the dependency of domesticated meat species on us would not end just because we stopped killing them. They would not revert to the wild; we would still have to be responsible for their welfare and demise. We could hardly abandon them to “tamelife parks”, as he puts it.
But our moral authority to kill animals for food can only be based on our offering them a better deal in life than they would get without our help. The prevailing system of intensive livestock farming is a complete abrogation of that responsibility. It is systematically abusive. Pain is routine, stress almost constant, disease widespread. We should raise and kill animals without cruelty and then do them the respect of eating every last bit of them, from crisp griddled pigs’ ears to slow-braised oxtails.
Perhaps we would buy a beast, as part of a food group or do-operative, and pay a farmer to raise it and kill it for us and take responsibility for our animal and know how it is treated, and how it is killed.
I very much agree with how heavy glossy paper is. The House and Garden mags that float around no doubt bought by women enslaved by capitalism, when gathered to be thrown out eventually for recycling, result in the banana carton being impossible to lift for one ordinary person.
Trouble is that everything has to be glossy these days, we deserve only the best style.
You did not even listen to or read Michael Greger.
I’d advise him not to bother. I only needed to read his appalling diabetes advice to realise he needs quote marks around the word “facts” in Nutrition”Facts”.org.
The Herald, to its credit is running a series of interview with scientists to look at the environmental challenges facing New Zealand (and the world). Yesterday they published the brief Q and A with Professor James Renwick.
In his answers to a few questions, Renwick outlined the severity of the threat facing the planet. It is not looking good…
The Herald
What has driven this (increases in greenhouse gas emissions) and does it tell us New Zealand has been poor at addressing climate change?
Professor James Renwick
The difference between gross and net is explained by cutting down trees, basically.
Our “sinks” of CO2 have decreased as forests have shrunk.
Our sources have grown mostly from transport and industry.
We have one of the highest car-ownership rates in the world and use a lot of fossil fuel to power industrial plant.
Both net and gross numbers tell us that New Zealand has done nothing to address the causes of climate change.
The Herald
What do you make of the oft-made argument that what actions we take here are relatively insignificant, given we contribute just around 0.15 per cent of global emissions and future climate depends on the big polluters. Is this true to any extent?
Professor James Renwick
Of course the global profile of emissions is dominated by the big emitters.
But on a per-capita basis, New Zealand is one of the big emitters. We are in the top 10 globally, per head of population, and there is as much of an onus on us as on the Chinese or the Americans to reduce our emissions.
Plus, there is the “soft power” angle of being a leader, showing others how it’s done, that would benefit us on the international stage.
The Herald
You toured the country recently to speak about climate change. Did the response suggest Kiwis are genuinely concerned about it? I note one survey a few years ago found only half of Kiwis agreed there was a scientific consensus human-driven climate change was actually happening, although more recent studies tell us awareness and acceptance of the science has been growing.
Professor James Renwick
Yes. We had full houses almost everywhere we went and the questions suggested strongly that those who came out to hear us are very interested and very concerned.
But, across the broader population, it’s harder to say. Because there’s been no political leadership, most people probably give it very little thought and are more apathetic than concerned or dismissive.
The Herald
That aside, does New Zealand still have a sceptic problem? Are there still too many Kiwis who reject the scientific consensus?
Professor James Renwick
There are some, but I suspect it’s a minority.
I receive regular emails telling me I have the science wrong, but they come from a very small number of individuals. I’d say the major issue is that most people don’t even think about it.
The Herald
So how hopeful are you, actually, that the world will avert the worst possible effects of climate change? Where do you place your optimism on a scale of one to 10?
Professor James Renwick
I am hopeful we can avoid the real worst-case scenario but I am pessimistic about the 1.5C or even 2C limit.
My gut feeling is that we won’t stop the warming until we are committed to 2.5C or even 3C of temperature rise.
That would lock in loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet, plus most of Greenland and part of the east Antarctic and would commit the globe to 10m or more of sea level rise.
Plus of course a big rise in extreme high temperatures, droughts, floods and crop failures.
Because of the delay time built into the climate system, it’s my feeling that we won’t take decisive action until a lot of change is baked in, so we’ll have a great deal of adapting to do.
On a scale of one to 10 for optimism, I’m about a three.
I would love to be pleasantly surprised.
The challenge for the Herald is follow through. One of John Campbell’s great features that singles him out in the New Zealand media landscape is that he and his team at Campbell Live ( and now Checkpoint) stuck with a story.
James Renwick clearly identified that
the major issue is that most people don’t even think about it (climate change).
The media have a lot to answer for on this.
We cannot control what John Roughan and the editors of the Herald do.
But we can certainly keep this issue prominent and endeavour to do all we can to confrontthe issue Renwick mentions – that
most people probably give it very little thought and are more apathetic than concerned or dismissive.
So what are you waiting for?
Let’s save what is left of life on our planet before it is too late. We have 10 years.
Ed
You have produced some great links and important points here on ts. I appreciate it enormously and I am sure most others do also, so keep on. But just as a health measure note the point in Thought of the Day how laughter is good too. I think you should give yourself one day in three off the computer and do something different or it will grind you down mentally. And you are a valuable fact finder and activist here, so we need you. Do this and conserve your energies physical and mental ready for the next lot of stuff. And remember to put up any good stuff you see will you, and vice versa. We need to keep our fighting spirits up. I hope you will be advised about this.
I was shocked at the image of all the little fish ankle deep on a beach in Chile. A fisherman is standing in and on them and no doubt thinking ruefully of his hungry family.
James Renwick condemns Doug Edmeades.
In my opinion, far too nicely.
There were people who denied the Final solution was going on, despite evidence, from 1942 onwards. Their ‘scepticism’ cost many lives.
Every time an Edmeades delays action by his sowing of doubt, he costs many lives.
Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress.
As the un-named tobacco executive said decades ago, when faced with hard scientific evidence of the link between smoking and cancer: “Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the mind of the general public.”
That tactic has been tried and tested many times, to throw doubt on smoking and cancer, air pollution and acid rain, CFCs and the ozone hole, and more recently fossil fuel burning and climate change.
The excellent book Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Eric Conway documents in great detail how this has been done and how successful it has been over the years.
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the air has gone up over 40 per cent since we started burning oil and coal for fuel, the biggest change in the Earth’s atmosphere for over 3 million years.
In his recent op-ed piece Doug Edmeades is clearly looking to sow seeds of doubt, to undermine established science, and to argue that there’s nothing to worry about. He seems to understand the idea that “doubt is our product”…….
How Doug Edmeades thinks that the IPCC says there’s no connection between the two is a mystery to me.
Doug Edmeades’ other ideas (polar bears are doing great, models are no good, and so on) are easily shown to be false with a bit of googling.
None of us want the sorts of disruptions that the changing climate is bringing. But, if we are to get on top of this biggest of problems, we must get our heads around the fact that after thousands of years of stability, things are changing, sea levels are rising, and we must respond.
A pleasant morning watching the sun rising over Singapore this morning from the 21st floor of the hotel (holy vertigo!).
It is a completely different city to the one that I last looked at in 1990. Talking to my dad in Rotorua this morning and he was describing the city state of hovels and open drains that he first saw in 1975 and it is hard to see the downside.
I do like the fact that these days when I have to travel, I can call up without problems, and that I can still stay connected to this site and my servers. It makes a hell of difference.
Pity about the weather during the day. Way too hot and humid for me. It makes me look forward to winter or even summer in Auckland.
Time to finish the coffee, pack up my gear, and venture forth into the open humidity. Debugging software interactions with hardware in the field is a sweaty experience.
They live like battery hens in strange identical white block-like towers with numbers on the side. Singapore reminds me of a JG Ballard novel but without the fun.
If that’s your idea of housing success then I’m not sure what you were aiming for.
Enjoy – its a great place to work or relax for a bit.
The street food can be fantastic.
Having travelled a lot (waaaaay too much for waaaaay too long) as an IT guy I would say Singapore was always one of my favourite countries to be based for a week or two.
James, what a mess of a post, and it was only 5pm!
I think you’d struggle to find support here for any claim your barbecue comment was an innocent celebration.
The reaction you got showed that other commenters viewed it as trolling and that’s what right wing virtue-signalling is; trolling.
A lot of commenters here don’t have large family units to celebrate with (you probably haven’t noticed). Others enjoy their lives with their families without feeling the need to broadcast it, so why do you? My guess is you’re overcompensating.
Along with your virtue-signalling there’s a typical self-righteousness, a lack of awareness, and a lack of empathy.
In RWNJ culture it is normal to blather on about your trips around the world and all the hassles you are experiencing with your property portfolio. NZ is a two tier society and the wealthy are insulated/ignorant of the extreme privation that their behaviour has caused to the rest of NZ
What behaviour from the wealthy has caused this extreme privation to NZ and for that matter who are these wealthy you point the stick at and what is the extreme privation that the rest of NZ are suffering ?
Maybe you should pay attention to the news instead of ignoring the uncomfortable bits about homelessness, suicide, unemployment, pollution, exploitation
Good grief how pathetic, NZ discourse appears to be going down the USA route of knee jerk agreement/disagreement with anyone deemed to belong to the other team.
Yes, knock off 10 degrees and halve the humidity and it would be a lovely city/country!
(Although I’d happily say the same for Wellington right now…)
I’m really not sure how anyone can live in those equatorial countries- I still remember the 2 day Singapore stopover 14 years ago and being physically ill from the heat, spending most of the time indoors and keeping the hotel air conditioning set to 15C!
This really is frustrating. The full power of the state thrown at peaceful protesters who attempted to stop the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair.
I shall quote extensively from Martin Bradbury’s article today as it supports what I have been saying for quite a while on this site.
The spectre at the feast during the negotiations for the new Government last year was the deep seated belief that a serious economic collapse was coming.
It shaped the way Winston Peters approached the negotiations ands it’s the reason the agreement between him and Jacinda will never be released.
Almost everywhere now, alarm bells are ringing that the correction is coming.
The stratospheric asset markets pumped up by quantitate easing to try and fight off the 2007-2008 global financial recession are all starting to shake and shudder under the enormous weight of debt created wealth the current economic system must now try and carry……..
The reverberations will swamp us, and may already be impacting our real estate market and the sudden ratcheting up of a trade war between China and America could become a reality within weeks…
Looking to the future, if we go on with attitudes as are presently displayed, it seems to me that eventually we will become like the people in John Christopher’s the Tripods.
They were taken over by an overwhelming invasion and were encouraged to believe it was to their advantage to continue their lives as before, except just do what they were told. Life wouldn’t be difficult, but they needed to be calm and limit their emotions and to assist this they would have a ‘chip’ to limit their minds which was called a cap.
John Christopher wrote three adventure books for young adults around this idea, the first called The White Mountains. The trilogy were called The Tripods which were the metallic aliens in ships on three long movable legs. A TV series was made about it, very dramatic and aimed at teenagers and the young. But Christopher had thought about the way that reality would show in this scenario. I think the summary below expresses our situation well.
Like most of Christopher’s books for young readers, The White Mountains dramatizes painful truths about human nature and raises important questions about what makes life worth living.
Christopher believes that human beings are inevitably flawed, and that technological achievement is a mixed blessing in the hands of fallible people. Still, he holds out hope that strong individuals, bound together by a desire to protect freedom of thought and free will, may yet save humanity from its own worst impulses. http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-white-mountains/#gsc.tab=0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tripods
I looked at the various headings for The Tripods and it seems that the film rights were gained by someone about 2009 and then it didn’t go ahead. Then rumoured that it would 2011-12 and then something about it in 2015. But I couldn’t find more and thought I’d better stop.
It may have been a problem getting two personable young actors as leads, it may have been that it started off in the TV version in a quaint village with horse and carts and later one of the boys ends up in France with a Count’s friendship, but then he finds that the daughter who was nice, and the Count have both been capped and he decides to steer clear.
So there are problems for USA citizens who hardly know where some of their states are, if they have part film in France. And the romance line is fractured. And there are two friends so they need two young men. The future is uncertain, and ambiguous. The idea of the boys’ homeland being overtaken by aliens might be too scary for the survivalists in the USA.
I think they need to sell it to Disney, they can do dramatic darker stories than Princessy ones, or perhaps sell it for automation or comic-book treatment. There was a good one out on DVD recently drawn well, called Kubo and the Two Strings which took my fancy and this could be good like that one.
It’s apparently sort of a limbo where scripts/treatments/rights get flipped around, redrafted, never get just enough cash to start casting and filming, but get just enough interest that people keep trying to push it.
Jacinda is poised to handle the next coming GFC it seems as her words of wisdom are plain here.
November 8th 2017 – we received this email;
With the opening of Parliament today, the Government began our legislative agenda. This is where the real change begins.
I want the way this Government runs to be different.
It will be a Government of transformation.
We’ll put people right at the heart of our agenda.
Every decision will be assessed on its impact on people and at every turn, our Government will be guided by kindness and compassion.
As well as our values, we laid out our policy plans for the term today.
They’re firmly focused on making New Zealanders’ lives even better.
We will fix the housing crisis, build up our education system, ensure everyone can get the healthcare they need, take action on climate change, develop our regions and raise everyone’s incomes.
The GOP tax cut secured, the Pentagon campaign for a major increase in defence spending begins. The imperial regime of mammon and fortresses knows the importance of timing.
A debased (4T in QE) currency, a large budget deficit and growing debt, rising inequality at home (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid they cannot sustain), a coming trade with China but dependent on China for bond sales.
Struggling to cope in conventional capability (in both the European and East Asian theatres), because of the vast spend up modernisation of the Russian and Chinese forces (who are constantly exposing this to them. And then there is the whole nuclear arsenal renewal thing … .
This is what the end of an imperial power looks like.
Of course the arrogant bluster of the sociopathic bully distracts from this reality, showing why Trump is just the man for the job. A buffoon fronting another round of tax cuts and increased Pentagon spending, and why not when it worked for Reagan.
What was the relative size of the USA economy to Russia and China then, compared to now?
Of course there is soft power – something Trump squanders every time he tweets.
I try not to get all maudlin and crap on about the latest doomycult news, but the idea that Russia has been making consistent advances in nuclear weapons, and the Pentagon wants funding to catch up with them, is just so OH PUH-Leeeze.
I some how ended up watch this last night on the Australian ABC’s Foreign Correspondent were I was working on my reply to Ad’s thread on Climate Change and the NZDF before I head back into Hospital again for a possible Biopsy on Monday.
With the hard right in the US arming up and bearing firearms in open as they can do in a number of states for self protection. It appears that members of the hard left are taking up arms and bearing firearms in the open as well.
My neoliberal neighbour has done what everyone does and underestimated ECO Maori . You and the red head Idiot from Tokoroa have told everyone lies about me and told them you where going to LOCK UP that Maori yes they are racist bigots Im untouchable NOW sandflies. You are using all the tricks you can dream up to make me lose both my JOBS who cares about that Maoris Mokos future he can go on the dole and set a good example to his mokos of where a Maori should be broke .Well get stuffed I have done nothing wrong Im not giving in to your intimidation Im not leaving any job . You people are breaking the LAW breaching my rights everyone knows about this fact.
Nobby spends all his time trying to come up with a sceem to lock me up I found something in my wallet that i did not put there he sits in his garage with all the hardware and software to be able to hack my computer to stop me posting but you can’t stop me from posting using my Phone. Every time you get burned
you blame me your mates siren dont phase me nor do your hoddy m8 you have contracted to use againsts me. All your bullshit just slips off my back like water off a ducks back don’t blame me for your shit bigots. I’v done nothing wrong or I would be in jail with all the lying accusations you have made against me.
Ana to kai
Yes the sandflys are still dreaming that I’m going to wake up and turn into a idiot sorry not going to happen. They had 2 cops who looked like the chief of police pointing a speed camera at me on lakes boulevard Tauranga that article about the house being built in tauranga must have pissed them off well to me the people wellbeing comes first. They are pouring on there dum ass intimidation tactics today the can kiss my_______ LOL Ana to kai
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The mission of the New Zealand Police is to make this country the safest nation in the world. To achieve that aim, there is one important step the police need to take at the end of this month. When the evaluation of the Armed Response Teams’ trial is completed, the ...
The right of employees to strike is an internationally recognised employment right that has been a feature of New Zealand’s industrial relations system for over a century, albeit with different constraints and limitations at different times. Although more restricted, this right even continued under the anti-union Employment Contracts Act (1993-2000). ...
Bernard Hickey is one of New Zealand’s leading financial journalists. His latest article, published by Newsroom, lays bare the cruel treatment of hundreds of thousands of workers stranded since the lockdown. Our Prime Minister is lauded overseas for her compassion, but her Cabinet is refusing to properly support tens of ...
For a good part of my adult life I have studied civil-military relations. I have studied authoritarian and democratic variants, and I have studied them across countries and regions. I have also worked in and with several US security agencies and have lectured on the theme at a number of ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzIf we stopped oil, gas and coal extraction immediately – ...
by The Spark “The system is broken”—the words of a young black man in Minneapolis watching flames destroy a police precinct demonstrators had torched. Broken? Yes, it is! What else could you say about a system whose police for nine minutes casually knelt on a black man’s neck, watching until ...
The latest opinion poll is out, and it’s more bad news for the National Party, with Roy Morgan putting them on only 26.5% support, against Labour’s 56.5%. You can see the details here: Roy Morgan May opinion poll. Roy Morgan is regarded as less accurate than other polling companies, and the ...
When miners pillage conservation land, they are typically required to "rehabilitate" it afterwards. Its not much compared to the damage they do, but its something. But apparently even that is now too much to expect. NZG Limited, a company owned by Oravida directors James Blackwell, Julia Jiyan Xu, Stone Shi, ...
Like everyone else, I've spent too much of the weekend watching the protests in America, and the increasingly brutal response to them. The overwhelming impression is of a nationwide police riot, as people speaking out against a murder and demanding change are beaten, gassed and shot by racist, militarised thugs ...
In mid-April, as New Zealand entered its fourth week of alert level 4, the Prime Minister warned us not to make comparisons with other countries over our Covid-19 pandemic response. This extraordinary advice came after Simon Bridges had urged the government to adopt a less-stringent lockdown similar to those in ...
Wales has lowered the voting age to 16: 16 and 17 year olds can now officially vote in Wales for Senedd elections. Votes at 16 & 17 come into force on Monday, as part of the Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020. Next year’s Senedd elections will ...
The government announced more changes to the ETS today, including to the emissions budget for 2021 - 2025. The overall budget for that period will stay at 354 million tons of CO2-equivalent. But the ETS component of that - stockpile reduction, free allocation, and credits to be auctioned - budget ...
The new National Party leader, Todd Muller, had been at pains to portray himself as a solid, serious, safe pair of hands, in contrast to the increasingly Trumpian leanings of Simon Bridges, who Muller deposed in a leadership coup last Friday. But after an uneventful, if uninspiring, first press conference, ...
Minneapolis Police StationIf you’ve been keeping an eye on recent events in the United States, you’ll likely understand why there’s so much anger on the streets at the moment. Not only did police officers murder another black man; it is patently obvious that authorities initially attempted to cover up George ...
Becoming the leader of a political party is a bit like having a baby. Not so much the screaming and sleepless nights, as the fact that you’ve waited and hope and planned for something and it’s finally here. And when that wonderful gift finally arrives, you want to be ready, ...
The US appears to be headed towards what Antonio Gramsci and other Italian political theorists call an “organic crisis of the State.” It involves the simultaneous and compounded fractures of economy, society and politics, which together constitute a tipping point in a nation’s history. Social contradictions are exacerbated, class and ...
Like the rest of the world, I have been aghast at what I have seen of, and read and heard about, what is happening currently in the United States. It seems incredible that a once great country should be suffering the worst effects and the highest number of deaths worldwide ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week...
Climate concerns as Siberia experiences record-breaking heatHeat wave sparks concerns about devastating wildfire season and melting permafrost.Satellite ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 24 through Sat, May 30, 2020Editor's ChoiceAntarctic Ocean Reveals New Signs of Rapid Melt of Ancient Ice, Clues About Future Sea Level RiseA study of seafloor ripples ...
It’s almost painful to watch. Let’s be honest, maybe a pleasure too, in some quarters, but painful nonetheless. Because the fact is, for a democracy to function properly, any sitting Government does need honest and proper Opposition so that it doesn’t get ahead of itself. That’s what we should ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk A banner on the International Energy Agency website spells it out in bold font: “The global oil industry is experiencing a shock like no other in its history.” As the response to the coronavirus pandemic upends the lives of billions of ...
The ownership of newspapers and televison channels is in turmoil, and they want to redisorganise public broadcasting. *Three years ago, I expressed concern in a column about the future of the (traditional) media. Nothing has happened since to reduce the concern. It was based on an earlier column which ...
Australia's High Court has ruled that the "palace letters" between the queen and then-Governor-General John Kerr are public records rather than private papers: Historian Jenny Hocking has won her High Court bid to access the letters exchanged between then governor-general Sir John Kerr and the Queen around the time of ...
SATURDAY MAY 30Six60: Live at Western Springs 2020 (TVNZ 1, 8.45pm). Remember live concerts? The day will come again, friends, when we will be able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in an uncomfortable sweaty venue with people we don’t know. It will happen. Sometimes the sound of concerts drifts over to the ...
New Zealand and its prime minister Jacinda Ardern have received international attention and praise, rightly so, for decisive leadership, clear communication and scientific management of the coronavirus pandemic. Observers point out that the nation has been through multiple crises under Ardern’s leadership – such as the Christchurch terrorist attack and ...
…a lot of things unrelated to the pandemic were happening. Relatively little attention was given to some major events on the global stage, so I thought I would do a quick recap of some of the high (or low) -lights, starting with something familiar. The common theme throughout is human ...
Labour's talk of gutting the RMA to push through "shovel ready" projects to boost employment after the pandemic predictably has every half-arsed pipe-dream crawling out of the woodwork demanding special treatment. Today, it's the West Coast inbreds, who are demanding a host of laws be rescinded so they can dig ...
"I can't breathe, Mama. I'm dying." - Last words of George Floyd.LOOK HARD at this image. Think about what it depicts. Ask yourself how one human-being could behave so brutally when so many eye-witnesses – and very soon millions of people online around the world – were there to watch ...
Since the government announced its pandemic wage subsidy, there have been regular stories about companies taking it and then sacking or refusing to pay their workers - essentially committing fraud. But how often does this happen? The Minister just doesn't want to know: Government ministers are not receiving up to ...
"You call that a conservative?Nah, this is a conservative!" New Zealanders are in the market for a quiet and reassuring small-c conservative political centrist. The critical question, however, is which politician is currently playing that role? Who has mastered the art of relaxed, informal and intimate political communication? Who ...
I’VE OFTEN WONDERED if South African immigrants passing through towns like Kerikeri and Kaikohe ever wonder how we do it. In their homeland, through the bitter years of Apartheid, keeping the races segregated required pass laws, Alsatian dogs, tear gas, rubber bullets and, all-too-often, live rounds. Not here. Not in ...
Below is the list of gender-critical material which appeared on Redline from July 31, 2019 to September 30, 2019. Sports categories must be by sex, not gender identity Queer theory glossary Woke misogyny and homophobia: a gay critique of trans ideology Another unfortunate experiment? New Zealand’s transgender health policy and ...
Smart Energy Europe: A Plan to provide 100% of ALL ENERGY using Renewable Energy to EuropeIntroductionAll Energy renewable energy systems are often commented on here at Skeptical Science. Many comments suggest that it will be difficult, expensive or impossible to use renewable energy to power the world. To ...
The government released its Action for Healthy Waterways package today, ostensibly with the goal of cleaning up our rivers and making them swimmable within a generation. Doing that, of course, requires confronting the cow in the room: the dairy industry which causes most of the pollution. But while they've imposed ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzI would like to know if New Zealand’s carbon emissions ...
Simon Lamb, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and Timothy Stern, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonBack in the 1970s, scientists came up with a revolutionary idea about how Earth’s deep interior works. They proposed it is slowly churning like a lava lamp, with buoyant ...
Remember KiwiBuild? Previously the government's flagship policy, it was supposed to build thousands of new homes every year for kiwi families. But instead of flooding the market, we've got a pathetic dribble: The Government's former flagship housing policy is so far behind schedule it will take more than 400 years ...
Don Franks Now Covid-19 restrictions allow gatherings of a hundred, an urgent hui needs calling. A special conference of the Council of Trade Unions. Today, workers face the greatest attack on employment, pay and conditions since the depression, we need a strong united union voice. As it stands now, organised ...
George Henderson New Zealand schools have introduced a climate change resource that suggests children “eat less meat and dairy”, even though teachers will not know how much meat or dairy any child in their care has eaten. Opinion pieces in the papers have called for the reduction of meat and ...
Questioning the number of district health boards in New Zealand has got to the extent that “too many DHBs” has become a perceived truth requiring no further elaboration. It is rarely challenged by policy advisers, academics, and journalists. But when one drills down further it becomes clear that the number ...
The emergence of a new National party leader, seemingly out of nowhere, has – not surprisingly – raised a number of questions as to who Todd Mulller actually is and what makes him tick. He has been an MP for some time but seems to have hidden his light under ...
Costa Rica has become the first country in Central America to recognise same-sex marriage: The first same-sex weddings have taken place in Costa Rica, the first Central American country to equalise its marriage legislation. A lesbian couple became the first to tie the knot in a ceremony that took ...
There's a new twist in the Winston Peters secret donation story. It appears that a significant chunk of NZ First's secret laundered donations goes straight into the pockets of the people administering the scheme: Tens of thousands in donor's funds given to the New Zealand First Foundation were spent paying ...
Is Todd Muller the Ned Flanders of the National Party? This is how he’s been characterised by political commentator Gordon Campbell, who suggests the change in leadership is, in Simpsons terms, akin to swapping the scary and cruel Monty Burns for Homer Simpson’s compassionate but conservative neighbour. There’s almost a ...
We all know that many so-called journalists and political commentators in New Zealand work directly or indirectly for political parties or for certain political factions. This was obviously the case when pundit for hire Matthew Hooton launched a campaign against then National Party leader, Simon Bridges, over their numerous polling ...
Let's Roll! The easy victory over a Bridges-led National Party which the Left had every cause to anticipate just a few days ago is no longer in the offing. Our enemy’s position has changed. His numbers are swelling. A rapid thrust to the left, followed by an audacious outflanking manoeuvre ...
New National Party leader Todd Muller has been interviewed about his policies, and has promised to restart offshore fossil fuel exploration if elected: The Bay of Plenty MP rolled former leader Simon Bridges last week, but says the party has not changed its stance on previous promises. "That is ...
Anyone who keeps an eye on evidence around cannabis and public health will be familiar with the Christchurch Health and Development Study. It's one of two local longitudinal studies frequently cited with respect to cannabis and youth development. But in a new article in the New Zealand Medical Journal, it is ...
In the age of covid we are Jacinda’s team of five million, except for some. There has rarely been a more blatant case of discrimination against beneficiaries than Grant Robertson’s announcement yesterday that people who have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus will receive weekly payments of $490 per week for 12 weeks and $250 per week for part time ...
It was 75 years ago this month that Germany surrendered and the Allies celebrated VE (Victory in Europe) Day. Millions of people around the world had been killed and many more injured or captured. It was an end to war not just for Europeans, but their allies too, in countries across Africa. But its impact is ...
Well, we are out of lockdown, essentially. I did end up getting the wage subsidy while we were on levels 3 and 4 but I would have been fine if we didn’t. The first day of level 2, the Thursday, the office opened again for the people who weren’t able ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced two diplomatic appointments: New Zealand’s High Commissioner to India and Consul-General to Hong Kong. “As New Zealand recovers from COVID-19, our diplomatic and trade networks are more important than ever. That is ...
We started the week by announcing free apprenticeships to support Kiwis into work and to help get New Zealand moving again - and we ended the week by extending the wage subsidy to 40,000 more businesses, helping to protect businesses and workers alike. ...
We’re confident in the ability of Kiwi businesses to succeed in the face of COVID-19, and our Government is committed to doing our bit to enable that success. Kiwi businesses have always been innovative and resilient, and the COVID-19 pandemic has proven this yet again. Many businesses are finding new, creative ...
New Zealand First is pleased to release the names of its first tranche of candidates for the 2020 election. The includes all sitting New Zealand First Members of Parliament except Clayton Mitchell MP who earlier today announced he will not be seeking re-election. In alphabetical order they are: MP ...
Clayton Mitchell MP, New Zealand First List MP based in Tauranga New Zealand First MP Clayton Mitchell has decided not to seek re-election in this year’s General Election. “After serious consideration and discussion with my family, I have decided to pursue other passions in my life and spend a lot ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark has announced that new Lockheed Martin Super Hercules aircraft would replace the outdated and costly 1960s Hercules fleet. The $1.521b project will include a flight simulator for staff training and other supporting infrastructure. "This fleet will ensure the Defence Force can continue to support New Zealand's ...
The Green Party is urging the New Zealand Police to rule out the use of Armed Response Teams, following their recent trial in communities around Aotearoa. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has described Labour's original COVID-19 commercial rent dispute proposal as "poorly targeted". Justice Minister Andrew Little hasannounced a temporary law changeto force commercial landlords and renters to consider COVID-19 in disputes over rent issues, almost two months after the Government first floated the idea. But ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First acknowledges that some small businesses have been struggling to meet fixed costs due to the loss of revenue by COVID-19. We also know some businesses are at greater risk of insolvency when they cannot come to a reasonable ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First is disappointed that the removal of the spousal deductions has had to be delayed by the Ministry fo Social Development, due to COVID19 workload pressures. “New Zealand First has always stood for fairness when it comes to superannuation ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First On the steps of Parliament today the Leader of New Zealand First, Rt Hon Winston Peters received a petition from registered nurse Anna Maria Coervers, requesting an amendment to the Protection for First Responders Bill which will ensure the legislation also include registered ...
It's been a busy seven days as we start to rebuild New Zealand together. From delivering extra support for small businesses, to investing in our artists and arts organisations, to cutting red tape on home DIY projects, we're rolling out our plan to get the economy and New Zealand moving ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says alert level 2 restrictions have to be discussed during today's Cabinet meeting. Thousands gathered across the country, including at Parliament, yesterday forBlack Lives Matter marcheswhere social distancing and mass gathering rules were flouted. Mr Peters said the breaching of Alert Level 2 rules at ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of State Owned Enterprises KiwiRail’s Northland rail upgrade steps up another gear today and will help Northland recover from the impacts of COVID-19, State Owned Enterprises Minister Winston Peters says. The Government is investing $204.5 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to ...
“Today and every day we stand in solidarity with George Floyd’s family, friends and community who feel pain and fear about his untimely death at the hands of Minneapolis police”, said Green Party Co-leader and Māori Development spokesperson Marama Davidson. ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Hon Eugenie Sage, Minister of Conservation The West Coast forests of Mount Te Kinga at Kotuku Whakaoho/Lake Brunner are the latest predator free project to receive Government funding, announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
The Green Party says major freshwater reforms announced today provide the strongest ever protections of our waterways, to help ensure the next generation can swim in the rivers of Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party has begun the process for a Select Committee inquiry into student accommodation, which has been exposed during COVID-19 as an under-regulated sector that straddles students with unfair debt. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon Megan Woods, Minister of Research, Science and Innovation Hon Dr David Clark, Minister of Health Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods, and Health Minister David Clark today announced a COVID-19 vaccine strategy, ...
Budget 2020 is about rebuilding together, supporting jobs, getting business moving and the books back into the black. It’s an integral part of our COVID-19 economic response, and our plan to grow our economy and get New Zealand moving again.Here’s a quick look at the five top things you ...
The Green Party is pleased to reveal its candidate list for the upcoming election. With a mix of familiar faces and fresh new talent, this exceptional group of candidates are ready to lead the Greens back into Government. ...
The Coalition Government has approved $206 million in essential upgrades at Ōhakea Air Base. Defence Minister Ron Mark said the money would be spent on improving old infrastructure. He said safety issues would be addressed, as well as upgrades to taxiways, accommodation and fresh, storm and waste water systems. "This ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First “I am not persisting with this case just for myself, but for all people who have had their privacy breached. Privacy of information is a cornerstone of our country’s democracy. Without it our society truly faces a bleak future. We now ...
Hon Tracey Martin, Minister for ChildrenA major increase in funding and availability of support will improve the incomes and reduce the pressure on 14,000 caregivers looking after more than 22,000 children.Children’s Minister Tracey Martin says that caregivers – all those looking after someone else’s children both in and ...
This summer presents a great opportunity for New Zealanders to get out into nature with bookings on Great Walks for 2020/21 set to open next week, says Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. Bookings for the Great Walks will open between 9 and 11 June, excluding Milford and Routeburn tracks which ...
Extra 40,000 businesses to be eligible for wage subsidy extension Small business cashflow support application period extended The Government is today announcing further support for businesses that continue to be affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic, as the broader economy becomes one of the most open in the world following ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed five Lockheed Martin C-130J-30 Super Hercules transport aircraft will be purchased to replace the existing fleet, Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “Last year, Cabinet selected these aircraft as the preferred option to replace the current Hercules fleet. Procurement of the Super Hercules has been ...
The Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage is celebrating World Environment Day with an announcement of a major step towards Wairarapa Moana being recognised as an internationally significant wetland. “Wairarapa Moana is an ecosystem of 10,000 hectares of wetland and open water that provides a home for indigenous fish, birds and ...
New public housing that will save tenants money in energy bills, and provide warmer, healthier and more comfortable homes, is setting the standard for the Government’s future public housing programme, Housing Minister Megan Woods said. Dr Woods opened the new Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities complex, which has a ...
A new-look Police graduation ceremony to take account of COVID19 health rules has marked the completion of training for 57 new constables. Police Minister Stuart Nash attended this afternoon's ceremony, where officers of Recruit Wing 337 were formally sworn in at the Royal New Zealand Police College without the normal support of ...
Mobile traders and truck shops must adhere to responsible lending requirements Interest rate cap on high-cost loans Lenders prohibited from offering further credit to an applicant who has taken two high-cost loans in the past 90 days The Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Kris Faafoi, has signalled an end ...
94% of firms say wage subsidy had positive impact on cashflow 62% of firms say support helped to manage non-wage costs like rent A survey of business that have received the Government’s wage subsidy show it has played a significant role in saving jobs, and freed up cash flow to ...
New legislation introduced to Parliament today will support growth and assist businesses on the road to economic recovery, said Revenue Minister Stuart Nash. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2020-21, Feasibility Expenditure, and Remedial Matters) Bill proposes that businesses can get tax deductions for ‘feasibility expenditure’ on new investments,” said Mr ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson has welcomed the first release of funds from the $265 million Sport Recovery Package announced as part of Budget 2020. Sport NZ has announced that $4.6 million in funding will go to the Wellington Phoenix, NZ Warriors, Super Rugby teams and the ANZ Premiership ...
An iconic New Zealand tourism attraction and the country’s 31 Regional Tourism Organisations are the first recipients of support from the $400 million Tourism Sector Recovery Plan, to help position the sector for recovery from COVID-19, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. The plan includes a Strategic Tourism Assets Protection ...
The Government will legislate to ensure businesses that suffered as a result of the COVID-19 response will get help to resolve disputes over commercial rent issues, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. A temporary amendment to the Property Law Act will insert a clause in commercial leases requiring a fair ...
The Minister for Small Business says new data from Xero highlights the urgency of prompt payment practices to small and medium enterprises as we move into economic recovery. Last month Government ministers wrote to significant private enterprises and the banking industry to request they join efforts by government agencies to ...
Young people in Waikato will be the first to have free access to period products in schools in another step to support children and young people in poverty,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. During term 3, the Ministry of Education will begin providing free period products to schools following the ...
The Minister of Police Stuart Nash has issued the following statement in response to charges filed against three Police officers this morning in the New Plymouth District Court. “Any incident involving a loss of life in Police custody is taken very seriously. The charges today reflect the gravity of the ...
$196 million for Crown Research Institutes $150 million for R&D loan scheme $33 million for Māori research and development opportunities $12 million for the Nationally Significant Collections and Databases $10 million to help maintain in-house capability at Callaghan Innovation New Zealand’s entrepreneurs, innovators and crown researchers will benefit from a ...
Further temporary changes to NCEA and University Entrance (UE) will support senior secondary school students whose teaching and learning have been disrupted by COVID-19. “The wellbeing of students and teachers is a priority. As we are all aware, COVID-19 has created massive disruption to the school system, and the Government ...
Minister for Racing Winston Peters today announced that the terms for the directors of the Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) have been extended to 30 June 2021. Due to the COVID-19 crisis the transition period has been extended to ensure that the Racing Industry Bill can complete its progress through ...
The deadline for landlords to include detailed information in their tenancy agreements about how their property meets the Healthy Homes Standards, so tenants can see the home they are renting is compliant, has been extended from 1 July 2020 to 1 December 2020. The Healthy Homes Standards became law on 1 July 2019. The Standards are ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little today announced details of further appointments to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. “I am pleased to announce Paula Rose QSO OStJ as Deputy Chief Commissioner for a term of five years commencing on 15 June 2020,” said Andrew Little. “I am also pleased to announce the ...
The Targeted Training and Apprenticeships Fund (TTAF) will pay costs of learners of all ages to undertake vocational education and training The fund will target support for areas of study and training that will give learners better employment prospects as New Zealand recovers from COVID-19 Apprentices working in all industries ...
The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will finally start to cut New Zealand’s greenhouse gas pollution as it was originally intended to, because of changes announced today by the Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw. The changes include a limit on the total emissions allowed within the ETS, rules to ensure ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List provides an abundance of examples that Pacific people’s leadership capability is unquestionable in Aotearoa. “The work and the individuals we acknowledge this year highlights the kind of visionary examples and dedicated community leadership that we need ...
The Government is backing a new $27 million project aimed at boosting sustainable horticulture production and New Zealand’s COVID-19 recovery efforts, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “Our horticulture sector has long been one of New Zealand’s export star performers, contributing around $6 billion a year to our economy. During and ...
Applications have opened for 2021 Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau – Forestry Scholarships, which will support more Māori and women to pursue careers in forestry science, says Forestry Minister Shane Jones. “I’m delighted Te Uru Rākau is offering Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau – Forestry Scholarships for the third year running. These ...
The Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List once again highlights the dedication by many to looking after our native plants and wildlife, including incredible work to restore the populations of critically endangered birds says Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. Anne Richardson of Hororata has been made an Officer of the New ...
The Government will invest $10 million from the One Billion Trees Fund for large-scale planting to provide jobs in communities and improve the environment, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor and Forestry Minister Shane Jones have announced. New, more flexible funding criteria for applications will help up to 10 catchment groups plant ...
Organisations that support women are invited to apply to a new $1,000,000 fund as part of the Government’s COVID-19 response. “We know women, and organisations that support women, have been affected by COVID-19. This new money will ensure funding for groups that support women and women’s rights,” said Minister for ...
Healthier waterways are front and centre in a new project involving more than 300 King Country sheep, beef and dairy farmers. The Government is investing $844,000 in King Country River Care, a group that helps farmers to lift freshwater quality and farming practice, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “Yesterday ...
A major funding package for libraries will allow them to play a far greater role in supporting their communities and people seeking jobs as part of the economic recovery from COVID-19. “Budget 2020 contains over $60 million of funding to protect library services and to protect jobs,” says Internal Affairs ...
A jobseekers programme for the creative sector and four new funds have been set up by the Government to help our arts and music industry recover from the blow of COVID-19. Thousands of jobs will be supported through today’s $175 million package in a crucial economic boost to support the ...
Minister for Veterans Ron Mark has welcomed the First Reading of a Bill that will make legislative changes to further improve the veterans’ support system. The Veterans’ Support Amendment Bill No 2, which will amend the Veterans’ Support Act 2014, passed First Reading today. The bill addresses a number of ...
Views sought on Order in Council to help fast track the reinstatement of the Christ Church Cathedral The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Hon Poto Williams, will be seeking public written comment, following Cabinet approving the drafting of an Order in Council aimed at fast-tracking the reinstatement of the ...
The law setting out New Zealanders’ basic civil and human rights is today one step towards being strengthened following the first reading of a Bill that requires Parliament to take action if a court says a statute undermines those rights. At present, a senior court can issue a ‘declaration of ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today reiterated the deep concern of the New Zealand Government following confirmation by China’s National People’s Congress of national security legislation relating to Hong Kong. “New Zealand shares the international community’s significant and long-standing stake in Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability,” Mr Peters said. “New Zealand ...
Thousands of artists and creatives at hundreds of cultural and heritage organisations have been given much-needed support to recover from the impact of COVID-19, Prime Minister and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Jacinda Ardern announced today. “The cultural sector was amongst the worst hit by the global pandemic,” Jacinda ...
Key New Zealand assets will be better protected from being sold to overseas owners in a way contrary to the national interest, with the passage of the Overseas Investment (Urgent Measures) Bill. The Bill, which passed its third reading in Parliament today, also cuts unnecessary red tape to help attract ...
Setting higher health standards at swimming spots Requiring urban waterways to be cleaned up and new protections for urban streams Putting controls on higher-risk farm practices such as winter grazing and feed lots Setting stricter controls on nitrogen pollution and new bottom lines on other measures of waterway health Ensuring ...
The Government is on the verge of reaching its target of state sector boards and committees made up of at least 50 percent women, says Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter and Minister for Ethnic Communities Jenny Salesa. For the first time, the Government stocktake measures the number of Māori, ...
ANALYSIS:By Denis Muller of theUniversity of Melbourne When a newspaper with the authority of The New York Times chooses to publish a party-political essay calculated to further inflame the violence wracking cities across America, serious questions arise. On June 3 the Times published in its opinion section an ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Noble, Education Policy Fellow, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University Three quarters of a million Australian children are likely to be experiencing employment stress in the family as a result of COVID-19. This is on top of around 615,000 children whose families were ...
Spice up the classic banana muffin with a subtle touch of star anise.These muffins came about one rainy Saturday when the cupboards were bare and there was nothing much left in the fruit bowl aside from some very sad-looking bananas. Fortunately we know sad bananas result in the best kind ...
For years, Work and Income has been telling New Zealanders they couldn’t get the benefit until their redundancy payments ran out. Turns out, it was wrong.What’s all this then?Work and Income has long told New Zealanders receiving redundancy payments that they weren’t eligible for the benefit until their redundancy money ...
New Zealand writer Anna Rankin reports from Los Angeles. Last Friday afternoon, I went downtown to a protest outside the enormous Los Angeles Police Department headquarters on 1st Street. The LAPD had set up cordons, placing orange cones across streets to block traffic. Arms crossed, they stood with a wide ...
Until the sudden closure of Bauer Media in April, Simon Farrell-Green was the editor of HOME, New Zealand’s oldest architecture magazine. Here he explains what comes next.Being the editor of a major architecture magazine was the best job I ever had. I got it in 2016, after a career spent ...
A global success story or an overly generous, unsustainable scheme that is doing lasting damage to our fish stocks? Ethan Neville looks at the ongoing debate over New Zealand’s fishing quota management system. The management of our fisheries is a touchy topic – and why wouldn’t it be? New Zealanders ...
By RNZ News Thousands of people were protesting across Australia today to oppose the deaths of Indigenous people in police custody. It comes as Black Lives Matter protests are held around the world after the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in the US ...
Wrapping everyone in a blanket of love, whakapapa and mauri for Matariki is the brave, exuberant and generous fabric art of Maungarongo Te Kawa, writes Amanda Thompson.E te AtuaNau enei rau harakeke he taongaTukuna ki a matouKia tika o matou mahiKo Papatuanuku e takoto neiTuturu WhakamauaKia tina, tinaHui eTaiki e.‘Karakia ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...
One press statement from the Beehive yesterday sounded more like advertising – or a barker’s pitch – than a Government announcement. Another advised of two diplomatic appointment, one of them – has the woman who landed the post done something wrong? – to protest-troubled and politically volatile Hong Kong. And ...
It’s not often that someone graduates from university one year and becomes a senior economist commentating on national media the next. George Driver investigates the meteoric rise of the high-flying Brad Olsen.Google “senior economist Brad Olsen” and you’ll find him quoted in no fewer than 167 articles in the past ...
As public sentiment turned against Uber Eats, a new local operation emerged promising a more ethical alternative to help New Zealand’s struggling hospitality industry. But now Eat Local NZ has suspended trading after falling out with its Australian partner Mr Yum. So what happened?A dispute between local hospitality platform Eat ...
By Budi Sutrisno in Jakarta As the death of George Floyd, an African-American man who died while being arrested in the United States, sparks a global outcry, Indonesian rights advocates and young people have stepped forward to remind fellow citizens that racism has long been an issue at home as ...
Edward Cullen became a vampire to survive the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. Now a new Twilight novel looms and Laura Surynt, a New Zealander living in the UK, wants to live forever too. As I lay in bed this morning watching Instagram stories, Tayi Tibble told my reluctant little Capricorn ...
Over the lockdown period, thousands of people joined a Facebook group dedicated to remembering the nightlife of inner-city Auckland. Its creator Simon Grigg explains why it touched a chord in lockdown.Within a few days of The Lost Nightlife of Inner-city Auckland Facebook page accidentally going live on May 12, we ...
Throughout Anglo colonial states there is a constant habit of defining people who aren’t white as a problem, writes Aaron Smale in this personal essay. It was a balmy summer evening in the capital and cops were standing over a young brown man. I was walking down Courtenay Place on ...
"The countdown clock ticks 2, then 1, then the prime minister raises her drink": dystopia, by Ōtautahi writer Laura Borrowdale. You stand in the centre of the room, and around you, the guests seem to swirl and blend into one. There’s a mouth, gaping and red, filled with laughter. A ...
Martin Luther King Jr said in 1963: “America has given the Black people a bad cheque, a cheque which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds’." Six generations of egregious police violence later, the sentiment out of which those bad cheques were born could be shifting. In the wake of egregious police violence, ...
WATCH: In a candid interview on Sky Sport, Dame Susan Devoy talks on her concern for rising sports stars, the state of NZ squash, and the spectre of racism. Dame Susan Devoy is proudly still “a little terrier who fights for the underdog”. “I have been doing it all my life and ...
Of the huge funding boost coming for early childhood education, Playcentre has been left with just the crumbs, writes Kate Barber. Amidst all the celebration of the $430m funding boost for early childhood education (ECE) announced in this year’s budget, little attention was paid to the plight of Playcentre. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vikrant Minhas, PhD candidate, University of Adelaide Although bacteria are single-celled and microscopically small, they still need energy to survive, just like us. One of the most efficient ways of acquiring energy for bacteria is through sweet, soluble carbohydrates: sugars. In fact, ...
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY:By David Robie Three cartoonists had especially poignant takes on the tragic and toxic political aftermath of martyr George Floyd’s brutal killing under the knee of a white American policeman in Minneapolis last week. The Boston Globe’s Christopher Weyant featured a split frame contrasting a red-capped “Make ...
Are central bankers jealous that epidemiologists are the rock stars of the current crisis?There is talk that both the British and New Zealand central banks might institute negative interest rates as part of the policy response to the Covid shock. While Sweden’s central bank ended its five year experiment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Monika Sarder, Senior Strategic Analyst, Monash University Algorithmic decision-making has enormous potential to do good. From identifying priority areas for first response after an earthquake hits, to identifying those at risk of COVID-19 within minutes, their application has proven hugely beneficial. But ...
LISTEN: This week's Extra Time podcast discusses racism in sport and the role of athletes and organisations in making a stand for good. Former Silver Fern and Black Fern Louisa Wall believes today's sports stars must have a social conscience and stand up against discrimination and divisiveness. Sport and politics, once ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Thomas, Associate professor, Flinders University We have seen ten days of protests in the United States over the death of George Floyd. While thousands of people have gathered to express their outrage peacefully, some demonstrations have been marred by vandalism and ...
40 percent of millennials have one, and an increasing number of GenXers and Baby Boomers do too. Two Cents' Worth delves into the world of side hustles. ...
Auckland writer Caroline Barron has a terrific book out today called Ripiro Beach: A Memoir of Life After Near Death. Here, she writes about the memoirs that have been a balm, a lesson, or both. Throughout my life, I’ve sought solace between the covers of books, particularly memoirs. There, I’ve learnt ...
An exclusive interview with Steve McSteverson about his traumatic and tragic ordeal this week.Many New Zealanders are struggling with the news that a children’s book not commissioned or authorised by Jacinda Ardern was advertised in a newsletter for children’s books. This horrific attack on New Zealanders whose ears are permanently ...
Air New Zealand staff are dismayed and angered at the company’s announcement to cut a further $150 million from their wage bill. On Friday, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Greg Foran, made the announcement to employees, who are still ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr. Bodean Hedwards, Lecturer, Monash University This week the leaders of India and Australia reaffirmed their mutual interest in closer diplomatic and economic ties. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during their long-delayed Thursday “virtual summit”: ...
The Herald reported this morning that MediaWorks was on the verge of selling its TV assets to US TV giant Discovery – but an internal email and senior source suggest the story may have been premature.A senior MediaWorks source has emphatically denied a report in the NZ Herald that a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gery Karantzas, Associate professor in Social Psychology / Relationship Science, Deakin University Life in lockdown has been tough on many relationships. But negotiating the transition back to “normal” as restrictions continue to lift could also be a challenge for couples. So what ...
A slight bounce in the economy is brightening the outlook as the country heads into the winter months, Radio NZ reports. Retail spending is up and NZ shares rose on Thursday for a third day running. Key indicators have led some economists to point to a faster recovery than expected. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoff Hanmer, Adjunct Professor of Architecture, University of Adelaide HomeBuilder is a good idea gone bad. It is possibly the most complex and least equitable program the government could have devised to deliver construction jobs. It gives $25,000 to people who already ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Keller, Professor of Cognitive Science, Western Sydney University The coronavirus pandemic has silenced the world’s concert halls and opera theatres. Organisations specialising in live performance face an existential crisis under current restrictions on social gatherings, with up to 75% of people ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson, wearing his Sport and Recreation ministerial hat, can show he can be a big spender and draw voters’ attention to his largess each time he dispenses money from the funds under his control – or the control of an agency within his ministerial bailiwick. Yesterday he ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pi-Shen Seet, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Edith Cowan University Scott Morrison wants to overhaul the skills workforce to ensure a better post-COVID-19 recovery. But there may not be enough people with the necessary skills to do so. And travel restrictions, which ...
As we transition out of a Covid-focused world and prepare for what comes next, New Zealand’s ICT industry is gearing towards growth.From app development helping track the Covid-19 virus to website engineering keeping businesses in touch and online, ICT knowledge has been crucial to keeping New Zealand working over the ...
Analysis: As New Zealand eases restrictions, it no longer has international precedent to look towards and must decide on its own how to reopen the economy while reducing the risk of a second wave of infections, Marc Daalder reports While most of the country eagerly awaits a likely move to ...
Ten days is too long. That from insurance claimant advocate, Ali Jones. EQC has today made contact with homeowners via email after accidentally releasing confidential details of 8000 insurance claims on May 26. Jones says although she has not received ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (Penguin Classics, $24)Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize. The other day, ...
Simon Day discovers how the voluntary carbon market allows both individuals and companies to offset their emissions at the same time as investing in native forest regeneration.When Celia Wade-Brown sold her first batch of carbon credits earned from the native forest on her Wairarapa farm, she had two customers: Z ...
Simon Day discovers how the voluntary carbon market allows both individuals and companies to offset their emissions at the same time as investing in native forest regeneration.When Celia Wade-Brown sold her first batch of carbon credits earned from the native forest on her Wairarapa farm, she had two customers: Z ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin. The conversation around the 2020 covid19 pandemic has been widely framed as ‘health versus the economy’. It has been quite political, with people leaning to the left emphasising ‘health’, and people leaning to the right emphasising ‘the economy’. A couple of weeks ago ...
Sam Brooks pays tribute to Alex Rider, and the new TV series that (finally) captures the spirit of the books.“What if James Bond was a teenager?”The concept for Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series is so simple but so brilliant. There’s a reason why the franchise has managed to sustain 12 ...
Analysis - The PM resists pressure to move immediately to level 1, Winston Peters' tactics play into the hands of the Opposition and the government at last works out a commercial rent solution, writes Peter Wilson. ...
Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage By COHAFrom Washington DC Federal charges against the four protectors of the Venezuelan Embassy, who defended the building in Washington DC against violent opposition crowds for several weeks between April 10 and May 16 of 2019, were completely dropped in a case that ...
Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage By COHA Editorial TeamFrom Washington DC The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) joins the Black Alliance for Peace[1] and other pro-democracy organizations throughout the world in calling for the United Nations to address the systemic violations of human rights by the police and ...
Being shot by police had a profound, transformational effect on Rob Mokaraka’s life in more ways than you’d expect. A new documentary, airing on Māori TV at 7.30pm on Sunday, explores the work he’s done to heal his own mind and to ensure nobody has to go through the same ...
Human rights watchdog TAPOL has condemned the demand by Indonesian prosecutors seeking 17 and five years imprisonment for West Papuan activists Buchtar Tabuni and Irwanus Uropmabin. On June 2, the Jayapura District Prosecutor’s Office issued 33 pages containing charges against the defendant Irwanus Uropmabin. In the document, the Public Prosecutor ...
The arrival of Dan Carter is far from the first time the ever-struggling Auckland team has hoped to turn around its fortunes with a star signing, writes Jamie Wall.New Zealand rugby Twitter is a generally desolate place, especially lately given that there’s been nothing to talk about ever since the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Senior Lecturer in New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity US President Donald Trump delivered an address this week in which he threatened military action on the nation. Then he walked to the nearby St John’s Episcopal Church ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vincent Ho, Senior Lecturer and clinical academic gastroenterologist, Western Sydney University Why do we burp? We sometimes also burp before meals, why does this happen? — Ahaana, age 7 That is a really interesting question, Ahaana! There ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justine Bell-James, Associate Professor, TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland After years of litigation, Australia’s highest court will today make a major decision on the fate of the controversial proposed expansion to the New Acland Coal mine in Queensland. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Williams, Associate Professor in Urban Ecology and Urban Horticulture, University of Melbourne Tomorrow is the first World Green Roof Day. Cities around the world will celebrate the well-documented environmental, economic and social benefits of green roofs. New ground-level green spaces are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Senior Lecturer, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Robodebt isn’t the only measure the government should consider withdrawing. Late last Friday, after a long press conference from the prime minister which avoided any mention of the topic, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW Harvard University’s Alberto Alesina died suddenly of a heart attack on May 23. He was 63. His long-time colleague and friend Larry Summers wrote that before him, “there was no academic field of political economy. Today, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Griffith University What keeps democracies together? As America burns, Brazilians die and Europe braces for another wave of the coronavirus, the question assumes an alarming immediacy. If the answer is complicated in one way, it is ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Millions of dollars divvied up by Sport NZ, MSD’s problem with wrongly denied payments grows, and internal coalition battles emerge in time for election.It’s Friday, and there hasn’t been a lot of it recently, so we’re going to start with ...
The Government picks Waitomo caves as 'strategic tourism asset' and grants $4m to Tourism Holdings, boosting shares another 7.8 percent. Facebook staff and alumni revolt over Zuckerberg's inaction on Trump ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan NZ bestseller list and described by ReadingRoom literary editor Steve Braunias.NON-FICTION 1 Vegful by Nadia Lim (Nude Food, $55) 2 Stop Surviving Start Fighting by Jazz Thornton (Penguin Random House, $38) 3 So Delish! by Simone Anderson ...
Anomalies in the policy for superannuitants with overseas pensions are an indictment on the justice process in New Zealand, write Susan St John and Dr Claire Dale Along with many others, the Retirement Policy and Research Centre has worked assiduously for more than a decade to alert the public, policy-makers ...
Open Mike 16/01/2018 
You’ve got to wonder why the New Zealand Police undertook an armed response teams (ARTs) trial in the first place? Of course there was the Christchurch mosque terrorism attack, but that was an isolated incident and therefore cannot be used as an excuse to arm Police. What this trial does ...2 hours ago
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 31 through Sat, June 6, 2020 Editor's Choice The world must seize this opportunity to meet the climate challenge As current and former central bankers, we believe the pandemic offers ...8 hours ago
The 60 Years of New Zealand Television celebrations, such as they were, seemed to rely heavily on the classics: here we go again with Lynn of Tawa, A Week of It and the Country Calendar spoofs. Wonderful highlights of our televisual past, to be sure, but after hearing Paul Holmes’ ...1 day ago
The Two Americas Collide: You gotta love the Americans marching for George Floyd and the fragile promises of the US Constitution. But, you also gotta keep your eye on the pale rider in the White House, and understand that behind him Hell follows.THE FRAGILITY of democracy’s promise is becoming clearer ...1 day ago
Oliver Twist, famously asked for ‘more’. He did not challenge the system of workhouses – Dickens did – nor the authority of Beadle Bumble. He was only nine. I am often struck how critics of the current income maintenance system are like Oliver Twist. They ask for more, but they ...2 days ago
New Zealand’s history as a sheep-farming nation means the command “Get in behind!” has long had a particular resonance — but not usually for journalists. However, in late March, as panic over the coronavirus pandemic surged around the world, Dr Gavin Ellis — former editor-in-chief of the NZ Herald — ...2 days ago
When the New Zealand Police started using Armed Response Teams - gangs of heavily-armed police cruising Māori-Pacifica neighbourhoods in juiced-up gun-trucks - they told us it was a "trial". But it turns out that those armed police - who were mainly doing traffic stops and bail checks, rather than the ...2 days ago
Another study comparing effect in children from nonendemic areas (Dagang) and endemic fluorosis area (Jinghai) about 80km apart in the Tianjin area of China. Hardly sampling the same population. Anti-fluoride campaigners still use studies from ... 3 days ago
George Thomson, Nick Wilson, Richard Edwards This blog discusses the passing of the Smoke-free Environments (Prohibiting Smoking in Motor Vehicles Carrying Children) Amendment Act last week. We briefly review some lessons from this legislation’s long journey and explore future smokefree possibilities in Aotearoa / New Zealand. A law ...3 days ago
Bernard Hickey is one of New Zealand’s leading financial journalists. His latest article, published by Newsroom, lays bare the cruel treatment of hundreds of thousands of workers stranded since the lockdown. Our Prime Minister is lauded overseas for her compassion, but her Cabinet is refusing to properly support tens of ...4 days ago
For a good part of my adult life I have studied civil-military relations. I have studied authoritarian and democratic variants, and I have studied them across countries and regions. I have also worked in and with several US security agencies and have lectured on the theme at a number of ...4 days ago
by The Spark “The system is broken”—the words of a young black man in Minneapolis watching flames destroy a police precinct demonstrators had torched. Broken? Yes, it is! What else could you say about a system whose police for nine minutes casually knelt on a black man’s neck, watching until ...5 days ago
Like the rest of the world, I have been aghast at what I have seen of, and read and heard about, what is happening currently in the United States. It seems incredible that a once great country should be suffering the worst effects and the highest number of deaths worldwide ...6 days ago
Image credit: Writing an Article vs. Writing a Blog Post: What’s the Difference? I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is ... 6 days ago
It’s almost painful to watch. Let’s be honest, maybe a pleasure too, in some quarters, but painful nonetheless. Because the fact is, for a democracy to function properly, any sitting Government does need honest and proper Opposition so that it doesn’t get ahead of itself. That’s what we should ...1 week ago
Well, we are out of lockdown, essentially. I did end up getting the wage subsidy while we were on levels 3 and 4 but I would have been fine if we didn’t. The first day of level 2, the Thursday, the office opened again for the people who weren’t able ...2 weeks ago
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced two diplomatic appointments: New Zealand’s High Commissioner to India and Consul-General to Hong Kong. “As New Zealand recovers from COVID-19, our diplomatic and trade networks are more important than ever. That is ...2 days ago
We started the week by announcing free apprenticeships to support Kiwis into work and to help get New Zealand moving again - and we ended the week by extending the wage subsidy to 40,000 more businesses, helping to protect businesses and workers alike. ...2 days ago
The Green Party is urging the New Zealand Police to rule out the use of Armed Response Teams, following their recent trial in communities around Aotearoa. ...2 days ago
This summer presents a great opportunity for New Zealanders to get out into nature with bookings on Great Walks for 2020/21 set to open next week, says Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. Bookings for the Great Walks will open between 9 and 11 June, excluding Milford and Routeburn tracks which ...1 day ago
ANALYSIS: By Denis Muller of the University of Melbourne When a newspaper with the authority of The New York Times chooses to publish a party-political essay calculated to further inflame the violence wracking cities across America, serious questions arise. On June 3 the Times published in its opinion section an ...2 hours ago
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...3 hours ago
New Zealand writer Anna Rankin reports from Los Angeles. Last Friday afternoon, I went downtown to a protest outside the enormous Los Angeles Police Department headquarters on 1st Street. The LAPD had set up cordons, placing orange cones across streets to block traffic. Arms crossed, they stood with a wide ...9 hours ago
Tania Tapsell is replacing MP Anne Tolley as National's candidate for the East Coast. ...18 hours ago
One press statement from the Beehive yesterday sounded more like advertising – or a barker’s pitch – than a Government announcement. Another advised of two diplomatic appointment, one of them – has the woman who landed the post done something wrong? – to protest-troubled and politically volatile Hong Kong. And ...1 day ago
Throughout Anglo colonial states there is a constant habit of defining people who aren’t white as a problem, writes Aaron Smale in this personal essay. It was a balmy summer evening in the capital and cops were standing over a young brown man. I was walking down Courtenay Place on ...1 day ago
"The countdown clock ticks 2, then 1, then the prime minister raises her drink": dystopia, by Ōtautahi writer Laura Borrowdale. You stand in the centre of the room, and around you, the guests seem to swirl and blend into one. There’s a mouth, gaping and red, filled with laughter. A ...1 day ago
Martin Luther King Jr said in 1963: “America has given the Black people a bad cheque, a cheque which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds’." Six generations of egregious police violence later, the sentiment out of which those bad cheques were born could be shifting. In the wake of egregious police violence, ...1 day ago
WATCH: In a candid interview on Sky Sport, Dame Susan Devoy talks on her concern for rising sports stars, the state of NZ squash, and the spectre of racism. Dame Susan Devoy is proudly still “a little terrier who fights for the underdog”. “I have been doing it all my life and ...1 day ago
Are central bankers jealous that epidemiologists are the rock stars of the current crisis? There is talk that both the British and New Zealand central banks might institute negative interest rates as part of the policy response to the Covid shock. While Sweden’s central bank ended its five year experiment ...2 days ago
LISTEN: This week's Extra Time podcast discusses racism in sport and the role of athletes and organisations in making a stand for good. Former Silver Fern and Black Fern Louisa Wall believes today's sports stars must have a social conscience and stand up against discrimination and divisiveness. Sport and politics, once ...2 days ago
40 percent of millennials have one, and an increasing number of GenXers and Baby Boomers do too. Two Cents' Worth delves into the world of side hustles. ...2 days ago
Air New Zealand staff are dismayed and angered at the company’s announcement to cut a further $150 million from their wage bill. On Friday, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Greg Foran, made the announcement to employees, who are still ...2 days ago
A slight bounce in the economy is brightening the outlook as the country heads into the winter months, Radio NZ reports. Retail spending is up and NZ shares rose on Thursday for a third day running. Key indicators have led some economists to point to a faster recovery than expected. ...2 days ago
Analysis: As New Zealand eases restrictions, it no longer has international precedent to look towards and must decide on its own how to reopen the economy while reducing the risk of a second wave of infections, Marc Daalder reports While most of the country eagerly awaits a likely move to ...2 days ago
The Government picks Waitomo caves as 'strategic tourism asset' and grants $4m to Tourism Holdings, boosting shares another 7.8 percent. Facebook staff and alumni revolt over Zuckerberg's inaction on Trump ...2 days ago
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan NZ bestseller list and described by ReadingRoom literary editor Steve Braunias. NON-FICTION 1 Vegful by Nadia Lim (Nude Food, $55) 2 Stop Surviving Start Fighting by Jazz Thornton (Penguin Random House, $38) 3 So Delish! by Simone Anderson ...2 days ago
Anomalies in the policy for superannuitants with overseas pensions are an indictment on the justice process in New Zealand, write Susan St John and Dr Claire Dale Along with many others, the Retirement Policy and Research Centre has worked assiduously for more than a decade to alert the public, policy-makers ...2 days ago
“Our policy is what the Government’s policy is. So now we’re in Government, we need to do what Government policy says.”
Holding this position, can the Greens maintain their principles and distinctiveness, thus hold and grow their support?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/100569330/greens-risk-losing-ground-in-2020-as-labour-takes-their-share-of-votes
Why am I not surprised that you’re peddling a right-winger’s view of the Greens on this thread?
A right-winger’s view?
I’m merely asking a question.
Moreover, out of interest, can you tell us what exactly is it you think is the right-wing view being peddled here?
Christ on a bike. The Greens and Labour and NZF have discussions and government policy comes out of that. That then ties all three parties to a line – that might be expressed by saying “Our policy is what the Government’s policy is. So now we’re in Government, we need to do what Government policy says”
It’s really not that hard, is it?
Not saying it’s good and not saying it’s healthy. I think coalitions are dog breakfast affairs and reckon we’d be far better served having a Fixed Term Parliament Act that did away with the need for coalitions.
But in the meantime, the Greens put forward their priorities in discussions and they get however far with them and then toe the agreed line afterwards.
“The Greens and Labour and NZF have discussions and government policy comes out of that. That then ties all three parties to a line – that might be expressed by saying ‘Our policy is what the Government’s policy is. So now we’re in Government, we need to do what Government policy says'”
In that regard, the thing is, with the Greens being merely a support partner, they don’t have to tow the party line. As shown by their opposing position on the TPP.
Therefore, if Government policy fails to live up to Green Party principle, should they really be spouting such a line (our policy is what the Government’s policy is. So now we’re in Government, we need to do what Government policy says)? And won’t doing so risk costing them support?
Well, I’m not sure where the different lines would run in terms of when they are expected to be more than merely a support partner in terms of public perception (in areas where they have ministerial positions?).
And sure, given the nature of coalitions, the smaller always winds up orbiting the larger. So NZF and the Greens will be being constantly eclipsed by NZ Labour.
Like I’ve been saying on and off for quite some time now, we’d be much better served having a Fixed Term Parliament Act that gave full voice and agency to smaller parties.
Prime Minister Ardern was weak on this herself even in late December.
She was clear that there is no process for differing from the Cabinet line – neither the media nor the public are ready for major dissent., managed or unmanaged. TBH neither would I be if it happened too often.
I think the left broadly will remain patient with Coalition dissent if they really roll out the goods consistently.
For some reason this seems appropriate:
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
Showing your age there Puckish.
Some things never go out of fashion 😉
“Some things never go out of fashion” 😉
PR – Like a lying foreign agent like john key?
Actually this lot are far less racist than the last lot, so bit of a fail their Puckish Rouge.
Only real problem I’m seeing is the slowness of some tory mp’s in setting up electoral offices.
Did anyone tell Denise Lee she won the election months ago, and part of her job is to have an electorate office. Or do we have another local body politician transfer to being an MP who is going to do bugger all?
No like she cost the city of Auckland more money in a by election or anything….
Someone with a chinese sounding name might disagree with you on that point
And your mate Denise?
?
PR you are simply wasting our time so find another branch to perch on and shit.
Quote, quote, quote of the week.
Thanks for the giggle cleangreen.
I see Iceland has passed a law where companies are required to prove that there is equal pay for equal work to deal with the gender gap.
We could either talk about the gender gap for the next 20 years or just pass a similar law. It’s 2018 after all.
Should have no problem getting it passed – after all many deny it is an issue so they can see it as redundant legislation. And what better way to improve our economic performance
Is this in our best interest? Or is it another step towards us becoming tenants in our own land?
The sale of a Canterbury dairy farm for more than $17 million to a company owned by the Canadian government has been approved by the Overseas Investment Office (OIO).
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/100543602/canterbury-farm-sold-for-17m-to-canadian-government-approved-by-overseas-investment-office
The short answer is to stop foreign land sales and wind up the OIO. It has not credibly served the public interest.
The bit that seems ironic to me is, if the NZ government bought that farm there would be great screams and outrage from the right about NATIONALISATION. But it is OK then for a foreign government to buy it, no doubt for the benefit of the people of that country.
Also not a worry, for the benefit of the people of that country they are planning to go ahead and pollute this country further by increasing the herd size by 400 cows.
All future land and asset sales should be bought by companies created by the NZ government,
“The bit that seems ironic to me is” that if this had happened in August last year it would have been reported immediately and the Labour, Green and New Zealand First parties would have been spraying bile all over the place.
Didn’t they promise that this was going to STOP?
No New Zealand land would be allowed to be sold to those bloody foreigners.
Now look how quiet they all are. Nothing to see here. Time to move on. Their only real complaint is going to be why this was announced at all.
It’s on the road to NZers becoming serfs – as planned by the capitalists.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018628288
Here is a scandal. …. Tiwai smelter toxic waste “stockpiled” around southland … “sold” to another company, went bust recievers walked away, tip of an iceburg it is thought.
Sounds like par for the course. Capitalists never take responsibility for their actions and always lump the costs upon society.
Issue of rail transportation to lower the climate change emissions and make our truck gridlocked roads safer with far less truck accidents and deaths.
Just released today by our NGO to the Labour lead government today.
Public COMMUNITY letter;
16th January. 2018.
Dear Ministers, – IMPORTANT This was a social blog sent today for your consideration ahead of your first 100 days summary coming soon.
Labour Government in their last term in 2008 bought the rail back for us all to run an efficient rail service and to reduce truck freight and lower climate change affects while making the roads safer with less truck gridlocked roads and make our air quality cleaner ion our cities.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/12/14/68554/analysis-debt-anchor-dragging-labour-into-ppps
“Earlier, Robertson said the Government had identified a number of capital pressures that had built up over a significant number of years and it was looking at ways to fund urban infrastructure in Auckland, which would include rail, roading and housing infrastructure.” (QUOTE)
Bernard Hickey WHO is the Managing Editor of Newsroom Pro and writes about politics and economics from the Parliamentary Press Gallery in Wellington
Grant Robinson said;
“We have made it clear we are looking at a variety of funding instruments there — infrastructure bonds, partnership with the private sector to develop the transport and housing infrastructure that is required to allow us to make that growth sustainable,” he said.
“We are looking at some innovative financing mechanisms in those areas.”
So we call now on the new Labour coalition now since we are reaching our first 100 days we do need the Labour lead government to reopen all regional rail systems to begin making their safety and climate change policies realty to work for our health and welfare and our environment please!!!!!!
Use the evidence in the new found EY (Ernest Young) rail report on the ‘Value of rail in NZ’ as your evidence to complete the move back to rail now as we need this urgently.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/99257012/rail-has-saved-new-zealand-15b-a-year-study-shows
We have seen or heard nothing about this very important study since that time when it was released by Labour to the press, so the time is now clearly to use this report national party had hidden to use to justify the funding of regional rail services urgently needed now.
Pretty interesting set of Twitter feeds around Margaret Attwood’s reasonably mild critique of #MeToo:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/15/margaret-atwood-feminist-backlash-metoo
Personally she is one of my favourite all time authors with a grand dystopian mind, so I found it important to see where she positions herself.
I just find it very hard to take anything seriously most actors have to say on this or others things tbh
Hollywood Studio District: last liberal enclave of the world.
http://www.hsdnc.org/
Actors?
Just finished Atwood’s The Penelopiad. Good book.
She is, shes thought provoking but also writes in an entertaining and accessible manner.
But the whole thing with Hollywood is just a giant joke, how many of the same actors that are now talking (both male and female) knew all about whats going on but kept quiet
But look at who they go after, or rather who they don’t and ask yourself how is that Woody Allen is still adored and gets all the big names in his movies even though the allegations against him have a lot more substance than most
https://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/an-open-letter-from-dylan-farrow/
Or how Roman Polanski still has supporters that want him back in Hollywood and charges dropped
http://www.indiewire.com/2009/09/over-100-in-film-community-sign-polanski-petition-55821/
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/23/roman-polanski-marianne-barnard-allegations
When an industry is run by predators who require silence, it’s hardly surprising that the people who work in it are those who can tolerate its conditions.
After all, this is how “free trade” is practised, eh: you remain silent about human rights abuses, and human rights abusers will buy your export goods.
But a lot of them are also standing up in support of #metoo
Given the opportunity, of course some of them took it, only to be sneered at as a “giant joke”.
By their actions they are known
Hollywood is run by corporate money & greed.
They (actors) are now simply just ‘stool pigeons’ for the corporate propaganda machinery..
https://pics.me.me/or-hard-young-rex-the-moment-you-realise-oprah-didnt-bring-30109510.png
Here’s the link to her full piece in The Globe and Mail for those who prefer source material over interpretations.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/am-i-a-bad-feminist/article37591823/
This and that. There is safety in numbers, but also danger.
Safety for women to come forward, too many for the powerful in the industry to example for it, so they have to accept change.
But also risk, women will share their various Me Too stories and men will fear being named. So come forward the she for he brigade who do not want to see injustice to men/a man.
In most cases it is not a matter of allegation and investigation for a court case (even where it was a criminal matter it is time expired or difficult evidence wise). More a matter of unjust impact on the careers of accused men, an irony as for near a century women’s careers (and some younger males) have depended on not complaining.
And another irony, for the aging males involved, most would have been retired off years ago, if they were female.
The balanced view is that, Me Too results in women citing all sorts of experiences, but a blanket response to all those named would be unjust.
But I think most of the public realise that. Most of those coming forward realise that, and most of those named realise that.
And given this is America, the usual process will be to confess (to being a participant in an industry with a tradition of sexual harassment and abuse of power
in the workplace), and seek to change (rehab, the industry and personally).
Celebrate the death of the old regime by wearing black … and finance Times Up and take the victory across the workplaces of the world.
Me Too is not a threat to adult behaviour and social relations, sexual harassment and abuse of power, over the objections of a women is not flirting – displays of entitlement end in partner violence and the stalking of exes.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/western-leader/99337178/resident-says-mp-phil-twyford-used-him-for-preelection-publicity-stunt
Well thats a tad embarrassing
Yes, imagine being so ignorant of governance that you don’t understand Ministerial conflicts of interest.
The issue is that before the election Twyford highlighted the issue and condemned then Associate Housing Minister Alfred Ngaro for not of helping Lilley.
But now hes in government he says he can’t get involved due to the conflict of interest
But its ok because but he hopes a solution could be found 🙂
Ngaro was too busy threatening people.
100% OAB.
Just biased reporting, really – although the reporter gave all sides of the argument the headline is a right-wing shocker
Jan, 7.2 exactly what we would expect from a right wing rag. They know most read headlines only.
Exactly!
given some of the comments of some of the meatless folk on here lately- here is a nice post (wIth citations) from sustainable table about the benefits of raising and slaughtering your own livestock
http://www.sustainabletable.org/248/sustainable-livestock-husbandry
No downsides – and you don’t have to become a boring repetitive vegan to do some good for the environment.
Your problem is you lack imagination.
Vegans eat healthy and interesting food.
https://www.thekitchn.com/17-of-the-most-delicious-vegan-recipes-we-know-231625
“No downsides”
Downsides for the cow.
Downsides for the planet.
And , (and this part will appeal to you) downsides for you too. A plant based diet is better for your health.
How not to die by Michael Greger, m.d. – animated summary
Wrong again.
You can eat meat without harming health.
The cows were already here – so no downside for the planet.
The cow leads a healthy happy life – no downside for the cow / or chicken / or sheep etc.
You did not even listen to or read Michael Greger.
It is amazing how set in their ways people can become.
You should read this book, it changed how i view things and it might do the same for you https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jun/19/highereducation.houseandgarden
Thanks for the link – looks like a good book. Ill order off Amazon this afternoon.
That was interesting PR. I thought this bit makes particular sense.
A mixed agricultural economy that uses meat thriftily and integrates arable and livestock farming – with the animals’ manure feeding the soil so that the crops will grow to feed the animals in turn – is efficient, sustainable and protective of the landscape. Moreover, the dependency of domesticated meat species on us would not end just because we stopped killing them. They would not revert to the wild; we would still have to be responsible for their welfare and demise. We could hardly abandon them to “tamelife parks”, as he puts it.
But our moral authority to kill animals for food can only be based on our offering them a better deal in life than they would get without our help. The prevailing system of intensive livestock farming is a complete abrogation of that responsibility. It is systematically abusive. Pain is routine, stress almost constant, disease widespread. We should raise and kill animals without cruelty and then do them the respect of eating every last bit of them, from crisp griddled pigs’ ears to slow-braised oxtails.
Perhaps we would buy a beast, as part of a food group or do-operative, and pay a farmer to raise it and kill it for us and take responsibility for our animal and know how it is treated, and how it is killed.
I very much agree with how heavy glossy paper is. The House and Garden mags that float around no doubt bought by women enslaved by capitalism, when gathered to be thrown out eventually for recycling, result in the banana carton being impossible to lift for one ordinary person.
Trouble is that everything has to be glossy these days, we deserve only the best style.
I’ll be looking at a beast myself later this year (in partnership with my sister in law) and animal welfare is top of my list
“It is amazing how set in their ways people can become”
I assume you are trying to be ironic.
Give this cynical shit a bloody rest James as you have simply overdone the ‘meat’ issue, as t has become so ‘overcooked’ (literately)
Howabout you talk about ‘real public affairs issues’ can you!!!
And suggest some positive outcomes issues as we guide the new government to make our lives better can you.
You did not even listen to or read Michael Greger.
I’d advise him not to bother. I only needed to read his appalling diabetes advice to realise he needs quote marks around the word “facts” in Nutrition”Facts”.org.
Being deaded is a bit of a downside jimbo. Do you limit your gnawing to the bones of the ones that die of old age?
Did Bill English refer to Māori as “someone else’s language” this morning? Heard a rumour.
Yep
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/09/bill-english-numbers-man-but-not-in-m-ori.html
I have posted about it
The Herald, to its credit is running a series of interview with scientists to look at the environmental challenges facing New Zealand (and the world). Yesterday they published the brief Q and A with Professor James Renwick.
In his answers to a few questions, Renwick outlined the severity of the threat facing the planet. It is not looking good…
The Big Read: Climate change – the best and worst for NZ
The challenge for the Herald is follow through. One of John Campbell’s great features that singles him out in the New Zealand media landscape is that he and his team at Campbell Live ( and now Checkpoint) stuck with a story.
James Renwick clearly identified that
The media have a lot to answer for on this.
We cannot control what John Roughan and the editors of the Herald do.
But we can certainly keep this issue prominent and endeavour to do all we can to confrontthe issue Renwick mentions – that
So what are you waiting for?
Let’s save what is left of life on our planet before it is too late. We have 10 years.
I found the article at:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11962099
Thank you
I tried to put links in the comments cleanly on FAQ and must have made a mistake.
Ed
You have produced some great links and important points here on ts. I appreciate it enormously and I am sure most others do also, so keep on. But just as a health measure note the point in Thought of the Day how laughter is good too. I think you should give yourself one day in three off the computer and do something different or it will grind you down mentally. And you are a valuable fact finder and activist here, so we need you. Do this and conserve your energies physical and mental ready for the next lot of stuff. And remember to put up any good stuff you see will you, and vice versa. We need to keep our fighting spirits up. I hope you will be advised about this.
And while I think of it I will just put up something again that we need to keep thinking about, which you yourself might have originally put up here.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/04/oceans-suffocating-dead-zones-oxygen-starved
Oceans suffocating as huge dead zones quadruple since 1950, scientists warn.
I was shocked at the image of all the little fish ankle deep on a beach in Chile. A fisherman is standing in and on them and no doubt thinking ruefully of his hungry family.
James Renwick condemns Doug Edmeades.
In my opinion, far too nicely.
There were people who denied the Final solution was going on, despite evidence, from 1942 onwards. Their ‘scepticism’ cost many lives.
Every time an Edmeades delays action by his sowing of doubt, he costs many lives.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs266/en/
Climate change and climate sceptics
Edmeades trashing his own credibility again. Looks like there’s a gap in the NZ soil science market 😈
Rachel Stewart on Twitter
Pithy as ever.
“Doug Edmeades: Why I’m a global warming sceptic.
I already know the two answers to that. He loves money, and is a moron. “
Very good review of Wolff’s book on Trump’s madhouse.
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2018/01/14/in-review-fire-and-fury-inside-trumps-madhouse/
A pleasant morning watching the sun rising over Singapore this morning from the 21st floor of the hotel (holy vertigo!).
It is a completely different city to the one that I last looked at in 1990. Talking to my dad in Rotorua this morning and he was describing the city state of hovels and open drains that he first saw in 1975 and it is hard to see the downside.
I do like the fact that these days when I have to travel, I can call up without problems, and that I can still stay connected to this site and my servers. It makes a hell of difference.
Pity about the weather during the day. Way too hot and humid for me. It makes me look forward to winter or even summer in Auckland.
Time to finish the coffee, pack up my gear, and venture forth into the open humidity. Debugging software interactions with hardware in the field is a sweaty experience.
I think Jacinda Adern would describe Singapore as classic example of failed capitalism, especially in the area of housing.
Always wanted to visit Singapore, seems like an interesting place and this must be one helluva meal
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/singapore/articles/singapore-street-food-stalls-get-michelin-star/
They live like battery hens in strange identical white block-like towers with numbers on the side. Singapore reminds me of a JG Ballard novel but without the fun.
If that’s your idea of housing success then I’m not sure what you were aiming for.
Enjoy – its a great place to work or relax for a bit.
The street food can be fantastic.
Having travelled a lot (waaaaay too much for waaaaay too long) as an IT guy I would say Singapore was always one of my favourite countries to be based for a week or two.
I meant to comment on this sort of behaviour last time you showed it. The need to promote ones own ‘success’ is virtue signalling for the right wing.
The barbecue gloating incident was another example.
You see – you call it virtue signalling – I call it commenting on a thread on ones own experiences.
And the BBQ – ‘gloating’ fuck your life must be miserable if you find someone commenting that they are having a BBQ with friends or family.
I hope you still have the former, but would not shock me if you were lacking in the later based on your miserable attitude to everything.
And portly.
James, what a mess of a post, and it was only 5pm!
I think you’d struggle to find support here for any claim your barbecue comment was an innocent celebration.
The reaction you got showed that other commenters viewed it as trolling and that’s what right wing virtue-signalling is; trolling.
A lot of commenters here don’t have large family units to celebrate with (you probably haven’t noticed). Others enjoy their lives with their families without feeling the need to broadcast it, so why do you? My guess is you’re overcompensating.
Along with your virtue-signalling there’s a typical self-righteousness, a lack of awareness, and a lack of empathy.
In RWNJ culture it is normal to blather on about your trips around the world and all the hassles you are experiencing with your property portfolio. NZ is a two tier society and the wealthy are insulated/ignorant of the extreme privation that their behaviour has caused to the rest of NZ
What behaviour from the wealthy has caused this extreme privation to NZ and for that matter who are these wealthy you point the stick at and what is the extreme privation that the rest of NZ are suffering ?
Maybe you should pay attention to the news instead of ignoring the uncomfortable bits about homelessness, suicide, unemployment, pollution, exploitation
I didn’t have a problem with his post, in fact i was a envious because it sounded like a good time is had by all
That’s because you are a fellow RWNJ and to you his virtue-signalling was like a mating call.
Yup no major envy going on here at all
Good grief how pathetic, NZ discourse appears to be going down the USA route of knee jerk agreement/disagreement with anyone deemed to belong to the other team.
Muttonbird
Oh no, not more RWNJays.
Very good 🙂
You quite elderly then jimbo.
Yes, knock off 10 degrees and halve the humidity and it would be a lovely city/country!
(Although I’d happily say the same for Wellington right now…)
I’m really not sure how anyone can live in those equatorial countries- I still remember the 2 day Singapore stopover 14 years ago and being physically ill from the heat, spending most of the time indoors and keeping the hotel air conditioning set to 15C!
This really is frustrating. The full power of the state thrown at peaceful protesters who attempted to stop the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair.
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/first-46-activists-trial-protesting-government-backed-dsei-arms-fair-found-guilty/12/01/
More court cases to come.
Time to stand up for peace.
I shall quote extensively from Martin Bradbury’s article today as it supports what I have been saying for quite a while on this site.
Read the whole article here.
Buckle up. This is going to be a rough ride.
All the canaries in the minefield are dead – the looming economic correction
Gold prices are turning up, but they’re nowhere near recent highs. If a bust is in the wings it’s probably a wee way off.
Looking to the future, if we go on with attitudes as are presently displayed, it seems to me that eventually we will become like the people in John Christopher’s the Tripods.
They were taken over by an overwhelming invasion and were encouraged to believe it was to their advantage to continue their lives as before, except just do what they were told. Life wouldn’t be difficult, but they needed to be calm and limit their emotions and to assist this they would have a ‘chip’ to limit their minds which was called a cap.
John Christopher wrote three adventure books for young adults around this idea, the first called The White Mountains. The trilogy were called The Tripods which were the metallic aliens in ships on three long movable legs. A TV series was made about it, very dramatic and aimed at teenagers and the young. But Christopher had thought about the way that reality would show in this scenario. I think the summary below expresses our situation well.
Like most of Christopher’s books for young readers, The White Mountains dramatizes painful truths about human nature and raises important questions about what makes life worth living.
Christopher believes that human beings are inevitably flawed, and that technological achievement is a mixed blessing in the hands of fallible people. Still, he holds out hope that strong individuals, bound together by a desire to protect freedom of thought and free will, may yet save humanity from its own worst impulses.
http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-white-mountains/#gsc.tab=0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tripods
I always wondered why, considering the adaptions coming out these days, The Tripods wasn’t made for the big screen
I looked at the various headings for The Tripods and it seems that the film rights were gained by someone about 2009 and then it didn’t go ahead. Then rumoured that it would 2011-12 and then something about it in 2015. But I couldn’t find more and thought I’d better stop.
It may have been a problem getting two personable young actors as leads, it may have been that it started off in the TV version in a quaint village with horse and carts and later one of the boys ends up in France with a Count’s friendship, but then he finds that the daughter who was nice, and the Count have both been capped and he decides to steer clear.
So there are problems for USA citizens who hardly know where some of their states are, if they have part film in France. And the romance line is fractured. And there are two friends so they need two young men. The future is uncertain, and ambiguous. The idea of the boys’ homeland being overtaken by aliens might be too scary for the survivalists in the USA.
I think they need to sell it to Disney, they can do dramatic darker stories than Princessy ones, or perhaps sell it for automation or comic-book treatment. There was a good one out on DVD recently drawn well, called Kubo and the Two Strings which took my fancy and this could be good like that one.
“development hell”.
It’s apparently sort of a limbo where scripts/treatments/rights get flipped around, redrafted, never get just enough cash to start casting and filming, but get just enough interest that people keep trying to push it.
I can vaguely recall the series so time to watch it again.
https://archive.org/details/TheTripodscomplete
Jacinda is poised to handle the next coming GFC it seems as her words of wisdom are plain here.
November 8th 2017 – we received this email;
With the opening of Parliament today, the Government began our legislative agenda. This is where the real change begins.
I want the way this Government runs to be different.
It will be a Government of transformation.
We’ll put people right at the heart of our agenda.
Every decision will be assessed on its impact on people and at every turn, our Government will be guided by kindness and compassion.
As well as our values, we laid out our policy plans for the term today.
They’re firmly focused on making New Zealanders’ lives even better.
We will fix the housing crisis, build up our education system, ensure everyone can get the healthcare they need, take action on climate change, develop our regions and raise everyone’s incomes.
The GOP tax cut secured, the Pentagon campaign for a major increase in defence spending begins. The imperial regime of mammon and fortresses knows the importance of timing.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11976004
A debased (4T in QE) currency, a large budget deficit and growing debt, rising inequality at home (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid they cannot sustain), a coming trade with China but dependent on China for bond sales.
Struggling to cope in conventional capability (in both the European and East Asian theatres), because of the vast spend up modernisation of the Russian and Chinese forces (who are constantly exposing this to them. And then there is the whole nuclear arsenal renewal thing … .
This is what the end of an imperial power looks like.
Of course the arrogant bluster of the sociopathic bully distracts from this reality, showing why Trump is just the man for the job. A buffoon fronting another round of tax cuts and increased Pentagon spending, and why not when it worked for Reagan.
What was the relative size of the USA economy to Russia and China then, compared to now?
Of course there is soft power – something Trump squanders every time he tweets.
I try not to get all maudlin and crap on about the latest doomycult news, but the idea that Russia has been making consistent advances in nuclear weapons, and the Pentagon wants funding to catch up with them, is just so OH PUH-Leeeze.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11976004
It doesn’t surprise me, it’s just a minor maudlin moment.
OK I’m fine now.
As you were.
Yep, that’s the shit that’ll kill us all.
I some how ended up watch this last night on the Australian ABC’s Foreign Correspondent were I was working on my reply to Ad’s thread on Climate Change and the NZDF before I head back into Hospital again for a possible Biopsy on Monday.
With the hard right in the US arming up and bearing firearms in open as they can do in a number of states for self protection. It appears that members of the hard left are taking up arms and bearing firearms in the open as well.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-15/redneck-revolt-and-the-hard-lefts-call-to-arms/9303758
“If Oprah’s the best we’ve got, this is the end of politics.”
Pye is brilliant.
My neoliberal neighbour has done what everyone does and underestimated ECO Maori . You and the red head Idiot from Tokoroa have told everyone lies about me and told them you where going to LOCK UP that Maori yes they are racist bigots Im untouchable NOW sandflies. You are using all the tricks you can dream up to make me lose both my JOBS who cares about that Maoris Mokos future he can go on the dole and set a good example to his mokos of where a Maori should be broke .Well get stuffed I have done nothing wrong Im not giving in to your intimidation Im not leaving any job . You people are breaking the LAW breaching my rights everyone knows about this fact.
Nobby spends all his time trying to come up with a sceem to lock me up I found something in my wallet that i did not put there he sits in his garage with all the hardware and software to be able to hack my computer to stop me posting but you can’t stop me from posting using my Phone. Every time you get burned
you blame me your mates siren dont phase me nor do your hoddy m8 you have contracted to use againsts me. All your bullshit just slips off my back like water off a ducks back don’t blame me for your shit bigots. I’v done nothing wrong or I would be in jail with all the lying accusations you have made against me.
Ana to kai
Yes the sandflys are still dreaming that I’m going to wake up and turn into a idiot sorry not going to happen. They had 2 cops who looked like the chief of police pointing a speed camera at me on lakes boulevard Tauranga that article about the house being built in tauranga must have pissed them off well to me the people wellbeing comes first. They are pouring on there dum ass intimidation tactics today the can kiss my_______ LOL Ana to kai