Open Mike 16/01/2019

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, January 16th, 2019 - 114 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

114 comments on “Open Mike 16/01/2019 ”

  1. Morrissey 1

    The UK Government Manufacture of False Sexual Allegations
    by CRAIG MURRAY, Jan. 9, 2019

    …. mud sticks, and the smear was used to discredit my evidence on torture and extraordinary rendition, and has been so used ever since.

    Alex Salmond is far more of a threat to the British establishment than I ever was. So is Julian Assange and so is Tommy Sheridan. Anybody who looks at any of these examples, and does not understand that the state will actually fabricate allegations and fabricate evidence to back them, is a fool.

    I know. It happened to me.

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/01/the-uk-government-manufacture-of-false-sexual-allegations/

    • patricia bremner 1.1

      Yes Morrisey, it is the horrible kind of political expediency.
      Or worse, what happened to a certain reporter in an embassy.
      Governments practice it to degrees. Here we had a unionist killed by a bomb, and in Britain a Kiwi protester went that way under the truncheon of a horseback Bobbie.
      Being discredited pulls political teeth, being sexually discredited by rumour or innuendo removes the chance of being believed.
      Being killed to prevent the truth coming out happens. It depends on the material and the power of the threatened.
      All governments have methods of dealing with opposition, most ok but some not so.

      • Morrissey 1.1.1

        Thanks for that reminder, patricia. The National government, in concert with the “Defence” chiefs and their usual media accomplices, led a campaign of lies against Jon Stephenson and Nicky Hager. I’m extremely upset with this Labour government bowing to those “Defence” chiefs and covering up the “inquiry” into the SAS raids in Afghanistan.

        It’s also worth remembering that it’s not only Saudi Arabia that holds the concept of “embassy” in contempt: the rogue U.K. regime at one stage considered raiding the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

    • dv 2.1

      Be interesting to see if the airline will let them fly. As they could be a danger to the flight?

      And the deportation could come to haunt them when they want to travel again.

    • ianmac 2.2

      It seems strange that such a group can get away with pretty obnoxious behaviour for so long. “Public Nuisance” if it was you or I behaving badly.

      • Sacha 2.2.1

        Pale skin may have confused the authorities. I’m impressed they eventually got deported on the spot rather than faffing around with court etc.

        • ianmac 2.2.1.1

          I think that they have 28 days in which to Appeal. Very appealing I don’t think.

          • Janet 2.2.1.1.1

            If they are deported ahead of when they were booked to leave the country ? who pays for the airtickets?

            • patricia bremner 2.2.1.1.1.1

              The Government may have decided it was cheaper to change their tickets than host them further lol.

          • Naki man 2.2.1.1.2

            No doubt they will claim they are in danger if they return home and Galloway will grant them residency.

            • veutoviper 2.2.1.1.2.1

              See 2.4 below. Unlikely to go to the Minister of Immigration, but they apparently have decided to cut their holiday short and leave today.

            • te reo putake 2.2.1.1.2.2

              Thanks for reminding us of last year’s news, Naki Man. I suspect it would be really helpful for these tourists if one of them could enter into a relationship with a National party hack and drip feed titbits to the media over a period of months in an attempt to embarrass the Immigration Minister.

              That worked so well in the Sroubek affair that the Minister was forced to, er, stay on as Minister.

              • Tamati Tautuhi

                We facitious comment TRP that’s the sort of comment you regularly get on Kiwibog.

            • bwaghorn 2.2.1.1.2.3

              They should have donated a $100k to the nats and got one of them on to the list .

      • Tamati Tautuhi 2.2.2

        Not serious enough offences for the NZ Police to take any action until it got to the media ?

        • patricia bremner 2.2.2.1

          One faced court after a night in the cells. The Police acted on a report by a Hamilton business.
          The group were met by Police and had to buy two child restraint seats.
          Why are you saying Police action happened after publication, when clearly events were published after court and police action. Your point was?

      • marty mars 2.3.2

        Lol – apparently they’re from Liverpool I heard.

        • The Al1en 2.3.2.1

          Apparently they reside in Liverpool and have UK passports, but listening to those vids on the news sites, it’s sounds very much like mrs brown’s boys to me. But who knows?

          I did read a report on stuff (I think) from an ex pad Irish who was doing their best to distance themselves from these tourists, claiming they were likely to be first or second generation traveller imports to England.
          Either way, not the best both nations have to offer from what I’ve seen and read.

          Lucky for them their old fella is the tenth richest man in blighty. He’ll be able to pay all the fines and cost with ease 😆

          • Bewildered 2.3.2.1.1

            There Tinkers ( Irish gypsies) ran across a lot of them on my OE, as per Hillary Clinton they truly are deplorables

    • veutoviper 2.4

      They have not been instantly deported but have been issued with a Deportation Liability Notice, according the Newshub report link below:

      When officers arrived at the scene, immigration officers were with them, ready to serve the tourists with a Deportation Liability Notice (DLN)

      “You have 14 days to appeal to Immigration NZ on why you should remain in New Zealand or 28 to appeal to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal,” they were told.

      Peter Devoy, Assistant General Manager for Immigration New Zealand, told Newshub that Section 157(5) of the Immigration Act 2009 meant temporary visa holders could be issued with a DLN on several grounds, including for matters relating to character.

      Simon Laurent, principal for Laurent Law, told Newshub the section of the Act referring to “other matters relating to character” could be applied if complaints had been raised about the visitors.

      “It’s open door for [Immigration NZ] to say ‘they haven’t been charged with anything but they are undesirables, we think they might have committed offences, they might have been disturbing the peace’ even if they haven’t been taken to court,” said Mr Laurent.

      Temporary visa holders could also be served a notice under a “criminal offending” provision.

      “That means they say that ‘we feel there has been criminal offending, the courts haven’t decided that finally, but we believe this offending has taken place because there is a weight of evidence behind it’ or whatever it might be.”

      If individuals served with a DLN were deported “there would be a prohibition on them coming back into the country, there is a five year ban,” said Mr Laurent.

      “Whenever they apply for a visa for anywhere else, or they try to enter some other country and they’re asked if they have ever been deported, well they’re going to have to say yes, and they could be stopped at the border,” he said.

      Mr Laurent said technically the Minister of Immigration was the individual empowered to deport someone, but decisions of this nature were often delegated out to appropriate level immigration staff.

      https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/01/rowdy-tourists-group-served-deportation-notice-may-be-banned-from-new-zealand-for-5-years.html

      The article also provides more details of damage, aggression etc in both Auckland and Hamilton – just astonishingly bad behaviour.
      ———————–

      Oops – almost missed these details at the end of the article:

      “Another member of the group, David, also denied the travellers were Irish gypsies and were instead English citizens in New Zealand for a two week holiday.

      But those plans now seem to have been cut short, with the group planning to head off on Wednesday.”

      So, if they leave today as now planned, that probably means that they will not have officially been deported and will be free to take their bad behaviour elsewhere in the future. In the meantime, what likelihood of their paying for all the damage etc they have caused?

      ——————-
      Here is a link to a TVNZ article on the group:

      https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/tourists-served-deportation-notices-immigration-new-zealand-after-incident-hamilton-burger-king?variant=tb_v_1

    • veutoviper 2.5

      LATEST NEWS on TOURIST GROUP

      RNZ News have reported that the 26 yr old woman from the group arrested in Hamilton has been convicted on two shoplifting charges of stealing $55 worth of goods from a petrol station in Albany, Auckland.

      “She was accused of stealing Red Bull energy drinks, rope and a pair of sunglasses totalling $55 from a Caltex service station in Albany in late December and early January. …

      “She was convicted and ordered to pay reparation in court today, appearing for a second time after the case was stood down pending an application for legal aid.

      “Ms Cash was described in court documents as having no fixed abode.”

      “In sentencing, Community Magistrate Ngaire Marcelle gave Cash credit for her early plea and took into account that she had spent the night in police cells.

      “Ms Marcelle described the night in custody as a significant penalty for a first offence.”

      https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/380201/court-convicts-woman-from-unruly-tourist-group

    • SaveNZ 2.6

      While I also think good riddance to the Irish travellers, the mind boggles why some disorderly behaviour managed to get them deported so quickly and the police and immigration involved without even a prosecution, while we have so many criminals living in NZ who break the law and actually destroy other people’s lives with their crimes and they are still here or their crimes un noticed for decades, often even being granted permanent residency? Personally find those that ask $40k for a fake job, import in 40k of crystal meth or give out fake drivers licenses are more dangerous to NZ society than littering and doing a runner on a meal from an obnoxious family.

      • veutoviper 2.6.1

        1. They have not been deported but may have left or may be leaving NZ today of their own accord. See 2.4 above.

        2. One of them was prosecuted on two charges of shoplifting today and convicted. See 2.5 above.

        3. It has not been confirmed that they are Irish (travellers, tinkers or not) and it has been reported they are from Liverpool.

        4. Their obnoxious behaviour was far more than “littering and doing a runner on a meal”.

        • Bewildered 2.6.1.1

          There Tinkers 100pc

          This not Irish or English to there way of thinking any way

        • SaveNZ 2.6.1.2

          If only more visitors and residents could be deported or asked to leave by authorities, after being convicted so promptly and exhibiting antisocial/criminal behaviour, we might have a much nicer society and many less Kiwis in poverty and our prisons not overflowing and shorter times to receive medical attention.

          Just a few high profile migrant criminals that are in jail costing Kiwis hundreds of thousands of dollars who ‘eventually’ got deported or are still here fighting deportation or not deported at all… Sroubek, Joanne Harrison, Ka Kit Yim alias Chris Yim, Virgil Balajadia, Gurpreet Singh, Faroz Ali to name but a few making headlines…

          Maybe if the government were more interested in stopping and protecting and deporting scammers and criminals who were not born here and trying to get permanent residency or citizenship, we might have a better society and not people queuing up at the food banks and living in overcrowded accommodation with so many people who do not deserve to reside in NZ, having the priority rather than the safety and fairness and welfare of those who do.

  2. WeTheBleeple 3

    Every time someone makes a dollar, speculators arrive to mess things up. It’s the fear of missing out that drives the pile on. It’s ‘competition’ say the business folk who, never thinking always acting, jostle for position on the gravy train; and fuck our ecology again.

    This is the plight of starving bees with newcomers piling on trying to make manuka honey.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12190479

    I have a hive. And to have this hive I have to register said hive. This means there is somewhere a central authority with the numbers of hives in each region. This also means there is someone, somewhere, approving the overstocking of our lands for business interests, again.

    • DJ Ward 3.1

      I’ve got an issue with bees. I have hardly seen any this year. Last year there was plenty. Not many wasps, only a few bumblebees, seen no frogs, or tadpoles, few flys.

      Im one of those people who let there lawn go to flower. At one property the lawn was still pretty short but was a near perfect white lawn. To me it was buitifull, but the landlord disagreed. This Christmas the lawn was a mix of white and yellow. But hardly any bees.

      The thing with bees is the don’t know about our on paper boarders. Unlike humans, not even walls stop them. So it’s not possible to ban a person putting bees on land they own, or expect those bees will not come on your land. They may grow a crop that needs bees themselves. The registering system is not an opproval system.

      We could significantly increase bees as a small Buisiness model in NZ, within co-operatives to enable products and high value exports. So registering bees is a good idea. Opposite to overstocking as an intent, it exposes overstocking, it exposes shortages and areas needing investment in small buisinesses in those areas.

      Somebody may have land that grows Manuka and the neighbor brings in bees to take advantage. How do you stop it? I may get honey from my lawn, and the neighbor sees that and puts a hive at my fence, themselves mowing there own lawn all the time, having no flowers.

      • Robert Guyton 3.1.1

        ” may get honey from my lawn”
        Wow!
        You want to ring-fence the pollen from the flowers that grow in your garden?
        Have you considered patenting the colour of your flowers?
        Some people might be looking over your fence and soaking it up with their eyes; exploiters!!!

        • DJ Ward 3.1.1.1

          I think you got the wrong end of the stick. I can understand why people who plant land for honey production only for next door profiting are complianing. I was pointing out reality is it’s impossible to prevent.

          Unless you make having a bee hive a resource consent event. You could create a Beehive Bureaucracy just for subservience to the state and protection of preferred landowners.

          I think I prefer the flaws of freedom.

          In my own lawn example, I would encourage others to do the same if they want to keep bees, as well as flowering bushes, trees. The mowed lawn is a desert. A lawn allowed to flower supports many more insects and the things that feed on them. Then it can be mowed and you get a great composting crop.

      • Ad 3.1.2

        DJ you should do a post on bees and the rural economy of honey.

        My family own a reasonable sized drystock farm south of Kaitaia, and most everywhere around it has reverted to Manuka. Plenty of very, very competitive apiarists up there now. And a fair few jobs.

        Personally I could see the family farm just hold their nose for four years and let the whole thing revert, then go straight to honey production. Much better return, whole bunch more viable, and good for the land.

        • DJ Ward 3.1.2.1

          Yes I watched a documentary a year or so on a family as you described up north.

          I don’t do it myself because I’m a bit allergic to them. My best friend has a close friend who is involved with bee keeping in an urban setting for himself as well as having worked in the industry overseas. Plus a workmate did it for awhile as well. So I have had quite a few conversations, helped make things, and relaxed in his backyard while watching the hives in action.

          I’ll have look at the subject, and a think.

          I’ll put something on, How do we get there.

      • Ad 4.1.1

        I miss Bill a bunch more.
        He was a grumpy fuck but he was our grumpy fuck.

        • te reo putake 4.1.1.1

          Too right, Ad. I rarely agreed with Bill’s opinions, but I loved the way he expressed them.

          • marty mars 4.1.1.1.1

            Where is he?

            Edit I think Anne means ed.

            • Tamati Tautuhi 4.1.1.1.1.1

              Really missing ED.

              • Me not so much but I was wondering what has happened to bill.

                • veutoviper

                  IIRC someone (one of the admin/moderators? ) mentioned in passing some weeks ago that he and someone else(?) were “on sabbatical” – but cannot find the comment.

                  My sincere apologies for snapping at you re PG – was trying to be open minded about other commenters such as PG being able to comment here – and then did exactly to you what I accused you of. Mea culpa.

                  • marty mars

                    All good – I did feel sad – but that was because I ‘made’ you and Robert comment to me like that not sad actually about your comment which was fair enough.

          • veutoviper 4.1.1.1.2

            I agree that I miss Bill’s opinions which I also rarely agreed with but they nevertheless were valid and needed to be considered even if not agreed with. But I do not miss his moderation … Less said the better, but I know it drove some people away, including me, on occasions. I have a fairly thick skin, but his attacks were well over the top sometimes.

            • te reo putake 4.1.1.1.2.1

              Moderation is always problematic, vv, and it takes a toll on the person doing the mahe too. None of the authors want to see people removed from the site, however, that’s often the best thing to keep the place ticking along.

              Bill put in place a really good system where we authors can keep track of moderation decisions and the reasoning for them. It means that when making the big calls on a misbehaving commenter, there is a record of previous attempts to get an improvement from them. That really helps with consistency.

              Each moderator has their own style, but I can tell you, it gets incredibly frustrating when people don’t take the hint. It can be really, really hard to be diplomatic in those circumstances.

              • veutoviper

                I certainly don’t disagree with any of that, trp. And I am interested that it was Bill who set up the recording system for moderation decisions and similar.

                From time to time I am a moderator/administrator on a worldwide blog of a completely different nature, subject etc to this one, so know from personal experience the problems etc. Each instance requiring moderation is different in some aspect to similar instances in the past, and it is a tightrope walk as I know. But I still stand by my comments above from observation and personal experience. But lets leave it at that.

          • greywarshark 4.1.1.1.3

            A song for Bill – here is Willie Nelson Always on my Mind.
            (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7f189Z0v0Y

            and a bit more nostalgia
            Crosby Stills Nash Young
            It’s been a Long Time
            (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVW9sOsXAjU

            And I’ll throw in Woodstock with lyrics.
            And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.
            (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g25DlXOWmMo

        • patricia bremner 4.1.1.2

          Yes, where is Bill? Oh Anne I see.

        • OnceWasTim 4.1.1.3

          +1.
          I know/am related to a Scottish Maori just like him. Much we can agree on, a lot we cannot.
          Could have used him when entertaining the family Tory faction Christmas lunch time

    • Anne 4.2

      Well, if he had learnt from his mistakes and played by the rules of the site he would still be here maui.

      • mauī 4.2.1

        He did learn Anne, as I stated here (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10-01-2019/#comment-1570382) and no-one disagreed.

        Ed was one of the best at taking moderation on board and not getting banned for the same thing, while others continue to be banned for the same behaviour.

        The truth is Ed was not wanted on this board by certain parts, and that is why he is banned.

        • te reo putake 4.2.1.1

          Maui. Please don’t be a goose. This thread has been pretty good till now and the conversation has been an adult discussion about what was a genuinely difficult moderation decision. I know you don’t like the facts of the matter, but the truth is Ed (and his many alternative names) never learned a fucken thing. For whatever reason, he just kept coming back, doing the same dumb shit day after day. Which is why he was repeatedly banned by multiple moderators.

          And, no, I don’t want to get into a discussion about it. Suck it up and move on.

        • McFlock 4.2.1.2

          Silence != agreement

          Important lesson to learn, that one.

    • Bewildered 4.3

      Bring back Ed

      • Ed’s trying to come back, Bewildered. Lots of comments in the trash from his sockpuppets 😉

        • veutoviper 4.3.1.1

          He tried a couple of comments on TDB on Jan 11 also, complaining about TS, but haven’t seen any since (although I have not really checked since). Wonder whether he has been blocked there? [Rhetorical question only … ]

          https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/01/11/3-under-the-news-radar-2018-so-about-all-the-russia-hysteria/#comment-449736

          ED says:
          JANUARY 11, 2019 AT 10:22 AM
          I was attacked and abused on the Standard for stating this about Russia.
          Joe90, Stuart Munro, Andre and Te Reo Putake are cheerleaders for war against Russia on that centrist chattering club.

          (A few other familar TS commenters also on that thread.)

          https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/01/11/5-under-the-news-radar-2018-the-brutal-occupation-of-palestine-brutal-saudi-fuelled-civil-war-in-yemen-the-magnitude-of-climate-catastrophe/#comment-449735

          ED says:
          JANUARY 11, 2019 AT 10:19 AM
          I was silenced by Te Reo Putake for suggesting radical solutions to climate change.
          The Standard has become a centrist chattering club with tints of Mccarthyism.

          LOL

        • Bewildered 4.3.1.2

          I agree with your moderation TRP but purely for entertainment Ed was gold, I know that’s not the purpose of the site but I am sure that’s why a lot of people come here, sorry not high brow but the left wing punch ups are way more entertaining than dealing to RWnJ like me😊

          • te reo putake 4.3.1.2.1

            Dead right, Bewildered. That’s one of the reasons why it was a hard call. There’s an old saying ‘no grit, no pearl’, which suggests that the occasional irritation can lead to a beautiful outcome. However, this situation felt more like ‘all grit, no pearl’.

        • Pete 4.3.1.3

          Is it to do with phases of the moon or something? There seems to be even more frenzy than usual going on on the trademe message board site.

          I see there the Prime Minister is lazy and is on holiday recovering from all the days she didn’t turn up to work , etc., etc. School’s out I suppose and kids have to occupy themselves doing something.

          • Tamati Tautuhi 4.3.1.3.1

            KIwiblog very vicious on Winston today. Laugh a minute, very disrespectful though, they have a feeding frenzy over there at times.

            They refer to Jacinda as SLG.

            • McFlock 4.3.1.3.1.1

              lol totally not an echo chamber. /sarc

              I don’t even want to know how they get to “SLG”, it just means that nobody else knows what they’re wanking on about.

    • beatie 4.4

      I miss Ed too. I found that his links were very informative. I think that his banning was something of an ego trip. (lefter than thou?) If you are not well educated and somewhat inarticulate , it can be really intimidating to comment on The Standard. I think it has become something of an echo chamber. Where are the working class/beneficiaries voices? I gave up commenting after a sarcastic response from Bill because I posted something that had already posted. James takes over threads with his bullshit and gets away with all sorts of shit. ‘Birds of a feather” etc.

      • greywarshark 4.4.1

        beatie
        You make te point that James takes over threads and so does Ed. To my mind that was one of his main disadvantages. his isn’t a place for people’s entertainment by the way. We might make our comments in entertaining ways
        and if you want to comment about serious matters and got put off by Bill, have another go with some detail and not just your moans about how bad things are and opinions which is what Ed did.

      • mauī 4.4.2

        I agree with you. Now with Ed, Bill and CV gone there is a large chasm with the ‘alt-left’ voice pretty much wiped out from here. Whoever fills the void won’t last long I suspect.

    • Morrissey 4.5

      Jesus Christ, mauī!?!?!?!?!?

      Ed Shareen?!?!?!? Hasn’t Ed been punished enough?

      https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/04/godawful-new-hobbit-song-fails-to.html

  3. OnceWasTim 5

    https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/380206/ethics-code-may-see-mega-ministry-contracts-lost-lobby-group-says

    Well done MoBIE – at last, and on one of the issues it faces. Lets hope it signals an overall change in culture.

    But what is Kirk Hope saying/threatening here?
    That businesses should only have to be ‘pretty ethical’, ‘pretty legal’?

    • Morrissey 5.1

      Kirk Hope? Shallow, complacent, doltishly doctrinaire. Utterly despicable.

      KIRK HOPE: China is an example of a rapidly industrializing country which is also rapidly digitizing. It’s replaced the fulltime jobs of an industrial economy with trading. That’s the secret behind the success of Ali Baba! One or two people on line.

      MEGAN WHELAN: [clearly dubious] That’s significantly less secure, though.

      KIRK HOPE: I’m not sure it is. We have to think about what it will look like. There’s a LOT of work to go on in the education system; our funding models, what’s happening at the secondary level.

      MEGAN WHELAN: Another thing with Richard—-I realize I’m sounding like a socialist revolutionary, and I don’t mean to, ha ha ha ha!—but he was worried about workers’ rights.

      KIRK HOPE: People will have more flexibility. They might want to take six months off and travel.

      MEGAN WHELAN: Yeah but not a lot of people have this option. It’s different when it’s thrust on them. …. Anyway, what’s the last song you’ve chosen?

      https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/04/megan-whelan-interviews-kirk-hope-jan.html

      • OnceWasTim 5.1.1

        Sounds like if we hadn’t had a change in junta from the gNats, Kirk would have been a shoo-in for Smol’s replacement as MoBIE CEO

        • patricia bremner 5.1.1.1

          We had a lucky escape, and the gNats china arm was ready to be installed.

          • veutoviper 5.1.1.1.1

            Off topic, but is Friday the big day IIRC?

            If so, my very best wishes and I will be sending good vibes for an excellent outcome.

            • patricia bremner 5.1.1.1.1.1

              Yes, and thank you Totally off topic but may give some a laugh
              Hubby and I turn up to pre-op hospital education session.
              After meeting 5 team members, we were given a ‘Grabber” to pick things up after the hip op.
              We were most interested in the talk about easy ways to get into the car.
              So we get out there, we successfully try their method.. Yay!!
              N packs everything in and we are off.
              Get home… where is the grabber?
              Oh heck, put it on the roof of the car didn’t we!! N goes back …no luck.
              We ring to explain. Much laughter from the desk. Half hour later, ‘phone goes
              “Don’t worry, it was handed in, and no-one had driven over it. The team was delighted to hear you were so keen to practice what you were taught!! Further you made their day..they had a right old laugh… see you Friday.”
              They already have my number I think!!

        • greywarshark 5.1.1.2

          I liked the warning of Kirk Hope that if the government was too thorough in its changes, businesses wouldn’t want to do government work. That is so funny.
          The whole trend for neo-liberals is to bad-mouth the government’s effectiveness and efficiency so that business gets to do and make a profit from providing government services, mainly by cutting wages and staff, and showing bad faith to the citizens in their dealings and practices.

          No way are they going to want to stop milking the government, no matter how it tightens its teats.

          • OnceWasTim 5.1.1.2.1

            yep. Well I guess we’re all the product of the bubbles we choose to operate in, and the degree to which we’re prepared to sacrifice principles.
            Seems like in Kirk’s case, and many others, principles come cheap.
            (That is until they don’t and it all goes tits up)

  4. Cool

    “The first video shows Chang’e-4’s descent into the Von Karman crater. The CLEP chose the crater as its landing site because of the crater’s depth. Von Karman is a crater-within-a-crater, and it’s possible that the impact event blasted away the crust and exposed some of the Moon’s mantle. The CLEP is using Chang’e-4 to examine the chemical and geological nature of the area, and to try and discover more about the Moon’s formation and interior.”

    https://www.universetoday.com/141197/incredible-descent-video-of-the-chinese-lander-to-the-lunar-far-side/#more-141197

  5. Ad 7

    Well well, the Prime Minister of Canada Mr Trudeau asks Prime Minister Ardern with assistance in the Huawei-China digital security issue.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12191245

    The New Zealand Prime Ministers’ office comments:
    “They discussed the detention and legal treatment of Canadian citizens in China.

    “Although the cases are a consular matter between Canada and China – as the extradition case relates to a Huawei executive in Canada – there are principles at stake that concern us all,” the spokeswoman said.

    She added that the Government closely monitors international developments which may affect the safety of New Zealanders abroad, but advice for travel to China was to exercise normal safety and security precautions.

    Earlier, Trudeau’s office confirmed to the Herald the pair had spoken.

    “The prime ministers discussed the detention and legal treatment of Canadian citizens in China and the need for all countries to respect judicial procedure and rule of law,” a spokesperson said.

    “The leaders also exchanged perspectives on shared priorities, including their commitment to promoting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.”

    Interesting to see non-Five Eyes countries such as Japan and Poland make similar moves against Huawei on security grounds.

    But for Canada and New Zealand, nothing like something as basic to New Zealand as Commonwealth justice concepts coming up against Chinese ones.

    Sooner or later Xi Jinping is going to have to bend.

    • One Two 7.1

      Japan and Poland…

      Both are ‘under management’ by ‘The West’…

      Values based foreign policy

      It’s a cover story…

      Any serious discussion about radio frequency networks would include ‘safety’…

      Not just security…

    • OnceWasTim 8.1

      Well let’s hope Petey Dutto and Scottie Morro and Grayo RIcho and Mattey Cormmo, and even Joolie Bisho and Petey Credo and Petey Gleeso, not to mention Ashey Gillo and Andy Bolto and Davo Speersy and Kerry Gilbo and a shitload of others are right in amongst it.
      Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie Oi Oi OI

  6. Bruce 9

    https://youtu.be/H_f9gpg4t6c

    And the big debate at the moment is some people choosing to ingest some herb thats been around and ingested since dawn of time. Gives some perspective to what really matters.

    • joe90 9.1

      Watched the video and had a look at what the wingnutosphere is saying about 5G tech.

      And of course they can’t can’t make up their minds about whether 5G is an eat your brain cancer causing mind control plot or a nefarious, deep state/google socialistic watching me plot. Or Jews.

      https://twitter.com/CassandraRules/status/961338157408116736

    • beatie 9.2

      Thanks for the video Bruce. I’m really concerned about this. I’ve just had a smart meter installed (against my wishes) and it happens to be outside my bedroom . Unfortunately when I read the small print of my power contract it allowed for smart meter installation. It’s all about the money eh? I have an autoimmune disease and over the years (25) I have found that environmental factors have a huge impact, yet Big Pharma rules I don’t believe assurances from the telecom industry that every thing will be OK, because again it’s all about the money and fuck the consumer.

  7. Morrissey 10

    “I feel a bit sorry for Theresa May”…”I think she’s acted honorably.”
    Mora’s gone, but The Panel is still bedeviled with bland and brainless blather.

    The Panel, Wednesday 16 January 2019
    Wallace Chapman, Joe Bennett, Emma Espiner, Caitlin Cherry

    This tired light chat show has been shaken up a little over the holiday period. They’ve rejigged the format a bit. And as we saw yesterday, Wallace Chapman seems a little bit more rigorous than Jim Mora, and seems to have at long last developed a backbone, in contrast to his supine behaviour in 2014, when he let he-man author Lee Child rhasodize insanely about how in real life “we all” want to see violent thugs like Jack Reacher torture and murder people.

    Sadly, however, the vapid chatter of the Mora era has not gone away.

    The first discussion topic in today’s pre-show chat was the vexed question of how to get boys and men to read books. This was the chance for perky producer Caitlin Cherry to put in her two cents worth:

    CAITLIN CHERRY: You just have to introduce them to Lee Child books!

    ….Awkward silence….

    EMMA ESPINER: [awkwardly] Ha ha ha.

    CAITLIN CHERRY: Well, he’s a manly man.

    ….Awkward silence….

    JOE BENNETT: [grimly] “Lee Child book” is an oxymoron.

    Significantly, perhaps, Wallace Chapman did not spring to the defence of the man he had allowed, unchallenged, to spout such disgusting bilge four and a half years ago.

    After that encouraging moment, it was back to the baloney. The subject was the Brexit vote in the U.K. parliament, and the Panellists competed for the most banal and brainless utterance of the day….

    EMMA ESPINER: I feel a bit sorry for Theresa May.

    JOE BENNETT: I think she’s acted honorably.

    Then he burbled that “it’s a KNOWN FACT that Russia interfered in Brexit.” Wallace Chapman demurred at that: “Are you sure?” And Bennett doubled down pompously: “Oh YES….”

    ad nauseam….

    [1] https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15-01-2019/#comment-1571765

    • greywarshark 10.1

      Morrissey you should put your name forward and suggest that they have a regular spot for a stirrer of some sort who might make some outrageous, to the bland,
      comment. There wouls be a circular wheel which the stirrers could hop on for a swing and be replaced so they never appeared more than once. And offer yourself for the first. That would ginger it up.

      • te reo putake 10.1.1

        Bomber tried that. Didn’t last long!

        • Morrissey 10.1.1.1

          He didn’t last long, but Michelle Boag will never forget being humiliated by him on the program. You can be sure she lobbied fearsomely for his removal when the opportunity presented itself. That opportunity was, of course, his display of lèse majesté in 2011, when he foolishly dared to point out the Prime Minister’s loutish imbecility in the House.

          Gordon Campbell, another eloquent critic of the Key regime and therefore banned from The Panel, wrote an admirable account of the censoring….
          http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2011/10/10/gordon-campbell-on-rnz%E2%80%99s-banning-of-bomber-bradbury/

      • Morrissey 10.1.2

        Been there, Shark, and done it. Back in 2013 I was an excruciatingly incompetent, utterly tongue-tied, nervous, giggling, useless Panellist. It was an April afternoon that will go down in infamy…

        CHRISTINE RANKIN: Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

        MORRISSEY BREEN: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Um.

        JIM MORA: Ha ha ha ha ha! It’s time to find out what our Panelists have been thinking about. Christine Rankin, what’s been on YOUR mind lately?

        CHRISTINE RANKIN: Well, Jim, look, I’ve been so busy working for the reintroduction of corporal punishment for the under-fives that I haven’t had TIME to do any thinking at all for several years now. I really can’t think of one thing to talk about.

        JIM MORA: [long, irritated silence] Mmmmm-kay. Morrissey, have YOU got something on your mind?

        MORRISSEY BREEN: Ummm, ahhhh, I’m going to abandon my, uh, carefully prepared speech about foreign policy, and comment on Christine’s failure to ummm, errr, honour her, ummmm, commitments to your show.

        CHRISTINE RANKIN: [indignant] I’ve been BUSY.

        MORRISSEY BREEN: Ummmm, ahhhh, yeah. Ummm…to paraphrase Dr. Johnson, I will say this about Christine: “This woman’s thinking is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”

        JIM MORA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! That’s very funny! I think he’s talking about you Christine!

        MORRISSEY BREEN: And that’s all I have to say, Jim. Um.

        JIM MORA: Short and sweet. That’s the way we like them on the Panel! Okay, next up, Lanthanide will tell us why he thinks a nuclear reactor in the middle of Christchurch would be a good idea. First, though, what do the Panelists think of this?

        RANKIN: [fervently] That’s a SPLENDID idea. At last, somebody talking some sense….

        https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-victims-rights-advocate-garth.html

  8. SaveNZ 11

    At last some sensible commentary on the issue…

    “However FIRST Union General Secretary Dennis Maga claims worker shortages are due to low pay.

    “There’s a reason no one wants to work in these jobs, their time isn’t worth the money and they often cannot afford to live on what some of these businesses choose to offer,” he said.

    He cited horticulture as an example of a sector which has the money to pay.

    “Horticulture is one of our highest export earners,” he said.

    “If you want people to do the work, pay them fairly, pay them what they’re worth to you and stop crying out for migrant workers to exploit.”

    He said New Zealanders are hard workers and they will do the work, as long as they feel it’s fair pay for the work.

    “It’s important that we red-flag companies that claim to have a worker shortage to ensure they’re not exploiting migrants due to their low pay not attracting workers who already live here.”

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/rural/2019/01/union-fires-broadside-at-worker-shortage-claims.html

  9. SaveNZ 12

    The reality is that we have allowed a situation to develop across practically every work space in NZ under neoliberalism of ‘subcontracting’ out the responsibility of employees.

    From hospital meals to Spotless, NZ has constantly contracted out to third parties taking a profit while driving wages and conditions down, to Chorus subcontractors going through 3 – 4 companies and 92% of these workers being paid below minimum wages.

    Then we have the horticulture industry with unliveable wages and temporary jobs at those low wages not attracting normal people who used to work there 20 years ago, now not welcome or they just don’t have the money to work there after paying for accomodation and transport down!

    Industry in NZ has become used to giving a cheque to a middle man to bring in 100 workers because it is easier (and cheaper) to do so.

    Part of the issue is the work safe issues which have become non sensical when Pike river is ok and work safe never prosecuted, but teachers are now responsible for kids safety at a micro level.

    Our laws have become impractical and as well as the appearance of cost savings and ease of contracting out responsibility there is also real reasons why employers want to contract out due to impractical rules on safety and responsibility.

    • WeTheBleeple 12.1

      Absolutely. I have broken a number on farm picking and pruning records for kiwifruit, blueberries, grapes, pears and apples, and can supervise a gang to go fast alongside me. You want your crop cared for or brought in fast I can do it. I even love the work.

      But they won’t pay me right so they can sod off and whine about their problems elsewhere.

      Pot bellied pigs = NZ hort business owners.

      • OnceWasTim 12.1.1

        Yep @ WTB. You posted a video the other day (recovering from desertification, etc).
        In your experiences, did you ever witness one of those immigration raids on orchards?
        Not so long ago, even one of the cops (of long experience) that had to accompany a LI/INZ raid told me how bloody embarrassed he felt. He knew that the victims of all the exploitation were about to be tipped out while the perpetrator was just going for another round, and another, and another………..
        (see 13.1 below as well)

  10. SaveNZ 13

    I also don’t think it is so much as migrant exploitation but a cozy relationship between migrants trying to game the system to enter NZ and become a permanent resident or citizen here, when they do not have the necessary job skills or criteria to get in legally. Hence a plethora of ways, from marriage to paying for a fake job or paying to do a useless qualification here (often at a private institution) has emerged.

    Most of the migrants are not being exploited but are willing participants in it, so it has become a symbiotic relationship to make the NZ government grant citizenship/residency in return for a cheap or free worker , a fake course or a speedy marriage or child being conceived in NZ to help get the points.

    Some of the migrants are exploited but plenty have a clear path to try and get the permanent visa or citizenship so they can give up the pretence and have access to (by world standards) very generous social welfare in NZ.

    If it costs you $100k to buy your way in NZ but you then get 2 new countries to work in including OZ , free health, education and super and social welfare, accomodation supplements and child allowances and can bring your relatives in in many cases too, it sounds like a good deal for many.

    • OnceWasTim 13.1

      You probably need to ask yourself @SaveNZ how it all started. You’re not wrong about all the scheming and scamming in many cases, however the system we implemented (immigration policies, false promises made, complete lack of monitoring and oversight of tertiary education providers, charlatan immigration advisors with cosy little links offshore – “vertically integrated”, labour hire companies et al).
      The saddest thing is that it has affected the truly genuine immigrants with a commitment to the place.
      Any legit immigration lawyer will tell you the number of cases they have on file due to some or all of the above. Some of them have been screaming about it for several years and it’s only now things are starting to happen (SLOWLY).

      I could tell you of a number of cases where we’ve lost the skills and commitment we’re supposedly after because lack of oversight, incompetence and under-resourcing has enabled the genuine to be confused with the dross and scammers by INZ. I could give you examples where lil ole Nu Zull has lost some really skilled and committed people to places like Canada and a few European countries.
      I’m not just talking about horticulturalists whose green credentials are second nature to them, but also IT professionals, and even one that Rocket LAb would love to have gotten their hands on.
      Oh Dear – too bad
      but if only INZ, the Labour Inspectorate, IAA and associated had listened to a few people at the coal face (Immigrant Workers’ Assoc, legit Immigration Lawyers, Unions, etc. they probably could have prevented a lot of this and saved themselves a lot of trouble. They chose not to and kept with the policies and enforcement that just kept all the churn going – good business and a bloody good earn for some.

  11. joe90 14

    A bottom up collapse, and we’re done.

    .

    Scientist Brad Lister returned to Puerto Rican rainforest after 35 years to find 98% of ground insects had vanished

    “We knew that something was amiss in the first couple days,” said Brad Lister. “We were driving into the forest and at the same time both Andres and I said: ‘Where are all the birds?’ There was nothing.”

    His return to the Luquillo rainforest in Puerto Rico after 35 years was to reveal an appalling discovery. The insect population that once provided plentiful food for birds throughout the mountainous national park had collapsed. On the ground, 98% had gone. Up in the leafy canopy, 80% had vanished. The most likely culprit by far is global warming.

    […]

    Since Lister’s first visits to Luquillo, other scientists had predicted that tropical insects, having evolved in a very stable climate, would be much more sensitive to climate warming. “If you go a little bit past the thermal optimum for tropical insects, their fitness just plummets,” he said.

    As the data came in, the predictions were confirmed in startling fashion. “The number of hot spells, temperatures above 29C, have increased tremendously,” he said. “It went from zero in the 1970s up to something like 44% of the days.” Factors important elsewhere in the world, such as destruction of habitat and pesticide use, could not explain the plummeting insect populations in Luquillo, which has long been a protected area.

    Data on other animals that feed on bugs backed up the findings. “The frogs and birds had also declined simultaneously by about 50% to 65%,” Lister said. The population of one dazzling green bird that eats almost nothing but insects, the Puerto Rican tody, dropped by 90%. Not due to destruction of habitat or pesticide use etc. Pure climate change outcomes.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/15/insect-collapse-we-are-destroying-our-life-support-systems

  12. Ad 15

    If anyone is interested in the evidence being brought against Manafort, this article in the Guardian has the actual charge sheet before the court:

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/15/paul-manafort-robert-mueller-russia-trump-2016-campaign

  13. WeTheBleeple 16

    Poor Ozzies getting the brunt of Climate change already. Just too damn hot to function so there goes productivity…

    A heatwave will greatly reduce farm production here too I’d say. Only a matter of time. farmers ought to get planting. Fast growing nitrogenous species and crop trees they support. Get on it!

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12191268

    It only takes a minute walking around the city to see how bad all the concrete and tarseal is for heating the place up – offset it with trees, plant now for everyone’s comfort.

    • Exkiwiforces 16.1

      Northern Australia is feeling it atm, with a lack of rain during the “Wet Season. Darwin and including its rural area where the wife and I live has have the driest December in record since 1991. Atm we have had about a quarter of our wet season rain (about 300mm) which is going to cause problems for a number of people who still run off bores or use rain water tanks for storage. The gap between a good wet season and a bad (dry) wet season is getting smaller and some us are starting think this wet season is going to be dry one, which is going to cause issues this coming dry season/ fire season.

      From an environment POV, a lot of estuarine fish species have disappeared to deeper water and other main fish species have move further of offshore. The real sad thing is our sea turtles and sea cows have disappeared or those that have sighted are in sort of distress. It’s the same for our min crabs as well.

  14. joe90 17

    Move over Gilets Jaunes. Last week an estimated 150-200 million Indian workers went on strike in protest against what they describe as the anti-labour policies of Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party government.

    (I’ll keep an eye out but nothing much in English language media about outcomes)

    Right to Strike

    This strike, like the 17 before it, is about livelihood issues and about the right to strike. A new trade union law sits in the legislature. It would mean the death of trade unionism in India. Tapan Sen’s statement about enslavement seems less hyperbolic in this context. If workers have no power, then they are effectively enslaved to the firm. This is already the case in factories that operate almost like concentration camps.

    Walking through factories along the Chennai-Coimbatore corridor or in the Manesar area gives you a sense of the power of these new factories. They are a fortress, difficult to breach. Or a prison. Either way, trade unions are not welcome there. They are kept out by force—either violence or political muscle. Workers are often brought in from far away, migrants with few roots in the area. No workers stay long. As soon as they appear settled, they are removed.

    Footloose workers and harassed trade unionists make for a harsh work environment. The culture of working-class solidarity erodes, social violence grows—the seedbed of neofascist politics.

    https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/01/08/heres-what-real-strike-looks-150-million-say-no-despotism-india?amp

  15. sumsuch 18

    Trying to register on Kiwiblog. Why? I know little about life but I do know about fight. Resistance from’m. Maybe I do matter.

    You have a regular 100 comments, they have a regular 300. Everyone here has to be ‘correto’, in fact and opinion, they allow the whole field. A certain openness.

    My b.a. Christian brother is scouring-of-the-centre-of-the-earth sceptical of everything outside what he swallowed whole without looking.

    The Left regard reality as their bedrock, the Right have regard for fairy tales.

  16. greywarshark 19

    Are country’s getting loose with the ways they treat people crossing their borders.
    The Iran English language tv channel says that its anchorwoman flew to the USA and was then arrested, and no-one knows why or can find out where she is.

    There have been stressed relations recently between the countries.
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12191542

  17. marty mars 20

    What the hell was o’connor thinking???

    Labour MP and former Police Association president Greg O’Connor has been hit with a $150 fine and 20 demerit points after a member of the public photographed him driving on the wrong side of the road…

    …Last week, Mr O’Connor said he had no memory of driving in a way that would warrant police attention, and he repeated that when contacted yesterday.

    But he had been shown photographs of his car crossing the centreline.

    “I’ve accepted that I crossed the line and I’ve paid the ticket,” Mr O’Connor said…

    https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown/oconnor-promises-keep-left-after-crossing-line

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

  • Misremembering Justinian’s Taxes.
    Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I - Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
    18 mins ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Scoring 4.6 out of 10, the new Government is struggling in the polls
    It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    1 hour ago
  • Bishop scores headlines with crackdown on unwelcome tenants – but Peters scores, too, as tub-thump...
    Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    2 hours ago
  • Will it make the boat go faster?
    Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi The fact that a ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    5 hours ago
  • Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 hours ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' at 10:10am on Tuesday, March 19
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st Century The SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims Stuff Steve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 hours ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things on Tuesday, March 19
    It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    7 hours ago
  • New Life for Light Rail
    This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail  Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    8 hours ago
  • Why Are Bosses Nearly All Buffoons?
    Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    10 hours ago
  • Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6.06 pm on March 18
    TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    22 hours ago
  • Peters holds his ground on co-governance, but Willis wriggles on those tax cuts and SNA suspension l...
    Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 day ago
  • Labour’s final report card
    David Farrar writes –  We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how  went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promise The result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • “Drunk Uncle at a Wedding”
    I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago
  • Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • Gordon Campbell on Dune 2, and images of Islam
    Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
    1 day ago
  • New Rail Operations Centre Promises Better Train Services
    Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
    1 day ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things at 6.36am on Monday, March 18
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    1 day ago
  • The Kaka’s diary for the week to March 25 and beyond
    TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Bitter and angry; Winston First
    New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    1 day ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    1 day ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    1 day ago
  • Out of Touch.
    “I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • The bewildering world of Chris Luxon – Guns for all, not no lunch for kids
    .“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago
  • Expert Opinion: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
    3 days ago
  • Manufacturing The Truth.
    Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet –  is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
    3 days ago
  • A Powerful Sensation of Déjà Vu.
    Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
    3 days ago
  • Can you guess where world attention is focussed (according to Greenpeace)? It’s focussed on an EPA...
    Bob Edlin writes –  And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
    What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    4 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    4 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    5 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    5 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    5 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • There’s a name for this
    Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago
  • Echoes of 1968 in 2024?  Pocock on the repetitive problems of the New Left
    Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Two bar blues
    The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 13
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • AT Need To Lift Their Game
    Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
    6 days ago
  • Christopher's Whopper.
    Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago

  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    19 hours ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    24 hours ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Insurance Council of NZ Speech, 7 March 2024, Auckland
    ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland  Acknowledgements and opening  Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho.  Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau  My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says.  “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024
    Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024  Acknowledgements and opening  Morena, Nga Mihi Nui.  Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau  Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Early visit to Indonesia strengthens ties
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country.   “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • China Foreign Minister to visit
    Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week.  “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Minister opens new Auckland Rail Operations Centre
    Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Celebrating 10 years of Crankworx Rotorua
    The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee.  “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government delivering on tax commitments
    Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today.  “The Amendment Paper represents ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Significant Natural Areas requirement to be suspended
    Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government classifies drought conditions in Top of the South as medium-scale adverse event
    Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government partnership to tackle $332m facial eczema problem
    The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced.  “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • NZ, India chart path to enhanced relationship
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level.   “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Ruapehu Alpine Lifts bailout the last, say Ministers
    Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Fresh produce price drop welcome
    Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024.  “Lower fruit and vege ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Statement to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Speech to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68)
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Government backs rural led catchment projects
    The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber
    Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction.   Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago
  • Commission’s advice on ETS settings tabled
    Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Government lowering building costs
    The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Trustee tax change welcomed
    Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister’s Ramadan message
    Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness.  It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister appoints new NZTA Chair
    Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Speech to Life Sciences Summit
    Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology.  It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Progress continues apace on water storage
    Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Government agrees to restore interest deductions
    Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister to attend World Anti-Doping Agency Symposium
    Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity
    This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti.  Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

Page generated in The Standard by Wordpress at 2024-03-19T02:41:29+00:00