There was going to be a big public media merger last year. Not now.
The next step after they cut the public service is to go after subsidized services. Food banks. School lunches. NZSO. Media support like Maori TV. Discretionary welfare payments like hardship. Public subsidies of all kinds.
It's the Ruth Richardson pattern, and it gets noisy.
Arts and cultural funding in general is an endangered species in NZ. We're governed by a bunch of philistines (successive governments, not just this one). Sports and roads are far more worthy, apparently. RNZ Concert might be 'niche' but it's practically all that's left, and must be saved.
Besides, it's a sanity saver when the news gets too much. I'm enjoying it as I type 🙂
Their argument would be that around 800 full time jobs are involved and over $100 million turnover between whakapapa and Turoa. Governments on both sides regard anything that is part of the tourism industry as very important. Tourism expenditure in 2022 was around $26 billion. (mostly domestic $24 billion)
Also I think it may be a loan rather than a straight out gift? Could be wrong on that.
Regardless, in my opinion it's still corporate welfare. No business is too big to fail IMO.
I used to work in philanthropic sector and we joked about 'groans' because if any org ever got a govt loan they morphed into grants that were never payed back.
Yep. I am at heart a supporter of the free market. And while I'm in favour of governments regulating markets when it is necessary, I draw as firm a line as I can at the public provides direct financial support to private sector organisations.
please don’t pick a fight with another author, and the site owner/sysop under my posts. This is a difficult enough conversation as it is. But even if it had not been another author, taking potshots at people over this is just a big no. You know how to use your words better than this.
Bombers hits the mark and this is why I’m increasingly ambivalent about gender debates
Class: You can not point out that the demarcation line in a capitalist democracy like NZ is the 1% richest plus their 9% enablers vs the 90% rest of us. Oh you can wank on and on about your identity and your feelings about your identity in a never ending intersectionist diversity pronoun word salad, but you can’t point out that it’s really the 90% us vs the 10% them class break down because that would be effective and we can’t have effective on mainstream media when feelings are the currency to audience solidarity in an ever diminishing pie of attention.
Annoys the hell out of me when people treat sexism as "identity politics." Sex isn't a feeling of identity, it's a class, and a far more sharply defined class than any of the economic or relationship-to-production ones Bomber might feel are proper classes.
Your current ambivalence comes across Rob, which is fine by me.
I strongly believe people should put their individual energy into their personal priorities. This is the only way sustained pressure can happen to enact long lasting change.
However, there is a distinction between that, and advising others on where they should put their priorities (and energy). I think Bomber falls into that trap of demanding people to align, rather than persuading them to.
Yes there have been trans people engaged in the debate here on TS. There probably still are, people aren’t required to share their gender identity before commenting.
Maybe next you will ask what happened to all the feminists that used to comment here.
Not wanting anyone to share their gender identity here, weka, just wondering how comfortable they might feel joining the debate atm. Naturally, there'd be a range of responses, but there might also be a trend that speaks to the tenor of the debate.
With regards the reasons for feminist authors and commenters leaving the site; I just don't know. If there were reasons expressed and I'd read them, I'd perhaps know, but I don't recall seeing anything explicit. Can you tell me, please?
In the past moderation was looser and there was more abuse. That puts women authors and commenters off.
In the debates that meant a lot to women eg discussion rape culture, it was incredibly hard going and many women simply had better things to do with their time and hearts.
There's also the general bloke nature of the place.
There was a period of time where specific men (commenters and authors) caused problems for feminists in particular.
Some of the women here worked on the women's project for many months behind the scenes to make some changes. Lynn offered to set up a sister site for women. Two of the male authors took a hatchet to the project and the women just walked away (myself included, I didn't write or comment onsite for over a year. Ihumātao brought me back).
There was a period of time before that when we had women authors and commenters and I at least moderated to encourage that. Lynn looked at the stats at one point and confirmed that the numbers of women here had increased. Many of those regular women are now gone. That's true of commenters and authors generally, they do tend to move through. But there have been specific issues for women that in the end were just too hard to address.
Likewise, it's hard to trans people to be here. Not all trans people support gender identity ideology, or they support some rights fights and not others. Some rely heavily on the rainbow culture. I try and moderate to temper how trans rights are talked about, and there are limits on how I can do that. For instance Joe linked to tWig asking for the term autogynephilia to be banned. That's just not possible. We don't ban words and we're not going to stop people talking about a psyhicatric condition listed in the DSM-5. I would however moderate if someone here started using AGP as a pejorative against another commenter.
It's also hard for Māori to be here. Same dynamics.
Intriguing to hear about a then-proposed sister site. It would be interesting to read its proposed kaupapa etc.
The list of groups who find it hard to be here could include neurodivergent people as well. All of those folk probably feel the same about being in the world outside of TS as well.
I left in Aug23 mainly because of being justly moderated off after becoming annoyed at the continual non participation, socratic type style or reckons of one poster.
I maintained a 'watching brief', ha ha, looking at TS every day. At first I had a sticky on my screen saying not to post on TS but toward the end of my time away it was automatic to read only.
I came back in Feb24. What brought me back was the excellence of the female author, Weka, and the posts from female posters of all stripes on women's issues. Should this coverage lessen or the reckons on women's issues from a base of ignorance increase I will happily go again. Life is too short. I crave the exchange of ideas not feeding the basics. Just a personal preference.
I am truly grateful that some men are looking at the Cass Review. it's companion piece article from BMJ makes a good combination.
It worries me a bit though, that much of this stuff had been pointed out by females on the site in times gone past but has been framed, if it was read/responded to at all, as being anti trans when in fact it was women's rights focussed. There is a difference.
I read and participate on X Twitter. I value the men there who avowedly support the womens' rights movement and in fact wrote to the two I follow deeply, after the bad patch I was in after Aug23 when the womens rights cause seemed to be misunderstood, generally, by many men here. X has virtues in being able to be pithy…..like an 'appetiser' but the 'main course' here on TS is worth its weight in gold.
Women who support YOUR version of the womens' rights movement, Shanreagh.
In the UK, a Womens' Equality Party was established in 2015, well before Posie Parker set up hers finally (after several attempts, with paperwork out of order in previous tries).
According to Wikipedia, in 2022 "the party voted in support of a motion to back gender self-identification. Of the party members who took part in the vote at the party's conference, 138 voted in favour of gender self-identification, while 29 opposed, and 5 abstained."
The party objectives and the position on transgender identification are ones that many, many NZ women support.
tWig I don't think I mentioned any version of the womens rights movements or parties, just that I wanted to come back when I read Weka's posts and read the replies. I'll go away just as quickly, as life is too short.
I tend not support parties as such. I support the women's movement or women's rights issues.
I was aware of PoW but did not know about the Womens Equality Party, so thanks for that advice. I will look them up.
I would if I could, Molly, but I've been shunted, as you were, into Open Mike and moderation at the same time, probably because of my random vague musings 🙂
Doubtless you are correct, roblogic. I felt those same drivers resulted in much of what happened on Parliament's lawn at the time Trevor Mallard was going through his Barry Manilow period.
The protests were nominally about the requirement for people to be vaccinated if they held jobs that faced the public aka "the mandates". And then it became a hodge-podge of diverse protests without any coherency and shadow protests from people trying to get publicity for their own, rather unpleasant, idiology.
Adolescence and identity formation. Trauma there can manifest in many ways later on. Anger around being told what to do, especially regarding body-sovereignty, seems not to fade over time.
I too, am commenting sincerely and can't understand your response, if it was addressed to me – sometimes it's hard to tell with this format. If it's me you are addressing, I can say I'd never mock your comments because I believe them to be sincere and thoughtful. I mean, who could confidently decode 5.2.1.3.1.2 ???? Is that you? Is that me? Is that …? Who???
There have been Robert and I remember being the only person to object and request moderation after Sabine insisted that they needed to apologise to their family for "what they had done".
Yep, yep, yep…
Its all gone a bit Best Bets sister publication around here.
One of the problems for people in refuse to use evidenced debate is that its really easy to point out where they are talking shite.
What Sabine actually said,
And fwiw, maybe maybe also at the very least acknowledge that your spouse, your kids, and your family and friends lost someone they thought they knew, married, had children with, and then you suddenly told them that that person don't exist and please call me Joanne. While this might was a great relieve for you, it was the end of the world for them. Just to be fair.
For the people that understand the politics of trans widows, Sabine's comment makes sense.
I did moderate in that conversation, but both the trans woman Joanne and Sabine had useful views to present. Joanne is great, they know how to hold their own. Sabine is also great, she brings in a strong style of honestly held belief that challenges other people's beliefs.
That's what we do here, provide a space for robust debate and work through the issues.
Yes there has been at least one Trans person reading this site and I have commented on some of the anti-trans posts in the past but to be honest I don't generally because I am tired. One way or another I have been fighting these battles for most of my 67 years and every time it appears transpeople are beginning to make some progress someone comes along and blows it all to hell. As for those who comment on these posts, only Weka makes any attempt to treat transpeople as people rather than an enemies to be defeated and I am tired of it, so I just live my non agressive and hopefully positive life. It ain't easy to be honest
We are all tired. [deleted] That's honesty. Not an insult.
[your additional comment and my mod note both disappeared when I was putting you in the ban list and I think because you were editing the comment. For clarity, below is what was deleted – weka]
Molly: Ah. Honesty is a problem for all it seems.
[perhaps, but moderation and not being able to read the room are a problem for only a few. 1 day ban because I’m not willing to continually spend my time supervising people who should know better – weka]
that’s the second time today I’ve had to moderate you. Please don’t make it three.
In this case, it’s about the part of the policy that covers tone or language that has the effect of excluding others. JP was sharing personally and answering a question they are best qualified to answer. Your response was utterly unnecessary and can only be perceived as provocation.
Everyone has their own idea about what an insult is, and sometimes it’s about timing and appropriateness as much as the words or one sided intent.
Everyone has their own idea about what an insult is…
Agree 100% weka – you'd have to be a "flailing idiot" not to
When an Argument Gets Too Heated, Here’s What to Say
[3 March 2016]
If you go first in validating the importance of the debate and the value of the person you’re debating with, you will reduce defensiveness, keep things issue-focused, and greatly increase the speed with which you get to a mutually agreeable solution. Give it a try in your next argument.
Wise words, imho – particularly "allow themselves". And agreeing to disagree.
To “agree to disagree” is to resolve a conflict (usually a debate or quarrel) by having all parties tolerating but not accepting the opposing positions. It generally occurs when all sides recognize that further conflict would be unnecessary, ineffective or otherwise undesirable.
“And now why should we not agree to differ, without either enmity or scorn?”
As far as Women's issues is concerned I have have been fighting seriously since I first joined the PS when I took a case to the Public Service Commission on not being given access to the Public Servant on transfer allowances and pool housing as these were for bread-winners (it said this in the manual) and by definition also in the manual) breadwinners were male. I took a case for a review of policy of the Govt Super fund that only had options for a male with a dependent health-wise spouse and no options for a female with a dependent halth-wise spouse, that I had. My dad thought I was possibly exaggerating and when he read the policy etc said 'this is so discriminatory it will be changed soon'
And dear reader it was changed in 1993 about 15 years after I had raised it
I missed out on a job because 'what would I do out in the field if I needed to go to the loo?' My husband and I missed out on the entry into a ballot for a house/land in Northland as the powers that be decided, perhaps I did not know or realise I'd have to leave the PS. Doh. So men making decisions without asking the woman concerned and being paternal. People lower down in the pecking order told me about these decisions later.
In the years since we have fought the same battles over and over again. They are more cunningly hidden/described now.
We've been part (because we are women) of the idiot 'anti Jacinda because she is a female' league and now the league that wants to sacrifice women's rights to sport and safe spaces because, you know 'feels' for men who want to dress as females. /sarc.
Having studied Womens Issues to a Stage 3 level many of the debates recently are evidence of:
the continued misogyny of some men
the sometimes uncritical/innate? support some men have for other men and what they want to do. (Something I've not found from women who do not hesitate to call you out if they feel you've missed a beat!)
the desire to suspend biology in the view that by holding a gender recognition certificate, dressed in the way they perceive a woman dresses whether accompanied by chemicals or surgery, men by some 'magick'/alchemy actually turn into women.
So yes I'm tired too. Then I realise I'm in a long line of battle hardened women (mother/grandmother) in my own family who've fought.
Joanne – I am 6 years older than you and have been Lesbian for most of my adult life. In my younger days, trans people were very much part of the Gay community. At a time when sex between men was unlawful – "transing away the gay" was understandable. A few woman also attempted to become the men they thought they should be as they were attracted to other women.
That kind of internalised homophobia should have gone out in the 1980's when same sex attraction became lawful for men and more widely accepted in society. We all worked very hard for that over a lot of years.
These days – the rise of the postmodernist "queering" of society, and the emergence of "gender ideology" which denies even the existence of same sex attraction and maintains that even very young children have a "gender identity" which is entirely separate from biological reality and should take precedence over it, puts us all at risk.
The demand of todays ideologists that everything should be subservient to the belief in a gendered soul has led to the sort of backlash where the force teaming of same sex attracted people with the rest of the "alphabet swamp" (most of whom are straight) endangers the social acceptance we worked so hard to attain.
"At a time when sex between men was unlawful – "transing away the gay" was understandable."
And how would you, a self confessed lesbian, know that? Or are going to type out some more of your amateur psychology? Am I allowed to speculate on why some lesbians dress "butch"? Can I engage in some cod psychology on the motivations of the Gender Critical movement? Is that OK? I have prepared some notes if it is OK.
"the rise of the postmodernist "queering" of society,"
"gender ideology" which denies even the existence of same sex attraction"
"maintains that even very young children have a "gender identity" which is entirely separate from biological reality and should take precedence over it"
You have not provided a single piece of evidence for these statements which you continually make – You do have some stats right? Or an academic study? A peer reviewed paper perhaps? Some actual evidence and not just your assertions?
Some weirdo's blog post where they make a word salad that resonates with you won't do. Nor will an individual Trans persons twitter post.
So, as is the standard at The Standard I ask that you provide the Post Modern Trans Manifesto you are always talking of. The one which matches your claims above. The one which apparently dictates the lives of every Trans person and their allies.
What is ridiculous is watching you constantly using the phrase gender ideology. It was coined by that great protector of women and children, the Roman Catholic Church:
"The labelling of gender as an ideology was later incorporated into Vatican documents and displaced the ‘culture of death’ as the framework for understanding the threat posed by SRR. Ratzinger, first as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and later as Pope Benedict XVI, had a central role in the adoption, circulation, and legitimation of the term ‘gender ideology’. He had already been exposed to feminist critiques and politics while in Germany during the 1980’s as he expressed in the Ratzinger Report (1985), which, for Case (2019) contains the main dimensions of what would later come to be called ‘gender ideology’."
Speaking of tunnels it amazes me (but doesn't surprise me) that the Scandinavians and Germans can design and build an amazing 18km long underwater engineering marvel such as this for I think approx 10 billion euros,
Whilst we get an estimated price of potentially up to $45 billion NZD (twice as much?) for a much shorter and nowhere near as good tunnel option for a second Auckland harbor crossing.
Because crossing the Waitemata, smack in the middle of an active volcanic field in an area exposed to deep tropical depressions, is just like crossing the Øresund strait.
Having experienced a major traffic jam the other day on Auckland Harbour bridge, I sympathise with those who call for a second bridge.
But where do the cars go once they make the crossing? NZTA will have to bulldoze many houses in suburbs each side of the harbour so traffic can get to an arterial route.
Far better to avoid central Auckland altogether; it's only getting worse.
"Labour was wasteful" So let's splash out on mega motorways, tunnels, and unaffordable tax cuts for landlords on the one hand
But on the other "we are poor"
Austerity, public service cuts, collapsing schools, removal of fair pay agreements, cancelled ferries, worse public transport, failing water services, higher costs all around for the working class
Investment in transport infrastructure is neither 'splashing out' or 'wasteful' providing the investment has a viable business case.
On the Wellington tunnel, the government asked NZTA to 'investigate a Long Tunnel option for Stage Highway 1 in Wellington'. That includes 'advice on the technical feasibility, cost, and funding and financing options for the proposal'. Government investigates 4km tunnel under Wellington | RNZ News
That seems an appropriate approach, although as evidenced by your link above the project is opposed and supported by the usual suspects based on their particular self interest.
dunno Rob, don't you think that's all dreadfully obvious? I don't think people are distracted by identity pol or infighting, so much as they just don't know how to act any more. I was pretty disappointed in the SS4C for similar reasons.
I mean how do we fight dirty politics, social media manipulation, the disintegration of trust in media, at a time when we can't practice solidarity? So yeah, fair point about the infighting.
Yes it is well travelled ground, I don't have any striking new angles, it's just dirty politics continued from the last National regime. There are scurrilous rumours around John Key (again) but not sure if it's worth digging up that stench again
I'm being held in moderation – is this fair? Is there a justifiable reason? My comments are subject to decision by someone else, where everyone else has free rein/sovereinty to comment.
I put you in premod because of your inability or unwillingness to follow moderation cues and it was taking up too much of my time dealing with that. It’s easier for mods to see the comments and deal with them before they appear on the front end. Most moderation comes down to saving moderator time.
You are not the only one this happens to. There are currently four people in the premod list including yourself.
No-one has free rein to comment as they like on TS (with the exception of Lynn). Everyone can be moderated. Most people moderate themselves.
depends on who you think is royality. But generally moderators do what they do unless they grossly overstep the mark and then another moderator or admin will act. Sometimes we discuss each other’s moderations in the back end.
I appreciate the extra weight metaphor, that’s what I mean when I talk about the moderator work load. Atm, it comes down to whether I think it’s more or less work for me to keep you in premod or let you out. You don’t make it easy though Robert.
Seconding that validation of the worth/value of comments made by Robert Guyton.
A few of RG's comments might be considered tangential, opaque, cryptic, or otherwise 'challenging' (brain food, imho) – but 'offensive'? That's a stretch, although everyone has their own triggers and ideas/thresholds for what's offensive.
I'd guess there are no (zero) blogs, political or otherwise, that employ democratic moderation, for obvious reasons. Maybe AI will come to the rescue, but I prefer the human touch – seems well-calibrated here, warts and all, and (magically) it's free.
Sorry weka – I meant free to me and many other users of (the most excellent) TS platform/blog – sincerely hope it's not costing you, or anyone else, too much.
And a sincere thanks for the time and effort put in to keep the infrastructure and comments running smoothly – no doubt there are occasions that require frantic paddling below the surface! Re 'offensive', I was parroting ianmac, lazy creature that I am now
Christ (so to speak). Same day as the mall mass murder, a bishop was stabbed by a 15 year old while giving a sermon. The police have named it a terrorist incident.
Because the stabbing was streamed onto the internet, a crowd of hundreds of locals gathered outside the church demanding that the police hand over the 15 year old. Police had to bring in reinforcements before they could take him to hospital. Paramedics could also not leave.
Now there are people on twitter saying, oh well, the bishop was a homophobe/Islamophobe/cooker, so, context.
Seems likely to me that the Bondi attacker was in the middle of a psychotic break or similar. Just from the reports of his mental health history, isolation, and what he had been doing before the attack.
The police haven't said much about the church attacker, other than that he said Islamic words as he attacked. Could easily also be a mental health breakdown.
At the risk of further inflaming a hornet's nest, this thread is a wake-up call for feminists in America and other countries following them on the road to Christo-fascist Gilead
As I was helping my wife put on a hospital gown, we believe she started to miscarry.
That day is a traumatic blur.
After we returned home from the hospital, we curled up on the sofa and cried together, silently, for hours.
What I know now is, a D&C is a medical procedure — also known as an abortion.
I now understand how abortion is healthcare.
I also realize, now, we were actually lucky.
We were lucky to live in a state where abortion in legal.
We didn’t have to wait until my wife’s life was in imminent danger, or where sepsis irrevocably damaged her reproductive system.
tbf, this GCF was talking about this in 2016 before Trump was elected. There were leftie men arguing Trump's not so bad, which was a major reason for my series of Trump's Not So Bad posts. We (the feminists) knew what was coming and lots of people didn't take us seriously.
As for gender critical women now. The boat has sailed. There have been bitter fights online over this issue between GC women and lines drawn. The progressive feminists are outnumbered by the GC women who will do what it takes to protect women's sex based rights. For US women I expect some of them don't perceive the risk, others understand it very well and know that without winning the fight over sex we can't retain our abortion rights. It's not like if we all stopped the GC work that somehow things would work out. I learned the hard way that left wing men in particular will only support women's rights when it suits them. That's part of why so many women have so few fucks left to give (that, and the whole centre left choosing GII over women thing).
Just a little addition though a D & C is not necessarily thought of by lay people as an 'abortion' if performed to remove the remains of a non viable fetus/miscarriage. Tiny shifts of meaning/nuances make a difference. D & Cs are not only performed for miscarriages or abortions.
Abortions can be performed using the D & C technique and they can be performed using drugs.
The point you make is absolutely taken that the law makers in the US 'crazy' states will of course be using the widest definition of what constitutes an abortion whereas in places where abortion is permitted conversations can take place with nuances/care appropriate depending on the circumstances, for instance a miscarrying woman would not expect a Dr to roll up and say 'we're going to give you an abortion'.
The stories that came out of Ireland prior to 2018 with women dying of sepsis from retained products of miscarriages because Drs did not operate or mothers being forced to wait to birth spontaneously the child that everyone knew was dead plus facing sepsis. We don't want to go back to that type of regime.
From what I have been reading of the situation in the US there are groups helping women travel to states that will carry out an abortion. These groups have formed much like the SOS (Sisters Overseas Service) when NZ had restrictive laws. These groups supported women to travel to Australia by finding $$$, flights, accomodation and hospitals.
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Time To Choose: Like it or not, the Kiwis are either going into AUKUS’s “Pillar 2” – or they are going to China.HAD ZHENG HE’S FLEET sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks ...
Henry Ergas writes – When in Randall Jarrell’s Pictures from an Institution, a college president is accused of being a hypocrite, the novel’s narrator retorts that the description is grossly unfair. After all, the man is still far from the stage of moral development at which the charge ...
David Farrar writes – Radio NZ reports: The Education Review Office says too many new teachers feel poorly prepared for their jobs. In a report published on Monday, the review office said 60 percent of the principals it interviewed said their new teachers were not ready. ...
New Zealand’s economic performance and the PM’s vision Michael Reddell writes – When I wrote yesterday morning’s post, highlighting how poorly both New Zealand and its Anglo peer countries have been doing in respect of productivity in recent times (ie, in the case of New ...
Hi all,Firstly - thank you! You guys are awesome. The response I’ve received to last night’s mail has been quite overwhelming. It’s a ghastly day outside, but there are no clouds in here.In case you didn’t read my email and are wondering what on earth I’m talking about you can ...
If there was still any doubt as to who is actually running this government – and it isn’t the buffoon from Botany – then this week’s announcement of a huge spend up on charter schools has settled the matter. While jobs and public services continue to be cut in the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gaye Taylor As widespread drought raises expectations for a repeat of last year’s ferocious wildfire season, response teams across Canada are grappling with the rapidly changing face of fire in a warming climate. No longer quenched by winter, nor quelled by the ...
Half of Christchurch City Holdings Ltd’s directors and its chair resigned en masse last night in protest at Christchurch City Council’s demand to front-load dividends File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The chair of Christchurch City Council’s investment company and four of its independent directors resigned in protest last ...
The University of Waikato has reworded an advertisement that begins the tender process for its new $300 million-plus medical school even though the Government still needs to approve it. However, even the reworded ad contains an architect’s visualisations of what the school might look like. ACT leader David Seymour told ...
As a follow-up to the Rings of Power trailer discussion, I thought I needed to add something. There has been some online mockery about the use of the same actor for both the Halbrand and Annatar incarnations of Sauron. The reasoning is that Halbrand with a shave and a new ...
This isn’t quite as dramatic as the title might suggest. I’m not going anywhere, but there is something I wanted to talk to you about.Let’s start with a typical day.Most days I send out a newsletter in the morning. If I’ve written a lot the previous evening it might be ...
Buzz from the Beehive The promise of tax relief loomed large in his considerations when the PM delivered a pre-Budget speech to the Auckland Business Chamber. The job back in Wellington is getting government spending back under control, he said, bandying figures which show that in per capita terms, the ...
Yesterday de facto Prime Minister David Seymour announced that his glove puppet government would be re-introducing charter schools, throwing $150 million at his pet quacks, donors and cronies and introducing an entire new government agency to oversee them (the existing Education Review Office, which actually knows how to review schools, ...
Seeing that, in order to discredit the figures and achieve moral superiority while attempting to deflect attention away from the military assault on Rafa, Israel supporters in NZ have seized on reports that casualty numbers in Gaza may be inflated … Continue reading → ...
David Farrar writes – Newstalk ZB report: The man responsible for a horror hit and run in central Wellington last year was on a suspended licence and was so drunk he later asked police, “Did I kill someone?” Jason Tuitama injured two women when he ran a red ...
Muriel Newman writes – Former US President Ronald Reagan once said, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.” The fight for ...
Why Courts should have said Waitangi Tribunal could not summons Karen Chhour Gary Judd writes – In the High Court, Justice Isacs declined to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal to compel Minister for Children, Karen Chhour, to appear before it to be ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The number of voices raising concerns about the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill is rapidly growing. This is especially apparent now that Parliament’s select committee is listening to submissions from the public to evaluate the proposed legislation. Twenty-seven thousand submissions have been made to Parliament ...
An average of 166 New Zealand citizens left the country every day during the March quarter, up 54% from a year ago.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The economy and housing market is sinking into a longer recession through the winter after a slump in business and consumer confidence in ...
The government has made it abundantly clear they’re addicted to the smell of new asphalt. On Tuesday they introduced a new term to the country’s roading lexicon, the Roads of Regional Significance (RoRS), a little brother for the Roads of National (Party) Significance (RoNS). Driving ahead with Roads of Regional ...
School is outAnd I walk the empty hallwaysI walk aloneAlone as alwaysThere's so many lucky penniesLying on the floorBut where the hell are all the lucky peopleI can't see them any moreYesterday morning, I’d just sent out my newsletter on Tama Potaka, and I was struggling to make the coffee. ...
Hi,I wanted to check in and ask how you’re doing.This is perhaps a selfish act, of attempting to find others feeling a similar way to me — that is to say, a little hopeless at the moment.Misery loves company, that sort of deal.Some context.I wish I could say I got ...
I have hitherto been fairly quiet on the new season of Rings of Power, on the basis that the underwhelming first season did not exactly build excitement – and the rumours were fairly daft. The only real thing of substance to come out has been that they have re-cast Adar ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
“The thing is,” Chris Luxon says, leaning forward to make his point, “this has always been my thing.”“This goes all the way back to the first multinational I worked for. I was saying exactly the same thing back then. The name of our business needs to be more clear; people ...
Buzz from the Beehive It’s been a momentous few days for Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Court of Appeal has overturned a High Court decision which blocked a summons order from the Waitangi Tribunal for her. And today she has announced the Government is putting children first by introducing to ...
In 2014 former Australian army lawyer David McBride leaked classified military documents about Australian war crimes to the ABC. Dubbed "The Afghan Files", the documents led to an explosive report on Australian war crimes, the disbanding of an entire SAS unit, and multiple ongoing prosecutions. The journalist who wrote the ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – According to the respected Pew Research Centre, “In seven of eight [European] countries surveyed, the most trusted news outlet asked about is the public news organization in each country”. For example, “in Sweden, an overwhelming majority (90%) say they trust the public broadcaster SVT”. ...
David Farrar writes – Kata MacNamara reports: Details of Tony Blakely’s involvement in the New Zealand Government’s response to the pandemic raise serious questions about the work of the Covid-19 Royal Commission of Inquiry over which he presides. It has long been clear that Blakely, a ...
Chris Trotter writes – Are you a Brahmin or a Merchant? Or, are you merely one of those whose lives are profoundly influenced by the decisions of Brahmins and Merchants? Those are the questions that are currently shaping the politics of New Zealand and the entire West. ...
RNZ reports – It’s supposed to be a haven of healing and spiritual awakening but residents of the Kawai Purapura community say they’ve been hurt and deceived. It’s the successor to the former Centrepoint commune, and has been on the bush block opposite Albany shopping centre since 2008. It ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. Usually we have a video chat to go with this wrap, but were unable to do one this week. We’ll be back next week.Several reports ...
The Transport Minister has set a hard 'fiscal envelope' of $6.54 billion for transport capital spending. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The economy is settling into a state of suspended animation as the Government’s funding freezes and job cuts chill confidence and combine with stubbornly high interest rates to ...
To be precise, the term “anti- Zionism” refers to (a) criticism of the political movement that created a modern Jewish state on the historical land of Israel, and to (b)the subjugation of Palestinians by the Israeli state. By contrast, the term “anti-Semitism” means bigotry and racism directed at Jewish people, ...
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler Because hurricanes are one of the big-ticket weather disasters that humanity has to face, climate misinformers spend a lot of effort muddying the waters on whether climate change is making hurricanes more damaging. With the official start to the hurricane ...
Yesterday the Mayor released what he calls his “plan to save public transport” which is part of his final proposal for the Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP). This comes following consultation on the draft version that occurred in March which showed, once again, that people want more done on transport, especially ...
And it's a pleasure that I have knownAnd it's a treasure that I have gainedAotearoa’s coalition government is fragile. It’s held together by the obsequious sycophancy of Christopher Luxon, who willingly contorts his party into the fringe positions of his junior coalition partners and is unwilling to contradict them. The ...
The Select Committee hearing submissions on the fast-track consenting legislation is starting to become a beat-up of regional councils. The inflexibility and slow workings of the Councils were prominent in two submissions yesterday. One, from the Coromandel Marine Farmers Association, simply said that the Waikato Regional Council’s planning decisions were ...
Back in April, the High Court surprised everyone by ruling that Ministers are above the law, at least as far as the Waitangi Tribunal is concerned. The reason for this ruling was "comity" - the idea that the different branches of government shouldn't interfere with each other's functions. Which makes ...
Buzz from the BeehiveTolling was mentioned when Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced the government was re-introducing the Roads of National Significance (RoNS) programme, with 15 “crucial” projects to support economic growth and regional development across New Zealand. All RoNS would be four-laned, grade-separated highways, and all funding, financing, and ...
or the past 14 years, ever since the Spanish government cheated on an autonomy deal, Catalonia has reliably given pro-independence parties a majority of seats in their regional parliament. But now that seems to be over. Catalans went to the polls yesterday, and stripped the Catalan parties of their majority. ...
David Farrar writes – Radio NZ report: Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins said the Electoral Commission should make sure the system ran smoothly and “taking away the right of thousands of people to vote” was not the answer. “Thousands of people enroled and voted on the day. If ...
Don Brash writes – There was a rather revealing headline in the Herald on Sunday today (12 May). It read “One in 8 Auckland homes on market were bought during boom, may now sell for loss”. The first line of text noted that “New data shows one in ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – At a time when universities are understandably nervous regarding the establishment of the University Advisory Group (UAG) and the Science System Advisory Group (SSAG) it may seem strange – or even fool-hardy – to state that there are long-standing issues in the tertiary sector ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – A lack of perspective can make something quite large or important seem small or irrelevant. Against a backdrop of high-profile, negative statistics it is easy to overlook the positive. For instance, the fact that 64 percent of Maori are employed is rarely reported. For ...
Earlier this year, the Herald ran a series of articles amounting to a sustained campaign against raised pedestrian crossings, by reporter Bernard Orsman. A key part of that campaign concerned the raised crossings being installed as part of the Pt Chevalier to Westmere project, with at least 10 articles over ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 19 include:PM Christopher Luxon is expected to hold his weekly post-cabinet news conference at 4:00pm on Monday.Parliament is not sitting this week. It resumes next week for a two-week sitting session up to and ...
Hi,Thanks to all the beautiful Worms who came to the LA Webworm popup on Saturday.It was a way to celebrate the online store we launched last week — and it was super special.As I talk about a lot, I really value our community here — and it was a BLAST ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, May 5, 2024 thru Sat, May 11, 2024. (Unfortunate) Story of the week "Grief that stops at despair is an ending that I and many others, most notably ...
The Government’s introduction of legislation that would enable landlords to end tenancies with no reason marks a dark day for the 1.4 million people who rent their home in Aotearoa. ...
The Minister for Mental Health has found the Suicide Prevention Office and mental health support for 111 calls slipping through his fingers, says Labour spokesperson for Mental Health Ingrid Leary. ...
Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
"On the 27th of March, I sought assurances from the Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs, that the Department’s correct processes and policies had been followed in regards to a passport application which received media attention,” says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. “I raised my concerns after being ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges, to replace Judges who have recently retired. Peter James Davey of Auckland has been appointed a District Court Judge with a jury jurisdiction to be based at Whangarei. Mr Davey initially started work as a law clerk/solicitor with ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is calling on the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) to put ideology to the side and focus on students’ learning, in reaction to the union holding paid teacher meetings across New Zealand about charter schools. “The PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly today announced the appointment of Craig Stobo as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Mr Stobo takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April. Mr Stobo’s appointment is for a five-year term. “The FMA plays ...
Surf Life Saving New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand will continue to be able to keep people safe in, on, and around the water following a funding boost of $63.644 million over four years, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “Heading to the beach for ...
New Zealand and Tuvalu have reaffirmed their close relationship, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand is committed to working with Tuvalu on a shared vision of resilience, prosperity and security, in close concert with Australia,” says Mr Peters, who last visited Tuvalu in 2019. “It is my pleasure ...
New Zealand is gravely concerned about the situation in New Caledonia, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The escalating situation and violent protests in Nouméa are of serious concern across the Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “The immediate priority must be for all sides to take steps to de-escalate the ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met today with Samoa’s O le Ao o le Malo, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, who is making a State Visit to New Zealand. “His Highness and I reflected on our two countries’ extensive community links, with Samoan–New Zealanders contributing to all areas of our national ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced that he has approved Waiheke Island ferry operator Island Direct to be eligible for SuperGold Card funding, paving the way for a commercial agreement to bring the operator into the scheme. “Island Direct started operating in November 2023, offering an additional option for people ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today announced further sanctions on 28 individuals and 14 entities providing military and strategic support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Russia is directly supported by its military-industrial complex in its illegal aggression against Ukraine, attacking its sovereignty and territorial integrity. New Zealand condemns all entities and ...
A year on from the tragedy at Loafers Lodge, the Government is working hard to improve building fire safety, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “I want to share my sincere condolences with the families and friends of the victims on the anniversary of the tragic fire at Loafers ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for having me here in the lead up to my Government’s first Budget. Before I get started can I acknowledge: Simon Bridges – Auckland Business Chamber CEO. Steve Jurkovich – Kiwibank CEO. Kids born ...
New Zealand and Vanuatu will enhance collaboration on issues of mutual interest, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “It is important to return to Port Vila this week with a broad, high-level political delegation which demonstrates our deep commitment to New Zealand’s relationship with Vanuatu,” Mr Peters says. “This ...
Minister for Land Information, Chris Penk will travel to Peru this week to represent New Zealand at a meeting of trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific region on behalf of Trade Minister Todd McClay. The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade meeting will be held on 17-18 May ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford will head to the United Kingdom this week to participate in the 22nd Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) and the 2024 Education World Forum (EWF). “I am looking forward to sharing this Government’s education priorities, such as introducing a knowledge-rich curriculum, implementing an evidence-based ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford has today thanked outgoing New Zealand Qualifications Authority Chair, Hon Tracey Martin. “Tracey Martin tendered her resignation late last month in order to take up a new role,” Ms Stanford says. Ms Martin will relinquish the role of Chair on 10 May and current Deputy ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and President Emmanuel Macron of France today announced a new non-governmental organisation, the Christchurch Call Foundation, to coordinate the Christchurch Call’s work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. This change gives effect to the outcomes of the November 2023 Call Leaders’ Summit, ...
Distinguished public servant and former diplomat Sir Maarten Wevers will lead the independent review into the disability support services administered by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. The review was announced by Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston a fortnight ago to examine what could be done to strengthen the ...
Today’s announcement by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster of a National Gang Unit and district Gang Disruption Units will help deliver on the coalition Government’s pledge to restore law and order and crack down on criminal gangs, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. “The National Gang Unit and Gang Disruption Units will ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today expressed regret at North Korea’s aggressive rhetoric towards New Zealand and its international partners. “New Zealand proudly stands with the international community in upholding the rules-based order through its monitoring and surveillance deployments, which it has been regularly doing alongside partners since 2018,” Mr ...
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies MNZM is the new Chief of Defence Force, Defence Minister Judith Collins announced today. The Chief of Defence Force commands the Navy, Army and Air Force and is the principal military advisor to the Defence Minister and other Ministers with relevant portfolio responsibilities in the defence ...
Legislation to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has been introduced to Parliament. The Bill’s introduction reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the safety of children in care, says Minister for Children, Karen Chhour. “While section 7AA was introduced with good intentions, it creates a conflict for Oranga ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week travel to the UK and Italy to meet with her defence counterparts, and to attend Battles of Cassino commemorations. “I am humbled to be able to represent the New Zealand Government in Italy at the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of what was ...
The upcoming Budget will include funding for up to 50 charter schools to help lift declining educational performance, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced today. $153 million in new funding will be provided over four years to establish and operate up to 15 new charter schools and convert 35 state ...
“The results of the public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has now been received, with results indicating over 13,000 submissions were made from members of the public,” Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “We heard feedback about the extended lockdowns in ...
Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, other Members of Parliament Acting Chief of Defence Force, Secretary of Defence Distinguished Guests Defence and Diplomatic Colleagues Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon, tēna koutou, apinun tru It’s a pleasure to be back in Port Moresby today, and to speak here at the Kumul Leadership ...
Health, infrastructure, renewable energy, and stability are among the themes of the current visit to Papua New Guinea by a New Zealand political delegation, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Papua New Guinea carries serious weight in the Pacific, and New Zealand deeply values our relationship with it,” Mr Peters ...
The coalition Government is launching Roads of Regional Significance to sit alongside Roads of National Significance as part of its plan to deliver priority roading projects across the country, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The Roads of National Significance (RoNS) built by the previous National Government are some of New Zealand’s ...
A high-level New Zealand political delegation in Honiara today congratulated the new Government of Solomon Islands, led by Jeremiah Manele, on taking office. “We are privileged to meet the new Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet during his government’s first ten days in office,” Deputy Prime Minister and ...
New Zealand voted in favour of a resolution broadening Palestine’s participation at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The resolution enhances the rights of Palestine to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly while stopping short of admitting Palestine as a full ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
New Zealand’s ability to cope with climate change will be strengthened as part of the Government’s focus to build resilience as we rebuild the economy, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “An enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
ANALYSIS:By David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report Jean-Marie Tjibaou, a revered Kanak visionary, was inspirational to indigenous Pacific political activists across Oceania, just like Tongan anthropologist and writer Epeli Hao’ofa was to cultural advocates. Tragically, he was assassinated in 1989 by an opponent within the independence movement during ...
Forget thin is in, apparently now bigger is better … or is it? After over a decade of body positivity, girls, teens and women are even more confused about what body positivity actually is. The movement began with women confronting unrealistic expectations of how their bodies should look. But sub-strands ...
Grace always sat at the bar at the back of The Cambridge, where she could watch who came in. A huge mirror ran the length of the pub, so you could sometimes watch people without them knowing. The mirror made the place seem a lot bigger than it really was. ...
MONDAY Sheriff Mark Mitchell rose at dawn. He had a long day’s ride ahead of him. He was headed for Waikeria. Waikeria! Even the name itself stirred his blood, and set root in his imagination. There was nothing and no one in Waikeria. But he would bend it to his ...
The first phase of the inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones finished this week, turning up plenty of revelations and few answers. But through all the confusion, heartbreak and antipathy on display, the simple fact at the heart of this case remains: if little Lachie’s body had ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roger Benjamin, Professor in Art History, University of Sydney “She’s no oil painting”. Those were the unkind words of a colleague commenting on the subject of Vincent Namatjira’s acrylic painting, Gina. Every one of the prominent Australians and cultural heroes in Namatjira’s ...
Government plans to require local councils hold a referendum on whether to have Māori wards breaches the Treaty of Waitangi, a Waitangi Tribunal report has found. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Harcourt, Industry Professor and Chief Economist, University of Technology Sydney This year the National Rugby League (NRL) opened its season in Las Vegas. It was an audacious move by the league’s ambitious head honcho Peter V’Landys to showcase the game in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Strong, Associate Professor, Music Industry, RMIT University Leading music organisations have praised the federal budget for its investment in the live music sector. The budget includes A$8.6 million for a program called Revive Live: to provide essential support to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marnee Shay, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, The University of Queensland The 2024 federal budget contains A$110 million for Indigenous education. This includes funding for various different organisations to represent and help Indigenous people as well as scholarships in a bid to ...
Air New Zealand has confirmed Nouméa’s Tontouta International airport in New Caledonia is closed until Tuesday. The airline earlier told RNZ it would update customers as soon as it could. Earlier today, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters told RNZ Morning Report government officials had been working on an “hourly basis” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grant Linley, PhD Candidate in Ecology, Charles Sturt University Grant Linley Australia’s unprecedented Black Summer bushfires in 2019–20 created ideal conditions for misinformation to spread, from the insidious to the absurd. It was within this context that a bizarre story ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marcel Scharth, Lecturer in Business Analytics, University of Sydney OpenAI executive Mira Murati launching GPT-4o.OpenAI Earlier this week OpenAI launched GPT-4o (“o” for “omni”), a new version of the artificial intelligence (AI) system powering the popular ChatGPT chatbot. GPT-4o is promoted ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Treasure McGuire, Assistant Director of Pharmacy, Mater Health SEQ in conjoint appointment as Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Bond University and as Associate Professor (Clinical), The University of Queensland Speedkingz/Shutterstock Menopause is a natural biological process that marks the end of a ...
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If you can’t get to the comedy fest, let us bring the comedy fest to you. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. The New Zealand International Comedy Festival is in full swing at the moment, with a veritable smorgasboard of comedy treats ...
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 17 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bridget Haire, Senior lecturer, public health ethics, School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Bowonpat Sakaew/Shutterstock HIV prevention was allocated A$43.9 million over three years in this week’s federal budget. Some $26m of this is for “PrEP” for people without access to ...
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Stuff, ‘Newshub’ deal to save commercial TV news | The Post
What these organisations do in the privacy of their own death throes is entirely their business. But there should be no government support provided.
Would you support keeping NZOn Air funding?
Or government funding for Newsroom?
There's always a line to be drawn somewhere.
I support:
Hasn't this Government recently provided support to a ski field?
A ski field???
Ski fields are endangered species so they need taxpayer support.
Like ConcertFM.
Perhaps those using those spaces and listening to that station have influence over Ministers.
There was going to be a big public media merger last year. Not now.
The next step after they cut the public service is to go after subsidized services. Food banks. School lunches. NZSO. Media support like Maori TV. Discretionary welfare payments like hardship. Public subsidies of all kinds.
It's the Ruth Richardson pattern, and it gets noisy.
Arts and cultural funding in general is an endangered species in NZ. We're governed by a bunch of philistines (successive governments, not just this one). Sports and roads are far more worthy, apparently. RNZ Concert might be 'niche' but it's practically all that's left, and must be saved.
Besides, it's a sanity saver when the news gets too much. I'm enjoying it as I type 🙂
As a supporter and listener I wholeheartedly agree. It keeps me sane in Auckland's traffic woes for starters.
And Saudi sheep 'farms'.
Their argument would be that around 800 full time jobs are involved and over $100 million turnover between whakapapa and Turoa. Governments on both sides regard anything that is part of the tourism industry as very important. Tourism expenditure in 2022 was around $26 billion. (mostly domestic $24 billion)
Also I think it may be a loan rather than a straight out gift? Could be wrong on that.
Regardless, in my opinion it's still corporate welfare. No business is too big to fail IMO.
In the form of a 25% shareholding and loans. Even then I'm not entirely convinced it's a good idea.
I used to work in philanthropic sector and we joked about 'groans' because if any org ever got a govt loan they morphed into grants that were never payed back.
Yep. I am at heart a supporter of the free market. And while I'm in favour of governments regulating markets when it is necessary, I draw as firm a line as I can at the public provides direct financial support to private sector organisations.
What the hell is happening in Sydney with knife attacks.
My comments are being moderated.
"And that is before I get time to have a peek into the actual report."
Is there a reason we still don't have a rolling eyes emoticon?
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
please don’t pick a fight with another author, and the site owner/sysop under my posts. This is a difficult enough conversation as it is. But even if it had not been another author, taking potshots at people over this is just a big no. You know how to use your words better than this.
Yes. You are right. I submit an apology for doing so.
You can delete if you prefer. Or keep it and my apology up.
👍
Bombers hits the mark and this is why I’m increasingly ambivalent about gender debates
it's why I talk about sex as a class as well.
Annoys the hell out of me when people treat sexism as "identity politics." Sex isn't a feeling of identity, it's a class, and a far more sharply defined class than any of the economic or relationship-to-production ones Bomber might feel are proper classes.
Your current ambivalence comes across Rob, which is fine by me.
I strongly believe people should put their individual energy into their personal priorities. This is the only way sustained pressure can happen to enact long lasting change.
However, there is a distinction between that, and advising others on where they should put their priorities (and energy). I think Bomber falls into that trap of demanding people to align, rather than persuading them to.
Wondering if there are, or ever have been, any trans people engaging in the debate here on TS?
Surely they'd appreciate the keen interest being shown and the great deal of background reading many of the commenters have done.
They would, of course, be warmly welcomed and invited to debate.
It puzzles me that their presence is not apparent. This surely must be a hot-spot for discussions on issues that affect them intimately.
Yes there have been trans people engaged in the debate here on TS. There probably still are, people aren’t required to share their gender identity before commenting.
Maybe next you will ask what happened to all the feminists that used to comment here.
Not wanting anyone to share their gender identity here, weka, just wondering how comfortable they might feel joining the debate atm. Naturally, there'd be a range of responses, but there might also be a trend that speaks to the tenor of the debate.
no shit. A tenor of debate that you contribute to.
Again, ask yourself why so many feminists and other women stopped being authors and commenting here.
Fair enough about spatting, weka.
With regards the reasons for feminist authors and commenters leaving the site; I just don't know. If there were reasons expressed and I'd read them, I'd perhaps know, but I don't recall seeing anything explicit. Can you tell me, please?
a number of things.
In the past moderation was looser and there was more abuse. That puts women authors and commenters off.
In the debates that meant a lot to women eg discussion rape culture, it was incredibly hard going and many women simply had better things to do with their time and hearts.
There's also the general bloke nature of the place.
There was a period of time where specific men (commenters and authors) caused problems for feminists in particular.
Some of the women here worked on the women's project for many months behind the scenes to make some changes. Lynn offered to set up a sister site for women. Two of the male authors took a hatchet to the project and the women just walked away (myself included, I didn't write or comment onsite for over a year. Ihumātao brought me back).
There was a period of time before that when we had women authors and commenters and I at least moderated to encourage that. Lynn looked at the stats at one point and confirmed that the numbers of women here had increased. Many of those regular women are now gone. That's true of commenters and authors generally, they do tend to move through. But there have been specific issues for women that in the end were just too hard to address.
Likewise, it's hard to trans people to be here. Not all trans people support gender identity ideology, or they support some rights fights and not others. Some rely heavily on the rainbow culture. I try and moderate to temper how trans rights are talked about, and there are limits on how I can do that. For instance Joe linked to tWig asking for the term autogynephilia to be banned. That's just not possible. We don't ban words and we're not going to stop people talking about a psyhicatric condition listed in the DSM-5. I would however moderate if someone here started using AGP as a pejorative against another commenter.
It's also hard for Māori to be here. Same dynamics.
Thanks, weka.
Intriguing to hear about a then-proposed sister site. It would be interesting to read its proposed kaupapa etc.
The list of groups who find it hard to be here could include neurodivergent people as well. All of those folk probably feel the same about being in the world outside of TS as well.
Who does this site suit best, I wonder?
why would neurodivergent people find it hard to be in a feminist online space? I'm neurodivergent and I love women's spaces. Lots of ND women do.
The purpose of the women's site was to suit women 💃
I wrote:
"The list of groups who find it hard to be here …"
and by "here", I meant TS.
This isn't a "feminist online space", is it?
👍 Understood.
I left in Aug23 mainly because of being justly moderated off after becoming annoyed at the continual non participation, socratic type style or reckons of one poster.
I maintained a 'watching brief', ha ha, looking at TS every day. At first I had a sticky on my screen saying not to post on TS but toward the end of my time away it was automatic to read only.
I came back in Feb24. What brought me back was the excellence of the female author, Weka, and the posts from female posters of all stripes on women's issues. Should this coverage lessen or the reckons on women's issues from a base of ignorance increase I will happily go again. Life is too short. I crave the exchange of ideas not feeding the basics. Just a personal preference.
I am truly grateful that some men are looking at the Cass Review. it's companion piece article from BMJ makes a good combination.
It worries me a bit though, that much of this stuff had been pointed out by females on the site in times gone past but has been framed, if it was read/responded to at all, as being anti trans when in fact it was women's rights focussed. There is a difference.
I read and participate on X Twitter. I value the men there who avowedly support the womens' rights movement and in fact wrote to the two I follow deeply, after the bad patch I was in after Aug23 when the womens rights cause seemed to be misunderstood, generally, by many men here. X has virtues in being able to be pithy…..like an 'appetiser' but the 'main course' here on TS is worth its weight in gold.
great sticky tactic! I deleted my twitter app from my phone sometimes as a way of curating what I engage with.
Women who support YOUR version of the womens' rights movement, Shanreagh.
In the UK, a Womens' Equality Party was established in 2015, well before Posie Parker set up hers finally (after several attempts, with paperwork out of order in previous tries).
This lists the party objectives here: https://www.womensequality.org.uk/objectives.
According to Wikipedia, in 2022 "the party voted in support of a motion to back gender self-identification. Of the party members who took part in the vote at the party's conference, 138 voted in favour of gender self-identification, while 29 opposed, and 5 abstained."
The party objectives and the position on transgender identification are ones that many, many NZ women support.
tWig I don't think I mentioned any version of the womens rights movements or parties, just that I wanted to come back when I read Weka's posts and read the replies. I'll go away just as quickly, as life is too short.
I tend not support parties as such. I support the women's movement or women's rights issues.
I was aware of PoW but did not know about the Womens Equality Party, so thanks for that advice. I will look them up.
Don't bother wondering at me, Robert. I don't find your random vague musings worth the reply.
Can you wander off somewhere else?
both of you, please stop the spat. Just walk away if you don't want to reply.
I would if I could, Molly, but I've been shunted, as you were, into Open Mike and moderation at the same time, probably because of my random vague musings 🙂
These issues might touch people here more closely than you realise. Adolescence and identity formation is a universal human experience (or should be!)
Doubtless you are correct, roblogic. I felt those same drivers resulted in much of what happened on Parliament's lawn at the time Trevor Mallard was going through his Barry Manilow period.
What drivers are these?
The protests were nominally about the requirement for people to be vaccinated if they held jobs that faced the public aka "the mandates". And then it became a hodge-podge of diverse protests without any coherency and shadow protests from people trying to get publicity for their own, rather unpleasant, idiology.
Adolescence and identity formation. Trauma there can manifest in many ways later on. Anger around being told what to do, especially regarding body-sovereignty, seems not to fade over time.
I was commenting sincerely but it seems you aren't. Mockery is unhelpful.
I too, am commenting sincerely and can't understand your response, if it was addressed to me – sometimes it's hard to tell with this format. If it's me you are addressing, I can say I'd never mock your comments because I believe them to be sincere and thoughtful. I mean, who could confidently decode 5.2.1.3.1.2 ???? Is that you? Is that me? Is that …? Who???
Thank-you Robert, I had my doubts, because you seemed to shoot off on a weird tangent, but that's OK.
There have been Robert and I remember being the only person to object and request moderation after Sabine insisted that they needed to apologise to their family for "what they had done".
Yep, yep, yep…
Its all gone a bit Best Bets sister publication around here.
what is the point of that video? It's the second time you've posted it.
From the video's comments:
"The best music to listen to being stuck in space together after unimaginable trauma"
One of the problems for people in refuse to use evidenced debate is that its really easy to point out where they are talking shite.
What Sabine actually said,
https://thestandard.org.nz/what-is-gender/#comment-1832670
For the people that understand the politics of trans widows, Sabine's comment makes sense.
I did moderate in that conversation, but both the trans woman Joanne and Sabine had useful views to present. Joanne is great, they know how to hold their own. Sabine is also great, she brings in a strong style of honestly held belief that challenges other people's beliefs.
That's what we do here, provide a space for robust debate and work through the issues.
Hi Robert,
Yes there has been at least one Trans person reading this site and I have commented on some of the anti-trans posts in the past but to be honest I don't generally because I am tired. One way or another I have been fighting these battles for most of my 67 years and every time it appears transpeople are beginning to make some progress someone comes along and blows it all to hell. As for those who comment on these posts, only Weka makes any attempt to treat transpeople as people rather than an enemies to be defeated and I am tired of it, so I just live my non agressive and hopefully positive life. It ain't easy to be honest
Thank you, Joanne – I had truly wondered how it might be.
"It ain't easy to be honest"
We are all tired. [deleted] That's honesty. Not an insult.
[your additional comment and my mod note both disappeared when I was putting you in the ban list and I think because you were editing the comment. For clarity, below is what was deleted – weka]
that’s the second time today I’ve had to moderate you. Please don’t make it three.
In this case, it’s about the part of the policy that covers tone or language that has the effect of excluding others. JP was sharing personally and answering a question they are best qualified to answer. Your response was utterly unnecessary and can only be perceived as provocation.
Everyone has their own idea about what an insult is, and sometimes it’s about timing and appropriateness as much as the words or one sided intent.
Agree 100% weka – you'd have to be a "flailing idiot" not to
Wise words, imho – particularly "allow themselves". And agreeing to disagree.
I'm tired too Molly.
As far as Women's issues is concerned I have have been fighting seriously since I first joined the PS when I took a case to the Public Service Commission on not being given access to the Public Servant on transfer allowances and pool housing as these were for bread-winners (it said this in the manual) and by definition also in the manual) breadwinners were male. I took a case for a review of policy of the Govt Super fund that only had options for a male with a dependent health-wise spouse and no options for a female with a dependent halth-wise spouse, that I had. My dad thought I was possibly exaggerating and when he read the policy etc said 'this is so discriminatory it will be changed soon'
And dear reader it was changed in 1993 about 15 years after I had raised it
I missed out on a job because 'what would I do out in the field if I needed to go to the loo?' My husband and I missed out on the entry into a ballot for a house/land in Northland as the powers that be decided, perhaps I did not know or realise I'd have to leave the PS. Doh. So men making decisions without asking the woman concerned and being paternal. People lower down in the pecking order told me about these decisions later.
In the years since we have fought the same battles over and over again. They are more cunningly hidden/described now.
We've been part (because we are women) of the idiot 'anti Jacinda because she is a female' league and now the league that wants to sacrifice women's rights to sport and safe spaces because, you know 'feels' for men who want to dress as females. /sarc.
Having studied Womens Issues to a Stage 3 level many of the debates recently are evidence of:
So yes I'm tired too. Then I realise I'm in a long line of battle hardened women (mother/grandmother) in my own family who've fought.
mod note.
Joanne – I am 6 years older than you and have been Lesbian for most of my adult life. In my younger days, trans people were very much part of the Gay community. At a time when sex between men was unlawful – "transing away the gay" was understandable. A few woman also attempted to become the men they thought they should be as they were attracted to other women.
That kind of internalised homophobia should have gone out in the 1980's when same sex attraction became lawful for men and more widely accepted in society. We all worked very hard for that over a lot of years.
These days – the rise of the postmodernist "queering" of society, and the emergence of "gender ideology" which denies even the existence of same sex attraction and maintains that even very young children have a "gender identity" which is entirely separate from biological reality and should take precedence over it, puts us all at risk.
The demand of todays ideologists that everything should be subservient to the belief in a gendered soul has led to the sort of backlash where the force teaming of same sex attracted people with the rest of the "alphabet swamp" (most of whom are straight) endangers the social acceptance we worked so hard to attain.
"At a time when sex between men was unlawful – "transing away the gay" was understandable."
And how would you, a self confessed lesbian, know that? Or are going to type out some more of your amateur psychology? Am I allowed to speculate on why some lesbians dress "butch"? Can I engage in some cod psychology on the motivations of the Gender Critical movement? Is that OK? I have prepared some notes if it is OK.
You have not provided a single piece of evidence for these statements which you continually make – You do have some stats right? Or an academic study? A peer reviewed paper perhaps? Some actual evidence and not just your assertions?
Some weirdo's blog post where they make a word salad that resonates with you won't do. Nor will an individual Trans persons twitter post.
So, as is the standard at The Standard I ask that you provide the Post Modern Trans Manifesto you are always talking of. The one which matches your claims above. The one which apparently dictates the lives of every Trans person and their allies.
What is ridiculous is watching you constantly using the phrase gender ideology. It was coined by that great protector of women and children, the Roman Catholic Church:
"The labelling of gender as an ideology was later incorporated into Vatican documents and displaced the ‘culture of death’ as the framework for understanding the threat posed by SRR. Ratzinger, first as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and later as Pope Benedict XVI, had a central role in the adoption, circulation, and legitimation of the term ‘gender ideology’. He had already been exposed to feminist critiques and politics while in Germany during the 1980’s as he expressed in the Ratzinger Report (1985), which, for Case (2019) contains the main dimensions of what would later come to be called ‘gender ideology’."
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0037768620907561
Simian Brown should be sacked for incompetence.
New Wellington tunnel: 'An astonishing misunderstanding of transport priorities' | RNZ News
Speaking of tunnels it amazes me (but doesn't surprise me) that the Scandinavians and Germans can design and build an amazing 18km long underwater engineering marvel such as this for I think approx 10 billion euros,
Whilst we get an estimated price of potentially up to $45 billion NZD (twice as much?) for a much shorter and nowhere near as good tunnel option for a second Auckland harbor crossing.
Because crossing the Waitemata, smack in the middle of an active volcanic field in an area exposed to deep tropical depressions, is just like crossing the Øresund strait.
/
Having experienced a major traffic jam the other day on Auckland Harbour bridge, I sympathise with those who call for a second bridge.
But where do the cars go once they make the crossing? NZTA will have to bulldoze many houses in suburbs each side of the harbour so traffic can get to an arterial route.
Far better to avoid central Auckland altogether; it's only getting worse.
The left is eating itself while a far-right government pillages the commonwealth of Aotearoa unopposed. Sigh.
As predicted – what do you suggest?
Keep holding the buggers to account instead of getting sucked into rabbit holes.
send some relevant links my way (NZ based) and I'll see if I can do a post.
"Labour was wasteful" So let's splash out on mega motorways, tunnels, and unaffordable tax cuts for landlords on the one hand
But on the other "we are poor"
Austerity, public service cuts, collapsing schools, removal of fair pay agreements, cancelled ferries, worse public transport, failing water services, higher costs all around for the working class
The narratives are all haywire – a classic KGB technique to keep the masses confused
Investment in transport infrastructure is neither 'splashing out' or 'wasteful' providing the investment has a viable business case.
On the Wellington tunnel, the government asked NZTA to 'investigate a Long Tunnel option for Stage Highway 1 in Wellington'. That includes 'advice on the technical feasibility, cost, and funding and financing options for the proposal'. Government investigates 4km tunnel under Wellington | RNZ News
That seems an appropriate approach, although as evidenced by your link above the project is opposed and supported by the usual suspects based on their particular self interest.
dunno Rob, don't you think that's all dreadfully obvious? I don't think people are distracted by identity pol or infighting, so much as they just don't know how to act any more. I was pretty disappointed in the SS4C for similar reasons.
I mean how do we fight dirty politics, social media manipulation, the disintegration of trust in media, at a time when we can't practice solidarity? So yeah, fair point about the infighting.
Yes it is well travelled ground, I don't have any striking new angles, it's just dirty politics continued from the last National regime. There are scurrilous rumours around John Key (again) but not sure if it's worth digging up that stench again
I'm being held in moderation – is this fair? Is there a justifiable reason? My comments are subject to decision by someone else, where everyone else has free rein/sovereinty to comment.
I put you in premod because of your inability or unwillingness to follow moderation cues and it was taking up too much of my time dealing with that. It’s easier for mods to see the comments and deal with them before they appear on the front end. Most moderation comes down to saving moderator time.
You are not the only one this happens to. There are currently four people in the premod list including yourself.
No-one has free rein to comment as they like on TS (with the exception of Lynn). Everyone can be moderated. Most people moderate themselves.
So, for the moment, I'm hampered, like a horse that's forced to carry extra weight 🙂
When might I be released from this impediment? Is it a matter or (your) discretion?
Are there guidelines you follow, or is this a matter of Royal Assent?
depends on who you think is royality. But generally moderators do what they do unless they grossly overstep the mark and then another moderator or admin will act. Sometimes we discuss each other’s moderations in the back end.
I appreciate the extra weight metaphor, that’s what I mean when I talk about the moderator work load. Atm, it comes down to whether I think it’s more or less work for me to keep you in premod or let you out. You don’t make it easy though Robert.
I like and look forward to all your commentary. And have never thought that you were offensive to anyone. Please keep 'em coming.
he's not in premod for being offensive.
Seconding that validation of the worth/value of comments made by Robert Guyton.
A few of RG's comments might be considered tangential, opaque, cryptic, or otherwise 'challenging' (brain food, imho) – but 'offensive'? That's a stretch, although everyone has their own triggers and ideas/thresholds for what's offensive.
I'd guess there are no (zero) blogs, political or otherwise, that employ democratic moderation, for obvious reasons. Maybe AI will come to the rescue, but I prefer the human touch – seems well-calibrated here, warts and all, and (magically) it's free.
haha, not sure about the free bit tbh.
btw, RG isn't in premod for being offensive. I don't even know what is meant by offensive here.
Sorry weka – I meant free to me and many other users of (the most excellent) TS platform/blog – sincerely hope it's not costing you, or anyone else, too much.
And a sincere thanks for the time and effort put in to keep the infrastructure and comments running smoothly – no doubt there are occasions that require frantic paddling below the surface!
Re 'offensive', I was parroting ianmac, lazy creature that I am now
Christ (so to speak). Same day as the mall mass murder, a bishop was stabbed by a 15 year old while giving a sermon. The police have named it a terrorist incident.
Because the stabbing was streamed onto the internet, a crowd of hundreds of locals gathered outside the church demanding that the police hand over the 15 year old. Police had to bring in reinforcements before they could take him to hospital. Paramedics could also not leave.
Now there are people on twitter saying, oh well, the bishop was a homophobe/Islamophobe/cooker, so, context.
This is where we are at.
content warning, there are multiple images and videos of the stabbing on social media, so take care.
Yesterday's Bondi attacker was a white guy so "mental health", although some commentators were looking for a terrorism angle.
Today's horrible stabbing looks like a hate crime by one unhinged individual, not a planned attack by a "terrorist" organisation.
It certainly is indicative of social breakdown though
Seems likely to me that the Bondi attacker was in the middle of a psychotic break or similar. Just from the reports of his mental health history, isolation, and what he had been doing before the attack.
The police haven't said much about the church attacker, other than that he said Islamic words as he attacked. Could easily also be a mental health breakdown.
But yeah, society is stretched to its limit now.
At the risk of further inflaming a hornet's nest, this thread is a wake-up call for feminists in America and other countries following them on the road to Christo-fascist Gilead
tbf, this GCF was talking about this in 2016 before Trump was elected. There were leftie men arguing Trump's not so bad, which was a major reason for my series of Trump's Not So Bad posts. We (the feminists) knew what was coming and lots of people didn't take us seriously.
As for gender critical women now. The boat has sailed. There have been bitter fights online over this issue between GC women and lines drawn. The progressive feminists are outnumbered by the GC women who will do what it takes to protect women's sex based rights. For US women I expect some of them don't perceive the risk, others understand it very well and know that without winning the fight over sex we can't retain our abortion rights. It's not like if we all stopped the GC work that somehow things would work out. I learned the hard way that left wing men in particular will only support women's rights when it suits them. That's part of why so many women have so few fucks left to give (that, and the whole centre left choosing GII over women thing).
A few on Christian Right feel that if they can't "pray the gay away", they will "trans" it away
Yes indeed.
Just a little addition though a D & C is not necessarily thought of by lay people as an 'abortion' if performed to remove the remains of a non viable fetus/miscarriage. Tiny shifts of meaning/nuances make a difference. D & Cs are not only performed for miscarriages or abortions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilation_and_curettage
Abortions can be performed using the D & C technique and they can be performed using drugs.
The point you make is absolutely taken that the law makers in the US 'crazy' states will of course be using the widest definition of what constitutes an abortion whereas in places where abortion is permitted conversations can take place with nuances/care appropriate depending on the circumstances, for instance a miscarrying woman would not expect a Dr to roll up and say 'we're going to give you an abortion'.
The stories that came out of Ireland prior to 2018 with women dying of sepsis from retained products of miscarriages because Drs did not operate or mothers being forced to wait to birth spontaneously the child that everyone knew was dead plus facing sepsis. We don't want to go back to that type of regime.
From what I have been reading of the situation in the US there are groups helping women travel to states that will carry out an abortion. These groups have formed much like the SOS (Sisters Overseas Service) when NZ had restrictive laws. These groups supported women to travel to Australia by finding $$$, flights, accomodation and hospitals.
Sadly abortion surveillance is a thing.
Snapshot:
“I literally just got punched by some man on the sidewalk,” Brand said in the video. “He goes, ‘sorry,’ and then punches me in the head.”
“What the hell is happening?” said Brand, who could not be reached for comment."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/350247009/what-we-know-about-viral-tiktoks-saying-women-are-being-punched-nyc-streets