Sounded to me like Simeon was using the number for what's known as the 'total cost of employment', not salary. So, it included employer Kiwisaver contributions, ACC levies and overtime worked because of staff shortages. And probably other things as well which I haven't thought of.
And it also seemed that he did this deliberately to confuse the public into thinking this number is what they conventionally understand as a 'salary', i.e. a misleading comparison to erode public sympathy for doctors in the public health system.
'Total cost of employment' is a very useful concept in other contexts – especially commercial ones. But not in this context which is about staff retention in the public sector versus what's on offer overseas or in the private sector. A useful comparison in this context might also have included mentioning what multiple of their base salary these doctors might make in the private sector. Is it 3x, 5x?
A useful comparison in this context might also have included mentioning what multiple of their base salary these doctors might make in the private sector. Is it 3x, 5x?
Good point. Another thing not being considered is how the majority of hospital specialists also work in the private sector. I've always wondered if this has been a way to boost their salaries?
Other things in what we called 'total cost to company' would be health insurance, payments for subscriptions to often v expensive magazines, payments for membership of professional groups, additional leave often paid out in cash.
The rate of FBT is around 50%-64%.
As you say totally misleading in the context of salaries that are paid. Then there is the question what if a Dr wanted the above to be paid out in cash. Some Drs wanted the TTCs to be cashed up and added to the salaries but this was frowned on as it 'inflated', so-called, the Dr's salaries.
I think most/many Drs in the public health system are used to their job payments being inflated or deflated according to the points a politician wanted to make.
Simeon Brown is currently on $288 000* per year after 8* years in Parliament? Yet he is offering clinicians who have trained 13 to 17 years* 1 to 1.5 % and no respect, while some are still awaiting payment from last agreements. He is the reason people leave burnt out, going to Australia's better payments and respect. After 7 months of "bargaining" a Senior Dr could be paid less than a nearly qualified Dr. because of his bungling. He is the wrong type of person to be in charge of Health, as he is a strong advocate for the pro-life faction, and a person who wants to privatise health. This is another poor choice by PM Luxon who knows the price of most things and the value of none.
Interesting listening to some of the feedback coming in. I suspect the "public" up in arms about these greedy doctors are loyal party members (are the Young Nats still at it?) also incapable of an individual thought.
Primary Health already got screwed over with an ACT election pledge not kept, they simply don't care who gets impacted as the loss of frontline services is there for all to see now.
Not taking on the extra nurses is just the tip of the iceberg they have us headed towards.
If Tory Whanau stands (she's currently announced she will, but could change her mind) – the biggest risk would be that splitting the Left vote, lets a Right candidate through.
Although the STV voting process would mitigate against this (I'd expect that someone voting first preference for Whanau, would vote second preference for Little – and vice versa)
The most prominent one, and hopefully the next Mayor is Ray Chung. In a poll reported in the Herald he had 30% support against Whanau's 18%. He also had the greatest positive support with 26% favourable and 7% unfavourable. That was the highest of any candidate.
He was totally ignored by the hard-left paper last time round. The paper ran debates and only asked Whanau, Foster and Eagle to attend. They totally ignored Chung. Then on election night he was ahead of Eagle.
He didn't miss the meeting. He attended the first 2 hours of it and then went to a lunch that was his campaign launch.
It was discussing critically important things like the charging motorcycles for parking and some changes to the speed limits on Wellington streets.
Tory, who was doing the complaining used to routinely miss Board meetings of Wellington Airport at which she was supposed to be representing the cities position as a major shareholder.
I think you should be disqualified from driving because you obviously cannot judge speed & distance, politically speaking, and your political radar & compass seem faulty. If you were not such a ‘danger on the road’ I’d ‘totally ignore’ you too.
You’re starting to look a bit trolly alwyn. You bought up the hard left paper thing and then didn’t say what you meant. Maybe you’re not really saying anything.
I'm afraid I have no idea what you are talking about. I was talking about the DomPost, which is the Wellington Paper and organised the Wellington debates. I thought that Incognito was saying that he thinks they are a "hard-right" paper.
Only if there is a credible Right candidate.
I'm not really up with the local government play in Wellington – but AFAIK, there isn't a prominent Right candidate to promote.
Unless you are meaning that they might find Little to be more palatable than Whanau, and get in behind to push him?
Have a look at Ray Chung. Just don't bother looking on the RNZ or Stuff websites. They treat him like the invisible man, even though he appears to be the most popular.
Their polls still seem to have credibility with mainstream media sources – so they have some ability to seed narratives that will get aired publicly. Not sure how they will use that influence in Wellington – they probably aren't sure themselves at this stage.
I am a bit sick of the criticism of Tory. What exactly has she done wrong? Did she personally break the pipes, which are now mostly fixed? A lot of young people supported and voted for her.
The council here has some hard righties on it – Nicola Young is Nicola Willis' godmother. I think being Mayor has been like herding cats.
Methinks it's the whitewashing of a young brown woman.
I don't think she's blamed for the broken pipes (possibly on slowness of getting more fixed and for some of the roading issues), but more for her actions and comments. The drunken antics in public (once or twice?) and the non attendance of meetings not really a good look. And comments like selling her car to pay bills when her salary is well known publicly.
As for the "whitewashing of a young brown woman" that seems like playing the racist card as an excuse. Rotorua has a mayor who also happens to be a young brown woman, and although it is a smaller city, seems to run it better and stay out of the news for wrong reasons.
Your argument is pathetic that the [RW] Mayor of Rotorua stays “out of the news for wrong reasons” suggests that there has to be something wrong with the [LW] Mayor of Wellington. You ignore that much if not all of the dirt-digging comes from the Right. You ignore that they are very different cities. You ignore that an exception doesn’t prove the rule.
I’ve reviewed your few comments since your last ban and it’s obvious that you don’t add anything of value to this site and lean strongly towards dirty political trolling. So, you won’t be missed; see you in 3 months – Incognito]
Subsidies for whom?
AFAICS, the agricultural sector don't need subsidies for dairy and meat. They're already making a profit.
There might be a greater argument for subsidies on the sheep (especially coarse wool) industries. But, TBH, that's more about growing the market (against the stiff competition from artificial fibres), rather than price. The selling point has to be sustainability, not cost.
Or do you mean subsidies for consumers? (i.e. making it cost-effective for international suppliers to sell in NZ, as opposed to overseas). If the new international tariff regime tanks price/market for our commodities – then the price will drop locally, in any case.
Perhaps they could be more accurately described as externalising some of the costs of production onto future generations. However, that fact that they are allowed to do so by governments is a form of state support.
Simeon Brown has attacked doctors striking for more than a 1.5% pay rise as already “well remunerated,” even though the $353,500 average salary he cites includes overtime, and hospitals can’t recruit enough doctors, who are being offered more elsewhere. Health NZ is also sacking a fifth of its HR staff.
Mountain Tui has an excellent article on recent developments, all part of our CoC govt’s agenda to make (formerly public) health services generate profit for private capital.
same shit, different decade. We really need to build a better political culture than swapping back to this lot every few terms. What a collossal waste of everything.
This time it will likely be terminal as the resources are better paid with better living conditions elsewhere now.
Ruthenasia was just an appetizer, key/English were too busy selling out our power network so reti/levy/brown are going to finish the job ruth n bill started in the 90's.
These articles are good exercises but they are also total fantasy. There is no universe in which Apple snaps its fingers and begins making the iPhone in the United States overnight. It could theoretically begin assembling them here, but even that is a years-long process made infinitely harder by the fact that, in Trump’s ideal world, every company would be reshoring American manufacturing at the same time, leading to supply chain issues, factory building issues, and exacerbating the already lacking American talent pool for high-tech manufacturing. In the long term, we could and probably will see more tech manufacturing get reshored to the United States for strategic and national security reasons, but in the interim with massive tariffs, there will likely be unfathomable pain that is likely to last years, not weeks or months.
If the US goes full fascist, then the neoliberal model that Apple operate within is dead. What interests me more than analyses of the death throes, is whether the left can see a way to use this to transition to a post-consumer, post-carbon world. But no, afaict, most people want BAU, even though BAU is killing the planet. I get it, neoliberal slow hell is better than fascist fast hell, but those aren't the only choices.
Earlier this week I wrote an article called “A US-Made iPhone Is Pure Fantasy." The long and short of it is that Trump’s dream of moving all high tech manufacturing to the US is extremely difficult because global supply chains are so intricate, manufacturing expertise exists primarily in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and other countries, and the components that go into a phone are often made in other countries as well.
[…]
404 Media: What you're doing is super interesting and I know you've been doing it for a while. I know that there's been tons of discussion over the last few weeks about bringing manufacturing back to the United States, the difficulty of doing that with different supply chains and components and things like that. And I know to the best of your ability, you've brought the Liberty Phone to the U.S. Can you tell me a little bit about what the Liberty Phone is and how long you've been doing it for?
Todd Weaver: So the first thing is I started the company, Purism, in 2014. The original business plan is actually what we were able to execute on over the course of the last 10 years, and looking at doing a fair number of things different than is currently done.
[…]
It's obviously far more complex, but to try and just level set a little bit about that, where you're at now is you say ‘Let's take what we have in China and try to replicate that in the U.S.’ Well, the challenge is that all high tech jobs were put into China. You have a brain transfer where the ODMs, the original design manufacturers, are in China. If you scoured the United States, you would be able to probably actually still count the number of skilled electronics engineers. If you go to Shenzhen, there's floor after floor after floor after floor of skilled EE's.
The paramedics and rescue workers killed in an Israeli shooting in Gaza last month died mainly from gunshots to the head or chest, while others had shrapnel injuries or other wounds, according to autopsy reports obtained by The New York Times.
Israeli troops had fired on ambulances and a fire truck sent by the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the Civil Defense, according to witness accounts, video and audio of the March 23 attack.
Israel acknowledged carrying out the attack, which killed 15 men: 14 rescue workers and a United Nations employee who drove by after the others were shot. Israeli soldiers buried most of the bodies in a mass grave, crushed the ambulances, fire truck and a U.N. vehicle, and buried those as well.
I see TPM are advocating that Maori should get Superannuation between 7 and 10 years ahead of anyone else. The basis of the claim seems to be that they die at an earlier age.
Is there anyone here who supports this idea? If there is can they say whether they approve of men getting their Super four years before women? Woman live for four more years than men do, after all.
No – because any departure from the practice of universality in social services creates injustices at the margins, bickering, grievance, opportunities for the manipulative bad faith of propagandists, cover for niggardly and ideologically motivated governments to continually shift the goalposts, and wasteful, inefficient administrative costs.
Therefore, every adult should receive a living wage as a minimum standard at all stages of their life. This can be done through one means or another such as wages, business ownership, UBI's, benefits, income supplements, job guarantees etc. Any mixture of these is fine if it does the job. As it is the opposite of austerity, it would be terrific for economic growth – though would still leave the problem of making that growth carbon net-zero (or net-negative).
My first reaction is to say – get a more accurate statistic and then debate it.
It is about 7 years on average over the life time.
Given that this is in part based on more Maori dying under age 65, this is not the same as saying those Maori that reach age 65, then live 7 years less.
Universality and exceptions based on need.
Women are less likely to have home ownership at age 65 and also have less savings.
They will get more support as to access to income related social housing than men.
More Maori will have health problems under the age of 65 and struggle to remain in work. This is a consideration, if we were to raise the age of super to age 70.
As per need
There is a need for social housing in (home) iwi areas for older Maori in their retirement.
Also for those unable to work (or find work) over age 60, they should receive a super rate benefit.
As should those with disability under age 60 and be able to receive support even with a working partner.
As should all non working partners after losing a job (to allow re-training/internship and sustain ability to meet payment obligations).
And it is long past time for sickness to be covered as ACC does accidents.
Never right, yes I know
Get wisdom, knowledge and understanding
These three, were given free by the maker
Go to school, learn the rules, don't be no faker
It's not wise for you to be a foot stool
Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think
Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink
The years go by, as quickly as you wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it's later than you think
Would TPM die in a ditch over this? Sounds like a Fair[er] Go to me, unless there are countervailing demographic stats. Maybe start small – how much could one year hurt?
Maxine Ronald: Why do we have to keep explaining the ethnicity gap?
It’s so frustrating and it’s tiring. There’s an actual physical tiredness of having to deal with it, especially when it’s been landed on us as a surprise, as a headline out of the blue, which creates the conditions for racist reactions and interpretations.
Is there anyone here who supports this idea? If there is can they say whether they approve of men getting their Super four years before women? Woman live for four more years than men do, after all.
you know how insurance companies assess car insurance based on sex and age, right?
And if there is, would they expect men to receive super 4 years before women.
This to give women who retire now, less well off than men on average, reason to wonder if support for the TPM claim might have consequences for them.
He does not do this to praise the TPM, but to rally opposition to it and embarrass any potential coalition partners – such as the Labour Party.
In this, our NZH acolyte has indicated an ability to absorb and parrot right wing media messaging.
It is alive and it works for the three hydra headed body.
Of one mind, as to no favour to Maori and to undermine the Waitangi Tribunal. To foment a one nation movement based around opposition to DEI and affirmative action. Because nothing says conservative reaction, like adoration for the assimilation era's cultural hegemony.
What does how much anybody may, or may not, have earned during their lifetime got to do with National Superannuation?
The Superannuation scheme we have is intended to ensure that no elderly person shall have to live in penury during their old age. That is all. It isn't based on whether you paid taxes or not during your life. It isn't dependent on what race, or sex, you are. It is meant to see that no-one lives a life of utter despair when they are old.
Hence the amount you earn during your life is irrelevant. The question as to whether you paid taxes at all is irrelevant. The fact that some people end up getting more than others is irrelevant. The fact that if someone dies at 64 means they don't get it at all is irrelevant. If you are dead you don't need, or get, it.
Hence I haven't considered the question you ask because it is totally irrelevant to the subject of the New Zealand Superannuation schemes purpose.
The Superannuation is available to anyone who is living in New Zealand. there is really only 2 requirements. You have to have lived here for 10 years with 5 of them after the age of 50. You must be a citizen, permanent resident or have a residence class visa.
There is no obligation to "have contributed" as you put it. It is meant to be something to provide you with something to live on in your old age. It doesn't matter if you have never worked or paid tax in your life.
By the way, if the "two groups of people" as you put it are men and women then it is quite fair to claim that women live, on average, about 4 years longer Have a look at the link I provided. They do. It doesn't mean that they get the super for, on average, about 4 years more unfairly. They need it because they live for longer and on average have living costs for 4 years longer.
Donald Trump, the orange-hued oligarch, is back at it again, wielding tariffs like a mob boss swinging a lead pipe. His latest economic edict; slapping hefty tariffs on imports from China, Mexico, and Canada, has the stench of a protectionist shakedown, cooked up in the fevered minds of his sycophantic ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
One pill makes you largerAnd one pill makes you smallAnd the ones that mother gives youDon't do anything at allGo ask AliceWhen she's ten feet tallSongwriter: Grace Wing Slick.Morena, all, and a happy Bicycle Day to you.Today is an unofficial celebration of the dawning of the psychedelic era, commemorating the ...
It’s only been a few months since the Hollywood fires tore through Los Angeles, leaving a trail of devastation, numerous deaths, over 10,000 homes reduced to rubble, and a once glorious film industry on its knees. The Palisades and Eaton fires, fueled by climate-driven dry winds, didn’t just burn houses; ...
Four eighty-year-old books which are still vitally relevant today. Between 1942 and 1945, four refugees from Vienna each published a ground-breaking – seminal – book.* They left their country after Austria was taken over by fascists in 1934 and by Nazi Germany in 1938. Previously they had lived in ‘Red ...
Good Friday, 18th April, 2025: I can at last unveil the Secret Non-Fiction Project. The first complete Latin-to-English translation of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s twelve-book Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem (Disputations Against Divinatory Astrology). Amounting to some 174,000 words, total. Some context is probably in order. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) ...
National MP Hamish Campbell's pathetic attempt to downplay his deep ties to and involvement in the Two by Twos...a secretive religious sect under FBI and NZ Police investigation for child sexual abuse...isn’t just a misstep; it’s a calculated lie that insults the intelligence of every Kiwi voter.Campbell’s claim of being ...
New Zealand First’s Shane Jones has long styled himself as the “Prince of the Provinces,” a champion of regional development and economic growth. But beneath the bluster lies a troubling pattern of behaviour that reeks of cronyism and corruption, undermining the very democracy he claims to serve. Recent revelations and ...
Give me one reason to stay hereAnd I'll turn right back aroundGive me one reason to stay hereAnd I'll turn right back aroundSaid I don't want to leave you lonelyYou got to make me change my mindSongwriters: Tracy Chapman.Morena, and Happy Easter, whether that means to you. Hot cross buns, ...
New Zealand’s housing crisis is a sad indictment on the failures of right wing neoliberalism, and the National Party, under Chris Luxon’s shaky leadership, is trying to simply ignore it. The numbers don’t lie: Census data from 2023 revealed 112,496 Kiwis were severely housing deprived...couch-surfing, car-sleeping, or roughing it on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on a global survey of over 3,000 economists and scientists showing a significant divide in views on green growth; and ...
Simeon Brown, the National Party’s poster child for hubris, consistently over-promises and under-delivers. His track record...marked by policy flip-flops and a dismissive attitude toward expert advice, reveals a politician driven by personal ambition rather than evidence. From transport to health, Brown’s focus seems fixed on protecting National's image, not addressing ...
Open access notables Recent intensified riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region, Mu et al., Nature Communications:Global warming causes permafrost thawing, transferring large amounts of soil carbon into rivers, which inevitably accelerates riverine CO2 release. However, temporally and spatially explicit variations of riverine CO2 emissions remain unclear, limiting the ...
Once a venomous thorn in New Zealand’s blogosphere, Cathy Odgers, aka Cactus Kate, has slunk into the shadows, her once-sharp quills dulled by the fallout of Dirty Politics.The dishonest attack-blogger, alongside her vile accomplices such as Cameron Slater, were key players in the National Party’s sordid smear campaigns, exposed by Nicky ...
Once upon a time, not so long ago, those who talked of Australian sovereign capability, especially in the technology sector, were generally considered an amusing group of eccentrics. After all, technology ecosystems are global and ...
The ACT Party leader’s latest pet project is bleeding taxpayers dry, with $10 million funneled into seven charter schools for just 215 students. That’s a jaw-dropping $46,500 per student, compared to roughly $9,000 per head in state schools.You’d think Seymour would’ve learned from the last charter school fiasco, but apparently, ...
India navigated relations with the United States quite skilfully during the first Trump administration, better than many other US allies did. Doing so a second time will be more difficult, but India’s strategic awareness and ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi is concerned for low-income workers given new data released by Stats NZ that shows inflation was 2.5% for the year to March 2025, rising from 2.2% in December last year. “The prices of things that people can’t avoid are rising – meaning inflation is rising ...
Last week, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment recommended that forestry be removed from the Emissions Trading Scheme. Its an unfortunate but necessary move, required to prevent the ETS's total collapse in a decade or so. So naturally, National has told him to fuck off, and that they won't be ...
China’s recent naval circumnavigation of Australia has highlighted a pressing need to defend Australia’s air and sea approaches more effectively. Potent as nuclear submarines are, the first Australian boats under AUKUS are at least seven ...
In yesterday’s post I tried to present the Reserve Bank Funding Agreement for 2025-30, as approved by the Minister of Finance and the Bank’s Board, in the context of the previous agreement, and the variation to that agreement signed up to by Grant Robertson a few weeks before the last ...
Australia’s bid to co-host the 31st international climate negotiations (COP31) with Pacific island countries in late 2026 is directly in our national interest. But success will require consultation with the Pacific. For that reason, no ...
Old and outdated buildings being demolished at Wellington Hospital in 2018. The new infrastructure being funded today will not be sufficient for future population size and some will not be built by 2035. File photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories short from our political economy on Thursday, April 17:Simeon Brown has unveiled ...
The introduction of AI in workplaces can create significant health and safety risks for workers (such as intensification of work, and extreme surveillance) which can significantly impact workers’ mental and physical wellbeing. It is critical that unions and workers are involved in any decision to introduce AI so that ...
Donald Trump’s return to the White House and aggressive posturing is undermining global diplomacy, and New Zealand must stand firm in rejecting his reckless, fascist-driven policies that are dragging the world toward chaos.As a nation with a proud history of peacekeeping and principled foreign policy, we should limit our role ...
Sunday marks three months since Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president. What a ride: the style rude, language raucous, and the results rogue. Beyond manners, rudeness matters because tone signals intent as well as personality. ...
There are any number of reasons why anyone thinking of heading to the United States for a holiday should think twice. They would be giving their money to a totalitarian state where political dissenters are being rounded up and imprisoned here and here, where universities are having their funds for ...
Taiwan has an inadvertent, rarely acknowledged role in global affairs: it’s a kind of sponge, soaking up much of China’s political, military and diplomatic efforts. Taiwan soaks up Chinese power of persuasion and coercion that ...
The Ukraine war has been called the bloodiest conflict since World War II. As of July 2024, 10,000 women were serving in frontline combat roles. Try telling them—from the safety of an Australian lounge room—they ...
Following Canadian authorities’ discovery of a Chinese information operation targeting their country’s election, Australians, too, should beware such risks. In fact, there are already signs that Beijing is interfering in campaigning for the Australian election ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). From "founder" of Tesla and the OG rocket man with SpaceX, and rebranding twitter as X, Musk has ...
Back in February 2024, a rat infestation attracted a fair few headlines in the South Dunedin Countdown supermarket. Today, the rats struck again. They took out the Otago-Southland region’s internet connection. https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360656230/internet-outage-hits-otago-and-southland Strictly, it was just a coincidence – rats decided to gnaw through one fibre cable, while some hapless ...
I came in this morning after doing some chores and looked quickly at Twitter before unpacking the groceries. Someone was retweeting a Radio NZ story with the headline “Reserve Bank’s budget to be slashed by 25%”. Wow, I thought, the Minister of Finance has really delivered this time. And then ...
So, having teased it last week, Andrew Little has announced he will run for mayor of Wellington. On RNZ, he's saying its all about services - "fixing the pipes, making public transport cheaper, investing in parks, swimming pools and libraries, and developing more housing". Meanwhile, to the readers of the ...
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming, 1921ALL OVER THE WORLD, devout Christians will be reaching for their bibles, reading and re-reading Revelation 13:16-17. For the benefit of all you non-Christians out there, these are the verses describing ...
Give me what I want, what I really, really want: And what India really wants from New Zealand isn’t butter or cheese, but a radical relaxation of the rules controlling Indian immigration.WHAT DOES INDIA WANT from New Zealand? Not our dairy products, that’s for sure, it’s got plenty of those. ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
Yesterday, 5,500 senior doctors across Aotearoa New Zealand voted overwhelmingly to strike for a day.This is the first time in New Zealand ASMS members have taken strike action for 24 hours.They are asking the government tofund them and account for resource shortfalls.Vacancies are critical - 45-50% in some regions.The ...
For years and years and years, David Seymour and his posse of deluded neoliberals have been preaching their “tough on crime” gospel to voters. Harsher sentences! More police! Lock ‘em up! Throw away the key. But when it comes to their own, namely former Act Party president Tim Jago, a ...
Judith Collins is a seasoned master at political hypocrisy. As New Zealand’s Defence Minister, she's recently been banging the war drum, announcing a jaw-dropping $12 billion boost to the defence budget over the next four years, all while the coalition of chaos cries poor over housing, health, and education.Apparently, there’s ...
I’m on the London Overground watching what the phones people are holding are doing to their faces: The man-bun guy who could not be less impressed by what he's seeing but cannot stop reading; the woman who's impatient for a response; the one who’s frowning; the one who’s puzzled; the ...
You don't have no prescriptionYou don't have to take no pillsYou don't have no prescriptionAnd baby don't have to take no pillsIf you come to see meDoctor Brown will cure your ills.Songwriters: Waymon Glasco.Dr Luxon. Image: David and Grok.First, they came for the Bottom FeedersAnd I did not speak outBecause ...
The Health Minister says the striking doctors already “well remunerated,” and are “walking away from” and “hurting” their patients. File photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories short from our political economy on Wednesday, April 16:Simeon Brown has attacked1 doctors striking for more than a 1.5% pay rise as already “well remunerated,” even ...
The time is ripe for Australia and South Korea to strengthen cooperation in space, through embarking on joint projects and initiatives that offer practical outcomes for both countries. This is the finding of a new ...
Hi,When Trump raised tariffs against China to 145%, he destined many small businesses to annihilation. The Daily podcast captured the mass chaos by zooming in and talking to one person, Beth Benike, a small-business owner who will likely lose her home very soon.She pointed out that no, she wasn’t surprised ...
National’s handling of inflation and the cost-of-living crisis is an utter shambles and a gutless betrayal of every Kiwi scraping by. The Coalition of Chaos Ministers strut around preaching about how effective their policies are, but really all they're doing is perpetuating a cruel and sick joke of undelivered promises, ...
Most people wouldn't have heard of a little worm like Rhys Williams, a so-called businessman and former NZ First member, who has recently been unmasked as the venomous troll behind a relentless online campaign targeting Green Party MP Benjamin Doyle.According to reports, Williams has been slinging mud at Doyle under ...
Illustration credit: Jonathan McHugh (New Statesman)The other day, a subscriber said they were unsubscribing because they needed “some good news”.I empathised. Don’t we all.I skimmed a NZME article about the impacts of tariffs this morning with analysis from Kiwibank’s Jarrod Kerr. Kerr, their Chief Economist, suggested another recession is the ...
Let’s assume, as prudence demands we assume, that the United States will not at any predictable time go back to being its old, reliable self. This means its allies must be prepared indefinitely to lean ...
Over the last three rather tumultuous US trade policy weeks, I’ve read these four books. I started with Irwin (whose book had sat on my pile for years, consulted from time to time but not read) in a week of lots of flights and hanging around airports/hotels, and then one ...
Indonesia could do without an increase in military spending that the Ministry of Defence is proposing. The country has more pressing issues, including public welfare and human rights. Moreover, the transparency and accountability to justify ...
Former Hutt City councillor Chris Milne has slithered back into the spotlight, not as a principled dissenter, but as a vindictive puppeteer of digital venom. The revelations from a recent court case paint a damning portrait of a man whose departure from Hutt City Council in 2022 was merely the ...
That's the conclusion of a report into security risks against Green MP Benjamin Doyle, in the wake of Winston Peters' waging a homophobic hate-campaign against them: GRC’s report said a “hostility network” of politicians, commentators, conspiracy theorists, alternative media outlets and those opposed to the rainbow community had produced ...
That's the conclusion of a report into security risks against Green MP Benjamin Doyle, in the wake of Winston Peters' waging a homophobic hate-campaign against them: GRC’s report said a “hostility network” of politicians, commentators, conspiracy theorists, alternative media outlets and those opposed to the rainbow community had produced ...
National Party MP Hamish Campbell’s ties to the secretive Two By Twos "church" raises serious questions that are not being answered. This shadowy group, currently being investigated by the FBI for numerous cases of child abuse, hides behind a facade of faith while Campbell dodges scrutiny, claiming it’s a “private ...
National Party MP Hamish Campbell’s ties to the secretive Two By Twos "church" raises serious questions that are not being answered. This shadowy group, currently being investigated by the FBI for numerous cases of child abuse, hides behind a facade of faith while Campbell dodges scrutiny, claiming it’s a “private ...
The economy is not doing what it was supposed to when PM Christopher Luxon said in January it was ‘going for growth.’ Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short from our political economy on Tuesday, April 15:New Zealand’s economic recovery is stalling, according to business surveys, retail spending and ...
This is a guest post by Lewis Creed, managing editor of the University of Auckland student publication Craccum, which is currently running a campaign for a safer Symonds Street in the wake of a horrific recent crash.The post has two parts: 1) Craccum’s original call for safety (6 ...
NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff has published an opinion piece which makes the case for a different approach to economic development, as proposed in the CTU’s Aotearoa Reimagined programme. The number of people studying to become teachers has jumped after several years of low enrolment. The coalition has directed Health New ...
The growth of China’s AI industry gives it great influence over emerging technologies. That creates security risks for countries using those technologies. So, Australia must foster its own domestic AI industry to protect its interests. ...
Unfortunately we have another National Party government in power at the moment, and as a consequence, another economic dumpster fire taking hold. Inflation’s hurting Kiwis, and instead of providing relief, National is fiddling while wallets burn.Prime Minister Chris Luxon's response is a tired remix of tax cuts for the rich ...
Girls who are boys who like boys to be girlsWho do boys like they're girls, who do girls like they're boysAlways should be someone you really loveSongwriters: Damon Albarn / Graham Leslie Coxon / Alexander Rowntree David / Alexander James Steven.Last month, I wrote about the Birds and Bees being ...
Australia needs to reevaluate its security priorities and establish a more dynamic regulatory framework for cybersecurity. To advance in this area, it can learn from Britain’s Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which presents a compelling ...
Deputy PM Winston Peters likes nothing more than to portray himself as the only wise old head while everyone else is losing theirs. Yet this time, his “old master” routine isn’t working. What global trade is experiencing is more than the usual swings and roundabouts of market sentiment. President Donald ...
President Trump’s hopes of ending the war in Ukraine seemed more driven by ego than realistic analysis. Professor Vladimir Brovkin’s latest video above highlights the internal conflicts within the USA, Russia, Europe, and Ukraine, which are currently hindering peace talks and clarity. Brovkin pointed out major contradictions within ...
In the cesspool that is often New Zealand’s online political discourse, few figures wield their influence as destructively as Ani O’Brien. Masquerading as a champion of free speech and women’s rights, O’Brien’s campaigns are a masterclass in bad faith, built on a foundation of lies, selective outrage, and a knack ...
The international challenge confronting Australia today is unparalleled, at least since the 1940s. It requires what the late Brendan Sargeant, a defence analyst, called strategic imagination. We need more than shrewd economic manoeuvring and a ...
This year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) will take place as a fully hybrid conference in both Vienna and online from April 27 to May 2. This year, I'll join the event on site in Vienna for the full week and I've already picked several sessions I plan ...
Here’s a book that looks not in at China but out from China. David Daokui Li’s China’s World View: Demystifying China to Prevent Global Conflict is a refreshing offering in that Li is very much ...
The New Zealand National Party has long mastered the art of crafting messaging that resonates with a large number of desperate, often white middle-class, voters. From their 2023 campaign mantra of “getting our country back on track” to promises of economic revival, safer streets, and better education, their rhetoric paints ...
A global contest of ideas is underway, and democracy as an ideal is at stake. Democracies must respond by lifting support for public service media with an international footprint. With the recent decision by the ...
It is almost six weeks since the shock announcement early on the afternoon of Wednesday 5 March that the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Adrian Orr, was resigning effective 31 March, and that in fact he had already left and an acting Governor was already in place. Orr had been ...
The PSA surveyed more than 900 of its members, with 55 percent of respondents saying AI is used at their place of work, despite most workers not being in trained in how to use the technology safely. Figures to be released on Thursday are expected to show inflation has risen ...
Be on guard for AI-powered messaging and disinformation in the campaign for Australia’s 3 May election. And be aware that parties can use AI to sharpen their campaigning, zeroing in on issues that the technology ...
Strap yourselves in, folks, it’s time for another round of Arsehole of the Week, and this week’s golden derrière trophy goes to—drumroll, please—David Seymour, the ACT Party’s resident genius who thought, “You know what we need? A shiny new Treaty Principles Bill to "fix" all that pesky Māori-Crown partnership nonsense ...
After stonewalling requests for information on boot camps, the Government has now offered up a blog post right before Easter weekend rather than provide clarity on the pilot. ...
More people could be harmed if Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey does not guarantee to protect patients and workers as the Police withdraw from supporting mental health call outs. ...
The Green Party recognises the extension of visa allowances for our Pacific whānau as a step in the right direction but continues to call for a Pacific Visa Waiver. ...
The Government yesterday released its annual child poverty statistics, and by its own admission, more tamariki across Aotearoa are now living in material hardship. ...
Today, Te Pāti Māori join the motu in celebration as the Treaty Principles Bill is voted down at its second reading. “From the beginning, this Bill was never welcome in this House,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader, Rawiri Waititi. “Our response to the first reading was one of protest: protesting ...
The Green Party is proud to have voted down the Coalition Government’s Treaty Principles Bill, an archaic piece of legislation that sought to attack the nation’s founding agreement. ...
A Member’s Bill in the name of Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter which aims to stop coal mining, the Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill, has been pulled from Parliament’s ‘biscuit tin’ today. ...
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty’s Members Bill to make the law simpler and fairer for businesses operating on Easter, Anzac and Christmas Days has passed its first reading after a conscience vote in Parliament. ...
Nicola Willis continues to sit on her hands amid a global economic crisis, leaving the Reserve Bank to act for New Zealanders who are worried about their jobs, mortgages, and KiwiSaver. ...
Today, the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill has passed its third and final reading, but there is one more stage before it becomes law. The Governor-General must give their ‘Royal assent’ for any bill to become legally enforceable. This means that, even if a bill gets voted ...
Abortion care at Whakatāne Hospital has been quietly shelved, with patients told they will likely have to travel more than an hour to Tauranga to get the treatment they need. ...
Thousands of New Zealanders’ submissions are missing from the official parliamentary record because the National-dominated Justice Select Committee has rushed work on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...
Today’s announcement of 10 percent tariffs for New Zealand goods entering the United States is disappointing for exporters and consumers alike, with the long-lasting impact on prices and inflation still unknown. ...
The National Government’s choices have contributed to a slow-down in the building sector, as thousands of people have lost their jobs in construction. ...
Willie Apiata’s decision to hand over his Victoria Cross to the Minister for Veterans is a powerful and selfless act, made on behalf of all those who have served our country. ...
The Privileges Committee has denied fundamental rights to Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Rawiri Waititi and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, breaching their own standing orders, breaching principles of natural justice, and highlighting systemic prejudice and discrimination within our parliamentary processes. The three MPs were summoned to the privileges committee following their performance of a haka ...
April 1 used to be a day when workers could count on a pay rise with stronger support for those doing it tough, but that’s not the case under this Government. ...
Winston Peters is shopping for smaller ferries after Nicola Willis torpedoed the original deal, which would have delivered new rail enabled ferries next year. ...
The Government should work with other countries to press the Myanmar military regime to stop its bombing campaign especially while the country recovers from the devastating earthquake. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Nicholls, Senior Research Associate in Media and Communications, University of Sydney Tech giant Google has just suffered another legal blow in the United States, losing a landmark antitrust case. This follows on from the company’s loss in a similar case last ...
Paddy GowerAmanda Luxon. I mean what can you say. Easter is a good time to publish my latest reckons at Stuff because without exaggeration or making too much of things, Amanda Luxon walks among us like Jesus but probably with better shoes.Jesus healed. How good is that? It’s really good, ...
How can an afternoon be long when it starts at one o’clock and finishes at half past three? Beauden thought about that as he stood at the back of the classroom and looked through the large window to the upper grounds where his colleague Monty Spiers was taking a phys ed ...
Alex Casey delves into the enduring success of The Artist’s Way, a self-help book beloved by everyone from retirees to famous rappers. On the video call, my mum is gesticulating so wildly while recounting all her recent creative endeavours that she knocks her cup of tea over a work-in-progress jigsaw ...
Feijoa scholar Kate Evans reviews the dish everybody raves about at Metro’s 2024 restaurant of the year, Forest. People have been telling me I need to try the deep-fried feijoa dessert at Forest for about three years now. I’m embarrassed it took me this long, but it takes a lot ...
Chef, author and reality television judge Colin Fassnidge takes us through his life in television. Colin Fassnidge is a huge television fan. He watches every blockbuster TV series the moment it drops and scores every single show on his Instagram account. It’s a habit that recently caught the attention of ...
Why are shops on Parnell Road allowed to open on Easter Sunday? It’s all thanks to an obsolete rule from the 1970s that’s been ‘frozen in time’.Originally published in 2023.Under our current trading laws, most stores are required to stay closed on Good Friday and Easter Sunday (along ...
Yael Shochat, chef-owner of Auckland restaurant Ima Cuisine, shares the recipe for her hot cross buns – regularly voted among the best in the city.Originally published in 2019.HOT CROSS BUNSMakes 12You may use equal weights of pre-ground spices, but you’ll get a much better flavour if ...
Gràinne Moss knows she can’t tackle the final leg of one of the world’s toughest swimming challenges alone.In her quest to complete the Oceans Seven marathon challenge, 38 years after she began, she’s enlisted the help of two remarkable women – one barely out of her teens, and the other ...
By Susana Leiataua, RNZ National presenter There are calls for greater transparency about what the HMNZS Manawanui was doing before it sank in Samoa last October — including whether the New Zealand warship was performing specific security for King Charles and Queen Camilla. The Manawanui grounded on the reef off ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Labor increased its lead again in a YouGov poll, but Freshwater put the party ahead by just 50.3–49.7. This article also covers ...
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on April 18, 2025. Labor’s poll surge continues in YouGov, but they’re barely ahead in FreshwaterSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, $30) Haymitch’s Hunger Games. 2 Careless People: A ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Labor increased their lead again in a YouGov poll, but Freshwater put them ahead by just 50.3–49.7. This article also covers the ...
A new poem by Tusiata Avia. How to make a terrorist First make a whistling sound which is the sound of a bomb just before it lands on a house. Then make an exploding sound which is the sound of the bomb which kills a father, decapitates a mother, roasts ...
The top-rated Scrabble players in the country go head-to-head this Easter weekend. Watch games live from 9.30am on the stream below.How does it all work?The Masters is different to most Scrabble tournaments in that it’s invitational, open only to the top-rated players in the country. The ...
Books editor Claire Mabey appraises all the Austen-adapted films from 1990 onwards to separate the delightful from the duds.For the purists, read our ranking of Jane Austen’s novels here.It is a truth universally acknowledged that not everything is created equal. Since 1990 there have been 12 attempts to ...
To arrive through the heavy red door of Margot in Newtown is to be invited to the best dinner party in town, hosted by the best friends you haven’t yet made. Table Service is a column about food and hospitality in Wellington, written by Nick Iles.Hospitality is a term ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('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 18 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
NONFICTION1 No Words for This by Ali Mau (HarperCollins, $39.99)A free copy of the author’s new memoir was up for grabs in last week’s giveaway contest. Readers were asked to share their feelings about Mau, a former broadcaster and one of the most powerful figures in the New Zealand #metoo ...
Analysis: The announcement last week that Colossal Biosciences in the USA had “de-extincted” the dire wolf, which was last seen 13,000 years ago, was reported worldwide.The three wolf pups generated equal parts fascination and widespread scientific criticism. But is this actually de-extinction, and what are the implications for the potential ...
We recommend the best – and longest – television series to watch this holiday weekend. As the Easter holiday weekend descends and the weather turns a little grim, many of us will turn to the trusty old television for comfort and entertainment. If you’re lucky, you’ll have some time over ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gode Bola, Lecturer in Hydrology, University of Kinshasa The April 2025 flooding disaster in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, wasn’t just about intense rainfall. It was a symptom of recent land use change which has occurred rapidly in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Peter Dutton, now seriously on the back foot, has made an extraordinarily big “aspirational” commitment at the back end of this campaign. He says he wants to see a move to indexing personal income ...
Essay by Keith Rankin. Operation Gomorrah may have been the most cynical event of World War Two (WW2). Not only did the name fully convey the intent of the war crimes about to be committed, it, also represented the single biggest 24-hour murder toll for the European war that I ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Tietz, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Design, UNSW Sydney A New South Wales Senate inquiry into public toilets is underway, looking into the provision, design and maintenance of public toilets across the state. Whenever I mention this inquiry, however, everyone nervously ...
Shrinking budgets and job insecurity means there are fewer opportunities for young journalists, and that’s bad news, especially in regional Australia, reports 360infoANALYSIS:By Jee Young Lee of the University of Canberra Australia risks losing a generation of young journalists, particularly in the regions where they face the closure ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tessa Charles, Accelerator Physicist, Monash University An artist’s impression of the tunnel of the proposed Future Circular Collider.CERN The Large Hadron Collider has been responsible for astounding advances in physics: the discovery of the elusive, long-sought Higgs boson as well as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer McKay, Professor in Business Law, University of South Australia Parkova/Shutterstock Could someone take you to court over an agreement you made – or at least appeared to make – by sending a “👍”? Emojis can have more legal weight ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Trang Nguyen, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Global Food and Resources, University of Adelaide Stokkete, Shutterstock Australians waste around 7.68 million tonnes of food a year. This costs the economy an estimated A$36.6 billion and households up to $2,500 annually. ...
Pushing people off income support doesn’t make the job market fairer or more accessible. It just assumes success is possible while unemployment rises and support systems become harder to navigate. ...
A year since the inquest into the death of Gore three-year-old Lachlan Jones began and the Coroner has completed his provisional findings. Interested parties have been provided with a copy of Coroner Ho’s provisional findings and have until May 16 to respond.The Coroner has indicated the final decision will be delivered on June 3 in Invercargill, citing high ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ken Nosaka, Professor of Exercise and Sports Science, Edith Cowan University Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock Do you ever feel like you can’t stop moving after you’ve pushed yourself exercising? Maybe you find yourself walking around in circles when you come off the pitch, ...
Simeon proving once and for all that, like his boss, he is completely incapable of saying anything that isn't a talking point.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018983451/health-minister-on-senior-doctors-strike
Sounded to me like Simeon was using the number for what's known as the 'total cost of employment', not salary. So, it included employer Kiwisaver contributions, ACC levies and overtime worked because of staff shortages. And probably other things as well which I haven't thought of.
And it also seemed that he did this deliberately to confuse the public into thinking this number is what they conventionally understand as a 'salary', i.e. a misleading comparison to erode public sympathy for doctors in the public health system.
'Total cost of employment' is a very useful concept in other contexts – especially commercial ones. But not in this context which is about staff retention in the public sector versus what's on offer overseas or in the private sector. A useful comparison in this context might also have included mentioning what multiple of their base salary these doctors might make in the private sector. Is it 3x, 5x?
A useful comparison in this context might also have included mentioning what multiple of their base salary these doctors might make in the private sector. Is it 3x, 5x?
Good point. Another thing not being considered is how the majority of hospital specialists also work in the private sector. I've always wondered if this has been a way to boost their salaries?
Other things in what we called 'total cost to company' would be health insurance, payments for subscriptions to often v expensive magazines, payments for membership of professional groups, additional leave often paid out in cash.
The rate of FBT is around 50%-64%.
As you say totally misleading in the context of salaries that are paid. Then there is the question what if a Dr wanted the above to be paid out in cash. Some Drs wanted the TTCs to be cashed up and added to the salaries but this was frowned on as it 'inflated', so-called, the Dr's salaries.
I think most/many Drs in the public health system are used to their job payments being inflated or deflated according to the points a politician wanted to make.
I listened to the Minister of Health this morning and it made me sick. 🤮
Simeon Brown is currently on $288 000* per year after 8* years in Parliament? Yet he is offering clinicians who have trained 13 to 17 years* 1 to 1.5 % and no respect, while some are still awaiting payment from last agreements. He is the reason people leave burnt out, going to Australia's better payments and respect. After 7 months of "bargaining" a Senior Dr could be paid less than a nearly qualified Dr. because of his bungling. He is the wrong type of person to be in charge of Health, as he is a strong advocate for the pro-life faction, and a person who wants to privatise health. This is another poor choice by PM Luxon who knows the price of most things and the value of none.
Interesting listening to some of the feedback coming in. I suspect the "public" up in arms about these greedy doctors are loyal party members (are the Young Nats still at it?) also incapable of an individual thought.
Primary Health already got screwed over with an ACT election pledge not kept, they simply don't care who gets impacted as the loss of frontline services is there for all to see now.
Not taking on the extra nurses is just the tip of the iceberg they have us headed towards.
Could be an interesting election for mayor of Wellington now Andrew Little has thrown his hat in the ring.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/558306/andrew-little-to-run-for-wellington-mayoralty
If Tory Whanau stands (she's currently announced she will, but could change her mind) – the biggest risk would be that splitting the Left vote, lets a Right candidate through.
Although the STV voting process would mitigate against this (I'd expect that someone voting first preference for Whanau, would vote second preference for Little – and vice versa)
also the conservative candidate isn't exactly popular, and a very large undecided vote.
Which conservative candidate are you thinking of?
The most prominent one, and hopefully the next Mayor is Ray Chung. In a poll reported in the Herald he had 30% support against Whanau's 18%. He also had the greatest positive support with 26% favourable and 7% unfavourable. That was the highest of any candidate.
He was totally ignored by the hard-left paper last time round. The paper ran debates and only asked Whanau, Foster and Eagle to attend. They totally ignored Chung. Then on election night he was ahead of Eagle.
Were you thinking of some other canndidate?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellington-mayoral-polling-full-curia-numbers-released-ray-chung-ahead-of-tory-whanau/HEQSVY2Z65HEBGVBBZFY3IFWXA/
"by the hard-left paper"
What the hell paper is that ? Hard left paper, oh joy please enlighten me.
lol, I'm intrigued too. TDB?
Well Alwyn, your preferred candidate Ray Chung, seems a really decent bloke – NOT.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellington-councillor-ray-chung-criticised-for-missing-meeting-for-fancy-lunch-with-donors/AOZVUC5TZ5BX5KUPKN5I2WK3RA/
He didn't miss the meeting. He attended the first 2 hours of it and then went to a lunch that was his campaign launch.
It was discussing critically important things like the charging motorcycles for parking and some changes to the speed limits on Wellington streets.
Tory, who was doing the complaining used to routinely miss Board meetings of Wellington Airport at which she was supposed to be representing the cities position as a major shareholder.
archived version
https://archive.is/OO8n7#selection-4008.0-4008.1
46% were unsure, and this was before Little put his hand up.
Chung 30%
Whanau 18%
Other say 10%
Leaving 42%
I don't get the voting system they use in Wgtn, but that doesn't look too bad for Little.
The poll was taken back in January. I was amazed that anyone had made up their mind by that time.
Based on a Google search, he was also ignored by that hard-right paper.
hard-right? My God, your politics must be to the left of Mao if you think there is any such thing as a hard-right paper in the country.
I think you should be disqualified from driving because you obviously cannot judge speed & distance, politically speaking, and your political radar & compass seem faulty. If you were not such a ‘danger on the road’ I’d ‘totally ignore’ you too.
woosh.
You’re starting to look a bit trolly alwyn. You bought up the hard left paper thing and then didn’t say what you meant. Maybe you’re not really saying anything.
I'm afraid I have no idea what you are talking about. I was talking about the DomPost, which is the Wellington Paper and organised the Wellington debates. I thought that Incognito was saying that he thinks they are a "hard-right" paper.
What is he/she saying?
Just stop man. People on here provide thoughtful narrative and don't go for rancid bait like this.
[please correct your e-mail address next time, thanks – Incognito]
Mod note
Plentiful opportunities for Curia/TPU to play a role in tilting the table.
Only if there is a credible Right candidate.
I'm not really up with the local government play in Wellington – but AFAIK, there isn't a prominent Right candidate to promote.
Unless you are meaning that they might find Little to be more palatable than Whanau, and get in behind to push him?
Have a look at Ray Chung. Just don't bother looking on the RNZ or Stuff websites. They treat him like the invisible man, even though he appears to be the most popular.
Their polls still seem to have credibility with mainstream media sources – so they have some ability to seed narratives that will get aired publicly. Not sure how they will use that influence in Wellington – they probably aren't sure themselves at this stage.
Tory has made a dick of herself too many times to be serious contender, so Little would the best of the field.
have to admit, I think I would vote Little.
I am a bit sick of the criticism of Tory. What exactly has she done wrong? Did she personally break the pipes, which are now mostly fixed? A lot of young people supported and voted for her.
The council here has some hard righties on it – Nicola Young is Nicola Willis' godmother. I think being Mayor has been like herding cats.
Methinks it's the whitewashing of a young brown woman.
I don't think she's blamed for the broken pipes (possibly on slowness of getting more fixed and for some of the roading issues), but more for her actions and comments. The drunken antics in public (once or twice?) and the non attendance of meetings not really a good look. And comments like selling her car to pay bills when her salary is well known publicly.
As for the "whitewashing of a young brown woman" that seems like playing the racist card as an excuse. Rotorua has a mayor who also happens to be a young brown woman, and although it is a smaller city, seems to run it better and stay out of the news for wrong reasons.
[You don’t learn and here you’re again (cf. https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-17-09-2024/#comment-2011313) making slurs about Tory Whanau’s finances and financial competence.
The irony is that you claim not to be fixed on brown women (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-11-12-2024/#comment-2019319), yet here you’re again attacking a brown woman, i.e., the same brown woman as previously.
Your argument is pathetic that the [RW] Mayor of Rotorua stays “out of the news for wrong reasons” suggests that there has to be something wrong with the [LW] Mayor of Wellington. You ignore that much if not all of the dirt-digging comes from the Right. You ignore that they are very different cities. You ignore that an exception doesn’t prove the rule.
I’ve reviewed your few comments since your last ban and it’s obvious that you don’t add anything of value to this site and lean strongly towards dirty political trolling. So, you won’t be missed; see you in 3 months – Incognito]
Mod note
With all this tariff palaver, is there any room for a government to introduce subsides on things like dairy and meat?
Subsidies for whom?
AFAICS, the agricultural sector don't need subsidies for dairy and meat. They're already making a profit.
There might be a greater argument for subsidies on the sheep (especially coarse wool) industries. But, TBH, that's more about growing the market (against the stiff competition from artificial fibres), rather than price. The selling point has to be sustainability, not cost.
Or do you mean subsidies for consumers? (i.e. making it cost-effective for international suppliers to sell in NZ, as opposed to overseas). If the new international tariff regime tanks price/market for our commodities – then the price will drop locally, in any case.
Industrial dairy is subsidised by being allowed to pollute land, water and atmosphere.
I don't think that's the kind of subsidies the OP was referring to.
Also, presumably, it will be attracting the same kind of 'subsidies' whichever country it's located in.
I'm guessing he meant subsidies for citizens buying produce.
Perhaps they could be more accurately described as externalising some of the costs of production onto future generations. However, that fact that they are allowed to do so by governments is a form of state support.
current generations I think, and nature.
Mountain Tui has an excellent article on recent developments, all part of our CoC govt’s agenda to make (formerly public) health services generate profit for private capital.
Less red tape, more surgical tape – although surgical tape can turn blood red, over time.
same shit, different decade. We really need to build a better political culture than swapping back to this lot every few terms. What a collossal waste of everything.
This time it will likely be terminal as the resources are better paid with better living conditions elsewhere now.
Ruthenasia was just an appetizer, key/English were too busy selling out our power network so reti/levy/brown are going to finish the job ruth n bill started in the 90's.
404 Media interviewed Purism's Todd Weaver on making a smartphone in the US. This is still behind non-US smartphones even at US$2000
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7zbBs67J0pYAYwWuYEaYT5?si=4b053e45e1cd4d48
domestically made smart phones would make sense if there was right to repair and international cooperation on design (hardware and software)
Pie in the sky…
.
These articles are good exercises but they are also total fantasy. There is no universe in which Apple snaps its fingers and begins making the iPhone in the United States overnight. It could theoretically begin assembling them here, but even that is a years-long process made infinitely harder by the fact that, in Trump’s ideal world, every company would be reshoring American manufacturing at the same time, leading to supply chain issues, factory building issues, and exacerbating the already lacking American talent pool for high-tech manufacturing. In the long term, we could and probably will see more tech manufacturing get reshored to the United States for strategic and national security reasons, but in the interim with massive tariffs, there will likely be unfathomable pain that is likely to last years, not weeks or months.
https://www.404media.co/a-us-made-iphone-is-pure-fantasy/
https://archive.li/WdbNF
I didn't say anything about Apple.
And Apple was the exemplar of issues standing in the way of any near-term manufacturing of affordable mobile phones outside of a few places in Asia.
//
Apple are the antithesis of right to repair.
If the US goes full fascist, then the neoliberal model that Apple operate within is dead. What interests me more than analyses of the death throes, is whether the left can see a way to use this to transition to a post-consumer, post-carbon world. But no, afaict, most people want BAU, even though BAU is killing the planet. I get it, neoliberal slow hell is better than fascist fast hell, but those aren't the only choices.
Transcript.
Earlier this week I wrote an article called “A US-Made iPhone Is Pure Fantasy." The long and short of it is that Trump’s dream of moving all high tech manufacturing to the US is extremely difficult because global supply chains are so intricate, manufacturing expertise exists primarily in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and other countries, and the components that go into a phone are often made in other countries as well.
[…]
404 Media: What you're doing is super interesting and I know you've been doing it for a while. I know that there's been tons of discussion over the last few weeks about bringing manufacturing back to the United States, the difficulty of doing that with different supply chains and components and things like that. And I know to the best of your ability, you've brought the Liberty Phone to the U.S. Can you tell me a little bit about what the Liberty Phone is and how long you've been doing it for?
Todd Weaver: So the first thing is I started the company, Purism, in 2014. The original business plan is actually what we were able to execute on over the course of the last 10 years, and looking at doing a fair number of things different than is currently done.
[…]
It's obviously far more complex, but to try and just level set a little bit about that, where you're at now is you say ‘Let's take what we have in China and try to replicate that in the U.S.’ Well, the challenge is that all high tech jobs were put into China. You have a brain transfer where the ODMs, the original design manufacturers, are in China. If you scoured the United States, you would be able to probably actually still count the number of skilled electronics engineers. If you go to Shenzhen, there's floor after floor after floor after floor of skilled EE's.
https://www.404media.co/how-a-2-000-made-in-the-usa-liberty-phone-phone-is-manufactured/
https://archive.li/EAj4x
How
the most moral army in the world rolls.
/
The paramedics and rescue workers killed in an Israeli shooting in Gaza last month died mainly from gunshots to the head or chest, while others had shrapnel injuries or other wounds, according to autopsy reports obtained by The New York Times.
Israeli troops had fired on ambulances and a fire truck sent by the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the Civil Defense, according to witness accounts, video and audio of the March 23 attack.
Israel acknowledged carrying out the attack, which killed 15 men: 14 rescue workers and a United Nations employee who drove by after the others were shot. Israeli soldiers buried most of the bodies in a mass grave, crushed the ambulances, fire truck and a U.N. vehicle, and buried those as well.
https://archive.li/x0DRP (nyt)
I see TPM are advocating that Maori should get Superannuation between 7 and 10 years ahead of anyone else. The basis of the claim seems to be that they die at an earlier age.
Is there anyone here who supports this idea? If there is can they say whether they approve of men getting their Super four years before women? Woman live for four more years than men do, after all.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/personal-finance/labour-tight-lipped-as-te-pati-maori-wants-maori-to-receive-nz-super-seven-to-10-years-before-everyone-else/D334KRBMLVFSLCOZCC7W3BOKXI/
https://www.stats.govt.nz/topics/life-expectancy/
No – because any departure from the practice of universality in social services creates injustices at the margins, bickering, grievance, opportunities for the manipulative bad faith of propagandists, cover for niggardly and ideologically motivated governments to continually shift the goalposts, and wasteful, inefficient administrative costs.
Therefore, every adult should receive a living wage as a minimum standard at all stages of their life. This can be done through one means or another such as wages, business ownership, UBI's, benefits, income supplements, job guarantees etc. Any mixture of these is fine if it does the job. As it is the opposite of austerity, it would be terrific for economic growth – though would still leave the problem of making that growth carbon net-zero (or net-negative).
My first reaction is to say – get a more accurate statistic and then debate it.
It is about 7 years on average over the life time.
Given that this is in part based on more Maori dying under age 65, this is not the same as saying those Maori that reach age 65, then live 7 years less.
Universality and exceptions based on need.
Women are less likely to have home ownership at age 65 and also have less savings.
They will get more support as to access to income related social housing than men.
More Maori will have health problems under the age of 65 and struggle to remain in work. This is a consideration, if we were to raise the age of super to age 70.
As per need
There is a need for social housing in (home) iwi areas for older Maori in their retirement.
Also for those unable to work (or find work) over age 60, they should receive a super rate benefit.
As should those with disability under age 60 and be able to receive support even with a working partner.
As should all non working partners after losing a job (to allow re-training/internship and sustain ability to meet payment obligations).
And it is long past time for sickness to be covered as ACC does accidents.
When you’re dead you don’t and won’t need super.
Would TPM die in a ditch over this? Sounds like a Fair[er] Go to me, unless there are countervailing demographic stats. Maybe start small – how much could one year hurt?
you know how insurance companies assess car insurance based on sex and age, right?
Why don’t you give us your own views before you ask for ours? Then we can have an honest debate about it.
My dear Watson, this is not really a mystery.
The leading question, does anyone?
And if there is, would they expect men to receive super 4 years before women.
This to give women who retire now, less well off than men on average, reason to wonder if support for the TPM claim might have consequences for them.
He does not do this to praise the TPM, but to rally opposition to it and embarrass any potential coalition partners – such as the Labour Party.
In this, our NZH acolyte has indicated an ability to absorb and parrot right wing media messaging.
It is alive and it works for the three hydra headed body.
Of one mind, as to no favour to Maori and to undermine the Waitangi Tribunal. To foment a one nation movement based around opposition to DEI and affirmative action. Because nothing says conservative reaction, like adoration for the assimilation era's cultural hegemony.
You have not considered that men earn far more over their lifetimes than women, while Maori earn far less over their lifetimes than non-Maori.
Classic Seymour.
What does how much anybody may, or may not, have earned during their lifetime got to do with National Superannuation?
The Superannuation scheme we have is intended to ensure that no elderly person shall have to live in penury during their old age. That is all. It isn't based on whether you paid taxes or not during your life. It isn't dependent on what race, or sex, you are. It is meant to see that no-one lives a life of utter despair when they are old.
Hence the amount you earn during your life is irrelevant. The question as to whether you paid taxes at all is irrelevant. The fact that some people end up getting more than others is irrelevant. The fact that if someone dies at 64 means they don't get it at all is irrelevant. If you are dead you don't need, or get, it.
Hence I haven't considered the question you ask because it is totally irrelevant to the subject of the New Zealand Superannuation schemes purpose.
It's the equating of two different groups of people for political point scoring which is the issue.
Maori die younger because of poor health outcomes likely related to life experience of which income is probably a large part.
Same can't be said for men as a group.
Waititi's point was about the fairness of benefits from the system to which Maori have contributed.
The Superannuation is available to anyone who is living in New Zealand. there is really only 2 requirements. You have to have lived here for 10 years with 5 of them after the age of 50. You must be a citizen, permanent resident or have a residence class visa.
There is no obligation to "have contributed" as you put it. It is meant to be something to provide you with something to live on in your old age. It doesn't matter if you have never worked or paid tax in your life.
By the way, if the "two groups of people" as you put it are men and women then it is quite fair to claim that women live, on average, about 4 years longer Have a look at the link I provided. They do. It doesn't mean that they get the super for, on average, about 4 years more unfairly. They need it because they live for longer and on average have living costs for 4 years longer.