If a political party is unregistered, and passes the threshold at the election, can it get list candidates into parliament as a result? Probably not!
More than $255,000 in donations have been made to a political party that never registered, a loophole in electoral laws that a political expert says is “unprecedented”.
The New Zealand Public Party has come under fire by former members and staffers who allege up to $100,000 in koha collected at events, and kept in a tin under leader Billy Te Kahika’s bed, is unaccounted for.
Complaints were laid to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Electoral Commission about missing donations, however no investigations are resulting from the complaints. The Electoral Commission said because NZPP never registered as a party it has no obligation to report donations.
They deserve an award for value-added entertainment though. The Nat/Lab underwhelming strategy is clearly designed to turn voters off. NZF is clearly trying to scare voters off. Greens seem unsure which voters to piss off.
Of the peripherals, Vernon Tava has been a no-show, the Opportunists flicker on/off dimly, and the Neocons are off the wall. Only the nutters seem right on – fervently demonstrating god's will to the apathetic. Oh, but we can celebrate the Maori Party for advocating we ditch the dumb old colonial name and become Aotearoa! 👍
From the list of Koha in your first link, that is great that people from all over the country have given donations rounded to the nearest hundred dollars, or probably purely in hundred dollar bills. Restores ones faith in humanity, that the public won't encumber a political movement with superfluous accounting… The wonderful Billy TK.
If a political party is unregistered, and passes the threshold at the election, can it get list candidates into parliament as a result? Probably not!
Electoral Commission's Guide to Party Registration (link) says unregistered parties can only stand electorate candidates. Party vote is only for registered parties.
Thanks Alice, thought so. I guess it means the decision of JLR to stop contesting Botany is due to him presuming his party registration can get him in even though his partner's party must win a seat to get in. If the combo reaches 5% I mean. If the unlikely happens, could become a legal fight (all the way to the Supreme Court)…
Except that seems to contradict what you wrote in 2.2, so I was thinking he's somehow relying on how the combined party will work. Then again maybe neither leader actually thought it thro. Probably won't matter but nutters abound so if they vote we may get an interesting situation. A lawyer-fest.
In 2.2 I was thinking of NZPP standing under its own name.
NZPP is a component party of Advance NZ (link), so it might be okay if everything is done through the combined entity. (Or might be one for the lawyers.)
Oh yeah. I see there are four component parties listed. Went to the Advance website & the link there to Billy's party. Interesting bio:
I approached the UN in 2016 to help fund a NZ based indigenous economic and cultural festival to help end indigenous poverty. We didn’t receive funding because we did not want to become members of the UN as an NGO to receive it. But since I have taken on fronting this amazing movement I have been painted as:
A UN secret agent working as controlled opposition.
A secret Chinese Communist Party agent trying to sell Maori land and that I am committing treason.
I am a Freemason and Freemasonry supporter, despite lecturing against Freemasons.
I am an Abortion Industry executive – despite being against it.
I work for the Maori King and I am forming a global reserve bank with him – reason or how unspecified.
I am a racial separatist despite preaching the opposite that we are all one family.
And that I am a conspiracy theorist about the UN & Communism in New Zealand – despite providing factual evidence proving this and asking that people apply critical thinking.
It's tough at the top. Not enough to surf the wave of any hot conspiracy theory, you get competing theorists demonising you – bit like sharks in the water around the surfer…
maybe the existential question should be, is a unregistered cult with a leader who keeps the $$$$$ under his bed a political party? but, I agree, they do add colour, conspiracy nutters are fun to play with , gentley leading-pushing them further up their own orifice with each wild theory.(mine, not theirs)
“”The political, economic and environmental trends we’ve slavishly followed for decades have been exposed as not only redundant but actually dangerous. Maybe we should adopt not just a language but a way of thinking that’s indigenous to this country. Let’s start a conversation about what Tino Rangatiratanga might mean now instead of patronising attempts to use Māori language to continue denying it.””
All this co-opting of Māori language and culture by the state is little more than cynical marketing and doesn’t address more pressing and structural issues that Māori, and the country at large, actually face.
The state isn't co-opting Māori culture. If they were, things might actually be better.
A large part of the problem is that we've seemingly decided to remain a multi-cultural society rather than coming together as a single society that has aspects (preferably the best aspects while throwing out the worst) of multiple cultures.
Its this determination to remain separate within our country that really pisses me off. We'd all be better off if we decided to have a single culture informed from all the cultures that have come here.
Let’s start a conversation about what Tino Rangatiratanga might mean now instead of patronising attempts to use Māori language to continue denying it.
I agree that we do need to have such a conversation but the result of that conversation should be that we, as a nation, are one people with one culture. What's really up for discussion is the nature of that culture and if its still dividing us or brining us together.
Predetermining the outcome of a conversation makes the conversation pointless.
But also, we are a multicultural society. Arguing we should be "one culture" is either suggesting a sort of cultural homgeneity that the zealandia jerks seem to be after, or it's a meaningless proposition that our single culture is multicultural.
But what is the problem with talking about what Tino Rangatiratanga might mean? There are several examples around the world of different cultures working together within one nation, but with diverse governance and service systems. Canada comes to mind, but there are others.
Identity politics makes people feel better about themselves at the expense of productive discourse. A person’s lived experience should never be invalidated. But no identity makes the beliefs that someone derives from their lived experience automatically more correct.
My bold.
The problem with a multi-cultural society is that it will always be tearing itself apart as it puts people, who should be friendly neighbours, against each other.
But what is the problem with talking about what Tino Rangatiratanga might mean?
Who's?
As I said, identity politics tears a society apart.
There are several examples around the world of different cultures working together within one nation, but with diverse governance and service systems.
Not really.
In all countries there's one set of rules at the top that lower bodies (states/cities) have to conform to even if they do make local laws which means that there's an over-riding culture.
Pretending that culture is determined by sitting down and discussing it, rather than a conglomerate of individuals and lived experience, is bullshit. So that discussion is lala-land for a start.
Secondly, "identity politics" is a phrase used by fuckwits to disparage the concept of treating individuals with respect even if they are different. Lived experience being ""automatically more correct" than what? And why is "correct" being used to score points in that essay? The problem wasn't the author's "identity politics", the problem was the author trying to score points against their parents rather than actually discuss the matter.
But that article shares what I believe to be your basic miscomprehension: diversity in culture doesn't need to lead to conflict. The conflict occurs when one culture tries to dominate the other. Discarding "aspects" of any culture, even if rationally determined by committee, will piss people off. Look at the claims of "social engineering" over smacking and lightbulbs.
We can minimise that conflict by recognising the cultures within our society. Canada really is an interesting example with its approach to First Nations, French, and British heritage and culture. Not perfect by any means, but definitely something to look at.
Trying to mash us all into a homogeneous culture and say we are "one culture" is a fast way to start exploitation, dominance, and war. We've done that before.
edit: and laws and jurisdiction really is something you should read up on in Canada. Not that laws are culture, anyway.
Pretending that culture is determined by sitting down and discussing it, rather than a conglomerate of individuals and lived experience, is bullshit.
Culture is set by the rules of a society be they written or unwritten. Discussing what Tino Rangatiratanga might mean is discussing what rules we want to keep and what rules to toss aside.
Its what we call government.
Secondly, "identity politics" is a phrase used by fuckwits to disparage the concept of treating individuals with respect even if they are different.
No, it really isn't. In fact, I first heard the concept of identity politics from those most in favour of it.
But that article shares what I believe to be your basic miscomprehension: diversity in culture doesn't need to lead to conflict.
Yes it does. Treating people differently because they're black/white/gay/straight inevitably leads to conflict as people will have the belief that they're being short-changed.
Discarding "aspects" of any culture, even if rationally determined by committee, will piss people off. Look at the claims of "social engineering" over smacking and lightbulbs.
Yes, governance does get that sort of response because they are engaging in social engineering. They're, quite literally, setting the rules that will determine the culture of a society. So you can probably understand why National were upset as the 5th Labour government tried to stop the ongoing excessive and uneconomical use of power and abuse of children.
We can minimise that conflict by recognising the cultures within our society
No, that will maximise the conflict.
Trying to mash us all into a homogeneous culture and say we are "one culture" is a fast way to start exploitation, dominance, and war.
Nope.
When two culture meet the cross-pollinate and create a new culture. What multi-culturalism does is to try and keep all the cultures as they were at some idealistic point in time and thus trying to prevent the changes that need to happen as a new culture emerges.
Well, I disagree with pretty much every point and characterisation and conflation you have made there.
But society won't fall apart if we don't hash out exactly which bits we should keep or discard.
So, a bit like calling a person by their chosen pronoun, I will leave it alone and merely wish you a good night. The Cultural Appropriations Committee can pick it up in the morning.
" Its this determination to remain separate within our country that really pisses me off. We'd all be better off if we decided to have a single culture informed from all the cultures that have come here."
Then, one day a man named Sylvester McMonkey McBean came. Everyone from every persuasion that nature and nuture created sat down at a meeting with that "fix it up chappie" as mediator.
The agenda was to decide , " what parts of which cultures we keep (and) which get tossed aside."
The goal of the task was to make, "onesetofrulesatthetop that lower bodies (states/cities) have to conform to even if they do make local laws which means that there's an over-riding culture."
A problem to ameliorate was that people in those lower bodies with their own unique identities were , according to some, problematic because they were through their identity, different from the ideal.
The problem was then reconfigured, not as 'the problem being the problem' but but dammit…those different people were the problem.
A little background to the current problem. In the 1830s, the British government decided it was time to curb the lawlessness of the land and officially make it a colony.
Sylvester McMonkey McBean the first, arrived on NZ shores and using an ever changing formula for the process, the natives were pushed through the suppresion machine to meld together for all to be one people. The melting pot machine had three main phases to pass through, Christianise against savage practices and beliefs, Colonise using one set of rules and expected behaviour because they are superior, then finally, Capitalise on the assets pilfered through that glorious new identity.
Over 180 years when some saw the cracks appear and the have nots started to uprise, it was easy to fix.. . add new rules again ( and imprison the rule breakers.)
The process is much like the original evolution of rules where the then recent, superior immigrants created more rules in the colonists' Native Land Court to affect cancelling the collective identity found in collective ownership of the commons and onto removing singular identity ( and assets) from being connected to the land.
The rationale purported for this more recent proposal here, of transformation to one culture, is that,
" Treating people differently because they're black/white/gay/straight inevitably leads to conflict as people will have the belief that they're being short-changed."
Once more in history, a policy sell of a One Nation melting pot that inflicted inequality, is now postured again as the cure to quell civil unrest.
Underlying this is the posed certainity that individual identity is destructive to society.
" We can minimise that conflict by recognising the cultures within our society," says one O' the flock with an idea.
A direct, " No, that will maximise the conflict."
Instead we need to cross-pollinate.
" When two culture meet the cross-pollinate and create a new culture. What multi-culturalism does is to try and keep all the cultures as they were at some idealistic point in time and thus trying to prevent the changes that need to happen as a new culture emerges."
Furthermore, after overlooking mass misery created through exploiting an earlier 'set of rules' in order to have a state run 'one-culture' , the whole of the Treaty is dumped. Its whole context, the history, its purpose and intent is now diminished through hand picking a two word convenient phrase to suit. The selection of just those two words "tino rangitira" and putting a spin on it is the "co-opting" of the convenient parts to impose a western world view. Applied then to the appropriation is a self-interpretation to shape the future in order to uphold an argument that a nation's people will coexist peacefully if multi-culturalism is cancelled out.
"Culture is set by the rules of a society be they written or unwritten. Discussing what Tino Rangatiratanga might mean is discussing what rules we want to keep and what rules to tossaside."
Which group has the right and should be the ones to interpret tikanga might be the first question, before all the lab rats are subjected to hegemony ?
A person's identity is the totality of all dimensions that make up 'self' . All the aspects that come into play that make each person's unique identity would need to be deconstructed and then it's just too bad, some need to be thrown out as they are not good.
Ancestory and family, parenting, gender, social practices, rites of passage, genetics, personality, peace or trauma, environment of events and resources in one's upbringing, belief systems, political leanings, cognitive abilities, looks, skin colour.. the perfect One identity will be created by the fix it up chappie.
This crazy cycle of rule changing would continue until everyone couldn't tell who was originally which type of Sneetch, we all at which point are the same, a pure-e.
To be pragmatic though, because 5 million can't fit in the meeting room, we would need to whittle down proportionately the attendees to a house of representatives. To show further fairness, the meeting would start with a co-opted practice of a prayer and then would precede by following co-opted archaic "Robert's Rules" for speaking.
Hopefully, none at the Make One Nation meeting has the rotten core of capitalism in their hearts.
The predominant majority of representatives would then decide the alogorithms for McBean's machine. A halt to any new immigrants would have to follow as they may taint the ideal identity or be too expensive to machinize into pure-e.
But for $10 more each says Mr. McBean, I can add dermabrasion in as an extra star to whitewash all. Then McBean will pack his bags up and leave loaded with cash.
The enlightenment to follow, what fun! There'd be no more diversity as there be no more " north and south going Zax ". For that matter, there'd be no more "green pants with nobody inside them" either, to invent our fears around.
Can you smell the vanilla coming off those algorithm decisions ?
Fees Free was expensive, but restoring the postgraduate student allowance was not. If you can't fulfil postgrad allowances in the 2017-2020 term, at the very least make sure you fulfil it in 2020-2023 ("better late than never").
As it is, this smacks of 1980s-1990s Bait and Switch. Hipkins can stay on at Health, but he's godawful at Education. Give the job to someone who doesn't betray students.
I think Hipkins is far too busy with both Health and Education. I agree and think he should stay as health minster (he's a lot better than David Clark, although Clark set the bar very low). Jacinda seems a bit reluctant to trust some of the other ministers and IMO has overloaded both Hipkins and Megan Woods.
It was a Labour flagship policy in their election campaign in 2017 and NZF and the Greens pledged support. I don’t know about NZF being the convenient handbrake but the Green Party is in full support.
They never even tried to implement it and using Covid as an excuse is an insult to our trust. It shows the short-term thinking and focus on ‘shovel-ready’ stuff suits Labour as much as National.
Gives the greens a couple of percent via their leftish platform rather than strict environmentalism.
Labour can afford to throw its main ally a bone, and they can do it without knobbling an electorate candidate. Teamwork. They'd probably govern alone if the Greens didn't get in this time, but Labour know they're better off having the Greens.
Besides the overstatement by comparing a widened schedule in a pandaemic with Lockwood Smith's outright lie, if my suspicion that this was an intentional tactic is correct (that Labour are easing off on education with the benefit to the Greens being at least a partial consideration in favour of that move), then that is literally the goal: spend some of their political capital by alienating some supporters in the group most likely to lean Green rather than NZ1/nat.
Piss of pensioners, they go NZ1. Piss of students, they go Green.
From tackling pollution to protecting coral reefs, the international community did not fully achieve any of the 20 Aichi biodiversity targets agreed in Japan in 2010 to slow the loss of the natural world. It is the second consecutive decade that governments have failed to meet targets.
Mainstreamers will be reassured by this. Doing something different would be terribly traumatic. You can see why they switched to Coro instead.
Those dumb ignorant Russians are in denial over novichok
They've done no decontamination of the Tomsk airport, which has been in full operational mode throughout.The aeroplane carrying Navalny, and in which he was induced to vomit has not been destroyed, fellow passengers have been questioned but not tested for novichok, neither have the crew.
There's a disgraceful photo of Navalny being put in the ambulance on the way to the Omsk hospital
What were they thinking!! No hazmat gear on , no precautions apart from the usual hospital gowns and masks
They'll be dying like flies over there you mark my words, Navalny and his colleagues will be trumpeting it from the rooftops
But I have to say, the Germans have done it on the cheap too. No tracheotomy for Navalny, unlike both the Skripals, and the Navalny dose was meant to be harder
No quarantining for Navalny
Navalny had his wife and family close the whole time, poor old Skripal was denied the visitation of friends or family
And we know he had friends in Salisbury, his old MI6 handler Pablo Miller lived in the same town and they had monthly lunches
The Skripals had to be expensively quarantined and safe housed and given new identities and shipped off to NZ.Or so an anonymous UK intelligence source told the Sunday Times of Britain , and they would surely not lie?
Navalny has just appeared on his instagram page looking very chipper indeed and stating that as soon as he gets out of hospital he's back to Russia .Goodness!
I must commend the German doctors, he's looking the very picture of rude health and well on the way to recovery
4weeks for Yulia and a couple of months for Sergei .Sergei's so burnt by the whole thing he's unable to contact his mother who he used to ring every week
Shame on you Brit doctors!
And you Russians , when will you learn to treat dissidents the good old democratic Western way ?
'End torture and medical neglect of Julian Assange"
Or they feel like the message is adequately sent either way – live or die, no matter, just make sure there's a lot of publicised suffering and expense and a teeny-tiny fig-leaf of plausible deniability to provoke ever more argument.
Nordstream 2 home and hosed and all of Europe plugged in,then finish off Navalny and all those pesky commies who do so much better in the polls than Navalny
Methinks those bungling bastards are resting on the laurels of puppetising Trump and inducing him to demand the end of Nordstream 2….well before the Navalny fiasco
Francesca You need to put sarc at the bottom of the comments that you write in a cynical/satirical way. We don't know what is going on and when you appear to know and state something it is taken as supposedly believable or completely dismissed depending on the bent of the reader.
It's way harder to almost kill someone , then allow them to return to full health ,than to kill them outright
You've got to get the measurements just right, enough surplus to spread all over Salisbury for instance and cause the maximum fuss and diplomatic downsides, but not quite enough to kill.
And it takes a lot of skill in the case of Navalny for instance to only contaminate the target and none of his colleaugues(who are just as noisome as Navalny)
You're driving in a war-torn land. You turn a corner and see a roadblock several hundred metres away. Your windscreen shatters and a bullet goes through the drivers' headrest not an inch away from you.
"Well gosh," thinks one person. "The shot can't have come from the roadblock, because at that range to miss me by inches is an amazing piece of marksmanship. Because the shot didn't come from there, it's safe for me to keep going in that direction. If they had wanted to kill me, with marksmanship like that I'd be dead already."
"Well gosh" thinks another person. "I guess they don't want me approaching, and aren't too bothered about whether I live or die so long as nobody approaches them. I think I will go back the way I came."
It's an abhorrent practice but the West has been doing the same sort of thing for decades. They also targeted innocent citizens of allied countries. Take the CIA for example. They were running almost rampant in Australia and NZ during the 60s, 70s and 80s. Many of their targets were aware of what was going on but they couldn't say anything because few people would have believed them.
Labour Party supporters and activists were particularly vulnerable and anyone who dared to have any contact – for whatever reason – with Russian nationals. My father was one of them. He couldn't harm a fly but that didn't stop them.
It's an abhorrent practice but the West has been doing the same sort of thing for decades.
As abhorrent as it is its also necessary because if we didn't do it we wouldn't be able to act to defend ourselves.
It's when such information is used for an attack that it breaches ethics and, by the way the Chinese labelled some people, it was obviously being used as an attack vector. That's what politically vulnerable means.
This is an interesting essay on how collusion between the authoritarian neoliberal left and "woke capitalism" has displaced actual activism for social change with "public castigation, social media mobbing or termination of employment".
TVNZ realised the public mood shifting around the Trump-esque lies Hosking engages in every day of the week and sacked him. It's a much bigger ask but it'd be progress if Newstalk ZB followed suit.
Although Hosking was found to be in breach of the Radio Code of Broadcasting Practice, the BSA did not make an order, instead saying its decision “was sufficient to censure the broadcaster and to provide guidance to broadcasters generally”.
No, really, it isn't.
The whole point of having codes is that there are consequences to breaching them especially after they’ve done it several times.
Never used the smoking stuff, but the value of the basic plants gives me a high. Perhaps we can get out of the conservative-blinkers into something with good prospects, slap taxes on second homes and above, and direct investment away from selling our basic needs to the wealthy and impoverishing the rest of us.
Has anyone thought that it follows the pattern of the Irish Famine – they had crops of corn I think but that had been contracted for delivery outside Ireland, I think to the British Army. Business before people, who would have been cited as a 'restraint to trade' if they had successfully blocked the export. And trade and profit are sacred matters to money-makers; people are expendable but suffer without homes and food.
"On a Single Day" by Christy Moore on exports from Cork in September 1847. Meanwhile up the road in Skibbereen lie thousands buried in mass graves. Business before people……..
They say that society is between 3 and 9 meals from anarchy, but it would depend on a number of other factors as well. Just the same, it seems to be a good rule of thumb as opposed to a rule of law.
For an individual, it may vary say for example, the point where a vegan or vegetarian would stop using a draft horse for agricultural purpose or for riding to and from the village on and slaughter it so as to cut it in to delicious bite size chunks for consumption.
I guess New Zealand has one thing going for it. That even if the economy were to go into free fall and we run out of backers and run out of those who would trade with us relative to what we have left to offer, which is kai, man!
Of course, unless or until someone with a large army decided that our fodder was going to be acquired by them, by hook or by crook.
We also have heaps of concepts and creative alternative lifestyle thoughts. Sure, we can’t eat these, but Hell, they must be worth something during a serious crisis.
Tourism accommodation, hospitality, and events/attractions are dependent for the foreseeable future on the smaller domestic market tourism.
We therefore need to urgently expand existing food crops and develop new crops which bring capital investment into the regions- and thus jobs- to help replace the loss of international revenues and jobs.
Non sequitur. Just because the tourism sector is collapsing doesn't mean that we need more farms.
There is substantial interest from investors to add the capital required into the industry to achieve rapid growth and scale for export marketing.
Agricultural export is a bad move as the excessive farming we already have has proved to our detriment.
We now need the entrepreneurial vision and determination, backed by our national economic agencies as well as investment funders
We do need the entrepreneurial vision and determination but we don't need the bludging investors who are no more than a blight upon our society.
Prior to this law change Hemp was a staple industrial crop in the USA and Europe because the motive power for sailing ships was hemp fibre for rigging, ropes and canvas sails.
By the time that the War on Drugs made hemp illegal it was no longer a staple for motive power. Sailing ships were long gone to the Age of Steam and diesel was on the up and up. Really, if it had still been vital there would have been no way to make it illegal.
If government wishes to support the rapid growth of revenue and regional jobs from Hemp, then the next Prime Minister needs to cut through the red tape and finesse the Hemp amendment regulations.
No, that is most definitely what the government should not be doing as it removes the necessary pricing to ensure that its actually a viable industry. Better regulations, certainly, but not the removal of regulations.
Instead of allowing the major construction companies to find the cheapest ways of using its post-Covid-19 investments (with substantial imports), the NZ Government could mandate the use of low or positive environmental impact materials such as hemp.
While I agree this is actually more about ensuring that there's local demand to support the burgeoning industry. In other words, he's asking for government guaranteed profits.
Surely all that is required for the burgeoning Hemp industry to guarantee profits is for us to all go back to hemp roped sailing ships? No more fuel oil either!
National health, an oxymoron. Did people hear the extravagant promises made under the National banner this morning. This from the party that is always promising to cut taxes. They know that their moron followers think that money grows on trees which are eternally fruitful. They know how to use it for their own purposes, but not how to put it back into the economy like fertiliser, to have a modern, thriving, busy and healthy country.
There is talk about 'navigators' and apparently they have picked that up from the UK. That is where the services have been run down, tightened so a patient can't have enough time with their GP to discuss more than one of their health problems! The country where they lied to the people about the money that would be released for their health system by going for Brexit and the main proponents of that have been in close contact with Big Pharma in the USA! And where they are really good at handling Covid-19 in a timely fashion and developing systems that limit its spread – not!
This from Dr Reti – 'He says the primary care navigators have been trialled in the United Kingdom with positive outcomes. They would offer counselling, help unlock government agencies, follow up appointments and referrals and do home visits.'
These under their Surgery heading:
Faster elective surgeries, with funding and surgery for patients within four months
DHBs will outsource elective surgeries they are unable to complete themselves within that timeframe – to other DHBs or private providers at no extra cost
Targets – that can't be met, leading to question of capability and a loss of respect for our public services, with more surgery done by private providers while the public hospitals get further squeezed and finally cannot find staff willing to work in them because of their under-funding impoverished state.
So go private, that will be the answer. Sneer at public, they are just so inefficient, mistakes and faults to heap on them.
The National Party is disgraceful – they can't lie straight in bed even. Their comment on Pharmac – they will keep it as it is excellent (for our ears) and for Big Pharmas ears – we will have more medicines available.
"National believes the Pharmac model is the best way to ensure New Zealanders are accessing much-needed medication."
"Year on year this will be more funding for Pharmac than at any time in the past decade, and New Zealanders will have better access to more medicines.
I read with interest the media reports ; (Stuff and NZ Herald) and also posts herein; (Anne and Draco Te Bastard) regarding the People's republic of China and reports of a database kept on New Zealanders.
Is this not terrible?
Who might have guessed they could have gone THAT far. Max and his baseball aspirations, Winnie and his daughter. Oh My Goodness.
Yep. The PRC are pretty resourceful from what is gleaned by such disclosures.
Bad, China. How could you?
And must I say in support of New Zealand what an entirely non-intrusive, blessed, clean, open, non-corrupted, non-corruptible, humble nation we as a sovereign state along with our fellow residents are, and how few (if any) would ever be likely not go to such lengths.
We pride ourselves and self promote on how we give everybody a Fair Go. And this must surely extend to the collection, analyses and dissemination of information on other people.
Surely as good folk, we wouldn't dear go anywhere near intruding or fishing just to get an upper hand on anybody else in relation to business, finances, politics, nor in relation to assessing competitors, nor even simply because we do not like someone or some group for any particular reason whether or not we get rewarded for doing so.
Surely we would rarely even engage in the wide or small scale collection of public domain material (court records for example), nor business and personal data on each other just to find out more about other Kiwis.
We leave it up to govern-mental for most of this, do we not?
Why? Because, again, it's simply not a Fair Go, and besides, there hefty penalties for unauthorized access to any closed material.
However, the reason we do not intrude in such a way as good Kiwis is not out of fear in relation to such legislation, it is because we care for each other so deeply and we like to think of ourselves as both ambassadors and teachers (even preachers) to the world, from our Aotearoa land of plenty that so many call "Godzone".
Isn't there some law we could invent or manufacture to stop others looking at us this way.
Darn camera clickers and busy bodies they must appear to be, all on their own.
Unlike New Zealanders with all of our values and good conduct, and where butter would not melt in our mouths in relation to intrusion for profit, out of curiosity or to collect brownie points.
But most Kiwis I've come across are curious folk when it comes to looking over the back fence, and then pointing the finger when others appear to be inquisitive or nosy.
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TL;DR: An unseasonally early icy blast at the same time as some long-overdue maintenance almost caused Aotearoa-NZ’s electricity system to black out this week. That’s because a quadropoly of gentailers1 have prioritised paying dividends from their rising profits and adding debt over investing in 1.5 GigaWatts of new wind farms ...
Hi,Before we crack into today’s Webworm, I wanted to acknowledge the fact that Israel is pushing into Rafah. Over 100,000 Palestinians are now attempting to flee the one place that was deemed “safe”.Trouble is, the place they’re fleeing to is already destroyed. Total annihilation is the end goal here.“Israel is ...
‘It has been said that figures rule the world. Maybe. I am quite sure that it is figures which show us whether it is being ruled well or badly.’ GoetheI was struck at a recent conference on equity for the elderly, how many presenters implicitly relied upon Statistics New Zealand. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveReporting on defence spending late last year, RNZ said the coalition government will have to make some tough calls this term to help the force address staff shortages and ageing infrastructure. “These are huge, huge amounts of government spending. It’s a significant proportion of the government’s ...
Peter Dunne writes – I am always wary when I hear that the Controller and Auditor-General has commented on or made recommendations to the government about an issue of public policy that does not relate strictly to public expenditure. According to the legislation, the role of the Controller ...
How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought NZ to the brink of economic and cultural chaos Chris Trotter writes – TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition ...
And why did the Crown not challenge the Tribunal’s jurisdiction? Gary Judd writes – Retired District Court Judge, David Harvey, has posted on his A Halflings View Substack an excellent summary of Justice Isacs’ judgment declining to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result?As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and ...
Macklemore isn’t someone I’d usually think about. Sure I liked his big hit from a few years back, everybody did it was catchy and cool with some memorable lines. But if I was going to think of artists who might speak out on political matters or world events, he wouldn’t ...
Another week goes by in the Luxon government’s efforts to roll back the past 70 years of social progress. The school lunches programme is to be downgraded by $107 million, and women need bother their heads no longer about pay equity, let alone expect ACC to provide adequate sexual violence ...
Brrr, the first cold snap of the year. Hope you’re rugged up nice and warm. Here are some stories that caught our eye this week… This Week on Greater Auckland On Monday, we had a post from a new contributor, Connor Sharp, who dug into the public feedback ...
Almost all of the Wellington City Council’s recommended zoning changes to allow many more apartments and townhouses in its inner-suburbs have been approved.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guest on geopolitics, ...
Open access notablesA Global Increase in Nearshore Tropical Cyclone Intensification, Balaguru et al., Earth's Future:Tropical Cyclones (TCs) inflict substantial coastal damages, making it pertinent to understand changing storm characteristics in the important nearshore region. Past work examined several aspects of TCs relevant for impacts in coastal regions. However, ...
Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result? As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and always answered “yes”, with very few ...
Thus far May has followed on from a quiet April in the blogging department, but in fairness, it has been another case of doing what I am supposed to be doing, namely writing original fiction. Plus reading. So don’t worry – I have been productive. But in order to reassure ...
Buzz from the Beehive A new government agency will open for business on July 1 – the Social Investment Agency. As a new standalone central agency effective from 1 July, it will lead the development of social investment across Government, helping ministers understand who they need to invest in, what ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The ...
Alwyn Poole writes – After being elected to Parliament in 2008 the maiden speech of Hipkins was substantially around education policy. He was Labour’s spokesperson for education 2011 – 2017. He was Minister for Education from 2017 until February 2023. This is approximately 88% of the time Labour ...
Eric Crampton writes – A fashion industry group is lobbying for protections. They make the usual arguments and a newer one. None of it makes sense. An industry group says it pumped $7.8 billion into the economy last year – that’s 1.9 percent of New Zealand’s GDP. ...
In December 2006, Fiji's military leader Voreqe Bainimarama overthrew the elected government in a coup. He ruled Fiji for the next 16 years, first as dictator, then as "elected" Prime Minister. But now, he's finally been sent to jail where he belongs. Sadly, this isn't for his real crime of ...
Don't like National's corrupt Muldoonist "fast-track" law? Aotearoa's environmental NGO's - Greenpeace, Forest & Bird, WWF, Coromandel Watchdog, Coal Action Network Aotearoa, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, and others - have announced a joint march against it in Auckland in June: When: 13:00, 8 June, 2024 Where: Aotea Square, Auckland You ...
Seymour describes sushi as too woke for school meals. There are no fish sushi meals recommended by the School Lunches programme. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Government will swap out hot meals for packaged sandwiches to save $107 million on school lunches for poor kids. MSD has pulled ...
I don't mind stealin' bread from the mouths of decadenceBut I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled, yeahBut it's on the table, the fire's cookin'And they're farmin' babies, while slaves are workin'The blood is on the table and the mouths are chokin'But I'm goin' hungry, yeahSome ...
The Ardern Government’s chickens came home to roost yesterday with the news that the country is short of natural gas. In 2018, Labour banned offshore petroleum exploration, and industry executives say that the attendant loss of confidence by the industry impacted overall investment in onshore gas fields. Energy Resources Minister ...
Hi,If you’ve been digging through the newly launched Webworm store (orders are being dispatched worldwide as I type!) you’ll have noticed the best model we had was Calvin.This is Calvin.Calvin.Calvin is 7, and is the son of my producer over on Flightless Bird, Rob — aka “Wobby Wob”. Rob also ...
This video includes 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). Climate change is everywhere. And when something's everywhere it can feel like it's nowhere. So how do we get our heads ...
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
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 ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – 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 of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
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. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
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 ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
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A job for Billy TK.
Excellent scheme. The punishment fitting the crime – not in a nutshell but an oblong space.l
If a political party is unregistered, and passes the threshold at the election, can it get list candidates into parliament as a result? Probably not!
They deserve an award for value-added entertainment though. The Nat/Lab underwhelming strategy is clearly designed to turn voters off. NZF is clearly trying to scare voters off. Greens seem unsure which voters to piss off.
Of the peripherals, Vernon Tava has been a no-show, the Opportunists flicker on/off dimly, and the Neocons are off the wall. Only the nutters seem right on – fervently demonstrating god's will to the apathetic. Oh, but we can celebrate the Maori Party for advocating we ditch the dumb old colonial name and become Aotearoa! 👍
From the list of Koha in your first link, that is great that people from all over the country have given donations rounded to the nearest hundred dollars, or probably purely in hundred dollar bills. Restores ones faith in humanity, that the public won't encumber a political movement with superfluous accounting… The wonderful Billy TK.
Electoral Commission's Guide to Party Registration (link) says unregistered parties can only stand electorate candidates. Party vote is only for registered parties.
Thanks Alice, thought so. I guess it means the decision of JLR to stop contesting Botany is due to him presuming his party registration can get him in even though his partner's party must win a seat to get in. If the combo reaches 5% I mean. If the unlikely happens, could become a legal fight (all the way to the Supreme Court)…
Maybe stand electorate candidates under JLR's Advance NZ banner as that is a registered party.
Except that seems to contradict what you wrote in 2.2, so I was thinking he's somehow relying on how the combined party will work. Then again maybe neither leader actually thought it thro. Probably won't matter but nutters abound so if they vote we may get an interesting situation. A lawyer-fest.
In 2.2 I was thinking of NZPP standing under its own name.
NZPP is a component party of Advance NZ (link), so it might be okay if everything is done through the combined entity. (Or might be one for the lawyers.)
Oh yeah. I see there are four component parties listed. Went to the Advance website & the link there to Billy's party. Interesting bio:
It's tough at the top. Not enough to surf the wave of any hot conspiracy theory, you get competing theorists demonising you – bit like sharks in the water around the surfer…
maybe the existential question should be, is a unregistered cult with a leader who keeps the $$$$$ under his bed a political party? but, I agree, they do add colour, conspiracy nutters are fun to play with , gentley leading-pushing them further up their own orifice with each wild theory.(mine, not theirs)
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BB194lJm?m=en-nz&ocid=News
“”The political, economic and environmental trends we’ve slavishly followed for decades have been exposed as not only redundant but actually dangerous. Maybe we should adopt not just a language but a way of thinking that’s indigenous to this country. Let’s start a conversation about what Tino Rangatiratanga might mean now instead of patronising attempts to use Māori language to continue denying it.””
The state isn't co-opting Māori culture. If they were, things might actually be better.
A large part of the problem is that we've seemingly decided to remain a multi-cultural society rather than coming together as a single society that has aspects (preferably the best aspects while throwing out the worst) of multiple cultures.
Its this determination to remain separate within our country that really pisses me off. We'd all be better off if we decided to have a single culture informed from all the cultures that have come here.
Well, that wasn't the deal made in 1840.
So we're left with a salad, not a puree. I prefer salads, anyway.
I was responding to this:
I agree that we do need to have such a conversation but the result of that conversation should be that we, as a nation, are one people with one culture. What's really up for discussion is the nature of that culture and if its still dividing us or brining us together.
Predetermining the outcome of a conversation makes the conversation pointless.
But also, we are a multicultural society. Arguing we should be "one culture" is either suggesting a sort of cultural homgeneity that the zealandia jerks seem to be after, or it's a meaningless proposition that our single culture is multicultural.
But what is the problem with talking about what Tino Rangatiratanga might mean? There are several examples around the world of different cultures working together within one nation, but with diverse governance and service systems. Canada comes to mind, but there are others.
No it doesn't as it would be about how we went about it, what parts of which cultures we keep which get tossed aside.
Not really unless you want to proclaim identity politics as valid:
My bold.
The problem with a multi-cultural society is that it will always be tearing itself apart as it puts people, who should be friendly neighbours, against each other.
Who's?
As I said, identity politics tears a society apart.
Not really.
In all countries there's one set of rules at the top that lower bodies (states/cities) have to conform to even if they do make local laws which means that there's an over-riding culture.
A couple of points there.
Pretending that culture is determined by sitting down and discussing it, rather than a conglomerate of individuals and lived experience, is bullshit. So that discussion is lala-land for a start.
Secondly, "identity politics" is a phrase used by fuckwits to disparage the concept of treating individuals with respect even if they are different. Lived experience being ""automatically more correct" than what? And why is "correct" being used to score points in that essay? The problem wasn't the author's "identity politics", the problem was the author trying to score points against their parents rather than actually discuss the matter.
But that article shares what I believe to be your basic miscomprehension: diversity in culture doesn't need to lead to conflict. The conflict occurs when one culture tries to dominate the other. Discarding "aspects" of any culture, even if rationally determined by committee, will piss people off. Look at the claims of "social engineering" over smacking and lightbulbs.
We can minimise that conflict by recognising the cultures within our society. Canada really is an interesting example with its approach to First Nations, French, and British heritage and culture. Not perfect by any means, but definitely something to look at.
Trying to mash us all into a homogeneous culture and say we are "one culture" is a fast way to start exploitation, dominance, and war. We've done that before.
edit: and laws and jurisdiction really is something you should read up on in Canada. Not that laws are culture, anyway.
Culture is set by the rules of a society be they written or unwritten. Discussing what Tino Rangatiratanga might mean is discussing what rules we want to keep and what rules to toss aside.
Its what we call government.
No, it really isn't. In fact, I first heard the concept of identity politics from those most in favour of it.
Yes it does. Treating people differently because they're black/white/gay/straight inevitably leads to conflict as people will have the belief that they're being short-changed.
Yes, governance does get that sort of response because they are engaging in social engineering. They're, quite literally, setting the rules that will determine the culture of a society. So you can probably understand why National were upset as the 5th Labour government tried to stop the ongoing excessive and uneconomical use of power and abuse of children.
No, that will maximise the conflict.
Nope.
When two culture meet the cross-pollinate and create a new culture. What multi-culturalism does is to try and keep all the cultures as they were at some idealistic point in time and thus trying to prevent the changes that need to happen as a new culture emerges.
Well, I disagree with pretty much every point and characterisation and conflation you have made there.
But society won't fall apart if we don't hash out exactly which bits we should keep or discard.
So, a bit like calling a person by their chosen pronoun, I will leave it alone and merely wish you a good night. The Cultural Appropriations Committee can pick it up in the morning.
" Its this determination to remain separate within our country that really pisses me off. We'd all be better off if we decided to have a single culture informed from all the cultures that have come here."
Then, one day a man named Sylvester McMonkey McBean came. Everyone from every persuasion that nature and nuture created sat down at a meeting with that "fix it up chappie" as mediator.
The agenda was to decide , " what parts of which cultures we keep (and) which get tossed aside."
The goal of the task was to make, "one set of rules at the top that lower bodies (states/cities) have to conform to even if they do make local laws which means that there's an over-riding culture."
A problem to ameliorate was that people in those lower bodies with their own unique identities were , according to some, problematic because they were through their identity, different from the ideal.
The problem was then reconfigured, not as 'the problem being the problem' but but dammit…those different people were the problem.
A little background to the current problem. In the 1830s, the British government decided it was time to curb the lawlessness of the land and officially make it a colony.
Sylvester McMonkey McBean the first, arrived on NZ shores and using an ever changing formula for the process, the natives were pushed through the suppresion machine to meld together for all to be one people. The melting pot machine had three main phases to pass through, Christianise against savage practices and beliefs, Colonise using one set of rules and expected behaviour because they are superior, then finally, Capitalise on the assets pilfered through that glorious new identity.
Over 180 years when some saw the cracks appear and the have nots started to uprise, it was easy to fix.. . add new rules again ( and imprison the rule breakers.)
The process is much like the original evolution of rules where the then recent, superior immigrants created more rules in the colonists' Native Land Court to affect cancelling the collective identity found in collective ownership of the commons and onto removing singular identity ( and assets) from being connected to the land.
The rationale purported for this more recent proposal here, of transformation to one culture, is that,
" Treating people differently because they're black/white/gay/straight inevitably leads to conflict as people will have the belief that they're being short-changed."
Once more in history, a policy sell of a One Nation melting pot that inflicted inequality, is now postured again as the cure to quell civil unrest.
Underlying this is the posed certainity that individual identity is destructive to society.
" We can minimise that conflict by recognising the cultures within our society," says one O' the flock with an idea.
A direct, " No, that will maximise the conflict."
Instead we need to cross-pollinate.
" When two culture meet the cross-pollinate and create a new culture. What multi-culturalism does is to try and keep all the cultures as they were at some idealistic point in time and thus trying to prevent the changes that need to happen as a new culture emerges."
Furthermore, after overlooking mass misery created through exploiting an earlier 'set of rules' in order to have a state run 'one-culture' , the whole of the Treaty is dumped. Its whole context, the history, its purpose and intent is now diminished through hand picking a two word convenient phrase to suit. The selection of just those two words "tino rangitira" and putting a spin on it is the "co-opting" of the convenient parts to impose a western world view. Applied then to the appropriation is a self-interpretation to shape the future in order to uphold an argument that a nation's people will coexist peacefully if multi-culturalism is cancelled out.
"Culture is set by the rules of a society be they written or unwritten. Discussing what Tino Rangatiratanga might mean is discussing what rules we want to keep and what rules to toss aside."
Which group has the right and should be the ones to interpret tikanga might be the first question, before all the lab rats are subjected to hegemony ?
A person's identity is the totality of all dimensions that make up 'self' . All the aspects that come into play that make each person's unique identity would need to be deconstructed and then it's just too bad, some need to be thrown out as they are not good.
Ancestory and family, parenting, gender, social practices, rites of passage, genetics, personality, peace or trauma, environment of events and resources in one's upbringing, belief systems, political leanings, cognitive abilities, looks, skin colour.. the perfect One identity will be created by the fix it up chappie.
This crazy cycle of rule changing would continue until everyone couldn't tell who was originally which type of Sneetch, we all at which point are the same, a pure-e.
To be pragmatic though, because 5 million can't fit in the meeting room, we would need to whittle down proportionately the attendees to a house of representatives. To show further fairness, the meeting would start with a co-opted practice of a prayer and then would precede by following co-opted archaic "Robert's Rules" for speaking.
Hopefully, none at the Make One Nation meeting has the rotten core of capitalism in their hearts.
The predominant majority of representatives would then decide the alogorithms for McBean's machine. A halt to any new immigrants would have to follow as they may taint the ideal identity or be too expensive to machinize into pure-e.
But for $10 more each says Mr. McBean, I can add dermabrasion in as an extra star to whitewash all. Then McBean will pack his bags up and leave loaded with cash.
The enlightenment to follow, what fun! There'd be no more diversity as there be no more " north and south going Zax ". For that matter, there'd be no more "green pants with nobody inside them" either, to invent our fears around.
Can you smell the vanilla coming off those algorithm decisions ?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/300107808/university-students-may-reconsider-futures-after-labour-party-breaks-promise-of-additional-feesfree-years
Fees Free was expensive, but restoring the postgraduate student allowance was not. If you can't fulfil postgrad allowances in the 2017-2020 term, at the very least make sure you fulfil it in 2020-2023 ("better late than never").
As it is, this smacks of 1980s-1990s Bait and Switch. Hipkins can stay on at Health, but he's godawful at Education. Give the job to someone who doesn't betray students.
I think Hipkins is far too busy with both Health and Education. I agree and think he should stay as health minster (he's a lot better than David Clark, although Clark set the bar very low). Jacinda seems a bit reluctant to trust some of the other ministers and IMO has overloaded both Hipkins and Megan Woods.
It was a Labour flagship policy in their election campaign in 2017 and NZF and the Greens pledged support. I don’t know about NZF being the convenient handbrake but the Green Party is in full support.
https://www.greens.org.nz/tertiary_education_policy
They never even tried to implement it and using Covid as an excuse is an insult to our trust. It shows the short-term thinking and focus on ‘shovel-ready’ stuff suits Labour as much as National.
So students should party vote Green then incog. This is a significant own goal by Labour.
The Green Party Policies have a lot to offer to young people.
They have a lot to offer most people and not just the young.
I agree, but we were referring to students, who are mostly (!) young, and the number of younger voters is relatively low. That was the context.
Gives the greens a couple of percent via their leftish platform rather than strict environmentalism.
Labour can afford to throw its main ally a bone, and they can do it without knobbling an electorate candidate. Teamwork. They'd probably govern alone if the Greens didn't get in this time, but Labour know they're better off having the Greens.
Labour can boost the Greens without getting a generation of students to view Labour as liars.
Honestly, there is a reason it took so long to put the demons of Phil Goff and Lockwood Smith back in the bottle.
Besides the overstatement by comparing a widened schedule in a pandaemic with Lockwood Smith's outright lie, if my suspicion that this was an intentional tactic is correct (that Labour are easing off on education with the benefit to the Greens being at least a partial consideration in favour of that move), then that is literally the goal: spend some of their political capital by alienating some supporters in the group most likely to lean Green rather than NZ1/nat.
Piss of pensioners, they go NZ1. Piss of students, they go Green.
Left/right collusion at the top level of politics remains effective in preventing progress by defending business as usual: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/15/every-global-target-to-stem-destruction-of-nature-by-2020-missed-un-report-aoe
Mainstreamers will be reassured by this. Doing something different would be terribly traumatic. You can see why they switched to Coro instead.
Those dumb ignorant Russians are in denial over novichok
They've done no decontamination of the Tomsk airport, which has been in full operational mode throughout.The aeroplane carrying Navalny, and in which he was induced to vomit has not been destroyed, fellow passengers have been questioned but not tested for novichok, neither have the crew.
There's a disgraceful photo of Navalny being put in the ambulance on the way to the Omsk hospital
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/21/world/europe/russia-navalny-poison-hospital.html
What were they thinking!! No hazmat gear on , no precautions apart from the usual hospital gowns and masks
They'll be dying like flies over there you mark my words, Navalny and his colleagues will be trumpeting it from the rooftops
But I have to say, the Germans have done it on the cheap too. No tracheotomy for Navalny, unlike both the Skripals, and the Navalny dose was meant to be harder
No quarantining for Navalny
Navalny had his wife and family close the whole time, poor old Skripal was denied the visitation of friends or family
And we know he had friends in Salisbury, his old MI6 handler Pablo Miller lived in the same town and they had monthly lunches
The Skripals had to be expensively quarantined and safe housed and given new identities and shipped off to NZ.Or so an anonymous UK intelligence source told the Sunday Times of Britain , and they would surely not lie?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12342962
Navalny has just appeared on his instagram page looking very chipper indeed and stating that as soon as he gets out of hospital he's back to Russia .Goodness!
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/15/alexei-navalny-poisoned-russian-opposition-leader-photo-hospital
I must commend the German doctors, he's looking the very picture of rude health and well on the way to recovery
4weeks for Yulia and a couple of months for Sergei .Sergei's so burnt by the whole thing he's unable to contact his mother who he used to ring every week
Shame on you Brit doctors!
And you Russians , when will you learn to treat dissidents the good old democratic Western way ?
'End torture and medical neglect of Julian Assange"
You're so backward with this novichok that continues not to kill the target
How hard is a heart attack or car accident?
Da, comrade.
It's almost like the Russian State Security services are very good at killing people any more.
Or they feel like the message is adequately sent either way – live or die, no matter, just make sure there's a lot of publicised suffering and expense and a teeny-tiny fig-leaf of plausible deniability to provoke ever more argument.
And at the same time bungle the use of a poison guaranteed to cause maximum embarrassment to their boss.
Sighs … hard to find competent assassins these days.
Poots doesn't show the slightest sign of embarrassment. Quite the opposite from all appearances.
I know , and to get the timing so badly wrong!
Nordstream 2 home and hosed and all of Europe plugged in,then finish off Navalny and all those pesky commies who do so much better in the polls than Navalny
Methinks those bungling bastards are resting on the laurels of puppetising Trump and inducing him to demand the end of Nordstream 2….well before the Navalny fiasco
https://www.rferl.org/a/pompeo-u-s-will-do-everything-to-stop-nord-stream-2/30757543.html
Trump is such a Putin puppet hes also withdrawn the US from the INF arms control treaty
https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2019-09/news/us-completes-inf-treaty-withdrawal
And the Open Skies treaty
Puppet Trump has given lethal weaponry to Ukraine , when even Obama stopped short
Francesca You need to put sarc at the bottom of the comments that you write in a cynical/satirical way. We don't know what is going on and when you appear to know and state something it is taken as supposedly believable or completely dismissed depending on the bent of the reader.
Sorry grey
The daniki were burning and I forgot to put the sarc tag in
Actually Red , it shows they're even more skilful
It's way harder to almost kill someone , then allow them to return to full health ,than to kill them outright
You've got to get the measurements just right, enough surplus to spread all over Salisbury for instance and cause the maximum fuss and diplomatic downsides, but not quite enough to kill.
And it takes a lot of skill in the case of Navalny for instance to only contaminate the target and none of his colleaugues(who are just as noisome as Navalny)
Thank you Francesca for unpicking the remarkable inconsistencies in these cases.
Scenario:
You're driving in a war-torn land. You turn a corner and see a roadblock several hundred metres away. Your windscreen shatters and a bullet goes through the drivers' headrest not an inch away from you.
"Well gosh," thinks one person. "The shot can't have come from the roadblock, because at that range to miss me by inches is an amazing piece of marksmanship. Because the shot didn't come from there, it's safe for me to keep going in that direction. If they had wanted to kill me, with marksmanship like that I'd be dead already."
"Well gosh" thinks another person. "I guess they don't want me approaching, and aren't too bothered about whether I live or die so long as nobody approaches them. I think I will go back the way I came."
Some people just don't get the message.
Navalny certainly didnt, he's raring to get back to Russia
He got the message. He's brave, not stupid.
Might've got into the habit of using contractors like the Night Wolves.
While on the subject of international affairs…
I'm no defender of the Chinese government but talk about the pots calling the kettle black:
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122773268/new-zealand-politicians-diplomats-judges-and-fraudsters-found-on-massive-chinese-intelligence-database
It's an abhorrent practice but the West has been doing the same sort of thing for decades. They also targeted innocent citizens of allied countries. Take the CIA for example. They were running almost rampant in Australia and NZ during the 60s, 70s and 80s. Many of their targets were aware of what was going on but they couldn't say anything because few people would have believed them.
Labour Party supporters and activists were particularly vulnerable and anyone who dared to have any contact – for whatever reason – with Russian nationals. My father was one of them. He couldn't harm a fly but that didn't stop them.
Sympathy for you and your father Anne
Tough times
He's been gone many years francesca but the last years of his life were destroyed and I will never forgive the bastards who were responsible.
As abhorrent as it is its also necessary because if we didn't do it we wouldn't be able to act to defend ourselves.
It's when such information is used for an attack that it breaches ethics and, by the way the Chinese labelled some people, it was obviously being used as an attack vector. That's what politically vulnerable means.
Precisely what I mean by abhorrent practice. Its what happened to my father.
This is an interesting essay on how collusion between the authoritarian neoliberal left and "woke capitalism" has displaced actual activism for social change with "public castigation, social media mobbing or termination of employment".
https://savageminds.substack.com/p/whats-driving-authoritarianism-today
TVNZ realised the public mood shifting around the Trump-esque lies Hosking engages in every day of the week and sacked him. It's a much bigger ask but it'd be progress if Newstalk ZB followed suit.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/300108163/mike-hoskings-comments-about-italys-coronavirus-deaths-misleading-bsa
No, really, it isn't.
The whole point of having codes is that there are consequences to breaching them especially after they’ve done it several times.
Given the context in these covid times this 'code' requires an overhaul if mr journalism suffers no consequences.
Some interesting stuff about hemp if you missed it on Monday.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2009/S00197/hemp-just-needs-the-nod-a-2bn-transition-for-nzs-economy.htm
Never used the smoking stuff, but the value of the basic plants gives me a high. Perhaps we can get out of the conservative-blinkers into something with good prospects, slap taxes on second homes and above, and direct investment away from selling our basic needs to the wealthy and impoverishing the rest of us.
Has anyone thought that it follows the pattern of the Irish Famine – they had crops of corn I think but that had been contracted for delivery outside Ireland, I think to the British Army. Business before people, who would have been cited as a 'restraint to trade' if they had successfully blocked the export. And trade and profit are sacred matters to money-makers; people are expendable but suffer without homes and food.
"On a Single Day" by Christy Moore on exports from Cork in September 1847. Meanwhile up the road in Skibbereen lie thousands buried in mass graves. Business before people……..
Here's a link to Christy Moore.
They say that society is between 3 and 9 meals from anarchy, but it would depend on a number of other factors as well. Just the same, it seems to be a good rule of thumb as opposed to a rule of law.
For an individual, it may vary say for example, the point where a vegan or vegetarian would stop using a draft horse for agricultural purpose or for riding to and from the village on and slaughter it so as to cut it in to delicious bite size chunks for consumption.
I guess New Zealand has one thing going for it. That even if the economy were to go into free fall and we run out of backers and run out of those who would trade with us relative to what we have left to offer, which is kai, man!
Of course, unless or until someone with a large army decided that our fodder was going to be acquired by them, by hook or by crook.
We also have heaps of concepts and creative alternative lifestyle thoughts. Sure, we can’t eat these, but Hell, they must be worth something during a serious crisis.
Quoting article:
Non sequitur. Just because the tourism sector is collapsing doesn't mean that we need more farms.
Agricultural export is a bad move as the excessive farming we already have has proved to our detriment.
We do need the entrepreneurial vision and determination but we don't need the bludging investors who are no more than a blight upon our society.
By the time that the War on Drugs made hemp illegal it was no longer a staple for motive power. Sailing ships were long gone to the Age of Steam and diesel was on the up and up. Really, if it had still been vital there would have been no way to make it illegal.
Of course, there was still no way ethical way to make hemp illegal and so some industrialists got together and made it so anyway. They just wanted to get rid of the competition.
No, that is most definitely what the government should not be doing as it removes the necessary pricing to ensure that its actually a viable industry. Better regulations, certainly, but not the removal of regulations.
While I agree this is actually more about ensuring that there's local demand to support the burgeoning industry. In other words, he's asking for government guaranteed profits.
Surely all that is required for the burgeoning Hemp industry to guarantee profits is for us to all go back to hemp roped sailing ships? No more fuel oil either!
Hemp jeans would be a good start – very long life fabric.
edit
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/426163/national-health-policy-promises-800m-in-new-funding-over-four-years-targeting-pharmac-and-cancer
National health, an oxymoron. Did people hear the extravagant promises made under the National banner this morning. This from the party that is always promising to cut taxes. They know that their moron followers think that money grows on trees which are eternally fruitful. They know how to use it for their own purposes, but not how to put it back into the economy like fertiliser, to have a modern, thriving, busy and healthy country.
There is talk about 'navigators' and apparently they have picked that up from the UK. That is where the services have been run down, tightened so a patient can't have enough time with their GP to discuss more than one of their health problems! The country where they lied to the people about the money that would be released for their health system by going for Brexit and the main proponents of that have been in close contact with Big Pharma in the USA! And where they are really good at handling Covid-19 in a timely fashion and developing systems that limit its spread – not!
This from Dr Reti – 'He says the primary care navigators have been trialled in the United Kingdom with positive outcomes. They would offer counselling, help unlock government agencies, follow up appointments and referrals and do home visits.'
These under their Surgery heading:
Targets – that can't be met, leading to question of capability and a loss of respect for our public services, with more surgery done by private providers while the public hospitals get further squeezed and finally cannot find staff willing to work in them because of their under-funding impoverished state.
So go private, that will be the answer. Sneer at public, they are just so inefficient, mistakes and faults to heap on them.
The National Party is disgraceful – they can't lie straight in bed even. Their comment on Pharmac – they will keep it as it is excellent (for our ears) and for Big Pharmas ears – we will have more medicines available.
"National believes the Pharmac model is the best way to ensure New Zealanders are accessing much-needed medication."
"Year on year this will be more funding for Pharmac than at any time in the past decade, and New Zealanders will have better access to more medicines.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/09/your-man-in-the-public-gallery-the-assange-hearing-day-6/
Craig Murray's excellent report on the goings on at the Old Bailey.
He's also written of the subsequent days 7, 8, and 9
I read with interest the media reports ; (Stuff and NZ Herald) and also posts herein; (Anne and Draco Te Bastard) regarding the People's republic of China and reports of a database kept on New Zealanders.
Is this not terrible?
Who might have guessed they could have gone THAT far. Max and his baseball aspirations, Winnie and his daughter. Oh My Goodness.
Yep. The PRC are pretty resourceful from what is gleaned by such disclosures.
Bad, China. How could you?
And must I say in support of New Zealand what an entirely non-intrusive, blessed, clean, open, non-corrupted, non-corruptible, humble nation we as a sovereign state along with our fellow residents are, and how few (if any) would ever be likely not go to such lengths.
We pride ourselves and self promote on how we give everybody a Fair Go. And this must surely extend to the collection, analyses and dissemination of information on other people.
Surely as good folk, we wouldn't dear go anywhere near intruding or fishing just to get an upper hand on anybody else in relation to business, finances, politics, nor in relation to assessing competitors, nor even simply because we do not like someone or some group for any particular reason whether or not we get rewarded for doing so.
Surely we would rarely even engage in the wide or small scale collection of public domain material (court records for example), nor business and personal data on each other just to find out more about other Kiwis.
We leave it up to govern-mental for most of this, do we not?
Why? Because, again, it's simply not a Fair Go, and besides, there hefty penalties for unauthorized access to any closed material.
However, the reason we do not intrude in such a way as good Kiwis is not out of fear in relation to such legislation, it is because we care for each other so deeply and we like to think of ourselves as both ambassadors and teachers (even preachers) to the world, from our Aotearoa land of plenty that so many call "Godzone".
Isn't there some law we could invent or manufacture to stop others looking at us this way.
Darn camera clickers and busy bodies they must appear to be, all on their own.
Unlike New Zealanders with all of our values and good conduct, and where butter would not melt in our mouths in relation to intrusion for profit, out of curiosity or to collect brownie points.
I'm now thinking about drones. It seems that nothing must happen to stop things happening until they do happen and then that is so unexpected.
Amen, I think
But what if they do, then when will we do, or will we do?
I'm thinking satellites in orbit.
I assume you are being sarcastic karol121. I certainly hope so. NZ is not squeaky clean. Never has been and never will be.
But no, I don't think our establishment would ever stoop to the levels some other countries are prepared to go – and that includes China.
Yes indeed. It was a little tongue in cheeky.
But most Kiwis I've come across are curious folk when it comes to looking over the back fence, and then pointing the finger when others appear to be inquisitive or nosy.
No offence intended