A police investigation into a campaign of harassment against prominent China researcher Anne-Marie Brady has widened to include apparent efforts to sabotage her car.
University of Canterbury professor Brady, who gained international profile over the past 18 months for her work exposing China’s influence campaigns – including in New Zealand – was subjected to a series of mysterious break-ins at her home and campus office in February.
These burglaries, apparently targeting electronic media including phones, computers and USB drives, sparked high-level interest with the Prime Minister expressing concern, and the Police began a nine-month – and still ongoing – investigation involving Interpol.
The vehicular sabotage represents an escalation for the case, coming on the heels of recent vitriolic editorials in local Chinese-language media describing the professor and New Zealand-Chinese democracy activists as “anti-Chinese sons of bitches”…..
……Commentary in local Chinese-language media has been an especially heated, with a recent op-ed by Morgan Xiao – published simultaneously by SkyKiwi, the Mandarin Pages and the New Zealand Chinese Daily News – describing Brady and other New Zealand-Chinese democracy activists as “anti-Chinese sons of bitches” who should “get out of New Zealand”.
+1 Ed – harassment, illegal activity like stealing data for foreign powers, (or worse) should NOT be acceptable in NZ and there should be a lot more resources on it.
We have had the French agents blowing up Rainbow Warrior, Isrealis stealing our passports and now Chinese agents apparently taking data/harrassment/stealing from NZ researchers and worse.
Is the Labour government going to say meh, or are they going to apprehend the perpetrators and prosecute them???? Considering the taxpayer funded budget of the SIS and GCSB you have to wonder how hard can it be and are they competent to do the job?
In addition NZ needs to step up with regards to espionage in NZ… look at the mess the Brits are in, when they are so internally focused they turn a blind eye to espionage in their own country. No wonder there are blatant assassinations going on around the world from foreign powers, as there as there does not seem much interest from governments in protecting citizens anymore.
Mysterious factory break-in raises suspicions about Chinese visit
“It was an unusual burglary, in which four or five laptops were stolen from a Scottish renewable energy manufacturer in the dead of a March night in 2011. So innovative was the company that it had been been visited by a 60-strong delegation led by China’s then vice-premier only two months before.
Nothing else was taken from the company and the crime, while irritating, went unsolved and forgotten – until a few years later pictures began emerging that showed a remarkably similar project manufactured in the world’s most populous country.”
I’ve read that China’s acquisition of IP developed elsewhere is estimated as the largest transfer of wealth ever.
If you look at the R&D costs over time, resources, infrastructure, trial and error you’d skip its a staggering value in today’s currency they’ve bypassed.
The xian y-20 compared to the us c-17 being one the most blatant as they got sprung using a Canadian based expat to highlight the files/folders from compromised servers for lift and shift to China.
@TC, yep and use that money to buy up assets like significant amounts of NZ and OZ…
While the west politicians are getting selfies and self promoting in magazines and MSM or firing off on Twitter, the Chinese government are to be admired in a way as they steadily and carefully advancing their cause, gathering power and strategic assets, partnerships and soft power…
Natz can be bought for $100k, how cheap is that?
Sadly our government in NZ has become greedy and/or naive self promoters hoping for a crust of bread and a pat on the head, as 30 years post Rogernomics our politicians and the general discourse being promoted is that Kiwis are only good at Rugby and a few other sports and incapable of self governing, working or running our own businesses, assets or countries successfully.
So very easy for the Chinese to step in to help, self govern NZ and their businesses and assets in the face of greed, disinterest and brainwashing of the NZ political elite and MSM.
We have also given up our security to others in particular the US in real terms and so now at the mercy of others.
There is a difference between collaboration/friendship and throwing your hands up and leaving it all up to other governments and paper agreements to decide your future and fate and NZ seems to be erring on the lazy second option with no plan B of self management.
Don’t blame them actually. Most US patents are not innovation, just blatant privatisation of others ideas. Parenting rounded corners on a cell phone. FFS.
Rentier capitalism at it’s worse.
US prosperity begins, by ignoring all previous British property rights.
Is the Labour government going to say meh, or are they going to apprehend the perpetrators and prosecute them?
All indications are that they’re going to say ‘meh’ so as to keep up Fonterra’s exports. Apparently maintaining NZ for NZers under NZ control comes a distant second to that.
It occurs to me that Ed is continually bringing up foreign problems and ctiticising the USA and China etc. Whereas I want to see this blog continue and look at what is happening here. If Ed steps on enough toes and makes enough wild assertions about the large dominating foreign powers, it takes time away from us. If it incurs enough wrath Ed’s stuff alone could make it a likely target to be taken to court or closed down.
And groups can get infiltrated; we have wondered who is behind these extra right regulars. There is something driven about them, and the same could apply to those supposedly speaking for the left. I’m just a concerned left-leaning twit myself. I wonder about Ed and others.
It occurs to me that Ed is continually bringing up foreign problems and ctiticising the USA and China etc. Whereas I want to see this blog continue and look at what is happening here.
There are parallels.
We know that the previous National government pretty much copied social policy from the UK and that they copied charter schools from the US. So, seeing what’s happening to them can give us an idea of the damages that National will do next time they’re in power.
This is normal for anyone who dares to criticize the new Mao, Chairman Xi. My main reading is Chinese web news sites in NZ. This is mild compared to everyday comments in Chinese language media. ANY opposing view that even slightly is against Community Party views is considered as being traitor. Yet many on this blog say how great China system is! It is not!
I am called a traitor to China by my own family and Chinese friends in NZ as I am in the process of applying for NZ Citizenship. This is what the Community Party has done to the people in my country.
Thank you for your brave words. The CCCP is indeed a soft tyranny of a nature the western world struggles to understand properly.
My only small objection is that I do not think a majority of us here are admirers of the Chinese regime and it’s expansionist ambitions. Most of us loath empire wherever it appears.
Yes, China is an empire, although few Kiwis see that. Mr Xi is step by step becoming Mao. The ‘Thoughts of Chairman Xi’ is now a reality that rivals the ‘Thoughts of Chairman Mao’. Unlimited term as leader. Increased censorship. Imprisonment and ‘re-education’ of Uyghurs. But in China most people support him still. Economically very good.
Forced abortion when already have one child was common 20 years ago. When I studied nursing, the man on the autopsy table was a criminal, a bullet hole clearly in his forehead. We thought this was right, but it is not. Bribery to get into hospital – yes this is the great Community Party state that so many Kiwis still think is a utopia. There are many things that were and in many parts of China, especially local places, are pure evil. But this was all we knew. Young Chinese people very very different. The future for China will be interesting I think.
Yes that is true, but in China even an emergency, life in danger, in many places you will not even get admitted to hospital. This is very true. And drugs you must pay for. In NZ, I do not have health insurance or my son, yet we get a higher level of care than in China.
In 2016, I spent 4 months in China. My son had been injured in an accident. His father and I paid for pain relief and antibiotics. NZ not that bad!
I haven’t noticed commentators here saying “how great China system is!” I’ve seen some (including myself) criticising it. Polarising into a simple binary view of anything is usually too simple-minded – those who do so lose accuracy in their description. Any political system will have pros & cons. I agree that the international community has been too tolerant of the endemic misbehaviour of the regime for far too long.
As far as your relations are concerned, it may help to frame things in generic terms – the future for China will require adaption to a common-interest framework. National self-interest therefore must be balanced by acknowledgment of the interests of other nations. In respect of China’s attempt to reassert their regional hegemony, we can expect all other nations affected to align in consensus to oppose such re-emergence of imperialism. A balance of equal and opposite forces is therefore eventually inevitable. Naive expectations of success will be replaced by realism. In the interim, any delusional thinking by decision-makers is dangerous…
Yes Chinese political system was necessary for our recent decades of rapid growth. We all pulled in the same direction. No serious opposition was allowed. But now it is still the same, yet the need is no longer there.
You mention my relations, no! Older than me and have never left China, so still have Maos isolationist view of the world.
The biggest challenges for China in the years ahead are the young people, who travel. And the looming huge problem of Xinjiang. And Xizang.
@Fang Zhou – some Kiwis are worried about the Chinese government too, so even if it seems that people might sound anti Chinese be aware most of the time it is directed against the CCP getting a stranglehold into NZ not against Chinese people and also the worry that Chinese residents might be pressured to work for the Chinese government interests even if they didn’t want to on foreign soil, so great might be influence be as our government and industry is asleep at the wheel.
To be fair to the TS, I have not seen anyone say they want the Chinese system. But they do want a return to authoritarian govt control, which could be interrupted as wanting the Chinese system.
A small number on the extreme Left want a authoritarian govt that own pretty much everything. (banks, insurance, utilities, Supermarkets, etc) I think but stand to be corrected that someone wrote that if a person invents something or has a innovative idea they shouldn’t own it but it becomes the property of the state and the people.
Much like what you have in China with the control of central govt over most things and most Chinese corps having some level of govt ownership or control.
China bans facebook and a number of other social sites and developed its own wechat and weibo that can be monitored.
Now we see millions of cameras, name and shame in papers and Huge LED screens around the cities highlighting wrong doing of citizens in real time for example j walking and social credit points for citizens.
I don’t see many on here that want a “Government controlled utopia”. Even the most ardent anti-capitalists still want a democratic Government. Many of the right wingers are open to increased democracy, also.
Government by us.
As for the State owning banks and utilities. When it is a real democratic State it is all of us that own them.
Ownership of patents and innovations very rarely accrues to the innovator. Usually they are acquired by a corporation which uses then for unearned rent for ridiculous lengths of time. Amazons book rights, for example.
You are confusing Democratic ownership with an authoritarian State. At the moment we have an Authoritarian State controlled by corporate donations and influence. And, I suspect, with considerable evidence, a lot of power exerted covertly by the US, Chinese and British Governments. Often in behalf of their corporations.
Good comment – in the long term CCP influence over the NZ Chinese community does not bode well for how that community is perceived by the wider population.
Here’s some interesting information on China and I’m a little concerned at was has happened, but not surprised IRT Professor Brady as the same thing happened to Clive Hamilton when he was trying to get his book published called “The Silent Invasion”.
Here’s some interesting information on China and I’m a little concerned at was has happened, but not surprised IRT Professor Brady as the same thing happened to Clive Hamilton when he was trying to get his book published called “The Silent Invasion
America has spent $5.9 trillion on wars in the Middle East and Asia since 2001, a new study says
The U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan have cost American taxpayers $5.9 trillion since they began in 2001.
The figure reflects the cost across the U.S. federal government since the price of war is not borne by the Defense Department alone.
The report also finds that more than 480,000 people have died from the wars and more than 244,000 civilians have been killed as a result of fighting. Additionally, another 10 million people have been displaced due to violence.
Interesting angle from Jeffrey Kaye on the killing of Khashoggi.
Fascinating.
Khashoggi was ‘the only non-royal Saudi who had the beef on the royals’ intimate dealing with al Qaeda in the lead-up to the 9/11 attacks.’
The 9/11 Commission’s final report went out of its way to absolve the Saudis of direct culpability in the attacks. “Saudi Arabia has long been considered the primary source of al-Qaeda funding, but we have found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organisation,” the report said.
But there remain strong grounds to doubt the veracity of these findings, and allegations of high-level Saudi complicity in terrorism have not gone away. Even former 9/11 Commissioners have spoken on record about how they believed their entire investigation had been compromised by the White House, accusing the US government of wanting to “cover up” the full story of 9/11.
Earlier this year, a US lawsuit on behalf of families of the 9/11 victims linking Saudi officials to the 9/11 attacks was cleared to proceed by US District Judge George Daniels in New York.
“The [Saudi] Ministry of Islamic Affairs in the United States and other parts of the world had government officials who conspired with al-Qaeda to support them and to support the 9/11 hijackers,” said Andrew Maloney, a lawyer for the 9/11 victims’ families.
“The 9/11 Commission back in 2003 and 2004 either didn’t pursue, didn’t want to pursue, covered up for the Saudis or just never got around to finishing the investigation. That’s where we picked it up, and we’ve collected a lot more information and evidence since then.”
It’s the facts they’ve agreed too though. That a official signed off on a warrant for K. That they wanted to rendition K. That they targeted K when he sought a marriage licence, thus attacking the ability to legally start a family, nasty.So who paid for the flights. Who told the embassy to stock up on plastic sheets. Sorry but I can’t believe that a they got the go head without serious authority being involved, and that’s before you consider who was most irate and irritated by K. The idea that S.A. will walk away thinking people global don’t now know what they do in their embassies, that we all now sanction by allow those embassies on our soil. And then it gets worse, not only attacking the family of K, his future family, not only renditioning him, or murdering premeditively, but he was a top journalist resident of the USA. Their is serious no way Trump can stop action. So their laughable fake news conference, that only exposes a whole new raft of questions while reinforcing the view that a whitewash was in train, a whitewash protecting a ruthless man. And who could that be, the leprosy of Qatar, the evil in Yeman, and the how dare he get married. If the US does continue to dither, then its even worse, the moral ethical outrage, of the holy land for Islam, coupled to K, coupled to Israel new US embassy… …And then add the explosive that wars mean men don’t come home, mean four wives… …it’s not to hard to see soldiers getting fessup of being fodder, realizing their job actually is to die so their betters can have a extra wife.
If I were a progressive S.A. leader, I’d end multiple wives, pull out of Yeman, reengage Qatar… get Trump to backtrack on embassy… but all we get is dangerous dithering from Ryad.
Upper Hutt Posse, their frontman Dean Hapeta, at the end of his speech called out ‘Free Palestine’ condemned trump and called out government for sending our troops to fight fake wars over oil among other political messages.
Dean has never been afraid to speak his mind, “E Tu” & the Dam Native years all righteous stuff. Now await the vitriol coz a brown guy dare speak his truth…
Those names are a blast from the past.
I loved the first two upper hutt posse albums.
Cheers student radio.
Well ahead of its time, preceeding rage against the machine with the fusion of rock, rap and injustice.
The message was spot on although some stuff was hard to hear through pakeha ears.
Can you just clarify for me what wars we currently have troops fighting in? Motivation aside I can’t think of any current deployments that involve combat troops.
Government over the years and decades have sent troops to locations in the middle east to assist the USA lead wars. Which more often than not have one thing in common, oil. Peace isn’t profitable.
Pretty sure the speech made referenced Afghanistan.
Wonder if there is a clip of the full speech. The political part is at the end of the speech, will see if I can find later,
I think the question was ‘what wars we currently have troops fighting in’?
I have lost touch too Crashcart. Our Radionz news is full of what is happening in the USA but I don’t think we have any action within that country thank goodness. But elsewhere? What do the military buffs know?
@ grey: Just as MoBIE, MSD and others in gubbamint are concerned , AND in the interests of ‘open gubbamint’ (going forward), [Maybe, oneday lprent could give us his impressions and experiences on a thread we could call ‘technophobia’]
Maybe the NZDF might care to publish their activities (across the 3 – almy, navvie and ear force), and with all due deference (to ‘the 5’) on a website.
With a cuzzie that once served in ‘peace keeping’ in the Sinai, and Singapore, and in the spooks for a quite a while thereafter till the alcopops and the liver got the better of him, I’ve also lost track
It does seem reasonable though that they could keep all the plebs appraised of their activities (all within the bounds of keeping shit secret in our Neshnool interest)
I’ve lost touch too both @ Crashcart and @Grey[non]warshark – not that I ever wanted to have such ‘touch’ in the first place.
I did appreciate however being told not to go near a Bainimarama’s Fiji a decade ago – based on the passport I held at the time. As it happens ,it now makes me even more cynical about various ‘competencies’ in our public service – the silos, the politicisation, the egos, the incompetencies, the agendas, the conflicted interests ……
Yes, going off at a tangent here, again, I thought about our police and how they wouldn’t venture into Pike mine at the beginning and now they are playing it safe again. And how much grief and extra cost that has caused. And they wouldn’t provide backup when trained miners wanted to make a series of reccies.
Thinks, would the Thai cave success be equalled if it happened here? Of course it isn’t the same as Pike because there may be a case to be heard in Court. That would have eaten a large part of the police and justice budget allocation. I wonder if the departments were under instruction to curb their enthusiasm?
/Agreed.
(At the time, and probably/possibly still), completely the wrong agency to have been leading any rescue effort. Peter Cowan – nice enough bloke and all that, and a good cop, but in that situation, out of his depth and encumbered with the wrong sort of mission.
I think the decision not to go ahead with attempting a rescue of miners who were almost certainly dead, risking a lot more deaths, was the correct one.
I doubt that the police made the decision without expert advice.
Talking to one of the mine rescuers afterwards. He said the police probably saved his life, restraining them from rushing in.
Certainly it is unfair to judge the person who had to make that sort of decision in the moment, with the information available at the time, using information they didn’t have.
The picture of men, waiting for a rescue that didn’t come, is a powerful one. But the ones in charge had to weigh up the real risk to rescuers, against the, slight, possibility of survivors.
Not a decision I would like to have to make. Though I am aware it may happen.
And where’s that PM even if it was a fake acting one up here. I’ve got some words for you.
All of our armed forces and military that have been fighting in these fake wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for oil, for USA imperialism; get out of there!
What you need to be doing is going to Palestine to fight against the racist terrorism of the Israeli State, that’s where all of our fighting energy needs to be.
And also, even more, death to the Mexican USA border and defend that caravan of indigenous people seeking refugee status at the United Snakes of America kkk.
They are seeking refuge because their countries have been wrecked by that colonial power known as the USA.
The largest current deployment by far is the training team in Iraq (over 150). Just renewed by the current govt for another 12 months.
All about training Iraqi forces to defeat ISIS.
If you think ISIS should not be opposed (with military force) well that’s your view. But obviously Jacinda et al do not share that view.
I am pretty sure the majority of New Zealanders would think ISIS has to be militarily opposed and that NZ should, at least to some extent, be part of the international coalition. The training team was probably the right level of commitment. There were polls on thiols at the time of the initial deployment when John Key was PM which showed clear support.
I was actually surprised that Jacinda and the Cabinet renewed the mandate for another 12 months. After all, ISIS has largely been defeated in Iraq. So presumably it was about NZ showing our partners that we are a reliable partner, notwithstanding the change of government.
Dean Hapeta at the Music awards would well have represented the Green Party view (and the left of Labour) but it is a minority view.
“I am pretty sure the majority of New Zealanders would think ISIS has to be militarily opposed and that NZ should, at least to some extent, be part of the international coalition. ”
And that is based on what? Polling, focus group, personal preference?
“It was a decision that surprised Victoria University professor of strategic studies Robert Ayson, who believed there was good reason for a withdrawal from Iraq, given Isis was “no longer the battleground force it once was”.
“You need a compelling reason in Iraq to stay, and I’m not entirely sure that is there, so I think that now would have been a time to say, ‘Right, we’ve done what we said we were there to do’.”
My recollection is at the time of the initial deployment the public polls were clearly in favour.
As for the current extension, I essentially said what Dr Ayson said. But that is not the only consideration for the extension of the deployment. NZ does not like to be the first out of an international coalition, and that is pretty much what we would have been.
I suspect the Govt thought the deployment was sufficiently Ok that the extension would not to cause any significant local reaction. And they were right. It didn’t.
I may be doing you a disservice but I suspect your claim that it was an acceptance of the majority view that was the deciding factor in the deployment decision was more a case of wishful thinking rather than any knowledge of such.
Anything to do with the, almost, total lack of information on troop deployments from our news media.
So much so, that we learn about them first through the Ozzie papers.
And the constant propaganda about big bad Iraq. Which was OK until they threatened the petrodollar. Like Libya. And indeed, Iran’s Government in the 50’s. Too Democratic for the Western powers, replaced by the Shar, and Savak.
To begin with they also funded the mujahadeen.
This was to try and save putting soldiers on the ground.
The purpose to overthrow despot rigimes in both cases costly mistakes!
“Vanity projects and kamikaze loggias: Tbilisi’s architectural disaster
The centre of the Georgian capital has long been the plaything of outsize egos – but can its architecture biennial inspire useful debate about the city’s future?
Joseph Alexander Smith, a Briton who has lived in Tbilisi for the last six years, was driven by what he witnessed to stand for local election last year on a platform of environmental activism, campaigning against chronic traffic problems, pollution and the unabated development that has blighted much of the city. “We have lost one of the city’s oldest streets, Mirza Shafi,” he says, “and now developers are hand-in-glove with politicians, intent on destroying everything that is left. Everyone has a right to air, not just the right to breath clean air, but to look out of their window and not be confronted by the concrete wall of a new illegal building.”
Is this going to be Phil Goff, John Key, Brownlee’s fate…. exile with criminal charges for corruption and in NZ case, gross stupidity as well???
“Saakashvili behaved like a king, just picking his favourites with no competition or discussion,” says Zhvania. “He dismissed any opposition voices as retrogrades, standing in the way of modernisation.”
The former president may now be living in exile in the Netherlands, wanted on multiple criminal charges back home, but his physical legacy is still very much felt – and others have eagerly picked up where he left off.”
“Why? Because the council officials understood that a councillor’s reputation was built upon his or her ability to get things done for the people who voted them into office. Repeated failure to fix their problems would very soon lead to gripes about Councillor So-and-So being “useless”. The slightest whisper that such an opinion was abroad in the electorate would have the impugned councillor knocking very loudly on the door of the Town Clerk, demanding to know what the hell was going on. That’s why action almost always followed.”
“Councillors are reduced to a browbeaten collection of rubber-stampers: prey to private sector contractors, condescending legal advisers, and over-mighty CEOs. The final indignity being that, having signed up to the Councillors’ Code of Conduct, these poor souls are forbidden from speaking out angrily, or publicly, about their powerlessness.”
I think in Phil Goff’s case, he is being used by the CEO and private sector to be a front man on the attack against local government and democracy. How else do you fathom taking off 2 elected councillors from Auckland Transport (that gets the lions share of ratepayers rates, but has a poor and dismal service record)?
A continuation of the observation that the vast majority of voices are increasingly ignored in western democracies…..and we wonder why ‘populism’ gains currency.
The establishment brings it upon itself and only they can solve it.
When less than 50% of voters bother to vote this happens.
Then people moan endlessly but go out and drum up support for representation on council no!
You get what you don’t vote for the status quo!
Skippy’s public service reform should extend to local bodies.
Never was that being ‘forbidden from speaking out’ about what is best described as muppetry more evident in Wellington recently in a Simon Wolf – Lavery exchange.
It’s a case of ‘officials’ throwing elected representatives ‘under a bus’ if anything.
And even when those ‘officials’ are legally in the wrong, they’re apt to push things to the limit, often in the knowledge that people don’t have the resources to face them off.
Someone near me must get a hell of a lot of texts. There’s at least of couple of tuis doing the Samsung default alert, and a few years ago they were doing the Nokia alert.
Looks like service is already declining, tired of public services being cut or not funded appropriately for population and tourist growth that the government is so keen on, while our taxes are used to further private profits that are publicly funded!
Urgent answers needed after rescue helicopter unavailable
How come these communicators with the public can lie and never get called out on it? They need to be confronted, their organisation which is probably contracted to do government work, at their profit, should be exposed and tarred and feathered or made to walk through the streets with their trousers down looking stupid.
Brazilian military now taking over all the major roles in the Brazilian government. The US has been backing the coup with US, European and Brazilian corporates benefiting.
“I think what we are seeing is a massive transfer of Brazil’s natural resources to the north right now. Brazil is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of natural resources.Its petroleum, its minerals, its gold, its fresh water – they are talking about privatising the world’s largest acquifier to Coca Cola right now.”
How shameful “privatising the world’s largest acquifier to Coca Cola right now’
pity Jacinda is not using her status to question the fairness of bad deals and public asset transfer to private business, rather than actually promoting the practise of ‘FREE trade’ around the world. How bout they rebrand to FREEBIE trade agreements, it would be kinder and more honest.
Tellingly even with the excitement when apparently Mike Pence wanted to sit next to Arden, did she use the moment to discuss her supposedly nuclear free moment of climate change or urge US to uphold the Paris agreement and help the environment, nope instead it is reported that she focused on unsuccessfully pressing New Zealand’s case for an exemption on US tariffs on steel and aluminium which are mostly foreign owned multinational companies.
So who would even benefit from the lift of US tariffs on steel and aluminium – well mostly the profits of overseas firms.
Who owns NZ steel, well BHP, formerly known as BHP Billiton, is the trading entity of BHP Billiton Limited and BHP Billiton plc, an Anglo-Australian multinational mining, metals and petroleum dual-listed public company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and owns significant amounts of the formally known New Zealand Steel.
The raw material for NZ steel is ironsand which is disappearing fast around the world and can not be replaced and has virtually zero studies on the long term effects on the eco systems.
Who owns NZ Aluminimum, NZAS is 79.36 per cent owned by Pacific Aluminium which in turn is owned by Rio Tinto Group an Anglo-Australian multinational and one of the world’s largest metals and mining corporations and 20.64 per cent owned by Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical Company.
So when our politicians have the ear of world leaders are they really thinking of the people of NZ or international peace and well being and climate change and environmental issues, or just promoting the short term profiteering of multinational big business???
It seems clear to me where Labour’s focus is, either intentionally or unintentionally!
Collective bargaining works! Funny we all happy when sports people do it – but outside of a few select sectors how many people are organised collectively?
Big ups to the truckers in Iran. This is the second round of strikes and after the government arrested some of these same protestors – it takes real guts (unlike fake ponytail pulling guts) to carry on a strike in the face of a government used to suppressing working people.
Maine has its first taste of ranked choice voting for US House seats. On election night, the incumbent Repug won a plurality of first choice votes, but second (and maybe third) choices tipped it to the Dem. So naturally the loser Repug is suing.
Ranked choice is slowly spreading to other states as well. So despite all the crap around gerrymandering, voter suppression and loads of other noxious anti-democracy actions, there are still some pockets of progress towards better democracy in the US.
When it was revealed on Wednesday morning that the mysterious figure was Steve Bannon, few were surprised. The invitation was a predictably out-of-touch move by an institution that was once renowned for its impactful and passionate debates but is now more commonly visited by professional footballers, comedians on publicity tours and extremists looking for establishment credentials.
In his reasoning for the invite, the president of the union, Stephen Horvath, presented the standard, free-speech argument that “it is only through listening to the opinions of others that we can fully understand those opinions”. The idea being that a group of university students would be able to hold fascism to account through a one-hour debate on a Friday afternoon.
“Chinese speaking buyers offered first dibs on ‘top secret’ luxury apartment planned for Auckland
A “top secret” 24-storey luxury apartment tower planned for Auckland’s North Harbour has been snapped up by exclusive buyers months before the public gets a look in.
The 72.5 metre apartment planned for Kaipiho Lane, Albany will feature more than 280 apartments, 11 lifts, a helicopter landing pad, residents’ cinema, swimming pool, clubhouse, ballroom, 24 hour concierge and robotic valet parking.
A website marketing the development in Chinese, http://www.kaipiho.co.nz, said the apartments “caused a subscription frenzy” when they were promoted on Chinese social media app WeChat.:
P>S> clearly the government and councils measures to curb the housing shortages futile as seen in this example, but actually creating more poverty for Kiwis who end up subsidising the roads, congestion, Leaks, public transport, pollution etc that all these new developments for speculators who don’t even live here, are generating.
Chinese people want to get their money out of China and into gold bricks before their currency devalues or worse they take down the banks with lending, Kiwi housing investments should not be part of the solution of cash China 1.5 billion people, because our people and environment is the casualty of poor risk planning as is more exposure ‘If China Sneezes Will the Rest of the World Catch a Cold”.
And there aren’t even jobs for car valets. Perhaps someone will be able to hack their garage systems and send cars to be parked outside, or go to be serviced or such like. Just annoying glitches. We have plenty of those in NZ and would love to share them around.
I think you do not understand that whether you like it or not, NZ needs Chinese capital to flow in to correct balance of payments and keep Kiwi dollar high. Most Chinese property owners are resident in NZ, at least most of the time. We are a positive contribution to NZ, yet you paint us as fleeing China before the currency collapses. Maybe you should learn more about China and spend an extended period there before you preach the collapse of the Yuan.
Yes, corruption is sadly still normal in China, and at all levels. However, the younger Chinese not so much. But you seem to assume that the capital coming in to NZ is from corruption. This is, to me, if that is your thinking, not only wrong but racist wrong.
Many Chinese people are extremely wealthy not from corruption, but from riding the rapid growth of China economy. Look at Jack Ma, now one of the wealthiest men in the world. Not from corruption, but from business. There are 1.4 billion Chinese in China. 1 in 25 people in the world live within China’s borders. There are many many little Mr Ma’s, not wealthy from corruption but from hard work and smart work. Many of these want a better life in NZ, and many share their time between China and NZ, but invest in NZ and run business in China. This is good for NZ.
Please do not think all Chinese rich people are corrupt. They are not.
“Please do not think all Chinese rich people are corrupt. They are not.”
I don’t think all Chinese are corrupt, what is wrong with NZ is our NZ immigration policy is so pathetic and the criteria is not robust that our government has been bringing in all types of migrants or migrant workers who are corrupt, dishonest and liars, and they when they find out that they are all of that, they just let them stay here… all the while when we could have a robust policy to attract the best migrants here who could make a greater difference…
I don’t blame the Chinese, because it is not the Chinese fault that NZ government is stupid and does not discriminate against honest and dishonest people who come to NZ to live, work or study.
Should be, commit a crime in NZ, lie on your immigration forms or are found guilty of corruption and you are straight out the door and never to be allowed back into NZ whether you are Chinese, Korean, English, EU, Indian, or Russian or what have you. Not a ethnic based policy but a moral one.
Due to the isolation of NZ and our lack of robust immigration measures we do seem to attract our fair share of criminals trying to hide out here, or commit identity theft.
I didn’t say ‘the capital coming into NZ is from corruption’. I said corruption comes with the capital.
The other thing about Chinese wealth is the conditions under which it has been generated. Scant regard for human rights, political rights, worker rights, justice, and the environment has been the foundation upon which the Chinese capitalist economy has grown at such a fast pace.
You might have realised you are commenting on a forum which is inspired by the labour movement and so worker rights, and recently the environment, are high on most commenters’ list of priorities. I doubt whether a forum like The Standard would exist for very long in China and so when I look at the huge increase in wealth in that country I see it as tainted by injustice. You won’t find the same concerns on NZ blogs from the other side of the political divide.
Now, you might say it is the West’s consumerism which has partially funded the explosion of wealth in China and you would be right. I buy ‘made in China’ – it is difficult to not – so I too am guilty in a sense.
There will no doubt be some very good people emigrating to New Zealand but there will be a significant trail of corruption also and that is why we must ask questions, review settings, and be watchful.
You are right: The Standard (or any non-government blog) would not last very long in China.
And yes, I do realise I am commentating on a forum inspired by the labour movement. I also support that, but that does not mean blindly! A wrong by a socialist is just as bad as a wrong by a capitalist. Maybe worse, as the capitalist does not pretend what their motivation is.
The corruption I would disagree. In my experience, most Chinese coming here are reasonably young and well educated. They have experienced corruption throughout their life and do not like it. The money, including the big money that comes with them, is I think untouched.
Of more concern to NZ should be not the Chinese money coming to NZ, but rather when Kiwi engage in big business in China. It is inconceivable to me that Kiwirail or Fonterra are untouched by this. To do business in China at that level, well, I will not say the rest but you I am sure understand.
The other area of great concern to NZ should be immigration. I would suggest that almost EVERY Chinese that immigrates has been a party to corruption during the immigration process.
@Fang Zhou. It’s the market driven flow of capital and being at the mercy of that capital and bad foreign decisions (ak BNZ floating and having to bail them out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_New_Zealand) that has caused the biggest crashes and poverty in NZ..
the Chinese situation will be exactly the same but worse as NZ has created too much dependancy on both Chinese investment and US security decisions.
Sadly the dominant discourse in NZ is neoliberalism and the pursuit of money, making our government decisions short term, lazy and stupid and allowed too much dependancy on other countries.
I think NZ and China should be friends but NZ becoming dependant on them for investment is a complete mistake.
As for high dollar in NZ, causes people living and working here huge problems, much higher mortgages and lending, less money from exports. Cheaper imports.
“I think you do not understand that whether you like it or not, NZ needs Chinese capital to flow in to correct balance of payments and keep Kiwi dollar high. ”
I don’t know why you should think that. Even if it has been true in specific circumstances at one time, I do not see any need to favour Chinese capital over other capital, but it is also a destructive goal to set long term – if we need capital from immigrants, what does that tell you about wealth inequality within our country – and why wold an immigrant was to enter a country that requires immigrants to purchase capital assets to survive?
Far better that we fix some of the inequalities that currently plague us, that we develop domestic-owned enterprises to force competition on foreign owned companies (banks may be a good start), and recognise that we need to look after our population and leave them a country worth living, working and staying in – regardless of where they come from.
Sorry my bad explaining I think. No, should not favour Chinese capital over capital from elsewhere, but NZ needs capital inflow, regardless of where it comes from. Chinese invest heavily in NZ, certainly compared to many other immigrant groups. And yes, that can push up property prices but also many many Chinese build houses and buy businesses, and that provides work and increases the housing pool. And GST paid and so on.
Chinese, and others, wish to enter NZ as it is a better life here. Despite what many seem to think, the standard of living is about the same for the average person, but quality of life here is much higher.
Yes, I agree with you regarding NZ owned enterprises, looking after the NZ population. Do you not think though that I, coming here and, when I first arrived, buying a business was not also indirectly looking after the NZ population? I paid taxes, employed two part-timers.
It is not that I disagree with you, but ‘how’. Many immigrants just get on with it. Work long hours and invest in the next generation. Kiwi people work hard, but seem to prefer to be employees rather than take risks. Immigrants often have no choice but to risk everything (we did that by coming here!). So we invest, we buy businesses, we try harder. I know that is a generalisation, but that is my experience.
It’s interesting you object to a generalisation by making a generalisation about Kiwis preferring to be employees – none of our family are and are in a quite wide set of infrastructure and construction businesses. Years of long hard earned reputation and resilience has meant we have survived in the face of being undercut on prices and lower standards, some have not. That’s not some prejudiced “opinion”, it’s based on factual events and is something that is sad when it happen. Something NZ should be able to work for as it did historically is to uplift the conditions and prospects of NZers not have that regress by being damned into working longer hours or under conditions that are any longer than what is necessary to get the work done and get it done right and for a fair price.
Agree that many Chinese people are not their Government.
However our dollar is too high. One of the reasons for China’s recent economic ascendancy, is their Government deliberately keeps their currency low, encouraging exports and discouraging imports, into China.
I don’t think pushing house prices up beyound the reach of locals is a positive contribution to New Zealand. And it is USA’ians, British and South Africans, as well as Chinese. Any more than the British wealthy in, Spain hogging all the coastal real estate.
@ Monty, many thanks for that info. I have never heard the term “Robotic Parking” before, so as a result, my decrepit old brain went into overdrive (no pun intended) 🙂
Chinese property investment abroad is a diversification, risk managemrnt, as the domestic market may be in slow down (over supply).
The current or future value of the yuan would have little to do with it.
The development you mention, use of land for property to people not currently residents, shows what the governments relaxation of the its new rules for foreign purchase leads to.
I think the Chinese preference to invest in NZ real estate is that here you own the dirt.
All Chinese land is owned by everyone, it can only be leased.
We can leave our NZ properties to our children, in China it can be left for the duration of a lease but thereafter it resorts to state ownership and Mr Xi decides if continued occupation is desirable.
Having lived in Shanghai and now HKG for over 4 years now. Those type of complexes are common. The developers add these things to attract buyers its like an apartment arms race.
It is good and very convenient for the people living there.
The one I lived in Shanghai had all of that plus a super market, 10 underground tennis courts, couple B ball courts, pools training and resort style, Gym, Spa, Dance and Yoga studios.
The robotic parking was humorous as at least a couple people per week got caught and forgot to get out of the car and got stuck. (mainly their own fault wechatting and not being aware of the surroundings)
But where was she sitting in relation to Pence? Young doesn’t give us the seating plan in detail which is odd because it’s the detail which seems to have got under her skin.
Was the PM one over from Pence? If so I believe that’s as close as Pence will allow any woman other than his wife.
“For several days her officials had been telling New Zealand media that she would be sitting next to Pence at his request.“
What Young points out is the spin. ‘Next to Pence at his request’ is not next to Mrs Pence, whatever the seating plan. This would be nitpicking if those same officials hadn’t made such an issue if it.
I’m more thinking of those few minutes in the dark after both have put their books down, clicked off the Tiffany bedside lamps and while drowsing off Mrs Pence says…
“Have you seen any footage of those abandoned children on Nauru Island honey.”
Probably separate houses but for as long as Mrs Pence is on Mike’s arm at the many events they attend, there is no better path for Jacinda to pursue if she wants Mike to get onboard with something.
Breast-feeding Prime Ministers come with a fair slice of gravitas in the eyes of Washington’s silver vixens.
What about the big health and safety issue of onions on my sausage at Bunnings?
It is amusing when you hear it at first, but you cant deny they are taking safety seriously. Pity Pike river mine management was not as safety conscious as we may not have lost 29 people.
Because some muppet over here in Oz, slip on some BBQ onions with his sausage sanger at Bunnings in NSW or Vic and a filed a WHS complaint. This muppet may’ve even got a payout with WHS the complaint? Just like some of the muppets you slip on fruit/ veggies aisle or at the drinks aisle and try in sue the company for a few quid in the process.
Oh yeah – one of those things that caused so much outrage they u-turned in days.
Seems to be the corporate disease of “if it might mean work for head office, don’t do it”. Hence a memo about the order in which onions are put on sausages might absolve corporate from responsibility.
They could just sweep the spilled food up if the seagulls don’t take it, but whatevs
I see the ADF is purchasing a Squadron’s worth 12- 16 of the Armed version of the General Atom Reaper UAV’s this mornings Oz paper. There was talk of buying these back in 2014 and confirmed in the 2016 Defence White Paper with the impression it at purchase to buy in the early 2020’s, so it makes me wonder why the sudden purchase of these units now?
A New Zealand actor reports, in a tone of high seriousness,
that Israelis see themselves as “an underdog.”
RNZ National, Wednesday 14 November 2018
We’ve dealt before with the contemptible phenomenon of glib and ignorant theatre “luvvies” sounding off about things they lack the competence to comment on. There was the pretentious “theatre-maker” Stella Duffy [1], there was the “sooooo truthful” Tandi Wright [2] and of course who could ever forget the epically pompous stand-up comedian Andrew Clay? [3]
Now, I must report sadly, I have identified another talkative but shallow member of this sorority of the second-rate, this club of the clueless, this brotherhood of the bewildered, this guild of the giddy and guileless, this [That’s enough epithets.—J.A. Napes]. About 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, as I steered the Breenmobile through the suburban dreamscapes of the North Shore, I chanced upon the actor Tim Balme being interviewed by that great gorgeous emptiness Jesse Mulligan. Amongst other things, Balme spoke about his play The Ballad of Jimmy Costello, which is based on the George Wilder story. He mentioned that he had performed it in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Speaking slowly and with as much gravitas as he could summon, Balme stated that Israeli audiences “loved it” because “it’s a play about an underdog, and Israel is a nation that considers itself an underdog.”
Israel “an underdog.” A nation that “considers itself an underdog.”
???????!!??!?!?
The absurdity, indeed the obscenity, of that propaganda seemed to be lost on Tim Balme, and of course it was lost on Jesse Mulligan.
“…. Israel is a nation that considers itself an underdog.”
When the privileged and powerful start making out, that they are the victim, everyone else is in danger.
The fascist rulers of Germany made big play of Germans being the underdog prior to WWII.
The White Minority government of South Africa also played the victim card.
And Trump also plays the, hard done by, victim card in appealing to his base.
All great lies have some truth, Germans suffered the unfairness of the reparations forced on them at the end of the First World War. When it was the German soldiery and sailors who mutinied that brought that brutal imperial conflict to an end.
The Boers painted themselves the victims of British imperialism.
And Trump’s supporters feel squeezed by the ‘elites’ (even though Trump is one of them).
And the present day Zionist rulers of the state of Israel use the excuse of the Holocaust inflicted on European Jews, by Germany, to carry out almost similar levels of repression and murder and dispossession against the Palestinian people.
Jenny, you may have confused Russia with Germany regarding the end of World War 1?
The collapse/rebellion in Germany was mainly civilian, not military. Some sailors joined a dockworkers’ rebellion, but by and large the German military forces, while being forced onto the retreat, were intact, not defeated, and still in French/Belgian territory.
This is why they later believed that they had been stabbed in the back, which helped Hitler.
More moronic comments from the mozz, of course Israel are the under dog. I do dispair with mozzies lack of cognitive reasoning making discourse pointless.
Kia ora Nation Simon & Emma The billion tree planting program from our Coalition Government is a good start but we need to invest more into climate change mitigation.
trump is a puppet his backers oil barons don’t want China’s manufacturing muscle to push oil into our history books as they will lose there control of the people on earth.
It was China that pushed the price of Solar down to a price that’s lower than thermal energy that is produced by coal and oil. China & Elon will push the petrol car into our history books and make energy democratic people producing there own power.
Ka kite ano. .
You see OUR Freedom and democracy is a illusion they keep most peoples reality in a big square box that the wealthy control the people on Mother Earth’s reality
Kia ora Newshub back with the moko’s lost track of time lets hope the The All Blacks test goes our way . The Black ferns Kia Kaha It’s awesome that the wahine World Cup is being hosted by Aotearoa I’m sure we will be good honest hoste . Ka pai to the young foot ball ferns .Looks like all the stories are about Jacinda trip overseas meeting other heads of state I will eaz on giving my of these people for the time being. Mike I read a story in Stuff on the reason why OUR weather is so variable at the minute after a long story the conclusion was human caused climate changes are the main causes
Ka Kite ano
Image credit: Publish Peer Reviews. Illustration by David Parkins Scientific peer-review is often touted as a guarantee of the quality of published research. But how good is peer-review? Does it guarantee poor ...
If you like any article please help promote it (and the blog). Link to it on facebook and other social media, write about it anywhere or re-blog it. We’re very happy to have other people re-blog our material, all we ask is that you mention the original source and put ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women John Fenaughty is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland. In a recent column Fenaughty suggested that school teachers should use students’ “correct names and pronouns (e.g., he, him, they, them, she, her, etc.)” ...
Heard this on Radio NZ this afternoon. Perfectly captures how I'm feeling just now.It's always good to find new music, though it would be nice to be hearing something celebratory. Even "Things Can Only Get Better" would be welcome, if it was accompanied by a thumping Labour victory. ...
by Don Franks Like New Zealand, Britain is officially a country of equal opportunity under the rule of law, with increasing hardship for those at the bottom. When there’s an election, and the party most obviously callous towards poor people wins, decent folks are dismayed and bewildered. “What the hell ...
UKanians went to the polls yesterday in early elections aimed at resolving the Brexit impasse. And they certainly have, delivering a huge majority to the Tories, and (barring internal rebellions of the sort which delayed Brexit) giving them the power to do whatever they want. And thanks to the UK's ...
by Karim Pourhamzavi Mass protests are occurring across Iran, taking place in over 100 cities. The protests have been sparked by the government’s cutting of fuel subsidies, a measure which caused fuel prices to double overnight. Mass protests are hardly new in Iran, but there is an important difference ...
What other song could we play as the UK's political rule book gets torn up and thrown away?Video courtesy of YouTubeThis post is exclusive to Bowalley Road. ...
Legendary in my own mind, I mean. All times are NZ, which is an hour10.00am (NZ) There's about an hour to go until the exit poll is released. At that point, half of the British voting public will devastated, and the other half celebrating wildly. Unless everyone is simply confused.Turnout seems ...
Forlorn Hope: When the call came down to make Corbyn unelectable, the Establishment's journalists and columnists rose to the challenge. Antisemitism was only the most imaginative of the charges levelled against the old democratic-socialist. There were many more and, sadly, they appear to have worked. Boris Johnson may not be much ...
"Rendezvous" by David Low, September 1939.DUNEDIN IS THE BIRTHPLACE of, for my money, the world’s greatest cartoonist, David Low. At the height of his powers, in 1930s London, Low’s cartoons represented the visual conscience of the civilised world. His most famous cartoon, “Rendezvous”, penned a few weeks into the Second ...
If you want to study propagandist techniques, you are typically told to study Dictatorships. Not unfair, but what’s always been more interesting to me is so-called “democratic” countries and their broader information systems.Why? Because people opt for it, even as they decry “totalitarian regimes!”.. It’s quite an eye ...
Introducing legislation which shits on the public's right to know seems to have become a daily occurrence for this government. Today's example is the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Bill. The bill establishes a framework for the establishment of "special purpose vehicles" (SPVs) to hide debt from local government balance sheets ...
Below is the longlist of words and phrases generated in the korero phase of Public Address Word of the Year 2019, with some editorial moderation. Now it's time to vote. As you'll doubtless be able to see, you get three ranked choices. Use your power wisely. Or frivolously, whatever.As usual, ...
The University of Waikato and New Zealand Law Foundation have released a report today on the law around encryption in New Zealand. There's stuff in there about principles and values, and how proposed government policies to provide for "lawful access" by creating backdoors would destroy the trust which makes encryption ...
A ballot for two Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance (Prompt Settlement of Claims for Uninhabitable Residential Property) Bill (Stuart Smith) Social Security (Exemption for Ex Gratia and Compensation Payments) Amendment Bill (Willow-Jean Prime) Neither bill seems likely to be particularly controversial. This is ...
Earlier in the month, Bougainvilleans went to the polls in a landmark referendum to decide on whether they would remain part of Papua New Guinea or become independent. Yesterday, the results came in, with over 97% support for independence. The referendum wasn't binding - instead it means negotiations with the ...
by Daphna Whitmore This week 800 unionised bus drivers in Auckland were suspended from work after they refused to collect fares as part of a campaign of industrial action. Drivers working for Auckland’s largest bus company NZ Bus are asking for more pay and better working conditions after being offered ...
As details emerge about what unfolded on Whakaari / White Island two days ago, my thoughts go out to all the families affected by this terrible event. My thoughts are also with the first responders who worked in perilous circumstances to assist and protect those affected. Both local and ...
BMG research have unleashed their final poll of the 2019 campaign:Westminster voting intention: CON: 41% (-)LAB: 32% (-)LDEM: 14% (-)GRN: 4% (-)BREX: 3% (-1)via @BMGResearch , 06 - 11 Dec Chgs. w/ 06 Dec That's a bit of a "Dunno why we bothered" sort of poll. "Phillip, I'm afraid I've been a ...
Grant Keeps On Trucking: Out of the $12 billion Robertson has announced for infrastructure investment, $8 billion will be allocated to specific projects, with the balance of $4 billion held in reserve. What does it say about this Government's "transformational" ambitions that 85 percent of that $8 billion is to ...
I am not making this up.First few lines of the Dail Mail write up:Boris Johnson's exasperated media minder swore on live TV today as the PM refused to speak to Good Morning Britain before trotting into a fridge as he started an early milkround in Yorkshire. Piers Morgan was visibly ...
In previous elections pollsters have bemoaned the 'shy Tory' - the respondent who is so fearful of being judged as a cruel and heartless bastard by an anonymous pollster, or their spouses, workmates and friends, that they lie about their intention of voting Conservative, skewing the poll figures in Labour's ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzI was in Switzerland recently and discovered that they haven’t ...
So, You Gov's MRP poll - the weird one that tries to reflect what will happen at a constituency level and which pretty much nailed the hung parliament in 2017 - is not looking too good for Labour:
We've known about climate change for over forty years now,and it has been a major political issue for twenty. And yet fossil fuel companies have kept polluting with impunity, while government have looked the other way and twiddled their thumbs and refused to do anything because "the economy", or just ...
Sheer Loopiness: Many of those expressing bemusement at the antics of these #turnardern effacers, were convinced that they were yet another expression of the National Party’s increasingly spiteful anti-government propaganda campaign. They marvelled at the oddness of the perpetrators’ mindset and questioned the common-sense of allowing the rest of New Zealand ...
Brad Scott, GNS Science VolcanologistThis post was originally published by GeoNet.Following the 9 December devastating eruption at Whakaari/White Island we have put together some information about the island. New Zealand’s most active volcano Whakaari/White Island is currently New Zealand’s most active volcano, it has been since an eruptive episode ...
The Justice Committee has reported back on its Inquiry into the 2017 General Election and 2016 Local Elections, with a host of recommendations about how to improve our electoral systems. Some of their recommendations are already incorporate din the Electoral Amendment Bill currently before Parliament, but there's also a recommendation ...
Back in 2017, in order to make themselves "electable" in the eyes of rich people who oppose everything they stand for, the Greens signed up for NeoLiberalism, adopting a restrictive set of "Budget Responsibility Rules" which basicly prevented them from using government to make things better. Now, they're finally abandoning ...
Since invading in 2001, the US has consistently claimed that their war in Afghanistan has been going well, even when it continued year after year after year. Of course, they were lying, and thanks to the Washington Post and the US Freedom of Information Act, we get to see just ...
How should we think about artificial intelligence and the implications that it has for our work and leisure? There are many articles on artificial intelligence and its potential impacts on jobs, and the ethics of applications. These are important topics, but I want to focus on some less discussed aspects, ...
I love data. It’s amazing the sort of “discoveries” I can make given a data set and computer statistical package. It’s just so easy to search for relationships and test their statistical significance. Maybe relationships which ...
The other big story concerning Leeds Hospital is Boris Johnson's bizzare behaviour at Leeds Hospital, where he was confronted by a journalist and challenged about a four year old boy with suspected pneumonia who was left sleeping on the floor, rather than getting abed like a sick kid would in ...
So, for a brief period of history, it was alleged that a protester had punched Matt Hancock's SPAD (not a euphemism; special adviser) when Hancock visited Leeds Hospital.This was reported by the likes of Robert Peston and Laura Keunssberg, as well as the less credible Guido Fawkes. It also quickly ...
by Daphna Whitmore Last week France passed a law that equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. It is based on a definition of anti-Semitism that includes criticism of Israel such as: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist ...
Over the past year we've seen major bus problems in Hamilton and Wellington, as drivers have sought better wages and an end to the bullshit of split shifts, which basicly see them "married to the job". And now its Auckland's turn. When NZBus's drivers planned low-level strike action of not ...
The government has been congratulating itself over the passage of the Zero Carbon Act, which sets out long-term emissions targets. But those targets are insufficient. Meanwhile, Denmark is showing us how its done:Denmark’s parliament adopted a new climate law on Friday, committing to reach 70% below its 1990 emissions in ...
Another day, another piece of legislation with a secrecy clause. This time its the innocuous-seeming Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill, which (after establishing a new body and making it subject to the OIA in three different ways) includes the rapidly-becoming-standard clauses enabling it to request information from other public ...
The state of the United Kingdom is fractured, torn up, shredded. The Empire is gone, it died a long time ago. And yet, the country is still tracking with a lead in favour of the ones who play to the ingrained, class-bound division for political gain. It is a disgrace ...
On 27 September, Greta Thunberg addressed a crowd of 500,000 at the School Strike for Climate in Montreal, saying: “You are a nation that is allegedly a climate leader. And Sweden is also a nation that is allegedly a climate leader. And in both cases, it means absolutely nothing. Because ...
It should be obvious by now but let’s be clear: The same folk who regularly traffic in disinformation, misinformation and “fake news” are also those who most strongly claim that their freedom of expression rights are being violated when moves are made to curb hate speech (as opposed to protected ...
Michael SchulsonWhen Shane Burcaw flies on an airplane, he brings along a customized gel cushion, a car seat, and about 10 pieces of memory foam. The whole arsenal costs around $1,000, but for Burcaw it’s a necessity. The 27-year-old author and speaker — who, alongside his fiancée, Hannah ...
We are very pleased to publish this submission is from Lucinda Stoan. She is a social justice activist, mother, and educator, based in Washington State in the US. This detailed and comprehensive source-linked overview of trans issues and what is at stake will be useful for many people, especially in ...
New Zealand's Underarm Banker: It bears recalling that the “independence” of the Reserve Bank Governor was for decades held up by neoliberal capitalists as the most compelling justification for passing the Reserve Bank Act. Interesting, is it not, how the ruling class’s support for the Bank’s independence lasted no longer than ...
Rubbish In, Rubbish Out: Put all this together, and it’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that anyone who responds positively to a pollster’s request to “answer a few questions” is just ever-so-slightly weird. Desperately lonely? Some sort of psephological train-spotter? Political party member primed to skew the poll for or against ...
“Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.” ― Martin Luther King Jr. A long and bitter court feud between former Conservative Party leader Colin Craig and Jordan Williams has been settled, with an apology and compensation from Williams. On Tuesday, Craig sent out ...
Samuel Becher, Victoria University of Wellington and Jessica C Lai, Victoria University of WellingtonEarlier this year, the New Zealand-based pizza chain Hell Pizza offered a limited-edition “Burger Pizza”. Its customers weren’t told that the “meat” was plant-based. Some customers complained to the Commerce Commission, which enforces consumer law in ...
Some people seem to want to close down any critical discussion of the current research into the relationship between water fluoride and child IQ. They appear to argue that claims made by researchers should not be open to critical review and that the claims be accepted without proper consideration ...
The government has been congratulating itself over the passage of the Zero Carbon Act, which sets out long-term emissions targets. Meanwhile, Climate Action Tracker has the shameful reality: those targets are insufficient:While New Zealand is showing leadership by having passed the world’s second-ever Zero Carbon Act in November 2019, under ...
The government introduced a Racing Industry Bill today. As an urban who horse racing as pointless-to-cruel, and gambling as a tax on stupidity and/or hope, this isn't normally a bill which would interest me in the slightest, beyond grumpiness at more government money for a dying industry. But there is ...
Check. Check. One, two, three, four. Is this thing ON? Hello readers, I logged in last night (yeah, it’s been a while) to mark THE END of the landmark legal case, Jordan Williams v Colin Craig, which (gulp) reached The Supreme Court, in which New Zealand’s most-defamed man was suing the politician he ...
Before The Birth: Israel’s most fervent supporters set their clocks ticking in Biblical times. They cite the kingdoms of David and Solomon as proof that, in the words of the Exodus movie’s theme-song: “This land is mine.” The majority of Israel’s backers, however, start their clocks in 1933 – the year Adolf ...
In an unreliable, strange and confusing world, Public Address is proud to present a measure of comfort and stability by annually asking everyone what words or phrases sum up the year that's been – and then giving some of them consumer goods as prizes for being clever or simply lucky.Well, ...
Both my parents are pretty handy – and they seem to have the right tools for most jobs in the garage and they know how to fix practically anything. A similar story could be told about their generation’s experience in the workforce – being a generalist was not unusual and ...
When it was revealed that NZ First had tried to enrich itself from public office via the Provoncial Growth Fund, the Prime Minister assured us that everything was OK as Shane Jones, the Minister responsible for the fund, had recused himself. Except it seems that that recusal came very late ...
Today is a Member's Day, and probably the last one of the year. After the marathon of the End of Life Choice Act, most of the bills up for debate today are uncontentious. First up is the second reading of Chlöe Swarbrick's Election Access Fund Bill. This will be followed ...
The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee has reported back on the government's odious and tyrannical control orders bill. As expected, the fraudulent select committee process has made no significant changes (partly because they couldn't agree, but mostly because it was a stitch-up from the start, with no intention of ...
Yesterday, the government released its draft Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill, which will be put to a non-binding referendum at the next election. I'm not a drug policy expert, but Russell Brown is, and he thinks its pretty good. And pretty obviously, it will be a massive improvement on the ...
As you're probably aware, the draft bill outlining the proposed legal cannabis regime to be put to a referendum late next year was published yesterday, and has already attracted a flurry of comment. It's notable that a good deal of the comment is about proposals that aren't actually new.A minimum ...
One of the big problems in New Zealand climate change policy is the government working at cross-purposes with itself. It wants to reduce fossil fuel use, but encourages oil and gas exploration. It wants to reduce transport emissions, but then builds enormous new roads. The problem could be avoided if ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzAccording to the United Nations, food shortages are a threat ...
Last year, the government announced it was ending offshore oil exploration by no longer issuing new permits. The idea was that the industry would then die off as permits expired. Except almost immediately the government revealed its bad faith, by saying they would extend permits and alter conditions to keep ...
The government introduced the Education and Training Bill to Parliament yesterday. Its a massive bill, which replaces both existing Education Acts, as well as various other bits of legislation (including some which are still proceeding through the House). I'll leave the serious analysis to teachers and people who actually know ...
Amelia SharmanThere’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to micro-credentials, those bits of bite-sized learning that can help workers stay on top of technological change. What’s a micro-credential? While definitions vary, micro-credentials can be understood as short courses that allow people to learn new skills or have an existing competency recognised. ...
All Smiles Now: Claire Szabo is taking up her presidential role after serving as the CEO of Habitat For Humanity. Which is absolutely perfect! After KiwiBuild was so comprehensively mismanaged by Phil Twyford, the party has not only elected a new president from a thoroughly respectable not-for-profit, but one who ...
While much of the NZ left has transitioned to postmodern and identity politics in relation to transgender ideology, there are some very good articles about that deploy Marxist methodology in relation to this subject. The one below is from the British marxist group Counterfire and appeared on their site here ...
by Daphna Whitmore At Golden Oaks, a luxurious country retreat in the Hudson Valley, pregnant women have the best care money can buy. From the organic food, personalised exercise programmes, private yoga instruction and daily massages Golden Oaks looks like a country lodge for the upper class. Set some time ...
When Labour was running for election in 2017, it felt it needed to demonstrate "fiscal responsibility" and signed itself up to masochistic "budget responsibility rules". It was a fool's errand: the sorts of voters who demand fiscal responsibility are also the sorts of voters who believe that labour can never ...
Writing in Stuff, Joel MacManus looks at what we need to do to meet the Zero Carbon Act's targets. The core of it:1. Convert 85 per cent of vehicles on the road to electric. 2. Eliminate fossil fuels from all industrial heating up to 300 degrees Celsius. 3. Double our ...
Paramedics have reiterated their support for New Zealand First MP Darroch Ball's bill to impose mandatory prison sentences on those who assault our first responders and prison officers. There are more than 50 cases of abuse and assault against New Zealand paramedics each week. The figure has remained largely unchanged ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has revealed the Party’s stance on a proposed single public broadcaster. He said it had been the NZ First policy to support and strengthen public sector media. "For this reason, we welcome the initiative of Minister Faafoi to progress work in this area. Both ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First Introduction Good morning, and thank you for your attendance here today. Let us start by acknowledging the work of all the media outlets and reporters, particularly the regional reporters, who have been covering this week’s tragedy at Whakaari White Island. It ...
New Zealand First MP Darroch Ball’s bill introducing a six-month minimum sentence for assaults on first responders has passed its first reading in Parliament. Mr Ball said the new offence of "injuring a first responder or prison officer with intent" would target people who attacked paramedics, police, firefighters, and corrections ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters gave his final interview for 2019 on The Country to tell farmers they have never had it better under the current coalition Government. “Here you've got these record returns [for farmers]. These returns would be nothing like a record if the currency under the ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters said that New Zealand's Cook Islands High Commissioner, Tessa Temata, has died over the weekend. Ms Temata, 52, died in Palmerston North and had returned to New Zealand for medical treatment. She was the first New Zealand High Commissioner to the Cook Islands of Cook Island ...
A new defence report has mapped out how New Zealand's soldiers will navigate rising seas, and a year after the Defence Force announced its need to prepare for climate change. In the “Responding to the Climate Crisis” report, the Force restates its operational plan and sets goals to tackle climate ...
We're rebuilding New Zealand - our transport network, our hospitals, our schools and more... After nine years of neglect there's a lot to fix - but we're getting on with the job. ...
We're rebuilding New Zealand - our transport network, our hospitals, our schools and more... After nine years of neglect there's a lot to fix - but we're getting on with the job. ...
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First spokesperson for Primary Industries, Mark Patterson, has called for awareness to be raised and more stringent biosecurity checks to be put in place for African Swine Fever (ASF), a widespread virus that is uncontrolled in most of Asia and a serious ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Human Rights A critical step has been taken to end gender based violence against women and girls in Parliament this evening. New Zealand First Spokesperson for Human Rights Jenny Marcroft MP has welcomed the passing of the first reading of the Crimes (Definition of Female ...
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones says it's time to recognise market forces haven't led to the expected reduction in Māori smoking rates and try a new approach. The Party had recently invoked the agree to disagree clause in their Coalition Agreement with the Labour Party, and will not support ...
Live from the Whanganui Opera House, on the final day of the 2019 Labour Party Conference, Jacinda Ardern announced the largest investment in school property in 25 years. ...
The Coalition Government will be banning foreign donations to political parties and candidates, ahead of next year’s general elections. Legislation will be introduced to Parliament and passed under urgency – emphasising the need for such restrictions to safeguard our democracy. The bill introduces a new requirement that party secretaries and ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones opened Taipā's $19 million bridge recently, improving transport infrastructure in the Northland region. The two-lane bridge is 107m long with a 2.5m-wide shared walking and cycling path, and will reduce the congestion that the old one-lane bridge was notorious for. The project had also included ...
The Overseas Investment Office have rejected the application of Mercury Agriculture LP, which is 92 per cent controlled by Canadian interests, to purchase more than 2000 hectares of South Canterbury and Otago land. Mercury wanted to buy 2000ha at Rangitata, 1494ha near Ashburton, 816ha near Cromwell and 212ha near Temuka. ...
This weekend was Labour's 103rd Party Conference! We welcomed over 500 of our Labour whānau in red to Whanganui, where we reflected on the last two years in Government, and looked ahead to 2020 and beyond. We know the long-term challenges facing New Zealand won't be tackled overnight, but we're making ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced that the Provincial Growth Fund will invest $9.6 million to seal the final unsealed section of State Highway 43 from Stratford to Taumarunui. The Minister said sealing the 12-kilometre gravel section of the highway – also called the “Forgotten World Highway” - through ...
Former Finance Minister and former chair of the Tax Working Group, Sir Michael Cullen, has voiced his support for New Zealand First’s decision to oppose the planned increase in tobacco excise tax. In an interview with The Weekend Collective, he said that increasing the price was no longer effective in ...
Māori are natural storytellers. On the marae we use stories to tell our history, to teach the next generation life lessons and to let people know, in our most creative of ways, who we are and where we have come from. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First has invoked the ‘Agree to Disagree’ provisions of the Coalition Agreement because it cannot support the announced 11.46 percent increase in the tobacco excise from 1 January 2020. “Studies show that the automatic tobacco excise increases are having less effect ...
Taupō-based company Geo40 has made a breakthrough in extracting near battery-grade lithium from geothermal fluid which its says could be a gamechanger. Its chief executive John Worth said the earth mineral was highly prized, with battery-grade lithium selling for US$10,000 (NZ$15,600) a tonne. Geo40 was founded in 2010 to find ...
Crown research institute AgResearch Ltd, as part of its Future Footprint plan, had intended to relocate top scientists and support staff — particularly those focused on sheep genetics and genomics — from Invermay to Lincoln. However, those plans seem to have been shelved at the request of the Coalition Government. ...
Ten engineering firms in Southland are receiving a total of $2.13 million in Provincial Growth Fund funding to lift productivity and create new jobs. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced in Invercargill that the 10 engineering and manufacturing firms would receive funding to assist them with buying equipment that ...
The number of new residents to New Zealand is the lowest it has been in nearly two decades and it has earned the ire of the immigration industry. The industry alleges that 'Trump-style extreme vetting' is being put in place aimed at keeping a lid on immigration numbers. June Ranson, ...
The Royal New Zealand Air Force is one step closer to modernising its fleet after the United States State Department recently approved the sale of five new C-130J Hercules aircraft to New Zealand. Arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin, in Fort Worth, Texas, will provide the aircraft, but as a "foreign military ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development A $261,000 loan from the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) has helped a family-run business in Manawatū to scale up manufacturing capacity, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced at its opening today. Ashhurst-based skin-care business The Herb Farm is on track to ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Regional Freight Hub near Palmerston North has taken a step forward with the completion of the master plan, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones said. Shane Jones unveiled the high-level design of the new Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) backed rail-road hub ...
Hon Ron Mark, Minister of DefenceTērā te haeata takiri ana mai i runga o Pukaha!Ara tai uru, whai uru, whai uru!Ara whai ato, whai ato, whai ato!Ara rā tini, ara rā tini, ara ri!The rays of the morning sun strike a new dawn upon Pukaha ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic DevelopmentThe Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $772,000 in opportunities for growth in Manawatū-Whanganui, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today.NZ Bio-Forestry Limited will receive a $380,000 boost for game-changing research which could unlock significant growth in the wood processing sector, ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced today the appointment of diplomat Sarah Lee as New Zealand’s High Commissioner to South Africa. She will be the first female Head of Mission to represent New Zealand in Africa. “New Zealand’s relationship with South ...
Sustained high growth in primary industry exports looks set to continue over the next two years with strong prices predicted for farmers, fishers, growers and rural communities. Minister of Agriculture and Minister of State for Trade and Export Growth Damien O’Connor today released the latest Situation and Outlook report for ...
Auckland’s growing screen sector is the catalyst for a new partnership between the Ministry of Social Development and Auckland’s economic development agency Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED). The launch today at FilmFX in Henderson, is to celebrate the partnership which looks to capitalise on the social and economic development opportunities ...
A minute’s silence will be observed at 2.11pm on Monday 16 December in honour of the victims of the Whakaari White Island eruption, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has confirmed. “Wherever you are in New Zealand, or around the world, this is a moment we can stand alongside those who have ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced New Zealand will contribute NZ$1 million of funding towards the joint United Nations Fund for Children (UNICEF) and World Health Organisation (WHO) Pacific Regional Action Plan for Measles. “Prevention through vaccination is the most effective way of avoiding illness and a costly health emergency. ...
New Zealand is today remembering one of our true sporting heroes, triple Olympic gold medal winner Sir Peter Snell. “He was a legend, here and around the world,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “Our thoughts are with Sir Peter’s wife Miki and their family.” “Sir Peter is recognised as New ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has congratulated United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson on his election victory. “New Zealand and the United Kingdom are close friends and despite our distance we are strongly connected by our history and people,” Jacinda Ardern said. “I look forward to continuing to work with Prime ...
The Government has released its long term vision for a sustainable 21st Century rail network that gets our cities moving, connects our regions and gets more freight off the roads. Deputy Prime Minister and State Owned Enterprises Minister Winston Peters said the Government is committed to rebuilding New Zealand’s ...
I want to start by acknowledging the families who have experienced such grief and such loss since the extraordinary tragedy on Monday. Today was all about reuniting them with their loved ones. We've just come from the airport where many of them were gathered and in amongst what you can ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today announced further support for Samoa’s longer term needs as it continues to respond to a devastating measles epidemic. “Samoa’s health system has experienced massive strain in the wake of the measles epidemic. The volume of patients needing care during this outbreak, and the number of ...
Discounted electric bikes will be offered up to public sector staff across the country as part of the Government’s work to reduce transport emissions and support healthier transport options. Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter officially launched the new initiative at Wellington Hospital today. “The Government has negotiated bulk-purchase ...
The Australian and New Zealand Governments today launch an historic joint bid to bring the FIFA Women’s World Cup to the Southern Hemisphere for the first time. Australian Minister for Youth and Sport, Richard Colbeck and New Zealand Minister for Sport and Recreation Grant Robertson will announce the bold campaign, ...
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) has approved a $15 million loan to help re-establish a gold mining operation at Blackwater Gold Mine, near Reefton, Rural Communities Minister and local MP Damien O’Connor announced at an event on the West Coast today. “This is great news for the Coast that could ...
Papakāinga model inspires whānau well-being A housing project by Kohupātiki whānau in Hastings is an outstanding example of a Māori-led housing initiative that can reduce financial pressure and reconnect whānau to their whakapapa says the Minister for Māori Development Hon Nanaia Mahuta. Minister Mahuta officially opened the Aroha Te Rangi ...
Restoration efforts for a significant wetland in the Hawke’s Bay are getting more support announced Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage. “Wetlands are vital to healthy landscapes and ecosystems. They function as nature’s ‘kidneys’, filtering and protecting water quality, acting as nature’s sponges after rain and are home to ...
Nelson has today seen the launch of Housing First Nelson Tasman. Today’s launch marks the expansion of the Government’s homelessness programme, Housing First, to the top of the South Island. “Housing First is a proven programme that puts people who are experiencing homelessness and multiple, high and complex needs into ...
New Government funding announced today will help communities make a difference in tackling environmental issues Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage announced in Hawkes Bay today. The Ministry for the Environment’s Community Environment Fund is dedicating $243,101 to growing the capacity and capability of the Environment Hubs Aotearoa’s (EHA) ...
The days of vulnerable consumers falling victim to loan sharks, truck shops and other predatory lenders are numbered, following the Credit Contracts Legislation Amendment Bill passing its third reading tonight. “Too many Kiwis are being given loans that are unaffordable and unsuitable, trapping them in debt and leaving their families ...
A Bill that prevents terrorism and supports the de-radicalisation of New Zealanders returning from overseas has passed its third reading, Justice Minister Andrew Little says. The Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill is a carefully targeted response to manage the risk posed by a small number of New Zealanders who have ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio will travel to Samoa on Friday, where New Zealand medical teams are helping Samoa respond to an outbreak of measles. “New Zealand has been working closely with the Government of Samoa and offering our assistance from the ...
The Government has changed the law to improve student safety and welfare in university halls of residence and other student accommodation. The Education (Pastoral Care) Amendment Bill passed its third reading this afternoon and details of an interim Code of Practice setting out the Government’s expectations of tertiary providers have also been released. ...
A new tool to help councils fund and finance infrastructure could mean some housing developments happen a decade earlier than currently planned, Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford said today. “This new tool, developed by the Government in partnership with industry and high-growth councils, will allow councils to access private debt ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has welcomed the release of a bold new vision for the country’s vital food and fibre sector. “I’m delighted that New Zealand’s major farmer and grower organisations are today supporting the Primary Sector Council’s vision – Fit for a Better World,” he said. “The international consumers ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has congratulated the Government of Papua New Guinea and the Autonomous Bougainville Government for completing a well-conducted referendum on the future political status of Bougainville. “New Zealand supported the referendum process by providing technical advice through the New Zealand Electoral Commission and leading a Regional Police ...
In light of Cabinet’s position that freight operations on prime land in downtown Auckland are no longer viable, the Government will now embark on a short work programme to enable decision-making in the first half of next year, Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones says. Minister Jones is today releasing the ...
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter has received the report back from a surgical mesh restorative justice process undertaken by Victoria University. The process heard stories, either in person or online submission, from more than 600 people affected by surgical mesh. “The report made for heart-breaking and confronting reading,” says ...
The Water Services Regulator Bill – Taumata Arowai , introduced to Parliament today, is a milestone for drinking water safety in New Zealand and will help improve environmental outcomes for urban waterways, rivers and lakes. “This is a breakthrough for New Zealanders in terms of providing safe drinking water throughout ...
Kia ora koutouE ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā matā wakaTēnā koutou katoaHaere ngā, moe maiKoutou ma ngā Rangatira Ko Anaru ahauKo au te Minita mo ngā TureHe Honore tino nui kei roto I ahau No reira tena koutou katoa Today, we are releasing two reports that are the ...
The Government is looking to turn around the long-term challenges of criminal justice by taking a new approach to break the cycle of offending to ensure there are fewer victims of crime. Justice Minister Andrew Little released two reports today, Turuki! Turuki! from Te Uepū Hāpai I te Ora, and ...
New Zealand firms expanding beyond the start-up phase are set for more support after today’s passage of the Venture Capital Fund Bill, Associate Finance Minister David Parker said. The Bill, which establishes a $300 million Venture Capital Fund, puts in place a key initiative of the Wellbeing Budget’s economic package. ...
E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā iwi, e ngā rau rangatira mā. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Señora Presidenta, Excellencies, Delegates. International action A common thread that runs through the Paris Agreement is the commitment we have made to each other to do what we can to ...
The Government is lifting capital investment to the highest level in more than 20 years as it takes the next step to future-proof New Zealand. Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced $12 billion of new investment, with $8 billion for specific capital projects and $4 billion to be added to ...
The Government is forecast to run $12 billion worth of surpluses across the four years to 2023/24 as the economy continues to grow. The surpluses will help fund day-to-day capital requirements each year. These include fixing leaky hospitals, building new classrooms to cover population growth and take pressure off class ...
Budget 2020 will continue the Coalition Government’s focus on tackling the long-term challenges facing New Zealand while also investing to future-proof the economy. When the Government took office in 2017 it was left with crumbling infrastructure, severe underinvestment in public services, degraded rivers and lakes, a housing crisis and rising ...
The Minister responsible for the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 (te Takutai Moana Act 2011), Andrew Little has welcomed the launch of an online geospatial tool that provides data-rich, dynamic coastline maps that will significantly boost research and evidence-gathering under the Act. Te Kete Kōrero a Te ...
The Chief Victims Advisor to Government Dr Kim McGregor, QSO, has been reappointed in her role for a further two years. Dr McGregor has held the role since it was established in November 2015. She provides independent advice to government on how to improve the criminal justice system for victims. ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Civil Defence Minister Peeni Henare have today announced the deployment of a network of DART (Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami) buoys. “New Zealand and the Pacific region are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. It is vital we have adequate warning systems in place,” ...
DART Buoys Announcement Aotea Wharf, 9.30am 11 December 2019 Acknowledgements Acknowledgements to Minister for Civil Defence Hon Peeni Henare also here today. White Island It is with regret that this event shadows the tragic natural disaster two days ago. The volcanic eruptions on White Island have claimed 5 lives, ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has welcomed the first reading of the Racing Industry Bill in parliament today. This is the second of two Bills that have been introduced this year to revitalise New Zealand’s racing industry. “Our domestic racing industry has been in serious decline. The Government is committed to ...
Minister for Disability Issues, Carmel Sepuloni, is pleased to announce that $291,321 is to be awarded to national and local community initiatives to maintain and promote the use of New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL). “New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world where Sign Language is an ...
Minister for Veterans Ron Mark has announced today the Coalition Government’s initial response to work completed by the independent statutory body, the Veterans’ Advisory Board. “When Professor Ron Paterson completed his review of the Veterans’ Support Act in 2018, he made a number of recommendations, including one which I referred ...
The Provincial Growth Fund giving $13 million to a gold mining project under DOC land on the West Coast is a disgraceful waste of public money says Coromandel Watchdog, a group fighting gold mining in Hauraki. ...
CEAC reviewed the NZTA National Land Transport Programme “2021–24 NLTP development” plan to see the support for rail funding was there, and NZTA is now seen as ‘anti-rail’ in their NLTP plans, contrary to Government policy to use rail - heads must roll. ...
Kiwi startup founder Jenene Crossan has spent two years enduring jetlag and heinous London Airbnb prices as she builds her latest business.Jenene Crossan, co-founder and CEO of beauty booking service Flossie, has spent most of the past two years sitting in airport lounges and living out of suitcases in a bid ...
From New Zealand’s biggest band selling out Western Springs to a landmark moment for Pasifika women onstage, these are the live events that shaped New Zealand this decade.An anchor in the middle of the deep blue sea: Daffodils, 2014 Todd Emerson and Colleen Davis in Daffodils, on stage at the Traverse ...
Is there something to be learned from TVNZ’s Wild West-meets-WWE-meets-19th-century-New Zealand web series? After all, writes Sharon Mazer, colonisation, like professional wrestling, is a fixed match.The premise underlying TVNZ’s new web series Colonial Combat is anachronistic and preposterous, even by WWE standards. It’s also fascinating.Transported from American popular culture to ...
For a lot of people, there’s not much joy to be found at Christmas. Emily Writes spoke to Dr Sarah Bell-Booth and Gwendoline Smith about how to deal with the hard stuff in the face of all that relentless holiday cheer.Despite my anxiety, I generally enjoy Christmas now that I ...
This contained incorrect information regarding the remuneration of Alexandra Allan. The item has now been deleted and Scoop unreservedly apologises to Ms Allan for the distress caused due to this publication. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne At the December 12 UK election, the Conservatives won 365 of the 650 House of Commons seats (up 48 since the 2017 election), Labour 202 (down 60), the Scottish National ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Tormey, Professor of Politics, University of Bristol So for all the talk of narrowing polls, tactical voting, and possible shocks leading to a hung parliament, Boris Johnson achieved a crushing victory over Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party in the UK’s ...
Sir Peter Snell has died, aged 80, at his home in Dallas, Texas. James McOnie remembers arguably New Zealand’s greatest ever athlete.Sir Peter Snell was so great that small towns still engage in custody battles over the legendary runner.His birthplace Opunake (where he spent his first 11 years) claims him, ...
Māori Injustice Issues Will Have More Visibility Thanks to New Panel Advising Ombudsman A prominent Māori leader, Lady Tureiti Moxon believes Māori injustice issues will be seen much more now thanks to Pūhara Mana Tangata, a first-time Māori panel appointed ...
“It was right there in the waiting room that Jack first told me he was finding it hard to separate his fingers”: a parent’s nightmare, by Dunedin writer Emma Neale. ...
We started picking a top 10 ourselves and puttered out at about #3, sick of the sound of our own voice. Bugger it, we thought, and sent for assistance. It’s been like Christmas ever since, an inbox flowing over with gorgeous, sincere little gifts. Here’s the nonfiction selection, in no ...
The leadership shown by tangata whenua at every national disaster and tragedy should be recognised and honoured by all of us, writes Catherine Delahunty.I do appreciate having a prime minister who is capable of expressing decent, human emotions when tragedies descend on us. It’s a sadly low bar that she ...
From the pockmarked rugby paddock of Apiti, to the smooth, iridescent-blue turf of Albany, Black Sticks defender Steph Dickins' hockey journey has come a long way. ...
If you want to shock and amaze your friends and family this Christmas, look no further than the deep recesses of $1 reserve Trade Me. Folks, I’m going to let you in on a huge Christmas secret here: you can get all your presents for $1 if you know where to ...
To celebrate the 50th birthday of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth, Walters Prize-winning artist Ruth Buchanan has rehung their collection, bringing previously unseen works and skeletons out of the closet. Her new exhibition The scene in which I find myself/Or, where does my body belong examines ...
It is hard to remember a year in which New Zealand was so repeatedly in global headlines, writes Kamahl Santamaria, a Kiwi journalist based in Doha.Time zones are a strange thing. You go to sleep, and then for eight hours or so, you miss out on everything happening on the ...
Napoleon demanded that his generals be lucky. Conservative PM Boris Johnson, as he surveys a thumping victory in the British general election, would meet that criterion.His luck bears a resemblance to that of Margaret Thatcher. Like her, he has made a decisive break with orthodox establishment thinking. That presents ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison has rejected or sidelined a number of recommendations from the long-awaited Thodey review of the public service that might have constrained his and his government’s power. Not surprisingly, a proposal to ensure changes ...
Analysis - The "do nothing" government announces a big spend-up on infrastructure, moving the Port of Auckland, and Winston Peters throws his weight behind NZME's bid to buy Stuff. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]For their last video for the year, University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Deep Saini and Michelle Grattan look backwards to the big issues which have shaped political discourse. They discuss the surprise election results, and ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has acknowledged Ngāti Awa for their role as tangata whenua (people of the land) in leading and caring for affected whānau (family members), following the Whakaari / White Island eruption and recovery operation earlier today. ...
The Environment Committee has opened for public submissions on the Urban Development Bill. The bill follows on from the Kāinga Ora–Homes and Communities bill, which disestablished Housing New Zealand and set up a Crown entity in the same name. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William Loader, Emeritus Professor of New Testament at Murdoch University, Murdoch University This article is part of our Gender and Christianity series. To understand contemporary Christian ideas about gender, and specifically masculinity, we need to go all the way back to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Gissing, General Manager, Risk Frontiers, Adjunct Fellow, Macquarie University Calls are growing for a national bushfire plan, including from former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who says they are an issue of national security and the federal government must provide hands-on leadership. ...
Pro-democracy lobby group Democracy Action welcome New Zealand First’s commitment to hold firm rejecting the Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirikatene’s bill to entrench the Māori seats. The Bill, which would require any changes to the seats to require the ...
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s.Sometimes you are just doing a podcast as usual and then Colin Mathura-Jeffree gives you a call and throws your world off its axis. In a very special edition of Colin’s Cranny: Live, ...
We get a handle on the artists and artworks that shaped this decade in Aotearoa.As 2019 draws to a close, the four nominees for this year’s Turner Prize subverted the competition – they asked to receive the award as a collective. Meanwhile, at Art Basel Miami Beach, a banana taped ...
The second and final report of Te Uepū Hāpai i te Ora, the Safe and Effective Justice Advisory Group, contains nothing we didn’t know 30 years ago. Yet generations of politicians have ignored the same advice, writes Laura O’Connell Rapira.Between the 1950s and 1990s, New Zealand experienced seismic social, economic ...
Fuel company Z Energy has cut its earnings forecast for the year by 10 percent because of tougher competition and falling margins, and is forecasting a big cut in dividends. ...
Liquidators of the hacked cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia have travelled to the United States, to retrieve customers' information and certain crypto-assets. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kath Albury, Professor of Media and Communication, Faculty of Health, Arts and Design, Swinburne University of Technology Popular commentary on dating apps often associates their use with “risky” sex, harassment and poor mental health. But anyone who has used a dating app ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Louise Grimmer, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, University of Tasmania Australian shoppers are set to spend $52.7 billion this Christmas. In the words of the retail industry, we are “stampeding” to empty our wallets, both online and ...
NZ Herald and many other media outlets ran a story on a man whose farts could repel mosquitos, despite the story coming from a satire news site and not being verified in any way, writes Dan Satherly for Newshub.“Man’s farts so deadly he kills mosquitoes in a 6m radius” is ...
Timing right to borrow our way to a stronger economy in 2020 The Government’s announcement of its intent to invest significantly in the county’s infrastructure could turbo charge an economic recovery that was already showing positive signs for ...
A poem by writer, journalist, and former Manus Island refugee Behrouz Boochani.Forgive me my loveTranslated by Moones Mansoubi, Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, 2018 Forgive me my bird as I am not able to embrace you.But here,in this corner,I know some migrating birds that I smile to at dawn.I embrace them ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Powles, Senior Lecturer in Security Studies, Massey University The Autonomous Region of Bougainville, a chain of islands that lie 959 kilometres northwest of Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby, has voted unequivocally for independence. The referendum saw 85% voter turnout during ...
Fisheries New Zealand starts consultation today on proposed changes to catch settings for rock lobster and scallops for the new fishing year beginning 1 April 2020. ...
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. This was the declaration of the pigs who control the government in George Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm– a tart comment on the hypocrisy of governments that proclaim the absolute equality of their citizens but gives power and privileges ...
SPCA has been working flat out to desex more than 80 animals a day over the last year, which is the most desexing SPCA has done since recording the figures. ...
“The fact so many families are struggling to pay the rent and put food on the table must be addressed urgently if we’re to provide the foundations for a good life for the next generation of New Zealanders,” says Scott Figenshow, Chief Executive ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (Hamish Hamilton, $40)Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize.2The Body: ...
This holiday season Te Tari Taiwhenua, Department of Internal Affairs wants to offer parents and caregivers some advice on how to help keep your family safe online. ...
A report released by the Chief Victims advisor Kim McGregor advising there needs to be an Independent Victims body is being welcomed by Victim Rights lobby group Sensible Sentencing Trust. National spokesperson Jess McVicar says the trust have ...
For the third time in five years, the United Kingdom has gone to the polls today. From the summer islands of New Zealand, join The Spinoff as we follow the results rolling in.9.30am: So, with polls about 90 minutes away from closing, the top line is this – we’ve got ...
Winston Peters will back an NZME proposal to buy Stuff with a 'Kiwishare' guarantee the merged news company will keep regional news and separate websites for at least two years. ...
The Executive Director of Dapaanz (Addiction Practitioners’ Association Aotearoa New Zealand), Sue Paton says the announcement that Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment court would become permanent immediately, following successful pilots in Auckland ...
Online marketplace Sidekicker is taking advantage of people who have little choice but to juggle multiple low-paying jobs to make ends meet, writes artist and freelancer Ben Markley.After graduating early this year with one of the least vocational degrees, I didn’t expect the largest array of job prospects. Nevertheless, I ...
National is vowing to bring back and expand health sector targets dropped by the current Government and mulling whether to scrap elected District Health Boards. ...
More than 10,000 people have signed a petition launched a week ago, calling for better support and funding for community midwives. The 10k figure was reached after the first four days. Chief executive of the College of Midwives, Alison Eddy, said last ...
Information obtained by animal rights organisation SAFE has revealed rodeo organisers are refusing to halt calf-roping events in rodeo, despite the Government’s animal welfare advisors’ recommendation that they do so. ...
Subject; Deputy PM said quote; “New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has challenged his Cabinet colleagues for the delay over a Northport decision, criticising it as "paralysis by analysis". https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/405385/paralysis-by-analysis-winston-peters-assessment-of-the-delay-over-northport ...
If the Productivity Commission's report on local government funding, released yesterday, had been relied on by NASA as the basis for getting astronauts to the moon, its greatest achievement by now would have been launching a $2 skyrocket 40 feet into the air ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Benjamin Mayne, Molecular biologist and bioinformatician, CSIRO Humans have a “natural” lifespan of around 38 years, according to a new method we have developed for estimating the lifespans of different species by analysing their DNA. Extrapolating from genetic studies of species with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Evans, Professor of Governance and Director of Democracy 2025 – bridging the trust divide at Old Parliament House, University of Canberra A new, ongoing survey on how young Australians understand and imagine their democracy is already challenging long-held stereotypes. The survey ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Francesco Paolucci, Associate Professor; Head of Health Policy Program, Sir Walter Murdoch School of Public Policy and International Affairs, University of Newcastle Private health insurance has come under intense scrutiny in recent months, as it becomes clear health insurers are failing to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Zaphir, Researcher for the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project; and Online Teacher at Education Queensland’s IMPACT Centre, The University of Queensland This is the second of two essays exploring key theories – cognitive load theory and constructivism – underlying teaching ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW On Monday the Australian government will release the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO). This will – as required by the Charter of Budget Honesty – provide an update on the key assumptions made in this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame Australia It seems like every time we switch on the idiot box we are confronted with news footage of another disaster. Bushfires in Australia. A hurricane in North America. A tsunami ...
Open Mike 16/11/2018 
Image credit: Publish Peer Reviews. Illustration by David Parkins Scientific peer-review is often touted as a guarantee of the quality of published research. But how good is peer-review? Does it guarantee poor ... 9 hours ago
If you like any article please help promote it (and the blog). Link to it on facebook and other social media, write about it anywhere or re-blog it. We’re very happy to have other people re-blog our material, all we ask is that you mention the original source and put ...1 day ago
by The Council of Disobedient Women John Fenaughty is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland. In a recent column Fenaughty suggested that school teachers should use students’ “correct names and pronouns (e.g., he, him, they, them, she, her, etc.)” ...1 day ago
Heard this on Radio NZ this afternoon. Perfectly captures how I'm feeling just now.It's always good to find new music, though it would be nice to be hearing something celebratory. Even "Things Can Only Get Better" would be welcome, if it was accompanied by a thumping Labour victory. ...1 day ago
by Don Franks Like New Zealand, Britain is officially a country of equal opportunity under the rule of law, with increasing hardship for those at the bottom. When there’s an election, and the party most obviously callous towards poor people wins, decent folks are dismayed and bewildered. “What the hell ...2 days ago
UKanians went to the polls yesterday in early elections aimed at resolving the Brexit impasse. And they certainly have, delivering a huge majority to the Tories, and (barring internal rebellions of the sort which delayed Brexit) giving them the power to do whatever they want. And thanks to the UK's ...2 days ago
What other song could we play as the UK's political rule book gets torn up and thrown away?Video courtesy of YouTubeThis post is exclusive to Bowalley Road. ...3 days ago
If you want to study propagandist techniques, you are typically told to study Dictatorships. Not unfair, but what’s always been more interesting to me is so-called “democratic” countries and their broader information systems. Why? Because people opt for it, even as they decry “totalitarian regimes!”.. It’s quite an eye ...3 days ago
Below is the longlist of words and phrases generated in the korero phase of Public Address Word of the Year 2019, with some editorial moderation. Now it's time to vote. As you'll doubtless be able to see, you get three ranked choices. Use your power wisely. Or frivolously, whatever.As usual, ...4 days ago
As details emerge about what unfolded on Whakaari / White Island two days ago, my thoughts go out to all the families affected by this terrible event. My thoughts are also with the first responders who worked in perilous circumstances to assist and protect those affected. Both local and ...4 days ago
I love data. It’s amazing the sort of “discoveries” I can make given a data set and computer statistical package. It’s just so easy to search for relationships and test their statistical significance. Maybe relationships which ... 6 days ago
The state of the United Kingdom is fractured, torn up, shredded. The Empire is gone, it died a long time ago. And yet, the country is still tracking with a lead in favour of the ones who play to the ingrained, class-bound division for political gain. It is a disgrace ...1 week ago
It should be obvious by now but let’s be clear: The same folk who regularly traffic in disinformation, misinformation and “fake news” are also those who most strongly claim that their freedom of expression rights are being violated when moves are made to curb hate speech (as opposed to protected ...1 week ago
“Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.” ― Martin Luther King Jr. A long and bitter court feud between former Conservative Party leader Colin Craig and Jordan Williams has been settled, with an apology and compensation from Williams. On Tuesday, Craig sent out ...1 week ago
Paramedics have reiterated their support for New Zealand First MP Darroch Ball's bill to impose mandatory prison sentences on those who assault our first responders and prison officers. There are more than 50 cases of abuse and assault against New Zealand paramedics each week. The figure has remained largely unchanged ...2 days ago
Just after 2pm on Monday this week, Whakaari / White Island erupted. Read the Prime Minister's statement here, and watch her statement to the House below. ...2 days ago
Sustained high growth in primary industry exports looks set to continue over the next two years with strong prices predicted for farmers, fishers, growers and rural communities. Minister of Agriculture and Minister of State for Trade and Export Growth Damien O’Connor today released the latest Situation and Outlook report for ...17 hours ago
The cycleway fine is part of the party's transport ideas that will be announced tomorrow. ...8 hours ago
COLFO Confirms Number of Banned Firearms in New Zealand at Upper End of Police Estimates SUNDAY 15 DECEMBER 2019 ...11 hours ago
Kiwi startup founder Jenene Crossan has spent two years enduring jetlag and heinous London Airbnb prices as she builds her latest business.Jenene Crossan, co-founder and CEO of beauty booking service Flossie, has spent most of the past two years sitting in airport lounges and living out of suitcases in a bid ...18 hours ago
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by Steve Braunias. ...1 day ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne At the December 12 UK election, the Conservatives won 365 of the 650 House of Commons seats (up 48 since the 2017 election), Labour 202 (down 60), the Scottish National ...1 day ago
“It was right there in the waiting room that Jack first told me he was finding it hard to separate his fingers”: a parent’s nightmare, by Dunedin writer Emma Neale. ...2 days ago
From the pockmarked rugby paddock of Apiti, to the smooth, iridescent-blue turf of Albany, Black Sticks defender Steph Dickins' hockey journey has come a long way. ...2 days ago
Napoleon demanded that his generals be lucky. Conservative PM Boris Johnson, as he surveys a thumping victory in the British general election, would meet that criterion. His luck bears a resemblance to that of Margaret Thatcher. Like her, he has made a decisive break with orthodox establishment thinking. That presents ...2 days ago
The ACT leader says his arguments haven't changed - but the circumstances that make them relevant have. ...2 days ago
Three Otago institutions are teaming up to improve the future of rural health care. ...3 days ago
Fuel company Z Energy has cut its earnings forecast for the year by 10 percent because of tougher competition and falling margins, and is forecasting a big cut in dividends. ...3 days ago
House prices are on the rise again with record increases in 10 regions, but with fewer sales overall. ...3 days ago
Liquidators of the hacked cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia have travelled to the United States, to retrieve customers' information and certain crypto-assets. ...3 days ago
The Government’s homelessness program ‘ Housing First’ has expanded to the top of the South Island. ...3 days ago
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. This was the declaration of the pigs who control the government in George Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm – a tart comment on the hypocrisy of governments that proclaim the absolute equality of their citizens but gives power and privileges ...3 days ago
Winston Peters will back an NZME proposal to buy Stuff with a 'Kiwishare' guarantee the merged news company will keep regional news and separate websites for at least two years. ...3 days ago
National wants all Kiwi kids running for 15 minutes a day; and Auckland Council stops issuing urgent property reports until the New Year. ...3 days ago
National is vowing to bring back and expand health sector targets dropped by the current Government and mulling whether to scrap elected District Health Boards. ...3 days ago
ACC admits it has fallen short in the way it has dealt with surgical mesh patients as a report into their experiences is released. ...3 days ago
A high-risk mission to recover the bodies left behind after Monday's deadly eruption on Whakaari-White Island is now underway. ...3 days ago
Concerning news.
Good work by Matt Nippert.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12160570
Some background.
John Campbell takes the time to research in more depth.
+1 Ed – harassment, illegal activity like stealing data for foreign powers, (or worse) should NOT be acceptable in NZ and there should be a lot more resources on it.
We have had the French agents blowing up Rainbow Warrior, Isrealis stealing our passports and now Chinese agents apparently taking data/harrassment/stealing from NZ researchers and worse.
Is the Labour government going to say meh, or are they going to apprehend the perpetrators and prosecute them???? Considering the taxpayer funded budget of the SIS and GCSB you have to wonder how hard can it be and are they competent to do the job?
In addition NZ needs to step up with regards to espionage in NZ… look at the mess the Brits are in, when they are so internally focused they turn a blind eye to espionage in their own country. No wonder there are blatant assassinations going on around the world from foreign powers, as there as there does not seem much interest from governments in protecting citizens anymore.
Mysterious factory break-in raises suspicions about Chinese visit
“It was an unusual burglary, in which four or five laptops were stolen from a Scottish renewable energy manufacturer in the dead of a March night in 2011. So innovative was the company that it had been been visited by a 60-strong delegation led by China’s then vice-premier only two months before.
Nothing else was taken from the company and the crime, while irritating, went unsolved and forgotten – until a few years later pictures began emerging that showed a remarkably similar project manufactured in the world’s most populous country.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/10/mysterious-factory-break-in-raises-suspicions-about-chinese-visit
I’ve read that China’s acquisition of IP developed elsewhere is estimated as the largest transfer of wealth ever.
If you look at the R&D costs over time, resources, infrastructure, trial and error you’d skip its a staggering value in today’s currency they’ve bypassed.
The xian y-20 compared to the us c-17 being one the most blatant as they got sprung using a Canadian based expat to highlight the files/folders from compromised servers for lift and shift to China.
@TC, yep and use that money to buy up assets like significant amounts of NZ and OZ…
While the west politicians are getting selfies and self promoting in magazines and MSM or firing off on Twitter, the Chinese government are to be admired in a way as they steadily and carefully advancing their cause, gathering power and strategic assets, partnerships and soft power…
Natz can be bought for $100k, how cheap is that?
Sadly our government in NZ has become greedy and/or naive self promoters hoping for a crust of bread and a pat on the head, as 30 years post Rogernomics our politicians and the general discourse being promoted is that Kiwis are only good at Rugby and a few other sports and incapable of self governing, working or running our own businesses, assets or countries successfully.
So very easy for the Chinese to step in to help, self govern NZ and their businesses and assets in the face of greed, disinterest and brainwashing of the NZ political elite and MSM.
We have also given up our security to others in particular the US in real terms and so now at the mercy of others.
There is a difference between collaboration/friendship and throwing your hands up and leaving it all up to other governments and paper agreements to decide your future and fate and NZ seems to be erring on the lazy second option with no plan B of self management.
Don’t blame them actually. Most US patents are not innovation, just blatant privatisation of others ideas. Parenting rounded corners on a cell phone. FFS.
Rentier capitalism at it’s worse.
US prosperity begins, by ignoring all previous British property rights.
All indications are that they’re going to say ‘meh’ so as to keep up Fonterra’s exports. Apparently maintaining NZ for NZers under NZ control comes a distant second to that.
It occurs to me that Ed is continually bringing up foreign problems and ctiticising the USA and China etc. Whereas I want to see this blog continue and look at what is happening here. If Ed steps on enough toes and makes enough wild assertions about the large dominating foreign powers, it takes time away from us. If it incurs enough wrath Ed’s stuff alone could make it a likely target to be taken to court or closed down.
And groups can get infiltrated; we have wondered who is behind these extra right regulars. There is something driven about them, and the same could apply to those supposedly speaking for the left. I’m just a concerned left-leaning twit myself. I wonder about Ed and others.
I write on many New Zealand issues.
Inequality
Poverty
Dairy farming
Spying
Housing
Socialism
The environment
The NZ media
NZ banking…..
There are parallels.
We know that the previous National government pretty much copied social policy from the UK and that they copied charter schools from the US. So, seeing what’s happening to them can give us an idea of the damages that National will do next time they’re in power.
Ed does not need this unwarranted atrack grey. Ed is a driving force behind conversation topics on this blog.
Yes maui that’s my point. Why are you not interested in NZ?
The National Party should be investigated as their deep ties look dodgy.
“anti-Chinese sons of bitches”
This is normal for anyone who dares to criticize the new Mao, Chairman Xi. My main reading is Chinese web news sites in NZ. This is mild compared to everyday comments in Chinese language media. ANY opposing view that even slightly is against Community Party views is considered as being traitor. Yet many on this blog say how great China system is! It is not!
I am called a traitor to China by my own family and Chinese friends in NZ as I am in the process of applying for NZ Citizenship. This is what the Community Party has done to the people in my country.
Thank you for your brave words. The CCCP is indeed a soft tyranny of a nature the western world struggles to understand properly.
My only small objection is that I do not think a majority of us here are admirers of the Chinese regime and it’s expansionist ambitions. Most of us loath empire wherever it appears.
Yes, China is an empire, although few Kiwis see that. Mr Xi is step by step becoming Mao. The ‘Thoughts of Chairman Xi’ is now a reality that rivals the ‘Thoughts of Chairman Mao’. Unlimited term as leader. Increased censorship. Imprisonment and ‘re-education’ of Uyghurs. But in China most people support him still. Economically very good.
Forced abortion when already have one child was common 20 years ago. When I studied nursing, the man on the autopsy table was a criminal, a bullet hole clearly in his forehead. We thought this was right, but it is not. Bribery to get into hospital – yes this is the great Community Party state that so many Kiwis still think is a utopia. There are many things that were and in many parts of China, especially local places, are pure evil. But this was all we knew. Young Chinese people very very different. The future for China will be interesting I think.
How else would you describe private health insurance in NZ? It gets some people in front of the same doctors earlier.
Yes that is true, but in China even an emergency, life in danger, in many places you will not even get admitted to hospital. This is very true. And drugs you must pay for. In NZ, I do not have health insurance or my son, yet we get a higher level of care than in China.
In 2016, I spent 4 months in China. My son had been injured in an accident. His father and I paid for pain relief and antibiotics. NZ not that bad!
China appears to have adopted the worst aspects of authoritarian socialism and capitalist meanness.
Yep. We have been colonised by Britain, the USA and looks like, now China.
Time we were independent!
I haven’t noticed commentators here saying “how great China system is!” I’ve seen some (including myself) criticising it. Polarising into a simple binary view of anything is usually too simple-minded – those who do so lose accuracy in their description. Any political system will have pros & cons. I agree that the international community has been too tolerant of the endemic misbehaviour of the regime for far too long.
I’m reading a recent acquisition: Everything Under The Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China’s Push for Global Power, which I recommend to anyone interested in the current regime’s foreign policy. See https://www.amazon.com/Everything-Under-Heavens-Chinas-Global/dp/0385353324
As far as your relations are concerned, it may help to frame things in generic terms – the future for China will require adaption to a common-interest framework. National self-interest therefore must be balanced by acknowledgment of the interests of other nations. In respect of China’s attempt to reassert their regional hegemony, we can expect all other nations affected to align in consensus to oppose such re-emergence of imperialism. A balance of equal and opposite forces is therefore eventually inevitable. Naive expectations of success will be replaced by realism. In the interim, any delusional thinking by decision-makers is dangerous…
Yes Chinese political system was necessary for our recent decades of rapid growth. We all pulled in the same direction. No serious opposition was allowed. But now it is still the same, yet the need is no longer there.
You mention my relations, no! Older than me and have never left China, so still have Maos isolationist view of the world.
The biggest challenges for China in the years ahead are the young people, who travel. And the looming huge problem of Xinjiang. And Xizang.
[citation needed]
Welcome to being a NZer.
The people of China could stop them if they so wished.
@Fang Zhou – some Kiwis are worried about the Chinese government too, so even if it seems that people might sound anti Chinese be aware most of the time it is directed against the CCP getting a stranglehold into NZ not against Chinese people and also the worry that Chinese residents might be pressured to work for the Chinese government interests even if they didn’t want to on foreign soil, so great might be influence be as our government and industry is asleep at the wheel.
Hey,
To be fair to the TS, I have not seen anyone say they want the Chinese system. But they do want a return to authoritarian govt control, which could be interrupted as wanting the Chinese system.
A small number on the extreme Left want a authoritarian govt that own pretty much everything. (banks, insurance, utilities, Supermarkets, etc) I think but stand to be corrected that someone wrote that if a person invents something or has a innovative idea they shouldn’t own it but it becomes the property of the state and the people.
Much like what you have in China with the control of central govt over most things and most Chinese corps having some level of govt ownership or control.
China bans facebook and a number of other social sites and developed its own wechat and weibo that can be monitored.
Now we see millions of cameras, name and shame in papers and Huge LED screens around the cities highlighting wrong doing of citizens in real time for example j walking and social credit points for citizens.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2157883/drones-facial-recognition-and-social-credit-system-10-ways-china
One link but the social credit and city surveillance is scary, but it is how an authoritarian govt maintains control.
Opposing views are not allowed.
Those that want the govt controlled utopia then also accept they will loose freedoms and free speech as the govt controls the narrative.
I don’t see many on here that want a “Government controlled utopia”. Even the most ardent anti-capitalists still want a democratic Government. Many of the right wingers are open to increased democracy, also.
Government by us.
As for the State owning banks and utilities. When it is a real democratic State it is all of us that own them.
Ownership of patents and innovations very rarely accrues to the innovator. Usually they are acquired by a corporation which uses then for unearned rent for ridiculous lengths of time. Amazons book rights, for example.
You are confusing Democratic ownership with an authoritarian State. At the moment we have an Authoritarian State controlled by corporate donations and influence. And, I suspect, with considerable evidence, a lot of power exerted covertly by the US, Chinese and British Governments. Often in behalf of their corporations.
Good comment – in the long term CCP influence over the NZ Chinese community does not bode well for how that community is perceived by the wider population.
Two refugees here have been renditioned back to Saudi Arabia – in 2013 and 2014.
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2018/10/reminder-saudi-arabia-kidnapped-people.html
Here’s some interesting information on China and I’m a little concerned at was has happened, but not surprised IRT Professor Brady as the same thing happened to Clive Hamilton when he was trying to get his book published called “The Silent Invasion”.
Sorry for the double post, can the mods please delete post 1.4
Here’s some interesting information on China and I’m a little concerned at was has happened, but not surprised IRT Professor Brady as the same thing happened to Clive Hamilton when he was trying to get his book published called “The Silent Invasion
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-16/are-china-cheap-loans-to-poor-nations-a-debt-trap/10493286”.
The U.S.A.
A rogue state.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/14/us-has-spent-5point9-trillion-on-middle-east-asia-wars-since-2001-study.html?__source=sharebar|twitter&par=sharebar
Interesting angle from Jeffrey Kaye on the killing of Khashoggi.
Fascinating.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/north-africa-west-asia/nafeez-ahmed/did-us-and-britain-collude-in-murder-of-jamal-khashoggi
Ed did you catch the live presser from the Saudi’s last night? The story re Khashoggi changes so much.
He say’s he’s seeking the death penalty for some involved, but does not want to name them.
It’s a big freaking coverup, Saudis are good at that.
Cheers for the links above, will have a watch over the weekend. Much appreciated.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/saudi-top-prosecutor-seeks-death-penalty-khashoggi-murder-181115103958916.html
It’s the facts they’ve agreed too though. That a official signed off on a warrant for K. That they wanted to rendition K. That they targeted K when he sought a marriage licence, thus attacking the ability to legally start a family, nasty.So who paid for the flights. Who told the embassy to stock up on plastic sheets. Sorry but I can’t believe that a they got the go head without serious authority being involved, and that’s before you consider who was most irate and irritated by K. The idea that S.A. will walk away thinking people global don’t now know what they do in their embassies, that we all now sanction by allow those embassies on our soil. And then it gets worse, not only attacking the family of K, his future family, not only renditioning him, or murdering premeditively, but he was a top journalist resident of the USA. Their is serious no way Trump can stop action. So their laughable fake news conference, that only exposes a whole new raft of questions while reinforcing the view that a whitewash was in train, a whitewash protecting a ruthless man. And who could that be, the leprosy of Qatar, the evil in Yeman, and the how dare he get married. If the US does continue to dither, then its even worse, the moral ethical outrage, of the holy land for Islam, coupled to K, coupled to Israel new US embassy… …And then add the explosive that wars mean men don’t come home, mean four wives… …it’s not to hard to see soldiers getting fessup of being fodder, realizing their job actually is to die so their betters can have a extra wife.
If I were a progressive S.A. leader, I’d end multiple wives, pull out of Yeman, reengage Qatar… get Trump to backtrack on embassy… but all we get is dangerous dithering from Ryad.
The corrupt, no matter their country of origin, always think that they are because they think that they’re better, more intelligent than anyone else.
Good linkies this morning Ed. 😛
Did anyone catch the NZ Music Awards last night?
Upper Hutt Posse, their frontman Dean Hapeta, at the end of his speech called out ‘Free Palestine’ condemned trump and called out government for sending our troops to fight fake wars over oil among other political messages.
Much respect to them for speaking up.
Dean has never been afraid to speak his mind, “E Tu” & the Dam Native years all righteous stuff. Now await the vitriol coz a brown guy dare speak his truth…
Was so awesome to hear his words, felt very proud of him for speaking the truth.
Miss almost 14 had plenty of questions afterwards (she stayed up late to watch), was happy to answer them.
Lyrics about reality rather than money and sex, we need more lyrical reality, kudos to all who use a platform to speak up and inform others.
Those names are a blast from the past.
I loved the first two upper hutt posse albums.
Cheers student radio.
Well ahead of its time, preceeding rage against the machine with the fusion of rock, rap and injustice.
The message was spot on although some stuff was hard to hear through pakeha ears.
This bit G…. “The message was spot on although some stuff was hard to hear through pakeha ears” well said.
Can you just clarify for me what wars we currently have troops fighting in? Motivation aside I can’t think of any current deployments that involve combat troops.
Hey Crashcart,
Government over the years and decades have sent troops to locations in the middle east to assist the USA lead wars. Which more often than not have one thing in common, oil. Peace isn’t profitable.
Pretty sure the speech made referenced Afghanistan.
Wonder if there is a clip of the full speech. The political part is at the end of the speech, will see if I can find later,
I think the question was ‘what wars we currently have troops fighting in’?
I have lost touch too Crashcart. Our Radionz news is full of what is happening in the USA but I don’t think we have any action within that country thank goodness. But elsewhere? What do the military buffs know?
seems to be a vaguely current list.
Might not include special forces deployments though
@ grey: Just as MoBIE, MSD and others in gubbamint are concerned , AND in the interests of ‘open gubbamint’ (going forward), [Maybe, oneday lprent could give us his impressions and experiences on a thread we could call ‘technophobia’]
Maybe the NZDF might care to publish their activities (across the 3 – almy, navvie and ear force), and with all due deference (to ‘the 5’) on a website.
With a cuzzie that once served in ‘peace keeping’ in the Sinai, and Singapore, and in the spooks for a quite a while thereafter till the alcopops and the liver got the better of him, I’ve also lost track
It does seem reasonable though that they could keep all the plebs appraised of their activities (all within the bounds of keeping shit secret in our Neshnool interest)
I’ve lost touch too both @ Crashcart and @Grey[non]warshark – not that I ever wanted to have such ‘touch’ in the first place.
I did appreciate however being told not to go near a Bainimarama’s Fiji a decade ago – based on the passport I held at the time. As it happens ,it now makes me even more cynical about various ‘competencies’ in our public service – the silos, the politicisation, the egos, the incompetencies, the agendas, the conflicted interests ……
Yes, going off at a tangent here, again, I thought about our police and how they wouldn’t venture into Pike mine at the beginning and now they are playing it safe again. And how much grief and extra cost that has caused. And they wouldn’t provide backup when trained miners wanted to make a series of reccies.
Thinks, would the Thai cave success be equalled if it happened here? Of course it isn’t the same as Pike because there may be a case to be heard in Court. That would have eaten a large part of the police and justice budget allocation. I wonder if the departments were under instruction to curb their enthusiasm?
/Agreed.
(At the time, and probably/possibly still), completely the wrong agency to have been leading any rescue effort. Peter Cowan – nice enough bloke and all that, and a good cop, but in that situation, out of his depth and encumbered with the wrong sort of mission.
I think the decision not to go ahead with attempting a rescue of miners who were almost certainly dead, risking a lot more deaths, was the correct one.
I doubt that the police made the decision without expert advice.
Talking to one of the mine rescuers afterwards. He said the police probably saved his life, restraining them from rushing in.
Certainly it is unfair to judge the person who had to make that sort of decision in the moment, with the information available at the time, using information they didn’t have.
The picture of men, waiting for a rescue that didn’t come, is a powerful one. But the ones in charge had to weigh up the real risk to rescuers, against the, slight, possibility of survivors.
Not a decision I would like to have to make. Though I am aware it may happen.
Link…
https://www.threenow.co.nz/shows/2018-vodafone-new-zealand-music-awards/2018-vodafone-new-zealand-music-awards/S1825-116/M26539-595
Political part of the speech at 1:43.50 – 1:45.10
Text below…
“Free Palestine!
And where’s that PM even if it was a fake acting one up here. I’ve got some words for you.
All of our armed forces and military that have been fighting in these fake wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for oil, for USA imperialism; get out of there!
What you need to be doing is going to Palestine to fight against the racist terrorism of the Israeli State, that’s where all of our fighting energy needs to be.
And also, even more, death to the Mexican USA border and defend that caravan of indigenous people seeking refugee status at the United Snakes of America kkk.
They are seeking refuge because their countries have been wrecked by that colonial power known as the USA.
Death to all oppressors.”
Oh I must add when he refers to the PM as a fake one acting, that’s the lady from Jono & Ben who impersonates Jacinda.
Our Jacinda has willingly been involved in a few very good skits with her, including one last night on Jono & Ben.
Anyways she presented an award at the NZMA last night dressed up as Jacinda 🙂
It’s wasn’t a dig at our PM being fake.
Felt I needed to add that context, for those who didn’t see the full NZ Music Awards show last night.
The largest current deployment by far is the training team in Iraq (over 150). Just renewed by the current govt for another 12 months.
All about training Iraqi forces to defeat ISIS.
If you think ISIS should not be opposed (with military force) well that’s your view. But obviously Jacinda et al do not share that view.
“If you think ISIS should not be opposed (with military force) well that’s your view. But obviously Jacinda et al do not share that view.”
Importantly, what is the majority of Kiwis view…..or is that of no consequence?
I am pretty sure the majority of New Zealanders would think ISIS has to be militarily opposed and that NZ should, at least to some extent, be part of the international coalition. The training team was probably the right level of commitment. There were polls on thiols at the time of the initial deployment when John Key was PM which showed clear support.
I was actually surprised that Jacinda and the Cabinet renewed the mandate for another 12 months. After all, ISIS has largely been defeated in Iraq. So presumably it was about NZ showing our partners that we are a reliable partner, notwithstanding the change of government.
Dean Hapeta at the Music awards would well have represented the Green Party view (and the left of Labour) but it is a minority view.
“I am pretty sure the majority of New Zealanders would think ISIS has to be militarily opposed and that NZ should, at least to some extent, be part of the international coalition. ”
And that is based on what? Polling, focus group, personal preference?
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/09/17/240869/nzs-mission-creep-in-iraq-creeps-on
“It was a decision that surprised Victoria University professor of strategic studies Robert Ayson, who believed there was good reason for a withdrawal from Iraq, given Isis was “no longer the battleground force it once was”.
“You need a compelling reason in Iraq to stay, and I’m not entirely sure that is there, so I think that now would have been a time to say, ‘Right, we’ve done what we said we were there to do’.”
Pat,
My recollection is at the time of the initial deployment the public polls were clearly in favour.
As for the current extension, I essentially said what Dr Ayson said. But that is not the only consideration for the extension of the deployment. NZ does not like to be the first out of an international coalition, and that is pretty much what we would have been.
I suspect the Govt thought the deployment was sufficiently Ok that the extension would not to cause any significant local reaction. And they were right. It didn’t.
I may be doing you a disservice but I suspect your claim that it was an acceptance of the majority view that was the deciding factor in the deployment decision was more a case of wishful thinking rather than any knowledge of such.
Anything to do with the, almost, total lack of information on troop deployments from our news media.
So much so, that we learn about them first through the Ozzie papers.
And the constant propaganda about big bad Iraq. Which was OK until they threatened the petrodollar. Like Libya. And indeed, Iran’s Government in the 50’s. Too Democratic for the Western powers, replaced by the Shar, and Savak.
IsIs could re-emerge any time, last time the US pulled back that’s when they got a foot hold.
I doubt even you still believe the fable which is , ISIS…
You realise the US funded ISIS in Syria?
To begin with they also funded the mujahadeen.
This was to try and save putting soldiers on the ground.
The purpose to overthrow despot rigimes in both cases costly mistakes!
Reminds me of Auckland (and maybe Christchurch)
“Vanity projects and kamikaze loggias: Tbilisi’s architectural disaster
The centre of the Georgian capital has long been the plaything of outsize egos – but can its architecture biennial inspire useful debate about the city’s future?
Joseph Alexander Smith, a Briton who has lived in Tbilisi for the last six years, was driven by what he witnessed to stand for local election last year on a platform of environmental activism, campaigning against chronic traffic problems, pollution and the unabated development that has blighted much of the city. “We have lost one of the city’s oldest streets, Mirza Shafi,” he says, “and now developers are hand-in-glove with politicians, intent on destroying everything that is left. Everyone has a right to air, not just the right to breath clean air, but to look out of their window and not be confronted by the concrete wall of a new illegal building.”
Is this going to be Phil Goff, John Key, Brownlee’s fate…. exile with criminal charges for corruption and in NZ case, gross stupidity as well???
“Saakashvili behaved like a king, just picking his favourites with no competition or discussion,” says Zhvania. “He dismissed any opposition voices as retrogrades, standing in the way of modernisation.”
The former president may now be living in exile in the Netherlands, wanted on multiple criminal charges back home, but his physical legacy is still very much felt – and others have eagerly picked up where he left off.”
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/nov/15/vanity-projects-and-kamikaze-loggias-tbilisi-architectural-disaster
Is there a connection with Chris Trotters latests musing?
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2018/11/communication-breakdown.html
“Why? Because the council officials understood that a councillor’s reputation was built upon his or her ability to get things done for the people who voted them into office. Repeated failure to fix their problems would very soon lead to gripes about Councillor So-and-So being “useless”. The slightest whisper that such an opinion was abroad in the electorate would have the impugned councillor knocking very loudly on the door of the Town Clerk, demanding to know what the hell was going on. That’s why action almost always followed.”
+1 Pat & agree with Chris Trotter
“Councillors are reduced to a browbeaten collection of rubber-stampers: prey to private sector contractors, condescending legal advisers, and over-mighty CEOs. The final indignity being that, having signed up to the Councillors’ Code of Conduct, these poor souls are forbidden from speaking out angrily, or publicly, about their powerlessness.”
I think in Phil Goff’s case, he is being used by the CEO and private sector to be a front man on the attack against local government and democracy. How else do you fathom taking off 2 elected councillors from Auckland Transport (that gets the lions share of ratepayers rates, but has a poor and dismal service record)?
A continuation of the observation that the vast majority of voices are increasingly ignored in western democracies…..and we wonder why ‘populism’ gains currency.
The establishment brings it upon itself and only they can solve it.
When less than 50% of voters bother to vote this happens.
Then people moan endlessly but go out and drum up support for representation on council no!
You get what you don’t vote for the status quo!
Skippy’s public service reform should extend to local bodies.
Never was that being ‘forbidden from speaking out’ about what is best described as muppetry more evident in Wellington recently in a Simon Wolf – Lavery exchange.
It’s a case of ‘officials’ throwing elected representatives ‘under a bus’ if anything.
And even when those ‘officials’ are legally in the wrong, they’re apt to push things to the limit, often in the knowledge that people don’t have the resources to face them off.
On a lighter note:
A Tui in my street has learned the sound of a computer booting up.
It has confused several of us thinking our machines are turning themselves on, or have been hacked, or….
It’s a juvenile Tui sitting on a powerpole, laughing at us the little blighter…
When they learn the telephone ring it is a real pain.
Someone near me must get a hell of a lot of texts. There’s at least of couple of tuis doing the Samsung default alert, and a few years ago they were doing the Nokia alert.
Looks like service is already declining, tired of public services being cut or not funded appropriately for population and tourist growth that the government is so keen on, while our taxes are used to further private profits that are publicly funded!
Urgent answers needed after rescue helicopter unavailable
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1811/S00167/urgent-answers-needed-after-rescue-helicopter-unavailable.htm
How come these communicators with the public can lie and never get called out on it? They need to be confronted, their organisation which is probably contracted to do government work, at their profit, should be exposed and tarred and feathered or made to walk through the streets with their trousers down looking stupid.
Brazilian military now taking over all the major roles in the Brazilian government. The US has been backing the coup with US, European and Brazilian corporates benefiting.
“I think what we are seeing is a massive transfer of Brazil’s natural resources to the north right now. Brazil is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of natural resources.Its petroleum, its minerals, its gold, its fresh water – they are talking about privatising the world’s largest acquifier to Coca Cola right now.”
How shameful “privatising the world’s largest acquifier to Coca Cola right now’
pity Jacinda is not using her status to question the fairness of bad deals and public asset transfer to private business, rather than actually promoting the practise of ‘FREE trade’ around the world. How bout they rebrand to FREEBIE trade agreements, it would be kinder and more honest.
Tellingly even with the excitement when apparently Mike Pence wanted to sit next to Arden, did she use the moment to discuss her supposedly nuclear free moment of climate change or urge US to uphold the Paris agreement and help the environment, nope instead it is reported that she focused on unsuccessfully pressing New Zealand’s case for an exemption on US tariffs on steel and aluminium which are mostly foreign owned multinational companies.
So who would even benefit from the lift of US tariffs on steel and aluminium – well mostly the profits of overseas firms.
Who owns NZ steel, well BHP, formerly known as BHP Billiton, is the trading entity of BHP Billiton Limited and BHP Billiton plc, an Anglo-Australian multinational mining, metals and petroleum dual-listed public company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and owns significant amounts of the formally known New Zealand Steel.
The raw material for NZ steel is ironsand which is disappearing fast around the world and can not be replaced and has virtually zero studies on the long term effects on the eco systems.
The future of sand mining in NZ
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/104065329/the-future-of-sand-mining-in-nz
Who owns NZ Aluminimum, NZAS is 79.36 per cent owned by Pacific Aluminium which in turn is owned by Rio Tinto Group an Anglo-Australian multinational and one of the world’s largest metals and mining corporations and 20.64 per cent owned by Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical Company.
So when our politicians have the ear of world leaders are they really thinking of the people of NZ or international peace and well being and climate change and environmental issues, or just promoting the short term profiteering of multinational big business???
It seems clear to me where Labour’s focus is, either intentionally or unintentionally!
OMG. The face behind the Trump variety performance.
Collective bargaining works! Funny we all happy when sports people do it – but outside of a few select sectors how many people are organised collectively?
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-11-15/aflw-player-wages-to-rise-finals-prize-money-introduced
I’d add this is the third pay raise over three years, each year these players are getting substantially more.
In more union news.
Big ups to the truckers in Iran. This is the second round of strikes and after the government arrested some of these same protestors – it takes real guts (unlike fake ponytail pulling guts) to carry on a strike in the face of a government used to suppressing working people.
https://libcom.org/news/iww-statement-solidarity-striking-workers-iran-14112018
Maine has its first taste of ranked choice voting for US House seats. On election night, the incumbent Repug won a plurality of first choice votes, but second (and maybe third) choices tipped it to the Dem. So naturally the loser Repug is suing.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/15/politics/democrats-maine-house-ranked-choice-jared-golden/index.html
Ranked choice is slowly spreading to other states as well. So despite all the crap around gerrymandering, voter suppression and loads of other noxious anti-democracy actions, there are still some pockets of progress towards better democracy in the US.
https://thinkprogress.org/utah-cities-ranked-choice-pilot-program-2fec6e710064/
Yep. There, here, and everywhere.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/15/steve-bannon-oxford-union
“Chinese speaking buyers offered first dibs on ‘top secret’ luxury apartment planned for Auckland
A “top secret” 24-storey luxury apartment tower planned for Auckland’s North Harbour has been snapped up by exclusive buyers months before the public gets a look in.
The 72.5 metre apartment planned for Kaipiho Lane, Albany will feature more than 280 apartments, 11 lifts, a helicopter landing pad, residents’ cinema, swimming pool, clubhouse, ballroom, 24 hour concierge and robotic valet parking.
A website marketing the development in Chinese, http://www.kaipiho.co.nz, said the apartments “caused a subscription frenzy” when they were promoted on Chinese social media app WeChat.:
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/11/16/investigation-into-sabotage-of-academics-car-must-finally-start-demanding-answers-about-chinese-influence-in-nz/
P>S> clearly the government and councils measures to curb the housing shortages futile as seen in this example, but actually creating more poverty for Kiwis who end up subsidising the roads, congestion, Leaks, public transport, pollution etc that all these new developments for speculators who don’t even live here, are generating.
Chinese people want to get their money out of China and into gold bricks before their currency devalues or worse they take down the banks with lending, Kiwi housing investments should not be part of the solution of cash China 1.5 billion people, because our people and environment is the casualty of poor risk planning as is more exposure ‘If China Sneezes Will the Rest of the World Catch a Cold”.
And there aren’t even jobs for car valets. Perhaps someone will be able to hack their garage systems and send cars to be parked outside, or go to be serviced or such like. Just annoying glitches. We have plenty of those in NZ and would love to share them around.
I think you do not understand that whether you like it or not, NZ needs Chinese capital to flow in to correct balance of payments and keep Kiwi dollar high. Most Chinese property owners are resident in NZ, at least most of the time. We are a positive contribution to NZ, yet you paint us as fleeing China before the currency collapses. Maybe you should learn more about China and spend an extended period there before you preach the collapse of the Yuan.
Most Kiwis are concerned about the corruption which comes along with that Chinese capital.
Yes, corruption is sadly still normal in China, and at all levels. However, the younger Chinese not so much. But you seem to assume that the capital coming in to NZ is from corruption. This is, to me, if that is your thinking, not only wrong but racist wrong.
Many Chinese people are extremely wealthy not from corruption, but from riding the rapid growth of China economy. Look at Jack Ma, now one of the wealthiest men in the world. Not from corruption, but from business. There are 1.4 billion Chinese in China. 1 in 25 people in the world live within China’s borders. There are many many little Mr Ma’s, not wealthy from corruption but from hard work and smart work. Many of these want a better life in NZ, and many share their time between China and NZ, but invest in NZ and run business in China. This is good for NZ.
Please do not think all Chinese rich people are corrupt. They are not.
@Fang Zhou,
“Please do not think all Chinese rich people are corrupt. They are not.”
I don’t think all Chinese are corrupt, what is wrong with NZ is our NZ immigration policy is so pathetic and the criteria is not robust that our government has been bringing in all types of migrants or migrant workers who are corrupt, dishonest and liars, and they when they find out that they are all of that, they just let them stay here… all the while when we could have a robust policy to attract the best migrants here who could make a greater difference…
I don’t blame the Chinese, because it is not the Chinese fault that NZ government is stupid and does not discriminate against honest and dishonest people who come to NZ to live, work or study.
Should be, commit a crime in NZ, lie on your immigration forms or are found guilty of corruption and you are straight out the door and never to be allowed back into NZ whether you are Chinese, Korean, English, EU, Indian, or Russian or what have you. Not a ethnic based policy but a moral one.
Due to the isolation of NZ and our lack of robust immigration measures we do seem to attract our fair share of criminals trying to hide out here, or commit identity theft.
I didn’t say ‘the capital coming into NZ is from corruption’. I said corruption comes with the capital.
The other thing about Chinese wealth is the conditions under which it has been generated. Scant regard for human rights, political rights, worker rights, justice, and the environment has been the foundation upon which the Chinese capitalist economy has grown at such a fast pace.
You might have realised you are commenting on a forum which is inspired by the labour movement and so worker rights, and recently the environment, are high on most commenters’ list of priorities. I doubt whether a forum like The Standard would exist for very long in China and so when I look at the huge increase in wealth in that country I see it as tainted by injustice. You won’t find the same concerns on NZ blogs from the other side of the political divide.
Now, you might say it is the West’s consumerism which has partially funded the explosion of wealth in China and you would be right. I buy ‘made in China’ – it is difficult to not – so I too am guilty in a sense.
There will no doubt be some very good people emigrating to New Zealand but there will be a significant trail of corruption also and that is why we must ask questions, review settings, and be watchful.
You are right: The Standard (or any non-government blog) would not last very long in China.
And yes, I do realise I am commentating on a forum inspired by the labour movement. I also support that, but that does not mean blindly! A wrong by a socialist is just as bad as a wrong by a capitalist. Maybe worse, as the capitalist does not pretend what their motivation is.
The corruption I would disagree. In my experience, most Chinese coming here are reasonably young and well educated. They have experienced corruption throughout their life and do not like it. The money, including the big money that comes with them, is I think untouched.
Of more concern to NZ should be not the Chinese money coming to NZ, but rather when Kiwi engage in big business in China. It is inconceivable to me that Kiwirail or Fonterra are untouched by this. To do business in China at that level, well, I will not say the rest but you I am sure understand.
The other area of great concern to NZ should be immigration. I would suggest that almost EVERY Chinese that immigrates has been a party to corruption during the immigration process.
I totally welcome you.
Plenty on the left still mistrust Chinese – even after Helen Clark’s apology for decades of racism.
I don’t trust the Chinese government.
But then we’ve never examined US spying here, or British.
We’re a different people since the 1970s and thank God for that.
Most Chinese do not trust the Chinese government! Mr Xi is good for China economically, but he is slowly becoming little Mao.
Agreed.
Mr Xi is getting far too authoritarian.
@Fang Zhou. It’s the market driven flow of capital and being at the mercy of that capital and bad foreign decisions (ak BNZ floating and having to bail them out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_New_Zealand) that has caused the biggest crashes and poverty in NZ..
the Chinese situation will be exactly the same but worse as NZ has created too much dependancy on both Chinese investment and US security decisions.
Sadly the dominant discourse in NZ is neoliberalism and the pursuit of money, making our government decisions short term, lazy and stupid and allowed too much dependancy on other countries.
I think NZ and China should be friends but NZ becoming dependant on them for investment is a complete mistake.
As for high dollar in NZ, causes people living and working here huge problems, much higher mortgages and lending, less money from exports. Cheaper imports.
Kiwirail buys locomotives from Dailian. These are now much cheaper. High dollar both good and bad I think. But I admit economics is not my strength.
Yep they still do buy those locomotives. They may be cheap but we used to value quality and safety in NZ over money…
KiwiRail withdraws 40 trains from service after asbestos discovered in paint
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-01/kiwirail-pulls-40-trains-after-asbestos-discovery/5292902
“I think you do not understand that whether you like it or not, NZ needs Chinese capital to flow in to correct balance of payments and keep Kiwi dollar high. ”
I don’t know why you should think that. Even if it has been true in specific circumstances at one time, I do not see any need to favour Chinese capital over other capital, but it is also a destructive goal to set long term – if we need capital from immigrants, what does that tell you about wealth inequality within our country – and why wold an immigrant was to enter a country that requires immigrants to purchase capital assets to survive?
Far better that we fix some of the inequalities that currently plague us, that we develop domestic-owned enterprises to force competition on foreign owned companies (banks may be a good start), and recognise that we need to look after our population and leave them a country worth living, working and staying in – regardless of where they come from.
Sorry my bad explaining I think. No, should not favour Chinese capital over capital from elsewhere, but NZ needs capital inflow, regardless of where it comes from. Chinese invest heavily in NZ, certainly compared to many other immigrant groups. And yes, that can push up property prices but also many many Chinese build houses and buy businesses, and that provides work and increases the housing pool. And GST paid and so on.
Chinese, and others, wish to enter NZ as it is a better life here. Despite what many seem to think, the standard of living is about the same for the average person, but quality of life here is much higher.
Yes, I agree with you regarding NZ owned enterprises, looking after the NZ population. Do you not think though that I, coming here and, when I first arrived, buying a business was not also indirectly looking after the NZ population? I paid taxes, employed two part-timers.
It is not that I disagree with you, but ‘how’. Many immigrants just get on with it. Work long hours and invest in the next generation. Kiwi people work hard, but seem to prefer to be employees rather than take risks. Immigrants often have no choice but to risk everything (we did that by coming here!). So we invest, we buy businesses, we try harder. I know that is a generalisation, but that is my experience.
It’s interesting you object to a generalisation by making a generalisation about Kiwis preferring to be employees – none of our family are and are in a quite wide set of infrastructure and construction businesses. Years of long hard earned reputation and resilience has meant we have survived in the face of being undercut on prices and lower standards, some have not. That’s not some prejudiced “opinion”, it’s based on factual events and is something that is sad when it happen. Something NZ should be able to work for as it did historically is to uplift the conditions and prospects of NZers not have that regress by being damned into working longer hours or under conditions that are any longer than what is necessary to get the work done and get it done right and for a fair price.
Immigrants have seed capital. Being the more wealthy in China.
Kiwi’s do not. After decades of high living costs and low wages.
Being an employee is not a choice.
Agree that many Chinese people are not their Government.
However our dollar is too high. One of the reasons for China’s recent economic ascendancy, is their Government deliberately keeps their currency low, encouraging exports and discouraging imports, into China.
I don’t think pushing house prices up beyound the reach of locals is a positive contribution to New Zealand. And it is USA’ians, British and South Africans, as well as Chinese. Any more than the British wealthy in, Spain hogging all the coastal real estate.
Pardon my ignorance, but Robotic valet parking? WTF?
It is very common in cities with limited space you can store large numbers of cars within a small space.
Effectively you pull into garage onto a parking pad, hop out and the system lifts then moves the pad to a vertical storage space.
There is NOT little robots running around parking cars.
@ Monty, many thanks for that info. I have never heard the term “Robotic Parking” before, so as a result, my decrepit old brain went into overdrive (no pun intended) 🙂
Chinese property investment abroad is a diversification, risk managemrnt, as the domestic market may be in slow down (over supply).
The current or future value of the yuan would have little to do with it.
The development you mention, use of land for property to people not currently residents, shows what the governments relaxation of the its new rules for foreign purchase leads to.
I think the Chinese preference to invest in NZ real estate is that here you own the dirt.
All Chinese land is owned by everyone, it can only be leased.
We can leave our NZ properties to our children, in China it can be left for the duration of a lease but thereafter it resorts to state ownership and Mr Xi decides if continued occupation is desirable.
Having lived in Shanghai and now HKG for over 4 years now. Those type of complexes are common. The developers add these things to attract buyers its like an apartment arms race.
It is good and very convenient for the people living there.
The one I lived in Shanghai had all of that plus a super market, 10 underground tennis courts, couple B ball courts, pools training and resort style, Gym, Spa, Dance and Yoga studios.
The robotic parking was humorous as at least a couple people per week got caught and forgot to get out of the car and got stuck. (mainly their own fault wechatting and not being aware of the surroundings)
I’m expecting the mic to be ripped out of Audrey’s hand any minute now….
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12160871
But where was she sitting in relation to Pence? Young doesn’t give us the seating plan in detail which is odd because it’s the detail which seems to have got under her skin.
Was the PM one over from Pence? If so I believe that’s as close as Pence will allow any woman other than his wife.
“For several days her officials had been telling New Zealand media that she would be sitting next to Pence at his request.“
What Young points out is the spin. ‘Next to Pence at his request’ is not next to Mrs Pence, whatever the seating plan. This would be nitpicking if those same officials hadn’t made such an issue if it.
It certainly is nitpicking. But then that’s what the Nats and their embedded media are reduced to right now.
@ mutton. + 100.
Well I’ve seen one article by one journalist and nothing from the National Party, so that’s a stretch.
Perhaps either the PM or her officials need to stop giving the “Nats and their embedded media” this kind of material?
Mike Pence would have lobbyists chewing on his ear every waking minute.
The most effective and successful of those lobbyists will be Mrs Pence.
jacinda is dumb like a fox.
Yep. Every word JA said to Mrs Pence Mr Pence will have heard loud and clear.
Whereas Audrey Young is just plain dumb.
I’m more thinking of those few minutes in the dark after both have put their books down, clicked off the Tiffany bedside lamps and while drowsing off Mrs Pence says…
“Have you seen any footage of those abandoned children on Nauru Island honey.”
They sleep in separate rooms, surely.
Probably separate houses but for as long as Mrs Pence is on Mike’s arm at the many events they attend, there is no better path for Jacinda to pursue if she wants Mike to get onboard with something.
Breast-feeding Prime Ministers come with a fair slice of gravitas in the eyes of Washington’s silver vixens.
Eventually, wives always win.
It’s the way it should be: Woman – Smart. Man – Stupid.
Woman: “Lets put a swish kitchen and bathroom into the rental?”
Man: “Don’t you think we need a depreciation nose diving 911 honey?”
Then why claim Jacinda was sitting next to Mr Pence? It just encourages the sort of article that Audrey Young wrote.
Here is the seating plan, Pence is sitting between his wife and another woman and Adern is next to Mrs Pence
https://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj3g9GJ69feAhVZcCsKHX3_DR0QjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newshub.co.nz%2Fhome%2Fpolitics%2F2018%2F11%2Fjacinda-ardern-reveals-what-she-talked-about-with-us-vice-president-mike-pence.html&psig=AOvVaw2JrA3Q74DfN2D7ZTaCCUky&ust=1542420706617964
A week before Thanksgiving, members of the same tribe who helped the pilgrims survive 400 years ago stood before the nation’s Capitol Building. But instead of celebrating, they spoke out against the Trump administration’s decision to take their reservation away.
https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/news/give-back-our-reservation-mashpee-wampanoag-and-allies-march-on-the-capitol-O2aeJIbIHkyFyrSwyU_WEw/
This is the precursor to selling of great wads of federal land. Or if your cynical, land not covered by a treaty from the people they stole it off.
Because if you an indigenous American you ain’t worth a damn thing to white settler thinking.
Bernie Sanders took on Amazon for higher minimum wages, and won handsomely.
Now he’s taking on Walmart.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-walmart-minimum-wage_us_5bedc525e4b0443db862a5a8
God it would be great to have an MP like this in New Zealand naming and shaming the big low-wage companies.
Glad you finally jumped on the Bernie train. 😉
Just Biden my time
🙂
We should have a Stein to celebrate.
🙂
What about the big health and safety issue of onions on my sausage at Bunnings?
It is amusing when you hear it at first, but you cant deny they are taking safety seriously. Pity Pike river mine management was not as safety conscious as we may not have lost 29 people.
Because some muppet over here in Oz, slip on some BBQ onions with his sausage sanger at Bunnings in NSW or Vic and a filed a WHS complaint. This muppet may’ve even got a payout with WHS the complaint? Just like some of the muppets you slip on fruit/ veggies aisle or at the drinks aisle and try in sue the company for a few quid in the process.
I love that it’s the same company that refused to have a defibrillator onsite. Maybe they learned from the rucus that caused…
I didn’t know that. Do they have them on site now? They bloody should do.
Oh yeah – one of those things that caused so much outrage they u-turned in days.
Seems to be the corporate disease of “if it might mean work for head office, don’t do it”. Hence a memo about the order in which onions are put on sausages might absolve corporate from responsibility.
They could just sweep the spilled food up if the seagulls don’t take it, but whatevs
What about onions on saus Can you pop a link up so we can have some trivia to lighten our lives?
I see the ADF is purchasing a Squadron’s worth 12- 16 of the Armed version of the General Atom Reaper UAV’s this mornings Oz paper. There was talk of buying these back in 2014 and confirmed in the 2016 Defence White Paper with the impression it at purchase to buy in the early 2020’s, so it makes me wonder why the sudden purchase of these units now?
playing to the base. And aren’t they also getting F35s? Probably after something that works to go with that, lol
A New Zealand actor reports, in a tone of high seriousness,
that Israelis see themselves as “an underdog.”
RNZ National, Wednesday 14 November 2018
We’ve dealt before with the contemptible phenomenon of glib and ignorant theatre “luvvies” sounding off about things they lack the competence to comment on. There was the pretentious “theatre-maker” Stella Duffy [1], there was the “sooooo truthful” Tandi Wright [2] and of course who could ever forget the epically pompous stand-up comedian Andrew Clay? [3]
Now, I must report sadly, I have identified another talkative but shallow member of this sorority of the second-rate, this club of the clueless, this brotherhood of the bewildered, this guild of the giddy and guileless, this [That’s enough epithets.—J.A. Napes]. About 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, as I steered the Breenmobile through the suburban dreamscapes of the North Shore, I chanced upon the actor Tim Balme being interviewed by that great gorgeous emptiness Jesse Mulligan. Amongst other things, Balme spoke about his play The Ballad of Jimmy Costello, which is based on the George Wilder story. He mentioned that he had performed it in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Speaking slowly and with as much gravitas as he could summon, Balme stated that Israeli audiences “loved it” because “it’s a play about an underdog, and Israel is a nation that considers itself an underdog.”
Israel “an underdog.” A nation that “considers itself an underdog.”
???????!!??!?!?
The absurdity, indeed the obscenity, of that propaganda seemed to be lost on Tim Balme, and of course it was lost on Jesse Mulligan.
The decline of RNZ National continues.
[1] /open-mike-03102015-2/#comment-1077820
[2] /open-mike-28082015/#comment-1063760
[3] /open-mike-04122013/#comment-738941
“…. Israel is a nation that considers itself an underdog.”
When the privileged and powerful start making out, that they are the victim, everyone else is in danger.
The fascist rulers of Germany made big play of Germans being the underdog prior to WWII.
The White Minority government of South Africa also played the victim card.
And Trump also plays the, hard done by, victim card in appealing to his base.
All great lies have some truth, Germans suffered the unfairness of the reparations forced on them at the end of the First World War. When it was the German soldiery and sailors who mutinied that brought that brutal imperial conflict to an end.
The Boers painted themselves the victims of British imperialism.
And Trump’s supporters feel squeezed by the ‘elites’ (even though Trump is one of them).
And the present day Zionist rulers of the state of Israel use the excuse of the Holocaust inflicted on European Jews, by Germany, to carry out almost similar levels of repression and murder and dispossession against the Palestinian people.
Jenny, you may have confused Russia with Germany regarding the end of World War 1?
The collapse/rebellion in Germany was mainly civilian, not military. Some sailors joined a dockworkers’ rebellion, but by and large the German military forces, while being forced onto the retreat, were intact, not defeated, and still in French/Belgian territory.
This is why they later believed that they had been stabbed in the back, which helped Hitler.
More moronic comments from the mozz, of course Israel are the under dog. I do dispair with mozzies lack of cognitive reasoning making discourse pointless.
You appear to have chosen your pseudonym well.
Kia ora Nation Simon & Emma The billion tree planting program from our Coalition Government is a good start but we need to invest more into climate change mitigation.
trump is a puppet his backers oil barons don’t want China’s manufacturing muscle to push oil into our history books as they will lose there control of the people on earth.
It was China that pushed the price of Solar down to a price that’s lower than thermal energy that is produced by coal and oil. China & Elon will push the petrol car into our history books and make energy democratic people producing there own power.
Ka kite ano. .
You see OUR Freedom and democracy is a illusion they keep most peoples reality in a big square box that the wealthy control the people on Mother Earth’s reality
Kia ora Newshub back with the moko’s lost track of time lets hope the The All Blacks test goes our way . The Black ferns Kia Kaha It’s awesome that the wahine World Cup is being hosted by Aotearoa I’m sure we will be good honest hoste . Ka pai to the young foot ball ferns .Looks like all the stories are about Jacinda trip overseas meeting other heads of state I will eaz on giving my of these people for the time being. Mike I read a story in Stuff on the reason why OUR weather is so variable at the minute after a long story the conclusion was human caused climate changes are the main causes
Ka Kite ano