Two differing accounts of the missile strike on Poland. Whether this missile strayed off course or was a deliberate attack on a Nato country, CNN reports it was concurrent with a "Wave of missile strikes" on Ukraine.
Two deaths reported in Polish border town, as a wave of Russian missiles hit Ukraine
…..they landed in the NATO member’s territory roughly the same time as Russia launched its biggest wave of missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in more than a month……
I don't have to guess what details will follow: Going on their past MO Russia will accuse Ukraine of staging the attack on Poland to try and bring Nato into the war.
I don't think Russia would have any interest in firing missiles at Poland so, either they were intended for Ukraine but Russia's aim was not accurate, or it was a "false flag" move by Ukraine, though for what purpose is unclear.
Accident or not on the part of Russia, NATO, or Poland directly, has little choice but to make a strong response to this situation because otherwise Russia will see it as a green light to keep targeting Nato countries.
I agree that the NATO response probably won't be a direct military response at this stage.
But there will have to be a credible strong response that is sufficient to deter Russia from doing that again.
Ukraine probably will get better weapons now as a result of this. I think they should get the long range ATACM missiles they have been asking for for ages. This will allow them to target the Russian air bases and launch sites the Russians are using for these attacks. Thus, further protect Ukraine, and NATO countries as well.
Ukraine has previously called for a free fly zone over at least a part of Ukraine. With this attack on a NATO member country, a free fly zone over the Western half of Ukraine bordering Poland and Moldova, makes a lot of sense.
……Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy virtually addressed the United States Congress on March 16, 2022, and, as widely expected, requested additional U.S. military assistance for Ukraine.
Zelenskyy also asked for the U.S. to create a no-fly zone over some portion, or potentially all, of Ukraine.
“Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people. Russian troops have already fired nearly 1,000 missiles at Ukraine, countless bombs. They use drones to kill us with precision. This is a terror Europe has not seen for 80 years,” said Zelenskyy, delivering the first virtual address by a foreign leader to Congress….
…..“Is this a lot to ask, to create a no fly zone over Ukraine to save people? Is this too much to ask? A humanitarian non-fly zone, so that Russia would not be able to terrorize our free cities,” Zelenskyy continued.
Zelenskyy paused during his address to play a video documenting the war in Ukraine. That video ended with the words, “close the skies over Ukraine.”
Not much point to a no-fly zone as the Ukrainians effectively have that now. In fact, in some areas, the Ukrainian airforce has been dominant. So, a nofly zone would simply penalise the Ukrainians.
Russian planes hardly dare go into Ukrainian air-space due to the bristilling air defence. The missiles tend to be fired by Russian planes outside of Ukrainian air space.
I think what they need to be supplied is longer-range precision missiles such as ATACMs so they can take out the missiles before they are even launched. This would mean targeting Russian air bases and the like.
If the missiles can be taken out before launch, that reduces the risk of Russian missiles to Nato countries as well.
I felt for the war porn aficionados today, waking to news Russia had bombed Poland. At their keyboards, typing one handed, only to end the day with Biden pouring cold water on the idea.
Three U.S. officials said preliminary assessments suggested the missile was fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian one amid the crushing salvo against Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure Tuesday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Though out of range for direct fire from Russian territory, there are many S300s in Belarus, which for a long time was the chief manufacturing centre for them. And Russia has used S300 missiles on ground targets before.
Having failed militarily, Russia would love to prise Ukraine away from its allies and supporters by creating an incident.
A while ago there was talk of how hard it is to get positive messages through in a world of highly partisan politics, disinformation, and the usual problems of gotcha media going for cheap shots and false balance . . .
I suspect we get a lot of news and comment through the internet; leaving aside the faults of official media, we now have many websites that peddle personal opinions that are at times extreme. The following is a list of sites that I collected over a few days of websites that appear to cover political issues to at least some extent. They include what appear to be a return of dirty tricks, to deliberately deceptive sites, to those expressing extreme or even deranged opinions from authors that appear to have fallen down a rabbit hole. I tried to decide where each lay on a scale or -10 for negative views of the current government, to +10 for those consistently positive about the current government. I have not included Facebook of other "social media," and I may have missed some that are worth looking at – I certainly hope there are other sites with high positive or good balance like The Standard!
Although it is an 'interesting' list it is duplicated (!?) and I can't see the alleged ranking from −10 to +10 for views on the current Government in it!?
I would not encourage this sort of comments, also because they need to be released manually from the Spam trap.
Early last week my SO arrived home home from work rather distressed after a row with the boss over refusing to attend a regional meeting. Turns out one of the traveling attendees was covid positive and today three of the local staff attending have tested positive. One, for the third time, and there will probably be more.
Unlikely to be reported in our usual media, so you may be unaware of the incident at the Let Women Speak rally, in New York on Monday 14 November.
Now the format for a Let Women Speak rally, is that the organiser – Kellie Jay Keen – turns up with a microphone and sound system and basically emcees an open mike, for women that want to talk. There's little curating of who speaks, if any. It is purely an event to encourage women to speak up on the impact on women's rights of legislative and policy changes. You can view previous rallies on the livestream of KJK's Youtube channel:
KJK was invited to the US, and took the format over there, and arranged rallies in public spaces – such as in front of New York town hall. A couple of events had to be cancelled due to the threats made to the women. Security was hired, and then unevidenced criticism was made that security was right-wing and aligned with fascists.
Each event was advertised by Gender Ideology Activists as a hate event, and and open invitations were issued for people to turn up and do anything they considered necessary to address that hate.
The perpetually oppressed never stop to consider that they are not stopped from marching by women (Brisbane this last weeekend) – but they are appalled at the idea of women publicly expressing their opinions, or gathering.
So, what happened in New York?
Due to the aggressive nature of the gender ideology proponents, many women, including KJK were unable to get to the event to speak.
Belissa Cohen – a LGB activist posted this video that gives some insight into what is happening with these activists:
From the left, the topless three are notable for:
1. A good example of autogynephilia – a man so preoccupied with his hormone induced breast growth, he is indulging in his sexual arousal in public with no awareness of the protest around him, apart from the opportunity it gives him for exhibitionism;
2. A trans-identified female – complete with double mastectomy scars, demonstrating a hatred for women by calling out to them either "bleeders" or "breeders". There are several videos of this group and one is of this woman declaring that she didn't want to be a woman, and how she is a boy who loves testosterone. (NB. Testosterone is a powerful drug – with euphoric effects for some). This woman was also a child model from the age of ten, which may have affected her experience of what female is, and how it is represented;
3. The last contender has been identified as a prominent and feted trans-identified male. Employed also as a model and mentor of LGBTQ+ people, he spent much of the protest spitting on people he found objectionable (women) and declaring he was going to beat their asses, bitch.
I'm always interested to hear (from those who refrain from scrolling past) the updated excuses for why 1 and 3 are vulnerable, and why women should unquestioningly make space for them in women's single-sex spaces and provisions.
And also why men can't just hold safe spaces in their own single-sex spaces for their trans-identified brothers.
"Indecent exposure is a crime, and the laws are in place to deal with this, no matter the gender identity of the criminal."
Apparently baring your breasts in NYC is not indecent exposure. Spitting at people might be however. Breasts don't bother me much, TBH, the thought of someone's saliva has more to be concerned about in this day and age, don't you think?
"Yes, there are bad trans people. There are bad gay people and bad cishet people."
I don't disagree – apart from the cishet – I don't follow this belief so the term is nonsensical. You might have just stated the obvious, some people are bad.
Did you miss the part when I said that No. 3 was a well-known and profiled activist and mentor?
So not a random idiot, a promoted spokeperson for the community.
"You need to remember that the teachers who offended that Dilworth were all cisgender men."
Why do you assume I have forgotten?
Is it because you "forget" that all transwomen are men?
No comment on the antagonism shown by the non-rally attendees only?
Or the public display of the often denied aspect of autogynephilia?
Or the fear and hate directed at women who are gathering to speak their opinions in a public space?
Thanks for providing yet another example of redirection and totally ignoring the content of the issue at hand.
I don't think we should be tarring all transgender people with the same brush.
Who do you think is doing that? I'm not seeing anyone here doing that. I wouldn't even tar all AGP with the same brush.
You need to remember that the teachers who offended that Dilworth were all cisgender men.
So close and yet still not quite getting it. Yes, most people who sexually offend are male. This is exactly why we have female only spaces. It doesn't mean all men, or even most, are sexual offenders, it means that if we stop thinking about men for a minute and look at this from the perspective of women, we see that the most straight forward way of protecting women from the high rates of sexual assault and harrassment by men is to arrange society so that women have female only spaces.
I've not seen any evidence that trans women or other trans-identified males sexually offend at a lower rate than the general male population. Again, this doesn't mean all or even most TW are sexual offenders. It means that when we consider the safety of women, we should consider males of whatever gender identity as the class that women need protecting from.
The safety of TW can be addressed likewise, without removing the safety of women.
"Cishet" displays your fealty to Gender Ideology. Humans are not divided into 2 categories based on a supposed relationship with their sexed bodies. Forced division without approval or permission is insulting and oppressive.
"cis" or "cisgender" is another term for virtually everyone.
Invented largely for political reasons within Queer Theory & Gender Studies … it seeks to massively exaggerate the size of the trans community while inherently downplaying the relevance of biological sex.
For Gender ideologues, cisgender means that one's "gender identity" and "sex assigned at birth" (as opposed to biological sex) match up.
"Sex assigned at birth" is seen as an act of power, indeed of deliberate violence … so, specifying "sex assigned at birth" instead of biological sex allows these activists to maintain the Queer Theory dogmas that (1) sex itself is socially constructed and that (2) sex categorisation is illegitimatelyimposed on new-born babies by Doctors, Parents & others who supposedly possess sociopolitical power … (rather than biological sex being a simple fact of human reality).
In other words, they're total fantasists (in the same way that Critical Theory / Woke ideologues are in general) … and very controlling, demanding, authoritarian fantasists at that.
Obviously we aren't but the trans movement has been infiltrated by violent and misogynistic men who are using it to get away with stuff. Self ID laws and the like have not taken this into account.
at this stage I wouldn't say infiltrated so much as welcomed with open arms. Left wing men defacto arguing that rape of women in prison is an acceptable price to pay for keeping TW safe. Left wing women saying that rape survivors need to manage their triggers better when males come into their single sex spaces. It's not like the evidence hasn't been there, presented by the pariah feminists. Even before self ID. The choices were made to put aside the concerns of women, and make the changes anyway.
#1 and #3 in other vids, it took me a while to figure out exactly the problem here (because we know that women use nudity as part of protest). What they look like to me are men who want the right to masturbate in public. Any conversation about trans women's rights that doesn't included discussion of AGP is a fail.
#2, the trans man is someone presumably who hates their female body to the extent that they had their breasts removed to make their life tolerable. Society needs to stop and consider if people with such degrees of mental distress should be driving policy and social change.
on reflection, it's not simply the right to masturbate in public, it's the right to do so at women they hate. I'm struggling to think of worse public expression of misogyny than that video.
That the police didn't intervene is both astounding and scary in its implications. Haven't looked at NY indecency laws.
Last time I checked men going shirtless was not considered public nudity. I don't think failing to invent a crime is really a good basis for police criticism here.
The NYPD seemed to respond appropriately throughout the day, calling in special operations unit to disperse the crowd and providing human barriers between the small group of women and the crowd.
It's always a judgment call on the day. I don't think they did much that can be genuinely criticised.
did you miss the bit in my comments where I differentiated between nudity and obscenity? In this case, public self pleasuring sexually is an act that involves others without their consent. I don't know if indecency laws cover what that man is doing, as I said in my comment.
And of course, we know that women don't generally behave like this, and that there are hefty societal and physical risk pressures that prevent women from having the freedom to be in public topless.
There’s also the issue of what would happen to the police of they reacted to the men as if they were men. But I’m guessing there is no topless law in NY for either men or women.
"What they look like to me are men who want the right to masturbate in public."
Another regular activist who attended yesterday (with previous record of doxxing women), might confirm your suspicions.
(I know many here might not believe it, but I don't post the most contentious pictures or videos I come across, I posted the one above because of the role the third one has in the community, while publicly threatening women with violence).
The following video from the same event, posted by a women's right activist (not one I particularly agree with) with a AGP enjoying the simulation of masturbation maybe a bit too much at the end:
Was interesting to note how the different cultures responded to the same format. Really noticeable distinctions between the women speaking at the UK events and the US ones.
Along this train of thought, while I was looking into the issues of consent and the mixed messages regarding intimate relationships from many of the LGBTQ+ support organisations, I watched part of a programme about transgender people finding love.
I didn't watch it all, there was a featured piece about a well-known transgender teenage dream couple that had finally split up after promoting their transgender identities and relationship status during their teenage years. It turned out that there was little or no physical intimacy, and that their relationship was more performative than personal.
However, there was a particularly memorable young trans-identified male, who had been supported during their transition by a close male friend over the years. They had finally got the courage to directly ask their supportive male friend, now that they had finished their transition, whether they could take their friendship to a personal relationship.
The response was immediate and definite: it was better if they kept their connection to friendship only.
A couple of thoughts struck me when I watched this segment, and saw the change in demeanour of the young trans-identified man:
What if – this young man was one of the many gay teenagers who had developed a crush on their heterosexual close friend? What if both the personal homosexuality and unrequited nature of that crush, were avoided by the promise of becoming a woman, and therefore a possible romantic partner of the afore mentioned crush?
The friend – unwittingly supporting that notion by his support of a female gender identity – and all the transitional changes made, but whose heterosexual orientation meant that despite it all – he was not ever going to be an intimate relationship option.
It was quite devastating to watch. A good friend of mine, related his long-time crush on his best friend as the catalyst for realising his sexual orientation. I wonder how the young gay men in similar situations are doing now.
Some of the vitriol displayed at events might come from the realisation of the failure to deliver on the unspoken promises of full recognition alluded to in public policy and legislation, and what is experienced at individual personal level.
Thanks Molly. Your question “why women should make space for these people” is bang on. I am afraid I could only watch so much of the (exhibitionist, likely autogynophile) person waving their breast around.
I'm probably a bit jaded, but the antics of the AGP struck me as someone particularly unskilled in the handling of breasts in a sexually stimulating way. I figure, at least he inflicts that lack of expertise only on himself and not anybody else.
He is in multiple videos of the day and the reality is – his behaviour never gets any better.
"Nelson’s counsel, Glenn Dixon, said his client, a transgender woman, had been in Spring Hill Prison but was now incarcerated in Auckland Women’s Prison. There, she felt safer and was motivated to engage in drug and alcohol rehabilitative programmes, as well as a business and creativity course.
Prior to the restaurant incident, Nelson had been arrested on other charges as well as a subsequent breach of bail. She had been evicted from her bail address, and had soon afterwards made the decision to go to the restaurant, where the assaults happened."
Prior to the restaurant incident, Nelson had been arrested on other charges as well as a subsequent breach of bail. She had been evicted from her bail address, and had soon afterwards made the decision to go to the restaurant, where the assaults happened.
Nelson was “an extraordinarily complex person, one of the most complex that this counsel has experienced”, Dixon said.
We really need a specialised unit for trans people.
Relieved to see Stuff reporting on the gender transition so it's clear they are male.
As the court was told, she now prefers to go by the name Pandora Electra
Wake up people on the left. The gender ideology movement is not progressive at all. It's harming women and its prioritizing men like Nelson over vulnerable women prisoners.
"Very complex" may be an understatement. There is a high incident of co-morbidity with other psychological conditions among today's self identified male trans people. The trans identified men in British prisons are far more likely (over 40%) to be there for sex related offences than the rest of the male prison population.
It is not just men in women's prisons and other spaces – it is the worst kind of men in women's spaces.
it's also possible that societal factors like transphobia, homophobia, and sanctions against effeminate behaviour in men may mean it's more likely that trans women and TIMs end up doing sex work. In the same way that we see sexual abuse and poverty makes it more likely for women to end up doing sex work.
I'd also like to know how that plays out with AGP men and violence. Pity No Debate means we won't be getting much good research for a while.
My thesis here is that patriarchal conditioning and conditions create violence in TIMs like it does with other men. Different dynamics.
As Molly said, why aren't men making male spaces safer?
Because these people do not want to be safe in male spaces or third spaces. They want to be in womens spaces, as women.
Male spaces and bathrooms are no more and no less dangerous for transpeople then female spaces. I mean self ID opens the door to all men, at all times, to all female spaces and thus the same men that were feared by transpeople in the male spaces will now have access to them in the female spaces. Its bs. They want access to female spaces because they want to be women, and they can only be fully women if they get to play the full game, women sports, women awards, women jobs, women rape counseling, women breastfeeding, woman everything, nothing less will do. Ditto for Transmen, they want to be men. And the rest of the population has to go along with it by hook or by crook.
But a few people will profit of this regressive misery covered in kindness, it will set women – adult human female – set back into the 1700 and further back even – removed from public record and medical texts, denial of the labour of their body, and it for sure will teach women – human born female of all ages – their place in society.
Don't you think that our future as the large gamete producers is bright and rosy?
If you think that the prisons in NZ are so dangeorus you should voice your concern with the MP who looks after Corrections. It is up to government to regulate and then assure the safety of all prisoners who are held in the care of government.
Incarcerated women are not body shields.
How many women would need to get harmed in prison by men – who may or may not be transwomen – for you to consider the safety of women?
"If you think that the prisons in NZ are so dangeorus you should voice your concern with the MP who looks after Corrections."
I dont think the government gives a shit about the safety of our prisoners, regardless of biological sex, gender identity or sexual orientation. For the past 20-30 years, both parties have imported US penal policies into this country, which is bascially stick prisoners in a cage and watch while they tear each other apart. This is largely due to the lobbying of the likes of Garth McVicar and Norm Withers, both of whom actively condone the rape and shanking of weaker prisoners by the strong ones as that is part of the 'punishment' factor of prisons.
And yet you like the government seem to have no fuck to give about safety of women in prisons.
Men – irrespective of their self identification should never be locked up in prison with women. And to do so, is to show that absolutly no regards for the wellbeing and the safety – from rape and pregnancy – of the women is given. But then maybe the rape of a woman – human born female – is acceptable to some on the left in order to protect a male from male violence that seems to be state sanctioned and / or permitted.
A transgender inmate at Christchurch Women's Prison is being held in isolation while facing several allegations from fellow inmates, including one of sexual assault.
Below is the prisoner you are insisting on placing with females with nowhere to run:
Nelson quickly targeted another worker, a female who was later revealed to be Nelson’s ex-girlfriend. He slashed her in the face and stabbed her in the upper back, causing her to suffer a punctured lung. Despite her horrific injuries, the woman managed to run out of the building and flee for help at a nearby gas station.
I note that Putin and his supporters now view the war in Ukraine as a war for 'traditional values' against 'western decadance' (LGBTQ) with some pro Russian supporters wanting an open alliance between Orthodox Christian, Confucian Chinese and Wahabist Islam in some kind of 'Holy War'.
It is starting to look like the missile strikes on Poland may have been due to stray Ukrainian air defence missiles, or a Russian missile deflected by air defence.
So, that part may be an accident.
What wasn't an accident was oil supplies to both Hungary and Slovakia (NATO members) were cut due to Russia hitting infrastructure in Ukraine that is used for the piping of oil through to those countries. So, perhaps at least an indirect attack on Nato.
The EU and NATO need to make sure that this doesn't blow up out of hand. As much as I dislike Putin, I don't think it is worth turning Europe into a radioactive wasteland just to get one up on him.
Time to make a submission on the proposal on restricting agricultural emissions is running out. This is an opportunity to make sure we as a country do what is necessary to meet our international obligations as well as incentivising more environmentally friendly agricultural practices which will benefit us all:
Submissions close this Friday 18 November and the Green Party has put together a submission guide with background information and key points to make it easy for you to have your say.
We have the opportunity to become the first country in the world to tackle agricultural emissions at the source, but we need to push the Government to act, and not cave to agribusiness.
Right now, every submission counts.
Your submission can be as detailed or simple as you have time for.
The BAU TINA agribusinesses will be making submissions, we can outnumber theirs and send a message that will strengthen the Governments resolve. Nature, and the future, need us to advocate for them.
National later U-turned on that remark, clarifying that Luxon misspoke and had not intended to U-turn on that particular policy. He was in fact talking about the clean car standard, an emissions standard for vehicle importers.
National opposed that policy too, meaning Luxon has still U-turned on a policy today – just not the policy he said he was U-turning on.
Not a performance of a leader who is confident of wandering far from his script at all. Not a word or an aside that wasn’t scripted. Also shows his handlers lack of confidence.
The most racist, homophobic, transphobic, mysoginost, religious fundamentalist, anti abortion, anti union, anti welfare president in US history. The guy must be stopped. At all costs.
Agree with that – an authoritarian narcissist who periodically and unconvincingly pretends to be a religious fundamentalist, because it's politically expedient to do so.
Luxon is an interesting counterpoint to that – someone who is a religious fundamentalist but pretends not to be, because it's politically expedient to do so.
Says something about the two different political cultures I guess.
Mostly an attempt to delay the inevitable indictments coming his way. The Jan 6 committee will have to speed up their final report and recommendations with the House going GoP next year, but even some Repugnants possess principles. DoJ indictment still in the offing (even if a candidate) wrt mishandling of secret files.
Dems could run a puppy dog against him and win – he still doesn't understand that he is not as popular with the majority as he thinks he is – only the deluded.
This is not how change happens. Never has been. Never will be.
With disagreement even over the conference cover statement, 'Carried to Hell in a Handcart', might be a more efficient mode of transport to take us to the apocalypse than this *shemozzle.
Climate negotiations are in disarray as COP27 enters its second week
Talks in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, are running well behind schedule, with discussions on key areas such as loss and damage at a political impasse
This article has been viewed 247 times in the last 3 hours.
15 November 2022
…..behind-the-scenes negotiations are in disarray, with talks running well behind schedule….
……talks on the cover text – a political agreement traditionally struck at the end of a UN climate conference – are still in the very early stages.
Tory Whanau may be in trouble with the Greens. According to HDA, all the best jobs in council have gone to her mates. I don't know whether that's true, but nepotism is a Maori speciality.
''Wellington mayor Tory Whanau, whose independent campaign was endorsed by the Greens, has decided she will not renew her party membership, the Herald understands.
The key reason behind the move is so she can work more productively with councillors without a formal tie to a political party – but it could also ruffle feathers among those in the Green Party who helped her win the election.
Whanau has now spent almost six weeks in the city’s top job after she romped home with a convincing majority of 17,751 votes over the incumbent.
It was clear Whanau had a sense of which way the tide was turning a couple of weeks before election day, but such a strong majority certainly came as a surprise.
On the campaign trail, Whanau pitched herself as someone who could cross the political spectrum and bring people together. She pointed to her experience negotiating with New Zealand First when she was the Green Party’s chief of staff as an example of this.
Green Party councillor Laurie Foon is the deputy mayor, while two Labour councillors and one Green councillor will chair the council’s three big committees.
First-term Motukairangi Eastern Ward councillor Tim Brown told Newstalk ZB Wellington Mornings host Nick Mills he felt “slightly disconcerted” about the appointments.
It’s because they share her [Whanau’s] views, which I think is a good reason on her part, but of course means that the independent candidates sitting around the table are looking at the equation and thinking well if we don’t share her views, we’re going to be excluded.”
[Take a month off. You don’t seem to know what nepotism is and you simply indulged in baseless Māori bashing – Incognito]
It's common. Many problems of Maori v Maori rotates around people being appointed to some position, but other Maori saying they shouldn't be appointed because they belong to the wrong tribe, or have the wrong whakapapa. I said at the time, Auckland and Wellington councils would encounter problems.
You need to add more than your trite uncalled for comment.
How is Mark Mitchell? What else has he been up to? Is he backing Nicola Willis for leader or is he going himself? He didn’t say on the radio but I figured you’d know.
Mark Mitchell would be most worrying as National Partty leader. The guy would, in the words of Trotter, liberate the police, and police the liberals.
His desire to bring about US-style policing is well documented. I would imagine that Maori would be gunned down left right and centre by cops if he is allowed anywhere near cabiney.
You don’t give Kiwi cops much credit, do you? I’m pretty sure that for that to happen you’d need US cops with a US mind-set in a US context here in Aotearoa – New Zealand.
Waiting for a post: Luxon: Chicken Little or an Egg? on the clean car fleet. Polluters must meet their costs or we are paying them to do so. We’re picking up fossil awards while our neighbors in and outside NZ are seeing their property below water. The clean car work is not nearly enough, but it’s a basic step. Polluters must pay.
" Instead of free and universal provision, he wants people to go crawling to WINZ, with all the added pain and suffering that entails. Weirdly, he thinks that this isn't a deterrent – which I guess tells us either that he has never dealt with them, or that nine years on an MP's salary and six on a deputy prime minister's has destroyed all memory of it (and WINZ has got massively worse since Grant was a student) "
He said he did not think the fact the grants had to be applied for through Work and Income would deter people from applying for them.
"For low-income people, I'm sure the opportunity to be able to get the support for [dental care] is something that they will take up."
That sounds like someone who is totally out of touch.
I detest the National party but before you have a crack at them Greg what about your Labour party and their failures to their own people they solicit votes from then look the other way.
Now back to the RMA and Nationals policy failure's.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
year in extra funding and any additional investment needed to be weighed against other priorities in the health sector.
Instead of free and universal provision, he wants people to go crawling to WINZ, with all the added pain and suffering that entails. Weirdly, he thinks that this isn't a deterrent – which I guess tells us either that he has never dealt with them, or that nine years on an MP's salary and six on a deputy prime minister's has destroyed all memory of it (and WINZ has got massively worse since Grant was a student).
" "Going straight to universal dental care right away would be well over a billion dollars a year of extra funding, we have to weigh that up against the other things that are needed in the health system."
And Grant has ruled out a windfall tax that could pay for universal care and much more.
National is not in government but Grant and Jacinda are !
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[looks like you’re also insisting on being modded for diversion trolling. This is your warning – Incognito]
There’s a first for everything. If you continue the efforts of a notorious diversion troll who had been warned and modded then, for all intents and purposes, I consider you also a diversion troll and will treat you as such.
You are free to say what you feel you have to say but you don’t have carte blanche to say it wherever (and however) you feel like here. You may also want to tone down on the personal snides when you ‘call out Labour’.
" You are free to say what you feel you have to say but you don’t have carte blanche to say it wherever (and however) you feel like here "
No you have that power Incognito by the way you and others decide what is acceptable on this site.
Its called freedom of expression which the government has not banned yet and I am not talking about anything illegal or malicious but the Standard has just has to look at the growing list of people driven out by being banned because they said something the moderators disagreed with.
The TDB has a number of contributors who are on topic and and aren't afraid to call the National party out while also revealing the increasing poverty and hardship still being experienced under Labour and their fiddling with statistics.
Personal snides ? you mean the attack on Chris Trotter on this site ?
I take it then that's acceptable if its one of your main contributors , or Lyn's
put down's against some of the correspondents who contribute here.
Addressing and correcting the very many points in your comment feels like cleaning the Augean stables. Suffice to say, as long as one adheres to this site’s Policy and takes heed of Moderator notes one can enjoy the generous freedom of commenting on TS to their heart’s content.
I hope this will help and I also hope you don’t draw unnecessary attention to yourself.
Good dental health, has such a positive effect on other health issues.
And the dental care offered by the school system is much less consistent or frequent than it was back in the 70s when every primary school had it's own dental clinic and nurse.
It would have been a good preventative health measure, and the cost of dental care is high or unaffordable for those with few discretionary funds.
Yes. I think it's the cost factor which has just driven it up out of reach of many middle-class (let alone working-class) kiwis.
I don't know what the answer is to this. Some of it is the bells-and-whistles (x-rays, etc.), which may improve the dental care – but all the equipment costs an arm-and-a-leg and has to be amortized across all of the patients. Some of it is the high cost of training, and then of staffing and operating dental surgeries.
I'd like to see a very low-cost, basic dental care option. Fillings (quick and cheap), extraction (if necessary), cleaning & scaling [which always sounds painful]. And conversations with the dentist which include what you can afford – rather than starting out with 'you need 5 crowns, at 1.5 K each'
I know that school dental care was massively backed up before Covid (my son missed the last 3 annual checkups at his school – because they simply prioritized kids who they felt were more likely to have issues). And, of course, virtually no preventive dental work was done over the last 2 years with Covid. Now the dental checks have started up again, but they are so far behind, I don't think they have any hope of catching up – and are suffering from the same staffing shortages that every other aspect of medicine is coping with.
And, if your kid needs braces (not just cosmetic, if there are misaligned or overlapping teeth, without straightening you're in for a life of heightened risk of dental decay) – you're talking 7K plus (which is completely out of reach of many families).
Michael Bassett writes – I’m not sure that it’s much comfort to anyone to know that the post-Covid surge in violent crimes, gang activity, ram raids, random shootings, thuggery and stabbings is occurring in other countries as well as New Zealand. These days, wagging school, out-of-control welfare and ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – Cast your mind back to mid-December. A new Prime Minister had just been sworn in, the new Government started its 100-day programme, and Christmas was only days away.Amid all the haste, a report landed that would have deserved our attention.I am talking about the ...
TL;DR: An unseasonally early icy blast at the same time as some long-overdue maintenance almost caused Aotearoa-NZ’s electricity system to black out this week. That’s because a quadropoly of gentailers1 have prioritised paying dividends from their rising profits and adding debt over investing in 1.5 GigaWatts of new wind farms ...
Hi,Before we crack into today’s Webworm, I wanted to acknowledge the fact that Israel is pushing into Rafah. Over 100,000 Palestinians are now attempting to flee the one place that was deemed “safe”.Trouble is, the place they’re fleeing to is already destroyed. Total annihilation is the end goal here.“Israel is ...
‘It has been said that figures rule the world. Maybe. I am quite sure that it is figures which show us whether it is being ruled well or badly.’ GoetheI was struck at a recent conference on equity for the elderly, how many presenters implicitly relied upon Statistics New Zealand. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveReporting on defence spending late last year, RNZ said the coalition government will have to make some tough calls this term to help the force address staff shortages and ageing infrastructure. “These are huge, huge amounts of government spending. It’s a significant proportion of the government’s ...
Peter Dunne writes – I am always wary when I hear that the Controller and Auditor-General has commented on or made recommendations to the government about an issue of public policy that does not relate strictly to public expenditure. According to the legislation, the role of the Controller ...
How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought NZ to the brink of economic and cultural chaos Chris Trotter writes – TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition ...
And why did the Crown not challenge the Tribunal’s jurisdiction? Gary Judd writes – Retired District Court Judge, David Harvey, has posted on his A Halflings View Substack an excellent summary of Justice Isacs’ judgment declining to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result?As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and ...
Macklemore isn’t someone I’d usually think about. Sure I liked his big hit from a few years back, everybody did it was catchy and cool with some memorable lines. But if I was going to think of artists who might speak out on political matters or world events, he wouldn’t ...
Another week goes by in the Luxon government’s efforts to roll back the past 70 years of social progress. The school lunches programme is to be downgraded by $107 million, and women need bother their heads no longer about pay equity, let alone expect ACC to provide adequate sexual violence ...
Brrr, the first cold snap of the year. Hope you’re rugged up nice and warm. Here are some stories that caught our eye this week… This Week on Greater Auckland On Monday, we had a post from a new contributor, Connor Sharp, who dug into the public feedback ...
Almost all of the Wellington City Council’s recommended zoning changes to allow many more apartments and townhouses in its inner-suburbs have been approved.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guest on geopolitics, ...
Open access notablesA Global Increase in Nearshore Tropical Cyclone Intensification, Balaguru et al., Earth's Future:Tropical Cyclones (TCs) inflict substantial coastal damages, making it pertinent to understand changing storm characteristics in the important nearshore region. Past work examined several aspects of TCs relevant for impacts in coastal regions. However, ...
Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result? As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and always answered “yes”, with very few ...
Thus far May has followed on from a quiet April in the blogging department, but in fairness, it has been another case of doing what I am supposed to be doing, namely writing original fiction. Plus reading. So don’t worry – I have been productive. But in order to reassure ...
Buzz from the Beehive A new government agency will open for business on July 1 – the Social Investment Agency. As a new standalone central agency effective from 1 July, it will lead the development of social investment across Government, helping ministers understand who they need to invest in, what ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The ...
Alwyn Poole writes – After being elected to Parliament in 2008 the maiden speech of Hipkins was substantially around education policy. He was Labour’s spokesperson for education 2011 – 2017. He was Minister for Education from 2017 until February 2023. This is approximately 88% of the time Labour ...
Eric Crampton writes – A fashion industry group is lobbying for protections. They make the usual arguments and a newer one. None of it makes sense. An industry group says it pumped $7.8 billion into the economy last year – that’s 1.9 percent of New Zealand’s GDP. ...
In December 2006, Fiji's military leader Voreqe Bainimarama overthrew the elected government in a coup. He ruled Fiji for the next 16 years, first as dictator, then as "elected" Prime Minister. But now, he's finally been sent to jail where he belongs. Sadly, this isn't for his real crime of ...
Don't like National's corrupt Muldoonist "fast-track" law? Aotearoa's environmental NGO's - Greenpeace, Forest & Bird, WWF, Coromandel Watchdog, Coal Action Network Aotearoa, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, and others - have announced a joint march against it in Auckland in June: When: 13:00, 8 June, 2024 Where: Aotea Square, Auckland You ...
Seymour describes sushi as too woke for school meals. There are no fish sushi meals recommended by the School Lunches programme. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Government will swap out hot meals for packaged sandwiches to save $107 million on school lunches for poor kids. MSD has pulled ...
I don't mind stealin' bread from the mouths of decadenceBut I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled, yeahBut it's on the table, the fire's cookin'And they're farmin' babies, while slaves are workin'The blood is on the table and the mouths are chokin'But I'm goin' hungry, yeahSome ...
The Ardern Government’s chickens came home to roost yesterday with the news that the country is short of natural gas. In 2018, Labour banned offshore petroleum exploration, and industry executives say that the attendant loss of confidence by the industry impacted overall investment in onshore gas fields. Energy Resources Minister ...
Hi,If you’ve been digging through the newly launched Webworm store (orders are being dispatched worldwide as I type!) you’ll have noticed the best model we had was Calvin.This is Calvin.Calvin.Calvin is 7, and is the son of my producer over on Flightless Bird, Rob — aka “Wobby Wob”. Rob also ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Climate change is everywhere. And when something's everywhere it can feel like it's nowhere. So how do we get our heads ...
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
New Zealand voted in favour of a resolution broadening Palestine’s participation at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The resolution enhances the rights of Palestine to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly while stopping short of admitting Palestine as a full ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
New Zealand’s ability to cope with climate change will be strengthened as part of the Government’s focus to build resilience as we rebuild the economy, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “An enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
An Australian Strategic Policy Institute report says Pillar Two could raise the industry to state of the art capability - or "crush" it "under the weight of the globe's biggest player". ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marlene Longbottom, Associate Professor, Indigenous Education & Research Centre, James Cook University ShutterstockThis article contains information on deaths in custody and the violence experienced by First Nations people in encounters with the Australian carceral system. It also contains references to ...
“Instead of following along countries that are investing in death and better ways of killing people faster, we need to invest in life and in making Aotearoa a fair, just and equitable place where everyone has what they need for a dignified life.” ...
MARIAMENO KAPA-KINGI, TPM MP FOR TAI TOKERAU This Government will not waver in its mission to exterminate Māori. CHRISTOPHER LUXON Oh well look you know I don’t think that hard-working Kiwis want to hear language like that. It’s just really unhelpful rhetoric. My Government is genuinely committed to advancing outcomes ...
The body positivity movement started with women confronting the unrealistic expectations and unrepresentative portrayals of them in media and advertising. Men weren’t part of it … their bodies hadn’t been sexualised to the same extremes and they didn’t really need it. But now that’s changed. And in a warped sort ...
The New Zealand comedy legend takes us through her life in television, including the time she hugged Elton John and the unshakeable legacy of a girl named Lyn. In 1981, Ginette McDonald stood on the stage of Auckland’s St James Theatre and directly addressed Queen Elizabeth II. It was a ...
An essay by Lily Duval from the just-released anthology Otherhood: Essays on being childless, childfree and child adjacent.I was 22 when my friend Alice gave birth in the living room of our pokey Addington flat. She laboured in the blow-up pool for hours. Garish fish swam along the inflated ...
Ella Borrie on the best books about motherhood she’s come across so far. Over the past few years I’ve been drawn to books about motherhood. I’m fascinated by the joys and horrors of becoming a parent. The question of children also feels more pressing than it used to. It’s like ...
Out of gift ideas for mum? You can’t go wrong with a bottle of toilet cleaner and a new squeegee. Emily Writes is the writer and editor of Emily Writes Weekly. This week marks five years since I published a post on The Spinoff about Mother’s Day marketing titled ‘A ...
My husband is posted overseas for 12 months and I’m armed with an expensive, newfangled vibrator. Will I miss him? The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.A few days after my husband leaves, a new sex toy arrives at the front door. Nestled ...
Jaimie Baird’s new book Here Today Gone Tomorrow is a record of four decades of graffiti and street art in Wellington, told through more than 1,200 photographs. He spoke with Joel MacManus about what inspired the book. How did you first get interested in photographing street art? I remember ...
Editor Madeleine Chapman looks back at a busy week where food of all political leanings dominated. Sometimes you’re just going about your week thinking you’ve got a good handle on what might be coming as far as news topics and then someone (usually a politician) says something so ridiculous that ...
In a week of cold rain and frost, the climate in courtroom four upstairs at the Invercargill courthouse was simmering with restrained indignation. At times it felt like the famous Mexican standoff scene from Reservoir Dogs, or, as someone watching the proceedings described it, there was so much throwing of ...
A banner notification alerts me to the fact that I’ve received an Instagram message from @felicity.loves. She always comments on my posts. I shouldn’t have opened the message, but clicked on the notification before rationalising this. OMG! Are you in Wellys? X I debate not replying, but Instagram will inform ...
In Melbourne’s hardscrabble western suburbs where AFL – Aussie rules football – is a state religion, Callum Donaldson has been quietly grafting away, four months into an odyssey that he hopes will take him to another promised land: the NRL. It was a solid 2023 for the softly spoken 20-year-old ...
Pacific Media Watch Television New Zealand Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver has been made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to investigative journalism and Pacific communities in a ceremony at Government House, reports 1News. She has been the Pacific correspondent for 1News since 2002, breaking many ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Tuesday’s budget will respond to the deepening public agitation over Australia’s housing shortages by pouring new money into crisis accommodation for women and children, social housing and infrastructure. A specially-convened national cabinet late Friday ticked ...
By Kaneta Naimatu in Suva Journalists in the Pacific region play an important role as the “eyes and ears on the ground” when it comes to reporting the climate crisis, says the European Union’s Pacific Ambassador Barbara Plinkert. Speaking at The University of the South Pacific (USP) on World Press ...
Aldora Itunu is back in the Black Ferns squad after a three-year absence. The last of her 24 internationals was an underwhelming loss to France (7-29) in Castres to conclude the disastrous 2021 Northern Tour. The powerhouse prop won a Rugby World Cup in 2017 and thought she was done. ...
The fight to control major transport policy and projects in Auckland has burst into the open again, with councillors rejecting Mayor Wayne Brown’s latest attempt to steer things more under his influence. Councillors from the left and right broke ranks on the mayor’s bid to control Auckland Transport more directly ...
Exhausted by the general election campaign, horrified by the twilight zone of coalition negotiations, distracted by the silly season and waiting for the honeymoon to begin, Raw Politics has been in hibernation since October. From today, we’re back. Our weekly political video show and podcast returns for ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk Authorities in the small town of Boulouparis have commemorated Armistice Day on May 8 with a new memorial honouring New Zealand soldiers who were stationed in New Caledonia during World War II. The ceremony took place in the township on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Dehm, Senior lecturer, international migration and refugee law, University of Technology Sydney The High Court unanimously ruled today that the Australian government can keep asylum seekers in immigration detention indefinitely in cases where they do not “voluntarily” cooperate with their own ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Munro, Lecturer, Creative Industries and Digital Media, University of South Australia Twenty-four hours after the release of Macklemore’s pro-Palestine protest song Hind’s Hall on social media on May 7, the video had already notched up over 24 million views. In ...
Failing to anticipate the complexity of the consenting system is being cited as the the current builder's shortcomings, an Infrastructure Commission review says. ...
Failing to anticipate the complexity of the consenting system is being cited as the the current builder's shortcomings, an Infrastructure Commission review says. ...
350 Aotearoa is calling the Environment Select Committee’s decision to allow oral submissions from just 40% of individual, unique submitters who asked to speak to the committee ‘a disgraceful blight to democracy’. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Helal, Assistant Dean (Sustainability), The University of Melbourne Dubai skylineAleksandarPasaric/Pexels Since ancient times, people have built structures that reach for the skies – from the steep spires of medieval towers to the grand domes of ancient cathedrals and mosques. Today ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edward Musole, PhD Law Student, University of New England Girts Ragelis/ShutterstockRecent trends show Australians are increasingly buying wearables such as smartwatches and fitness trackers. These electronics track our body movements or vital signs to provide data throughout the day, with ...
Papua New Guinea experienced a significant earthquake on 24 March in East Sepik and there has also been recent flooding there and in surrounding provinces. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yousuf Mohammed, Dermatology researcher, The University of Queensland Maridav/Shutterstock You wake up, stagger to the bathroom and gaze into the mirror. No, you’re not imagining it. You’ve developed face wrinkles overnight. They’re sleep wrinkles. Sleep wrinkles are temporary. But as your ...
The Environment Select Committee has just announced that 60 percent of individuals who asked to speak at the hearings will not be heard. This equates to almost 700 people who made individual submissions and more than 1000 more who made a form submission. ...
The Royal New Zealand Ballet is performing Swan Lake around the country. What kind of dream does the ballet sell?Before going to see the Royal New Zealand Ballet perform Swan Lake, I had about as much familiarity with the plot of this ballet as could be expected from having ...
A new poem by Auckland poet Eamonn Tee. High Tide at Local Maxima It is only going to get worse. The streams will be narrow and fickle. The week will bend and buckle like a pot-bellied waist. You will make it to the weekend with one ...
The New Zealand entrepreneur behind beauty business Ethique is gearing up to launch a new eco-venture. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Our thirst for a tasty bevvy is insatiable, but it comes with a hefty plastic price for the planet: 580 billion ...
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 James by Percival Everett (Mantle, $38) A retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from ...
By Kamna Kumar in Suva Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General Henry Puna stressed the importance of media freedom and its link to the climate and environmental crisis at the 2024 World Press Freedom Day event organised by the University of the South Pacific’s journalism programme. Under the theme “A Planet for ...
Tara Ward previews a new local TV series offering alternative visions of motherhood. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. A woman is clambering up the side of her two-story house, clinging desperately to a drainpipe. Nearby, her child is perched on the ...
Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) is supportive of the cross-party approach to climate adaptation announced by the Minister of Climate Change today. ...
The Sustainable Business Council (SBC) and Climate Leaders Coalition (CLC) welcome today’s announcement from Government around a bipartisan inquiry into an enduring climate adaptation framework for New Zealand. ...
The Free Speech Union welcomes the decision by the Department of Internal Affairs, and Minister Brooke Van Velden, to abandon proposals to further regulate online speech. ...
Its new building in Wellington will not be nearly big enough for all its records, and it has also run out of money to build its new storage facility in Levin. ...
BusinessNZ is congratulating the Minister of Climate Change for his work in achieving cross-party consensus for a way forward on climate adaptation. ...
Recent research reveals the repeal of smokefree measures is not only bad for our health, but also the economy. The Government has repealed various smokefree measures to ensure it keeps collecting $1.2 billion a year in tobacco taxes, in order to pay for tax cuts already being delivered to ...
The club’s surprisingly good season is built on the desire to prove a random A-League YouTuber wrong… and a few other factors.“There’s no way that Wellington Phoenix play finals this year. I can’t see it happening at all.” Those are the words of Lachlan Raeside, an Australian football content ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By César Albarrán-Torres, Senior Lecturer, Department of Media and Communication, Swinburne University of Technology Apple TV+ As one of billions of bilingual individuals in the world, it disappoints me when a film or TV show with characters of a non-English-speaking background is ...
The under-utilised course is a waste of space, and with a little political will, it could be turned into something better. For the duration of her stay in Wellington, my long-suffering cousin listened to me rant about golf courses. They’re bad for the environment: water intensive and pesticide heavy. They ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leah Ruppanner, Professor of Sociology and Founding Director of The Future of Work Lab, Podcast at MissPerceived, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock A recent report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows US fertility rates dropped 2% in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Corderoy, Medical doctor and PhD candidate studying involuntary psychiatric treatment, School of Psychiatry, UNSW Sydney shop_py/Shutterstock Picture two people, both suffering from a serious mental illness requiring hospital admission. One was born in Australia, the other in Asia. Hopefully, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Treby, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, RMIT University P.j.Hickox, Shutterstock Peatlands store more carbon per square metre than any other ecosystem on Earth. These waterlogged, mossy bogs beat even dense rainforests for their ability to act as carbon reservoirs. Under the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Goss, Adjunct Associate Professor, Health Research Institute, University of Canberra Government spending on health has been growing so rapidly that a decade ago the then health minister Peter Dutton called it “unmanageable” and “unsustainable”. Health spending grew in real terms by ...
New Zealand's largest electricity distributor is warning the country to hurry up with controls around charging electric vehicles or face unnecessary bills running into the billions. ...
New Zealanders have been asked to conserve energy this morning to combat a possible electricity shortfall, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. A call to conserve power New Zealand is facing a possible electricity shortfall, with people up ...
Writer Rebecca K Reilly breaks down the national book awards. What are the Ockhams?The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are our annual national awards for books published for adults, and have existed in this form since 2016. There are four categories: Fiction, Poetry, General Non-fiction and Illustrated Non-fiction. There ...
Wellington City Council should keep its 34% ownership share in Wellington International Airport, argue Unions Wellington spokespeople Finn Cordwell and Ashok Jacob. Insanity, as the saying goes, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Wellington City Council (WCC) is yet again proposing to dispose ...
New Zealand’s largest book publisher has undergone drastic changes this week, leaving its future role in local publishing uncertain. Two of the most recognisable local publishers in New Zealand are among those restructured out of Penguin Random House, it was announced this week. Head of publishing Claire Murdoch will leave ...
Successive governments have tried, and failed, to count Māori. But with the return of social investment, it’s more important than ever to get good data. The post Government looks for a better way to count Māori appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Experts in financing social investment initiatives say New Zealand is in a prime position to tackle social issues via a social investment approach The post What will Willis’ social investment fund look like? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
In the latest barrage of Russian missile strikes on Ukraine, two have hit Poland, killing two people.
https://twitter.com/ywnreporter/status/1592582175798743041
Interesting times.
Well, maybe it'll all be over by Christmas after all.
Another story here.
‘
Two differing accounts of the missile strike on Poland. Whether this missile strayed off course or was a deliberate attack on a Nato country, CNN reports it was concurrent with a "Wave of missile strikes" on Ukraine.
Unattributed RT report denies that the missile that landed in Poland came from the missile strikes launched against Ukraine at the same time.
I don't have to guess what details will follow: Going on their past MO Russia will accuse Ukraine of staging the attack on Poland to try and bring Nato into the war.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-s-lavrov-says-syria-chemical-weapons-attack-was-staged-n865686
I don't think Russia would have any interest in firing missiles at Poland so, either they were intended for Ukraine but Russia's aim was not accurate, or it was a "false flag" move by Ukraine, though for what purpose is unclear.
Always ask, who profits.
Funny how this has happened just at the time US military high command is suggesting its time for negotiation for peace.
They must have some interest in firing missiles, they've fired a lot of them.
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/05/ukraine-war-fact-russia-has-fired-off-more-than-1100-missiles/
… at Poland …
Googles "size of Polish army"
Googles "NATO membership".
As Poland is in NATO, you might also google "size of NATO countries armies"
Accident or not on the part of Russia, NATO, or Poland directly, has little choice but to make a strong response to this situation because otherwise Russia will see it as a green light to keep targeting Nato countries.
NATO has an escalation ladder so no WW3, yet.
https://twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1592598256512798720
I agree that the NATO response probably won't be a direct military response at this stage.
But there will have to be a credible strong response that is sufficient to deter Russia from doing that again.
Ukraine probably will get better weapons now as a result of this. I think they should get the long range ATACM missiles they have been asking for for ages. This will allow them to target the Russian air bases and launch sites the Russians are using for these attacks. Thus, further protect Ukraine, and NATO countries as well.
Biden and co won't want to be in the books about how the war started. I reckon top end air defence systems rather than long range missiles.
Close the sky
Ukraine has previously called for a free fly zone over at least a part of Ukraine. With this attack on a NATO member country, a free fly zone over the Western half of Ukraine bordering Poland and Moldova, makes a lot of sense.
Not much point to a no-fly zone as the Ukrainians effectively have that now. In fact, in some areas, the Ukrainian airforce has been dominant. So, a nofly zone would simply penalise the Ukrainians.
Russian planes hardly dare go into Ukrainian air-space due to the bristilling air defence. The missiles tend to be fired by Russian planes outside of Ukrainian air space.
I think what they need to be supplied is longer-range precision missiles such as ATACMs so they can take out the missiles before they are even launched. This would mean targeting Russian air bases and the like.
If the missiles can be taken out before launch, that reduces the risk of Russian missiles to Nato countries as well.
One missile – plausible accident.
Two?
Guess we need to know the exact pedigree of the missiles, as to their accuracy, track record, etc.
They'll know.
https://twitter.com/noclador/status/1592596493252591617
It appears to be remains of a UKR S300 intercept of a Russian cruise missile over Livi in Western Ukraine.
At best, it will a be an Article 4 response from NATO. No need for the Poles to go to Article 5 in the NATO Charter.
Likelihood of more calls to close Western Ukraine Airspace, would be my assumption atm.
NATO/Poland are full of shit if they're saying the missiles were definitely fired by Russia
I felt for the war porn aficionados today, waking to news Russia had bombed Poland. At their keyboards, typing one handed, only to end the day with Biden pouring cold water on the idea.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/missile-that-landed-in-poland-may-have-been-fired-by-ukrainian-forces-against-an-incoming-russian-one-say-u-s-officials/ar-AA14asoY
Indeed
Now that we know it was Ukrainian missiles…..
Not with certainty.
Though out of range for direct fire from Russian territory, there are many S300s in Belarus, which for a long time was the chief manufacturing centre for them. And Russia has used S300 missiles on ground targets before.
Having failed militarily, Russia would love to prise Ukraine away from its allies and supporters by creating an incident.
"Keep?" targeting NATO countries?
A while ago there was talk of how hard it is to get positive messages through in a world of highly partisan politics, disinformation, and the usual problems of gotcha media going for cheap shots and false balance . . .
I suspect we get a lot of news and comment through the internet; leaving aside the faults of official media, we now have many websites that peddle personal opinions that are at times extreme. The following is a list of sites that I collected over a few days of websites that appear to cover political issues to at least some extent. They include what appear to be a return of dirty tricks, to deliberately deceptive sites, to those expressing extreme or even deranged opinions from authors that appear to have fallen down a rabbit hole. I tried to decide where each lay on a scale or -10 for negative views of the current government, to +10 for those consistently positive about the current government. I have not included Facebook of other "social media," and I may have missed some that are worth looking at – I certainly hope there are other sites with high positive or good balance like The Standard!
@mods – linkspam?
Although it is an 'interesting' list it is duplicated (!?) and I can't see the alleged ranking from −10 to +10 for views on the current Government in it!?
I would not encourage this sort of comments, also because they need to be released manually from the Spam trap.
Duplicated and no ranking, only clickable links. Hence my diagnosis.
I think it was done with good intentions but let down by poor execution.
Early last week my SO arrived home home from work rather distressed after a row with the boss over refusing to attend a regional meeting. Turns out one of the traveling attendees was covid positive and today three of the local staff attending have tested positive. One, for the third time, and there will probably be more.
#filthy
That's no good. Expect we will hear more similar stories over coming weeks. Yet this govt spurned expert advice about masking. https://www.newsroom.co.nz/pro/cabinet-overrode-health-advice-to-retain-masks
Yet masking didn't stop or curtail our explosion of Covid back in March did it?
Some Scandinavian countries, dropped masks altogether about a year ago. There are competing versions of expert advice.
What are you basing that conclusion on? And the advice in question is from our own local pandemic experts, not overseas academics or suchlike.
"4 shots for summer" may be the next advertising campaign to keep us safe.
For those interested, an excellent Youtube interview with the author of this RUSI piece on the Ukraine airwar.
TLDR – the early phase of this war crippled the Ukrainian airforce as it was forced to engage the Russians at a considerable disadvantage.
Unlikely to be reported in our usual media, so you may be unaware of the incident at the Let Women Speak rally, in New York on Monday 14 November.
Now the format for a Let Women Speak rally, is that the organiser – Kellie Jay Keen – turns up with a microphone and sound system and basically emcees an open mike, for women that want to talk. There's little curating of who speaks, if any. It is purely an event to encourage women to speak up on the impact on women's rights of legislative and policy changes. You can view previous rallies on the livestream of KJK's Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/KellieJayKeen/streams
KJK was invited to the US, and took the format over there, and arranged rallies in public spaces – such as in front of New York town hall. A couple of events had to be cancelled due to the threats made to the women. Security was hired, and then unevidenced criticism was made that security was right-wing and aligned with fascists.
Each event was advertised by Gender Ideology Activists as a hate event, and and open invitations were issued for people to turn up and do anything they considered necessary to address that hate.
The perpetually oppressed never stop to consider that they are not stopped from marching by women (Brisbane this last weeekend) – but they are appalled at the idea of women publicly expressing their opinions, or gathering.
So, what happened in New York?
Due to the aggressive nature of the gender ideology proponents, many women, including KJK were unable to get to the event to speak.
Belissa Cohen – a LGB activist posted this video that gives some insight into what is happening with these activists:
From the left, the topless three are notable for:
1. A good example of autogynephilia – a man so preoccupied with his hormone induced breast growth, he is indulging in his sexual arousal in public with no awareness of the protest around him, apart from the opportunity it gives him for exhibitionism;
2. A trans-identified female – complete with double mastectomy scars, demonstrating a hatred for women by calling out to them either "bleeders" or "breeders". There are several videos of this group and one is of this woman declaring that she didn't want to be a woman, and how she is a boy who loves testosterone. (NB. Testosterone is a powerful drug – with euphoric effects for some). This woman was also a child model from the age of ten, which may have affected her experience of what female is, and how it is represented;
3. The last contender has been identified as a prominent and feted trans-identified male. Employed also as a model and mentor of LGBTQ+ people, he spent much of the protest spitting on people he found objectionable (women) and declaring he was going to beat their asses, bitch.
I'm always interested to hear (from those who refrain from scrolling past) the updated excuses for why 1 and 3 are vulnerable, and why women should unquestioningly make space for them in women's single-sex spaces and provisions.
And also why men can't just hold safe spaces in their own single-sex spaces for their trans-identified brothers.
https://twitter.com/BelissaCohen/status/1592544726955487233?s=20&t=xr4_-7QXnpe2EC0Fo6DlTw
Indecent exposure is a crime, and the laws are in place to deal with this, no matter the gender identity of the criminal.
Yes, there are bad trans people. There are bad gay people and bad cishet people.
I don't think we should be tarring all transgender people with the same brush.
You need to remember that the teachers who offended that Dilworth were all cisgender men.
"Indecent exposure is a crime, and the laws are in place to deal with this, no matter the gender identity of the criminal."
Apparently baring your breasts in NYC is not indecent exposure. Spitting at people might be however. Breasts don't bother me much, TBH, the thought of someone's saliva has more to be concerned about in this day and age, don't you think?
"Yes, there are bad trans people. There are bad gay people and bad cishet people."
I don't disagree – apart from the cishet – I don't follow this belief so the term is nonsensical. You might have just stated the obvious, some people are bad.
Did you miss the part when I said that No. 3 was a well-known and profiled activist and mentor?
So not a random idiot, a promoted spokeperson for the community.
"You need to remember that the teachers who offended that Dilworth were all cisgender men."
Why do you assume I have forgotten?
Is it because you "forget" that all transwomen are men?
No comment on the antagonism shown by the non-rally attendees only?
Or the public display of the often denied aspect of autogynephilia?
Or the fear and hate directed at women who are gathering to speak their opinions in a public space?
Thanks for providing yet another example of redirection and totally ignoring the content of the issue at hand.
I knew you wouldn't let me down, millsy.
Who do you think is doing that? I'm not seeing anyone here doing that. I wouldn't even tar all AGP with the same brush.
So close and yet still not quite getting it. Yes, most people who sexually offend are male. This is exactly why we have female only spaces. It doesn't mean all men, or even most, are sexual offenders, it means that if we stop thinking about men for a minute and look at this from the perspective of women, we see that the most straight forward way of protecting women from the high rates of sexual assault and harrassment by men is to arrange society so that women have female only spaces.
I've not seen any evidence that trans women or other trans-identified males sexually offend at a lower rate than the general male population. Again, this doesn't mean all or even most TW are sexual offenders. It means that when we consider the safety of women, we should consider males of whatever gender identity as the class that women need protecting from.
The safety of TW can be addressed likewise, without removing the safety of women.
"Cishet" displays your fealty to Gender Ideology. Humans are not divided into 2 categories based on a supposed relationship with their sexed bodies. Forced division without approval or permission is insulting and oppressive.
.
"cis" or "cisgender" is another term for virtually everyone.
Invented largely for political reasons within Queer Theory & Gender Studies … it seeks to massively exaggerate the size of the trans community while inherently downplaying the relevance of biological sex.
For Gender ideologues, cisgender means that one's "gender identity" and "sex assigned at birth" (as opposed to biological sex) match up.
"Sex assigned at birth" is seen as an act of power, indeed of deliberate violence … so, specifying "sex assigned at birth" instead of biological sex allows these activists to maintain the Queer Theory dogmas that (1) sex itself is socially constructed and that (2) sex categorisation is illegitimately imposed on new-born babies by Doctors, Parents & others who supposedly possess sociopolitical power … (rather than biological sex being a simple fact of human reality).
In other words, they're total fantasists (in the same way that Critical Theory / Woke ideologues are in general) … and very controlling, demanding, authoritarian fantasists at that.
Obviously we aren't but the trans movement has been infiltrated by violent and misogynistic men who are using it to get away with stuff. Self ID laws and the like have not taken this into account.
at this stage I wouldn't say infiltrated so much as welcomed with open arms. Left wing men defacto arguing that rape of women in prison is an acceptable price to pay for keeping TW safe. Left wing women saying that rape survivors need to manage their triggers better when males come into their single sex spaces. It's not like the evidence hasn't been there, presented by the pariah feminists. Even before self ID. The choices were made to put aside the concerns of women, and make the changes anyway.
Weka you are right. I was being too kind.
very good comment Molly.
I would add a couple of points.
#1 and #3 in other vids, it took me a while to figure out exactly the problem here (because we know that women use nudity as part of protest). What they look like to me are men who want the right to masturbate in public. Any conversation about trans women's rights that doesn't included discussion of AGP is a fail.
#2, the trans man is someone presumably who hates their female body to the extent that they had their breasts removed to make their life tolerable. Society needs to stop and consider if people with such degrees of mental distress should be driving policy and social change.
on reflection, it's not simply the right to masturbate in public, it's the right to do so at women they hate. I'm struggling to think of worse public expression of misogyny than that video.
That the police didn't intervene is both astounding and scary in its implications. Haven't looked at NY indecency laws.
Last time I checked men going shirtless was not considered public nudity. I don't think failing to invent a crime is really a good basis for police criticism here.
The NYPD seemed to respond appropriately throughout the day, calling in special operations unit to disperse the crowd and providing human barriers between the small group of women and the crowd.
It's always a judgment call on the day. I don't think they did much that can be genuinely criticised.
did you miss the bit in my comments where I differentiated between nudity and obscenity? In this case, public self pleasuring sexually is an act that involves others without their consent. I don't know if indecency laws cover what that man is doing, as I said in my comment.
And of course, we know that women don't generally behave like this, and that there are hefty societal and physical risk pressures that prevent women from having the freedom to be in public topless.
There’s also the issue of what would happen to the police of they reacted to the men as if they were men. But I’m guessing there is no topless law in NY for either men or women.
"What they look like to me are men who want the right to masturbate in public."
Another regular activist who attended yesterday (with previous record of doxxing women), might confirm your suspicions.
(I know many here might not believe it, but I don't post the most contentious pictures or videos I come across, I posted the one above because of the role the third one has in the community, while publicly threatening women with violence).
The following video from the same event, posted by a women's right activist (not one I particularly agree with) with a AGP enjoying the simulation of masturbation maybe a bit too much at the end:
https://twitter.com/StandingforXX/status/1592318236628221953?s=20&t=x5CuKlkN0eksd20w87CU-A
Was interesting to note how the different cultures responded to the same format. Really noticeable distinctions between the women speaking at the UK events and the US ones.
it's the visual on the ground equivalent of 'suck my trans dick'.
For those not familiar with the online version,
https://terfisaslur.com/
Along this train of thought, while I was looking into the issues of consent and the mixed messages regarding intimate relationships from many of the LGBTQ+ support organisations, I watched part of a programme about transgender people finding love.
I didn't watch it all, there was a featured piece about a well-known transgender teenage dream couple that had finally split up after promoting their transgender identities and relationship status during their teenage years. It turned out that there was little or no physical intimacy, and that their relationship was more performative than personal.
However, there was a particularly memorable young trans-identified male, who had been supported during their transition by a close male friend over the years. They had finally got the courage to directly ask their supportive male friend, now that they had finished their transition, whether they could take their friendship to a personal relationship.
The response was immediate and definite: it was better if they kept their connection to friendship only.
A couple of thoughts struck me when I watched this segment, and saw the change in demeanour of the young trans-identified man:
What if – this young man was one of the many gay teenagers who had developed a crush on their heterosexual close friend? What if both the personal homosexuality and unrequited nature of that crush, were avoided by the promise of becoming a woman, and therefore a possible romantic partner of the afore mentioned crush?
The friend – unwittingly supporting that notion by his support of a female gender identity – and all the transitional changes made, but whose heterosexual orientation meant that despite it all – he was not ever going to be an intimate relationship option.
It was quite devastating to watch. A good friend of mine, related his long-time crush on his best friend as the catalyst for realising his sexual orientation. I wonder how the young gay men in similar situations are doing now.
Some of the vitriol displayed at events might come from the realisation of the failure to deliver on the unspoken promises of full recognition alluded to in public policy and legislation, and what is experienced at individual personal level.
I'm probably a bit jaded, but the antics of the AGP struck me as someone particularly unskilled in the handling of breasts in a sexually stimulating way. I figure, at least he inflicts that lack of expertise only on himself and not anybody else.
He is in multiple videos of the day and the reality is – his behaviour never gets any better.
Often used as an excuse for bad behaviour. And just the sort of person you want in a woman's prison.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/130471744/restaurant-triple-stabber-jailed-for-nine-years-and-three-months
Yes. Saw that and despaired:
I'm sure they do feel safer. Sorry women.
We really need a specialised unit for trans people.
Relieved to see Stuff reporting on the gender transition so it's clear they are male.
Of course.
Wake up people on the left. The gender ideology movement is not progressive at all. It's harming women and its prioritizing men like Nelson over vulnerable women prisoners.
"Very complex" may be an understatement. There is a high incident of co-morbidity with other psychological conditions among today's self identified male trans people. The trans identified men in British prisons are far more likely (over 40%) to be there for sex related offences than the rest of the male prison population.
It is not just men in women's prisons and other spaces – it is the worst kind of men in women's spaces.
it's also possible that societal factors like transphobia, homophobia, and sanctions against effeminate behaviour in men may mean it's more likely that trans women and TIMs end up doing sex work. In the same way that we see sexual abuse and poverty makes it more likely for women to end up doing sex work.
I'd also like to know how that plays out with AGP men and violence. Pity No Debate means we won't be getting much good research for a while.
My thesis here is that patriarchal conditioning and conditions create violence in TIMs like it does with other men. Different dynamics.
As Molly said, why aren't men making male spaces safer?
Because these people do not want to be safe in male spaces or third spaces. They want to be in womens spaces, as women.
Male spaces and bathrooms are no more and no less dangerous for transpeople then female spaces. I mean self ID opens the door to all men, at all times, to all female spaces and thus the same men that were feared by transpeople in the male spaces will now have access to them in the female spaces. Its bs. They want access to female spaces because they want to be women, and they can only be fully women if they get to play the full game, women sports, women awards, women jobs, women rape counseling, women breastfeeding, woman everything, nothing less will do. Ditto for Transmen, they want to be men. And the rest of the population has to go along with it by hook or by crook.
But a few people will profit of this regressive misery covered in kindness, it will set women – adult human female – set back into the 1700 and further back even – removed from public record and medical texts, denial of the labour of their body, and it for sure will teach women – human born female of all ages – their place in society.
Don't you think that our future as the large gamete producers is bright and rosy?
So you think that Nelson should go to a men's prison and possibly be raped or attacked?
Not defending them, but our prisons are fucked enough without transgender prisoners getting attacked and raped.
Any prisoner going into a men's prison could possibly be raped or attacked.
How do you justify ignoring the other vulnerable males in your expression of care?
The women's prison estate is for women, and should remain sex-segregated.
So you think that Nelson should go to a women's prison and possibly stab or otherwise assault women?
The solution is to set up a special prison unit for trans prisoners. .
I would agree with you on a special trans/LGBT unit. I belive that Rikers Island in NYC had one from 1975-2005, but was closed down.
Posted a few times on the K6G unit in LA County, but you must've missed them:
https://thestandard.org.nz/search/K6G/?search_comments=true&search_posts=true&search_sortby=date
AFAIK, still going.
https://www.kcet.org/shows/socal-connected/clip/life-behind-bars-for-gbt-inmates-at-the-k6g
If you think that the prisons in NZ are so dangeorus you should voice your concern with the MP who looks after Corrections. It is up to government to regulate and then assure the safety of all prisoners who are held in the care of government.
Incarcerated women are not body shields.
How many women would need to get harmed in prison by men – who may or may not be transwomen – for you to consider the safety of women?
"If you think that the prisons in NZ are so dangeorus you should voice your concern with the MP who looks after Corrections."
I dont think the government gives a shit about the safety of our prisoners, regardless of biological sex, gender identity or sexual orientation. For the past 20-30 years, both parties have imported US penal policies into this country, which is bascially stick prisoners in a cage and watch while they tear each other apart. This is largely due to the lobbying of the likes of Garth McVicar and Norm Withers, both of whom actively condone the rape and shanking of weaker prisoners by the strong ones as that is part of the 'punishment' factor of prisons.
And yet you like the government seem to have no fuck to give about safety of women in prisons.
Men – irrespective of their self identification should never be locked up in prison with women. And to do so, is to show that absolutly no regards for the wellbeing and the safety – from rape and pregnancy – of the women is given. But then maybe the rape of a woman – human born female – is acceptable to some on the left in order to protect a male from male violence that seems to be state sanctioned and / or permitted.
And when the foreseeable happens – it warrants only brief article:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/112432880/transgender-prisoner-investigated-for-sexual-assault-behind-bars
Below is the prisoner you are insisting on placing with females with nowhere to run:
https://reduxx.info/nz-trans-identified-male-sent-to-womens-prison-after-stabbing-spree/
Might make you think that Putin has a point.
I note that Putin and his supporters now view the war in Ukraine as a war for 'traditional values' against 'western decadance' (LGBTQ) with some pro Russian supporters wanting an open alliance between Orthodox Christian, Confucian Chinese and Wahabist Islam in some kind of 'Holy War'.
Odd as the war in Ukraine is in effect, Orthodox Christians fighting Orthodox Christians.
It is starting to look like the missile strikes on Poland may have been due to stray Ukrainian air defence missiles, or a Russian missile deflected by air defence.
So, that part may be an accident.
What wasn't an accident was oil supplies to both Hungary and Slovakia (NATO members) were cut due to Russia hitting infrastructure in Ukraine that is used for the piping of oil through to those countries. So, perhaps at least an indirect attack on Nato.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/hungary-mol-says-oil-shipments-druzhba-pipeline-temporarily-suspended-2022-11-15/
So, that may end up being a more serious than the missile strikes.
The EU and NATO need to make sure that this doesn't blow up out of hand. As much as I dislike Putin, I don't think it is worth turning Europe into a radioactive wasteland just to get one up on him.
What a difference a day makes
Hungarian/Slovakian supplies have resumed
https://www.upstreamonline.com/production/ukraine-oil-supplies-to-hungary-and-slovakia-resume-after-missile-strike/2-1-1355360
Grateful for your regular updates tsmithfield. Saves me a lot of reading. 😉
Thanks, I wish there wasn't a need to do that.
Time to make a submission on the proposal on restricting agricultural emissions is running out. This is an opportunity to make sure we as a country do what is necessary to meet our international obligations as well as incentivising more environmentally friendly agricultural practices which will benefit us all:
https://action.greens.org.nz/submission_guide_he_waka_eke_noa
The BAU TINA agribusinesses will be making submissions, we can outnumber theirs and send a message that will strengthen the Governments resolve. Nature, and the future, need us to advocate for them.
Latest on Luxon contortions, from Thomas Coughlan at NZME.
The old political adage applies: it is better to be criticised than mocked. Once you've become a figure of fun, you've lost.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/christopher-luxon-u-turns-on-u-turn-acknowledging-he-misspoke/G4LEMNH2MNHV7M2VAR453Z4NRE/
National later U-turned on that remark, clarifying that Luxon misspoke and had not intended to U-turn on that particular policy. He was in fact talking about the clean car standard, an emissions standard for vehicle importers.
National opposed that policy too, meaning Luxon has still U-turned on a policy today – just not the policy he said he was U-turning on.
He’s doing doughnuts
He just got squashed in the House by Grant Robertson.
Time for Split Enz … "Nobody takes me seriously anyway".
This one: https://ondemand.parliament.nz/parliament-tv-on-demand/?itemId=229653?
Not a performance of a leader who is confident of wandering far from his script at all. Not a word or an aside that wasn’t scripted. Also shows his handlers lack of confidence.
Shouldn't that be "delivering doughnuts"?
This the problem when doing doughnuts: you never deliver anything except for noise, hot air, and an acrid smell.
I'm gonna *555 Luxon.
Sustained loss of traction is against the law.
Confiscate his car and then crush it! I know just the right person for this and she’d love it
Donald Trump announces he is running for President of the United States again.
Former Republican President Donald Trump says he's launching another White House bid | CNN Politics
What could go wrong?
The most racist, homophobic, transphobic, mysoginost, religious fundamentalist, anti abortion, anti union, anti welfare president in US history. The guy must be stopped. At all costs.
LOL I think most of those labels are way off. Religious fundamentalist he certainly isn't.
Didn't he let Caitlyn Jenner use the girl's restrooms in Trump Towers?
Caitlyn Jenner is trying to be 'one of the good ones', so she doesn't count.
Agree with that – an authoritarian narcissist who periodically and unconvincingly pretends to be a religious fundamentalist, because it's politically expedient to do so.
Luxon is an interesting counterpoint to that – someone who is a religious fundamentalist but pretends not to be, because it's politically expedient to do so.
Says something about the two different political cultures I guess.
He could be suspended from Twitter for impersonating a sane person.
What a loser!
Mostly an attempt to delay the inevitable indictments coming his way. The Jan 6 committee will have to speed up their final report and recommendations with the House going GoP next year, but even some Repugnants possess principles. DoJ indictment still in the offing (even if a candidate) wrt mishandling of secret files.
Dems could run a puppy dog against him and win – he still doesn't understand that he is not as popular with the majority as he thinks he is – only the deluded.
This is one of the most insane, grotesque political scenes imaginable.
There are many versions of the occasion. This unedited, raw, all-over-the-shop long version puts the simple photo-op still moments into context.
This is not how change happens. Never has been. Never will be.
With disagreement even over the conference cover statement, 'Carried to Hell in a Handcart', might be a more efficient mode of transport to take us to the apocalypse than this *shemozzle.
*(even the dictionary gets it)
Starting to look like the missile(s) that hit Poland may have been Ukrainian S300(s) (they have a lot that are past their use by date)
Tory Whanau may be in trouble with the Greens. According to HDA, all the best jobs in council have gone to her mates. I don't know whether that's true, but nepotism is a Maori speciality.
Quote: from paywalled article:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/a-capital-letter-wellington-mayor-will-not-renew-green-party-membership/6QL5E56C4BG5ZM3N3R77GL4V
OPINION
''Wellington mayor Tory Whanau, whose independent campaign was endorsed by the Greens, has decided she will not renew her party membership, the Herald understands.
The key reason behind the move is so she can work more productively with councillors without a formal tie to a political party – but it could also ruffle feathers among those in the Green Party who helped her win the election.
Whanau has now spent almost six weeks in the city’s top job after she romped home with a convincing majority of 17,751 votes over the incumbent.
It was clear Whanau had a sense of which way the tide was turning a couple of weeks before election day, but such a strong majority certainly came as a surprise.
On the campaign trail, Whanau pitched herself as someone who could cross the political spectrum and bring people together. She pointed to her experience negotiating with New Zealand First when she was the Green Party’s chief of staff as an example of this.
Green Party councillor Laurie Foon is the deputy mayor, while two Labour councillors and one Green councillor will chair the council’s three big committees.
First-term Motukairangi Eastern Ward councillor Tim Brown told Newstalk ZB Wellington Mornings host Nick Mills he felt “slightly disconcerted” about the appointments.
It’s because they share her [Whanau’s] views, which I think is a good reason on her part, but of course means that the independent candidates sitting around the table are looking at the equation and thinking well if we don’t share her views, we’re going to be excluded.”
[Take a month off. You don’t seem to know what nepotism is and you simply indulged in baseless Māori bashing – Incognito]
Nice knowing you.
It's common. Many problems of Maori v Maori rotates around people being appointed to some position, but other Maori saying they shouldn't be appointed because they belong to the wrong tribe, or have the wrong whakapapa. I said at the time, Auckland and Wellington councils would encounter problems.
You need to add more than your trite uncalled for comment.
I'd stop digging if I were you.
How is Mark Mitchell? What else has he been up to? Is he backing Nicola Willis for leader or is he going himself? He didn’t say on the radio but I figured you’d know.
Mark Mitchell would be most worrying as National Partty leader. The guy would, in the words of Trotter, liberate the police, and police the liberals.
His desire to bring about US-style policing is well documented. I would imagine that Maori would be gunned down left right and centre by cops if he is allowed anywhere near cabiney.
You don’t give Kiwi cops much credit, do you? I’m pretty sure that for that to happen you’d need US cops with a US mind-set in a US context here in Aotearoa – New Zealand.
That's your problem, right there
Mod note
thank you
Thank you.
Waiting for a post: Luxon: Chicken Little or an Egg? on the clean car fleet. Polluters must meet their costs or we are paying them to do so. We’re picking up fossil awards while our neighbors in and outside NZ are seeing their property below water. The clean car work is not nearly enough, but it’s a basic step. Polluters must pay.
Which is it Micky?
You mean Greg alwyn.
What's happened to LINO's commitment to health outcomes like dental.
" Yesterday the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists released a report on dental care in Aotearoa, highlighting its unaffordability and recommending free, universal dental care. This is something the left has been campaigning for for a long time – Jim Anderton pushed for it before the 2011 election, and Helen Clark has advocated for it. It would massively improve people's lives, reduce pain and suffering, and save money in the long-term. But it would involve spending money, so naturally Grant Robertson has vetoed it "
" Instead of free and universal provision, he wants people to go crawling to WINZ, with all the added pain and suffering that entails. Weirdly, he thinks that this isn't a deterrent – which I guess tells us either that he has never dealt with them, or that nine years on an MP's salary and six on a deputy prime minister's has destroyed all memory of it (and WINZ has got massively worse since Grant was a student) "
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2022/11/grant-says-no-again.html
A windfall tax could pay for this and more.
He said he did not think the fact the grants had to be applied for through Work and Income would deter people from applying for them.
"For low-income people, I'm sure the opportunity to be able to get the support for [dental care] is something that they will take up."
That sounds like someone who is totally out of touch.
I detest the National party but before you have a crack at them Greg what about your Labour party and their failures to their own people they solicit votes from then look the other way.
Now back to the RMA and Nationals policy failure's.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
If you cannot stay on-topic then take it to OM, or TDB.
" Yesterday the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists released a report on dental care in Aotearoa, highlighting its unaffordability and recommending free, universal dental care. This is something the left has been campaigning for for a long time – Jim Anderton pushed for it before the 2011 election, and Helen Clark has advocated for it. It would massively improve people's lives, reduce pain and suffering, and save money in the long-term. But it would involve spending money, so naturally Grant Robertson has vetoed it:
"
Instead of free and universal provision, he wants people to go crawling to WINZ, with all the added pain and suffering that entails. Weirdly, he thinks that this isn't a deterrent – which I guess tells us either that he has never dealt with them, or that nine years on an MP's salary and six on a deputy prime minister's has destroyed all memory of it (and WINZ has got massively worse since Grant was a student).
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2022/11/grant-says-no-again.html
" "Going straight to universal dental care right away would be well over a billion dollars a year of extra funding, we have to weigh that up against the other things that are needed in the health system."
And Grant has ruled out a windfall tax that could pay for universal care and much more.
National is not in government but Grant and Jacinda are !
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[looks like you’re also insisting on being modded for diversion trolling. This is your warning – Incognito]
Mod note
I have never trolled in my life and you can check on my history with posting on here.
I know its uncomfortable when you are presented with the facts behind the spin of the current government but it is the facts.
National are terrible but we expect that. Labour are supposed to care for the poor.
They don't.
I will continue to call them out even if the people here can’t see it.
Open and transparent government was promised wasn’t it ?
There’s a first for everything. If you continue the efforts of a notorious diversion troll who had been warned and modded then, for all intents and purposes, I consider you also a diversion troll and will treat you as such.
You are free to say what you feel you have to say but you don’t have carte blanche to say it wherever (and however) you feel like here. You may also want to tone down on the personal snides when you ‘call out Labour’.
" You are free to say what you feel you have to say but you don’t have carte blanche to say it wherever (and however) you feel like here "
No you have that power Incognito by the way you and others decide what is acceptable on this site.
Its called freedom of expression which the government has not banned yet and I am not talking about anything illegal or malicious but the Standard has just has to look at the growing list of people driven out by being banned because they said something the moderators disagreed with.
The TDB has a number of contributors who are on topic and and aren't afraid to call the National party out while also revealing the increasing poverty and hardship still being experienced under Labour and their fiddling with statistics.
Personal snides ? you mean the attack on Chris Trotter on this site ?
I take it then that's acceptable if its one of your main contributors , or Lyn's
put down's against some of the correspondents who contribute here.
I rest my case.
Seriously?? Are you oblivious or obtuse?
Addressing and correcting the very many points in your comment feels like cleaning the Augean stables. Suffice to say, as long as one adheres to this site’s Policy and takes heed of Moderator notes one can enjoy the generous freedom of commenting on TS to their heart’s content.
I hope this will help and I also hope you don’t draw unnecessary attention to yourself.
Have a nice day.
Good dental health, has such a positive effect on other health issues.
And the dental care offered by the school system is much less consistent or frequent than it was back in the 70s when every primary school had it's own dental clinic and nurse.
It would have been a good preventative health measure, and the cost of dental care is high or unaffordable for those with few discretionary funds.
Yes. I think it's the cost factor which has just driven it up out of reach of many middle-class (let alone working-class) kiwis.
I don't know what the answer is to this. Some of it is the bells-and-whistles (x-rays, etc.), which may improve the dental care – but all the equipment costs an arm-and-a-leg and has to be amortized across all of the patients. Some of it is the high cost of training, and then of staffing and operating dental surgeries.
https://www.nsoms.co.nz/dental-costs-in-new-zealand-why-is-it-so-expensive/
I'd like to see a very low-cost, basic dental care option. Fillings (quick and cheap), extraction (if necessary), cleaning & scaling [which always sounds painful]. And conversations with the dentist which include what you can afford – rather than starting out with 'you need 5 crowns, at 1.5 K each'
I know that school dental care was massively backed up before Covid (my son missed the last 3 annual checkups at his school – because they simply prioritized kids who they felt were more likely to have issues). And, of course, virtually no preventive dental work was done over the last 2 years with Covid. Now the dental checks have started up again, but they are so far behind, I don't think they have any hope of catching up – and are suffering from the same staffing shortages that every other aspect of medicine is coping with.
And, if your kid needs braces (not just cosmetic, if there are misaligned or overlapping teeth, without straightening you're in for a life of heightened risk of dental decay) – you're talking 7K plus (which is completely out of reach of many families).
Good on you Mosa