It's not really the dogs that are the problem it's their dimwitted owners. I live on an estuary and get sick of owners letting their dogs chase wading birds who are minding their own business and having lunch. I stay sometimes at Piha where I watch entitled owners walk past the signs that say no dogs because of nesting penguins – belonging, I presume to the 'my dog wouldn't' brigade. I also have issues with being sniffed at in the street while the owner tries to reassure me that it won't bite. That's not the point – I don't want to be sniffed either!
I remember a few years ago some snot got most upset as I did not want his slobbering dog rubbing its filthy face up against my clothing I didn't want to go home smelling of this dog. something a lot of dog owners don't get.
Yeah, dogs are for people searching for a subservient pet to control, those who don't have the personality to deal with living with an independent apex predator.
Y'know, I actually eat very little meat. Maybe 150g a week, on average. As much as anything else, because I really can’t be arsed learning about how to ensure I get enough of all the nutrients needs from a vegetarian diet, and even if I did get the knowledge, I wouldn’t be arsed following it when just a small amount of meat easily provides those nutrients that are hard to get from a vegetarian diet.
But somehow, sanctimonious twattery against meat-eating always gives me an irresistable urge to go snarf down a big chunk of gruesomely murdered and hacked up dead animal.
BTW, there are lots of good arguments for reducing meat consumption, or at least biasing the mix away from beef and lamb towards chicken and pork. But the colon cancer thing is really one of the feeblest of the many arguments against eating meat.
I don't eat a lot of red meat now, but I enjoy a good steak about once every two weeks. Eating more chicken, fish and pork these days. But certainly do not want to give it up.
then there are the idiots who preen that (middle-class boast) that they 'only eat organic' chickens/whatever..
they seem deluded to such a degree that they think they are the 'good guys'..and that the exploiters who peddle these organic animals are somehow green/good guys…
..which is bullshit in both cases..
as just one example…what do they think happens to all the male chicks on 'organic'farms..?
..like on the blatantly cruel chicken farms..these cute little chicks are fed(still alive) into the macerator..
this grinds them up…as I said..while they are still alive..
use that nugget of knowledge to wash down your next mouthful of chicken flesh..eh..?
On that note, I've just been inspired to head into town to find some kind of bogan joint to chow down a month's worth of my normal consumption in one sitting.
I'll very likely regret it later tonight and tomorrow morning, but I'll blame that on you, too.
Having read through everything that followed from my Churchillian quote I'm not sure I should have offered it.
That is particularly the case since I have just finished dinner where I had an truly excellent fillet steak. Cooked about halfway between saignant and bleu. Quite wonderful. It absolutely melted in the mouth.
Sorry Phillip, but that is not something I am willing to give up.
You obviously were not brought up on a farm before Hydatdids was erradicated. I still feel uneasy with dogs near me. I have had to give up on cats because I live in an area of ecological importance. I am hoping for a big rabbit for Xmas !
Will the new Minister of Transport pull some reins around Waka Kotahi NZTA?
I am hearing multiple signature projects that I won't list here are billions over budget with many pushed out a decade due to redesign and others with governance changes. This is on top of the billion-plus blowout we've already seen this week.
This is the agency now in charge of changing the largest proportion of our CO2 emissions.
Chair Brian Roche is far more powerful than the Minister of Transport.
Bomber Bradbury has made some interesting predictions for 2021.
He predicts significant social unrest, a crime wave, a dangerous expansion of the meth trade and unemployment, poverty, homelessness and inequality to rise.
Our extreme centrist neoliberal government does not have the tools to fix the issues.
Only a people’s republic of Aotearoa will be able to implement the necessary economic, social and ecological revolution to prepare us for the tsunami of challenges climate change will present us.
Idiot Savant, the author of the No Right Turn, is an excellent and succinct commentator who does not subscribe to the failed liberal ideology.
In a recent blog, he pointed out the world can see through our bullshit about climate change. He records that …..
”Over the weekend, countries which are serious about climate change got together virtually at the international Climate Ambition Summit 2020. But New Zealand pointedly was not invited:”
The Green Party leaders should not have signed up to this government.
According to that story our emissions have increased. Is it because we have had a solid population increase for the transport increase ? or something else?
… He has been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in phials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers. He told me, he did not doubt, that, in eight years more, he should be able to supply the governor's gardens with sunshine, at a reasonable rate …
(Swift 1726. Gulliver's Travels)
IMO bottled sunshine isn't the only thing these projects have in common …
Meanwhile, the Iter fusion reactor in France is currently 70% constructed and is expected to achieve first plasma in 2025. This is will be a fully-working demonstration fusion reactor, providing 500 megawatts of fusion power – enough, if converted to electricity, to power a city the size of Liverpool.
The main hurdle will be the interface between the new fusion reactor and existing power plant. Sadly, there is no such thing as a USB port for power plants …the time and cost of having to build an entirely new power plant is significant. The comparatively small size of the Step reactor is also advantageous.
The promise of "the Sun in a bottle" has meant incalculable time, energy and resources invested this vision of a clean, never-ending fuel source.It could have been argued in the 1930s that fusion was folly. But now, we could genuinely have fusion within a few decades’ time.
Still a boondoggle that has consumed a huge amount of research funding over several decades (and looks like it will continue to do so). That funding, IMO, would have (and would be) better spent elsewhere.
As a child and teenager, I lived within walking distance of two such homes.
One was the Owairaka Boys Home in Mt Albert where the "bad boys" lived which has been cited as one of those where serious abuse was occurring. The other in Allendale Rd, Mt Albert where the "bad girls" were housed. The house itself was up a long driveway and couldn't be seen from the road. We were told to cross the road when walking past this address yet in all those years I never saw a single girl coming in or out of them.
They were not bad kids of course, they were abused kids.
As a young person I remember sensing something was wrong about both of them but it is only now the truth is coming out.
Okay this data farm would take only 8% of the Manapouri power in the long term for only 25 permanent jobs. But do we want more data farms ? and do we want to sell more power cheaply to them? Or should we sell power at a much higher rate because these places thrive on cheap power. The rest of the story is pretty much overblown PR to disguise the lack of long term country benefits.
So what would be the best over all economic use for New Zealand for the power the smelter no longer uses? Would it be best to give all NZ households a basic dob of cheap / nearly free power (charge higher usages!) to improve the well being of low income households in particular? It would be the same as a modest benefit increase? Or do we look for manufacturing we could do here that provides good jobs and needs reasonable power prices? Some how I think all this decision making should not be left in the hands of the directors of a power company given the input of the taxpayer in the original build.
Laugh all you like but the most enviromently sensible thing to do with the spare Manapouri power ( the current smelter doesn't use all of it ) is to build another aluminium smelter and retire one elsewhere in the world that is powered by electricity produced from coal.
We have enough wind farm consents approved and ready to go to meet all of our needs for the foreseeable future, including EV transport. Storage is where we are short at the moment.
I had a brief look at the that . As far as I can see most of the remaining smelters are in Canada powered by hydro or China. There may be a strategic issue there if too much of the refining is done in China – but I don't see them closing smelters.I'm assuming future mining will use solar on the spot to stop the shipping costs.
So enviroment apart what is the best economic use for the power in NZ?
I think solar might be a bit of a problem as smelting must be a continuous process and with solar and indeed wind overnight and non-wind times would require enormous storage capacity.
There are efforts underway to make smelting more flexible and adaptable to variable electricity supply. Energia Potior (a spinoff from Auckland University) is just one:
Currently the energy input of a smelter cannot be varied by much more than plus or minus 5%, meaning a smelter essentially operates at full capacity 24/7, 365 days a year, for its entire lifespan.
…
EnPot gives smelter operators the ability to turn energy consumption up or down by as much as 30%* to take advantage of off-peak power prices, as well as accommodating the intermittency associated with renewable power supply. It also means production can be better matched to supply and demand.
A solar plant that is likely to significantly supply a smelter may be better suited as a concentrating solar thermal plant, rather than photovoltaic. Concentrating solar thermal plants can easily have their storage sized to give continuous overnight operation, and can also be easily adapted to gas emergency backup to keep things ticking along if really needed.
Having more datacenters here in NZ and bringing more of this tech to NZ in general is a good thing.
I remember the hell that broke out here when Fibre was announced and rolled out around the country. Fast forward to now, and I think it was one of the best decisions National ever made. I recall at the time a whole bunch of people here compared it to 'just being able to download faster'. Well, covid proved that shit wrong.
Another foot note, Hyper Fibre is going in to my place tomorrow. NZ needs to focus more on tech.
We have a growing gaming industry here now with growth predictions of 1BN of revenue by 2025. It's all exports.
It's not tech as such. Just a big warehouse of computers operated from overseas. My beef about the fibre broadband is that payment by the taxpayer doesn't seem to mean ownership. But that's the Nats. Business socialism
I would like to see acknowledgement for the damage and harm done to children, information disclosed to complainants, categorisation headings used under the Crimes Act 1961 of offending against every child sexually abused in state care or out of state care and the years of the offending since 1940.
I am appalled at how files have been treated by the government. In 1986 I tried to get a file of a rape trial and the lawyer told me the file was dumped in a warehouse in boxes and gave a date of a hearing. I did get confirmation from the police in 1990 that there was a trial but the police file had been destroyed. I intend to follow this up. If it is the case the present and past government, MSD and police need to clean this up.
And Ryman healthcare want to hang on to the $14.2mill of subsidies received because
Ryman Healthcare, the country’s largest retirement village operator, paid $44m in first-half dividends to its shareholders after taking $14.2m in wage subsidies. It has not paid it back.
Ryman justified the payments by saying it had spent three times the subsidy amount on PPE gear and other procedures such as additional cleaning and extra staff to protect residents and staff.
Well those reasons above where not the basis on which claims could be made – they were to protect staff wages if they could not work. I'd expect them to be getting a very stiff letter demanding repayment ASAP.
That just about cleans out the NZX top 50. There is another retirement company still to go I think. But – do they have to be humiliated one by one in the media before they think of paying it back. – some moral compass. Even ones that are well within the claim boundary Z say and Auckland Int airport – could look at repaying at some future date when they have recovered a bit more and not rule it out entirely.
That now just leaves all the listed companies outside the NZX top 50 plus overseas and other privately held organisations. It would be good if the super fund and ACC and other government investment pools holding shares made it clear that as shareholders they expect ethical action and repayment.
And the IRD needs to publish the whole list because they made it clear from the beginning that they would. Not just give it to the media.
Taxpayers funds and I bet they’d get at least some people exposed for having claimed without employees being onpaid.
Chris Trotter wrote an excellent article a month or so ago describing the Professional Managerial Class. Political careerists ( who make up the majority of parliament) should be added to his list of abetters of neoliberalism.
“ The PMC is distinguished by the role it plays in mediating Capitalism’s relationship with its most injured victims. Without the PMC army of lawyers, probation officers, social workers, health professionals, teachers, journalists and “communications specialists” to extinguish the fires ignited constantly by economic exploitation and social exclusion, the whole of capitalist society would soon be engulfed in flames. .”
does anyone else remember grant robertson assuring us we were near the head of the queue for a vaccine..?
No, don't remember that – can you remember roughly when Robertson gave that assurance, or what the occasion/medium was? Could it have been a different government minister?
Have you got a link Phillip? Did a Google search and couldn't find any evidence of "grant robertson assuring us we were near the head of the queue for a vaccine".
Or maybe you could point me in the right direction? Bit of a vaccine mystery
Ginny Andersen: How will domestic capability and manufacturing contribute to New Zealand accessing a vaccine?
Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: New Zealand’s science and vaccine manufacturing sectors have an incredibly important role to play in ensuring New Zealanders get early access to a vaccine. Locally, the Vaccine Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand will receive $10 million to lead COVID-19 vaccine research through a vaccine development and evaluation platform. This will see the brightest minds from the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, the University of Otago, and Victoria University of Wellington work together to support global efforts to develop vaccines that are safe and fit for purpose. BioCell will receive $3 million to upgrade its existing facilities so it’s in a position to scale up and support local and global vaccine manufacturing. Depending on the chosen vaccine, this could see up to 100 million vaccines manufactured annually right here in New Zealand—an important contribution to the global effort. New Zealand is well placed through the efforts of our researchers and Medsafe to leverage our expertise and to ensure that everybody can access a safe and effective vaccine as soon as possible.
Ginny Andersen: How will New Zealand’s relative success in dealing with the coronavirus mean we are at the back of the queue for the vaccine?
Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: No. Our relative success to date in keeping COVID-19 contained in New Zealand does not count against us when we aim to secure a vaccine to keep our population protected from COVID-19. Our vaccine strategy has been developed with this in mind, and this latest boost in funding is key to being part of and contributing to global efforts. This is a novel approach to securing vaccine access, but new and innovative approaches are required to ensure that New Zealand does not get left behind. We know that vaccine nationalism is the inhibitor to progress in our search for a vaccine, so our multilateral approaches with leading international organisations and in partnership with our Australian neighbours mean we are well placed to secure supply as one become available. https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansD_20200901_20200901
Of course, you’re not making up shit and nobody was implying such thing. However, people’s memories are notoriously unreliable. In addition, many things are open to interpretation. Sometimes, people accidentally leave out important context, which can have a dramatic and profound impact on meaning and purpose. For these reasons, mainly, it is common courtesy and thus generally a good idea to include links, especially when specifically asked.
The last time you provided a link was 14 October, last year (!) as far as I can tell, i.e. 442 comments ago. Surely, by now you have mastered your new phone to enrich your comments with links.
I’m going to have to up the stringency index and raise you to the Alert Level 2. I’m afraid your assurances and strong languages are no substitute for actual links, but I’m sure you will understand – Incognito]
does anyone else remember grant robertson assuring us we were near the head of the queue for a vaccine..?
Apologies Phillip – by asking for evidence of your recollection I wasn’t implying that you had a tendency to "fucken just make shit up". My reply to your question about what others remembered was in good faith – I didn't remember Robertson giving that assurance, and couldn’t find the evidence.
Obviously best for all concerned if I just accept your and Adrian's memories as evidence – no doubt you would be similarly unquestioning.
Who knows, maybe tomorrow I'll have a clear memory of Robertson giving that assurance too – stranger things have happened
Robertson said something along the lines of spending $37million? got us in the queue for a number of vaccines when they became available.
Another thing that pisses me off is the number of numb nuts who espouse that we should relax all covid rules now when it was always stated by the Government that the lockdowns were to secure the hospital and medical resources until it was safe and a vaccine was freely available. Which by the way is still a long way off.;
I agree. The number of new daily cases is still on the rise. And thought I've said this often – now is the most likely time for a random human to catch covid-19.
I've only said it often because the number of new cases keeps going up.
Documents released by Treasury on Friday show that it is forecasting that the Ministry of Health will need $2.8 million in next year’s Budget for what it calls a “National Immunisation Solution”.
It is then forecasting that spending to double to $5.6 million in the 2022 Budget for 2022/23 and is forecasting the same amount of spending again in the 2023/24 year.
The projections would seem to suggest that funding has been set aside for six months of the 2021/22 year and then from July 2022 to ramp up to a full vaccination programme.
A spokesperson for Finance Minister Grant Robertson told POLITIK last night that if a vaccine were to be available earlier, then funding would be available.
Remember this? Point about questioning motives is apposite, don't you think?
Posted September 13 NZ Businesses Will Not Thrive Until COVID Elimination Policy Ends
A Vaccine Fix Is a Fantasy…
Because the truth is, NZ is now using dynamite to blow up the ship in order to kill a flea that’s really only an ant. We’re going to sink if we don’t stop. NZ’s current refusal to change course with updated information doesn’t make sense. No wonder people are starting to question both narratives and motives.
Watched the Trevor Mallard interview with the Select Committee. His version seemed reasonable and no matter how the Nats picked at him, he seemed confident. As for Bishop trying to be clever, he really is a self-serving prick. No substance to his questions and imagine him being highly ranked in his cabinet!!!
was he questioned about how dodgy it seems that after doing what he did..he got his deputy to change the law..to exempt him from any financial penalties..
and these penalties to be shouldered by the taxpayers..?
…was he questioned about how dodgy it seems that after doing what he did..he got his deputy to change the law..to exempt him from any financial penalties.
Except that he didn't which you would know if you had listened to the select committee.
The point you seem to be making is that Mallard gave Tolley instructions to make that decision in a certain way.
Whereas what seems to have happened is that he avoided an obvious conflict of interest by delegating a decision that directly affected him to the deputy speaker.
I must have been watching a different interview then. I don't think Mallard sounded very confident or convincing at all. It sounds likely this is going to cost the tax payer a lot more than $333k.
"he interpreted misconduct as rape which it did not amount to rape"
A real claytons apology if ever I heard one, He basically still claims the mans actions as miss-conduct even when Parliamentary services found no evidence to support the accusations.
Ah well it's okay since he plays for the Red team, I can only imagine the outrage here if he was on the Blue team.
this is going to cost the tax payer a lot more than $333k.
The accused has a seperate case against the Parl Services but that is about the way they suspended him. Nothing to do with Mallard at all.
When Mallard made his fateful remarks he was going on the just released Review of the unsafe Parl Environment. That was what he commented on and didn't know anything about the particular accused. At that time.
Knew he was wrong within 24 hours and makes no effort to retract – an effective Bishop skewering of the Mallard sausage before going on the babrie.
Now every National MP asked by the Speaker of the House to withdraw and apologise in the next three years can say – may I have 24 hours to think about that?
It's mighty impressive to see Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison complain about China banning the importation of their coal. Morrison has led a government that has repeatedly scorned attempts to mitigate climate change and in particular supporting a massive new coal mine in Queensland, and killing off any carbon trading effort,
Morrison is right to ask "Which one of Australia's sovereign national interests .. the government should have traded away" to appease China.
a list showcasing 15 of New Zealand’s top trade partners, countries that imported the most shipments by dollar value from New Zealand during 2019. Also shown is each trade partner’s percentage of total New Zealand exports.
China: US$11 billion (28.8% of New Zealand’s total exports)
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Stormy Seas: Will Jacinda Ardern's Labour Government stand behind the revolutionary proposals contained in He Puapua – the 20-year plan devised by a government appointed working group to realise the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand?“GETTING AHEAD of the story” is one of the most ...
We have not been fans of the Climate Change Commission’s draft report. New Zealand has an Emissions Trading Scheme with a binding cap, and a declining path for net emissions in the covered sector. Measures taken within the covered sector cannot reduce net emissions. NZU not purchased by one sector get ...
For several decades under Labour and National-led governments New Zealand has claimed to have an independent (and sometimes autonomous) foreign policy. This foreign policy independence is said to be gained by having a “principled but pragmatic” approach to international relations: principled when possible, pragmatic when necessary. More recently NZ foreign ...
This video produced in Seattle looks at the gender identity curriculum used in schools in the US. A thin veneer of pseudoscience is being used to indoctrinate children with an ideology based on scientific and medical inaccuracies. ...
For once, I have written my submission on a bill with enough time to spare to both enocurage any of you who wants to make a submission to do so as well, and to give you time to spot the typos in mine.Louisa Wall's Harmful Digital Communications (Unauthorised Posting of Intimate ...
A friend found a concerning FB post (see below – this is a public post & so I have not redacted the name) & – as you do – immediately queried it with Southern Cross Life & Health Insurance as well as sending the screenshot to me¹. We both read ...
Judith Collins’ National Party leadership is under more scrutiny, with increased talk in the media of her being replaced by brand new MP Christopher Luxon. For many commentators it’s just a question of “when” rather than “if” Collins is replaced. While others ponder whether Luxon really has what it takes ...
‘Tis the season for unearthing the rarest gems in Tolkien adaptation – which, considering that the fandom has been dominated by Peter Jackson for nigh on two decades, is a positively heart-warming development. It is why I have devoted so much blog space to the obscure and weirdly wonderful ...
Whatever the damage, especially to the British economy, Brexit has done us a service by illustrating the complexity of trade.Brexit is the only example we have of two closely integrated sophisticated economies severing trading ties. The European Union and Britain still do not have tariffs or import quotas between them ...
The Palmerston North City Council has voted for Māori wards: Palmerston North Māori will be guaranteed one or two seats on the city council from 2022, and this time, there is nothing opponents can do about it. The council decided by an 11-5 vote at its monthly meeting this ...
Kids are striking for the climate today, demanding a decent, liveable future. Meanwhile, the National Party, the reliable servant of the farm lobby and other polluting businesses, is calling for action to be delayed: National has written to Climate Change Minister James Shaw calling for him to extend the ...
Today tens of thousands of schoolkids have walked out of school to strike for a future free from climate change. And tens of thousands of older New Zealanders have joined them. Their demands are clear: eliminate fossil fuels, implement 100% renewable energy with a just transition, and support our Pacific ...
The Gods That Failed.We studied the dialecticRead the whole of ‘Capital’So we could follow youSo we could follow youHow we shoutedHow we scrawledPainted slogans on city wallsOn prison wallsProof we had followed youBut, we still didn’t find what we’re looking forAnd we still haven’t found what we’re looking forWhen they ...
Conventional Wisdom? The Republican Right is convinced that to “go woke” is to “go broke”. It simply does not believe sufficient Americans feel strongly enough about social justice to make any kind of boycott remotely effective. Clearly, the Boards of Directors of more and more American corporations disagree. RECENT MOVES by ...
On November 25, 2020 Skeptical Science Inc. became a registered nonprofit organization and on March 17, 2021 our application to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for 501(c)(3) status was approved. In this blog post, we’ll explain why we went down this path and what will come next. Since its ...
Blowing Hot And Cold: Mike Hosking’s bosses should, perhaps, ask themselves what message Newstalk-ZB (and NZME) is sending to the people of New Zealand if Mike Hosking, their self-appointed “People’s Prosecutor”, is accorded bragging rights for “cancelling” the democratically-elected Prime Minister of New Zealand. Especially when said Prime Minister’s only ...
Ali Boyle, University of CambridgeIf you ask people to list the most intelligent animals, they’ll name a few usual suspects. Chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants are often mentioned, as are crows, dogs and occasionally pigs. Horses don’t usually get a look in. So it might come as a surprise that ...
Selwyn Manning and I dedicated this week’s video podcast to the potential emergence of rival blocs within the transitional process involved in the move from a unipolar to a multipolar international system currently underway. However one characterises the phenomenon–autocracies versus democracies, East versus West, colonial versus post-colonial–the global order is ...
With the rediscovery of the lost Soviet Lord of the Rings, the time has come for the important things in life. Specifically, compiling the Tom Bombadil scenes from the three known screen adaptations that feature him: This is a collection of scenes from:– Sagan om Ringen (1971: ...
Back in February the Climate Change Commission recommended a ban on new coal-fired boilers, and a phase out of existing ones by 2037. And today, the government has said they will implement that policy, and backed it up with funding to help transition some of our large pollution sources: ...
A ballot for three members bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Income Tax (Adjustment of Taxable Income Ranges) Amendment Bill (Simon Bridges) Regulatory Standards Bill (David Seymour) Human Rights (Disability Assist Dogs Non-Discrimination) Amendment Bill (Ricardo Menéndez March) The first two ...
Back in 2014, the police raided and searched journalist Nicky Hager's home over his book Dirty Politics, seizing his journalistic work in an effort to identify his sources to please their political masters in the National party. The raid - and much of the police's related investigative work - was ...
By Professor Tony Blakely, Dr Tim Wilson, Luke Thorburn and Professor Nathan Grills, University of MelbourneA new web tool, COVID-19 Pandemic Trade-offs, allows people to weigh the costs and benefits of different policy responses as Australia rolls out vaccines and considers opening borders.See here for an associated explanatory ...
The Greens welcome $6.6 million from the Government’s $455 million programme to increase access to mental health and addiction services for our Pasifika communities in Auckland and Wellington. ...
The Green Party is putting a Member’s Bill into the ballot today which will be a significant step towards overhauling the Social Security Act by embedding a tikanga Māori framework into the welfare system. ...
The Green Party have reaffirmed their strong commitment to the union movement in Aotearoa New Zealand by renewing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with E Tū. ...
Soon, more kids in Aotearoa will have access to the in-school mental health support that has boosted the resilience of tamariki and whānau in Canterbury. ...
The Green Party supports the open letter released today by a cross-sector coalition calling for the Government to treat all drug use as a health issue, to repeal and replace the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975. ...
Small businesses are not only the heart of our economy – they’re also the heart of our communities. They provide important goods and services, as well as great employment opportunities. They know and love their locals. And after a tough year, they need our support! ...
Green Party spokesperson for Pacific Peoples Teanau Tuiono MP, supports the demand from Pasifika communities fighting for climate action as their homelands are more at risk in the Pacific region. ...
The Green Party supports the six demands for climate action put forward by School Strike for Climate NZ, who are striking across the country today. ...
The Ministry of Justice Māori victimisation report, released today, reinforces what we already know about the impact of systemic racism in Aotearoa and that urgent action is needed. ...
Ricardo Menéndez March’s Members Bill to ensure that disabled New Zealanders do not face discrimination for having a disability assist dog was today pulled from the biscuit tin to be debated in Parliament. ...
More than one million people will be better off from today, thanks to our Government’s changes to the minimum wage, main benefits and superannuation. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to do more for New Zealanders who continue to miss out, as main benefits are set to rise by less than $8 a week tomorrow, Thursday 1 April (at the start of the financial year). ...
Sunday 28th March 70 Rongomaiwahine descendants welcomed members of the Green Party’s Māori Caucus, Te Mātāwaka, Dr Elizabeth Kerekere and Teanau Tuiono, to discuss concerns about RocketLab’s operations on the Mahia Peninsula. ...
New Zealand has today added its voice to the international condemnation of the malicious compromise and exploitation of the SolarWinds Orion platform. The Minister Responsible for the Government Communications Security Bureau, Andrew Little, says that New Zealand's international partners have analysed the compromise of the SolarWinds Orion platform and attributed ...
An expert consenting panel has approved the Queenstown Arterials Project, which will significantly improve transport links and reduce congestion for locals and visitors in the tourism hotspot. Environment Minister David Parker welcomed the approval for the project that will construct, operate and maintain a new urban road around Queenstown’s town ...
Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash says a landmark deal has been agreed with Amazon for The Lord of the Rings TV series, currently being filmed in New Zealand. Mr Nash says the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) secures multi-year economic and tourism benefits to New Zealand, outside the screen ...
The Government welcomes the findings from a rapid review into the health system response to lead contamination in Waikouaiti’s drinking water supply. Sample results from the town’s drinking-water supply showed intermittent spikes in lead levels above the maximum acceptable value. The source of the contamination is still under investigation by ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood today marked the start of construction on the New Zealand Upgrade Programme’s Papakura to Drury South project on Auckland’s Southern Motorway, which will create hundreds of jobs and support Auckland’s economic recovery. The SH1 Papakura to Drury South project will give more transport choices by providing ...
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karanga maha o te wa, tēnā koutou, tēna koutou, tēna tātou katoa. Ki ngā mana whenua, ko Ngāi Tahu, ko Waitaha, ko Kāti Māmoe anō nei aku mihi ki a koutou. Nōku te hōnore kia haere mai ki te ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood today marked the completion of upgrades to State Highway 20B which will give Aucklanders quick electric bus trips to and from the airport. The State Highway 20B Early Improvements project has added new lanes in each direction between Pukaki Creek Bridge and SH20 for buses and ...
The Government is putting in place a review of the work being done on animal welfare and safety in the greyhound racing industry, Grant Robertson announced today. “While Greyhound Racing NZ has reported some progress in implementing the recommendations of the Hansen Report, recent incidents show the industry still has ...
The infringement fee for using a mobile phone while driving will increase from $80 to $150 from 30 April 2021 to encourage safer driving, Transport Minister Michael Wood announced today. Michael Wood said too many people are still picking up the phone while driving. “Police issued over 40,000 infringement notices ...
Pacific people in New Zealand will be better supported with new mental health and addiction services rolling out across the Auckland and Wellington regions, says Aupito William Sio. “One size does not fit all when it comes to supporting the mental wellbeing of our Pacific peoples. We need a by ...
New measures are being proposed to accelerate progress towards becoming a smokefree nation by 2025, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced. “Smoking or exposure to second-hand smoke kills around 12 people a day in New Zealand. Recent data tells us New Zealand’s smoking rates continue to decrease, but ...
More children will be able to access mental wellbeing support with the Government expansion of Mana Ake services to five new District Health Board areas, Health Minister Andrew Little says. The Health Minister made the announcement while visiting Homai School in Counties Manukau alongside Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate ...
The Government’s COVID-19 response has meant a record number of people moved off a Benefit and into employment in the March Quarter, with 32,880 moving into work in the first three months of 2021. “More people moved into work last quarter than any time since the Ministry of Social Development ...
A stocktake undertaken by France and New Zealand shows significant global progress under the Christchurch Call towards its goal to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. The findings of the report released today reinforce the importance of a multi-stakeholder approach, with countries, companies and civil society working together to ...
Racing Minister Grant Robertson has announced he is appointing Elizabeth Dawson (Liz) as the Chair of the interim TAB NZ Board. Liz Dawson is an existing Board Director of the interim TAB NZ Board and Chair of the TAB NZ Board Selection Panel and will continue in her role as ...
The Government has announced that the export of livestock by sea will cease following a transition period of up to two years, said Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “At the heart of our decision is upholding New Zealand’s reputation for high standards of animal welfare. We must stay ahead of the ...
WORKSHOP ON LETHAL AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS SYSTEMS Wednesday 14 April 2021 MINISTER FOR DISARMAMENT AND ARMS CONTROL OPENING REMARKS Good morning, I am so pleased to be able to join you for part of this workshop, which I’m confident will help us along the path to developing New Zealand’s national policy on ...
For the first time, all 18 prisons in New Zealand will be invited to participate in an inter-prison kapa haka competition, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. The 2021 Hōkai Rangi Whakataetae Kapa Haka will see groups prepare and perform kapa haka for experienced judges who visit each prison and ...
The Government has introduced the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Bill, designed to boost New Zealand's ability to respond to a wider range of terrorist activities. The Bill strengthens New Zealand’s counter-terrorism legislation and ensures that the right legislative tools are available to intervene early and prevent harm. “This is the Government’s first ...
Coal boiler replacements at a further ten schools, saving an estimated 7,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide over the next ten years Fossil fuel boiler replacements at Southern Institute of Technology and Taranaki DHB, saving nearly 14,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide over the next ten years Projects to achieve a total ...
Attorney-General David Parker today announced the appointment of Cassie Nicholson as Chief Parliamentary Counsel for a term of five years. The Chief Parliamentary Counsel is the principal advisor and Chief Executive of the Parliamentary Counsel Office (PCO). She is responsible for ensuring PCO, which drafts most of New Zealand’s legislation, provides ...
Every part of Government will need to take urgent action to bring down emissions, the Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw said today in response to the recent rise in New Zealand’s greenhouse emissions. The latest annual inventory of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions shows that both gross and net ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark says Aotearoa New Zealand has become the first country in the world to introduce a law that requires the financial sector to disclose the impacts of climate change on their business and explain how they will manage climate-related risks and opportunities. The Financial ...
Exceptional employment practices in the primary industries have been celebrated at the Good Employer Awards, held this evening at Parliament. “Tonight’s awards provided the opportunity to celebrate and thank those employers in the food and fibres sector who have gone beyond business-as-usual in creating productive, safe, supportive, and healthy work ...
Applications are now invited from all councils for a slice of government funding aimed at improving tourism infrastructure, especially in areas under pressure given the size of their rating bases. Tourism Minister Stuart Nash has already signalled that five South Island regions will be given priority to reflect that jobs ...
Tēnā koutou e ngā maata waka Tenā koutou te hau kāinga ngā iwi o Te Whanganui ā TaraTēnā koutou i runga i te kaupapa o te Rā. No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tatou katoa. It is a pleasure to be here tonight. Thank you Graeme (Peters, ENA Chief ...
The Construction Skills Action Plan has delivered early on its overall target of supporting an additional 4,000 people into construction-related education and employment, says Minister for Building and Construction Poto Williams. Since the Plan was launched in 2018, more than 9,300 people have taken up education or employment opportunities in ...
An innovative new Youth Justice residence designed in partnership with Māori will provide prevention, healing, and rehabilitation services for both young people and their whānau, Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Whakatakapokai is located in South Auckland and will provide care and support for up to 15 rangatahi remanded or ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today expressed New Zealand’s sorrow at the death of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. “Our thoughts are with Her Majesty The Queen at this profoundly sad time. On behalf of the New Zealand people and the Government, I would like to express ...
We, the Home Affairs, Interior, Security and Immigration Ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America (the ‘Five Countries’) met via video conference on 7/8 April 2021, just over a year after the outbreak of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Guided by our shared ...
Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni has today announced the opening of the first round of Ngā Puninga Toi ā-Ahurea me ngā Kaupapa Cultural Installations and Events. “Creating jobs and helping the arts sector rebuild and recover continues to be a key part of the Government’s COVID-19 response,” Carmel ...
Interim legislation that is already proving to keep people safer from drugs will be made permanent, Health Minister Andrew Little says. Research by Victoria University, on behalf of the Ministry of Health, shows that the Government’s decision in December to make it legal for drug-checking services to operate at festivals ...
Public consultation launched on ways to improve behaviour and reduce damage Tighter rules proposed for either camping vehicles or camping locations Increased penalties proposed, such as $1,000 fines or vehicle confiscation Rental companies may be required to collect fines from campers who hire vehicles Public feedback is sought on proposals ...
The Government is continuing to support Air New Zealand while aviation markets stabilise and the world moves towards more normal border operations. The Crown loan facility made available to Air New Zealand in March 2020 has been extended to a debt facility of up to $1.5 billion (an additional $600 ...
Christchurch’s Richmond suburb will soon have a new community hub, following the gifting of a red-zoned property by Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) to the Richmond Community Gardens Trust. The Minister for Land Information, Damien O’Connor said that LINZ, on behalf of the Crown, will gift a Vogel Street house ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the reopening of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples’ (MPP) Languages Funding in 2021 will make sure there is a future for Pacific languages. “Language is the key to the wellbeing for Pacific people. It affirms our identity as Pasifika and ...
It is a pleasure to be here tonight. Thank you Cameron for the introduction and thank you for ERANZ for also hosting this event. Last week in fact, we had one of the largest gatherings in our sector, Downstream 2021. I have heard from my officials that the discussion on ...
Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods has today announced the 16 projects that will together get $3.9 million through the 2021 round of Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund, further strengthening the Government’s commitment to Māori knowledge in science and innovation. “We received 78 proposals - the highest ...
The Government is delivering on a key election commitment to tackle climate change, by banning new low and medium temperature coal-fired boilers and partnering with the private sector to help it transition away from fossil fuels. This is the first major announcement to follow the release of the Climate Commission’s ...
Six projects, collectively valued at over $70 million are delivering new schools, classrooms and refurbished buildings across Central Otago and are helping to ease the pressure of growing rolls in the area, says Education Minister Chris Hipkins. The National Education Growth Plan is making sure that sufficient capacity in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Hancock, School visitor, Australian National University Andrew Sharp Peacock, for so long “the coming man” of Australian politics, has died in the United States aged 82. Born in 1939, he was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne, acquired a law degree at ...
“ A Ministry of Health graph drawn by a graphic designer with no data to inform it is the perfect metaphor for this Government, all spin and no substance,” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “Like most things with this government, they present ...
OWell, well, well. New Zealand its expressing its indignation about something the Russians may or may not have been doing. But this expression of the nation’s indignation comes not from Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta but from Andrew Little, our Minister of … No, not Health on this occasion. Nor ...
"He pulled down the straps of her tank top with his teeth and bit her neck..Afterwards, she pretended it didn’t happen": a short story by Auckland writer Leanne RadojkovichA teenager riding an e-scooter shot across the intersection towards Patsy, she stepped aside, the front wheel took the ...
Critic's Chair: Guy Somerset watches and listens to two wonderful series on YouTube and Spotify featuring great raconteurs and wits broadcast from their homes during the long UK lockdown This week, the UK started off along the second stage of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s “cautious but irreversible” roadmap to the ...
What happens when the world’s rarest gull sets up camp in earthquake-damaged buildings in central Christchurch? Frank Film investigates. Christchurch’s population of endangered tarāpuka/black-billed gulls may have a new home. The Christchurch City Council is hoping to fashion a new site for the gulls in what was once part of ...
WATCH: In the heart-wrenching final episode of the Pure As video series, Silver Ferns shooter Maia Wilson reveals the on-court highs and off-court lows she's been through. Maia Wilson's young life has already been an emotional rollercoaster. While her netball career soars to new heights every time she takes the court, away ...
LISTEN: Is 2021 the year the Tactix finally get to lift netball's ANZ Premiership trophy? with the ANZ Premiership starting this weekend, how will the absence of Silver Fern captain Amerliaranne Ekenasio affect the two-time champions Central Pulse? What impact will Australian international Caitlin Bassett have for the Waikato Bay of ...
After a marathon year of droughts and water restrictions, Auckland finally has a goal to reduce its water consumption Water, water everywhere, and most certainly in the news. After a massive public information campaign last year, Aucklanders managed to knock 100 million litres a day off the city’s water consumption. ...
A new initiative is taking on food insecurity and food wastage by encouraging diners to take uneaten food home. And, as chefs taking part of the scheme explain, what you do with those leftovers needn’t be limited to a quick blat in the microwave. It’s hard to know just how much ...
With the council in disarray, former Wellington mayor Justin Lester sat down with The Spinoff to share his thoughts on what’s gone wrong, and what needs to happen from here. Justin Lester is running again. When we meet at the Civic Square cafe Nikau, the former Wellington mayor is breaking in a ...
After months of lockdown, pubs in England were allowed to reopen this week, with outdoor seating only. New Zealander George Fenwick headed out to see how Londoners were welcoming the return of a cornerstone of British social life.Trying to explain what life has been like in the UK for the ...
The government's priorities are being questioned after announcing it will be giving Amazon a more than $100 million boost to film the Lord of the Rings television series here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Keane, Professor of Chinese Digital Media and Culture, Queensland University of Technology China’s state-run anti-monopoly bureau has tightened its regulations on big tech players, as shown by its recent move against the country’s largest e-commerce company, Alibaba Group. Alibaba was hit ...
Campaign & Petition Launch “Racial INJustice Matters” calling for an immediate independent inquiry into Institutional Racism and Racial Profiling by the Waikato Police. Where we live, work, play should be safe for everyone, no matter ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and Director of the Institute for Governance & Policy Analysis Dr Lain Dare discuss the week in politics. This week the pair discuss the evidence given by Christine ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Carlson, Professor, Indigenous Studies, Macquarie University Recently, we have witnessed an uprising of thousands marching in the streets fuelled by outrage against the violence and sexual assault experienced by women. Indigenous women and gender diverse people also marched and shared this ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. India only at Magnitude 4 for reported cases. Chart by Keith Rankin. New Zealand has, for the rest of this month, banned all people who have been in India this month from entry into New Zealand. The decision is based not on the incidence of Covid19 ...
The screen industry – or some of its more well-heeled operators – today learned the government is keen to improve its wellbeing. This followed several blasts of Beehive trumpeting about initiatives to improve the wellbeing and wellness of we Kiwis. The announcements yesterday included the heartening news that the Government’s ...
The new Ministry for Ethnic Communities comes into being on 1 July. It’s important that the views and needs of Aotearoa New Zealand’s many and diverse ethnic communities help set the priorities for the new organisation from day one. We are running a series ...
The National Party need to take a good hard look at themselves, following their Economic Development spokesperson’s endorsement of Kiwi taxpayers stumping up for welfare for the American multi billion dollar corporation, Amazon. Responding to ...
New Zealand is not rejigging its Covid-19 immunisation programme despite predictions people will need a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine within 12 months. ...
Predator Free 2050 Limited has announced new investments in predator free projects around the country. Existing projects in Taranaki, Waiheke and Dunedin, a new project in Te Urewera, and a feasibility study on Aotea Great Barrier Island will benefit ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Mitchell, Professor of Nursing, University of Newcastle The Australian public’s infection control literacy continues to expand. We know what PPE is, what “flattening the curve” means, and we are growing increasingly familiar with the term “deep clean”. But what does a ...
The High Court in Auckland this week ordered overseas investors to pay penalties totalling $1.38 million and legal costs for breaching the Overseas Investment Act. The significant penalty follows a family purchasing five forestry blocks totalling ...
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.AUCKLAND1The Mirror Book by Charlotte Grimshaw (Vintage, $38)It’s the book everyone’s talking about – and writing about. ...
A little understanding – and a few simple, easy-to-follow rules – can make a huge difference to our lives, Autistic advocate Rory McCarthy writes.Autistic people have difficult lives: a lot of things that seem trivial or a sign of over-sensitivity to allistic (non-Autistic people) actually affect us quite significantly. There ...
Analysis - A startling revelation shows up cracks in the testing regime just as the vaccine rollout comes under scrutiny, and National faces another bout of leadership speculation, writes Peter Wilson. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is urging ACC to ignore diktats from the Minister of Finance . “ACC should be left to independently manage the hard-earned funds it receives from levy-payers,” says Union spokesman Jordan Williams. “It’s ...
The New Zealand Veterinary Association (NZVA) is not surprised by the government’s decision to ban live exports by sea and believes the two- year transition period is pragmatic for businesses in the sector. We are not surprised by the decision and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cristina Pozo-Gonzalo, Senior Research Fellow, Deakin University Rare-earth metals are critical to the high-tech society we live in as an essential component of mobile phones, computers and many other everyday devices. But increasing demand and limited global supply means we must urgently ...
Looking to buy a unit or apartment? You might need to think twice or even three times, if this Prime documentary is anything to go by, writes Jacqueline Paul.If you are hoping to buy a home built between the late 1980s and the mid-2000s, there is a significant risk that ...
Amid some in-House knitting drama this week, there was more speculation the knives are out for National Party leader Judith Collins. But doesn't National always have its knives out? James Elliott has the news of the week. It was an exciting week for those holding tickets in the “Seymour Sweepstake”, ...
A poem from Mohamed Hassan’s Ockham-shortlisted collection National Anthem.And before that we were starsCan you please look at this poem and tell me if it’s good?it’s for my fiancé she’s really far away I want to say how I feel but my English is limited, can you read it?she works ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. Click here to subscribe to Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup and New Zealand Politics Daily. Today’s contentNational Party leadership Matthew Hooton (Herald): My message to National – and how to avoid ...
A new full-time role recording, editing and mixing content for The Spinoff podcast network, based in our Morningside office. We’re looking for an experienced sound engineer. The successful applicant will be responsible for recording, editing and mixing content for The Spinoff podcast network and managing the podcast studio. In addition to ...
Rainbow youth still facing stigma and stress but positive signs: new findings Youth19, the latest in a series of surveys focused on young people in Aotearoa, asked 7,721 secondary school-aged students about their experiences of school, home and community. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rajib Dasgupta, Chairperson, Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University India is in the grip of a massive second wave of COVID-19 infections, surpassing even the United States and Brazil in terms of new daily infections. The current spike ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW Perhaps the most important lesson from the Christine Holgate controversy is that the confluence of sexism and politics leads to double standards for female executives. But Holgate’s demise – pushed from her position as Australia Post’s ...
The $162 million subsidy for one of the world’s richest companies proves Amazon has New Zealand taxpayers over a barrel, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “Treasury has previously warned that our ...
The Government has just announced a review of the greyhound racing industry, following reports from SAFE, Greyhound Protection League and Grey2K USA Worldwide of ongoing cruelty within the greyhound racing industry. In the announcement, Minister for Racing ...
Books editor Catherine Woulfe with a personal story about structured literacy, the step-by-step reading system that’s gaining traction across the country. My boy is called Ben and he turns seven in October. In the battle over how kids learn to read, he is a data point of one. But he ...
Wellington, 15 April 2021 - Cancer Society says Government's proposed smokefree plan includes bold and forward-thinking measures that are needed at this time to make smokefree 2025 a reality. S moking is the biggest cause of cancer and preventable ...
Climate justice organisation 350 Aotearoa is celebrating the direction from the government for the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) to accelerate its moves to divest from investments in fossil fuels. The direction to ACC to divest ...
Far from worshipping their former colonial masters, by proudly appropriating and indigenising a piece of British culture the Tannese are asserting their own mana, writes Scott Hamilton.In the aftermath of Prince Philip’s death, the western media has turned its gaze to Tanna, a mountainous island in the far south of ...
The Federation of Islamic Associations is accusing the Office of Ethnic Communities of being insensitive by scheduling community meetings during the holy month of Ramadan. ...
The government’s slight increase in fines for drivers illegally using cellphones is ‘pathetic’, says the car review website dogandlemon.com . Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson, who is an outspoken road safety campaigner, says many drivers will simply continue ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for April 16, bringing you the latest news throughout the day. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 8.00am: Fine for using a cell phone while driving almost doubles You’ll seen be fined $150 if you’re caught using a cell phone while behind the wheel, transport ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Baron, Associate professor, Australian Catholic University In 1994, physicist Miguel Alcubierre proposed a radical technology that would allow faster than light travel: the warp drive, a hypothetical way to skirt around the universe’s ultimate speed limit by bending the fabric of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sandra Rojas, Speech pathologist and Lecturer in Voice Disorders, Department of Speech Pathology, Orthopedics & Audiology, La Trobe University Losing our voice, having a hoarse voice, or having any difficulties with our voice can be challenging, especially for those who need to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Don Driscoll, Professor in Terrestrial Ecology, Deakin University Feral horses are a catastrophic problem for the environment, particularly in the high country that crosses the New South Wales and Victoria border. To deal with this growing issue, the Victorian government has released ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca English, Lecturer in Education, Queensland University of Technology Home education, sometimes called homeschooling, is when children are educated outside a formal institution like a school. Parents of home-educated children are wholly responsible for facilitating their child’s learning. This is different to ...
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I know that some people live without dogs in their lives..
but I find it hard to figure out why..?
why would you do that..?
I know! I've got 8 of the buggers .
yr giving me dog-envy here…I only have two..
with five having been my dog-peak in the past..
Birds
?
It's not really the dogs that are the problem it's their dimwitted owners. I live on an estuary and get sick of owners letting their dogs chase wading birds who are minding their own business and having lunch. I stay sometimes at Piha where I watch entitled owners walk past the signs that say no dogs because of nesting penguins – belonging, I presume to the 'my dog wouldn't' brigade. I also have issues with being sniffed at in the street while the owner tries to reassure me that it won't bite. That's not the point – I don't want to be sniffed either!
well..I get yr point..
but as it turns out mine 'wouldn't'..
they are both re-homed ex pig-hunting dogs ..
and pig hunting dogs are trained to hunt wild pigs..
..and to be nice to/studiously ignore all other living creatures…
and so…unlike cats…they don't prey on native birds..
Don't do cats either because – birds
Nice one JanM Agree 200%, especially the,
" I don't want to be sniffed either!" bit.
I remember a few years ago some snot got most upset as I did not want his slobbering dog rubbing its filthy face up against my clothing I didn't want to go home smelling of this dog. something a lot of dog owners don't get.
Dogs. Husbands. Whatever. Give me a cat any day.
Agree
Yeah, dogs are for people searching for a subservient pet to control, those who don't have the personality to deal with living with an independent apex predator.
when did you meet my ex..?
Patience of a saint awards ceremony
that'd be that time I got my award..
Sure, you seem like a believable sort of guy lol
I think Winston Churchill had it right.
He said "I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals".
He might, of course, have been thinking of the people he met in the House of Commons. There aren't many cats or dogs there.
pigs are awesome…
so so clever..
… so so tasty… mmmmm, bacon …
so so original…
It is indeed, with bacon being one of the oldest cuts of meat, dating back to around 1500bc.
You should look at how pigs are farmed nowadays.
Your pleasure = their pain.
…. mmmmm, shoulder roast …
https://www.gourmettraveller.com.au/recipes/recipe-collections/roast-pork-recipes-17931
mmm..!..bowel cancer…
but idiots won't be told..
will they..
Y'know, I actually eat very little meat. Maybe 150g a week, on average. As much as anything else, because I really can’t be arsed learning about how to ensure I get enough of all the nutrients needs from a vegetarian diet, and even if I did get the knowledge, I wouldn’t be arsed following it when just a small amount of meat easily provides those nutrients that are hard to get from a vegetarian diet.
But somehow, sanctimonious twattery against meat-eating always gives me an irresistable urge to go snarf down a big chunk of gruesomely murdered and hacked up dead animal.
BTW, there are lots of good arguments for reducing meat consumption, or at least biasing the mix away from beef and lamb towards chicken and pork. But the colon cancer thing is really one of the feeblest of the many arguments against eating meat.
fact..nz has very high consumption of animal flesh..
nz has very high rates of bowel cancer…
you join the dots..eh..?
like I said: 'idiots can't be told'..
I don't eat a lot of red meat now, but I enjoy a good steak about once every two weeks. Eating more chicken, fish and pork these days. But certainly do not want to give it up.
they don't fucken care about that..
they can't claim to not know..
so they just don't care..
their cannablistic addiction to eating flesh over-rules that..
then there are the idiots who preen that (middle-class boast) that they 'only eat organic' chickens/whatever..
they seem deluded to such a degree that they think they are the 'good guys'..and that the exploiters who peddle these organic animals are somehow green/good guys…
..which is bullshit in both cases..
as just one example…what do they think happens to all the male chicks on 'organic'farms..?
..like on the blatantly cruel chicken farms..these cute little chicks are fed(still alive) into the macerator..
this grinds them up…as I said..while they are still alive..
use that nugget of knowledge to wash down your next mouthful of chicken flesh..eh..?
organic..or not..
and think about what is done in your name..
the unholy trinity ..
cruelty..cancer…and fucking the planet…
just to eat flesh…
what a deal..!
On that note, I've just been inspired to head into town to find some kind of bogan joint to chow down a month's worth of my normal consumption in one sitting.
I'll very likely regret it later tonight and tomorrow morning, but I'll blame that on you, too.
Having read through everything that followed from my Churchillian quote I'm not sure I should have offered it.
That is particularly the case since I have just finished dinner where I had an truly excellent fillet steak. Cooked about halfway between saignant and bleu. Quite wonderful. It absolutely melted in the mouth.
Sorry Phillip, but that is not something I am willing to give up.
addictions are like that..
I used to feel the same way about heroin and cocaine mixed together in a syringe..
..addictions are like that..
The Silence of the Lambs.
That's a bit hard Rosie, dogs are not that bad.
Mmmm. Maybe not. But husbands?
You obviously were not brought up on a farm before Hydatdids was erradicated. I still feel uneasy with dogs near me. I have had to give up on cats because I live in an area of ecological importance. I am hoping for a big rabbit for Xmas !
I am hoping for a big rabbit for Xmas !
Yum! Might I suggest…http://allrecipes.com.au/recipes/tag-1232/rabbit.aspx
Little ones taste sweeter but much less meat than a biggie.
https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/rabbit-sausage-recipe-zmaz78mjzgoe
https://www.yummly.com/recipes/rabbit-sausage
Amazing that ~2/3rds of NZ households manage ‘sans dog’ – some will have cats!
Used to care for a 'pet', but it was a bit of a luxury. https://www.petplan.co.nz/
Will the new Minister of Transport pull some reins around Waka Kotahi NZTA?
I am hearing multiple signature projects that I won't list here are billions over budget with many pushed out a decade due to redesign and others with governance changes. This is on top of the billion-plus blowout we've already seen this week.
This is the agency now in charge of changing the largest proportion of our CO2 emissions.
Chair Brian Roche is far more powerful than the Minister of Transport.
Bomber Bradbury has made some interesting predictions for 2021.
He predicts significant social unrest, a crime wave, a dangerous expansion of the meth trade and unemployment, poverty, homelessness and inequality to rise.
Our extreme centrist neoliberal government does not have the tools to fix the issues.
Only a people’s republic of Aotearoa will be able to implement the necessary economic, social and ecological revolution to prepare us for the tsunami of challenges climate change will present us.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/12/16/2021-the-year-sht-hits-the-fan-predictions/
I agree with your last paragraph..
neoliberal governments are too in thrall to vested interests..to be up for the job..
('exempting agriculture' being a recent potent example of that thrall/vested interests neoliberal paradigm..)
..and we are fishing out the oceans..and the current reformist activity is to try to let those ocean predators allow us to film them doing this..
how seriously fucked up/impotent is that..?
b.t.w….fish have central nervous systems remarkably similar to ours..
so..if you can imagine the hook thru the cheek/in the stomach…then the hauling in../then the drowning in air..
..you kinda get the idea/picture..
Much kinder to use a priest
Idiot Savant, the author of the No Right Turn, is an excellent and succinct commentator who does not subscribe to the failed liberal ideology.
In a recent blog, he pointed out the world can see through our bullshit about climate change. He records that …..
”Over the weekend, countries which are serious about climate change got together virtually at the international Climate Ambition Summit 2020. But New Zealand pointedly was not invited:”
The Green Party leaders should not have signed up to this government.
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2020/12/climate-change-calling-us-on-our.html
Truth?
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/12/jacinda-ardern-hits-back-at-speculation-over-new-zealand-s-absence-from-climate-action-summit.html
According to that story our emissions have increased. Is it because we have had a solid population increase for the transport increase ? or something else?
Signed up? This is a Labour government, not a Labour led government. The Greens are irrelevant and this government can do what it wants.
Which means more of the neo lib bloody same.
I don’t think you understand the Green Party and NZ politics. Why don’t you read The Standard for a while before you start commenting here?
France and the UK getting serious about fusion …
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201214-the-uks-quest-for-affordable-fusion-by-2040
Geez, we have had fusion for ever!!
Its called the sun.
They've been serious about fusion power since the 1950s, still haven't got sustained fusion. Always been 10 to 20 years away.
(https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201214-the-uks-quest-for-affordable-fusion-by-2040)
(Swift 1726. Gulliver's Travels)
IMO bottled sunshine isn't the only thing these projects have in common …
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201214-the-uks-quest-for-affordable-fusion-by-2040
Put the quote in context.
Still a boondoggle that has consumed a huge amount of research funding over several decades (and looks like it will continue to do so). That funding, IMO, would have (and would be) better spent elsewhere.
For mine, it's the more options we have the better.
This story is becoming more harrowing by the day:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/432925/250-000-estimated-to-have-been-abused-in-state-and-faith-based-care
As a child and teenager, I lived within walking distance of two such homes.
One was the Owairaka Boys Home in Mt Albert where the "bad boys" lived which has been cited as one of those where serious abuse was occurring. The other in Allendale Rd, Mt Albert where the "bad girls" were housed. The house itself was up a long driveway and couldn't be seen from the road. We were told to cross the road when walking past this address yet in all those years I never saw a single girl coming in or out of them.
They were not bad kids of course, they were abused kids.
As a young person I remember sensing something was wrong about both of them but it is only now the truth is coming out.
Okay this data farm would take only 8% of the Manapouri power in the long term for only 25 permanent jobs. But do we want more data farms ? and do we want to sell more power cheaply to them? Or should we sell power at a much higher rate because these places thrive on cheap power. The rest of the story is pretty much overblown PR to disguise the lack of long term country benefits.
So what would be the best over all economic use for New Zealand for the power the smelter no longer uses? Would it be best to give all NZ households a basic dob of cheap / nearly free power (charge higher usages!) to improve the well being of low income households in particular? It would be the same as a modest benefit increase? Or do we look for manufacturing we could do here that provides good jobs and needs reasonable power prices? Some how I think all this decision making should not be left in the hands of the directors of a power company given the input of the taxpayer in the original build.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123714254/up-to-1200-workers-would-be-needed-to-build-south-island-data-centre
Laugh all you like but the most enviromently sensible thing to do with the spare Manapouri power ( the current smelter doesn't use all of it ) is to build another aluminium smelter and retire one elsewhere in the world that is powered by electricity produced from coal.
We have enough wind farm consents approved and ready to go to meet all of our needs for the foreseeable future, including EV transport. Storage is where we are short at the moment.
I had a brief look at the that . As far as I can see most of the remaining smelters are in Canada powered by hydro or China. There may be a strategic issue there if too much of the refining is done in China – but I don't see them closing smelters.I'm assuming future mining will use solar on the spot to stop the shipping costs.
So enviroment apart what is the best economic use for the power in NZ?
I think solar might be a bit of a problem as smelting must be a continuous process and with solar and indeed wind overnight and non-wind times would require enormous storage capacity.
There are efforts underway to make smelting more flexible and adaptable to variable electricity supply. Energia Potior (a spinoff from Auckland University) is just one:
A solar plant that is likely to significantly supply a smelter may be better suited as a concentrating solar thermal plant, rather than photovoltaic. Concentrating solar thermal plants can easily have their storage sized to give continuous overnight operation, and can also be easily adapted to gas emergency backup to keep things ticking along if really needed.
Got to store those cat photos somewhere
Luv It!
data farms? lol, never heard that before.
Having more datacenters here in NZ and bringing more of this tech to NZ in general is a good thing.
I remember the hell that broke out here when Fibre was announced and rolled out around the country. Fast forward to now, and I think it was one of the best decisions National ever made. I recall at the time a whole bunch of people here compared it to 'just being able to download faster'. Well, covid proved that shit wrong.
Another foot note, Hyper Fibre is going in to my place tomorrow. NZ needs to focus more on tech.
We have a growing gaming industry here now with growth predictions of 1BN of revenue by 2025. It's all exports.
It's not tech as such. Just a big warehouse of computers operated from overseas. My beef about the fibre broadband is that payment by the taxpayer doesn't seem to mean ownership. But that's the Nats. Business socialism
I would like to see acknowledgement for the damage and harm done to children, information disclosed to complainants, categorisation headings used under the Crimes Act 1961 of offending against every child sexually abused in state care or out of state care and the years of the offending since 1940.
I am appalled at how files have been treated by the government. In 1986 I tried to get a file of a rape trial and the lawyer told me the file was dumped in a warehouse in boxes and gave a date of a hearing. I did get confirmation from the police in 1990 that there was a trial but the police file had been destroyed. I intend to follow this up. If it is the case the present and past government, MSD and police need to clean this up.
And Ryman healthcare want to hang on to the $14.2mill of subsidies received because
Ryman Healthcare, the country’s largest retirement village operator, paid $44m in first-half dividends to its shareholders after taking $14.2m in wage subsidies. It has not paid it back.
Ryman justified the payments by saying it had spent three times the subsidy amount on PPE gear and other procedures such as additional cleaning and extra staff to protect residents and staff.
Well those reasons above where not the basis on which claims could be made – they were to protect staff wages if they could not work. I'd expect them to be getting a very stiff letter demanding repayment ASAP.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/123721687/retirement-village-operator-summerset-to-repay-86m-covid19-wage-subsidy
rnz news reporting that ryman is also paying back..
who else is on that list of the undeserving..?
Ryman had no other option but to repay it after Summerset came out of the blocks first and said they'd repay it.
I think that a citizen based campaign to publicise who these companies are..will be effective..
(social media..phone calls..picket line..)
..and for many who took it..the economic upturn must mean they are doing fine ..
so…pay it back..!
And publicly admitted they hadn't used the correct criteria? Some lawyer must have given a few words of advice.
That just about cleans out the NZX top 50. There is another retirement company still to go I think. But – do they have to be humiliated one by one in the media before they think of paying it back. – some moral compass. Even ones that are well within the claim boundary Z say and Auckland Int airport – could look at repaying at some future date when they have recovered a bit more and not rule it out entirely.
That now just leaves all the listed companies outside the NZX top 50 plus overseas and other privately held organisations. It would be good if the super fund and ACC and other government investment pools holding shares made it clear that as shareholders they expect ethical action and repayment.
And the IRD needs to publish the whole list because they made it clear from the beginning that they would. Not just give it to the media.
Taxpayers funds and I bet they’d get at least some people exposed for having claimed without employees being onpaid.
Our Child Poverty statistics are appalling.
Bryan Bruce has written an open letter to the Prime Minister.
“According to the 2018 census there are an estimated 4,833 children living in dwellings with no amenities.
Think – that’s the equivalent of the total number of pupils of at least 5 New Zealand High Schools who live in dwellings that have zero….
Cooking facilities
Tap water that is safe to drink
Kitchen sink
Refrigerator
Electricity supply
Refrigerator
Bath or shower
Toilet
Tell me again how addessing Child Poverty in our country is a priority.”
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/12/16/guest-blog-bryan-bruce-dear-prime-minister/
Chris Trotter wrote an excellent article a month or so ago describing the Professional Managerial Class. Political careerists ( who make up the majority of parliament) should be added to his list of abetters of neoliberalism.
“ The PMC is distinguished by the role it plays in mediating Capitalism’s relationship with its most injured victims. Without the PMC army of lawyers, probation officers, social workers, health professionals, teachers, journalists and “communications specialists” to extinguish the fires ignited constantly by economic exploitation and social exclusion, the whole of capitalist society would soon be engulfed in flames. .”
does anyone else remember grant robertson assuring us we were near the head of the queue for a vaccine..?
I wonder how all that's going..
There is an upside to be getting it later.
And we are not the most at risk so I'd rather some in the USA/India/Brazil got it before me.
No, don't remember that – can you remember roughly when Robertson gave that assurance, or what the occasion/medium was? Could it have been a different government minister?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/123501010/covid19-kiwis-will-have-to-wait-even-once-vaccine-is-approved-overseas
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/ministers-still-unsure-overseas-tourists-let-into-nz-countries-begin-covid-vaccine-roll
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/covid-19/nz-gets-in-line-for-covid-19-vaccine
it was robertson…back when the first talk about vaccines was happening..
and responding to the usual cries of ‘what about us?’..
and multi-media…and repeated/more than once…
Have you got a link Phillip? Did a Google search and couldn't find any evidence of "grant robertson assuring us we were near the head of the queue for a vaccine".
Or maybe you could point me in the right direction? Bit of a vaccine mystery
see what Adrian said below..
and just quietly..
I write under my own name..
..and I don’t fucken just make shit up ..
..take that as a given..
[Hi Phil,
Of course, you’re not making up shit and nobody was implying such thing. However, people’s memories are notoriously unreliable. In addition, many things are open to interpretation. Sometimes, people accidentally leave out important context, which can have a dramatic and profound impact on meaning and purpose. For these reasons, mainly, it is common courtesy and thus generally a good idea to include links, especially when specifically asked.
The last time you provided a link was 14 October, last year (!) as far as I can tell, i.e. 442 comments ago. Surely, by now you have mastered your new phone to enrich your comments with links.
Last time I moderated you (https://thestandard.org.nz/national-announces-terms-of-reference-for-its-election-campaign-review/#comment-1767959) it was also for not providing a link when specifically asked.
I’m going to have to up the stringency index and raise you to the Alert Level 2. I’m afraid your assurances and strong languages are no substitute for actual links, but I’m sure you will understand – Incognito]
Apologies Phillip – by asking for evidence of your recollection I wasn’t implying that you had a tendency to "fucken just make shit up". My reply to your question about what others remembered was in good faith – I didn't remember Robertson giving that assurance, and couldn’t find the evidence.
Obviously best for all concerned if I just accept your and Adrian's memories as evidence – no doubt you would be similarly unquestioning.
Who knows, maybe tomorrow I'll have a clear memory of Robertson giving that assurance too – stranger things have happened
See my Moderation note @ 6:35 PM.
Why should NZ be at the head of the queue given we no longer have community spread or people dying/disabled from covid?
Robertson said something along the lines of spending $37million? got us in the queue for a number of vaccines when they became available.
Another thing that pisses me off is the number of numb nuts who espouse that we should relax all covid rules now when it was always stated by the Government that the lockdowns were to secure the hospital and medical resources until it was safe and a vaccine was freely available. Which by the way is still a long way off.;
I agree. The number of new daily cases is still on the rise. And thought I've said this often – now is the most likely time for a random human to catch covid-19.
I've only said it often because the number of new cases keeps going up.
Remember this? Point about questioning motives is apposite, don't you think?
Forced labour supplying China's cotton
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/nz0g306v8c/china-tainted-cotton
Watched the Trevor Mallard interview with the Select Committee. His version seemed reasonable and no matter how the Nats picked at him, he seemed confident. As for Bishop trying to be clever, he really is a self-serving prick. No substance to his questions and imagine him being highly ranked in his cabinet!!!
was he questioned about how dodgy it seems that after doing what he did..he got his deputy to change the law..to exempt him from any financial penalties..
and these penalties to be shouldered by the taxpayers..?
was he asked about that..?
Except that he didn't which you would know if you had listened to the select committee.
just for the record anne..
how was that timeline/those circumstances explained..?
Pay attention, it was Tolley who changed the law as the Speaker was not covered by the system like all other MPs.
yes…that is the point I am making…
The point you seem to be making is that Mallard gave Tolley instructions to make that decision in a certain way.
Whereas what seems to have happened is that he avoided an obvious conflict of interest by delegating a decision that directly affected him to the deputy speaker.
I must have been watching a different interview then. I don't think Mallard sounded very confident or convincing at all. It sounds likely this is going to cost the tax payer a lot more than $333k.
Agree, it may get worse considering he said that
"he interpreted misconduct as rape which it did not amount to rape"
A real claytons apology if ever I heard one, He basically still claims the mans actions as miss-conduct even when Parliamentary services found no evidence to support the accusations.
Ah well it's okay since he plays for the Red team, I can only imagine the outrage here if he was on the Blue team.
The accused has a seperate case against the Parl Services but that is about the way they suspended him. Nothing to do with Mallard at all.
When Mallard made his fateful remarks he was going on the just released Review of the unsafe Parl Environment. That was what he commented on and didn't know anything about the particular accused. At that time.
Knew he was wrong within 24 hours and makes no effort to retract – an effective Bishop skewering of the Mallard sausage before going on the babrie.
Now every National MP asked by the Speaker of the House to withdraw and apologise in the next three years can say – may I have 24 hours to think about that?
It's mighty impressive to see Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison complain about China banning the importation of their coal. Morrison has led a government that has repeatedly scorned attempts to mitigate climate change and in particular supporting a massive new coal mine in Queensland, and killing off any carbon trading effort,
Morrison is right to ask "Which one of Australia's sovereign national interests .. the government should have traded away" to appease China.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/15/scott-morrison-lashes-china-over-reported-ban-on-australian-coal-imports
Xi sure knows how to hit Australia where it hurts.
I suspect that their next target will be iron ore.
The best we can do right now is make small supportive noises.
Which side are we making small supportive noises to??
Both. Minister Mahuta is proposing to step in and be a peace-broker between Australia and China.
Rock and a hard place?
a list showcasing 15 of New Zealand’s top trade partners, countries that imported the most shipments by dollar value from New Zealand during 2019. Also shown is each trade partner’s percentage of total New Zealand exports.
http://www.worldstopexports.com/new-zealands-top-trade-partners/
The APEC conference will be hosted by Ardern and Mahuta next year.
While it will be virtual, it is still a big an opportunity we could get to enable China and Australia to talk properly.
They'll keep importing iron ore. And they'll tell Biden reducing the importation of coal is part of their GW mitigation effort.
Climate change , poverty and neo liberal fix it solutions to the housing crisis and other serious problems will not work.
If Adern and the rest of the cabinet had a conscience or a thread of decency they would resign.
But they won't of course as part of the privileged class with the super and other perks they are insulated from the extreme causes of deprivation.