The introduction of charter schools is not a new Kiwi idea of course. (Our ministry of education seems to develop most of its recent policy from what it reads on the internet). However, given Banks’ and other government MP’s “faiths” and the utterances that these schools will be free to deliver their own curriculum, will our government insist that sound science is taught, as in the apparent ruling in the UK, and withdraw funding if otherwise …
I don’t think that charter schools are necessarily evil except when being run exclusively as money-making corporate entities. In principle they aren’t that much different to experimental schools like Steiner or Montessori.
I somehow doubt it will ever get as bad as this, however: http://www.salon.com/2012/01/13/americas_dangerously_removed_elite/singleton/
The herald editorial comments on Josy Pagani’s thoughts on what went wrong for Labour, especially:
“The hardest week to door- knock,” she said, “was when we were telling people who had just come home from a day’s work earning the minimum wage, that it was a great idea to extend their Working for Families tax credit to beneficiaries.” She could see them thinking, ‘so what’s the point of working my guts out all week while someone sitting at home on the dole gets the same tax credit as me?’
That was probably the clincher for Labour’s lack of traction.
If it can tell people only that they are poor, deprived, under-valued, and obese, it will not give the Government a run for our money.
Which will mean same old another wasted three years in opposition.
If Labour can go to the next election with well-developed ideas for helping people who aspire to work hard, make sound choices, raise happy and healthy children, maybe start a business and invest their savings, it will strike a strong chord.
If.
It will take a major change in attitude in the party and amongst it’s vocal supporters.
One of United Future’s main problems was the public wasn’t very interested in listening to the party. That is partly due to a common problem experienced by small parties on coalition, and partly due to how the party presents itself. To an extent the party’s bubble has burst and needs to be re-established.
Labour’s problem was they weren’t good at listening to the public. Oblivious to outside reality inside it’s own bubble.
so why are you going on about labour instead of sorting out your own ambitions for your burstbubble party? things not going according to plan in dunners eh pete – occupypete a fizzer.
I go on about whatever I feel like on blogs. I think it’s important for New Zealand that Labour becomes a strong mostly positive government-in-waiting party.
Things are going very much to plan in Dunedin despite a few (only on blog) persistent negative attacks of no substance. Here the Labour MPs (and the Green and National MPs) are happy to talk and work co-operatively for the good of the city.
why was the question, why, when you can ‘go on about whatever you feel like on blogs’, are you going on about this issue – especially when you and your own party fared so poorly in the election. The blahblahgoodforNZblahblah is really weak and I think you have other motives – just like you had other motives with all the occupy stuff – how about fronting up for 2012 pete.
Seriously…did Josie Pagani use Labour’s extension of WFF to beneficiaries as an opening line when talking to working households that she door knocked.
Its what that quote makes it sound like. And if someone brought the topic up and she couldn’t explain to them convincingly why Labour had made that call (ie as a way to bolster families income above poverty during a time of high unemployment) …she shouldn’t be in PR or in politics.
Josie managed to substantially cut the majority in a blue ribbon rural Tory seat in an election that Labour lost heavily, CV. If I remember rightly, she and her team got the second best result of any electorate for the red team. I think that gives her more than enough credibility to speak about what worked and what didn’t, don’t you?
Where is Pagani bene bashing? Read the quote again, lefty, it’s the reaction of the working poor to the policy she is talking about and she does not bash beneficiaries in the least, nor condemn the policy itself.
Except that isn’t what she said, CV. The problem Pagani is identifying is that Labour failed to win support for the policy among the working poor, not that the policy was wrong.
The circumstances here are substantially different to those previously: the move is a move to combate child poverty- is Pagani saying it is ok to have child poverty if you are on a benefit? Or that an improvement in child poverty is a hard sell? Annette King did a fine job on Q and A with that one.
Why is Labour continuing to talk itself down? Is a move to improve child poverty gloomy?
This seems some odd communication from Labour allowing the Herald to define their party as this:
” Labour’s natural constituency is those who need some help.”
which I strongly, strenously and harshly disagree with.
It is frustrating that Labour allows this to happen. The constituency is those who dislike inequality in society and recognise that it is the best way to deal with a raft of expensive social problems. It is the constituency that doesn’t think we need people in working poverty to make us successful.
or continue the meme that we have chronic welfare dependency problems:
“Labour should devise welfare programmes that are targeted to temporary need and help people become self-supporting.” (like the ones that helped Paula Bennett and have been cut? FFS.)
Labour has come out of the blocks in the new year talking about welfare reform. It allows the Herald to say:
“If it can tell people only that they are poor, deprived, under-valued, and obese, it will not give the Government a run for our money.”
labour chose the wrong leader he only started making traction in the last month before the election after world cup and sucky msm non existent investigative journalism just overpaid glamorized reporters.
Labour need to expose the lie about welfare. Its a safety net not a holiday. Welfare is not there to support the low income, its there to support those in work, with a safety net, with disease control (meaning the poor children don’t give you kids disease), with clean street clear of bums (who are mentally ill), with lower prices because more people have access to Doctors, Dentists, etc and thus drive down the price by economies of scale. Essentially we have a welfare system because it supports the majority, its good economics. Sure when the world economy is run so damn badly then the numbers on unemployment will be too high but whose fault is that/ Parliament YES, crony capitalism, YES. The unemployed NO. Labour isn’t a party of the left because it buys into the big lie, that welfare is bad because the people on the benefit are evil. Simply the welfare system is how we become a much more efficient first world nation, instead of wasting generations who trawl the rubbish for a dollar to make ends meet. Just imagine that, some kid coming to your kids school whose mum and dad pick through the rubbish tip.
Welfare is also a em0loyment scheme, it keeps thousands in jobs, forces wages down, and even helps government load small business up with regulation tht protect you from poor food, poor working conditions, social discord, etc, etc.
Where welfare is a problem is at the top end of town.
“The hardest week to door- knock,” she said, “was when we were telling people who had just come home from a day’s work earning the minimum wage, that it was a great idea to extend their Working for Families tax credit to beneficiaries.” She could see them thinking, ‘so what’s the point of working my guts out all week while someone sitting at home on the dole gets the same tax credit as me?’
This is exactly what I thought would happen when I heard this policy. I support it for sure, but they were really incredibly stupid rolling it out the way they did. This was about the same time that they rolled out the eligibility changes for superannuation.
Up until that point we had seen Labour (and Goff as perferred PM) firming up and slowly rising in the polls, then after that point it appeared to slide back and went to the Greens, even though they had similar policies anyway. Probably it was really a combination of people thinking about Labour going back to National or NZFirst, while the Greens grabbed those that wanted more spine than Labour was showing.
IMO Labour just should have avoided the WFF stuff and not even mentioned it. National hardly had any policies to campaign on and not much in the way of details for the ones they did, so I don’t see why Labour thought they had to put absolutely everything on the table.
We’ll probably waste another decade before we get around to putting in a sorely needed CGT now. Unless there are significant economic disruptions in this current term that the left can put together the proposal again and win with it in 2014.
Yes Labour/Labour was amazingly successful electorially post 1949 wasn’t it. In the 35 years between that date and 1984 how many years was Labour/Labour in power for?
goose labour got more votes than National in just about every election other than the 1951 election because of gerrymandering of boundaries by vested interests.
Luckily the likes of Kiwi Keith new the mandate he had was tenuous and was a relatively pragmatic leader.
It’s not “funny” at all – UF have always claimed to be centrist, though there may be some confusion over what they mean by that. And as NAct currently demonstrates, the parties that capture and stay in power are centrist – although it creeps me out no end that for the majority of the electorate “centrist” has crept that far to the right. If disaffected voters have crept to the right in order to stay centre, what on earth makes you think a “Labour/Labour” – by which I assume you mean hard left, is going to attract them back?
“Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else — if you run very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.”
“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
If disaffected voters have crept to the right in order to stay centre, what on earth makes you think a “Labour/Labour” – by which I assume you mean hard left, is going to attract them back?
Perhaps but you missed one point. The issue of participation.
As the latest election results show, a lot of people don’t give a rats ass about National or about Labour.
And each one of those million deserves a slap in the face for making the vote of all those who did count for less and effectively giving the NActs a mandate to do a whole bunch of stuff that the polls suggest they didn’t want to happen. So what DO they want? (though perhaps if they really are SO stupid as to not realise how important an election really is, maybe it would be better if they didn’t vote… Just joking)
The point is that a third of the population, or more, do not think that NACT or NACT lite(Labour) reflect their views or aspirations.
Many did vote. BUT. Not because they supported Labour or National, but simply for whichever one they thought was the lesser of 2 evils.
And of many other voters, their information was the Herald and TV, which, like our politicians, have totally abandoned any semblance of journalism to become unashamed pursuers of corporate crumbs from their puppetmasters…
I would suggest that a Labour, Labour would bring back many disaffected voters.
Well, I concede that it’s possible, but it also seems to me just as likely that a “Labour, Labour” party (and I would appreciate if you could define that a bit more clearly for me as there’s a big spectrum of Left there) might scare a big chunk of the less-committed centrist and more conservative elements of Labour running to the arms of that nice Mr Key. Again, I ask, what do the silent million want in terms of policy that they couldn’t find in any of the other “minor” (a word that really can’t be applied to the Greens anymore) parties – which again, KJT, is why I’d like you to more closely define this hypothetical “Labour, Labour” party. What do you think they want that no one else could give them?
People’s attitudes follow their behaviour which, in turn, follows the necessities of life imposed by broader social structures.
The political fight is over those structures.
The cynical approach (adopted by Roger Douglas) is that rapidly changing the structures within which people live their lives and then deflecting and disrupting resistance is the way to make ‘progress’ on a political agenda.
That is, it is based on the correct insight – as above – that people’s attitudes will conform once the pragmatics of their lives makes it necessary to change their attitudes in order to maintain some sort of cognitive and emotional comfort and coherence in their lives (in relation to what they find they have to do in order to survive).
A second approach is to stick to a straightforward attempt to persuade people that your agenda is best – for them and for society as a whole.
A third approach is simply to find out what people want and at least sound like that’s what you’re giving them. This is the approach of marketers. Like marketers, however, this usually descends into a softer, more surreptitious version of the first approach. I think this is Key’s approach.
For a number of reasons, I find the first and third approaches disreputable (which is why I also don’t like marketing – the pretence that one’s aim is to give people what they want when, in reality, your primary motive is to make your business profitable. While sometimes compatible, these goals inevitably diverge and, then, the primary motive asserts itself.).
I’m enough of a political pragmatist to compromise or concede on the occasional policy but I just can’t see the point in conceding on my analysis of the social and economic world in order to be more in tune with the ‘centre’.
The aim should be to convince the ‘centre’ (or anyone else) to shift towards your analysis. It should not be to shift your analysis – at least for any reason other than that you are convinced that your analysis is faulty.
Call me old-fashioned, but I can’t see the point of being politically active in order to institute something I don’t believe is true.
I read Steve Jobs biography over Christmas. It is a fascinating read. He is a complex character, obsessive, driven and flawed as a human being. Yet these qualities no doubt were instrumental in what he achieved.
His comments concerning Teacher Unions were eye opening.
Amongst other things he said that America’s education system was being “crippled by union work rules”. He also said “[u]ntil the teachers’ unions were broken, there was almost no hope for education reform.” Jobs proposed allowing principals to hire and fire teachers based on merit, that schools stay open until 6 p.m. and that they be open 11 months a year. These ideas and the teacher union bashing that accompanies them are percolating throughout the Western World.
I have never understood why the right such as Slater should be so vehemently anti teacher union. But these American ideas are so clearly being applied to the New Zealand situation despite the clear differences.
It is really weird that we should be told that we need to follow trends in a country where the direction its education system is heading is clearly wrong. As was noted previously by Salsy we should look to Finland for where we should be taking out system.
“I have never understood why the right such as Slater should be so vehemently anti teacher union.”
Considering last week a whole bunch of leftist posters here basically stated that teachers should indoctrinate children in leftist ideology I don’t think it is too hard to work that one out.
Not indoctrinate – merely teach the truth and how to think. That’s all that’s needed. That alone will bring people to the left as it highlights the delusion of the right.
Whatever DTB. But thanks for highlighting exactly why right wingers are wary of teacher unions. People who believe that there is a ‘correct’ way to think are potentially very dangerous.
Gosman, if anything turns me off from listening to another point of view (yours) it is the use of ‘whatever’ as a response as it indicates to me shallow, unconsidered and dismissive attitudes.
That is correct. I am extrapolating that he meant the correct way to think because teachers already teach children to think. Unless you think teachers in NZ are failing in this pretty basic piece of the learning process Felix. Do you really think NZ teachers are that incompetent that NZ children are not being taught to think?
Nicely avoiding the uncomfortable question there felix. So you disagree with the view that kids aren’t being taught to think in school at the moment do you?
With 1 child in Primary and 1 in intermediate, my opinion is yes Gosman, they are being failed in this fundamental way. Their teachers are all hard working and well meaning, but to teach critical thinking is not their mandate.
So Nz teachers are incompetent in your view Mcflock are they? They are failing to teach a large proportion of the population to think. Hmmmmm…. I wonder if the Labour party will take up the challenge and bring this national shame to light.
There’s a difference between teaching people to think and wrote learning. NAct seem to want to go back to wrote learning style of the 19th century whereas modern teachers want to teach people to think. Interestingly enough, it’s NAct and their supporters who are complaining about teachers and how they teach.
So you are now stating that teacher ARE teaching children to think are you? Well then no problem then. I’m sure within a very short period of time the schools will be churning out your socially conscious little comrades by the bucketful. I don’t know what you are worried about.
By the way who on the right is pushing for rote learning? I have yet to read or hear anyone on the right recently argue that we should change our education system to one involving rote learning. Perhaps you have some link to a right leaning educationalist in NZ who makes the case?
Testing, testing and more testing as required by National Standards which, due to then penalising teachers if they don’t teach to the test, results in rote learning.
No, he didn’t specifically say “anything about a correct way to think” but there are bizarre implications in what he said.
Coercing how to think based on left = truth sounds like religious (or political) fundamentalism rather than education. If our schools were based on those sorts of delusions it would be dangerous.
Bricks in the wall with the right and centre knocked off sounds a bit thick.
So why does DTB want teachers to teach children to think if they are already doing so. It would be like wanting my butcher to sell meat. Kind of pointless as that is what they already do.
There seems to be confusion over trying to teach children what to think or how to develop their thinking.
For example, should a teacher try and teach children “left good, right bad”, or should they help them develop critial thinking so they can make up their own minds?
It looks like DtB prefers trying to train everyone to be left clones, or expecting everyone will naturally become left clones if they are taught what he thinks as ‘truth’.
Pete, it’s the right who are coercing the teaching model and the model that they’re coercing is a model which fails to teach people to think. Instead it teaches people to believe what they’re told and not to ask questions.
Didn’t say anything about a correct way to think. What I said was that there is truth and there is what RWNJs believe. The two are completely different, the first is fact and the second is delusion.
No, just that that is what the teachers need to do.
Any proposed changes, such as National Standards and charter schools (run by any religious nutjob group), that make it difficult for teachers to teach children to think should be rejected on that basis.
Seems pretty obvious. Then again maybe I was taught to think.
Gosman, have you ever tried to ‘think’ without any content? It’s hard to do one without the other.
The whole point of ‘thinking’ (that common or garden word covers a huge range of cognitive activity – both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ thinking) is surely to provide a reasonable guide to action. Action – in a real world – requires some sense of what can be relied upon. That is, it requires some sense of what is ‘true’.
Of course, ‘truth’ is not necessarily forever but it amounts to what any ‘thinking person’ – who is able to put such truths to the test of thought and action – would go along with.
I’m not sure how you expect teachers to teach ‘thinking’ without also including a few ‘truths’ to think with. BTW, teaching thinking is not just teaching formal logic or some method of thought. All methods – even logic – come along with assumptions about what is true.
Without worrying about the difference between logical ‘truth’ and empirical ‘truth’, I think it’s safe to say that thinking requires some idea of what is true.
DTB’s point was that if you teach the truths from the relevant disciplines you’ll detect that it is more likely to conform to a general ‘left’ analysis (e.g., that those with power and wealth tend to distort social and economic systems in their favour). Presumably he’s thinking about the social and economic worlds here, and the relevant knowledge in those areas.
Interestingly, it is because of this perceived ‘left’ bias in the humanities and social sciences that many on the right complain about just these disciplines, often concocting conspiracy theories – The History Man notwithstanding – about them and the knowledge they generate (while blessing their cotton socks for the discipline of economics which is often touted – incorrectly – as the only truly empirical social science).
Finally,
“People who believe that there is a ‘correct’ way to think are potentially very dangerous”
(I presume, here, that you don’t actually mean ‘way’ – ie, method – but, rather, something like ‘thought’ or ‘thoughts’.)
People who believe there is no ‘correct’ way to think are also potentially dangerous – and simplistically misunderstand the normative notion of ‘correct’.
I’m not going to call you names, Gosman, but I interpreted that as “how to think critically”, not what to think. Any unbalanced ideological indoctrination at the school level is a fairly unpleasant prospect, but I do notice that more often than not the people who gravitate to the higher levels of academia are of a leftish bent – largely because those of a rightish bent would rather be out in the corporate sector.
What rot. You just need to read DTB’s reply above to see that he at least thinks people just need to be taught to think in the correct manner and they will suddenly have their eye’s opened to the wonders of the leftist world view.
So how come it is generally the lefties who resort to infantile name calling like you have just done Mcflock? Or is this really an example of your superior intellect whereby you don’t need to debate at all as your views are so obviously correct therefore leaving more time for mindless abuse of those who dare to express differing opinions?
Two reasons: Firstly, the complete failure and/or intractable unwillingness of folk like yourself to understand basic logic makes logical arguments futile. Secondly, I was just calling it how I saw it.
Please elucidate for me then. How about we use DTB’s argument that teachers should teach children to think as an example? Now to me logically this means that they are failing to teach children to think at the moment. Is that not the logical inference from that position. If not, then what is the logical inference about our current teaching system?
So far the only answer from DTB is that he does now think they are being taught to think at the moment. Yet if that is the case then there is no indication that I know of that the children are much more likely to be left leaning. Certainly the proportion of left and right voters has not been steadily being skewed in favour of the left over the last few decades. They can’t be doing their job very well if that is the case.
That probably follows logically from any number of your assumptions, but as you’ve misunderstood the entire discussion from the outset it’s neither here nor there to anyone else.
How about we use DTB’s argument that teachers should teach children to think as an example? Now to me logically this means that they are failing to teach children to think at the moment. Is that not the logical inference from that position.
You: “[quoting mickeysavage]“I have never understood why the right such as Slater should be so vehemently anti teacher union.” Considering last week a whole bunch of leftist posters here basically stated that teachers should indoctrinate children in leftist ideology I don’t think it is too hard to work that one out.”
DTB: “Not indoctrinate – merely teach the truth and how to think. That’s all that’s needed. That alone will bring people to the left as it highlights the delusion of the right.”
So DTB’s statement is that “[teachers should ] merely teach the truth and how to think. That’s all that’s needed. That alone will bring people to the left as it highlights the delusion of the right.”
Is the left vote 0%? Are teachers 100% unionised? Are 100% of children taught by teachers? Is critical thinking a core component of the curriculum that all children have to achieve adequate skill in?
You go from a philosophical “should” to a generalised ” logically this means that they are failing to teach children to think at the moment.”.
Some teachers do fail – this is a fact. “They” as a group do not.
Most schoolchildren are not voters. Therefore evidence of a prior failure by some teachers (possibly as a result of systemic issues rather than individual shortcomings), i.e. Key’s election, does not logically imply a current failure.
By not recognising any of this, you reveal that you were failed by your teacher. Which tends to support the proposition that you, a regular tory advocate, lack critical thinking skills. As do a number of your compatriots, generally a higher percentage from what I can see than the left.
The left has nutty or stupid commenters here as well, but there are few of them and many commenters. There are fewer tory commenters here, yes, but many more of them as a proportion are nutty or stupid.
A society needs ideological and philosophical underpinnings. You teach them to your children directly, explicitly and consciously – or you leave it blank and wait for individualistic, commercial and political interests to fill their heads with crap.
Oh that’s barely the start of my character flaws. But regularly confusing “wishful thinking caused by personal bigotry” and “logical inference” isn’t one of them.
No, I just don’t buy into the leftist spin and intellectual arrogance that is behind the statement, Words of Gosman
Obviously from reading your regular gurgles you like the rightist spin and intellectual arrogance that accompanies it. What DTB is for is the ability to take an overview not trample education underfoot by contesters who might as well be on the opposing sides of a boxing ring.
I have never understood why the right such as Slater should be so vehemently anti teacher union.
Slater hates anybody who doesn’t share his bigotries. Yesterday he was bullying a sixteen year old girl, Jazmine Heka for wanting an end to child poverty. What a scumbag!
Hopefully Slater is converting Jazmine into a hardened dedicated leftie through his complete lack of compassion or understanding.
If anyone would like to sign Jazmine’s petitions they are here. The themes are simple but clear. They have three simple idealistic goals which if achieved would go a long way to solving problems associateed with childhood poverty. The petitions wants the Government to:
1. Provide free healthcare for all children including prescription costs.
2. Introduce warrant of fitness’s for all rental houses.
3. Provide free healthy school lunches to all children attending schools.
New Zealand employers use similar tactics bonded labour farm workers.
Isolated farm workers are promised the earth free Accommodation, free meat,free milk, good income. a salary of $50,000 per annum. then they are made to work unholy hours one young fellow newly married working in Nth Canterbury made to from 3 am till 8 pm every day 1 day off a fortnight.No free meat no free milk no compensation for hours worked outside the 45 hours per week contracted this is common as in the dairy industry.
Frivolous litigation is the scourge of the United States, with some firms founded entirely on the destructive practice. Righthaven is one such lawsuit factory…
Okay then I am not one of these people who glare at other people’s kids in public when they are making a disturbance, in fact I hate those people who do that, having got younger relatives who get a bit crazy (like all kids) I wont judge someone else kids if they are misbehaving, in saying that their has to be a limit, and there has to be a time when a parent/caregiver starts to take control. I think kids should be able to be kids in public, even have meltdowns, or just generally act stupid.
Its the parents reaction that gets to me.
For example I was in this cafe, having a quiet meal, (the cafe was a normal run of the mill cafe, not way over the top posh, but it was nice) A mother had a couple of children there,
the oldest was probably nine the youngest around six or seven.
Well the kids started running around, the youngest had a toy car which he liked to bang on other peoples tables, while the oldest, screamed “lets play tag” they were hiding behind myself and other people at this cafe, behind the chairs etc etc, laughing, bumping into people, well the cafe manager came out and gave them a look that said “dont do that”
Well the mother was beside herself, she stood up and screamed “Dont have fun kids, remember dont have fun, your not allowed to laugh or be happy” then she started cracking up and giving people dirty looks while still saying “Oh your having to much fun, the police are going to come now” The lady she was with was cheering her on.
Like I said, Kids should be allowed to be kids, but was this too over the top, or am I being grumpy???? The place wasnt fastfood, it was a nice cafe, not sandwiches but meals.
Some people have no idea how to raise children.
If I was the cafe owner, I would have told the stupid bitch to fuck off and banned her from the premises.
I feel you there Brett(s). I’ve got a bit of a rep with some of the parents around town as being a grumpy bastard who doesn’t like kids, but nothing could be further from the truth.
It’s the parents who piss me off, the ones who think their little darlings are too special to have boundaries. Most of the kids I like just fine.
I’ve been in similar circumstances myself. Either me or my wife (usually her) will firmly tell such children to be considerate – the parents usually look shocked or embarrassed.
Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I put it down to the overweening love affair modern society has with ‘privacy’, individualism and ‘property rights’. Parents seem to think that any reprimand from another adult, in public, of their children is some sort of invasion of their (the parents’) ‘privacy’ (now that is ironic) and ‘property rights’, insofar as they see children as their possessions.
For me, reprimanding these children is less about some poe-faced moralistic castigation as it is about giving children the respect to believe that they are ‘persons in process’ and need to be socialised. The kids often respond well – better than the parents.
I think the irritation other adults often feel in the presence of unruly children stems from the perception that the parents will get all indignant at ‘strangers’ telling their children what they should be doing.
Children should be able to express themselves in lively ways, and places such as cafes (and their patrons) should accept that. But, that expressiveness also needs to be challenged (not completely squashed) when it goes too far.
I think that, these days, there isn’t enough civilised argie-bargie between people in public places. We shouldn’t just silently keep our thoughts to ourselves and then bitch about others later. We should engage – civilly – at the time. Especially when it comes to socialising children.
Then, if we overstep the mark and reprimand a child unnecessarily or too harshly other adults can also step in and challenge us.
This is how we learn to get along – and live out our social nature.
Quite right – NZers internalise way too many things without expressing them in assertive yet productive and well intentioned ways. From this kids in a cafe scenario to be badly treated by a customer services rep on the phone or in a store.
Are we that afraid of meaningful communication and confrontation (your “meaningful argie bargy”)?
Insofar as people can say what they want, yes. Personally I would have thought that a little bit of respect for people’s personal space was in order, though.
But then I’m a fascist prick at heart, so need to consciously moderate my more totalitarian impulses 😉
Ask Pete George or Gosman, I’m sure they will explain that the mother is a DPB bludger getting overpaid and needs to sent into poverty big time as punishment.
There does seem to be a generation of mothers with a very strong sense of entitlement (dare I mention militant breast feeders as well?), but instinct tells me that you can’t really do anything unless (1) the child is about to hurt themselves, someone else, or property – and you have to act in loco parentis because mummy in question is some borderline narcissistic personality disorder for whom her children are an autonomous accessory of only limited interest, or (2) the kiddiwink in question is actually invading your space and interracting with you directly (chair kickers and other monsters etc).
She seemed quite well off, Not sure if she was on the DPB, all I know is that she didnt give a fuck about the people around her, or the business owner.
It’s quite common to see kids of the “quite well off” running riot as mummy and daddy teach them they own the world, and a select few will soon enough too.
I’m not entirely sure that this is a class issue, to the extent that it is an issue at all. I certainly don’t believe Brett was making that point. God knows I disagree with him enough, but the fact is that teaching kids a bit of consideration for other people is not out of order – especially as he isn’t talking about toddlers in this instance.
Tell you what. I know a few old fashioned Tories raising their children. Very methodical and very disciplined. End result – good kids with manners who know which end is up and which end is down, know how to manage their own bank accounts and know to avoid credit cards. The ones off farms can be immensely practical. As in, know how to lift engines out of old Holdens practical.
The other kind of Tory parents with more money than sense, and who think that spoiling little Johnny with expensive gifts will somehow make up for their guilt in not spending quality time and attention supervising him, not so much.
Methyl iodide is a pesticide that is sometimes used for fumigating soil before planting. In june 2010, the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) approved an application to import and manufacture Ripper, which contains methyl iodide, for the use in the strawberry industry. ERMA appears to have ignored various peer reviewed studies in making that decision.
The problem is that methyl iodide was initially misclassified by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. It’s classification is now being questioned in a court of law, and it’s likely the legal challenge will win…
Saving the Rich, Losing the economy In Europe, as in the US, the driver of economic policy quickly became saving the private banks from losses on their portfolios. A deal was struck with the socialist government of Greece, which represented the banks and not the Greek people. The ECB would violate its charter and together with the IMF, which would also violate its charter, would lend enough money to the Greek government to avoid default on its sovereign bonds to the private banks that had purchased the bonds. In return for the ECB and IMF loans and in order to raise the money to repay them, the Greek government had to agree to sell to private investors the national lottery, Greece’s ports and municipal water systems, a string of islands that are a national preserve, and in addition to impose a brutal austerity on the Greek people by lowering wages, cutting social benefits and pensions, raising taxes, and laying off or firing government workers.
In other words, the Greek population is to be sacrificed to a small handful of foreign banks in Germany, France and the Netherlands. The Greek people, unlike “their” socialist government, did not regard this as a good deal. They have been in the streets ever since.
Jean-Claude Trichet, head of the ECB, said that the austerity imposed on Greece was a first step. If Greece did not deliver on the deal, the next step was for the EU to take over Greece’s political sovereignty, make its budget, decide its taxation, decide its expenditures and from this process squeeze out enough from Greeks to repay the ECB and IMF for lending Greece the money to pay the private banks.
In other words, Europe under the EU and Jean-Claude Trichet is a return to the most extreme form of feudalism in which a handful of rich are pampered at the expense of everyone else.
This is what economic policy in the West has become–a tool of the wealthy used to enrich themselves by spreading poverty among the rest of the population.
The Greeks can still default if they want. They will just be kicked out of the Euro and get no significant further cash to support their leftist policies. That is how Merkel and Sarkozy managed to reign in the previous Greek PM when he stated the austerity meassures would be subject to a referendum. They basically told him it was either Austerity or no money and no Euro. The Greeks seem to want to still get bail out money and be part of the Euro but without austerity. It isn’t happening.
Goose head the Greek economy is “spiroling”down the gurgler Austerity equals smaller economy less money to pay bills,Greek migration is huge leaving even less people to pick up the tab.
Greece under neo liberal austerity is fucked no possible cure.
Thats why Merkel and Sarkosy want a financial transaction tax to keep the fraudulent banks a float that lent these countries all this money fully knowing that they would default.
If Greece pulls out of the Euro it has many more options like devaluing, printing money, raising taxes on the rich etc.
German Swiss and French banks would go bankrupt doing more damage to the rest of Europe .
Its not a leftist policy to not pay tax at all like a lot of Greek tycoons do, now thats why they are based their corrupting officials to get their way right wing fascists more like it.
Greece is being forced to buy tens of millions in armaments from Germany and other countries as part of its bail out deal.
i.e. repatriating money leant from EU countries to back to those same EU countries in exchange for pointless munitions and more indebtedness. Greece is screwed.
Edit – I stand corrected. Its BILLIONS in weapon systems that Greece is buying. Austerity for you, Eurofighters for us!!!
Yet the Greek government still wants to be part of the Eurozone and still wants the bail out billions. Perhaps if they hadn’t got themselves into such a mess in the first place then they wouldn’t be in such a exploitable position as they are in now. Instead of having a bloated and over paid civil service and people retiring at 55 as well as paying no taxes they could have instead been more productive and law abiding and would be lending money to places like Italy and Spain rather than needing it from places like France and Germany.
Greece, if I’ve been reading it right, still expect the EU to get rid of the corruption that is endemic to their political system. It’s that corruption that caused Greek spending and it’s only the Greeks that can get rid of it. The banksters, being also corrupt, are using that corruption to give themselves Greek assets so that they get a permanent rentier income.
BS goose head Obviously you haven’t been watching the riots happening in Athens.
According to overseas reports I’ve been reading Greece is becoming a tinder box for revolt.
i.e, Arab spring I Predict full scale riots to come until Greece leaves the euro.
Greece does provide an interesting case study for those who argue that having a low retirement age reduces unemployment especially amongst the young though.
“Before the crisis Spain had low and declining debt. Italy had high debt inherited from the past, but it was steadily working that debt down relative to GDP. Neither country was being profligate — that’s just not what happened. Since the crisis debt has been rising relative to GDP, but that’s what happens when you have an economic crisis.
Yes, Greece. But Greece is now a tiny part of this story. As I said in today’s column, Greece (GDP of about $300 billion) is roughly Greater Miami ($270 billion). Italy and Spain are the big stories, and they were not, repeat not, fiscally profligate.”
Maybe it’s Germany who should and will leave the Euro..
Have the Greeks used fighter jets in suppressing the austerity protests previously? Has any Westernised country used fighter jets in this way in the past few decades?
Slippery Gos. “Armaments” is not restricted to “fighter jets”. Those are for if friction with Turkey flares up again.
The helicopter gunships will be particularly useful in riot control. Their camera systems alone will be useful. The cannon will be just a bonus. As will the tanks. And some westernised countries love to use heavy artillery in civilian built up areas – just not their own.
The fact that Syria is currently crawling with Russian military personnel, and Russia and China would veto any UN resolution supporting a no fly zone hugely complicates US/NATO plans.
I agree that the international response to the suggestion is cool at best. However, it simply reinforces the point that aircraft are being used to suppress protest, which explains why the Syrian opposition wants a no fly zone.
During his long summer hiatus in Hawaii, John Key has had an epiphany and decided to cast off his teflon coated suit along with other trappings of power and showmanship like his toupee…
I was just reading Key’s entry in Wikipedia – I knew his mother was an Austrian-Jew (and therefore might be expected to know something about suffering, oppression and marginalisation), but apparently his English father fought in the Spanish Civil War – one assumes not on the Fascist side. How the hell did they produce Johnny?
The Italian ship which ran into rocks and went down might have taken the wrong side of an island to get closer to the scenic shore. It sounds like the Mikhail Lermontov episode here, for the same reason.
paula beenit says the green paper will solve the mystery of infanticide in New Zealand.
there have been “160” submissions already.
most of those will be opinions.
by my count there are at least 6 universities in new zealand.
if they graduate 10 anthropolgy students per year then that is 60 qualified people that could be undertaking a proper scientific study instead of the usual bumble that we are getting now.
oh I forgot.
you would have to pay them but opinions are free.
We don’t need anthropology students we need social science/social work/psychology post grads contributing.
Although its pretty simple the answers around living conditions, poverty, substance abuse, anger management, parenting skills etc are already all very well known, its simply a case of operationalising them. Bennett is just wasting time with some kind of “need more research” bullshit.
CV Its just another excuse for doing nothing need more research
1987 ropa report on behalf of Roger Douglas
Poverty main causes of child poverty and violence toward children and why so many poor people end up in jail.
Poor housing
Poor access to health care
long term unemployment refer to two lines above
Being a relatively small Island nation in the Pacific means we’re somewhat isolated from what happens in the rest of the world. But that’s no excuse for New Zealand’s mainstream media ignoring many important stories.
Clearly they’re underreporting on many relevant topics. So in light of this censorship… here’s a small sample of the stories that we don’t get to see here in gods own…
The Key government’s asset sales agenda is derived from the Washington Consensus – a set of Wall Street-driven policies that were pronounced dead after the global financial meltdown in 2008.[1] The New Zealand government, however, remains loyal to this failed ideology.
[…]
The world on its present course cannot avoid fuel shortages, debt-deflation, fiscal austerity, increasing poverty, political and environmental conflicts over energy and essential commodities, unprecedented global protests against Wall Street financial injustice, political and legal challenges for full reserve monetary reform, climate and humanitarian disasters, further revolution and war.
We are facing the perfect economic storm, in which sacrificing long-term high performing income would guarantee poverty for the majority. Selling public assets amounts to economic suicide.
The sales related costs estimate of 3% or $180 million is probably a bit of the low side, but otherwise a very good read.
The last few days have been a bit too much of a whirl for me to manage a fresh edition each day. It's been that kind of year. Hope you don't mind.I’ve been coming around to thinking that it doesn't really matter if you don't have something to say every ...
The worms will live in every hostIt's hard to pick which one they eat the mostThe horrible people, the horrible peopleIt's as anatomic as the size of your steepleCapitalism has made it this wayOld-fashioned fascism will take it awaySongwriter: Twiggy Ramirez Read more ...
Hi,It’s almost Christmas Day which means it is almost my birthday, where you will find me whimpering in the corner clutching a warm bottle of Baileys.If you’re out of ideas for presents (and truly desperate) then it is possible to gift a full Webworm subscription to a friend (or enemy) ...
This morning’s six standouts for me at 6.30am include:Rachel Helyer Donaldson’s scoop via RNZ last night of cuts to maternity jobs in the health system;Maddy Croad’s scoop via The Press-$ this morning on funding cuts for Christchurch’s biggest food rescue charity;Benedict Collins’ scoop last night via 1News on a last-minute ...
A listing of 25 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 15, 2024 thru Sat, December 21, 2024. Based on feedback we received, this week's roundup is the first one published soleley by category. We are still interested in ...
Well, I've been there, sitting in that same chairWhispering that same prayer half a million timesIt's a lie, though buried in disciplesOne page of the Bible isn't worth a lifeThere's nothing wrong with youIt's true, it's trueThere's something wrong with the villageWith the villageSomething wrong with the villageSongwriters: Andrew Jackson ...
ACT would like to dictate what universities can and can’t say. We knew it was coming. It was outlined in the coalition agreement and has become part of Seymour’s strategy of “emphasising public funding” to prevent people from opposing him and his views—something he also uses to try and de-platform ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Are we heading ...
So the Solstice has arrived – Summer in this part of the world, Winter for the Northern Hemisphere. And with it, the publication my new Norse dark-fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens at Eternal Haunted Summer: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2024/as-our-power-lessens/ As previously noted, this one is very ‘wyrd’, and Northern Theory of Courage. ...
The Natural Choice: As a starter for ten percent of the Party Vote, “saving the planet” is a very respectable objective. Young voters, in particular, raised on the dire (if unheeded) warnings of climate scientists, and the irrefutable evidence of devastating weather events linked to global warming, vote Green. After ...
The Government cancelled 60% of Kāinga Ora’s new builds next year, even though the land for them was already bought, the consents were consented and there are builders unemployed all over the place. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political ...
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashEvery morning I get up at 3am to go around the traps of news sites in Aotearoa and globally. I pick out the top ones from my point of view and have been putting them into my Dawn Chorus email, which goes out with a podcast. ...
Over on Kikorangi Newsroom's Marc Daalder has published his annual OIA stats. So I thought I'd do mine: 82 OIA requests sent in 2024 7 posts based on those requests 20 average working days to receive a response Ministry of Justice was my most-requested entity, ...
Welcome to the December 2024 Economic Bulletin. We have two monthly features in this edition. In the first, we discuss what the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from Treasury and the Budget Policy Statement from the Minister of Finance tell us about the fiscal position and what to ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua. “This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are ...
I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate.I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
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The Government is urging Kiwis to drive safely this summer and reminding motorists that Police will be out in force to enforce the road rules, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“This time of year can be stressful and result in poor decision-making on our roads. Whether you are travelling to see ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
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The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
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The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...
The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...
The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...
Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...
Today the House agreed to Brendan Horsley being appointed Inspector-General of Defence, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Mr Horsley’s experience will be invaluable in overseeing the establishment of the new office and its support networks. “He is currently Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, having held that role since June 2020. ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...
The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed further progress on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS), with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approving funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.“The Government is moving at ...
The Government today released a request for information (RFI) to seeking interest in partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned land with low farming and conservation value (excluding National Parks) Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced. “Planting trees on Crown-owned land will drive economic growth by creating more forestry jobs in our regions, providing more wood ...
Court timeliness, access to justice, and improving the quality of existing regulation are the focus of a series of law changes introduced to Parliament today by Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee. The three Bills in the Regulatory Systems (Justice) Amendment Bill package each improve a different part of the ...
A total of 41 appointments and reappointments have been made to the 12 community trusts around New Zealand that serve their regions, Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones says. “These trusts, and the communities they serve from the Far North to the deep south, will benefit from the rich experience, knowledge, ...
The Government has confirmed how it will provide redress to survivors who were tortured at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (the Lake Alice Unit). “The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that many of the 362 children who went through the Lake Alice Unit between 1972 and ...
It has been a busy, productive year in the House as the coalition Government works hard to get New Zealand back on track, Leader of the House Chris Bishop says. “This Government promised to rebuild the economy, restore law and order and reduce the cost of living. Our record this ...
“Accelerated silicosis is an emerging occupational disease caused by unsafe work such as engineered stone benchtops. I am running a standalone consultation on engineered stone to understand what the industry is currently doing to manage the risks, and whether further regulatory intervention is needed,” says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister ...
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Mr Roger Holmes Miller and Ms Tarita Hutchinson have been appointed to the Charities Registration Board, Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Louise Upston says. “I would like to welcome the new members joining the Charities Registration Board. “The appointment of Ms Hutchinson and Mr Miller will strengthen the Board’s capacity ...
More building consent and code compliance applications are being processed within the statutory timeframe since the Government required councils to submit quarterly data, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “In the midst of a housing shortage we need to look at every step of the build process for efficiencies ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is proud to announce the first three recipients of the Government’s $10 million Mental Health and Addiction Community Sector Innovation Fund which will enable more Kiwis faster access to mental health and addiction support. “This fund is part of the Government’s commitment to investing in ...
New Zealand is providing Vanuatu assistance following yesterday's devastating earthquake, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. "Vanuatu is a member of our Pacific family and we are supporting it in this time of acute need," Mr Peters says. "Our thoughts are with the people of Vanuatu, and we will be ...
The Government welcomes the Commerce Commission’s plan to reduce card fees for Kiwis by an estimated $260 million a year, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says.“The Government is relentlessly focused on reducing the cost of living, so Kiwis can keep more of their hard-earned income and live a ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour has welcomed the Early Childhood Education (ECE) regulatory review report, the first major report from the Ministry for Regulation. The report makes 15 recommendations to modernise and simplify regulations across ECE so services can get on with what they do best – providing safe, high-quality care ...
The Government‘s Offshore Renewable Energy Bill to create a new regulatory regime that will enable firms to construct offshore wind generation has passed its first reading in Parliament, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says.“New Zealand currently does not have a regulatory regime for offshore renewable energy as the previous government failed ...
Kick Back has growing concerns about the impact that denying young people access to shelter is having on the mental health and physical safety of the young people we serve. ...
By Litia Cava, FBC News multimedia journalist Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has revealed how arms and ammunition used to conduct the 1987 military coup were secretly brought into Fiji on board a naval survey ship. Speaking at the commissioning of a new research vessel for the Lands and Mineral ...
Youth advocates are worried tighter rules for emergency housing could lead to someone dying due to the impacts on mental health and physical safety for those denied shelter. ...
“We urge the Health Select Committee to extend the date for submissions,” concluded Rev Bush. “There is too much at stake to leave the outcome of this review only in the hands of politicians or those with vested interests.” ...
A separate passport, citizenship and membership of the United Nations are only available to fully independent nations, Winston Peters' office says. ...
By Emma Andrews, Henare te Ua Māori Journalism Intern at RNZ News The New Zealand fuel company Z Energy is swapping out street names for “correct” kupu on service stops around the country, with the help of local hapū. When Z took over 226 fuel sites from Shell in 2010, ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame Australia Late Night With The Devil. Maslow Entertainment Marketing is critical to the success of commercial films, and companies will often spend half as much again on top of the ...
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Te Pāti Māori has had to adopt a new way of debating, operating and even thinking in Parliament in response to the Government’s “onslaught” against te ao Māori, co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says.In an end-of-year interview with Newsroom, the Te Tai Hauauru MP reflected on how 2024 has differed from her ...
Opinion: The latest Trends in International Mathematics and Science report was announced earlier this month, yet it didn’t get the flurry of media attention and political hand-wringing that typically accompanies these announcements. This might be because it presented good news, or you could argue, no news; the results paint a ...
NewsroomBy Dr Lisa Darragh, Dr Raewyn Eden and Dr David Pomeroy
At long last, The Spinoff shells out for a nut ranking. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member today.It recently came to The Spinoff’s attention ...
I was one of hundreds of people who lost my government job this week. Here’s exactly how it played out. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a ...
Summer reissue: One anxiously attentive passenger pays attention to an in-flight safety video, and wonders ‘Why can’t I pick up my own phone?’ The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up ...
Summer reissue: Why do those Lange-Douglas years cast such a long shadow 40 years on? The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member today. First published June ...
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The Government’s social housing agency has backed out of a billion-dollar infrastructure alliance that would have built about 6000 new homes in Auckland – less than 18 months after signing a five-year extension.Labour says the decision to rip up the contract and sell off existing state houses could lead to ...
An unrelenting faith in “swift transition” has driven Tauranga Whai to their first Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa championship. At a boisterous Queen Elizabeth Youth Centre, the visiting Tokomanawa Queens were blown away 90-71 in the final.Whai led by 20 points at halftime as their urgent movement and unflinching faith in three-point shooting from anywhere ...
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Cosmic CatastropheThe year draws to a close.King Luxon has grown tired of the long eveningsListening to the dreary squabbling of his Triumvirate.He strolls up to the top floor of the PalaceTo consult with his Astronomer Royal.The Royal Telescope scans the skies,And King Luxon stares up into the heavensFrom the terrestrial ...
Spinoff editor Mad Chapman and books editor Claire Mabey debate Carl Shuker’s new novel about… an editor. Claire: Hello Mad, you just finished The Royal Free – overall impressions? Mad: Hi Claire, I literally just put the book down and I would have to say my immediate impression is ...
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Despite overwhelming public and corporate support, the government has stalled progress on a modern day slavery law. That puts us behind other countries – and makes Christmas a time of tragedy rather than joy, argues Shanti Mathias. Picture the scene on Christmas Day. Everyone replete with nice things to eat, ...
Asia Pacific Report “It looks like Hiroshima. It looks like Germany at the end of World War Two,” says an Israeli-American historian and professor of holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University about the horrifying reality of Gaza. Professor Omer Bartov, has described Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza as an ...
The New Zealand government coalition is tweaking university regulations to curb what it says is an increasingly “risk-averse approach” to free speech. The proposed changes will set clear expectations on how universities should approach freedom of speech issues. Each university will then have to adopt a “freedom of speech statement” ...
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – COMMENTARY: By Caitlin Johnstone New York prosecutors have charged Luigi Mangione with “murder as an act of terrorism” in his alleged shooting of health insurance CEO Brian Thompson earlier this month. This news comes out at the same time as ...
Pacific Media Watch The union for Australian journalists has welcomed the delivery by the federal government of more than $150 million to support the sustainability of public interest journalism over the next four years. Combined with the announcement of the revamped News Bargaining Initiative, this could result in up to ...
The introduction of charter schools is not a new Kiwi idea of course. (Our ministry of education seems to develop most of its recent policy from what it reads on the internet). However, given Banks’ and other government MP’s “faiths” and the utterances that these schools will be free to deliver their own curriculum, will our government insist that sound science is taught, as in the apparent ruling in the UK, and withdraw funding if otherwise …
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jan/15/free-schools-creationism-intelligent-design
I don’t think that charter schools are necessarily evil except when being run exclusively as money-making corporate entities. In principle they aren’t that much different to experimental schools like Steiner or Montessori.
I somehow doubt it will ever get as bad as this, however:
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/13/americas_dangerously_removed_elite/singleton/
The herald editorial comments on Josy Pagani’s thoughts on what went wrong for Labour, especially:
That was probably the clincher for Labour’s lack of traction.
Which will mean same old another wasted three years in opposition.
If.
It will take a major change in attitude in the party and amongst it’s vocal supporters.
So Petey why did United Follicles not gain any traction? Whatsoever? Of any sort?
The parties have quite different problems.
One of United Future’s main problems was the public wasn’t very interested in listening to the party. That is partly due to a common problem experienced by small parties on coalition, and partly due to how the party presents itself. To an extent the party’s bubble has burst and needs to be re-established.
Labour’s problem was they weren’t good at listening to the public. Oblivious to outside reality inside it’s own bubble.
so why are you going on about labour instead of sorting out your own ambitions for your burstbubble party? things not going according to plan in dunners eh pete – occupypete a fizzer.
I go on about whatever I feel like on blogs. I think it’s important for New Zealand that Labour becomes a strong mostly positive government-in-waiting party.
Things are going very much to plan in Dunedin despite a few (only on blog) persistent negative attacks of no substance. Here the Labour MPs (and the Green and National MPs) are happy to talk and work co-operatively for the good of the city.
why was the question, why, when you can ‘go on about whatever you feel like on blogs’, are you going on about this issue – especially when you and your own party fared so poorly in the election. The blahblahgoodforNZblahblah is really weak and I think you have other motives – just like you had other motives with all the occupy stuff – how about fronting up for 2012 pete.
unbalanced follicles live in hope not having “to pay “the price of having more than one member
Seriously…did Josie Pagani use Labour’s extension of WFF to beneficiaries as an opening line when talking to working households that she door knocked.
Its what that quote makes it sound like. And if someone brought the topic up and she couldn’t explain to them convincingly why Labour had made that call (ie as a way to bolster families income above poverty during a time of high unemployment) …she shouldn’t be in PR or in politics.
Josie managed to substantially cut the majority in a blue ribbon rural Tory seat in an election that Labour lost heavily, CV. If I remember rightly, she and her team got the second best result of any electorate for the red team. I think that gives her more than enough credibility to speak about what worked and what didn’t, don’t you?
Yep, acting like a tory will get you votes in a tory area.
Pagani is beneficiary bashing and that is one way to get votes. But is that what Labour wants to stand for?
I
Where is Pagani bene bashing? Read the quote again, lefty, it’s the reaction of the working poor to the policy she is talking about and she does not bash beneficiaries in the least, nor condemn the policy itself.
spelling out that a policy of assisting beneficiary incomes is a sure vote loser is what then, in your view?
Except that isn’t what she said, CV. The problem Pagani is identifying is that Labour failed to win support for the policy among the working poor, not that the policy was wrong.
The circumstances here are substantially different to those previously: the move is a move to combate child poverty- is Pagani saying it is ok to have child poverty if you are on a benefit? Or that an improvement in child poverty is a hard sell? Annette King did a fine job on Q and A with that one.
Why is Labour continuing to talk itself down? Is a move to improve child poverty gloomy?
This seems some odd communication from Labour allowing the Herald to define their party as this:
” Labour’s natural constituency is those who need some help.”
which I strongly, strenously and harshly disagree with.
It is frustrating that Labour allows this to happen. The constituency is those who dislike inequality in society and recognise that it is the best way to deal with a raft of expensive social problems. It is the constituency that doesn’t think we need people in working poverty to make us successful.
or continue the meme that we have chronic welfare dependency problems:
“Labour should devise welfare programmes that are targeted to temporary need and help people become self-supporting.” (like the ones that helped Paula Bennett and have been cut? FFS.)
Labour has come out of the blocks in the new year talking about welfare reform. It allows the Herald to say:
“If it can tell people only that they are poor, deprived, under-valued, and obese, it will not give the Government a run for our money.”
Own goal. Not happy.
labour chose the wrong leader he only started making traction in the last month before the election after world cup and sucky msm non existent investigative journalism just overpaid glamorized reporters.
You know the New Year has started when the Herald does a concern troll editorial giving Labour ‘advice’.
lol
Labour need to expose the lie about welfare. Its a safety net not a holiday. Welfare is not there to support the low income, its there to support those in work, with a safety net, with disease control (meaning the poor children don’t give you kids disease), with clean street clear of bums (who are mentally ill), with lower prices because more people have access to Doctors, Dentists, etc and thus drive down the price by economies of scale. Essentially we have a welfare system because it supports the majority, its good economics. Sure when the world economy is run so damn badly then the numbers on unemployment will be too high but whose fault is that/ Parliament YES, crony capitalism, YES. The unemployed NO. Labour isn’t a party of the left because it buys into the big lie, that welfare is bad because the people on the benefit are evil. Simply the welfare system is how we become a much more efficient first world nation, instead of wasting generations who trawl the rubbish for a dollar to make ends meet. Just imagine that, some kid coming to your kids school whose mum and dad pick through the rubbish tip.
Welfare is also a em0loyment scheme, it keeps thousands in jobs, forces wages down, and even helps government load small business up with regulation tht protect you from poor food, poor working conditions, social discord, etc, etc.
Where welfare is a problem is at the top end of town.
“The hardest week to door- knock,” she said, “was when we were telling people who had just come home from a day’s work earning the minimum wage, that it was a great idea to extend their Working for Families tax credit to beneficiaries.” She could see them thinking, ‘so what’s the point of working my guts out all week while someone sitting at home on the dole gets the same tax credit as me?’
This is exactly what I thought would happen when I heard this policy. I support it for sure, but they were really incredibly stupid rolling it out the way they did. This was about the same time that they rolled out the eligibility changes for superannuation.
Up until that point we had seen Labour (and Goff as perferred PM) firming up and slowly rising in the polls, then after that point it appeared to slide back and went to the Greens, even though they had similar policies anyway. Probably it was really a combination of people thinking about Labour going back to National or NZFirst, while the Greens grabbed those that wanted more spine than Labour was showing.
IMO Labour just should have avoided the WFF stuff and not even mentioned it. National hardly had any policies to campaign on and not much in the way of details for the ones they did, so I don’t see why Labour thought they had to put absolutely everything on the table.
We’ll probably waste another decade before we get around to putting in a sorely needed CGT now. Unless there are significant economic disruptions in this current term that the left can put together the proposal again and win with it in 2014.
Funny how Pete George always support people who want Labour to remain National/ACT light.
Hasn’t he been reading about the failure of the last 30 years of policies of meanness and market dogma all around the world.
ACT/Labour was rejected in 1990 and National lite /Labour was rejected in 2008.
What is needed to get disaffected voters back is Labour/Labour. MIA since Norman Kirk.
Yes Labour/Labour was amazingly successful electorially post 1949 wasn’t it. In the 35 years between that date and 1984 how many years was Labour/Labour in power for?
goose labour got more votes than National in just about every election other than the 1951 election because of gerrymandering of boundaries by vested interests.
Luckily the likes of Kiwi Keith new the mandate he had was tenuous and was a relatively pragmatic leader.
It’s not “funny” at all – UF have always claimed to be centrist, though there may be some confusion over what they mean by that. And as NAct currently demonstrates, the parties that capture and stay in power are centrist – although it creeps me out no end that for the majority of the electorate “centrist” has crept that far to the right. If disaffected voters have crept to the right in order to stay centre, what on earth makes you think a “Labour/Labour” – by which I assume you mean hard left, is going to attract them back?
“Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else — if you run very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.”
“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
Perhaps but you missed one point. The issue of participation.
As the latest election results show, a lot of people don’t give a rats ass about National or about Labour.
Roughly a million of them.
And each one of those million deserves a slap in the face for making the vote of all those who did count for less and effectively giving the NActs a mandate to do a whole bunch of stuff that the polls suggest they didn’t want to happen. So what DO they want? (though perhaps if they really are SO stupid as to not realise how important an election really is, maybe it would be better if they didn’t vote… Just joking)
The point is that a third of the population, or more, do not think that NACT or NACT lite(Labour) reflect their views or aspirations.
Many did vote. BUT. Not because they supported Labour or National, but simply for whichever one they thought was the lesser of 2 evils.
And of many other voters, their information was the Herald and TV, which, like our politicians, have totally abandoned any semblance of journalism to become unashamed pursuers of corporate crumbs from their puppetmasters…
I would suggest that a Labour, Labour would bring back many disaffected voters.
Well, I concede that it’s possible, but it also seems to me just as likely that a “Labour, Labour” party (and I would appreciate if you could define that a bit more clearly for me as there’s a big spectrum of Left there) might scare a big chunk of the less-committed centrist and more conservative elements of Labour running to the arms of that nice Mr Key. Again, I ask, what do the silent million want in terms of policy that they couldn’t find in any of the other “minor” (a word that really can’t be applied to the Greens anymore) parties – which again, KJT, is why I’d like you to more closely define this hypothetical “Labour, Labour” party. What do you think they want that no one else could give them?
People’s attitudes follow their behaviour which, in turn, follows the necessities of life imposed by broader social structures.
The political fight is over those structures.
The cynical approach (adopted by Roger Douglas) is that rapidly changing the structures within which people live their lives and then deflecting and disrupting resistance is the way to make ‘progress’ on a political agenda.
That is, it is based on the correct insight – as above – that people’s attitudes will conform once the pragmatics of their lives makes it necessary to change their attitudes in order to maintain some sort of cognitive and emotional comfort and coherence in their lives (in relation to what they find they have to do in order to survive).
A second approach is to stick to a straightforward attempt to persuade people that your agenda is best – for them and for society as a whole.
A third approach is simply to find out what people want and at least sound like that’s what you’re giving them. This is the approach of marketers. Like marketers, however, this usually descends into a softer, more surreptitious version of the first approach. I think this is Key’s approach.
For a number of reasons, I find the first and third approaches disreputable (which is why I also don’t like marketing – the pretence that one’s aim is to give people what they want when, in reality, your primary motive is to make your business profitable. While sometimes compatible, these goals inevitably diverge and, then, the primary motive asserts itself.).
I’m enough of a political pragmatist to compromise or concede on the occasional policy but I just can’t see the point in conceding on my analysis of the social and economic world in order to be more in tune with the ‘centre’.
The aim should be to convince the ‘centre’ (or anyone else) to shift towards your analysis. It should not be to shift your analysis – at least for any reason other than that you are convinced that your analysis is faulty.
Call me old-fashioned, but I can’t see the point of being politically active in order to institute something I don’t believe is true.
Pete wasn’t talking about his party he was talking about yours Greg. Another example of failing to listen.
+1
I read Steve Jobs biography over Christmas. It is a fascinating read. He is a complex character, obsessive, driven and flawed as a human being. Yet these qualities no doubt were instrumental in what he achieved.
His comments concerning Teacher Unions were eye opening.
Amongst other things he said that America’s education system was being “crippled by union work rules”. He also said “[u]ntil the teachers’ unions were broken, there was almost no hope for education reform.” Jobs proposed allowing principals to hire and fire teachers based on merit, that schools stay open until 6 p.m. and that they be open 11 months a year. These ideas and the teacher union bashing that accompanies them are percolating throughout the Western World.
I have never understood why the right such as Slater should be so vehemently anti teacher union. But these American ideas are so clearly being applied to the New Zealand situation despite the clear differences.
It is really weird that we should be told that we need to follow trends in a country where the direction its education system is heading is clearly wrong. As was noted previously by Salsy we should look to Finland for where we should be taking out system.
“I have never understood why the right such as Slater should be so vehemently anti teacher union.”
Considering last week a whole bunch of leftist posters here basically stated that teachers should indoctrinate children in leftist ideology I don’t think it is too hard to work that one out.
Not indoctrinate – merely teach the truth and how to think. That’s all that’s needed. That alone will bring people to the left as it highlights the delusion of the right.
Whatever DTB. But thanks for highlighting exactly why right wingers are wary of teacher unions. People who believe that there is a ‘correct’ way to think are potentially very dangerous.
Gosman, if anything turns me off from listening to another point of view (yours) it is the use of ‘whatever’ as a response as it indicates to me shallow, unconsidered and dismissive attitudes.
Draco didn’t say anything about a correct way to think, Gos.
Fascinating though. It’s almost always the borderline illiterate fucks like yourself with no comprehension skills who think education is the enemy.
That is correct. I am extrapolating that he meant the correct way to think because teachers already teach children to think. Unless you think teachers in NZ are failing in this pretty basic piece of the learning process Felix. Do you really think NZ teachers are that incompetent that NZ children are not being taught to think?
That’s not extrapolating, it’s a total rewrite. He didn’t say anything of the sort.
Exposes your own views on thinking rather nicely though.
Nicely avoiding the uncomfortable question there felix. So you disagree with the view that kids aren’t being taught to think in school at the moment do you?
I reject your inference entirely and have no time or inclination to argue about what you wish Draco had said.
With 1 child in Primary and 1 in intermediate, my opinion is yes Gosman, they are being failed in this fundamental way. Their teachers are all hard working and well meaning, but to teach critical thinking is not their mandate.
Do you really think NZ teachers are that incompetent that NZ children are not being taught to think?
Around 49% of the electorate have indicated that this is indeed the case. Fool me once, and all that.
So Nz teachers are incompetent in your view Mcflock are they? They are failing to teach a large proportion of the population to think. Hmmmmm…. I wonder if the Labour party will take up the challenge and bring this national shame to light.
lol. You are too easy.
There’s a difference between teaching people to think and wrote learning. NAct seem to want to go back to wrote learning style of the 19th century whereas modern teachers want to teach people to think. Interestingly enough, it’s NAct and their supporters who are complaining about teachers and how they teach.
So you are now stating that teacher ARE teaching children to think are you? Well then no problem then. I’m sure within a very short period of time the schools will be churning out your socially conscious little comrades by the bucketful. I don’t know what you are worried about.
By the way who on the right is pushing for rote learning? I have yet to read or hear anyone on the right recently argue that we should change our education system to one involving rote learning. Perhaps you have some link to a right leaning educationalist in NZ who makes the case?
It’s called NACT standards, Gosman.
Testing, testing and more testing as required by National Standards which, due to then penalising teachers if they don’t teach to the test, results in rote learning.
Hi DTB – Your mind was thinking rote but your fingers wrote wrote.
Yeah, sometimes I just want to strangle the English language 👿
No, he didn’t specifically say “anything about a correct way to think” but there are bizarre implications in what he said.
Coercing how to think based on left = truth sounds like religious (or political) fundamentalism rather than education. If our schools were based on those sorts of delusions it would be dangerous.
Bricks in the wall with the right and centre knocked off sounds a bit thick.
“Coercing how to think based on left = truth sounds like religious (or political) fundamentalism rather than education.”
And why do you bring that up, Pete? Draco certainly didn’t.
These bizarre interpretations of a very straightforward statement are saying a lot more about you and Gos than anything else. Quite enlightening.
So are you statng that teachers are currently failing in their role of teaching children how to think?
Only someone who never learned to think would make such an inference.
So why does DTB want teachers to teach children to think if they are already doing so. It would be like wanting my butcher to sell meat. Kind of pointless as that is what they already do.
Not really interested in your misinterpretations Gos, doesn’t seem like anyone else is either.
I wonder if 2012 will be the year that people on blogs stop taking idiots seriously.
Everyone learns to think.
There seems to be confusion over trying to teach children what to think or how to develop their thinking.
For example, should a teacher try and teach children “left good, right bad”, or should they help them develop critial thinking so they can make up their own minds?
It looks like DtB prefers trying to train everyone to be left clones, or expecting everyone will naturally become left clones if they are taught what he thinks as ‘truth’.
Nobody has said anything about teaching kids what to think.
The fact the you and Gos immediately inferred that speaks volumes.
Pete, it’s the right who are coercing the teaching model and the model that they’re coercing is a model which fails to teach people to think. Instead it teaches people to believe what they’re told and not to ask questions.
Are you insinuating those on the right, like UF, are as thick as a brick, by any chance.
Didn’t say anything about a correct way to think. What I said was that there is truth and there is what RWNJs believe. The two are completely different, the first is fact and the second is delusion.
Actually you stated the following “…teach the truth and how to think”.
So does this mean you think Teachers are currently failing to teach children to think?
No, just that that is what the teachers need to do.
Any proposed changes, such as National Standards and charter schools (run by any religious nutjob group), that make it difficult for teachers to teach children to think should be rejected on that basis.
Seems pretty obvious. Then again maybe I was taught to think.
You think?
“…teach the truth and how to think”
Gosman, have you ever tried to ‘think’ without any content? It’s hard to do one without the other.
The whole point of ‘thinking’ (that common or garden word covers a huge range of cognitive activity – both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ thinking) is surely to provide a reasonable guide to action. Action – in a real world – requires some sense of what can be relied upon. That is, it requires some sense of what is ‘true’.
Of course, ‘truth’ is not necessarily forever but it amounts to what any ‘thinking person’ – who is able to put such truths to the test of thought and action – would go along with.
I’m not sure how you expect teachers to teach ‘thinking’ without also including a few ‘truths’ to think with. BTW, teaching thinking is not just teaching formal logic or some method of thought. All methods – even logic – come along with assumptions about what is true.
Without worrying about the difference between logical ‘truth’ and empirical ‘truth’, I think it’s safe to say that thinking requires some idea of what is true.
DTB’s point was that if you teach the truths from the relevant disciplines you’ll detect that it is more likely to conform to a general ‘left’ analysis (e.g., that those with power and wealth tend to distort social and economic systems in their favour). Presumably he’s thinking about the social and economic worlds here, and the relevant knowledge in those areas.
Interestingly, it is because of this perceived ‘left’ bias in the humanities and social sciences that many on the right complain about just these disciplines, often concocting conspiracy theories – The History Man notwithstanding – about them and the knowledge they generate (while blessing their cotton socks for the discipline of economics which is often touted – incorrectly – as the only truly empirical social science).
Finally,
“People who believe that there is a ‘correct’ way to think are potentially very dangerous”
(I presume, here, that you don’t actually mean ‘way’ – ie, method – but, rather, something like ‘thought’ or ‘thoughts’.)
People who believe there is no ‘correct’ way to think are also potentially dangerous – and simplistically misunderstand the normative notion of ‘correct’.
I’m not going to call you names, Gosman, but I interpreted that as “how to think critically”, not what to think. Any unbalanced ideological indoctrination at the school level is a fairly unpleasant prospect, but I do notice that more often than not the people who gravitate to the higher levels of academia are of a leftish bent – largely because those of a rightish bent would rather be out in the corporate sector.
gooseman the only thinking the right want brainless consumerism, read Vaclav Havel.
MSM just pump out drivel that makes the ads look good
As usual you didn’t understand that discussion at all Gos.
It was about nothing of the sort.
What rot. You just need to read DTB’s reply above to see that he at least thinks people just need to be taught to think in the correct manner and they will suddenly have their eye’s opened to the wonders of the leftist world view.
Then you didn’t understand Draco’s comment above either.
No, I just don’t buy into the leftist spin and intellectual arrogance that is behind the statement,
Care to explain the reasoning for the view that children who are taught to think are going to be lefties?
Why bother? If you can’t show that you understood the comment then there’s nothing to debate.
Because most tories I’ve encountered have been fucking morons.
So how come it is generally the lefties who resort to infantile name calling like you have just done Mcflock? Or is this really an example of your superior intellect whereby you don’t need to debate at all as your views are so obviously correct therefore leaving more time for mindless abuse of those who dare to express differing opinions?
Two reasons: Firstly, the complete failure and/or intractable unwillingness of folk like yourself to understand basic logic makes logical arguments futile. Secondly, I was just calling it how I saw it.
Please elucidate for me then. How about we use DTB’s argument that teachers should teach children to think as an example? Now to me logically this means that they are failing to teach children to think at the moment. Is that not the logical inference from that position. If not, then what is the logical inference about our current teaching system?
“Now to me logically this means that they are failing to teach children to think at the moment.”
Which beautifully illustrates McF’s characterisation of you and your ilk being incapable of understanding logic.
How so felix?
So far the only answer from DTB is that he does now think they are being taught to think at the moment. Yet if that is the case then there is no indication that I know of that the children are much more likely to be left leaning. Certainly the proportion of left and right voters has not been steadily being skewed in favour of the left over the last few decades. They can’t be doing their job very well if that is the case.
That probably follows logically from any number of your assumptions, but as you’ve misunderstood the entire discussion from the outset it’s neither here nor there to anyone else.
You: “[quoting mickeysavage]“I have never understood why the right such as Slater should be so vehemently anti teacher union.”
Considering last week a whole bunch of leftist posters here basically stated that teachers should indoctrinate children in leftist ideology I don’t think it is too hard to work that one out.”
DTB: “Not indoctrinate – merely teach the truth and how to think. That’s all that’s needed. That alone will bring people to the left as it highlights the delusion of the right.”
So DTB’s statement is that “[teachers should ] merely teach the truth and how to think. That’s all that’s needed. That alone will bring people to the left as it highlights the delusion of the right.”
Is the left vote 0%? Are teachers 100% unionised? Are 100% of children taught by teachers? Is critical thinking a core component of the curriculum that all children have to achieve adequate skill in?
You go from a philosophical “should” to a generalised ” logically this means that they are failing to teach children to think at the moment.”.
Some teachers do fail – this is a fact. “They” as a group do not.
Most schoolchildren are not voters. Therefore evidence of a prior failure by some teachers (possibly as a result of systemic issues rather than individual shortcomings), i.e. Key’s election, does not logically imply a current failure.
By not recognising any of this, you reveal that you were failed by your teacher. Which tends to support the proposition that you, a regular tory advocate, lack critical thinking skills. As do a number of your compatriots, generally a higher percentage from what I can see than the left.
The left has nutty or stupid commenters here as well, but there are few of them and many commenters. There are fewer tory commenters here, yes, but many more of them as a proportion are nutty or stupid.
A society needs ideological and philosophical underpinnings. You teach them to your children directly, explicitly and consciously – or you leave it blank and wait for individualistic, commercial and political interests to fill their heads with crap.
What , as opposed to being a judgemental nasty little person, nice one McFlunk
Oh that’s barely the start of my character flaws. But regularly confusing “wishful thinking caused by personal bigotry” and “logical inference” isn’t one of them.
No, I just don’t buy into the leftist spin and intellectual arrogance that is behind the statement, Words of Gosman
Obviously from reading your regular gurgles you like the rightist spin and intellectual arrogance that accompanies it. What DTB is for is the ability to take an overview not trample education underfoot by contesters who might as well be on the opposing sides of a boxing ring.
mickysavage
Slater hates anybody who doesn’t share his bigotries. Yesterday he was bullying a sixteen year old girl, Jazmine Heka for wanting an end to child poverty. What a scumbag!
I saw that Jackel and I shook my head in awe.
Hopefully Slater is converting Jazmine into a hardened dedicated leftie through his complete lack of compassion or understanding.
If anyone would like to sign Jazmine’s petitions they are here. The themes are simple but clear. They have three simple idealistic goals which if achieved would go a long way to solving problems associateed with childhood poverty. The petitions wants the Government to:
1. Provide free healthcare for all children including prescription costs.
2. Introduce warrant of fitness’s for all rental houses.
3. Provide free healthy school lunches to all children attending schools.
There is also a facebook group “Children against Poverty“.
Perhaps the Standard could think about running a post supporting the petitions?
Cheap Chinese labour imported and paid less than the minimum wage
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10778932
New Zealand employers use similar tactics bonded labour farm workers.
Isolated farm workers are promised the earth free Accommodation, free meat,free milk, good income. a salary of $50,000 per annum. then they are made to work unholy hours one young fellow newly married working in Nth Canterbury made to from 3 am till 8 pm every day 1 day off a fortnight.No free meat no free milk no compensation for hours worked outside the 45 hours per week contracted this is common as in the dairy industry.
i see paganis’ exhortations for a continuation of that rightwing divide and rule (against the poor) experiment of the last decades…
..has been endorsed by both the herald..(in an editorial no less..)..and by farrar…
..(dosen’t that tell you something..?.)
..and a reality check on that inclusion of the poorest families in working for families policy from labour..
..it was promised ‘by 2018’…
..that’s about eight years away…
..and those two facts..the policy..and the timeframe..
..taken together..
…must make it eligible for an award of sorts..?
..surely…!
phil(whoar.co.nz)
..
(ahem,..!..basic math-fail..make that ‘six years away’..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
Righthaven is a schmuck!
Frivolous litigation is the scourge of the United States, with some firms founded entirely on the destructive practice. Righthaven is one such lawsuit factory…
Okay then I am not one of these people who glare at other people’s kids in public when they are making a disturbance, in fact I hate those people who do that, having got younger relatives who get a bit crazy (like all kids) I wont judge someone else kids if they are misbehaving, in saying that their has to be a limit, and there has to be a time when a parent/caregiver starts to take control. I think kids should be able to be kids in public, even have meltdowns, or just generally act stupid.
Its the parents reaction that gets to me.
For example I was in this cafe, having a quiet meal, (the cafe was a normal run of the mill cafe, not way over the top posh, but it was nice) A mother had a couple of children there,
the oldest was probably nine the youngest around six or seven.
Well the kids started running around, the youngest had a toy car which he liked to bang on other peoples tables, while the oldest, screamed “lets play tag” they were hiding behind myself and other people at this cafe, behind the chairs etc etc, laughing, bumping into people, well the cafe manager came out and gave them a look that said “dont do that”
Well the mother was beside herself, she stood up and screamed “Dont have fun kids, remember dont have fun, your not allowed to laugh or be happy” then she started cracking up and giving people dirty looks while still saying “Oh your having to much fun, the police are going to come now” The lady she was with was cheering her on.
Like I said, Kids should be allowed to be kids, but was this too over the top, or am I being grumpy???? The place wasnt fastfood, it was a nice cafe, not sandwiches but meals.
Some people have no idea how to raise children.
If I was the cafe owner, I would have told the stupid bitch to fuck off and banned her from the premises.
I feel you there Brett(s). I’ve got a bit of a rep with some of the parents around town as being a grumpy bastard who doesn’t like kids, but nothing could be further from the truth.
It’s the parents who piss me off, the ones who think their little darlings are too special to have boundaries. Most of the kids I like just fine.
No, IMO you are, for perhaps the first time that I have ever seen, perfectly correct… 🙂
I’ve been in similar circumstances myself. Either me or my wife (usually her) will firmly tell such children to be considerate – the parents usually look shocked or embarrassed.
Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I put it down to the overweening love affair modern society has with ‘privacy’, individualism and ‘property rights’. Parents seem to think that any reprimand from another adult, in public, of their children is some sort of invasion of their (the parents’) ‘privacy’ (now that is ironic) and ‘property rights’, insofar as they see children as their possessions.
For me, reprimanding these children is less about some poe-faced moralistic castigation as it is about giving children the respect to believe that they are ‘persons in process’ and need to be socialised. The kids often respond well – better than the parents.
I think the irritation other adults often feel in the presence of unruly children stems from the perception that the parents will get all indignant at ‘strangers’ telling their children what they should be doing.
Children should be able to express themselves in lively ways, and places such as cafes (and their patrons) should accept that. But, that expressiveness also needs to be challenged (not completely squashed) when it goes too far.
I think that, these days, there isn’t enough civilised argie-bargie between people in public places. We shouldn’t just silently keep our thoughts to ourselves and then bitch about others later. We should engage – civilly – at the time. Especially when it comes to socialising children.
Then, if we overstep the mark and reprimand a child unnecessarily or too harshly other adults can also step in and challenge us.
This is how we learn to get along – and live out our social nature.
Quite right – NZers internalise way too many things without expressing them in assertive yet productive and well intentioned ways. From this kids in a cafe scenario to be badly treated by a customer services rep on the phone or in a store.
Are we that afraid of meaningful communication and confrontation (your “meaningful argie bargy”)?
shit yeah and then gone round and nuked her house and spayed all her relatives.
mate and thats just for starters.
Seriously? Was I right just to say nothing? Was the mothers reaction okay?
Insofar as people can say what they want, yes. Personally I would have thought that a little bit of respect for people’s personal space was in order, though.
But then I’m a fascist prick at heart, so need to consciously moderate my more totalitarian impulses 😉
Ask Pete George or Gosman, I’m sure they will explain that the mother is a DPB bludger getting overpaid and needs to sent into poverty big time as punishment.
There does seem to be a generation of mothers with a very strong sense of entitlement (dare I mention militant breast feeders as well?), but instinct tells me that you can’t really do anything unless (1) the child is about to hurt themselves, someone else, or property – and you have to act in loco parentis because mummy in question is some borderline narcissistic personality disorder for whom her children are an autonomous accessory of only limited interest, or (2) the kiddiwink in question is actually invading your space and interracting with you directly (chair kickers and other monsters etc).
Fender:
She seemed quite well off, Not sure if she was on the DPB, all I know is that she didnt give a fuck about the people around her, or the business owner.
It’s quite common to see kids of the “quite well off” running riot as mummy and daddy teach them they own the world, and a select few will soon enough too.
I’m not entirely sure that this is a class issue, to the extent that it is an issue at all. I certainly don’t believe Brett was making that point. God knows I disagree with him enough, but the fact is that teaching kids a bit of consideration for other people is not out of order – especially as he isn’t talking about toddlers in this instance.
Tell you what. I know a few old fashioned Tories raising their children. Very methodical and very disciplined. End result – good kids with manners who know which end is up and which end is down, know how to manage their own bank accounts and know to avoid credit cards. The ones off farms can be immensely practical. As in, know how to lift engines out of old Holdens practical.
The other kind of Tory parents with more money than sense, and who think that spoiling little Johnny with expensive gifts will somehow make up for their guilt in not spending quality time and attention supervising him, not so much.
One of the few times I agree totally with everything you say. 🙂
Methyl iodide challenged
Methyl iodide is a pesticide that is sometimes used for fumigating soil before planting. In june 2010, the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) approved an application to import and manufacture Ripper, which contains methyl iodide, for the use in the strawberry industry. ERMA appears to have ignored various peer reviewed studies in making that decision.
The problem is that methyl iodide was initially misclassified by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. It’s classification is now being questioned in a court of law, and it’s likely the legal challenge will win…
Saving the Rich, Losing the economy
In Europe, as in the US, the driver of economic policy quickly became saving the private banks from losses on their portfolios. A deal was struck with the socialist government of Greece, which represented the banks and not the Greek people. The ECB would violate its charter and together with the IMF, which would also violate its charter, would lend enough money to the Greek government to avoid default on its sovereign bonds to the private banks that had purchased the bonds. In return for the ECB and IMF loans and in order to raise the money to repay them, the Greek government had to agree to sell to private investors the national lottery, Greece’s ports and municipal water systems, a string of islands that are a national preserve, and in addition to impose a brutal austerity on the Greek people by lowering wages, cutting social benefits and pensions, raising taxes, and laying off or firing government workers.
In other words, the Greek population is to be sacrificed to a small handful of foreign banks in Germany, France and the Netherlands. The Greek people, unlike “their” socialist government, did not regard this as a good deal. They have been in the streets ever since.
Jean-Claude Trichet, head of the ECB, said that the austerity imposed on Greece was a first step. If Greece did not deliver on the deal, the next step was for the EU to take over Greece’s political sovereignty, make its budget, decide its taxation, decide its expenditures and from this process squeeze out enough from Greeks to repay the ECB and IMF for lending Greece the money to pay the private banks.
In other words, Europe under the EU and Jean-Claude Trichet is a return to the most extreme form of feudalism in which a handful of rich are pampered at the expense of everyone else.
This is what economic policy in the West has become–a tool of the wealthy used to enrich themselves by spreading poverty among the rest of the population.
The Greeks can still default if they want. They will just be kicked out of the Euro and get no significant further cash to support their leftist policies. That is how Merkel and Sarkozy managed to reign in the previous Greek PM when he stated the austerity meassures would be subject to a referendum. They basically told him it was either Austerity or no money and no Euro. The Greeks seem to want to still get bail out money and be part of the Euro but without austerity. It isn’t happening.
Goose head the Greek economy is “spiroling”down the gurgler Austerity equals smaller economy less money to pay bills,Greek migration is huge leaving even less people to pick up the tab.
Greece under neo liberal austerity is fucked no possible cure.
Thats why Merkel and Sarkosy want a financial transaction tax to keep the fraudulent banks a float that lent these countries all this money fully knowing that they would default.
If Greece pulls out of the Euro it has many more options like devaluing, printing money, raising taxes on the rich etc.
German Swiss and French banks would go bankrupt doing more damage to the rest of Europe .
Its not a leftist policy to not pay tax at all like a lot of Greek tycoons do, now thats why they are based their corrupting officials to get their way right wing fascists more like it.
Greece is being forced to buy tens of millions in armaments from Germany and other countries as part of its bail out deal.
i.e. repatriating money leant from EU countries to back to those same EU countries in exchange for pointless munitions and more indebtedness. Greece is screwed.
Edit – I stand corrected. Its BILLIONS in weapon systems that Greece is buying. Austerity for you, Eurofighters for us!!!
http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/1383501-greece-still-splashes-out-billions-defence
Yet the Greek government still wants to be part of the Eurozone and still wants the bail out billions. Perhaps if they hadn’t got themselves into such a mess in the first place then they wouldn’t be in such a exploitable position as they are in now. Instead of having a bloated and over paid civil service and people retiring at 55 as well as paying no taxes they could have instead been more productive and law abiding and would be lending money to places like Italy and Spain rather than needing it from places like France and Germany.
nah what we have here is a Bankster Occupation.
The Greek Govt doesn’t actually work on behalf of the Greek people any more. Just on behalf of French and German banks.
Yet the Greeks on the whole aren’t calling for Greece to leave the Eurozone. Why is this CV?
Your statement is false.
Greece, if I’ve been reading it right, still expect the EU to get rid of the corruption that is endemic to their political system. It’s that corruption that caused Greek spending and it’s only the Greeks that can get rid of it. The banksters, being also corrupt, are using that corruption to give themselves Greek assets so that they get a permanent rentier income.
BS goose head Obviously you haven’t been watching the riots happening in Athens.
According to overseas reports I’ve been reading Greece is becoming a tinder box for revolt.
i.e, Arab spring I Predict full scale riots to come until Greece leaves the euro.
The Goldman Sachs finance minister want them to stay in the Euro while all Greek govt assets are stripped at fire sale prices.
Greece does provide an interesting case study for those who argue that having a low retirement age reduces unemployment especially amongst the young though.
On Europe.. 4 Gosman – But your a banker aren’t you Gos, so you’ll likely be more inclined towards Goldman Sacs narrative.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/no-its-not-the-welfare-state/
http://blogs.ft.com/martin-wolf-exchange/2011/12/28/what-has-the-ecb-done-in-the-crisis-the-role-of-target-balances/#axzz1jaQjoyya
http://blogs.ft.com/martin-wolf-exchange/2012/01/09/the-delicate-balance-of-fixing-the-eurozone/#axzz1jaQjoyya
And on Spanish & Italian debt before Wall St destroyed the global economy.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/02/profligate-zombies/
“Before the crisis Spain had low and declining debt. Italy had high debt inherited from the past, but it was steadily working that debt down relative to GDP. Neither country was being profligate — that’s just not what happened. Since the crisis debt has been rising relative to GDP, but that’s what happens when you have an economic crisis.
Yes, Greece. But Greece is now a tiny part of this story. As I said in today’s column, Greece (GDP of about $300 billion) is roughly Greater Miami ($270 billion). Italy and Spain are the big stories, and they were not, repeat not, fiscally profligate.”
Maybe it’s Germany who should and will leave the Euro..
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/german-anger-finally-coming-boil-even-local-ceos-say-time-exit-euro-may-have-arrived
“i.e. repatriating money leant from EU countries to back to those same EU countries in exchange for pointless munitions and more indebtedness.”
Not pointless. I am sure the armaments are going to be very handy for suppressing all the riots!! 🙂
Have the Greeks used fighter jets in suppressing the austerity protests previously? Has any Westernised country used fighter jets in this way in the past few decades?
Slippery Gos. “Armaments” is not restricted to “fighter jets”. Those are for if friction with Turkey flares up again.
The helicopter gunships will be particularly useful in riot control. Their camera systems alone will be useful. The cannon will be just a bonus. As will the tanks. And some westernised countries love to use heavy artillery in civilian built up areas – just not their own.
Your question and its phrasing reflects a very narrow perspective.
It also makes the rather stupid assumption that prior events can predict future events.
Fighter jets can be used to suppress populations of civilians, armed or unarmed, for any reason, political, social or economic.
That’s what western fighter jets did in Libya, that’s what they do in Afghanistan.
Now they are using (currently still unarmed) Predator drones and other formerly military UAVs in civilian law enforcement on US citizens in the US.
Those drones can be armed with Hellfire II missiles at any time, just like the military ones can.
I guess thats why a no fly zone is being called for over Syria at the moment.
Called for by whom, though?
The fact that Syria is currently crawling with Russian military personnel, and Russia and China would veto any UN resolution supporting a no fly zone hugely complicates US/NATO plans.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/russia-warns-of-syrian-nofly-zone-claim-6288966.html
“Called for by whom, though?”
That would be the Syrian opposition.
I agree that the international response to the suggestion is cool at best. However, it simply reinforces the point that aircraft are being used to suppress protest, which explains why the Syrian opposition wants a no fly zone.
TinTin just got a golden globe!
Lunch with John Key
During his long summer hiatus in Hawaii, John Key has had an epiphany and decided to cast off his teflon coated suit along with other trappings of power and showmanship like his toupee…
Devilish eyes noted!
I was just reading Key’s entry in Wikipedia – I knew his mother was an Austrian-Jew (and therefore might be expected to know something about suffering, oppression and marginalisation), but apparently his English father fought in the Spanish Civil War – one assumes not on the Fascist side. How the hell did they produce Johnny?
that can’t be right can it? It would mean that Key’s father was born pre WWI.
Granny Herald would appear to be the source http://www.nzherald.co.nz/john-key-the-unauthorised-biography/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502247&objectid=10522313 Draw your own conclusions.
his toupee must be on holiday to
Maybe it’s the toupee that’s running things.
The Italian ship which ran into rocks and went down might have taken the wrong side of an island to get closer to the scenic shore. It sounds like the Mikhail Lermontov episode here, for the same reason.
paula beenit says the green paper will solve the mystery of infanticide in New Zealand.
there have been “160” submissions already.
most of those will be opinions.
by my count there are at least 6 universities in new zealand.
if they graduate 10 anthropolgy students per year then that is 60 qualified people that could be undertaking a proper scientific study instead of the usual bumble that we are getting now.
oh I forgot.
you would have to pay them but opinions are free.
We don’t need anthropology students we need social science/social work/psychology post grads contributing.
Although its pretty simple the answers around living conditions, poverty, substance abuse, anger management, parenting skills etc are already all very well known, its simply a case of operationalising them. Bennett is just wasting time with some kind of “need more research” bullshit.
CV Its just another excuse for doing nothing need more research
1987 ropa report on behalf of Roger Douglas
Poverty main causes of child poverty and violence toward children and why so many poor people end up in jail.
Poor housing
Poor access to health care
long term unemployment refer to two lines above
Failed to report
Being a relatively small Island nation in the Pacific means we’re somewhat isolated from what happens in the rest of the world. But that’s no excuse for New Zealand’s mainstream media ignoring many important stories.
Clearly they’re underreporting on many relevant topics. So in light of this censorship… here’s a small sample of the stories that we don’t get to see here in gods own…
Lewis Verduyn – NZ Asset Sales Policy Began On Wall Street:
The sales related costs estimate of 3% or $180 million is probably a bit of the low side, but otherwise a very good read.