President Trump said on Wednesday that the United States would no longer insist on a Palestinian state as part of a peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians, backing away from a policy that has underpinned America’s role in Middle East peacemaking since the Clinton administration.
“I’m looking at two states and one state,” Mr. Trump said, appearing in a joint news conference at the White House with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. “I like the one that both parties like. I can live with either one.”
Mr. Trump’s comments were a striking departure from decades of diplomatic orthodoxy, and they raised a host of thorny questions about the viability of his position. The Palestinians are highly unlikely to accept anything short of a sovereign state, and a single Israeli state encompassing the Palestinians would either become undemocratic or no longer Jewish, given the faster growth rate of the Arab population.
The problem being of course, that “The Palestinians are highly unlikely to accept anything short of a sovereign state” means what they have now, plus all of Israel.
… a single Israeli state encompassing the Palestinians would either become undemocratic or no longer Jewish, given the faster growth rate of the Arab population.
If they tried to retain representative majority for a minority Jewish population, that would be undemocratic.
The statement is either or – either a single Israeli state would be no longer Jewish, as Jews would be a minority of the population; or for the state to remain Jewish it would need to have an undemocratic electoral system.
For Israel to stay a “Jewish” State they would have to disenfranchise the Palestinian majority.
Which is why a “two State” solution is likely the only viable option.
Israeli settlements and genocidal attacks on Palestinians are making a peaceful solution less likely. However i doubt if peace is in the Israeli agenda, as they need an excuse to continue the takeover of Palestinian begun in the 50’s.
Thinking of those down south today who are suffering from the fires. All lives matter, please stay safe and if you are told to get out, don’t muck around just go, stuff can be replaced, lives can’t.
Just how would it serve the Canadian interest (or for that matter the NZ interest) if Trudeau had spent his time lecturing Trump?
Both Trudeau and English made it plain enough that they disagreed with the Immigration Executive Order, and in any event they could have confidence that the US courts would roll it back.
What more should they do?
It is worth recalling that despite all Trump’s faults he has not signalled that he wants to start a war on the scale of Iraq or going further back, Vietnam. In fact I would say the indications are the opposite.
It was not so long ago that a number of commenters on this site were saying they preferred Trump over Clinton, precisely because he was seen as less of a war risk. I personally thought that was ridiculous. Why would Clinton start any wars?
More importantly Trump is the President of a country that many countries, especially in the west, have a deep relationship. In fact the US is seen as the indispensable nation with in the west. The vast number of components of this relationship will continue, despite Trump, since they are not based on any one person but on a network of enduring links.
I appreciate you do not agree with any of this, but in large part the relationship is based on common values, namely being democracies, with the independent rule of law, and broadly speaking open economies.
The connection between the western nations actually goes far deeper in time, since these institutions and values have their origins in Judaeo-Christian philosophy and ethics, and go back as far as democracy of Athens and the republic of Rome.
So Trump would have to be much worse than at present before any western nation would significantly curtail the relationship.
Personally I have complete trust in the constitution of the US and the rule of law that will keep Trump within acceptable confines. He might say some surprising things, but a lot of that will prove to be bluster.
In fact what the European nations want is for Trump to actually affirm US leadership of NATO, the centrepiece of western mutual obligation. The scariest thing for European nations is the thought that NATO would be put in jeopardy by US “neo-isolationism.” Even Corbyn recognises this (at least on a pragmatic level, even if not personally) that unravelling NATO would give rise to dangerous uncertainty. For some European nations (the Baltics) this is literally an existential threat.
Thanks Wayne. Some good points there. By the way, I meant to get back to you after you responded to my swingeing attack on you last Saturday. I accept your criticism wasn’t personal, and I must say that I was impressed by your unflappability and your maintenance of a civil discourse, as I had tried to employ all my rhetorical force against you.
However, I was banned by the moderators for another matter, so please accept my belated apology.
In fact the US is seen as the indispensable nation with in the west.
Only by a small clique of authoritarians.
Personally, I see NZ as the only indispensable nation as far as NZ is concerned and that it’s under threat from the US.
The connection between the western nations actually goes far deeper in time, since these institutions and values have their origins in Judaeo-Christian philosophy and ethics, and go back as far as democracy of Athens and the republic of Rome.
That’s the past and we cannot find solutions for today or the future in the past.
Both Athens and Rome were massively undemocratic and highly authoritarian. Great for their time but not for today. Today we need to move on from those failed systems rather than trying to keep them alive.
Personally I have complete trust in the constitution of the US and the rule of law that will keep Trump within acceptable confines.
I would – except for all the actions that the US Administration has done that go against those.
In fact what the European nations want is for Trump to actually affirm US leadership of NATO, the centrepiece of western mutual obligation. The scariest thing for European nations is the thought that NATO would be put in jeopardy by US “neo-isolationism.” Even Corbyn recognises this (at least on a pragmatic level, even if not personally) that unravelling NATO would give rise to dangerous uncertainty. For some European nations (the Baltics) this is literally an existential threat.
Nothing is forever.
The world has changed and is changing further away from the old authoritarian past.
I was obviously not suggesting that Greece and Rome were like modern democracies, after all they both had slaves. But I am sure you know that many of our legal principles and philosophy has its origins with them.
As for the decline of the west. Well, yes it does seem the peak of the influence has passed but as yet no other set of states has supplanted the west. Asia (China and India) could do so but that will take more than 50 years, probably significantly longer. In contrast to western nations China is actually organised on authoritarian lines.
Your first point is perhaps the most interesting. Does the leadership of the US only appeal to a small clique of authoritarians?
Perhaps the best proxy would be a referendum on whether European nations/people would wish to see the end of NATO. Realistically such a referendum is not going to happen.
But we do know that parties that do actually propose withdrawal from NATO do not win elections, in fact they do very badly. I am certain if this was UK Labour party policy, they would be pretty much wiped out electorally.
So I suggest you misunderstand the popular mood (as opposed to views of left activists). People may have all sorts of complaints about the US, but not many are actually willing to forgo its protection. That is particularly true the further east you go in Europe.
There can hardly be a single Pole who would say “Get out of NATO.” When I went there, all the Poles I spoke felt that their sovereignty was finally guaranteed. Not surprising when you think of the Polish experience throughout the twentieth century.
However I appreciate that perhaps 20% of New Zealanders think as you do do. I guess we are in the safest place in the world to be able to do so.
The US might, as you write, be seen as the indispensable nation within the West but I struggle to think of any significant contribution to human knowledge by US educated and acculturated people.
Also the US is isolated geographically from the historical knowledge and cultural sources that it relies on, Europe, the Middle East, India, China. IMO it has always been a taker, not a giver. A taker of people and a taker of knowledge.
The US appears to me reliant on the rest of the world for its ideas and technologies.
I don’t agree that the western nations institutions and values have their origins in Judaeo-Christian philosophy and ethics. These were imposed from without and important state structures eg, Monarchies, Class Systems, Roman Law predated them.
You are risking a knockdown in claiming that the popular mood can be gauged by support or otherwise of voters for continuing membership of NATO because you do not take account of voter participation in elections, which in Poland at least has been abysmal. http://www.electionguide.org/countries/id/173/
I struggle to think of any significant contribution to human knowledge by US educated and acculturated people.
I expect the irony of engaging in this struggle while using a personal computer connected to the Internet didn’t occur?
Yeah, it does seem that the Groaning Hand clearly hasn’t been around computer systems for the last 60 years or so.
Perhaps he should consider Grace Hopper, the author of the A compiler in 1952 to prove that you could write code in something other than maths. Of course COBOL sucks. But it has the hardy robustness such that means that 57 years after it’s (and my) birth, banks and the IRD are still trying to find something that works better..
My favourite language is still C++ developed by another extremely bright yank, Bjarne Stroustrup, in 1979. I’ve written more than 50 million lines of tight code in it since I learnt it in 1991. And I’m still learning to express myself in it now.
For me those are still the highlights of one small area of my overly educated and acculturated mind. It is the area that has me sanely clasped in its creative trance for 30 odd years without suffering the boredom of sucking up the cultures of mere people like the vacuum cleaner I am in the social science or the arts.
The US appears to me reliant on the rest of the world for its ideas and technologies.
Just about every area of knowledge that I have sucked into with depth in the last 40 years has been dominated by the concepts from the US. Everything from computer systems to management to earth sciences. Sure, a lot of those concepts have been from the first 3 generations of immigrants. But most of those people were there because it was largely impossible to do the things that they did in the countries of their parents or grandparents.
A prosaic and highly visible example would be to just look at the inspired comedy of John Oliver. The same thing happens in any country that welcomes immigration. Here for instance.
Just looking around my apartment, it is rather freaky realising how much of it was directly developed in the US, or was redeveloped there to drop the cost. Sure it is made by the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, etc at present. But the flood of innovation arriving every year from the US is a rather large torrent. Nothing like it arrives from anywhere else.
Basically, I’d have speculate that the Groaning Hand is more interested in the same types of such largely useless esoteric medieval meanderings as the quest for detirmining the number of naked angels of their preferred gender that could dance on a pinhead, or other microscopic obsessions based on the self-referential arguments of nearly blind scholars trying to read under candle-light. I guess it beats having to do any real work understanding the real world.
Sure, a lot of those concepts have been from the first 3 generations of immigrants. But most of those people were there because it was largely impossible to do the things that they did in the countries of their parents or grandparents.
And which is probably the same reason why our best and brightest pick up sticks and leave. They simply cannot do what they want here in NZ because of the poor support for creativity that we have.
When I went there, all the Poles I spoke felt that their sovereignty was finally guaranteed.
Of course, the UN and international is supposed to do that and not individual nations.
Of course, we do have the example of Israel and the UN dictating the invasion of a sovereign state in favour of a small group of people.
And, of course, the US has been undermining the UN for decades. From where I sit, the problem of people not feeling that there sovereignty is guaranteed is a direct result of the US’ undermining of the UN and ongoing invasions of sovereign nations.
If nations feel secure because of NATO then it’s because they’re kissing US arse.
I reckon the world would be a much better place if the UN could stop the US, Russia, or China (or frankly any military power) from invading smaller countries, it would be full of rainbows and unicorn farts.
But that us not currently in the power of the UN.
So Poland and Baltic countries look to NATO, because Russia.
And most of the military interventions in the world over the last century or so has been by the US fighting for their corporations.
What I’m saying here is that the solution that those countries need is the UN, not NATO, but those powerful countries are keeping the UN powerless to act against them.
So, how do we get the majority of countries to change the UN for the better?
Hey, Britain France and Russia have done their bit and all.
The main problem with the UN is the permanent member veto, but also the reliance on US funds because it’s got the biggest economy.
If all the littler countries put more money into the UN, there’d still be the issue of the security council veto. I have no idea how to alter that, save waiting for the next big was ad the irradiated survivors could do a League of Nations: Third Time Lucky.
The world has changed and is changing further away from the old authoritarian past.
I don’t think increasing authoritarianism can really be described as changing “away from” authoritarianism. “Embracing a more authoritarian future” seems more accurate.
I certainly believe you’re wrong. Putin and Erdogan are popular in their own countries, the USA just democratically elected an authoritarian demagogue, nationalist authoritarian parties are increasing in popularity in Europe, and a UK referendum has voted to exit the international cooperative it belongs to because nationalism is becoming more popular. That’s the general populace, not the powers that be.
With 77.8% of Canadian exports going to the USA and Mexico (NAFTA)…I suspect the Canadians are more than happy to keep things civil with Trump. Of course its Trudeau who’s very pro NAFTA, and Trump who had to moderate his opinions which is ironic….
Though I think Trudeau handing Trump a photograph of Trump and daddy Trudeau back in the day speaks volumes about our Leading families and the distribution, or lack thereof, of power.
Kathryn Ryan—completely out of her depth this morning:
Further evidence that standards at RNZ National are declining. Nine to Noon, RNZ National, Thursday 16 February 2017, 10:10 a.m.
I’m listening to Kathryn Ryan making a fool of herself, yet again, this time as she interviews Rudolph Herzog, author of Dead Funny: Telling Jokes in Hitler’s Germany. He’s already firmly corrected her after she claimed that the Jewish prisoners at Theresienstadt put on a cabaret to boost their morale; in fact, he informed her, they were compelled to put on the cabaret. He’s also caviled at her use of the word “humanising”, which implies the Nazis were not human. He also seems perturbed by her suggestion that the Nazis had a sense of humour. ”
Does she do ANY preparation, or reading, before these interviews? Are there any standards at RNZ National any more?
Looks like we will have the code for the project after work in the hands of the testers tomorrow. In celebration, if it continues to rain and be cool in Auckland, I will fix a password field and get the search function back on line.
Please ask the deity (or lack thereof) for rain in Auckland and the fire areas of NZ…. I will take care of the code.
The key to understanding the dispute is that both sides are big, powerful semi-monopolies. Both want control and both want to clip the ticket on every transaction. It can mean rivers of gold.
More rentier capitalism.
The Australian banks argue that opening up the iPhone NFC chip will allow innovation to flourish. Apple argues customers will get a better digital wallet experience if it retains control. Among other things it means customers can run cards issued by different banks from a single app.
Banks elsewhere might be as uneasy with Apple Pay, but few banking markets are as tight-held as Australia and New Zealand. This gives the local big banks a clout that, say, US banks don’t have.
And this shows how competition in standards fails to bring about satisfactory results for society.
The power of those big four banks to fuck around with our currency and transactions is another reason why we should be looking to nationalise the transaction system and maintain a single standard.
The private banks have control of our monetary supply and create too much of it and they own the EFT-POS system pulling in massive amounts of profit from us using our money.
It was a banner moment for the decade-old website, known for reporting obvious hoaxes as legitimate news and headlines such as: “EXPOSED=>HILLARY HITMAN Breaks Silence” and “Dental Expert: Hillary Clinton Is Suffering From Serious Gum Infection” and “One Week After Election Loss Hillary Clinton Looks Like Death.”
Hoft was on his way to his first White House news conference in the company of self-described “brand strategist” Lucian Wintrich, the Gateway Pundit’s inaugural White House correspondent, who for his first day on the job wore a blue tie studded with elephants in every color of the rainbow to announce his gay Republican pride.
I’m still for fighting worthwhile fights, but at the same time, keeping a weather eye on the big issue. Stopping the every day stuff because the freight-train headlight is blinding us is going to multiply our daily problems, so yes, protest the dams, the plight of the homeless and so on and on. Taking practical steps individually to prepare for challenging circumstances seem very wise right now.
On the big issue stuff, I think Leighton Smith over at ZB needs to be challenged everyday on this issue. Arguing with people who listen to him is getting a joke. Not that he uses the gifts of science for anything. Mind you did get a straight answer why they oppose this issue. Because it’s simple and easy to do nothing, and call the other side crazy.
Though I suspect her and her husband, Damon Harvey, are making a play for the position of Hastings Mayor, so it makes sense to win over the voters of Havelock North.
Yule has had it for well long enough, and as Chair of LGNZ for nearly two decades has functioned as both Mayor and MP together in the one person, merrily clipping the ticket for both as he goes.
There is no way some far left snowflake would survive on that hard dry political soil. Maybe Anna Lorck and Damon Harkey are the right people for right there.
I see in the Herald the mother of Nia Glassie the little girl who was tortured and murdered, is going to be released on parole after serving 8 of her 9 years in jail. What an evil looking woman she is. Why was this woman only given a 9 year sentence and not a minimum of 9 years and allowed to be released a year before her time. The description of the torture of that little girl is horrific.
What I cannot understand is why Scott Watson is still in jail and was given a minimum of 17 years and is now serving over that time and I think it was said he isn’t up for parole for another 4 years. There is something really wrong with the sentencing system.
I for one, do not want that woman released, children will never be safe around her and she does not look repentant with what she has done. Just because Scott Watson still denies the crime it does not warrant him being lock away forever.
Obama Killed a 16-Year-Old American in Yemen.
Trump Just Killed His 8-Year-Old Sister.
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Intercept, Jan. 31, 2017
IN 2010, PRESIDENT Obama directed the CIA to assassinate an American citizen in Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki, despite the fact that he had never been charged with (let alone convicted of) any crime, and the agency successfully carried out that order a year later with a September 2011 drone strike. While that assassination created widespread debate — the once-again-beloved ACLU sued Obama to restrain him from the assassination on the ground of due process and then, when that suit was dismissed, sued Obama again after the killing was carried out — another drone killing carried out shortly thereafter was perhaps even more significant yet generated relatively little attention.
Two weeks after the killing of Awlaki, a separate CIA drone strike in Yemen killed his 16-year-old American-born son, Abdulrahman, along with the boy’s 17-year-old cousin and several other innocent Yemenis. The U.S. eventually claimed that the boy was not their target but merely “collateral damage.” Abdulrahman’s grief-stricken grandfather, Nasser al-Awlaki, urged the Washington Post “to visit a Facebook memorial page for Abdulrahman,” which explained: “Look at his pictures, his friends, and his hobbies. His Facebook page shows a typical kid.”
Few events pulled the mask off Obama officials like this one. It highlighted how the Obama administration was ravaging Yemen, one of the world’s poorest countries: just weeks after he won the Nobel Prize, Obama used cluster bombs that killed 35 Yemeni women and children. Even Obama-supporting liberal comedians mocked the arguments of the Obama DOJ for why it had the right to execute Americans with no charges: “Due Process Just Means There’s A Process That You Do,” snarked Stephen Colbert. And a firestorm erupted when former Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs offered a sociopathic justification for killing the Colorado-born teenager, apparently blaming him for his own killing by saying he should have “had a more responsible father.”
The U.S. assault on Yemeni civilians not only continued but radically escalated over the next five years through the end of the Obama presidency, as the U.S. and the U.K. armed, supported, and provide crucial assistance to their close ally Saudi Arabia as it devastated Yemen through a criminally reckless bombing campaign. Yemen now faces mass starvation, seemingly exacerbated, deliberately, by the U.S.-U.K.-supported air attacks. Because of the West’s direct responsibility for these atrocities, they have received vanishingly little attention in the responsible countries.
In a hideous symbol of the bipartisan continuity of U.S. barbarism, Nasser al-Awlaki just lost another one of his young grandchildren to U.S. violence. On Sunday, the Navy’s SEAL Team 6, using armed Reaper drones for cover, carried out a commando raid on what it said was a compound harboring officials of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. A statement issued by President Trump lamented the death of an American service member and several others who were wounded, but made no mention of any civilian deaths. U.S. military officials initially denied any civilian deaths, and (therefore) the CNN report on the raid said nothing about any civilians being killed. …..
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Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
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Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
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The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
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On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
Trump says he can live with a One State Israel
The problem being of course, that “The Palestinians are highly unlikely to accept anything short of a sovereign state” means what they have now, plus all of Israel.
Rofl
You may say that, but decent fair talks and honest action thereafter would enable a change in their position.
… a single Israeli state encompassing the Palestinians would either become undemocratic or no longer Jewish, given the faster growth rate of the Arab population.
????
How would such a state “become undemocratic”?
If they tried to retain representative majority for a minority Jewish population, that would be undemocratic.
The statement is either or – either a single Israeli state would be no longer Jewish, as Jews would be a minority of the population; or for the state to remain Jewish it would need to have an undemocratic electoral system.
It’s already undemocratic by most democratic and civilised standards. It’s a big myth that israel is a haven of democracy in the mid east.
For Israel to stay a “Jewish” State they would have to disenfranchise the Palestinian majority.
Which is why a “two State” solution is likely the only viable option.
Israeli settlements and genocidal attacks on Palestinians are making a peaceful solution less likely. However i doubt if peace is in the Israeli agenda, as they need an excuse to continue the takeover of Palestinian begun in the 50’s.
Christchurch Port Hills fires: What you need to know
Thinking of those down south today who are suffering from the fires. All lives matter, please stay safe and if you are told to get out, don’t muck around just go, stuff can be replaced, lives can’t.
Profiles in Courage. NOT
No. 1: Justin Trudeau
http://www.ourwindsor.ca/news-story/7138370-canadians-don-t-want-pm-to-lecture-another-country-says-trudeau/
Morrissey,
Just how would it serve the Canadian interest (or for that matter the NZ interest) if Trudeau had spent his time lecturing Trump?
Both Trudeau and English made it plain enough that they disagreed with the Immigration Executive Order, and in any event they could have confidence that the US courts would roll it back.
What more should they do?
It is worth recalling that despite all Trump’s faults he has not signalled that he wants to start a war on the scale of Iraq or going further back, Vietnam. In fact I would say the indications are the opposite.
It was not so long ago that a number of commenters on this site were saying they preferred Trump over Clinton, precisely because he was seen as less of a war risk. I personally thought that was ridiculous. Why would Clinton start any wars?
More importantly Trump is the President of a country that many countries, especially in the west, have a deep relationship. In fact the US is seen as the indispensable nation with in the west. The vast number of components of this relationship will continue, despite Trump, since they are not based on any one person but on a network of enduring links.
I appreciate you do not agree with any of this, but in large part the relationship is based on common values, namely being democracies, with the independent rule of law, and broadly speaking open economies.
The connection between the western nations actually goes far deeper in time, since these institutions and values have their origins in Judaeo-Christian philosophy and ethics, and go back as far as democracy of Athens and the republic of Rome.
So Trump would have to be much worse than at present before any western nation would significantly curtail the relationship.
Personally I have complete trust in the constitution of the US and the rule of law that will keep Trump within acceptable confines. He might say some surprising things, but a lot of that will prove to be bluster.
In fact what the European nations want is for Trump to actually affirm US leadership of NATO, the centrepiece of western mutual obligation. The scariest thing for European nations is the thought that NATO would be put in jeopardy by US “neo-isolationism.” Even Corbyn recognises this (at least on a pragmatic level, even if not personally) that unravelling NATO would give rise to dangerous uncertainty. For some European nations (the Baltics) this is literally an existential threat.
Thanks Wayne. Some good points there. By the way, I meant to get back to you after you responded to my swingeing attack on you last Saturday. I accept your criticism wasn’t personal, and I must say that I was impressed by your unflappability and your maintenance of a civil discourse, as I had tried to employ all my rhetorical force against you.
However, I was banned by the moderators for another matter, so please accept my belated apology.
Only by a small clique of authoritarians.
Personally, I see NZ as the only indispensable nation as far as NZ is concerned and that it’s under threat from the US.
That’s the past and we cannot find solutions for today or the future in the past.
Both Athens and Rome were massively undemocratic and highly authoritarian. Great for their time but not for today. Today we need to move on from those failed systems rather than trying to keep them alive.
I would – except for all the actions that the US Administration has done that go against those.
Nothing is forever.
The world has changed and is changing further away from the old authoritarian past.
Draco,
I was obviously not suggesting that Greece and Rome were like modern democracies, after all they both had slaves. But I am sure you know that many of our legal principles and philosophy has its origins with them.
As for the decline of the west. Well, yes it does seem the peak of the influence has passed but as yet no other set of states has supplanted the west. Asia (China and India) could do so but that will take more than 50 years, probably significantly longer. In contrast to western nations China is actually organised on authoritarian lines.
Your first point is perhaps the most interesting. Does the leadership of the US only appeal to a small clique of authoritarians?
Perhaps the best proxy would be a referendum on whether European nations/people would wish to see the end of NATO. Realistically such a referendum is not going to happen.
But we do know that parties that do actually propose withdrawal from NATO do not win elections, in fact they do very badly. I am certain if this was UK Labour party policy, they would be pretty much wiped out electorally.
So I suggest you misunderstand the popular mood (as opposed to views of left activists). People may have all sorts of complaints about the US, but not many are actually willing to forgo its protection. That is particularly true the further east you go in Europe.
There can hardly be a single Pole who would say “Get out of NATO.” When I went there, all the Poles I spoke felt that their sovereignty was finally guaranteed. Not surprising when you think of the Polish experience throughout the twentieth century.
However I appreciate that perhaps 20% of New Zealanders think as you do do. I guess we are in the safest place in the world to be able to do so.
The US might, as you write, be seen as the indispensable nation within the West but I struggle to think of any significant contribution to human knowledge by US educated and acculturated people.
Also the US is isolated geographically from the historical knowledge and cultural sources that it relies on, Europe, the Middle East, India, China. IMO it has always been a taker, not a giver. A taker of people and a taker of knowledge.
The US appears to me reliant on the rest of the world for its ideas and technologies.
I don’t agree that the western nations institutions and values have their origins in Judaeo-Christian philosophy and ethics. These were imposed from without and important state structures eg, Monarchies, Class Systems, Roman Law predated them.
You are risking a knockdown in claiming that the popular mood can be gauged by support or otherwise of voters for continuing membership of NATO because you do not take account of voter participation in elections, which in Poland at least has been abysmal.
http://www.electionguide.org/countries/id/173/
I struggle to think of any significant contribution to human knowledge by US educated and acculturated people.
I expect the irony of engaging in this struggle while using a personal computer connected to the Internet didn’t occur?
Yeah, it does seem that the Groaning Hand clearly hasn’t been around computer systems for the last 60 years or so.
Perhaps he should consider Grace Hopper, the author of the A compiler in 1952 to prove that you could write code in something other than maths. Of course COBOL sucks. But it has the hardy robustness such that means that 57 years after it’s (and my) birth, banks and the IRD are still trying to find something that works better..
My favourite language is still C++ developed by another extremely bright yank, Bjarne Stroustrup, in 1979. I’ve written more than 50 million lines of tight code in it since I learnt it in 1991. And I’m still learning to express myself in it now.
For me those are still the highlights of one small area of my overly educated and acculturated mind. It is the area that has me sanely clasped in its creative trance for 30 odd years without suffering the boredom of sucking up the cultures of mere people like the vacuum cleaner I am in the social science or the arts.
Just about every area of knowledge that I have sucked into with depth in the last 40 years has been dominated by the concepts from the US. Everything from computer systems to management to earth sciences. Sure, a lot of those concepts have been from the first 3 generations of immigrants. But most of those people were there because it was largely impossible to do the things that they did in the countries of their parents or grandparents.
A prosaic and highly visible example would be to just look at the inspired comedy of John Oliver. The same thing happens in any country that welcomes immigration. Here for instance.
Just looking around my apartment, it is rather freaky realising how much of it was directly developed in the US, or was redeveloped there to drop the cost. Sure it is made by the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, etc at present. But the flood of innovation arriving every year from the US is a rather large torrent. Nothing like it arrives from anywhere else.
Basically, I’d have speculate that the Groaning Hand is more interested in the same types of such largely useless esoteric medieval meanderings as the quest for detirmining the number of naked angels of their preferred gender that could dance on a pinhead, or other microscopic obsessions based on the self-referential arguments of nearly blind scholars trying to read under candle-light. I guess it beats having to do any real work understanding the real world.
And which is probably the same reason why our best and brightest pick up sticks and leave. They simply cannot do what they want here in NZ because of the poor support for creativity that we have.
Of course, the UN and international is supposed to do that and not individual nations.
Of course, we do have the example of Israel and the UN dictating the invasion of a sovereign state in favour of a small group of people.
And, of course, the US has been undermining the UN for decades. From where I sit, the problem of people not feeling that there sovereignty is guaranteed is a direct result of the US’ undermining of the UN and ongoing invasions of sovereign nations.
If nations feel secure because of NATO then it’s because they’re kissing US arse.
Or they’re kissing US arse because they were feeling insecure for some completely unknown reason…
Would nations feel insecure if the UN had the power to stop the US invading other countries?
I suspect that if that were true then nations wouldn’t be turning to the US and NATO for protection.
I reckon the world would be a much better place if the UN could stop the US, Russia, or China (or frankly any military power) from invading smaller countries, it would be full of rainbows and unicorn farts.
But that us not currently in the power of the UN.
So Poland and Baltic countries look to NATO, because Russia.
And the UN isn’t in that position because USA.
And most of the military interventions in the world over the last century or so has been by the US fighting for their corporations.
What I’m saying here is that the solution that those countries need is the UN, not NATO, but those powerful countries are keeping the UN powerless to act against them.
So, how do we get the majority of countries to change the UN for the better?
Hey, Britain France and Russia have done their bit and all.
The main problem with the UN is the permanent member veto, but also the reliance on US funds because it’s got the biggest economy.
If all the littler countries put more money into the UN, there’d still be the issue of the security council veto. I have no idea how to alter that, save waiting for the next big was ad the irradiated survivors could do a League of Nations: Third Time Lucky.
The world has changed and is changing further away from the old authoritarian past.
I don’t think increasing authoritarianism can really be described as changing “away from” authoritarianism. “Embracing a more authoritarian future” seems more accurate.
IMO, the general populace is changing to be less authoritarian and the PTB are becoming more so as a response to that.
But, there is flux and uncertainty ATM so I could be wrong.
I certainly believe you’re wrong. Putin and Erdogan are popular in their own countries, the USA just democratically elected an authoritarian demagogue, nationalist authoritarian parties are increasing in popularity in Europe, and a UK referendum has voted to exit the international cooperative it belongs to because nationalism is becoming more popular. That’s the general populace, not the powers that be.
With 77.8% of Canadian exports going to the USA and Mexico (NAFTA)…I suspect the Canadians are more than happy to keep things civil with Trump. Of course its Trudeau who’s very pro NAFTA, and Trump who had to moderate his opinions which is ironic….
Though I think Trudeau handing Trump a photograph of Trump and daddy Trudeau back in the day speaks volumes about our Leading families and the distribution, or lack thereof, of power.
Very interesting, Siobhan. I didn’t see that photograph.
I must say, though, that I am not at all impressed with Trudeau Junior. He seems like another Tony Blair.
Kathryn Ryan—completely out of her depth this morning:
Further evidence that standards at RNZ National are declining.
Nine to Noon, RNZ National, Thursday 16 February 2017, 10:10 a.m.
I’m listening to Kathryn Ryan making a fool of herself, yet again, this time as she interviews Rudolph Herzog, author of Dead Funny: Telling Jokes in Hitler’s Germany. He’s already firmly corrected her after she claimed that the Jewish prisoners at Theresienstadt put on a cabaret to boost their morale; in fact, he informed her, they were compelled to put on the cabaret. He’s also caviled at her use of the word “humanising”, which implies the Nazis were not human. He also seems perturbed by her suggestion that the Nazis had a sense of humour. ”
Does she do ANY preparation, or reading, before these interviews? Are there any standards at RNZ National any more?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon
This article I found interesting
Love history
http://international.sueddeutsche.de/post/157058066625/we-have-at-most-a-year-to-defend-american
Ms Kendzior writes about the new old.
https://thebaffler.com/blog/its-already-happened-here-kendzior
Thanks joe – such a great read from a great writer and thinker on a difficult subject. Big ups to you and weka for introducing her writing to me.
You can tell we are in election year again.
Lots of posts. Lots of comments.
And a rapidly increasing number of page views….
Looks like we will have the code for the project after work in the hands of the testers tomorrow. In celebration, if it continues to rain and be cool in Auckland, I will fix a password field and get the search function back on line.
Please ask the deity (or lack thereof) for rain in Auckland and the fire areas of NZ…. I will take care of the code.
It shall be so.
lprent
Done. Drizzle in Christchurch tomorrow, or sooner as I have requested.
The Wizard famously brought rain to drought-stricken regions on several occasions, according to his memoirs.
Here’s the thing about Apple Pay and banks
More rentier capitalism.
And this shows how competition in standards fails to bring about satisfactory results for society.
The power of those big four banks to fuck around with our currency and transactions is another reason why we should be looking to nationalise the transaction system and maintain a single standard.
There is absolutely nothing stopping you starting a bank in nz, and nothing stopping me choosing to bank with any of the 24 registered banks in NZ
And is that actually working? No, it’s not.
The private banks have control of our monetary supply and create too much of it and they own the EFT-POS system pulling in massive amounts of profit from us using our money.
The dumbest man on the internet gets himself accredited.
It was a banner moment for the decade-old website, known for reporting obvious hoaxes as legitimate news and headlines such as: “EXPOSED=>HILLARY HITMAN Breaks Silence” and “Dental Expert: Hillary Clinton Is Suffering From Serious Gum Infection” and “One Week After Election Loss Hillary Clinton Looks Like Death.”
Hoft was on his way to his first White House news conference in the company of self-described “brand strategist” Lucian Wintrich, the Gateway Pundit’s inaugural White House correspondent, who for his first day on the job wore a blue tie studded with elephants in every color of the rainbow to announce his gay Republican pride.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/fake-news-gateway-pundit-white-house-trump-briefing-room-214781
Chris Trotter and Rachel Stewart deliver a mighty Double-Whallop
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2017/02/too-little-too-late-rachel-stewart-on.html
When Chris is on ball he is the best.
And this is him at his snarly best.
Thank God we have Rachel Stewart.
I’m still for fighting worthwhile fights, but at the same time, keeping a weather eye on the big issue. Stopping the every day stuff because the freight-train headlight is blinding us is going to multiply our daily problems, so yes, protest the dams, the plight of the homeless and so on and on. Taking practical steps individually to prepare for challenging circumstances seem very wise right now.
On the big issue stuff, I think Leighton Smith over at ZB needs to be challenged everyday on this issue. Arguing with people who listen to him is getting a joke. Not that he uses the gifts of science for anything. Mind you did get a straight answer why they oppose this issue. Because it’s simple and easy to do nothing, and call the other side crazy.
The right wing in NZ seem to be getting really upset about the diversification of the Labour party
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2017/02/littles_u-turn.html
Labour Candidate Anna Lorck fighting the good fight for the homeless executives and wealthy retirees of Havelock North..
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11801317
Though I suspect her and her husband, Damon Harvey, are making a play for the position of Hastings Mayor, so it makes sense to win over the voters of Havelock North.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11783670
They are like the Clintons of the Hawkes Bay. Yup.
Yule has had it for well long enough, and as Chair of LGNZ for nearly two decades has functioned as both Mayor and MP together in the one person, merrily clipping the ticket for both as he goes.
There is no way some far left snowflake would survive on that hard dry political soil. Maybe Anna Lorck and Damon Harkey are the right people for right there.
I see in the Herald the mother of Nia Glassie the little girl who was tortured and murdered, is going to be released on parole after serving 8 of her 9 years in jail. What an evil looking woman she is. Why was this woman only given a 9 year sentence and not a minimum of 9 years and allowed to be released a year before her time. The description of the torture of that little girl is horrific.
What I cannot understand is why Scott Watson is still in jail and was given a minimum of 17 years and is now serving over that time and I think it was said he isn’t up for parole for another 4 years. There is something really wrong with the sentencing system.
I for one, do not want that woman released, children will never be safe around her and she does not look repentant with what she has done. Just because Scott Watson still denies the crime it does not warrant him being lock away forever.
Obama Killed a 16-Year-Old American in Yemen.
Trump Just Killed His 8-Year-Old Sister.
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Intercept, Jan. 31, 2017
IN 2010, PRESIDENT Obama directed the CIA to assassinate an American citizen in Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki, despite the fact that he had never been charged with (let alone convicted of) any crime, and the agency successfully carried out that order a year later with a September 2011 drone strike. While that assassination created widespread debate — the once-again-beloved ACLU sued Obama to restrain him from the assassination on the ground of due process and then, when that suit was dismissed, sued Obama again after the killing was carried out — another drone killing carried out shortly thereafter was perhaps even more significant yet generated relatively little attention.
Two weeks after the killing of Awlaki, a separate CIA drone strike in Yemen killed his 16-year-old American-born son, Abdulrahman, along with the boy’s 17-year-old cousin and several other innocent Yemenis. The U.S. eventually claimed that the boy was not their target but merely “collateral damage.” Abdulrahman’s grief-stricken grandfather, Nasser al-Awlaki, urged the Washington Post “to visit a Facebook memorial page for Abdulrahman,” which explained: “Look at his pictures, his friends, and his hobbies. His Facebook page shows a typical kid.”
Few events pulled the mask off Obama officials like this one. It highlighted how the Obama administration was ravaging Yemen, one of the world’s poorest countries: just weeks after he won the Nobel Prize, Obama used cluster bombs that killed 35 Yemeni women and children. Even Obama-supporting liberal comedians mocked the arguments of the Obama DOJ for why it had the right to execute Americans with no charges: “Due Process Just Means There’s A Process That You Do,” snarked Stephen Colbert. And a firestorm erupted when former Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs offered a sociopathic justification for killing the Colorado-born teenager, apparently blaming him for his own killing by saying he should have “had a more responsible father.”
The U.S. assault on Yemeni civilians not only continued but radically escalated over the next five years through the end of the Obama presidency, as the U.S. and the U.K. armed, supported, and provide crucial assistance to their close ally Saudi Arabia as it devastated Yemen through a criminally reckless bombing campaign. Yemen now faces mass starvation, seemingly exacerbated, deliberately, by the U.S.-U.K.-supported air attacks. Because of the West’s direct responsibility for these atrocities, they have received vanishingly little attention in the responsible countries.
In a hideous symbol of the bipartisan continuity of U.S. barbarism, Nasser al-Awlaki just lost another one of his young grandchildren to U.S. violence. On Sunday, the Navy’s SEAL Team 6, using armed Reaper drones for cover, carried out a commando raid on what it said was a compound harboring officials of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. A statement issued by President Trump lamented the death of an American service member and several others who were wounded, but made no mention of any civilian deaths. U.S. military officials initially denied any civilian deaths, and (therefore) the CNN report on the raid said nothing about any civilians being killed. …..
Read more….
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/30/obama-killed-a-16-year-old-american-in-yemen-trump-just-killed-his-8-year-old-sister/