There is a good window on the reality going forward with the economy folks as Martyn over on ‘The Daily Blog’ the coming economic slump is not far away.
All the canaries in the minefield are dead – the looming economic correction
By Martyn Bradbury / January 16, 2018
…people are going to want a State that will be prepared to step up to the challenge and lead rather than leave it to the free market.
The spectre at the feast during the negotiations for the new Government last year was the deep seated belief that a serious economic collapse was coming.
It shaped the way Winston Peters approached the negotiations ands it’s the reason the agreement between him and Jacinda will never be released.
Almost everywhere now, alarm bells are ringing that the correction is coming.
Markets have gone beyond euphoric and have now entered their drugged up kool aid cult phase.
The stratospheric asset markets pumped up by quantitate easing to try and fight off the 2007-2008 global financial recession are all starting to shake and shudder under the enormous weight of debt created wealth the current economic system must now try and carry.
In the normal rhythm of Capitalism we would have had our boom bust cycle, but because the last bust would have been so destructive, the system allowed the same reckless corporate greed to overtake providence and the elites are once again gambling with everyones livelihoods.
The Norwegian krone would be a good idea.
I suggest you research the taxation rates in the Scandinavian countries as opposed to our own, and at the same time, look at their social welfare policies.
It is a bit silly to compare us with Venezuela.
But you know that, don’t you?
What is your opinion of Norway?
Have you looked at its tax rates and social policies?
It is a better country to look at when observing the results of progressive social policies.
You never compare New Zealand with that country for some reason.
I wonder why.
The major difference between Norway and NZ’s economies are due to North Sea oil. On a per capita basis Norway is the largest oil and natural gas producer outside of the Middle East. Their population size is about the same as ours, the government pension fund has over a trillion US dollars in it.
NZ has commodities that can be exploited for the benefit of all, but we have a 5% faction group that will lead protests when the government wants to mine it or drill it. You never see or hear about the mass public protests in Norway against mining or oil exploration – to me that’s not socialist behavior, that pure capitalism – a government supported to exploit its country’s natural resources.
I bet you $82736393764828197382 that you didn’t actually read the whole number, so I’m guessing you didn’t actually see the letter in it. You just went back and checked and saw that I lied. Muhahahahaha.
So as you can see triggers err wer. And normies just can’t help it but get triggered.
I guess that if we want to emulate Norway we are simply going to have to scrap the Green’s crazy refusal to allow any off-shore oil exploration and production.
Just how do you think that Norway is paying for there social policies?
It sure isn’t from singing Kumbaya and Morris Dancing.
Norway has control of its oil and gas and has a sovereign wealth fund to die for. They are as wealthy as scrooge Mc duck and can afford to pay the taxes they are levied. Capitalism has given them options
james you’re such an idiot, so the disaster that is the USA economy, are we to use that as capitalism is not working. You know the rising homeless, the failing infrastructure and the decay.
You know Venezuela is a oil rich country too, so by your own analysis you can’t make a comparison to NZ.
Who said it was swell there, with outside forces stuffing with their economy, oil prices being low, right wing extremists use of violence, and right wing militia are killing people of colour, it’s has serious issues. But the the media, like you, is being rather disingenuous.
By the way, seeing as your saying it’s a conspiracy, what proof do you have that someone said it was such?
If you are going to play this silly game then I can play it too…
Here’s a similarly fatuous generalisation:
It’s ‘obvious’ that Pinochet’s Chile shows that neoliberal capitalism ‘inevitably’ results in death squads, torture and dissidents being pushed out of helicopters.
There, that was easy – required no thought at all. Now I will just repeat repeat, repeat like a de-cerebrate parrot
Capitalism led by the US who have used every trick to undermine the country, including the manipulation of oil prices.
James either does not know this- in which case some reading is required- or he does know this, yet he chooses to spin for billionaires.
“including the manipulation of oil prices”.
Pray tell us exactly how the US was able to do that?
If OPEC couldn’t do it successfully I really don’t see how the IS was going to manage it.
Producing oil more cheaply using new and more efficient technology doesn’t really count as “manipulation” you know. It merely exhibits the benefits of a Capitalist economy.
You mean that you have no idea and indeed you cannot see any way that they could do it.
Perhaps I could offer you a few other nuggets.
You do know that James Shaw and Jacinda Ardern are senior KGB officers don’t you?
And if you want to know how I know that I suggest you do your own research. Why do you expect me to do everything for you?
Yes it certainly is, in fact almost as daft as your supposition that a regulated economy is not as vulnerable as a deregulated economy to global events.
I also note that we are neither an overly regulated nor overly deregulated economy.
NEWS: Top GOP lawmaker on House Russia probe, @ConawayTX11, says committee has RECESSED Bannon hearing. Subpoena still in effect. Says Bannon refused to answer Qs even under subpoena.— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) January 17, 2018
Earlier in the day, The New York Times reported that Mueller last week served Bannon a separate grand jury subpoena. News of that subpoena broke just hours after Bannon walked into the Intelligence Committee’s secure spaces.
Multiple sources told The Hill that Bannon indicated to lawmakers that he would answer questions about the Trump campaign, but not about his work on the transition team or in the White House. Bannon, alongside his lawyer, said he would only answer those questions when he speaks to Mueller.
That stance infuriated lawmakers. Sources described the meeting as a “total free-for-all” and “brutal.”
“He doesn’t have any friends in that room,” one source said.
I wonder if this is an attempt by the WH to assert executive privilege. If so, I don't understand how that could apply to matters related to the transition team prior to the inauguration (because Trump was not the executive). Here's an except from a DOJ opinion on this topic: pic.twitter.com/9rGHEMbzI2— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) January 17, 2018
I also question whether the privilege has been waved by all the loose talk by Bannon and the WH. The earlier DOJ opinion cited in that excerpt is found here: https://t.co/BlMq8TA28V (and here's the opinion containing that excerpt: https://t.co/BlMq8TA28V)— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) January 17, 2018
This article from RNZ is another nail in the coffin of the lie that New Zealand is a clean green country. We are so wasteful, we export our garbage to China and Thailand. We aren’t content with polluting our own land, we have to ruin others.
Yet propaganda merchants like Herald describe us as ‘pristine.’
What a squalid selfish state we have become.
33 years of neoliberalism has destroyed this country.
“Revealed: Kiwis generate 734kg of waste each per year.
The government is vowing to cut the amount of waste New Zealanders create, which is estimated to be among the highest in the developed world.
New Zealand was very vulnerable to any changes in the markets overseas, she said, including China’s recent ban on waste imports.
Ms Sage said the ban posed a challenge for New Zealand and would mean more of New Zealand’s recyclable waste was likely to end up in places like Thailand.”
Love it or loathe it, want it or not – we are drowning in junk mail.
A survey into the amount being stuffed into letterboxes has found the average household receives about 33 kilograms every year – about the weight of a golden retriever.
So that would a reduction of a couple of kilograms each per year and probably a vote winner as well. Businesses couldn’t complain – they had the government ban email spam and that was nowhere near as damaging or as costly as the letter box spam that they dish out.
But, still, where the hell is it all the rest of it coming from?
Ms Knight said the review should focus on creating more onshore processing facilities, and limiting the use of combined plastics which are difficult to process or recycle.
We should be looking at recycling all of the ‘waste’. After all, it’s all limited resources and simply throwing it out further limits the availability of those resources.
Doing it onshore would produce jobs, economic diversification and an increase skills and R&D.
Instead of Paul’s hand wringing doom and gloom Ms Sage offers a prudent initial approach.
‘Ms Sage said more data was needed to understand what was going to New Zealand’s landfills and consumers needed to be more cognisant of their buying habits.’
Within living memory, Britain was a country where recycling was a way of life and waste was abhorred. Milk was delivered in glass bottles and the empties were left on the doorstep for collection the next morning.
The silver tops were kept to buy guide dogs for the blind. A beer or soft-drink bottle carried a deposit that was recoverable on its return. Rag-and-bone men toured the streets seeking waste material.
Children who failed to eat up their food were sternly told the Chinese would be grateful for it. Shops would charge for bags (which became a subject of growing consumer indignation) and so you took your own bag instead. Socks were darned, elbows patched and small pieces of string kept in the cupboard under the stairs……
The whole issue of waste is surely one of the great policy failures of the past 50 years. With global warming, politicians can at least argue that the science was inconclusive until about 20 years ago. But it was always obvious that our capacity to dispose of waste wasn’t infinite…….
Nevertheless,waste is integral to what Robert Reich, in his most recent book, calls “supercapitalism”. Unchecked supercapitalism produces waste as inevitably as it produces inequality, job insecurity, loss of community and so on.
We are rapidly reaching the point, long promised by futurologists, where we throw away clothes after wearing them once, and we already dispose of many electrical goods as soon as they go wrong.
The average British household currently spends a mere 60p a week on repairs. The economic logic is impeccable: the goods are made in countries where labour costs are low, while repairs have to be carried out here, where costs are high. But even when goods don’t need repairing, we still throw them away. Supercapitalism’s brilliant answer to increasing durability is to elaborate and refine so that goods feel obsolete almost as soon as you buy them. Even environmentalism has been turned to supercapitalism’s advantage: always buy a new machine, you are told, because it will be more energy-efficient than the old one.
Business talks of “consumer demand”. But nobody ever marched to demand an end to recyclable milk bottles, more upgrades for mobile phones, more cheap Chinese imports. (People usually march to protect something they have, perhaps a job or a nice view, not to gain something they don’t have.) Greengrocers got by for years telling their customers there was “no demand, madam” for anything more exotic than a cabbage.
People buy what is made available to them, provided it delivers gratification at a reasonable price. As Reich points out, supercapitalism gives us great deals as consumers and investors, without our even troubling to ask for them. Unfortunately, it gives us bad deals as citizens. Drowning us in waste is just one of them.
‘Ms Sage said more data was needed to understand what was going to New Zealand’s landfills and consumers needed to be more cognisant of their buying habits.’
Yet another fine example of the previous National government’s policy of outright denialism by simply refusing to fund the collection of evidence that might imply laissez faire business as usual could be the wrong approach.
The blind belief in magic that is typical of right wing economics is one thing; the suppression of evidence the previous government actively engaged in was an Orwellian exercise in fanatical wishful thinking.
Sage wasn’t elected to sit there and call for more information.
That only kinda works in opposition. As a Minister it just sounds like you’re not up to the briefings and not up to actual policy formation.
She needs to get her policies moving and implemented.
Or it could be that the information just isn’t available because the previous government didn’t collect it.
Considering their MO and their refusal to collect information regarding poverty and house sales then we can be fairly certain that there’s not enough information available.
“her policies moving and implemented”
She isn’t allowed to actually do anything.
Look at how Shaw described what the Greens are allowed to do.
They have to follow the Government policies and do what they are told.
1. Kermadec Sanctuary. They even had a private member’s bill to implement that but Winston has told them to pull their heads in and Shaw says “Of Course”
2. Waka jumping Bill. They used to be opposed to this sort of Bill on principle. Now they will vote for it because Winston says so.
If they dared to promote ideas of their own they would be told they were out of their Ministerial sinecures and it would be out of the Beemer and into the taxi again.
They have to follow the Government policies and do what they are told.
1. They’re part of the government and so, once all parties in the government have decided to do something they support it. They disagree and get changes before the agreement. Fairly obvious really.
2. If Labour and Winston don’t agree with something then it’s not going to get through. It’s as simple as that.
Waka jumping Bill. They used to be opposed to this sort of Bill on principle. Now they will vote for it because Winston says so.
Or, more likely, the people in the Greens have discussed this and they now support the bill. Remember – Green Party leaders can’t do anything without the Green Party say so. The Greens aren’t National with their dictatorial methods.
In other words, you’re talking out your arse again.
Anyone here who is a Green Party member.
If so please tell us whether there were any Party wide consultations on the subject of the Waka jumping bill?
Were you consulted?
If you are really so convinced that the Green Party have any influence on the Coalition of Labour and New Zealand First I suggest you go back and read this story. https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/98122008/kermadec-ocean-sanctuary-put-on-ice-by-nz-first-catching-greens-unaware
The Green Party say that they didn’t even know what the Coalition partners had agreed to. They were just told that the Kermadec Sanctuary was off the table. So much for Government policy being set by agreement between the parties.
Whatever Winston wants, Winston gets and the Greens can go he.
There is no specific policy on this so Caucus is free to make their own interpretation based on principles. This is what the last Caucus did the last time. This Caucus is not bound by interpretations of a previous Caucus. I would think most members would not have wanted the two recent turncoats to have been allowed to stay on as independents.
“If they dared to promote ideas of their own they would be told they were out of their Ministerial sinecures and it would be out of the Beemer and into the taxi again.”
Bollocks. The most recent example would be refusing to withdraw their medical cannabis bill because Labour’s version is crap.
That is because Winston doesn’t have the slightest interest in the subject.
They jump when Winston tells them to jump though, don’t they?
Did you look at the link to the Kermadec Sanctuary I just posted?
Nothing would persuade you.
You are a true believer in the purity of the Green Party.
Rather like followers of most Religious Cults I’m afraid. Look at Scientologists or Exclusive Brethren.
This is a country that does not support its people, the culture, the way of life, anything that can’t be sold to foreigners. Now a valuable educational and cultural event is being lost to school because it has run out of funds. It has been going for decades but is being lost. Arts in general are not being supported either, not in all schools I believe. (Someone who knows could provide real info or anecdote on this.)
The shock scraping of the popular Stage Challenge will leave a dramatic gap in the lives of student performers.
The Stage Challenge Foundation has contacted schools and sponsors throughout the country to say the annual high school competition was no longer financially viable.
It is very important that the creative arts are taught at school, because there are careers and jobs to be had in entertainment. It is important that there is training in all areas where people can find work with so much of our business enterprises being stifled by competition from overseas in one form or another. So many outlets for work would be open to us if we didn’t have free-market-reigns to contend with.
I think, but am happy to be corrected, that stage challenge was a privately run gig and has fallen over due to lack of support from those taking part and their friends and family.
The creative arts, music, drama and kapa haka in particular are thriving in NZ schools at such events as The Big Sing, KBB Music Festival, Polyfest and Ngā Kapa Haka Kura Tuarua o Aotearoa. Additionally the standard of performance by many of the schools taking part is quite stunning.
Sounds good SMullet and I am glad to hear of the ones you mention. Naturally Nga Kapa Haka Kura Tuarua o Aotearoa would be there, as I have said before Maori are vital and determined to preserve their culture and community.
But are the others available to a wide group of schools, and really all schools should be involved each year?
But if a long-term thing like Stage Challenge has been successful and well-used and loved, it shouldn’t be allowed to fall over. Perhaps they need some new people involved, and revamp it slightly, and get some help from government. Creatives are the New Black in NZ, we can’t all be managers imposing the employers money-squeezing screws on workers.
Yes, Stage Challenge has been a private operation for all of its existence. It’s given huge amounts of creative challenge and enjoyment to its participants, but it’s also been hugely expensive to enter, the tickets to the live performances have been prohibitively expensive (the last time I went, many years ago, it was about $50 – no wonder people started to stay away) and they’ve owned and sold the TV rights.
Stunned Mullet is right that there are lots of creative performance opportunities in NZ schools. Others I’d add to the list include one act play competitions, Rock Quest, Shakespeare performance competition, theatre sports, a multitude of speech competitions, debating, Ngā Manu Korero, orchestras and chamber music groups… I do note that Stage Challenge was a great opportunity for dance and choreography to shine, though. While there’s dance involved in things like Polyfest and kapa haka, the dramatic freedom of Stage Challenge was a real thrill for a lot of kids and it will be missed.
The commercial fishing industry wants to stop public access to videos and images of fish being discarded and dolphins, sea lions and seabirds being scooped up in trawl nets.
The industry has asked the Government to change the law so that the Official Information Act could not be used by journalists, competitors and other groups to access such information, saying it could damage New Zealand’s reputation.
It would be nice if MPI, instead of covering up for the crooks, released or posted protected species kills immediately. Under that pressure we might even see better practices developed.
Nash has a chance to earn our respect – let’s see if he wastes it.
Electricity – they’re banging on the drum, hey look at the yo-yos, but they aren’t dumb.
Record numbers of New Zealanders switched electricity company in 2017, looking for a better deal.
New data from the Electricity Authority shows almost 441,000 households switched during the year, more than the previous record, in 2015, of 417,642. In 2012, just 356,746 switches were made.
More than 20 per cent of customers changed supplier over the year.
They have more options to choose from: There are now more than 40 retail brands in the market, up from 22 five years ago.
Wonder how much that’s costing us. All that switching takes time and effort both for the consumers and for the companies that need more employees and more bureaucracy to be able to achieve it.
And it all achieves precisely nothing.
All of that extra cost could be saved if we had a state monopoly running as a government service that ensured that everyone had power available to their household. That would remove the dead-weight loss of profit as well.
I can’t see how ‘competition’ in electricity provision in a country of about 4 million people helps us. ‘There are now more than 40 retail brands in the market, up from 22 five years ago.’ And now we are getting so much competition that it must result in ineffeciency and price gouging of a sort as they try to grab each other’s business.
I see this view of customers always looking for a better deal and so this system serves us, as a picture of hen’s getting around with their heads down looking for tasty morsels in the ground. I’m not a hen, and I need to keep my head up to make sure that neither a money-hawk from above or a vicious biting insect to the body, doesn’t get the best of me.
What it comes down to is that we actually don’t want competition for the supply of services that are a natural monopoly as that’s not where innovation improves things.
Where we need competition is in ideas on how to produce and reticulate the service and from that the best idea is chosen with government then providing the service out to the populace. Covering the costs of running the service is a combination of taxes and charging.
“A community-led campaign in Northland wants to lift women out of ‘period poverty’, one cup at a time.
It’s a topic many people shy away from but one campaign leader, Willow Jean-Prime, is determined to talk about.
Ms Prime raised the conversation last year at a local high school, and realised just how difficult it was for some women to manage their periods.
“There were girls, young women, who were missing school because their families couldn’t afford to pay for sanitary products.
“This really is something that illustrates the level of poverty that we have in our local community.”
She said the cup was going to have a massive impact on these communities.
“The impact of 500 cups is about $120,000 a year savings in these local communities.
“It is about 125 tampons diverted from landfill and our waste treatment plant so it really does have environmental benefits as well.” “
Why not on prescription instead of ‘private charity’?
At ~$45 a pop, getting the money up front’s a bit of “an ask” for those on benefits.
If government is going to pull out the funding card, I’d point out it’s got to be way more cost effective for government to subsidise cups than fund endless repeat prescriptions for bullshit nicotine products.
Bin that rort the pharmaceuticals have been enjoying for years and just legalise the open sale of nicotine again if the priority is to reduce smoking rates.
And then the monies saved by government ,and poor people with high rates of smoking shifting to very low cost nicotine delivery systems, added on top of prescription cups in lieu of tampons….a win/win/win situation.
Bill, this is a ‘social enterprise’ and for every $45 cup bought by someone who can afford it they donate another cup to someone who can’t. The most awesome aspect to this (and I’m am constitutionally inclined towards suspicion about these schemes 😉 ) is that there is kanohi ki kanohi support in the community as well as on-line support.
I agree a one off subsidy would be great…but fuck me Bill…can you imagine just how much perverted joy some petty bureaucrat would get by putting a young applicant through an application process???
Also, women shouldn’t have to go to a doctor for a prescription for menstrual products, for financial reasons, privacy reasons, and for personal agency reasons. Gatekeeper doctors can be as bad as gatekeeper bureaucrats.
MyCup look pretty good on the surface. Like you I’m suspicious until proven otherwise 😉 I note that in their press release they appear to believe that every woman can use a cup (not true), so I hope they also develop strategies for women that can’t.
As some older women know, these menstrual cups have been around for about 80 years. (Google “Menstrual Cup” – called Moon Cups, Freedom cups, Diva cups among other names.) Interesting to read the claim that they were developed in NZ in last few years.
Sea temperatures rise across New Zealand after marine heatwave.
A marine heatwave has led to New Zealand’s coastal waters jumping 2-4degC warmer than a year ago.
The South Island has seen the most drastic change with some waters recording a jump of 6degC, and temperatures sitting as high as 20degC in December, according to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).
The Salinger effect means NIWA scientists will say no more.
Indeed, they are careful to minimise the situation.
It’s nothing to be too alarmed about, it’s expected as we now live on a warmer planet which comes hand in hand with heat waves and that a piece of the climate change puzzle will always be a factor in all extreme weather events, Mr Noll said.
Don’t scare the horse, NIWA. Is that why you fired Salinger?
However you do find the truth in a few places.
Rachel Stewart is an independent journalist.
Her twitter feed sums it up.
And why does she say that?
Because of these and other words from Professor James Renwick, Victoria University climate scientist.
My gut feeling is that we won’t stop the warming until we are committed to 2.5C or even 3C of temperature rise.
That would lock in loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet, plus most of Greenland and part of the east Antarctic and would commit the globe to 10m or more of sea level rise.
Plus of course a big rise in extreme high temperatures, droughts, floods and crop failures.
Because of the delay time built into the climate system, it’s my feeling that we won’t take decisive action until a lot of change is baked in, so we’ll have a great deal of adapting to do.
One of the dynamics at play here is we just don’t know what is happening or what will happen. So people know something is wrong but it’s a big unknown. Lots of conflicting information doesn’t help with that.
Nor does scaremongering without giving people a path of action. Most people can’t sustain being scared all the time and will switch off if they become overloaded. We’re hardwired to do that imo. People need to see a way forward and to have a sense of agency and power.
Otoh, too many people are still worried about their western lifestyles, and the sooner we get enough people understanding that that is really the least of our worries the better.
btw, fuck sea level rise. I’m way more concerned about species extinction leading to biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse. Also weather event extremes we haven’t got our heads around. Industrial infrastructure issues are important, but more important are essential things like shelter, ability to grow food, water.
I’m way more concerned about species extinction leading to biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse.
Totally agree.
Of far more concern.
Nor does scaremongering without giving people a path of action.
There are individual paths of action and we need to maker these changes to our lives.
However World war 2 was not won by people making individual choices.
It was won by government’s forcing change.
I am sorry to say that I agree with Rachel Stewart and Jame Renwick on this one.
I just don’t see change being effected until it is too late. Too many vested interests are blocking the necessary revolution.
Change is already happening. If you think it’s not going to happen that will affect what you yourself do and how you communicate about it.
Governments are made up of individual people, and individual people vote for them. We know that National are worse than useless and that Labour are kind of in the right direction but not nearly enough. To get Labour to change we need a mass movement of people demanding that. They’re not going to change on their own. To get a mass movement of people, we need pathways to solutions. Feeling worried on its own is not enough.
weka
+100
Well said, to be noted – should be the leitmotif at the head of The Standard
on the banner. What we are here for, and if not, we are wasting our and everybody else’s time.
Why would “species extinction leading to biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse” happen?
After all according to PBS “Of all species that have existed on Earth, 99.9 percent are now extinct”. Has the ecosystem collapsed and would it matter if it did?
If mankind became extinct for example the earth would still continue along and some other species would take our place. In the larger view of things it wouldn’t matter in the slightest. After all dinosaurs were dominant for about 150 million years. When they were wiped out mammals simply took their place at the top of the food chain. Sooner or later, in say 5 billion years, all life on Earth will become extinct as the Sun ages and swells. The Universe will continue without our absence mattering in the slightest.
Depends on whether you care about nature or not. If you see the earth mechanistically, then sure, it’s ok to cause mass suffering and extinction and loss because after a few million years it will right itself. Kind of odd position given that most humans are incapable of conceiving of that time scale any way other than abstractly.
If ecosystems collapse badly enough, fast enough, you will starve. Maybe you don’t mind, but if you do perhaps you could expand your self-compassion to include others.
‘Robbing Peter to pay Paul’: Christchurch gamblers drop $1.5m a week into poker machines
Millions of dollars each year flow from some of the most deprived Christchurch communities into the hands of clubs and charities via pokies scattered around the city.
A case worker has described the situation as an ethical dilemma, while a gaming industry representative says the industry is working hard to make sure the money benefiting organisations does not come from problem gambling.
Gaming machine societies raked in about $56 million in the first nine months of last year in Christchurch at a rate of close to $1.5m a week, according to Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) figures.
Problem Gambling Foundation chief executive Paula Snowden said of the 87 licensed venues in the city, excluding Christchurch Casino, about 40 per cent were in areas that measured a 7 or more on the index of deprivation.
Yeah it’s expensive but they also get paid well. What I saw when I worked there for 2 weeks was a society that had confidence that the stuff that needs to happen will happen. Everything worked. No shitty transport options from the airport to the capital city. Oslo was clean, public transport ran on time. And because public transport was doing the heavy lifting, no visible traffic problems. Beer was expensive but good food, and they eat very well. Overall the Norwegians struck me as a very happy people, despite their GST rate.
Would i consider living there if it was an option? In a heartbeat.
In Australia om the 1970’s the Returned Services League were a club with a public face and popular venue for the ordinary worker. They had lots of pokies. I lived near a working family that had one addicted member who wanted to be banned. I think he had to cut up his membership card to stop himself.
The habituees of the clubs and hotels with pokies had a practice of ‘bagsing’ a machine they had played on for a while, if they went to the toilet or to get another drink. They would put a white handkerchief over the playing window and that would hold it. If anyone else mistakenly tried to play it they were very unpopular. If you met and tried to have a conversation, they could be distant as they kept looking aside, waiting for a machine to become vacant so they could get ‘playing’.
The belief was that the longer you played, the more likely that the point of luck and payment would occur, so you stuck with the one machine. A couple who ran a day/night taxi business were determined to win one night, and got very upset at their continual losses and started going round all the machines playing them a few times before moving on, on the basis that somewhere in that room was a machine about to spew out a win. They were said to have spent all their rent and food money in that effort, and may indeed have got a win, but I don’t think it even reimbursed them for their losses much less laying the golden egg they were playing and praying for.
Gambling is a nasty addiction. I notice that many businesses are regularly encouraging people to buy or do things like go on-line and enter some contest and possibly win something. I never do, I want the option of having a life that is enjoyable, not be dirt poor and praying for dream outcomes. That is what will make us happy – to have an enjoyable life with achievable dreams and the opportunity to earn extra towards those dreams.
That is why mathematics is the foundation of civilization. People with no grasp of statistics are suckers for this sort of shit. They also don’t understand climate change, or how the Earth orbits the Sun, or how loansharks kill them with compound interest.
I remember a woman who was educated at a convent, and the nun was a keen racing fan. The class became very adept at working out odds on the horsies
and found maths in the real world had many differing uses.
Thinking on –
Konrad Lorenz – The Waning of Humaneness.
Excerpt Part One: … the processes of organic creation are realised in unforeseeable ways. On this realisation, this recognition, is based our belief both in the possibility of truly creative processes and in the freedom of human choice, but above all in the responsibility of every human being. …the first part of this book takes on the task of refuting the assumption that what happens in the world is predetermined.
May I remind you of Truman, the polls indicated he would lose in 1948 and yet he won, but having done so support fell to 22%.
Trump is the worst polling incumbent since Carter.
And as for his 2016 victory the rust belt states fell to Trump (as they once did to Reagan) but by very narrow margins – Clinton’s failure to campaign in this region is what cost her the race. Won’t happen next time.
It’s comments like these why I get so pissed at liberal academic charlatans pushing made up narratives. I also sometimes forget the type of people on here & their intelligence levels. For that I apologize for assuming you could do 5th form math, or grade 5 or what ever the fuck Math. 100% of $4.5trln is $4.5trln (Bush=jobs) and 100% of $9trln is $9trln (Obama= zero job creation) 100% of $1trln (Trump=jobs). Ill remember to spell it out for you nubs more clearly next time. But it dosnt fit your bullshit outrage mental narrative so you have to invent shit to sell papers or collude so you look a little bit clever…
But what pisses me off the most is lefties just won’t see reason. They just don’t see how there bullshit whinging actually helped Trump take the White House.
Same goes for yours, and mine for that matter. If you’ve got something to communicate, you’d better be able to back it up with real world examples, as opposed to argumentum ad nauseam.
I can’t be arsed educating. I presume we’re all 18 here…
Real pundants tend to have unique insights on global news and events, because we have significant money on the line at all times. We are forced to distinguish between noise, real news & events and what it all means. If we are wrong it could cost us a fortune.
Comments are my forecasts & reaction to economics, financial markets, politics & culture…
I hereby denounce all scumbag “pundants” & “smart pundants,” “Political Educators,” “Journalists” & so called “analysts” who push the Jobs narrative in an attempt to get business or push voting participation in thier “pet party.” It literally disgust me!
The lower taxes in the U.S. will be accompanied by lower public spending. were only in phase 1 of stage 1. Reserve your outrage! More to come.
Why is the sale of a Canterbury Diary Farm to the Canadian Govt going ahead? The present Govt must be able to veto this via the Ministers curtailing it? ie, Eugenie Sage. Many of us voted to have the sale of our country stopped!!
Many of us voted to have the sale of our country stopped!!
Many of us have been demanding that the government stop the sale of NZ to offshore owners for decades.
All the political parties have refused to hear this as the listen to the economists and capitalists that say it will all be good despite all the evidence showing otherwise.
It is actions like this that prove that we do not live in a democracy but an elected dictatorship.
“Why is the sale of a Canterbury Diary Farm to the Canadian Govt going ahead? The present Govt must be able to veto this via the Ministers curtailing it? ie, Eugenie Sage. Many of us voted to have the sale of our country stopped!!”
Who did you vote for? Because Labour have never had any intention to do much about rural land sales, their focus has been on residential.
The sale happened in November. My guess is that there wasn’t enough time for the incoming govt to take action via directing the OIO. I’ll be watching to see what happens this year.
Directive Letter to the Overseas Investment Office.
The Directive Letter directs the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) on the Government’s policy approach to overseas investment in sensitive New Zealand assets and the relative importance of benefit factors for different types of overseas investment, as well as other matters.
The new Directive Letter will come into force on 15 December 2017 and will apply to all applications currently being assessed by the OIO and any new applications received.
The OIO will be reviewing all current applications as soon as possible against the new directive letter to determine which applications are affected. The OIO will contact applicant’s advisors if their application is affected.
The OIO webpages are currently being updated to reflect the new Ministerial Directive Letter.
Read the Ministers’ media release (on the Beehive website) (link is external)
Having an investor in NZ of such a high caliber is fantastic. The Canadian Government superannuation scheme has faith in Canterbury Dairy farming. Dairy price shot up 5 % today which is also a good signal. Canada good,China bad in the eyes of this current government.Expect butter price to go up.
The Canadian pension fund will employ kiwis to run the farm and pay for all the local service folk that keep dairy farms running.The benefits to our economy are incalculable.Local schools will stay viable,child care centers like the labour list MP from Hinds owns will remain viable. It is not beer and skittles out in the boondocks .At least twatford will be happy that it ain’t the guys with chinky names investing in our great country. Sorry for my enthusiasm but it’s not erery day you get a 5 % payrise.
@Ian. It amazes me how normies use dead trickle down memes to get there opinions across. Using dead memes sucks the life out of people. So you’re sucking the life out of people and you’re probably laughing about it as you post it… I mean I laugh as well every time I trigger normies. But at least my attempts at memes try to be original content. You just use dead memes…
You know I presumed that we are all over 18 here but there’s always that one guy that just has to prove me wrong.
A challenge has been sent out to ignore normies. So now I think it’s a good time to necromance a meme back to life, properly, by giving it new meaning. I’ll use as little words as possible and as many coloured picture frames as possible. With that said roll the tape: https://youtu.be/hcYYoIFppA0
But I won’t end it there. I think it’s important to go over what a meme actually is. Meme is short for memematocs and now you can use your superior intellect and google it. But basically it’s about coming up with original content.
Just quoting facts stinky. While sitting in your nest being stuffed with regurgitated fish with a Titi islander ready to stuff you in a Kai bag I would have thought you would know a bit about economics. Tosser,
We live in scary times but NZ Herald columnist Rachel Stewart has concluded that the fight must go on.
IT WAS ONLY a few months ago that Rachel Stewart was writing that, in the aftermath of Jacinda Ardern’s elevation to Prime Minister, she was basking in the glow of a new found optimism. It appears though that Rachel’s optimism has been shortlived. The new year finds her in a more sombre mood.
In her first NZ Herald column for 2018, she explains that the fate of the planet and of humanity itself is weighing heavily on her mind. Her prognosis is a gloomy one. ………
I don’t think Rachel is being melodramatic. I think she’s being realistic and good on her for not sugar coating what would of been an unpalatable message for many NZ Herald readers.
We are indeed living in unprecedented- and scary – times……….
The seafood industry in New Zealand has asked the government to withhold graphic video of dead sea life caught in trawler nets as they are potentially damaging to fisheries and to brand New Zealand.
A letter from five seafood industry leaders to the Ministry of Primary Industries highlights the fisheries’ growing unease with the government’s proposal to install video cameras on all commercial fishing vessels to monitor bycatch of other species and illegal fish dumping.
The letter requests an amendment to the Fisheries Act, so video captured onboard cannot be released to the general public through a freedom of information request, frequently used by the media, campaign groups and opposition parties.
“They [the proposed videos] also raise significant risks for MPI and for ‘New Zealand Inc’,” the letter reads, also citing concerns about invading the privacy of employees onboard, and protecting commercial and trade secrets.
There are no reliable figures on the numbers of penguins, sea lions, dolphins and seals that die in fishing nets or longlines in New Zealand, but according to some researchers and environmental groups the commercial fishing industry is the main culprit for declining populations of endangered sea lions and yellow-eyed penguins.
Which of these would you name as the world’s most pressing environmental issue? Climate breakdown, air pollution, water loss, plastic waste or urban expansion? My answer is none of the above. Almost incredibly, I believe that climate breakdown takes third place, behind two issues that receive only a fraction of the attention.
This is not to downgrade the danger presented by global heating – on the contrary, it presents an existential threat. It is simply that I have come to realise that two other issues have such huge and immediate impacts that they push even this great predicament into third place.
One is industrial fishing, which, all over the blue planet, is now causing systemic ecological collapse.
There is a solution.
Stop eating fish.
Save the planet.
Part of the solution could be to change your preconceptions and eats insects. Good food with minimal environmental impact. A good export earner too as more markets are opening up. The only downside is in your head. There is now a local producer that you can support Otago Locusts. Eat sustainably produced fish on Friday, how about a day for the planet.
Awesome program TV 1 Gate to globa Ka pai.
Greg Boyed don’t worry M8 I won’t vent on you again afterall you were just reading the script the producers wrote last time I commented about on Q&A Your cool I know quite a few Boyds from Tairawhiti and Hawkes Bay Ka pai
Congratulations to Jim from the Rock radio station for the expectations of your new baby all the best to your lady to.
I no a lady who had complacations she had to have a C-section at 26 weeks I wish her and her baby and father all the best.
I’ve got 2 mokos coming one any day now when she starts labouring we are going up to Auckland to help her out for a few days. I allways stress when my daughters and daughter in laws are having babies as there can be complications. I say LADY’S DESERVE A LOT MORE SAY on what happens in our world society for all they go through giving US life equality is what they deserve and they will get it to. Ka kite ano
Come on guys u know I reached out to you and the lawyer and you guys just shit yourselves as for a lawyer comferming if the NZ police are corrupt well he ain’t never going to admit that on air live he knows the police will put a micphone up his ass and intimidat him his family and friends that’s what they are doing to me + I know we have a different opinion on some subject I won’t say because I don’t want to damage your reputation as that’s your bread and butter. Ka kite ano
Keir Starmer has hinted that Labour might vote in favour of the Johnson government's shoddy deal, with the proviso that a second referendum is attached:Speaking to BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, he said: “We will see what that looks like but it makes sense to say that by whatever ...
In 1994, I was the editor for an issue of Planet magazine focused on cannabis, its culture and the prospects for the end of its prohibition. Part of that issue was an interview with 'Ringo', an experienced cannabis dealer.I recently posted my essay from that issue, and I figured it ...
Dr Helen Waite, sports sociologist and former elite athlete, on the invasion of women’s sport by men and the anti-scientific and misogynist ideology used to rationalise it. ...
As Brexit comes to a grisly conclusion (perhaps) people on all sides are saying intemperate and uwise things. Some, like the Daly Mail, have been doing it for years.People as normally level headed as Jon Lansman are calling for automatic deselection of MPs who vote against a (likely) Labour three ...
I've got one source saying more Labour MPs than expected are mulling whether to vote for the deal - including names who were not on the letter to Juncker and Tusk— Emilio Casalicchio (@e_casalicchio) 17 October 2019 I've compiled a list of possible reasons why Labour ...
On Wednesday, the government was loudly telling us that it needed to legislate to allow it to impose "control orders" - effectively a parole regime, but imposed without charge, prosecution, conviction or real evidence - on suspected terrorists because they couldn't be prosecuted for their supposed crimes. Today, it turns ...
On Monday, the Hit and Run inquiry heard from NZDF's former director of special operations, who claimed that the defence Minister knew everything about the Operation Burnham raid. Today, the inquiry heard from that (former) Minister - and it turns out that he didn't know nearly as much as NZDF ...
Yoga gurus and cult leaders – I’ve seen a few. Two weeks ago, I unknowingly joined an alleged new-age cult at the Kāpiti coast, together with a giant kraken and some neatly dressed pensioners who would make any book club proud.They were among the two hundred people of all ages ...
The last decade has seen a trend of increasing weapons availability to police. Assault rifles. Tasers on every hip. Guns in cars. And following the march 15 massacre, pistols on every hip, all over the country. At the same time, its also seen an increase in the abuse of force: ...
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been busy preparing for our summer paper on Science Communication. Looking for something amusing about ‘risk’ in science, I came across this neat xkcd.com cartoon about why so many people come knocking on my door (or phoning me, or emailing me) desperately wanting ...
by John Edmundson The International Socialist Organisation (ISO) have recently reposted a February article, by Romany Tasker-Poland, explaining ISO’s position in the “trans rights” debate. It is available on their website and on their Facebook Page. The article sets out to explain why “socialists support trans rights”. It reads more ...
"Auckland City Mission: 10% of Kiwis experiencing food insecurity", RNZ, 16 October 2019:About half a million people are experiencing food insecurity, according to new research from the Auckland City Mission. Food insecurity, or food poverty, is defined as not having enough appropriate food. The City Mission said over the last ...
Media Statement for Immediate Release 16th October 2019 “Fake News” from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers Despite comments from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers—Herald Newspaper Tuesday Oct 15th–there is very little evidence ...
Would You Buy A Used Propaganda Video From This Man? Bridges and the National Party’s strategists have discovered that the ideas and attitudes considered acceptable by today’s editors and journalists are no longer enforceable. The rise and rise of the Internet and the social media platforms it spawned means that ...
There is plenty of evidence of the way the business mentality has permeated every level of society since the recrudescence of market liberalism 35 years ago. You only need to think of how citizens in need of help from their government, their state, their country, are now routinely described as ...
John MacCormickOver the last 40 years, New Zealanders – and people in other countries – have experienced big changes in the jobs they do and where they live and work. These changes include: a decline in manufacturing jobs an increase in jobs in ‘information-intensive’ industries (which are better paid ...
Nick Wilson, Leah Grout, Mereana Wilson, Anja Mizdrak, Phil Shoemack, Michael BakerProtecting waterways has the benefits of: (1) protecting water from hazardous microbes; (2) minimising cancer risk and other problems from nitrates in water; (3) avoiding algal blooms that are hazardous to health; (4) protecting mahinga kai uses (cultural ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women In a press release today Massey University announced it has decided to rebrand and reorientate after struggling to be a University for grown-ups. For some time the University has wanted to be a safe play space for wee-woke-misogynists who have been really badly triggered ...
After a brief dalliance with 'hard Revoke' it looks like the Lib Dems are changing ground on on Brexit, with leader Jo Swinson reverting to calling for a second referendum on Johnson's deal.The party has tabled an amendment to the Queen’s speech requesting that any deal brought back from Brussels ...
The government has decided that someone has done Something Bad. But despite their belief, there seems to be no evidence that they have actually broken the law. So the government's solution is to pass a retrospective law allowing them to be punished anyway, on a lower standard of proof. If ...
So, Judith Collins has done a Facebook rant about climate change, peddling the same shit National has been shovelling for the past twenty years: the impacts are overstated, there's no need to do anything about it, and its too hard anyway (oh, and its so unfair that people who peddle ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzThere is a lot of discussion on the benefits of ...
I came across this song quite by accident. If it isn't one of Greta Thunberg's favourites - it should be.Video courtesy of YouTube.This post is exclusive to Bowalley Road. ...
Last month, NZDF's shoddy coverup of what it knew about civilian casualties in Operation Burnham began to fall apart, with the revelation that a report on the matter, which NZDF claimed not to have, had been sitting in an NZDF safe for the past nine years. Yesterday, the man responsible ...
While many imagine that countries like the USA and Europe dominate space activities, in fact India is now a major player on this stage. It launches satellites for its own purposes and also commercially, and has constellations orbiting our planet and returning data of vital importance to that nation in ...
Thanks to a report from the Acting Inspector General of Intelligence and Security following a complaint by Nicky Hager, we have come to find out that the SIS illegally spied on Mr. Hager on behalf of the NZDF after publication of Hager’s 2011 book, Other People’s Wars. The NZDF justified ...
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING MYTH 1: Global temperatures are rising at a rapid, unprecedented rate. FACT: The HadCRUT3 surface temperature index, produced by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, shows warming to 1878, cooling to 1911, ...
For the past week, Extinction Rebellion has been peacefully protesting in London to demand action on climate change. The British government's response? Ban their protests:Police have banned Extinction Rebellion protests from continuing anywhere in London, as they moved in almost without warning to clear protesters who remained at the movement’s ...
An essay by Judith Collins MP reported on Carbon News yesterday seems to show an alarming shift in attitude within the National Party. Collins argues against the Zero Carbon Bill, the Paris Agreement, and downplays the magnitude of climate impacts. The Paris Agreement was adopted in December 2015 and ratified ...
When they were running for election, Labour promised to overhaul the Employment Relations Act and introduce fair pay agreements to set basic pay and conditions on an industry level, preventing bad employers from undercutting good ones. They followed this up by establishing a working group, which reported back in January ...
A list of indicators of bad science – many of these are found in articles promoted by anti-fluoride activists. Anti-fluoride activists have been pouring money into a scaremongering campaign warning pregnant women not to drink fluoridated water. They claim fluoride will lower the IQ of their future child. Fluoride ...
Nothing Left To Say: Labour's pollster, Stephen Mills, remains swaddled-up in the comforting myths of the 1980s. As if the experience of Roger Douglas’s genuinely radical post-Muldoon policy agenda was literally a once-in-a-lifetime thing – as much as the party could possibly absorb for at least the next 50 years.MEMO ...
The Royal Commission on abuse in care is very significant for the disability community. For many decades last century, thousands of disabled children, and adults who managed to survive, were locked away from families and communities. This was not for anything they had done, but for the perceived threat their ...
With an unfair voting system, uneven electorates and an un-elected upper house, the UK's "democracy" is barely worthy of the name. But now the government wants to make it worse:The government has been accused of suppressing voters’ rights with the potential disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of people after plans ...
Back in the 90's and early 2000's, the building industry was building leaky homes which should never have been granted consent. Now it turns out they've been building dodgy office blocks as well:New imaging technology has revealed hundreds of major buildings nationwide have defective or missing concrete or reinforcing steel. ...
Local body election results were released over the weekend, to joy or despair depending on where you live. In Auckland, Phil Goff trounced John Tamihere, who is muttering darkly about running for Parliament again (but which party would want him?) Wellington is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Weta Workshop, except ...
How could government evolve over the next decades? Reports of democracy’s imminent demise are greatly exaggerated. However, satisfaction with political systems in many countries is low, so there is much to do for governments of all political stripes to improve relevance and trust. Digital technologies are seen as one ...
Two years have now gone by since the Friday afternoon when my university-student son and I headed out of our Barcelona flat to a nearby primary school, designated as a polling station for the vote that was to be held the following Sunday: the referendum on Catalonia’s independence from Spain ...
Overruled: The joint decision of Finance Minister, Grant Robertson (Labour) and his Associate Minister, David Parker (Labour) arguably the two most powerful ministers in Jacinda Ardern’s government, to grant OceanaGold the consents which Land Information Minister, Eugenie Sage (Greens) had earlier denied them, offers bitter proof of how hard fighting ...
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...
A Statement on Abortion Law Reform by the Council of Disobedient Women On the eve of bringing an end to antiquated, anti-women abortion laws Green MP Jan Logie intends to write women out of the Bill. With a stroke of the pen, the woke are aiming for total erasure ...
Musings continue apace about “the experienced businessman!” soon to be taking up a National Party MP position. Or to be more accurate, being parachuted into a seat to shut down their former MP Jamie-Lee Ross, who despite his own shortcomings shed at least some more light on the inner workings ...
The Ugandan government wants to murder gay people:Uganda has announced plans to impose the death penalty on homosexuals. The bill, colloquially known as “Kill the Gays” in Uganda, was nullified five years ago on a technicality, but the government said on Thursday it plans to resurrect it within weeks. The ...
Hassan Vally, La Trobe UniversityWho doesn’t want to know if drinking that second or third cup of coffee a day will improve your memory, or if sleeping too much increases your risk of a heart attack? We’re invested in staying healthy and many of us are interested in reading ...
Freedom Of Speech? The Säuberung (cleansing by fire) was the work of the German Student Union which, on 10 May 1933, under the watchful eye of the Nazi Reichminister for Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, consigned 25,000 books to the flames in a ritual exorcism of “un-German thought”. According to the logic of the ...
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...
New Zealand has prided itself for decades with regard to its lack of pollution, and all will be aware that the ‘100% Pure New Zealand‘ meme is under threat through land, water and air pollution of various causes. There is another type of contamination that the country also faces: light ...
New Zealand’s media is doing its part in Japan, reassuring those in the path of the storm that they won’t miss any rugby while away from their flooded homes. New Zealand sports reporters stationed in Japan for the Rugby World Cup have had the rare and heartwarming opportunity to inform ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones is the only Cabinet member in favour of putting it all on green. As Finance Minister Grant Robertson finds himself with an enormous $7.5 billion surplus, the Government has begun intense, at times contentious conversations about whether to put the money on red or black at ...
by Susanne Kemp At the start of September close to 100,000 school teachers went on strike in Jordan. They demanded a 50% pay rise. A pay rise actually agreed to by the regime back in 2014. In early October, however, in the face of government repression and threats, the teachers’ ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhy do people still think climate change isn’t real?David ...
Back in 2011, journalist Nicky Hager published Other People's Wars, an expose on NZDF's activities over the previous decade of the "war on terror". NZDF didn't like this, and especially didn't like the fact that it was base don leaks from their own. So, they had the SIS investigate him ...
The Zero Carbon Bill is due back from select committee in two weeks, and will likely pass its final stages in November. So naturally, farmers are planning a hate-march against it. But they're not just demanding lower methane targets so they can keep on destroying the planet; they're also demanding ...
Last year, California burned. This year, to stop it happening again (or rather, to stop themselves from being found liable if it happens again), Pacific Gas and Electric is cutting power to half the state for a week:Schools are closed. Traffic lights down. Tunnels dark. Businesses unopened. Hospitals running on ...
The Best Way: Missing from the on-line voting debate is any reference to the voting system that produces turn-out figures ranging from 77 to 93 percent of registered voters. The voting system used to collect and count the votes cast in our parliamentary elections. The system that involves citizens making ...
Among the great new bunch of political friends we have been making recently is the excellent Australian-based Marxist gender-critical site, Freer Lives. So we asked the comrade who set up that blog to write something for Redline on the blog, himself, his analysis of the rise of gender politics and ...
by Don Franks The Auckland City Mission is struggling with a 40 percent increase in demand for food parcels this year. A total of 23,020 were needed by June. Last month Missioner Chris Farrelly told the Herald the “cupboards are bare” and without an emergency food drive, he can’t see ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Massey Wellington Student Association had a sit-in today. Imagine a sit-in. On a campus. Against a women’s rights meeting. Did the ’60s really happen or did we fucking dream it? They gathered in the student square, an echo chamber. Sitting on soft pillows ...
For some reasons, my post about the mystery message from inside the Downing Street bunker seemed to catch people's attention. Quite a lot of hits from NZ (unsurprisingly) and the USA (a bit more puzzlingly, but hi there, USAians!!) and 76 views from the Ukraine.I've celebrated my Ukrainian readers in ...
First, almost a score of Labour MPs seem to have sent a letter to the EU basically begging them to accept a deal - any deal - just so Britain can get the Heck on with Brexiting instead of being trapped in limbo:
by Phil Duncan In 2016 the National-led government suspended the Parent Visa Category, through which migrants were able to bring their parents into New Zealand. Since then over 5,700 people have been in immigration limbo, stuck on the visa wait list. Labour is now bringing back the scheme. Well, sort ...
The following was released yesterday (Tues, October 8) by the women’s liberation organisation Speak Up for Women. On 23 September Speak Up For Women announced that we would be holding an event at the Massey University Theaterette in Wellington. The event is called Feminism 2020. The intention of the event ...
The government is currently consulting on plans to improve freshwater quality. So naturally, farmers oppose it:South Taranaki farmers are preparing to fight proposed national freshwater changes that some fear will bankrupt them. The Government's proposed National Environment Standard on Freshwater Management, released in September, rated the Waingongoro River as one ...
Yesterday was the last day for (reliably) posting your vote away in local body elections. Turnouts are mostly much lower than the equivalent time last year (Palmerston North is down 2.3%), and so naturally people are pushing their online-voting snake oil again. Because the online census worked so well, lets ...
This essay, on the political legacy of the eugenics movement, by Kenan Malik was originally published in the Observer on 6 October 2019, under the headline ‘The spirit of eugenics is still with us, as immigrants know to their cost’. Birth control. Intelligence tests. Town planning. Immigration controls. It’s striking how ...
Another year, and the government has announced another enormous government "surplus". And just like last year, its nothing of the sort. When we have people homeless and sick and hungry, when we have schools and hospitals still falling down, when we have underpaid public servants and infrastucture unmaintained or unbuilt, ...
James Forsyth at The Spectator (I know, I know) has tapped one of his contacts inside Number Ten for an insight into the Johnson administration's thinking and strategy.It is fascinating, unsettling and quite, quite mad. Some key points:Negotiations have stalled and the Johnson administration are keen to blame the EU: ...
Fatal Contact: With the arrival of captain James Cook in October 1769, the islands of what would become New Zealand ceased to be the preserve of Polynesian navigators and settlers and became a part of both the world’s map and the world’s history.THE MAORI NATIONALIST assault upon the historical meaning ...
Another round of tactical talks about forming a Government of National Unity have come to nothing with the Liberal Democrats still refusing countenance putting Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street:Opposition talks on Monday made little headway over when to try and vote down Boris Johnson's government and who might succeed him as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...
Speaking at the Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) biennial conference, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters told unionists that any future attacks on the Government won't work. "Now, we are being attacked by the union movement in this country. You can have your views but I'm here to say standing ...
We want every New Zealander to be happy, safe, and healthy. To do this, we need to support strong, safe communities, and a robust and efficient health system. ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark has used his powers to overrule a noise complaint ruling against Whenuapai airbase on the grounds of "national security". The Environment Court last month released a ruling in favour of a private developer, declaring the Auckland airbase had to comply with noise restrictions when it performs ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has opened fire against "unreconstructed morons" after NZ First MP Shane Jones was photographed on holiday holding an AR-15 rifle. Mr Peters is defending Mr Jones, telling Magic Talk host Peter Williams that his MP was just having fun "like most people do". "The ...
New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau was in attendance during the morning blessing of the Rotorua Lakefront development project. Around 60 people gathered on the shores of Lake Rotorua, including city mayor Steve Chadwick and deputy Dave Donaldson. The Lakefront development is a ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...
Speaking to Radio NZ, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the tightening of the parental category visa is a direct result of the Party’s coalition negotiations with the Labour Party. He said the new changes switch the financial onus from the parent moving to New Zealand to the child ...
The Coalition Government is set to cut red tape in the building and construction sector in an effort to allow more houses to be built, including prefabricated houses. The changes will enable the mass factory production of "high quality" buildings, slash the likely number of building inspections for factory produced ...
Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to tackle homelessness and make sure everyone has a warm, dry home. And today, on World Homeless Day, we want to report back and update you on our progress so far. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has hit back at National Party leader Simon Bridges who criticized the Coalition Government’s approach to crime, and said that the latter isn't credible in his attack on the Government over gang recruitment. "We've got as massive drug problem in this country. It is ...
New Zealand Mānuka honey exporters have welcomed an initiative by the Coalition Government to help secure the term “mānuka honey” to be used exclusively by Kiwi exporters, ensuring that our multimillion-dollar industry is protected. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had recently announced that a Provincial Growth Funding of $5.7 ...
Political commentator Mike Hosking has labelled New Zealand First leader Winston Peters as “the voice of reason in a government soft on drugs”, for the Party’s stance on drug testing at music festivals. “If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in,” Mr Hosking said. The Labour ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau has announced Provincial Growth Funding to ensure work opportunities in Turangi and Whanganui, through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi. A fund of $500,000 will go to Rafting NZ in Turangi for a 16-week river guide training course to train ...
Treasury has shown that the Coalition Government has a $7.5 billion surplus, which is $4 billion higher than what was expected in the 2019 Budget unveiled last May. It is also $2 billion higher than the actual surplus unveiled this time last year, and at a size that has not ...
Official Information Act figures released to NZME show there were 350 assaults on officers in the year to the end of June, 79 more than the year before. The increase in attacks have sparked calls for more legal protection for first responders to be enacted. The assaults included officers being ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
We're making progress on tackling the long-term challenges: from homelessness, to strengthening border security, to bringing banking back New Zealand's small towns. ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones has backed the ambitious plan to move Auckland’s port to Northport, at Whangarei harbour, which he says will be the “King Kong of infrastructure”. The plan is part of the recommendations of a six-person independent working group, which has recommended the Ports of Auckland be ...
A six-member independent working group selected the option of moving Auckland’s port to Northport, in Whangarei, ahead of other options. In what could be New Zealand’s most ambitious infrastructure project yet, a major expansion of the Marsden Point port could happen within 15 years. The project, officially called the “Upper ...
The final Electricity Price Review recommended prohibiting prompt payment discounts but allowing “reasonable” late fees. The findings of this review was welcomed by the Coalition Government, but they hope companies will follow through with its recommendations without regulations needed to be passed. Meridian Energy had already stopped prompt payment discounts, ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi,will invest nearly $600,000 to ensure work opportunities for locals in Turangia and Whanganui, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “I’m pleased to announce the PGF ...
An export-led economy is one of New Zealand First’s key principles, and our commitment to achieving this is shown by the continuing skyrocketing demand for our beef and sheep meat exports. Beef + Lamb New Zealand's New Season Outlook 2019-20 report forecasts beef, lamb and mutton prices to lift from ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today in Gisborne an investment of $17.27m into bringing “world-leading” food-growing technology and the creation of more than 100 new jobs in the East Coast city. The funding comes from the Provincial Growth Fund, and included a $15 million loan to LeaderBrand, a ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development More than 100 people in Tairāwhiti’s Tolaga Bay will benefit from two employment initiatives supported by the Provincial Growth Fund, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. “Tolaga Bay is an incredibly tight-knit community, but one in ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is supporting Gisborne business Leaderbrand to produce salad vegetables year round and create more jobs in the Tairāwhiti region, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Our support for Leaderbrand will help them build large greenhouses ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has praised the promise by New Zealand’s biggest banks not to close any provincial branches while the Coalition Government trials regional banking hubs across the country. The Minister said the announce was the “first sign of hope for regional communities”, many of which have ...
Two secondary-school initiatives are being expanded as part of the Government’s plan to see more young New Zealanders take up a trade to help close the skills gap. This includes the largest single increase in Trades Academy places in recent years. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris ...
The Government today announced its support for a project that could substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from cattle. The announcement was made as part of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor’s visit to Nelson’s Cawthron Aquaculture Park. The Cawthron Institute will receive $100,000 from the Government’s ...
Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni has welcomed the first reading of the New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension Legislation Amendment Bill. “Every New Zealander has a stake in New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension,” says Carmel Sepuloni. “They are our most common form of social assistance – nearly 800,000 New ...
Babies in Auckland aged six months and over can receive a free vaccination and children will all have access to vaccines, Associate Minister of Health Julie Anne Genter announced today at Papatoetoe High School. The move comes as part of Government efforts to step up the fight against measles. ...
***Check against delivery*** Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here, and to have the honour of opening this important conference on behalf of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. Let us take the opportunity to acknowledge all the people who have helped make today possible, including our special ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash says the safety of frontline officers and members of the public will be the focus of a new trial of specialist Police response teams in three of our largest urban centres. Police have this morning released details of an initiative to be trialled in Counties Manukau, ...
The Minister of Fisheries is calling for entries for a new public award to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector. “I have established the Seafood Sustainability Awards to recognise and celebrate those throughout industry, tangata whenua and communities who demonstrate outstanding dedication and innovation towards the sustainability of New Zealand’s ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter welcomes leaders in the private sector taking action on closing their gender pay gaps to ensure a fairer workplace for all New Zealanders. Ms Genter today launched a new report, Addressing the gender pay gap and driving women’s representation in senior leadership, from the Champions for ...
Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. The release underlines the importance of government proposals to combat climate pollution, ensure clean freshwater, protect biodiversity, make land use more sustainable, and reduce waste and plastic. Environment ...
The Government has approved funding for a new acute mental health facility for Waikato which will provide better care and support to people with mental health and addiction issues. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Dr David Clark announced the $100 million project to replace the aging Henry Rongomau ...
The Government is making progress on its goal to integrate te reo Māori into education by 2025, with over 500 teachers and support staff already graduating from Te Ahu o te Reo Māori, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Kelvin Davis made the announcement at an awards ceremony in Waikanae today, for ...
Statistics Minister James Shaw has welcomed the first release of 2018 Census data. The first release of data today, 23 September, includes key data on population, regional growth, the number of homes and the size of different ethnic groups in New Zealand. Data from the 2018 Census will support the ...
Minister for Statistics James Shaw today announced a public consultation on a proposed algorithm charter for government agencies. The charter has been developed by the Government Chief Data Steward in response to growing calls for more transparency in government use of data. Computer algorithms – procedures or formulas for solving ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, Climate Change Minister James Shaw and visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte co-hosted a business roundtable in Auckland this morning focused on working together to address climate change. “The Netherlands is an important partner for New Zealand. We share a strong agricultural history. Sustainable agribusiness and ...
The Government is taking action to build an inclusive economy where more of us receive our fair share at work and businesses can compete on great products and services, not undercutting wages and conditions, Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. Two consultations launched today seek feedback ...
The future for New Zealand’s threatened indigenous freshwater fish looks brighter with the passing of the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill in Parliament today said Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage. “Until now, our freshwater fish legislation has been 20 years out of date. We have lacked effective tools to ...
At 1.30pm tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of Kiwis will join about 65 million people around the globe in ShakeOut, the world’s biggest earthquake drill. The annual drill is to remind people of the right action to take during an earthquake which is to Drop, Cover, Hold, and to practise their ...
Kiwis are benefiting from higher wage growth and low inflation under the Coalition Government. Stats NZ data out today shows the rise in the cost of living remains low, as annual Consumers Price Index (CPI) inflation fell to 1.5% in September from 1.7% in June. “The low inflation comes as ...
New Zealand’s economic strength and resilience has been recognised in a major update on the state of the global economy. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook released overnight shows a reduced global growth forecast over the next two years as issues like the US-China trade war and Brexit take hold. ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little has today introduced a new Bill to prevent terrorism and support the de-radicalisation of New Zealanders returning from overseas. The Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill gives the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to the High Court to impose control orders on New Zealanders who ...
A Bill that proposes targeted changes to simplify the processes for Māori land owners when engaging with the Māori Land Court has had its First Reading today. “The approach taken by the Government is to ensure that the protection of Māori land remains a priority as we seek to improve ...
Let me first thank all the new unionists and members in the room. There is nothing more important to improving people’s working lives than people making the decision to care, to get on board and help, to take up the reins and get involved. Congratulations to you. You bring the ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark has signed a certificate exempting the activity of engine testing at Whenuapai Airbase from the Resource Management Act 1991. The Act gives the Minister of Defence the power to exempt activities for the purposes of national security. The certificate will mean the recent Environment Court ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced New Zealand will join the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action while attending APEC meetings in Chile. The objective of the 39 member Coalition is to share information and promote action to tackle climate change. It was formed in April this year, in ...
Feedback sought– Lyttelton commercial zone parking The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to remove on-site car parking requirements for new developments in the Lyttelton commercial zone. The proposal, by Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section 71 of the Greater ...
Hon Minister Poto Williams Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration MEDIA STATEMENT Tuesday 15 October 2019 Feedback sought – Hagley Oval The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal about Hagley Oval. The proposal was developed by Regenerate Christchurch ...
Ladies and gentlemen, NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff, members of respective unions – thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. This might be preaching to the choir, but the importance of trade unions in New Zealand’s historical arch is difficult to understate. And it is my belief that ...
"Let’s start by acknowledging that it has been a huge year. " Police Association Annual Conference James Cook Grand Chancellor Hotel Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou katoa. President of the Police Association, Chris Cahill; Members of the Association and ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters and Minister of Defence Ron Mark have announced the New Zealand Government’s decision to again deploy a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 (P-3) maritime patrol aircraft to support the implementation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions imposing sanctions against North Korea. New ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand continues to have serious concerns for peace and stability in north-east Syria. “Recent reports that hundreds of ISIS-affiliated families have fled from a camp are deeply concerning from a humanitarian and security perspective”, Mr Peters says. “While we acknowledge Turkey’s domestic security ...
Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor is warning travelling Kiwis to be vigilant as the high-season for the crop-eating brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is under way. “We’re on high alert to stop BMSB arriving in NZ. The high season runs until April 30 and we’ve strengthened our measures to stop stink ...
The Government is moving swiftly to change the law to improve the welfare and pastoral care of students living in university halls of residence and other tertiary hostels. Cabinet has agreed to several changes, including creating a new mandatory Code of Practice that sets out the duty of pastoral care ...
The Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage has launched a new comprehensive trapping guide for community trappers to help them protect our native birds, plants and other wildlife, at Zealandia in Wellington today. ‘A practical guide to trapping’, has been developed by the Department of Conservation (DOC), and was launched during ...
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter welcomes PHARMAC’s move to improve access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs). PHARMAC has today announced it will fund the full cost of Mirena and Jaydess for anyone seeking long term contraception, lifting previous restrictions on access to Mirena. “I welcome women having greater choices ...
The Government has approved the next stage of a major redevelopment of Taranaki Base Hospital, which will deliver new and improved facilities for patients. Health Minister Dr David Clark has announced details of a $300 million dollar project to build a new East Wing at the New Plymouth hospital. It ...
Extra funding will allow Rural Support Trusts to help farming families, says Minister for Rural Communities and Agriculture Damien O’Connor. “I know that rural families are worried about some of the challenges facing them, including the ongoing uncertainty created by the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak. “Those concerns sit alongside ongoing worries ...
Thank you for the opportunity to be here to present certificates to the 16 graduates who have completed a beekeeping course delivered by the Howard League. Let us start by acknowledging Auckland Prison’s Deputy Prison Director Tom Sherlock, and Acting Assistant Regional Commissioner of Corrections Northern Region Scott Walker - ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson leaves this weekend to attend the APEC Finance Ministers meeting in Santiago, Chile. Discussions between APEC Finance Ministers at the meeting will include the effects of the current global economic uncertainty, risks for APEC economies and sustainable development of the region. While at APEC Grant Robertson ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says for Pacific people, language can be a source of strength. It can help ground us and give us confidence. When we speak them, our languages provide us with an immediate and intimate access to our identity and our story - and ...
The Coalition Government has announced an action plan to improve the wellbeing of disabled New Zealanders by addressing inequalities in play, active recreation and sport. The initiative includes training to develop a workforce that understands the needs of children and young people with a range of impairments, advocacy for fit ...
Botany is an electorate that deserves a representative who is committed to their community which is the reason New Conservative has confirmed Elliot Ikilei as the candidate for the 2020 election. ...
Anyone who would like to submit an account of their experience of state care to the Māori Inquiry into Oranga Tamariki has 10 days left before submissions close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justine Shaw, Conservation Biologist, The University of Queensland This year, five of the seven Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science were awarded to women. While this is a welcome development, the great majority of awards and prizes for science, technology, engineering and mathematics ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison seized the opportunity of his Jakarta weekend visit for Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s inauguration to obtain a meeting with Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan. Morrison told a news conference he had come out ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon O’Connor, Associate Professor in American Politics at the United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney During the 2016 US presidential campaign, people around the world were regularly reassured by election experts that Donald Trump was too outrageous to be elected president. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Leask, Professor, University of Sydney Your neighbour is telling you about his new baby. He feels nervous about vaccinating, and says he’s considering delaying Lucy’s vaccines. Your mother’s group is chatting about vaccines. One mother tells the group Jimmy isn’t vaccinated, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hal Pawson, Associate Director – City Futures – Urban Policy and Strategy, City Futures Research Centre, Housing Policy and Practice, UNSW Low-income tenants in Australia are increasingly likely to be trapped in rental stress for years. New evidence from the Productivity Commission ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland In line with his usual practice, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has backed Donald Trump over the World Trade Organisation, criticising of China’s status in it as a “developing country”. Critics of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kristal Spreadborough, Casual Academic, University of New England As the Australian premier season of The Masked Singer draws to a close, fans are listening hard to guess which celebrities remain behind the weird and wonderful costumes. Although the celebrities throw listeners a ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: NZ First holds crucial party conference, roving AOS trial sparks concerns, and Mediaworks facing dramatic days ahead.The most pivotal political party in the country right now has held their annual conference, a year out from what will be a make ...
Five experts, all from countries with varying levels of cannabis legality, came to Auckland to speak on the benefits and costs of the drug before New Zealand’s cannabis referendum in 2020. Alice Webb-Liddall reports.While New Zealanders wait for the cannabis referendum in 2020, the government is working hard to draft ...
Protesting has brought about enormous social change in NZ. Will transformational groups emerge from the climate and Ihumātao protests? Trevor Richards hopes so. ...
Dr Olivier Jutel goes deep on blockchain, explaining why we should be cognisant of sweeping ideological claims masquerading as the technology of truth. ...
A psychiatric doctor who helps suicidal teenagers says the Ministry of Health’s suicide reduction plans miss much of the wider issue. We need to listen to affected communities, and equip them to make the changes they need, he writes.Last week, as I left yet another 3am crisis interview in ED ...
Highly trained, armed police are a necessary tool in emergency situations, but roving teams eager to find work could be a recipe for disaster, writes investigator and former police officer Tim McKinnel for RNZ. Police announced yesterday they are to introduce a trial of Armed Response Teams (ARTs) in Auckland, Waikato ...
“Proposals to curb environmental damage help our coasts and the oceans Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. We at CEAC also ...
David Robie, concluding his three-part series about Iran, profiles an extraordinary pair of Tehran brothers who have been pioneering global research adventurers. They have been dubbed the “Persian Indiana Joneses”. Their adventures are fabled and hair-raising, as shown by a Jivaro shrunken human head and relics from curious rituals ...
Four months ago Caroline Shaw bought an e-bike. She explains why they’re the answer to our lethal car culture.Four months ago we took what felt like a huge leap of faith and bought an e-cargo bike. The combination of three things tipped us over the edge: feeling the need to ...
The online magazine that boasted a bigger Instagram following than most New Zealand media has abruptly come to an end. So what was Auckland Mag? Why did it exist? And who was it mysterious founder Dan Rolph? David Farrier investigates. The reply from Dan Rolph at Auckland Magazine came quickly. It came ...
In the wake of the shocking revelations about Three, Duncan Greive assesses the health of New Zealand’s six big media companies.Winston Peters has studied the cold, pitiless heart of a certain strand of New Zealander for four decades now, and has become our foremost expert on both expressing its feelings ...
US justice reform activists Deborah Small and asha bandele say white supremacy and colonialism are at the heart of punitive drug laws. They spoke to Teuila Fuatai about how drug reform can reverse their effects on minority communities. Deborah Small sees Donald Trump as the US Dorian Gray. “He’s the physical ...
Madeleine Chapman spent a day learning about Christchurch through its most famous dishes.What is there do with with a day in Christchurch? Thanks to the inexplicably early check-out times at hotels all over the world and a 7pm flight back to Auckland, I had a full day to wander the ...
Winston Peters says his party is a handbrake on bad ideas and a "supercharged turbo" for good ones - but will it be in the driver's seat come 2020? ...
Our former prime minister secured a meeting with Chinese premier Xi Jinping outside all normal diplomatic channels. Interest’s Jenée Tibshraeny asks what it means for New Zealand’s evolving relationship with the superpower.Former prime minister John Key secured a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week without the involvement of ...
David Robiecontinues his three-part series about travelling in Iran. I stumbled on the scene by chance. Our host family in Iran’s second city Mashhad, a modern and beautiful metropolis that would comfortably fit in New Zealand’s entire population, was taking us on a drive to the outskirts to ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has lashed out at the media, in particular, MediaWorks, just a day after the company announced it was selling off its television arm. ...
About a hundred disgruntled licensed gun owners have descended on the New Zealand First conference to tell the party leader Winston Peters that they feel like victims. ...
New Zealand First members will vote on a policy today that would allow businesses of all sizes to enforce 90-day trials when they employ people straight out of prison. ...
"Each time she held her lighter underneath the pipe and sucked the smoke into the back of her throat, the promise was there": a New Zealand tragedy by Alice Tawhai. ...
With the future of Mediaworks’ TV business hanging in the balance, Al Jazeera news presenter Kamahl Santamaria reflects on what the imperilled channel meant, and continues to mean, to him.I always liked the logo. The fresh bright colours, the nod to a koru in its shape, and just the fact ...
There are still many barriers preventing people from voting in local elections. Laura O’Connell Rapira proposes some social solutions.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here.To vote in the local elections, I cast ...
What’s really stood out for me being back in Tokyo is the unique qualities of Japan’s spectators, writes Richard Light, professor of sport coaching at the University of Canterbury.The Rugby World Cup has thrown a global spotlight on Japan over recent weeks. Not just the rugby: the distinctive culture and ...
As the New Zealand First Party gathers for its annual conference, the question swirling in the year is how it can carve out a path to avoid electoral defeat in 2020, writes Jo Moir for RNZ. It’s not you, it’s me. It’s a familiar break up excuse that’s used ...
To the early intervention therapists, to the teachers, to the speech therapists, the occupational therapists, music therapists, diabetes nurses and all: you change the world.When I was married almost a decade ago we had the following reading at our wedding:You are holding up a ceilingwith both arms. It is very ...
The faces said it all. The smiles of the European leaders crowded round Boris after the Brexit deal was struck. The deal his opponents – no, pretty much everyone – said was impossible.So what’s in it? The detail is still opaque, but subject to gremlins in the fine print, ...
Iran attracts an onslaught of negative media in New Zealand and Western media. But is it fair or deserved? David Robie has spent several weeks travelling in the country on sabbatical and finds the media negativity far from the reality of the “most friendly” country he has ever visited ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Leigh Sullivan discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan. They talk about Alan Jones accusing Prime Minister Scott Morrison of failing the immediate needs of drought-striken farmers, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anita Parbhakar-Fox, Senior Research Fellow in Geometallurgy/Applied Geochemistry, The University of Queensland Last month, scientists uncovered a mineral called Edscottite. Minerals are solid, naturally occurring substances that are not living, such as quartz or haematite. This new mineral was discovered after an ...
The Auckland-based collective talk origins, ambitions and making the rave accessible to everybody.Friendly Potential is an outfit that defies easy summary. They’re among the country’s most ambitious and prolific club promoters. In their almost five-years of operation, they’ve been responsible for the local debuts of electronic music icons including Detroit ...
Analysis: Two polls show support for Labour sliding, the government is accused of breaking another promise and the Greens's refusal to back a bill forces Labour to rely on National to get it through. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kiera Lindsey, University of Technology Sydney One spring morning in 1850, over 8,000 Sydneysiders marched through town to protest the resumption of transportation – the act of sending British criminals to Australia. It was the largest protest in Australia thus far, an ...
Two shareholders of failed insurance firm company CBL are leading a class action against the firm's former directors seeking compensation for financial losses. ...
Sam Brooks recaps the third episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, and wonders why some of these queens don’t know how to sew.This episode asks, and sort of answers the main question that millions of people across the world: why would you come on Drag Race and not know how to sew?!There ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John M Clarke, Team Leader, Regional Projections, CSIRO Last month we lost Dr Penny Whetton – one of the world’s most respected climate scientists and a brilliant mentor to the next generation of researchers. Penny will also be remembered as a passionate ...
Ten moose were upended into the Dusky Sounds in 1910. Now, their descendants are getting their day in the sun.The climate crisis is affecting wildlife all over the country: rockhopper penguin populations are in drastic decline, tuatara eggs aren’t hatching females, and the ice walls keeping predators away from kea ...
Security footage of NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell being thrown out of a Tauranga bar looks unlikely to ever be aired - despite his leader Winston Peters promising a screening. ...
Amnesty International is concerned that Justice Minister Andrew Little's Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill could have the potential to undermine human rights in New Zealand. The Bill would give the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to ...
Expect the old campaigner Winston Peters to be at his belligerent best as he gears up for another election. He’s kept his party alive for 27 years and he shows no sign of quitting. The omens may be bleak—polls this week showed his party below the 5% threshold– but Peters ...
The National Party has agreed to take down any videos breaching the current rules around the use of parliamentary TV footage, as all parties try to reach consensus. ...
Recently the Health Promotion Agency released a report into hazardous drinking in New Zealand. The report shows that Māori who drink alcohol and live in deprived circumstances are less likely to have a harmful relationship with alcohol if they ...
Turkey-US joint-statement on military ops within Syria’s territory.The Turkish Embassy in New Zealand issued Evening Report this unabridged United States of America-Republic of Turkey joint-statement detailing what both sides agreed to regarding Turkey’s military operations within the so-called security zone within Syrian territory near Turkey’s southern border. It is ...
Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash didn’t mention what winners will receive, when he proudly called for entries for a new public award “to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector”. Nor did he mention the cost to taxpayers of this initiative. Point of Order’s checks with the website where more details have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona R Martin, Senior Lecturer in Convergent and Online Media, University of Sydney One of the basic tenets of the ABC Act is independence from government. Yet once again, in contravention to that principle, the federal government is trying to push through ...
A new poem by Auckland poet Lily Holloway.modernity to globalisationwhen I get there as still life and landscape and also portraitureseeking the cacti in small pots who dot the globeslices of pie offer up the vision after the sermonexpressing emotions without coherent narrative supportbecause no artist responded to this callemploying ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi to rule out any taxpayer-funded purchase or bailout for Mediaworks’s channel Three. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “For the last few months Mediaworks ...
The Police Commissioner's announcement that squadcars of officers with automatic rifles will patrol New Zealand's streets is dangerous and unnecessary, according to the criminal justice community organisation People Against Prisons Aotearoa. The ...
News broke this morning that Mediaworks is seeking to sell off, and even contemplating closing, its TV division. What might that mean for journalism?For journalism in New Zealand, the loss of Three’s TV division is a devastating blow. It is not yet known whether any of the news properties will ...
Open Mike 17/01/2018 
Keir Starmer has hinted that Labour might vote in favour of the Johnson government's shoddy deal, with the proviso that a second referendum is attached:Speaking to BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, he said: “We will see what that looks like but it makes sense to say that by whatever ...3 hours ago
In 1994, I was the editor for an issue of Planet magazine focused on cannabis, its culture and the prospects for the end of its prohibition. Part of that issue was an interview with 'Ringo', an experienced cannabis dealer.I recently posted my essay from that issue, and I figured it ...2 days ago
Dr Helen Waite, sports sociologist and former elite athlete, on the invasion of women’s sport by men and the anti-scientific and misogynist ideology used to rationalise it. ...2 days ago
On Wednesday, the government was loudly telling us that it needed to legislate to allow it to impose "control orders" - effectively a parole regime, but imposed without charge, prosecution, conviction or real evidence - on suspected terrorists because they couldn't be prosecuted for their supposed crimes. Today, it turns ...3 days ago
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been busy preparing for our summer paper on Science Communication. Looking for something amusing about ‘risk’ in science, I came across this neat xkcd.com cartoon about why so many people come knocking on my door (or phoning me, or emailing me) desperately wanting ...3 days ago
Media Statement for Immediate Release 16th October 2019 “Fake News” from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers Despite comments from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers—Herald Newspaper Tuesday Oct 15th–there is very little evidence ...4 days ago
Would You Buy A Used Propaganda Video From This Man? Bridges and the National Party’s strategists have discovered that the ideas and attitudes considered acceptable by today’s editors and journalists are no longer enforceable. The rise and rise of the Internet and the social media platforms it spawned means that ...4 days ago
by The Council of Disobedient Women In a press release today Massey University announced it has decided to rebrand and reorientate after struggling to be a University for grown-ups. For some time the University has wanted to be a safe play space for wee-woke-misogynists who have been really badly triggered ...5 days ago
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz There is a lot of discussion on the benefits of ...5 days ago
Thanks to a report from the Acting Inspector General of Intelligence and Security following a complaint by Nicky Hager, we have come to find out that the SIS illegally spied on Mr. Hager on behalf of the NZDF after publication of Hager’s 2011 book, Other People’s Wars. The NZDF justified ...6 days ago
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING MYTH 1: Global temperatures are rising at a rapid, unprecedented rate. FACT: The HadCRUT3 surface temperature index, produced by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, shows warming to 1878, cooling to 1911, ...6 days ago
A list of indicators of bad science – many of these are found in articles promoted by anti-fluoride activists. Anti-fluoride activists have been pouring money into a scaremongering campaign warning pregnant women not to drink fluoridated water. They claim fluoride will lower the IQ of their future child. Fluoride ...6 days ago
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...1 week ago
Musings continue apace about “the experienced businessman!” soon to be taking up a National Party MP position. Or to be more accurate, being parachuted into a seat to shut down their former MP Jamie-Lee Ross, who despite his own shortcomings shed at least some more light on the inner workings ...1 week ago
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...2 weeks ago
We're rebuilding our hospitals, protecting our oceans, and taking mental health seriously. ...3 days ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...5 days ago
Two secondary-school initiatives are being expanded as part of the Government’s plan to see more young New Zealanders take up a trade to help close the skills gap. This includes the largest single increase in Trades Academy places in recent years. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris ...32 mins ago
Botany is an electorate that deserves a representative who is committed to their community which is the reason New Conservative has confirmed Elliot Ikilei as the candidate for the 2020 election. ...25 mins ago
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There is a good window on the reality going forward with the economy folks as Martyn over on ‘The Daily Blog’ the coming economic slump is not far away.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/01/16/all-the-canaries-in-the-minefield-are-dead-the-looming-economic-correction/
All the canaries in the minefield are dead – the looming economic correction
By Martyn Bradbury / January 16, 2018
…people are going to want a State that will be prepared to step up to the challenge and lead rather than leave it to the free market.
The spectre at the feast during the negotiations for the new Government last year was the deep seated belief that a serious economic collapse was coming.
It shaped the way Winston Peters approached the negotiations ands it’s the reason the agreement between him and Jacinda will never be released.
Almost everywhere now, alarm bells are ringing that the correction is coming.
Markets have gone beyond euphoric and have now entered their drugged up kool aid cult phase.
The stratospheric asset markets pumped up by quantitate easing to try and fight off the 2007-2008 global financial recession are all starting to shake and shudder under the enormous weight of debt created wealth the current economic system must now try and carry.
In the normal rhythm of Capitalism we would have had our boom bust cycle, but because the last bust would have been so destructive, the system allowed the same reckless corporate greed to overtake providence and the elites are once again gambling with everyones livelihoods.
Yes a major economic crash is coming.
With our deregulated economy we are highly vulnerable to any global events.
Quick fix our exchange rate to the venezuelan bolivar !
The Norwegian krone would be a good idea.
I suggest you research the taxation rates in the Scandinavian countries as opposed to our own, and at the same time, look at their social welfare policies.
It is a bit silly to compare us with Venezuela.
But you know that, don’t you?
Yet it is such a good example of what socialism can do to a country.
Yeah I know all is swell there – it’s the evil media conspiracy to make it look bad.
What is your opinion of Norway?
Have you looked at its tax rates and social policies?
It is a better country to look at when observing the results of progressive social policies.
You never compare New Zealand with that country for some reason.
I wonder why.
The major difference between Norway and NZ’s economies are due to North Sea oil. On a per capita basis Norway is the largest oil and natural gas producer outside of the Middle East. Their population size is about the same as ours, the government pension fund has over a trillion US dollars in it.
I think you will find the Norwegian government protected their oil revenue a lot better from big oil corporations than the UK government.
Yes, the Norwegians did it smart. Kept their share of the North Sea fields out of the hands of BP, Shell etc and formed SOE Statoil.
If you’re gonna drill, it is a socialist approach to exploiting the commodity for the benefit of all.
It’s govt income that has enabled them to generate their electricity via 100% hydro.
Funny Norway’s socialist stance doesn’t get mentioned by sm, james, bm….
NZ has commodities that can be exploited for the benefit of all, but we have a 5% faction group that will lead protests when the government wants to mine it or drill it. You never see or hear about the mass public protests in Norway against mining or oil exploration – to me that’s not socialist behavior, that pure capitalism – a government supported to exploit its country’s natural resources.
Don’t worry Ed, if Jacinda announced something like this I’d support it
I use Venezuela as an example because it proves a point – and the crisis is real despite people like you ignoring it or worse denying it is happening.
It proves that wingnuts can cherry pick?
Why do people give James, the RWNJ so much oxygen?
I give up. Why do people continue to give this person so much oxygen despite pleas from a number of us to ignore him?
Now let me see if I can do this right.
I bet you $82736393764828197382 that you didn’t actually read the whole number, so I’m guessing you didn’t actually see the letter in it. You just went back and checked and saw that I lied. Muhahahahaha.
So as you can see triggers err wer. And normies just can’t help it but get triggered.
I guess that if we want to emulate Norway we are simply going to have to scrap the Green’s crazy refusal to allow any off-shore oil exploration and production.
Just how do you think that Norway is paying for there social policies?
It sure isn’t from singing Kumbaya and Morris Dancing.
Norway has control of its oil and gas and has a sovereign wealth fund to die for. They are as wealthy as scrooge Mc duck and can afford to pay the taxes they are levied. Capitalism has given them options
It’s hard to discuss anything seriously with someone who does not appreciate the journalism of Rachel Stewart.
I sense you are a troll.
“I sense you are a troll”.
Correct.
Waste of time. Hit ignore button.
james you’re such an idiot, so the disaster that is the USA economy, are we to use that as capitalism is not working. You know the rising homeless, the failing infrastructure and the decay.
You know Venezuela is a oil rich country too, so by your own analysis you can’t make a comparison to NZ.
Who said it was swell there, with outside forces stuffing with their economy, oil prices being low, right wing extremists use of violence, and right wing militia are killing people of colour, it’s has serious issues. But the the media, like you, is being rather disingenuous.
By the way, seeing as your saying it’s a conspiracy, what proof do you have that someone said it was such?
Don’t waste your time. Please.
If you are going to play this silly game then I can play it too…
Here’s a similarly fatuous generalisation:
It’s ‘obvious’ that Pinochet’s Chile shows that neoliberal capitalism ‘inevitably’ results in death squads, torture and dissidents being pushed out of helicopters.
There, that was easy – required no thought at all. Now I will just repeat repeat, repeat like a de-cerebrate parrot
Maybe mention Chile every time James or one of his pseudonyms types Venezuela
And there you go lying again.
It wasn’t socialism that did it but capitalism as the capitalists strangled the economy in a fit of pique as they always do.
Capitalism led by the US who have used every trick to undermine the country, including the manipulation of oil prices.
James either does not know this- in which case some reading is required- or he does know this, yet he chooses to spin for billionaires.
“including the manipulation of oil prices”.
Pray tell us exactly how the US was able to do that?
If OPEC couldn’t do it successfully I really don’t see how the IS was going to manage it.
Producing oil more cheaply using new and more efficient technology doesn’t really count as “manipulation” you know. It merely exhibits the benefits of a Capitalist economy.
Please do your own research.
You mean that you have no idea and indeed you cannot see any way that they could do it.
Perhaps I could offer you a few other nuggets.
You do know that James Shaw and Jacinda Ardern are senior KGB officers don’t you?
And if you want to know how I know that I suggest you do your own research. Why do you expect me to do everything for you?
“It is a bit silly to compare us with Venezuela.”
Yes it certainly is, in fact almost as daft as your supposition that a regulated economy is not as vulnerable as a deregulated economy to global events.
I also note that we are neither an overly regulated nor overly deregulated economy.
Why don’t you go there and join the opposition?
Because I enjoy living in NZ.
Why don’t you attach your nipples to the mains and flog yourself with a knotted rope ?
Herald quick to blame Labour for the ills of global capitalism
NZ business confidence drops on Labour policy concerns
NZ business confidence declines as weaker growth looms
…maybe because the Labour-led govt wants to curb the NZ obsession with mega immigration and property gambling…
They might as well run stories on “NZ unions’ confidence drops” whenever a National government takes over, it would be about as useful.
LOL
Well, I’ve heard more than a couple of lefties state that they knew for sure Lab4 was off the rails when the ODT editorials started supporting it.
Mueller has subpoena’d Steve Bannon to testify.
So has the Senate hearing on the Russia probe.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/369128-mueller-has-subpoenaed-bannon-in-russia-probe-report
With no donors left, no political patron, and looking up from a very deep pit, he may be tempted if someone offers him a deal in the form of a ladder.
Turning Bannon would be a thing. Like turning a rotten log.
It gets better.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/corey-lewandowski-lawyers-up-for-russia-probe
He’s digging his heels in.
Earlier in the day, The New York Times reported that Mueller last week served Bannon a separate grand jury subpoena. News of that subpoena broke just hours after Bannon walked into the Intelligence Committee’s secure spaces.
Multiple sources told The Hill that Bannon indicated to lawmakers that he would answer questions about the Trump campaign, but not about his work on the transition team or in the White House. Bannon, alongside his lawyer, said he would only answer those questions when he speaks to Mueller.
That stance infuriated lawmakers. Sources described the meeting as a “total free-for-all” and “brutal.”
“He doesn’t have any friends in that room,” one source said.
http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/369260-bannon-moves-closer-to-center-of-russia-storm
edit: former ethics dude weighs in
https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/953450896905658368
This article from RNZ is another nail in the coffin of the lie that New Zealand is a clean green country. We are so wasteful, we export our garbage to China and Thailand. We aren’t content with polluting our own land, we have to ruin others.
Yet propaganda merchants like Herald describe us as ‘pristine.’
What a squalid selfish state we have become.
33 years of neoliberalism has destroyed this country.
“Revealed: Kiwis generate 734kg of waste each per year.
The government is vowing to cut the amount of waste New Zealanders create, which is estimated to be among the highest in the developed world.
New Zealand was very vulnerable to any changes in the markets overseas, she said, including China’s recent ban on waste imports.
Ms Sage said the ban posed a challenge for New Zealand and would mean more of New Zealand’s recyclable waste was likely to end up in places like Thailand.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/348261/revealed-kiwis-generate-734kg-of-waste-each-per-year
Wonder how much that would be reduced if we banned the mailbox spam:
So that would a reduction of a couple of kilograms each per year and probably a vote winner as well. Businesses couldn’t complain – they had the government ban email spam and that was nowhere near as damaging or as costly as the letter box spam that they dish out.
But, still, where the hell is it all the rest of it coming from?
We should be looking at recycling all of the ‘waste’. After all, it’s all limited resources and simply throwing it out further limits the availability of those resources.
Doing it onshore would produce jobs, economic diversification and an increase skills and R&D.
Instead of Paul’s hand wringing doom and gloom Ms Sage offers a prudent initial approach.
‘Ms Sage said more data was needed to understand what was going to New Zealand’s landfills and consumers needed to be more cognisant of their buying habits.’
We need to change the economic system.
Sage’s suggestions are merely tinkering.
Why capitalism creates a throwaway society
‘Ms Sage said more data was needed to understand what was going to New Zealand’s landfills and consumers needed to be more cognisant of their buying habits.’
Yet another fine example of the previous National government’s policy of outright denialism by simply refusing to fund the collection of evidence that might imply laissez faire business as usual could be the wrong approach.
The blind belief in magic that is typical of right wing economics is one thing; the suppression of evidence the previous government actively engaged in was an Orwellian exercise in fanatical wishful thinking.
Sage wasn’t elected to sit there and call for more information.
That only kinda works in opposition. As a Minister it just sounds like you’re not up to the briefings and not up to actual policy formation.
She needs to get her policies moving and implemented.
Or it could be that the information just isn’t available because the previous government didn’t collect it.
Considering their MO and their refusal to collect information regarding poverty and house sales then we can be fairly certain that there’s not enough information available.
“her policies moving and implemented”
She isn’t allowed to actually do anything.
Look at how Shaw described what the Greens are allowed to do.
They have to follow the Government policies and do what they are told.
1. Kermadec Sanctuary. They even had a private member’s bill to implement that but Winston has told them to pull their heads in and Shaw says “Of Course”
2. Waka jumping Bill. They used to be opposed to this sort of Bill on principle. Now they will vote for it because Winston says so.
If they dared to promote ideas of their own they would be told they were out of their Ministerial sinecures and it would be out of the Beemer and into the taxi again.
1. They’re part of the government and so, once all parties in the government have decided to do something they support it. They disagree and get changes before the agreement. Fairly obvious really.
2. If Labour and Winston don’t agree with something then it’s not going to get through. It’s as simple as that.
Or, more likely, the people in the Greens have discussed this and they now support the bill. Remember – Green Party leaders can’t do anything without the Green Party say so. The Greens aren’t National with their dictatorial methods.
In other words, you’re talking out your arse again.
Anyone here who is a Green Party member.
If so please tell us whether there were any Party wide consultations on the subject of the Waka jumping bill?
Were you consulted?
If you are really so convinced that the Green Party have any influence on the Coalition of Labour and New Zealand First I suggest you go back and read this story.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/98122008/kermadec-ocean-sanctuary-put-on-ice-by-nz-first-catching-greens-unaware
The Green Party say that they didn’t even know what the Coalition partners had agreed to. They were just told that the Kermadec Sanctuary was off the table. So much for Government policy being set by agreement between the parties.
Whatever Winston wants, Winston gets and the Greens can go he.
There is no specific policy on this so Caucus is free to make their own interpretation based on principles. This is what the last Caucus did the last time. This Caucus is not bound by interpretations of a previous Caucus. I would think most members would not have wanted the two recent turncoats to have been allowed to stay on as independents.
“If they dared to promote ideas of their own they would be told they were out of their Ministerial sinecures and it would be out of the Beemer and into the taxi again.”
Bollocks. The most recent example would be refusing to withdraw their medical cannabis bill because Labour’s version is crap.
That is because Winston doesn’t have the slightest interest in the subject.
They jump when Winston tells them to jump though, don’t they?
Did you look at the link to the Kermadec Sanctuary I just posted?
The Greens have not changed their position on the sanctuary. Come back to me when you have some evidence they have.
Nothing would persuade you.
You are a true believer in the purity of the Green Party.
Rather like followers of most Religious Cults I’m afraid. Look at Scientologists or Exclusive Brethren.
Come back to me when you have some evidence they have.
This is a country that does not support its people, the culture, the way of life, anything that can’t be sold to foreigners. Now a valuable educational and cultural event is being lost to school because it has run out of funds. It has been going for decades but is being lost. Arts in general are not being supported either, not in all schools I believe. (Someone who knows could provide real info or anecdote on this.)
The shock scraping of the popular Stage Challenge will leave a dramatic gap in the lives of student performers.
The Stage Challenge Foundation has contacted schools and sponsors throughout the country to say the annual high school competition was no longer financially viable.
The dance competition celebrated its 25th year in 2017 and organisers estimate more than 500,000 students have taken part.
J Rock, for years 7 to 12 pupils, was run in partnership with Stage Challenge, and has been cut too.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/100616393/stage-challenge-will-be-missed-but-local-alternatives-could-spring-up
It is very important that the creative arts are taught at school, because there are careers and jobs to be had in entertainment. It is important that there is training in all areas where people can find work with so much of our business enterprises being stifled by competition from overseas in one form or another. So many outlets for work would be open to us if we didn’t have free-market-reigns to contend with.
I think, but am happy to be corrected, that stage challenge was a privately run gig and has fallen over due to lack of support from those taking part and their friends and family.
The creative arts, music, drama and kapa haka in particular are thriving in NZ schools at such events as The Big Sing, KBB Music Festival, Polyfest and Ngā Kapa Haka Kura Tuarua o Aotearoa. Additionally the standard of performance by many of the schools taking part is quite stunning.
Sounds good SMullet and I am glad to hear of the ones you mention. Naturally Nga Kapa Haka Kura Tuarua o Aotearoa would be there, as I have said before Maori are vital and determined to preserve their culture and community.
But are the others available to a wide group of schools, and really all schools should be involved each year?
But if a long-term thing like Stage Challenge has been successful and well-used and loved, it shouldn’t be allowed to fall over. Perhaps they need some new people involved, and revamp it slightly, and get some help from government. Creatives are the New Black in NZ, we can’t all be managers imposing the employers money-squeezing screws on workers.
I just told my twelve year old. She is gutted.
Yes, Stage Challenge has been a private operation for all of its existence. It’s given huge amounts of creative challenge and enjoyment to its participants, but it’s also been hugely expensive to enter, the tickets to the live performances have been prohibitively expensive (the last time I went, many years ago, it was about $50 – no wonder people started to stay away) and they’ve owned and sold the TV rights.
Stunned Mullet is right that there are lots of creative performance opportunities in NZ schools. Others I’d add to the list include one act play competitions, Rock Quest, Shakespeare performance competition, theatre sports, a multitude of speech competitions, debating, Ngā Manu Korero, orchestras and chamber music groups… I do note that Stage Challenge was a great opportunity for dance and choreography to shine, though. While there’s dance involved in things like Polyfest and kapa haka, the dramatic freedom of Stage Challenge was a real thrill for a lot of kids and it will be missed.
The Stage Challenge was a great opportunity for young people.
I’d reiterate your first paragraph though. That’s a side which people don’t know about.
This is a response to Stuart at 4.1 yesterday on Daily Review.
I suspect Nash is either a clown or a tool for the neoliberal elite.
In either case big business wins at the expense of us and the environment.
Newshub continues the story this morning.
It is amazing the nerve these bunch have when they say their concern is for New Zealand’s reputation.
If they cared, there is something really simple they could do.
Fish by the rules.
Fishing industry’s cover up request ‘outrageous’
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/01/fishing-industry-s-cover-up-request-outrageous.html
It would be nice if MPI, instead of covering up for the crooks, released or posted protected species kills immediately. Under that pressure we might even see better practices developed.
Nash has a chance to earn our respect – let’s see if he wastes it.
Of course he’ll waste it. Your respect won’t get him on any boards.
Seems to be on the right track:
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/348375/minister-rejects-fishers-call-for-footage-exemption
Can’t see Nash going against the wishes of Winston Peters financial backers.
I suspect Nash is either a clown or a tool for the neoliberal elite.
+1
Nice sock puppet.
Electricity – they’re banging on the drum, hey look at the yo-yos, but they aren’t dumb.
Record numbers of New Zealanders switched electricity company in 2017, looking for a better deal.
New data from the Electricity Authority shows almost 441,000 households switched during the year, more than the previous record, in 2015, of 417,642. In 2012, just 356,746 switches were made.
More than 20 per cent of customers changed supplier over the year.
They have more options to choose from: There are now more than 40 retail brands in the market, up from 22 five years ago.
READ MORE: Power companies annoy customers with deals just for newbies
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/100613337/consumers-switch-power-companies-in-record-numbers
Wonder how much that’s costing us. All that switching takes time and effort both for the consumers and for the companies that need more employees and more bureaucracy to be able to achieve it.
And it all achieves precisely nothing.
All of that extra cost could be saved if we had a state monopoly running as a government service that ensured that everyone had power available to their household. That would remove the dead-weight loss of profit as well.
I can’t see how ‘competition’ in electricity provision in a country of about 4 million people helps us. ‘There are now more than 40 retail brands in the market, up from 22 five years ago.’ And now we are getting so much competition that it must result in ineffeciency and price gouging of a sort as they try to grab each other’s business.
I see this view of customers always looking for a better deal and so this system serves us, as a picture of hen’s getting around with their heads down looking for tasty morsels in the ground. I’m not a hen, and I need to keep my head up to make sure that neither a money-hawk from above or a vicious biting insect to the body, doesn’t get the best of me.
What it comes down to is that we actually don’t want competition for the supply of services that are a natural monopoly as that’s not where innovation improves things.
Where we need competition is in ideas on how to produce and reticulate the service and from that the best idea is chosen with government then providing the service out to the populace. Covering the costs of running the service is a combination of taxes and charging.
Well done Willow-Jean Prime for adding her voice to this campaign…
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/348275/families-up-here-are-struggling-campaign-aims-to-stop-period-poverty
“A community-led campaign in Northland wants to lift women out of ‘period poverty’, one cup at a time.
It’s a topic many people shy away from but one campaign leader, Willow Jean-Prime, is determined to talk about.
Ms Prime raised the conversation last year at a local high school, and realised just how difficult it was for some women to manage their periods.
“There were girls, young women, who were missing school because their families couldn’t afford to pay for sanitary products.
“This really is something that illustrates the level of poverty that we have in our local community.”
She said the cup was going to have a massive impact on these communities.
“The impact of 500 cups is about $120,000 a year savings in these local communities.
“It is about 125 tampons diverted from landfill and our waste treatment plant so it really does have environmental benefits as well.” “
A bold and kind and practical move by Willow Jean.
That’s just what I thought…and can only raise W-J’s profile positively in this struggling yet paradoxically true blue electorate.
Why not on prescription instead of ‘private charity’?
At ~$45 a pop, getting the money up front’s a bit of “an ask” for those on benefits.
If government is going to pull out the funding card, I’d point out it’s got to be way more cost effective for government to subsidise cups than fund endless repeat prescriptions for bullshit nicotine products.
Bin that rort the pharmaceuticals have been enjoying for years and just legalise the open sale of nicotine again if the priority is to reduce smoking rates.
And then the monies saved by government ,and poor people with high rates of smoking shifting to very low cost nicotine delivery systems, added on top of prescription cups in lieu of tampons….a win/win/win situation.
Won’t be happening then.
Bill, this is a ‘social enterprise’ and for every $45 cup bought by someone who can afford it they donate another cup to someone who can’t. The most awesome aspect to this (and I’m am constitutionally inclined towards suspicion about these schemes 😉 ) is that there is kanohi ki kanohi support in the community as well as on-line support.
I agree a one off subsidy would be great…but fuck me Bill…can you imagine just how much perverted joy some petty bureaucrat would get by putting a young applicant through an application process???
Less whakama this way.
+1
Also, women shouldn’t have to go to a doctor for a prescription for menstrual products, for financial reasons, privacy reasons, and for personal agency reasons. Gatekeeper doctors can be as bad as gatekeeper bureaucrats.
MyCup look pretty good on the surface. Like you I’m suspicious until proven otherwise 😉 I note that in their press release they appear to believe that every woman can use a cup (not true), so I hope they also develop strategies for women that can’t.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1712/S00544/social-enterprise-mycup-to-end-period-poverty-in-nz.htm
As some older women know, these menstrual cups have been around for about 80 years. (Google “Menstrual Cup” – called Moon Cups, Freedom cups, Diva cups among other names.) Interesting to read the claim that they were developed in NZ in last few years.
The Herald calls this weird weather.
The Salinger effect means NIWA scientists will say no more.
Indeed, they are careful to minimise the situation.
Don’t scare the horse, NIWA. Is that why you fired Salinger?
However you do find the truth in a few places.
Rachel Stewart is an independent journalist.
Her twitter feed sums it up.
And why does she say that?
Because of these and other words from Professor James Renwick, Victoria University climate scientist.
I am worried.
I am too.
One of the dynamics at play here is we just don’t know what is happening or what will happen. So people know something is wrong but it’s a big unknown. Lots of conflicting information doesn’t help with that.
Nor does scaremongering without giving people a path of action. Most people can’t sustain being scared all the time and will switch off if they become overloaded. We’re hardwired to do that imo. People need to see a way forward and to have a sense of agency and power.
Otoh, too many people are still worried about their western lifestyles, and the sooner we get enough people understanding that that is really the least of our worries the better.
btw, fuck sea level rise. I’m way more concerned about species extinction leading to biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse. Also weather event extremes we haven’t got our heads around. Industrial infrastructure issues are important, but more important are essential things like shelter, ability to grow food, water.
Totally agree.
Of far more concern.
There are individual paths of action and we need to maker these changes to our lives.
However World war 2 was not won by people making individual choices.
It was won by government’s forcing change.
I am sorry to say that I agree with Rachel Stewart and Jame Renwick on this one.
I just don’t see change being effected until it is too late. Too many vested interests are blocking the necessary revolution.
Change is already happening. If you think it’s not going to happen that will affect what you yourself do and how you communicate about it.
Governments are made up of individual people, and individual people vote for them. We know that National are worse than useless and that Labour are kind of in the right direction but not nearly enough. To get Labour to change we need a mass movement of people demanding that. They’re not going to change on their own. To get a mass movement of people, we need pathways to solutions. Feeling worried on its own is not enough.
weka
+100
Well said, to be noted – should be the leitmotif at the head of The Standard
on the banner. What we are here for, and if not, we are wasting our and everybody else’s time.
Agreed.
Why would “species extinction leading to biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse” happen?
After all according to PBS “Of all species that have existed on Earth, 99.9 percent are now extinct”. Has the ecosystem collapsed and would it matter if it did?
If mankind became extinct for example the earth would still continue along and some other species would take our place. In the larger view of things it wouldn’t matter in the slightest. After all dinosaurs were dominant for about 150 million years. When they were wiped out mammals simply took their place at the top of the food chain. Sooner or later, in say 5 billion years, all life on Earth will become extinct as the Sun ages and swells. The Universe will continue without our absence mattering in the slightest.
Depends on whether you care about nature or not. If you see the earth mechanistically, then sure, it’s ok to cause mass suffering and extinction and loss because after a few million years it will right itself. Kind of odd position given that most humans are incapable of conceiving of that time scale any way other than abstractly.
If ecosystems collapse badly enough, fast enough, you will starve. Maybe you don’t mind, but if you do perhaps you could expand your self-compassion to include others.
Let’s compare New Zealand with Norway.
1. Pokie machines
Norway
Norway banned all slot machines in 2007 and had them removed immediately from gaming premises.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/factbox-pokies-around-the-world
New Zealand
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/100611990/robbing-peter-to-pay-paul-funding-grants-coming-from-pokies-in-low-socioeconomic-areas
https://www.meganstarr.com/30-things-you-should-know-before-moving-to-norway/
I’m not feeling inspired to move to Norway – their equivalence of GST is 25%!!!!
https://www.lifeinnorway.net/working/banking/cost-of-living/
Yeah it’s expensive but they also get paid well. What I saw when I worked there for 2 weeks was a society that had confidence that the stuff that needs to happen will happen. Everything worked. No shitty transport options from the airport to the capital city. Oslo was clean, public transport ran on time. And because public transport was doing the heavy lifting, no visible traffic problems. Beer was expensive but good food, and they eat very well. Overall the Norwegians struck me as a very happy people, despite their GST rate.
Would i consider living there if it was an option? In a heartbeat.
Oh noes, how does the poor globe trotting brand ambassador for free shit deary cope.
/
In Australia om the 1970’s the Returned Services League were a club with a public face and popular venue for the ordinary worker. They had lots of pokies. I lived near a working family that had one addicted member who wanted to be banned. I think he had to cut up his membership card to stop himself.
The habituees of the clubs and hotels with pokies had a practice of ‘bagsing’ a machine they had played on for a while, if they went to the toilet or to get another drink. They would put a white handkerchief over the playing window and that would hold it. If anyone else mistakenly tried to play it they were very unpopular. If you met and tried to have a conversation, they could be distant as they kept looking aside, waiting for a machine to become vacant so they could get ‘playing’.
The belief was that the longer you played, the more likely that the point of luck and payment would occur, so you stuck with the one machine. A couple who ran a day/night taxi business were determined to win one night, and got very upset at their continual losses and started going round all the machines playing them a few times before moving on, on the basis that somewhere in that room was a machine about to spew out a win. They were said to have spent all their rent and food money in that effort, and may indeed have got a win, but I don’t think it even reimbursed them for their losses much less laying the golden egg they were playing and praying for.
Gambling is a nasty addiction. I notice that many businesses are regularly encouraging people to buy or do things like go on-line and enter some contest and possibly win something. I never do, I want the option of having a life that is enjoyable, not be dirt poor and praying for dream outcomes. That is what will make us happy – to have an enjoyable life with achievable dreams and the opportunity to earn extra towards those dreams.
That is why mathematics is the foundation of civilization. People with no grasp of statistics are suckers for this sort of shit. They also don’t understand climate change, or how the Earth orbits the Sun, or how loansharks kill them with compound interest.
I remember a woman who was educated at a convent, and the nun was a keen racing fan. The class became very adept at working out odds on the horsies
and found maths in the real world had many differing uses.
Thinking on –
Konrad Lorenz – The Waning of Humaneness.
Excerpt Part One: … the processes of organic creation are realised in unforeseeable ways. On this realisation, this recognition, is based our belief both in the possibility of truly creative processes and in the freedom of human choice, but above all in the responsibility of every human being. …the first part of this book takes on the task of refuting the assumption that what happens in the world is predetermined.
Polls indicate Trump will be re-nominated by the GOP (87% support) but lose in 2020.
While Trump passed his medical, many feel the temperamental bully is an unfit for office by character and personality.
Then there is honesty. Little over 20% felt he had kept the promises he made while running for president.
And more voters give credit to Obama than to Trump for the economy.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11976375
I mean fuck me. Polls have been saying trump will lose since he chucked his name in the race… You need to get your self a better story…
May I remind you of Truman, the polls indicated he would lose in 1948 and yet he won, but having done so support fell to 22%.
Trump is the worst polling incumbent since Carter.
And as for his 2016 victory the rust belt states fell to Trump (as they once did to Reagan) but by very narrow margins – Clinton’s failure to campaign in this region is what cost her the race. Won’t happen next time.
It’s comments like these why I get so pissed at liberal academic charlatans pushing made up narratives. I also sometimes forget the type of people on here & their intelligence levels. For that I apologize for assuming you could do 5th form math, or grade 5 or what ever the fuck Math. 100% of $4.5trln is $4.5trln (Bush=jobs) and 100% of $9trln is $9trln (Obama= zero job creation) 100% of $1trln (Trump=jobs). Ill remember to spell it out for you nubs more clearly next time. But it dosnt fit your bullshit outrage mental narrative so you have to invent shit to sell papers or collude so you look a little bit clever…
But what pisses me off the most is lefties just won’t see reason. They just don’t see how there bullshit whinging actually helped Trump take the White House.
Sounds like you learnt to think and react by reading @realdonald. Slow day on the right wing sites?
Shut it. Your opinion has no relevance what so ever.
Same goes for yours, and mine for that matter. If you’ve got something to communicate, you’d better be able to back it up with real world examples, as opposed to argumentum ad nauseam.
Hodson & Busseri undermines your notions of left wing stupidity. So does Kanazawa (pdf). I’d like to see some more evidence from neuroscience to back up their findings before betting on it though; is your certainty based on anything other than your reckons?
So you think Trump will lose election20 as well eh? How amazing…
Do I? If you say so it must be true. Now I’ve been informed what I believe I’ll do my best to make my opinions conform.
I just can’t help noticing that you haven’t given me any information yet.
I can’t be arsed educating. I presume we’re all 18 here…
Real pundants tend to have unique insights on global news and events, because we have significant money on the line at all times. We are forced to distinguish between noise, real news & events and what it all means. If we are wrong it could cost us a fortune.
Comments are my forecasts & reaction to economics, financial markets, politics & culture…
When I can be bothered.
Luck is your friend*.
*terms and conditions apply.
Quelle surprise, RWNJ can’t be bothered educating him?self
The US government routinely lies about job statistics.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/08/us-jobs-market-economy-not-so-rosy
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-16/baltimore-americas-shithole-visualizing-collapse-american-city
plenty more examples
I hereby denounce all scumbag “pundants” & “smart pundants,” “Political Educators,” “Journalists” & so called “analysts” who push the Jobs narrative in an attempt to get business or push voting participation in thier “pet party.” It literally disgust me!
The lower taxes in the U.S. will be accompanied by lower public spending. were only in phase 1 of stage 1. Reserve your outrage! More to come.
Why is the sale of a Canterbury Diary Farm to the Canadian Govt going ahead? The present Govt must be able to veto this via the Ministers curtailing it? ie, Eugenie Sage. Many of us voted to have the sale of our country stopped!!
Agreed. They could wind up the OIO while they’re at it – I’m not saying they’re round-heeled but they haven’t said “No” in their entire existence.
But that might make Justin sad.
Many of us have been demanding that the government stop the sale of NZ to offshore owners for decades.
All the political parties have refused to hear this as the listen to the economists and capitalists that say it will all be good despite all the evidence showing otherwise.
It is actions like this that prove that we do not live in a democracy but an elected dictatorship.
“Why is the sale of a Canterbury Diary Farm to the Canadian Govt going ahead? The present Govt must be able to veto this via the Ministers curtailing it? ie, Eugenie Sage. Many of us voted to have the sale of our country stopped!!”
Who did you vote for? Because Labour have never had any intention to do much about rural land sales, their focus has been on residential.
The sale happened in November. My guess is that there wasn’t enough time for the incoming govt to take action via directing the OIO. I’ll be watching to see what happens this year.
Here you go,
Directive Letter to the Overseas Investment Office.
The Directive Letter directs the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) on the Government’s policy approach to overseas investment in sensitive New Zealand assets and the relative importance of benefit factors for different types of overseas investment, as well as other matters.
The new Directive Letter will come into force on 15 December 2017 and will apply to all applications currently being assessed by the OIO and any new applications received.
The OIO will be reviewing all current applications as soon as possible against the new directive letter to determine which applications are affected. The OIO will contact applicant’s advisors if their application is affected.
The OIO webpages are currently being updated to reflect the new Ministerial Directive Letter.
Read the Ministers’ media release (on the Beehive website) (link is external)
Read the 2017 Ministerial Directive Letter
https://www.linz.govt.nz/news/2017-11/new-directive-for-overseas-investment-office-announced
more detail here https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/new-directive-overseas-investment-office-announced
Having an investor in NZ of such a high caliber is fantastic. The Canadian Government superannuation scheme has faith in Canterbury Dairy farming. Dairy price shot up 5 % today which is also a good signal. Canada good,China bad in the eyes of this current government.Expect butter price to go up.
Only in your universe would rent seeking to better the lives of retirees in a foreign country be considered in any way productive.
Heh 🙂
The Canadian pension fund will employ kiwis to run the farm and pay for all the local service folk that keep dairy farms running.The benefits to our economy are incalculable.Local schools will stay viable,child care centers like the labour list MP from Hinds owns will remain viable. It is not beer and skittles out in the boondocks .At least twatford will be happy that it ain’t the guys with chinky names investing in our great country. Sorry for my enthusiasm but it’s not erery day you get a 5 % payrise.
*RWNJ virtue-signalling.
And, just how are the benefits to the economy “incalculable”? This should be meat and drink to economist types.
@Ian. It amazes me how normies use dead trickle down memes to get there opinions across. Using dead memes sucks the life out of people. So you’re sucking the life out of people and you’re probably laughing about it as you post it… I mean I laugh as well every time I trigger normies. But at least my attempts at memes try to be original content. You just use dead memes…
Sorry sam,what is a normie ? What is a meme ? sorry to disturb you from your baby sleep.
You know I presumed that we are all over 18 here but there’s always that one guy that just has to prove me wrong.
A challenge has been sent out to ignore normies. So now I think it’s a good time to necromance a meme back to life, properly, by giving it new meaning. I’ll use as little words as possible and as many coloured picture frames as possible. With that said roll the tape: https://youtu.be/hcYYoIFppA0
But I won’t end it there. I think it’s important to go over what a meme actually is. Meme is short for memematocs and now you can use your superior intellect and google it. But basically it’s about coming up with original content.
Just quoting facts stinky. While sitting in your nest being stuffed with regurgitated fish with a Titi islander ready to stuff you in a Kai bag I would have thought you would know a bit about economics. Tosser,
Vandals who caused more than $20,000 worth of damage offered apprenticeships
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/central-leader/100607016/vandals-who-caused-more-than-20000-worth-of-damage-offered-apprenticeships
This is exactly the kind of caring and problem solving approach we need, a pity it is so rare in our current society.
Nice one.
Energy moves in the USA.
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/1/16/16895594/colorado-renewable-energy-future
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/celebrities/100656740/alec-baldwin-woody-allen-backlash-unfair-and-sad
A tired, old, has-been and a hack and now compare his comments to Timothee Chalamet
One of those guys knows the deal and one of them doesn’t
Stephen Cowan, like me, was impressed by Rachel Stewart’s first column for the Herald in 2018.
ON OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM
Good to see people in other countries are learning how unclean and ungreen New Zealand has become.
This article was in the Guardian.
New Zealand fisheries want grisly images of dead penguins caught in nets censored
George Monbiot writes on the crisis caused by industrial fishing.
There is a solution.
Stop eating fish.
Save the planet.
Part of the solution could be to change your preconceptions and eats insects. Good food with minimal environmental impact. A good export earner too as more markets are opening up. The only downside is in your head. There is now a local producer that you can support Otago Locusts. Eat sustainably produced fish on Friday, how about a day for the planet.
If you’re growing insects for feed isopods would be worth a try – they contain the desirable carotenes that pink salmonid flesh.
Awesome program TV 1 Gate to globa Ka pai.
Greg Boyed don’t worry M8 I won’t vent on you again afterall you were just reading the script the producers wrote last time I commented about on Q&A Your cool I know quite a few Boyds from Tairawhiti and Hawkes Bay Ka pai
Congratulations to Jim from the Rock radio station for the expectations of your new baby all the best to your lady to.
I no a lady who had complacations she had to have a C-section at 26 weeks I wish her and her baby and father all the best.
I’ve got 2 mokos coming one any day now when she starts labouring we are going up to Auckland to help her out for a few days. I allways stress when my daughters and daughter in laws are having babies as there can be complications. I say LADY’S DESERVE A LOT MORE SAY on what happens in our world society for all they go through giving US life equality is what they deserve and they will get it to. Ka kite ano
Come on guys u know I reached out to you and the lawyer and you guys just shit yourselves as for a lawyer comferming if the NZ police are corrupt well he ain’t never going to admit that on air live he knows the police will put a micphone up his ass and intimidat him his family and friends that’s what they are doing to me + I know we have a different opinion on some subject I won’t say because I don’t want to damage your reputation as that’s your bread and butter. Ka kite ano