Ahhh the oh you said really vile stuff – without linking. Feel free to do so.
So I think labour will try a cover up? I think they have already started. Heard lots more on Twitter but have not mentioned here (for obvious reasons) but if any of it’s true – it’s not going to be good.
But typical of some people – I call out someone for calling multiple sexual assaults “a bit of groping” and you attack me. You seem to be quite the apologist
Your a creepy liar James ….. here’s a link …. https://thestandard.org.nz/nz-home-of-rugby-raping-and-beer/ , in this one you keep on insisting a stripper,…. who was the victim of drunken rugby players hitting her , groping her ….and then throwing stones at her … is a hair-dresser….
You appear / pretend to think it’s dishonest for a person hired as a stripper ….. to do stripping …. should be referred to as a stripper. You make a creepy little dance about it …. Do explain James
In this link I remember why I liked OAB and Psycho Milt … with some of the best black humor on some sickening behavior …. Despite the seriousness of the subject their posts were appropriate …. unlike yours James .
Your also a liar and big hypocrite for calling me or Mutton Bird apologists …
Muttonbird justt like myself ….. would be all for ANY offender being appropriatly chargfed , prosecuted and named … Unlike you James
Not sure I wanted to be reminded of that ugly post about the Waikato rugby chiefs, reason, but well done, and well said, pointing out the political opportunism and the lies of james.
The victims come first. They always should. I said when this started, we should all shut up, (well us men anyway) and let the victims speak for themselves – if they want to, if they want to say nothing, that’s fine too.
Insted it became somewhat of a partisan knife fight at the victims expense. With some who have been in deep down in the gutter, trying to get some moral high ground at the expense of people who need us to back off, and let them make the choices they want to make.
Enough from me, I’m for giving the people involved some space to get this sorted, properly.
Is there anything in this link which reveals something of what’s behind the ‘cover-up’? I realise the article in the link was published nine days after The Standard story.
Thanks for wasting my time on that Herald pile of crap Pete …
It reads like a Herald dirty politics hit piece ( right time frame ),… . and is a long winded one eyed version of “she’s a liar”.
Which was the chiefs initial response … which the Herald left out of their pro rugby defense …. like a shitload of other damaging information unfavorable to the chiefs cover-up … all left out.
Imagine how low our arrest rates would be …. If criminals got to investigate themselves. Pete.
And for good PR the criminals got to ‘Leak’ their self investigation to an active supporter in the media … and its reported as truth.
Besides, the Herald snow job runs counter to my rugby source / information … which informed me ….that protecting the all black ‘brand’ ( corporate multi million sponsorship), was behind the Waikato chiefs coverup.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
But this site has been through this shit before … and just Like Roastbuster or Clint Rickards …. it brings out the worst in some men.
Mansplaining with the bias of defense lawyers…. bringing the friendly NZ ambiance … of rape culture.
Leave it alone Pete …
“As for NZ Rugby wanting the truth? If they had, they would have spoken to BOTH women who made allegations against the Chiefs, and wouldn’t have had their pet in-house lawyer run the investigation.
By any objective measure, this whole thing stinks, and only the people who desperately, desperately don’t want to confront the reality of violence against women cry otherwise.” -Stephanie Rodgers https://thestandard.org.nz/nz-home-of-rugby-raping-and-beer/
Talking to independent people who were there and watching video footage was a stupid thing to do. It’s far better to get the truth by making it up. Or building it on the base of stuff other people have made up.
My interest in the upshot of this business came when I quite randomly ended up talking to someone, nothing to do with the rugby establishment, who was there. The way the topic arose was completely incidental and accidental. Of course your rugby source / information … which informed you, could clearly describe what happened from direct observation. In contrast to my source who could clearly describe what happened from direct observation.
I sense your level of being incensed with the call to ‘leave it alone.’ It reminds me of the sense of bewilderment and annoyance of an eye-witness who has seen deliberate grabbing of the wrong ends of sticks to continue untruths because it suits some purpose.
I think James has become much more aware now we have a change of government and his friend the Ponty tail puller is no longer PM. Shades of Bill Clinton and the way the partisan media hammered him but just dont seem to care about the horrific acts of abuse committed by their hero Trump. James you should take a deep breath and stop listening to talk back or whale oil. Listen to the movie “the brainwashing of my Dad” if you want to understand what has happened to you.
And yet you run around doing the opposite all the time.
Hypocrisy at its finest.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[just spending time going through and shifting your trolling out of a thread into OM. I was going to give you a warning, but you’ve been warned before and there are far too many comments like this for me to have to be dealing with on a Saturday morning, and this is a clear pattern of behaviour from you over time, so here’s a one week ban. I suggest you have a serious think about how you want to be here when you get back, as next time the ban will be a much longer one. You need to get that this place doesn’t exist for your trolling or taking pot shots at commenters you don’t like. Stop winding people up and go back to the politics. Whether you get a warning before a long ban next time will depend on how you acknowledge this note and your pattern of behaviour when you return. – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[you are also getting a ban. As with James I was going to give a warning first, but the amount of time I’ve just had to spend sifting through comments to more your trolling and see the patterns of behaviour is way too much. You have a 1 week ban recently, so this one is a two week ban. See how that works? You’ve been complaining about people hassling your, but as far as I can see today you are the one also doing the hassling. Stop winding people up, focus on the politics. Also, stop with the spamming videos, you’ve been warned about this multiple times before. As with James’ mod note, whether you get a warning next time before a longer ban will depend on how you respond to this one and what your behaviour is like when you return. As always, demands on moderator time are a big factor too – weka]
Sign of the times, B level economists, hiring C level economists and probably the work done by legions of work experience students or interns for next to nothing.
If your government economists can’t add, something is wrong.
The average person knows that it is increasingly propaganda out of government and the conclusions are often fictional or flawed.
Whoever deemed 1 hour of work means you are employed as a statistic, is clearly either a fool or a right wing apologist. And neither should be employed by government and used to create policy.
I haven’t really looked at this but I thought they were blaming this on an error in the coding of a computer program.
If that is the case we should blame it on the programmer rather than just pin it on Economists.
Well, that’s not entirely true… it suggests a rudimentary lack of awareness that a >25% error is not immediately noticed by those preparing the report.
A succession of errors… modern times we just shrug it off ….. accidents happen. That’s why we have poverty, fake stats, Pike river, and overseas we have Trump and new bridges falling down ( we have had our own CTV building), or May and the Grenfell towers.
Sadly people who allow gross mistakes to happen under their watch also effect a lot of people through bad policy which is why I think those in those positions should not get away with blaming it on the IT guy.
If the IT guys now the provider of treasury policy including all the checks of accuracy of reports, maybe they should get a pay rise.
Also police need to check our laws about privacy… Nicky Hager, stopping conference members, isn’t there enough crimes out there to solve without illegally using the law for political purposes or invading the privacy of people who have not committed any crimes.
Complaint about the Police use of vehicle checkpoint
This has stuck in my craw for a while.
I am not a fan of euthanasia.
Police were wrong in their action setting up a checkpoint, then the claim of concern for the welfare of citizens reeks of spin.
Then, to top it all off, to hear a police spokesperson claim to be keeping citizens safe, in the wake of further deaths following a police pursuit, stinks.
While acknowledging a range of causes the following article suggests one factor that may be significant….motivation, or the lack of….something our very own recent government promoted as an issue (while ignoring the likely cause)…and goes some way to explaining an apparent lack of pride in that which is done (construction industry anyone?) or expressed differently…poor quality, both of decision and action.
With advances in technology and automation the fact remains that people are still a major productivity factor, indeed the key one…..is it surprising then that’ hope’ may play a key role?
“The final option is neglect. If you don’t think there is the possibility of retiring in the future, some workers ask, then why put any effort into working now? Opting for neglect is quite simply – you go to work, switch on the computer and then spend your days doing things that any retired person would do: read the newspaper, fill in the crossword, chat with acquaintances over coffee and biscuits. This kind of “empty labour” is increasingly common in many organisations. As the prospect of a real retirement begins to fade, it is likely unofficial semi-retirements will become more popular. If this happens, workplaces will become like clandestine retirement villages for the working young.”
Oh the allegations of me making huge racist statements that you have refused to link to every time I have asked.
Its an easy cop out (if a dishonest one) every time you get a question you cannot answer to….
Just because people say things that you disagree with and find repugnant (like you wanting to shut down funding to Heart kids and alzheimer’s society) – dosnt mean you cannot have a discussion.
@James.
You shouldn’t feel that you are being picked out by Ed.
He never answers anyone who queries the source of his claims.
Mostly, I suspect, because the only source of the things he says is his somewhat over-excited imagination.
I’ve never had a response to any of the questions I ask him either.
But these bozos have “common sense”
They’re armed with all the unthinking predigested unchallenged talking points of the corporate media which always, apart from the fig leaf of a very few “dissenters” backs up the foreign policy agendas of the powerful.Indistinguishable from the agendas of the huge moneyed interests of the world
Honestly Ed, I’ve wasted too much time engaging with them.
But keep putting out those links
Thank you for your support. I have vowed to myself not to respond to the right wing trolls who frequent this site. Similarly, I waste too much time on them.
In New Zealand, it is hard to find the other narrative to the neoconservative story.
All the media, including RNZ, are running the British and American lines without any critical thinking.
In New Zealand, it is hard to find the other narrative to the neoconservative story.
And yet you’re in New Zealand but somehow manage to bombard The Standard with cut-n-paste after cut-n-paste of these “other narratives,” which are in fact as easy to find by anyone else in New Zealand as they are for you.
“I’d actually rip their throats out for doing that, if it was my kid, I really would” – Judith Collins commenting re Labour camp sex assult vics and what she would co if it were her child.
If only she gave half a shit as justice minister when she could have brought fairness for sex victims in the court system.
Personally feel the Labour conference issues totally blown out of proportion, far worse things going on, this is a distraction. Find the offender and give them whatever is the appropriate sentence and clearly future conferences should not be turned into frat parties!
Killing 3 year old and other people overseas vs weirdo putting his hands down 16+ year olds boys and girls pants. Well I know which one I think is worse.
Jeepers james, there are many many people that need to be held to account for their actions, law firms as well. One night I woke up with my boyfriends mates head between my legs, never said a word about it.
So much is unsaid. Big picture is… people find it so hard to come forward, want to get political.. at least those at the youth camp had the confidence and felt they were in an environment where they could say something, without being told they were making it up etc.
Don’t make this a pissing contest about who said what, or who as changed their mind after thinking about it, or upon being presented more or different information. All of that completely misses the point.
I don’t know that the blood rels even count. It’s all about Judith and her showing how strong and decisive she is, with little sensitivity to the survivors or how they want the situation to be managed.
And it was Collins who resisted law changes to make it less stressful for alleged rape and sexual assault survivors.
Back around 2012, Collins inherited well formulated proposals Simon Power had been working on. The proposals aimed at changing the system from more combative, stressful trials (focused on a contest between survivor and alleged perp) to an inquisitorial system in which a judge follows the evidence.
A proposal to get rid of jurors for sensitive court cases involving children or victims of sexual assault has been shelved by Justice Minister Judith Collins.
The minister said she had no interest in progressing her predecessor Simon Power’s plan to introduce an inquisitorial system in New Zealand.
Mr Power, a more liberal member of the National Party caucus, had been interested in an alternative trials process and visited courts in Europe to investigate a system in which judges were able to interview victims of sexual crimes, get assistance from specially trained jurors, or come to a verdict without a jury.
The inquisitorial model was designed to protect victims or children from the pressure and stress of appearing in the courtroom.
The recommendations include that judges, prosecution and defence lawyers and jurors involved in sexual offence cases undergo specialist training, and for sexual offence cases to be heard more quickly. Some of the other recommendations draw on models from inquisitorial systems.
Turei did not of course, as you imply, resign from Parliament.
She stayed there until the people of the electorate in which she stood had more sense than to choose her to remain in Parliament after the 2017 General Election.
She also kept collecting her very generous pay for another 3 months after the election.
Turei did nothing differently to Collins.
Turei resigned as co-leader of the Green Party.
Collins resigned from Cabinet.
Turei did NOT resign from Parliament.
Collins did NOT resign from Parliament.
The only people who did things differently were the voters.
The voters chose to return Collins to Parliament.
The voters chose NOT to return Turei to Parliament
Good evening, Alwyn. A fine comment except for this bit:
The voters chose NOT to return Turei to Parliament
Metiria Turei resigned from the Green Party list on 9 August 2017 and decided to campaign for the party vote only in Te Tai Tonga. [my bold]
Given the short time to muster an effective campaign Metiria Turei actually did remarkably well. She got 5,740 votes while the Green Party only got 1,963 votes (which was much less than in the previous election in 2014 when it got 3,402 votes). During that short period leading up to the election the polls were not favouring the Green Party and it looked like they were going to disappear from Parliament altogether. So, in my view, a remarkable result for Metiria Turei.
She did not WIN.
Now what is there in the statement you appear to be objecting to that is wrong?
“The voters chose NOT to return Turei to Parliament”.
An absolutely accurate statement isn’t it?
There were a lot of candidates who chose not to go on the list for their party. All the Labour candidates in the Maori electorates except for Davis stood only for their electorate positions and they all won.
Including, of course, Rino Tirikatene who thrashed Meteria.
Collins on the other hand did win and is still in Parliament.
It might be remarkable vote she got but it has not the slightest effect on what I think.
FIFY
Your claim is also wrong. She did not campaign only for the party vote. She campaigned for the electorate MP vote as well. Otherwise she couldn’t have got any votes at all could she? [my bolds]
So close, yet so far. Indeed, without standing she could not have got any votes; she was aiming for party votes but got more candidate votes. This does not make my claim wrong, which was in fact not a ‘claim’ but what she had said.
She did not WIN.
Winning vs losing; simplistic and false dichotomy given that she did not intend to come back to Parliament. I don’t see Metiria Turei as a “loser” but you seem to see it differently: not winning is losing.
Since you appear to completely ignore the context all the other stuff you mentioned about Labour candidates is simply false equivalence to suit your biased opinion. The key point of my comment was to highlight your bias but it went ‘whoosh’; I gave you more credit than you deserve it seems …
Really?
You claim that she did not campaign for the candidate vote?
Your statement was
“Metiria Turei resigned from the Green Party list on 9 August 2017 and decided to campaign for the party vote only in Te Tai Tonga”
She may have said things like that in previous elections, when she knew she was going to get in on the list but it was NOT what she said in 2017, when winning the electorate was he only way back to the trough. She even said in fact that this time (2017) she wanted to be elected to represent the electorate and that aim was new.
What she did say was
‘“The Green Party wants the party vote, and if you think that I’m your best representative, then give me your electorate vote as well,” said Turei, “That is a new message from me at this election and hasn’t been heard before.
“I’m really excited about our campaign. There’s only 20 points in it – if you actually look at it seriously – between the three candidates and I think that in a month anything is possible.”’
I cannot tell whether she really wanted to get back in Parliament or was campaigning hard for the Green Party vote in the electorate; during election campaigns you do what’s necessary to get the votes you’re targeting. If you think that’s “delusional” I’m fine with that. It still changes nothing about your obvious bias but I’ve come to accept that as well 😉
Yeah, well I think a direct quote from her at an election debate in September is rather better evidence of her real intentions than a single line, not actually attributed to her, on the day she had to step down as party leader.
It was also before she probably realised that she was going to be out in the cold without a job and without a very generous salary within five months.
That was the day that she was about to be blown up on air by John Campbell who apparently had statements from her child’s father’s family about all the support that had provided.
She was going to be shown up not only as a person guilty of fraud but as a liar who was only too happy to smear her “in-laws” reputation all over the media.
Not surprising is it that she was desperately looking for cover and looking for a way to persuade Campbell not to air the truth?
If by “bias” you mean that I thought she was a rat-bag you would be right.
If by “bias” you mean that I prefer that my politicians are honest you would be right.
If by “bias” you mean that I tend to vote for parties that display competence you are right.
If by “bias” you mean I prefer politicians who work for New Zealand rather than their own baubles you are right.
On the other hand if by “bias” you mean that I will vote unthinkingly for, or against, a particular political party you are totally wrong.
Personally, I doubt that Metiria Turei thought, even for one moment, that she could win that electorate. I also think that she said what she had to say to campaign hard for the Green Party vote (which was rather unsuccessful I should add).
You seem to think that bias only manifest in specifics. But this is the insidious danger of bias: it clouds one’s opinion, expectations, (emotional) reactions, and thinking. The specific examples you list are just the tip of the iceberg; the danger is underneath the surface and out of (your) sight. One more thing, bias is notoriously hard to detect, in oneself.
I don’t know about the rest of the recommendations but I think any prospective juror would welcome getting rid of juries.
I was on one once in a case against someone accused of being a paedophile.
It was a bloody terrible experience being a juror and having to listen to all the evidence.
The only pleasant bit was at the end where we were told we wouldn’t be called again for jury service for 5 years.
Yes, I did, although in this case it was a little boy of about 4.
He was treated about as well as he could have been with any questions going through the judge.
Imagine if there were ways to stop people from commiting crimes against children, or protecting more than we do. Oh that is right there are but the right, and some on the left like the fist on the table lock em up and throw away the key BS, cos that makes the wealthy and wannabe wealthy feel all confy and cosy.
I know an organisation that deals with paedophiles referred from Court, usually as a condition of release. This organisation has 92% of its clients NOT sexually reoffending. They also take self referrals ( yes it is a thing). We are resourcing this org really well, paying their staff really well and replicating what they do everywhere, right. Wrong.
The smug self righteousness is a direct response to the lecturing and harangued tones the left take towards the right for, in the light of what’s come out, less offensive behaviour than the criticism has warranted.
Another sign of the times – even if you are found guilty of exploiting migrant workers the penalties are puny and you are only stopped from sponsoring foreigners for work visas for periods of between six months and two years!
Only a few months and you can reoffend and exploit someone else! These are not high skilled jobs and completely unnecessary for the economy, the government is complicit in the scams by not closing it down!
Surely it should be a life ban for gods sake and a $100,000 fine! Why would you stop underpaying workers if your fine is $40k for multiple discovered breaches over years, especially as the migrant workers unions are reporting wide spread schemes of employers demanding untraceable money from their ‘workers’.
It’s about time that these visas for jobs are stopped. If students want to come to NZ to study great, – but have it transparent and no fake jobs at the end of it!
We have Kiwi students with huge debts who can’t get any part time work anymore, cafes, burger/ restaurants, petrol stations, supermarkets all used to employ Kiwis student workers, part time workers like parents and I don’t remember widespread employment breaches and Kiwis being asked to pay for the job! There are plenty of local Indian students these restaurants can employ if they want to discriminate.
Before government says we get $500 million from overseas students coming here, then calculate the costs because that money is spent in NZ on rent, cars, petrol and food and possibly a bit of travel thrown in. Then it seems like health, roads, infrastructure and subsidised wages and employment inspectors and legal action are paid for by tax payers. All while our NZ workers are unemployed and getting into debt and the tax payers are subsidising that too.
Foreign students should just come here for study only. No working visas so the fake jobs become defunct.
Clearly the fake jobs for grads schemes needs to stop! It’s out and out exploitation and the students are being lured here by false pretences to be exploited.
The government does not seem to care about it, because they like the idea of the $500 million coming in, even if in real terms it costs the country triple that in problems, contributes to unemployment and low wages and is based on lies to the students by their agents and NZ resident employers.
If a person can barely survive and being forced at $2 p/h and living in overcrowded rooms while studying are they really bringing in all this cash. Now the concerned groups are also concerned about them being forced into crime.
It is completely normal to provide proof of income by just borrowing the money or just getting a short term bank loan. Then all these people are coming to NZ penniless after paying their ‘tertiary fees’ only to find that jobs are scarce here and exploitation rife.
At least the government need to update their pathetic checks on whose coming and can they support themselves because a short term loan is not income or money!
In my view there is a market for legitimate overseas student study in NZ in particular from Chinese with high quality NZ courses!
Where overseas students can actually learn English and also the western way of business (or whatever the course is) and where the Chinese students get looked after properly, learn about western life and business and learn excellent English. It is very difficult to get into Chinese universities for example and so parents (I think) would gladly pay for quality!
Why does NZ always go for the scams and not the quality! We don’t need to give away job visas and fake jobs, the students will come IF NZ works on quality courses, genuine hospitality and getting quality applicants.
They are NOT going to come if NZ gets a reputation for fake courses and fake degrees and exploitation and bums on seats, which is where we are going at the moment.
Soon even the Kiwis will have to leave home and do another degree overseas so they have a quality qualification because quality is not the objective in tertiary any more.
There are too many NZ degrees and diplomas that are crap, or are passing crap students who go into the work force and are crap with a NZ qualification.
MBIE’s report said having 10,000 fewer international students would mean $70m lost revenue from tuition fees and an estimated economic impact of $261m per year – assuming changes to work rights are successfully targeted at the “lower-value” tertiary sector. International enrolments at private tertiary colleges dropped by about 10,000 after English-language requirements were tightened in 2015 and 2017.
I would favour regulations to limit any full-time enrolled student working to max. 500 hour per year, i.e. roughly 10 hours per week. You’d have to ask whether any more than that would be detrimental to full-time study.
Yes, I think savenz would have been better off just saying money coming in. At least then they wouldn’t have had the appearance of pulling figures out of their arse.
They do have a point in that the costs may actually be greater than the money brought in.
To be fair DTB, savenz has provided a link at 13.1.1.1.1 to a RNZ article dated 20 November 2017 by John Gerritsen , their Education Correspondent, quoting a figure of $500 million.
However, in 13.1.1 savenz quotes this figure in this context: Before government says we get $500 million from overseas students coming here, …”
The actual article quotes this figure as coming from Wayne Dyer, chairperson of English New Zealand, “the peak body for language schools” – not the government per se. My Dyer is also quoted as saying that this figure was provided by Infometrics.
ie ” The schools have warned that cutting work rights for their students would kill enrolments from some countries overnight and damage an industry worth $500 million a year.
The chairperson of English New Zealand, the peak body for language schools, Wayne Dyer, said the Labour Party policy was aimed at stopping fraud and exploitation mostly involving Indian students enrolled in business courses.
“The English language sector is a completely different sector from the PTE [private training establishment] sector. The students are different, their reasons for coming are different. The level of risk associated with the schools is very, very low. NZQA and Immigration New Zealand don’t see language schools as a risk at all,” he said
…
Mr Dyer said Infometrics had calculated that language students contributed about $500 million to the economy and their general spending was about 10 times higher than the amounts they paid in tuition fees.”
While I am somewhat sceptical about some of savenz’s claims etc in their many comments over many subjects, on this occasion this figure was definitely not, or appearing to be, “pulled from their arse” as you so indelicately put it.
least then they wouldn’t have had the appearance of pulling figures out of their arse.
Easy to do with immigrant workers here for the apple season, shove them all into a house, charge the earth, jam as many workers as you can into that house, and offset it against their wages. $$$$$$$$$$$ They won’t complain. It’s totally normal around these parts.
I pretty sure the illegal Malaysians just got busted because their wages were too high and their illegal workers didn’t feel exploited on $20 – $40 p/h. Oh also they had a muslim wife.
I mean $2 p/h and paying $20k each year for the job is the going rate for a semi legitimate job permit! No undercutting!
A Chinese person was saying, they just get people in China ‘from the country’ and give them a quick training session and then have them in gangs on the building sites.
Then we wonder why building costs so much, takes so long and needs so much remedial work.
Our NZ government is a mile from thinking about or discussing this topic – even though the power of the super rich and gross inequality completely dominates New Zealand’s political, social and economic life.
Heard a story today. A woman with cerebral palsy has been planning to walk up mt maunganui for her birthday. Has received some local coverage.
She was at the start of her walk and a guy in slacks, with some camera people appeared with some walking shoes and announced he was here to walk with her if that was okay with her. She said it was not. That the day was about her.
(easier to follow with a twitter account I think, you can set up a dummy one that will make the tweets easier to read, you don’t have to actually tweet anything).
I don’t actually have a Twitter account but read many Twitter accounts often daily.
By not having an account, you don’t have to follow an account to read it – and cannnot be unfollowed/banned.
I am not sure what the timelines etc look like when you have an account, but you can read the threads behind individual comments by clicking on the date or time on the same line as the name of the commenter. This brings up the thread.
For example Chloe has just retweeted your reply to her which, using your first link to her full Twitter account, shows
weka @wekatweets ……….6 min. If you click the 6 min it brings up the thread.
The two other links bring up the threads despite my not having an account.
The only problem I have ever encountered is that some time ago I had problems bringing up some but not all “Tweets and replies” on my PC which only brought up Tweets. But no problems on my Ipad with Tweets and Replies because the Ipad gets the Mobile version of the account.
So if I want to see the Tweets and Replies on my PC, I pull up the account on my Ipad which brings up the mobile version of the account ; then bookmark that to my synchronised Bookmarks and then the mobile version with Tweets and Replies comes up on my PC whenever I access the Bookmark.
Hope that helps anyone who doesn’t want any form of Twitter account. (I don’t as I know I don’t have the discipline to not get addicted!)
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — When the GOP took full control of Oklahoma government after the 2010 election, lawmakers set out to make it a model of Republican principles, with lower taxes, lighter regulation and a raft of business-friendly reforms.
Conservatives passed all of it, setting in motion a grand experiment. Now it’s time for another big election, but instead of campaigning on eight years of achievements, Republicans are confronting chaos and crisis. Agency budgets that were cut during the Great Recession have been slashed even deeper. Rural hospitals are closing, and teachers are considering a statewide strike over low wages.
“I’m not scared to say it, because I love Oklahoma, and we are dying,” said Republican state Rep. Leslie Osborn. “I truly believe the situation is dire.”
Oklahoma’s woes offer the ultimate cautionary tale for other states considering trickle-down economic reforms. The outlook is so grim that some Republicans are willing to consider the ultimate heresy: raising taxes to fund education and health care, an idea that was once the exclusive province of Democrats.
Have to say rather impressed with Phil Twyford today. I know shock, horror, as I’ve always been a bit of a critic of that West Auckland MP.
He turned up to a disability housing hui here in Auckland, and took the time to listen. He sat with the deaf group doing the discussion session and picked up the salient points. Better than the last minister for housing who turned up got bored, and was more than mildly rude.
He made no promises, which is somthing I really respect. We don’t need anymore unfulfilled promises. Actually, he did make one promise, to keeping the dialogue ongoing. He also took into account the diversity within the disabled community and their needs. So the word accessible means different things in different situations. On the table is the need to make many more house accessible, as there will be an explosion of need for accessible houses, especially with our aging population.
Some of us pushed the tenancy for life for Housing New Zealand residents, he listened and smiled. Which was nice, rather than scoff when put to certain ministers in the last government. I think on this one, people should email him often.
Twyford accepts there is a Housing Crisis (market failure) in Auckland. It is a complex beast and this is a minister who is looking at a lot of different solutions.
You can tell there has been a change of government. This lot are not so arrogant. I’ll still be critical of Twyford when he deserves it, but not today. He is doing a good job. Not rushing, and not buying into the creepy gotcha politics of our wayward Tories.
Carmel Sepuloni as the Minister for Disabled was also supposed to be there today, but she was unable to make it. Shame, as she has a good brain around disabled issues. I would have liked to get her take.
My partner pointed out Twyford and his associate from MSD both had shocked looks on their faces when some basic math was pointed out to them. To retrofit a house to make it assessable is on average 100,000 dollars. To do make most houses assessable during building is only around 5,000 dollars. I was with them on the shocked part as well.
Thanks for the report, adam. It’s good to see attention to disabilities when working on creating more affordable housing.
In the end, a they say, we are all only temporarily able bodied. As I’ve got older I have developed one or two minor disabilities, and am seeing others of my peers needing medical intervention, support and monitoring. So I am become increasingly aware the diverse issues around disability.
Remember that they have a civil service actively working against them on housing, those individuals committed to a market solution. I think it will be a uphill battle for the government on this.
The costs of retrofit vs provision would be about right. It doesn’t cost any more to put the walls in the right place and have the door openings the right size. The space provision for toilet and shower are a little less “efficient” but more liveable and the extra cost for wider doors and the bigger wet areas is minimal and gives a higher standard house. And with a bit of smart design the space requirement isn’t that much. When you retro those into an existing house you start moving walls and that gets expensive, fast.
I effectively built our house to disabled standard 20 years ago with wide doors, full wet area bathroom and chair access. Any extra cost was just making a better house and I’m really struggling to think of any actual costs apart from my time to think about it and maybe a few extra dwangs to receive hand holds if ever required, and the wider doors, but I’d do that again anyway.
Yes, thank you for that report Adam. I wish I could feel any sort of optimism but I just can’t anymore, I can only hope with a change of Govt it can’t possibly DELIBERATELY get any worse for us.
Obviously an Auckland based hui, but any acknowledgement the housing crisis has gone national? Not a hope of access to council or state housing in Wellington anymore if you become homeless even if you’re disabled. There’s a lot of very frightened people here too.
The multipolar spin: how fascists operationalize left-wing resentment
“The Syria connection”
The Syria Solidarity Movement lists on its steering committee a host of syncretic figures like Duginist, Navid Nasr and an Australian representative of the fascist-modeled Syrian Social Nationalist Party affiliate, Mussalaha. Before a report revealed her associations with Global Research, Ron Paul and the right-wing British Constitution Party, conspiracy theorist Vanessa Beeley held a position on the steering committee as well.
As an editor at the alt-right-associated conspiracy theory site, 21stCenturyWire, Beeley’s repeated conspiracy articles attempting to link the White Helmets to al Qaeda and George Soros earned her a visit with Assad in Damascus and senior Russian officials in Moscow; however, they have been thoroughly debunked. A defender of right-wing Hungarian president Viktor Orban, Beeley promotes antisemites like Gilad Atzmon and Dieudonné, even speaking at a conference hosted by the latter in partnership with notorious Holocaust denier Laurent Louis. Regardless, the Syrian Solidarity Movement and the associated Hands Off Syria Coalition recommend Beeley’s work.
Utterly Brilliant. For those who hate watching videos, watch this – time well spent. Laura Flanders is one great journalist. And in this 27 minute video she shows why she is so great.
Content, Helen Clarke and Gaylene Preston. Helen being very honest, very very honest. Utterly Brilliant.
Like all app developers, Kogan requested and gained access to information from people after they chose to download his app. His app, “thisisyourdigitallife,” offered a personality prediction, and billed itself on Facebook as “a research app used by psychologists.” Approximately 270,000 people downloaded the app. In so doing, they gave their consent for Kogan to access information such as the city they set on their profile, or content they had liked, as well as more limited information about friends who had their privacy settings set to allow it.
Although Kogan gained access to this information in a legitimate way and through the proper channels that governed all developers on Facebook at that time, he did not subsequently abide by our rules. By passing information on to a third party, including SCL/Cambridge Analytica and Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, he violated our platform policies. When we learned of this violation in 2015, we removed his app from Facebook and demanded certifications from Kogan and all parties he had given data to that the information had been destroyed. Cambridge Analytica, Kogan and Wylie all certified to us that they destroyed the data.
At the moment there is just a new claim that FB are investigating – ie whether Cambridge Analytica held on to any of the info they were ordered to delete a while back:
Several days ago, we received reports that, contrary to the certifications we were given, not all data was deleted. We are moving aggressively to determine the accuracy of these claims.
For years Costa Rica has been the exception in Central America. Uninterrupted democracy since 1948, no military, one of the highest living standards in the region, free education, the highest literacy rate in Latin America, universal health care, restrictive abortion laws but more than 90% of women avail themselves of reproductive health care, and an economy driven by agricultural exports and high end eco-tourism.
But dollars to donuts, this evangelical whack job would see them right back to where they started.
SAN JOSE (Reuters) – Conservative evangelical Christian Fabricio Alvarado Munoz has an effective lead of almost 14 percentage points over ruling party hopeful Carlos Alvarado Quesada in the race to be Costa Rica’s next president, an opinion poll showed on Friday.
Alvarado Munoz, a 43-year-old religious singer and former journalist who belongs to the National Restoration Party, shot to prominence after condemning a court ruling that urged Costa Rica to grant civil marriage rights to same-sex couples.
“Kenneth Boulding, the economist, famously said that: “Anyone who believes that exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist”.
Ecological economists argue that the economy is physical, while mainstream economists seem to believe it is metaphysical”
Here’s a serious question for TS and its moderators
Is Ad/Advantage intended to be some aort of fair and balanced advocate for the ‘right of the left’ as in slightlyvright of lprent….no….actually extreme righr of lprent all things considered (including egos).
-i kind of wonder whether Ad is like the token whatever.
If I were a puntee, I’d pik him (definately HIM) to be some sort of senior policy ANALyst of manager on the gumint civil service that has gone Oh so fucking very wrong over the past 2 or 3 decades.
Cud evin b Ad works (or has a sugfifikunt other) for that buggers muddle that is so often to have come short of its public service risssponsbilties (going forard).
Should be noted that this Munstry (with a few good folk) could ekshully challenged a fair few of its fukups
I’m still not sure why the new xoalition wants to continue to support it rather than pulling out some of its obvious agencies with …. well good managers.
I guess the coalition may well be suckers for punishment.
They often are of course
BBC World news you have one nation flying Drones into foreign countrys and they kill women children elderly.
And ifs its true bad timing for Them with the football World Cup and all happening at the minute two people are the victim. What I Don’t Like is the MEDIA hyping this subject up this could start a war this is the power of the worlds media has you people have to realise what you’re actions have on our society. Eco Maori says WAR is for idiots diplomacy is what is need here.
There is a Human trait one gets a better response just by using your own brain it is better to use the Carrot than the stick this is well document and is logical so stop blowing the flames on this subject. A number of countries could have pulled this off for there own motive it could be a distraction for some there could be many behind the seens reason for another nation / organisation to set that up people don’t realise how cruel and crooked the 00.1% Can be ECO MAORI SEE this behaviour everyday and us the 99.9 % have to stop this bad behaviour.
Its good that all the mokos around Papatuanukue the world are making a stand against the dumb gun laws of America Kia kaha mokos. Ka kite ano
BBC There is one reason that one uses the stick instead of the carrot.
That is because the welder of the stick wants to damage Mana the recipient full stop. People that are receiving the sticks treatment know that this is the intentions of the welder of the stick many thanks for showing Nomalm Crosinsky he’s a great humane humble man I idealise.
Kia kaha Ka kite ano.
Eco Maori can see the proof of his influence evenwith the sandflys trying there best to suppress me. I am using my influence to leave behind a better SOCIETY for the mokos in my view that is my main goal.
Here is a substance that I have a beef with and that’s Alcohol.
Yesterday celebrations of a great culture has been hijacked by the Alcohol industry yes it has promoted the culture but at what cost to OUR WORLD has this hijacking this great culture day of celebrating drunken violence would have increased and all the other bad stats that are allways associated with alcohol consumption. Whats such a joke is we have a medical substance and a substance that is a poison if consumed to strong and fast we lock people up associated with the medical substance and the poison we let companies sell it to OUR mokos in any fashion they can dream up advising ECT it’s sold in the supermarket.
I advocate banning supermarkets sales and rasing the age limit to 19 than 20 and ban advertising till after 9 pm.
Kia kaha Ka kite ano P.S. I have to remind myself of the old MAORI saying a Kumara never tells how sweet it is enough said.
I also say there should be a investigation into that substance that we use to kill green growth grasses ECT weedspray some of the sprays we use are being banned in Germany we need the facts revealed on the reason why these spay are banned and I say if the proof is a negative effect on us and the creaters and lifes on PAPATUANUKUE then we should follow there lead.
I remember when I was young in Tairawhiti there were hundreds of WEKA now the presious WEKA are no we’re to be seen in Tairawhiti as far as I know.
I was informed by a very good source that the sprays softened the Weka egg shells that much that none of there chicks could hatch because there shell broke during the incubation period.
If these sprays do that to Wekar what side effect do these sprays have on us and other organisations it will not be very good I say the die out of Weka happed in 5 years they are the canary in the mines if the canary dies be ware and get out of the mine or put on gas mask on as poison is present.in the environment. Kia kaha Ka kite ano
Here is the faith a person in the know have in the Democrats takeing power off some one that will do anything to win the next president election in America.
BEST OF THE WEEK
NZ diplomat under fire for US politics tweets
Mar 14 2018
Some are trying to imply that all my support is mostly made up of the mokos but Know they are minupulating there stats to try and undermine ECO MAORI that’s the big picture there a lot of Common people can identify with me Ka kite ano
The sandflys were at there best today I can see when I move from one town to town them passing the batten the the sandflys from Tauranga were extra aggressive but Eco Maori just swipes them away. I know why they are upset 2 reasons one I had warned Gisborne man that’s his m8 would abandoned
2 well you will have to figure it out.
Yes the sandflys have been trying there hardest to get me to turn into a idiot but know all there intimidat games every time I go out they are at it must have hit a nerve with me revealing that he’s a Exsquse brevern lol Ana to kai
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
The pressure is mounting on the Government as it finalises its Budget Policy Statement, but yet more predicted revenue ‘goes missing’. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Climate Commission has delivered another funding blow to the National-ACT-NZ First coalition Government’s tax-cutting plans, potentially carving $1.4 billion off the ‘climate ...
The Government now faces the prospect of having to watch another tax raise the price of petrol when, only six days ago, it abolished the Auckland Regional Fuel tax. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon argued that the regional fuel tax imposed costs on lower-income people with less fuel-efficient vehicles and that ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
Reacting to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s refusal to rule out introducing new taxes at the budget, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “Today’s refusal to rule out new taxes suggests the Government is nothing more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne Aila Images/Shutterstock Aged-care workers will receive a significant pay increase after the Fair Work Commission ruled they ...
He’s bringing ‘Sophie’ back, yeah. Goodshirt’s ‘Sophie’ music video is one of the most instantly recognisable New Zealand music videos of all time. Featuring a woman listening to the song on headphones while her entire house is burgled behind her, the video won the New Zealand music award for Best ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University A year ago, the AUKUS agreement was formally announced between Australian and UK Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden. The agreement mapped out the “optimal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Helwig, Associate Professor, Electro-Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern Queensland SmartS/Shutterstock Steam locomotives clattering along railway tracks. Paddle steamers churning down the Murray. Dreadnought battleships powered by steam engines. Many of us think the age of steam has ended. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carrie Leonetti, Associate Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Victims who experience family violence in Aotearoa New Zealand are treated differently, depending on which part of the justice system they turn to for help. But a new member’s bill ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Tesch, Visiting Fellow at the ANU Centre for European Studies, Australian National University In perhaps the least surprising news of the year, Vladimir Putin has triumphed at the Russian ballot box and been enthroned for the fifth time as president. He ...
The Papua New Guinea Supreme Court has stopped a byelection for the Madang Open seat being held until an appeal filed by former MP Bryan Kramer is concluded. Kramer had appealed to the Supreme Court over a National Court decision not to review his application of the Leadership Tribunal decision ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Despite a “historic” ceasefire agreement in Papua New Guinea between Enga authorities and tribal leaders after months of bitter warfare, a young woman has been found brutally killed near Kaekin village, Wapenamanda. Despite the peace agreement and signing concluded in Port Moresby last Thursday ...
The second season of Ryan Murphy’s Feud is a sadder and slower entry into his canon of true story-telling, leaning heavily on a verdict about the cost of a single work of art. Hollywood heavyweight Ryan Murphy has had a bit of “ick” about him in the last few years. ...
Are you deeply passionate about sharing Māori stories? We’re on the hunt for an experienced writer/editor to lead coverage in our Ātea section.Ātea is a deeply valued section of The Spinoff site, offering Māori perspectives and insights across politics, current affairs and culture. We are thrilled to be looking ...
By Aisha Azeemah in Suva With the lights on one of his sneakers blinking as he ran through the gallery, a little boy looked up at several works of art. One of them was a sculpture of his grandfather: the man who changed how we see the Pacific — Epeli ...
WHAT: Uber drivers are holding a rally outside the Court of Appeal in Wellington tomorrow, as the company begins its appeal against 2022’s Employment Court verdict (in a case taken jointly by FIRST Union and E tū) that four drivers were permanent ...
RNZ Pacific The Fiji Meteorological Service has a heavy rain warning still in place for the whole of the country after a weekend of flooding, although some floodwaters have receded. Flood and flash flood warnings and alerts are also in place, including a warning for all flash flood-prone areas, small ...
Responding to Grant Robertson’s recent admission on a Q+A with Jack Tame that his only regret from his time in office was that he didn’t take on more debt, Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson, Alex Murphy, said: “Grant Robertson has now admitted that he ...
Comment: Re-elected Russian President Vladimir President has declared victory ahead of a fifth term in power, after an election that offered no credible alternative candidates. Following the death of his main opponent Alexei Navalny in a Russian prison last month, thousands of Russians followed Navalny’s plea to cast a symbolic ...
Every week that passes seems to tighten the fiscal noose for Christopher Luxon and co – a noose, moreover, of their own making.“Don’t tell me what you value: show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” This phrase, a favourite of US president Joe Biden’s, resonates ...
Analysis by Geoffrey Miller – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Geoffrey Miller. Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are ...
Auckland may be the largest city in Aotearoa, but it’s the small community-led organisations within it that make the city thrive. The Spinoff spoke to two council-funded organisations who are doing their bit.“Torrent.” That’s the word one 40-year resident of Dundale Avenue used to describe what became of the ...
Commenting on the introduction of the living wage for all employees and contractors at Kāpiti Coast District Council, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “The problem with blanket living-wage policies is that they ...
With the upcoming SailGP event in Ōtautahi/Christchurch looming, there is mounting apprehension regarding the safety of Hector's dolphins, an endangered species unique to New Zealand waters. The event, scheduled to take place in an area frequented by ...
So several sexual assaults become just “a bit of groping”.
Would you be happy saying that to the victims?
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
I think you need to get some perspective, champ.
I dont want your perspective, chump.
We’ve heard you on this site …. James
And what you have said about sexual abuse victims.
And it was pretty vile.
I think you were calling them liars among other things …
Do you think Labour will try and do a cover-up like the Waikato chiefs one ??
Where to this day nobody knows the names of the offenders ….
Actually Labour have been a much better than the grubby lot you were sticking up for ……. eh james ?
Ahhh the oh you said really vile stuff – without linking. Feel free to do so.
So I think labour will try a cover up? I think they have already started. Heard lots more on Twitter but have not mentioned here (for obvious reasons) but if any of it’s true – it’s not going to be good.
But typical of some people – I call out someone for calling multiple sexual assaults “a bit of groping” and you attack me. You seem to be quite the apologist
Your a creepy liar James ….. here’s a link …. https://thestandard.org.nz/nz-home-of-rugby-raping-and-beer/ , in this one you keep on insisting a stripper,…. who was the victim of drunken rugby players hitting her , groping her ….and then throwing stones at her … is a hair-dresser….
You appear / pretend to think it’s dishonest for a person hired as a stripper ….. to do stripping …. should be referred to as a stripper. You make a creepy little dance about it …. Do explain James
In this link I remember why I liked OAB and Psycho Milt … with some of the best black humor on some sickening behavior …. Despite the seriousness of the subject their posts were appropriate …. unlike yours James .
Your also a liar and big hypocrite for calling me or Mutton Bird apologists …
Muttonbird justt like myself ….. would be all for ANY offender being appropriatly chargfed , prosecuted and named … Unlike you James
But only If that is what the victims wanted …. many do not pursue this path ….. given our rape culture police, which National actively starved of funds…. and had no will to fix , …. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10434242
And the additional assault or rape they get in the appalling treatment and low conviction rates our court system delivers to sexual assult victims …. Judith Collin s refused to even look at fixing this when minister…. using fake stats and serco box ticking is more her style https://www.vice.com/en_nz/article/kzqxp3/a-tiny-minority-of-nz-rape-cases-make-it-to-court-do-we-have-a-problem
Anyway James … your the rape apologist …. and have all the concern of a troll out to score political points.
The Waikiato rugby chiefs pulled a white wash and cover up ….
Do you now think the guilty players should be named and face repercussions ???
As MuttonBird and myself do for the drunk fuckwit who engaged in the assaults at Labours camp.
Prove to us your not a sleazy opportunist James.
Apologize for your Chiefs posts …. and call for their cover-up to end.
Not sure I wanted to be reminded of that ugly post about the Waikato rugby chiefs, reason, but well done, and well said, pointing out the political opportunism and the lies of james.
The victims come first. They always should. I said when this started, we should all shut up, (well us men anyway) and let the victims speak for themselves – if they want to, if they want to say nothing, that’s fine too.
Insted it became somewhat of a partisan knife fight at the victims expense. With some who have been in deep down in the gutter, trying to get some moral high ground at the expense of people who need us to back off, and let them make the choices they want to make.
Enough from me, I’m for giving the people involved some space to get this sorted, properly.
Thanks Adam and good on you for your excellent attitude and actions ..
Your post put the focus back on where it should be …
Your a very good example to other men.
Showing Real men are respectful to women…. not domineering.
And it should never be a ‘left versus ‘right’ issue …
Is there anything in this link which reveals something of what’s behind the ‘cover-up’? I realise the article in the link was published nine days after The Standard story.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11711414
https://thestandard.org.nz/nz-home-of-rugby-raping-and-beer/
Thanks for wasting my time on that Herald pile of crap Pete …
It reads like a Herald dirty politics hit piece ( right time frame ),… . and is a long winded one eyed version of “she’s a liar”.
Which was the chiefs initial response … which the Herald left out of their pro rugby defense …. like a shitload of other damaging information unfavorable to the chiefs cover-up … all left out.
Imagine how low our arrest rates would be …. If criminals got to investigate themselves. Pete.
And for good PR the criminals got to ‘Leak’ their self investigation to an active supporter in the media … and its reported as truth.
Besides, the Herald snow job runs counter to my rugby source / information … which informed me ….that protecting the all black ‘brand’ ( corporate multi million sponsorship), was behind the Waikato chiefs coverup.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
But this site has been through this shit before … and just Like Roastbuster or Clint Rickards …. it brings out the worst in some men.
Mansplaining with the bias of defense lawyers…. bringing the friendly NZ ambiance … of rape culture.
Leave it alone Pete …
“As for NZ Rugby wanting the truth? If they had, they would have spoken to BOTH women who made allegations against the Chiefs, and wouldn’t have had their pet in-house lawyer run the investigation.
By any objective measure, this whole thing stinks, and only the people who desperately, desperately don’t want to confront the reality of violence against women cry otherwise.” -Stephanie Rodgers https://thestandard.org.nz/nz-home-of-rugby-raping-and-beer/
If you do see this …
Talking to independent people who were there and watching video footage was a stupid thing to do. It’s far better to get the truth by making it up. Or building it on the base of stuff other people have made up.
My interest in the upshot of this business came when I quite randomly ended up talking to someone, nothing to do with the rugby establishment, who was there. The way the topic arose was completely incidental and accidental. Of course your rugby source / information … which informed you, could clearly describe what happened from direct observation. In contrast to my source who could clearly describe what happened from direct observation.
I sense your level of being incensed with the call to ‘leave it alone.’ It reminds me of the sense of bewilderment and annoyance of an eye-witness who has seen deliberate grabbing of the wrong ends of sticks to continue untruths because it suits some purpose.
You should have written the non-independent report referring to unreleased video …,. for that is what you are actually describing.
Your descriptive powers are about as good as your ones to sense things… maybe you project ?.
For I’m not incensed by your wanting to re-argue a unsavory topic Pete ..
Or by you calling me or my friends liars …. I believe them … and your a nobody to me.
But I do think it’s posters like you and your ‘attitudes’ which lower female participation on internet sites …
Nothing you have written explains the chiefs coverup …. where everyone was forced to apologize … and the ones doing the assaulting were never named.
Can you point to your posts calling for Key to resign for assaulting a woman including after she made it clear it was unwanted?
I think James has become much more aware now we have a change of government and his friend the Ponty tail puller is no longer PM. Shades of Bill Clinton and the way the partisan media hammered him but just dont seem to care about the horrific acts of abuse committed by their hero Trump. James you should take a deep breath and stop listening to talk back or whale oil. Listen to the movie “the brainwashing of my Dad” if you want to understand what has happened to you.
You make no sense. Stop drinking or doing drugs.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Stuart, how are you getting on with that booking to Riga?
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
DNFTt
No it’s just an obvious and recent one that I remembered that shows what a two faced person you are.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
And yet you run around doing the opposite all the time.
Hypocrisy at its finest.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[just spending time going through and shifting your trolling out of a thread into OM. I was going to give you a warning, but you’ve been warned before and there are far too many comments like this for me to have to be dealing with on a Saturday morning, and this is a clear pattern of behaviour from you over time, so here’s a one week ban. I suggest you have a serious think about how you want to be here when you get back, as next time the ban will be a much longer one. You need to get that this place doesn’t exist for your trolling or taking pot shots at commenters you don’t like. Stop winding people up and go back to the politics. Whether you get a warning before a long ban next time will depend on how you acknowledge this note and your pattern of behaviour when you return. – weka]
Pot.
Kettle.
Black.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[you are also getting a ban. As with James I was going to give a warning first, but the amount of time I’ve just had to spend sifting through comments to more your trolling and see the patterns of behaviour is way too much. You have a 1 week ban recently, so this one is a two week ban. See how that works? You’ve been complaining about people hassling your, but as far as I can see today you are the one also doing the hassling. Stop winding people up, focus on the politics. Also, stop with the spamming videos, you’ve been warned about this multiple times before. As with James’ mod note, whether you get a warning next time before a longer ban will depend on how you respond to this one and what your behaviour is like when you return. As always, demands on moderator time are a big factor too – weka]
DNFTT
Not too good on the figures at treasury
Treasury poverty estimate out by 24,000 children
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1803/S00091/treasury-poverty-estimate-out-by-24000-children.htm
Robertson is going to get smashed in the House for this.
And again at budget in May.
In fairness – I do not believe that this is Labours fault – and the figures were wrong for National as well.
So much to beat up labour with at the moment – they dont need to use this.
Time to relook at the idiots of treasury.
Sign of the times, B level economists, hiring C level economists and probably the work done by legions of work experience students or interns for next to nothing.
If your government economists can’t add, something is wrong.
The average person knows that it is increasingly propaganda out of government and the conclusions are often fictional or flawed.
Whoever deemed 1 hour of work means you are employed as a statistic, is clearly either a fool or a right wing apologist. And neither should be employed by government and used to create policy.
I haven’t really looked at this but I thought they were blaming this on an error in the coding of a computer program.
If that is the case we should blame it on the programmer rather than just pin it on Economists.
Well, that’s not entirely true… it suggests a rudimentary lack of awareness that a >25% error is not immediately noticed by those preparing the report.
A succession of errors… modern times we just shrug it off ….. accidents happen. That’s why we have poverty, fake stats, Pike river, and overseas we have Trump and new bridges falling down ( we have had our own CTV building), or May and the Grenfell towers.
Sadly people who allow gross mistakes to happen under their watch also effect a lot of people through bad policy which is why I think those in those positions should not get away with blaming it on the IT guy.
If the IT guys now the provider of treasury policy including all the checks of accuracy of reports, maybe they should get a pay rise.
Also police need to check our laws about privacy… Nicky Hager, stopping conference members, isn’t there enough crimes out there to solve without illegally using the law for political purposes or invading the privacy of people who have not committed any crimes.
Complaint about the Police use of vehicle checkpoint
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1803/S00224/complaint-about-the-police-use-of-vehicle-checkpoint.htm
This has stuck in my craw for a while.
I am not a fan of euthanasia.
Police were wrong in their action setting up a checkpoint, then the claim of concern for the welfare of citizens reeks of spin.
Then, to top it all off, to hear a police spokesperson claim to be keeping citizens safe, in the wake of further deaths following a police pursuit, stinks.
There was a post on productivity the other day that bemoaned our (NZ) lack of progress. This problem is widespread and not confined to NZ.
https://www.focus-economics.com/blog/why-is-productivity-growth-so-low-23-economic-experts-weigh-in
While acknowledging a range of causes the following article suggests one factor that may be significant….motivation, or the lack of….something our very own recent government promoted as an issue (while ignoring the likely cause)…and goes some way to explaining an apparent lack of pride in that which is done (construction industry anyone?) or expressed differently…poor quality, both of decision and action.
With advances in technology and automation the fact remains that people are still a major productivity factor, indeed the key one…..is it surprising then that’ hope’ may play a key role?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/16/death-retirement-striking-lecturers-pensions
“The final option is neglect. If you don’t think there is the possibility of retiring in the future, some workers ask, then why put any effort into working now? Opting for neglect is quite simply – you go to work, switch on the computer and then spend your days doing things that any retired person would do: read the newspaper, fill in the crossword, chat with acquaintances over coffee and biscuits. This kind of “empty labour” is increasingly common in many organisations. As the prospect of a real retirement begins to fade, it is likely unofficial semi-retirements will become more popular. If this happens, workplaces will become like clandestine retirement villages for the working young.”
So question for the “Innocent until proven guilty” types.
Ed looking at you since you raised it.
With the #MeToo program there have been a lot of people named as having been the perpetrator of sexual assaults.
In almost all cases – They were named and shamed BEFORE being proven guilty (and many have not been found guilty since).
Do you think that the #MeToo campaign should be closed down? or perhaps rules in place to not name people until they are proven innocent?
Why is it OK in one situation and not the other?
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
James. I made a mistake. I replied to you.
I refuse to debate with you with the track record you have.
Oh the allegations of me making huge racist statements that you have refused to link to every time I have asked.
Its an easy cop out (if a dishonest one) every time you get a question you cannot answer to….
Just because people say things that you disagree with and find repugnant (like you wanting to shut down funding to Heart kids and alzheimer’s society) – dosnt mean you cannot have a discussion.
@James.
You shouldn’t feel that you are being picked out by Ed.
He never answers anyone who queries the source of his claims.
Mostly, I suspect, because the only source of the things he says is his somewhat over-excited imagination.
I’ve never had a response to any of the questions I ask him either.
I am saying there is another narrative and presenting them.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
But these bozos have “common sense”
They’re armed with all the unthinking predigested unchallenged talking points of the corporate media which always, apart from the fig leaf of a very few “dissenters” backs up the foreign policy agendas of the powerful.Indistinguishable from the agendas of the huge moneyed interests of the world
Honestly Ed, I’ve wasted too much time engaging with them.
But keep putting out those links
Thank you for your support. I have vowed to myself not to respond to the right wing trolls who frequent this site. Similarly, I waste too much time on them.
In New Zealand, it is hard to find the other narrative to the neoconservative story.
All the media, including RNZ, are running the British and American lines without any critical thinking.
We need a better media……..
” I have vowed to myself not to respond to the right wing trolls who frequent this site.”
Because they put forward arguments I cannot answer – or ask for citations I cannot provide.
Finished it for you.
In New Zealand, it is hard to find the other narrative to the neoconservative story.
And yet you’re in New Zealand but somehow manage to bombard The Standard with cut-n-paste after cut-n-paste of these “other narratives,” which are in fact as easy to find by anyone else in New Zealand as they are for you.
And your narrative is on the whole less factual than Dr Seuss.
“I’d actually rip their throats out for doing that, if it was my kid, I really would” – Judith Collins commenting re Labour camp sex assult vics and what she would co if it were her child.
If only she gave half a shit as justice minister when she could have brought fairness for sex victims in the court system.
I guess only blood relations count.
You missed part of her quote (surprise).
But regardless – do you not think Labour should be held to account for the way they handled all this?
Personally feel the Labour conference issues totally blown out of proportion, far worse things going on, this is a distraction. Find the offender and give them whatever is the appropriate sentence and clearly future conferences should not be turned into frat parties!
It has seen the lying defence commander story buried
++++++ Tracey
Killing 3 year old and other people overseas vs weirdo putting his hands down 16+ year olds boys and girls pants. Well I know which one I think is worse.
Jeepers james, there are many many people that need to be held to account for their actions, law firms as well. One night I woke up with my boyfriends mates head between my legs, never said a word about it.
So much is unsaid. Big picture is… people find it so hard to come forward, want to get political.. at least those at the youth camp had the confidence and felt they were in an environment where they could say something, without being told they were making it up etc.
Don’t make this a pissing contest about who said what, or who as changed their mind after thinking about it, or upon being presented more or different information. All of that completely misses the point.
It’s a beautiful day out there.
This^^^^^
No pissing contest about lying commander, key and brownlee, collins multiple abuses of power, bennetts injunction… sabins suppression…
+111
I don’t know that the blood rels even count. It’s all about Judith and her showing how strong and decisive she is, with little sensitivity to the survivors or how they want the situation to be managed.
And it was Collins who resisted law changes to make it less stressful for alleged rape and sexual assault survivors.
Back around 2012, Collins inherited well formulated proposals Simon Power had been working on. The proposals aimed at changing the system from more combative, stressful trials (focused on a contest between survivor and alleged perp) to an inquisitorial system in which a judge follows the evidence.
In Sept 2012, NZ Herald reported:
Collins also refused to implement recommendations by the Law Commission to improve the way sexual offense trials be conducted.
It is why I believe Power had to go. He seemed to want genuine cross party work on this stuff…
No resignation
Commander of Defence force admits lie
No resignation
Bennett deliberately breaches Privacy Act
No resignation
Collins conflict of interest, fudges police stats, leaks info leading to man getting death threats
No resignation
Brownlee gives Fletchers immunity and fucks up EQC
No resignation
Turei reveals lied to winz 20 years ago etc etc
Resigns and gone from parliament
Turei did not of course, as you imply, resign from Parliament.
She stayed there until the people of the electorate in which she stood had more sense than to choose her to remain in Parliament after the 2017 General Election.
She also kept collecting her very generous pay for another 3 months after the election.
Turei did nothing differently to Collins.
Turei resigned as co-leader of the Green Party.
Collins resigned from Cabinet.
Turei did NOT resign from Parliament.
Collins did NOT resign from Parliament.
The only people who did things differently were the voters.
The voters chose to return Collins to Parliament.
The voters chose NOT to return Turei to Parliament
Good evening, Alwyn. A fine comment except for this bit:
Metiria Turei resigned from the Green Party list on 9 August 2017 and decided to campaign for the party vote only in Te Tai Tonga. [my bold]
Given the short time to muster an effective campaign Metiria Turei actually did remarkably well. She got 5,740 votes while the Green Party only got 1,963 votes (which was much less than in the previous election in 2014 when it got 3,402 votes). During that short period leading up to the election the polls were not favouring the Green Party and it looked like they were going to disappear from Parliament altogether. So, in my view, a remarkable result for Metiria Turei.
It might be remarkable vote she got but it has not the slightest effect on what I said. Your claim is also wrong. She did not campaign only for the party vote. She campaigned for the electorate MP vote as well. Otherwise she couldn’t have got any votes at all could she? Have a look at the Electorate Candidate Votes in the Electorate.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/electorate-profiles/electorate-profiles-data/document/DBHOH_Lib_EP_Te_Tai_Tonga_Electoral_Profile/te-tai-tonga-electoral-profile
She did not WIN.
Now what is there in the statement you appear to be objecting to that is wrong?
“The voters chose NOT to return Turei to Parliament”.
An absolutely accurate statement isn’t it?
There were a lot of candidates who chose not to go on the list for their party. All the Labour candidates in the Maori electorates except for Davis stood only for their electorate positions and they all won.
Including, of course, Rino Tirikatene who thrashed Meteria.
Collins on the other hand did win and is still in Parliament.
FIFY
So close, yet so far. Indeed, without standing she could not have got any votes; she was aiming for party votes but got more candidate votes. This does not make my claim wrong, which was in fact not a ‘claim’ but what she had said.
Winning vs losing; simplistic and false dichotomy given that she did not intend to come back to Parliament. I don’t see Metiria Turei as a “loser” but you seem to see it differently: not winning is losing.
Since you appear to completely ignore the context all the other stuff you mentioned about Labour candidates is simply false equivalence to suit your biased opinion. The key point of my comment was to highlight your bias but it went ‘whoosh’; I gave you more credit than you deserve it seems …
Collins who? See, that’s my bias 😉
Really?
You claim that she did not campaign for the candidate vote?
Your statement was
“Metiria Turei resigned from the Green Party list on 9 August 2017 and decided to campaign for the party vote only in Te Tai Tonga”
She may have said things like that in previous elections, when she knew she was going to get in on the list but it was NOT what she said in 2017, when winning the electorate was he only way back to the trough. She even said in fact that this time (2017) she wanted to be elected to represent the electorate and that aim was new.
What she did say was
‘“The Green Party wants the party vote, and if you think that I’m your best representative, then give me your electorate vote as well,” said Turei, “That is a new message from me at this election and hasn’t been heard before.
“I’m really excited about our campaign. There’s only 20 points in it – if you actually look at it seriously – between the three candidates and I think that in a month anything is possible.”’
That was clearly a request for, and a campaign for, the electorate seat. Sure, she also asked for the Party vote for the Green Party but she wanted the candidate vote for herself.
To claim anything else is delusional.
http://www.maoritelevision.com/news/regional/tirikatene-accuses-turei-opportunistic-run-te-tai-tonga
@ 17:27 https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/336828/how-it-happened-turei-resigns-as-green-co-leader
I cannot tell whether she really wanted to get back in Parliament or was campaigning hard for the Green Party vote in the electorate; during election campaigns you do what’s necessary to get the votes you’re targeting. If you think that’s “delusional” I’m fine with that. It still changes nothing about your obvious bias but I’ve come to accept that as well 😉
Yeah, well I think a direct quote from her at an election debate in September is rather better evidence of her real intentions than a single line, not actually attributed to her, on the day she had to step down as party leader.
It was also before she probably realised that she was going to be out in the cold without a job and without a very generous salary within five months.
That was the day that she was about to be blown up on air by John Campbell who apparently had statements from her child’s father’s family about all the support that had provided.
She was going to be shown up not only as a person guilty of fraud but as a liar who was only too happy to smear her “in-laws” reputation all over the media.
Not surprising is it that she was desperately looking for cover and looking for a way to persuade Campbell not to air the truth?
If by “bias” you mean that I thought she was a rat-bag you would be right.
If by “bias” you mean that I prefer that my politicians are honest you would be right.
If by “bias” you mean that I tend to vote for parties that display competence you are right.
If by “bias” you mean I prefer politicians who work for New Zealand rather than their own baubles you are right.
On the other hand if by “bias” you mean that I will vote unthinkingly for, or against, a particular political party you are totally wrong.
Some fair comments, Alwyn.
Personally, I doubt that Metiria Turei thought, even for one moment, that she could win that electorate. I also think that she said what she had to say to campaign hard for the Green Party vote (which was rather unsuccessful I should add).
You seem to think that bias only manifest in specifics. But this is the insidious danger of bias: it clouds one’s opinion, expectations, (emotional) reactions, and thinking. The specific examples you list are just the tip of the iceberg; the danger is underneath the surface and out of (your) sight. One more thing, bias is notoriously hard to detect, in oneself.
I don’t know about the rest of the recommendations but I think any prospective juror would welcome getting rid of juries.
I was on one once in a case against someone accused of being a paedophile.
It was a bloody terrible experience being a juror and having to listen to all the evidence.
The only pleasant bit was at the end where we were told we wouldn’t be called again for jury service for 5 years.
Imagine how victims feel and they get put through the wringer for months or years prior to the trial
Yes, I did, although in this case it was a little boy of about 4.
He was treated about as well as he could have been with any questions going through the judge.
Imagine if there were ways to stop people from commiting crimes against children, or protecting more than we do. Oh that is right there are but the right, and some on the left like the fist on the table lock em up and throw away the key BS, cos that makes the wealthy and wannabe wealthy feel all confy and cosy.
I know an organisation that deals with paedophiles referred from Court, usually as a condition of release. This organisation has 92% of its clients NOT sexually reoffending. They also take self referrals ( yes it is a thing). We are resourcing this org really well, paying their staff really well and replicating what they do everywhere, right. Wrong.
She was very quiet on the predatory behaviour of her friend Slater toward young female Nats.
Of course Labour needed to sort this out better but the smug self righteousness of Nat supporters would be laughable if it werent so dangerous
The smug self righteousness is a direct response to the lecturing and harangued tones the left take towards the right for, in the light of what’s come out, less offensive behaviour than the criticism has warranted.
The smugness is schadenfreude.
Can you write that another way? I am struggling to take your meaning.
Another sign of the times – even if you are found guilty of exploiting migrant workers the penalties are puny and you are only stopped from sponsoring foreigners for work visas for periods of between six months and two years!
Only a few months and you can reoffend and exploit someone else! These are not high skilled jobs and completely unnecessary for the economy, the government is complicit in the scams by not closing it down!
Surely it should be a life ban for gods sake and a $100,000 fine! Why would you stop underpaying workers if your fine is $40k for multiple discovered breaches over years, especially as the migrant workers unions are reporting wide spread schemes of employers demanding untraceable money from their ‘workers’.
It’s about time that these visas for jobs are stopped. If students want to come to NZ to study great, – but have it transparent and no fake jobs at the end of it!
Restaurant chain exploited, underpaid workers for years
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/352684/restaurant-chain-exploited-underpaid-workers-for-years
Exploitation of Indian students: Money ‘can’t be tracked or traced’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/351335/exploitation-of-indian-students-money-can-t-be-tracked-or-traced
Must keep. Wages. Low.
We have Kiwi students with huge debts who can’t get any part time work anymore, cafes, burger/ restaurants, petrol stations, supermarkets all used to employ Kiwis student workers, part time workers like parents and I don’t remember widespread employment breaches and Kiwis being asked to pay for the job! There are plenty of local Indian students these restaurants can employ if they want to discriminate.
Before government says we get $500 million from overseas students coming here, then calculate the costs because that money is spent in NZ on rent, cars, petrol and food and possibly a bit of travel thrown in. Then it seems like health, roads, infrastructure and subsidised wages and employment inspectors and legal action are paid for by tax payers. All while our NZ workers are unemployed and getting into debt and the tax payers are subsidising that too.
Foreign students should just come here for study only. No working visas so the fake jobs become defunct.
Clearly the fake jobs for grads schemes needs to stop! It’s out and out exploitation and the students are being lured here by false pretences to be exploited.
The government does not seem to care about it, because they like the idea of the $500 million coming in, even if in real terms it costs the country triple that in problems, contributes to unemployment and low wages and is based on lies to the students by their agents and NZ resident employers.
Where do you get that figure of $500 million from? Do you have a link?
@Incognito – that was the figure touted in this article. Personally think like treasury figures can you believe them?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/344230/english-schools-fear-loss-of-work-visas-for-students
If a person can barely survive and being forced at $2 p/h and living in overcrowded rooms while studying are they really bringing in all this cash. Now the concerned groups are also concerned about them being forced into crime.
Struggling Indian students ‘getting into drug addiction, gambling’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/313070/struggling-indian-students-turn-to-crime,-leaders-warn
It is completely normal to provide proof of income by just borrowing the money or just getting a short term bank loan. Then all these people are coming to NZ penniless after paying their ‘tertiary fees’ only to find that jobs are scarce here and exploitation rife.
At least the government need to update their pathetic checks on whose coming and can they support themselves because a short term loan is not income or money!
In my view there is a market for legitimate overseas student study in NZ in particular from Chinese with high quality NZ courses!
Where overseas students can actually learn English and also the western way of business (or whatever the course is) and where the Chinese students get looked after properly, learn about western life and business and learn excellent English. It is very difficult to get into Chinese universities for example and so parents (I think) would gladly pay for quality!
Why does NZ always go for the scams and not the quality! We don’t need to give away job visas and fake jobs, the students will come IF NZ works on quality courses, genuine hospitality and getting quality applicants.
They are NOT going to come if NZ gets a reputation for fake courses and fake degrees and exploitation and bums on seats, which is where we are going at the moment.
Soon even the Kiwis will have to leave home and do another degree overseas so they have a quality qualification because quality is not the objective in tertiary any more.
There are too many NZ degrees and diplomas that are crap, or are passing crap students who go into the work force and are crap with a NZ qualification.
Learning English to a level to be able to undertake a degree in english MUST be first, proven and verified.
Overseas students are starting to fight back useless degrees or poor tuition.
US student sues university in Sweden over useless degree, and wins – how long until this happens in the UK?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2016/07/13/us-student-sues-university-in-sweden-over-useless-degree-and-win/
Student sues university for ‘Mickey Mouse’ degree
https://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/britain/student-sues-university-for-mickey-mouse-degree-36694956.html
Because it’s easier and cheaper and makes a higher profit faster.
The result is inevitable failure as is true for all profit driven societies.
Thanks. The reason I asked was because I read this (much more) recent article: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/101655182/large-loss-to-international-student-economy-looms-under-govt-immigration-plans
I would favour regulations to limit any full-time enrolled student working to max. 500 hour per year, i.e. roughly 10 hours per week. You’d have to ask whether any more than that would be detrimental to full-time study.
Yes, I think savenz would have been better off just saying money coming in. At least then they wouldn’t have had the appearance of pulling figures out of their arse.
They do have a point in that the costs may actually be greater than the money brought in.
To be fair DTB, savenz has provided a link at 13.1.1.1.1 to a RNZ article dated 20 November 2017 by John Gerritsen , their Education Correspondent, quoting a figure of $500 million.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/344230/english-schools-fear-loss-of-work-visas-for-students
However, in 13.1.1 savenz quotes this figure in this context: Before government says we get $500 million from overseas students coming here, …”
The actual article quotes this figure as coming from Wayne Dyer, chairperson of English New Zealand, “the peak body for language schools” – not the government per se. My Dyer is also quoted as saying that this figure was provided by Infometrics.
ie
” The schools have warned that cutting work rights for their students would kill enrolments from some countries overnight and damage an industry worth $500 million a year.
The chairperson of English New Zealand, the peak body for language schools, Wayne Dyer, said the Labour Party policy was aimed at stopping fraud and exploitation mostly involving Indian students enrolled in business courses.
“The English language sector is a completely different sector from the PTE [private training establishment] sector. The students are different, their reasons for coming are different. The level of risk associated with the schools is very, very low. NZQA and Immigration New Zealand don’t see language schools as a risk at all,” he said
…
Mr Dyer said Infometrics had calculated that language students contributed about $500 million to the economy and their general spending was about 10 times higher than the amounts they paid in tuition fees.”
While I am somewhat sceptical about some of savenz’s claims etc in their many comments over many subjects, on this occasion this figure was definitely not, or appearing to be, “pulled from their arse” as you so indelicately put it.
least then they wouldn’t have had the appearance of pulling figures out of their arse.
Last line starting with “least” should have been deleted, but too late for edit.
Fertile young people hungry for success replace grey haired rentiers and superannuitants.
Easy to do with immigrant workers here for the apple season, shove them all into a house, charge the earth, jam as many workers as you can into that house, and offset it against their wages. $$$$$$$$$$$ They won’t complain. It’s totally normal around these parts.
Yes. Like the recent story of the chinese builders being required… at 2/3 of the wage offered to kiwis.
I pretty sure the illegal Malaysians just got busted because their wages were too high and their illegal workers didn’t feel exploited on $20 – $40 p/h. Oh also they had a muslim wife.
I mean $2 p/h and paying $20k each year for the job is the going rate for a semi legitimate job permit! No undercutting!
A Chinese person was saying, they just get people in China ‘from the country’ and give them a quick training session and then have them in gangs on the building sites.
Then we wonder why building costs so much, takes so long and needs so much remedial work.
Pharmacies to start selling magic – what could possibly go wrong?
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/03/08/95148/new-code-of-ethics-makes-way-for-homeopathy
Pharmacies sell toxic poisons which kill and injure millions of human beings annually around the world…
Many substances which have no credible evidence whosoever, outside of the death toll, and cleaning agents…
Selling “magic’ would be an improvment…
That pharmacies are jumping on board signals the end of the chemical toxins, because revenue streams are required as replacement…
Australia passed the same recently, despite The Greens and De Natale voting against alternative theparies…
4-9 years and chemical pharma is finished…
That is what your link indicates…
Uh-huh – apart from the fact those “toxic” substances keep millions of people alive and healthy and homeopathic is tap water
Alive and healthy are not necessarily at the same time as a result of lab produced chemical toxins…
Alive and living are not necessarily the same thing…
And you seem to be oblivious to the placebo effect…
Alternative therapies are ancient, they are present, and they will remain in the future…
Pharma industry are reacting to save their existence…
So very predictable was the rejection of injected and ingested chemicals…
It’s hitting mainstream and can’t be halted…
You must be freaking out…
Homeopathy isn’t alternative therapy – it’s horseshit.
But fine – you can throw your health in with magic. I think I’ll relay on proven medical science
😆 next you’ll be extolling the virtues of chiropractic.
Homeopathic “medicine” also consists of ingested chemicals…
You must be freaking out…
Excellent opinion piece from Bernie Sanders on the Grauniad today, on the rise of Oligarchy.
Our NZ government is a mile from thinking about or discussing this topic – even though the power of the super rich and gross inequality completely dominates New Zealand’s political, social and economic life.
Thanks for the link. He raises great questions that shall never reach the right ears because so much of our media is for profit…
Heard a story today. A woman with cerebral palsy has been planning to walk up mt maunganui for her birthday. Has received some local coverage.
She was at the start of her walk and a guy in slacks, with some camera people appeared with some walking shoes and announced he was here to walk with her if that was okay with her. She said it was not. That the day was about her.
The guy was Simon Bridges.
Lmao. That’s epic as, just because she has a disability doesn’t make her stupid.
May she have an incredible day and a fantastic journey up the Mt.
And shows the Nats are not opposing, they are campaigning. Their record on disability, like many before them, was appalling.
Chloe Swarbrick is running a series of twitter conversations about democracy in NZ.
https://twitter.com/_chloeswarbrick
https://twitter.com/_chloeswarbrick/status/974801110215962624
https://twitter.com/_chloeswarbrick/status/974811877808025600
(easier to follow with a twitter account I think, you can set up a dummy one that will make the tweets easier to read, you don’t have to actually tweet anything).
I don’t actually have a Twitter account but read many Twitter accounts often daily.
By not having an account, you don’t have to follow an account to read it – and cannnot be unfollowed/banned.
I am not sure what the timelines etc look like when you have an account, but you can read the threads behind individual comments by clicking on the date or time on the same line as the name of the commenter. This brings up the thread.
For example Chloe has just retweeted your reply to her which, using your first link to her full Twitter account, shows
weka @wekatweets ……….6 min. If you click the 6 min it brings up the thread.
The two other links bring up the threads despite my not having an account.
The only problem I have ever encountered is that some time ago I had problems bringing up some but not all “Tweets and replies” on my PC which only brought up Tweets. But no problems on my Ipad with Tweets and Replies because the Ipad gets the Mobile version of the account.
So if I want to see the Tweets and Replies on my PC, I pull up the account on my Ipad which brings up the mobile version of the account ; then bookmark that to my synchronised Bookmarks and then the mobile version with Tweets and Replies comes up on my PC whenever I access the Bookmark.
Hope that helps anyone who doesn’t want any form of Twitter account. (I don’t as I know I don’t have the discipline to not get addicted!)
Another Kansas economic miracle.
/
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — When the GOP took full control of Oklahoma government after the 2010 election, lawmakers set out to make it a model of Republican principles, with lower taxes, lighter regulation and a raft of business-friendly reforms.
Conservatives passed all of it, setting in motion a grand experiment. Now it’s time for another big election, but instead of campaigning on eight years of achievements, Republicans are confronting chaos and crisis. Agency budgets that were cut during the Great Recession have been slashed even deeper. Rural hospitals are closing, and teachers are considering a statewide strike over low wages.
“I’m not scared to say it, because I love Oklahoma, and we are dying,” said Republican state Rep. Leslie Osborn. “I truly believe the situation is dire.”
Oklahoma’s woes offer the ultimate cautionary tale for other states considering trickle-down economic reforms. The outlook is so grim that some Republicans are willing to consider the ultimate heresy: raising taxes to fund education and health care, an idea that was once the exclusive province of Democrats.
https://apnews.com/f058811fa1fb4bf68a34e3c243a14a6f
Worth reading!
Neoliberal anti-tax crusaders keep spewing the rhetoric, despite all evidence showing their approach ends in disaster for society.
Have to say rather impressed with Phil Twyford today. I know shock, horror, as I’ve always been a bit of a critic of that West Auckland MP.
He turned up to a disability housing hui here in Auckland, and took the time to listen. He sat with the deaf group doing the discussion session and picked up the salient points. Better than the last minister for housing who turned up got bored, and was more than mildly rude.
He made no promises, which is somthing I really respect. We don’t need anymore unfulfilled promises. Actually, he did make one promise, to keeping the dialogue ongoing. He also took into account the diversity within the disabled community and their needs. So the word accessible means different things in different situations. On the table is the need to make many more house accessible, as there will be an explosion of need for accessible houses, especially with our aging population.
Some of us pushed the tenancy for life for Housing New Zealand residents, he listened and smiled. Which was nice, rather than scoff when put to certain ministers in the last government. I think on this one, people should email him often.
Twyford accepts there is a Housing Crisis (market failure) in Auckland. It is a complex beast and this is a minister who is looking at a lot of different solutions.
You can tell there has been a change of government. This lot are not so arrogant. I’ll still be critical of Twyford when he deserves it, but not today. He is doing a good job. Not rushing, and not buying into the creepy gotcha politics of our wayward Tories.
Carmel Sepuloni as the Minister for Disabled was also supposed to be there today, but she was unable to make it. Shame, as she has a good brain around disabled issues. I would have liked to get her take.
My partner pointed out Twyford and his associate from MSD both had shocked looks on their faces when some basic math was pointed out to them. To retrofit a house to make it assessable is on average 100,000 dollars. To do make most houses assessable during building is only around 5,000 dollars. I was with them on the shocked part as well.
Thanks for the report, adam. It’s good to see attention to disabilities when working on creating more affordable housing.
In the end, a they say, we are all only temporarily able bodied. As I’ve got older I have developed one or two minor disabilities, and am seeing others of my peers needing medical intervention, support and monitoring. So I am become increasingly aware the diverse issues around disability.
thanks adam, that is very interesting. I’ve been getting increasingly angry with Labour over housing, so it is good to have this balanced.
How would you be with me using your comment in a post (attributed)?
Of course weka, go hard.
Remember that they have a civil service actively working against them on housing, those individuals committed to a market solution. I think it will be a uphill battle for the government on this.
The costs of retrofit vs provision would be about right. It doesn’t cost any more to put the walls in the right place and have the door openings the right size. The space provision for toilet and shower are a little less “efficient” but more liveable and the extra cost for wider doors and the bigger wet areas is minimal and gives a higher standard house. And with a bit of smart design the space requirement isn’t that much. When you retro those into an existing house you start moving walls and that gets expensive, fast.
I effectively built our house to disabled standard 20 years ago with wide doors, full wet area bathroom and chair access. Any extra cost was just making a better house and I’m really struggling to think of any actual costs apart from my time to think about it and maybe a few extra dwangs to receive hand holds if ever required, and the wider doors, but I’d do that again anyway.
Yes, thank you for that report Adam. I wish I could feel any sort of optimism but I just can’t anymore, I can only hope with a change of Govt it can’t possibly DELIBERATELY get any worse for us.
Obviously an Auckland based hui, but any acknowledgement the housing crisis has gone national? Not a hope of access to council or state housing in Wellington anymore if you become homeless even if you’re disabled. There’s a lot of very frightened people here too.
The multipolar spin: how fascists operationalize left-wing resentment
“The Syria connection”
Utterly Brilliant. For those who hate watching videos, watch this – time well spent. Laura Flanders is one great journalist. And in this 27 minute video she shows why she is so great.
Content, Helen Clarke and Gaylene Preston. Helen being very honest, very very honest. Utterly Brilliant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyx541bAzTg&ab_channel=TheLauraFlandersShow
Link from the end of the video.
http://www.womenstrike.org/
thanks adam, that was really good.
So much for the tRump team’s masterful innovation, the fuckers were dishonest.
/
Like all app developers, Kogan requested and gained access to information from people after they chose to download his app. His app, “thisisyourdigitallife,” offered a personality prediction, and billed itself on Facebook as “a research app used by psychologists.” Approximately 270,000 people downloaded the app. In so doing, they gave their consent for Kogan to access information such as the city they set on their profile, or content they had liked, as well as more limited information about friends who had their privacy settings set to allow it.
Although Kogan gained access to this information in a legitimate way and through the proper channels that governed all developers on Facebook at that time, he did not subsequently abide by our rules. By passing information on to a third party, including SCL/Cambridge Analytica and Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, he violated our platform policies. When we learned of this violation in 2015, we removed his app from Facebook and demanded certifications from Kogan and all parties he had given data to that the information had been destroyed. Cambridge Analytica, Kogan and Wylie all certified to us that they destroyed the data.
(my bold)
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/03/suspending-cambridge-analytica/
At the moment there is just a new claim that FB are investigating – ie whether Cambridge Analytica held on to any of the info they were ordered to delete a while back:
Wayne Mapp will be on the q&a panel on TV1 tomorrow – wonder if he’ll talk about Operation Burnham?
For years Costa Rica has been the exception in Central America. Uninterrupted democracy since 1948, no military, one of the highest living standards in the region, free education, the highest literacy rate in Latin America, universal health care, restrictive abortion laws but more than 90% of women avail themselves of reproductive health care, and an economy driven by agricultural exports and high end eco-tourism.
But dollars to donuts, this evangelical whack job would see them right back to where they started.
SAN JOSE (Reuters) – Conservative evangelical Christian Fabricio Alvarado Munoz has an effective lead of almost 14 percentage points over ruling party hopeful Carlos Alvarado Quesada in the race to be Costa Rica’s next president, an opinion poll showed on Friday.
Alvarado Munoz, a 43-year-old religious singer and former journalist who belongs to the National Restoration Party, shot to prominence after condemning a court ruling that urged Costa Rica to grant civil marriage rights to same-sex couples.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-costa-rica-election/evangelical-conservative-leads-costa-rica-election-race-poll-idUKKCN1GT04B?rpc=401&
“Kenneth Boulding, the economist, famously said that: “Anyone who believes that exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist”.
Ecological economists argue that the economy is physical, while mainstream economists seem to believe it is metaphysical”
https://theecologist.org/2018/feb/22/why-economic-growth-not-compatible-environmental-sustainability
Tick tock…
https://easac.eu/fileadmin/PDF_s/reports_statements/Negative_Carbon/EASAC_Report_on_Negative_Emission_Technologies.pdf
Here’s a serious question for TS and its moderators
Is Ad/Advantage intended to be some aort of fair and balanced advocate for the ‘right of the left’ as in slightlyvright of lprent….no….actually extreme righr of lprent all things considered (including egos).
-i kind of wonder whether Ad is like the token whatever.
If I were a puntee, I’d pik him (definately HIM) to be some sort of senior policy ANALyst of manager on the gumint civil service that has gone Oh so fucking very wrong over the past 2 or 3 decades.
Cud evin b Ad works (or has a sugfifikunt other) for that buggers muddle that is so often to have come short of its public service risssponsbilties (going forard).
Should be noted that this Munstry (with a few good folk) could ekshully challenged a fair few of its fukups
I’m still not sure why the new xoalition wants to continue to support it rather than pulling out some of its obvious agencies with …. well good managers.
I guess the coalition may well be suckers for punishment.
They often are of course
Btw… xtreme difficulty in past post tekniklojikilly
Ekshully involved some Adsl/vdsl end a bit a 4G telljince across sell tears on a borda.
BBC World news you have one nation flying Drones into foreign countrys and they kill women children elderly.
And ifs its true bad timing for Them with the football World Cup and all happening at the minute two people are the victim. What I Don’t Like is the MEDIA hyping this subject up this could start a war this is the power of the worlds media has you people have to realise what you’re actions have on our society. Eco Maori says WAR is for idiots diplomacy is what is need here.
There is a Human trait one gets a better response just by using your own brain it is better to use the Carrot than the stick this is well document and is logical so stop blowing the flames on this subject. A number of countries could have pulled this off for there own motive it could be a distraction for some there could be many behind the seens reason for another nation / organisation to set that up people don’t realise how cruel and crooked the 00.1% Can be ECO MAORI SEE this behaviour everyday and us the 99.9 % have to stop this bad behaviour.
Its good that all the mokos around Papatuanukue the world are making a stand against the dumb gun laws of America Kia kaha mokos. Ka kite ano
BBC There is one reason that one uses the stick instead of the carrot.
That is because the welder of the stick wants to damage Mana the recipient full stop. People that are receiving the sticks treatment know that this is the intentions of the welder of the stick many thanks for showing Nomalm Crosinsky he’s a great humane humble man I idealise.
Kia kaha Ka kite ano.
Eco Maori can see the proof of his influence evenwith the sandflys trying there best to suppress me. I am using my influence to leave behind a better SOCIETY for the mokos in my view that is my main goal.
Here is a substance that I have a beef with and that’s Alcohol.
Yesterday celebrations of a great culture has been hijacked by the Alcohol industry yes it has promoted the culture but at what cost to OUR WORLD has this hijacking this great culture day of celebrating drunken violence would have increased and all the other bad stats that are allways associated with alcohol consumption. Whats such a joke is we have a medical substance and a substance that is a poison if consumed to strong and fast we lock people up associated with the medical substance and the poison we let companies sell it to OUR mokos in any fashion they can dream up advising ECT it’s sold in the supermarket.
I advocate banning supermarkets sales and rasing the age limit to 19 than 20 and ban advertising till after 9 pm.
Kia kaha Ka kite ano P.S. I have to remind myself of the old MAORI saying a Kumara never tells how sweet it is enough said.
I also say there should be a investigation into that substance that we use to kill green growth grasses ECT weedspray some of the sprays we use are being banned in Germany we need the facts revealed on the reason why these spay are banned and I say if the proof is a negative effect on us and the creaters and lifes on PAPATUANUKUE then we should follow there lead.
I remember when I was young in Tairawhiti there were hundreds of WEKA now the presious WEKA are no we’re to be seen in Tairawhiti as far as I know.
I was informed by a very good source that the sprays softened the Weka egg shells that much that none of there chicks could hatch because there shell broke during the incubation period.
If these sprays do that to Wekar what side effect do these sprays have on us and other organisations it will not be very good I say the die out of Weka happed in 5 years they are the canary in the mines if the canary dies be ware and get out of the mine or put on gas mask on as poison is present.in the environment. Kia kaha Ka kite ano
Here is the faith a person in the know have in the Democrats takeing power off some one that will do anything to win the next president election in America.
BEST OF THE WEEK
NZ diplomat under fire for US politics tweets
Mar 14 2018
Some are trying to imply that all my support is mostly made up of the mokos but Know they are minupulating there stats to try and undermine ECO MAORI that’s the big picture there a lot of Common people can identify with me Ka kite ano
Good to hear good music MoreFm Stan Walker Little Black Box And Pinks song What About us excellent Kia kaha Ka kite ano
The sandflys were at there best today I can see when I move from one town to town them passing the batten the the sandflys from Tauranga were extra aggressive but Eco Maori just swipes them away. I know why they are upset 2 reasons one I had warned Gisborne man that’s his m8 would abandoned
2 well you will have to figure it out.
Yes the sandflys have been trying there hardest to get me to turn into a idiot but know all there intimidat games every time I go out they are at it must have hit a nerve with me revealing that he’s a Exsquse brevern lol Ana to kai