Nice to see a media site pointing out the obvious that we have to do things differently. They even point the finger at media commentators, although they don't promise to change.
We won't get change (to long term thinking) unless politicians are rewarded for it. While tax cuts and high house prices are talked about as good things pollies will not stick their necks out.
We have the most coherent, centralising, long-reaching, deep-interventionist government we have had since Muldoon.
Government is not the problem.
The problem is in an exceptionally low-ambition rent-seeking large business community, together with most of our available capital tied up in real estate.
When does calling for something to stop become a way of prolonging it? And how much of a coincidence that this appears after a couple of weeks in which Luxon is revealed as a far right goose? (Note: link is paywalled. Just happen to have picked up the neighbour's paper copy today)
C'mon now its not like there were many alternatives to Foster
There was no Rennie, Joseph and Brown or Robertson option
The brains trust had no other choice because, as we all know, unless you've been in the ABS coaching set up you can't possibly be an international coach
Positive Rugby .Foster was anointed he hadn't had any experience at coaching winning teams or overseas for that matter. Scott Robertson beat a very strong Blues team by not kicking the ball away keeping the ball not allowing the opposing team to score.Foster played right into Ireland's strengths ,who invented the Gary Owen the high ball.Ireland dominated upfront even though they had a lighter pack.Foster has to go now he is out of his depth out of ideas ,Schmit or Robertson .Foster should never have been coach.Had Jacho Pyper been the ref Ireland would have been down to 13 for much of the second half .Saying all this this is a reality check a year out from the World Cup usually in the year running up to the world cup the Allblacks thrash everyone then loose the important ones .
Cheers
Just shifted jobs ,(onwards and upwards hopefully) after 4 1/2 years for some scheming miserable fuckers , thank God for labour laws I'd hate to think how they'd treat people if given free reign.
Career wise it was worth it, it got me to this job, but after all that time they used a change in my situation to screw me out of some income , went full bully ,threatening dismissal due to a brain fart I had, and then doubled the work load and expected me to do it alone for the same money ,
I remember you writing here about a pending job change quite some time back and I’m glad to hear that it has finally happened (i.e. you made it happen, I presume). Good luck with the job and I hope your family is doing better for it; a shit job tends to spill over into the home …
Talking of ‘wisdom’. A revealing interveiw on Q&A this morning with Nanaia Mahuta. I especially recommend her response to the accusations concerning members of her family. Will link when and if it becomes available.
thanks Anne for alerting us to this site about the Nanaia Mahuta interview.
When asked about her family, Mahuta talked about the trolling she had received about this. She looked visibly disressed by this. So I am sorry she has received trolling and been the subject of hurtful things. That is never acceptable.
However Mahuta failed to answer adequately the questions around her family and conflict of interests and unfortunately Jack Tame didn't ask more specific questions and got side track about the trolling.
There are definitely questions about Mahutas family being awarded contracts or public money, that should be questioned very assertively.
Mahuta's husband who has a criminal conviction of assault on a woman has been awarded contracts. I bring this up because someone with a criminal conviction of assault against a female will have a great deal of difficultly getting employment.
I think it would be fair to ask why he/his company was given a contract in suicide prevention (he has no quallifications in this). and waste management?
Her sister has also received appointments and so to have some of her nephews.
Happy to provide links on request with more details.
A close friend of mine is a retired lawyer and familiar with the details on this. His answer is that we are looking at two completely different world views here. In one nepotism is considered a problem – in the other it is a virtue.
The entity I work for has a government business group. It operates under strict ethical rules. If perchance as a member of that group I found myself negotiating with a government official who also happened to be a relative – I would have to immediately withdraw from that discussion. And fully document the circumstances to my manager. Failure to follow these rules to the letter would almost certainly result in my dismissal.
And this would apply even if both of us were highly qualified and experienced in the contract or area concerned.
Which tends to erase a lot of issues that don't apply to the Pākehā demographic majority, but do apply to a colonised, historically marginalised and much smaller indigenous community, especially in roles that pertain directly to specialist cultural knowledge only available in that community.
So all I have to do is declare that only Maori possess the proper cultural knowledge on waste management in an industrial society – and automatically only brown faces need apply for the role. And the rules around proximity can be set aside because all Maori are related.
The NZ public sector procurement requirements and outcomes make it very, very hard not to hire Maori to deliver Maori outcomes. That's particularly the case in Education and Health, but it's all through the system now: water, Tertiary education, media procurement, public health, Justice, secondary education, SSC, Conservation, Transport, and on and on.
I am reading you correctly? Are you saying that if everything gets defined in terms of Maori outcomes – as part of the decolonising mantra – then skills and experience have become secondary to cultural considerations across much of the public sector.
It's a shade more subtle than that, but the effect is that Maori get hired to deliver Maori outcomes. There's even official names for them: for some it's Broader Outcomes, or Pa Harakeke, or Progressive Procurement, or Te Akutai, and on and on.
Even in the big infrastructure bids one needs to specify who is being hired for achieving these Broader Outcomes. It’s so common now as to be ordinary, and seriously you can’t win the bid without them.
This is opposition gold ,Labour is on the backlash of out of control inflation ,a housing crisis,Labour shotrages,a health system under huge strain,food shortages ,5 waters etc.Mahuta needs to go she is the focal point of incompatency.But her going won"t save Labour the economy isn't going to recover by next winter and NZ is traditionally a National voting country .Which will mean austerity and block of cheese tax cuts for the swing voters.
….or… there are 775,836 people in Aotearoa who identify as Māori, most of whom exist within large extended families, of whom only a certain proportion have the capital and resources to rise in the educational and political sphere. Inevitably for appointments where being Māori is an important qualification people are going to be related.
You get exactly the same thing with Pākehā in the provinces but apparently that's not a problem for some reason…
I can accept there is a limited pool of talent to choose from in many cases all across public service in NZ, and that getting the right people into a role can be challenging.
But frankly I don't care how experienced or suitable you are for a role – in my view being an immediate family member is an automatic disqualification.
Well the global corporation I have been associated with most of my working life holds to a higher standard. Hell we will reprimand someone who expenses a $20 meal for their immediate manager by accident.
New Zealand remains within the top two least corrupt countries in the world and has done for over a decade.
Not sure if there's many global corporates who will expose their records in how they win bids to the kind of scrutiny states get, particularly small ones.
I think you'll find on closer examination that your joint isn't as pure as the driven snow that you're making out. Business is business.
On the contrary I know of two instance where people resigned rather than expose themselves to corrupt practice. And those are just the ones I know about. And the corporate will openly walk away from such business if necessary. I can point to one instance in Italy in just the past few months. But not all corruption involves bribes or obvious personal benefit, sometimes it can just be a case of taking a shortcut on paperwork, testing or certifying procedures – even when they seem quite logical or innocent.
Every 12 months everyone must undergo a mandatory ethics training course and must pass the exam which features notoriously tricky and often subtle case examples that are not easy. And you only get three shots at obtaining a 100% score or you're down the road. We have let very senior people go just for this.
And that is just for normal commercial business. The govt business team is another whole world I don't want to even think about.
So if that global company is an oil or oil related company which buy off govts ,ignore human rights, womens rights ,enviromental destruction no problems there.But a $20 meal not ok sounds like hypocritical gaslighting.
I'm not claiming perfection – that would be insane because nothing human ever is or will be. But the idea that big global corps routinely and actively pursue corrupt business practice no longer lines up with reality.
I cannot speak for all of them of course, but the ground has definitely shifted in the past two decades on this.
RL Oh you mean since when Clinton pardoned Marc Rich (for a small payment to the Clinton Foundation) and Rich's partners spun off to form Glencore who pleaded guilty last month to bribery,
Reaching back into the 90's. I am sure you can scour the net for many instances – but what you will not find are any shock horror articles on all the time a corporation did the right thing and it never made the news.
Again I am not claiming perfection – that would be insane. But I am saying that if you has lived and worked within or adjacent to these big corporates most of your working life you would have a more nuanced view. Defining and promoting strong ethical behaviour is a central part of the corporate game that it simply wasn't 20-30 years ago.
For example this sort of entity was simply not a thing 20 years ago.
That may well be an argument for Tipa Mahuta's appointment (though I shouldn't have thought that she was the best qualified candidate for both the Maori Advisory Group for 3 Waters and the Maori Health Authority).
But it's hard to believe that the most qualified candidates for 3 out of the 5 members of the advisory group on waste management were Mahua relatives. Especially as none of them appear to have any significant waste management experience or credentials. If all that is required is a te ao Maori perspective, there are plenty of non-Mahua-whanau candidates which can offer that qualification.
Well, I've done a quick check and can't find any relevant waste management experience for any of them on sites like Linked in which include CV, etc.
No one, not even the journalists supporting Mahuta, have been saying things like 'X's experience in Y, makes them a highly logical candidate for Z group'.
Do you have any evidence that they do have relevant experience in waste management? I'm not questioning Te ao Maori credentials – but plenty of other candidates have those….
Tamaoko Ormsby's waste minimization experience (the only one of the 3 with any listed) seems to be limited to refurbishing laptops for a school during Covid lockdown.
Both he and Waimirirangi are listed as having provided waste minimization training services. [This kind of thing is usually a tick box exercise for government departments and corporates bidding for government contracts… it rarely means much]
The waste management qualifications and experience of the 3 (such as they are) seem heavily duplicated. You could argue that 1 representative from the 'coal face' could be justified – but more than that – especially from a single family seems highly unbalanced.
Compared to the highly relevant qualifications of Jacqui Forbes and Teina Boasa – the other 2 members of the panel – they look pretty inadequate.
The relevant experience in: "waste, circular economy thinking and mātauranga Māori." – are certainly not limited to the Mahuta whanau – and would be fairly widespread across many different iwi.
The Ministry admit that they selectively approached individuals, rather than advertising or approaching a range of iwi.
Again, not questioning the Ormsbys Te ao Maori credentials – but pointing out that these are shared by a wide range of Maori from different whanau and iwi. It is difficult to see what made 3 members of the same family the ideal candidates.
What? I've provided the links, as requested, and the OIA.
And pointed out that the 3 Ormsbys have little waste management experience.
How does that equate to walking back? I am certainly questioning the hiring of the 3 Mahuta whanau members. From the OIA response, it seems that any relevant qualifications they have would be easily found in other Maori candidates.
And, for the Min of the Environment to openly admit approaching specific individuals, rather than seeking the best candidate, is pretty close to corruption in my book.
So your answer seems to be saying, doesn't matter if it's corrupt, or it's probably nepotism – hey, all of the public sector does it. Nothing to see here, move right along.
I wouldn't find that acceptable from a right wing government, and I don't find it acceptable from a left-wing one either.
I've seen plenty of ring-fencing to look at hiring someone with a specific skill set, or a specific experience profile. This is the first time I've seen that skill set effectively being 'whanau of the Minister'.
I am with Bella on this. I accept what you are saying is true, but at the same time I get the sad feeling you have normalised sub-par and shoddy standards because they are indeed so commonplace.
Bill English was indeed a senior Minister for many years – but I do not recall the exact context of these contracts you refer to. Or why you think they were problematic.
Finally, when National was in power in 2012, the Ministry of Education gave a very senior role to Apryll Parata, the sister of the Minister of Education, Hekia Parata. Concern was expressed by the then Labour Education spokesperson, who warned: “There is a perceived conflict of interest. People will draw all sorts of conclusions given the proximity of the appointment.” And that spokesperson was Nanaia Mahuta.
Well that was 10 years ago. Now we are decolonising there will be different rules for different people I should imagine.
If you don't think it's necissary to accommodate indigenous reality in situations directlty relating to indigenous matters, perhaps don't live in a colony with a history of oppression and borderline genocide and clutch your pearls over ethics and objectivity.
What colony? New Zealand has been an independent nation for almost 120 years now. And Maori have been fully legal citizens since 1840 with full male suffrage from around 1870. Before even all white males.
As for genocide – that happened in the Musket Wars before 1840. And it wasn't 'borderline' either.
As for genocide – that happened in the Musket Wars before 1840. And it wasn't 'borderline' either.
Shhhhh, RL, hush your mouth ! … those are the wars that dare not speak their name among polite (if totally clueless) Upper-Middle Pakeha Woke Society ! Spoils the highly paternalistic Noble Savage Romanticism.
Three decades of horrendous massacres, truly brutal genocidal violence, at least 20k dead (vs about 2k in the New Zealand Wars), tens of thousands enslaved, sadistic torture common, cannibalism, massive upheaval, iwi massacred, many others permanently driven from their nga rohe.
Looks increasingly like the affluent, flatulent Che Guevara beret-wearing Professional New Middle Classes – desperate for an aura of radical-chic while ensuring a highly privileged lifestyle for themselves – are intent on throwing fundamental ethics & morals out the window as they build the Brave New (deeply anti-democratic) World of He Puapua.
Narcissistic to the core … yet so utterly bereft of wisdom.
Having skim read He Puapua one of the enduring sentences I remember was the policy will mean transformational constitiutional change. Given this how come Labour didn't campaign on this?
How dare they think they can role out "transformation" to our constitutional arrangements by stealth
Stealth is very much the preferred modus operandi of Critical Theory cult members within the Professional New Middle Class … together with their unprincipled & rather cowardly fellow-travellers … they're nothing if not profoundly anti-democratic. Essentially the same elitist tactics & mindset as the Rogernomes.
Self-interested authoritarians perpetually going through this ludicrous charade of ostentatious moral posturing in a wildly unconvincing attempt to justify their power-grab.
Yes. The parallel with the disastrous Rogernome debacle is a pretty good one.
Lange was the charming, eloquent and acceptable public face of a government that imposed an extremist 'transformational' economic change on this country by stealth. Because so many people believed in Lange, the real power in Cabinet were able to operate with impunity until far too late.
Well this govt is much the same. Sure the PR optics are a lot more skilled, the circumstances are quite different – but essentially I see Ardern as the acceptable and popular face of a govt that is imposing transformational political change on this country by stealth as well. Probable outcome will not be any happier in my view.
And ably assisted by a woeful opposition. As a friend of mine said recently – when you are reduced to considering Seymour as the only sane alternative you know something has gone badly wrong.
I suspect that even without the developing economic situation this issue would see this administration lose the next election despite the attempt at stealth and an acceptable face.
And yet it's blindingly self-evident that there are huge structural, institutional, health, carceral, and economic disparities. No? So what's the basis for that? As for genocide, that applies to culture as well, and the litany of bad Crown legislation and neglect around that extends well into the twentieth century.
The public sector has gone through this for over 20 years with women and tilting the scales of hiring. The state has the right to give effect to the policy it wants through hiring.
I'm not aware that preferential hiring practices – to increase numbers of women and various ethnic minorities – were equivalent to nepotism.
There are plenty of Maori candidates (or women candidates, or Pasifika candidates, etc.) without employing family members.
Of course, there are cases where family members of politicians have nationally (and sometimes internationally) recognized levels of expertise – which make them the best candidate for a particular job – and that is why there is an elaborate Cabinet Manual procedure to deal with that situation.
The question being asked of the Mahuta family is were they unquestionably the best candidate/s for the job/s?
If the family are not the best candidates, then there is undoubtably a fault in the hiring process. We don't know what that fault is. It might be incompetence, it might be political capture, it might be nepotism, – it might be something else.
Populuxe of course it is necessary to accommodate indigenous reality in situations relating to indigeous matters. But the Mahuta family are not the only ones who can provid the "indigenous reality".
Or if you are proposing that our system that serves to see our govt officials are not guilty of corruption, should not be applied to Maori?
No I wasn't Populuxe 1. But as a citizen, I would like to see the information about the process, why Ormsby was chosen over other consultants and I think Mike King would like to know as well.
I think this is reasonable.
Unfortunately what I do know about suicide prevention is there seems to be little if anything we can do (although in the UK when they changed household gas to be less toxic, the suicide rate fell. To do with removing the means and easy access, slows people down).
"Maybe if he didn't go out of his way to antagonize the public service in the media and got his paper work in on time"
Naughty Mike. Not getting his paper work in on time and antagonizing the people in the public service (the people the tax payer pays to deliver outcomes).
Well no wonder mental health is such a shit show if that's what it takes to get public money. Too bad Mike got results and shamed the Ministry of Health by doing so
There is nothing balanced in that article. I have given up on expecting balance from Bryce Edwards. He might have valid points but he obscures them by sprinkling in words like "controversially pushing through Parliament".
Any "platform" run by Sean Plunkett has no claim to balance. Randomly choosing another article about the census brings up words like "inept" which show the author's bias.
I am sorry; whether there is a valid point in the articles becomes irrelevant when the language devolves to propaganda.
I read that the Minister had no decision-making role in those other contracts; all declared and managed via the standard public service conflicts of interest process. Not seen the interview. Did it say otherwise?
And no, I am not going to visit Mr Plunket's lavishly-funded right-wing site to see the reckons of his band of merry rejects from other media.
It is well understood that in cases of conflict of interest – perception is what matters most of all. Mahuta will have no doubt scrupulously followed the rules – but that does not eradicate the core problem here.
Ah yes, but if in fact, Nanaia Mahuta was scrupulously honest and the contracts done by the book, then that "perception" is what needs to be scrutinised: was it manufactured, whipped-up by oppositional factions in a manner other than "under ordinary circumstances" – that is, was the issue "played" (answer, YES) and has the "perception" aspect of conflict of interest issues here been gamed. Again, YES.
For me Robert, the perception is many of her relatives have gained lucrative contracts, especially her husband across a range of policy areas. Has Mr Ormsby managed to get contracts through other ministers? Private enterprize? I don't know but its a bad look and the look is nepotism. Remeber the outcry about Bil English wife, who is a GP, and her group did some work on Bill English pet mental health project. Yes it was right that questions were asked about this.
Mr Ormsby has been awarded a lot of govt money and it is unclear what he brings to the table and why it is superior to other potential contractors.
Barry, I more or less agree about the Platform, although Plunketts interview of Denis O'Reily was a good example of where he allowed O'REily to make his points and he acknowledged his points.
Surely though if there are valid points in the articles, then it can't quite be written off as propoganda
No Incognito, I wasn't challenged by Barry. He didn't say, prove your point that Bryce is balanced or where is your evidence for this. Barry has expressed his view. Fine by me.
I think both you and Sacha have misunderstood whose coincidence it was, probably I was clear enough. I meant it was a coincidence I found what David S said.
I have no doubt Seymour targeted his tweat after Nanaia's inteview. That is the sort of time politicians do. They release info in a targeted way. I am sure it was deliberate
I meant it was a coincidence I found what David S said.
There’s no coincidence as such on the internet and you already said that you’d used Google to find material on the topic. Whenever you go online you leave tracks & prints and Google and SM, for example, use these to their advantage (aka to make more money).
Just to clarify Sacha, I meant it was a coincidence that I found Seymour's tweet.
I only posted on this issue today as Anne put up a comment about how Nanaia was on Q and A and was impressive when Jack T brought up about her family.
I was interested and watched the interview. Like I commented earlier, I am very sorry she ha s been on the end of some nasty trolling. But I was wanting to hear more and have Nanaia asked more about the fact that so many of her family members including her husband have been awarded Govt contracts or positions. Jack didn't actually asks questions about this but focussed on the trolling.
So I commented here on what I was aware of about Mahuta and her family contracts. I googled to find links to her husband being awarded some sort of contract for suicide prevention. To my knowledge he has no background in mental health and suicide prevention. I came across David S tweat which was today. I suspect Seymour released this information today after the Mahuta interview. That is what a politician would do.
I was referring to the coindence that I came across this material today. I don't follow David S
You and me do not have the information to answer those questions, do we. As with most public procurement exercises. Need a higher standard than some agitation by righties to justify further discussion.
Sacha, you get the prize for the most new age attempt to shut anyone down.
So I need to not want to know stuff about Mahutas husband and the mental health contract, cause it want give me satisfaction in life? Is that what you are saying.
I am allowed to want to have information about what public money has been spent on. Whether it may or may not give me life satisfaction is entirely irrelevant.
Jack started that part of the interview, by saying "your family".
Anne started this thread off today by recomending Q and A "talking of wisdom a revealing interview on Q and A this morning with Nanaia . I especially recommned her response to the accusations concerning members of her fmaily"
So as I had read about Nanaia's relatives getting contracts, I watched the programme in order to listen to her side of the story. But actually she didn't respond about the accusations of nepotism (except for a stock politicians sentence). She talked about the trolling.
I think it is important our politicians are grilled aobut any perceived conflicts of interests. Like many on this site, I screamed and complained over the Judith Collins and Orivida affair. I can's see why people wouldn't want to know more about what has happened that so many of Mahutas relatives have ended up with govt contracts.
I've deleted your quote that has no links. Honestly beyond me why I have to keep explaining this.
If you copy and paste, you *have to link as well. This is fundamental to robust debate. Linking means people can see the quote in context (almost always improves understanding), can check for mistakes or skewing in arguments, and in the case of something like twitter, often replies or quote tweets will answer questions that arise here.
Thanks Weka. And when I thought about it, I think I didn't want to be posting a link that belonged to David Seymour, that was my motivation. But no excuse and completely my bad
Mahuta says she followed and kept to Cabinet protocols throughout. I believe her. It follows then, that she can't be justifiably be punished, only unjustly punished, which in my opinion, is what is happening here.
Jack started that part of the interview, by saying "your family".
Anne started this thread off today by recomending Q and A "talking of wisdom a revealing interview on Q and A this morning with Nanaia . I especially recommned her response to the accusations concerning members of her fmaily"
So as I had read about Nanaia's relatives getting contracts, I watched the programme in order to listen to her side of the story. But actually she didn't respond about the accusations of nepotism (except for a stock politicians sentence). She talked about the trolling.
I think it is important our politicians are grilled aobut any perceived conflicts of interests. Like many on this site, I screamed and complained over the Judith Collins and Orivida affair. I can see why people wouldn't want to know more about what has happened that so many of Mahutas relatives have ended up with govt contracts.
This is not the first media story about the matter in the last week or two. Q&A is pitched at politics-followers, so they would expect their audience to already know at least some of the details.
How is Mahuta being punished? Do you mean by the trolls. Well of course that shouldn't be happening.
But it isn't punishing someone for the media to ask probing questions about this, nor for Seymour to release info that she didn't follow cabinet procedures to manage the conflict over her niece and He Puapua (if he is correct.)
… nor for Seymour to release info that she didn't follow cabinet procedures to manage the conflict over her niece and He Puapua (if he is correct.)
Do you believe Seymour or Mahuta?
Given Seymour’s history lying about misrepresenting facts, I suggest it is Mahuta who is telling the truth. She has so much more to lose by lying. Every procedure was correctly followed to the letter of the law – and I suspect some more.
Don’t know who I believe more Anne. Ideally I would want some journalist to investigate Seymour’s statement and find out whether he can substantiate it. If it’s not true Mahuta can always send him a lawyers letter.
Tbh I am suspious as to why so many of NM relatives have been given jobs or offered contracts in Ministries where she is the Minister.
I am particularly bother by the suicide prevention money her husband got. He has no background in mental health and there is limited evidence about what strategies reduce suicide. Even the recent research showing roughly a quarter of people who die by suicide have excessive blood alcohol levels. The alcohol will of course will lead to greater impulsively, but other than clinicians advising depressed people not to drink, there is an obvious intervention from this information.
The Mahuta family is a large family you know. They are at the top of the Maori chain so it isn't surprising there are several of them who have held down or are holding down government appointed positions. Brains, together with other skills, tend to be handed down through the family line.
The subject under discussion has nothing to do with suicide prevention but if you are going to tag it on, then you need to provide a link so we know what you're talking about. Chances are her husband is the 'chief cook and bottle-washer' who sought the finance for a suicide prevention programme among Maori, but the treatment will be carried out by Maori professionals in that field. That's just a guess of course.
So you mean if we disagree with your position we are practising hypocrisy.
So your queries sneers and position is "Perception is everything"
That is not the case in law and in the handbook, but that won't stop your slurs
Nanaia Mahuta has integrity and has dealt with some very difficult political and personal situations with dignity and grace. Two qualities totally lacking in some of the men trying to sway perceptions of her, and those trolling her.
Mike King asks the questions about why Mahutas husband was funded for suicide prevention. If I was Mike I would want to know to. He has worked his guts out to provide a service with little govt support.
I do think Nanaia comes across with grace and she may well have done a fantastic job. But that doesn't mean she shouldn't be open to scrutiny. Does it?
This story about Mahutas hamily appointments has been shut down in the msm, other than a brief flurry by the Herald. Cause to be honest, imo this is not a nothing to see here situation.
We are talking about multiply family members being given contracts and appointments, including her husband. Who as Mike King points out was given money for suicide prevention when he has no quals in mental health. What did Ormsby do with this money? What was achieved?
Your link tells us nothing about the background to the grant awarded to a company belonging to Nanaia's husband. I note it is for the princely sum of $28,000.
You seem to have a lot of enthusiasm for the MSM dirt diggers to keep digging for more dirt (and) to keep the story alive. AFAIK, nothing new has come to light yet and you’ll just have to wait till OIA requests come in and get drip-fed on SM and/or until the internal enquiry at the Ministry has been completed.
It is a handy smear for the racist thread of the big organised campaign against 3 Waters. No doubt the righties will keep stirring it up, plus whatever useful idiots help them out.
Yes, but it is now used as a dirty indiscriminate weapon against just about anything with the M-word in it, not to mention Co-Governance. This is not limited to coming from the Right only, as plenty of comments on this site can attest. Many pretend-Lefties pay only lip-service to empowerment of the segments of our society that continue to fall behind in many ways according to many metrics & indices. The lazy labels and low pot shots come hard and fast from both directions. Any debate and genuine engagement are on the back-foot from the outset because of the polarising language and narratives around. No one seems to be capable and/or willing to have a serious conversation about a long-term vision for Aotearoa-New Zealand, and this vacuum is fertile soil for radicalising elements and their agendas when the going gets tough, as is happening at present. Watch out for more DP and Trumpian-style politics here over the next year and a bit.
To be fair, we have a big vacuum in progressive vision and I do not expect most people to know the context before they enter the low-barrier public discourse. Broad church, etc.
This country has only just started grappling with our colonial past recently.
Thank you. Same point we have already discussed. Mike King expects expertise in suicide prevention, but..
A spokesperson for the Department of Māori Development said that expertise in suicide prevention was not required of those receiving money from the fund.
I am interested in the truth Incognito, not defending any politician whether or not they do a good interview, whether they are Labour, National or whatever party.
This website was in uproar (rightly so ) about Collins and Orivida.
Mahuta has numerous relatives getting contracts/positions where she is involved. Her husband, her sister, two nephews and a niece.
I believe that most people would say that they’re interested in the truth, so that’s neither here nor there.
I see this as a relatively minor issue and I expect we’ll get some answers in future. If it were as big some like to make it out to be then I think it likely that Mahuta would have lost her portfolios for breaching the rules, possibly just temporary as a symbolic gesture more than anything.
Labour cannot afford this lingering and hanging over them for too long, because it has a disproportionally large negative impact on a whole load of things that they want to achieve before the General Election. They would therefore want to neutralise this as soon and as much as they can, which again brings be back to Mahuta who’s still standing and going strong and getting the full support of the Labour Party.
In short, people see what they want to see and making up things to fill in the gaps (aka lack of info and answers). This is not seeking the truth but confirmation bias, pure and simple. The MSM know that without new info they cannot keep running these stories on confirmation bias of some of their readership alone.
You talk about being interested in the truth Anker yet you have already passed judgement on Nanaia Mahuta and members of her family with no actual evidence to back up the claims. As far as I can tell it is all hearsay and innuendo with most of it coming from right wing politicians such as Seymour and Brown. It is then being picked up by tabloid journos who exaggerate and embroider them for political and click-baiting purposes.
I've already told you that it is not surprising there are various members of the Mahuta family who have received contracts of one sort or another. They are a bright and talented family. How about checking how many other Maori dynasties of note have also been the recipient of contract arrangements down the years with the Crown.
"no one seems capable of and/or willing to have a serious conversation about a long term vision for Aotearoa"
I think that is what Seymour is proposing that we have a debate about cogovernance and a way forward.
RE the link from Anne . Hav e you watched it? Jack asks one question about the nepotism and Mahuta gives a cliched answer like "all procedures were followed" and that's it.
As I said earlier, I watch Q and A not out of some enthusiam to "dig dirt" but I geniunely wanted to hear what was said. The interviewer gave Nanaia a free pass on the rumours of nepotism. She could have clarifed further, but she didn't. So in my mind there are unasnwered questions.
I honestly hadn't given a lot of thought to the nepotism rumours, although they looked very suspious to me. I read what Mike King said and I thought no wonder he is pissed. He got a whole service for mental health up and running with sfa from the govt and he's letting us know about a contract Mr Ormsy got for suicide preventation and he is asking a lot of questions.
You think what Seymour is proposing is not what he and ACT are about, so why don’t you check first before you make assumptions and jump to conclusions. Hint: ACT has already rejected Co-Governance and wants a Referendum to put it to rest for at least a number of years.
My guess is you’d vote against a whole raft of policies because of your ‘suspicions’, which coincidentally align very nicely with ACT.
As to the answer Mahuta gave, which is the same as the PM and Government have given, is correct & true. It has to be because Mahuta would have received at least a Yellow Card otherwise.
You can keep looking for smoke as much as you like but it won’t start a fire nor will it fire a gun.
Nanaia Mahuta has integrity and has dealt with some very difficult political and personal situations with dignity and grace.
So true. Has anyone witnessed an instance where Nanaia has not responded with dignity? Never. She's light years ahead of her detractors.
As for the psychological abuse and the trolling… only those who have been on the receiving end can fully comprehend the huge amount of damage caused, not only to the target but often to their families and others around them. It can send the victim into a spiral of terror… afraid to leave their homes for fear of what might happen to them. The threats can be both overt and covert.
These types of people – who often also physically stalk their prey – have in the past been given a free pass with little to no consequences. It is time for such offences to be given a much higher level of priority, and the punishments increased to fit the level of abuse committed.
Incognito i think it is abundantly clear where Seymour and Act stand on co governance. But what they are saying is lets have the debate and a referendum. Unlike Labour who never mentioned He Puapua or campaigned on it in the last election.
I am now quite suspious of Labour (I am a party member by the way), because of how they have done so much by stealth. The gender self ID bill, three waters (never campaigned on it or looked at other options) the Rotorua Bill which Tamati Coffey championed (which David Parker quashed because he said it went against the Bill of Rights) and the He Puapua document (which talks about transforming our constitutional arrangemnts. That flew below the radar before the last election.
I think it is reasonable to by suspious of Mahuta given so many family appointments when she was a Minister. Two contracts to her husband in fields he has no qualifications for.
In 2016, an exhausted John Key told wife Bronagh: “I’m certain it’s my last year”. She said she would back him “100 per cent'' if he went for a fourth term. “But if you do go please tell me you won’t go back.” This exclusive extract from the book Blue Blood by senior Stuff journalist Andrea Vance reveals how that conversation set in train events that would lead to Key’s shock resignation, and plunge the party into a bloody leadership crisis.
Just goes to show the business background of long corporate lunch breaks and golf course deals is no prerequisite for a career in politics.
"I've gambled on the money trading markets" and "I ran an airline" means shit when you're expected to actually do some work for the first time in your pampered little life.
Jordan Peterson is an Narcisist a Misogynist a fossil who is a regular know it all that don't impress me at all , no science behind his theories just anecdotes.A man who is trying to take us back to the 1950's when it was a mans world and Men had all the answers .Very popular in the far right with his simplistic remedies.
Like, you wouldn't be so fucking thick as to have read this obviously absurd line on twitter and assumed it was real, would you? Gee I wonder what other bullshit you swallow regularly from the same sources.
The funny thing about Peterson is that no-one EVER criticises anything he's actually said.
Leave the Intersectionals alone … they may be inadvertently regurgitating embarrassingly weak satire … but it's their truth … which is just as valid as ours. Putting aside the fact that “truth” itself is a yucky patriarchal settler-colonist construct designed to oppress pregnant men of colour.
As so often, despite displaying the trademark pomposity & self-satisfaction of the former Public Address cadre, you've managed to get things totally arse about face. Falling for any old invective against one of irrational Wokedom's key hate-figures (in this case, a patently obvious – if banal – parody) is very much the tin foil hat territory here, sweetness.
Now if you could answer this with an erudite little bon mot, I’m sure those of equal pretention will find themselves utterly enchanted.
The problems referenced apply to NZ as well, and explain why most of the infrastructure devleopment we are putting in to fix the housing crisis is unsustainable.
Political antagonism and shortfalls of deep thinking and analysis by parliamentary select committees do not lead to robust decisions. Outside Parliament, political commentators in the newspapers “are just so overtly political and partisan, it's not helpful”.
“These are complex multidimensional issues, which require more than shallow, political or partisan argument. And that's what we're not good at,” he [Peter Gluckman] says.
Gluckman was to scared to mention this when he was John Keys lackey but better late than never! Did Key do anything longterm yes he cut health funding police funding education funding all had longterm consequences. Nothing will change politics is a popularity contest every 3 years so no longterm solutions will happen, balance books buy votes, balance the books buy votes and on it goes.
Your comment is laughable and pathetic at the same time. Say what you like about Gluckman but he’s never been anybody’s lackey. You can join the other group of commenters here who like to shoot the messenger instead of adding something constructive and of real substance to the commentary here.
I'm sure they can all see the writing on the wall – petrol prices are not coming down, and the hit when the subsidy ran out would be painful to the voting population.
I expect to see it extended again in January (unless I'm wrong and petrol prices are indeed dropping) – until after the election.
Oh yes. She's too good for many Kiwis. That's why she is continuously being undermined – including by some regulars here. Tall poppy syndrome in full flight!
Better be careful. They'll be coming for you next. Mind you I think you can handle it with good humour n'all.
There must be some incriminating shit in those texts.
The Secret Service’s account about how text messages from the day before and the day of the Capitol attack were erased has shifted several times, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security told the House January 6 select committee at a briefing on Friday.
At one point, the explanation from the Secret Service for the lost texts was because of software upgrades, the inspector general told the panel, while at another point, the explanation was because of device replacements.
The inspector general also said that though the secret service opted to have his office do a review of the agency’s response to the Capitol attack in lieu of conducting after-action reports, it then stonewalled the review by slow-walking production of materials.
[…]
In the letter, the inspector general said that certain Secret Service texts from 5 January and 6 January 2021 were erased amid a “device replacement program” even after he had requested the messages for his internal inquiry.
The Secret Service has disputed that, saying in a statement that data on some phones were lost as part of a pre-planned “system migration” in January 2021, and that Cuffari’s initial request for communications came weeks later in late February 2021.
But the select committee questioned the Secret Service’s emphasis on that date, the participants said, and noted in the subpoena letter that the request for electronic communications in fact first came from Congress, ten days after the Capitol attack.
The congressional request from 16 January 2021 addressed to multiple executive branch agencies – including the Homeland Security Department, which oversees the Secret Service – was for all materials referring or relating to the riot.
At a minimum, if you have been found to have destroyed evidence, the judge may draw or the jury may be told it can draw an inference that the materials you destroyed were harmful to your case.
In plain English, destroyed evidence can be held against people in certain circumstances.
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
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Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
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Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
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The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
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Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
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New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
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 The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300637193/new-zealand-can-we-fix-it-not-unless-politicians-grow-up
Nice to see a media site pointing out the obvious that we have to do things differently. They even point the finger at media commentators, although they don't promise to change.
We won't get change (to long term thinking) unless politicians are rewarded for it. While tax cuts and high house prices are talked about as good things pollies will not stick their necks out.
We have the most coherent, centralising, long-reaching, deep-interventionist government we have had since Muldoon.
Government is not the problem.
The problem is in an exceptionally low-ambition rent-seeking large business community, together with most of our available capital tied up in real estate.
When does calling for something to stop become a way of prolonging it? And how much of a coincidence that this appears after a couple of weeks in which Luxon is revealed as a far right goose? (Note: link is paywalled. Just happen to have picked up the neighbour's paper copy today)
Fizzer Foster flops…again..high jump.
Just keeps creating records this guy…first series loss at home for 27 years!
C'mon now its not like there were many alternatives to Foster
There was no Rennie, Joseph and Brown or Robertson option
The brains trust had no other choice because, as we all know, unless you've been in the ABS coaching set up you can't possibly be an international coach
This may or may not be sarcasm
Positive Rugby .Foster was anointed he hadn't had any experience at coaching winning teams or overseas for that matter. Scott Robertson beat a very strong Blues team by not kicking the ball away keeping the ball not allowing the opposing team to score.Foster played right into Ireland's strengths ,who invented the Gary Owen the high ball.Ireland dominated upfront even though they had a lighter pack.Foster has to go now he is out of his depth out of ideas ,Schmit or Robertson .Foster should never have been coach.Had Jacho Pyper been the ref Ireland would have been down to 13 for much of the second half .Saying all this this is a reality check a year out from the World Cup usually in the year running up to the world cup the Allblacks thrash everyone then loose the important ones .
Testing 123
nice to see you back.
Cheers
I hope life has been treating you well.
Cheers
Just shifted jobs ,(onwards and upwards hopefully) after 4 1/2 years for some scheming miserable fuckers , thank God for labour laws I'd hate to think how they'd treat people if given free reign.
That sounds like no fun at all. Hope things get back on track for you.
Giving people a little power quickly reveals their true character.
Career wise it was worth it, it got me to this job, but after all that time they used a change in my situation to screw me out of some income , went full bully ,threatening dismissal due to a brain fart I had, and then doubled the work load and expected me to do it alone for the same money ,
And Rich people wonder why us workers hate them .
Rich people often obtain to more power than their character deserves, but they are not alone in this. The resentful poor can be just as ugly.
Good work getting out.
I remember you writing here about a pending job change quite some time back and I’m glad to hear that it has finally happened (i.e. you made it happen, I presume). Good luck with the job and I hope your family is doing better for it; a shit job tends to spill over into the home …
Missed your little pearls of wisdom bwaghorn.
Talking of ‘wisdom’. A revealing interveiw on Q&A this morning with Nanaia Mahuta. I especially recommend her response to the accusations concerning members of her family. Will link when and if it becomes available.
Who me ,wise ??? If only you knew, 😅😅😅
Would you prefer your witty one liners? 🙂
Hope you won through bwaghorn. Cheers. Some firms are @#&$$!!
thanks Anne for alerting us to this site about the Nanaia Mahuta interview.
When asked about her family, Mahuta talked about the trolling she had received about this. She looked visibly disressed by this. So I am sorry she has received trolling and been the subject of hurtful things. That is never acceptable.
However Mahuta failed to answer adequately the questions around her family and conflict of interests and unfortunately Jack Tame didn't ask more specific questions and got side track about the trolling.
There are definitely questions about Mahutas family being awarded contracts or public money, that should be questioned very assertively.
Mahuta's husband who has a criminal conviction of assault on a woman has been awarded contracts. I bring this up because someone with a criminal conviction of assault against a female will have a great deal of difficultly getting employment.
I think it would be fair to ask why he/his company was given a contract in suicide prevention (he has no quallifications in this). and waste management?
Her sister has also received appointments and so to have some of her nephews.
Happy to provide links on request with more details.
A close friend of mine is a retired lawyer and familiar with the details on this. His answer is that we are looking at two completely different world views here. In one nepotism is considered a problem – in the other it is a virtue.
Hence Mahuta's distress at being called on it.
If her family members are the best qualified for the roles/contracts then so be it
If they're not or if there's people equally qualified then of course people will be looking sideways at what's happening
The entity I work for has a government business group. It operates under strict ethical rules. If perchance as a member of that group I found myself negotiating with a government official who also happened to be a relative – I would have to immediately withdraw from that discussion. And fully document the circumstances to my manager. Failure to follow these rules to the letter would almost certainly result in my dismissal.
And this would apply even if both of us were highly qualified and experienced in the contract or area concerned.
Which tends to erase a lot of issues that don't apply to the Pākehā demographic majority, but do apply to a colonised, historically marginalised and much smaller indigenous community, especially in roles that pertain directly to specialist cultural knowledge only available in that community.
So all I have to do is declare that only Maori possess the proper cultural knowledge on waste management in an industrial society – and automatically only brown faces need apply for the role. And the rules around proximity can be set aside because all Maori are related.
It's a cute trick really.
The NZ public sector procurement requirements and outcomes make it very, very hard not to hire Maori to deliver Maori outcomes. That's particularly the case in Education and Health, but it's all through the system now: water, Tertiary education, media procurement, public health, Justice, secondary education, SSC, Conservation, Transport, and on and on.
I am reading you correctly? Are you saying that if everything gets defined in terms of Maori outcomes – as part of the decolonising mantra – then skills and experience have become secondary to cultural considerations across much of the public sector.
It's a shade more subtle than that, but the effect is that Maori get hired to deliver Maori outcomes. There's even official names for them: for some it's Broader Outcomes, or Pa Harakeke, or Progressive Procurement, or Te Akutai, and on and on.
Even in the big infrastructure bids one needs to specify who is being hired for achieving these Broader Outcomes. It’s so common now as to be ordinary, and seriously you can’t win the bid without them.
This approach should be the one used with government money.
Lordie great in principle but what can I say except 'Welcome to Wellington'.
The consultant contracts that people got – and get – by being mates you used to work with, are just part of beltway life especially since 2017.
You could swim the Terrace in jam.
This is opposition gold ,Labour is on the backlash of out of control inflation ,a housing crisis,Labour shotrages,a health system under huge strain,food shortages ,5 waters etc.Mahuta needs to go she is the focal point of incompatency.But her going won"t save Labour the economy isn't going to recover by next winter and NZ is traditionally a National voting country .Which will mean austerity and block of cheese tax cuts for the swing voters.
There is zero chance the Maori caucus will allow Mahuta to go anywhere. Even less than zero if Labour ever wanted to get in with Te Maori Party.
Labour has lower-hanging fruit to take out than that.
….or… there are 775,836 people in Aotearoa who identify as Māori, most of whom exist within large extended families, of whom only a certain proportion have the capital and resources to rise in the educational and political sphere. Inevitably for appointments where being Māori is an important qualification people are going to be related.
You get exactly the same thing with Pākehā in the provinces but apparently that's not a problem for some reason…
I can accept there is a limited pool of talent to choose from in many cases all across public service in NZ, and that getting the right people into a role can be challenging.
But frankly I don't care how experienced or suitable you are for a role – in my view being an immediate family member is an automatic disqualification.
It's really not. It's just a thing you declare.
Pretty hard to do business in this country otherwise.
Well the global corporation I have been associated with most of my working life holds to a higher standard. Hell we will reprimand someone who expenses a $20 meal for their immediate manager by accident.
Yes that's a key difference between a global corporation and a small state.
Certainly doesn't make the global corporate more virtuous.
And you will find that global corporate doesn't get hired by small states unless it figures that out. Many of them do.
OK so next time someone here talks about predatory and corrupt global capitalism I can safely ignore then.
New Zealand remains within the top two least corrupt countries in the world and has done for over a decade.
Not sure if there's many global corporates who will expose their records in how they win bids to the kind of scrutiny states get, particularly small ones.
I think you'll find on closer examination that your joint isn't as pure as the driven snow that you're making out. Business is business.
On the contrary I know of two instance where people resigned rather than expose themselves to corrupt practice. And those are just the ones I know about. And the corporate will openly walk away from such business if necessary. I can point to one instance in Italy in just the past few months. But not all corruption involves bribes or obvious personal benefit, sometimes it can just be a case of taking a shortcut on paperwork, testing or certifying procedures – even when they seem quite logical or innocent.
Every 12 months everyone must undergo a mandatory ethics training course and must pass the exam which features notoriously tricky and often subtle case examples that are not easy. And you only get three shots at obtaining a 100% score or you're down the road. We have let very senior people go just for this.
And that is just for normal commercial business. The govt business team is another whole world I don't want to even think about.
Government business teams are born with snorkels.
So if that global company is an oil or oil related company which buy off govts ,ignore human rights, womens rights ,enviromental destruction no problems there.But a $20 meal not ok sounds like hypocritical gaslighting.
You need to update; this isn't the 80's anymore.
I'm not claiming perfection – that would be insane because nothing human ever is or will be. But the idea that big global corps routinely and actively pursue corrupt business practice no longer lines up with reality.
I cannot speak for all of them of course, but the ground has definitely shifted in the past two decades on this.
RL Oh you mean since when Clinton pardoned Marc Rich (for a small payment to the Clinton Foundation) and Rich's partners spun off to form Glencore who pleaded guilty last month to bribery,
https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1529221948198162432?cxt=HHwWgMCo0c_Q8bgqAAAA
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jun/21/glencore-african-oil-operations
Reaching back into the 90's. I am sure you can scour the net for many instances – but what you will not find are any shock horror articles on all the time a corporation did the right thing and it never made the news.
Again I am not claiming perfection – that would be insane. But I am saying that if you has lived and worked within or adjacent to these big corporates most of your working life you would have a more nuanced view. Defining and promoting strong ethical behaviour is a central part of the corporate game that it simply wasn't 20-30 years ago.
For example this sort of entity was simply not a thing 20 years ago.
https://ethisphere.com/
That may well be an argument for Tipa Mahuta's appointment (though I shouldn't have thought that she was the best qualified candidate for both the Maori Advisory Group for 3 Waters and the Maori Health Authority).
But it's hard to believe that the most qualified candidates for 3 out of the 5 members of the advisory group on waste management were Mahua relatives. Especially as none of them appear to have any significant waste management experience or credentials. If all that is required is a te ao Maori perspective, there are plenty of non-Mahua-whanau candidates which can offer that qualification.
It is hard to believe. So is your claim true?
Well, I've done a quick check and can't find any relevant waste management experience for any of them on sites like Linked in which include CV, etc.
No one, not even the journalists supporting Mahuta, have been saying things like 'X's experience in Y, makes them a highly logical candidate for Z group'.
Do you have any evidence that they do have relevant experience in waste management? I'm not questioning Te ao Maori credentials – but plenty of other candidates have those….
Well you haven't provided any links for your claims, so can you at least show what are the hiring criteria you're evaluating from?
I don't know that I can link from Linked in – but I'll try….
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gannin-ormsby-9571a0171/?originalSubdomain=nz
https://www.linkedin.com/in/waiormsby/?originalSubdomain=nz
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamokoormsby/?originalSubdomain=nz
Here's the OIA response on the establishment of the group
https://environment.govt.nz/assets/OIA/Files/OIAD-277-Response.pdf
Tamaoko Ormsby's waste minimization experience (the only one of the 3 with any listed) seems to be limited to refurbishing laptops for a school during Covid lockdown.
Both he and Waimirirangi are listed as having provided waste minimization training services. [This kind of thing is usually a tick box exercise for government departments and corporates bidding for government contracts… it rarely means much]
The waste management qualifications and experience of the 3 (such as they are) seem heavily duplicated. You could argue that 1 representative from the 'coal face' could be justified – but more than that – especially from a single family seems highly unbalanced.
Compared to the highly relevant qualifications of Jacqui Forbes and Teina Boasa – the other 2 members of the panel – they look pretty inadequate.
The relevant experience in: "waste, circular economy thinking and mātauranga Māori." – are certainly not limited to the Mahuta whanau – and would be fairly widespread across many different iwi.
The Ministry admit that they selectively approached individuals, rather than advertising or approaching a range of iwi.
Again, not questioning the Ormsbys Te ao Maori credentials – but pointing out that these are shared by a wide range of Maori from different whanau and iwi. It is difficult to see what made 3 members of the same family the ideal candidates.
So you've stated that you're not questioning the hiring of the person itself.
Well great walkback there.
This is what a slur looks like.
Hey top work.
What? I've provided the links, as requested, and the OIA.
And pointed out that the 3 Ormsbys have little waste management experience.
How does that equate to walking back? I am certainly questioning the hiring of the 3 Mahuta whanau members. From the OIA response, it seems that any relevant qualifications they have would be easily found in other Maori candidates.
And, for the Min of the Environment to openly admit approaching specific individuals, rather than seeking the best candidate, is pretty close to corruption in my book.
Plenty of hires are ringfenced in the public service.
And in the private sector as well.
In fact in NZ it's one of the most common ways to hire.
Just says you don't understand how the public sector hire.
So your answer seems to be saying, doesn't matter if it's corrupt, or it's probably nepotism – hey, all of the public sector does it. Nothing to see here, move right along.
I wouldn't find that acceptable from a right wing government, and I don't find it acceptable from a left-wing one either.
I've seen plenty of ring-fencing to look at hiring someone with a specific skill set, or a specific experience profile. This is the first time I've seen that skill set effectively being 'whanau of the Minister'.
No I am saying that it is common hiring policy throughout the public service, and you have been taken in by raw political spin.
It is also quite common for key hires to have direct political lineage. There are whole vetting committees in DPMC and Cabinet for them.
I am with Bella on this. I accept what you are saying is true, but at the same time I get the sad feeling you have normalised sub-par and shoddy standards because they are indeed so commonplace.
"No I am saying that it is common hiring policy throughout the public service, and you have been taken in by raw political spin.
It is also quite common for key hires to have direct political lineage. There are whole vetting committees in DPMC and Cabinet for them."
Top comment, that, Ad.
Not sure how your friend's theory applies to, say, the health contracts appointed to Dr Mary English, for example.
Bill English was indeed a senior Minister for many years – but I do not recall the exact context of these contracts you refer to. Or why you think they were problematic.
https://theplatform.kiwi/opinions/government-appointments-under-scrutiny
This is quite a balanced take on the issue of Mahuta and family conflict of interests.
https://theplatform.kiwi/opinions/three-of-minister-s-family-members-paid-usd90k-for-role-in-expert-ropu
And more about the contracts Mahutas family have been awarded
Well that was 10 years ago. Now we are decolonising there will be different rules for different people I should imagine.
If you don't think it's necissary to accommodate indigenous reality in situations directlty relating to indigenous matters, perhaps don't live in a colony with a history of oppression and borderline genocide and clutch your pearls over ethics and objectivity.
What colony? New Zealand has been an independent nation for almost 120 years now. And Maori have been fully legal citizens since 1840 with full male suffrage from around 1870. Before even all white males.
As for genocide – that happened in the Musket Wars before 1840. And it wasn't 'borderline' either.
Shhhhh, RL, hush your mouth ! … those are the wars that dare not speak their name among polite (if totally clueless) Upper-Middle Pakeha Woke Society ! Spoils the highly paternalistic Noble Savage Romanticism.
Three decades of horrendous massacres, truly brutal genocidal violence, at least 20k dead (vs about 2k in the New Zealand Wars), tens of thousands enslaved, sadistic torture common, cannibalism, massive upheaval, iwi massacred, many others permanently driven from their nga rohe.
Looks increasingly like the affluent, flatulent Che Guevara beret-wearing Professional New Middle Classes – desperate for an aura of radical-chic while ensuring a highly privileged lifestyle for themselves – are intent on throwing fundamental ethics & morals out the window as they build the Brave New (deeply anti-democratic) World of He Puapua.
Narcissistic to the core … yet so utterly bereft of wisdom.
Agree Swordfish.
Having skim read He Puapua one of the enduring sentences I remember was the policy will mean transformational constitiutional change. Given this how come Labour didn't campaign on this?
How dare they think they can role out "transformation" to our constitutional arrangements by stealth
.
Stealth is very much the preferred modus operandi of Critical Theory cult members within the Professional New Middle Class … together with their unprincipled & rather cowardly fellow-travellers … they're nothing if not profoundly anti-democratic. Essentially the same elitist tactics & mindset as the Rogernomes.
Self-interested authoritarians perpetually going through this ludicrous charade of ostentatious moral posturing in a wildly unconvincing attempt to justify their power-grab.
Yes. The parallel with the disastrous Rogernome debacle is a pretty good one.
Lange was the charming, eloquent and acceptable public face of a government that imposed an extremist 'transformational' economic change on this country by stealth. Because so many people believed in Lange, the real power in Cabinet were able to operate with impunity until far too late.
Well this govt is much the same. Sure the PR optics are a lot more skilled, the circumstances are quite different – but essentially I see Ardern as the acceptable and popular face of a govt that is imposing transformational political change on this country by stealth as well. Probable outcome will not be any happier in my view.
And ably assisted by a woeful opposition. As a friend of mine said recently – when you are reduced to considering Seymour as the only sane alternative you know something has gone badly wrong.
Probably because they were worried about bigots getting upset over any challenge to the status quo.
I suspect that even without the developing economic situation this issue would see this administration lose the next election despite the attempt at stealth and an acceptable face.
And yet it's blindingly self-evident that there are huge structural, institutional, health, carceral, and economic disparities. No? So what's the basis for that? As for genocide, that applies to culture as well, and the litany of bad Crown legislation and neglect around that extends well into the twentieth century.
Relax.
The public sector has gone through this for over 20 years with women and tilting the scales of hiring. The state has the right to give effect to the policy it wants through hiring.
So that's what it does.
I'm not aware that preferential hiring practices – to increase numbers of women and various ethnic minorities – were equivalent to nepotism.
There are plenty of Maori candidates (or women candidates, or Pasifika candidates, etc.) without employing family members.
Of course, there are cases where family members of politicians have nationally (and sometimes internationally) recognized levels of expertise – which make them the best candidate for a particular job – and that is why there is an elaborate Cabinet Manual procedure to deal with that situation.
The question being asked of the Mahuta family is were they unquestionably the best candidate/s for the job/s?
No, the question is whether there is a fault in the hiring process in this particular contract.
Unless there is a particularly good smoking gun fault to be shown, the rest is pure politics.
If the family are not the best candidates, then there is undoubtably a fault in the hiring process. We don't know what that fault is. It might be incompetence, it might be political capture, it might be nepotism, – it might be something else.
You don't know what the fault is, still?
But there's a series of mights? That's it?
Take a minute on how you sound and look.
Exactly Belladonna.
yes and no Ad. This is about nepotism. Not positive discrimination
Populuxe of course it is necessary to accommodate indigenous reality in situations relating to indigeous matters. But the Mahuta family are not the only ones who can provid the "indigenous reality".
Or if you are proposing that our system that serves to see our govt officials are not guilty of corruption, should not be applied to Maori?
How would you know? Were you involved with recruitment and assessed all the available options?
No I wasn't Populuxe 1. But as a citizen, I would like to see the information about the process, why Ormsby was chosen over other consultants and I think Mike King would like to know as well.
I think this is reasonable.
Unfortunately what I do know about suicide prevention is there seems to be little if anything we can do (although in the UK when they changed household gas to be less toxic, the suicide rate fell. To do with removing the means and easy access, slows people down).
Maybe he didn't go out of his way to antagonise the public service in the media and got his paperwork in on time?
"Maybe if he didn't go out of his way to antagonize the public service in the media and got his paper work in on time"
Naughty Mike. Not getting his paper work in on time and antagonizing the people in the public service (the people the tax payer pays to deliver outcomes).
Well no wonder mental health is such a shit show if that's what it takes to get public money. Too bad Mike got results and shamed the Ministry of Health by doing so
There is nothing balanced in that article. I have given up on expecting balance from Bryce Edwards. He might have valid points but he obscures them by sprinkling in words like "controversially pushing through Parliament".
Any "platform" run by Sean Plunkett has no claim to balance. Randomly choosing another article about the census brings up words like "inept" which show the author's bias.
I am sorry; whether there is a valid point in the articles becomes irrelevant when the language devolves to propaganda.
100+ Barry
I read that the Minister had no decision-making role in those other contracts; all declared and managed via the standard public service conflicts of interest process. Not seen the interview. Did it say otherwise?
And no, I am not going to visit Mr Plunket's lavishly-funded right-wing site to see the reckons of his band of merry rejects from other media.
It is well understood that in cases of conflict of interest – perception is what matters most of all. Mahuta will have no doubt scrupulously followed the rules – but that does not eradicate the core problem here.
True.
Ah yes, but if in fact, Nanaia Mahuta was scrupulously honest and the contracts done by the book, then that "perception" is what needs to be scrutinised: was it manufactured, whipped-up by oppositional factions in a manner other than "under ordinary circumstances" – that is, was the issue "played" (answer, YES) and has the "perception" aspect of conflict of interest issues here been gamed. Again, YES.
🙂
That is so true Robert!
And look who made the claims. David Seymore and Simeon Brown. A more insipid pair of nasties among the current crop of pollies would be hard to find.
Oh, I dunno – Brownlee's still there, isn't he? And Woodhouse. There will be others, champing at the bit…
You were too quick. I changed the wording. 😛
Brownlee and Woodhouse are yesterday's media flavour.
For me Robert, the perception is many of her relatives have gained lucrative contracts, especially her husband across a range of policy areas. Has Mr Ormsby managed to get contracts through other ministers? Private enterprize? I don't know but its a bad look and the look is nepotism. Remeber the outcry about Bil English wife, who is a GP, and her group did some work on Bill English pet mental health project. Yes it was right that questions were asked about this.
Mr Ormsby has been awarded a lot of govt money and it is unclear what he brings to the table and why it is superior to other potential contractors.
You mean the nasty slanted suggestions by right wing nut bars of course/sarc
Q&A interview with Mahuta (5m): https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/07/17/mahuta-hits-back-at-toxic-trolling-after-nepotism-accusations/
Barry, I more or less agree about the Platform, although Plunketts interview of Denis O'Reily was a good example of where he allowed O'REily to make his points and he acknowledged his points.
Surely though if there are valid points in the articles, then it can't quite be written off as propoganda
You seem to have a very ‘quaint’ idea of what propaganda is and what and when it is not. Do you still own a B & W TV, by any chance?
Stop patronizing me Incognito.
Why don’t you tell us your understanding of what is propaganda? Is it merely a bunch of lies?
You were challenged by barry @ 4.3.2.2.3 (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-17-07-2022/#comment-1900478) on your claim that the article you linked to was “balanced”; propaganda is not balanced by definition.
No Incognito, I wasn't challenged by Barry. He didn't say, prove your point that Bryce is balanced or where is your evidence for this. Barry has expressed his view. Fine by me.
He challenged your opinion, which is what we do here on this site. Anyway, no point challenging you on the finer points of propaganda.
Yes Mahuta is right to hit back at trolls, but that doesn't answer the questions about nepotism.
Interestingly today (and coincidentially) David Seymor has tweated
[unlinked quote deleted] Nainaia is her aunty.
If this is true and Mahuta didn't excuse herself from the appointment process, it is very damming and I think Nainias job will be on the line.
BTW I only came acorss Seymours tweat because I was looking for the link about Ormsby and the suicide prevention project he received public funds for.
Bless.
David must have thought, "Was stumbling upon this material serendipity? Sure!" before hitting the "publish/attack" button.
I think both you and Sacha have misunderstood whose coincidence it was, probably I was clear enough. I meant it was a coincidence I found what David S said.
I have no doubt Seymour targeted his tweat after Nanaia's inteview. That is the sort of time politicians do. They release info in a targeted way. I am sure it was deliberate
There’s no coincidence as such on the internet and you already said that you’d used Google to find material on the topic. Whenever you go online you leave tracks & prints and Google and SM, for example, use these to their advantage (aka to make more money).
Just to clarify Sacha, I meant it was a coincidence that I found Seymour's tweet.
I only posted on this issue today as Anne put up a comment about how Nanaia was on Q and A and was impressive when Jack T brought up about her family.
I was interested and watched the interview. Like I commented earlier, I am very sorry she ha s been on the end of some nasty trolling. But I was wanting to hear more and have Nanaia asked more about the fact that so many of her family members including her husband have been awarded Govt contracts or positions. Jack didn't actually asks questions about this but focussed on the trolling.
So I commented here on what I was aware of about Mahuta and her family contracts. I googled to find links to her husband being awarded some sort of contract for suicide prevention. To my knowledge he has no background in mental health and suicide prevention. I came across David S tweat which was today. I suspect Seymour released this information today after the Mahuta interview. That is what a politician would do.
I was referring to the coindence that I came across this material today. I don't follow David S
If the contract is for cultural expertise or community engagement, the topic is not always important.
And what came out of community engagement if that is the case?
Why was his company appointed? Surely others can do community engaement?
You and me do not have the information to answer those questions, do we. As with most public procurement exercises. Need a higher standard than some agitation by righties to justify further discussion.
No the link provides no information about what the grant was for and I would like to know
I would like to know lots of things but I have learned that is no guarantee of satisfaction in life.
Sacha, you get the prize for the most new age attempt to shut anyone down.
So I need to not want to know stuff about Mahutas husband and the mental health contract, cause it want give me satisfaction in life? Is that what you are saying.
I am allowed to want to have information about what public money has been spent on. Whether it may or may not give me life satisfaction is entirely irrelevant.
I have a particular interest in suicide
Feel free to submit an OIA, where it will be tested against the public interest. The answer may or may not satisfy you.
" Jack didn't actually asks questions about this…"
Yet you are disappointed Mahuta didn't answer the questions you have in your head?
Curious…
Jack started that part of the interview, by saying "your family".
Anne started this thread off today by recomending Q and A "talking of wisdom a revealing interview on Q and A this morning with Nanaia . I especially recommned her response to the accusations concerning members of her fmaily"
So as I had read about Nanaia's relatives getting contracts, I watched the programme in order to listen to her side of the story. But actually she didn't respond about the accusations of nepotism (except for a stock politicians sentence). She talked about the trolling.
I think it is important our politicians are grilled aobut any perceived conflicts of interests. Like many on this site, I screamed and complained over the Judith Collins and Orivida affair. I can's see why people wouldn't want to know more about what has happened that so many of Mahutas relatives have ended up with govt contracts.
I've deleted your quote that has no links. Honestly beyond me why I have to keep explaining this.
If you copy and paste, you *have to link as well. This is fundamental to robust debate. Linking means people can see the quote in context (almost always improves understanding), can check for mistakes or skewing in arguments, and in the case of something like twitter, often replies or quote tweets will answer questions that arise here.
God so sorry. No excuses. Had said before but will try and do better
with twitter, just cut and paste the URL. The tweet will embed and you get the quote and link in one go.
Thanks Weka. And when I thought about it, I think I didn't want to be posting a link that belonged to David Seymour, that was my motivation. But no excuse and completely my bad
Nanaia Mahuta was very powerful in that interview. I support her 100%.
Backing your own teams hypocrisy 100%.
Mahuta says she followed and kept to Cabinet protocols throughout. I believe her. It follows then, that she can't be justifiably be punished, only unjustly punished, which in my opinion, is what is happening here.
Jack started that part of the interview, by saying "your family".
Anne started this thread off today by recomending Q and A "talking of wisdom a revealing interview on Q and A this morning with Nanaia . I especially recommned her response to the accusations concerning members of her fmaily"
So as I had read about Nanaia's relatives getting contracts, I watched the programme in order to listen to her side of the story. But actually she didn't respond about the accusations of nepotism (except for a stock politicians sentence). She talked about the trolling.
I think it is important our politicians are grilled aobut any perceived conflicts of interests. Like many on this site, I screamed and complained over the Judith Collins and Orivida affair. I can see why people wouldn't want to know more about what has happened that so many of Mahutas relatives have ended up with govt contracts.
This is not the first media story about the matter in the last week or two. Q&A is pitched at politics-followers, so they would expect their audience to already know at least some of the details.
How is Mahuta being punished? Do you mean by the trolls. Well of course that shouldn't be happening.
But it isn't punishing someone for the media to ask probing questions about this, nor for Seymour to release info that she didn't follow cabinet procedures to manage the conflict over her niece and He Puapua (if he is correct.)
Do you believe Seymour or Mahuta?
Given Seymour’s history
lying aboutmisrepresenting facts, I suggest it is Mahuta who is telling the truth. She has so much more to lose by lying. Every procedure was correctly followed to the letter of the law – and I suspect some more.Tbh I am suspious as to why so many of NM relatives have been given jobs or offered contracts in Ministries where she is the Minister.
I am particularly bother by the suicide prevention money her husband got. He has no background in mental health and there is limited evidence about what strategies reduce suicide. Even the recent research showing roughly a quarter of people who die by suicide have excessive blood alcohol levels. The alcohol will of course will lead to greater impulsively, but other than clinicians advising depressed people not to drink, there is an obvious intervention from this information.
The Mahuta family is a large family you know. They are at the top of the Maori chain so it isn't surprising there are several of them who have held down or are holding down government appointed positions. Brains, together with other skills, tend to be handed down through the family line.
The subject under discussion has nothing to do with suicide prevention but if you are going to tag it on, then you need to provide a link so we know what you're talking about. Chances are her husband is the 'chief cook and bottle-washer' who sought the finance for a suicide prevention programme among Maori, but the treatment will be carried out by Maori professionals in that field. That's just a guess of course.
So you mean if we disagree with your position we are practising hypocrisy.
So your queries sneers and position is "Perception is everything"
That is not the case in law and in the handbook, but that won't stop your slurs
Nanaia Mahuta has integrity and has dealt with some very difficult political and personal situations with dignity and grace. Two qualities totally lacking in some of the men trying to sway perceptions of her, and those trolling her.
Mike King asks the questions about why Mahutas husband was funded for suicide prevention. If I was Mike I would want to know to. He has worked his guts out to provide a service with little govt support.
https://chrislynchmedia.com/newsitems/mike-king-what-expertise-nanaia-mahutas-husband-has-in-suicide-prevention.
https://chrislynchmedia.com/newsitems/mike-king-what-expertise-nanaia-mahutas-husband-has-in-suicide-prevention
I do think Nanaia comes across with grace and she may well have done a fantastic job. But that doesn't mean she shouldn't be open to scrutiny. Does it?
This story about Mahutas hamily appointments has been shut down in the msm, other than a brief flurry by the Herald. Cause to be honest, imo this is not a nothing to see here situation.
We are talking about multiply family members being given contracts and appointments, including her husband. Who as Mike King points out was given money for suicide prevention when he has no quals in mental health. What did Ormsby do with this money? What was achieved?
Your link tells us nothing about the background to the grant awarded to a company belonging to Nanaia's husband. I note it is for the princely sum of $28,000.
I think Mike King doth protest too much!
No the link provides no information about what the grant was for and I would like to know
You seem to suffer from a similar selective memory as some of National’s past Leaders. Anne started this thread @ 4.3 (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-17-07-2022/#comment-1900453) with the mention of the interview with Mahuta on Q+A and Sacha @ 4.3.3 (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-17-07-2022/#comment-1900510) provided the link to the interview that aired on 1news. If that’s not MSM then what is?
You seem to have a lot of enthusiasm for the MSM dirt diggers to keep digging for more dirt (and) to keep the story alive. AFAIK, nothing new has come to light yet and you’ll just have to wait till OIA requests come in and get drip-fed on SM and/or until the internal enquiry at the Ministry has been completed.
It is a handy smear for the racist thread of the big organised campaign against 3 Waters. No doubt the righties will keep stirring it up, plus whatever useful idiots help them out.
Yes, but it is now used as a dirty indiscriminate weapon against just about anything with the M-word in it, not to mention Co-Governance. This is not limited to coming from the Right only, as plenty of comments on this site can attest. Many pretend-Lefties pay only lip-service to empowerment of the segments of our society that continue to fall behind in many ways according to many metrics & indices. The lazy labels and low pot shots come hard and fast from both directions. Any debate and genuine engagement are on the back-foot from the outset because of the polarising language and narratives around. No one seems to be capable and/or willing to have a serious conversation about a long-term vision for Aotearoa-New Zealand, and this vacuum is fertile soil for radicalising elements and their agendas when the going gets tough, as is happening at present. Watch out for more DP and Trumpian-style politics here over the next year and a bit.
To be fair, we have a big vacuum in progressive vision and I do not expect most people to know the context before they enter the low-barrier public discourse. Broad church, etc.
This country has only just started grappling with our colonial past recently.
Leading the way are and have been for some time the ACT Party and acolytes (e.g. NZCPR) copying the same imagery Iwi vs Kiwi (https://thestandard.org.nz/how-can-labour-win-in-2023/#comment-1898904).
Just in reply to your request further down for links to Mike King, if you scroll up to my Comment below Patricia B's there are a couple of links.
Let me know if that was what you wanted.
Thank you. Same point we have already discussed. Mike King expects expertise in suicide prevention, but..
https://chrislynchmedia.com/newsitems/mike-king-what-expertise-nanaia-mahutas-husband-has-in-suicide-prevention
I am interested in the truth Incognito, not defending any politician whether or not they do a good interview, whether they are Labour, National or whatever party.
This website was in uproar (rightly so ) about Collins and Orivida.
Mahuta has numerous relatives getting contracts/positions where she is involved. Her husband, her sister, two nephews and a niece.
How? Highly relevant question.
I believe that most people would say that they’re interested in the truth, so that’s neither here nor there.
I see this as a relatively minor issue and I expect we’ll get some answers in future. If it were as big some like to make it out to be then I think it likely that Mahuta would have lost her portfolios for breaching the rules, possibly just temporary as a symbolic gesture more than anything.
Labour cannot afford this lingering and hanging over them for too long, because it has a disproportionally large negative impact on a whole load of things that they want to achieve before the General Election. They would therefore want to neutralise this as soon and as much as they can, which again brings be back to Mahuta who’s still standing and going strong and getting the full support of the Labour Party.
In short, people see what they want to see and making up things to fill in the gaps (aka lack of info and answers). This is not seeking the truth but confirmation bias, pure and simple. The MSM know that without new info they cannot keep running these stories on confirmation bias of some of their readership alone.
You talk about being interested in the truth Anker yet you have already passed judgement on Nanaia Mahuta and members of her family with no actual evidence to back up the claims. As far as I can tell it is all hearsay and innuendo with most of it coming from right wing politicians such as Seymour and Brown. It is then being picked up by tabloid journos who exaggerate and embroider them for political and click-baiting purposes.
I've already told you that it is not surprising there are various members of the Mahuta family who have received contracts of one sort or another. They are a bright and talented family. How about checking how many other Maori dynasties of note have also been the recipient of contract arrangements down the years with the Crown.
"no one seems capable of and/or willing to have a serious conversation about a long term vision for Aotearoa"
I think that is what Seymour is proposing that we have a debate about cogovernance and a way forward.
RE the link from Anne . Hav e you watched it? Jack asks one question about the nepotism and Mahuta gives a cliched answer like "all procedures were followed" and that's it.
As I said earlier, I watch Q and A not out of some enthusiam to "dig dirt" but I geniunely wanted to hear what was said. The interviewer gave Nanaia a free pass on the rumours of nepotism. She could have clarifed further, but she didn't. So in my mind there are unasnwered questions.
I honestly hadn't given a lot of thought to the nepotism rumours, although they looked very suspious to me. I read what Mike King said and I thought no wonder he is pissed. He got a whole service for mental health up and running with sfa from the govt and he's letting us know about a contract Mr Ormsy got for suicide preventation and he is asking a lot of questions.
You think what Seymour is proposing is not what he and ACT are about, so why don’t you check first before you make assumptions and jump to conclusions. Hint: ACT has already rejected Co-Governance and wants a Referendum to put it to rest for at least a number of years.
My guess is you’d vote against a whole raft of policies because of your ‘suspicions’, which coincidentally align very nicely with ACT.
As to the answer Mahuta gave, which is the same as the PM and Government have given, is correct & true. It has to be because Mahuta would have received at least a Yellow Card otherwise.
You can keep looking for smoke as much as you like but it won’t start a fire nor will it fire a gun.
Did Mike King put in a tender in the same round?
Interested – do you have a link?
So true. Has anyone witnessed an instance where Nanaia has not responded with dignity? Never. She's light years ahead of her detractors.
As for the psychological abuse and the trolling… only those who have been on the receiving end can fully comprehend the huge amount of damage caused, not only to the target but often to their families and others around them. It can send the victim into a spiral of terror… afraid to leave their homes for fear of what might happen to them. The threats can be both overt and covert.
These types of people – who often also physically stalk their prey – have in the past been given a free pass with little to no consequences. It is time for such offences to be given a much higher level of priority, and the punishments increased to fit the level of abuse committed.
Incognito i think it is abundantly clear where Seymour and Act stand on co governance. But what they are saying is lets have the debate and a referendum. Unlike Labour who never mentioned He Puapua or campaigned on it in the last election.
I am now quite suspious of Labour (I am a party member by the way), because of how they have done so much by stealth. The gender self ID bill, three waters (never campaigned on it or looked at other options) the Rotorua Bill which Tamati Coffey championed (which David Parker quashed because he said it went against the Bill of Rights) and the He Puapua document (which talks about transforming our constitutional arrangemnts. That flew below the radar before the last election.
I think it is reasonable to by suspious of Mahuta given so many family appointments when she was a Minister. Two contracts to her husband in fields he has no qualifications for.
Interesting comparison between NZ and Australia by two high level experts. Yes, the real experts not the pseudo variety as preferred by some:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/471081/covid-19-how-are-australia-and-nz-managing-the-rising-winter-wave-is-either-getting-it-right
Whitewasher reveals her calling. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300638654/blue-blood-how-the-national-party-went-to-war-with-itself
Key was "exhausted"?
They say maintaining pretence is very tiring.
As are affairs, apparently
Just goes to show the business background of long corporate lunch breaks and golf course deals is no prerequisite for a career in politics.
"I've gambled on the money trading markets" and "I ran an airline" means shit when you're expected to actually do some work for the first time in your pampered little life.
Q&A interview with Vance about her book (9m) https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/07/17/nats-caucus-still-fragile-after-5-years-of-internal-tumult/
Great journalist, poor interviewee 🙂
Oh dear…
https://twitter.com/JasonStrummer/status/1548071157231849481
Makes me very sorry for the female sexual partners in Jordan Peterson's life. Sounds like he's just not very …. adequate….
Jordan Peterson is an Narcisist a Misogynist a fossil who is a regular know it all that don't impress me at all , no science behind his theories just anecdotes.A man who is trying to take us back to the 1950's when it was a mans world and Men had all the answers .Very popular in the far right with his simplistic remedies.
Of course you do realise that's a parody from a youtube voice impersonator called "voiceover shill", right?
(10) Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson discuss the myth of the female orgasm – YouTube
Like, you wouldn't be so fucking thick as to have read this obviously absurd line on twitter and assumed it was real, would you? Gee I wonder what other bullshit you swallow regularly from the same sources.
The funny thing about Peterson is that no-one EVER criticises anything he's actually said.
Babbling
Are you now pretending you weren't gullible enough to fall for that obvious bullshit?
After barking benzo-boy's reckons about women and cosmetics, anything is possible.
Dude's a fucking clown.
Barking indeed.
I have and do and Petersen is still top of my twit list.
The AB's could have done with your help shifting goalposts the other night.
Oh, its a satire Felix? Thanks for the info.
It was a satire on youtube, just a blatant lie by the time it got quoted on twitter as if it were real though.
Leave the Intersectionals alone … they may be inadvertently regurgitating embarrassingly weak satire … but it's their truth … which is just as valid as ours. Putting aside the fact that “truth” itself is a yucky patriarchal settler-colonist construct designed to oppress pregnant men of colour.
Do you have enough tinfoil?
.
As so often, despite displaying the trademark pomposity & self-satisfaction of the former Public Address cadre, you've managed to get things totally arse about face. Falling for any old invective against one of irrational Wokedom's key hate-figures (in this case, a patently obvious – if banal – parody) is very much the tin foil hat territory here, sweetness.
Now if you could answer this with an erudite little bon mot, I’m sure those of equal pretention will find themselves utterly enchanted.
The overly ostentatious vocabulary and excessive italics are a dead giveaway.
lol 100$ Swordfish
A you tube series worth watching.
The problems referenced apply to NZ as well, and explain why most of the infrastructure devleopment we are putting in to fix the housing crisis is unsustainable.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300637193/new-zealand-can-we-fix-it-not-unless-politicians-grow-up
Gluckman was to scared to mention this when he was John Keys lackey but better late than never! Did Key do anything longterm yes he cut health funding police funding education funding all had longterm consequences. Nothing will change politics is a popularity contest every 3 years so no longterm solutions will happen, balance books buy votes, balance the books buy votes and on it goes.
Your comment is laughable and pathetic at the same time. Say what you like about Gluckman but he’s never been anybody’s lackey. You can join the other group of commenters here who like to shoot the messenger instead of adding something constructive and of real substance to the commentary here.
Be lucky if we're not flapping in a puddle by 2050.
(CNN)Two years ago, forecasters in the UK conducted an interesting thought experiment: What will our forecasts look like in 2050?
[…]
"Not actual weather forecast," the Met Office's graphics said. "Examples of plausible weather based on climate projections."
Well, on Monday and Tuesday, the "plausible" becomes reality — 28 years early.
https://twitter.com/SimonLeeWx/status/1547957062000267267
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/15/weather/2050-uk-forecast-comes-true-in-2022/index.html?
Somebody give this guy a shot at permanent PM.
Roberston extends the fuel subsidy through to January next year.
Grant Robertson extends fuel tax cut to January, with fuel relief now costing $1b – NZ Herald
Way to suck the political oxygen out of the room Grant.
Must know the CPI for tomorrows release,getting ahead of the curve with a swerve.
Maybe his advisors though had not told him of the risks with NZ,with regard to the high current account deficit,and the housing corp debt problem.
Canny political move.
I'm sure they can all see the writing on the wall – petrol prices are not coming down, and the hit when the subsidy ran out would be painful to the voting population.
I expect to see it extended again in January (unless I'm wrong and petrol prices are indeed dropping) – until after the election.
Good move, Grant. Great also to have a PM who gives others the platform to announce positive actions: that Jacinda! She's too good!
🙂
Oh yes. She's too good for many Kiwis. That's why she is continuously being undermined – including by some regulars here. Tall poppy syndrome in full flight!
Better be careful. They'll be coming for you next. Mind you I think you can handle it with good humour n'all.
"someone give this guy a shot at permanant PM". Ad your standards are too low
Its a tax cut. not a bad decision, but hardly rocket science
Deleted after they were requested?
There must be some incriminating shit in those texts.
The Secret Service’s account about how text messages from the day before and the day of the Capitol attack were erased has shifted several times, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security told the House January 6 select committee at a briefing on Friday.
At one point, the explanation from the Secret Service for the lost texts was because of software upgrades, the inspector general told the panel, while at another point, the explanation was because of device replacements.
The inspector general also said that though the secret service opted to have his office do a review of the agency’s response to the Capitol attack in lieu of conducting after-action reports, it then stonewalled the review by slow-walking production of materials.
[…]
In the letter, the inspector general said that certain Secret Service texts from 5 January and 6 January 2021 were erased amid a “device replacement program” even after he had requested the messages for his internal inquiry.
The Secret Service has disputed that, saying in a statement that data on some phones were lost as part of a pre-planned “system migration” in January 2021, and that Cuffari’s initial request for communications came weeks later in late February 2021.
But the select committee questioned the Secret Service’s emphasis on that date, the participants said, and noted in the subpoena letter that the request for electronic communications in fact first came from Congress, ten days after the Capitol attack.
The congressional request from 16 January 2021 addressed to multiple executive branch agencies – including the Homeland Security Department, which oversees the Secret Service – was for all materials referring or relating to the riot.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/16/secret-service-deleted-text-messages-january-6
That's going to hurt in terms of US criminal law (potentially tampering with evidence) and also potentially evidence rules. To quote https://corporate.findlaw.com/litigation-disputes/delete-at-your-peril-preserving-electronic-evidence-during-the.html :
In plain English, destroyed evidence can be held against people in certain circumstances.