Considering what is known, as to abuse in state care and the cover-up and the unknown consequence of the Hobson's Choice ACT agenda. It is time to improve the machinery of governance.
We need to place the AG (and SG and Crown Law and police oversight) outside of Cabinet and accountable to the GG.
And with it, the whole orbit of the Crown regime, from the Waitangi Tribunal and Human Rights Commission to Ombudsmen and Auditor General and the Public Service.
The PM should be required to inform the GG of the government plans from week to week, as in the UK. The GG then in Privy Council and later providing feedback (exercise the Crowns right to provide advice). This can satisfy some of the requirements of UNDRIP.
Our governments need some sense of accountability.
Our nation is nearly 200 year old and needs to develop some maturity.
Where does pressure for accountability come from today? Clearly not the opposition, their hands have blood on them.
The MSM media, with Smale's reportage an exception, seem reluctant to do anything that doesn't keep their advertiser's happy.
I look around here at a diverse collection of lefties, and don't see a lot of enthusiasm (Trump's doing his distraction job very well), I ask around my circle of friends and colleagues and get zip.
No surprises but I come back to this neo-liberal mindset that reckons $ are more valuable than people.
Our governments need some sense of accountability.
MMP governments (in NZ) are only accountable to a 51% majority or more to repeal/pass legislation as they see fit. The governing parties are accountable to a coalition contract. The MPs are accountable to their party leadership (to various internal degrees) and then only to themselves.
Our nation is nearly 200 year old and needs to develop some maturity.
How would we ago about achieving this? Our nation, like so many others, is fracturing and atomising because the repulsive forces are getting stronger than the attracting ones, breaking existing bonds and vaporising cohesion, belonging, and kinship.
With all due respect, when talking about accountability for covering up the abuse in State Care, we are not talking about election results nor coalition agreements.
Governments govern all of us, the rich, sick, elderly, poor etc not just those that vote for them.
Maybe the case is to get Iran to hold them to account again.
Loving the pathetic tut tutting of the white wing government parties and sycophants, surely as the haka has been a part of Maori politics since forever it has a place in parliament?
Wonder how long it took to get the piss smell out of seymours seat!!!
According to Seymour, one of the Te Pati Maori MPs made a hand signal suggesting he was pointing a gun at him. All I saw was the cultural gestures in keeping with the traditional forms of the haka. If he genuinely thought it was a gun pointing signal – which I doubt – then how is someone so abysmally ignorant of Maori culture even be allowed to be an MP let alone a party leader.
Seymour should consult the in-House expert on guns, the Minister for Guns, who was sitting right next to him, whether they saw the same. Of course, Seymour could show us video evidence of the alleged hand gesture and file a complaint – there’s only one Sheriff allowed in the House.
Craig Mokhiber is the senior human rights official who resigned in protest from the UN over the UN’s inaction to halt the genocide in Gaza.
Mokhiber tells us that it is very possible, that at the next approving of UN credentials of each country, next year, Israel, despite all the attempts of the Western powers to prevent it, will be expelled from the UN General Assembly by a vote of the overwhelming majority of the world's nations.
@32:43 minutes;
…..Just to go back a little bit, you know suspending or expelling a country from the UN under the normal provisions of the charter requires uh agreement of the Security Council, and we know the US and the UK will never ever agree, and they will veto any such effort. So the way they got around this in the South Africa case during apartheid was, the US the UK and France vetoed the effort to suspend South Africa they vetoed it in the Security Council, the president of the General Assembly and the majority of the General Assembly then went forward and they said, 'Okay. we don't have the power to do that, but we can suspend their participation in the in the General Assembly, which is basically the parliament of the of the UN.
And the way they did that, was when the credentials committee was approving participation for each country at the beginning of the session of the General Assembly they denied that approval to South Africa.
They can do the same thing to Israel. Now that process has already taken place for the current General Assembly…..
…..when this happens it's going to happen in the beginning of the next session it's, going to happen in the Fall, [Spring in NZ]. If it if it is going to happen that's when it would would happen. And the head of the credentials committee will will also change.
…..Now what will the US? I mean Israel obviously. But what will the US and the UK do between now and then to try to peel off votes?
You can bet they're going to use every carrot and stick.
But it's still possible, and I think what is most compelling here, is that what they cannot deny is that there's never been a country in the history of the UN that's been more deserving of as a minimum of suspension from the general assembly……
[A following long list of Israeli crimes and breaches of the UN Charter and attacks on UN personal and institutions]
If it is not, and I just say this; If Israel is not at least suspended from the General Assembly, the credibility of that institution tanks…..
I am hoping and believing that it is still possible for this actually to occur between now and and next Fall…..
[AI generated transcript lightly edited for clarity and parsed for brevity]
I highly rate this video, Craig Mokhiber provides a small bright ray of hope piercing the darkness, for some sort of resolution, or possibly even an end, to the seemingly endless genocide in Gaza.
Personally speaking, I admire Craig Mokhiber's ability to keep so much information and facts straight in his head, about the International justice system and how it works, (or doesn't work). Craig Mokhiber has an ability to explain and lay bare in exquisite detail the arcane workings of the International Rules Based Order, how it operates, how it is administered. its weaknesses, its strengths, how it is manipulated and undermined, how it resists these attempts at being undermined. All the panoply of current actors and individuals and organisations that parade across its stage.
Craig Mokhiber mourns that this and other international legal actions by the UN the World Court and the ICC will not save the tens of thousands of Palestinians presently being murdered and starved in Israel's genocidal war against them, but will achieve some redress for the survivors.
I highly recommend watching this video, I hope you get as much out of it as I did. 'J'
It’s been 293 days since the International Court of Justice in The Hague ordered Israel to halt all killing and other genocidal acts against the Palestinian people. And it was 177 days ago that the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, two of the Israeli leaders directly responsible for the genocide. But Israel is only accelerating its extermination of Palestinians through continued bombing and starvation and expanding its attack on Lebanon, while the ICC has failed to issue any arrest warrants. We speak to Craig Mokhiber about why all paths to accountability for Israel appear to be blocked……
The UN may as well, especially after Trump pulls funding from the UN. Not a big believer in the US funding anything international, except for US arms manufacture, in his rush to dismantle Federal spending.
Perhaps there are uses for AI that aren't as sinister AF.
.
O2 has today unveiled the newest member of its fraud prevention team, ‘Daisy’. As ‘Head of Scammer Relations’, this state-of-the-art AI Granny’s mission is to talk with fraudsters and waste as much of their time as possible with human-like rambling chat to keep them away from real people, while highlighting the need for consumers to stay vigilant as the UK faces a fraud epidemic.
Masha Gessen cites former Hungarian anti-communist dissident Bálint Magyar.
This Is the Dark, Unspoken Promise of Trump’s Return
[…]
For those bewildered by why so many Americans apparently voted against the values of liberal democracy, Balint Magyar has a useful formulation. “Liberal democracy,” he says, “offers moral constraints without problem-solving” — a lot of rules, not a lot of change — while “populism offers problem-solving without moral constraints.” Magyar, a scholar of autocracy, isn’t interested in calling Donald Trump a fascist. He sees the president-elect’s appeal in terms of something more primal: “Trump promises that you don’t have to think about other people.”
Around the world, populist autocrats have leveraged the thrilling power of that promise to transform their countries into vehicles for their own singular will. Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban vowed to restore a simpler, more orderly past, in which men were men and in charge. What they delivered was permission to abandon societal inhibitions, to amplify the grievances of one’s own group and to heap hate on assorted others, particularly on groups that cannot speak up for themselves. Magyar calls this “morally unconstrained collective egoism.”
Trump’s first term, and his actions in the four years since, tracked the early record of Putin and Orban in important ways. Looking closely at their trajectories, through the lens of Magyar’s theories, gives a chillingly clear sense of where Trump’s second term may lead.
What they delivered was permission to abandon societal inhibitions, to amplify the grievances of one’s own group and to heap hate on assorted others, particularly on groups that cannot speak up for themselves.
Like this drip who's indignant because her kid told her he's not allowed to say retard at school but it's her right to use the word however she pleases..
classy stuff at the latest school board meeting in my hometown of Forest Lake, Minnesota (the same town Pete Hegseth is from) these people are more emboldened than ever to be their absolute worst selves
Zelensky wanted to sue for peace just a few weeks after the special military operation began; that moral colossus Boris Johnson was dispatched to Kyiv to stop such nonsensical talk.
A peace-loving U.S. senator, who dwells on the same lofty moral plane as BoJo, summed up the bravery of the sponsors of this proxy war perfectly: "When we said we wanted to fight Russia down to the last Ukrainian, we meant it."
National has just introduced legislation that would allow prosecution and conviction for any protest that the govt of the day deemed to be offensive. It carries a penalty of 14 yrs imprisonment!?
It is precisely these types of laws that the Starmer govt in the UK is currently using against direct action protests in support of Palestine that target weapons manufacturers such as Elbit Systems. It has also been used to justify a raid on and confiscation of hard drives and phones from Asa Winstanley of the Electronic Intifada.
It has been and likely will again be used to jail direct action activists protesting climate change.
The fact that Labour in the UK has used this legislation at least as much if not more than the previous Tory govt shows that no govt can be trusted not to abuse these wide ranging powers.
“Essentially, this law allows the government to criminalise people based on its own misconceptions, conspiracy theories, and outright fantasies of their motivations (and its belief that we “ought to know” about their weirdo fantasies). It would have allowed Muldoon to jail John Minto and all of HART for 14 years for being foreign agents. It would have allowed them to jail every anti-nuclear protestor who blocked a street or rowed a canoe in front of a ship, and everyone who wrote a letter to the editor under a false name advocating against nuclear ship visits. It potentially – depending on what weird fantasies the SIS and Federated Farmers have – allows them to jail every member of the climate, environmental, and indigenous rights movements.”
Secondary Principals Council head Kate Gainsford said schools had been bombarded with advice from the ministry, the New Zealand Qualifications Authority and police about the potential for disruption related to the hīkoi.
She said much of the information – about safety and how best to manage delays – was useful and timely, but Seymour casting aspersions over schools' neutrality on a political issue was unprecedented.
"Given his inflammatory comments and the timing of the advice that's coming out, the amount of advice that's coming out and the focus of the advice coming out. It is open to the interpretation – absolutely – that the minister is using the Ministry of Education's communications to advance a particular line that is of interest particularly to him," Gainsford said.
A statement from the ACT Party last week encouraged parents to write to their school boards to remind them of their obligations for neutrality under the public service's integrity and conduct standards.
"Parents may also consider whether their representatives on their school's board deserve re-election," the statement said.
Incredible to see commander of small, light-touch government threaten students, teachers, principles, and school board members not to go near Hikoi mō Te Tiriti. The associate minister telling schools what they can and cannot teach on a field trip. I wonder where the minister is on this? Hiding, I suspect.
Seymour is terrified of direct action, particularly when Māori direct actionis supported by others.
Just want to relate that I mixed with a lot of people who were at the gathering point of the Treaty bill protest in Palmerston North today, although I couldn't actually attend it due to being at work.
People seemed engaged, positive and friendly, far from the negative bogans who urinated in public places, spat at police and abused everyone at a parallel protest nearly two years ago.
The people today had anger, but they also had dignity and concern for their fellow citizens. They were real Kiwis, I was proud to be amongst them.
Tell you what. Have watched that magnificent Haka in parliament a dozen times now. Debbie Ngarewa-Parker and Hana Rawhiti Maipi Clarke not only looked splendid they sounded splendid. Contrast that with the seated dour bunch of ignorant peasantry they were facing.
Which reminds me. Where is the deputy leader of the Act Party? Haven't set eyes on her for so long I've forgotten her name.
On a bike ride this morning up the Southport Spit in the Gold Coast and passed hundreds of Maori and pakeha supporters on a mini hikoi from Main Beach to the Seaway. A small contingent of indigenous Australians with them, carrying Aboriginal flags. Loads of flags, banners and placards. I knew that 1 in 5 (175,000) Maori live in Oz, with 65,000 in Queensland alone, but have never been sure about the strengths of their ties with whanau and whenua. Lots of smiles and waves as I passed (maybe because I was wearing a NZ logoed cap?) I called out a Kia Ora and Toitu te Tiriti to everyone who passed by.
Years of hard work finally paid off last week as the country’s biggest and most important transport project, the City Rail Link reached a major milestone with the first test train making its way slowly though the tunnels for the first time. This is a fantastic achievement and it is ...
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Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
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Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
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All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
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Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
New Zealand’s alignment with the White House is further underscored by its refusal to oppose Trump’s sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC). ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is a serious blow to the soft power of the United States and disastrous for many poor countries ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janet Hoek, Professor in Public Health, University of Otago Shutterstock/Aliaksandr Barouski New Zealand’s smokefree law was hailed around the world for creating a smokefree generation that would have lifelong protection from smoking’s harms. The smokefree generation would have ended sales of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By George Disney, Research Fellow, Social Epidemiology, The University of Melbourne Edwin Tan/Getty Images When the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was established in 2013, one of its driving aims was to make disability services and support systems fairer. However, our new ...
The resignation of the director general of health is the latest departure in what Labour is calling a ‘purge’ of health leadership. Another day, another health resignation It’s a dangerous time to be a top health executive. On Friday, Dr Diana Sarfati announced her resignation as director general of health ...
Labour and the Greens say the government should focus spending on tourism infrastructure like tracks, toilets and protection of nature instead of more advertising. ...
Hundreds of people called the former prime minister vile and dehumanising things online. Internet safety agencies did nothing - then called in the lawyers. ...
Hundreds of people called the former prime minister vile and dehumanising things online. Internet safety agencies did nothing - then called in the lawyers. ...
After a morning spent calf marking, Flock Hill Station manager Richard Hill headed up Bridge Hill – about 100km from Christchurch on the way to the West Coast – to check on a fire near the station’s boundary.It was December 5 last year, and the Craigieburn area had experienced three ...
It can’t be much of a surprise that a relatively inexperienced Act MP, handed the workplace relations portfolio, doesn’t want to entertain the country’s biggest union in her office.But it still astonishes the head of that union, the CTU’s president, Richard Wagstaff.After all, he’s met regularly with ministers of all ...
Late 21st century Christchurch will be unrecognisable when compared with Christchurch today.Flooding will prompt retreat from all eastern and many northern suburbs. These areas, together with land near the Heathcote and Avon Rivers, are in a fifty-year flood zone. Fifty-year floods can happen more than once every fifty years; there ...
Is humanising a mountain the path to real transformation, or does it signal the need for a cultural paradigm shift in the operating system? Recently, a family member shared their delight at the news of Taranaki Maunga becoming a legal person.Of course, I was pleased for the eight Taranaki ...
Why New Zealanders donate money and who they give it to – and how tools like Givealittle are changing the giving landscape.Is New Zealand really a generous country? It’s difficult to quantify. Giving to registered charities can be counted through tax returns, but giving to overseas causes, giving money ...
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As the four Findlay siblings run out on the hockey turf, dressed in black with the silver fern, they take the drive and determination of their late mum with them.Emma Findlay is a Black Stick defender, on her way to Chile on Monday to play for the New Zealand women ...
COMMENTARY:By Paul G Buchanan Here is a scenario, but first a broad brush-painted historical parallel. Hitler and the Nazis could well have accomplished everything that they wanted to do within German borders, including exterminating Jews, so long as they confined their ambitious to Germany itself. After all, the world ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With the unembarrassed audacity parties show as an election nears, the government has stolen the opposition’s policy to ban foreign investors buying established homes. Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Housing Minister Clare O’Neil have announced ...
The Jewish Council’s proposals are divisive, contrary to New Zealand’s human rights framework, and ignore the rights of other ethnic minorities in Aotearoa. ...
"This is shocking, and astounding," says Augusta Macassey-Pickard, spokesperson for the group. "We knew that this process was rushed, and flawed, but this is another level of compromised." ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific presenter/Bulletin editor Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark maintains that Cook Islands, a realm of New Zealand, should have consulted Wellington before signing a “partnership” deal with China. “[Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown] seems to have signed behind the backs of his own ...
COMMENTARY:By Saige England Mediawatch on RNZ today strongly criticised Stuff and YouTube among other media for using Israeli propaganda’s “Outbrain” service. Outbrain is a company founded by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) military and its technology can be tracked back to a wealthy entrepreneur, which in this case could ...
Luxon said protesters linked to Destiny Church "went too far" by disrupting Pride events in Auckland, while church leader Brian Tamaki said he told protesters, "I want you to storm the library they're in." ...
Hundreds of engineers are losing their jobs and leaving our shores due to infrastructure project delays, creating "significant" risk to our nation's development, says the head of New Zealand's engineering body. ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown says the deal with China “complements, not replaces” the relationship with New Zealand after signing it yesterday. Brown said “The Action Plan for Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) 2025-2030” provides a structured framework for engagement between the Cook Islands ...
Considering what is known, as to abuse in state care and the cover-up and the unknown consequence of the Hobson's Choice ACT agenda. It is time to improve the machinery of governance.
We need to place the AG (and SG and Crown Law and police oversight) outside of Cabinet and accountable to the GG.
And with it, the whole orbit of the Crown regime, from the Waitangi Tribunal and Human Rights Commission to Ombudsmen and Auditor General and the Public Service.
The PM should be required to inform the GG of the government plans from week to week, as in the UK. The GG then in Privy Council and later providing feedback (exercise the Crowns right to provide advice). This can satisfy some of the requirements of UNDRIP.
Our governments need some sense of accountability.
Our nation is nearly 200 year old and needs to develop some maturity.
Good suggestions going forward.
Where does pressure for accountability come from today? Clearly not the opposition, their hands have blood on them.
The MSM media, with Smale's reportage an exception, seem reluctant to do anything that doesn't keep their advertiser's happy.
I look around here at a diverse collection of lefties, and don't see a lot of enthusiasm (Trump's doing his distraction job very well), I ask around my circle of friends and colleagues and get zip.
No surprises but I come back to this neo-liberal mindset that reckons $ are more valuable than people.
MMP governments (in NZ) are only accountable to a 51% majority or more to repeal/pass legislation as they see fit. The governing parties are accountable to a coalition contract. The MPs are accountable to their party leadership (to various internal degrees) and then only to themselves.
How would we ago about achieving this? Our nation, like so many others, is fracturing and atomising because the repulsive forces are getting stronger than the attracting ones, breaking existing bonds and vaporising cohesion, belonging, and kinship.
With all due respect, when talking about accountability for covering up the abuse in State Care, we are not talking about election results nor coalition agreements.
Governments govern all of us, the rich, sick, elderly, poor etc not just those that vote for them.
Maybe the case is to get Iran to hold them to account again.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/533976/treaty-principles-bill-haka-mps-must-uphold-standards-of-parliament-luxon-says
Loving the pathetic tut tutting of the white wing government parties and sycophants, surely as the haka has been a part of Maori politics since forever it has a place in parliament?
Wonder how long it took to get the piss smell out of seymours seat!!!
According to Seymour, one of the Te Pati Maori MPs made a hand signal suggesting he was pointing a gun at him. All I saw was the cultural gestures in keeping with the traditional forms of the haka. If he genuinely thought it was a gun pointing signal – which I doubt – then how is someone so abysmally ignorant of Maori culture even be allowed to be an MP let alone a party leader.
Seymour should consult the in-House expert on guns, the Minister for Guns, who was sitting right next to him, whether they saw the same. Of course, Seymour could show us video evidence of the alleged hand gesture and file a complaint – there’s only one Sheriff allowed in the House.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/11/16/the-secret-diary-of-sheriff-seymour-3/
Akin to Trump's nine barrels pointing at someone, everyone is keen to put their own spin on firearms comments.
If Seymour is that upset, then maybe he needs to chat to McKee, her being all gun enthusiast 'n' all.
Oops, snap.
Perfectly alright if the PM does it…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/king-wont-back-down-on-scumbag-insult-to-pm/YDO4X2FZYISCY47YOU6I6PD66I/
Craig Mokhiber is the senior human rights official who resigned in protest from the UN over the UN’s inaction to halt the genocide in Gaza.
Mokhiber tells us that it is very possible, that at the next approving of UN credentials of each country, next year, Israel, despite all the attempts of the Western powers to prevent it, will be expelled from the UN General Assembly by a vote of the overwhelming majority of the world's nations.
@32:43 minutes;
I highly rate this video, Craig Mokhiber provides a small bright ray of hope piercing the darkness, for some sort of resolution, or possibly even an end, to the seemingly endless genocide in Gaza.
Personally speaking, I admire Craig Mokhiber's ability to keep so much information and facts straight in his head, about the International justice system and how it works, (or doesn't work). Craig Mokhiber has an ability to explain and lay bare in exquisite detail the arcane workings of the International Rules Based Order, how it operates, how it is administered. its weaknesses, its strengths, how it is manipulated and undermined, how it resists these attempts at being undermined. All the panoply of current actors and individuals and organisations that parade across its stage.
Craig Mokhiber mourns that this and other international legal actions by the UN the World Court and the ICC will not save the tens of thousands of Palestinians presently being murdered and starved in Israel's genocidal war against them, but will achieve some redress for the survivors.
I highly recommend watching this video, I hope you get as much out of it as I did. 'J'
The UN may as well, especially after Trump pulls funding from the UN. Not a big believer in the US funding anything international, except for US arms manufacture, in his rush to dismantle Federal spending.
The question for the USA is if they "end" UN funding it is at the peril of losing their place/veto on the UNSC.
Not much really changes when there is a Government change?
Nothing has really changed in NZ since Nov last year.
Nothing has really changed in the UK since May.
Nothing much will really change under Trump.
I am convinced the Left actually does better and is more united in opposition.
The Right in opposition are like rabid dogs on methamphetamine because they hate
the thought that White Right wing power is being ursurped by the inferior Left.
In Power the Right are just as arrogant and prejudiced yet less vitriolic and toxic
because they have the power they crave so need not hate on minorities so much.
So yes life for the left is better in opposition
Ask David Letele if he agrees with you.
CoC are vicious and systematic in their removal of worker and Maori rights.
So I challenge your comments.
The Left are better managers by far, because they listen to the science advice and don't always put the almighty dollar first.
Give examples of the Left being" vitriolic and toxic"
I think you are trolling here.![sad sad](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/sad_smile.png)
Agreed, Patricia. I've thought before that Koina is a 'concern troll.'
Yep.
Perhaps there are uses for AI that aren't as sinister AF.
.
O2 has today unveiled the newest member of its fraud prevention team, ‘Daisy’. As ‘Head of Scammer Relations’, this state-of-the-art AI Granny’s mission is to talk with fraudsters and waste as much of their time as possible with human-like rambling chat to keep them away from real people, while highlighting the need for consumers to stay vigilant as the UK faces a fraud epidemic.
https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/o2-unveils-daisy-the-ai-granny-wasting-scammers-time/
I play scrabble against an AI bot named Zoey. Sometimes I beat her, and my scrabble game is definitely improving.
I'd like to think it's not too sinister?
Right up until Zoey says I'm sorry, Kay. I'm afraid I can't do that.
From free speech absolutist to anti free speech authoritarian.
/
true colours eh.
Masha Gessen cites former Hungarian anti-communist dissident Bálint Magyar.
This Is the Dark, Unspoken Promise of Trump’s Return
[…]
For those bewildered by why so many Americans apparently voted against the values of liberal democracy, Balint Magyar has a useful formulation. “Liberal democracy,” he says, “offers moral constraints without problem-solving” — a lot of rules, not a lot of change — while “populism offers problem-solving without moral constraints.” Magyar, a scholar of autocracy, isn’t interested in calling Donald Trump a fascist. He sees the president-elect’s appeal in terms of something more primal: “Trump promises that you don’t have to think about other people.”
Around the world, populist autocrats have leveraged the thrilling power of that promise to transform their countries into vehicles for their own singular will. Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban vowed to restore a simpler, more orderly past, in which men were men and in charge. What they delivered was permission to abandon societal inhibitions, to amplify the grievances of one’s own group and to heap hate on assorted others, particularly on groups that cannot speak up for themselves. Magyar calls this “morally unconstrained collective egoism.”
Trump’s first term, and his actions in the four years since, tracked the early record of Putin and Orban in important ways. Looking closely at their trajectories, through the lens of Magyar’s theories, gives a chillingly clear sense of where Trump’s second term may lead.
https://archive.li/O2NyX (nyt)
Fast tracking.
Like this drip who's indignant because her kid told her he's not allowed to say retard at school but it's her right to use the word however she pleases..
.
@atrupar
classy stuff at the latest school board meeting in my hometown of Forest Lake, Minnesota (the same town Pete Hegseth is from) these people are more emboldened than ever to be their absolute worst selves
https://xcancel.com/atrupar/status/1857817046236455211
Zelensky wanted to sue for peace just a few weeks after the special military operation began; that moral colossus Boris Johnson was dispatched to Kyiv to stop such nonsensical talk.
A peace-loving U.S. senator, who dwells on the same lofty moral plane as BoJo, summed up the bravery of the sponsors of this proxy war perfectly: "When we said we wanted to fight Russia down to the last Ukrainian, we meant it."
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1769956089183846548
Of course he's put big oil in charge.
/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/16/trump-administration-chris-wright-energy-secretary
Perhaps a tornado through Margo Largo or whatever he calls it might make him think. Only when it hits his pocket.
National has just introduced legislation that would allow prosecution and conviction for any protest that the govt of the day deemed to be offensive. It carries a penalty of 14 yrs imprisonment!?
It is precisely these types of laws that the Starmer govt in the UK is currently using against direct action protests in support of Palestine that target weapons manufacturers such as Elbit Systems. It has also been used to justify a raid on and confiscation of hard drives and phones from Asa Winstanley of the Electronic Intifada.
It has been and likely will again be used to jail direct action activists protesting climate change.
The fact that Labour in the UK has used this legislation at least as much if not more than the previous Tory govt shows that no govt can be trusted not to abuse these wide ranging powers.
“Essentially, this law allows the government to criminalise people based on its own misconceptions, conspiracy theories, and outright fantasies of their motivations (and its belief that we “ought to know” about their weirdo fantasies). It would have allowed Muldoon to jail John Minto and all of HART for 14 years for being foreign agents. It would have allowed them to jail every anti-nuclear protestor who blocked a street or rowed a canoe in front of a ship, and everyone who wrote a letter to the editor under a false name advocating against nuclear ship visits. It potentially – depending on what weird fantasies the SIS and Federated Farmers have – allows them to jail every member of the climate, environmental, and indigenous rights movements.”
https://norightturn.blogspot.com/2024/11/nationals-tyrannical-foreign.html?m=1
What might be called an "If they wantcha they've gotcha" law.
Incredible to see commander of small, light-touch government threaten students, teachers, principles, and school board members not to go near Hikoi mō Te Tiriti. The associate minister telling schools what they can and cannot teach on a field trip. I wonder where the minister is on this? Hiding, I suspect.
Seymour is terrified of direct action, particularly when Māori direct action is supported by others.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/533984/treaty-principles-bill-seymour-s-allegations-around-students-taking-part-in-hikoi-inflammatory
It smacks of something?????? Thin edge of the authoritarian wedge.
Just want to relate that I mixed with a lot of people who were at the gathering point of the Treaty bill protest in Palmerston North today, although I couldn't actually attend it due to being at work.
People seemed engaged, positive and friendly, far from the negative bogans who urinated in public places, spat at police and abused everyone at a parallel protest nearly two years ago.
The people today had anger, but they also had dignity and concern for their fellow citizens. They were real Kiwis, I was proud to be amongst them.
Tell you what. Have watched that magnificent Haka in parliament a dozen times now. Debbie Ngarewa-Parker and Hana Rawhiti Maipi Clarke not only looked splendid they sounded splendid. Contrast that with the seated dour bunch of ignorant peasantry they were facing.
Which reminds me. Where is the deputy leader of the Act Party? Haven't set eyes on her for so long I've forgotten her name.
Republicans are quibbling…
Out of Oklahoma's 1,984 precincts, roughly 260 precincts cast the majority of votes for Harris.
There were a handful of precincts throughout the state that actually garnered a tie vote among the two candidates and thus deemed a purple precinct.
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/11/11/oklahoma-election-map-of-all-red-counties-goes-viral-is-it-accurate/76200869007/
interesting
Thanks
On a bike ride this morning up the Southport Spit in the Gold Coast and passed hundreds of Maori and pakeha supporters on a mini hikoi from Main Beach to the Seaway. A small contingent of indigenous Australians with them, carrying Aboriginal flags. Loads of flags, banners and placards. I knew that 1 in 5 (175,000) Maori live in Oz, with 65,000 in Queensland alone, but have never been sure about the strengths of their ties with whanau and whenua. Lots of smiles and waves as I passed (maybe because I was wearing a NZ logoed cap?) I called out a Kia Ora and Toitu te Tiriti to everyone who passed by.
Some handy tips here:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/17/how-to-survive-the-broligarchy-20-lessons-for-the-post-truth-world-donald-trump
Could become relevant to li'l ol' NZ sooner than we think if Trump acolyte Smirkmore keeps up his current pace.