Open Mike 17/12/2018
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5:49 am, December 17th, 2018 - 147 comments
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Image credit: Quick Data Lessons: Data Dredging Oh dear – another scientific paper claiming evidence of toxic effects from fluoridation. But a critical look at the paper shows evidence of p-hacking, data dredging and motivated reasoning to derive their conclusions. And it was published in a journal shown to be ...2 hours ago - The central problem with housing policy
We've had a housing crisis for the past decade, and successive governments have done nothing to solve it. Why not? Bernard Hickey gets it right when he says its all about protecting the rich: The Government is reluctant to push down house prices fearing they'll loses the support of ...4 hours ago - The Obama legacy contd.
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- Māori wards Bill passes third readingThe Local Electoral (Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Bill passed its third reading today and will become law, Minister of Local Government Hon Nanaia Mahuta says. “This is a significant step forward for Māori representation in local government. We know how important it is to have diversity around ...2 days ago
- Government delivers 1,000 more transitional housing placesThe Government has added 1,000 more transitional housing places as promised under the Aotearoa New Zealand Homelessness Action Plan (HAP), launched one year ago. Minister of Housing Megan Woods says the milestone supports the Government’s priority to ensure every New Zealander has warm, dry, secure housing. “Transitional housing provides people ...2 days ago
- Second batch of Pfizer/BioNTech doses arrives safely – as the first vaccinations take place in the...A second batch of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines arrived safely yesterday at Auckland International Airport, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says. “This shipment contained about 76,000 doses, and follows our first shipment of 60,000 doses that arrived last week. We expect further shipments of vaccine over the coming weeks,” Chris Hipkins said. ...2 days ago
- $18 million for creative spaces to make arts more accessibleThe Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni has today announced $18 million to support creative spaces. Creative spaces are places in the community where people with mental health needs, disabled people, and those looking for social connection, are welcomed and supported to practice and participate in the arts ...2 days ago
- Moriori Claims Settlement Bill passes first readingTreaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little today welcomed Moriori to Parliament to witness the first reading of the Moriori Claims Settlement Bill. “This bill is the culmination of years of dedication and hard work from all the parties involved. “I am delighted to reach this significant milestone today,” Andrew ...3 days ago
- Government action reduces child poverty22,400 fewer children experiencing material hardship 45,400 fewer children in low income households on after-housing costs measure After-housing costs target achieved a year ahead of schedule Government action has seen child poverty reduce against all nine official measures compared to the baseline year, Prime Minister and Minister for Child Poverty ...3 days ago
- Entries open for the 2021 Prime Minister’s Education Excellence AwardsIt’s time to recognise the outstanding work early learning services, kōhanga reo, schools and kura do to support children and young people to succeed, Minister of Education Chris Hipkins says. The 2021 Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards are now open through until April 16. “The past year has reminded us ...3 days ago
- Jobs for Nature benefits three projectsThree new Jobs for Nature projects will help nature thrive in the Bay of Plenty and keep local people in work says Conservation Minister Kiri Allan. “Up to 30 people will be employed in the projects, which are aimed at boosting local conservation efforts, enhancing some of the region’s most ...3 days ago
- Improvements to the Holidays Act on the wayThe Government has accepted all of the Holidays Act Taskforce’s recommended changes, which will provide certainty to employers and help employees receive their leave entitlements, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood announced today. Michael Wood said the Government established the Holidays Act Taskforce to help address challenges with the ...4 days ago
- NZ’s credit rating lifted as economy recoversThe Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and faster than expected economic recovery has been acknowledged in today’s credit rating upgrade. Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) today raised New Zealand’s local currency credit rating to AAA with a stable outlook. This follows Fitch reaffirming its AA+ rating last ...4 days ago
- Speech to National Remembrance Service on the 10th anniversary of the Christchurch earthquakeTena koutou e nga Maata Waka Ngai Tuahuriri, Ngai Tahu whanui, Tena koutou. Nau mai whakatau mai ki tenei ra maumahara i te Ru Whenua Apiti hono tatai hono, Te hunga mate ki te hunga mate Apiti hono tatai hono, Te hunga ora ki te hunga ora Tena koutou, Tena ...4 days ago
- Government reaffirms urgent commitment to ban harmful conversion practicesThe Minister of Justice has reaffirmed the Government’s urgent commitment, as stated in its 2020 Election Manifesto, to ban conversion practices in New Zealand by this time next year. “The Government has work underway to develop policy which will bring legislation to Parliament by the middle of this year and ...4 days ago
- New creative service aims to benefit 1,000 peoples’ careersMinister for Arts, Culture and Heritage and Social Development Hon Carmel Sepuloni today launched a new Creative Careers Service, which is expected to support up to 1,000 creatives, across three regions over the next two years. The new service builds on the most successful aspects of the former Pathways to ...5 days ago
- Honey exporters busy meeting surging demandOverseas consumers eager for natural products in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic have helped boost honey export revenue by 20 percent to $425 million in the year to June 30, 2020, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says. “The results from the latest Ministry for Primary Industries’ 2020 Apiculture Monitoring ...1 week ago
- Government delivers more wellbeing support for young peopleThanks to more than $10-million in new services from the Government, more rangatahi will be able to access mental health and addiction support in their community. Minister of Health Andrew Little made the announcement today while visiting Odyssey House Christchurch and acknowledged that significant events like the devastating earthquakes ten ...1 week ago
- Government eases visa restrictions for visitors in New ZealandTwo month automatic visitor visa extension for most visitor visa holders Temporary waiver of time spent in New Zealand rule for visitor stays Visitor visa holders will be able to stay in New Zealand a little longer as the Government eases restrictions for those still here, the Minister of Immigration ...1 week ago
- Push for sustainable tourism gathers paceThe Tourism and Conservation Ministers say today’s report by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE) adds to calls to overhaul the tourism model that existed prior to COVID19. “The PCE tourism report joins a chorus of analysis which has established that previous settings, which prioritised volume over value, are ...1 week ago
- Government extends dietary supplements regulationsThe Government is providing certainty for the dietary supplements industry as we work to overhaul the rules governing the products, Minister for Food Safety Dr Ayesha Verrall said. Dietary supplements are health and wellness products taken orally to supplement a traditional diet. Some examples include vitamin and mineral supplements, echinacea, ...1 week ago
- New Zealand to join the Council of Europe Convention on CybercrimeThe Government is joining the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime (the Budapest Convention), Justice Minister Kris Faafoi and Minister for the Digital Economy and Communications Dr David Clark announced today. The decision progresses a recommendation by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch terror attack to accede to ...1 week ago
- Appointment round in 2021 for Queen's CounselAttorney-General David Parker announced today that an appointment round for Queen’s Counsel will take place in 2021. Appointments of Queen’s Counsel are made by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the Attorney-General and with the concurrence of the Chief Justice. The Governor-General retains the discretion to appoint Queen’s Counsel in ...1 week ago
- Government support for businesses kicks inThe new Resurgence Support Payment passed by Parliament this week will be available to eligible businesses now that Auckland will be in Alert Level 2 until Monday. “Our careful management of the Government accounts means we have money aside for situations like this. We stand ready to share the burden ...1 week ago
- Final preparations to ensure Phase 1 of the vaccination rollout is ready to goA dry run of the end-to-end process shows New Zealand’s COVID-19 vaccination programme is ready to roll from Saturday, when the first border workers will receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says. “The trial run took place in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch yesterday afternoon, ahead of the ...1 week ago
- Free Period products to be available in all schools and kuraFrom June this year, all primary, intermediate, secondary school and kura students will have access to free period products, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Education Minister Jan Tinetti announced today. The announcement follows a successful Access to Period Products pilot programme, which has been running since Term 3 last ...1 week ago
- Government accounts remain in good shapeThe latest update shows the Government’s books are again in better shape than forecast, meaning New Zealand is still in a strong position to respond to any COVID-19 resurgence. The Crown Accounts for the six months to the end of December were better than forecast in the Half-year Economic and ...1 week ago
- New DOC strategy champions responsible enjoyment of the outdoorsThe Department of Conservation’s (DOC) new Heritage and Visitor Strategy is fully focused on protecting and enhancing the value of New Zealand’s natural, cultural and historic heritage, while also promoting a sustainable environmental experience, Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. “It has been a quarter of a century since DOC first developed ...1 week ago
- New Zealand to conclude its deployment to Afghanistan in 2021Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Defence Minister Peeni Henare have announced that New Zealand will conclude its deployment of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) to Afghanistan by May 2021. “After 20 years of a NZDF presence in Afghanistan, it is now time to conclude ...1 week ago
- Supporting Māori to Succeed in Trade – International Inter-Tribal Trade and Investment Organi...Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. This is a special time in our country. A little over a week ago, it was the anniversary of the signature by Māori and the British Crown of Te Tiriti O Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi), a founding document in ...1 week ago
- Prime Minister’s statement on the arrest of former dual citizen in TurkeyThe Government is in contact with relevant authorities in Turkey following the arrest of a former Australian and New Zealand dual citizen there, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “Contingency planning for the potential return of any New Zealander who may have been in the conflict zone has been underway for ...1 week ago
- Household incomes rise but more work neededFigures released today by Stats NZ show there was strong growth in median household incomes in 2020, before surveying was halted due to COVID-19. Stats NZ found the median annual household income rose 6.9 percent to $75,024 in the year to June 2020 compared with a year earlier. The survey ...1 week ago
- Business support under COVID resurgence confirmedLegislation will be introduced under urgency today to set up a new Resurgence Support Payment for businesses affected by any resurgence of COVID-19. “Since the scheme was announced in December we have decided to make a change to the payment – reducing the time over which a revenue drop is ...1 week ago
- New Zealand welcomes appointment of new WTO Director GeneralTrade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor congratulated Nigeria’s Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on her ground-breaking selection as the next Director General of the World Trade Organization last night. Dr Okonjo-Iweala will be the first female and first African Director General of the organisation. She has a strong background in international ...1 week ago
- Government delivers on promise to working low-income familiesFrom 1 April 2021, people getting a benefit will be able to earn more through work before their benefit payments are affected, Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni has announced. “Overall, around 82,900 low-income people and families will be better off by $18 a week on average,” says Carmel ...1 week ago
- Wellington Council review could cost ratepayers $75k
An independent review of the Wellington City Council could cost ratepayers close to $75,000. ...19 mins ago - Wellington Council review could cost ratepayers $75kAn independent review of the Wellington City Council could cost ratepayers close to $75,000. ...19 mins ago
- Indigenous recognition is more than a Voice to Government – it’s a matter of political equality
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic O’Sullivan, Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University The government earlier this year released a discussion paper exploring how an Indigenous Voice to government might work. The Voice ...40 mins ago - ACT criticises gang-gun measures as too weakThe ACT Party is accusing the government of failing to provide police with enough power to take firearm licences off gang members. ...41 mins ago
- Visa for Green MP's partner 'like any other', Immigration NZ saysImmigration New Zealand is standing by its decision to grant a visa to the partner of Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March and says the application was treated "like any other". ...41 mins ago
- How to encourage cyber-safe behaviour at work without becoming the office grouchSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nathalie Collins, Academic Director (National Programs), Edith Cowan University Business etiquette has one golden rule: treat others with respect and care. The same is true for encouraging cyber safety at work, on everything from password security to keeping valuable information like tax ...1 hour ago
- COVID’s mental health fallout will last a long time. Here’s how we’re targeting pandemic depre...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Bryant, Professor & Director of Traumatic Stress Clinic, UNSW Although Australia is now largely COVID-free, the repercussions of the pandemic are ongoing. As the pandemic enters its second year, many people will be continuing to suffer with poor mental health, or ...2 hours ago
- What’s the answer to South Auckland’s rubbish issues?
Auckland Council has signed off on a new strategy to make it easier to recycle or get rid of inorganic waste, but according to South Auckland community leaders, it doesn’t go far enough.Tucked a few streets back from former prime minister William Massey’s beautiful old homestead in Māngere East is ...2 hours ago - Soap Dancehall: The new Auckland bar where a fun night out doesn’t cost a bombWith crowd-friendly dance tunes and affordable drinks, a new dancehall and bar opening tonight is hoping to make going out more accessible for Aucklanders.“In many ways, it’s fucking stupid opening a nightclub in the middle of a global pandemic,” says Sam Walsh, one of the three owners of a new ...3 hours ago
- Water New Zealand Welcomes New Taumata Arowai Board
Water New Zealand says the establishment of the new Taumata Arowai board is an important milestone in the journey towards safer drinking water for all New Zealanders. The Minister of Local Government, Nanaia Mahuta has announced that former ...3 hours ago - ‘Existential threat to our survival’ – see the 19 Australian ecosystems already collapsingANALYSIS: By Dana M Bergstrom, University of Wollongong; Euan Ritchie, Deakin University; Lesley Hughes, Macquarie University, and Michael Depledge, University of Exeter In 1992, 1700 scientists warned that human beings and the natural world were “on a collision course”. Seventeen years later, scientists described planetary boundaries within which humans and ...3 hours ago
- Contacts of latest Covid-19 case 'paying a price for everyone' – PMThe PM says there are "many, many people" being treated as contacts of the latest Covid-19 community case, but the government is willing to go further than usual to keep the country at level 1. ...3 hours ago
- How the White Ferns come back
Listen: This week's Extra Time podcast from RNZ dissects the women's White Ferns' cricket challenge against England, the men's Black Caps vs Australia and the start of Super Rugby The White Ferns have a battle on their hands to fight their way back into their one-day series against England - ...3 hours ago - Watch live: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gives media briefingPrime Minister Jacinda Ardern is giving a media briefing in Auckland. ...4 hours ago
- Figures flow when Woods answers questions about housing and govt targets – and look, they show a h...
Our Beehive Bulletin … While Housing Minister Megan Woods was being grilled at Question Time in Parliament about the government’s performance in her portfolio domain, the Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito Williams Sio, was announcing new initiatives to provide housing. Attorney-General David Parker, meanwhile, was announcing the appointments of three ...4 hours ago - Papua New Guinea in grief after Grand Chief Somare, 84, passes onAsia Pacific Report Papua New Guineans awoke this morning to great sadness, reports the PNG Post-Courier. As the bells tolled with the sad news of the passing of the much beloved statesman and the founding father of the nation, newsfeeds and social media were abuzz with shock, grief, sadness and ...4 hours ago
- RBNZ Governor Outlines Housing DirectionIn remarks for a Monetary Policy Statement presentation to the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce today, Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr has elaborated on the direction received from the Minister of Finance, to have regard to house price sustainability ...4 hours ago
- In Allen vs Farrow, the children have their say
Critic's Chair: Guy Somerset watches the first of four documentaries on the allegations against Woody Allen in his years in the Farrow household, and hears the air of truth in the early testimonies against him. Of all the witness statements with the air of truth about them in the first ...5 hours ago - The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending February 26The 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 Gangland: New Zealand’s Underworld of Organised Crime by Jared Savage (HarperCollins, $37)“It’s hard for me to imagine ...6 hours ago
- The Friday Poem: Gingerbread House, by Evangeline Riddiford GrahamA poem by New York-based Aotearoa poet Evangeline Riddiford Graham.Gingerbread HouseThe revolution has arrived. We get the email. MeanwhileI am moving deck chairs to make sure you are comfortable in shade. Our neighboursays it like a complaint: We don’t know anyone who is sickor dead. The taxi driver says hospitals ...6 hours ago
- The river runs through it: How to live between cultures and catastrophesPlaywright Alex Lodge on being in love with someone who’s from a different world than you.Have you read anything by Kurt Vonnegut Jr? I’m not here to judge you if you haven’t. He’s one of those writers who all the white boys in university say you “have to read” as ...6 hours ago
- Papuan protesters claim police using covid rapid tests to curb free speechAsia Pacific Report Indonesian police have asked participants at a protest action against Special Autonomy (Otsus) in Papua to take covid-19 rapid tests at the site of the demonstration in front of the Home Affairs Ministry office in Jakarta this week, reports CNN Indonesia. The protesters refused, saying it was ...6 hours ago
- Fake news was a thing long before Donald Trump — just ask the ancient GreeksSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter S. Field, Head of Humanities and Creative Arts and Associate Professor of American History, University of Canterbury The idea of “news” is a pretty new thing. So is the concept of “fake news”, as in false or misleading information presented as ...6 hours ago
- Grant Robertson defends telling Reserve Bank to consider housing in its policy decisionsThe Finance Minister says the government needs to use all the economic tools available to try to control escalating house prices. ...6 hours ago
- Obituary: Sir Michael Somare, ‘father’ of PNG and colossus of Pacific politicsSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Ritchie, Senior Lecturer in History, Deakin University Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, former prime minister of Papua New Guinea and a giant of Pacific politics, has died from pancreatic cancer. He was 84. Known as “Mike” to some and “the chief” ...7 hours ago
- How to get to zero deaths on New Zealand’s roadsLast year 320 people were killed on New Zealand’s roads. Alex Braae spoke to the people on the front line of road safety about the plan to turn that around. When the goal is to bring the road toll down to zero deaths a year, there’s no one simple solution. ...7 hours ago
- How Moa’s awful marketing left it stranded in craft beer no man’s landIts 2012 investment prospectus was all suits, cigars, guns, sports cars and models in short skirts, and its consumer advertising was possibly even worse. Did the Moa brand’s misogyny contribute to its huge losses?The middle of the road can wind up being a risky place for a business. Typically a ...8 hours ago
- Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – February 26 2021Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. Today’s content Housing Luke Malpass (Stuff): Government’s slow crawl on housing continues Jason Walls (Herald): ‘Kiwis can’t outbid Kāinga Ora:’ Government grilled over $750 million house-buying bill Dileepa Fonseka (Stuff): Auditor-General investigates MSD scheme which ...9 hours ago
- Phantom of the forest: how I rediscovered the rare cloaked bee in Australia, hidden for a centurySource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, PhD Candidate, Flinders University It’s not often you get to cast your eyes on a creature feared to be long-gone. Perhaps that’s why my recent rediscovery of the native bee species Pharohylaeus lactiferus is so exciting — especially after ...9 hours ago
- Sexual assault: what can you do if you don’t want to make a formal report to police?Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Georgina Heydon, Associate professor, RMIT University The alleged rape of former Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins has raised many questions about how sexual assault gets reported. Members of the Morrison government have repeatedly stressed the appropriate response to allegations of sexual assault ...9 hours ago
- ‘Existential threat to our survival’: see the 19 Australian ecosystems already collapsingSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dana M Bergstrom, Principal Research Scientist, University of Wollongong In 1992, 1,700 scientists warned that human beings and the natural world were “on a collision course”. Seventeen years later, scientists described planetary boundaries within which humans and other life could have a ...9 hours ago
- Odds are against ‘first in family’ uni students but equity policies are blind to themSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sally Patfield, Postdoctoral Fellow, Teachers and Teaching Research Centre, University of Newcastle It’s that time of year again when hundreds of thousands of Australian students start university for the first time. Commencing students account for about 40% of the more than 1.6 ...9 hours ago
- Texas was a warning. Australia needs to rethink the design of its electricity marketSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bruce Mountain, Director, Victoria Energy Policy Centre, Victoria University Australia’s electricity market is unsustainable. Texas shows us why. A week ago Texas experienced a bout of severe weather as arctic air reached deep into the state, driving temperature down to levels that ...9 hours ago
- Friday essay: How can the dead send us emails? The ethical dilemma of digital soulsSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Stokes, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Deakin University Tim Hart was sitting on his couch one evening in November 2011 when he got an email with the subject line: “I’m watching”. The message that followed was short and to the point ...9 hours ago
- COVID vaccines won’t be compulsory for the Tokyo Olympics. But if offered, here’s what athletes ...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Edwards, Associate Professor, Sydney School of Health Sciences, University of Sydney Brisbane has just been confirmed as the preferred host for the 2032 Olympics. But Olympic organisers have more immediate concerns in mind — how to safely run the postponed Tokyo ...9 hours ago
- Live updates, February 26: National Party joins calls to vaccinate South Auckland firstWelcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for February 26. All the latest news from New Zealand, updated throughout the day. Reach me at stewart@thespinoff.co.nzOur Members make The Spinoff happen. Every dollar contributed directly funds our editorial team – click here to learn more about how you can support us from ...10 hours ago
- Migration will not return to pre-Covid levels when NZ border reopens, Immigration Minister warnsNew Zealand will not be throwing open its doors to the large numbers of new migrants seen in recent years, once it is ready to reopen the border. ...10 hours ago
- The Bulletin: Reserve Bank put in bind by Robertson moveGood morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Reserve Bank put in bind by Robertson move, Bridges clashes with top cop, and critical migrant health workers can’t get families in while new arrivals can.Finance minister Grant Robertson will be requiring the Reserve Bank to consider the impact on ...10 hours ago
- NZ sharemarket now officially in correction mode
Business & Investing: The local sharemarket drops again as the kiwi dollar marches higher, Plus A2 Milk disappoints again ...11 hours ago - As deaths surge, scientists study link between climate change and avalanches
There are clues globally that the avalanche threat is escalating in some regions as the planet warms, triggered by greater temperature swings and more intense rain and snow storms. Bob Berwyn reports for Inside Climate News Big dumps of powder snow are a precious gift in the best of times ...11 hours ago - Opposition MPs clash with Climate Commission
National and ACT MPs clashed with executives from the Climate Change Commission over modelling underpinning the Commission's advice. ...12 hours ago - NZ, this is your Volkswagen moment
We need to make radical strategy shifts in farming and food production, and we need to start now. ...12 hours ago - Overseas Kiwis pay off student debt in pandemic
A recent surge in student loan repayments from borrowers based overseas tells a tale of two types of debtors. ...12 hours ago - A new problem to plague $525m new hospital
District health board members have been made aware of a new problem with a just-opened Christchurch Hospital building. Oliver Lewis reports. It was two years late and plagued by errors during construction, now a further major issue can be revealed at the new $525 million Christchurch Hospital building, Waipapa. Hundreds ...12 hours ago - Our definition of climate success is seriously flawed
'Success' in achieving our proposed climate targets would only give us a 66 percent chance of avoiding irreversible climate damage. ...12 hours ago - Disgust at China's state-sponsored 'Uyghurface' in Wellington
As further reports of torture and systemic rape emerge from Xinjiang, the PRC’s propaganda machine is hard at work in New Zealand. Laura Walters looks at why a Chinese New Year performance in Wellington was more than just cultural appropriation State-sponsored appropriation of Uyghur culture has been labelled “disgusting” and “disrespectful” ...12 hours ago - Covid hit NZ a year ago. Where will it – and we – be in February 2022?Covid-19 vaccination won’t be enough to save us from hard choices that will need to be made during our second or even third year of living with the coronavirus. Keeping Covid-19 mostly out of New Zealand has been a Herculean feat, drawing praise from around the world. Over the next year, ...12 hours ago
- New Zealand’s top 13 abysses to gaze into, reviewed and rankedIf there’s a time for screaming into the void, 2021 is surely it. Josie Adams shares a baker’s dozen of Aotearoa’s top contenders.When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you, and it’s nice to have company. New Zealand’s geography is perfect for abysses, or abyssoi ...12 hours ago
- The high life and disappearance of Jake Millar
Jake Millar is an extraordinary young man. The young entrepreneur who convinced the rich and famous to invest millions in his business has now disappeared - and so has the money. Jake Millar was just a teenager in 2015 when he sold his first business to the government for six figures. ...12 hours ago - Grattan on Friday: Linda Reynolds’ future as defence minister is in her own handsSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Defence Minister Linda Reynolds faces an agonising question. Should she say to Scott Morrison she doesn’t feel up to staying in what is one of the most demanding portfolios in the government? Reynolds broke down ...16 hours ago
- ‘Crisis within a crisis’: Violence more risky for Fiji women than covidSPECIAL REPORT: By Sheldon Chanel in Suva Much of archipelagic Fiji was forced indoors by lockdowns and a nationwide curfew in March last year when the country recorded its first case of covid-19. The quick and decisive action by legislators was successful in helping contain the spread of a highly ...17 hours ago
- West Papuans reject Jakarta plan for extension of special autonomyAsia Pacific Report The indigenous people of West Papua have rejected the extension of special autonomy and the planned expansion of new provinces announced by the central government of Indonesia. The rejection comes from grassroots communities across West Papua and Papuan students who are studying in Indonesia and overseas. Responding ...18 hours ago
- Peter Winder appointed to lead Wellington coucil reviewThe man who led the review into the dysfunctional Tauranga City Council before it was taken over by a commissioner has been appointed to lead the review into Wellington's council. ...22 hours ago
- Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March's partner's visa application in questionOpposition MPs are questioning whether there had been any special treatment from immigration officials in regards to Ricardo Menéndez March's partner's application. ...23 hours ago
- Tiger Woods’ car crash injuries explained, according to a trauma surgeonSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Harris, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, UNSW Tiger Woods’ medical team has released a statement on Twitter to explain the injuries he sustained in his car crash earlier this week. The statement was from the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, a trauma centre, where ...23 hours ago
- Business is Boring: The Christchurch mum getting people moving in the morningIn this week’s episode, host Simon Pound meets Lisa Fong (aka Move It Mama) whose Facebook Live workouts have found a loyal – and huge – audience worldwide.Nearly every morning, thousands of people around New Zealand and the world start their day with a workout led by a mum of ...23 hours ago
- ACT rails against Māori ward legislationThe comparison of new Māori ward legislation with apartheid South Africa by the ACT Party has been labelled offensive and insulting. ...24 hours ago
- A Forest of Hooks and Nails is a joyous exhibition about the art of hanging artSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ted Snell, Honorary Professor, Edith Cowan University Review: A Forest of Hooks and Nails, Fremantle Arts Centre for Perth Festival Several years ago, when being shown around an exhibition under preparation with a Nobel prize-winning guest, an academic colleague asked what one ...24 hours ago
- Against the odds, South Australia is a renewable energy powerhouse. How on Earth did they do it?Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael McGreevy, Research Associate, Flinders University Less than two decades ago, South Australia generated all its electricity from fossil fuels. Last year, renewables provided a whopping 60% of the state’s electricity supply. The remarkable progress came as national climate policy was gripped ...1 day ago
- Oh dear – see who was offended when Goldsmith called for Kiwis to be treated equally in electoral ...Debbie Ngarewa-Packer’s parents – according to a report in Stuff – delivered some strong mantra to live by. One of them: “Don’t accept, you push back, be provocative, but always be respectful.” But what happens when political opponents don’t accept, push back and – dare we suggest it? – are ...1 day ago
- Indigenous expertise is reducing bushfires in northern Australia. It’s time to consider similar ap...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kamaljit K Sangha, Senior Ecological Economist, Charles Darwin University Northern Australia is by far the most fire-prone region of Australia, with enormous bushfires occurring annually across thousands of square kilometres. Many of these vast, flammable landscapes have precious few barriers to slow ...1 day ago
- We can’t trust big tech or the government to weed out fake news, but a public-led approach just mi...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tauel Harper, Lecturer, Media and Communication, UWA, University of Western Australia The federal government’s News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code, which passed the Senate today, makes strong points about the need to regulate misinformation. In response, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, TikTok, ...1 day ago
- There Is No Plan For Fortress New Zealand...1 day ago
- A short list of the ‘wokesters’ Simon Bridges should target nextInspired by Bridges’ brave stand against the evil wokesters, Emily Writes unearths other examples of the woke peril.This week, Simon Bridges described NZ Police’s Andrew Coster as a “wokester commissioner” who isn’t fit for the job. The “too nice” Coster is not arresting enough baddies, you see.When asked why Coster ...1 day ago
- Banks Support New Housing Remit For RBNZBanks welcome today’s announcement that the Reserve Bank will consider the impact of its monetary and financial policy decisions on the housing market. “Banks support today’s announcement and are keen to be involved in discussions around how to tackle ...1 day ago
- Houses by the dozen – Woods rebuffs sneers about game-changing policies while Robertson brings RBN...
Our Beehive Bulletin … It’s all go – well, sort of – on the housing front. The Nats yesterday were scoring brownie points by scoffing at the state’s spending on a professional promotional video, including drone footage, celebrating a housing scheme that has helped only 12 families. But Housing Minister ...1 day ago - Organic Products Bill A Major Boost For ExportersLegislation regulating New Zealand's organic sector is about to pass through its final stages in Parliament and will be a major boost for exporters meeting the global demand for safe, 'clean', GE-free organic products. The Organic Products Bill helps ...1 day ago
- The Offspin: World Test Championship here we comeThe Spinoff’s cricket podcast is back! Join Simon Day and Alex Braae on the road to Lord’s with special guest, White Fern Frankie Mackay.With the Blackcaps headed for the final of the inaugural ICC World Test Championship at Lord’s in June, Simon Day and Alex Braae have successfully appealed to ...1 day ago
- One year on from Covid case #1: Five lessons for 2021 and beyondUniversity of Otago public health experts Michael Baker, Amanda Kvalsvig and Nick Wilson ponder what we’ve learned about the pandemic over the past 12 months, and how we can improve our response in the future.Exactly one year ago tomorrow (February 26) the first confirmed case of Covid-19 arrived in Aotearoa ...1 day ago
- Attaching a beeping device to people with Autism isn’t treatment. It’s tortureA crowdfunding campaign for a ‘tool’ that attaches to the back of the neck is abhorrent to people with lived neurodivergent experience, writes ADHD and Autism advocate Rory McCarthy.Just over a fortnight ago, I discovered a device on Kickstarter that was being marketed as a treatment for children and adults ...1 day ago
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The news media uses emotive language and quotation marks to take a side in a story, as opposed to reporting the news..
This is how they report action by animal activists to highlight animal welfare issues at a sea park in Australia.
“Distressed parents were forced to take their children from theme park shows after protesters refused to leave and labelled them “disgusting”.
Fun family days out across the weekend have turned ugly as “peaceful” protesters storm Gold Coast theme parks.
Demonstrators who targeted several amusement parks held their hands up in peace signs, despite the situation becoming quite violent.
Dozens of children were forced to watch distressing situations at Sea World on Saturday after the group, Justice for Captives, refused to get out of the water until its famous dolphin show was stopped.”
The vocabulary used sets the scene ….’distressed parents’ , ‘disgusting protesters’,
Speech marks are used to describe the protesters are peaceful to undermine that claim, reinforced by the used of verbs like ‘storm’, ‘forced’ and adjectives like ‘ugly and voilent’
The reporter should continue. Make it really clear whose side you take.
Just another example brought to you to prove the corporate media sucks.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12177949
Is this dolphin under a lot of stress and duress ….???
Would that Dolphin prefer to live in the Ocean … or little concrete pens ?.
The test would be to allow the Dolphins access to the sea …
If they’d stay to do tricks for Sardines …. that would show them to be content and happy … But we all know they’d leave if not held captive.
In reality they are providing a high octane monkeys tea party…. an aquatic zoo where the animals do tricks for us.
In my younger days, I worked for several weeks on Hamilton Island, and one of the jobs there was at the Dolphin Restaurant. A restaurant near the sea, surrounded by a concrete pool that held three dolphins.
It was sad to see those animals in such a artificial, enclosed environment, even though their keepers treated them with affection that ‘seemed’ to be returned. While I was there, one of the females just became listless and died.
After I left – I heard the dolphins pool was closed down, but that memory of those huge mammals kept in such a confined area to provide a living, backdrop for the restaurant patrons has stayed with me.
The journalist who wrote this piece is one Stephanie Bedo, a senior journalist, who, apparently..
“..has won awards for her health reporting and admits to being a bit of a science nerd, particularly when it comes to animal stories that often only she is excited about.”
She is “good” at making a clear “distinction” between “animal abuse” (bad) and “animal abuse” in the name of “entertainment” (good).
She is also a “chronic” uses of “inverted” commas.
Ignore her and she might just go away.
And then they deliver quality, intellectually rigorous gems like this
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/109405675/if-national-is-dog-whistling-on-migration-others-have-too
Bit like this twit, really:
“His views are backed up by some eyewitnesses to the parade. One parent told Newshub the Māori Santa left children stunned and in tears.
“All these kids were dumbstruck really, you could hear the ‘that’s not Santa’,” she told Newshub.
“Our six-year-old son burst into tears after the video finished. We had to explain to him that Santa was running late.”
Garner blamed some “PC wally” and “woolly woofter” for the “stupid decision by Nelson”.
I have a feeling he could be the one left feeling like a “wally” though – lol
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/109291323/mori-santa-from-nelson-parade-coming-to-wellington
Right on Ed. Not only are the majority of humans ignorant they are also plain dumb!
The dumbing down of the masses is working as intended.
I worry about the crayfish 🙁
Is your worry in relation to this article?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12177804
“A conservation group is calling for a total fishing ban for crayfish in the Hauraki Gulf and Bay of Plenty as the population “collapses towards extinction”.
Forest & Bird is calling for the wider Hauraki Gulf to Bay of Plenty crayfishing area (known as CRA2) to be closed for three years to allow the species to start recovering.
“The wider Hauraki Gulf to Bay of Plenty crayfish population has undergone a significant decline,” Forest & Bird marine conservation advocate Katrina Goddard said.
“Without an urgent end to fishing pressure, crayfish could become functionally extinct throughout the entire area within a few years.” ….”
Considering the state of our QMS and thus the unknown state of our fisheries
we should probably be considering either an outright ban on all fishing for 20 years or at least a serious decrease on commercial fishing by only allowing fish caught in NZ controlled waters to be sold in NZ.
if we go down that path could we first have words with the like of Ngati Kahungunu who insist on allowing the D’Esposito Brothers fishing rights?? I’m not sure of the total charges the D’Esposito’s and their various companies have attracted over the years, but it’s well over the hundreds. Infact Ngati Kahungunu (and Waikato Tainui) only concern seems to be the possible loss of jobs.
Then again, who can blame them for not taking overfishing seriously. The D’Espositos simply turn up in court, year after year, facing the same charges, paying the fines with their ill gotten gains, and continue on their merry way.
Restricting to NZ fishing companies only makes sense if we create bigger penalties for repeat, flagrant, breaking of the law. Otherwise we are kidding ourselves.
Just a random sample..
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2018/08/inside-mpi-s-2-5m-fishing-investigation.html
https://www.maoritelevision.com/news/regional/ngati-kahungunu-chair-concerned-jobs-after-fisheries-raid
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/72827811/null
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/100241472/fisheries-trial-ends-abruptly-after-seven-months-with-guilty-pleas-entered-to-122-charges
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/104888202/hawkes-bay-fishing-company-and-directors-back-before-court-to-be-convicted
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business-around-new-zealand/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503701&objectid=11333980
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11627567
Agreed. If a company breaks the law it should be nationalised and then sold. The previous owners should keep the debt that the company had built up as well as being fined in the millions of dollars. Limited liability should not exist.
That said, I didn’t actually say that the fishing be restricted to NZ companies. I said that the fish caught could only be sold in NZ. I suspect that foreign companies wouldn’t bother.
And, yes, I’m quite aware that many Iwi are standing in the way of what we need to do to protect the environment. Just have to look at their whinging about the Kermadec fish sanctuary to see that.
“And, yes, I’m quite aware that many Iwi are standing in the way of what we need to do to protect the environment. Just have to look at their whinging about the Kermadec fish sanctuary to see that.”
If the Iwi (or any other group) conflict with what we need to do to protect the environment than they need to change.
They don’t seem willing to as doing so gets in the way of their profits.
Hard for Kahungungu to complain when some of them were apparently travelling with the brothers to Greece during the court case. Family over there also wonder about who was benefitting from the back door sales over the years this was going on. Would have been much more interesting if the court case proceeded.
Still they did conveniently have a track to get upset about to take attention away.
“we should probably be considering either an outright ban on all fishing for 20 years ”
Do you mean just in NZ or worldwide? If you mean worldwide then you’ll run into problems because in some developing nations (and other western nations but it isn’t really a problem for Western Nations) fish make up a huge percentage of their protein. You’d need to introduce an alternative…Soylent Green?
The thread was about NZ fisheries.
That said, considering that fish stocks are collapsing worldwide I suspect that those nations, which does include Developed Nations, that are dependent upon fish to feed themselves are in for a world of hurt.
Yes I share your concern about the collapse of ecosystems.
It’s not that far off either….I have a young daughter and I am saddened by the idea she might grow up in a world where there are no tigers or Rhinos or….everything
I think it was a Standard poster who provided a link and put me onto this morbidly fascinating website
https://ejatlas.org/
The website features an atlas showing some large sites and locations in countries around the world …. these locations are where exploitation, corruption, pollution and environmental destruction … and various other bad things are taking place.
New Zealand is lightly ….. and under-represented
https://ejatlas.org/country/new-zealand
A couple of examples missing from the New zealand would be the 80% non compliant swamp Kauri smash and grab industry … with Judith collins connections providing the gps google earth location.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/35%C2%B052'06.7%22S+174%C2%B027'55.2%22E/@-35.868539,174.4647718,119m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m14!1m7!3m6!1s0x6d0c84ab7cf51103:0x500ef6143a30170!2sRuakaka!3b1!8m2!3d-35.9063963!4d174.4471293!3m5!1s0x0:0x0!7e2!8m2!3d-35.8685388!4d174.4653194
Another example of greed and destruction could be the forestry operators behind our recent Lumber Lahars ….that rooted Tolaga bay https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/04-07-2018/satellite-images-tell-the-story-of-tolaga-bays-forestry-disaster/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/109025916/prosecutions-over-floodtriggered-logging-debris-on-east-coast
“The Malaysian owner of a forestry company blamed for tonnes of debris washing up in Tolaga Bay has been fined twice for illegal logging overseas, but it took the Overseas Investment Office nine years to realise.” https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/366868/tolaga-bay-forestry-company-s-illegal-logging-history-revealed
And I’m sure there are many more sites around NZ where destruction, pollution, poisoning and exploitation of our Land and resources has taken place.
We could probably include most of Canterbury …. with dairying destroying freshwater resources.
The old Dow site in Taranaki … which is still poisoning its surrounds
The Waihi open pit mine
etc etc
I’m going to write up and submit The swamp kauri looting …. with a special mention for Judith Collins … who hates wetlands.
There is still loads of ‘slash’ from forestry that was washed down the Motueka valley during Gita. They cleared the roads, but crikey there’s a heap of wood in the dry parts of the river bed.
Fustrating to see it still sitting there. So I loaded up some logs, took them home, whipped out the chainsaw and hello free firewood.
Not sure if it’s legal or not, pretty legal maybe? It’s been almost a year now, maybe they were waiting for the locals to pick it up for fire wood as it’s not on private property?
It’ll be legal. If it’s been a year and nothing has been done about it, chances are it’s been abandoned and therefore free for the taking.
Unless the council has passed a resolution of some kind taking ownership or otherwise
“I’m going to write up and submit The swamp kauri looting …. with a special mention for Judith Collins … who hates wetlands .”
Pucky!
Was Judith on your list of Blue-Green Environmental Champions?
You better fly to her defence!
Paul Goldsmith’s car crash interview on RNZ.
Just a tiny bit of preparation by Guyon had Goldsmith talking utter garbage.
Amazing how many politicians who can’t cope when they are forced off their mantra.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018675894/the-government-is-focusing-solely-on-safety-national
Yes. Heard that. Should we take Goldsmith seriously or is he just a yapping Peke?
Too many cars (and big trucks) and not enough road, somethings got to give.
As one who travels to Whangarei quite a bit (work related), it is a tricky road. It has way more traffic than 10 years ago. It would be hugely safer if it was 4 lane. Same with Katikati to Tauranga.
But this govt hates the idea of 4 lanes, so we get band aid solutions.
Now obviously not all of dangerous roads have enough traffic to justify 4 lanning but the two I mentioned certainly do.
So yes, some parts of the Labour/Green plan are sensible, but their complete opposition to any new 4 lanes roads is foolish.
Personally I thought Paul did quite ok, though he did get sidetracked at one point.
Doubt it especially when I take into account that you’re talking anecdotes and are ideologically in favour of more cars despite the evidence showing that we can’t afford the ones that we have.
It’s not the government that hates it – it’s reality.
Actually, rail would be better especially if it was electric. Increase freight and safety while being cheaper, faster and more ecologically sound.
No, it’s National’s desire to coat the entire country in roads that is foolish as it goes against all the evidence.
Draco,
You could not be more wrong even if you tried.
The 4 lane roads, especially the newer ones are by far the safest roads in the country. Not just anecdotal, actual fact.
As for 4 lanning well there is no doubt complete ideological opposition from the left, even for the blindingly obvious projects (Dome valley). Fortunately countered from the right. So at least when National is govt, they get built (though opened by Jacinda). Just as National will get to open the light rail-the northwest one is good, the Dominion Rd not so. Light rail should also go into the Southeast (Tamaki, Pakuranga, etc) and to North Shore.
So the next National govt will build the next set of motorways, to be opened by the Labour PM who follows Jacinda, who is possibly not yet in Parliament.
It’s not ideology – it’s reality. The stuff that National ignores because it doesn’t conform with their beliefs. We really can’t afford cars and so we can’t afford four lane roads.
Of course they will as they’re fully opposed to reality.
Yes well any road is going to be safer with 2 lanes rather than one… Would the astronomical build cost meet any sort of sane business cost ratio like pretty much all of the Nats other Roads of National significance? I doubt it. Two laning doesn’t solve traffic jams either as they don’t eliminate choke points, in fact they’re likely to make them worse by bringing more traffic into them.
With fluctuating fuel prices and declining world oil reserves does it make any sense to build new roading infrastructure? Don’t think so. It is possible to make roads safer without having to double the road width. This is what the Government are actually doing right now.
For the next 100 years or more, (probably more like 200 years or more) roads will be the main transport system in NZ. Roads have been a key land transport system for literally thousands of years going back to Roman times. It will not remain with fossil fuel engines. Electric and hydrogen will be the main power source.
There is zero prospect that rail could ever be dense enough in NZ to replace the majority of land transport. Even if rail quadrupled in the next few years, it would still be moving way less freight than road.
It would take a fantastic new, energy dense system to replace roads (magnetic levitation or something similar). But that requires power at multiple levels of what we currently use.
Only if we allow the delusional idiots at National to control everything.
Have you ever considered why rail is still in use today?
It’s because its far more economic than cars and trucks.
https://grist.org/article/freight-trains-19th-century-technology-due-for-a-21st-century-revival/
And we have the perverse subsidies mentioned in that article as well. If trucks actually paid their way they’d be out of business.
In NZ we have one other form of transport available that’s also more efficient than roads – ships.
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/research/reports/497/docs/497.pdf
The only reason why trucking freight by road even exists in this country is because of those perverse incentives that I mentioned.
Flat bed rail carriages , drive on enjoy the trip, a meal the view, drive off. Rail to the airport, allow tourist easy access to rural tourist hubs and hire their campers and cars from there. Travellers, sales and business, use rail and hire ev’s. In 200 yrs the northern motor way is under 20 mtr of water, so it will be barges and ferry.
It’s a shame then @ Wayne that the short-sighted, vision-less of planners over the years have chosen to close down, or mothball the network we once had.
Just imagine the commuter rail and freight forwarding capability we might have had.
(For example, by now):
-Dunedin could have had an earport ta ciddy rail transit system, and even an alternative means to the burbs along the way and further north
-Christ’s Church could have had a commuter system from Lyttleton to points north, and from the outliers like Rolleston to the city
-Gisborne wouldn’t be worrying about its limitations – by now it’d have had a link between Matawai and Opotiki and onward to Tearonga, or that “choice’ to go southward
Living in Stratford or Eltham and working in the Plym might be viable.
Instead, that Auckland/Hamilton/Tauranga triangle is now seen as some sort of HUGE deal in terms of being able to furnish it with commuter and freight rail – let alone a fucking commuter & freight system to the Auckland REGIONAL & INTERNATIONAL Earport
And then there’s the south…..the system came close to linking the Queens town with Dunners
You do realise (I sincerely hope) that current transport arrangements are not sustainable long term ( and I don’t mean just because there might be some pretty bloody suspect truck/trailer linkages on the road, or because we can’t attract enough slaves to drive them before driver-less trucks become viable – probably not in my loiftoim)
Oh, and btw, you did another of your spray and walkaway acts the other day
Wayne have you heard of climate change?
Did you listen to Greta’s speech at COP?
Building more roads as we head to climate catastrophe- that’s a plan!!
You are assuming all future land transport will use fossil fuel engines. It won’t.
Electric and hydrogen will become the norm. But the vehicles still have to go over something. They are roads, just as horses and carts had to also use roads.
Have you considered that we can’t afford the roads due to the environmental damage that the roads do/cause?
He hasn’t , I sense.
Most people in NZ need roads because they lack the skills to survive without them, forgetting that our ancestors travelled mainly on foot. You won’t be the only one driving out of town on business. We could organise our communities so we didn’t need to, but there’s no incentive because road transport is affordable and people are hooked on driving. Why not walk to your workplace, work from home, teleconference if necessary ?
Climate change tells us that individual road transport is no longer affordable as it is.
The problem is that our entire economy has become based upon that unaffordable mode of transport. It’s what happens when externalities aren’t taken into account and become a massive subsidy to the manufacturers.
Even if/when cars/trucks go electric they mat still not be affordable because of the environmental damage caused by roads and the lack of resources needed to get everybody a car.
So, considering that we can’t actually afford cars/trucks then we must consider that we’re paid too much, that costs aren’t properly attributed or a combination of both.
why would everybody need a car? I can’t wait for CaaS.
Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore?
Car as a Service.
Won’t work as you expect.
Either there won’t be enough at peak times or we’ll still have congestion.
It’ll work outside of peak times when a reliable average can be determined.
For peak times there’s going to have to be public transport and as soon as there’s reliable public transport then CaaS doesn’t work again.
BTW, taxis are CaaS.
Well, public transport is CaaS too, it’s just inconvenient. I have to get to where the vehicle is, at the time when the vehicle is there.
My dream: the electric autonomous vehicle turns up when and where I need it because Big Data knows that’s when I need it. Maybe shared with other passengers for efficiency.
Does have the benefit of being economical and workable.
Which is a dream that is both uneconomic and unworkable.
It’s here now.
It’s called Uber. Comes with a driver and everything.
It’s brilliant.
I protested Uber on Saturday night. The wife and boy used it but I and the girl walked the 2km home instead. Everyone was happy.
“But this govt hates the idea of 4 lanes” Comments like this remove any credibility to the rest of your comment. Perhaps this Government is just looking at get more Bang for it’s Buck (or less Bangs as the case may be) rather than spend more on your two favoured stretches of road.
However the reality is that they do hate 4 lane roads, especially the Green MPs. They have said so many, many times.
Just about the very first action of this government was to cancel every single 4 lane road that had not actually beeen started. Ideology was the reason.
[citation needed]
The reason why they were cancelled was because they were uneconomical.
You’re saying this to someone who has to drive across a One Lane bridge on SH1 cancelled by Simon Bridges after promising double lanes. Your feeble attack on this Government holds no validity.
4 lane roads aren’t safer because they’re 4 lanes.
In modern cars most people die because they hit something solid like a tree, lamp-post, collide with oncoming traffic or T-Bone someone. Motorways are safer because oncoming traffic and trees etc are on the other side of barriers. Colliding with a vehicle travelling the same way as us is rarely fatal.
We don’t need 4 lanes just safe merging, passing lanes where easy done and barriers both sides and middle of a largely 2-lane road.
When so many are dying on our roads each year, I think the right thing to do is to make them safer and put off the luxury of 4 lane Interstate stylings for the time being. 4 lanes through the Aussie interior, no worries cobber, punching them through our mountainous, ravine ridden landscape, jolly expensive.
Wayne Wayne Wayne possum. This government doesn’t hate the idea of 4 lanes.
It just realises that there has been an under-investment over many years and it’s trying to deal with the basics (based on research) before it goes for the luxuries you think you’re entitled to.
Your gorgeous spokesman couldn’t have made that more clear this morning on Moaning Report, however in doing so, he came across as a complete egg roll and showed exactly where he places human life over convenience.
Oh, and btw, hopefully they’ll realise that there are other alternatives before we get to the 4 lane option becoming necessary.
Apparently you see no problem with placing emphasis on four lanes so that the world’s ‘best drivers’ – no doubt including yourself can text whilst driving, tailgate, merge like it is some sort of competition, put driving on auto, etc. with less risk
Train.
Just responding to a couple of articles about Grace Millane on open mike yesterday, one by Alison mau and one from Paul little. The Gus of these articles was that we care more about grace, because she was white, young and pretty. In Alison attempt to highlight this she quotes some studies (although no references given) which is useful information, then travels to south Auckland to a street where a woman was murdered, the day or so before. There is a blanket ban and name suppression around this case, but that didn’t stop Alison.
I found her article and indeed all comments about we only care about grace because she was pretty, in very poor taste at this time. I hope none of her extended family see them while they are grieving.
A crucial reason that people got so involved in grace tragic story, was initially a missing person. So we followed that story and hoped like hell she’d be found. And or course we experienced a roller coaster of emotion, right through to the bitter end. And it was a bit like the story of the Thai cave boys. Who would have clocked that story if the were missing foe a few hours then res used.
I am not denying what ms mau says about white pretty woman getting more publicity. That is not going to solve our problem though. I am going to pause now and will write about going to the vigil and my experience about that, and getting real about solving this problem ie what research tells us about these perpetrators and why slogans grandstanding isn’t going to change things
That is not going to solve our problem though
Just so we’re all clear, what problem is that?
Our problem is the significant levels of domestic violence and the homicides that occur, even though the rate is dropping.
Hell week is this week for retail and service sector workers. Under appreciated and sometimes not understood, have a thought for the people who ensure you can get your Christmas shopping done. Not all do.
What a load of rubbish, It’s only a hell week if you tell yourself it’s a hell week, your just busy and it’s work,
Just mind over matter eh Wildebeest? You don’t mind and no one else matters.
Indeed, good manners, courtesy, Larry Davids golden rule “do unto others…”, retail = underpaid!
Have you worked in the retail or service sectors?
I currently work in the service sector and did 7.5 years (6 years part time; 1.5 full)from 2001-2008 in a supermarket.
I could tell you a few stories. Think you know? Try working in the sector first.
Good article about seeds being a strategic asset for NZ and should be held by a NZ owned consortium.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12177017
Wrightson’s has gone down hill since the majority owned overseas ownership with many delays to farmers getting their seeds this year and disorganisation. Any issues with being able to plant swiftly to the season (especially with climate change) from poor management from Wrightsons has the ability to bankrupt farmers relying on a decent service. There are not many major seed firms in NZ.
The Wrightson’s chairman sounds a dodgy as.
“In one of those egregious deals that are only too common in the regulatory sector, Lai has agreed to pay a US$400,000 ($583,000) penalty and be barred from acting as a director or officer of a public company for five years for manipulating prices in Agria’s NYSE-listed shares.
The settlement with the SEC followed claims that the agriculture investment firm hid losses from investors through fraudulent accounting and overstated the value of its New York-listed stock.”
Totally agree that seeds are a ‘strategic’ asset that need to be NZ owned and also WELL run for the benefits of NZ agriculture. Good call for it to be bought by a NZ consortium and made sure it is well run to the benefit of many small and medium business in NZ that rely on it. Food is strategic. It should be retained for NZ.
We could call it the Ministry for the Primary Sector.
So crickets on the up and Kane Williamsons winning record is off the charts (at least for NZ cricket) so to add a bit of controversy to the day heres my all time NZ test team, since the advent of one day cricket (because I don’t want to add any names I haven’t seen play)
1. G Turner
2. M Richardson
3. K Williamson (C)
4. M Crowe
5. R Taylor
6. J Oram
7. BJ Watling (WK)
8. D Vettori
9. Sir R Hadlee
10. S Bond
11. T Boult
Unlucky mentions to J Wright, S Fleming and B McCullum
Number 6 was the most difficult position for me to choose as there were 3 candidates: Chris Cairns, Jacob Oram and J Coney
Cairns has a very good bowling average of under 30 but his batting is weaker than the other two (though certainly not bad) and of the three Coneys bowling is the weakest however I’m also looking at team players and how players would play under Williamsons captaincy
So Oram gets the nod because I’m banking on Hadlee, Bond and Boult to do the job
with the ball and Oram and Vettori to do the donkey work of tying up one end and building pressure plus Orams height adds to the variety of bowling
Bowlers win matches but batter save matches 🙂
and of course…
Never rated Vettori, thought he was a very average spin bowling, for a start the guy could hardly even spin the ball.
He got his wickets just through the sheer volume of overs he’d bowl, his strike rate and average was rather poor.
I’d have John Bracewell any day over Vettori.
Also when the guy was batting you’d swear he had wet noodles for wrists.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/newzealand/content/player/36306.html
http://www.espncricinfo.com/newzealand/content/player/38710.html
The bowling averages are quite similar though Vettori just shades Bracewell on all but Vettoris batting sees hims through however this selection is based on not knowing what the pitch will do…if its a spinning pitch then maybe Oram would get dropped for Bracewell (and then S Boock would get the apology 🙂 )
Bracewell bowed against far better players and was more of an attacking spin bowler.
You felt Bracewell could get wickets every time he bowled, while Vertori’s best hope was to just bore them out.
I had C Cairns over Oram as well.
Yeah those are good arguments and not all my decisions are based on numbers but in Vettoris case over 360 test wickets and six centuries are pretty compelling
The thing with Cairns is there’s quite a bit of…shall we say baggage…so I wouldn’t be comfortable having him in the team when he could break down with injury, possibly play through the injury but choose not to, fake an injury and then that stuff with Indian cricket and Lou Vincent and I’m happy to go with Orams better batting
Which the means the bowling line up of Hadlee, Bond, Boult, Vettori and Oram all have their strengths and differences
I mean you survive Bonds right arm 145kph plus in swingers and then you have Hadlees line and length (and under rated bouncer) or Boults left arm in swingers you get to the other end and now you have to try to score of Vettoris accuracy or Orams natural pitch of a 2 meter frame
Shes not a bad team
Always rated the likes of Bracewell and C Cairns for their gimme the fucking ball, I’ll get him out attitude.
I think I have that covered with Hadlee and Bolt 🙂
“I’d have John Bracewell any day over Vettori.”
+100%
360 wickets and six centuries are pretty compelling reasons for me
I couldn’t leave Cairns out.
He kind of had that winning mentality which I think many New Zealand cricketers have lacked over the years. In the age of Warne, Waughs and McGrath, he was possibly the only Kiwi who may have got a start in a hypothetical combined Trans-Team. Certainly he was the only one the Channel Nine team gave any respect to.
I would probably put McCullum ahead of Turner as well, based solely on his late career form (even though he did not open in Tests). They are polar opposites in style. McCullum was a fire cracker where anything could happen at any stage. Turner was a methodical bore-fest of a player.
Need Henry, Hosking and Key in there to keep Richardson company.
Bert Sutcliffe instead of Richardson (by a mile)
JR Reid ahead of Oram as the all-rounder (Reid’s offspin gives another slow bowler) – or alternatively Jeremy Coney, who could also be captain.
Jack Cowie ahead of Boult (much as I like Trent’s bowling)
Boult as 12th man or Bruce Taylor (terrific seamer and explosive hitter)
Vettori would have to be the young version before his first back injury – a wonderful bowler then with a more open-chested delivery and more spin, but he was pretty average after his back injuries..
They are fantastic players (especially JR Reid) but I figure the cut off point had to be around the time I first started watching otherwise its simply a matter of inputting stats in only, stats are a good place to start (or as tie breaker) but they don’t tell the full story
Agreed with Vettori but in my game plan hes there to tie an end down and build pressure, along with the natural bounce of Oram, to let Hadlee and Bond do their thing also 6 centuries batting down the order isn’t anything to sniff at
Boult gets in purely for variety reasons as a left arm pace bowler , I mean hes not bad but being left arm it’d be just something else for the batsmen to have to adjust to
Best all time test team
1. G Turner
2. S Dempster
3. K Williamson (C)
4. M Crowe
5. B Sutcliffe
6. J Reid
7. B McCullum (WK)
8. Sir R Hadlee
9. S Bond
10. C Grimmet
11. T Boult
Not sure we can count number 10 🙂 but otherwise a more than handy team
Some comments are being removed, I’m not sure whats happened or if I’ve inadvertently broken some sort of rule?
Just released a few comments, PR. Not sure what happened. New IP address, maybe? That or misspelling a name or email are the usual triggers.
I thought maybe there were some hard core Chris Cairns fans not liking what I’m posting 🙂
You have the wrong Cairns.
Lance was much more fun to watch, particularly in the one day game.
Against Australia in 1983 he got 50 runs in about 12 minutes, including 6 sixes in 10 balls.
Put Lance Cairns in somewhere, anywhere.
Sorry but his numbers nowhere near make him eligible for a position on my team
Also hes a major creepy sleaze (according to my wife)
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/12/blood-and-guts-and-sex-that-s-the-way-to-go-simon-bridges.html
Is there are NZ politician who mis-judges more than Simon Bridges??????? I don’t think so. What a completely inappropriate thing to say. I don’t want to know the leader of the opposition likes to watch sex on tv………………………more information than I need to know…..
# keep Simon
“Expense controversy
On 10 June 2010 after the release of ministerial credit card records, Jones admitted to having used a Crown credit card for personal expenditure, but assured the public that he had reimbursed the Crown in full for the expenditure. Later that day Jones admitted that he had used the card to hire pornographic films at hotels while on ministerial business.[11] The credit card record showed that he chartered an executive jet for $1200, which he claimed was due to bad weather which forced a change in his schedule.[12]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_Jones
Watching sex on TV never did this guy any harm….
Read what he said again.
I think Shane watching porn was bloody awlful as well. Worse than Simon.
Jones didn’t win the Labour leadership battle, Cunliffe did and Robertson came second. A lot of feminist women in the Labour Party, and I don’t imagine many voting for Jonsie.
Now there’s the envy of the rich that National are always going on about.
I’d agree with “the envy of the rich that National are always going on about”. I don’t think it exists as much as those who are motivated by possessions would say.
Who really wants a vineyard in the south? Just as I didn’t detect envy in what Bridges said. I thought I heard instead a rather gentle jibe at John Key.
I did listen, rather than read the transcript. I certainly am not going out of my way to defend the captain of the NCC, but the video ref might find him not out with the benefit of the doubt on this one. 🙂
I’m rather struck by this Joe Hildebrand essay. As with any political opinion piece I understand not everyone will agree with everything being said here; but on my first read I bookmarked it and came back later for another pass at it.
It’s not long:
http://europechronicler.com/joe-hildebrand-the-west-is-falling-and-its-all-our-fault/
And there in lies the problem with Western liberal democracy.
How about, instead of electing people to govern us and to tell us what to do and why we can’t have what’s actually needed we stand up and govern ourselves?
Maybe then we’ll be able to stop the failings of dictators be they ever so democratically elected.
Representative democracy doesn’t allow us the choice. It empowers a few to have that choice and they’re the ones that are implementing policies that don’t work. Policies that are designed by the businesses and corporations for their own benefit.
Yes it was.
Question: Did the people of Europe actually have a say in the creation of the EU or was it all driven from the top?
The only ‘Western’ values that have been exported are those of exploitation and theft so it really shouldn’t be surprising that the rest of the world views our stated values with scepticism.
That works wonderfully – when nobody’s lying.
A framework that allows people to choose their own governments, be judged fairly by their peers and have their individual freedoms respected and protected…
Yeah, and its a friggin disaster unless you have a well educated, scientifically literate middle class. That took centuries to happen in the West. And it was helped along by enormous amounts of wealth looted from the non-Western world, that enabled the elites to trickle some down to their own downtrodden to keep them just happy and educated enough to serve the cause of empire.
Nowhere in the developing world has so called ‘democracy’ worked well. It has only worked well in countries after they became wealthy, and not before.
Case in point is India vs China. What country has performed better on almost all indices of economic growth, literacy, human happiness, life expectancy, and social well being? Google it.
Of course the West loves to thrust ‘democracy’ prematurely on shit-holes around the world – in order that they remain feudal disorganized shit-holes ripe for exploitation. The West fears most those strong secular states that adopt modern science and technology, eschew backward feudal superstitions, and who can stand up to the West. That is why the West supports the Syrian opposition. That is why they hate China, and love India.
That is, the West fears most those who adopt the scientific method first developed in the West, in order to stand up to the West.
“Justice Winkelmann will replace retiring Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias, who is leaving the role in March next year, having reached the compulsory retirement age of 70 for judges.”
What a pity USA didn’t retire their Supreme Court Judges at 70.
Hungarians are over Orban and his autocracy, but Soros…
Thousands of enraged demonstrators, during the fourth night of angry protests over the past week, marched to the headquarters of Hungarian state television in Óbuda, in the hope that the taxpayer-funded Fidesz propaganda machine that pretends to be a public broadcaster would allow for the demands of the opposition to be read on air.
[…]
Remarkably, but not surprisingly, the taxpayer-funded television station refused to give air time to ten democratically elected Hungarian MP’s who wanted to read the following in a live broadcast:
Meanwhile shortly before 23:00 Budapest time, MP’s still inside the public broadcasters headquarters called on all 66 opposition MP’s to come to the headquarters as well. At the same time, police used tear gas against the first line of demonstrators, while a growing number of protesters called for a push towards storming the building.
http://hungarianfreepress.com/2018/12/16/chaos-erupts-at-hungarian-state-media-headquarters-as-demonstrators-demand-air-time/
Our Minister of Finance released this yesterday to explain the headline budget categories leading into 2019:
All this talk recently about what we can about men thinking they can hurt, rape and murder with impunity well heres part of the problem
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/109399536/man-who-used-martial-arts-to-flip-waikato-cop-injuring-him-sentenced-to-home-detention
Attacks cop, sentenced to home detention
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/108969105/man-who-injured-auckland-judge-sentenced-to-community-work
Breaks judges wrist, community work
Maybe if government passed down the word to judges to start sending people who do violent acts to prison, if parole had to be earned rather than given, if multiple acts of crimes were added up then maybe we might be able to start having a talk but if government won’t even take violent seriously then is it any surprise men think they can get away with it, especially when society (in the form of government) allows them to
Yarp send them to prison and the problem goes away. Not the brightest idea there.
No, send them to prison then they arn’t out on the streets. Send them to prison and the message from the state is violence won’t be tolerated. Send them to prison and make parole dependent on rehab and training.
Making parole hard to get is silly. Parole allows for monitoring and conditions once the person has been released with the hope of better re-integration. If they complete their full sentence then the state has no strings on them whatsoever.
” If they complete their full sentence then the state has no strings on them whatsoever.”
Ask Stewart Wilson if thats the case, the state can put restrictions on anyone if they choose to
Only in such extreme cases.
So who decides whats extreme or not.
Make part of release conditions monitoring, education, training, whatever for people who commit crimes of violence
The principle of justice involved is that once you have served your sentence then you have paid your debt to society. Being a fanboy for Collins though i can see why you wouldn’t care about human rights.
The problem is some of these people aren’t receiving sentences proportionate to their crimes and the victims aren’t receiving justice
If that is what you think then argue for more severe sentences.
Our problem is the significant levels of domestic violence and the homicides that occur, even though the rate is dropping.
So it’s out of sight out of mind – a bit like sending plastic to Thailand – maybe the crims can go pick up plastic while outside on the inside.
Did you not see this part: “parole dependent on rehab and training.”
Its not out of sight out of mind but it is protecting society from these people and encouraging them to make something of their lives while incarcerated
I just can’t see how, on one hand, we want to stop violence towards women yet instead of keeping society safe, for a little while, we let them out
Someone attacks a cop and they get home detention, what message does that send
“…but it is protecting society from these people…”
Mate these people are you and your mates from work, from school, neighbors and relatives. There is no them and us unless you don’t identify as a male.
I can quite honestly tell you that they are not my mates, they may be the people you identify with but I don’t.
Of course, how unsurprising.
What utter kak
Yes there is an atrocious amount of male violence in NZ, but to try and guilt trip an entire sex over it is incredibly silly
Your sentence says it all – there is no guilt tripping because it is the truth as uncomfortable as you may find it.
The point is I don’t find it uncomfortable.
I find it disgusting that a tiny % of men commit violence against both women and men.
The vast majority of women is behind closed doors and curtains, by their partners, basically because they are scum and know full well it’s wrong, so it isn’t exactly on display
The fact that I am a male doesn’t make me somehow culpable or colluding in it.
And to say that it is somehow down to just men to fix it all, because they happen to be the same sex is dumb
Given the most likely people to know about this shit is the abused friends I would think it is extremely stupid to think that it is just men that should be highlighted to call it out.
It is everyone, what ever sex they are
Everyone includes the subset ‘men’. So what exactly is the problem again?
. Actually Chris I agree with you.
I was at the vigil for grace and found the talk of toxic masculinity unhelpful, even though I am a feminist.
We have to understand who these violent offenders are so we have a better chance of doing something to change it.
Most men who are physically violent have come from abusive backgrounds and have personality disorders such as anti social, boarderline or narcissistic. They are often substance abusers.
On a completely personal level when I was a much younger woman I worked with some really sexist men. But I felt completely safe with them and they never crossed a boundary, although they may have held a door open for me.
I have also come across progressive men who support feminist causes who I felt emotionally abused by.
It is a psychological approach we need to apply to solve the problem. Not a social/cultural one
Why are some men so full of hatred and want to hurt women?
Maybe we need to look at the Mothers and why/how they raise these violent Men?
The insinuations it is an issue for all men do to deal with, and the onus is on them to stop it.
A big part of the problem is cultural. Culture is a system of shared meaning. We have some particularly toxic male culture in this country. The only way to change something shared is collectively.
Yes all men. You said no! Its everyone. Everyone includes all men.
No shit
That is because I mean everyone including men. I haven’t said otherwise, so not sure what you are trying to imply.
But the insinuations that it is JUST A MEN’S issue they have to deal with, and it is down to men to fix it borders on the irresponsible.
Again. It should be a message to EVERYONE who learns about it, to speak up. Not targeted at men only.
No matter what sex they are, no matter how rich (because it is just as likely), how poor, how much of a shitty upbringing the subjects had.
Edit: Actually just as likely should probably be “does happen”. As the financial side of things seems to exacerbate the problem
You must have hung out with a lot of arseholes Marty?
Ever join in on the “action”? are you feeling a bit guilty in your old age?
Feel the need to do penance?
“men thinking they can hurt, rape and murder”.
The men might not be thinking. “The failure of “top-down” control systems in the prefrontal cortex to modulate aggressive acts that are triggered by anger provoking stimuli appears to play an important role.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4176893/
“Make part of release conditions monitoring, education, training, whatever for people who commit crimes of violence”. Is there good evidence this affects the top-down control systems ?
Good comment.
The development of humans in the animal behavours sense didn’t automatically become extinct due to the near instant developement of modern society.
Oxytocin and Vasopressin biology in regards to some DV and some sex crimes is very interesting, and an eye opener for people who have experienced how biology controls behavours, but never could explain things due to the social construct that everything we do is intentional.
Actually the evidence is pretty discouraging in terms of what works with treatment for violent offenders.
Solka I honestly do appreciate your contribution on the standard but I have to disagree with you about changing toxic male culture. Of course it is a good idea to do that but I don’t believe it addresses the problem of violent male offenders and the research that teaching these men to respect women more shows it to be a very weak intervention
Thank you so much Grafton gully. Finally someone is looking to and posting stuff on the science of aggression. Very interesting article
And they blame the indigenous people for this – bloody kali yuga. The Amazon is under so many threats it is scary.
“Approximately 8,000 barrels of crude oil have spilled into the Amazon, and the Peru State oil company Petroperu says its because local indigenous people severed the pipeline. According to a company statement, members of the Mayuriaga community in the Loreto region first damaged the pipeline and then interfered with the technicians trying to repair it.”
https://inhabitat.com/oil-spill-in-the-peruvian-amazon/
WHO in the hell cranked Trotter up. To be fair I find it difficult to read his murmuring but the comments left me gob smacked. Someone advised Prime Minister Ardern to “open your eyes my love” Really!!.
Where was this report?
Ed. Chris Trotter article at http://www.interest.co.nz. Some of the comments singularly unenlightened from the knuckle draggers.
Sometimes Trotter is a caricature of White Male Leftie Boomer.
I think your problem is that you can’t handle long-form journalism, ie more than 50 words!
This is interesting from a WMLB:
That the organised criminals controlling the New Zealand drug trade – especially the scourge of methamphetamine – are, overwhelmingly, wealthy Pakeha, is a fact too frightening for their middle-class neighbours to acknowledge.
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-salvation-armys-latest-report.html
Could it be that this sort of finger-pointing comes uncomfortably close to such as you?
I think your problem is that you use the term “journalism” far too loosely.
I think your problem is that you are an over-active vinegarish critic lacking sufficient humour to be effective. Having a lemon drink every day seems quite good for cleaning the tubes, but it is even better with a spot of honey.
Sometimes?
Open Mike this morning? 18/12
I wonder if after this helpful New Zealander was helping in Australia with clearing a track, that politicians might remember how we have been a big part of their advancement and are no more prone to criminality than they are. After all Ned Kelly is one of their heroes. Please stop hating Kiwis and treating us as 4th class citizens – and let our people go and stay. You know what I mean!
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/378502/great-grandmother-sees-funny-side-in-getting-lost-in-australian-bush
There you go some of our Aotearoa sea food is like gold over seas MPI need to be vigilant and the public need to dob in people rading our fisheries and fishes
The Ministry for Primary Industries said it was at least the sixth occasion in the last five years that overseas crew from merchant ships had been caught breaking fishing rules during a stopover in Bluff.
This was despite the ministry providing crew members with the rules around the legal take and size limit of shellfish.
Ministry spokesman Garreth Jay said the most recent incident in November involved four crew members who were caught near Ocean Beach at Bluff with a total of 91 black foot pāua, 82 of which were undersized, and 42 yellow foot pāua, of which 26 were undersized. Link Below ka kite ano . P.S We do want the mokopunas to experince the joys of gathering sea food.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/109418722/merchant-ship-crew-fined-for-plundering-paua-stocks-in-bluff
Eco Maori tau toko Vanuatu action to sue big carbon companys who are burning OUR future mokopunas right to a happy healthy future
Vanuatu threatens to sue biggest carbon energy producers The power of the courts
If Vanuatu sues it will add to a growing trend of climate change litigation.
Before 2014, only 12 countries had climate law suits — by March 2017, nearly 900 such cases had been filed in 24 countries, according to the UN Environment Programme.
“There’s just a tremendous urgency to take action now, so environmental groups, citizens, states and cities are taking to the courts to try and force action,” says Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.
The majority of climate change lawsuits have been filed in the US.
“Governments are almost always the defendants in climate change cases,” according to a 2017 UN Environment global review of climate change litigation.
In 2015, activist group Our Children’s Trust filed a law suit in the state of Oregon against the federal government. “I am suing the US government for taking direct action that puts my generation disproportionately at risk from climate change, and violating my constitutional rights to life, liberty and property,” Vic Barrett, a 19-year-old American university student and member of Our Children’s Trust, told CNN at the COP24 climate talks.
That year, attorneys for the federal government filed a motion to dismiss the case.
Among the defense’s arguments were that the law suit “presents a generalized attack on government action and inaction regarding climate change, rather than a challenge to specifically identifiable violations of law that can be concretely rectified by a favorable decision.” Links below ka kite ano
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/17/world/vanuatu-cop-climate-change-intl/index.html
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
Aftre shonky and his money men m8 joyce have inplanted the culture of Tangata /People are just some thing to siphon profts off who cares if there actions cause great stress and harm even death. 1 Winz 2 ACC 3 Housing Corp 4 Justice System 5 Health system 6 Education System 7 Maori wealth has dived under 9 years of his corporate way of running Aotearoa. All of these have put millions of people in hardship and stress I know Eco Maori is still being treated like DIRT NOW my UTU will be REKA.
ACC spying: ‘It’s nothing less than warfare’
At some point somebody with intelligence needs to stand back and say this is crazy. This is insane, we’re spending all this money and the guy is mad as hell – what do we need to do to fix this?”
As for Stryder, his war with ACC continues. To date, he has had 16 reviews of ACC decisions and applied to appeal three review decisions in the district court. He has been barred from communications with ACC case managers and trespassed from dispute resolution service Fairway Resolution Limited premises That kind of figure is made up … it’s not a hard figure, it’s speculative.”
Sara said ACC needed to learn how to better deal with people like Stryder.
“Like a number of people who have had unhappy dealings with ACC, they get mad as hell and that can lead to … nothing less than warfare.”
ACC defended the figure, saying the value of its integrity unit “intervention” was calculated based on claim history modelling.
In the financial year to June, ACC made 802,099 payments totalling $131m for medical assessments.
ACC used lawyers for about 10 per cent of review hearings due to “legal complexity, the precedence value of the issue, indications the client intends to progress the matter to court, and the workload of our people”.
Sara said hiring lawyers for reviews only inflamed the situation and put claimants in an unfair position.
“Once you’ve got a lawyer involved, every case has to have a lawyer.The financial stress, severe back pain, insomnia and challenging of ACC caused his marriage to break down and he suffered from anxiety and depression, he said.
“I hate it when ACC don’t believe you. I’m going to have to keep battling with them; I believe it’s totally criminal behaviour.”
ACC BY THE NUMBERS*:
1.98 million new claims received
79,648 new weekly compensation claims received
$69m – spending on injury prevention
$1.7m – spending on treatment and emergency travel
$740m – spending on care and support
$1.48m – spending on financial compensation and vocational rehabilitation
$740m – spending on operating costs
$40 billion – size of ACC’s investment portfolio to cover future claims
$3.5m – amount ACC earned in interest on its investment
99,500 – number of claims declined annually (disputed by some lawyers and advocates who say the figure could be as high as 300,000)
7616 – number of applications for reviews of ACC claim decisions*
$12.2m – spending on review services to FairWay Resolution**
(Source: ACC Annual Report 2018 and ACC Media Adviser)
* For the financial year to June 2018
** For the financial year to June 2017. links below ka kite ano
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/108759109/acc-spying-its-nothing-less-than-warfare
Read the comments to .
Eco Maori could see that wahine and maori have been getting a underarm bowl as of late. I tau toko Cliff Curtis word’s as I have seen maori diserpear off Aotearoa screen quite quickly in the last decade I have voiced my concerns on this Phenomenon.
Its is also Very good that Nga puhi iwi are calling for more wahine to be involved in there treaty settlement process I will not com anymore on there settlement as Eco Maori does not know the facts and my Iwi is were I should & will put my nose in
Cliff Curtis calls for women, Māori leadership in NZ film industry
He said he formed Whenua Films with directors, Taika Waititi and Ainsley Gardiner, because the Māori film industry was going through a pretty rough time.
“Māori content could not get through the funding agencies, could not get through the broadcasters, could not get through the distributors unless we had somebody above us, and literally speaking we looked above us [and] there weren’t any Māori. We were it.
“If you have Māori content that you are exploring, and you are exploiting … whether it be a character or whether it be an aspect of your content, then partner with Māori.
Ka kite ano links below
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/376017/cliff-curtis-calls-for-women-maori-leadership-in-nz-film-industry
Kia ora Newshub Paddy many thanks for the story of tompson and clark for spying on kiwis and IWI to what a big mess I wont say it Paddy. The imagration process is getting some checks and balances to stop employers ripping employes off the problem I have is money was good Dairyfarming and there were quite a few maori in dairy farming a few years back as we love working on the whenua .Now the money is crap and maori have been pushed out of dairyfarming show me how many maori dairy farmers made it into share milking not many if any because shonky flooded the dairyfarm workers market with Immigrints.
That development in Coromandale will lift the prospects of the locals E hoa one has to rembmer to be tact full so as not to put some peoples nose out of joint Eco want’s to our maori leaders in power a long time ka pai.
Yes Mike and Samatha Eco Maori is very pleased that national is not in power we would have never been able to roll them out if they had another term with the tec they would have had at the finger tip’s to con people into beleving them/vote for them
Lloyd Megen is a strong kind wahaine who see the big picture all the best to Harry and Megen. I did see the story on Nigella Lawson letting the TV networks know that air brushing her pictures is not on as it put a fulse image of her out there and puts a lot of pressure on some wahine to starve them selves to look slim .
I would like to try a cut of that wagyu Japanese beef cow they have to be treated like a pet lamp to get the best out of them they get the best treatment in Japan.
Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.