Hang in there Luxflake – you were anointed by Sir Key himself (McCulloch Menzies, Lane Walker Rudkin, Elders Finance, Bankers Trust, Merrill Lynch ["the smiling assassin"], MP, PM, Air NZ, ANZ, Palo Alto Networks), and your ‘sorted’ brand (Unilever, Air NZ, MP, PM, ?) can only get better.
Another striking thing from that graph is just how effective the completely manufactured "winter of discontent" was in 2000, Clark's first full year in office. This was when the NZ's extremely conservative business establishment was given a megaphone by Fran O'Sullivan and the NZ Herald to essentially reject the 1999 election result – not in electoral terms obviously, but in terms of the public policy implications.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has won significant facetime with global heavyweight Narendra Modi on a frenetic full day in India where both pledged closer cooperation.
"We like each other," Luxon said. "We actually have a similar approach to how you run government and how you set targets and you drive towards delivery and outcomes."
And on to lunch.
After sharing lunch, both Modi and Luxon left for the opening of India's Raisina Dialogue, a prestigious geopolitics and security conference at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in New Delhi.
Oh…really ? Modi has eliminated some….things.
As chief guest, Luxon delivered the opening speech and laid the praise on thick, commending Modi for "eliminating extreme poverty" in India.
In the real world, protocol often requires delivering flowery praise to right-wing strongmen with abhorrent politics. It's just the way foreign policy works sometimes.
But Luxon could at least manage it with a shred of dignity.
Instead, he looks like a schoolboy awkwardly receiving an award from the principal rather than a leader engaging in serious diplomacy. And you have to ask serious questions about a man who can't even get smiling and waving right.
In the real world protocol often requires delivering flowery praise to right-wing strongmen with abhorrent politics. It's just the way foreign policy works sometimes.
Ahuh. Is that some patronisation perchance? I merely linked to Modi and his membership of a far right (some describe as fascist) group. His repression of dissent, minority groups, et al needed some light. However Luxon blurts…
"We like each other," Luxon said. "We actually have a similar approach to how you run government and how you set targets and you drive towards delivery and outcomes."
Would you be so pragmatic if he hypothetically flew to say…Moscow and met with Putin?
Ahuh. Is that some patronization perchance? I merely linked to Modi and his membership in a far-right (some describe as fascist) group.
I'm not saying the RSS isn't fascist. Or that the BJP isn’t a morally bankrupt, authoritarian party that has consolidated power by exploiting historical caste and religious divisions and outright condoning anti-Muslim violence. Or even that Modi isn’t an authoritarian strongman dragging Indian democracy into the mud.
What I am saying is that in diplomacy, smaller states like New Zealand don’t have much choice in how they push back against larger powers they desperately need something from—like, say, a free trade agreement.
So I get why the PM has to make the right noises in a press conference to secure what we need behind closed doors.
What irks me is that he managed to do it while looking like a grinning, fawning, vacuous buffoon. It was almost like an empty plane landed in India, and Christopher Luxon got out.
Would you be so pragmatic if he hypothetically flew to, say… Moscow and met with Putin?
Diplomacy isn’t a moral purity contest. If New Zealand needed something badly enough, a PM should absolutely engage with Putin—just like other Western leaders have, even while denouncing him.
The issue isn’t that Luxon met Modi. It’s that he did so like a clueless sycophant, seemingly prepared to whitewash outright ethnic cleansing in pursuit of a deal that delivers nothing of substance.
Diplomacy isn’t a moral purity contest. If New Zealand needed something badly enough, a PM should absolutely engage with Putin—just like other Western leaders have, even while denouncing him.
Thanks for reply and being honest enough to say your thoughts on.
I would definitely agree that Luxon is falling over everything (his own feet, Modi's repressions, et al) with a kind of manic desperation to save (IMO) his own ass…..
Generally those papers don't talk about much other
Unsurprising considering Modi's repression of dissenting views. I suppose like most media here, some Indian (version Herald, et al) will be fully in step with…others maybe fearful are not offering too much alternate takes on anything …
Critics of India's Modi migrate online as mainstream media stays deferential
Just occasionally our media representatives fulfill their proper function of shining a light into a dark corner so the public know what has been going on.
An example is the Stuff coverage of the awarding of a $2 million contract by Health NZ to a UK company of which an ACC manager was formerly a director. At the time the contract was awarded, the manager was advising Health NZ on system performance and accountability.
No tender was called for the work, apparently because the UK company was the only outfit capable of doing the job (reducing patient waiting lists). This point has been disputed by NZ businesses.
Maybe everything is above board, but it is vital the 4th estate gets onto these issues and, even more importantly, the bureaucrats know they are being watched and will be held to account.
The bills 'classes being trans as a “sexual deviation”. '
'Senate Bill 195 classes trans people as “obscene” and aims to ban “transgender exposure, performances, or display” to minors, essentially criminalising public presence of trans people.'
No going within 1000 yards of a school, etc, in case kids catch the trans.
This is tabled legislation yet to pass. A recent W. Virginia bill defining 'male' and 'female' included a clause that would have allowed medical personnel, eg school nurses, to inspect children's genitals without parental consent. But that clause was removed before becoming law, because that was seen as contravening parental rights, not in any sense of protecting the kids.
There are "trans" kids like there are vegan cats. Someone else is making the decision. The usual answer is a homophobic parent who is terrified of having a "gay" child because that child does not immediately conform to rigid sex stereotypes.
and the logical end-point of anti-feminist TRA propaganda: girls are forced to undress in front of a male student. Despite there being gender neutral options for the male student. Staff, including senior, made the girls go to the locker room and change.
This is tabled legislation yet to pass. A recent W. Virginia bill defining 'male' and 'female' included a clause that would have allowed medical personnel, eg school nurses, to inspect children's genitals without parental consent. But that clause was removed before becoming law, because that was seen as contravening parental rights, not in any sense of protecting the kids.
I'm not sure you are right about that. I haven't read the legislation, but the clause is about parental consent not parental rights.
Kentucky GOP lawmakers vote to protect conversion therapy
Kentucky’s Republican lawmakers have passed a measure to protect conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ youths as part of a bill that also would outlaw the use of Medicaid funds to pay for gender-affirming health care for transgender Kentucky residents.
I do think Team Trump and other right wing gender conservatives (eg Brian Tamaki) are patriarchal and anti-trans and are putting trans & gender non-conformists in danger, physically, socially and politically.
However, those like me who oppose discrimination and abuse of trans IDed people, and who also acknowledge the reality of 2 immutable human sexes, male and female, while seeing gender self ID is subjective, fluid &unstable, also get labelled anti-trans by a lot of those on the political left.
The patriarchal and identitarian right in the US are leading a strong backlash against the extreme, authoritarian, neoliberal, trans rights activism embraced by the many in the political left in the west.
Jane Clare Jones, a radical materialist feminist, has been looking into what is happening, especially with Trumpist USA, and in this post analyses some of the pendulum swings. "Against Identitarianism: Or, In Defence of Nuance."
"What I’m interested in here is thinking through the how and why of this pendulum swing, and what it tells us about the mechanisms, and reality distortions, of the culture war."
"What has happened here is that the political convictions of right wing identitarianism were inverted into left wing identitarianism which have now been inverted back into right wing identitarianism with added backlash rocket fuel."
I find JCJ's posts on this topic to be very useful. She cites a lot of sources that I wasn't previously familiar with. On the gender issues I agree with JCJ that the left need to get beyond the 'us' and 'them', look more at the realities and nuances, and find a way forward against the frightening upsurge in deceptive, plutocratic, authoritarian right wing politics.
against the extreme, authoritarian, neoliberal, trans rights activism embraced by the many in the political left in the west.
I would not call trans right activism, neo-liberal or authoritarian – if anything it is part of radical libertarianism, thus untempered – extremist. ACT never contended with it.
Neo-liberals on the political and economic right supported it to make society with greater inequality seem more inclusive and modern. Thus National said nothing (like ACT also supporting self ID).
Social progressives, centrist and centre left and left were on board, rather then side with social conservatives.
The Tories were the first UK party to introduce policy for it in 2018.It got stalled when other political priorities overshadowed it like Brexit. Other parties followed. The first opposition to it in the UK was from some Labour and Green party members and voters, some of whom were trade unionists. The UK (I think left wing parties) also introduced the #no debate mantra, and the censoring of opposing views to it.
The approach has long been to censor, no-platform, and demonise any opponents. This includes going after people's jobs, trying to criminalise them. UK policing has been focused on criminalising, arresting etc, opponents to the TRA theory and demands.
From early on, sex self ID, "trans women are women" etc was a top down authoritarian movement, and backed by big corporations. In NZ the GP introduced sex self ID before anyone really knew anything much about it. It followed the UK #no-debate and censoring MO. NZ corporations embraced it early by adopting the Rainbow Tick, which by 2019 was pretty much dominated by Transgender theory & demands. eg Fonterra.
Many local and international corporations embraced this theory from early on. Look at all the corporations that have adopted the NZ Rainbow Tick. The result is they and many public sector organisations adopted transgenderism well before most of the population knew what was involved. It has been a top-down,authoritarian movement.
The first person to pick up on what was happening in NZ was Renee Gerlich in about 2014. She was viciously smeared and censored. She opposed sex self ID, and drew other women's attention to it. Out of that came Speak Up for Women, largely consisting of left wing women. Here is the text of a talk Renee gave in 2019, in which she explains why the TRA movement was neoliberal.
"This is neoliberalism: the commodification of nature, and the removal and defunding of social services, ramped up for the age of multinational corporations."
Renee refers to the Shock Doctrine and then says:
"These are the disaster conditions that transgender ideology exploits, and that enable whole populations to buy into the idea that not only can women be bought and sold like products, but womanhood itself is a commodity to which men should be entitled. Transgenderism is a neoliberal ideology that treats the natural fact of biological sex itself as something to be ploughed over and substituted with the cash crop of gender identity. It is empowering for the individual to reject biological sex and substitute it for a customised gender that expresses one’s own essential tastes, like your clothes and shoes are meant to do, and even your car, your cellphone screen protector and your toothbrush."
Also, it's hard to gauge how many left wing women are opposed to the current TRA theory and sex self ID. This is because many women are afraid to speak out because of the silencing, censoring and demonisation that happens. I know many who don't speak out because they are afraid it will impact negatively on their jobs. I know one or two who have had TRAs go after their jobs
But not self ID. There was slippage to using 'gender' to mean sex in the 1990s I think, tho it maybe began earlier.
I have read it was Ruth Bader Ginsburg that first enshrined the slippage in US law, maybe because many in the US didn't like using the word 'sex' because of the links with meaning sexual activity. It gained traction internationally after that.
But it took longer for the notion of 'gender identity', and then sex/gender self identity, to be incorporated in the current trans theory. It's the problem of the meaning of 'gender' that confuses many people. It's an unstable and slippery concept.
That mention of Beyer being transgender is revisionism. Beyer was always known as "transsexual". In 2007 it was reported:
"The world's first transsexual MP Georgina Beyer came into Parliament making a joke about her sexuality and left yesterday on the same note.
In her maiden speech Ms Beyer joked that she was the stallion that became a gelding, then a mayor (of Carterton) and then she became a member."
RBG was simply running with the feminist advocacy for "gender equality" speaking to equal participation in society, which was part of the 1960's.
The concept of gender distinct from birth sex, rather than as an interchangeable terminology (as the 1960's feminists were using it) was a separate matter.
But it was a known before 1980, as this was all was part of the DSM 3 in 1980.
GB was of the era when there was transvestite and transsexual, and she chose to be the latter.
Note this quote, as to being the same as those who call themselves transgender
We are transsexual or transgender
And this
Well, they certainly want me to cover my experiences in the political arena as a transgender person
The nuance.
We are transsexual or transgender, and I’m a transsexual woman. I’m not a biological female. I was born a biological male. That changed. That’s the biology of the thing, and that changed for me as I realised that that didn’t fit right. But I’m a transsexual woman. I don’t claim to be a female.’
And this
I had a Member’s Bill in the Parliament when I was there to include gender identity in Section 21 of the Human Rights Act – grounds upon which you cannot be discriminated against.
A separate reference to sex and gender in the HRA would be useful.
There transgender could be a category, as could gender expression.
Most people self-ID about something. I’ve come to believe that who/what adults identify as is none of my business, if they're behaving within the law.
People who object to certain types of self-ID, for example gender self-ID (legal in Aotearoa NZ), are free to lobby for law changes. And, if there is strong evidence (cf. belief) that ostensibly progressive laws are actually doing more harm than good, then that lobbying might stand a fair chance of success.
As your link notes self-ID on DL and passports since 2012.
Thus from sex ID to gender ID, then onto self ID.
Otherwise there was managed transition to realise formal gender ID change at least until parliamentary legislation – Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Bill (first introduced in 2017 and passed in 2023)
Ireland, a country of 5 mi, similar in many cultural ways to NZ, has had self-id for trans people since 2015. They publish the stats: equal numbers of trans men and women seek self-id, and the numbers are quite low.
Guess what. If there were any stats whatsoever about increased exual assaults in Irish toilets by male sexual predators who used self-id as women, the numbers would have been published ad nauseum in the UK anti-trans press. But nothing. Not a sausage.
A sexual predator doesn’t need self-id to harass people in public spaces.
Classifying being trans a sexual deviancy and calling being within a km of a school indecent exposure.
Identifying being trans as a sexual deviation is based on two concepts
1not dressing like one of their birth sex.
2.proscribing their sexuality.
Then this
1.a focus on those born males identifying as of the female gender. This is not the
the patriarchy being misogynist. It's just anger at those not part of their broliarchy …
2.a step towards punishing those born female who do not dress like Christian women puritans. Either because of their resistance to gender conformity or a lack of modesty.
This all leads to pejorative views of homosexuality, non procreative sex acts & non marital sexual relationships, in a roll back of progressive liberalism.
David Seymour reckons Jesus may well have supported the ACT Party
A reporter then asked if Jesus would have supported ACT, to which Seymour had a fulsome answer:
"I believe that Jesus very well might support ACT from what I know about him. He believed that each person had inherent dignity, was made in the image of God, imago dei, and deserved to be treated with universal human rights. In many respects the underlying teaching of Jesus and the ACT Party overlap," he said through laughter.
He definitely displays narcissist characteristics. dv
Plus his deflecting responsibility is concerning. In his Jack Tame interview about the lunch problems, he intoned those complaining were "conspiracy theorists". Right, so if anyone complains they will now be called that, and that deflects from the the main idea. Now he is marshalling the power of religion to give the Act Party credence. Whatever next? Bishop David Seymour of the Act Party?
He wishes to bring his brand of Religion to Councils. “God help us!!”
Well, Seymour did bemoan Labour's "war on landlords", who are treated "like al-Qaeda", and claimed that "If Nelson Mandela was alive today he would be campaigning for ACT.", so his delusional claim that Jesus would have supported ACT is hardly unsurprising – this is our deputy PM in waiting, FFS.
Nelson Mandela would not have supported the ACT party, grandson says
Asked for his response, Seymour said: "Far be it from me to question the great man's grandson, but Nelson Mandela did say 'all people are born equal, with each entitled in equal measure to life [and] liberty'.
David Seymour reckons Jesus may well have supported the ACT Party
🙄
To which one might quote Matthew 6 verse 24.
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[a] to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.”They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
They are facing the same problems as the democrats in america…
However flawed his vision is… trump had a vision for change…that he sold to enough voters..
Whereas the democrats have no competing vision…
.. and in response to trump…are showing themselves as both rudderless and useless…
Which brings us back to labour…
(..and my abiding fear they are planning on just some more of the incrementalism they have relied on..in place of any vision/pathway to fixing what ails us..for decades..)
Could someone from labour please tell me that I am wrong…and that labour are working like Energizer bunnies on a version of the grand plan…
The last surviving Battle of Britain pilot, John "Paddy" Hemingway, has died at the age of 105.
Mr Hemingway, who was originally from Dublin, joined the Royal Air Force [RAF] as a teenager before World War Two.
At 21, he was a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain, a three-month period when air force personnel defended the skies against a large-scale assault by the German air force, the Luftwaffe.
Well that's certainly an end of an era, I do have vague memories of my father and older brothers taking me to see the movie decades ago.
BTW, a New Zealander, Sir Keith Park, was the General Officer in Command of the day to day air battle, during the Battle of Britain, he also went on to command the RAF's air defence during the siege of Malta.
Talking of World War two, David Seymour, our "Minister of Catering" and new boyfriend of Jesus, would do well to remember the sacrifices of the men and women who fought and died during the second world war. The fruits of victory for for all of us, not just the lucky and wealthy. I'm hoping with the baby Jesus now a follower of ACT, the minister of Catering will be reminded of a few things, like "the loaves and fishes", "those who have much, much is expected", "it's easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle, than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God", along with the commandment about taking the Lord's name in vain…
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National’s handling of inflation and the cost-of-living crisis is an utter shambles and a gutless betrayal of every Kiwi scraping by. The Coalition of Chaos Ministers strut around preaching about how effective their policies are, but really all they're doing is perpetuating a cruel and sick joke of undelivered promises, ...
Most people wouldn't have heard of a little worm like Rhys Williams, a so-called businessman and former NZ First member, who has recently been unmasked as the venomous troll behind a relentless online campaign targeting Green Party MP Benjamin Doyle.According to reports, Williams has been slinging mud at Doyle under ...
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Let’s assume, as prudence demands we assume, that the United States will not at any predictable time go back to being its old, reliable self. This means its allies must be prepared indefinitely to lean ...
Over the last three rather tumultuous US trade policy weeks, I’ve read these four books. I started with Irwin (whose book had sat on my pile for years, consulted from time to time but not read) in a week of lots of flights and hanging around airports/hotels, and then one ...
Indonesia could do without an increase in military spending that the Ministry of Defence is proposing. The country has more pressing issues, including public welfare and human rights. Moreover, the transparency and accountability to justify ...
Former Hutt City councillor Chris Milne has slithered back into the spotlight, not as a principled dissenter, but as a vindictive puppeteer of digital venom. The revelations from a recent court case paint a damning portrait of a man whose departure from Hutt City Council in 2022 was merely the ...
That's the conclusion of a report into security risks against Green MP Benjamin Doyle, in the wake of Winston Peters' waging a homophobic hate-campaign against them: GRC’s report said a “hostility network” of politicians, commentators, conspiracy theorists, alternative media outlets and those opposed to the rainbow community had produced ...
That's the conclusion of a report into security risks against Green MP Benjamin Doyle, in the wake of Winston Peters' waging a homophobic hate-campaign against them: GRC’s report said a “hostility network” of politicians, commentators, conspiracy theorists, alternative media outlets and those opposed to the rainbow community had produced ...
National Party MP Hamish Campbell’s ties to the secretive Two By Twos "church" raises serious questions that are not being answered. This shadowy group, currently being investigated by the FBI for numerous cases of child abuse, hides behind a facade of faith while Campbell dodges scrutiny, claiming it’s a “private ...
National Party MP Hamish Campbell’s ties to the secretive Two By Twos "church" raises serious questions that are not being answered. This shadowy group, currently being investigated by the FBI for numerous cases of child abuse, hides behind a facade of faith while Campbell dodges scrutiny, claiming it’s a “private ...
The economy is not doing what it was supposed to when PM Christopher Luxon said in January it was ‘going for growth.’ Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short from our political economy on Tuesday, April 15:New Zealand’s economic recovery is stalling, according to business surveys, retail spending and ...
This is a guest post by Lewis Creed, managing editor of the University of Auckland student publication Craccum, which is currently running a campaign for a safer Symonds Street in the wake of a horrific recent crash.The post has two parts: 1) Craccum’s original call for safety (6 ...
NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff has published an opinion piece which makes the case for a different approach to economic development, as proposed in the CTU’s Aotearoa Reimagined programme. The number of people studying to become teachers has jumped after several years of low enrolment. The coalition has directed Health New ...
The growth of China’s AI industry gives it great influence over emerging technologies. That creates security risks for countries using those technologies. So, Australia must foster its own domestic AI industry to protect its interests. ...
Unfortunately we have another National Party government in power at the moment, and as a consequence, another economic dumpster fire taking hold. Inflation’s hurting Kiwis, and instead of providing relief, National is fiddling while wallets burn.Prime Minister Chris Luxon's response is a tired remix of tax cuts for the rich ...
Girls who are boys who like boys to be girlsWho do boys like they're girls, who do girls like they're boysAlways should be someone you really loveSongwriters: Damon Albarn / Graham Leslie Coxon / Alexander Rowntree David / Alexander James Steven.Last month, I wrote about the Birds and Bees being ...
Australia needs to reevaluate its security priorities and establish a more dynamic regulatory framework for cybersecurity. To advance in this area, it can learn from Britain’s Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which presents a compelling ...
Deputy PM Winston Peters likes nothing more than to portray himself as the only wise old head while everyone else is losing theirs. Yet this time, his “old master” routine isn’t working. What global trade is experiencing is more than the usual swings and roundabouts of market sentiment. President Donald ...
President Trump’s hopes of ending the war in Ukraine seemed more driven by ego than realistic analysis. Professor Vladimir Brovkin’s latest video above highlights the internal conflicts within the USA, Russia, Europe, and Ukraine, which are currently hindering peace talks and clarity. Brovkin pointed out major contradictions within ...
In the cesspool that is often New Zealand’s online political discourse, few figures wield their influence as destructively as Ani O’Brien. Masquerading as a champion of free speech and women’s rights, O’Brien’s campaigns are a masterclass in bad faith, built on a foundation of lies, selective outrage, and a knack ...
The international challenge confronting Australia today is unparalleled, at least since the 1940s. It requires what the late Brendan Sargeant, a defence analyst, called strategic imagination. We need more than shrewd economic manoeuvring and a ...
This year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) will take place as a fully hybrid conference in both Vienna and online from April 27 to May 2. This year, I'll join the event on site in Vienna for the full week and I've already picked several sessions I plan ...
Here’s a book that looks not in at China but out from China. David Daokui Li’s China’s World View: Demystifying China to Prevent Global Conflict is a refreshing offering in that Li is very much ...
The New Zealand National Party has long mastered the art of crafting messaging that resonates with a large number of desperate, often white middle-class, voters. From their 2023 campaign mantra of “getting our country back on track” to promises of economic revival, safer streets, and better education, their rhetoric paints ...
A global contest of ideas is underway, and democracy as an ideal is at stake. Democracies must respond by lifting support for public service media with an international footprint. With the recent decision by the ...
It is almost six weeks since the shock announcement early on the afternoon of Wednesday 5 March that the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Adrian Orr, was resigning effective 31 March, and that in fact he had already left and an acting Governor was already in place. Orr had been ...
The PSA surveyed more than 900 of its members, with 55 percent of respondents saying AI is used at their place of work, despite most workers not being in trained in how to use the technology safely. Figures to be released on Thursday are expected to show inflation has risen ...
Be on guard for AI-powered messaging and disinformation in the campaign for Australia’s 3 May election. And be aware that parties can use AI to sharpen their campaigning, zeroing in on issues that the technology ...
Strap yourselves in, folks, it’s time for another round of Arsehole of the Week, and this week’s golden derrière trophy goes to—drumroll, please—David Seymour, the ACT Party’s resident genius who thought, “You know what we need? A shiny new Treaty Principles Bill to "fix" all that pesky Māori-Crown partnership nonsense ...
After stonewalling requests for information on boot camps, the Government has now offered up a blog post right before Easter weekend rather than provide clarity on the pilot. ...
More people could be harmed if Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey does not guarantee to protect patients and workers as the Police withdraw from supporting mental health call outs. ...
The Green Party recognises the extension of visa allowances for our Pacific whānau as a step in the right direction but continues to call for a Pacific Visa Waiver. ...
The Government yesterday released its annual child poverty statistics, and by its own admission, more tamariki across Aotearoa are now living in material hardship. ...
Today, Te Pāti Māori join the motu in celebration as the Treaty Principles Bill is voted down at its second reading. “From the beginning, this Bill was never welcome in this House,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader, Rawiri Waititi. “Our response to the first reading was one of protest: protesting ...
The Green Party is proud to have voted down the Coalition Government’s Treaty Principles Bill, an archaic piece of legislation that sought to attack the nation’s founding agreement. ...
A Member’s Bill in the name of Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter which aims to stop coal mining, the Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill, has been pulled from Parliament’s ‘biscuit tin’ today. ...
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty’s Members Bill to make the law simpler and fairer for businesses operating on Easter, Anzac and Christmas Days has passed its first reading after a conscience vote in Parliament. ...
Nicola Willis continues to sit on her hands amid a global economic crisis, leaving the Reserve Bank to act for New Zealanders who are worried about their jobs, mortgages, and KiwiSaver. ...
Today, the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill has passed its third and final reading, but there is one more stage before it becomes law. The Governor-General must give their ‘Royal assent’ for any bill to become legally enforceable. This means that, even if a bill gets voted ...
Abortion care at Whakatāne Hospital has been quietly shelved, with patients told they will likely have to travel more than an hour to Tauranga to get the treatment they need. ...
Thousands of New Zealanders’ submissions are missing from the official parliamentary record because the National-dominated Justice Select Committee has rushed work on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...
Today’s announcement of 10 percent tariffs for New Zealand goods entering the United States is disappointing for exporters and consumers alike, with the long-lasting impact on prices and inflation still unknown. ...
The National Government’s choices have contributed to a slow-down in the building sector, as thousands of people have lost their jobs in construction. ...
Willie Apiata’s decision to hand over his Victoria Cross to the Minister for Veterans is a powerful and selfless act, made on behalf of all those who have served our country. ...
The Privileges Committee has denied fundamental rights to Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Rawiri Waititi and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, breaching their own standing orders, breaching principles of natural justice, and highlighting systemic prejudice and discrimination within our parliamentary processes. The three MPs were summoned to the privileges committee following their performance of a haka ...
April 1 used to be a day when workers could count on a pay rise with stronger support for those doing it tough, but that’s not the case under this Government. ...
Winston Peters is shopping for smaller ferries after Nicola Willis torpedoed the original deal, which would have delivered new rail enabled ferries next year. ...
The Government should work with other countries to press the Myanmar military regime to stop its bombing campaign especially while the country recovers from the devastating earthquake. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Nicholls, Senior Research Associate in Media and Communications, University of Sydney Tech giant Google has just suffered another legal blow in the United States, losing a landmark antitrust case. This follows on from the company’s loss in a similar case last ...
Paddy GowerAmanda Luxon. I mean what can you say. Easter is a good time to publish my latest reckons at Stuff because without exaggeration or making too much of things, Amanda Luxon walks among us like Jesus but probably with better shoes.Jesus healed. How good is that? It’s really good, ...
How can an afternoon be long when it starts at one o’clock and finishes at half past three? Beauden thought about that as he stood at the back of the classroom and looked through the large window to the upper grounds where his colleague Monty Spiers was taking a phys ed ...
Alex Casey delves into the enduring success of The Artist’s Way, a self-help book beloved by everyone from retirees to famous rappers. On the video call, my mum is gesticulating so wildly while recounting all her recent creative endeavours that she knocks her cup of tea over a work-in-progress jigsaw ...
Feijoa scholar Kate Evans reviews the dish everybody raves about at Metro’s 2024 restaurant of the year, Forest. People have been telling me I need to try the deep-fried feijoa dessert at Forest for about three years now. I’m embarrassed it took me this long, but it takes a lot ...
Chef, author and reality television judge Colin Fassnidge takes us through his life in television. Colin Fassnidge is a huge television fan. He watches every blockbuster TV series the moment it drops and scores every single show on his Instagram account. It’s a habit that recently caught the attention of ...
Why are shops on Parnell Road allowed to open on Easter Sunday? It’s all thanks to an obsolete rule from the 1970s that’s been ‘frozen in time’.Originally published in 2023.Under our current trading laws, most stores are required to stay closed on Good Friday and Easter Sunday (along ...
Yael Shochat, chef-owner of Auckland restaurant Ima Cuisine, shares the recipe for her hot cross buns – regularly voted among the best in the city.Originally published in 2019.HOT CROSS BUNSMakes 12You may use equal weights of pre-ground spices, but you’ll get a much better flavour if ...
Gràinne Moss knows she can’t tackle the final leg of one of the world’s toughest swimming challenges alone.In her quest to complete the Oceans Seven marathon challenge, 38 years after she began, she’s enlisted the help of two remarkable women – one barely out of her teens, and the other ...
By Susana Leiataua, RNZ National presenter There are calls for greater transparency about what the HMNZS Manawanui was doing before it sank in Samoa last October — including whether the New Zealand warship was performing specific security for King Charles and Queen Camilla. The Manawanui grounded on the reef off ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Labor increased its lead again in a YouGov poll, but Freshwater put the party ahead by just 50.3–49.7. This article also covers ...
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The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, $30) Haymitch’s Hunger Games. 2 Careless People: A ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Labor increased their lead again in a YouGov poll, but Freshwater put them ahead by just 50.3–49.7. This article also covers the ...
A new poem by Tusiata Avia. How to make a terrorist First make a whistling sound which is the sound of a bomb just before it lands on a house. Then make an exploding sound which is the sound of the bomb which kills a father, decapitates a mother, roasts ...
The top-rated Scrabble players in the country go head-to-head this Easter weekend. Watch games live from 9.30am on the stream below.How does it all work?The Masters is different to most Scrabble tournaments in that it’s invitational, open only to the top-rated players in the country. The ...
Books editor Claire Mabey appraises all the Austen-adapted films from 1990 onwards to separate the delightful from the duds.For the purists, read our ranking of Jane Austen’s novels here.It is a truth universally acknowledged that not everything is created equal. Since 1990 there have been 12 attempts to ...
To arrive through the heavy red door of Margot in Newtown is to be invited to the best dinner party in town, hosted by the best friends you haven’t yet made. Table Service is a column about food and hospitality in Wellington, written by Nick Iles.Hospitality is a term ...
NONFICTION1 No Words for This by Ali Mau (HarperCollins, $39.99)A free copy of the author’s new memoir was up for grabs in last week’s giveaway contest. Readers were asked to share their feelings about Mau, a former broadcaster and one of the most powerful figures in the New Zealand #metoo ...
Analysis: The announcement last week that Colossal Biosciences in the USA had “de-extincted” the dire wolf, which was last seen 13,000 years ago, was reported worldwide.The three wolf pups generated equal parts fascination and widespread scientific criticism. But is this actually de-extinction, and what are the implications for the potential ...
We recommend the best – and longest – television series to watch this holiday weekend. As the Easter holiday weekend descends and the weather turns a little grim, many of us will turn to the trusty old television for comfort and entertainment. If you’re lucky, you’ll have some time over ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 18 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gode Bola, Lecturer in Hydrology, University of Kinshasa The April 2025 flooding disaster in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, wasn’t just about intense rainfall. It was a symptom of recent land use change which has occurred rapidly in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Peter Dutton, now seriously on the back foot, has made an extraordinarily big “aspirational” commitment at the back end of this campaign. He says he wants to see a move to indexing personal income ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Tietz, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Design, UNSW Sydney A New South Wales Senate inquiry into public toilets is underway, looking into the provision, design and maintenance of public toilets across the state. Whenever I mention this inquiry, however, everyone nervously ...
Shrinking budgets and job insecurity means there are fewer opportunities for young journalists, and that’s bad news, especially in regional Australia, reports 360infoANALYSIS:By Jee Young Lee of the University of Canberra Australia risks losing a generation of young journalists, particularly in the regions where they face the closure ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer McKay, Professor in Business Law, University of South Australia Parkova/Shutterstock Could someone take you to court over an agreement you made – or at least appeared to make – by sending a “👍”? Emojis can have more legal weight ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Trang Nguyen, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Global Food and Resources, University of Adelaide Stokkete, Shutterstock Australians waste around 7.68 million tonnes of food a year. This costs the economy an estimated A$36.6 billion and households up to $2,500 annually. ...
Pushing people off income support doesn’t make the job market fairer or more accessible. It just assumes success is possible while unemployment rises and support systems become harder to navigate. ...
A year since the inquest into the death of Gore three-year-old Lachlan Jones began and the Coroner has completed his provisional findings. Interested parties have been provided with a copy of Coroner Ho’s provisional findings and have until May 16 to respond.The Coroner has indicated the final decision will be delivered on June 3 in Invercargill, citing high ...
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Watched with interest and a little humour as Luxon stepped off the plane in India and immediately announced the trip a success.
Then I realized what he must have meant – the plane didn't break down on the way there…
"Luxon's epic unpopularity on one chart" – Should I Stay ir Should I Go?
Well, "Everyone Must Go".
I certainly prefer the Spinoff to the ‘Centrist’.
Hang in there Luxflake – you were anointed by Sir Key himself (McCulloch Menzies, Lane Walker Rudkin, Elders Finance, Bankers Trust, Merrill Lynch ["the smiling assassin"], MP, PM, Air NZ, ANZ, Palo Alto Networks), and your ‘sorted’ brand (Unilever, Air NZ, MP, PM, ?) can only get better.
Up next – Seymour ("engineering sector", a Canadian think tank on "the libertarian or social conservative side of the true-blue ideological spectrum", MP, deputy PM, ???)
Another striking thing from that graph is just how effective the completely manufactured "winter of discontent" was in 2000, Clark's first full year in office. This was when the NZ's extremely conservative business establishment was given a megaphone by Fran O'Sullivan and the NZ Herald to essentially reject the 1999 election result – not in electoral terms obviously, but in terms of the public policy implications.
Brave? Oblivious? Smug? Damned if I know…
C'mon… entitled and sorted.
Luxon cuddles up (literally) to far right leader.
Should we be worried about this? IMO..hell yes.
And on to lunch.
Oh…really ? Modi has eliminated some….things.
Modi . Far right.
In the real world, protocol often requires delivering flowery praise to right-wing strongmen with abhorrent politics. It's just the way foreign policy works sometimes.
But Luxon could at least manage it with a shred of dignity.
Instead, he looks like a schoolboy awkwardly receiving an award from the principal rather than a leader engaging in serious diplomacy. And you have to ask serious questions about a man who can't even get smiling and waving right.
Ahuh. Is that some patronisation perchance? I merely linked to Modi and his membership of a far right (some describe as fascist) group. His repression of dissent, minority groups, et al needed some light. However Luxon blurts…
Would you be so pragmatic if he hypothetically flew to say…Moscow and met with Putin?
I'm not saying the RSS isn't fascist. Or that the BJP isn’t a morally bankrupt, authoritarian party that has consolidated power by exploiting historical caste and religious divisions and outright condoning anti-Muslim violence. Or even that Modi isn’t an authoritarian strongman dragging Indian democracy into the mud.
What I am saying is that in diplomacy, smaller states like New Zealand don’t have much choice in how they push back against larger powers they desperately need something from—like, say, a free trade agreement.
So I get why the PM has to make the right noises in a press conference to secure what we need behind closed doors.
What irks me is that he managed to do it while looking like a grinning, fawning, vacuous buffoon. It was almost like an empty plane landed in India, and Christopher Luxon got out.
Diplomacy isn’t a moral purity contest. If New Zealand needed something badly enough, a PM should absolutely engage with Putin—just like other Western leaders have, even while denouncing him.
The issue isn’t that Luxon met Modi. It’s that he did so like a clueless sycophant, seemingly prepared to whitewash outright ethnic cleansing in pursuit of a deal that delivers nothing of substance.
Thanks for reply and being honest enough to say your thoughts on.
I would definitely agree that Luxon is falling over everything (his own feet, Modi's repressions, et al) with a kind of manic desperation to save (IMO) his own ass…..
Reply to psyching
This trip, I tried something new and checked out some of the local India media, to see what India thinks about the delegation.
Generally those papers don't talk about much other than Luxon coming to India and Modi giving up some time to him and they both talked about cricket.
It didn't sound like the game-changer that's posted locally.
I wondered if the trip is an attempt to woo the South-Asian vote, come 2026.
He did take his $900 per day grifter with him to show off as his most devoted Indian.
Unsurprising considering Modi's repression of dissenting views. I suppose like most media here, some Indian (version Herald, et al) will be fully in step with…others maybe fearful are not offering too much alternate takes on anything …
Re Luxons woo? Apart from his palpable desperation for something…anything, positive; there could be a factor of vote woo also….
From the Conversation.
https://theconversation.com/trump-is-surveying-australian-academics-about-gender-diversity-and-china-what-does-this-mean-for-unis-and-their-research-252282?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%2018%202025%20-%203300633704&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%2018%202025%20-%203300633704+CID_aa633c0971b91b38b29bf381bdf3ef85&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=Trump%20is%20surveying%20Australian%20academics%20about%20gender%20diversity%20and%20China%20%20what%20does%20this%20mean%20for%20unis%20and%20their%20research
Some of the questions to the research universities.
”Some of the specific questions include:
Cartel style.
https://x.com/ValentinaForUSA/status/1901441849979535380
She may well be the public face of a competing cartel who did a better job of buying off local police and ICE officials.
Just occasionally our media representatives fulfill their proper function of shining a light into a dark corner so the public know what has been going on.
An example is the Stuff coverage of the awarding of a $2 million contract by Health NZ to a UK company of which an ACC manager was formerly a director. At the time the contract was awarded, the manager was advising Health NZ on system performance and accountability.
No tender was called for the work, apparently because the UK company was the only outfit capable of doing the job (reducing patient waiting lists). This point has been disputed by NZ businesses.
Maybe everything is above board, but it is vital the 4th estate gets onto these issues and, even more importantly, the bureaucrats know they are being watched and will be held to account.
I’m puzzled why you didn’t link to the article!?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360611085/2m-contract-senior-govt-advisors-business-partner
Good point, thanks for putting it up.
Crony capitalism. Bill could whip up something as he knows as much about health as housing.
Waiting lists reflect a lack of resources, long ED waits caused through that and a lack of available GP's.
Its fixed by funding it not robbing it blind.
The logical end-point of anti-trans propaganda:
New [W. Virgina] Republican bills seek to ban trans people from public spaces, and refer to them as ‘obscene’
The bills 'classes being trans as a “sexual deviation”. '
'Senate Bill 195 classes trans people as “obscene” and aims to ban “transgender exposure, performances, or display” to minors, essentially criminalising public presence of trans people.'
No going within 1000 yards of a school, etc, in case kids catch the trans.
This is tabled legislation yet to pass. A recent W. Virginia bill defining 'male' and 'female' included a clause that would have allowed medical personnel, eg school nurses, to inspect children's genitals without parental consent. But that clause was removed before becoming law, because that was seen as contravening parental rights, not in any sense of protecting the kids.
There are "trans" kids like there are vegan cats. Someone else is making the decision. The usual answer is a homophobic parent who is terrified of having a "gay" child because that child does not immediately conform to rigid sex stereotypes.
Aahh..!… that's a contentious subject…for some…
Vegan cats and vegan dogs.,
..not for me… I've been doing the vegan dog/cat thing for a quarter of a century..
..ask me anything…
And you are making the decision on what those animals eat. Point made.
yep.
and the logical end-point of anti-feminist TRA propaganda: girls are forced to undress in front of a male student. Despite there being gender neutral options for the male student. Staff, including senior, made the girls go to the locker room and change.
https://x.com/ReduxxMag/status/1900991195020513297
Maybe it's time the left got its shit together and started listening to each other.
I'm not sure you are right about that. I haven't read the legislation, but the clause is about parental consent not parental rights.
Kentucky GOP lawmakers vote to protect conversion therapy
https://apnews.com/article/conversion-therapy-kentucky-cf61c100f6aad954a43e45f25dbd316c?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=share
I do think Team Trump and other right wing gender conservatives (eg Brian Tamaki) are patriarchal and anti-trans and are putting trans & gender non-conformists in danger, physically, socially and politically.
However, those like me who oppose discrimination and abuse of trans IDed people, and who also acknowledge the reality of 2 immutable human sexes, male and female, while seeing gender self ID is subjective, fluid &unstable, also get labelled anti-trans by a lot of those on the political left.
The patriarchal and identitarian right in the US are leading a strong backlash against the extreme, authoritarian, neoliberal, trans rights activism embraced by the many in the political left in the west.
Jane Clare Jones, a radical materialist feminist, has been looking into what is happening, especially with Trumpist USA, and in this post analyses some of the pendulum swings. "Against Identitarianism: Or, In Defence of Nuance."
I find JCJ's posts on this topic to be very useful. She cites a lot of sources that I wasn't previously familiar with. On the gender issues I agree with JCJ that the left need to get beyond the 'us' and 'them', look more at the realities and nuances, and find a way forward against the frightening upsurge in deceptive, plutocratic, authoritarian right wing politics.
I would not call trans right activism, neo-liberal or authoritarian – if anything it is part of radical libertarianism, thus untempered – extremist. ACT never contended with it.
Neo-liberals on the political and economic right supported it to make society with greater inequality seem more inclusive and modern. Thus National said nothing (like ACT also supporting self ID).
Social progressives, centrist and centre left and left were on board, rather then side with social conservatives.
Some feminists opposed it, but many did not.
The current trans rights theory originated in the US, and was first openly embraced politically by President Obama with an EO, in 2014. The US Democrat Party hierarchy is pretty neoliberal. Some big pharma corporations had jumped on board at some point seeing the possibility for a lucrative niche market. The number of gender clinics exploded in the US between 2007 and 2022.
The Tories were the first UK party to introduce policy for it in 2018.It got stalled when other political priorities overshadowed it like Brexit. Other parties followed. The first opposition to it in the UK was from some Labour and Green party members and voters, some of whom were trade unionists. The UK (I think left wing parties) also introduced the #no debate mantra, and the censoring of opposing views to it.
The approach has long been to censor, no-platform, and demonise any opponents. This includes going after people's jobs, trying to criminalise them. UK policing has been focused on criminalising, arresting etc, opponents to the TRA theory and demands.
From early on, sex self ID, "trans women are women" etc was a top down authoritarian movement, and backed by big corporations. In NZ the GP introduced sex self ID before anyone really knew anything much about it. It followed the UK #no-debate and censoring MO. NZ corporations embraced it early by adopting the Rainbow Tick, which by 2019 was pretty much dominated by Transgender theory & demands. eg Fonterra.
Many local and international corporations embraced this theory from early on. Look at all the corporations that have adopted the NZ Rainbow Tick. The result is they and many public sector organisations adopted transgenderism well before most of the population knew what was involved. It has been a top-down,authoritarian movement.
The first person to pick up on what was happening in NZ was Renee Gerlich in about 2014. She was viciously smeared and censored. She opposed sex self ID, and drew other women's attention to it. Out of that came Speak Up for Women, largely consisting of left wing women. Here is the text of a talk Renee gave in 2019, in which she explains why the TRA movement was neoliberal.
"This is neoliberalism: the commodification of nature, and the removal and defunding of social services, ramped up for the age of multinational corporations."
Renee refers to the Shock Doctrine and then says:
Jane Clare Jones on the authoritarianism of the transgender movement in the UK.
Also, it's hard to gauge how many left wing women are opposed to the current TRA theory and sex self ID. This is because many women are afraid to speak out because of the silencing, censoring and demonisation that happens. I know many who don't speak out because they are afraid it will impact negatively on their jobs. I know one or two who have had TRAs go after their jobs
We'll not agree on this.
Greens?
Gender was used in place of sex for ID purposes by 1999.
https://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/1999/0100/latest/DLM281326.html
https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/12060/georgina-beyer
The later change was from managed recognition process to self ID.
All parties supported self ID and not one MP voted against it.
All policy is top down as and when adopted by government.
But not self ID. There was slippage to using 'gender' to mean sex in the 1990s I think, tho it maybe began earlier.
I have read it was Ruth Bader Ginsburg that first enshrined the slippage in US law, maybe because many in the US didn't like using the word 'sex' because of the links with meaning sexual activity. It gained traction internationally after that.
But it took longer for the notion of 'gender identity', and then sex/gender self identity, to be incorporated in the current trans theory. It's the problem of the meaning of 'gender' that confuses many people. It's an unstable and slippery concept.
That mention of Beyer being transgender is revisionism. Beyer was always known as "transsexual". In 2007 it was reported:
In 2018 Beyer said:
RBG was simply running with the feminist advocacy for "gender equality" speaking to equal participation in society, which was part of the 1960's.
The concept of gender distinct from birth sex, rather than as an interchangeable terminology (as the 1960's feminists were using it) was a separate matter.
But it was a known before 1980, as this was all was part of the DSM 3 in 1980.
GB was of the era when there was transvestite and transsexual, and she chose to be the latter.
Note this quote, as to being the same as those who call themselves transgender
And this
The nuance.
And this
A separate reference to sex and gender in the HRA would be useful.
There transgender could be a category, as could gender expression.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1807/S00244/qa-georgina-beyer-interviewed-by-corin-dann.htm
Most people self-ID about something. I’ve come to believe that who/what adults identify as is none of my business, if they're behaving within the law.
People who object to certain types of self-ID, for example gender self-ID (legal in Aotearoa NZ), are free to lobby for law changes. And, if there is strong evidence (cf. belief) that ostensibly progressive laws are actually doing more harm than good, then that lobbying might stand a fair chance of success.
As your link notes self-ID on DL and passports since 2012.
Thus from sex ID to gender ID, then onto self ID.
Otherwise there was managed transition to realise formal gender ID change at least until parliamentary legislation – Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Bill (first introduced in 2017 and passed in 2023)
Ireland, a country of 5 mi, similar in many cultural ways to NZ, has had self-id for trans people since 2015. They publish the stats: equal numbers of trans men and women seek self-id, and the numbers are quite low.
Guess what. If there were any stats whatsoever about increased exual assaults in Irish toilets by male sexual predators who used self-id as women, the numbers would have been published ad nauseum in the UK anti-trans press. But nothing. Not a sausage.
A sexual predator doesn’t need self-id to harass people in public spaces.
Classifying being trans a sexual deviancy and calling being within a km of a school indecent exposure.
Identifying being trans as a sexual deviation is based on two concepts
1not dressing like one of their birth sex.
2.proscribing their sexuality.
Then this
1.a focus on those born males identifying as of the female gender. This is not the
the patriarchy being misogynist. It's just anger at those not part of their broliarchy …
2.a step towards punishing those born female who do not dress like Christian women puritans. Either because of their resistance to gender conformity or a lack of modesty.
This all leads to pejorative views of homosexuality, non procreative sex acts & non marital sexual relationships, in a roll back of progressive liberalism.
Christian dominionism.
GEEZ
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360605837/stuff-politics-live-blog
He definitely displays narcissist characteristics. dv
Plus his deflecting responsibility is concerning. In his Jack Tame interview about the lunch problems, he intoned those complaining were "conspiracy theorists". Right, so if anyone complains they will now be called that, and that deflects from the the main idea. Now he is marshalling the power of religion to give the Act Party credence. Whatever next? Bishop David Seymour of the Act Party?
He wishes to bring his brand of Religion to Councils. “God help us!!”
Political 101: shoot the messenger.
Well, Seymour did bemoan Labour's "war on landlords", who are treated "like al-Qaeda", and claimed that "If Nelson Mandela was alive today he would be campaigning for ACT.", so his delusional claim that Jesus would have supported ACT is hardly unsurprising – this is our deputy PM in waiting, FFS.
So what's Seymour's plan to close our 7-year ethnicity gap in average life expectancy?
And what might Seymour and ACT party donors make of the idea that all Kiwis are entitled to an equal measure of prosperity, I wonder.
Oops, maybe that should be "hardly surprising"?
Do journos fear him ? Patsy question when school lunches and his ministry of waste go unchallenged.
The amount of dribble that comes from Atlas jnr reported ad nauseum from the media must make the hollowmen smile.
Are journos mainly employed by RW media owned by RW and paid to espouse RW talking points ?
MSM is not the ordinary person's friend.
🙄
To which one might quote Matthew 6 verse 24.
ACT – Association of Consumers and Taxpayers.
Then again Matthew 22: 15 – 22
Jesus gives the first recorded MMT lecture right there.
Oh crikey, now he's spouting Latin tags, like a certain former UK PM. Will that immaculate 'do soon be getting mussed up in further homage?
If Labour wants to have a shot at it in 2026, it needs to control the narrative and to do so means to get your story straight.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/03/17/labours-changed-public-private-partnerships-message/
FFS, sharpen up, Labour!
Once again, they show themselves to be lacking in abiding principles.
They give the appearance of being aware of the worse excesses of the 'market' but bereft of any idea of an alternative.
They are facing the same problems as the democrats in america…
However flawed his vision is… trump had a vision for change…that he sold to enough voters..
Whereas the democrats have no competing vision…
.. and in response to trump…are showing themselves as both rudderless and useless…
Which brings us back to labour…
(..and my abiding fear they are planning on just some more of the incrementalism they have relied on..in place of any vision/pathway to fixing what ails us..for decades..)
Could someone from labour please tell me that I am wrong…and that labour are working like Energizer bunnies on a version of the grand plan…
Idiots
That is the playbook of the RW attack trying to be launched by the CoCs (Hard c's)
.
The last surviving Battle of Britain pilot, John "Paddy" Hemingway, has died at the age of 105.
Mr Hemingway, who was originally from Dublin, joined the Royal Air Force [RAF] as a teenager before World War Two.
At 21, he was a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain, a three-month period when air force personnel defended the skies against a large-scale assault by the German air force, the Luftwaffe.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg1z42pkj8o
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hemingway_(RAF_officer)
Well that's certainly an end of an era, I do have vague memories of my father and older brothers taking me to see the movie decades ago.
BTW, a New Zealander, Sir Keith Park, was the General Officer in Command of the day to day air battle, during the Battle of Britain, he also went on to command the RAF's air defence during the siege of Malta.
Talking of World War two, David Seymour, our "Minister of Catering" and new boyfriend of Jesus, would do well to remember the sacrifices of the men and women who fought and died during the second world war. The fruits of victory for for all of us, not just the lucky and wealthy. I'm hoping with the baby Jesus now a follower of ACT, the minister of Catering will be reminded of a few things, like "the loaves and fishes", "those who have much, much is expected", "it's easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle, than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God", along with the commandment about taking the Lord's name in vain…
Mandela, Jesus, whoever next – Aslan? At least our next deputy PM is having a laugh.
Yes!! Drowsy M. Kram. 100%