One observation about the Spouthern-Molyneux kerfuffle – what is with the absolute obsession of the middle class twitterati with this?
They have all be strenuously trying to jaw jaw this into an issue with wider cut through, presumably because they have the time, income and social position to indulge in abstract obsessions about freedom of speech.
But the only people outside twitter and a few blogs talking about this are the wing nut brigade ike Farrar, Slater and the newly minted, self-styled free speech coalition.
It doesn’t surprise me, Goff came across as a right little dictator and that would have really rarked up his ideological yangs. It’s always about power & status with that mob.
Now they’re pissed because their case probably won’t go anywhere, they thought they had an opportunity to stick it to Goff and it’s slipping away from their grasp. What to do, do they press onwards with the potential of them being harrumphed or do they slink away quietly.
I prefer Twitter to other social media platforms. The Twitter experience all depends on who you follow.
I also use tweedeck, which enables me to view various columns of my choice. Sometimes I open a hashtag column when there’s an interesting debate going on in real time using a #xxxx format.
I follow some journos and news organisations, plus some individuals who tweet links to useful and interesting articles on topics of interest to me.
Some twitter debates get highly polarised and are best avoided – e.g. I took a quick peek and rightwingers smear hashtag attacking Golriz Ghahraman a couple of days ago, and quickly retreated. There’s no debating that kind of vicious targeting of a politician. Still on the same one note as always against GG, and the righties are so full of a virtue signalling sense of their own correctness and superiority.
I block any commercial enterprise that tries to follow me purely for commercial reasons, and make selective use of the mute button for one or two tiresome tweeters.
I don’t read all the tweets in my twitter stream, but it’s a useful source for news and other topic, and usually is a platform where breaking news first shows up.
I took a quick peek and rightwingers smear hashtag attacking Golriz Ghahraman a couple of days ago, and quickly retreated. There’s no debating that kind of vicious targeting of a politician.
Those people aren’t there to debate – they’re there to shout down anybody who doesn’t agree with them.
…and the righties are so full of a virtue signalling sense of their own correctness and superiority.
Yep. Completely and totally wrong but absolutely positive that they’re right.
You simply cannot debate with people like that as their argument always starts and ends with I believe… and facts won’t change those beliefs.
Excerpts from “Return to Moscow”, a book recently written by Tony Kevin, a career Australian Diplomat ,who 48 years ago was posted to the Soviet Union at the height of the cold war.In 2016 he returned. What will he find? How has Russia changed since those grim days? He speaks Russian. He travels beyond the main cities to find out what is really going on. Here is his educated opinion.
” I had planned this book simply as a personal travel account , comparing impressions of Russia today with the Soviet Union of my memories.But somehow this book has grown into something more as well:a personal appeal against current locked in hostile Western mis-reading of contemporary Russian reality, and against the insensate Western drive to a new cold war with Russia.
There is the reality that I saw, of the civilized country in which I enjoyed living for a month. And there is the alternative dark reality of “Putins Russia”, as presented across multiple Anglo- American media, in todays massive information war against Russia.Of these two sharply opposed realities, it is the latter which has firmly colonised Western minds- to the point that most of us no longer know that it has done so.
There are deep historical undercurrents to the present widening East- West estrangement.. most importantly,Russia is angered by the West having broken the unwritten [ a written copy was discovered last year-my insertion ]Gorbachev-Bush Snr. agreement in Malta in 1991 in which Russia would accept reunification of Germany as a Nato member, if the West undertook not to expand NATO beyond East Germany towards Russia.That promise was set aside by NATO under successive U.S. Presidents Clinton , Bush and Obama.Now there are new members of NATO exercising troops on Russia’s borders, and the likelihood of an invitation to Georgia and Ukraine to join.
Secondly is the widespread sense in Russia that Western powers used her “time of troubles” in1985-2000 to become heavily interventionist in Russian internal affairs.
Thirdly, there is a historic anti-Russian sentiment or Russophobia, in the West going back centuries.
Information warfare has become a major new arena of East-West tension.The fact is that Anglo-American media,now habitually blend together their news and editorial comment about Russia, framing every Russia news story within familiar anti -Putin themes.
The constant Western pressure on” Putins Russia” today has resulted in Putins approval ratings among the Russian people leaping from 69% to 78%.It seems that Russians have the government that most of them want!
Against this backdrop we see how the United States and the U.S. led Western alliance are trying to preserve their dominant positions by any available method, including economic sanctions,direct armed intervention,large scale information wars, and launching “colour revolutions.”
In conclusion,it seems to me that the Western Alliance is now trapped inside its own falsely created alternative reality of “Putins Russia”.Except for a few lonely outliers like Stephen Cohen,Sakwa,Kissinger, the American Committee for East-West Accord, and wiser heads in the Wilson Centre and the affiliated Kennan Institute, the West’s elite thinking about Russia is frozen in hostile prejudice.”
Read the book- it may cause the scales to fall from your eyes!!!
A Western leader gains from being able to point the finger at someone or some place. The plan is to unite the people behind the leader. Putin is such a focus for floundering May.
Interesting comments Historian Pete and I’m sure there’s a lot of truth to it.
Tony Kevin, a career Australian Diplomat ,who 48 years ago was posted to the Soviet Union at the height of the cold war. In 2016 he returned. What will he find? How has Russia changed since those grim days? He speaks Russian. He travels beyond the main cities to find out what is really going on.
My late father did the same. In the early 1920s he was part of a group of British Army personnel who were sent to Archangel to rescue a group of high ranking Russians. It was a year long exercise and he traveled to other parts of Russia in the process. In the mid 1970s he returned as a tourist to see what had changed and he also spoke a smattering of Russian. For his efforts, when he returned to NZ he was subjected to surveillance and harassment for some time afterwards. The interesting thing is: it was probably ASIS not NZSIS who were behind it. Another interesting story.
Not withstanding the current comic book antics of the incumbent US president, it seems the West (read America in particular) can’t overcome their paranoia over Russia.
I don’t like the polarised cold war style of anti-Russia propaganda. But I don’t have a very positive view of the dominant authoritarian or rightward leaning politicians and elites in the US, UK or Russia.
Trump respects or even bows to other aggressively dominant and authoritarian males – he measures himself against them – including Putin. And Trump has a pretty dismissive and sometimes highly misogynistic attitude to women, especially any woman with power or status. Both Trump and Putin are authoritarian, and I think both don’t care that much about the lowest income, least powerful, and minority sections of their countries.
Obama was nicer and had some better policies, but he was still incorporated into the divisive, militaristic imperial US system.
The majority in a country are not always correct or commendable, especially when it comes to treatment of minorities and those with relatively little power.
Don’t get me wrong Carolyn_Nth. I have about as much regard for Putin as I have for Trump which is zero. My comments were more general than the leaders and based on the overall perceptions each seem to have for the other.
actually in my experience online communities at least are overwhelmingly anti american and as far as us natives go only the particularly brainwashed ones swallow the official narrative although having said that within that deeply polarized nation that would mean an awful lot of cognitive dissonance !!Ditto uk communities loath despise and mistrust their representatives . Take a look at any recent interview with lavrov the russian foreign minister for example and read the comments .
Yeah, that never really sat well with me. I mean, either he’s oblivious to Key’s shenanigans during his time as PM, or he’s not terribly discerning when it comes to ‘friends’. Were Key still PM, I suspect he and the orange monstrosity currently infesting the White House would get along like a house on fire due to their shared love of ‘making shit up’.
It’s easy (& 100% valid) to point out many inconsistencies between what Obama advocated today and what he did with the power he had. I also disagree w/parts. But the speech is a thoughtful, often-smart analysis of the last several decades of world history
Testing the water with poisonous crap to see if people will still swallow it – as Key did here; trial runs.
“To grasp what is going on in the world right now, we need to reflect on two things. One is that we are in a phase of trial runs. The other is that what is being trialled is fascism – a word that should be used carefully but not shirked when it is so clearly on the horizon. Forget “post-fascist” – what we are living with is pre-fascism.
It is easy to dismiss Donald Trump as an ignoramus, not least because he is. But he has an acute understanding of one thing: test marketing. He created himself in the gossip pages of the New York tabloids, where celebrity is manufactured by planting outrageous stories that you can later confirm or deny depending on how they go down. And he recreated himself in reality TV where the storylines can be adjusted according to the ratings. Put something out there, pull it back, adjust, go again.
Fascism doesn’t arise suddenly in an existing democracy. It is not easy to get people to give up their ideas of freedom and civility. You have to do trial runs that, if they are done well, serve two purposes. They get people used to something they may initially recoil from; and they allow you to refine and calibrate. This is what is happening now and we would be fools not to see it.”
Probably right Robert. Why else would our governments over the years “leak” an idea? Confirm if well received or Deny if goes sour. And Key refined the deniability to a amazing degree. Contrast that with Jacinda’s straight shooting.
When Key called the Labour Party “The Devil Beast” in the House I thought, “He’s just pushing the envelope to see how far he can go with previously un-sayable things” and was doing it not from his own desire to know, but for someone else.
I reckoned.
Forget “post-fascist” – what we are living with is pre-fascism.
Otherwise known as corporatism. It is the inevitable end result of a capitalist society.
Fascism doesn’t arise suddenly in an existing democracy. It is not easy to get people to give up their ideas of freedom and civility. You have to do trial runs that, if they are done well, serve two purposes. They get people used to something they may initially recoil from; and they allow you to refine and calibrate. This is what is happening now and we would be fools not to see it.”
Unbelievable! Does he really think he can get away with that … probably.
Ps – sorry for lack of reply to yours the other day. Have managed to get myself highly involved (by accident) in coordinating resolution of a local neighbourhood issue, which has become very time consuming. Glad to hear that things are going well. Kia kaha
While watching Fox at 2.30pm today and Glenn Greenwald is supporting President Trump as a lone voice in an ‘Anti Russia be-partision hate campiagn’ against Russia at the whitehouse scene today.
So the interview was between Laura Ingraham on her show, “The “Ingraham angle”
The hawks are out wanting another war the bloody fools, wanting more blood shed.
I think it’s quite a clever move, he seems to be playing to two different audiences. It’s a pity CV isn’t here to explain. Instead the depth of analysis we’re getting from too many on the left is ridicule and outrage.
What I fear is that while the hilarity and anger rages on, Trump will have shifted things away from a neoliberal world order and the left will end up chasing shadows on the sidelines. Locked out from substantial power.
It shows he is morally bankrupt, a liar, a coward, and an abuser of the gift of the presidency. How anyone can turn the pile of shit into a positive spin is beyond my understanding but those that do that are not left, not even close. CV wasn’t left proudly, and a lot here profess some new made up political position – good. I AM a leftie and PROUD of that heritage and position and I’m glad fake lefties are disowning the ‘left’ label.
Marty; Are you ‘proudly’ holding onto that ‘Right wing” banner?
Give iit a break; – See Obama in his South African speecxh now trying to look llike an leftie, which he was not.
He said “I am not rich as many are” What a bloody liar as he is selling his speeches for $2 million dollars US a pop, he always was and now is a corporate stool pidgeon..
Funnily enough, he didn’t say that in his Mandela speech. Full text here.
But the passage I think most closely fits your fantasy(my italics):
And Madiba understood this. This is not new. He warned us about this. He said: “Where globalization means, as it so often does, that the rich and the powerful now have new means to further enrich and empower themselves at the cost of the poorer and the weaker, [then] we have a responsibility to protest in the name of universal freedom.” That’s what he said. (Applause.) So if we are serious about universal freedom today, if we care about social justice today, then we have a responsibility to do something about it. And I would respectfully amend what Madiba said. I don’t do it often, but I’d say it’s not enough for us to protest; we’re going to have to build, we’re going to have to innovate, we’re going to have to figure out how do we close this widening chasm of wealth and opportunity both within countries and between them. (Applause.)
And how we achieve this is going to vary country to country, and I know your new president is committed to rolling up his sleeves and trying to do so. But we can learn from the last 70 years that it will not involve unregulated, unbridled, unethical capitalism. It also won’t involve old-style command-and-control socialism form the top. That was tried; it didn’t work very well. For almost all countries, progress is going to depend on an inclusive market-based system — one that offers education for every child; that protects collective bargaining and secures the rights of every worker — (applause) — that breaks up monopolies to encourage competition in small and medium-sized businesses; and has laws that root out corruption and ensures fair dealing in business; that maintains some form of progressive taxation so that rich people are still rich but they’re giving a little bit back to make sure that everybody else has something to pay for universal health care and retirement security, and invests in infrastructure and scientific research that builds platforms for innovation.
I should add, by the way, right now I’m actually surprised by how much money I got, and let me tell you something: I don’t have half as much as most of these folks or a tenth or a hundredth. There’s only so much you can eat. There’s only so big a house you can have. (Cheers and applause.) There’s only so many nice trips you can take. I mean, it’s enough. (Laughter.) You don’t have to take a vow of poverty just to say, “Well, let me help out and let a few of the other folks — let me look at that child out there who doesn’t have enough to eat or needs some school fees, let me help him out. I’ll pay a little more in taxes. It’s okay. I can afford it.” (Cheers and applause.) I mean, it shows a poverty of ambition to just want to take more and more and more, instead of saying, “Wow, I’ve got so much. Who can I help? How can I give more and more and more?” (Cheers and applause.) That’s ambition. That’s impact. That’s influence. What an amazing gift to be able to help people, not just yourself. (Applause.) Where was I? I ad-libbed. (Laughter.) You get the point.
Since you appear to be feeling somewhat bereft – here’s the 37-dimensional chessmaster explanation CV would have given us. Hope it makes you feel better.
When there are two peas in a pod, what possible tack can one take with regards the other, bar some vacuous bullshit about what a terribly awful pea the other is, in the hope of becoming the next preferred pea…while – understandably given some “my turn next” mentality – consistently voting in favour of extra powers for the currently favoured pea? 😉
Yet again, in order to try and garner just a tiny little bit of genuine engagement and concern, an affected person allows the cameras to invade their already fragile space… gathering the remnants of their dignity and laying bare their suffering.
Yet again, there will be a flurry of comments declaring outrage and support.
Yet again, nothing will change.
This is yet another decent piece of work on this issue and it deserves respectful reading and listening.
It includes comments from one of our better disability advocates, Dr Woodbury, and from an author of one of the many, many pieces of research that accurately describes the situation for many in the disability community.
So when this Gummint announces that it will ‘look into these issues’…that shouldn’t take more than a few hours as the work has already been done. (I have Sarah Derrett’s work plus the work of others on my hard drive if that helps???)
The much trumpeted System Transformation is so much SSDD that I could weep for the waste of time and precious resources.
And sadly, tragically, since Catherine Delahunty left the House there isn’t a single sitting MP who gives a shit.
While Labour acknowledges the discrepancy in support was unfair, their Budget Responsibility Rules has left them fiscally constrained to correct little more than National. As the nurses dispute, further double-bunking and lack of funding for cochlear implants have widely highlighted.
One day, when I have absolutely nothing better to do with my time and attention, I just might try to quantify how much of the Disability Budget…both ACC and MOH…is spent on devising new and even more sociopathic methods of preventing the $$$ from being allocated to the person who needs the support.
This is not about lack of $$$. It is about how the $$$ are spent. Family carers were told way back in 2012 that if we demanded to be paid for the care we provide (that the Appeal Court determined it was a breach of the Human Rights Act not to pay us) then there would be no $$$ left for wheelchairs for disabled children. This was complete and utter bullshit, and typical bullying from the Ministry of Health.
Hopefully, you and others here have no idea of the hoops the cripples have to jump through and the mazes those who struggle with simple everyday tasks are expected to negotiate before some petty-minded megalomaniacal bureaucrat concedes to pry open the coffers and part with some brass to fund for supports.
You’d swear it was their own personal money that they were parting with.
And when I think about it….so much of the work is contracted out it is very possible that bonuses accrue if allocations are restricted.
I sympathize with the nurses…I really do…but having to be with my partner 24/7 should he be unfortunate enough to require hospitalisation because the nurses refuse to perform what to them are invasive procedures but to us are routine daily cares leaves me feeling just ever so slightly hard done by.
But this is our lives. Every day.
The Disability Support System in New Zealand is a shambles, no amount of tweaking will fix it.
Twenty years of crap management in a system was set up to keep people from the supports they need.
And we have yet another Government who simply doesn’t give a shit.
“This is not about lack of $$$. It is about how the $$$ are spent.”
I think this should be looked at throughout many of the government’s problems from housing to disability. It’s where the money is going and how much of it is NOT getting to source the actual recipients or solve the problems in the fastest and cheapest way, but instead feeding a bloated system that acts against effective end results.
For example, millions being pumped into new housing and giving away public prime land while vulnerable people have been evicted and housing NZ should be hiring teams of people to fix up the guttering and upgrade existing housing of all their state houses from day 1 the Labour government got into office.
Instead say, 19 million is allocated to build 12 apartments for temporary housing. The majority of the money going to private construction not solving the poor state house repair, situation and the vulnerable people who live there including children in poverty.
That helps 12 people temporarily, what about the majority of state housing that could easily be upgraded at a fraction of the cost, aka what they expect the private sector to do, but seem reluctant to start on mass themselves?
Rosemary said; – “The Disability Support System in New Zealand is a shambles,”
Yes you are 100% correct there as a disabled person this agency has given me very little assistance in 18 years so I am left to ‘fend for myself’ still today.
We need a compassionaste leader to give proper services to the disabled quickly.
The self imposed fiscal constraint limits funding, thus how much can be spent. How it is spent is largely up to the Government and its overseeing departments.
The lack of funding further adds to the human rights breaching, penny pinching complexities faced by those attaining it. Laying ground for a culture of disentitlement as staff are encouraged to cut back.
Sepuloni is focusing on housing for disabled. And other stuff (ODI ezine/newsletter)/
That’s one MP,I hope…time will tell.
“I just might try to quantify how much of the Disability Budget…both ACC and MOH…is spent on devising new and even more sociopathic methods of preventing the $$$ from being allocated to the person who needs the support.” – the amount seems to increase by a few million every couple of years imho
Sepuloni has the unenviable portfolio of Minister for Disability Issues.
The ODI is window dressing. Expensive PR to present the image that the government of the day is actually doing something to improve the lives of disabled Kiwis.
It seeks input and opinion from Disabled Peoples’ Organizations (DPO) as part of its charter and calls this consultation. It actuality those DPOs are dependent on government funding. They play by the rules and are slow challenge the status quo.
Those of us not representatives of these organsations were effectively excluded from regional discussion on revising the Disability Strategy. I asked the
Thee is no kudos in being the Minster for Disability Issues….look at the previous incumbents….Nicky Wagner, Tariana Turia….
Councils waving through non compliant resource consents making up 20% of regional and 14% of council consents… when non compliant now means compliant… When No means yes… anything goes…
“National Monitoring System data shows that 14 per cent of resource consents monitored by all councils in 2015/16 were non-compliant. This figure was 20 per cent for regional councils.”
Time for MAJOR stop of the wrecking of our environment and resources for private profit and actually STOPPING bad and unfair resource consents from even going through in the first place, before they become non compliant and cost a fortune in monitoring and legal costs to the ratepayers as well as the social and environmental costs!
Wonder how many consents were cancelled after this was found, my guess, zero.
If you think enforcing or making regulations harder to get through will not lead to a reduced building activity you are in disagreement with numerous people involved in the building industry. Talk to someone from that sector. Gaining resource consent is a big factor in their job.
If you think enforcing or making regulations harder to get through will not lead to a reduced building activity you are in disagreement with numerous people involved in the building industry.
Which just proves, yet again, that the profit motive is not fit for purpose.
Gaining resource consent is a big factor in their job.
It’s a part of their job that they don’t get to complain about.
Ummm… if regulations are causing problems for business they DO get to complain about it. Indeed they should be actively encouraged to compleain about it otherwise government will start to think they can regulate anything they want without push back.
So not having regulations Gooseman work’s really well Pike River SCF leakey buildings bio security under funding
Gooseman give up the Deranged Dogma you push back to Dickensian days.
Which if you lived then you would have no say no education not that the education you have seems to have narrowed your view’s.
Being a narrow minded fool can’t be easy to keep up appearances as you have proved yourself wrong in excess of 90%.
Keep barking at wheels if that floats your boat.
Gossipboy!
I have no problems with regulations. I am just not foolish enough to think increasing regulations around building has no flow on effect on the rate of building that will occur. Given the most significant issue facing the country is housing affordability (unless you don’t believe there is a housing crisis) I would suggest anything that restricts more houses being built is not ideal.
Surely you understand that it is a balance. What others are saying is that if regulation were decreased then yes the initial cost of building those homes would go down. However the cost of another leaky building fiasco would far exceed any savings. All it does is increase the profit made by private sector and shift the cost to this public.
If builders could prove that reduction in regulation didn’t result in the cutting of corners then I would be all for reducing it. The fact that so many projects are not up to code shows that it would only be worse if they didn’t have to meet those standards.
This is where DTB’s argument comes from I believe. For a housing market to operate successfully on a profit motive it appears that it has to be done in such a way that the public wears the cost. This is clearly not a healthy market.
Yes numerous people in the building industry are not trying to increase their profits… but actually giving wonderful independent advice (sarcasm).
The government listening to industry and pandering to their every deregulation and low wage employment whim, must mean that is why we now have a major housing crisis shortages as well as affordability and not meeting building standards and needing constant remedial work and people don’t want to work in that industry full of cowboys and exploitation…
Yet to meet the target of 100,000 additional houses over and above the current build rate in the next 10 years YOU require the same industry to massively expand.
33,000 empty houses in Aukland…all being renovated ..and other assorted excuses..houses are for people to live in…theres a
1/3rd of ‘supply..right there.
How is renovating state housing to an acceptable standard making affordability worse?
Since the government started to ‘solve’ affordability by bringing in 500,000+ low wage workers under the Natz, to solve the crisis, that could be what’s keeping the problems going while increasing conditions for private landlords to rent houses while seemingly removing as many vulnerable people out of state housing so they can be developed into ahem ‘affordable housing’ for $120k – $180k earners and then private housing to be sold off?
Prior to the interest in ‘affordable’ housing by government and only about 4 years ago there actually used to be $200k apartments and $350k family homes in Auckland, now suddenly with the right wing strategies that make no sense but taken up by the Blairites in Labour as gospel…affordability has never been worse!
And the $200k one bedroom apartment from 4 years ago, used to be in the CBD not $500k with free land from government and free money for private construction to create the sold off “affordable” one bedroom, a much greater distance away from the centre and travels costs to be added now being the new affordable!
If you want affordable then legislate a certain amount of housing aka 10% per apartment build has to be developed to be under a certain price and available to people who live and work in the city and a percentage available to the state to buy for vulnerable people to live in the city.
Like the developments in Auckland which will need demolishing because they were built with out consent with one developer discharging raw sewage into a stream.
Leaky schools hospitals homes cost $35 billion plus due to building deregulation 1991.
Yeah Gooseman.
“Marama Davidson, Betty Shine, and Professor Margaret Mutu discussing the weak legislation that allows foreign buyers and business models such as Tegel are proposing to take advantage while locals bear the costs financially, culturally, socially and environmentally.”
Even going past all the major social and environmental effects on locals including a Marae so a multinational can profit further, taking the chickens from Dargaville to Auckland on a regular basis is adding to congestion of Auckland!! Practically every day there is another truck crash blocking traffic into Auckland.
ACC should also do statistics on how many people are being injured via Truck accidents in particular in Auckland because it is increasing and the hospitals and police and victims are having to pick up the pieces after these accidents.
Trucks of course they can fill up in Dargaville and avoid the fuel tax that the Aucklander’s have to pay for…
When are resource consents going to stop the practise of adding to truck congestion into Auckland via bad consenting practises?
Actually develop tourism and sustainable industries there, not destroy the towns and communities and Maraes and the heart of the community with short term, high negative impact and smelly industry that will mean they can’t develop other venture (aka tourism) there, and actually starts to gut the town when people leave due to the smell and lack of opportunities there.
So businesses who are affected by one industry which destroy’s their income because of the pollution and environmental damage have a right to Deny consent
Like wise Gooseman you wouldn’t want a chicken farm in your back yard.
Even though birds of a feather Flock together.
Hopefully the unemployed can break into the chicken factory and make sure that the so called ‘free range’ is not pulling the wool over consumers eyes like the fake free range of a few years ago and have decent humane animal standards.
Makes more sense to me, to put these factories in the middle of nowhere and prove no odour is going off the farm (aka by buying enough land to contain the odour or other measures) and have the processing nearby (not Auckland), away from people and towns, not on the edge of one, destroying the town which stench, noise and ugly buildings and trucks going in and out, in particular is going to do.
The problem with big farms as well, is if something goes wrong then it multiplies. Aka if the chickens get a disease much greater impact than smaller farms spread around, or if the power goes off there are massive deaths of chickens to burn etc. As well as food shortages from having all the eggs in one basket when things go wrong.
They can not predict what might happen with that amount of birds in one place.
Blindly following all business must be good.
Is a really dumb idea asbestos mining in Australia was an example no profit govt subsidies.
Then the govt has to pick up the bill for asbestosis sufferers.
James Hardie has been given the all clear to start a silica mine in NZ.
Silica is just as dangerous as asbestos.
Who allowed this.
I have been highly aware of ‘single use’ plastic.
I work in hospitality and the industry is riddled with single use plastic.
Vege crates lined with a big blue bag, the spinach in plastic bags.
The box in the freezer with gluten free pizza bases, in a plastic bag with plastic sheets between each base.
We put some meats into vacuum pack bags and then sous vide the fold.
(Cook at a lower temperature in a water bath).
This is a quite heavy wall plastic that will take ages longer than a supermarket bag to break down.
Other food preparations get vac packed and stored for longer shelf life e.g. onion jam, beetroot chutney, fish.
My point is, for sure phase out, (why not banish next month, week or tomorrow) supermarket bags.
However it is barely scratching the surface of the issue, and what is worse, the sacrifice the middle class thinks it is making.
Like so many consequences of unfettered free market capitalism, it will take radical actions to correct the ‘right course’ we are on.
The government need to just ban plastic for packaging or ensure it is only biodegradable within 6 months and tax it. We used to have paper bags and time to return to them.
Funny how government can put in plenty of new taxes for people aka fuel tax, but nothing against business destroying the planet… the only weak thing is to ask people (again just the people not the business) to pay for the bag which is not really banning the plastic or stopping the business using it.
Plastic is now reaching Antartica, time to act at source, the business themselves.
Like e waste, maybe just make the manufacturers responsible for recycling it and ensuring it can not enter the ocean, as a starting point before a ban.
3. Tyres: abrasion while driving
Tyres get eroded when used. The particles are formed from the outer parts of the tyre and
consist of a matrix of synthetic polymers, namely Styrene Butadiene Rubber (approximately
60%), in a mix with natural rubber and many other additives (Sundt et al., 2014). Tyre dust
will then either be spread by the wind or washed off the road by rain. In this study, losses of
synthetic rubber are considered but losses of natural rubber are not.
There is no reliable information on the transfer of microplastics from tyres to the world’s oceans. Both
Norwegian and Swedish researchers have pointed out that a large fraction of particles found in the sea
seem to originate from car tyres (Essel et al., 2015; Sundt et al., 2014).
Auckland council just approved this one, consent to remove 23,000 cubic metres of sand a year for 35 years trucks going 5 truck and trailer movements per day between Kaukaupaka and Penrose which is a crazy distance across very congested traffic and along country roads with no footpaths and kids walking it.
I guess risk and safety does not come into it under our Rogernomics RMA, when competing against supplying ex asbestos player multinationals private profits…
According to the resource consent, all truck operators were to travel at a 30km speed within the site, and 50km on any unsealed sections of McLachlan Rd.
That road’s going to ruined in no time. Wonder if the council took into account the costs of continuous repair for it.
SaveNZ. you asked; Who cares about the costs of the road repairs!
I can add;
All taxpayers do I asume as they pay in registration and fuel taxes as wellas subsidsing the truck freight industry as they only pay half (54%) of their wear caused; – while every car user pays 66% of their wear according to the IPENZ reports.
Truck freight should pay their full share and assist the upgrades of the roads to overseas standards to carry those heavier trucks that NZTA has allowed to increase ‘weight and dimension’ size, once in every three years in the last 12 yrs.
Sand removal, (to where? for what? and how does that prepare the coastline for sea level rise and storm and tide disasters). And what is this business about 35 years that permits get issued for? I have read this figure before I think referring to irrigation or water extraction contracts.
The right wing in government like to preach about paying up front for things so that future generations don’t have to carry the excesses of the present blah blah. Yet they like to sequester resources that will be needed for future generations, if they can survive… to 2025 etc.
The government’s words
Are like whispers in our ears
Telling us lies
To hide away our fears
Hikoi taku tai moana te take ō te wā
The foreshore and seabed (protest) march the issue of the day
…
He tiriti nā Amerika, John Key te waha mōkai
The agreement from America, John Key the puppet mouthpiece
Ehara i te koha, TPPA he tūtae
This is no gift, the TPPA is a turd
He hui toropuku, he kōrero huna
Secret meetings, hidden words
Nga iwi Māori awere, te Tiriti takahia
Māori interests excluded, the Treaty (of Waitangi) disregarded
….because goodness, gracious me….if I were a financial supporter of the Labour Party I’d be mightily pissed off.
“Not everyone can turn online buzz into real-world results, and vice versa. These two can by knowing how to make the right noise with the right people. They’re in the business of making corporate cool with a track record for innovative, behaviour-changing strategies.
Reason for being? Many of Angela’s personal projects are about helping women realise how ace they are; she started the Real Hot Bitches international dance troupe. Ange’s happy place is in nature, and she will fight fiercely to defend it.
Claim to fame? Ange is known for having wild adventures – like that time she and her husband, along with their one year old baby, bought a boat in the Caribbean and sailed it through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific. Things didn’t end so well.
Anna Dean can. By knowing how to make the right noise with the right people, she’s in the business of making corporate cool.
Reason for being? Anna cut her teeth in the art world – helping friends’ projects get the attention they deserved. A Golden Bay girl at heart, she also has a deep connection to the land and is never afraid to plunge into the sea. Social issues, like the gender pay gap, also get Anna fired up.
Claim to fame? TV3’s David Farrier described Anna as a “marketing genius” after she changed Wellington to “Vellington” for the launch of What We Do in the Shadows.”
My god, I was hoping the rabbit hole would close once the Natz had been relegated.
A wee reminder – as I walked home from visiting a mate last night – the moon a bright cresent with the brilliance of Venus beside her and then above Jupiter bright leaning away from Scorpio and further over Saturn and then mars so red and bright.
I’m in the dark country and I hope you get a chance to look up at the sky – inspiring.
Absolutely agree. The sky has been magnificent the last few nights in Wellington. Over the last few months many street lights in Wellington have been out and not fixed. While this is a safety/security issue, etc, OTOH it has been/is great for sky watching.
We should be saluting the Gaza Strip
The spirit of Gaza is unbroken by any siege and breathing life into the desperate and lost cause of the Palestinian struggle
by GIDEON LEVY, July 15, 2018
Were it not for the Gaza Strip, the occupation would have been long forgotten. Were it not for the Gaza Strip, Israel would have erased the Palestinian problem from its agenda and continued on blithely with its crimes and annexations, with its routine, as if 4 million people were not living under its heel. Were it not for the Gaza Strip, the world would also have forgotten. Most of it already has. This is why we must now salute the Gaza Strip — mainly the spirit of the Gaza Strip, the only one that is still breathing life into the desperate and lost cause of the Palestinian struggle for liberty.
The resolute struggle of the Gaza Strip should also spark admiration in Israel. The handful of people with a conscience who still remain here should give thanks to the unbroken spirit of the Gaza Strip. The spirit of the West Bank crumpled after the failure of the second intifada, as did the spirit of the Israeli peace camp — most of which shattered long ago. Only the spirit of the Gaza Strip stands steadfast in its struggle.
Good morning The Am Show Simon Mannering is a great role modle for all Kiwis 14 years at the club and nearly 300 games ka pai.
Julie Anne Genter Eco maori thanks the Green party for advocating for Papatuanuku clean green environment I hope we do have subsidies for electric cars in Aotearoa ka pai.
Mark the chargeing stations could be located in commercial car parks it would be worth it for the owners of these parks mainly councils as this would draw in more customers win win for all.
That picture of Angela Merkel show’s me the lefties have to be vigilante keep a gard up against the neo libreal smear campaign thats what they do the camera person would have seen this distraction .
With the free speech thing it should be factual free speech one does not let lairs or people that are going to teach te mokopuna’s bad habits can’t you see that these people have decided to come to Aotearoa to rock our Waka because we are heading down the left path .
Ka kite ano
Why is someone who plays Rugby League automatically “a great role modle for all Kiwis”? I had to google the name to know what you meant by “the club”, so certainly not a role model for me. A lot of us Kiwis just think this thugby stuff is crap that stunts men’s development with toxic masculinity. Rather than a positive role model such people, in my view, are causing much harm.
Here you go two people who care about what they leave behind to there mokopuna’s a sustainable environment ka pai link below P.S If all farmers invested some effort in to looking after there on farm environment one can do this with out spending much money this would help improve our water quality .
Kiwis have just about used up all the advantages that Aotearoa has been blessed with on Papatuanuku .The other big advantage we have is Tangaroa to be exact Deep Sea fish farming Aquaculture we are in a prime location for Aquaculture we can do this deep sea fish farming with minimum negative environmental impact fish farming could easily become our biggest export prouduct . Yes I know theirs the argument that the wild fish stocks are taken to feed the stock on these fish farms . but we could find alternative feed stock for the fish like meat waste maybe havesting sea weed many different options to feed these fish farms fishes we are in a prime location for Aquaculture if we grow Aquaculture we will reduce the presser on Tangaroa wild fish stock and this is another reason for Eco Maori to champion this industry .Ka pai
Ka kite ano link below.
We cannot let thee neo librail bone heads get there hands on this technology that would be a catastrophe for all beings Artificial Intelligent killing machines .
Link below ka kite ano
Good evening Newshub Congratulations to Te Uroa Flavell for his new job as CEO of Te Wanganga O Aotearoa I am sure you will look after our tangata whenua education Ka pai E hoa
There you go What a real man does he admits he is wrong and apologizes Ka pai Elon Mus
There you go AI is there in Australia nimbo robotics security help is a reality now we have to keep this technology on a tight leash or it will have us on the leash.
There we go Andrew Britain is experience heat waves the Scottish golf couse is dry Global Warming is here and now. ka kite ano
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
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 A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
The unidentified foreign intelligence operation discussed in a scathing report by New Zealand’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) last week appears to be a controversial United States intelligence system. The IGIS report said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) decision to host a foreign system from 2012-2020 was “improper” ...
One observation about the Spouthern-Molyneux kerfuffle – what is with the absolute obsession of the middle class twitterati with this?
They have all be strenuously trying to jaw jaw this into an issue with wider cut through, presumably because they have the time, income and social position to indulge in abstract obsessions about freedom of speech.
But the only people outside twitter and a few blogs talking about this are the wing nut brigade ike Farrar, Slater and the newly minted, self-styled free speech coalition.
Give it a rest already.
Manufacturing consent as per their remit being paid up puppets.
It doesn’t surprise me, Goff came across as a right little dictator and that would have really rarked up his ideological yangs. It’s always about power & status with that mob.
Now they’re pissed because their case probably won’t go anywhere, they thought they had an opportunity to stick it to Goff and it’s slipping away from their grasp. What to do, do they press onwards with the potential of them being harrumphed or do they slink away quietly.
I see that Bob Jones is now writing for Whale oil, very suitable company.
I recently got a twitter account to follow a few people and see what all the fuss is about.
Anyone who takes that platform seriously is a moron who deserves everything they get.
“Anyone who takes that platform seriously is a moron who deserves everything they get.”
Wouldn’t they be a twit?
Like
+100 DH
A contributor to the fake and the trivial news and hopefully dying out now as the younger generations don’t use it.
I prefer Twitter to other social media platforms. The Twitter experience all depends on who you follow.
I also use tweedeck, which enables me to view various columns of my choice. Sometimes I open a hashtag column when there’s an interesting debate going on in real time using a #xxxx format.
I follow some journos and news organisations, plus some individuals who tweet links to useful and interesting articles on topics of interest to me.
Some twitter debates get highly polarised and are best avoided – e.g. I took a quick peek and rightwingers smear hashtag attacking Golriz Ghahraman a couple of days ago, and quickly retreated. There’s no debating that kind of vicious targeting of a politician. Still on the same one note as always against GG, and the righties are so full of a virtue signalling sense of their own correctness and superiority.
I block any commercial enterprise that tries to follow me purely for commercial reasons, and make selective use of the mute button for one or two tiresome tweeters.
I don’t read all the tweets in my twitter stream, but it’s a useful source for news and other topic, and usually is a platform where breaking news first shows up.
About the same as what I do.
Those people aren’t there to debate – they’re there to shout down anybody who doesn’t agree with them.
Yep. Completely and totally wrong but absolutely positive that they’re right.
You simply cannot debate with people like that as their argument always starts and ends with I believe… and facts won’t change those beliefs.
Thanks Carolyn-Nth for the twitter cover. I feel the need to be more active with it and your views are helpful.
Excerpts from “Return to Moscow”, a book recently written by Tony Kevin, a career Australian Diplomat ,who 48 years ago was posted to the Soviet Union at the height of the cold war.In 2016 he returned. What will he find? How has Russia changed since those grim days? He speaks Russian. He travels beyond the main cities to find out what is really going on. Here is his educated opinion.
” I had planned this book simply as a personal travel account , comparing impressions of Russia today with the Soviet Union of my memories.But somehow this book has grown into something more as well:a personal appeal against current locked in hostile Western mis-reading of contemporary Russian reality, and against the insensate Western drive to a new cold war with Russia.
There is the reality that I saw, of the civilized country in which I enjoyed living for a month. And there is the alternative dark reality of “Putins Russia”, as presented across multiple Anglo- American media, in todays massive information war against Russia.Of these two sharply opposed realities, it is the latter which has firmly colonised Western minds- to the point that most of us no longer know that it has done so.
There are deep historical undercurrents to the present widening East- West estrangement.. most importantly,Russia is angered by the West having broken the unwritten [ a written copy was discovered last year-my insertion ]Gorbachev-Bush Snr. agreement in Malta in 1991 in which Russia would accept reunification of Germany as a Nato member, if the West undertook not to expand NATO beyond East Germany towards Russia.That promise was set aside by NATO under successive U.S. Presidents Clinton , Bush and Obama.Now there are new members of NATO exercising troops on Russia’s borders, and the likelihood of an invitation to Georgia and Ukraine to join.
Secondly is the widespread sense in Russia that Western powers used her “time of troubles” in1985-2000 to become heavily interventionist in Russian internal affairs.
Thirdly, there is a historic anti-Russian sentiment or Russophobia, in the West going back centuries.
Information warfare has become a major new arena of East-West tension.The fact is that Anglo-American media,now habitually blend together their news and editorial comment about Russia, framing every Russia news story within familiar anti -Putin themes.
The constant Western pressure on” Putins Russia” today has resulted in Putins approval ratings among the Russian people leaping from 69% to 78%.It seems that Russians have the government that most of them want!
Against this backdrop we see how the United States and the U.S. led Western alliance are trying to preserve their dominant positions by any available method, including economic sanctions,direct armed intervention,large scale information wars, and launching “colour revolutions.”
In conclusion,it seems to me that the Western Alliance is now trapped inside its own falsely created alternative reality of “Putins Russia”.Except for a few lonely outliers like Stephen Cohen,Sakwa,Kissinger, the American Committee for East-West Accord, and wiser heads in the Wilson Centre and the affiliated Kennan Institute, the West’s elite thinking about Russia is frozen in hostile prejudice.”
Read the book- it may cause the scales to fall from your eyes!!!
A Western leader gains from being able to point the finger at someone or some place. The plan is to unite the people behind the leader. Putin is such a focus for floundering May.
Interesting comments Historian Pete and I’m sure there’s a lot of truth to it.
My late father did the same. In the early 1920s he was part of a group of British Army personnel who were sent to Archangel to rescue a group of high ranking Russians. It was a year long exercise and he traveled to other parts of Russia in the process. In the mid 1970s he returned as a tourist to see what had changed and he also spoke a smattering of Russian. For his efforts, when he returned to NZ he was subjected to surveillance and harassment for some time afterwards. The interesting thing is: it was probably ASIS not NZSIS who were behind it. Another interesting story.
Not withstanding the current comic book antics of the incumbent US president, it seems the West (read America in particular) can’t overcome their paranoia over Russia.
I don’t like the polarised cold war style of anti-Russia propaganda. But I don’t have a very positive view of the dominant authoritarian or rightward leaning politicians and elites in the US, UK or Russia.
Trump respects or even bows to other aggressively dominant and authoritarian males – he measures himself against them – including Putin. And Trump has a pretty dismissive and sometimes highly misogynistic attitude to women, especially any woman with power or status. Both Trump and Putin are authoritarian, and I think both don’t care that much about the lowest income, least powerful, and minority sections of their countries.
Obama was nicer and had some better policies, but he was still incorporated into the divisive, militaristic imperial US system.
The majority in a country are not always correct or commendable, especially when it comes to treatment of minorities and those with relatively little power.
Don’t get me wrong Carolyn_Nth. I have about as much regard for Putin as I have for Trump which is zero. My comments were more general than the leaders and based on the overall perceptions each seem to have for the other.
actually in my experience online communities at least are overwhelmingly anti american and as far as us natives go only the particularly brainwashed ones swallow the official narrative although having said that within that deeply polarized nation that would mean an awful lot of cognitive dissonance !!Ditto uk communities loath despise and mistrust their representatives . Take a look at any recent interview with lavrov the russian foreign minister for example and read the comments .
Obama has given a speech decrying leaders who are caught lying and “just double down and lie some more.”
Yet he’s best buddies with key.
+1 Hooch
Yeah, that never really sat well with me. I mean, either he’s oblivious to Key’s shenanigans during his time as PM, or he’s not terribly discerning when it comes to ‘friends’. Were Key still PM, I suspect he and the orange monstrosity currently infesting the White House would get along like a house on fire due to their shared love of ‘making shit up’.
Obama equals = “do what I do – and not what I say”
Here’s the speech. He has the ‘wow’ factor.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/17/obama-criticises-strongman-politics-coded-attack-trump
Who cares if he and Key were/are golfing buddies. Neither are politicians any more.
I picked up on this speech from Glenn Greenwald’s tweets on it. GG selected some quotes that he sees as significant, and then says this:
All sorted, the demented tangerine dummy ‘mispoke’ – lol run Donald run
https://i.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/105562371/trump-says-he-misspoke-on-russian-meddling
That slam dunks all the peace in our time pushers.
Testing the water with poisonous crap to see if people will still swallow it – as Key did here; trial runs.
“To grasp what is going on in the world right now, we need to reflect on two things. One is that we are in a phase of trial runs. The other is that what is being trialled is fascism – a word that should be used carefully but not shirked when it is so clearly on the horizon. Forget “post-fascist” – what we are living with is pre-fascism.
It is easy to dismiss Donald Trump as an ignoramus, not least because he is. But he has an acute understanding of one thing: test marketing. He created himself in the gossip pages of the New York tabloids, where celebrity is manufactured by planting outrageous stories that you can later confirm or deny depending on how they go down. And he recreated himself in reality TV where the storylines can be adjusted according to the ratings. Put something out there, pull it back, adjust, go again.
Fascism doesn’t arise suddenly in an existing democracy. It is not easy to get people to give up their ideas of freedom and civility. You have to do trial runs that, if they are done well, serve two purposes. They get people used to something they may initially recoil from; and they allow you to refine and calibrate. This is what is happening now and we would be fools not to see it.”
Probably right Robert. Why else would our governments over the years “leak” an idea? Confirm if well received or Deny if goes sour. And Key refined the deniability to a amazing degree. Contrast that with Jacinda’s straight shooting.
When Key called the Labour Party “The Devil Beast” in the House I thought, “He’s just pushing the envelope to see how far he can go with previously un-sayable things” and was doing it not from his own desire to know, but for someone else.
I reckoned.
Otherwise known as corporatism. It is the inevitable end result of a capitalist society.
QFT
Robert, I believe this is a tactic. One right wing personality or journalist will begin a meme and the others”pass the parcel”.
If the left respond “It must be true”. If the left ignore it they slightly change it and begin again!!
Unbelievable! Does he really think he can get away with that … probably.
Ps – sorry for lack of reply to yours the other day. Have managed to get myself highly involved (by accident) in coordinating resolution of a local neighbourhood issue, which has become very time consuming. Glad to hear that things are going well. Kia kaha
Wow Grenwald support for trump; good for him.
Try the other side of the story folks.
While watching Fox at 2.30pm today and Glenn Greenwald is supporting President Trump as a lone voice in an ‘Anti Russia be-partision hate campiagn’ against Russia at the whitehouse scene today.
So the interview was between Laura Ingraham on her show, “The “Ingraham angle”
The hawks are out wanting another war the bloody fools, wanting more blood shed.
I think it’s quite a clever move, he seems to be playing to two different audiences. It’s a pity CV isn’t here to explain. Instead the depth of analysis we’re getting from too many on the left is ridicule and outrage.
What I fear is that while the hilarity and anger rages on, Trump will have shifted things away from a neoliberal world order and the left will end up chasing shadows on the sidelines. Locked out from substantial power.
It shows he is morally bankrupt, a liar, a coward, and an abuser of the gift of the presidency. How anyone can turn the pile of shit into a positive spin is beyond my understanding but those that do that are not left, not even close. CV wasn’t left proudly, and a lot here profess some new made up political position – good. I AM a leftie and PROUD of that heritage and position and I’m glad fake lefties are disowning the ‘left’ label.
Marty; Are you ‘proudly’ holding onto that ‘Right wing” banner?
Give iit a break; – See Obama in his South African speecxh now trying to look llike an leftie, which he was not.
He said “I am not rich as many are” What a bloody liar as he is selling his speeches for $2 million dollars US a pop, he always was and now is a corporate stool pidgeon..
Funnily enough, he didn’t say that in his Mandela speech. Full text here.
But the passage I think most closely fits your fantasy(my italics):
Who’s the liar?
Since you appear to be feeling somewhat bereft – here’s the 37-dimensional chessmaster explanation CV would have given us. Hope it makes you feel better.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-putin-theory-mike-rounds_us_5b4e49e7e4b0de86f4879ecd
When there are two peas in a pod, what possible tack can one take with regards the other, bar some vacuous bullshit about what a terribly awful pea the other is, in the hope of becoming the next preferred pea…while – understandably given some “my turn next” mentality – consistently voting in favour of extra powers for the currently favoured pea? 😉
Yet again an intrepid reporter from the NZ print media produces an article which attempts to describe the lives of disabled New Zealanders.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/105423637/disabled-wellington-man-spirals-into-poverty-depression-after-acc-axes-support
Yet again, in order to try and garner just a tiny little bit of genuine engagement and concern, an affected person allows the cameras to invade their already fragile space… gathering the remnants of their dignity and laying bare their suffering.
Yet again, there will be a flurry of comments declaring outrage and support.
Yet again, nothing will change.
This is yet another decent piece of work on this issue and it deserves respectful reading and listening.
It includes comments from one of our better disability advocates, Dr Woodbury, and from an author of one of the many, many pieces of research that accurately describes the situation for many in the disability community.
So when this Gummint announces that it will ‘look into these issues’…that shouldn’t take more than a few hours as the work has already been done. (I have Sarah Derrett’s work plus the work of others on my hard drive if that helps???)
The much trumpeted System Transformation is so much SSDD that I could weep for the waste of time and precious resources.
And sadly, tragically, since Catherine Delahunty left the House there isn’t a single sitting MP who gives a shit.
Lets hope to get Catherine Delahunty, back into parliament.
While Labour acknowledges the discrepancy in support was unfair, their Budget Responsibility Rules has left them fiscally constrained to correct little more than National. As the nurses dispute, further double-bunking and lack of funding for cochlear implants have widely highlighted.
TC.
One day, when I have absolutely nothing better to do with my time and attention, I just might try to quantify how much of the Disability Budget…both ACC and MOH…is spent on devising new and even more sociopathic methods of preventing the $$$ from being allocated to the person who needs the support.
This is not about lack of $$$. It is about how the $$$ are spent. Family carers were told way back in 2012 that if we demanded to be paid for the care we provide (that the Appeal Court determined it was a breach of the Human Rights Act not to pay us) then there would be no $$$ left for wheelchairs for disabled children. This was complete and utter bullshit, and typical bullying from the Ministry of Health.
Hopefully, you and others here have no idea of the hoops the cripples have to jump through and the mazes those who struggle with simple everyday tasks are expected to negotiate before some petty-minded megalomaniacal bureaucrat concedes to pry open the coffers and part with some brass to fund for supports.
You’d swear it was their own personal money that they were parting with.
And when I think about it….so much of the work is contracted out it is very possible that bonuses accrue if allocations are restricted.
I sympathize with the nurses…I really do…but having to be with my partner 24/7 should he be unfortunate enough to require hospitalisation because the nurses refuse to perform what to them are invasive procedures but to us are routine daily cares leaves me feeling just ever so slightly hard done by.
But this is our lives. Every day.
The Disability Support System in New Zealand is a shambles, no amount of tweaking will fix it.
Twenty years of crap management in a system was set up to keep people from the supports they need.
And we have yet another Government who simply doesn’t give a shit.
@Rosemary +1000
“This is not about lack of $$$. It is about how the $$$ are spent.”
I think this should be looked at throughout many of the government’s problems from housing to disability. It’s where the money is going and how much of it is NOT getting to source the actual recipients or solve the problems in the fastest and cheapest way, but instead feeding a bloated system that acts against effective end results.
For example, millions being pumped into new housing and giving away public prime land while vulnerable people have been evicted and housing NZ should be hiring teams of people to fix up the guttering and upgrade existing housing of all their state houses from day 1 the Labour government got into office.
Instead say, 19 million is allocated to build 12 apartments for temporary housing. The majority of the money going to private construction not solving the poor state house repair, situation and the vulnerable people who live there including children in poverty.
That helps 12 people temporarily, what about the majority of state housing that could easily be upgraded at a fraction of the cost, aka what they expect the private sector to do, but seem reluctant to start on mass themselves?
Rosemary said; – “The Disability Support System in New Zealand is a shambles,”
Yes you are 100% correct there as a disabled person this agency has given me very little assistance in 18 years so I am left to ‘fend for myself’ still today.
We need a compassionaste leader to give proper services to the disabled quickly.
With all due respects cleangreen…what disabled NZers need, especially those not covered by ACC, are rights and entitlements. Enshrined in law.
Then it wouldn’t matter what numpty leader we were blighted with.
My partner and I do the fend for ourselves thing too. Our NASC has ascended to heights of incompetency that have been literally breathtaking.
Much safer to stay out of their way.
The self imposed fiscal constraint limits funding, thus how much can be spent. How it is spent is largely up to the Government and its overseeing departments.
The lack of funding further adds to the human rights breaching, penny pinching complexities faced by those attaining it. Laying ground for a culture of disentitlement as staff are encouraged to cut back.
Sepuloni is focusing on housing for disabled. And other stuff (ODI ezine/newsletter)/
That’s one MP,I hope…time will tell.
“I just might try to quantify how much of the Disability Budget…both ACC and MOH…is spent on devising new and even more sociopathic methods of preventing the $$$ from being allocated to the person who needs the support.” – the amount seems to increase by a few million every couple of years imho
Sepuloni has the unenviable portfolio of Minister for Disability Issues.
The ODI is window dressing. Expensive PR to present the image that the government of the day is actually doing something to improve the lives of disabled Kiwis.
https://www.odi.govt.nz/about-us/our-minister/
It seeks input and opinion from Disabled Peoples’ Organizations (DPO) as part of its charter and calls this consultation. It actuality those DPOs are dependent on government funding. They play by the rules and are slow challenge the status quo.
Those of us not representatives of these organsations were effectively excluded from regional discussion on revising the Disability Strategy. I asked the
Thee is no kudos in being the Minster for Disability Issues….look at the previous incumbents….Nicky Wagner, Tariana Turia….
NAH You’ve all got it wrong
Free speech,
they mean they WANTED the VENUE to be FREE!!!!
Councils waving through non compliant resource consents making up 20% of regional and 14% of council consents… when non compliant now means compliant… When No means yes… anything goes…
“National Monitoring System data shows that 14 per cent of resource consents monitored by all councils in 2015/16 were non-compliant. This figure was 20 per cent for regional councils.”
Time for MAJOR stop of the wrecking of our environment and resources for private profit and actually STOPPING bad and unfair resource consents from even going through in the first place, before they become non compliant and cost a fortune in monitoring and legal costs to the ratepayers as well as the social and environmental costs!
Wonder how many consents were cancelled after this was found, my guess, zero.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1807/S00141/new-guidelines-to-assist-rma-compliance.htm
And then housing affordability will get worse.
Having non-compliant buildings will cost more.
But you do understand that what you’re actually saying is that the profit motive doesn’t work right? It obviously has the wrong incentives built in.
If you think enforcing or making regulations harder to get through will not lead to a reduced building activity you are in disagreement with numerous people involved in the building industry. Talk to someone from that sector. Gaining resource consent is a big factor in their job.
Which just proves, yet again, that the profit motive is not fit for purpose.
It’s a part of their job that they don’t get to complain about.
Ummm… if regulations are causing problems for business they DO get to complain about it. Indeed they should be actively encouraged to compleain about it otherwise government will start to think they can regulate anything they want without push back.
So not having regulations Gooseman work’s really well Pike River SCF leakey buildings bio security under funding
Gooseman give up the Deranged Dogma you push back to Dickensian days.
Which if you lived then you would have no say no education not that the education you have seems to have narrowed your view’s.
Being a narrow minded fool can’t be easy to keep up appearances as you have proved yourself wrong in excess of 90%.
Keep barking at wheels if that floats your boat.
Gossipboy!
I have no problems with regulations. I am just not foolish enough to think increasing regulations around building has no flow on effect on the rate of building that will occur. Given the most significant issue facing the country is housing affordability (unless you don’t believe there is a housing crisis) I would suggest anything that restricts more houses being built is not ideal.
Surely you understand that it is a balance. What others are saying is that if regulation were decreased then yes the initial cost of building those homes would go down. However the cost of another leaky building fiasco would far exceed any savings. All it does is increase the profit made by private sector and shift the cost to this public.
If builders could prove that reduction in regulation didn’t result in the cutting of corners then I would be all for reducing it. The fact that so many projects are not up to code shows that it would only be worse if they didn’t have to meet those standards.
This is where DTB’s argument comes from I believe. For a housing market to operate successfully on a profit motive it appears that it has to be done in such a way that the public wears the cost. This is clearly not a healthy market.
+111
We need regulations else the fuckwit business people go off and do whatever they want and there’s no accountability for their fuckups.
So, no, the businesses do NOT get to complain about regulations because those regulations are there to stop them from screwing everybody else over.
Yes numerous people in the building industry are not trying to increase their profits… but actually giving wonderful independent advice (sarcasm).
The government listening to industry and pandering to their every deregulation and low wage employment whim, must mean that is why we now have a major housing crisis shortages as well as affordability and not meeting building standards and needing constant remedial work and people don’t want to work in that industry full of cowboys and exploitation…
Yet to meet the target of 100,000 additional houses over and above the current build rate in the next 10 years YOU require the same industry to massively expand.
33,000 empty houses in Aukland…all being renovated ..and other assorted excuses..houses are for people to live in…theres a
1/3rd of ‘supply..right there.
How is renovating state housing to an acceptable standard making affordability worse?
Since the government started to ‘solve’ affordability by bringing in 500,000+ low wage workers under the Natz, to solve the crisis, that could be what’s keeping the problems going while increasing conditions for private landlords to rent houses while seemingly removing as many vulnerable people out of state housing so they can be developed into ahem ‘affordable housing’ for $120k – $180k earners and then private housing to be sold off?
Prior to the interest in ‘affordable’ housing by government and only about 4 years ago there actually used to be $200k apartments and $350k family homes in Auckland, now suddenly with the right wing strategies that make no sense but taken up by the Blairites in Labour as gospel…affordability has never been worse!
And the $200k one bedroom apartment from 4 years ago, used to be in the CBD not $500k with free land from government and free money for private construction to create the sold off “affordable” one bedroom, a much greater distance away from the centre and travels costs to be added now being the new affordable!
If you want affordable then legislate a certain amount of housing aka 10% per apartment build has to be developed to be under a certain price and available to people who live and work in the city and a percentage available to the state to buy for vulnerable people to live in the city.
Like the developments in Auckland which will need demolishing because they were built with out consent with one developer discharging raw sewage into a stream.
Leaky schools hospitals homes cost $35 billion plus due to building deregulation 1991.
Yeah Gooseman.
Some questionable consents granted or about to be….
New seabed mining project threatens endangered species
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1807/S00150/new-seabed-mining-project-threatens-endangered-species.htm
Kaipara Community Association Fights Tegel Foods 9 Million Bird Factory Farm
https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/kaipara-community-fights-tegel-foods-9-million
“Marama Davidson, Betty Shine, and Professor Margaret Mutu discussing the weak legislation that allows foreign buyers and business models such as Tegel are proposing to take advantage while locals bear the costs financially, culturally, socially and environmentally.”
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Dargaville-Chicken-Farm-Community-Information-Group-1558525184261906/posts/
Even going past all the major social and environmental effects on locals including a Marae so a multinational can profit further, taking the chickens from Dargaville to Auckland on a regular basis is adding to congestion of Auckland!! Practically every day there is another truck crash blocking traffic into Auckland.
ACC should also do statistics on how many people are being injured via Truck accidents in particular in Auckland because it is increasing and the hospitals and police and victims are having to pick up the pieces after these accidents.
Trucks of course they can fill up in Dargaville and avoid the fuel tax that the Aucklander’s have to pay for…
When are resource consents going to stop the practise of adding to truck congestion into Auckland via bad consenting practises?
Unemployment in Northland is high. If you get rid of these businesses do you have any suggestion what the people employed in them will do?
I’d really prefer them to sit on their arse and do nothing than continue to destroy the environment.
But, isn’t finding something else to do without government intervention what the free-market’s all about?
Actually develop tourism and sustainable industries there, not destroy the towns and communities and Maraes and the heart of the community with short term, high negative impact and smelly industry that will mean they can’t develop other venture (aka tourism) there, and actually starts to gut the town when people leave due to the smell and lack of opportunities there.
So businesses who are affected by one industry which destroy’s their income because of the pollution and environmental damage have a right to Deny consent
Like wise Gooseman you wouldn’t want a chicken farm in your back yard.
Even though birds of a feather Flock together.
Hopefully the unemployed can break into the chicken factory and make sure that the so called ‘free range’ is not pulling the wool over consumers eyes like the fake free range of a few years ago and have decent humane animal standards.
Makes more sense to me, to put these factories in the middle of nowhere and prove no odour is going off the farm (aka by buying enough land to contain the odour or other measures) and have the processing nearby (not Auckland), away from people and towns, not on the edge of one, destroying the town which stench, noise and ugly buildings and trucks going in and out, in particular is going to do.
The problem with big farms as well, is if something goes wrong then it multiplies. Aka if the chickens get a disease much greater impact than smaller farms spread around, or if the power goes off there are massive deaths of chickens to burn etc. As well as food shortages from having all the eggs in one basket when things go wrong.
They can not predict what might happen with that amount of birds in one place.
Blindly following all business must be good.
Is a really dumb idea asbestos mining in Australia was an example no profit govt subsidies.
Then the govt has to pick up the bill for asbestosis sufferers.
James Hardie has been given the all clear to start a silica mine in NZ.
Silica is just as dangerous as asbestos.
Who allowed this.
Ask the current government. They have the power to stop it.
I have been highly aware of ‘single use’ plastic.
I work in hospitality and the industry is riddled with single use plastic.
Vege crates lined with a big blue bag, the spinach in plastic bags.
The box in the freezer with gluten free pizza bases, in a plastic bag with plastic sheets between each base.
We put some meats into vacuum pack bags and then sous vide the fold.
(Cook at a lower temperature in a water bath).
This is a quite heavy wall plastic that will take ages longer than a supermarket bag to break down.
Other food preparations get vac packed and stored for longer shelf life e.g. onion jam, beetroot chutney, fish.
My point is, for sure phase out, (why not banish next month, week or tomorrow) supermarket bags.
However it is barely scratching the surface of the issue, and what is worse, the sacrifice the middle class thinks it is making.
Like so many consequences of unfettered free market capitalism, it will take radical actions to correct the ‘right course’ we are on.
The government need to just ban plastic for packaging or ensure it is only biodegradable within 6 months and tax it. We used to have paper bags and time to return to them.
Funny how government can put in plenty of new taxes for people aka fuel tax, but nothing against business destroying the planet… the only weak thing is to ask people (again just the people not the business) to pay for the bag which is not really banning the plastic or stopping the business using it.
Plastic is now reaching Antartica, time to act at source, the business themselves.
Like e waste, maybe just make the manufacturers responsible for recycling it and ensuring it can not enter the ocean, as a starting point before a ban.
gsays
well said but when you drive your car don’t forget that tyres are made from plastic too!!!
So tyre dust is being spread all around the roads and into our watwer as we drive.
https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2017-002.pdf
quote;
3. Tyres: abrasion while driving
Tyres get eroded when used. The particles are formed from the outer parts of the tyre and
consist of a matrix of synthetic polymers, namely Styrene Butadiene Rubber (approximately
60%), in a mix with natural rubber and many other additives (Sundt et al., 2014). Tyre dust
will then either be spread by the wind or washed off the road by rain. In this study, losses of
synthetic rubber are considered but losses of natural rubber are not.
There is no reliable information on the transfer of microplastics from tyres to the world’s oceans. Both
Norwegian and Swedish researchers have pointed out that a large fraction of particles found in the sea
seem to originate from car tyres (Essel et al., 2015; Sundt et al., 2014).
Auckland council just approved this one, consent to remove 23,000 cubic metres of sand a year for 35 years trucks going 5 truck and trailer movements per day between Kaukaupaka and Penrose which is a crazy distance across very congested traffic and along country roads with no footpaths and kids walking it.
I guess risk and safety does not come into it under our Rogernomics RMA, when competing against supplying ex asbestos player multinationals private profits…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/nor-west-news/104973877/silica-sand-quarry-given-green-light-much-to-residents-dismay
That road’s going to ruined in no time. Wonder if the council took into account the costs of continuous repair for it.
When the public can pay to prop up multinational industry, who cares Draco, about the costs of the road repairs!
SaveNZ. you asked; Who cares about the costs of the road repairs!
I can add;
All taxpayers do I asume as they pay in registration and fuel taxes as wellas subsidsing the truck freight industry as they only pay half (54%) of their wear caused; – while every car user pays 66% of their wear according to the IPENZ reports.
Truck freight should pay their full share and assist the upgrades of the roads to overseas standards to carry those heavier trucks that NZTA has allowed to increase ‘weight and dimension’ size, once in every three years in the last 12 yrs.
Sand removal, (to where? for what? and how does that prepare the coastline for sea level rise and storm and tide disasters). And what is this business about 35 years that permits get issued for? I have read this figure before I think referring to irrigation or water extraction contracts.
The right wing in government like to preach about paying up front for things so that future generations don’t have to carry the excesses of the present blah blah. Yet they like to sequester resources that will be needed for future generations, if they can survive… to 2025 etc.
Good article – song cool although I’m not really a metal fan – worth it to hear racist icon don.b.ash expose how utterly pathetic he is.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/nat-music/audio/2018653960/alien-weaponry-s-new-video-features-controversial-comments-made-by-don-brash
Agree. I had to read the lyrics because I couldn’t make out the words with all that thrash metal noise. The visuals for the video are excellent.
Please, tell me this isn’t so….
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/105432129/labour-brings-in-gender-intelligence-consultants
That these people are telling Labour how to present to the public….https://www.doubledenim.nz/who-we-are
….because goodness, gracious me….if I were a financial supporter of the Labour Party I’d be mightily pissed off.
“Not everyone can turn online buzz into real-world results, and vice versa. These two can by knowing how to make the right noise with the right people. They’re in the business of making corporate cool with a track record for innovative, behaviour-changing strategies.
Reason for being? Many of Angela’s personal projects are about helping women realise how ace they are; she started the Real Hot Bitches international dance troupe. Ange’s happy place is in nature, and she will fight fiercely to defend it.
Claim to fame? Ange is known for having wild adventures – like that time she and her husband, along with their one year old baby, bought a boat in the Caribbean and sailed it through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific. Things didn’t end so well.
Anna Dean can. By knowing how to make the right noise with the right people, she’s in the business of making corporate cool.
Reason for being? Anna cut her teeth in the art world – helping friends’ projects get the attention they deserved. A Golden Bay girl at heart, she also has a deep connection to the land and is never afraid to plunge into the sea. Social issues, like the gender pay gap, also get Anna fired up.
Claim to fame? TV3’s David Farrier described Anna as a “marketing genius” after she changed Wellington to “Vellington” for the launch of What We Do in the Shadows.”
My god, I was hoping the rabbit hole would close once the Natz had been relegated.
Please…someone tell me Vance has this wrong.
*Face, palm*
At times like this there is no suitable emoji
‘Double Denim claims it “can turn online buzz into real-world results” to shake up its image.’
This seems to be the holy grail for politicians even though there’s probably where examples of it not working then there is for it working
A wee reminder – as I walked home from visiting a mate last night – the moon a bright cresent with the brilliance of Venus beside her and then above Jupiter bright leaning away from Scorpio and further over Saturn and then mars so red and bright.
I’m in the dark country and I hope you get a chance to look up at the sky – inspiring.
Absolutely agree. The sky has been magnificent the last few nights in Wellington. Over the last few months many street lights in Wellington have been out and not fixed. While this is a safety/security issue, etc, OTOH it has been/is great for sky watching.
We should be saluting the Gaza Strip
The spirit of Gaza is unbroken by any siege and breathing life into the desperate and lost cause of the Palestinian struggle
by GIDEON LEVY, July 15, 2018
Were it not for the Gaza Strip, the occupation would have been long forgotten. Were it not for the Gaza Strip, Israel would have erased the Palestinian problem from its agenda and continued on blithely with its crimes and annexations, with its routine, as if 4 million people were not living under its heel. Were it not for the Gaza Strip, the world would also have forgotten. Most of it already has. This is why we must now salute the Gaza Strip — mainly the spirit of the Gaza Strip, the only one that is still breathing life into the desperate and lost cause of the Palestinian struggle for liberty.
The resolute struggle of the Gaza Strip should also spark admiration in Israel. The handful of people with a conscience who still remain here should give thanks to the unbroken spirit of the Gaza Strip. The spirit of the West Bank crumpled after the failure of the second intifada, as did the spirit of the Israeli peace camp — most of which shattered long ago. Only the spirit of the Gaza Strip stands steadfast in its struggle.
Read more….
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/07/17/truth-2/
Good morning The Am Show Simon Mannering is a great role modle for all Kiwis 14 years at the club and nearly 300 games ka pai.
Julie Anne Genter Eco maori thanks the Green party for advocating for Papatuanuku clean green environment I hope we do have subsidies for electric cars in Aotearoa ka pai.
Mark the chargeing stations could be located in commercial car parks it would be worth it for the owners of these parks mainly councils as this would draw in more customers win win for all.
That picture of Angela Merkel show’s me the lefties have to be vigilante keep a gard up against the neo libreal smear campaign thats what they do the camera person would have seen this distraction .
With the free speech thing it should be factual free speech one does not let lairs or people that are going to teach te mokopuna’s bad habits can’t you see that these people have decided to come to Aotearoa to rock our Waka because we are heading down the left path .
Ka kite ano
Why is someone who plays Rugby League automatically “a great role modle for all Kiwis”? I had to google the name to know what you meant by “the club”, so certainly not a role model for me. A lot of us Kiwis just think this thugby stuff is crap that stunts men’s development with toxic masculinity. Rather than a positive role model such people, in my view, are causing much harm.
Here you go two people who care about what they leave behind to there mokopuna’s a sustainable environment ka pai link below P.S If all farmers invested some effort in to looking after there on farm environment one can do this with out spending much money this would help improve our water quality .
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12091292
Kiwis have just about used up all the advantages that Aotearoa has been blessed with on Papatuanuku .The other big advantage we have is Tangaroa to be exact Deep Sea fish farming Aquaculture we are in a prime location for Aquaculture we can do this deep sea fish farming with minimum negative environmental impact fish farming could easily become our biggest export prouduct . Yes I know theirs the argument that the wild fish stocks are taken to feed the stock on these fish farms . but we could find alternative feed stock for the fish like meat waste maybe havesting sea weed many different options to feed these fish farms fishes we are in a prime location for Aquaculture if we grow Aquaculture we will reduce the presser on Tangaroa wild fish stock and this is another reason for Eco Maori to champion this industry .Ka pai
Ka kite ano link below.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12091217
We cannot let thee neo librail bone heads get there hands on this technology that would be a catastrophe for all beings Artificial Intelligent killing machines .
Link below ka kite ano
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jul/18/thousands-of-scientists-pledge-not-to-help-build-killer-ai-robots
Good evening Newshub Congratulations to Te Uroa Flavell for his new job as CEO of Te Wanganga O Aotearoa I am sure you will look after our tangata whenua education Ka pai E hoa
There you go What a real man does he admits he is wrong and apologizes Ka pai Elon Mus
There you go AI is there in Australia nimbo robotics security help is a reality now we have to keep this technology on a tight leash or it will have us on the leash.
There we go Andrew Britain is experience heat waves the Scottish golf couse is dry Global Warming is here and now. ka kite ano