Open mike 18/09/2024
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6:00 am, September 18th, 2024 - 66 comments
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- Hang up on him David, just stop
There is a story I want to tell, but I'm not going to begin with it because it would be too abrupt. I'll start by telling you that I'm a big fan of the way Nicola Toki conveys her message. And Nicola Toki is a big fan of the way Jane ...2 hours ago - Tax the rich!
We already know that the rich people aren't paying their fair share. But it turns out its worse than that: we're a tax-haven! Our rich people pay lower taxes here than in any comparable country: Well-off New Zealanders are paying less tax than their peers in nine similar OECD ...3 hours ago - Worse and worse
Cancer Minister Casey Costello is in trouble again over her secret, magically appearing tobacco policy document. The Ombudsman has already found that she acted contrary to law in refusing requests for it; now she has been referred to the Chief Archivist over a possible breach of the Public Records Act ...4 hours ago
- NZ’s lack of a capital gains tax means the richest here pay vastly less than elsewhere
The lack of a capital gains tax means the richest Kiwis are sitting pretty compared to taxpayers overseas. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, September 19:New Zealand’s richest ...9 hours ago - Verrall to Levy: “Health NZ NDAs are North Korean – Get rid of it.”
Open article. Note the video of the Health Select Committee excerpts starts at 1:22 In watching the Health Select Committee yesterday, it became clear to me why Margie Apa remains Health NZ CEO.During Levy’s testimony, Apa sat like a rock next to her boss. She nodded supportively, scribbled notes to ...9 hours ago - The Show Must Go On
Empty spaces, what are we living for?Abandoned places, I guess we know the score, on and onDoes anybody know what we are looking for?Another hero, another mindless crimeBehind the curtain, in the pantomimeHold the lineDoes anybody want to take it anymore?The show must go onSongwriters: Brian May / Freddie Mercury ...10 hours ago - Managing on-street parking for local benefit
This guest post by Malcolm McCracken originally appeared on his blog Better Things Are Possible, and is republished here by kind permission. The case for Parking Benefit Districts: managing on-street parking for local benefit Parking is often the centre of debate in our cities; particularly on-street car parks, who gets ...11 hours ago - Too much haste & waste in Simeon Brown’s need for speed
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong story short, the Government’s myopia of only choosing transport policies that reduce travel times means we’re missing out on the health benefits of more cycling and walking, along with the health cost savings from fewer accidents, less pollution and mentally healthier ways of getting ...12 hours ago
- What seemed so simple is now so complex
The Health NZ rescue that seemed so simple back in July was presented to a Select Committee yesterday as a complex challenge that could take some years to sort out. In July, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said Health NZ was on track to record a deficit of $1.4 billion for ...14 hours ago
- The utterances of Shane Jones
Let us consider the utterances of Shane Jones.Let us consider the derogatory terms of abuseNow is not the time for Green Wombles, it's black and white decision making.We will stand with the energy industry and ensure they are not monstered by Green Termites nibbling away at our economic capital.The Green ...1 day ago - Ukrainian militia receives defective shipment of pagers that just send and receive messages
There’s been a major setback for one Ukrainian-backed militia on the Russian border, after the group ordered a large shipment of pagers to use as improvised explosive devices. The plan was to litter the pagers throughout abandoned homes and buildings in hopes of wounding Russian soldiers. But upon arrival of ...1 day ago - A constitutional shitshow
Last month, we learned that the government was half-arsing its anti-gang legislation, adding a significant, pre-planned, BORA-abusing amendment at the committee stage, avoiding all the usual scrutiny processes. But it gets worse. Because having done it once, they're now planning to recall the bill in order to add another such ...1 day ago
- Political Round Up
Note: An earlier version of this article noted Levy was a “party time Health NZ commissioner” - this has been updated - forgive my Freudian slip.Dr Lester Levy is charging $320,000 a year to be a part time Health NZ commissioner. Rachel Thomas reports that Levy is still teaching 2 ...1 day ago - Postcard from Sydney: Southwest and City Metro extension
This is a guest post from Sydney reader Nik Clement After 2 years in Auckland I moved back to Sydney just over a year ago. While in Auckland, I went to the opening of Puhinui station and used it a fair bit, living in Manukau Central and being able ...1 day ago
- Tolling revolt brewing in National heartland
Kia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, September 18:Locals gathered in Woodville last night to protest at the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s decision to toll the new road linking the Manawatu and Hawkes Bay, saying ...1 day ago - Government directs Te Puni Kōkiri to conduct Māori Language Week in English
The coalition government has issued a directive to Te Puni Kōkiri, the Ministry of Māori Development, instructing them that – in the interests of clear communication – they are to conduct this year’s Māori Language Week primarily or exclusively in English. The directive is in line with the Government’s policy ...2 days ago - Government celebrates fact that New Zealand’s healthcare is so good people are queuing up for it a...
At yesterday’s post-cabinet press conference, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, flanked by his Health Minister Shane Reti and someone we can’t independently verify was a real sign language interpreter, announced that he had some positive news for the country. “Alright team, I’m just going to hand over to uh, Dr. Shane, ...2 days ago - Heartwarming: Thoughtful driver uses indicator to tell you what they’ve just done
It’s 4:10pm in the morning, and you’re in the middle lane heading north on the great southern motorway of our nation’s capital, Auckland. There are no cars directly in front of you, but quite a few in the lane to your left. Suddenly, without warning, a black ute enters your ...2 days ago - NPC teams will now be allowed to actually use the Ranfurly Shield in play
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I arrived home with a head full of fresh ideas about mindfulness and curbing impulsive aspects in my character.On the second night home I grabbed a piece of ginger and began swiftly slicing it on our industrial strength mandolin, the one I have learned through painful experience to treat with ...2 days ago - More Notes From Stinky Town
Good morning, folks. Another wee note from a chilly Rotorua morning that looks much clearer than yesterday. As I write, the pink glow in the east is slowly growing, and soon, the palest of blue skies should become a bit more royal.A couple of people mentioned yesterday that I should ...2 days ago - Make it make sense: why axe valuable local projects?
Last week, Matt looked at how the government wants to pour a huge chunk of civic infrastructure funding for a generation into one mega-road up North, at huge cost and huge opportunity cost. A smaller but no less important feature of the National Land Transport Plan devised by Minister of Transport ...2 days ago
- Driving blind at higher speeds
An open letter by experts about plans to raise speed limits warns the “tragic consequence will be more New Zealanders losing their lives or suffering severe injury, along with a substantial burden on the nation's healthcare and rehabilitation services”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāKia ora. Long stories short, here’s ...2 days ago - 2024’s unusually persistent warmth
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink My inaugural post on The Climate Brink 18 months ago looked at the year 2024, and found that it was likely to be the warmest year on record on the back of a (than forecast) El Nino event. I suggested “there is a real chance ...2 days ago - National plan for 2000 more Kiwis a year in prison
Open for allYesterday, Luxon congratulated his government on a job well done with emergency housing numbers, but advocates have been saying it‘s likely many are on the streets and sleeping in cars.Q&A featured some of the folks this weekend - homeless and in cars. Yes.The government’s also confirmed they stopped ...2 days ago
- I Found a Note in a Tree
Hi,On most days I try to go on a walk through nature to clear my head from the horrors of life. Because as much as I like people, I also think it’s incredibly important to get very far away from them. To be reminded that there are also birds, lizards, ...3 days ago - Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Politicians need to lift their game
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Police Commissioner Andrew Coster says that New Zealand’s police force will no longer respond to bomb threats, in an attempt to cut costs and redirect police resources to less boring activities. Coster said that threat response and bomb disposal was a “fairly obvious” area for downsizing, as bomb threats are ...3 days ago - A dysfunctional watchdog
The reality of any right depends on how well it is enforced. But as The Post points out this morning, our right to official information isn't being enforced very well at all: More than a quarter of complaints about access to official information languish for more than a year, ...3 days ago
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- Vegas Baby
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- London Bridge is falling down
In the UK, London is the latest of council groups to signal potential bankruptcy.That’s after Birmingham, Britain’s second largest city, went bankrupt in June, resulting in reduced sanitation services, libraries cut, and dimmed streetlights.Some in the city described things as “Dickens” like.Please, Sir, Can I have some more?For families with ...3 days ago - Govt may kick elderly out of hospitals
The Government is considering how to shunt elderly people out of hospitals, and also how to cut their access to other support. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, ...4 days ago - Getting the nephs off the couch
The so-called “Prince of the Provinces”, Shane Jones, went home last Friday. Perhaps not quite literally home, more like 20 kilometres down the road from his house on the outskirts of Kerikeri. With its airport, its rapidly growing (mostly retired) population, and a commercial centre with all the big retail ...4 days ago
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- Salvation For Us All
Yesterday, I ruminated about the effects of being a political follower.And, within politics, David Seymour was smart enough on Friday to divert attention from “race blind” policies [what about gender blind I thought - thinking of maternity wards] and cutting school lunches by throwing meat to the media. Teachers were ...4 days ago - A warm embrace
Far, far away from here lives our King. Some of his subjects can be quite the forelock tuggers, but plenty of us are not like that, and why don't I wheel out my favourite old story once more about Kiwi soldiers in the North African desert?Field Marshal Montgomery takes offence ...5 days ago - Literal clowns are running the place, we must put a timeout on this stupidity… right Aotearoa?
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- Judge Not.
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Uh-uh! Not So Fast, Citizens! The power to initiate systemic change remains where it has always been in New Zealand’s representative democracy – in Parliament. To order a binding referendum, the House of Representatives must first to be persuaded that, on the question proposed, sharing its decision-making power with the people ...5 days ago
- Looking For Labour’s Vital Signs.
Flatlining: With no evidence of a genuine policy disruptor at work in Labour’s ranks, New Zealand’s wealthiest citizens can sleep easy.PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN has walked a picket-line. Presidential candidate Kamala Harris has threatened “price-gauging” grocery retailers with price control. The Democratic Party’s 2024 platform situates it well to the left of Sir ...5 days ago
- Forty Years Of Remembering To Forget.
The Beginning of the End: Rogernomics became the short-hand descriptor for all the radical changes that swept away New Zealand’s social-democratic economy and society between 1984 and 1990. In the bitterest of ironies, those changes were introduced by the very same party which had entrenched New Zealand social-democracy 50 years earlier. ...5 days ago
- Kōrero Mai – Speak to Me.
Good morning all you lovely people. 🙂I woke up this morning, and it felt a bit like the last day of school. You might recall from earlier in the week that I’m heading home to Rotorua to see an old friend who doesn’t have much time. A sad journey, but ...5 days ago - Winning ways
5 days ago - 48 seconds on a plan that would reverberate for a million years
Despite fears that Trump presidency would be disastrous for progress on climate change, the topic barely rated a mention in the Presidential debate. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey ...6 days ago
- Using blunt instruments and magical thinking to ignore evidence of harm
The abrupt cancellations and suspensions of Government spending also caused private sector hiring, spending, and investment to freeze up for the first six months of the year. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāThis week we learned:The new National/ACT/NZ First Coalition Government ignored advice from Treasury that it didn’t have to ...6 days ago - Is This A Dagger Which I See Before Me: A Review and Analysis of The Rings of Power Episode 5 (Seaso...
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The background to In Open Seas: How the New Zealand Labour Government Went Wrong:2017-2023Not in Narrow Seas: The Economic History of Aotearoa New Zealand, published in 2020, proved more successful than either I or the publisher (VUP, now Te Herenga Waka University Press) expected. I had expected that it would ...6 days ago - The Hoon around the week to Sept 13
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts and talking about the week’s news with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on the latest climate science on rising temperatures and the climate implications of the US Presidential elections; and special guests Janet ...6 days ago
- Do or do not. There is no try
1. Upon receiving evidence that school lunches were doing a marvellous job of improving outcomes for students, David Seymour did what?a. Declared we need much more of this sort of good news and poured extra resources and funding into them b. Emailed Atlas network to ask what to do next c. Cut ...6 days ago - Dangerous ground
The Waitangi Tribunal has reported back on National's proposed changes to gut the Marine and Coastal Area Act and steal the foreshore and seabed for its greedy fishing-industry donors, and declared it to be another huge violation of ti Tiriti: The Waitangi Tribunal has found government changes to the ...6 days ago
- Climate Change: National wants to cheat on Paris
In 2016, the then-National government signed the Paris Agreement, committing Aotearoa to a 30 (later 50) percent reduction in emissions by 2030. When questioned about how they intended to meet that target with their complete absence of effective climate policy, they made a lot of noise about how it was ...6 days ago
- Treasury warned Govt lower debt limits meant less ‘productivity-enhancing investment’
6 days ago - Is the Media Complicit?
This is a long read. Open to all.SYNOPSIS: Traditional media is at a cross roads. There is a need for those in the media landscape, as it stands, to earn enough to stay afloat, but also come across as balanced and neutral to keep its audiences.In America, NYT’s liberal leaning ...6 days ago - Black Friday
It's Black Friday, the end of the weekYou take my hand and hold it gently up against your cheekIt's all in my head, it's all in my mindI see the darkness where you see the lightSong by Tom OdellFriday the 13th, don’t be afraid.No, really, don’t. Everything has felt a ...6 days ago - Weekly Roundup 13-September-2024
Ooh, Friday the thirteenth. Spooky! Is that why certain zombie ideas have been stalking the landscape this week, like the Mayor’s brainwave for a motorway bridge from Kauri Point to Point Chev? Read on and find out. This roundup, like all our coverage, is brought to you by the Greater ...6 days ago
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- What it is
I liked what Kieran McAnulty had to say about the Treaty Principles bill this morning so much I've written it down and copied it out for you. He was saying that rather than let this piece of ordure spend six months in Select Committee, the Prime Minister could stop making such ...1 week ago - A government-funded hate campaign
Cabinet discussed National's constitutionally and historically illiterate "Treaty Principles Bill" this week, and decided to push on with it. The bill will apparently receive a full six month select committee process - unlike practically every other policy this government has pushed, and despite the fact that if the government is ...1 week ago
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- Kamala Harris Did Something Unthinkable
1 week ago - Kamala Harris Did Something Unthinkable
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- Kamala Harris Did Something Unthinkable
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- David Seymour is such a loser
For paid subscribersNot content with siphoning off $230,000,000 of taxpayers money for his hobby projects - and telling everyone his passion is education and early childcare - an intersection painfully coincidental to the interests of wealthy private families like Sean Plunkett’s1 backers, the Wright Family, Seymour is back in the ...1 week ago - Cross-party consensus: there’s no pipeline without good faith
There’s been a lot of talk recently about a cross-party agreement to develop a pipeline for infrastructure, including transport. Last month, outgoing CRL boss Sean Sweeney talked about the importance of securing an enduring infrastructure programme. He outlined the high costs of the relentless political flip-flopping of priorities, which drives ...1 week ago
- Voters love this climate policy they’ve never heard of
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The Inflation Reduction Act is the Biden administration’s signature climate law and the largest U.S. government investment in reducing climate pollution to date. Among climate advocates, the policy is well-known and celebrated, but beyond that, only a minority of Americans ...1 week ago
- ACC wants to administer inflation at more than double the RBNZ’s target rate
ACC levies are set to rise at more than double the inflation rate targeted by the RBNZ. Photo: Lynn GrievesonKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, September 12:The state-owned monopoly for accident insurance wants ...1 week ago - Harris vs Trump
1 week ago - Treaty Bill “a political stunt”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon appears to have given ACT Leader David Seymour more than he has been admitting in the proposals to go forward with a Treaty Principles Bill.All along, Luxon has maintained that the Government is proceeding with the Bill to honour the coalition agreement.But that is quite specific.It ...1 week ago
- An average 219 NZers migrated each day in July
Kia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, September 11:Annual migration of New Zealanders rose to a record-high 80,963 in the year to the end of July, which is more than double its pre-Covid levels.Two ...1 week ago - What you’re wanting to win more than anything is The Narrative
Hubris is sitting down on election day 2016 to watch that pig Trump get his ass handed to him, and watching the New York Times needle hover for a while over Hillary and then move across to Trump where it remains all night to your gathering horror and dismay. You're ...1 week ago - National’s automated lie machine
The government has a problem: lots of people want information from it all the time. Information about benefits, about superannuation, ACC coverage and healthcare, taxes, jury service, immigration - and that's just the routine stuff. Responding to all of those queries takes a lot of time and costs a lot ...1 week ago
- Economic decline further cause for tax transformation
Today’s GDP figures combined with the injustice of our tax system will mean more pain for our lowest-income households while those at the top remain relatively unscathed. ...6 hours ago - Release: No growth under National, just cuts
The National Government’s decisions have hindered, not helped the economy. ...7 hours ago - Govt must act to avoid the worst of NIWA’s climate projections
New climate projections from NIWA underscore how urgently climate action is needed. ...1 day ago
- Release: More job losses as Government fails on manufacturing
The Government is failing the manufacturing sector with no plan for its future. ...1 day ago
- Tāmaki-Makaurau MP Urges Immediate Support for Families Impacted by Mill Closure
Te Pāti Māori Member of Parliament for Tāmaki Makaurau is urging a full wraparound of services to intervene quickly with families affected by today's announced closure of the Penrose Mill. Seventy-five people are set to lose their jobs right on the eve of Christmas. "I want to extend my thoughts ...1 day ago
- Release: Sentencing package misses the mark by a mile
Sentencing policy announced by Minister Paul Goldsmith today is anything but new, merely window dressing to make up for backwards violent crime statistics under the National Government. ...2 days ago
- Release: Seymour’s Ministry of Double Standards
David Seymour doesn’t stick to his own standards of good regulation despite having a multimillion-dollar vanity ministry set up to do so. ...2 days ago
- Release: Labour Leader to travel to UK
Labour Leader Chris Hipkins will travel to the United Kingdom this week to attend the annual UK Labour Party conference in Liverpool and meet with members of the new Labour Government. ...2 days ago
- Govt Warned – Increasing Snapper Quota Breaches Fisheries Settlement
An imminent decision to increase the total allowable commercial catch (TACC) for snapper would be a direct violation of the first-ever Treaty Settlement and inevitably breach Te Tiriti o Waitangi, says Te Pāti Māori. Te Ohu Kaimoana has sought a High Court declaration to prevent the Minister of Oceans and ...3 days ago
- Govt attacks workers’ rights once again
Today’s announcement from the Minister of Workplace Relations emphasises how deep in the pocket of big business this Government really is. ...4 days ago
- Release: Māori business not a priority for this Govt
Scrapping the Progressive Procurement programme designed to support and grow Māori businesses is a missed opportunity. ...4 days ago
- Release: March 15 inquiry grants cut by Government
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has cut grants helping overseas family of victims to attend the next phase of the Coronial Inquiry into the 15 March 2019 Christchurch Masjidain Attack. ...4 days ago
- Minister of Injustice seeks to Entrench largest land confiscation in History
The Waitangi Tribunal has released an Urgent Report on the Government’s proposed amendments to the Takutai Moana Act 2011. The report calls out Paul Goldsmith’s proposal for what it is: a “gross breach of the Treaty” and an “illegitimate exercise of kāwanatanga”. The Tribunal is recommending the Crown step down ...6 days ago
- Takutai Moana changes another assault on Te Tiriti
The Government must abandon its Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act interventions after the Waitangi Tribunal found it was committing gross breaches of the Treaty. ...6 days ago
- Greens call on Govt to leave Te Reo in schools alone
As Te Wiki o te Reo Māori approaches, the Government is considering deprioritising teaching Te Reo Māori in our schools. ...6 days ago
- Govt cannot ignore racism
The Government’s directive to the public service to ignore race is nothing more than a dog whistle and distraction from the structural racism we need to address. ...6 days ago
- Release: Lemauga Lydia Sosene to take medical leave
Labour’s Mangere MP Lemauga Lydia Sosene has been diagnosed with breast cancer and will shortly take medical leave. ...6 days ago
- Potential intelligence sharing with Israel must be investigated
Concerns have been raised that our spy arrangements may mean that intelligence is being shared between Aotearoa and Israel. An urgent inquiry must be launched in response to this. ...1 week ago
- Release: Charter schools undermine our education system
The Government is taking a wrecking ball to our public education system by reinstating charter schools. ...1 week ago
- Youngest MP to travel to Canada to accept Politician of the Year Award
Aotearoa’s Youngest Member of Parliament, and Te Pāti Māori MP, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, will travel to Montreal to accept the One Young World Politician of the Year Award next week. The One Young World Politician of the Year Award was created in 2018 to recognise the most promising young politicians between ...1 week ago
- Greens celebrate huge step forward for ADHD community
The Greens welcome today’s long-coming announcement by Pharmac of consultation to remove the special authority renewal criteria for methylphenidate, dexamfetamine and modafinil and to fund lisdexamfetamine. ...1 week ago
- Release: Millions to be spent dividing NZ for no reason
The National Party is wasting millions of dollars allowing David Seymour’s Treaty Principals Bill to be drafted and go to Select Committee. ...1 week ago
- Release: New Zealanders departing our shores at a record rate
The Migration figures released by Stats NZ today show National is continuing to drive Kiwis away from New Zealand in record numbers. ...1 week ago
- Te Tai Tokerau MP Slams Govt Overreach in Scrapping Māori Wards
Mema Paremata for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, has reflected on the decisions made by the councils of the North amidst the government’s push to remove Māori Wards and weaken mana whenua representation. “Actions taken by the Kaipara District Council to remove Māori Wards are the embodiment of the eradication ...1 week ago
- Govt already seeking advice on Treaty referendum
On one hand, the Prime Minister has assured Aotearoa that his party will not support the Treaty Principles Bill beyond first reading, but on the other, his Government has already sought advice on holding a referendum on our founding document. ...1 week ago
- Release: Aged care will be worse off if redesign rushed
New Zealanders needing aged care support and the people who care for them will be worse off if the Government pushes through a flawed and rushed redesign of dementia and aged care. ...1 week ago
- Release: Govt fails hundreds of workers as mills close
Labour is devastated at news hundreds of workers are set to lose their jobs following the closure of Winstone Pulp mills. ...1 week ago
- Job losses from mill closures consequence of Govt inaction
Hundreds of jobs lost as a result of pulp mill closures in the Ruapehu District are a consequence of government inaction in addressing the shortfalls of our electricity network. ...1 week ago
- Ngarewa-Packer devastated for Ruapehu following WPI closure
Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader and MP for Te Tai Hauāuru is devastated for the Ruapehu community following today’s decision to close two Winstone Pulp mills. “My heart goes out to all the workers, their whānau, and the wider Ruapehu community affected by the closure of Winstone Pulp International,” said Ngarewa-Packer. ...1 week ago
- Release: Cabinet should stop the Treaty Principles Bill
National Party Ministers have a majority in Cabinet and can stop David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill, which even the Prime Minister has described as “divisive and unhelpful.” ...1 week ago
- Release: Staff gagged to keep fast track list secret
The National Government is so determined to hide the list of potential projects that will avoid environmental scrutiny it has gagged Ministry for the Environment staff from talking about it. ...1 week ago
- Release: Labour challenges Te Whatu Ora gag orders
Labour has complained to the Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission about the high number of non-disclosure agreements that have effectively gagged staff at Te Whatu Ora Health NZ from talking about anything relating to their work. ...1 week ago
- Greens call on Treaty Principles Bill to be abandoned after letter from Christian leaders
The Green Party is once again urging the Prime Minister to abandon the Treaty Principles Bill as a letter from more than 400 Christian leaders calls for the proposed legislation to be dropped. ...2 weeks ago
- Sign the petition: Keep military-style firearms off our streets
Help us tell the Government that reintroducing military-style firearms should not be up for debate. ...2 weeks ago
- Vast majority of councils support Māori wards
Councils across the country have now decided where they stand regarding Māori wards, with a resounding majority in favour of keeping them in what is a significant setback for the Government. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Government on the wrong side of Māori wards
The National-led government has been given a clear message from the local government sector, as almost all councils reject the Government’s bid to treat Māori wards different to other wards. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour congratulates Kuīni Ngā Wai hono i te po Paki
The Labour Party congratulates Kuīni Ngā Wai hono i te po Paki on being crowned as the eighth Te Ariki Nui – head of Te Kiingitanga. ...2 weeks ago
- Green Party welcomes new Maaori Kuiini
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UN Worries On 'Continuous Loss of Lives' in Gaza
Dawn News
[AI generated transcript lightly edited to aid comprehension]
@2:16 minutes:
The sentence, "The Convoy returned to base after being unable to complete its humanitarian Mission" is the important one.
This is a common occurance for humanitarian aid missions seeking to bring relief and aid to civilians in Gaza.
The small amount of aid being let through the Israeli controlled crossings into the territory amounts to little more than a PR exercise if the UN is being prevented from distributing it.
It is significant that the warrants sought by the ICC Prosecutor, Karim Khan, for the arrest of Yoav Gallant, Israel's Defence Minister and Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Prime Minister, cite using starvation as a weapon of war.
Despite Israeli forces continuing to block and sabotage humanitarian aid missions, the ICC decision on whether to grant Khan's arrest warrants against Gallant and Netanyahu have been delayed
Israel backer, the US has threatened sanctions against the ICC if they proceed with arrest warrants against Gallant and Netanyahu.
US House passes ICC sanctions bill over Netanyahu arrest warrant request
Vote is Congress’s first legislative rebuke of war-crimes court since ICC prosecutor’s decision to seek arrests of leaders of Israel and Hamas
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/04/us-house-icc-sanctions-netanyahu-
Thanks for yr efforts Jenny. It's a bit overwhelming and I rarely comment on it but I do read and absorb what you post.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/528262/added-insulation-costs-small-fraction-of-figure-given-by-minister-research
So why arnt u seeing banner headlines with ,MINISTER CAUGHT LYING, and EMBARRASSING BACKDOWN FROM PENK???
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350419537/pm-struggles-explain-why-he-backs-police-gangs-not-guns
mitchell has more spine than luxon it would appear.
Are there no depths to which the Israeli butchers will not go? Exploding pagers…3000 injured plus deaths in Lebanon. Where the tampering and explosive implants were done on a bulk Motorola shipment will be very interesting.
https://www.aljazeera.com
Don't Israel want to wipe Hamas and the Palestinian's out all together, meanwhile Rome burns ???
Lovely people ???
You are right on that I guess. Because they view their situational threats as existential, history has shown they don't muck around.
However it is viewed, there is no doubt that this was an ingenious bit of sabotage, however they managed to do it.
Apparently Hezbollah switched to using pagers because group leader advised that cellphones could be tracked by the Israelis.
This situation reminds me of the Israeli spy Eli Cohen who inflitrated the Syrian military and rose to be influential in Syrian government circles.
I remember an account of him visiting the Syrian troops stationed on the Golan heights. Apparently he advised that the soldiers should not be having to suffer in the sun, so recommended that trees be planted to give them shelter.
Of course, in the seven day war, the Israelis knew to shell anywhere on the heights that had trees.
I do wonder if Hezbollah was infiltrated in a similar way, and the advice to start using pagers was all part of a cunning plot.
You mean a barbaric plot.
Very clever, but basically theyve set out to blow hands off people.
Looking at it as a the outcome of a calculated action, injuring them in ways that prevent them from future combat is probably more effective than killing them.
My dad, who had seen military service, once told me that it is actually better to injure enemy soldiers rather than kill them because this ties up more of the enemy resources in terms of medical support and recovery.
Without doubt, its a brutally effective attack that will tie up surgeons and hospital space for a very long time not to mention aftercare. It takes a lot of operatives out of circulation for a long time if not permanantly.
Also, there will be severe disruption in communications within Hezbollah. If they have switched on mass to pagers, then anyone who still has a pager will be ditching it.
Unless you're unfortunate enough to be a wounded Russian soldier.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/russian-soldiers-killing-wounded-comrade-190154691.html
My question would be about targeting and technique.
Pagers are usually standard item commodities. It is unlikely that Hezbollah were on their own network or that they were the only people in Lebanon with that model of pager.
So how many civilians had those pagers have their battery controller fiddled with and explode? Because each non Hezbollah attacked with this technique constitutes a war crime.
Of course I suspect that the Israeli response would probably be that anyone in Lebabon is Hezbollah. And therefore a legitimate target. This does appear to be the process that they following Gaza and the West Bank.
But of course they are hypocrites. Because if that was the rule of how conflicts operate, then the Israeli casualties and hostages on October 7th are therefore not victims under the same logic.
Israeli government are clearly political idiots. They appear to be on course to keep raising violence towards their citizens because they appear to be completely incapable of ever dealing with their neighbours with anything apart from stupid self-perpetuating violence.
Reminds me of reading up the history of the Judean kingdoms. Fractious internally, Fractious to their neighbours. Continually overrun by empires because they could never work together or with their neighbours.
As a culture, it looks like they have never learnt anything useful over the last 3000 years except how to be incapable of building a peaceful society that is also peaceful with their neighbours. Probability of Israel surviving keeps diminishing through their own efforts like this one.
I tend to agree with you. I think from a rat-cunning perspective, this was a brilliant operation. Undoubtably it has severely disrupted Hezbollah for the short term anyway.
But, from a longer term perspective this sort of action (from both sides) only perpetuates the conflict. Sadly, if humanity is still around in another 1000 years, I think this conflict will still be an issue of world concern.
The problem is that their neighbours (and those that fund them) don't want peace either. And they are just as happy to sacrifice civilians if it furthers their cause.
You mean their immediate neighbours like Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Syria. None of whom have taken significiant military action against Israel for over half a century?
The last military actions with their neighbours were Israel invading Lebanon in 1978 and 1982 to deal with Palestinian refugee attacks on Israel. And periodic attacks by Israel against their other neighbouring states against mainly Palestinian targets.
You don't consider that the Palestinians have a right to be pissed off?
The immediate 'neighbours' in Gaza and the West Bank and for that matter most of Hezbollah and other groups in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan are Palestinians whose families were forcibly expelled from their homes in an unlawful ethnic cleansing program by the Israeli government in 1948 onwards.
Since then there has been a campaign by Israel to seize their land and property under the most dubious legal pretences.
Gaza and the West Bank have been occupied territories of Israel since 1967 that have been subjected to either direct martial law or military blockades for over 50 years by Israel. They are subjected to punitive laws, random attacks and massive theft of land and property by Israel and Israeli citizens.
As far as I can tell Israel hasn't made a single good faith attempt to deal with the the local populations that they displaced, stole from, and actively murdered since 1948 and before.
Instead the Israel government appear to treat them as being the persecutors of Jews from the time of the Romans and before.
It probably helps that the Palestinians have been essentially defenceless since 1948 because as we're all aware it is easier to be a bully when the victims you injure and steal from are unable to hit back.
What seems to be infuriating Israelis at present is that while the other Arab nations have shifted over the last 50 years to accepting Israel. But the actual victims of Israel in Palestinian refugees and their families have not, mostly because of lack of any restitution by Israel and the way that Palestinians under occupation are treated. Also that overall they are getting stronger and better armed to resist.
That appears to be have caused problems for Israel because Israel as a state has failed to keep their land-thieving citizens in check. That appears to have been the primary impediment to peace. Israel have had numerous opportunities to negotiate a peaceful co-existence and appear to have deliberately prevented each one from succeeding.
I have zero sympathy for Israel. They are the problem perpetuating a conflict. They are definitely not the victims. They look more like they are the guards of a pending death camp because of racist bigotry.
What Israel needs to do is to kick all settlements out of the West Bank as a sign of good faith and expel all Israeli citizens apart from military from there as well as a sign of good faith. Then start to negotiate a viable state fro Palestinians. That would include territorial concessions in the Negev to allow Gaza and the West Bank a land corridor.
I don't think that a unitary state of Israel and Palestine is at all feasible because of the obvious biases in Israel law and governmental operations against ethnic Arabs.
Paragraphs
1.Hezbollah is better armed than the Lebanese Army and many nation states and makes regular attacks on Israel.
2.Israel attacked Hezbollah in Lebanon this century. The "refugees" attacked in Lebanon were the PLO kicked out of Jordan for trying to take over the place.
4.Hezbellah are Lebanese Shia Moslems. Most of the West Bank (and many of Gaza) residents are not 1948 refugees, they are in the areas they were in awarded for a Palestinian state.
5.Not since 1948, but since 1977 when Likud first came to power in Israel.
7.The Labour Party enacted the Oslo Accord process (1993)allowing the PLO to base in the West Bank and Gaza as the Palestinian Authority (1996). After the failed negotiations of 2000 and the subsequent intifada the Kadima era government enacted disengagement (reducing tension until negotiations resumed) – withdrawal from Gaza and some areas of the West Bank.
9.Egypt and Jordan occupied the WB and Gaza 1948-1967 and made no effort to establish a Palestinian state – because the Arab League goal was defeat of the Israeli state.
10.The Arab states have chosen to recognise because Iran now leads the hostility to Israel and seeks to eliminate the state by arming the Sunni Palestinian Hamas and Shia Moslem Lebanese Hezbollah (soon Shia militias of Iraq will base in Syria to do the same) to war on Israel. The Sunni Arab states do not trust Iran – and see it as using Israel to become a regional hegemon.
11.The situation is a consequence of BN's period in office – he has always opposed a two state peace.
12.Sure the rail/road corridor WB to Gaza is a peace talks issue. The purpose of the WB settlements – to reduce Palestinians into cantons/bantustans in an IDF controlled WB is the real problem, not Jews living in the territory of a future Palestinian state (as two million Arabs do in Israel).
13.A unitary state is too difficult – but a peace that moves the wider area towards that is optimum.
One approach.
aThe UN awards all 1948 refugees a UN Palestinian passport – they can use to live in the WB and Gaza or elsewhere in the ME or Europe/ Americas.
bIsrael allows all UN Palestinian passport holders the right to work in Israel (if they have jobs). A certain number can apply each year for residence.
cThe numbers might well become a million (equal to Jewish settlers with Israeli passports in the land awarded for a Palestinian state.
dEach 1948 Palestinian refugee family qualifies for a compensation payment for lost property.The land used in the WB for Jewish settlements is valued and a transfer to the PA is made – for claims from those who lost land. and to assist those 1948 refugees into WB and Gaza housing.
The justice path is a necessary pre-curser to build trust in the negotiations over the two state outcome.
I won’t bother going through all of your bullshit. Suffice it to say that most of it looks like the usual crap from the self-serving Zionist propaganda.
1948 was most of the majority of the expulsion. It was a deliberate act of ethnic cleansing. As far as I can tell from records released by various governments including some from the nascent IDF, this is an accurate statement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_1948_Palestinian_expulsion_and_flight
What you are parroting is the explanation of the Israeli ‘Old Historians’ who were appear to have been state employed propagandists or from Zionists advocating for the transfer ideology.
Likud’s actions since 1977, are just a continuation using the IDF and settlers inside the West Bank and Gaza of the same barbaric Zionist ideology of terrorism.
You mean that they are in small fraction of the land that was awarded for a Palestinian state in 1948. This is the partition map adopted in November 1947. I am sure that you are aware of the current borders.
What about not since 1948, did you not comprehend.
Strawmanism.
It was in response to your 5th paragraph
And thus your only point there was
Which I had noted.
Still a majority of the WB residents are not 1948 refugees.
Note there are 2 million Arabs in Israel, many of those in the 1947 Palestinian award territory remained and became Israeli citizens.
Wot you said lprent….great post.
It is pissing me off the people that are saying the pager attack is clever where in fact it is pure barbarism (and probably illegal).
One wonders if Israel understands or cares about the hatred towards them that they are engendering all around the world.
Those concepts are not mutually exclusive.
It indeed was "clever" from the perspective that it appears the devices were rigged months ago and that Hezbollah were convinced to exchange their cellphones for pagers due to fears about the Israelis tracking their cell phones.
If Israelis planted someone for the purpose of convincing Hezbollah to move to pagers, then it was an elaborate and brilliant operation.
That doesn't mean it wasn't barbaric though. If it only was attacking combatants then the sort of injuries caused were probably less than what land mines or cluster munitions cause.
War by its very nature is nasty. The fact that civilians were also targeted deliberately or otherwise takes it to the level of a war crime IMO.
It's a war crime pure and simple.
Why our government has not condemned the killing and maiming of civilians, including those in the medical profession, is beyond me.
Terrorism is terrorism, state sponsored or otherwise.
More clever, elaborate and brilliant than flying paragliders into Israel, undetected?
TVNZ 6 o'clock news today called it "audacious". One can only assume they don't know the true meaning of the word.
Certainly going to be a few pissed off people in amongst, Hamas, Hezbollah and the people's/citizens of Palestine. The Israeli's are certainly amping up the hatred.
Historically inaccurate in the sense that in the age of empires this happened to all nations. Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece then Rome. All nations in their regions were over-run by them, not just one.
Rome killed a third of the Gauls, enslaved a third and collected tribute tax from the other third. Par for the course and it says nothing about Gaul but that it was an imperial target.
Do you know much about European history over the past 2000 years?
Balkans 1990's, Ukraine 2020's.
Fraser, the CO of WW1, then WW2 PM went off to the UN founding in 1945 with hopes to end war via collective security. A work in progress obviously.
Of course I know a lot about European (and Byzantine) history. I’m weaker on americas, asian and steppe history. History and pre-history has been my hobby interest long before I got developed a interest in computers or actual politics.
Clearly you misread my point. I was talking about the some of the reasons why those small states in the Palestine proved to be so easy to be over run by successive empires.
The judean and proto-judean states were notable in history because of how much of a problem that they were for the empires and that they never seem to have made common cause with their neighbouring political entities, including other judean kingdoms to prevent being overrun. From what history there is, that was a major cause about why states and city states in that area were commonly successively overrun by empires. There is nothing too similar in Europe where the continual migrations weren’t anything like the middle eastern empires.
Ummm… reasonable summary on wikipedia starting around the 1550 BCE to the fall of Babylon by Cyrus in 620BCE. Cyrus encouraged migration of captive jews back to the Palestine. However many did not return and probably formed the bulk of the diaspora across the middle east.
You see the exactly same fractious political traits continuing through to the Roman controlled period (pre and post annexation) in particular with the divisions between factions causing revolts. The Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–136CE was the defining moment to depopulate the much of Roman province of Judea.
But the later Roman/Byzantine period, conversions to Christianity and finally the the conversions to Islam after 638CE and the conquest of the Sham did the rest of the change of the remaining jewish families into what are now palestinians.
However all the way from the destruction of second temple in 70AD until the British formed got the Palestinian mandate after WW1, there has been a clear policy by the empires in control of tat region to not allow local autonomy that was characteristic in other areas of the various empires who had control of the Palestine.
This Land Is Mine.
It tells the story of the wars in the land called Israel/Palestine/Canaan/the Levant, since the cavemen until today, all so musical and poetic
https://youtu.be/8tIdCsMufIY?si=4rnKG8cdScUGaLPu
Testicles. They set out to blow testicles off.
https://www.latintimes.com/gruesome-footage-inside-lebanese-hospital-shows-hands-missing-fingers-holes-waistlines-559589
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/apr/19/genital-injuries-taliban-ieds
Think the main aim will have been hands and faces, send the message to trigger with enough delay that the targets take out the pager to read it, if near sighted hold it close to the face as well.
'
How is this not 'Terrorism'?
[AI generated transcript, lightly edited to aid comprehension]
Not Terrorism?
It's a sensitive operation.
"…the sensitive nature of the operation"?
Sensitive?
Sensitive operation or terrorism?
What if Hezbollah had 'modified in some way' a shipment of pagers to Israel to kill the users?
Would this be referred to as a "Sensitive Operation?"
The whole Western mediasphere would be falling over themselves to print screaming banner headlines, in Bold type. "TERRORIST ATTACK"
Seas of ink, real and virtual, would be spilt, in long editorials speculating on the identity of the individuals responsible for this 'terrorist attack'. An international manhunt, would be followed every step of the way by a breathless media
Not this time 'cause y'know "sensitive operation".
Surely this contravene's some International Law's however Israel and the USA apparently do not have to abide by those Laws.
The USA practices “American Exceptionalism” regarding international law and international judiciary bodies. This means they cherry pick which international obligations and organisations they will buy into and which they will violate and ignore.
Dirty, filthy, Uncle Sam as per usual.
That is what makes me look at the commentary on the American elections in disbelief.
We are all supposed to think Trump is a bad man and yet Biden/Harris are enabling the genocide and these barbaric attacks to continue. With no bad press, here or overseas.
Of course the US meddles big time overseas, and always has. However, Trump is an incoherent demagogue, whereas the Democrat option at least run an effective administrative ship. There is no benefit to dismantling/derailing US power internationally without reining in that of other world Big Boys. Trump is moved by the wind from day to day, and it won't get any better as he edges into his eighties.
" whereas the Democrat option at least run an effective administrative ship."
So long as they don't do anything Wall St doesn't approve of. So far enabling and actively contributing to genocide is in the banksters interests. Not that you would read that anywhere because Trump is doing his job well, that bad man.
IN fact …
Trump recognised the Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights and moved the American embassy to Jerusalem and has offered no criticism of American policy on Gaza. Trump and the GOP is more pro Israel on Gaza and West Bank settlement expansion than the Biden White House.
Cool, whataboutism to defend genocide enabling.
Whatever helps you sleep at night…
So not only unaware that it would only get worse under Trump, you do not like anyone pointing that out. And accuse people of being genocide enabling to deter any such “dissent”.
Well said gsays
Pack animal.
Says everything about Trump.
The bad man whose Presidency revoked Obama era requirements to report drone deaths outside war zones and tripled the number of Afghan civilians killed by the US military?
.
President Donald Trump has revoked a policy set by his predecessor requiring US intelligence officials to publish the number of civilians killed in drone strikes outside of war zones.
[…]
What was the rule?
It required the head of the CIA to release annual summaries of US drone strikes and assess how many died as a result.
Mr Trump's executive order does not overturn reporting requirements on civilian deaths set for the military by Congress.
There have been 2,243 drone strikes in the first two years of the Trump presidency, compared with 1,878 in Mr Obama's eight years in office, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a UK-based think tank.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47480207
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-afghanistan-airstrikes-increased-civilian-deaths-by-330-since-2016-2020-12
Be that as it may, doesn't alter the point I'm making, lovely Joe Biden and his offsider Harris are still enabling genocide.
But the various think tanks, liberal media and too much commentary here on TS are rather mute on that.
What was the point? What was the goal of this brazenly indiscriminate and lawless act from Israel? Does it lower the risk of war? Does it de-escalate tensions with Iran? Israel regards itself as above the law. This is an act of state terrorism. It is an act of war on a sovereign state (Lebanon) and a flagrant breach of the Geneva conventions, which forbid indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations. The only rationale for this action is one of unhinged violence from a militarised state ruled by maximalist genocidal racists whose self-excusing language is now frequently indistinguishable from that used by the Nazi genocidal project during WW2.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/13/israel-gaza-historian-omer-bartov
The mind bending, crazy aspect of all this is if Hezbollah and/or Iran strike back against these blatant acts of war from a rogue state they'll be painted as the aggressors, Israel will be depicted in the Western MSM as victims, and framed from an Israeli view and depicted through an Israeli propaganda lens.
QED – Stuff just now: https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/350419904/hezbollahs-terrible-blunder-ended-audacious-pager-attack-killed-nine-injured
"Hezbollah’s terrible blunder that ended with an audacious pager attack that killed nine, injured thousands"
How would "America's terrible blunder that ended with an audacious 9/11 attack that killed three thousand, injured tens of thousands" run, do you think?
Western political elites will unconditionally swing in behind Israel without apparently the faintest idea of the damage it does to their credibility, or that an increasing majority of their voters disagree with them. The fact is, support for Israel now only exists as a project in the political elites of key Western countries, a reality attested by the level of ruthless authoritarianism used to suppress dissent on unconditional support for Israel in their native populations.
The point is probably escalation. To transform the conflict from a localised genocide into a regional conflict where it can plausibly be argued that Israel's continued existence is threatened.
And perhaps also to shave a percentage point or two off the Democrats by making more liberal voters abandon them in disgust – so increasing Trump's chances.
Absolutely the point is escalation. It is the only way to keep the genocide project on track. The US and Israel have been all in on genocide for a while now. If the wheel stops spinning now they will be severely exposed for the barbarians that they are.
And thanks Sanctuary for the extremely lucid, explosive condemnation above
Sure a transfer from using Hamas as rationale for WB policy – post Hamas, to using the Hezbollah-Iran axis.
And BN knows that would work if Trump was POTUS and only might work under a Democrat.
It's WAT policy practice.
Al Qaeda based in Afghanistan and regime change for hosting a "terrorist" group.
The problem Hezbollah has, as an Iranian armed front, is that it is not (just) fighting for Shebaa Farms, but Iran's goal of eliminating the state of Israel.
Thus can be accused of being a terrorist group, even if it is armed and trained otherwise (to be a fighting force).
The reason the Lebanese government is not seen as accountable as per Afghanistan, is that its own army does not control the gun in the country.
Until Iran moderates its agenda to a two state solution, the West can pose Iran as the agency behind a campaign to end the state of Israel.
NZ Herald "US Marine has been training Comanchero Gangsters", I can see why the NZ Police are starting to take a look at the gangs in a more serious light, unfortunately the NZ Police and successive Governments have let the gangs in NZ get too strong IMHO.
I think you must be dreaming if you believe the NZ Police have been blind to organised crime in NZ until now. It's not just gangs who import drugs, which leads to downstream social harm and violent deaths. It's an enticing return for business people, white business people, too, e.g. this man in Auckland, and for transnational cartels.
And guess what: the Comancheros investigation began three years ago, under Labour.
I guess Luxon (with his laser-like focus on 'delivery') will be looking to extradite this US Marine guy from the US and get him to face charges here – if the police think they have something that will stick. Or maybe not.
Mention of the police 'uncovering' military style training camps took me straight back to 2007 and the invasion of Tuhoe.
That went well/sarc.
JD Vance claims that it's media who are responsible for fact-checking politicians' stories, in defending his spread of cat-eating migrant stories in rallies.
He is admitting that no one should believe a thing the Trump campaign says – because they do not practice any self regulation, but exploit any story their supporters promote for them – reminds one of the Key Ede whale of a tale news creation team. That is GOP activists create lies (Trump was part of the birther movement during the Obama presidency) for dispersal into MSM via GOP politicians.
The apparently surprising story of a mayor who had to sell a car.
1. $195,000 paying off a home mortgage in Wellington is not that much
Given the higher tax paid than on two $95,000 salaries of a couple.
There is a reason most require two incomes and this salary is not much more than the average couple paying off a mortgage in the city.
If her home purchase and mortgage is recent, there would have been an unexpected large increase in mortgage payments (making a purchase that seemed affordable more difficult).
https://www.stuff.co.nz/money/350419786/wellington-mayor-struggling-189000-year-how-salary-not-enough-live
I know people are getting outraged by that story but I wish people were outraged about far more important things.
It should be obvious that owning a home on one income is difficult.
Of course, Tory Whanau has a huge target on her back.
On RNZ's 5 p.m. news Christopher Luxon blamed Labour's supposed financial mismanagement for the closure of the Penrose pulp and paper mill. The reporter did not question his comments, nor provide a response from Labour. This is predictable reporting – the government repeatedly blames Labour for NZ's current socioeconomic problems, without a challenge.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/news-bulletin
Surely Government MPs should be challenged when making dishonest statements, rather than being given free rein to repeatedly spread disinformation. Throughout 2023 credit rating agencies supported Labour's economic management.
"Standard and Poor’s is the latest independent credit rating agency to endorse the Government’s economic management in the face of a deteriorating global economy.
S&P affirmed New Zealand’s long term local currency rating at AAA and foreign currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook. It follows Fitch affirming New Zealand’s AA+ rating with a stable outlook and Moody’s annual credit analysis affirming a stable outlook on New Zealand’s local currency and foreign currency ratings at Aaa".
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/new-zealand-gets-aaa-credit-rating-sp
From an earlier RNZ article today, the reasons given for the mill closure were high power prices and an inability to compete with the company's new mill in Malaysia.
"Oji Fibre Solutions Penrose mill is permanently closing, the E tū union says.
Union spokesperson Joe Gallagher said the mill's last day would be 18 December and at least 72 workers at the mill had been affected.
Oji Fibre Solutions said it was considering closing its Penrose mill, partly due to high power prices. Up to 75 workers would be affected……..
Shift electrician Maurice Upton, who has been at the mill for 20 years, said staff were hoping it could be saved.
He said the Penrose operation was one of the most efficient mills in the country but couldn't compete with a the new mill the company had built in Malaysia".
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/top/528291/auckland-pulp-and-paper-mill-closing-permanently-union-say
Baldrick has the NZ Media under his thumb, like Sir John Key.