This is good stuff, but why does it stop at the arrival of euros in NZ? Surely for a comprehensive NZ history it should go back pre-euro, to how NZ was colonised by the polynesians, why and how they came here, the trials and tribulations in spreading across the country, the conflicts and wars, the new lands, the extinctions, the explorations, the good times and bad.
The current obsession with just one part of this history – the wars with the english crown – is distorting the full picture and will not result in a "historically aware aotearoa"
The full picture is fascinating. We should embrace it – warts and all – not just certain parts of it.
The Musket Wars, that drove Waikato iwi into invading Taranaki, pushing some Taranaki tribes to migrate down the Te Ika West Coast into the Kapiti & Wellington areas, the murder & subjugation of the Moriori by one of those Taranaki tribes, the Rampages into Nelson/Marlborough by Te Rauparaha – these are all also part of the history of Kiwiland that should be unashamedly & dispassionately taught.
As First Nations peoples, Māori iwi were all essentially separate small independent nations in the same way that the US American First Nations were: Apache, Commanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne etc.
The history of Maori inter-tribal warfare mirrors that of long-established societies everywhere. Europe & UK went thru similar inter-tribal conflcts. Ditto every other continent & large populated Islands. It’s just part of the human condition.
Michael King estimated that between 1800 and 1840 iwi managed to reduce their own population by around 40%. That’s an impressive genocide by anyone’s measure.
It’s just part of the human condition.
Yes and no. The human condition is an immensely powerful driver of human affairs but I don't believe it's an implacable monster we cannot negotiate with
It took less than a generation for Europeans to slaughter each other in huge numbers after the Great War, the first war to industrialise killing.
Look at what’s going on in the Sahel & other parts of Africa, just to name ine part of the world. We never seem as a species to be able to get away with global peace breaking out for long.
Too many human apes are Silverback Gorilla equivalents & too many other human apes are forced – or consent – to attak other human apes often for reasons that have nothing to do with food or access to resources for survival.
The “brute” wiring in the human brain is still way too primitively powerful. It overrides the higher intellect way too easily.
Yup. There is no 'Genocide Olympics' to be won here, everyone reading this understands that human history is littered with atrocities – everywhere.
But this does not mean progress has not happened either. It's entirely remarkable but usually overlooked fact, that in 2021 the average person is far less likely to die in warfare or violence than at any time in our history ever. We might want to celebrate this a little more than we do.
It is of course no guarantee of future peace, a constant vigilance is necessary to guard against atrocity – but the progress we have achieved is not nothing. It hints at what we might really be capable of.
The problem is the world does not want to have a global law: nations can't agree on many things. The UN is in many respects as toothless – when it comes to preventing conflicts – as the League of Nations was. The superpowers and great powers on the SC do as they please.
Even the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is eschewed by Muslim nations who've signed up to the lesser Islamic version:
The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (CDHRI) is a declaration of the member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) adopted in Cairo, Egypt, on 5 August 1990, (Conference of Foreign Ministers, 9–14 Muharram 1411H in the Islamic calendar) which provides an overview on the Islamic perspective on human rights, and affirms Islamic sharia as its sole source. CDHRI declares its purpose to be "general guidance for Member States [of the OIC] in the field of human rights".
This declaration is widely acknowledged as an Islamic response to the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted in 1948. It guarantees some, but not all, of the UDHR and serves as a living document of human rights guidelines prescribed for all members of the OIC to follow, but restricts them explicitly to the limits set by the sharia. Because of this limit, the CDHRI has been criticized as an attempt to shield OIC member states from international criticism for human rights violations, as well as for failing to guarantee freedom of religion, justifying corporal punishment and allowing discrimination against non-Muslims and women.
Many signed peace treaties that were ignored by invaders as well.colonizers claiming to bring civilization were just raping and piliging and demonising indigeonous people as inferior.
Yes that's a good framing vto. Historical awareness is something you tend to gain with maturity and age, but selective awareness usually serves another purpose altogether.
According to the headline I won't click on it's to be into "our terrible Covid response."
As is said in Parliament's Question Time, "I reject the premise of the question." That is, there is no "terrible covid response to look into because the response was not terrible.
Stephen Bannon has said to destroy the opposition baffle them with mountains of BS. Troll the Democrats into oblivion.
Hosking NZs Bannon the bullying BSer.
Looks like that's happening here even on this site with tag team trolling.Their is a pattern of Trolling by a few players who's job it is just to continually wind up the left.
My understanding is: a 'review' of the government's handling of the Covid pandemic is already underway. That would be a good start, followed by a full-scale inquiry if it was deemed necessary to clear up suspicion and innuendo one way or the other.
Transgender women should no longer be required to reduce their testosterone levels to compete in the women’s sport category, new International Olympic Committee guidelines have suggested.
The new IOC framework, which replaces its 2015 guidelines, also concludes there should be no presumption that trans women have an automatic advantage over natal women – a controversial view that reverses the IOC’s previous position.
However the IOC says ultimately it is up to individual sports to decide their rules – and they can still impose restrictions on trans women entering the female category if needed to ensure fair and safe competition.
Such decisions, it adds, should be based on “robust and peer-reviewed science … which demonstrates a consistent, unfair and disproportionate competitive advantage and/or an unpreventable risk to the safety of the athletes.”
My bold. IOC are gutless and are handing the problem on.
I'm sure there is a dark parody to be done here. Men are no longer to be considered a specific sexual or physical violence threat to women. There should be no presumption that men have an automatic physical advantage over natal women.
If that were true ( that men cannot be presumed to have a physical advantage over women) we should do away with men's and women's sports altogether. Also why not get rid of other classes in sport as well such as weight classes and age classes? And anybody should be able to take whatever hormone or testosterone treatments they like and still compete. Clearly I just don't get it.
Equestrian events are sports and don't have a separate male/female category. If your the IOC you also need to account for outliers so a blanket rule of assuming advantage can force these exceptions to adjust, even if its nearly always true. And I don't have any idea how male rhythmic gymnasts fit into this (are there any?).
This document is probably badly worded but pushing the decision down to sports federations is a good decision.
Each sport has and will have different rules, traditions and requirements so ultimately the decisions must rest with them how they define a sporting sub category. The IOC can't define a blanket rule because there will be exceptions, and the blanket rule of testosterone limits was not a good one.
I also think Ross makes some good points about describing the framework inside which each code should define those specifics.
Its also a more democratic structure, where the activism is setup to take over a structure from the top-down. I don't think a lot of the people cheering this activism on give a toss about sport and how its run anyway and don't participate in it. While the discussion was happening over Rugby and Woman's Rugby codes there were 0 trans Rugby players identified in NZ anyway (and NZ Rugby is able to decide separately to World Rugby). But the question comes up, are we actually talking about sports and sports governance, or is this a theoretical discussion happening online between people who are not interested in playing sports anyway.
dunno, maybe talk to GC women who play sport or work in the area.
IOC could have said there will be a female category and you cannot play in it if you are male (no matter the hormones and surgery you choose). Intersex issues can be dealt with in addition to that (because they're not gender identity issues). That doesn’t preclude individual sporting associations from having their own boundaries and processes. But if x sport says yes to trans women in female sports, how is that fair at the Olympics.
The rule that you will have a female category and will exclude males from that is presently violated by Equestrian events. It clearly depends on the sport so should be left to the code how that works for each code.
If a code can justify (and that includes evidence) that its fair and safe for trans women to be in the female then that would be a reasonable outcome to include them there for social reasons.
If that were true ( that men cannot be presumed to have a physical advantage over women) we should do away with men's and women's sports altogether. Also why not get rid of other classes in sport as well such as weight classes and age classes? And anybody should be able to take whatever hormone or testosterone treatments they like and still compete. Clearly I just don't get it.
Quite. I think the bit you might not be getting is the politics around gender identity and biological sex. The problem is some people want us to elevate the importance of GI and lower or remove the importance of biological sex. That's a political position.
IMO Blazer makes a lot of pronouncements from a position of cluelessness. Lots of sports organisations look to the IOC for leadership and high standards. This is a pathetic abdication of responsibility.
If you can't see what a can of worms this is and the mitigating factors regarding all the sports that have Olympic representation,and think' one size fits all',you have alot to…learn.
I don't care much about pronouns – I’ve never liked to use them myself
I’m not overly bothered by the public toilets issue – I reckon some clever designers are beginning to manage solutions.
For personal reasons the term 'pregnant people' doesn't bother me
I don't even know why we still have the problematic M/F check box on our birth certificates
I very much care if women are losing spaces that enable them to compete fairly and safely in sports, in education, in business and anything else. The IOC is evading their duty to uphold these values. A separate category, or changing the men's category to 'open' would have been fairer.
I'm thinking that women may as well have their own Olympics because these Olympics have just been closed to them in terms of being the supposed best in the world.
Public toilets/changing rooms/rape refuges/domestic violence homes are all women's spaces that had the protected characteristic of biological sex.
Thinking this is just about toilets, ignores the very implications for women in all such spaces. Particularly for women whose religious, cultural, trauma or modesty precludes them from being in such spaces with male-bodied people. By insisting on the inclusion of male-bodied people into women's spaces, we now have excluded groups of women. Just let that sink in.
There is also a pushback against provision of third spaces, such as in sports. If you look further, there is a demand for total capitulation, not actually provision of alternative spaces. While there may be reasons for this, misogyny, requiring external validation, none of them are justified.
Those other small adjustments to language may also seem innocuous, but after much thought, I don't think they are. Distortion of language means conversations become all about semantics and meanings, rather than dealing with the issues at hand. Statistics no longer sex-based become meaningless, and we end up with stories like this.
The IOC have capitulated, and joined the ranks of those unconcerned about the impact on women.
I agree with you Molly, It's just that I've seen (and used) uni-sex public toilets and changing rooms that still retain the privacy that women need. So I think this issue can be solved.
I agree totally that rape refuges/domestic violence homes are all women's spaces that had the protected characteristic of biological sex. Transgender women clearly need their own spaces as well and their need is great. It's just that it's incompatible with born women's needs. And that spaces that relate to reproductive health, pregnancy and post-natal spaces are absolutely reserved for females as well.
I also agree that statistics that are no longer sex-based become meaningless. This conflict has led me to question whether we actually need a sex definition on a birth certificate where that information that is accurate or can be inferred is, these days available in other places. Of course I realise this is just a personal opinion and I'm not going to try and convince anyone else.
The IOC, on the other hand, is a whole different issue, and I agree that the IOC have capitulated, and joined the ranks of those unconcerned about the impact on women.
Miravox, most change rooms aren't unisex, they are female or male only. even with unisex cubicles it still opens the doors for biological males to be in what I believe should be women only spaces. This gives them access to do things like plant cameras to film women getting changed. Happened recently in a unisex gym in Auckland. I have also read that women are assaulted more in unisex change and bathrooms.
Personally I don't want male bodied people in these spaces and I certainly don't want them around girls and teen girls.
I do think the IOC's decision might be the catalyst that brings things to a head. Around the time of the Olympics there were numberous polls, unscientific I admit, that overwhelmingly showed Kiwis did not support transwomen competing in women's sport. It will be a disaster for women. If you don't think some men who are not really trans at all will use these regulations to enter and win women's sporting competitions, your dreaming. Think of a mediocre male athelete declaring themself non-binary. They were born male and have all the biology that gives men the advantage over women in sport. Why not compete against women! You have got politicians, media cheering you on telling you how brave you are etc, etc! And female atheletes being silenced as was reported by a brave woman weight lifter who spoke up and said they were being told to shut up about Laureen Hubbard. I hope this situation causes the outrage it deserves.
I agree with you Molly, It's just that I've seen (and used) uni-sex public toilets and changing rooms that still retain the privacy that women need. So I think this issue can be solved.
If it could be solved, with consideration given to the groups of women I mentioned before, I think I still would have some concern. Because I have seen protections and safeguards eroded bit by bit, and I think you do have to have a frank and full discussion before conceding hard-won ground. For me, third spaces fit the bill – given that the majority of transwomen have no surgical or medical transitioning, and are male-bodied.
I don't want to give much ground on the issue of change rooms.
The mumber of transwomen in NZ was infitesimal and likely those who had transitioned biology did make use of women's bathrooms, although I remember a student holiday job I had with a women who was likely trans. She never declared she was, but the voice, the hands kind of gave it away. She was well accepted at work and people liked her. I don't recall seeing her in a women's bathroom, but it wasn't an issue as such.
What is an issue is male who assert their gender identity trumps biological reality and expect women to go along with this.
Anyone who thinks some men won't use gender self id to access womens spaces for neferious purposes is dreaming.
It does get me that transwomen feel unsafe in men's toilets, but don't understand that the same thing occurs when women see 'some' transwomen in female toilets. I agree that some men will use take advantage – they do already (hence the obvious fear).
Honestly, I prefer spaces with closed cubicles and open hand washing spaces that are discrete but easily accessible if someone has a health or security problem. I don't, by any stretch of the imagination think that most of our current loos are safe if shared, but I've been in places that have shared spaces that work really well, I think. I do feel this is an issue that can be resolved by design. Maybe it's not perfect yet, but people are working on this I'm interested to see where this goes.
So I consider myself to be for want of a better term, an expert on safety in women's change rooms, having experienced what could have been a very serious sexual assault possibly homicide. It happened many, many years ago. And when that young women was raped and murdered in Mt Albert a few months back, I knew exactly how she would have felt the moment she knew she was in trouble. Adrenalin pulsing threw my body, I thought I was going to be murdered.
One of the things that saved me is my attacker tried to stop me getting the hell out of the change room and told me to "get back in the cubicle". Instinctively, perhaps from the old protests days, I sat down and told him "do it here". This really flawed him I think. If I had of gone back in the cubicle I think I would have been raped, possibly murdered.
For years I never talked about this attack (I was remarkably unscathed physically but he did punch me in the face). One of the things that I have found deeply shocking in this debate, both on The Standard and in letters I have written to female MP's is nobody who is pushing trans ideology has expressed any sympathy or compassion about what I might feel about women's change rooms and toilets. And how for years I avoided them like the plague. So when men on this site have told me no problem with the toilets or others have trivialized my concerns I feel very angry.
So my personal experience of women's change rooms with cubicles is its not all good. He obviously wanted me in that cubicle for a reason such as easier to stop me yelling if someone entered the change room
I'm so sorry you experienced this horror. Please don't think I'm trivialising your concerns. Safety is the major reason why I believe a redesign is necessary. It's rather ironic that the trans debate has brought the issue of safety in public toilets to the fore, when these places always have been dangerous for women and girls. Thank you for disclosing something so personal – please be kind to yourself today.
Thanks Mirovox. I do appreciate that and I appreciate where you are coming from re bathroom design. I believe you are correct on that, because what happened to me shows that a public change room can be a really unsafe space. Just like for the poor Mt Albert woman, walking alone in a bushy area was unsafe.
And by the way, I don't disagree with anything you said (perhaps other than the cublicle comment as instintively I knew when he ordered me back into the cubicle where I had been changing it wasn't going to go well, that I would be more vulnerable).
This attack happened in 1997 btw. A lot of the friends I have made since then don't know about it. I think psychologically I have been left remarkable unscathed, but my fear around public change rooms persisted for sometime. I still do a quick check of cubicles when I find myself in a public toilet on my own. I don't talk about it much. But when I heard about gender self id, I was immedicatly concerned. Frankly it felt like a kick in the guts that my concerns about sharing public change rooms and toilets with male bodied people was trivialized and discounted. Sometimes it has been implied that I am transphobic or a prude. Both are deeply offensive to me. And I see them as tactics to silence women. It is also quite galling when some people claim to care about women who have been murdered in similar circumstances. Maybe they are geniune in their concern, sure they are, but the reality is I have lived through the most frightening experience of realising that I was in deep trouble. When I first saw the guy (who was wearing a mask by the way) I thought I am going to be murdered. I know how that feels. How women who have been murdered would have felt when they realized their fate. That I thought I would be murdered I think made me less scared that he would rape me. That's why I sat down and refused to get back in the cubicle.
This is one of the things lead me into the gender ideology issue. The more I read, the more I couldn't believe how reasonably intelligent people were taking on this new ideology without question and a gospel like zeal.
Back in the early 1990s my favorite game was "Wing Commander". Found a legacy copy a few years ago, tried cranking it up and forgot how much command-line code was needed to calibrate the video and sound cards, because WC was just before plug and play standardisation came in. I gave up. That experience reminded me of linux.
Damien Grant was one of two liquidators of a hydroponics company
The liquidators of a hydroponics company have been ordered to pay creditors more than $56,000 after charging “not reasonably incurred” fees, a High Court judge has ruled.
Maybe his good character was offset by a belief that any fee payable to him is reasonable.
Or maybe he was smoking what a lot of hydroponics enthusiasts are selling, and that inhibited his record-keeping, and he earned every penny but couldn't keep up with the paperwork.
Or maybe it was a perfectly innocent slip of the pen that overcharged the fees by (checks article) half as much again.
Liquidators should be regulated very rarely do you see low fees for this sort of work. Most insolvencies end up with the liquidators taking nearly all the money/assets leaving nothing or very little for creditors.
Looks like Covid is spreading to animals wild white tail deer in the US have found to have contracted C19.scary as this could be a new breeding ground for the virus to mutate.
Keeping MIQ in place is a must if a mutation ends up like Delta it could be more disastrous for our country.
Got an annoying bit of spam today: the freeze peach shallot (shallots aren't really "onions") looks to be shilling its membership to uni folk because "The Royal Society is undermining the academic freedom of their own".
They don't support or oppose intellectually-and-morally-bankrupt pro-covid talk, but think academics should have the right to step well outside their scope of expertise in order to promulgate material that is directly contradicted by the scientific evidence and consensus amongst actual specialists in that area. Ot at least, that's what it looks like the Royal Society might be investigating in regards these two academics.
Funnily enough, the email doesn't seem to say anywhere that my FSU membership dues or donation will actually be spent assisting those two academics. Probably an oversight /sarc
I suspect they've just trawled tertiary education websites for email addresses to plug this academic freedom BS. I sure as heck haven't been signing petitions for them, lol
New Ipsos poll is out. It's much more detailed than the TV polls, going beyond the headlines.
Asked to rate the gov't out of 10, 54% said 7 or higher. Only 18% said 0-3. So all that foamy frothing about tyrant Cindy represents less than 1 in 5 of NZ voters.
Asked who was best at 20 different issues (health, housing, climate change etc) National scored … zero. (Labour 17, Greens 2, TPM 1).
The last poll was 3 months ago and Auckland has been in lockdown since then, and are thoroughly exhausted and exasperated. So the gov't rating from Aucklanders has declined, from 6.5 to 6. You'd think it would be 3 or 4.
Summary: government obviously down from an election high, opposition still no alternative.
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Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from 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 public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
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:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
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. ...
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 ...
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. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
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 Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
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This is good stuff, but why does it stop at the arrival of euros in NZ? Surely for a comprehensive NZ history it should go back pre-euro, to how NZ was colonised by the polynesians, why and how they came here, the trials and tribulations in spreading across the country, the conflicts and wars, the new lands, the extinctions, the explorations, the good times and bad.
The current obsession with just one part of this history – the wars with the english crown – is distorting the full picture and will not result in a "historically aware aotearoa"
The full picture is fascinating. We should embrace it – warts and all – not just certain parts of it.
2c
https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/300456857/signs-are-encouraging-for-a-historically-aware-aotearoa
thumbs up to that
Ditto.
The Musket Wars, that drove Waikato iwi into invading Taranaki, pushing some Taranaki tribes to migrate down the Te Ika West Coast into the Kapiti & Wellington areas, the murder & subjugation of the Moriori by one of those Taranaki tribes, the Rampages into Nelson/Marlborough by Te Rauparaha – these are all also part of the history of Kiwiland that should be unashamedly & dispassionately taught.
As First Nations peoples, Māori iwi were all essentially separate small independent nations in the same way that the US American First Nations were: Apache, Commanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne etc.
The history of Maori inter-tribal warfare mirrors that of long-established societies everywhere. Europe & UK went thru similar inter-tribal conflcts. Ditto every other continent & large populated Islands. It’s just part of the human condition.
Michael King estimated that between 1800 and 1840 iwi managed to reduce their own population by around 40%. That’s an impressive genocide by anyone’s measure.
It’s just part of the human condition.
Yes and no. The human condition is an immensely powerful driver of human affairs but I don't believe it's an implacable monster we cannot negotiate with
It took less than a generation for Europeans to slaughter each other in huge numbers after the Great War, the first war to industrialise killing.
Look at what’s going on in the Sahel & other parts of Africa, just to name ine part of the world. We never seem as a species to be able to get away with global peace breaking out for long.
Too many human apes are Silverback Gorilla equivalents & too many other human apes are forced – or consent – to attak other human apes often for reasons that have nothing to do with food or access to resources for survival.
The “brute” wiring in the human brain is still way too primitively powerful. It overrides the higher intellect way too easily.
Yup. There is no 'Genocide Olympics' to be won here, everyone reading this understands that human history is littered with atrocities – everywhere.
But this does not mean progress has not happened either. It's entirely remarkable but usually overlooked fact, that in 2021 the average person is far less likely to die in warfare or violence than at any time in our history ever. We might want to celebrate this a little more than we do.
It is of course no guarantee of future peace, a constant vigilance is necessary to guard against atrocity – but the progress we have achieved is not nothing. It hints at what we might really be capable of.
Do you mean the' average western person'?
I imagine the average middle eastern person would not…agree.
The problem is the world does not want to have a global law: nations can't agree on many things. The UN is in many respects as toothless – when it comes to preventing conflicts – as the League of Nations was. The superpowers and great powers on the SC do as they please.
Even the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is eschewed by Muslim nations who've signed up to the lesser Islamic version:
The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (CDHRI) is a declaration of the member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) adopted in Cairo, Egypt, on 5 August 1990, (Conference of Foreign Ministers, 9–14 Muharram 1411H in the Islamic calendar) which provides an overview on the Islamic perspective on human rights, and affirms Islamic sharia as its sole source. CDHRI declares its purpose to be "general guidance for Member States [of the OIC] in the field of human rights".
This declaration is widely acknowledged as an Islamic response to the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted in 1948. It guarantees some, but not all, of the UDHR and serves as a living document of human rights guidelines prescribed for all members of the OIC to follow, but restricts them explicitly to the limits set by the sharia. Because of this limit, the CDHRI has been criticized as an attempt to shield OIC member states from international criticism for human rights violations, as well as for failing to guarantee freedom of religion, justifying corporal punishment and allowing discrimination against non-Muslims and women.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Declaration_on_Human_Rights_in_Islam
Apologies for not doing justice to this. Worth revisiting at some other time.
No Gezza the gorilla eats greens and is a vegetarian. Chimpanzees our nearest kin hunt and kill for meat.
Chimps can be very dangerous. Smart, aggressive and resourceful.
Zoos pair them with the wildcats etc in terms of the threat and security required to mitigate.
Many signed peace treaties that were ignored by invaders as well.colonizers claiming to bring civilization were just raping and piliging and demonising indigeonous people as inferior.
The same behaviour iwi had been inflicting on each other since forever. Exactly what moral molehill are you trying to perch on here?
That lot come as christians,no
"signed peace treaties" is the relevant bit you missed, I guess.
The new colonisers claim to bring civilization but we're just the same as you point out.
Yet obviously they're not the same. Somewhere you need to re-think your logic.
Yes that's a good framing vto. Historical awareness is something you tend to gain with maturity and age, but selective awareness usually serves another purpose altogether.
Selective awareness is of course a bad thing. It might be worse though to believe that one's self is not guilty of it.
I suspect that many teachers will take the new curriculum as a guide.
Most will focus on their own rohe. If that includes the Musket Wars, Te Rauparaha's atrocities, as well as colonial devastation, so be it.
.
https://vimeo.com/262508731
Week old baby pukeko, Jojo, and her family, on a sunny Autumn morning in North Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand (Kiwiland)
Dogs barks at passing car….in other news hosk wants a royal commission.
What on?
And is he offering to pay for it?
According to the headline I won't click on it's to be into "our terrible Covid response."
As is said in Parliament's Question Time, "I reject the premise of the question." That is, there is no "terrible covid response to look into because the response was not terrible.
it is the type of thing that needs a royal commission. not for hoskings reasons, but to ensure that we are better prepared next time.
If the first few paragraphs are any guide he want a royal commission to relitigate the 2017 election result. GET OVER IT MIKE.
Gotta keep those attack lines current for his paymasters.
Stephen Bannon has said to destroy the opposition baffle them with mountains of BS. Troll the Democrats into oblivion.
Hosking NZs Bannon the bullying BSer.
Looks like that's happening here even on this site with tag team trolling.Their is a pattern of Trolling by a few players who's job it is just to continually wind up the left.
My understanding is: a 'review' of the government's handling of the Covid pandemic is already underway. That would be a good start, followed by a full-scale inquiry if it was deemed necessary to clear up suspicion and innuendo one way or the other.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/nov/16/trans-women-should-not-have-to-reduce-testosterone-say-new-ioc-guidelines
Hmmmm
Seems like we're about to scrap sex segregation in sport
This will affect a few women's sporting careers
Looks like the male hormone is undermining the female hormone.
Why not just have a separate category
When World Rugby made this offer, it was turned down, according to Ross Tucker.
Sorry, link to Instagram video where he said this.
Thanks for this.
But,
My bold. IOC are gutless and are handing the problem on.
I'm sure there is a dark parody to be done here. Men are no longer to be considered a specific sexual or physical violence threat to women. There should be no presumption that men have an automatic physical advantage over natal women.
If that were true ( that men cannot be presumed to have a physical advantage over women) we should do away with men's and women's sports altogether. Also why not get rid of other classes in sport as well such as weight classes and age classes? And anybody should be able to take whatever hormone or testosterone treatments they like and still compete. Clearly I just don't get it.
Equestrian events are sports and don't have a separate male/female category. If your the IOC you also need to account for outliers so a blanket rule of assuming advantage can force these exceptions to adjust, even if its nearly always true. And I don't have any idea how male rhythmic gymnasts fit into this (are there any?).
This document is probably badly worded but pushing the decision down to sports federations is a good decision.
How so? Not sure you are wrong, but would like to hear your thinking.
(and the IOC are still gutless).
Each sport has and will have different rules, traditions and requirements so ultimately the decisions must rest with them how they define a sporting sub category. The IOC can't define a blanket rule because there will be exceptions, and the blanket rule of testosterone limits was not a good one.
I also think Ross makes some good points about describing the framework inside which each code should define those specifics.
Its also a more democratic structure, where the activism is setup to take over a structure from the top-down. I don't think a lot of the people cheering this activism on give a toss about sport and how its run anyway and don't participate in it. While the discussion was happening over Rugby and Woman's Rugby codes there were 0 trans Rugby players identified in NZ anyway (and NZ Rugby is able to decide separately to World Rugby). But the question comes up, are we actually talking about sports and sports governance, or is this a theoretical discussion happening online between people who are not interested in playing sports anyway.
dunno, maybe talk to GC women who play sport or work in the area.
IOC could have said there will be a female category and you cannot play in it if you are male (no matter the hormones and surgery you choose). Intersex issues can be dealt with in addition to that (because they're not gender identity issues). That doesn’t preclude individual sporting associations from having their own boundaries and processes. But if x sport says yes to trans women in female sports, how is that fair at the Olympics.
The rule that you will have a female category and will exclude males from that is presently violated by Equestrian events. It clearly depends on the sport so should be left to the code how that works for each code.
If a code can justify (and that includes evidence) that its fair and safe for trans women to be in the female then that would be a reasonable outcome to include them there for social reasons.
Quite. I think the bit you might not be getting is the politics around gender identity and biological sex. The problem is some people want us to elevate the importance of GI and lower or remove the importance of biological sex. That's a political position.
Imo the IOC are quite right and handing the problem on to those who need to deal with it.
For further info, Prof Ross Tucker podcast.
IMO Blazer makes a lot of pronouncements from a position of cluelessness. Lots of sports organisations look to the IOC for leadership and high standards. This is a pathetic abdication of responsibility.
If you can't see what a can of worms this is and the mitigating factors regarding all the sports that have Olympic representation,and think' one size fits all',you have alot to…learn.
maybe you could both explain your thinking instead of having a pop at each other.
Yes, good idea. 👌🏼 Not a very edifying exchange for the reader.
I don't care much about pronouns – I’ve never liked to use them myself
I’m not overly bothered by the public toilets issue – I reckon some clever designers are beginning to manage solutions.
For personal reasons the term 'pregnant people' doesn't bother me
I don't even know why we still have the problematic M/F check box on our birth certificates
I very much care if women are losing spaces that enable them to compete fairly and safely in sports, in education, in business and anything else. The IOC is evading their duty to uphold these values. A separate category, or changing the men's category to 'open' would have been fairer.
I'm thinking that women may as well have their own Olympics because these Olympics have just been closed to them in terms of being the supposed best in the world.
This sucks. Big Time, imo.
Public toilets/changing rooms/rape refuges/domestic violence homes are all women's spaces that had the protected characteristic of biological sex.
Thinking this is just about toilets, ignores the very implications for women in all such spaces. Particularly for women whose religious, cultural, trauma or modesty precludes them from being in such spaces with male-bodied people. By insisting on the inclusion of male-bodied people into women's spaces, we now have excluded groups of women. Just let that sink in.
There is also a pushback against provision of third spaces, such as in sports. If you look further, there is a demand for total capitulation, not actually provision of alternative spaces. While there may be reasons for this, misogyny, requiring external validation, none of them are justified.
Those other small adjustments to language may also seem innocuous, but after much thought, I don't think they are. Distortion of language means conversations become all about semantics and meanings, rather than dealing with the issues at hand. Statistics no longer sex-based become meaningless, and we end up with stories like this.
The IOC have capitulated, and joined the ranks of those unconcerned about the impact on women.
I agree with you Molly, It's just that I've seen (and used) uni-sex public toilets and changing rooms that still retain the privacy that women need. So I think this issue can be solved.
I agree totally that rape refuges/domestic violence homes are all women's spaces that had the protected characteristic of biological sex. Transgender women clearly need their own spaces as well and their need is great. It's just that it's incompatible with born women's needs. And that spaces that relate to reproductive health, pregnancy and post-natal spaces are absolutely reserved for females as well.
I also agree that statistics that are no longer sex-based become meaningless. This conflict has led me to question whether we actually need a sex definition on a birth certificate where that information that is accurate or can be inferred is, these days available in other places. Of course I realise this is just a personal opinion and I'm not going to try and convince anyone else.
The IOC, on the other hand, is a whole different issue, and I agree that the IOC have capitulated, and joined the ranks of those unconcerned about the impact on women.
Miravox, most change rooms aren't unisex, they are female or male only. even with unisex cubicles it still opens the doors for biological males to be in what I believe should be women only spaces. This gives them access to do things like plant cameras to film women getting changed. Happened recently in a unisex gym in Auckland. I have also read that women are assaulted more in unisex change and bathrooms.
Personally I don't want male bodied people in these spaces and I certainly don't want them around girls and teen girls.
I do think the IOC's decision might be the catalyst that brings things to a head. Around the time of the Olympics there were numberous polls, unscientific I admit, that overwhelmingly showed Kiwis did not support transwomen competing in women's sport. It will be a disaster for women. If you don't think some men who are not really trans at all will use these regulations to enter and win women's sporting competitions, your dreaming. Think of a mediocre male athelete declaring themself non-binary. They were born male and have all the biology that gives men the advantage over women in sport. Why not compete against women! You have got politicians, media cheering you on telling you how brave you are etc, etc! And female atheletes being silenced as was reported by a brave woman weight lifter who spoke up and said they were being told to shut up about Laureen Hubbard. I hope this situation causes the outrage it deserves.
I do think some men will do exactly this. That is why I'm entirely against the IOC decision.
Exactly Mirovox. Sorry I didn't write that well, I didn't mean you personally, I meant if you are one of the people who think that.
I agree with you Molly, It's just that I've seen (and used) uni-sex public toilets and changing rooms that still retain the privacy that women need. So I think this issue can be solved.
If it could be solved, with consideration given to the groups of women I mentioned before, I think I still would have some concern. Because I have seen protections and safeguards eroded bit by bit, and I think you do have to have a frank and full discussion before conceding hard-won ground. For me, third spaces fit the bill – given that the majority of transwomen have no surgical or medical transitioning, and are male-bodied.
Exactly Mirovox. Sorry I didn't write that well, I didn't mean you personally, I meant if you are one of the people who think that.
I don't want to give much ground on the issue of change rooms.
The mumber of transwomen in NZ was infitesimal and likely those who had transitioned biology did make use of women's bathrooms, although I remember a student holiday job I had with a women who was likely trans. She never declared she was, but the voice, the hands kind of gave it away. She was well accepted at work and people liked her. I don't recall seeing her in a women's bathroom, but it wasn't an issue as such.
What is an issue is male who assert their gender identity trumps biological reality and expect women to go along with this.
Anyone who thinks some men won't use gender self id to access womens spaces for neferious purposes is dreaming.
It does get me that transwomen feel unsafe in men's toilets, but don't understand that the same thing occurs when women see 'some' transwomen in female toilets. I agree that some men will use take advantage – they do already (hence the obvious fear).
Honestly, I prefer spaces with closed cubicles and open hand washing spaces that are discrete but easily accessible if someone has a health or security problem. I don't, by any stretch of the imagination think that most of our current loos are safe if shared, but I've been in places that have shared spaces that work really well, I think. I do feel this is an issue that can be resolved by design. Maybe it's not perfect yet, but people are working on this I'm interested to see where this goes.
So I consider myself to be for want of a better term, an expert on safety in women's change rooms, having experienced what could have been a very serious sexual assault possibly homicide. It happened many, many years ago. And when that young women was raped and murdered in Mt Albert a few months back, I knew exactly how she would have felt the moment she knew she was in trouble. Adrenalin pulsing threw my body, I thought I was going to be murdered.
One of the things that saved me is my attacker tried to stop me getting the hell out of the change room and told me to "get back in the cubicle". Instinctively, perhaps from the old protests days, I sat down and told him "do it here". This really flawed him I think. If I had of gone back in the cubicle I think I would have been raped, possibly murdered.
For years I never talked about this attack (I was remarkably unscathed physically but he did punch me in the face). One of the things that I have found deeply shocking in this debate, both on The Standard and in letters I have written to female MP's is nobody who is pushing trans ideology has expressed any sympathy or compassion about what I might feel about women's change rooms and toilets. And how for years I avoided them like the plague. So when men on this site have told me no problem with the toilets or others have trivialized my concerns I feel very angry.
So my personal experience of women's change rooms with cubicles is its not all good. He obviously wanted me in that cubicle for a reason such as easier to stop me yelling if someone entered the change room
Hi Anker,
I'm so sorry you experienced this horror. Please don't think I'm trivialising your concerns. Safety is the major reason why I believe a redesign is necessary. It's rather ironic that the trans debate has brought the issue of safety in public toilets to the fore, when these places always have been dangerous for women and girls. Thank you for disclosing something so personal – please be kind to yourself today.
Thanks Mirovox. I do appreciate that and I appreciate where you are coming from re bathroom design. I believe you are correct on that, because what happened to me shows that a public change room can be a really unsafe space. Just like for the poor Mt Albert woman, walking alone in a bushy area was unsafe.
And by the way, I don't disagree with anything you said (perhaps other than the cublicle comment as instintively I knew when he ordered me back into the cubicle where I had been changing it wasn't going to go well, that I would be more vulnerable).
This attack happened in 1997 btw. A lot of the friends I have made since then don't know about it. I think psychologically I have been left remarkable unscathed, but my fear around public change rooms persisted for sometime. I still do a quick check of cubicles when I find myself in a public toilet on my own. I don't talk about it much. But when I heard about gender self id, I was immedicatly concerned. Frankly it felt like a kick in the guts that my concerns about sharing public change rooms and toilets with male bodied people was trivialized and discounted. Sometimes it has been implied that I am transphobic or a prude. Both are deeply offensive to me. And I see them as tactics to silence women. It is also quite galling when some people claim to care about women who have been murdered in similar circumstances. Maybe they are geniune in their concern, sure they are, but the reality is I have lived through the most frightening experience of realising that I was in deep trouble. When I first saw the guy (who was wearing a mask by the way) I thought I am going to be murdered. I know how that feels. How women who have been murdered would have felt when they realized their fate. That I thought I would be murdered I think made me less scared that he would rape me. That's why I sat down and refused to get back in the cubicle.
This is one of the things lead me into the gender ideology issue. The more I read, the more I couldn't believe how reasonably intelligent people were taking on this new ideology without question and a gospel like zeal.
Hi Anker, thanks for sharing.
Your perspective about refusing to leave the open area for the private cubicles put voice to one of my concerns about unisex toilets as a solution.
I agree with your comments on this.
No thank you
Anybody here taken up Microsoft's offer to download and install Microsoft 11 yet?
If so, whaddya think of it?
Yep. Couple of weeks ago.
No major changes. Lots of little ones, some quite good. I like being able to have Chrome tabs along side each other, foe example.
It doesn't cope well with Google Meet, gets slow. But I think 10 did that too.
Bet that is deliberate. 🙂
I want to, have been waiting for the first load of patches, because like all 1.0 releases it is full of bugs!
Why not ditch microsux and install Linux?
Tried linux. Needed a degree in rocket surgery to get games and random software fully armed and operational.
Linus Torvalds had a wee rant about this in 2014. So many different distros require their own bespoke package development, and the different distros tend to break backwards compatability.
Back in the early 1990s my favorite game was "Wing Commander". Found a legacy copy a few years ago, tried cranking it up and forgot how much command-line code was needed to calibrate the video and sound cards, because WC was just before plug and play standardisation came in. I gave up. That experience reminded me of linux.
I like Linux, use it all the time, as long as it stays in its little sandbox in the WSL environment (windows services for linux). 😛
Most of the time I'm in MacOS, i.e. a proper Unix implementation.
The only thing I miss is a really good CAD program and don't find GIMP as intuitive as photoshop.
I use gimp – the lack of drawing shapes is an issue, but I cut and paste from office-style programmes lol
@ Brigid
Old habits die hard.
Damien Grant was one of two liquidators of a hydroponics company
The liquidators of a hydroponics company have been ordered to pay creditors more than $56,000 after charging “not reasonably incurred” fees, a High Court judge has ruled.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/126989003/liquidators-ordered-to-pay-creditors-56000-after-charging-not-reasonably-incurred-fees
A sense of entitlement? He has been convicted of fraud and had to go to court to get his licence, seems the regulator could see this coming?
Hey, that's unfair.
Maybe his good character was offset by a belief that any fee payable to him is reasonable.
Or maybe he was smoking what a lot of hydroponics enthusiasts are selling, and that inhibited his record-keeping, and he earned every penny but couldn't keep up with the paperwork.
Or maybe it was a perfectly innocent slip of the pen that overcharged the fees by (checks article) half as much again.
maybe lol
Seems his financial ethics are still in the toilet.
He learned a good lesson in jail…..be more sophisticated in how you go about ripping people.
Liquidators should be regulated very rarely do you see low fees for this sort of work. Most insolvencies end up with the liquidators taking nearly all the money/assets leaving nothing or very little for creditors.
Looks like Covid is spreading to animals wild white tail deer in the US have found to have contracted C19.scary as this could be a new breeding ground for the virus to mutate.
Keeping MIQ in place is a must if a mutation ends up like Delta it could be more disastrous for our country.
Got an annoying bit of spam today: the freeze peach shallot (shallots aren't really "onions") looks to be shilling its membership to uni folk because "The Royal Society is undermining the academic freedom of their own".
They don't support or oppose intellectually-and-morally-bankrupt pro-covid talk, but think academics should have the right to step well outside their scope of expertise in order to promulgate material that is directly contradicted by the scientific evidence and consensus amongst actual specialists in that area. Ot at least, that's what it looks like the Royal Society might be investigating in regards these two academics.
Funnily enough, the email doesn't seem to say anywhere that my FSU membership dues or donation will actually be spent assisting those two academics. Probably an oversight /sarc
Seems the FSU has been doing naughty things with their email list. Someone on twitter was also complaining about their spam today.
I suspect they've just trawled tertiary education websites for email addresses to plug this academic freedom BS. I sure as heck haven't been signing petitions for them, lol
New Ipsos poll is out. It's much more detailed than the TV polls, going beyond the headlines.
Asked to rate the gov't out of 10, 54% said 7 or higher. Only 18% said 0-3. So all that foamy frothing about tyrant Cindy represents less than 1 in 5 of NZ voters.
Asked who was best at 20 different issues (health, housing, climate change etc) National scored … zero. (Labour 17, Greens 2, TPM 1).
The last poll was 3 months ago and Auckland has been in lockdown since then, and are thoroughly exhausted and exasperated. So the gov't rating from Aucklanders has declined, from 6.5 to 6. You'd think it would be 3 or 4.
Summary: government obviously down from an election high, opposition still no alternative.
PDF link:
https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2021-11/15th%20Ipsos%20New%20Zealand%20Issues%20Monitor_Report%20V2.pdf