Banks say Reserve Bank has missed its chance for debt-to-income rules
They said banks were already lending at ratios that were far above what would be considered ideal.
The bank bosses suggested an ideal level of borrowing would be five to seven times borrowers’ incomes. But their own banks had already blown that out of the water – they said most borrowers were taking loans nine to 12 times their incomes.
You are absolutely right, well more than half the economic news, both foreign and domestic on RNZ comes directly through bank economists.
Why RNZ hasn’t got it’s own regular independent group of economists that it refers to to is a mystery…..but then again they had David Farrar on as a panelist on Jim Mora’s show yesterday, so I guess that gives us a fair indication of where RNZ is these days.
The banks have been feeding the bubble, the number and quality of homes haven’t been improved or increased by much in recent years, just the level of debt on houses has increased.
We have had severe house price inflation which is not recorded in the inflation index ie cost of living index yet mortgages and rents suck up a big % of a households income?
False News Business has managed to track down the only two pro-Trump immigrants in the United States. This Murdoch outlet continues to be nothing more than the Cavalcade of Infantilism it has always been.
He had me until he reverted to his old “identity politics split the left” mantra.
He is correct in saying that the rise of the managerial classes was part of the neoliberal shift.
He is also correct in saying:
By the 1970s, trade unions in Scandinavia and the United Kingdom had even begun to construct practical alternatives to the capitalist way of doing things. The arguments of class solidarity and collective action were acquiring an unprecedented degree of persuasiveness.
But the women’s movement in the UK was deeply integrated with socialist/left wing networks: the same people who were involved in anti-racist, feminist and LGBTI campaigns were involved in union struggles. This could be seen in the way they all were involved in supporting the miners during the miners strike.
The managerialist neoliberalism didn’t do this as Trotter claims:
They downgraded the common experiences of economic exploitation which had formerly bound the Left together, supplanting them with exploitation narratives grounded in the experiences of race, gender and sexuality. Capitalism doesn’t oppress humanity, went the PMC’s argument, racism, sexism and homophobia do.
Neat little bit of sleight of hand there.
In fact, anti-racism, anti-sexism, and anti-homophobia were becoming increasingly integrated with union and other left/socialist struggles. The neoliberal shift didn’t just downgrade the narratives/experiences of class-focused economic exploitation. They did the same with other forms socio-economic (social and economic justice being intertwined with so-called “identity politics”.
So we got a highly marketable form of girl power, and women CEOs with shoulder padded “power suits” in Dynasty. Ending the scruffy boiler suits and Doc Martens image of women’s libbers.
I was there in the UK at the time, and involved in the women’s liberation movement and union struggles at the time – where was Trotter?
Trotter, still beating the same old drum, doing what he accuses others of doing, splitting the left.
Well i am glad that more commentators are recognising the link between identity politics and the collapse of the left. I am amazed at people who push “let us get our bit for our lot under capitalism and then we will work to get rid of it”, dosnt work that way, once you buy in you are a promoter no matter what you say.
Can’t say I ever encountered “identity politics” like that. Although I was a meeting or two where people were asked not to call tories “faggots” or whatever because it’s really difficult to participate in a group where they quite obviously think you’re the first insult imaginable.
I would have thought the worst thing that anyone on “the left” could do was to deliver a windy lecture about how we lesser mortals need to respect Deep South lynch law….
Interesting Sanctuary. Remember when Key would give 4 or 5 answers for you to choose from then leave the question answer ambiguous? So what happens when a politician is blunt and avoids the political Flim flam? Is there any truth in Gorka’s position?
Gorka was an odd choice of proxies for the White House to put forward in defense of its Holocaust Remembrance day statement.
He has appeared in multiple photographs wearing the medal of a Hungarian group listed by the State Department as having collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.
[…]
Eva Balogh, founder of the news analysis blog Hungarian Spectrum and former professor of Eastern European History at Yale University, confirmed to LobeLog the identity of the medal worn by Gorka. She said:
Yes, the medal is of the “vitézi rend” established by Miklós Horthy in 1920. He, as a mere governor, didn’t have the privilege to ennoble his subjects as the king could do before 1918, and therefore the “knightly order” he established was a kind of compensation for him. Officers and even enlisted men of exceptional valor could become knights. Between 1920 and 1944 there were 23,000 such knights. The title was inheritable by the oldest son. I found information that makes it clear that Gorka’s father, Pál Gorka, used the title. However, since he was born in 1930 he couldn’t himself be the one “knighted.” So, most likely, it was Gorka’s grandfather who was the original recipient.
Profiles in Courage. NOT
No. 2: Simon William “Bill” English
cowardy-custardn., A coward; a timid or fearful person (prob. suggesting trembling in fear like a custard wobbles.)
In fact, it was almost unprecedented to have over 60 countries highlight Australia’s offshore detention policy at the country’s four-yearly human rights review at the United Nations last year.
But here’s the thing: New Zealand was not one of the countries that called Australia out.
Our silence is being seen as endorsement. And it goes against what the vast majority of New Zealanders want. In fact, UMR research conducted recently found that 79 per cent of Kiwis think the New Zealand prime minister and Government should speak out more strongly against the abuses in Australian offshore detention centres.
Tomorrow is an opportunity for Bill English to build hope. It’s an opportunity to do what four out of five of us want. If New Zealand won’t use this relationship to stand up for its principles when it comes to thousands of innocent people being detained and tortured in the Pacific by our closest neighbour, what will it stand up for?
Across the world, basic human rights – ones that New Zealanders died for – are being swept away. This is an important test for our new prime minister. Will he let Australian abuses slide, or will he rise to the challenge when truth or dare gets going?
Profiles in Courage. NOT is an occasional series commissioned by Daisycutter Sports Inc. to highlight the moral (and sometimes physical) cowardice of politicians and their lackeys.
*snort* the internet of things – who fukn wants it? Are you going to have to update and reset apps for your lights and home appliances all the time, let alone big brother data collection, hacking and weird shit happening when you move house.
The image sticks in the mind. Gerry “trapped upside down somewhere.” A bit cruel as some big fat bugs are in real trouble if upside down, legs frantically scrabbling to try and right themselves. How sad 🙁
The image sticks in the mind. Gerry “trapped upside down somewhere.” A bit cruel as some big fat bugs are in real trouble if upside down, legs frantically scrabbling to try and right themselves. How sad ):
House overturns rule from professional wildlife management agency and sanctions killing hibernating bears and wolf pups in dens
Measure also allows aerial spotting and land-and-shoot killing of grizzly bears on national wildlife refuges in Alaska
Also, I can’t believe how fucked the media is in allowing this to basically go through unannounced if people had any idea this was going on the outrage and protest would have been immense.
“These are federally managed lands, and with today’s vote, the House undid a rule years in the works that was launched by professional wildlife scientists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The practices in question are disallowed in almost every state, yet the House is seeking to revive their use in national wildlife refuges – the one category of federal lands specifically created to protect wildlife and promote the diversity of species. ”
Yep they are low life scum alright and these are the ones to blame
“Republicans, with only a few dissents, provided the votes for the measure, which passed by a vote of 225 to 193.”
After an outpouring of anger and expressions of mistrust about the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s abrupt decision to delete from its website inspection reports on some 9,000 licensed and registered facilities that use animals — including commercial dog breeding operators, roadside zoos, animal research labs, and other operations regulated under the federal Animal Welfare Act and Horse Protection Act, such as Tennessee walking horse show participants — today the USDA reposted a batch of documents.
Is it time for you guys to address the apparent significant fall off in open mike comments.
Have you successfully shut all opinions that look to challenge dogmatic and aggressively stated views of Weka, Marty Mars, Psycho Milt, Andre and less frequently but even more aggressively, those of lprent?
Is that what you wanted?
Have you thought about it?
Can it be talked about?
Care to elaborate on which dogmatic and aggressively stated views the five of us hold where we’ve “successfully shut all opinions that look to challenge”?
I’m just loving that Psycho Milt and I have been lumped in the same grouping 😀 Maybe it’s time to have another conversation about homeopathy 😈 (joke!).
Thanks for raising what I’d thought would have been a bit of an elephant in the room. I’ve been a Standard reader for approx four years now, I literally check in on the site around 10 times a day. Breakfast, smokos, lunch, poo breaks, and instead of watching mundane crap on TV, I’m reading the comments section on TS (commented once, but a stereotypical OAB reply discouraged any future engagement).
I gave up on Whaleoil a couple of years ago due to the self gratifying nature of their comments section. I never warmed to TDB because again, the comments section was just a big knob fest for the contributors. The Standard however was different, dissenting views were portrayed, and although they were met with much vitriol, at least there was something of a balance of opinions for the general readership.
Another benefit of allowing alternate points of view to be expressed was that it gave the left leaning contributors the opportunity to present strong counter arguments which I believe were powerful in getting centrists to think “sh*t, those lefties have got a point there”
Anyway, back to Andrew’s comment, he is 100% correct in regard to the significant drop off of comments, I’ve noticed there’s not even enough to get me through my morning cuppa tea and scone as of late. Proofs in the pudding as they say, and given there’s bugger all on telly (as usual), I went back and compared Feb 17 to date, with the same period Feb 16. Total Open Mike Comments 1-18 Feb 2016 = 2,501 vs 1-18 Feb 2017 = 1,422 so that’s down 43%, and let’s not forget that ole Billy Boy announced the election at the start of Feb, so that was a comment fiesta, so lets look at recent comparable weeks, the past 7 days has seen 273 open mike comments, the same week during 2016 saw 970, the week prior in 2017 562 vs 2016 1197.
I appreciate that TS isnt aiming for some kind of popularity contest and would likely prefer quality over quantity (an analogy for their approach to politics too perhaps), but reading a splattering of comments by the same small group of like minded folk followed by calls of “+100” does not make for overly interesting reading.
I doubt you’ll care as to what the likes of myself thinks, but the recent hard line approach being taken with those with an opposing point of view (even the hard lefties like Paul & Pat for gods sake) does absolutely nothing for “robust debate” and has turned TS into a bit of a beige yawn-fest.
I suspect much of it is Trump. I tend to go into mild shock each morning as I read the overnight developments. I’ve never spent this much time reading overseas news…
Now I think about number of comments being down and NZ politics – Key has stepped down and everyone loved to hate him. He really provoked large comments just for being so sleek and slimy. Now is the year of election though and for all good men and women to come to the aid of their Party!
Numbers of comments go up and down during the electoral cycle and on issues during any given period.
So does the average size of comments, often not on the same basis.
Page views go up and down on the same, often not the same as any of the other factors.
Numbers of posts as well depending also on the number of active authors.
Quite simply it just depends on what is going on. Feburary 2016 was a bit exceptional in all of our stats compared to any other year. But Dec/Jan/Feb is always the most variable.
However historically, the slackest time in the cycle is always the start of the year in the election. Right now we have a deadening effect of Trump pulling people away from the site. While we could rant about it, there really isn’t that much to say from a NZ perspective and there is way better content coming in from offshore.
We have always taken a hard line with people attacking authors on a personal basis regardless how they do it. It takes a lot of work to bring on authors and even more for moderators. This has to be done by other authors who have other things to do and no time to do everything. I take an even harder line during the start of the election year because it is really hard to replace authors and moderators in election years, and that is also when they get the most attacks on their willingness to do to continue doing the roles.
Paul (I have no idea about Pat) attracted my attention because over a period he had been attacking a moderator because they were moderating and expressing their opinion. He had been warned and he was quite aware of the rules around here.
As far as I could tell he was upset because a moderator was a woman and a number of people (including me) think that Willie Jackson was a pompous blowhard dickhead who is likely to be a loose motormouth cannon who will lose at least as much support for Labour as he is likely to gain and were willing to talk about it. Rather than deal with the disagreement, he started to have a go at the moderator going as far as accusing her of writing various posts which she had not.
But as importantly when I looked back over his comments as far as I had time to read (and that was a long way), there was NO substantive content for quite some time. All he was doing was attacking and not providing any robust debate. That really pissed me off – especially the amount of time I spent looking and that I hadn’t dealt with him sooner.
I’d show you exactly the dearth of intelligence in what he’d been writing, but to write this comment I am taking time off from working over the search and other functions. Until the former is fixed, I can’t give you the comment author link because client search isn’t working.
They might be hard lefties. But that isn’t what we moderate on. What moderation is for is to protect the site and the key to that is commenter behaviour. Basically in my view whenever we constrain bad behaviour more tightly, then we get gains in the types of and depth of comments over the subsequent 6 months. When we moderate as lightly as we have since 2014 (there was a debate between moderators post-election about guidelines on moderation that I deferred to) we get steadily worsening behaviour and the site gets unreadable. It is now election year, and personally I’m not that interested in experimenting after some of the debacles that showed up late last year.
BTW: The main statistic that I work off for the health of comments isn’t numbers of comments – that is the least of my measures. It is one that related to comprehensibility and another measuring the level of compression that the full-text index of the comments calculates. I’m interested in a lack of repetition and accessibility of the content.
I doubt you’ll care as to what the likes of myself thinks, but the recent hard line approach being taken with those with an opposing point of view (even the hard lefties like Paul & Pat for gods sake) does absolutely nothing for “robust debate” and has turned TS into a bit of a beige yawn-fest.
Ouch.
I like it when people talk about the place.
I felt bad when Paul copped his long ban because I think he basically has his heart in the right place, and I actually think that Pat being banned is a shame too (even though I banned him). Problem is, both were banned for behaviour not politics or views, and if neither of them can stop that behaviour then they need to stand back for a while.
I’ve been thinking lately that the quality of the debate has improved. Less aggro, more thoughtful comments. Certainly way less of the long subthread where people were bickering at each other.
If you are finding the place boring, can you please say what it is you want to see happening here? The more specific you can be the more helpful I reckon.
I tended to scroll past Paul’s comments – which mostly weren’t comments, but links to other stuff. There seemed to be little critical comment by Paul on the content of the links.
It’s easy to link. But many of us find our reading elsewhere anyway, and there’s a limit to how much I can read or listen to in a day.
It takes more time to think and write some comments about the content of the links.
I stopped commenting last year but have kept reading the posts on The Standard and checked comments from people whose opinions I valued. In the last month I think there has been a big improvement in the quality of the debate and, in my opinion, this is in part due to the departure of CV and Paul.
I have mentioned that although I like JMG quite a lot I don’t 100% agree with all of his views. However his latest series of posts are very, very interesting.
… Let’s take a look at that final level, though. The conventional wisdom of our age holds that everything that exists is made up of something called “matter,” which is configured in various ways; further, that matter is what really exists, and everything else is somehow a function of matter if it exists at all. For most of us, this is the default setting, the philosophical opinion we start from and come back to, and anyone who tries to question it can count on massive pushback.
The difficulty here is that philosophers and scientists have both proved, in their own ways, that the usual conception of matter is quite simply nonsense. Any physical scientist worth his or her sodium chloride, to begin with, will tell you that what we habitually call “solid matter” is nearly as empty as the vacuum of deep space—a bit of four-dimensional curved spacetime that happens to have certain tiny probability waves spinning dizzily in it, and it’s the interaction between those probability waves and those composing that other patch of curved spacetime we each call “my body” that creates the illusions of solidity, color, and the other properties we attribute to matter.
The philosophers got to the same destination a couple of centuries earlier, and by a different route. The epistemologists I mentioned in last week’s post—Locke, Berkeley, and Hobbes—took the common conception of matter apart layer by layer and showed, to use the formulation we’ve already discussed, that all the things we attribute to matter are simply representations in the mind. Is there something out there that causes those representations? As already mentioned, yes, there’s very good reason to think so—but that doesn’t mean that the “something out there” has to consist of matter in any sense of the word that means anything…
Please don’t let the title put you off as this is quite an interesting perspective from an analytical psychologist on how we all create our relationships with others, the world, or God and this can also be seen in politics, for example.
The current government is really up against it on water quality having overseen a steep increase in dairy intensification and subsequent decline in the health of NZ’s waterways. The public now link the two.
This issue needs to be the spearhead of opposition election campaigning on environmental issues because it’s one everyone can relate to and that touches even the self-centred National voter. Wider environmental issues are still too complex and contestable to be effective campaign material, imo.
The tide is turning – people are not happy with water management under National.
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
“It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April to meet the Prime Minister’s ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
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Banks say Reserve Bank has missed its chance for debt-to-income rules
They said banks were already lending at ratios that were far above what would be considered ideal.
The bank bosses suggested an ideal level of borrowing would be five to seven times borrowers’ incomes. But their own banks had already blown that out of the water – they said most borrowers were taking loans nine to 12 times their incomes.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/89506431/Banks-say-Reserve-Bank-has-missed-its-chance-for-debt-to-income-rules
The banks are boa constrictors, if they choose to it’s easy to squeeze the life out.
They own and control so much of NZ business and the media through either direct ownership or capital supply.
What they’re really saying is stfu to the reserve bank, we own this joint and will do as we please.
Indeed.
However, I do believe they have a valid point, the Reserve Bank should have acted long ago.
You are absolutely right, well more than half the economic news, both foreign and domestic on RNZ comes directly through bank economists.
Why RNZ hasn’t got it’s own regular independent group of economists that it refers to to is a mystery…..but then again they had David Farrar on as a panelist on Jim Mora’s show yesterday, so I guess that gives us a fair indication of where RNZ is these days.
A willing tool of Nats nuanced dirty politics machine, DPF is a founding member.
The banks have been feeding the bubble, the number and quality of homes haven’t been improved or increased by much in recent years, just the level of debt on houses has increased.
We have had severe house price inflation which is not recorded in the inflation index ie cost of living index yet mortgages and rents suck up a big % of a households income?
hi tc, at the risk of sounding like a scratched record…
the newspapers in this country are owned by the banks.
oops.. i see tc has eluded to this already.
bears repeating though.
Pro-Trump designer receives death threats after Grammys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfcdiTF0_rs
False News Business has managed to track down the only two pro-Trump immigrants in the United States. This Murdoch outlet continues to be nothing more than the Cavalcade of Infantilism it has always been.
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2017/02/capitalisms-saviours-professional.html
I found this very interesting
That was an interesting read.
He had me until he reverted to his old “identity politics split the left” mantra.
He is correct in saying that the rise of the managerial classes was part of the neoliberal shift.
He is also correct in saying:
But the women’s movement in the UK was deeply integrated with socialist/left wing networks: the same people who were involved in anti-racist, feminist and LGBTI campaigns were involved in union struggles. This could be seen in the way they all were involved in supporting the miners during the miners strike.
The managerialist neoliberalism didn’t do this as Trotter claims:
Neat little bit of sleight of hand there.
In fact, anti-racism, anti-sexism, and anti-homophobia were becoming increasingly integrated with union and other left/socialist struggles. The neoliberal shift didn’t just downgrade the narratives/experiences of class-focused economic exploitation. They did the same with other forms socio-economic (social and economic justice being intertwined with so-called “identity politics”.
So we got a highly marketable form of girl power, and women CEOs with shoulder padded “power suits” in Dynasty. Ending the scruffy boiler suits and Doc Martens image of women’s libbers.
I was there in the UK at the time, and involved in the women’s liberation movement and union struggles at the time – where was Trotter?
Trotter, still beating the same old drum, doing what he accuses others of doing, splitting the left.
Well i am glad that more commentators are recognising the link between identity politics and the collapse of the left. I am amazed at people who push “let us get our bit for our lot under capitalism and then we will work to get rid of it”, dosnt work that way, once you buy in you are a promoter no matter what you say.
Can’t say I ever encountered “identity politics” like that. Although I was a meeting or two where people were asked not to call tories “faggots” or whatever because it’s really difficult to participate in a group where they quite obviously think you’re the first insult imaginable.
Thanks Carolyn_nth great to hear from someone who knows what they are talking about based on actual lived reality.
I would have thought the worst thing that anyone on “the left” could do was to deliver a windy lecture about how we lesser mortals need to respect Deep South lynch law….
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-19072013/#comment-664870
This guy, this guy…
Trump’s team is so out of it’s depth they haven’t got a clue.
https://youtu.be/rFK3tbkNX-A
Interesting Sanctuary. Remember when Key would give 4 or 5 answers for you to choose from then leave the question answer ambiguous? So what happens when a politician is blunt and avoids the political Flim flam? Is there any truth in Gorka’s position?
Collaborating with fascists is a family thing.
Gorka was an odd choice of proxies for the White House to put forward in defense of its Holocaust Remembrance day statement.
He has appeared in multiple photographs wearing the medal of a Hungarian group listed by the State Department as having collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.
[…]
Eva Balogh, founder of the news analysis blog Hungarian Spectrum and former professor of Eastern European History at Yale University, confirmed to LobeLog the identity of the medal worn by Gorka. She said:
http://lobelog.com/why-is-trump-adviser-wearing-medal-of-nazi-collaborators/
Profiles in Courage. NOT
No. 2: Simon William “Bill” English
cowardy-custard n., A coward; a timid or fearful person (prob. suggesting trembling in fear like a custard wobbles.)
Profiles in Courage. NOT is an occasional series commissioned by Daisycutter Sports Inc. to highlight the moral (and sometimes physical) cowardice of politicians and their lackeys.
No. 1: Justin Trudeau
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-16022017/#comment-1299906
*snort* the internet of things – who fukn wants it? Are you going to have to update and reset apps for your lights and home appliances all the time, let alone big brother data collection, hacking and weird shit happening when you move house.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/02/17/connected-homes-real-estate-home-buying-home-selling-nest/97971230/
Sorry your light bulb is no longer supported , please replace your bulbs with version 10.2.34 or higher.
Nice short funny,
http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/the-civilian-is-rebranding/
I thought this was better: http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/pm-concedes-tossing-gerry-brownlee-down-the-hill-to-appease-the-fire-was-probably-a-mistake-but-he-will-be-remembered/
The image sticks in the mind. Gerry “trapped upside down somewhere.” A bit cruel as some big fat bugs are in real trouble if upside down, legs frantically scrabbling to try and right themselves. How sad 🙁
The image sticks in the mind. Gerry “trapped upside down somewhere.” A bit cruel as some big fat bugs are in real trouble if upside down, legs frantically scrabbling to try and right themselves. How sad ):
House overturns rule from professional wildlife management agency and sanctions killing hibernating bears and wolf pups in dens
Measure also allows aerial spotting and land-and-shoot killing of grizzly bears on national wildlife refuges in Alaska
http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2017/02/AK-wildlife-refuge-protections-overturned-021617.html?credit=web_id93480558
The fuckers that voted for this deserve a bullet.
Also, I can’t believe how fucked the media is in allowing this to basically go through unannounced if people had any idea this was going on the outrage and protest would have been immense.
“These are federally managed lands, and with today’s vote, the House undid a rule years in the works that was launched by professional wildlife scientists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The practices in question are disallowed in almost every state, yet the House is seeking to revive their use in national wildlife refuges – the one category of federal lands specifically created to protect wildlife and promote the diversity of species. ”
Yep they are low life scum alright and these are the ones to blame
“Republicans, with only a few dissents, provided the votes for the measure, which passed by a vote of 225 to 193.”
They have even more eco-vandalism in store too.
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/15/freshman-republican-congressman-reveals-bill-to-abolish-the-epa.html
http://www.vox.com/2017/2/2/14488448/stream-protection-rule
Not an empathetic bone between them.
After an outpouring of anger and expressions of mistrust about the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s abrupt decision to delete from its website inspection reports on some 9,000 licensed and registered facilities that use animals — including commercial dog breeding operators, roadside zoos, animal research labs, and other operations regulated under the federal Animal Welfare Act and Horse Protection Act, such as Tennessee walking horse show participants — today the USDA reposted a batch of documents.
http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2017/02/USDA-first-step-restoring-public-data-021717.html?credit=tw_post02172017
Uh Oh! Trouble Ahead!
So much for suddenly becoming a continent……
/😈😸
Is it time for you guys to address the apparent significant fall off in open mike comments.
Have you successfully shut all opinions that look to challenge dogmatic and aggressively stated views of Weka, Marty Mars, Psycho Milt, Andre and less frequently but even more aggressively, those of lprent?
Is that what you wanted?
Have you thought about it?
Can it be talked about?
Its Saturday in summertime. Comments today are not unusual.
Care to elaborate on which dogmatic and aggressively stated views the five of us hold where we’ve “successfully shut all opinions that look to challenge”?
I’m just loving that Psycho Milt and I have been lumped in the same grouping 😀 Maybe it’s time to have another conversation about homeopathy 😈 (joke!).
I’m slightly irked that I was left out…
That’s always the way! OAB’s not on the list though, so I think we can assume it’s fairly random.
random – dunno about that – it may be certain topic-related commenting perhaps. Anyway not sure why I’m there but nice company 🙂
Can we do GMOs too?
Thanks for raising what I’d thought would have been a bit of an elephant in the room. I’ve been a Standard reader for approx four years now, I literally check in on the site around 10 times a day. Breakfast, smokos, lunch, poo breaks, and instead of watching mundane crap on TV, I’m reading the comments section on TS (commented once, but a stereotypical OAB reply discouraged any future engagement).
I gave up on Whaleoil a couple of years ago due to the self gratifying nature of their comments section. I never warmed to TDB because again, the comments section was just a big knob fest for the contributors. The Standard however was different, dissenting views were portrayed, and although they were met with much vitriol, at least there was something of a balance of opinions for the general readership.
Another benefit of allowing alternate points of view to be expressed was that it gave the left leaning contributors the opportunity to present strong counter arguments which I believe were powerful in getting centrists to think “sh*t, those lefties have got a point there”
Anyway, back to Andrew’s comment, he is 100% correct in regard to the significant drop off of comments, I’ve noticed there’s not even enough to get me through my morning cuppa tea and scone as of late. Proofs in the pudding as they say, and given there’s bugger all on telly (as usual), I went back and compared Feb 17 to date, with the same period Feb 16. Total Open Mike Comments 1-18 Feb 2016 = 2,501 vs 1-18 Feb 2017 = 1,422 so that’s down 43%, and let’s not forget that ole Billy Boy announced the election at the start of Feb, so that was a comment fiesta, so lets look at recent comparable weeks, the past 7 days has seen 273 open mike comments, the same week during 2016 saw 970, the week prior in 2017 562 vs 2016 1197.
I appreciate that TS isnt aiming for some kind of popularity contest and would likely prefer quality over quantity (an analogy for their approach to politics too perhaps), but reading a splattering of comments by the same small group of like minded folk followed by calls of “+100” does not make for overly interesting reading.
I doubt you’ll care as to what the likes of myself thinks, but the recent hard line approach being taken with those with an opposing point of view (even the hard lefties like Paul & Pat for gods sake) does absolutely nothing for “robust debate” and has turned TS into a bit of a beige yawn-fest.
That’s thoughtfuIl and objective Autonomouse. I would say it probably is effect of numbness and continuing shock from Trump news.
I suspect much of it is Trump. I tend to go into mild shock each morning as I read the overnight developments. I’ve never spent this much time reading overseas news…
Some days it’s all there is in my twitter feed and that’s from the kiwis as well.
Yeah. I should write a post on it…. Opps it will be up in the morning.
Now I think about number of comments being down and NZ politics – Key has stepped down and everyone loved to hate him. He really provoked large comments just for being so sleek and slimy. Now is the year of election though and for all good men and women to come to the aid of their Party!
I’ve been around for almost 10 years..
Numbers of comments go up and down during the electoral cycle and on issues during any given period.
So does the average size of comments, often not on the same basis.
Page views go up and down on the same, often not the same as any of the other factors.
Numbers of posts as well depending also on the number of active authors.
Quite simply it just depends on what is going on. Feburary 2016 was a bit exceptional in all of our stats compared to any other year. But Dec/Jan/Feb is always the most variable.
However historically, the slackest time in the cycle is always the start of the year in the election. Right now we have a deadening effect of Trump pulling people away from the site. While we could rant about it, there really isn’t that much to say from a NZ perspective and there is way better content coming in from offshore.
We have always taken a hard line with people attacking authors on a personal basis regardless how they do it. It takes a lot of work to bring on authors and even more for moderators. This has to be done by other authors who have other things to do and no time to do everything. I take an even harder line during the start of the election year because it is really hard to replace authors and moderators in election years, and that is also when they get the most attacks on their willingness to do to continue doing the roles.
Paul (I have no idea about Pat) attracted my attention because over a period he had been attacking a moderator because they were moderating and expressing their opinion. He had been warned and he was quite aware of the rules around here.
As far as I could tell he was upset because a moderator was a woman and a number of people (including me) think that Willie Jackson was a pompous blowhard dickhead who is likely to be a loose motormouth cannon who will lose at least as much support for Labour as he is likely to gain and were willing to talk about it. Rather than deal with the disagreement, he started to have a go at the moderator going as far as accusing her of writing various posts which she had not.
But as importantly when I looked back over his comments as far as I had time to read (and that was a long way), there was NO substantive content for quite some time. All he was doing was attacking and not providing any robust debate. That really pissed me off – especially the amount of time I spent looking and that I hadn’t dealt with him sooner.
I’d show you exactly the dearth of intelligence in what he’d been writing, but to write this comment I am taking time off from working over the search and other functions. Until the former is fixed, I can’t give you the comment author link because client search isn’t working.
They might be hard lefties. But that isn’t what we moderate on. What moderation is for is to protect the site and the key to that is commenter behaviour. Basically in my view whenever we constrain bad behaviour more tightly, then we get gains in the types of and depth of comments over the subsequent 6 months. When we moderate as lightly as we have since 2014 (there was a debate between moderators post-election about guidelines on moderation that I deferred to) we get steadily worsening behaviour and the site gets unreadable. It is now election year, and personally I’m not that interested in experimenting after some of the debacles that showed up late last year.
BTW: The main statistic that I work off for the health of comments isn’t numbers of comments – that is the least of my measures. It is one that related to comprehensibility and another measuring the level of compression that the full-text index of the comments calculates. I’m interested in a lack of repetition and accessibility of the content.
After all I have to read them as well.
I doubt you’ll care as to what the likes of myself thinks, but the recent hard line approach being taken with those with an opposing point of view (even the hard lefties like Paul & Pat for gods sake) does absolutely nothing for “robust debate” and has turned TS into a bit of a beige yawn-fest.
Ouch.
I like it when people talk about the place.
I felt bad when Paul copped his long ban because I think he basically has his heart in the right place, and I actually think that Pat being banned is a shame too (even though I banned him). Problem is, both were banned for behaviour not politics or views, and if neither of them can stop that behaviour then they need to stand back for a while.
I’ve been thinking lately that the quality of the debate has improved. Less aggro, more thoughtful comments. Certainly way less of the long subthread where people were bickering at each other.
If you are finding the place boring, can you please say what it is you want to see happening here? The more specific you can be the more helpful I reckon.
For myself, less is, as they say, often more.
I tended to scroll past Paul’s comments – which mostly weren’t comments, but links to other stuff. There seemed to be little critical comment by Paul on the content of the links.
It’s easy to link. But many of us find our reading elsewhere anyway, and there’s a limit to how much I can read or listen to in a day.
It takes more time to think and write some comments about the content of the links.
But it is more interesting for this reader.
I stopped commenting last year but have kept reading the posts on The Standard and checked comments from people whose opinions I valued. In the last month I think there has been a big improvement in the quality of the debate and, in my opinion, this is in part due to the departure of CV and Paul.
http://wakeup-world.com/2016/04/03/political-correctness-language-and-thought-control/
Mmmmm!!??
I have mentioned that although I like JMG quite a lot I don’t 100% agree with all of his views. However his latest series of posts are very, very interesting.
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.nz/2017/02/the-world-as-will.html
Thanks for that link.
I’ll return the favour: http://steve.myers.co/does-god-exist-or-is-god-imaginary/
Please don’t let the title put you off as this is quite an interesting perspective from an analytical psychologist on how we all create our relationships with others, the world, or God and this can also be seen in politics, for example.
Awesome and interesting, thanks Incognito
The current government is really up against it on water quality having overseen a steep increase in dairy intensification and subsequent decline in the health of NZ’s waterways. The public now link the two.
This issue needs to be the spearhead of opposition election campaigning on environmental issues because it’s one everyone can relate to and that touches even the self-centred National voter. Wider environmental issues are still too complex and contestable to be effective campaign material, imo.
The tide is turning – people are not happy with water management under National.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/324808/nzers-believe-fresh-water-resources-in-poor-state-survey
For all the people that thought they will be in government this year go take a look at the stuff comments on willy Jackson and Labour and Wake Up.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]