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 notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
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Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
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Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
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The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
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Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
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Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
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Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihan’s gorgeous and sad debut Kōhine, Noelle McCarthy’s memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend Ngāhuia te ...
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Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
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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.]