“As an astroturfing right wing organisation grows more desperate, the probability of it invoking racism for publicity approaches 1”
The taxpayers union, warmed over ACToids of six white males and one white women, has struggled to be noticed since Farrar set it up as an extreme right ginger group. Sure enough, they’ve gone for alarmist racism in a last, doomed, frantic attempt to break through.
Won’t link to such a bunch of desperate, irrelevant, racist right wing whites.
Racism is underpinned and informed by ideological, historical and systemic phenomena such as Darwinism, colonialism and resultant asymmetries of power in our current social/political relations.
It’s oxymoronic to refer to black racists. A black person can be bigoted or discriminatory or whatever, but because of what I mention above on the nature of racism, never racist.
As a white person I can never be subjected to racism due to the same reasons outlined above, which is not to say I can’t be severely discriminated against, fucked over and done in. (eg systemic discrimination that was brought to bear on the Irish)
you are off the planet and so is the entire politically correct ideology which comes up with these self-justifications.
Your foolishness is exhibited especially by this statement of yours …. “As a white person I can never be subjected to racism “. Go learn the definition of “racism”. There are plenty online and even in dictionaries. That definition you tried to give is born of subjectivity and one particular circumstance.
Sanctuary was racist.
… Alternatively, go find another definition for the circumstance you describe (which circumstance certainly exists of course).
….
the one thing I do agree with is your first sentence – not this stupid issue again. Do you never learn?
I think you missed the point vto. Bill is pointing out the differences between bigotry based on race, and racism that is created via power structures and ideology.
btw, what did you think of the UK GP campaign video?
No I see it completely and was thinking about it after punching out that quick reposte.
The problem is clearly one of definition.
The racism Bill describes is merely one form of racism. There are myriad others. You might call Bill’s form colonial-hangover racism, or institutional racism or power racism or some such. There are many other forms of racism – some of which are seen in NZ on a daily/weekly basis.
Bill’s described racism is a subset of racism itself.
Racism itself is a subset of bigotry and discrimination.
Bill explained it in as simple as you get terms and you dis him off – I really wish you didn’t get bored and try and start these wasteoftime thoughtposts – I believe you are so much better than this shit.
Yes after I posted it the regret mode kicked in for the manner of response (though not the substance). It was punched out too quickly and too roughly. Bad habits are hard to kick.
Abbott government gives $4m to help climate contrarian set up Australian centre
Bjørn Lomborg has been given money from the hard-pressed federal budget to set up a ‘consensus centre’ at the University of Western Australia
The Guardian,
16 April, 2015
The Abbott government found $4m for the climate contrarian Bjørn Lomborg to establish his “consensus centre” at an Australian university, even as it struggled to impose deep spending cuts on the higher education sector.
Lomborg uses cost-benefit analysis to advise governments what spending produces the best social value for money spent, concluding that climate change is not a top-priority problem.
It was nearly a good article from Armstrong except for these bits:
“But the notion that there is some huge spin machine operating out of the Beehive which relentlessly force feeds journalists with National’s take on events is a myth.”
Armstrong is trying to ignore the affect of Nicky Hagar’s book in outing Jason Ede and the downstream spin offs. Obviously the Nats are missing him badly.
and
“The search for the lost surplus has been National’s Holy Grail. It has also become a measure of whether National can justifiably lay claim to being a better manager of the economy than Labour.”
Labour did produce 8 surplus’s, I’m not sure how the Nat’s producing ONE surplus can “justify” them as better managers. Driving around Hamilton, Cambridge and Papamoa it does make you wonder why commentators are not picking up the billions of dollars being spent on the “Express Ways” in a time when our debt is climbing to an eye watering $80 billions dollars. These express ways are nice to have but there is no way we can afford them now, and lets not talk about the pitiful cost/benefit from an economic point of view.
Of course when it comes to the likes of Armstrong and numerous others there never was the necessity for force feeding. Ironic that Armstrong’s identification and purported debunking of “the myth” should rely for authenticity on his own disgraceful conduct as a political journalist.
Never mind. There is blood in the water now. Key knows it. Look at his demeanour of late. Watch out for redoubled filthy tactics.
Well spotted. Though one comment from JA is a bit unbelievable.
“But the notion that there is some huge spin machine operating out of the Beehive which relentlessly force feeds journalists with National’s take on events is a myth.”
I thought it was relentless?
Edit: Saarbo you too.
@Wyndham
I see an Akl house price collapse of 20% some time in 2016 which should feed through nicely to an electorate “feel-bad” situation for the Nats at the election in 2017. (Houses bought for $800k become worth $640k with negative equity of $80k).
And as Armstrong says it will all be Key and his “do-nothing” government’s fault.
I’m hoping for a house price collapse of about 70% to convince the two main parties once and for all that the future of Aotearoa doesn’t lie with speculation in urban property. There’d be a lot of pain, but then there already is.
In failing to institute some kind of tax or other disincentive to curb speculative sales, Key now has the unenviable choice of having to take tougher and less popular action to force a correction, but not one which sends prices plummeting through the floor.
LOL
All the political parties are absolutely terrified of the correction that they know needs to happen and are thus either ignoring it (National et al) or hoping that something will happen that will allow things to continue as is (Labour). Neither of these will work.
The government has to step in and crash the market else the market crash automatically.
EDIT:
And the total piece by Armstrong is still sychobabble in support of National and Key.
The MediaWorks canning of CampbellLive was planned months ago, right when they cut the sponsorship contract with Mazda to three months instead of a usual term – one year.
An unusual move for a cash-strapped media house, don’t you think?
“Last night, in an open dig at network bosses who have suggested replacing the show with a soap opera, Campbell Live opened to the theme tune Let Me Entertain You.”
Actually an open dig at John Key, who said Campbell Live is more entertainment than journalism.
Regarding the rest of the article, yes it’s been clear from the start that nothing Mediaworks have said is true.
And to those people on this site who deride conspiracies by using silly expressions like tinfoil hat, here is one before your eyes.
Remember the expression conspiracy theory is useful for the powerful as it is an easy way to stop critical thinking,
There are credible conspiracy theories. There are ludicrous conspiracy theories.
The fact that one conspiracy theory – that Mediaworks senior management have been planning to can Campbell Live for a long time despite their protestations – is credible doesn’t mean they all are.
I know you mean well Paul, and I agree so-called conspiracy theories shouldn’t be dismissed without thinking. However, people who become consumed by a singular narrative about how the world is run switch off from a whole lot of information. It isn’t conducive to critical thinking or a healthy democracy.
I’m pretty sure I could dig out quite a few comments on TS that resolutely declare no real journalism existed in NZ. Then the threat to Campbell Live emerged and the show’s received more attention, which is great to see.
Just think how effective its campaigns on issues like zero hours, kids’ lunches and the GCSB bill could have been if so many people in our country hadn’t switched off for a variety of reasons.
felix. From my non-legal seat I suspect that Mediaworks has to be very careful what they say as there must be contractual rules at stake. Denial is a damage control position as Key also demonstrates.
What do you mean by the cold salutations comment? It wasn’t Mazda’s choice to have a short contract, it was MediaWorks’. In fact, Mazda could have just walked, and no doubt that would have suited the network.
That’s the point of this story: the network itself had a predetermined outcome to the review of the show.
Whatever. John Campbell was celebrating the milestone, too.
I was bemused by it when I saw the 10-year programme, because no other editorial team in New Zealand could include a sponsor plug like that without it seeming like the sponsor owned the show. I doubt anyone would think to level that charge at Campbell, which says a huge amount about the show’s credibility and quality.
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Federated Farmers: “There is a case for government contributing to water storage ………. to reflect the contribution water storage makes to the environment and the community”
So in short: water shortages impact the environment and community….
and who pray,mister federated farmer are the main cause of these water shortages?
One of the great ironies of the New Zealand right is the way they trumpet successful businesses – they took the risks! They deserve the rewards! Their success is built on smarts, not government handouts – and then turn around and prop up people who persist in trying to dairy farm in regions like Canterbury which have droughts almost every single year.
It’s not socialism when it’s public money going to shore up private profits. It’s business as usual for Kiwi “entrepreneurs” and hard working farmers, backbone of the nation. Plus it keeps water out of iwi control.
Dust off your signs, loosen those vocal chords. Community groups and
supporters will be picketting along the one-way (south-bound) by the
Railway Station this Saturday from 12 – 2pm: https://www.facebook.com/TPPAActionDunedin?fref=ts
During the picket, there will also be discussion regarding the upcoming protest (date to be confirmed) at the Octagon about the decision of the SDHB that is causing outrage in Otago and Southland where local hospitals are proposing to serve frozen meals from Auckland, under contract with Compass: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Protest-Date-to-be-confirmed/1387144851610961
Heartening to read that other issues are to be discussed at the picket. if this indicated the beginnings of a process concerned with deepening and broadening involvement across a raft of issues…
“..the human right to adequate housing was a binding legal obligation for the state, … the Government had a duty to protect this right and a responsibility to provide remedies.”
Also in the theme of human rights to adequate housing
In 1947, we thought rental accommodation should be dry. What has changed?”
The Government had spent million insulating state homes, which house some of the nation’s poorest people, and subsidising insulation in the private housing market. However, it had not committed to minimum standards for rental homes, with Prime Minister John Key last December expressing concern that standards would put pressure on rents.
1947 – it was the law that landlords provided dry accommodation. These days – not so much.
The story was more prominent on news sites yesterday. It’s also referenced today near the top of the lead story on the house ‘earning’ almost as much as a judge:
”A Weekend Herald investigation into soaring house prices comes amid warnings from the Reserve Bank about the housing market and calls for immediate action by the country’s chief human rights watchdog.”
Thanks Ergo, didn’t see yesterday’s page but as the article wasn’t published until late afternoon, it couldn’t have been all that prominent for very long.
I went to the page you linked to but can’t see it referenced on that page. There is the Fran O’Sullivan piece but not the Issac Davison piece, maybe they have recycled the page since you posted the link..
I meant it was referenced in the story, in the second paragraph. And yeah it would be good if the words contained a link to the original story. But at least the fact the human rights commissioner is demanding action forms part of the coverage of the housing crisis.
Dust off your signs, loosen those vocal chords. Community groups and
supporters will be picketting along the one-way (south-bound) by the
Railway Station this Saturday from 12 – 2pm: https://www.facebook.com/TPPAActionDunedin?fref=ts
During the picket, there will also be discussion regarding the upcoming protest (date to be confirmed) at the Octagon about the decision of the SDHB that is causing outrage in Otago and Southland where local hospitals are proposing to serve frozen meals from Auckland, under contract with Compass: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Protest-Date-to-be-confirmed/1387144851610961
“The FBI head agent in charge of the anthrax investigation – Richard Lambert – has just filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit calling the entire FBI investigation bullshit”
Would you trust the FBI freedom? If you can’t trust the State run protection agency who do you trust?
And the 7 Senators who were most likely to vote against the Patriot Act happen to be the ones to receive anthrax in the mail. Mmmmm. Let me think……
“They have consent to extract 500,000,000 litres a year”
“The Council consent papers say they will fill one thousand shipping containers of bottled water a week”
My questions are two fold- Traffic and Taxes
Traffic: How are these shipping containers getting to market? That is a lot of extra trucks on the region’s crumbling highways!
Was this expensive aspect properly addressed during the consent process ?
Taxes: Why are we still giving away our dwindling resources?
The oil and gas we lose at least brings us around 5% of the “declared profit”
Itself an insanely low figure.
Norway, as we know, does this: “Norway’s income tax on oil and gas profits has two components: A 28 percent tax on profits (the same income tax charged on all businesses in Norway), and a special 50 percent tax on profits from offshore oil and gas production, for a total tax of 78 percent.”
Water, without a doubt, is the Black Gold of the 21st Century. This One Pure NZ deal, and the numerous other deals still flowing through the pipelines, are socially corrupt fiscally idiotic and morally bankrupt.
Thanks ev – talk about lesting we forget – I wonder if we actually ever see the bullet that kills us and once we’re dead does it even matter what killed us. Fukushima has killed the canaries and it is not going away anytime soon. medium or long.
It was the preferred choice out of a limited range of choices where none of the choices were all that palatable. You also seem to have missed this bit:
The government has repeatedly put the kibosh on tolls for Auckland’s motorway and increased fuel taxes.
It’s unlikely that this government will allow toll roads as it will impact on car use and thus decrease profits for oil companies.
I saw that statement which I find to be at odds with the trend of signing up long term technological infrastructure contracts
The added attraction of tracking movements of commuters in greater detail would be motivational for the controllers I would have thought
I would doubt tolls will impact car use for many with their commute being avoidable by personal transport and it would be easy enough for the tactical policy behind toll implementation to be cynical enough that people would ‘have to pay’
Zero confidence that any option is implemented would realize benefits necessary for Auckland as can be witnessed by this topic still going well after 30/40 years of discussion
Meanwhile Sydney continues to expand the Light Rail Network
The added attraction of tracking movements of commuters in greater detail would be motivational for the controllers I would have thought
Why do you think the government or private business are interested in peoples daily commute?
That said, having the statistics of use are needed for planning purposes.
I would doubt tolls will impact car use for many with their commute being avoidable by personal transport…
That entire sentence fails to make any sense at all.
Zero confidence that any option is implemented would realize benefits necessary for Auckland as can be witnessed by this topic still going well after 30/40 years of discussion
That is a valid observation. I suspect that building infrastructure for cars has been seen as the fast and cheap option by the councils over the years as it puts a large chunk of the operating expense of transport directly on individuals and removes it from rates allowing rates to be kept low. This despite the fact that building proper public transport would have been cheaper per individual even though rates would have been slightly higher.
1. You think that we can get away without planning?
2. So what you’re saying there is that many people wouldn’t be able to give up their cars because they can’t get to work without them?
3. The rates on the house that I’m living in are about the same as PAYE for someone on minimum wage. They don’t go up with income. So, for many rates are actually low while for many others it’s probably quite high. I think this means that we need a better way to calculate rates. But that’s not what I was getting at. By shifting the costs onto individuals through forcing them to buy cars costs were kept off the councils thus allowing them to have rates lower than what they really should have been.
1. The planning Auckland needs is not the planning / outcomes Auckland would get from the implementation of tolls
2. See point 1
3. I understand what you were getting at and agree there is a requirement to examine other methods to calculating local taxes
IMO the most efficient is to put an additional charge on the price of fuel with the mechanisms already in place and make sure all collected funds are only invested into Auckland transport initiatives with a ring fence around public transportation priorities
No new infrastructure required or long term contracts with private technology and data firms paying tolls on roads that have been paid for many times over
Unfortunately most people do not understand ‘toll roads’ – No I’m not suggesting you are one of them
The emails also show top Sony executives working behind the scenes to shake the money tree for Cuomo’s 2014 re-election campaign.
The governor has been the loudest voice in Albany pressing for hundreds of millions of dollars state tax breaks for the film industry as part of a program that Cuomo and his industry allies say has created jobs and spurred economic development.
And that is why we need to get corporations and businesses out of politics.
Martin O’Malley may be challenging Hillary Clinton from the left for US Presidency. He has proposed reinstating all banking regulations that were in place from the Great Depression until the 1980s/90s; doubling the minimum wage; and (this one is important) being completely opposed to the TPP. He is even considered to the left of Elizabeth Warren. I do not know if he would win the Democratic primary, but if he wins he will force Hillary Clinton to take a position on these issues, including something like the TPP. Which she has not said if she supports yet.
hope Martin O’Malley does stand and win the Democratic nomination ….Hillary Clinton as President would be as bad, if not worse, if that is conceivable , as another Bush
Martin would never win the presidency, so effectively you’re saying you’d rather have a Republican in the white house than Clinton, which logically doesn’t make sense if you actually support the democrats and not the republicans.
The logical thing is to understand where a long line of ‘not quite as bad as the other guy’ candidates has gotten us, and where sticking to that strategy is likely to get us.
Sure, but absent any credible mechanism to change the status quo, theorising doesn’t achieve much.
Given the US is a democracy, voting turnout is quite low and the extreme partisan nature of their politics and subsequent dumbing down of their campaigns, an awful lot of stuff has to change before ‘outsider’ candidates have much of a chance.
Just one basic obstacle: the constitution mandates that election days are on Tuesday. This is not a public holiday, and a lot of Americans aren’t given any time by their employer to vote.
The US has sent 300 members of an airborne brigade to Kiev, in direct contravention of the Minsk 2 agreement to keep all foreign troops off Ukranian soil.
Exactly. Also see this commentary of an interview of Stephen Cohen: journalist, writer and Russia specialist at Princeton and NY University. Cohen has been a long time writer for The Nation, one of the worlds longest standing progressive publications.
I notice the 173rd is there to train the Ukrainian military. Given previous successes in training the Iraqi Army, will we expect to see Ukrainian soldiers featuring prominently on the podium for the next Olympic track events?
When is O’Bomber going to have his Nobel Prize taken off him?
When is O’Bomber going to have his Nobel Prize taken off him?
Sadly the farce train left the station some time ago and the tragedy one is pulling into the station.
However, IMO if Obama somehow pulls off the nuclear/peace deal with Iran in the face of Israeli lobby opposition, he might actually have finally earnt his Nobel Prize.
We’ll look for mid-level bureaucrats trying to tell the truth, and put out a welcome mat for unhappy system administrators and bank whistleblowers. We’ll read mind-numbing government procurement contracts and grudgingly-released financial disclosure forms. We’ll listen to two-hour corporate earnings calls.
Have to say it, the thought of Key at Gallipoli, so say, honouring those men who died…would they have been proud of what he has done for the country they died for? Is he providing a future for kiwi’s who need jobs, security, homes and a future? I find it insulting and hypocritical, but do not wish to equally dishonour the men by making this an emotive comment.
I don’t understand. You’d be dishonoring dead kids if you show emotion? I would’ve thought that if you were dying on a turkish hillside with your guts leaking out from .308 bullet holes you’d definitely feel something – fear, regret, extreme pain. Who are you to say what they felt or think now they’re dead? What do you think this is? A sport? Macho ANZAC shit really is a bore.
Exactly, I would never presume to have any idea about what it must have felt like, I was talking about Key’s “honouring” those men, how has he done that beyond going to the ceremony?
I am not sure what your point is though Cindy?
All of the sex education in school I ever had was evidence and science based. I’m not even sure if abstinence was even discussed, certainly not as a ‘strategy’ to sex anyway.
No sex education was ever mentioned anywhere at school in my time -many decades ago. However I read widely and even at Primary School I was able to set my peers straight. Fascinating subject for young minds.
A teacher of 5 year olds told me that in the school library he processed books while listening to the kids informal and matter of fact discussions about sex matters. They knew heaps and their parents would have blushed had they known how some kids explained, using the activities of their parents as evidence.
I read widely and even at Primary School I was able to set my peers straight.
We could’ve done with you at my primary school. A lengthy discussion with a few of my peers elicited the revelation that adults took their clothes off and lay down together. So, two of our number tried it and lay down (back to back) to see what it was like. Their conclusions were not encouraging. Strange creatures these adults.
I went through a single sex Catholic school. No sex education at all, save for “Beware of cars, boys, they’re bedrooms on wheels.” And that was from a woman journalist on a leadership course.
I vowed that the sex education I taught would be as good as I needed as a young man, but certainly better than what I got. I told my students that was why I was so keen to teach this subject fully and openly, including the above quote. They knew that I was trustworthy and genuine.
I loved the lesson where I inflated a condom and then burst it by rubbing on the unlubricated rubber. Of course, I had already demonstrated how a fully lubricated rubber did not burst, on the other side of the demonstration condom, so that when the inevitable burst came after about five strokes there was lubricant spraying everywhere.
I taught Relationships for more than a decade to Year 10 boys, including sex education. It was factual, and at times funny, as it had to be. We did cover abstinence as a strategy in the area of avoidance of STDs and pregnancy, along with all other methods.
A very good course, taught by two specialist teachers, which helped keep pregnancy and STD rates, as discerned by the local DHB, at a plateau when the rest of the country was climbing. Parents were consulted and met with the teachers to allay concerns, students having the right to opt out.
I also play a little game with the students toward the end of my presentation.
I write down a few things at random places on the chalk board, or whatever is handy nearby. I write down the possible consequences of a promiscuous or contraceptive lifestyle that the teenagers and I come up with.
This is where I bring up the risk of sexually transmitted diseases. I’ll write things like, “Unplanned pregnancy,” “Chance of Gonorrhea,” “Depression,” “Porn addiction,” “Risk of Genital Herpes,” etc. Then I draw a bull’s eye in the middle of the board. I mark this one “Love.”
I ask a few students to take turns, from their seats, to toss the eraser to the board, trying to hit the bull’s eye.
An errant throw might strike, “Risk of HIV,” or “Depression” instead. I explain that if we live the promiscuous lifestyle, it becomes more difficult to obtain what we really desire, which is love.
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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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
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 ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
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 ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
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 ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
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 ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
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. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
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. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
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. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
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. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
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. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
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 ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
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 The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
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Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
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Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Open Letter to Robin Hood.
http://againstausterity.org/article/open-letter-robin-hood
Sanctuary’s law:
“As an astroturfing right wing organisation grows more desperate, the probability of it invoking racism for publicity approaches 1”
The taxpayers union, warmed over ACToids of six white males and one white women, has struggled to be noticed since Farrar set it up as an extreme right ginger group. Sure enough, they’ve gone for alarmist racism in a last, doomed, frantic attempt to break through.
Won’t link to such a bunch of desperate, irrelevant, racist right wing whites.
is there a difference between black racists and white racists?
seems to be some racism on your very own part there Sanctuary
Not this stupid debate again!
Racism is underpinned and informed by ideological, historical and systemic phenomena such as Darwinism, colonialism and resultant asymmetries of power in our current social/political relations.
It’s oxymoronic to refer to black racists. A black person can be bigoted or discriminatory or whatever, but because of what I mention above on the nature of racism, never racist.
As a white person I can never be subjected to racism due to the same reasons outlined above, which is not to say I can’t be severely discriminated against, fucked over and done in. (eg systemic discrimination that was brought to bear on the Irish)
+1 thanks for nipping that in the bud.
ha ha never had I heard anything so ridiculous
blacks can never be racist
you are off the planet and so is the entire politically correct ideology which comes up with these self-justifications.
Your foolishness is exhibited especially by this statement of yours …. “As a white person I can never be subjected to racism “. Go learn the definition of “racism”. There are plenty online and even in dictionaries. That definition you tried to give is born of subjectivity and one particular circumstance.
Sanctuary was racist.
… Alternatively, go find another definition for the circumstance you describe (which circumstance certainly exists of course).
….
the one thing I do agree with is your first sentence – not this stupid issue again. Do you never learn?
I think you missed the point vto. Bill is pointing out the differences between bigotry based on race, and racism that is created via power structures and ideology.
btw, what did you think of the UK GP campaign video?
http://thestandard.org.nz/the-uk-greens-election-video/
No I see it completely and was thinking about it after punching out that quick reposte.
The problem is clearly one of definition.
The racism Bill describes is merely one form of racism. There are myriad others. You might call Bill’s form colonial-hangover racism, or institutional racism or power racism or some such. There are many other forms of racism – some of which are seen in NZ on a daily/weekly basis.
Bill’s described racism is a subset of racism itself.
Racism itself is a subset of bigotry and discrimination.
I don’t know why this is so hard.
Good greens video too, even though they are up against the conservative/establishment machine.
Where could a similar video be broadcast in NZ? It wouldn’t be allowed on TV here
Bill explained it in as simple as you get terms and you dis him off – I really wish you didn’t get bored and try and start these wasteoftime thoughtposts – I believe you are so much better than this shit.
Yes after I posted it the regret mode kicked in for the manner of response (though not the substance). It was punched out too quickly and too roughly. Bad habits are hard to kick.
FFS ?
http://robinwestenra.blogspot.co.nz/2015/04/focusing-on-australia.html
Abbott government gives $4m to help climate contrarian set up Australian centre
Bjørn Lomborg has been given money from the hard-pressed federal budget to set up a ‘consensus centre’ at the University of Western Australia
The Guardian,
16 April, 2015
The Abbott government found $4m for the climate contrarian Bjørn Lomborg to establish his “consensus centre” at an Australian university, even as it struggled to impose deep spending cuts on the higher education sector.
Lomborg uses cost-benefit analysis to advise governments what spending produces the best social value for money spent, concluding that climate change is not a top-priority problem.
Latest from John Armstrong
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/john-armstrong-on-politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502865&objectid=11434497
I’m still reeling in disbelief.
You beat me to it.
Key’s disciples are turning against him.
Let’s wait and see shall we. One article outta sycophant central means nowt at this point in the cycle.
Yes, Armstrong lost any respect I had for him when he was involved in the hatchet job on Cunliffe last year
It was nearly a good article from Armstrong except for these bits:
“But the notion that there is some huge spin machine operating out of the Beehive which relentlessly force feeds journalists with National’s take on events is a myth.”
Armstrong is trying to ignore the affect of Nicky Hagar’s book in outing Jason Ede and the downstream spin offs. Obviously the Nats are missing him badly.
and
“The search for the lost surplus has been National’s Holy Grail. It has also become a measure of whether National can justifiably lay claim to being a better manager of the economy than Labour.”
Labour did produce 8 surplus’s, I’m not sure how the Nat’s producing ONE surplus can “justify” them as better managers. Driving around Hamilton, Cambridge and Papamoa it does make you wonder why commentators are not picking up the billions of dollars being spent on the “Express Ways” in a time when our debt is climbing to an eye watering $80 billions dollars. These express ways are nice to have but there is no way we can afford them now, and lets not talk about the pitiful cost/benefit from an economic point of view.
Of course when it comes to the likes of Armstrong and numerous others there never was the necessity for force feeding. Ironic that Armstrong’s identification and purported debunking of “the myth” should rely for authenticity on his own disgraceful conduct as a political journalist.
Never mind. There is blood in the water now. Key knows it. Look at his demeanour of late. Watch out for redoubled filthy tactics.
and absolutely no mention of the ever increasing debt which surely relates to the surplus, which is at the heart of the article
Well spotted. Though one comment from JA is a bit unbelievable.
“But the notion that there is some huge spin machine operating out of the Beehive which relentlessly force feeds journalists with National’s take on events is a myth.”
I thought it was relentless?
Edit: Saarbo you too.
@Wyndham
I see an Akl house price collapse of 20% some time in 2016 which should feed through nicely to an electorate “feel-bad” situation for the Nats at the election in 2017. (Houses bought for $800k become worth $640k with negative equity of $80k).
And as Armstrong says it will all be Key and his “do-nothing” government’s fault.
I’m hoping for a house price collapse of about 70% to convince the two main parties once and for all that the future of Aotearoa doesn’t lie with speculation in urban property. There’d be a lot of pain, but then there already is.
LOL
All the political parties are absolutely terrified of the correction that they know needs to happen and are thus either ignoring it (National et al) or hoping that something will happen that will allow things to continue as is (Labour). Neither of these will work.
The government has to step in and crash the market else the market crash automatically.
EDIT:
And the total piece by Armstrong is still sychobabble in support of National and Key.
So now he spits instead of swallows. Not a big difference: he’s still on his knees.
The MediaWorks canning of CampbellLive was planned months ago, right when they cut the sponsorship contract with Mazda to three months instead of a usual term – one year.
An unusual move for a cash-strapped media house, don’t you think?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11434603
Wonder if the timeline can be moved back to Key and Weldon meeting sometime last year.
“Last night, in an open dig at network bosses who have suggested replacing the show with a soap opera, Campbell Live opened to the theme tune Let Me Entertain You.”
Actually an open dig at John Key, who said Campbell Live is more entertainment than journalism.
Regarding the rest of the article, yes it’s been clear from the start that nothing Mediaworks have said is true.
And to those people on this site who deride conspiracies by using silly expressions like tinfoil hat, here is one before your eyes.
Remember the expression conspiracy theory is useful for the powerful as it is an easy way to stop critical thinking,
There are credible conspiracy theories. There are ludicrous conspiracy theories.
The fact that one conspiracy theory – that Mediaworks senior management have been planning to can Campbell Live for a long time despite their protestations – is credible doesn’t mean they all are.
I know you mean well Paul, and I agree so-called conspiracy theories shouldn’t be dismissed without thinking. However, people who become consumed by a singular narrative about how the world is run switch off from a whole lot of information. It isn’t conducive to critical thinking or a healthy democracy.
I’m pretty sure I could dig out quite a few comments on TS that resolutely declare no real journalism existed in NZ. Then the threat to Campbell Live emerged and the show’s received more attention, which is great to see.
Just think how effective its campaigns on issues like zero hours, kids’ lunches and the GCSB bill could have been if so many people in our country hadn’t switched off for a variety of reasons.
felix. From my non-legal seat I suspect that Mediaworks has to be very careful what they say as there must be contractual rules at stake. Denial is a damage control position as Key also demonstrates.
Probably first agenda item after the Xmas break. Weldon is particularly good at getting this stuff right as he showed at NZX.
He dumped a sinecure just before they pulled the ‘go public’ pin so he’s fully focused on seeing this through.
One very willing worker is Marky mark.
The satire today in Christchurch Press on Weldon was clever. Worth reading.
yet the Mazda sponsor still appeared in the CL Ten Year celebration messages
– some pretty cold salutations when seen in this new light
7:51
http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/campbelllive/messages-of-thanks-to-john-campbell-2015032721#axzz3XXB5keDd
What do you mean by the cold salutations comment? It wasn’t Mazda’s choice to have a short contract, it was MediaWorks’. In fact, Mazda could have just walked, and no doubt that would have suited the network.
That’s the point of this story: the network itself had a predetermined outcome to the review of the show.
Mazda openly celebrating the ten year anniversary, all happy happy joy joy, when knowing about the sword of Damocles is a bit chilling if you ask me.
Whatever. John Campbell was celebrating the milestone, too.
I was bemused by it when I saw the 10-year programme, because no other editorial team in New Zealand could include a sponsor plug like that without it seeming like the sponsor owned the show. I doubt anyone would think to level that charge at Campbell, which says a huge amount about the show’s credibility and quality.
The Federated Farmers Comedy Show
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/67840314/federated-farmers-calls-for-more-government-cash-for-irrigation
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
hypocrisy
socialism
bludgery
government intervention
no free market
the farmers blow their credibility yet again
,i>”ha ha ha ha”
Couldn’t have said it better.
This report makes no sense whatsoever and highlights how Federated Farmers talks over any perspective that is not an economic one.
If it wasn’t that we have a government that is looking for validation I’d call Dr William Rolleston a fool.
Meh – edit function is kaput for me.
Try doing a shift + refresh or shift + F5. That forces a local reload of the javascript that runs the edit.
Federated Farmers: “There is a case for government contributing to water storage ………. to reflect the contribution water storage makes to the environment and the community”
So in short: water shortages impact the environment and community….
and who pray,mister federated farmer are the main cause of these water shortages?
One of the great ironies of the New Zealand right is the way they trumpet successful businesses – they took the risks! They deserve the rewards! Their success is built on smarts, not government handouts – and then turn around and prop up people who persist in trying to dairy farm in regions like Canterbury which have droughts almost every single year.
It’s not socialism when it’s public money going to shore up private profits. It’s business as usual for Kiwi “entrepreneurs” and hard working farmers, backbone of the nation. Plus it keeps water out of iwi control.
Today: Dunedin community picket at midday as part of Global Day of Action against
TPPA/TTIP, etc.
Dunedin is on the map!
http://www.nottip.org.uk/global-day-of-action-april-18-2015/
Dust off your signs, loosen those vocal chords. Community groups and
supporters will be picketting along the one-way (south-bound) by the
Railway Station this Saturday from 12 – 2pm:
https://www.facebook.com/TPPAActionDunedin?fref=ts
During the picket, there will also be discussion regarding the upcoming protest (date to be confirmed) at the Octagon about the decision of the SDHB that is causing outrage in Otago and Southland where local hospitals are proposing to serve frozen meals from Auckland, under contract with Compass:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Protest-Date-to-be-confirmed/1387144851610961
Heartening to read that other issues are to be discussed at the picket. if this indicated the beginnings of a process concerned with deepening and broadening involvement across a raft of issues…
and buried deep deep down the bottom of the National pages in the NZH
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11434343
“..the human right to adequate housing was a binding legal obligation for the state, … the Government had a duty to protect this right and a responsibility to provide remedies.”
Also in the theme of human rights to adequate housing
1947 – it was the law that landlords provided dry accommodation. These days – not so much.
The story was more prominent on news sites yesterday. It’s also referenced today near the top of the lead story on the house ‘earning’ almost as much as a judge:
”A Weekend Herald investigation into soaring house prices comes amid warnings from the Reserve Bank about the housing market and calls for immediate action by the country’s chief human rights watchdog.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11434550
Thanks Ergo, didn’t see yesterday’s page but as the article wasn’t published until late afternoon, it couldn’t have been all that prominent for very long.
I went to the page you linked to but can’t see it referenced on that page. There is the Fran O’Sullivan piece but not the Issac Davison piece, maybe they have recycled the page since you posted the link..
I meant it was referenced in the story, in the second paragraph. And yeah it would be good if the words contained a link to the original story. But at least the fact the human rights commissioner is demanding action forms part of the coverage of the housing crisis.
The Steve Braunias diary is gold today in his take on John Campbell’s nemeses:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/Steve-Braunias/news/article.cfm?a_id=974&objectid=11434543
Sadly though the majority of NZers are still sound asleep, watching XFactor, 7 Sharp and the Bachelor.
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2015/04/wilkommen-im-cabaret-table-talk-at-ika.html
Urgent, given the timing, and posting this for a friend whose alert is in moderation (apologies for the double-up if that has already appeared above):
Today: Dunedin community picket at midday as part of Global Day of Action against
TPPA/TTIP, etc.
Dunedin is on the map!
http://www.nottip.org.uk/global-day-of-action-april-18-2015/
Dust off your signs, loosen those vocal chords. Community groups and
supporters will be picketting along the one-way (south-bound) by the
Railway Station this Saturday from 12 – 2pm:
https://www.facebook.com/TPPAActionDunedin?fref=ts
During the picket, there will also be discussion regarding the upcoming protest (date to be confirmed) at the Octagon about the decision of the SDHB that is causing outrage in Otago and Southland where local hospitals are proposing to serve frozen meals from Auckland, under contract with Compass:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Protest-Date-to-be-confirmed/1387144851610961
Amerithrax Whistleblower Case update:
“The FBI head agent in charge of the anthrax investigation – Richard Lambert – has just filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit calling the entire FBI investigation bullshit”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/head-of-the-fbis-anthrax-investigation-says-the-whole-thing-was-a-sham/5443516
http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1714250-former-fbi-special-agent-in-charge-richard.html
Would you trust the FBI freedom? If you can’t trust the State run protection agency who do you trust?
And the 7 Senators who were most likely to vote against the Patriot Act happen to be the ones to receive anthrax in the mail. Mmmmm. Let me think……
I’m shocked I tell ya’, shocked to my very core! 😯
though not as shocked as when people still try to deny these things
For those who missed the story on Campbell Live ( #saveCampbellLive )
Who owns New Zealand’s Water?
http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/campbelllive/who-owns-new-zealands-water-2015041518#axzz3XXB5keDd
“They have consent to extract 500,000,000 litres a year”
“The Council consent papers say they will fill one thousand shipping containers of bottled water a week”
My questions are two fold- Traffic and Taxes
Traffic: How are these shipping containers getting to market?
That is a lot of extra trucks on the region’s crumbling highways!
Was this expensive aspect properly addressed during the consent process ?
Taxes: Why are we still giving away our dwindling resources?
The oil and gas we lose at least brings us around 5% of the “declared profit”
Itself an insanely low figure.
Norway, as we know, does this: “Norway’s income tax on oil and gas profits has two components: A 28 percent tax on profits (the same income tax charged on all businesses in Norway), and a special 50 percent tax on profits from offshore oil and gas production, for a total tax of 78 percent.”
Water, without a doubt, is the Black Gold of the 21st Century. This One Pure NZ deal, and the numerous other deals still flowing through the pipelines, are socially corrupt fiscally idiotic and morally bankrupt.
Another show just meant to entertain us, Mr Key?
This is a dynamite story.
No wonder the big corporates pressurised our pathetic government to close down this sort of investigative journalism.
Maybe we could learn from Bolivia and fight back against the tyranny of corporations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn9wujK0ho4
Here is a bit of news about Fukushima. Not that you would read about it in the MSM of course: Fukushima: Killing The World, Hundreds of Dolphins And Millions of Sardines At The Time
Thanks ev – talk about lesting we forget – I wonder if we actually ever see the bullet that kills us and once we’re dead does it even matter what killed us. Fukushima has killed the canaries and it is not going away anytime soon. medium or long.
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/motorway-tolls-preferred-choice-funding-ambitious-transport-plan-sl-171583
Aucklanders will get what they asked for …
Q. How little thought did those who chose this option put into it ?
It was the preferred choice out of a limited range of choices where none of the choices were all that palatable. You also seem to have missed this bit:
It’s unlikely that this government will allow toll roads as it will impact on car use and thus decrease profits for oil companies.
I saw that statement which I find to be at odds with the trend of signing up long term technological infrastructure contracts
The added attraction of tracking movements of commuters in greater detail would be motivational for the controllers I would have thought
I would doubt tolls will impact car use for many with their commute being avoidable by personal transport and it would be easy enough for the tactical policy behind toll implementation to be cynical enough that people would ‘have to pay’
Zero confidence that any option is implemented would realize benefits necessary for Auckland as can be witnessed by this topic still going well after 30/40 years of discussion
Meanwhile Sydney continues to expand the Light Rail Network
Why do you think the government or private business are interested in peoples daily commute?
That said, having the statistics of use are needed for planning purposes.
That entire sentence fails to make any sense at all.
That is a valid observation. I suspect that building infrastructure for cars has been seen as the fast and cheap option by the councils over the years as it puts a large chunk of the operating expense of transport directly on individuals and removes it from rates allowing rates to be kept low. This despite the fact that building proper public transport would have been cheaper per individual even though rates would have been slightly higher.
1. It is all about data which you point out citing ‘planning purposes’
Auckland Transport use similar rationale for the ‘spy network’
2. Typo – should have read unavoidable
3. Rates are not ‘low’
1. You think that we can get away without planning?
2. So what you’re saying there is that many people wouldn’t be able to give up their cars because they can’t get to work without them?
3. The rates on the house that I’m living in are about the same as PAYE for someone on minimum wage. They don’t go up with income. So, for many rates are actually low while for many others it’s probably quite high. I think this means that we need a better way to calculate rates. But that’s not what I was getting at. By shifting the costs onto individuals through forcing them to buy cars costs were kept off the councils thus allowing them to have rates lower than what they really should have been.
1. The planning Auckland needs is not the planning / outcomes Auckland would get from the implementation of tolls
2. See point 1
3. I understand what you were getting at and agree there is a requirement to examine other methods to calculating local taxes
IMO the most efficient is to put an additional charge on the price of fuel with the mechanisms already in place and make sure all collected funds are only invested into Auckland transport initiatives with a ring fence around public transportation priorities
No new infrastructure required or long term contracts with private technology and data firms paying tolls on roads that have been paid for many times over
Unfortunately most people do not understand ‘toll roads’ – No I’m not suggesting you are one of them
Leaked emails show Hollywood arranging Cuomo fundraiser, jet travel
And that is why we need to get corporations and businesses out of politics.
Martin O’Malley may be challenging Hillary Clinton from the left for US Presidency. He has proposed reinstating all banking regulations that were in place from the Great Depression until the 1980s/90s; doubling the minimum wage; and (this one is important) being completely opposed to the TPP. He is even considered to the left of Elizabeth Warren. I do not know if he would win the Democratic primary, but if he wins he will force Hillary Clinton to take a position on these issues, including something like the TPP. Which she has not said if she supports yet.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121569/martin-omalleys-15-minimum-wage-puts-hillary-notice
hope Martin O’Malley does stand and win the Democratic nomination ….Hillary Clinton as President would be as bad, if not worse, if that is conceivable , as another Bush
Martin would never win the presidency, so effectively you’re saying you’d rather have a Republican in the white house than Clinton, which logically doesn’t make sense if you actually support the democrats and not the republicans.
The logical thing is to understand where a long line of ‘not quite as bad as the other guy’ candidates has gotten us, and where sticking to that strategy is likely to get us.
Sure, but absent any credible mechanism to change the status quo, theorising doesn’t achieve much.
Given the US is a democracy, voting turnout is quite low and the extreme partisan nature of their politics and subsequent dumbing down of their campaigns, an awful lot of stuff has to change before ‘outsider’ candidates have much of a chance.
Just one basic obstacle: the constitution mandates that election days are on Tuesday. This is not a public holiday, and a lot of Americans aren’t given any time by their employer to vote.
Hillary will be better than whatever the Republicans offer, no doubt. But that does not mean she will be good.
The US has sent 300 members of an airborne brigade to Kiev, in direct contravention of the Minsk 2 agreement to keep all foreign troops off Ukranian soil.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-17/300-us-paratroopers-arrive-ukraine-after-russia-says-its-missiles-will-target-nato-m
I bet most Americans are not aware of this ….let alone debated it….such are the dire straits of their media
http://rt.com/usa/250717-chomsky-media-ukraine-cuba/
Exactly. Also see this commentary of an interview of Stephen Cohen: journalist, writer and Russia specialist at Princeton and NY University. Cohen has been a long time writer for The Nation, one of the worlds longest standing progressive publications.
http://russia-insider.com/en/top-russia-scholar-gives-us-media-politicos-public-spanking-long-interview-cohen/5807
Yep, Cohen’s been one of the very few sane analysts of Russian Politics over the last two decades.
I notice the 173rd is there to train the Ukrainian military. Given previous successes in training the Iraqi Army, will we expect to see Ukrainian soldiers featuring prominently on the podium for the next Olympic track events?
When is O’Bomber going to have his Nobel Prize taken off him?
Sadly the farce train left the station some time ago and the tragedy one is pulling into the station.
However, IMO if Obama somehow pulls off the nuclear/peace deal with Iran in the face of Israeli lobby opposition, he might actually have finally earnt his Nobel Prize.
From The Intercept,
We’ll look for mid-level bureaucrats trying to tell the truth, and put out a welcome mat for unhappy system administrators and bank whistleblowers. We’ll read mind-numbing government procurement contracts and grudgingly-released financial disclosure forms. We’ll listen to two-hour corporate earnings calls.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/04/16/welcome-unofficial-sources/
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/28/how-to-leak-to-the-intercept/
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/unofficial-sources/
Have to say it, the thought of Key at Gallipoli, so say, honouring those men who died…would they have been proud of what he has done for the country they died for? Is he providing a future for kiwi’s who need jobs, security, homes and a future? I find it insulting and hypocritical, but do not wish to equally dishonour the men by making this an emotive comment.
I don’t understand. You’d be dishonoring dead kids if you show emotion? I would’ve thought that if you were dying on a turkish hillside with your guts leaking out from .308 bullet holes you’d definitely feel something – fear, regret, extreme pain. Who are you to say what they felt or think now they’re dead? What do you think this is? A sport? Macho ANZAC shit really is a bore.
Exactly, I would never presume to have any idea about what it must have felt like, I was talking about Key’s “honouring” those men, how has he done that beyond going to the ceremony?
I am not sure what your point is though Cindy?
Alice Dreger follows up on her twitter postings.
http://www.thestranger.com/features/feature/2015/04/15/22062331/i-sat-in-on-my-sons-sex-ed-class-and-i-was-shocked-by-what-i-heard
All of the sex education in school I ever had was evidence and science based. I’m not even sure if abstinence was even discussed, certainly not as a ‘strategy’ to sex anyway.
It’s an American thing. Like resisting the teaching of evolution.
The closest the single sex secondary where I ate my lunch ever came to acknowledging the existence of women or sex was general science.
Fortunately I had CCD to fill the gap.
/
There must have been a few priests around to share their expertise with you boys or girls?
No sex education was ever mentioned anywhere at school in my time -many decades ago. However I read widely and even at Primary School I was able to set my peers straight. Fascinating subject for young minds.
A teacher of 5 year olds told me that in the school library he processed books while listening to the kids informal and matter of fact discussions about sex matters. They knew heaps and their parents would have blushed had they known how some kids explained, using the activities of their parents as evidence.
I read widely and even at Primary School I was able to set my peers straight.
We could’ve done with you at my primary school. A lengthy discussion with a few of my peers elicited the revelation that adults took their clothes off and lay down together. So, two of our number tried it and lay down (back to back) to see what it was like. Their conclusions were not encouraging. Strange creatures these adults.
I went through a single sex Catholic school. No sex education at all, save for “Beware of cars, boys, they’re bedrooms on wheels.” And that was from a woman journalist on a leadership course.
I vowed that the sex education I taught would be as good as I needed as a young man, but certainly better than what I got. I told my students that was why I was so keen to teach this subject fully and openly, including the above quote. They knew that I was trustworthy and genuine.
I loved the lesson where I inflated a condom and then burst it by rubbing on the unlubricated rubber. Of course, I had already demonstrated how a fully lubricated rubber did not burst, on the other side of the demonstration condom, so that when the inevitable burst came after about five strokes there was lubricant spraying everywhere.
They never forgot that one! Oh happy days.
I taught Relationships for more than a decade to Year 10 boys, including sex education. It was factual, and at times funny, as it had to be. We did cover abstinence as a strategy in the area of avoidance of STDs and pregnancy, along with all other methods.
A very good course, taught by two specialist teachers, which helped keep pregnancy and STD rates, as discerned by the local DHB, at a plateau when the rest of the country was climbing. Parents were consulted and met with the teachers to allay concerns, students having the right to opt out.
Straight shooting with a touch of humour eh mac1? Like all good teachers eh?
Oh yes. “And after intercourse, boys, take your condom off your penis before losing your erection, and tie a knot in it.”
Pause.
“The condom, not your penis.”
Loved to see the looks of glazed relief come over the boy’s faces!
A moment of agony for the boys – but oh the relief!
An “abstinence educator” blows his own.
I also play a little game with the students toward the end of my presentation.
I write down a few things at random places on the chalk board, or whatever is handy nearby. I write down the possible consequences of a promiscuous or contraceptive lifestyle that the teenagers and I come up with.
This is where I bring up the risk of sexually transmitted diseases. I’ll write things like, “Unplanned pregnancy,” “Chance of Gonorrhea,” “Depression,” “Porn addiction,” “Risk of Genital Herpes,” etc.
Then I draw a bull’s eye in the middle of the board. I mark this one “Love.”
I ask a few students to take turns, from their seats, to toss the eraser to the board, trying to hit the bull’s eye.
An errant throw might strike, “Risk of HIV,” or “Depression” instead. I explain that if we live the promiscuous lifestyle, it becomes more difficult to obtain what we really desire, which is love.
http://www.donotlink.com/eqh5
🙄
I really hate abstinence “educators”.
Cry me a river. NZRFU championed professional rugby. Tough luck I say …
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11434420