In case any of you are sharp-eyed enough to pick out the Labour MPs who organized agains him, here’s Jeremy Corbyn getting a standing ovation after the election from his colleagues as he enters parliament:
Gosman, I see this as an exceptional result given the enormous tide of corruption and greed he stood against.
Lets not forget, the Westminster system is a FPP system and in reality the majority of votes went actually to Corbyn.
So really he did not loose but the people of Britain did.
“we might wonder why, when Northland is suffering deprivation and economic stagnation, Maraetai Drive millionaires are allowed to strip the province of its natural resources, tear up its wild places and reap outrageous profits while an apologist Government runs interference in the media.”
Despite the New Zealand Labour party being disgracefully quiet …. seemingly not endorsing or backing Jeremy corbyn and his amazing resurrection of democracy and left wing politics in the UK …….
Despite this rejection and lost opportunity by Nz Labour ….. The Nacts are exposed and weak in our coming election ….. after 9 years of dishonest rot……bare faced looting….compulsive cheating… and sloppy destructive greed …. they own all of the disgusting outcomes
“when sawn lengths of swamp kauri are offered for sale on the website of Wisconsin-based furniture company Ancientwood that measure 12 metres in length, it means that, assuming someone has followed the letter of the law, they have exported timber from a tree more than twice the width of Te Matua Ngahere, the widest known living kauri at 5.2 metres across.”
Clearly, a great many swamp kauri exports are a scam, but the Government seems unwilling even to send for a tape measure. The Northland Environmental Protection Society (NEPS) has repeatedly pointed out that MPI’s own records show that it regularly rubber-stamps such improbable transactions” ….
“Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy insists … we manage it very, very closely.” ……” Really? Documents obtained under the Official Information Act by the NEPS are claimed to show that in fact, mandatory information was missing from some 80 per cent of MPI intention-to-export notices processed in 2013.”
Lets repeat that …..” , mandatory information was missing from some 80 per cent of MPI intention-to-export notices processed in 2013.
Imagine if Winz did this …… or the ministry of health …../ or immigration …… 80% fucken non compliance in the paper work. ….. Lets call it what it is …. Govt collusion with Corruption.
But It gets better … or worse …
“That one of the prominent speculators in this grey market in taonga happens to be David Wong-Tung, husband of National MP Judith Collins, should rightly raise eyebrows, along with suspicions that her involvement places the Government in an awkward spot – again. Wong-Tung is a director in Kauri Ruakaka Ltd, formerly Oravida Kauri, which has stockpiled an estimated 80,000 tonnes of logs”.. ( worth 50-400 Million )
This is lazy economic vandalism. Northland needs more high-value jobs but instead the return is is going to places like Poland
This criminal enterprise … involving greedy Vandals and Govt departments ………should be stopped immediately ….. with sackings where appropriate.
As this scam is robbing Hones electorate . He should make it one of his bottem lines before supporting any govt/coalition…
that Judiths Orvidia logs will be compulsory purchased ….at a reasonable profit margin …. But only after they have proved they were harvested legally and in compliance with relevant laws ….., If laws were broken the logs should naturally be forfieted ….as unlike Nathan Guy, one should not reward law breakers .
Orvidias stockpile should be used for the local tribe …… Not greedy grasping Judith and other rich trash with sticky fingers
Once again ….. 80% non compliance by nathan guys ministry is scandalous …..
And this govt is riddled with piss weak bad laws and crap regulations…… which they ignore.
The lack of Ecan prosecutions for polluting and stealing water resources is another example of this …. lowered standards AND no prosecutions.
Pike river ……. Charter schools ….. Carbon credits/global warming …..Bio security …. sanctions for the benefit of nazis …etc etc etc
Lowered standards ….. cheating …… non compliance …..injustice and exploitation…. war crimes.
But for electioneering purposes ….I’d focus on three or four areas …..Enviroment, Housing , health & Education…. …. prime areas of weakness the Nacts should be hammered over..
They are weak because they are shit ……
Thats why Johnny Madeoff 😉 …. Winne was going to have his head in a wine box.
I think we should acknowledge Winne as a both a King and Knight slayer….
The gap between Tory and labour seats is larger than 2014, yet this election is called a win by Corbyn where he called 2014 a disaster, Looking to grow even larger in future with many labour electorates to disappear, up to 30 with population changes
People sleeping cars, 90,000 NEETs, the environment being stuffed by industrial dairy, house prices averaging a million dollars etc – but that’s all right because we’ve built a faster boat!
That’s all you talk about.
Saying nothing about the important stuff is taking the side of the oppressors.
It is clear from your actions you care more about sport than caring for the vulnerable in our society.
Your comment about the Americas Cup is a deliberate wind up. You know perfectly well that this site is not really a forum for sport and was bound to generate negative comment.
I am pretty sure you also know that most of the left commenters on this site would see the Americas Cup as an elitist sport (though that is much less true of the NZ team) that they would go out of their way to avoid. So you got a perfectly predictable reaction.
While I am fan of the Cup and watched this mornings races, I wouldn’t deliberately start a flame war on The Standard on the topic.
“left commenters on this site would see the Americas Cup as an elitist sport”
Well, it is Wayne and we get it morning noon and night, and it is taking precedence over other things.
Take TV1 News any night after about 5 minutes we are into sport be it the All Blacks doing this or that or America’s Cup that normally takes up at least 5 minutes or so of the news bulletin, to be repeated AGAIN in depth at about 6 45. Whereas other news items are either not reported or given about 10 seconds
As for being a fan, I was right up to the time it was decided the “red socks” that were originally made in the South Island, were suddenly made in China.
A good sporting gesture that was wasn’t it mate, after expecting New Zealanders to get behind and support their “elitist sport” .
James, you are well represented by National MP’s, here is one wanting to be on the harbour instead of her job representing people – yes Natz, disabled people are people too!
‘Rather be out on the harbour’ – National Party MP tweets from disability meetings
Ms Wagner slights the people she’s supposed to be dedicated to helping – what a very, very foolish thing to say and do. It’s little wonder National’s MPs are so often characterized as arrogant out of touch with ordinary people; in this case, extra-ordinary people. The “optics” here, as they say, are appalling.
‘Gary Farrow, a journalist and disability advocate who lives with a severe brain injury, says he is concerned about Ms Wagner’s progress with the portfolio if she is complaining about attending meetings.
“If our own Disability Issues Minister is subliminally complaining about attending meetings in Auckland, relating to exactly that portfolio, by openly commenting that she’d rather be somewhere on the harbour – which is inaccessible to many people with disabilities – then I fear for the amount of progress she’s actually aiming to achieve for the disabled community at these meetings.”
Special Educational Needs NZ posted its disgust to Facebook.
“That’s just such a thoughtless and heartless thing to say. I’m quite sure people living with disabilities wish they could walk away from what they face every day, but they can’t, and it’s the Minister’s job to support them.”
The Green Party’s spokeswoman for disability issues Mojo Mathers, who is deaf, told Newshub the tweet was appallingly shallow.
“It really makes me question her commitment to the disability community if she’d rather be out on the harbour than in meetings with them.”
Stupid ignorant folk who do not appreciate that there is a special class of boat designed for challenged folk to join her out on the harbour
twitering on twitter. URRRGH!
We have a full blown kleptocracy – the worst in the OECD. This can be resolved through our existing formal judicial processes, in ways that will not challenge your delicate sensibilities, or it will meet with informal processes.
Crooks must be punished.
No sign of functional formal process yet.
[RL: This site has a long standing practice of moderating threats of physical violence, implicit or otherwise. This is not something you will get any wriggle room on, and if you think about it from our perspective you will understand why.]
Awesome display by the Lions last night James. I see a 2-1 victory for them over the All Blacks. That, and not winning the Americas Cup should see soft National supporters in a gloomy mood come September, not pumped up at all by fake euphoria. Definitely looking very bad psychologically for the soft centre. Happy days!
So your half-full glass will be flowing up over the brim, will it Lames – I mean James?
I am an enthusiastic sailor, but reading eyewash from an ignorant wally like you makes me wonder if sport is nothing more than panem et circenses.
The James equivalent in the U.K. would have chastised you for being miserable and referring to the Grenfell Tower tragedy rather than blabbing on about the Lions rugby team.
But because you are obviously a bit thick with your comment – there are a few guys on the boat – but there are 100’s of people that are employed in the shore team, as well as the people who do the admin, make parts for the boat, paint it, are involved in the shops selling ETNZ gear etc etc etc.
It’s a play on the Marx original term religion is the opium of the masses, ie be happy been poor, the king is god appointed, obey and be happy with your lot, anything else is a sin and your rewards will come in heaven Not sure really if sport is a suitable replacement, more so boring, anti sport types simply getting in a tizz because somebody else is enjoying themselves and does not want to sit around debating Marxist dialectic materialism
Once again you have fucking missed the point haven’t you I knew all about that. Have you read Marx? I have and also other shit by Ayn Rand, she should have been locked up as a threat to mankind.
What this person was implying, keep the peasantry drugged on sport and we will fuck them over without them knowing. Our pathetic excuse for news on the media is a good example of that. Has that spelt it out to you in enough simplistic terms?
What’s the betting that National are hoping that we win the America’s Cup and The All Blacks beat the shit out of the Lions to make sure we all have the “Feel Good” feeling for the next election?
As for sitting around debating Marxists dialect well, I don’t know anyone who does that and who gives a shit if they do. Who are these anti-sports types who get into a tizz? I don’t know any but I know a lot of people who are not fucking brain dead and go into a trance every time the All Blacks or America’s cup is mentioned and can see through all the bullshit that goes with it and won’t buy into the hype.
How do you know anti-sport types are boring? I have been in the company of sports enthusiasts and frankly, as a sportsman myself I have been glad to get out of their company as I have been bored shitless with the dissecting of the game, the players, the ref, and all the fucking sundry cretinous crap that goes with it.
Nowhere near as exciting as when the government properly funds community groups who have been stripped of resources. Perhaps the boat bastards will donate a sizable chunk of the millions they win? No?
Good, I like that. “Fake speed.” I must try to use that argument during a sailing race next season. (Rowers could not use that argument, because they are all limited to looking backwards.)
“A vast majority of Americans understand that our current economic model is a dismal failure. Who can honestly defend the current grotesque level of inequality in which the top 1 percent owns more than the bottom 90 percent? Who thinks it’s right that, despite a significant increase in worker productivity, millions of Americans need two or three jobs to survive, while 52 percent of all new income goes to the top 1 percent? What person who claims to have a sense of morality can justify the fact that the richest people in our country have a life expectancy about 15 years longer than our poorest citizens?
While Democrats should appeal to moderate Republicans who are disgusted with the Trump presidency, too many in our party cling to an overly cautious, centrist ideology. The party’s main thrust must be to make politics relevant to those who have given up on democracy and bring millions of new voters into the political process. It must be prepared to take on the right-wing extremist ideology of the Koch brothers and the billionaire class, and fight for an economy and a government that work for all, not just the 1 percent.”
Suzie Dawson (Suzette Maree Dawson) is now the new ‘Leader’ of the Internet Party.
BEWARE!
This is what one of Suzette Maree Dawson’s key supporters Ben Cooney said about me on a live-streamed video of the 8 December 2012 anti-TPPA protest in Auckland – which was posted on Suzie Dawson’s PRIVATE website – Occupy Savvy.
This is why, in my opinion, decent people and genuine political activists should have NOTHING to do with either Suzie Dawson or Ben Cooney.
Penny Bright.
‘Anti-privatisation/ anti-corruption campaigner’
Political activist from 18 years old – now in my 63rd year.
Watch Theresa May tell a barefaced lie to the victims of the Grenfell Fire.
Starts at 5:23
Interviewer Emily Maitlis challenged May:
“This was preventable, wasn’t it? In 2013, a coroner had safety recommendations which included putting sprinklers in all these buildings. And it was never done. There was two types of material that could have been used in the cladding. One was flammable and one was fireproof. And the fireproof one cost £2 more. Was that not £2 worth spending?”
May replied:
“The fire service are looking are looking at what the cause of the fire was.”
Maitlis continued:
“But you were recommended this in 2013. You were in government there. And the coroner said you can stop this with a sprinkler system in every block.”
May responded with a lie:
“And the government has taken action on the recommendations of the coroner’s report.”
Two quotes for May ( regarding Grenfell) and English ( regarding Pike River)
“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
Haile Selassie
“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant.”
On Radionz this morning on immigration the author of a book about NZ and immigration says something like ‘look all Auckland’s problems wouldn’t be solved if immigrants were unable to move there’. This didn’t seem to me to be an intelligent attitude to take to the problem of how many, whom, doing what, from where and other questions about immigration. The theme seemed to be laissez faire and they can help with the problems they cause. Housing shortage? Bring in workers to help build them. With incisive minds like this at work, I can see NZ’s borders being the subject of rorts and changeable policies, none of them driven by good thinking.
I notice that many of the initiatives being carried forward arise from the ideas, energy and enthusiasm of immigrants, recent or from late 1900s. But there are billions of people out there and there has to be some reasoned control. Of do we just divide NZ up into grids of 20 sqm and hock them off on the basis of a flyer of romantic views from the 1950s. We need to listen to the views of those pragmatic people who are concerned about now to 2050.
Audio will come up for – 9.35 Attitudes to immigration
David Hall is a senior researcher at the Policy Observatory at AUT and editor of Fair Borders, Migration Policy in the 21st century. He discusses New Zealanders’ changing attitudes to immigration.
We’re not blaming the immigrants. We’re blaming the governments gross negligence in not planning for the huge immigration that they’ve allowed or even asking questions about how many immigrants we can support. Yes, support, immigration is expensive in the short term.
That would depend upon how much of the resources we have available needs to be diverted to build up the infrastructure to support them. A diversion of resources is a real cost because it means that something else can’t be done.
A lot of the mess we have today is because the government hasn’t been building that needed infrastructure or even planning for it.
Refugees aren’t migrants. Totally different basket of fish.
And the second story was about immigration controls being imposed against groups that might cost money in the long term, so hardly evidence that all immigration is expensive in the short term, even if they contribute more overall in the longer term.
Funny, because I thought you meant “expensive in the short term” as in “costs more money than they bring in and produce”.
Because otherwise they’re not a cost, they’re a benefit – the opportunity cost of not having them is worse than the opportunity cost of “supporting” them.
If they bring children, it can cost more than the taxes they pay. 9k p.a. for free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds (no residency criteria for this, so they are all eligible), and for those children who are eligible for free public education (dependents of work visa holders), it costs nearly 6k p.a. for primary and nearly 8k for high school.
Not that I begrudge the education, but there are soberly costs that can outweigh the taxes paid.
The average immigrant is a visitor on a visitor visa, followed by working holidaymakers – since they pay GST, we come out well ahead fiscally.
If you’re talking about standard work visas, without family, we come out ahead as long as there are no serious medical problems or accidents. With families including children, it is based heavily on family income, but wages need to be well over 40K for taxes to pay for one child in primary school (this is complicated by GST).
Funny, because I thought you meant “expensive in the short term” as in “costs more money than they bring in and produce”.
Two point:
1. Far better to measure things in physical terms. Makes it far easier to measure costs than through our delusional financial system.
2. It does cost more in the short term than they bring in and produce. After all they don’t bring in anything and so we need to support them until they’re producing.
Because otherwise they’re not a cost, they’re a benefit – the opportunity cost of not having them is worse than the opportunity cost of “supporting” them.
Which is debatable considering the very real physical limits we actually exist within which you seem to be ignoring.
1: ok, so you have a “far better” measure, but still can’t actually answer the question
2: So now nobody imports cash or a container of goods or maybe even 20 years’ training and experience when they immigrate? Bullshit on that.
3: if it’s so debatable, why are you having so much difficulty supporting what was a pretty specific claim: that immigrants are a cost in the short term?
1. It’s complicated. When immigrants first come into the country they need to be supported from the resources we have and the infrastructure. If the infrastructure isn’t in place then it costs in ways such as higher drive times, over loaded buses and, of course, building the new infrastructure. These costs will go away over time as they’re addressed which is why I said ‘short term’. But when there’s ongoing excessive immigration, as we have now, then those short term costs exist all the time and get worse exponentially.
2. Cash is nothing – it only buys what we have available at that time reducing what’s available to everyone else and probably pushing up inflation thus is a cost. How many immigrants, as a percentage, come with a container load of goods? Doubt if it’s many. 20 years experience is great – once they start producing more than it cost to import them.
3. I’m not having difficulty doing that at all. Even Treasury, that bastion of neo-liberalism and high population and the immigration to get it now say that excessive immigration is costing us more than it benefits us.
So basically you don’t know how much they bring in with them, you refuse to count cash, and you’re just assuming that the costs outweigh the benefits in the short term.
And you’re appealing to the authority of Treasury, without backing it up.
So basically you don’t know how much they bring in with them,
No I don’t as I haven’t seen it published anywhere.
Have you?
you refuse to count cash
I don’t refuse to count it so much as consider it to have a negative effect according to standard supply and demand.
and you’re just assuming that the costs outweigh the benefits in the short term.
There are costs – I even listed some of them. In the short term those costs will outweigh the benefits. That’s just the nature of costs.
You’re assuming that there’s no costs at all which is ridiculous and dangerous.
And you’re appealing to the authority of Treasury, without backing it up.
It’s been reported several times in the MSM and here. My mistake in assuming that you, being the political animal that you are, would have seen it. Here you are:
The Treasury warned that record levels of immigration could push New Zealanders out of low-skilled jobs, depress wages and increase housing pressures.
All of those are costs that apply until they’re addressed (and Treasury either missed some or they weren’t reported). The problem being that they’re not being addressed and so the costs to our society keep going up.
So basically you don’t know how much they bring in with them,
No I don’t as I haven’t seen it published anywhere.
Have you?
No, but then I’m not the one who made the proclamation that one outweighs the other “in the short term”
you refuse to count cash
I don’t refuse to count it so much as consider it to have a negative effect according to standard supply and demand.
Yeah, you’re the first person I’ve encountered who thinks that bringing money in to the local economy is a negative.
and you’re just assuming that the costs outweigh the benefits in the short term.
There are costs – I even listed some of them. In the short term those costs will outweigh the benefits. That’s just the nature of costs.
You’re assuming that there’s no costs at all which is ridiculous and dangerous.
No, I merely asked you to back up your claim that any “costs” outweighed the benefits of immigration “in the short term”.
And you’re appealing to the authority of Treasury, without backing it up.
It’s been reported several times in the MSM and here. My mistake in assuming that you, being the political animal that you are, would have seen it. Here you are:
The Treasury warned that record levels of immigration could push New Zealanders out of low-skilled jobs, depress wages and increase housing pressures.
All of those are costs that apply until they’re addressed (and Treasury either missed some or they weren’t reported). The problem being that they’re not being addressed and so the costs to our society keep going up.
could, in the specific case of low-skilled migrants. So, basically, again not support for your claim that immigration is expensive in the short term.”
The problem with the planned economy is the plan is usually out of date the day the ink dries or predicated on dodgy data or to the benefit corrupt or idealogically driven select few of the ruling statist elite. The result a massive inefficient allocation of resources, The history of the Soviet Union, China ( the Great Leap Forward) are good cases in point, likewise Nz up to the last 5 years we had net negative immigration, ie people leaving under auntie Helens labour government to Australia, it is only the success of a nationsl government turning the exit around and now requiring time for the market and to a lesser degree the government to catch up I do agree if on the rare chance we get a labour government again this will fix the immigration issue but again making any grand plan redundant, further cementing my original point
The problem with the planned economy is the plan is usually out of date the day the ink dries or predicated on dodgy data or to the benefit corrupt or idealogically driven select few of the ruling statist elite.
That’s why plans always need to be updated.
National seems to be keen on dodgy data hence all the lies
National is king of corruption as well.
The result a massive inefficient allocation of resources,
Actually, the free-market does really inefficient allocation of resources. That’s why we have so much poverty, why 29 workers died in Pike River, why our health system is being under funded and why our electricity prices are going up.
likewise Nz up to the last 5 years we had net negative immigration, ie people leaving under auntie Helens labour government to Australia, it is only the success of a nationsl government turning the exit around
You really like lying to yourself don’t you?
The reason why net migration is up is because NZers are returning home because they’re no longer getting work overseas. Ten years later and the GFC is still having that sort of effect. It’s why Australia is busy kicking NZers out.
Nobody seems to be able to look at the facts and agree that there are too many people coming into NZ for our ability to provide the services all need.
Or that there is a chronic shortage of housing which is exacerbated by the many. Or that there needs to be opportunity for a place for those NZs who want to return home. Or that there needs to be fairer treatment of those encouraged to apply for immigration. The government has behaved abysmally to people caught up in rorts, to changes in policy that apply immediately and exclude people who are almost accepted, and who have paid huge fees. It is just a pig’s muddle and reading the comments picking up on various details and concentrating on one or two aspects indicates how hard it is for reasoned, thoughtful discussion and policy planning.
The guy wrote a book and was interviewed on the radio – he knows what he is talking about, perhaps more people should listen to experts instead of just thinking and saying it.
The type of experts that say that having massive poverty and wealth inequality is good?
Because that does seem to be the type of person who was interviewed.
I have trouble with experts who continue to advise policies that have caused more trouble than the good that the experts predicted. It tends to indicate that the expert is following ideology rather than reality.
I have trouble with experts who continue to promote policies that are obviously contrary to reality.
There’s a cost benefit ratio to immigration but if the costs aren’t met while immigration remains high then the problems mount exponentially.
For the last few years the government hasn’t met the costs and built the necessary infrastructure and so the problems caused by this have been spiralling out of control. From what I can make out they haven’t built enough infrastructure to support our own internal growth never mind the added growth from immigration.
Now that people are demanding that the government do address this we’ve got people, who are ignoring reality, saying that we must maintain those failed policies.
I do not see that DTBs view limited and it is fixed on the reality not some airy fairy kind hearted view or some practical view that sees immigrants doing wonderfully for NZ. A relative is in Wellington hospital at present and says that 50% or so of nurses seem to be Filipinos and how would the DHB which apparently has got rid of a big debt, manage without them.
This is our dilemma, that the whole system has got out of whack and if people keep jumping in and criticising anyone who critiques it, how can we turn it to a better level, we have to think and notch it down somewhat.
We are so close to being a third world country run by the porcine few who indulge themselves, usually colonials who like being petty dictators in their small pond.
Yanis Varoufakis has been working on the Democracy in Europe Movement, DiEM25 and has been working on a collective vision for promoting a representative democracy.
Just got around to reading the foreign trust registration articles from a few days ago.
Now I understand that these trusts essentially pay no tax in NZ so why is the taxpayer funding the IRD (NZH “officials here are providing support when they can,”) to help these trusts sort out their obligations.
I’d like to think the IRD is charging a swinging fee for the assistance or is this just another case of the poor subsiding some rich bludgers.
Part of me also regrets the lost opportunity of levying a solid tax on them before they depart.
And by the way what happens if they don’t register? How do we know they have stopped operating?
Of course they are. You don’t dogwhistle about brown students unless you’re trying to suck up to Winnie. And i know, i know, you’re going to say “it’s not about the students it’s not about race” but that’s exactly what Andrew Little himself has said – bad immigrants coming here living in houses taking jobs. Open your eyes.
You don’t dogwhistle about brown students unless you’re trying to suck up to Winnie.
It’s not sucking up to Winnie – it’s acknowledging that our high immigration rates are causing problems. The fact that Winnie has been saying this for years should have you considering that maybe he was right on this. Especially when Treasury, that bastion of neo-liberalism and promoter of immigration and high population, is saying the same thing.
It seems to be you who needs to open your eyes and rejoin reality.
Nope Little and Labour are not saying that at all Wainwright – but there is an issue with lazy immigration and congestion and housing shortages in Auckland, and looks like the public agree, because apparently Labour/Green past National in the latest polls. Someone has to do something, if you live in Auckland! National’s plan is to pretend all is well! Even if you are some neoliberal robot, productivity will be down as it’s taking 4 hours to get anywhere.
As for students, how about developing overseas students degrees outside of Auckland in places that could do with more people. REMOVE for every low level qualification a 25% chance of permanent residency. Let the course (NOT funded by taxpayers) speak for itself. If it’s a good course the overseas students will come won’t they?
The Auckland migrants themselves are saying there’s a big problem – are they racist too?
Don’t mind Winston on a lot of issues, but it’s a step too far to allow beating your kids to be legal again…. The people with the problem, can’t understand the nuances.
Come on MM ….it is not letting folk ‘bash’ their kids … that is emotional twaddle …. but rather sensible in the situation it occurs in … the discipline of children.
I experienced both stupid bad abuse and fair discipline in my youth but it would take too long to describe it. we need a law which differenciates between abuse and discipline.
+1 marty mars
With all of the problems that NZ is facing at the moment, there seems to be no logic in NZ First bringing this issue back which will do nothing to alleviate child abuse. A binding referendum would also be perceived as a waste of money Although NZ First might gain some votes from this, I think that they will possibly lose an equal amount. However they might gain more votes from National conservatives, and turn off potential voters straying from Labour/Greens.
It was Conservative Party policy at the last election so NZF are presumably hoping to pick up their votes. Hopefully it will lose them more votes than they gain.
The ice sheet is held back only by its fringing ice shelves—and those floating dams, braced against isolated mountains and ridges of rock around the edges of the basin, are starting to fail. They themselves don’t add much to sea level, because they’re already floating in the water. But as they weaken, the glaciers behind them flow faster to the sea, and their edges retreat. That’s happening now all around the Amundsen Sea. The Pine Island Ice Shelf, about 1,300 feet thick over most of its area, is a dramatic case: It thinned by an average of 150 feet from 1994 to 2012. But even more worrisome is the neighboring Thwaites Glacier, which could destabilize most of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet if it collapsed.
“These are the fastest retreating glaciers on the face of the Earth,” says Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Rignot has studied the region for more than two decades, using radar from aircraft and satellites, and he believes the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is only a matter of time. The question is whether it will take 500 years or fewer than a hundred—and whether humanity will have time to prepare.
“We have to get these numbers right,” Rignot says. “But we have to be careful not to waste too much time doing that.”
How about this for NZ polls status from The Daily Blog.
The latest UMR internal fortnightly Poll from Labour taken between 7th June – 15th June paints a completely different picture.
This was taken after the criticism of the budget and after Labour’s foreign student cutback policy.
The internal poll was being compared to a previous poll which showed an entirely different picture which has been explained by first euphoria from the budget which is now fading. Martyn Bradbury says: The latest TV3 Poll putting Labour on 26% and National on 47% would have been pretty depressing.
It shouldn’t be.
The Poll was taken in the sugar high of the fawning media’s description of National’s budget as left wing and family friendly before the real criticism of how National have actually underfunded health by the tune of $2.3 billion was out.
That puts some context on it. A big difference between the two. Poll watchers will be able to assess better than me.
And political watchers will have heard that Bryce Edwards thinks that young people aren’t going to be enticed to vote.
He told The Project on Friday that the youth vote could only make a difference “if political parties were actually giving out policies that engaged and attracted youth”.
Mr Edwards says it’s not young people’s fault that they’re not turning out to vote. Instead he says: “It’s actually the politicians that have failed, it’s the political system that’s failed and we should be pointing at them.
“It’s the politicians that need to be more engaging, they need to be actually offering a product that youth want to buy if you like. They need to be actually stepping up to the plate and coming up with something a bit more inspiring.” http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/06/academic-predicts-a-youth-yawn-in-new-zealand-election.html
Dr Bryce Edwards is an academic expert and well-known commentator and columnist but nevertheless I think he’s omitted a few important things. [Disclaimer: the video didn’t work for me so I go on the written text only]
The so-called “Jeremy Corbyn effect” cannot be seen in isolation but should be viewed and discussed in the unique context that is, among other things: Brexit & EU, Theresa May, recent terrorist atrocities, snap election.
Secondly, I think there are plenty of policies on the Left that would appeal to young(er) voters.
Thirdly, youths have a very strongly developed sense of fairness and equality and doing the right thing for their fellow humans or the environment, for example; they are definitely not the moral vacuoli that they are often painted as. If they get sufficiently enraged this could act as a powerful trigger to get them to vote against what enrages them, e.g. the establishment and rage against the machine. With youth unemployment as high as always and limited prospects for improvement I’d like to think that the youth vote is for the taking.
Fourthly, it might now be more acceptable (‘cool’) for young people to vote and flex their political muscle and make a stand.
By not mentioning the Corbyn policy of eliminating student loans, Edwards helped to foster the illusion that Corbyn’s popularity with youth is some kind of mystical charismatic effect like Key’s. Nothing could be further from the truth.
A poll is only as good as its subjects being polled and more importantly how questions are framed …. I Anyway only an average of polls is likely to have any real meaning. Currently all polls are questionable from recent reading.
Martyn Bradbury in TDB The horror of Grenfell Tower is matched only by the rising fury at the way London’s working class, migrant, disabled and old were betrayed by failed capitalism and a mutilated welfare state.
The prophetic warnings of the Grenfell Action Group, were ignored.
The warnings of using this type of cladding was ignored.
And officials sat on reports that warned a fire like that at Grenfell could occur.
The abdication of responsibility by Government agencies to private contractors is done on purpose so that when these events occur no one is held responsible.
I bolded the really base point that we all have noticed and need to keep remembering about the iniquitous use of private contractors so that gumminit can curry patronage and influence with business, and keep their suits clean when the shit starts flying.
Statistics NZ figures released this week have confirmed that New Zealand is in recession on a per capita basis as the economy –
has declined –
for two-quarters –
when measured on this basis.
Mike Treen says:
The economy is simply not working or performing as expected.
The economy has been propped up by property speculation, growing household debt, together with strong immigration and tourism numbers. This has produced economic froth rather than a growth in the real economy.
And we are doing so well – how can that be. Nick Smith’s largeish advertisement in a Nelson newspaper says –
STRONG ECONOMY
NZ economic growth 3% and amongst strongest in the world
Nelson economy rated top performing region by ASB
100,000+ NZ job growth, average wages up by $10,000/yr
INVESTING IN INFRASTRUCTURE
$20m for broadband in Nelson
$7.5m for seafood research (probably carved off closing Invermay, Dunedin)
Work on dam and to unclog roads to port
HELPING FAMILIES GET AHEAD
30,000 Nelson families gain by $26 week from tax changes
11,000 up to $100 week from Family support
4,000 households gain increased Accommodation (AS)
BETTER PUBLIC SERVICES
24 more police 39 more ambulance officers
1,000 Nelson caregivers extra $100 pw
DHB $16m more, $17m for ECE (NZ wide?)
That list sounds so good. If people believe in representative gummint that is, if they want to participate and be taken seriously there would be an informed and wary response to these figures.
Wonder what would happen if a peaceful protest against anti-democracy the imprisonment of writers and journalists in China happened on the dock.
I’m sure the Chinese wouldn’t open fire but I suspect the New Zealand Police would be directed to move the protesters on at the Chinese Embassy’s request.
Even though Pete George wishes the Pike River families would undergo an emotional lobotomy and give up their fight to have their questions answered, the media just won’t let it go. Bet he’s furious (if that are at all possible).
Interesting state of affairs in Turkey right now with respect to the ANZAC monument at Gallipoli.
The relationship between NZ and Australia and Turkey on this has been good recently but sometimes strained by dumb Kiwi and Aussie backpackers being dick heads at the site.
Now it seems with Erdogan becoming the new Mussolini there is a breakdown of that relationship and I wouldn’t be surprised if the commemorations are cancelled for good in the not too distant future.
Certainly you couldn’t expect the statesman-like Israel apologist, Gerry Brownlee to barge in there and fix it like he’s jumping an airport gate.
Nicely put. If the Turks do restore the full text, OK… But you might be asking a bit much for Jerry to jump a gate. He could perhaps manage a short leap over a very brief red carpet, but he will probably have tried to take a short cut through the wrong door, and be in the wrong place.
I hope for the best about future Gallipoli celebrations, but I fear that we are getting far too wound-up over them here in NZ anyway. Gallipoli is becoming a glorification of war, along with Anzac day. I have less and less inclination to buy that poppy..
“It puzzles me that even in the face of Bernie Sanders’ remarkable primary campaign in the 2016 US presidential election and UK Labour’s rise under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership in the UK snap elections of a fortnight ago, that many in the NZ Left still cling to the (false consciousness) notion that centrist policies and identity politics are the way to play the game.”
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
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 ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – 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 is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
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. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
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 ...
The Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In case any of you are sharp-eyed enough to pick out the Labour MPs who organized agains him, here’s Jeremy Corbyn getting a standing ovation after the election from his colleagues as he enters parliament:
Yet he still lost
Your point?
Gosman’s the Snide Sniper.
Gosman, I see this as an exceptional result given the enormous tide of corruption and greed he stood against.
Lets not forget, the Westminster system is a FPP system and in reality the majority of votes went actually to Corbyn.
So really he did not loose but the people of Britain did.
“we might wonder why, when Northland is suffering deprivation and economic stagnation, Maraetai Drive millionaires are allowed to strip the province of its natural resources, tear up its wild places and reap outrageous profits while an apologist Government runs interference in the media.”
Despite the New Zealand Labour party being disgracefully quiet …. seemingly not endorsing or backing Jeremy corbyn and his amazing resurrection of democracy and left wing politics in the UK …….
Despite this rejection and lost opportunity by Nz Labour ….. The Nacts are exposed and weak in our coming election ….. after 9 years of dishonest rot……bare faced looting….compulsive cheating… and sloppy destructive greed …. they own all of the disgusting outcomes
Corruption , arrogance and incompetence
.Exibit A) https://publicaddress.net/envirologue/swamp-monsters-the-looting-of-northlands/ .
“when sawn lengths of swamp kauri are offered for sale on the website of Wisconsin-based furniture company Ancientwood that measure 12 metres in length, it means that, assuming someone has followed the letter of the law, they have exported timber from a tree more than twice the width of Te Matua Ngahere, the widest known living kauri at 5.2 metres across.”
Clearly, a great many swamp kauri exports are a scam, but the Government seems unwilling even to send for a tape measure. The Northland Environmental Protection Society (NEPS) has repeatedly pointed out that MPI’s own records show that it regularly rubber-stamps such improbable transactions” ….
“Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy insists … we manage it very, very closely.” ……” Really? Documents obtained under the Official Information Act by the NEPS are claimed to show that in fact, mandatory information was missing from some 80 per cent of MPI intention-to-export notices processed in 2013.”
Lets repeat that …..” , mandatory information was missing from some 80 per cent of MPI intention-to-export notices processed in 2013.
Imagine if Winz did this …… or the ministry of health …../ or immigration …… 80% fucken non compliance in the paper work. ….. Lets call it what it is …. Govt collusion with Corruption.
But It gets better … or worse …
“That one of the prominent speculators in this grey market in taonga happens to be David Wong-Tung, husband of National MP Judith Collins, should rightly raise eyebrows, along with suspicions that her involvement places the Government in an awkward spot – again. Wong-Tung is a director in Kauri Ruakaka Ltd, formerly Oravida Kauri, which has stockpiled an estimated 80,000 tonnes of logs”.. ( worth 50-400 Million )
This is lazy economic vandalism. Northland needs more high-value jobs but instead the return is is going to places like Poland
This criminal enterprise … involving greedy Vandals and Govt departments ………should be stopped immediately ….. with sackings where appropriate.
As this scam is robbing Hones electorate . He should make it one of his bottem lines before supporting any govt/coalition…
that Judiths Orvidia logs will be compulsory purchased ….at a reasonable profit margin …. But only after they have proved they were harvested legally and in compliance with relevant laws ….., If laws were broken the logs should naturally be forfieted ….as unlike Nathan Guy, one should not reward law breakers .
Orvidias stockpile should be used for the local tribe …… Not greedy grasping Judith and other rich trash with sticky fingers
Once again ….. 80% non compliance by nathan guys ministry is scandalous …..
And this govt is riddled with piss weak bad laws and crap regulations…… which they ignore.
The lack of Ecan prosecutions for polluting and stealing water resources is another example of this …. lowered standards AND no prosecutions.
Pike river ……. Charter schools ….. Carbon credits/global warming …..Bio security …. sanctions for the benefit of nazis …etc etc etc
Lowered standards ….. cheating …… non compliance …..injustice and exploitation…. war crimes.
But for electioneering purposes ….I’d focus on three or four areas …..Enviroment, Housing , health & Education…. …. prime areas of weakness the Nacts should be hammered over..
They are weak because they are shit ……
Thats why Johnny Madeoff 😉 …. Winne was going to have his head in a wine box.
I think we should acknowledge Winne as a both a King and Knight slayer….
You might have to eat your words Gosman, as it’s not looking strong and stable with the DUP, dare we say, looking more like a, Coalition of Chaos!
Yet paradoxically he got a standing ovation and Theresa May was greeted with icy silence.
Let your imagination roam free Gosman and ditch the dualism.
The gap between Tory and labour seats is larger than 2014, yet this election is called a win by Corbyn where he called 2014 a disaster, Looking to grow even larger in future with many labour electorates to disappear, up to 30 with population changes
What F**king Planet are you on?
The 2014 election was for seats on the EU parliament!
Oh! that’s right Planet Key.
Last general election then, settle petal with the language, it’s simply a date error
Seeing as you’re still wrong even after correcting yourself, I don’t really know what you’re on about…
You trolls need to be extra careful getting it right though. You open yourself up to all sorts of ridicule otherwise.
The Tories had a net loss of 13 seats and Labour had a net gain of 32 seats. In other words, the gap got smaller.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2017/jun/08/live-uk-election-results-in-full-2017
Exactly.
But you try telling that to Red.
It was close Gosman (1,1), very close. What was achieved by Jeremy Corbyn was amazing.
Corbyn shook the establishment, damaging the Tories, with the likelihood of Theresa May being replaced in the near future.
Leaving Wheresa May to balls up Brexit.
Team New Zealand take the lead in the Americas cup. Looks like we *may* have built the faster boat. It’s going to be exciting.
People sleeping cars, 90,000 NEETs, the environment being stuffed by industrial dairy, house prices averaging a million dollars etc – but that’s all right because we’ve built a faster boat!
How fatuously superficial can you get?
Hey – it is possible to enjoy something positive and not walk around in a constant state of misery.
You should try it – it will make your life a lot happier.
That’s all you talk about.
Saying nothing about the important stuff is taking the side of the oppressors.
It is clear from your actions you care more about sport than caring for the vulnerable in our society.
James,
Your comment about the Americas Cup is a deliberate wind up. You know perfectly well that this site is not really a forum for sport and was bound to generate negative comment.
I am pretty sure you also know that most of the left commenters on this site would see the Americas Cup as an elitist sport (though that is much less true of the NZ team) that they would go out of their way to avoid. So you got a perfectly predictable reaction.
While I am fan of the Cup and watched this mornings races, I wouldn’t deliberately start a flame war on The Standard on the topic.
Wayne, your comment is perfectly formed, like a well trimmed sail.
Foiling nicely Wayne.
Wayne said.@8.26 am
“left commenters on this site would see the Americas Cup as an elitist sport”
Well, it is Wayne and we get it morning noon and night, and it is taking precedence over other things.
Take TV1 News any night after about 5 minutes we are into sport be it the All Blacks doing this or that or America’s Cup that normally takes up at least 5 minutes or so of the news bulletin, to be repeated AGAIN in depth at about 6 45. Whereas other news items are either not reported or given about 10 seconds
As for being a fan, I was right up to the time it was decided the “red socks” that were originally made in the South Island, were suddenly made in China.
A good sporting gesture that was wasn’t it mate, after expecting New Zealanders to get behind and support their “elitist sport” .
James, you are well represented by National MP’s, here is one wanting to be on the harbour instead of her job representing people – yes Natz, disabled people are people too!
‘Rather be out on the harbour’ – National Party MP tweets from disability meetings
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/06/rather-be-out-on-the-harbour-national-party-mp-tweets-from-disability-meetings.html
She should resign.
Here are some twitter responses to her.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/06/rather-be-out-on-the-harbour-national-party-mp-tweets-from-disability-meetings/_jcr_content/par/image_336577672.img.full.high.jpg/v0.jpg
Ms Wagner slights the people she’s supposed to be dedicated to helping – what a very, very foolish thing to say and do. It’s little wonder National’s MPs are so often characterized as arrogant out of touch with ordinary people; in this case, extra-ordinary people. The “optics” here, as they say, are appalling.
‘Gary Farrow, a journalist and disability advocate who lives with a severe brain injury, says he is concerned about Ms Wagner’s progress with the portfolio if she is complaining about attending meetings.
“If our own Disability Issues Minister is subliminally complaining about attending meetings in Auckland, relating to exactly that portfolio, by openly commenting that she’d rather be somewhere on the harbour – which is inaccessible to many people with disabilities – then I fear for the amount of progress she’s actually aiming to achieve for the disabled community at these meetings.”
Ms Wagner has been contacted for comment.’
Bet she will be unavailable.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/06/rather-be-out-on-the-harbour-national-party-mp-tweets-from-disability-meetings.html
From the Herald.
Special Educational Needs NZ posted its disgust to Facebook.
“That’s just such a thoughtless and heartless thing to say. I’m quite sure people living with disabilities wish they could walk away from what they face every day, but they can’t, and it’s the Minister’s job to support them.”
The Green Party’s spokeswoman for disability issues Mojo Mathers, who is deaf, told Newshub the tweet was appallingly shallow.
“It really makes me question her commitment to the disability community if she’d rather be out on the harbour than in meetings with them.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11878665
Just a sample of the reaction on twitter.
‘Then resign and give your position to someone with integrity and compassion. Shame on you.’
‘Oh my gosh. Your my mp. From my area. You told me disability was your most important thing to you. You lied to me.’
‘Good idea. Please resign immediately and get out on the harbour. Stay out there.’
‘I suggest you step down then. Our communities deserve someone who wants to be there and makes a difference.’
Stupid ignorant folk who do not appreciate that there is a special class of boat designed for challenged folk to join her out on the harbour
twitering on twitter. URRRGH!
I’d rather she was out on the harbor too – [RL: Deleted. You are making a bad habit of this kind of thing. Last warning.]
We have a full blown kleptocracy – the worst in the OECD. This can be resolved through our existing formal judicial processes, in ways that will not challenge your delicate sensibilities, or it will meet with informal processes.
Crooks must be punished.
No sign of functional formal process yet.
[RL: This site has a long standing practice of moderating threats of physical violence, implicit or otherwise. This is not something you will get any wriggle room on, and if you think about it from our perspective you will understand why.]
Hey Stuart. I saw the comment before it was deleted and I laughed. It was searing black humour satire. Keep it up.
[RL Banned for one week. Moderation on this matter is not up for discussion or debate]
Awesome display by the Lions last night James. I see a 2-1 victory for them over the All Blacks. That, and not winning the Americas Cup should see soft National supporters in a gloomy mood come September, not pumped up at all by fake euphoria. Definitely looking very bad psychologically for the soft centre. Happy days!
I pick your pick is wrong. ABs will win the series – Americas cup still too close to call
I’m picking nat supporters will continue to be pretty happy – certainly a lot happier than the labour voters come September.
So your half-full glass will be flowing up over the brim, will it Lames – I mean James?
I am an enthusiastic sailor, but reading eyewash from an ignorant wally like you makes me wonder if sport is nothing more than panem et circenses.
I expect Bling is pretty nervous about the outcomes of these matches because his election hinges on it.
That’s the extent of the shallowness of the New Zealand the Nats have created.
The James equivalent in the U.K. would have chastised you for being miserable and referring to the Grenfell Tower tragedy rather than blabbing on about the Lions rugby team.
Bread and circuses.
And James loves circuses.
Not really I would have commented on it on the appropriate thread if I wanted to – this is open Mike.
What’s your view on our levels of child poverty in New Zealand?
How do we solve this?
Completely off topic and nothing to do with the subject. Poor troll attempt.
I was a yachtie but I still think you are correct Tony … but then I was interested in passage making not racing.
Good question, NZ aims to be the best at being fatuously superficial. We can and will be world class!
Especially if of your namesake is a fine sports broadcaster
How many Pasifika, Māori or women are involved in Team New Zealand?
Whats that got to with anything?
But because you are obviously a bit thick with your comment – there are a few guys on the boat – but there are 100’s of people that are employed in the shore team, as well as the people who do the admin, make parts for the boat, paint it, are involved in the shops selling ETNZ gear etc etc etc.
Thanks James. 5 women and at least 1 Māori out of 90 odd people according to the website.
http://emirates-team-new-zealand.americascup.com/en/team.html
Again so?
So I wonder what engagement\viewership is like with Māori and women then?
Are you inferring that women and Maori watching depend on the number of women and maori employed by the team ?
that’s a bit of a jump and pathetic race and sex baiting.
Women are perfectly able to watch a race without women being involved.
I doubt any Maori would say they they would like to watch but don’t because of the number of Maori employees.
james. Would you lead a haka before every cup race, if team nz don’t already do one? Say on a wharf– with all your tory mates.
Would I lead a haka? No.
And I am – thank you
Rod Emerson’s cartoon.
It seems the perfect message for you.
The message, if you’re ‘a bit thick’, is.. we are better than that.
.
https://mobile.twitter.com/rodemmerson/status/875789296728289280/photo/1
Who gives a fucking shit, and that is from a person who played a lot of sport and loved my sailing.
Someone said to me quite a few years ago that
“Sport was the opium of the masses”
I think it was a play on something Marx may have said. I am not going to look it up etc have no need
It has certainly got you well and truly you drugged up blinding you to what is really happening in this country and the world.
It’s a play on the Marx original term religion is the opium of the masses, ie be happy been poor, the king is god appointed, obey and be happy with your lot, anything else is a sin and your rewards will come in heaven Not sure really if sport is a suitable replacement, more so boring, anti sport types simply getting in a tizz because somebody else is enjoying themselves and does not want to sit around debating Marxist dialectic materialism
Once again you have fucking missed the point haven’t you I knew all about that. Have you read Marx? I have and also other shit by Ayn Rand, she should have been locked up as a threat to mankind.
What this person was implying, keep the peasantry drugged on sport and we will fuck them over without them knowing. Our pathetic excuse for news on the media is a good example of that. Has that spelt it out to you in enough simplistic terms?
What’s the betting that National are hoping that we win the America’s Cup and The All Blacks beat the shit out of the Lions to make sure we all have the “Feel Good” feeling for the next election?
As for sitting around debating Marxists dialect well, I don’t know anyone who does that and who gives a shit if they do. Who are these anti-sports types who get into a tizz? I don’t know any but I know a lot of people who are not fucking brain dead and go into a trance every time the All Blacks or America’s cup is mentioned and can see through all the bullshit that goes with it and won’t buy into the hype.
How do you know anti-sport types are boring? I have been in the company of sports enthusiasts and frankly, as a sportsman myself I have been glad to get out of their company as I have been bored shitless with the dissecting of the game, the players, the ref, and all the fucking sundry cretinous crap that goes with it.
Please, it was ‘opiate’ of the masses. Red, you pretend to know so much…
Nowhere near as exciting as when the government properly funds community groups who have been stripped of resources. Perhaps the boat bastards will donate a sizable chunk of the millions they win? No?
That’s nice for *us* jimbo.
Yeah nah, it’s a fake faster boat ‘cos this is the America’s Cup you know …
Good, I like that. “Fake speed.” I must try to use that argument during a sailing race next season. (Rowers could not use that argument, because they are all limited to looking backwards.)
…and a little well-earned post-British-election righteousness from Sanders:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/opinion/bernie-sanders-how-democrats-can-stop-losing-elections.html?src=me&_r=1
“A vast majority of Americans understand that our current economic model is a dismal failure. Who can honestly defend the current grotesque level of inequality in which the top 1 percent owns more than the bottom 90 percent? Who thinks it’s right that, despite a significant increase in worker productivity, millions of Americans need two or three jobs to survive, while 52 percent of all new income goes to the top 1 percent? What person who claims to have a sense of morality can justify the fact that the richest people in our country have a life expectancy about 15 years longer than our poorest citizens?
While Democrats should appeal to moderate Republicans who are disgusted with the Trump presidency, too many in our party cling to an overly cautious, centrist ideology. The party’s main thrust must be to make politics relevant to those who have given up on democracy and bring millions of new voters into the political process. It must be prepared to take on the right-wing extremist ideology of the Koch brothers and the billionaire class, and fight for an economy and a government that work for all, not just the 1 percent.”
… and Jeremy Corbyn,s post election speech in parliament.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW8gqWcJ_0k
Were it our leaders could speak so well, but that is the art of the British.
https://www.facebook.com/1261190663892805/videos/1743674342311099/
Suzie Dawson (Suzette Maree Dawson) is now the new ‘Leader’ of the Internet Party.
BEWARE!
This is what one of Suzette Maree Dawson’s key supporters Ben Cooney said about me on a live-streamed video of the 8 December 2012 anti-TPPA protest in Auckland – which was posted on Suzie Dawson’s PRIVATE website – Occupy Savvy.
This is why, in my opinion, decent people and genuine political activists should have NOTHING to do with either Suzie Dawson or Ben Cooney.
Penny Bright.
‘Anti-privatisation/ anti-corruption campaigner’
Political activist from 18 years old – now in my 63rd year.
Penny Bright (Penelope Mary Bright) still carrying on her weird campaign against Suzi Dawson.
Penny, i apologize for previous comments, I now understand your position here.
Very interesting talk about Afghanistan by Jon Stephenson yesterday.
That is interesting Ed give us the link. If you are going to convey every thought you have to TS at least give us info on the background details.
Link
https://gpjanz.wordpress.com/2017/06/03/hit-and-run-a-public-meeting-with-jon-stephenson/
He spoke about Afghanistan.
Thanks Ed
When I have more time, I’ll summarise.
But there is clearly more to come on this story.
Watch Theresa May tell a barefaced lie to the victims of the Grenfell Fire.
Starts at 5:23
Interviewer Emily Maitlis challenged May:
“This was preventable, wasn’t it? In 2013, a coroner had safety recommendations which included putting sprinklers in all these buildings. And it was never done. There was two types of material that could have been used in the cladding. One was flammable and one was fireproof. And the fireproof one cost £2 more. Was that not £2 worth spending?”
May replied:
“The fire service are looking are looking at what the cause of the fire was.”
Maitlis continued:
“But you were recommended this in 2013. You were in government there. And the coroner said you can stop this with a sprinkler system in every block.”
May responded with a lie:
“And the government has taken action on the recommendations of the coroner’s report.”
https://www.thecanary.co/2017/06/17/watch-theresa-may-tell-bare-faced-lie-victims-grenfell-fire/
Ignoring the report so as to increase profits is an action.
Two quotes for May ( regarding Grenfell) and English ( regarding Pike River)
“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
Haile Selassie
“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant.”
Elie Wiesel
On Radionz this morning on immigration the author of a book about NZ and immigration says something like ‘look all Auckland’s problems wouldn’t be solved if immigrants were unable to move there’. This didn’t seem to me to be an intelligent attitude to take to the problem of how many, whom, doing what, from where and other questions about immigration. The theme seemed to be laissez faire and they can help with the problems they cause. Housing shortage? Bring in workers to help build them. With incisive minds like this at work, I can see NZ’s borders being the subject of rorts and changeable policies, none of them driven by good thinking.
I notice that many of the initiatives being carried forward arise from the ideas, energy and enthusiasm of immigrants, recent or from late 1900s. But there are billions of people out there and there has to be some reasoned control. Of do we just divide NZ up into grids of 20 sqm and hock them off on the basis of a flyer of romantic views from the 1950s. We need to listen to the views of those pragmatic people who are concerned about now to 2050.
Audio will come up for – 9.35 Attitudes to immigration
David Hall is a senior researcher at the Policy Observatory at AUT and editor of Fair Borders, Migration Policy in the 21st century. He discusses New Zealanders’ changing attitudes to immigration.
He got the point that fixing the underlying causes of all the issues is the way to go not blame immigrants.
We’re not blaming the immigrants. We’re blaming the governments gross negligence in not planning for the huge immigration that they’ve allowed or even asking questions about how many immigrants we can support. Yes, support, immigration is expensive in the short term.
Really? How much does the average immigrant cost?
That would depend upon how much of the resources we have available needs to be diverted to build up the infrastructure to support them. A diversion of resources is a real cost because it means that something else can’t be done.
A lot of the mess we have today is because the government hasn’t been building that needed infrastructure or even planning for it.
“$20.190 million to look after 750 refugees last year”
https://thestandard.org.nz/how-much-does-new-zealand-spend-on-refugees/
“Migrants’ parents cost NZ ‘tens of millions'”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/315435/migrants%27-parents-cost-nz-%27tens-of-millions%27
Refugees aren’t migrants. Totally different basket of fish.
And the second story was about immigration controls being imposed against groups that might cost money in the long term, so hardly evidence that all immigration is expensive in the short term, even if they contribute more overall in the longer term.
Funny, because I thought you meant “expensive in the short term” as in “costs more money than they bring in and produce”.
Because otherwise they’re not a cost, they’re a benefit – the opportunity cost of not having them is worse than the opportunity cost of “supporting” them.
If they bring children, it can cost more than the taxes they pay. 9k p.a. for free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds (no residency criteria for this, so they are all eligible), and for those children who are eligible for free public education (dependents of work visa holders), it costs nearly 6k p.a. for primary and nearly 8k for high school.
Not that I begrudge the education, but there are soberly costs that can outweigh the taxes paid.
Ok, so in some cases it might. So how much does the average immigrant cost?
The average immigrant is a visitor on a visitor visa, followed by working holidaymakers – since they pay GST, we come out well ahead fiscally.
If you’re talking about standard work visas, without family, we come out ahead as long as there are no serious medical problems or accidents. With families including children, it is based heavily on family income, but wages need to be well over 40K for taxes to pay for one child in primary school (this is complicated by GST).
which is why we have a points system for long term immigration.
Two point:
1. Far better to measure things in physical terms. Makes it far easier to measure costs than through our delusional financial system.
2. It does cost more in the short term than they bring in and produce. After all they don’t bring in anything and so we need to support them until they’re producing.
Which is debatable considering the very real physical limits we actually exist within which you seem to be ignoring.
1: ok, so you have a “far better” measure, but still can’t actually answer the question
2: So now nobody imports cash or a container of goods or maybe even 20 years’ training and experience when they immigrate? Bullshit on that.
3: if it’s so debatable, why are you having so much difficulty supporting what was a pretty specific claim: that immigrants are a cost in the short term?
1. It’s complicated. When immigrants first come into the country they need to be supported from the resources we have and the infrastructure. If the infrastructure isn’t in place then it costs in ways such as higher drive times, over loaded buses and, of course, building the new infrastructure. These costs will go away over time as they’re addressed which is why I said ‘short term’. But when there’s ongoing excessive immigration, as we have now, then those short term costs exist all the time and get worse exponentially.
2. Cash is nothing – it only buys what we have available at that time reducing what’s available to everyone else and probably pushing up inflation thus is a cost. How many immigrants, as a percentage, come with a container load of goods? Doubt if it’s many. 20 years experience is great – once they start producing more than it cost to import them.
3. I’m not having difficulty doing that at all. Even Treasury, that bastion of neo-liberalism and high population and the immigration to get it now say that excessive immigration is costing us more than it benefits us.
So basically you don’t know how much they bring in with them, you refuse to count cash, and you’re just assuming that the costs outweigh the benefits in the short term.
And you’re appealing to the authority of Treasury, without backing it up.
Solid argumentation you got there /sarc
No I don’t as I haven’t seen it published anywhere.
Have you?
I don’t refuse to count it so much as consider it to have a negative effect according to standard supply and demand.
There are costs – I even listed some of them. In the short term those costs will outweigh the benefits. That’s just the nature of costs.
You’re assuming that there’s no costs at all which is ridiculous and dangerous.
It’s been reported several times in the MSM and here. My mistake in assuming that you, being the political animal that you are, would have seen it. Here you are:
All of those are costs that apply until they’re addressed (and Treasury either missed some or they weren’t reported). The problem being that they’re not being addressed and so the costs to our society keep going up.
No, but then I’m not the one who made the proclamation that one outweighs the other “in the short term”
Yeah, you’re the first person I’ve encountered who thinks that bringing money in to the local economy is a negative.
No, I merely asked you to back up your claim that any “costs” outweighed the benefits of immigration “in the short term”.
could, in the specific case of low-skilled migrants. So, basically, again not support for your claim that immigration is expensive in the short term.”
The problem with the planned economy is the plan is usually out of date the day the ink dries or predicated on dodgy data or to the benefit corrupt or idealogically driven select few of the ruling statist elite. The result a massive inefficient allocation of resources, The history of the Soviet Union, China ( the Great Leap Forward) are good cases in point, likewise Nz up to the last 5 years we had net negative immigration, ie people leaving under auntie Helens labour government to Australia, it is only the success of a nationsl government turning the exit around and now requiring time for the market and to a lesser degree the government to catch up I do agree if on the rare chance we get a labour government again this will fix the immigration issue but again making any grand plan redundant, further cementing my original point
That’s why plans always need to be updated.
National seems to be keen on dodgy data hence all the lies
National is king of corruption as well.
Actually, the free-market does really inefficient allocation of resources. That’s why we have so much poverty, why 29 workers died in Pike River, why our health system is being under funded and why our electricity prices are going up.
You really like lying to yourself don’t you?
The reason why net migration is up is because NZers are returning home because they’re no longer getting work overseas. Ten years later and the GFC is still having that sort of effect. It’s why Australia is busy kicking NZers out.
Nobody seems to be able to look at the facts and agree that there are too many people coming into NZ for our ability to provide the services all need.
Or that there is a chronic shortage of housing which is exacerbated by the many. Or that there needs to be opportunity for a place for those NZs who want to return home. Or that there needs to be fairer treatment of those encouraged to apply for immigration. The government has behaved abysmally to people caught up in rorts, to changes in policy that apply immediately and exclude people who are almost accepted, and who have paid huge fees. It is just a pig’s muddle and reading the comments picking up on various details and concentrating on one or two aspects indicates how hard it is for reasoned, thoughtful discussion and policy planning.
The guy wrote a book and was interviewed on the radio – he knows what he is talking about, perhaps more people should listen to experts instead of just thinking and saying it.
The type of experts that say that having massive poverty and wealth inequality is good?
Because that does seem to be the type of person who was interviewed.
I have trouble with experts who continue to advise policies that have caused more trouble than the good that the experts predicted. It tends to indicate that the expert is following ideology rather than reality.
You, like key, have trouble if the experts don’t agree with your preset view.
Have you read his book or listened to the interview?
Too harsh – I withdraw and apologize.
I have trouble with experts who continue to promote policies that are obviously contrary to reality.
There’s a cost benefit ratio to immigration but if the costs aren’t met while immigration remains high then the problems mount exponentially.
For the last few years the government hasn’t met the costs and built the necessary infrastructure and so the problems caused by this have been spiralling out of control. From what I can make out they haven’t built enough infrastructure to support our own internal growth never mind the added growth from immigration.
Now that people are demanding that the government do address this we’ve got people, who are ignoring reality, saying that we must maintain those failed policies.
Yes I know your argument. There are other views and they are mixed not just white or black. You are just one limited person with a fixed view.
If those views to not match reality then they’re not valid views.
It really is that simple. And so far I’ve seen very few that match the reality of our limited resources.
I do not see that DTBs view limited and it is fixed on the reality not some airy fairy kind hearted view or some practical view that sees immigrants doing wonderfully for NZ. A relative is in Wellington hospital at present and says that 50% or so of nurses seem to be Filipinos and how would the DHB which apparently has got rid of a big debt, manage without them.
This is our dilemma, that the whole system has got out of whack and if people keep jumping in and criticising anyone who critiques it, how can we turn it to a better level, we have to think and notch it down somewhat.
We are so close to being a third world country run by the porcine few who indulge themselves, usually colonials who like being petty dictators in their small pond.
Very good podcast on Under the Skin with Russell Brand, interviewing Yanis Varoufakis.
https://youtu.be/BX7JDLkYMWc
Yanis Varoufakis has been working on the Democracy in Europe Movement, DiEM25 and has been working on a collective vision for promoting a representative democracy.
Just got around to reading the foreign trust registration articles from a few days ago.
Now I understand that these trusts essentially pay no tax in NZ so why is the taxpayer funding the IRD (NZH “officials here are providing support when they can,”) to help these trusts sort out their obligations.
I’d like to think the IRD is charging a swinging fee for the assistance or is this just another case of the poor subsiding some rich bludgers.
Part of me also regrets the lost opportunity of levying a solid tax on them before they depart.
And by the way what happens if they don’t register? How do we know they have stopped operating?
NZFirst pushing to reintroduce a legal defence for bashing your kids. Great bedfellows Labour’s courting https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/q-and-a/clips/extras/10-years-so-called-anti-smacking-bill
You can’t beat a dog into obedience, what the hell’s wrong with these people who think you can do it to kids?
I’m pretty sure that Labour isn’t actually courting them but, ATM, the chances are that a Labour led government will include NZFirst.
Of course they are. You don’t dogwhistle about brown students unless you’re trying to suck up to Winnie. And i know, i know, you’re going to say “it’s not about the students it’s not about race” but that’s exactly what Andrew Little himself has said – bad immigrants coming here living in houses taking jobs. Open your eyes.
It’s not sucking up to Winnie – it’s acknowledging that our high immigration rates are causing problems. The fact that Winnie has been saying this for years should have you considering that maybe he was right on this. Especially when Treasury, that bastion of neo-liberalism and promoter of immigration and high population, is saying the same thing.
It seems to be you who needs to open your eyes and rejoin reality.
Nope Little and Labour are not saying that at all Wainwright – but there is an issue with lazy immigration and congestion and housing shortages in Auckland, and looks like the public agree, because apparently Labour/Green past National in the latest polls. Someone has to do something, if you live in Auckland! National’s plan is to pretend all is well! Even if you are some neoliberal robot, productivity will be down as it’s taking 4 hours to get anywhere.
As for students, how about developing overseas students degrees outside of Auckland in places that could do with more people. REMOVE for every low level qualification a 25% chance of permanent residency. Let the course (NOT funded by taxpayers) speak for itself. If it’s a good course the overseas students will come won’t they?
The Auckland migrants themselves are saying there’s a big problem – are they racist too?
Don’t mind Winston on a lot of issues, but it’s a step too far to allow beating your kids to be legal again…. The people with the problem, can’t understand the nuances.
Yep nzfirst are low scum. I never thought anyone would be into bashing their kids. These hurtful people deserve odium in the extreme.
Come on MM ….it is not letting folk ‘bash’ their kids … that is emotional twaddle …. but rather sensible in the situation it occurs in … the discipline of children.
I experienced both stupid bad abuse and fair discipline in my youth but it would take too long to describe it. we need a law which differenciates between abuse and discipline.
No. There is no need to hit children – no good comes from it ever imo.
If you use violence to discipline then you are way way off base.
+1 marty mars
With all of the problems that NZ is facing at the moment, there seems to be no logic in NZ First bringing this issue back which will do nothing to alleviate child abuse. A binding referendum would also be perceived as a waste of money Although NZ First might gain some votes from this, I think that they will possibly lose an equal amount. However they might gain more votes from National conservatives, and turn off potential voters straying from Labour/Greens.
Yep – some random at a meeting has had a go at whynee and he has decided there are votes in it – with luck it will sink them.
+1 Marty.
It was Conservative Party policy at the last election so NZF are presumably hoping to pick up their votes. Hopefully it will lose them more votes than they gain.
And that’s what the research shows as well.
A good parent rarely has need of it but it is there, or should be, as a final deterent and rarely used and not make somebody using it a criminal.
a final deterrent?
SMACK – I told you to stop hitting your brother.
SMACK – I told you to not go near the road especially when I’m on facebook and can’t concentrate on where you are.
SMACK – I have many anger issues which I am taking out on you my child – but hey at least I’m not hitting some random kid eh.
NZ First is trying to pick up the Conservative/ACT party hard right vote, swing right on law and order.
Personally for, NZF lost any chance of getting a vote from when they came out as being against the use of 1080.
Antarctica Is Melting, and Giant Ice Cracks Are Just the Start
How about this for NZ polls status from The Daily Blog.
The latest UMR internal fortnightly Poll from Labour taken between 7th June – 15th June paints a completely different picture.
This was taken after the criticism of the budget and after Labour’s foreign student cutback policy.
National 42% (down 2)
Labour 32% (up 2)
Greens 13% n/c
NZF 9% n/c
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/06/16/breaking-umr-poll-national-42-labourgreen-45/
That’s an internal poll, right? Are they seen in the same light as other polls?
Yes and yes.
The internal poll was being compared to a previous poll which showed an entirely different picture which has been explained by first euphoria from the budget which is now fading. Martyn Bradbury says:
The latest TV3 Poll putting Labour on 26% and National on 47% would have been pretty depressing.
It shouldn’t be.
The Poll was taken in the sugar high of the fawning media’s description of National’s budget as left wing and family friendly before the real criticism of how National have actually underfunded health by the tune of $2.3 billion was out.
That puts some context on it. A big difference between the two. Poll watchers will be able to assess better than me.
And political watchers will have heard that Bryce Edwards thinks that young people aren’t going to be enticed to vote.
He told The Project on Friday that the youth vote could only make a difference “if political parties were actually giving out policies that engaged and attracted youth”.
Mr Edwards says it’s not young people’s fault that they’re not turning out to vote. Instead he says: “It’s actually the politicians that have failed, it’s the political system that’s failed and we should be pointing at them.
“It’s the politicians that need to be more engaging, they need to be actually offering a product that youth want to buy if you like. They need to be actually stepping up to the plate and coming up with something a bit more inspiring.”
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/06/academic-predicts-a-youth-yawn-in-new-zealand-election.html
Dr Bryce Edwards is an academic expert and well-known commentator and columnist but nevertheless I think he’s omitted a few important things. [Disclaimer: the video didn’t work for me so I go on the written text only]
The so-called “Jeremy Corbyn effect” cannot be seen in isolation but should be viewed and discussed in the unique context that is, among other things: Brexit & EU, Theresa May, recent terrorist atrocities, snap election.
Secondly, I think there are plenty of policies on the Left that would appeal to young(er) voters.
Thirdly, youths have a very strongly developed sense of fairness and equality and doing the right thing for their fellow humans or the environment, for example; they are definitely not the moral vacuoli that they are often painted as. If they get sufficiently enraged this could act as a powerful trigger to get them to vote against what enrages them, e.g. the establishment and rage against the machine. With youth unemployment as high as always and limited prospects for improvement I’d like to think that the youth vote is for the taking.
Fourthly, it might now be more acceptable (‘cool’) for young people to vote and flex their political muscle and make a stand.
By not mentioning the Corbyn policy of eliminating student loans, Edwards helped to foster the illusion that Corbyn’s popularity with youth is some kind of mystical charismatic effect like Key’s. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Indeed, I thought it was bordering on bias by Bryce …
A poll is only as good as its subjects being polled and more importantly how questions are framed …. I Anyway only an average of polls is likely to have any real meaning. Currently all polls are questionable from recent reading.
Martyn Bradbury in TDB
The horror of Grenfell Tower is matched only by the rising fury at the way London’s working class, migrant, disabled and old were betrayed by failed capitalism and a mutilated welfare state.
The prophetic warnings of the Grenfell Action Group, were ignored.
The warnings of using this type of cladding was ignored.
And officials sat on reports that warned a fire like that at Grenfell could occur.
The abdication of responsibility by Government agencies to private contractors is done on purpose so that when these events occur no one is held responsible.
I bolded the really base point that we all have noticed and need to keep remembering about the iniquitous use of private contractors so that gumminit can curry patronage and influence with business, and keep their suits clean when the shit starts flying.
500 dead at Grenfell?
https://www.ft.com/content/33a32fec-52b3-11e7-bfb8-997009366969
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/06/17/525600/500-residents-died-in-London-tower-fire-
Statistics NZ figures released this week have confirmed that New Zealand is in recession on a per capita basis as the economy –
has declined –
for two-quarters –
when measured on this basis.
Mike Treen says:
The economy is simply not working or performing as expected.
The economy has been propped up by property speculation, growing household debt, together with strong immigration and tourism numbers. This has produced economic froth rather than a growth in the real economy.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/06/18/danger-the-economic-bubble-is-bursting/
And we are doing so well – how can that be. Nick Smith’s largeish advertisement in a Nelson newspaper says –
STRONG ECONOMY
NZ economic growth 3% and amongst strongest in the world
Nelson economy rated top performing region by ASB
100,000+ NZ job growth, average wages up by $10,000/yr
INVESTING IN INFRASTRUCTURE
$20m for broadband in Nelson
$7.5m for seafood research (probably carved off closing Invermay, Dunedin)
Work on dam and to unclog roads to port
HELPING FAMILIES GET AHEAD
30,000 Nelson families gain by $26 week from tax changes
11,000 up to $100 week from Family support
4,000 households gain increased Accommodation (AS)
BETTER PUBLIC SERVICES
24 more police 39 more ambulance officers
1,000 Nelson caregivers extra $100 pw
DHB $16m more, $17m for ECE (NZ wide?)
That list sounds so good. If people believe in representative gummint that is, if they want to participate and be taken seriously there would be an informed and wary response to these figures.
Grey, just looking at your comments getting stuck in moderation. Are you always on the same device, or sometimes commenting from more than one?
Always same. And I do mean to carry out forensics.
It’s been going on for a long time.
Has anybody read “Dream Hoarders” by Richard Reeves?
“How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do about It”
The government has published a guide for overseas investors interested in profiting from the fast-growing Maori economy.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/93790386/investor-drive-key-to-lifting-maori-incomes-by-20-per-cent
Nicky Wagner will be on the naughty step for some time having distracted from Bling’s glorious tunnel opening.
I guess we’ll have to wait till 23 Sep to find out whether there’s light at the end of the tunnel that is costing us a lot more than $1.4 billion.
Have they come to protect their citizens’ New Zealand property rights?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11878768
Wonder what would happen if a peaceful protest against anti-democracy the imprisonment of writers and journalists in China happened on the dock.
I’m sure the Chinese wouldn’t open fire but I suspect the New Zealand Police would be directed to move the protesters on at the Chinese Embassy’s request.
Even though Pete George wishes the Pike River families would undergo an emotional lobotomy and give up their fight to have their questions answered, the media just won’t let it go. Bet he’s furious (if that are at all possible).
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/06/new-pike-footage-shows-no-sign-of-inferno.html
There already is a Furious Pete!
The Pike River story is so sad and just keeps dragging on; people need closure!
Interesting state of affairs in Turkey right now with respect to the ANZAC monument at Gallipoli.
The relationship between NZ and Australia and Turkey on this has been good recently but sometimes strained by dumb Kiwi and Aussie backpackers being dick heads at the site.
Now it seems with Erdogan becoming the new Mussolini there is a breakdown of that relationship and I wouldn’t be surprised if the commemorations are cancelled for good in the not too distant future.
Certainly you couldn’t expect the statesman-like Israel apologist, Gerry Brownlee to barge in there and fix it like he’s jumping an airport gate.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2017/06/turkish-government-says-it-didn-t-destroy-anzac-monument.html
Nicely put. If the Turks do restore the full text, OK… But you might be asking a bit much for Jerry to jump a gate. He could perhaps manage a short leap over a very brief red carpet, but he will probably have tried to take a short cut through the wrong door, and be in the wrong place.
I hope for the best about future Gallipoli celebrations, but I fear that we are getting far too wound-up over them here in NZ anyway. Gallipoli is becoming a glorification of war, along with Anzac day. I have less and less inclination to buy that poppy..
Pablo at Kiwipolitico says:
“It puzzles me that even in the face of Bernie Sanders’ remarkable primary campaign in the 2016 US presidential election and UK Labour’s rise under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership in the UK snap elections of a fortnight ago, that many in the NZ Left still cling to the (false consciousness) notion that centrist policies and identity politics are the way to play the game.”
http://www.kiwipolitico.com/2017/06/still-think-it-is-all-about-postmodern-identity/
Puzzled is he? Vexed by all that newfangled “postmodernism” guff?
Pablo needs a good talking to about why gradualist change, left or right, has been the New Zealand preference for 6 elections in a row.
And probably the reason why about a million voters didn’t see any reason to vote in the last election.
Oh and the video Pablo links to at bottom is an absolute doozy:
https://www.facebook.com/thedeepleft/videos/649061075299366/?pnref=story