No wonder workers get exploited- It is sooo difficult to turn a profit, almost not worth being in business. Just as well that one party is promising to rescind and minimum wage increase so such businesses will become MORE profitable. Now if we can only protect those workers being exploited under visa requirements.
That poor Mr. Singh. My heart goes out to him. How is he ever going to complete his unnecessarily opulent home now that he's no longer able to siphon the wages of his indentured servants via threats of deportation? And he's been disowned by Super Liquor. Dear me. It's all a ghastly nightmare. I wonder if he's considered setting up a GoFundMe page to see him through these turbulent waters?
Seriously, he should be in prison. This guy has form for this crap, and he's shitting on his own people. How he's regarded as a 'prominent person in the Sikh community' while pulling stunts like this is anyone's guess. Singh and people like him should be fined into penury and prohibited from running a business for the rest of their natural lives. And his wife looks as though she's happily complicit.
It would "shift the onus of proof", says Keene, and could lead to "more equal" outcomes – and might have made a difference in Jazmine Bell's case.
"The alleged perpetrator could be required to describe how they knew the other person was consenting throughout the process, so, for example, if the victim was asleep or unconscious, they would need to demonstrate why they thought they had obtained enthusiastic consent from the other person," she explains.
"This pretence that A and B are unimportant marginal figures is very odd. Both had in fact been considered outstanding professionals for the OPCW throughout their careers, and have many written notes commending the quality of their work. They were rehired – something the OPCW very rarely does – because the OPCW needed their experience.
The OPCW says they were rehired on a lower grade from the one they had previously held. It does not say that this was because the old higher grade had been abolished, and so it was no reflection on the two men’s skills and competence."
Hitchens , a long time anti-Assadist says there is more to come
I haven't followed this story much (the ME being a Deccan Death Trap where the truth crawls off to die) … but I must confess to considerable sadness at seeing an important UN organisation being subverted on such an important matter.
When people are punished for telling the truth, everyone else around them very quickly learns to tell nothing but lies.
Thanks for the link francesca, I notice that one of the big pushers of the original narrative our very own RNZ National, have remained very very quite on this story…
I have just been sitting in the lunch room flicking through a copy of Manufacturing Consent that just arrived in the shop, I read it a long time ago, it has lost none of it's power or relevance..it should be required reading at secondary school IMO.
They don't. Your tax dollers are specially selected out and used to pay for Winstons personal Wiskey collection. You can change to who your taxes are contributed by emailing, spending-programs-which-dont-exist@govt.nz at any time.
Personally – I would prefer not having my tax dollars pay for roads that Chris T drives on to get to his work computer and disseminate odd opinions. But I'm not six years old any more, accept that in the scheme of things my personal preferences don't amount to much, and that we have this thing called a society that we have to make work without killing each other.
The idea of Chris's taxes paying for anything makes no sense what-so-ever. The govt controls and operates the accounts which record these transactions of course but if they wish to change the numbers in the account entries they can just do so without needing to ask permission. Essentially we are just discussing changes in spreadsheet entries.
So apparently the Spinoff-Twitter crowd just got one of the world’s most famous left wing philosophers and animal rights activists cancelled?
I always thought that Peter Singer’s remarks about sentience in babies born disabled vs animals were made to serve his argument towards the improved treatment of animals, not the worse treatment of disabled people… it’s an argument supposed to induce a moral shock in readers. Should we ban a Modest Proposal next?
Singer’s comments were not meant to be satire but they were firmly about improved animal welfare and anyone who thinks otherwise is a moron…
“It’s a similar realm to Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneaux in that it’s about a ‘supreme race’…"
What! OMG I guess the only response in this intellectually impoverished day-and-age is an emoji.
Singer takes utilitarian to its logical end point, to the point of reductio ad absurdum, to call out specious arguments about human superiority based on arguments relating to sentience and quality of life, not in order to argue for infanticide.
Whoever is responsible for this should get a job running black ops for Fonterra.
This is perhaps, hands down, the stupidest and most counter-productive thing the “left” have done this year – so far.
I'm assuming that you have failed to provide a link to the Spinoff article because, like, disabled people who discuss Singer's warped attitudes are like, moronic?
My excuse is that I haven't been able to paste the link from my phone.
The Spinoff article is more than well worth a read and Red Nicholson nails it.
OK I can't help myself so I will quickly make a few points.
First, in response to your putting words in my mouth is saying:
"…disabled people who discuss Singer's warped attitudes are like, moronic?"
You are half right. Disabled people who discuss Singer's attitudes can be morons. They can also discover black holes from their wheelchairs. They can also get drunk and repeatedly drive their wheelchairs into their wives or nurses.
Judgement of a person's arguments or moral character does not come into my assessment of disabled people. I wouldn't want to prejudice them by suggesting they require me to treat them with kid gloves when the fact they can't walk, for example, has little to do with their potential to become one of the greatest living physicists.
By the same token, I won't pretend that because you have some diminished physical capacity that you can't be an asshole.
Second, to quickly address where Red Nicholson goes wrong from the get-go.
Nicholson writes "In 1979’s Practical Ethics, Singer wrote that the value of a life should be based on “rationality, autonomy and self-consciousness”.
That should Nicholson inserts is very important.
Singer does not write that the value of a life should be based on “rationality, autonomy and self-consciousness.
Singer is arguing within a specific philosophical tradition, utilitarianism, which variously argues that maximizing pleasure (higher, lower – it varies) is the end individuals and societies should aim for. He then argues for an expansion of our field of moral concern: to encompass people who we are not related to directly or by tribe or by nation, and also for non human beings. Controversially, he points to arguments about human superiority over animals based on sentience, as superior sentience is argued by some – like lots of utilitarians – to have a bearing on a human or non-human's persons capacity for pleasure.
There are arguments within utilitarianism which support the position that INDIVIDUAL sentience or capacity are less relevant to one's ability to experience pleasure, or a happy society.
There are also arguments outside of that tradition which argue for value on different grounds. In saying that, most utilitarians agree that human beings have inherent value. I can't remember what John Stuart Mill wrote about that off the top of my head but I will look it up.
Nicholson needs to work out what he is grappling with before he jumps into the arena because without doing that he could end up mischaracterizing a very deep thinker and contribute to getting him banned… by a gambling venue.
A copy of Practical Ethics should anyone want to read a book that presumably should be banned alongside Mein Kampf:
You know Billy when you make an argument – it's consider good form to attribute the right quote to the right people.
Strawman arguments are also a bit boorish as well – which general make me feel you have the need to full up space, and/or you know your wrong so you gotta make shit up, to knock it down.
Hi Adam, where's the wrong attribution? I quoted directly from the Spinoff article.
In that article, as I pointed out, Nicholson characterizes Singer as someone who advocates euthanasia for disabled people. I referred to Singer’s book and the passage from where Nicholson took and then altered the partial quote, turning it into a different sort of statement: as advocacy. Nicholson’s mischaracterization is the strawman argument here.
I’m not sure your response is in good faith.
It’s not “philosophical wank”, as someone claimed, to seek to right the way a philosopher’s position has been misrepresented. The later is, or worse.
Singer states quite clearly in a number of sources, primary and secondary, that that his questions around personhood "[are] a way of getting people involved in species membership. And try and get them to break this automatic nexus between species membership and moral status."
It was the author of the piece, not Red Nicholson, who wrote that sentence you quoted.
If you do take the time to go back and actually read the Spinoff article entire, you might just come to realize that Singer has a serious issue with disability.
Thanks Rosemary. I attributed something written by Leonie Hayden to Red Nicholson, who was quoted later in Hayden’s opinion piece. My mistake.
My criticism of that passage stands. My attribution did not affect my point.
My point was that the author put a spin on Singer's words in the original text, to which I linked. It's not the only passage that was coloured Singer’s arguments in that way.
Singer argues for the radical expansion of our definition of personhood and not for eugenics.
It’s true that Singer has stated that 28 day postpartum infanticide is acceptable. He also notes that this is already common practice in hospitals, and that parents frequently choose to abort severely disabled children up until late term, suggesting that infanticide is a lot less controversial in reality. I expect to see you with a picket sign outside an abortion clinic or hospital with the radical Catholics and the Evangelicals some day soon.
If you had actually sat down and read Practical Ethics you would have seen that Singer as a strong Utilitarian places no limit on abortion and struggles to find limits to getting rid of people who have major degenerative diseases.
Utilitarians like Singer are a pain in the ass, and as a general rule philosophers – particularly Utilitarians – have no place getting their mitts on the levers of power.
If you want to see a full-on Fordist hardass utilitarian really get their hands on power and see what they do with it, have a good look at McNamara planning the bombing of Vietnam in The Fog Of War. It's in his own words so there's no misinterpretation.
Not also Singer’s version of sentience based on self-consciousness means dealing with beings lower down the food-chain you can essentially harvest things for food, or otherwise use them as resource. As soon as you conceive of things as resource, as Heidegger reminded us, the more the entire world gets used up fast.
Singer has no concept of being.
Essentially everything starts to look like food.
So before you start having another good wank quoting philosphical passages at someone with a severely disabled dependent who has been doing so for many years (as in Rosemary's case), suck it up first and be more careful.
Thanks I was idly thinking about a response myself, but that's far better than I would have done. Utilitarian's are a refined form of materialism. Yes humans have to do business with the material world, but to pretend this is sufficient leads to terrible places.
Utilitarians are very valuable philosophers, in that they don't work on the principle that Homo Sapiens is the be-all and end-all of the Universe. The ability to step outside the automatic self-interest of your own species is a rare talent and a useful one. At the very least, utilitarians force us to think about the basis of our morality and what rational arguments there are for it. Unsurprisingly, people who think humanity is the pinnacle of evolution or God's special creation hate utilitarians, but that's their business.
Those are all fair points, but I don't think Singer can be lumped in with McNamara.
I sympathize with the difficulties you must have. And I can see how even a hint of these arguments could cause offense. Though, the arguments Singer makes around this are about logical inconsistencies with utilitarianism, for animal welfare (and the welfare of people not in your tribe).
I would like to unpick your response a bit because there are problems with it but I don’t have time at present.
So apparently the Spinoff-Twitter crowd just got one of the world’s most famous left wing philosophers and animal rights activists cancelled?
Yep. On the one hand it's refreshing to see philosophers once again considered a threat to established social order with their unpopular ideas, on the other hand it sucks to see the growth of intolerance, authoritarianism, anti-intellectualism and irrationality in our society.
NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—In an apparently successful attempt to get under the skin of Donald Trump, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has purchased Greenland from Denmark.
In an official statement released on Tuesday, the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, would not disclose the price that Bloomberg paid for Greenland but indicated that it was an “all-cash offer.”
“Mr. Bloomberg has a lot of money,” Frederiksen added.
News of Bloomberg’s purchase of Greenland reportedly infuriated Trump, who immediately ordered his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to make an offer to buy the Faroe Islands from Denmark.
Within minutes, however, Denmark rebuffed Kushner’s bid. “We do not believe Donald Trump is capable of running the Faroe Islands,” Frederiksen said.
As for Bloomberg, his campaign released a brief statement about the historic purchase of the 836,330-square-mile landmass, saying only, “Mike gets it done.”
Singer may know about animals but he is blatantly ignorant about disability and the value of being human. He echoes common stereotypes but his extremism with them is even more socially harmful.
Singer said it was disappointing that a speaking tour that was meant to be about the benefits of "effective altruism" has instead become focussed on infanticide.
He said he supported laws that ban hate speech against any group of people but he did not see his views as being in that category.
Saying it is good to kill a class of people because you do not see any value in their life seems pretty hateful from here. Be really brave, dude, and make it about race or gender, go on.
He is welcome to spitefully mutter into a beer at his local but no way is a public platform justified. Not adding anything new or useful. Others have already done it 'better'.
The trouble with "hate speech" is that people think it necessarily involves hate. Not so. People calmly doing a job can also utter or commit the most vile things, with no particular emotion or desire any more than one would file an invoice.
… he is blatantly ignorant about disability and the value of being human.
I couldn't comment on what he knows about disability, but a lot of his work is about what "the value of being human" actually means and what arguments there are for that value being significantly higher than the value of being something else. Doing that is one of the tasks of philosophy, and the fact that people don't like having to contemplate the basis and merit of their morality doesn't make philosophy "hate speech."
I'm not aware that Singer has suggested anyone should be euthanised. That would be political advocacy rather than philosophical argument, and would surely have been widely publicised.
I did, which is why I'm wondering about these accusations that he advocates killing people. Recognising that there's a philosophical argument for infanticide not being unethical under some circumstances is not advocating for infanticide. Feeling strongly about something doesn't given a person the right to misrepresent what the object of their anger is saying.
He doesn't. Our society has decided that the magic point at which someone achieves personhood is birth. Catholics believe the magic point occurs much earlier. Singer has said it is acceptable to terminate a newborn 28 days postpartum, and noted that it is common practice in hospitals today to let severely disabled children die. Personhood for him should include animals. He’s not an advocate for eugenics.
If you do believe in abortion, at which point is personhood achieved by the fetus or infant, or when falls the magic point at which termination is no longer acceptable, and why?
If you can’t provide an answer, you have no business preventing a philosopher who has considered these questions deeply from holding a talk on those and many other matters of profound ethical, social, cultural and political importance.
But doctors decide when people should die all the time.
When they give cancer patients a push-button controller for fatal doses of morphine. When they decide to stop treating someone, including a severely disabled child. Sometimes guardians or partners give their input. When a baby is in an incubator, at what point should we decide to turn that incubator off?
What if the advancement of medical technology meant that hospitals could keep every baby born alive artificially? Should hospitals keep every baby born alive, even if they are so severely disabled that they would otherwise die? Many disabled people rely on medical technology without which they would be dead. Some people are unable to communicate whether they want to continue living.
It seems to me that if it is not going to end well, we should at least have the best reasons for those decisions. And the public deserves forums in which those arguments can be aired – or should it be left up to the DHB’s accountants? Abortion legislation has passed through Parliament and been quite contentious. Battles over health funding are never going to go away. Those battles should have informed public input.
If you feel you're decending into Alice territory, take the hand of Harriet McBryde Johnson (a link to her article in the NYT is in the Spinoff piece for your convenience).
Walk with her through the maze, and perhaps drag yourself from the mire.
The self-appointed woke left have just cancelled perhaps the world’s most important moral and environmental philosopher who was in the country to give a talk on our collective duty to address global poverty.
Furthermore, they were content to advocate the silencing of this radical voice without even bothering to understand what he was actually saying. They’re not even willing, seemingly, to address the same difficult questions, which are unavoidable.
If you count yourself among this group you are a reactionary narcissist and not a leftist.
If there's no place for Peter Singer there's no place for me.
Hey, Billy, nobody from the left has cancelled Singer's visit. He's only lost a venue. He could still turn up and give his talk in another venue or even on a soapbox in Albert Park for that matter. If he doesn't front, it's entirely his own decision.
@Sacha – it seems sometimes a reply can be made to a comment at the bottom nesting level – I was really bummed when weka slipped one in above my "Bowelly" comment a while back and totally ruined the flow. Maybe it's when a reply is made from some mobile devices?
@Andre – I wonder if it might be the same person replying to themself that gets treated differently? Not a standard WordPress platform behaviour as far as I know.
Stuff report Jami Lee Ross and the 3 others, Yikun Zhang, Shijia Zheng, and Hengjia Zheng have had name suppression lifted. No surprises there then I guess. Poor little "Beijing Bridges" will be putting on his ballet shoes right now, ready for a bit of Pin Head dancing.
Be interesting to learn what offence(s) each of the four individuals involved has been charged with. I believe at the time of the donations, JLR was still a National MP!
JLR seems quite rational about it, judging by his statement in Stuff. Perhaps during legal proceedings in court, through JLR's defence and that of his co defendents, the National leader's name could pop up!
I suspected one was JLR because Bigmouth Bridges said at some stage early on that "no current Nat party member " had been charged. Bridges must be shitting himself because as JLR is charged Bridges is complicit. If only they did it like the old days, waiting for a big crowd outside his office before leading the perp out in cuffs before gently placing a big cop's hand on his head while still managing to whack it on the door opening of the Police Holden Kingswood.
I am suddenly having a good day.
P.s, I once asked a detective mate of mine over a few beers if that was deliberate, "Yeah, of course mate '" was the reply.
Seems a bit odd that by the telephone record, Bridges was complicit, but not charged.
And those big donors are very rich and can buy good lawyers, but Jamie…
And those others charged said,""Our clients are proud New Zealanders and philanthropists. They were urged to follow a process and are now deeply disappointed at being caught up in a donation's fiasco.
I think Winston is, putting it mildly, a blight on NZ politics. I would like it if Jacinda read him the riot but of course she won't because of the power Winston appears to have over her.
To counter this how difficult would it be, politically speaking, for Bridges to say to Ardern that if she strips everything she can from Winston (and if he throws his toys out of the cot and threatens to bring down the govt and cause an early election) then National will support the COL until the general election
On what basis could Bridges make a case to Ardern that his integrity is higher than that of Winston Peters? That is, why should Ardern feel that Peters isn't a fit person to work with but Bridges is a fit person to work with?
Yeah good on you, you managed to to say in a post how untrustworthy Bridges is, well done, big round of applause, herp derp Bridges bad
Its a hypothetical question therefore we can assume everyone is acting in good faith
The point of the post was about the implications, if any, of NZFirst breaking away from the COL and National supporting the govt through to the next election
Would this course of action help Labour or National more
Would this course of action reinforce peoples positive views of MMP and democracy in NZ or would it be viewed as a negative
Take your "COL" and shove it up your arse. Calling people Losers because they have different views than yours is nasty and with regard to your Grand Coalition arrangement to eliminate Peters, that's just further ganging up and bullying to eliminate a rival, but then I guess that comes easily to your ilk. Next they came for the National Supporters but …. etc
'The government was announced shortly before 7pm on Thursday, a coalition of Labour and New Zealand First – ending nine years of National governments.'
Actually I suspect you weren't using it as C.O. Labour as you strike me is too bright to not know that the Labour Party is not a Coalition, there is a C O Labour, NZ1st, Greens. but you didn't use an Anagram for that, did you, plus you even acknowledge you knew it's origin. Neither of your links refer to a COL do they. It's been my experience that everyone using that Anagram is a Completely Unethical National Toady so it's up to you if you fit that title.
I figure on the basic level a perceived coalition between Labour and National would go down as well with Labour voters as NZ1 and National went down with NZ1 voters in 1996. The Greens would probably have the integrity to walk and force an early election, in which case Labour is now reliant on national to replace greens and nz1. The "grand coalition" wet dream of friendless tories media pundits finally eventuates, Labour goes back to 20% or less, nats get bolstered for looking competent, and Luke blows up the death star.
Nice "hypothetical". Now, if we include people's characters and histories, Bridges has a fair chance of making the pact 4 months of hell followed by a snap election after he (or his successor) pulls support, NZ1 has a fair chance of being returned to office, and then Winston calls a plague on both parties because he doesn't like being treated like shit. Oh, and people think Labour is full of shit for swapping between two parties who both appear to be similarly dodgy with their donations.
Labour must keep ditching one or both, and only one has a track record of actually working well with Labour.
So coalition is a non event but confidence and supply might be a better option then
To my way of thinking theres only 7 months to the next election so if things turned to custard with Winnie (and on past history thats not impossible) we might not need an early election
The distinction between a formal coalition agreement and simple support for C&S is a subtle one that I suspect most people won't care about – it's the difference between seeing your partner in bed with someone else and simply seeing them having a romantic dinner with that person.
If you're friends with the other person and your partner is open about it, no worries. If you hate the other person and don't trust your partner because of a past betrayal, you might have an issue.
Well at the very least it would seem that there are a few options for the govt (including future ones) to not be held to hostage by another party threatening an early election
There are all sorts of mathematical possibilities – hell, NZ1 can go with national if Labour try to cut them loose.
It comes down to how contradictory parties are in policy principles and how the personalities work together. And some proposals are more wishful thinking than realistic ideas.
Maybe. Seymour's really trying hard to appeal to the voters not even NZ1 or the nats will go after openly (well, not since the nat staffer got all "emotional" for some reason).
Poverty is a big driver of most of the bad stats some people don't get it.
I say our farmers can lower their carbon footprint.
There is a study that points out that green house gases produce by big oil is under estimated by 40 %. In my view we need to focus on getting fossil fuel energy out of our energy mix not deflect all the blame on our farmers.
Tikapa beach is nice and clean.
You know that the last government of nine years was lead by a climate change denier under them thousands of heacture of forest got cut down prematurely wind turbine project got canned of course under a government like that farmers were not mitigating their environmental footprint.?????.
That's a good cause to champion lowering the voting age some parents have a hard time looking into the future past there hip pockets to see we are stuffing the future up.
Ngāti Kahunga had a good Kapa Haka festival.
Kura Kaupapa is saving tangata whenua o Aotearoa Te reo and cultural kia kaha.
Its cool seeing Iwi fighting to keep their Awa pristine and clean.
Great Waiheke Island is aiming for a predator free sanctuary for Aotearoa native wildlife.
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Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
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Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
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No wonder workers get exploited- It is sooo difficult to turn a profit, almost not worth being in business. Just as well that one party is promising to rescind and minimum wage increase so such businesses will become MORE profitable. Now if we can only protect those workers being exploited under visa requirements.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/119602924/liquor-store-owners-planned-mansion-while-company-probed
Meanwhile we hear 'Kiwis' don't want to work'.
A lot easier to exploit a migrant than a local. Same problem in HB in horticulture.
That poor Mr. Singh. My heart goes out to him. How is he ever going to complete his unnecessarily opulent home now that he's no longer able to siphon the wages of his indentured servants via threats of deportation? And he's been disowned by Super Liquor. Dear me. It's all a ghastly nightmare. I wonder if he's considered setting up a GoFundMe page to see him through these turbulent waters?
Seriously, he should be in prison. This guy has form for this crap, and he's shitting on his own people. How he's regarded as a 'prominent person in the Sikh community' while pulling stunts like this is anyone's guess. Singh and people like him should be fined into penury and prohibited from running a business for the rest of their natural lives. And his wife looks as though she's happily complicit.
Let's do this:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/119484045/he-said-she-said-how-we-might-tackle-changes-to-our-sexual-consent-laws
It was great to hear the Police Officer in charge of Crime Prevention say on RNZ this afternoon that no one should have sex with drunk people.
Many will argue that getting at least slightly drunk is the only way they actually get sex.
But in the context of Orientation Week, it's the right message for the Police to get out.
The MSM generally does not linger on any controversies that embarrass the western
PTB, the news cycle must go on
Peter Hitchens ,however , is not letting this go.
https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2020/02/someone-has-been-telling-lies-about-a-and-b-kafka-comes-to-the-hague.html
An excerpt
"This pretence that A and B are unimportant marginal figures is very odd. Both had in fact been considered outstanding professionals for the OPCW throughout their careers, and have many written notes commending the quality of their work. They were rehired – something the OPCW very rarely does – because the OPCW needed their experience.
The OPCW says they were rehired on a lower grade from the one they had previously held. It does not say that this was because the old higher grade had been abolished, and so it was no reflection on the two men’s skills and competence."
Hitchens , a long time anti-Assadist says there is more to come
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2019/12/in-praise-of-telling-the-truth
I haven't followed this story much (the ME being a Deccan Death Trap where the truth crawls off to die) … but I must confess to considerable sadness at seeing an important UN organisation being subverted on such an important matter.
When people are punished for telling the truth, everyone else around them very quickly learns to tell nothing but lies.
Thanks for the link francesca, I notice that one of the big pushers of the original narrative our very own RNZ National, have remained very very quite on this story…
I have just been sitting in the lunch room flicking through a copy of Manufacturing Consent that just arrived in the shop, I read it a long time ago, it has lost none of it's power or relevance..it should be required reading at secondary school IMO.
Personally would prefer not having more of my tax dollars paying for the nutty Green Party, New Conservatives or the next Colin Craig.
They don't. Your tax dollers are specially selected out and used to pay for Winstons personal Wiskey collection. You can change to who your taxes are contributed by emailing, spending-programs-which-dont-exist@govt.nz at any time.
Personally – I would prefer not having my tax dollars pay for roads that Chris T drives on to get to his work computer and disseminate odd opinions. But I'm not six years old any more, accept that in the scheme of things my personal preferences don't amount to much, and that we have this thing called a society that we have to make work without killing each other.
The idea of Chris's taxes paying for anything makes no sense what-so-ever. The govt controls and operates the accounts which record these transactions of course but if they wish to change the numbers in the account entries they can just do so without needing to ask permission. Essentially we are just discussing changes in spreadsheet entries.
So apparently the Spinoff-Twitter crowd just got one of the world’s most famous left wing philosophers and animal rights activists cancelled?
I always thought that Peter Singer’s remarks about sentience in babies born disabled vs animals were made to serve his argument towards the improved treatment of animals, not the worse treatment of disabled people… it’s an argument supposed to induce a moral shock in readers. Should we ban a Modest Proposal next?
Singer’s comments were not meant to be satire but they were firmly about improved animal welfare and anyone who thinks otherwise is a moron…
“It’s a similar realm to Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneaux in that it’s about a ‘supreme race’…"
What! OMG I guess the only response in this intellectually impoverished day-and-age is an emoji.
Singer takes utilitarian to its logical end point, to the point of reductio ad absurdum, to call out specious arguments about human superiority based on arguments relating to sentience and quality of life, not in order to argue for infanticide.
Whoever is responsible for this should get a job running black ops for Fonterra.
This is perhaps, hands down, the stupidest and most counter-productive thing the “left” have done this year – so far.
I'm assuming that you have failed to provide a link to the Spinoff article because, like, disabled people who discuss Singer's warped attitudes are like, moronic?
My excuse is that I haven't been able to paste the link from my phone.
The Spinoff article is more than well worth a read and Red Nicholson nails it.
I don't think Red Nicholson understands what Peter Singer is doing.
I've got to get busy now but I will rebut the article here this afternoon.
The article: https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/19-02-2020/disabled-voices-on-peter-singer-whos-actually-listening-to-this-guy/
Oh, well done for providing the link…good on you!
Pray, oh Wise One, exactly what is Singer "doing" that Red Nicholson is failing to understand?
OK I can't help myself so I will quickly make a few points.
First, in response to your putting words in my mouth is saying:
"…disabled people who discuss Singer's warped attitudes are like, moronic?"
You are half right. Disabled people who discuss Singer's attitudes can be morons. They can also discover black holes from their wheelchairs. They can also get drunk and repeatedly drive their wheelchairs into their wives or nurses.
Judgement of a person's arguments or moral character does not come into my assessment of disabled people. I wouldn't want to prejudice them by suggesting they require me to treat them with kid gloves when the fact they can't walk, for example, has little to do with their potential to become one of the greatest living physicists.
By the same token, I won't pretend that because you have some diminished physical capacity that you can't be an asshole.
Second, to quickly address where Red Nicholson goes wrong from the get-go.
Nicholson writes "In 1979’s Practical Ethics, Singer wrote that the value of a life should be based on “rationality, autonomy and self-consciousness”.
That should Nicholson inserts is very important.
Singer does not write that the value of a life should be based on “rationality, autonomy and self-consciousness.
Singer is arguing within a specific philosophical tradition, utilitarianism, which variously argues that maximizing pleasure (higher, lower – it varies) is the end individuals and societies should aim for. He then argues for an expansion of our field of moral concern: to encompass people who we are not related to directly or by tribe or by nation, and also for non human beings. Controversially, he points to arguments about human superiority over animals based on sentience, as superior sentience is argued by some – like lots of utilitarians – to have a bearing on a human or non-human's persons capacity for pleasure.
There are arguments within utilitarianism which support the position that INDIVIDUAL sentience or capacity are less relevant to one's ability to experience pleasure, or a happy society.
There are also arguments outside of that tradition which argue for value on different grounds. In saying that, most utilitarians agree that human beings have inherent value. I can't remember what John Stuart Mill wrote about that off the top of my head but I will look it up.
Nicholson needs to work out what he is grappling with before he jumps into the arena because without doing that he could end up mischaracterizing a very deep thinker and contribute to getting him banned… by a gambling venue.
A copy of Practical Ethics should anyone want to read a book that presumably should be banned alongside Mein Kampf:
http://www.stafforini.com/docs/Singer%20-%20Practical%20ethics.pdf
You know Billy when you make an argument – it's consider good form to attribute the right quote to the right people.
Strawman arguments are also a bit boorish as well – which general make me feel you have the need to full up space, and/or you know your wrong so you gotta make shit up, to knock it down.
"…good form to attribute the right quote to the right people.. "
Come, come now Adam….give Billy a break.
There's an awful lot going on in Hayden's article…so very easy to get a wee bit muddled.
Hi Adam, where's the wrong attribution? I quoted directly from the Spinoff article.
In that article, as I pointed out, Nicholson characterizes Singer as someone who advocates euthanasia for disabled people. I referred to Singer’s book and the passage from where Nicholson took and then altered the partial quote, turning it into a different sort of statement: as advocacy. Nicholson’s mischaracterization is the strawman argument here.
I’m not sure your response is in good faith.
It’s not “philosophical wank”, as someone claimed, to seek to right the way a philosopher’s position has been misrepresented. The later is, or worse.
Singer states quite clearly in a number of sources, primary and secondary, that that his questions around personhood "[are] a way of getting people involved in species membership. And try and get them to break this automatic nexus between species membership and moral status."
source: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/1999/nov/06/weekend.kevintoolis
Go back and have another read Billy, laddie.
It was the author of the piece, not Red Nicholson, who wrote that sentence you quoted.
If you do take the time to go back and actually read the Spinoff article entire, you might just come to realize that Singer has a serious issue with disability.
Thanks Rosemary. I attributed something written by Leonie Hayden to Red Nicholson, who was quoted later in Hayden’s opinion piece. My mistake.
My criticism of that passage stands. My attribution did not affect my point.
My point was that the author put a spin on Singer's words in the original text, to which I linked. It's not the only passage that was coloured Singer’s arguments in that way.
Singer argues for the radical expansion of our definition of personhood and not for eugenics.
It’s true that Singer has stated that 28 day postpartum infanticide is acceptable. He also notes that this is already common practice in hospitals, and that parents frequently choose to abort severely disabled children up until late term, suggesting that infanticide is a lot less controversial in reality. I expect to see you with a picket sign outside an abortion clinic or hospital with the radical Catholics and the Evangelicals some day soon.
If you had actually sat down and read Practical Ethics you would have seen that Singer as a strong Utilitarian places no limit on abortion and struggles to find limits to getting rid of people who have major degenerative diseases.
Utilitarians like Singer are a pain in the ass, and as a general rule philosophers – particularly Utilitarians – have no place getting their mitts on the levers of power.
If you want to see a full-on Fordist hardass utilitarian really get their hands on power and see what they do with it, have a good look at McNamara planning the bombing of Vietnam in The Fog Of War. It's in his own words so there's no misinterpretation.
Not also Singer’s version of sentience based on self-consciousness means dealing with beings lower down the food-chain you can essentially harvest things for food, or otherwise use them as resource. As soon as you conceive of things as resource, as Heidegger reminded us, the more the entire world gets used up fast.
Singer has no concept of being.
Essentially everything starts to look like food.
So before you start having another good wank quoting philosphical passages at someone with a severely disabled dependent who has been doing so for many years (as in Rosemary's case), suck it up first and be more careful.
Thanks I was idly thinking about a response myself, but that's far better than I would have done. Utilitarian's are a refined form of materialism. Yes humans have to do business with the material world, but to pretend this is sufficient leads to terrible places.
McNamara is an especially unlovely character in US history. Then there is this episode of shame.
Marxists are also materialists.
Utilitarians are very valuable philosophers, in that they don't work on the principle that Homo Sapiens is the be-all and end-all of the Universe. The ability to step outside the automatic self-interest of your own species is a rare talent and a useful one. At the very least, utilitarians force us to think about the basis of our morality and what rational arguments there are for it. Unsurprisingly, people who think humanity is the pinnacle of evolution or God's special creation hate utilitarians, but that's their business.
Those are all fair points, but I don't think Singer can be lumped in with McNamara.
I sympathize with the difficulties you must have. And I can see how even a hint of these arguments could cause offense. Though, the arguments Singer makes around this are about logical inconsistencies with utilitarianism, for animal welfare (and the welfare of people not in your tribe).
I would like to unpick your response a bit because there are problems with it but I don’t have time at present.
Theres lived experience and then theres intellectual (?) exercise …ne'er the twain shall meet
And then there's the Socratic method which people no longer seem to understand and wish to stamp out.
It’s disturbing that those people seem to have a purchase on the state.
The Socratic method is limited and I would suggest not applicable in this instance.
A time and place for everything
So apparently the Spinoff-Twitter crowd just got one of the world’s most famous left wing philosophers and animal rights activists cancelled?
Yep. On the one hand it's refreshing to see philosophers once again considered a threat to established social order with their unpopular ideas, on the other hand it sucks to see the growth of intolerance, authoritarianism, anti-intellectualism and irrationality in our society.
Meanwhile..
Andrew Little just did an interview on Magic Talk did anyone hear it as I missed it but its getting a lot of negative flak.
That'll just be James and alwyn tag-team-calling.
?????
?????
https://www.magic.co.nz/home/news/2020/02/sean-plunket-and-justice-minister-in-fiery-argument-over-right-t.html
Little really needs some help with media training, he started with the insults and then it went down hill from there
Singer may know about animals but he is blatantly ignorant about disability and the value of being human. He echoes common stereotypes but his extremism with them is even more socially harmful.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/119641143/skycity-cancels-philosopher-peter-singers-booking-over-disability-concerns
Saying it is good to kill a class of people because you do not see any value in their life seems pretty hateful from here. Be really brave, dude, and make it about race or gender, go on.
He is welcome to spitefully mutter into a beer at his local but no way is a public platform justified. Not adding anything new or useful. Others have already done it 'better'.
The trouble with "hate speech" is that people think it necessarily involves hate. Not so. People calmly doing a job can also utter or commit the most vile things, with no particular emotion or desire any more than one would file an invoice.
… he is blatantly ignorant about disability and the value of being human.
I couldn't comment on what he knows about disability, but a lot of his work is about what "the value of being human" actually means and what arguments there are for that value being significantly higher than the value of being something else. Doing that is one of the tasks of philosophy, and the fact that people don't like having to contemplate the basis and merit of their morality doesn't make philosophy "hate speech."
I haven't the time, but point me to the place where Singer the Wise states that recidivist rapists and child sex offenders should also be euthanized?
I'm not aware that Singer has suggested anyone should be euthanised. That would be political advocacy rather than philosophical argument, and would surely have been widely publicised.
Err…you did, of course, read the Spinoff piece?
The one that directly quotes the Wise One?
Where he says the bit about parents being able to kill a disabled newborn?
That this would be a good, an ethical and moral thing to do?
You might want to read a little more widely on the pontifications of Singer.
I did, which is why I'm wondering about these accusations that he advocates killing people. Recognising that there's a philosophical argument for infanticide not being unethical under some circumstances is not advocating for infanticide. Feeling strongly about something doesn't given a person the right to misrepresent what the object of their anger is saying.
He doesn't. Our society has decided that the magic point at which someone achieves personhood is birth. Catholics believe the magic point occurs much earlier. Singer has said it is acceptable to terminate a newborn 28 days postpartum, and noted that it is common practice in hospitals today to let severely disabled children die. Personhood for him should include animals. He’s not an advocate for eugenics.
All just a harmless thought experiment, guv.
He's a clever lad is that Singer fellow.
He has a reputation for philosophizing right back up his own aft crevasse.
Rosemary, do you believe in abortion?
If you do believe in abortion, at which point is personhood achieved by the fetus or infant, or when falls the magic point at which termination is no longer acceptable, and why?
If you can’t provide an answer, you have no business preventing a philosopher who has considered these questions deeply from holding a talk on those and many other matters of profound ethical, social, cultural and political importance.
Deciding when people count as humans never seems to end well.
But doctors decide when people should die all the time.
When they give cancer patients a push-button controller for fatal doses of morphine. When they decide to stop treating someone, including a severely disabled child. Sometimes guardians or partners give their input. When a baby is in an incubator, at what point should we decide to turn that incubator off?
What if the advancement of medical technology meant that hospitals could keep every baby born alive artificially? Should hospitals keep every baby born alive, even if they are so severely disabled that they would otherwise die? Many disabled people rely on medical technology without which they would be dead. Some people are unable to communicate whether they want to continue living.
It seems to me that if it is not going to end well, we should at least have the best reasons for those decisions. And the public deserves forums in which those arguments can be aired – or should it be left up to the DHB’s accountants? Abortion legislation has passed through Parliament and been quite contentious. Battles over health funding are never going to go away. Those battles should have informed public input.
This is insane. I'm out.
Whoa there Billy lad….!!!
If you feel you're decending into Alice territory, take the hand of Harriet McBryde Johnson (a link to her article in the NYT is in the Spinoff piece for your convenience
).
Walk with her through the maze, and perhaps drag yourself from the mire.
All the best.![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
The self-appointed woke left have just cancelled perhaps the world’s most important moral and environmental philosopher who was in the country to give a talk on our collective duty to address global poverty.
Furthermore, they were content to advocate the silencing of this radical voice without even bothering to understand what he was actually saying. They’re not even willing, seemingly, to address the same difficult questions, which are unavoidable.
If you count yourself among this group you are a reactionary narcissist and not a leftist.
If there's no place for Peter Singer there's no place for me.
Hey, Billy, nobody from the left has cancelled Singer's visit. He's only lost a venue. He could still turn up and give his talk in another venue or even on a soapbox in Albert Park for that matter. If he doesn't front, it's entirely his own decision.
True that TRP, but would He be able to charge the folks $160 to hear his Words of Wisdom from his soapbox in Albert Park?
Billy, the only people 'appointing' the 'woke' are the same right-wing gits we have suffered from for decades.
And do not let the door hit you on your way out.
(@lprent – interesting that nesting of these final level comments is not keeping to the posting time.)
@Sacha – it seems sometimes a reply can be made to a comment at the bottom nesting level – I was really bummed when weka slipped one in above my "Bowelly" comment a while back and totally ruined the flow. Maybe it's when a reply is made from some mobile devices?
@Andre – I wonder if it might be the same person replying to themself that gets treated differently? Not a standard WordPress platform behaviour as far as I know.
Stuff report Jami Lee Ross and the 3 others, Yikun Zhang, Shijia Zheng, and Hengjia Zheng have had name suppression lifted. No surprises there then I guess. Poor little "Beijing Bridges" will be putting on his ballet shoes right now, ready for a bit of Pin Head dancing.
Link: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/119624613/three-of-four-names-revealed-in-national-party-donation-sfo-case
And the Herald. Jamie adds to his comment.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12309887
Red Blooded One (9) … I just read about it.
Be interesting to learn what offence(s) each of the four individuals involved has been charged with. I believe at the time of the donations, JLR was still a National MP!
"I believe at the time of the donations, JLR was still a National MP! "
That's why Simon has been very careful in only using the present tense in his denials.
Of course. 'Currently' gave it away.
JLR seems quite rational about it, judging by his statement in Stuff. Perhaps during legal proceedings in court, through JLR's defence and that of his co defendents, the National leader's name could pop up!
I imagine it will frequently. A good look during an election year… possibly popcorn time
He was the bloody National Party Chief Whip.
I suspected one was JLR because Bigmouth Bridges said at some stage early on that "no current Nat party member " had been charged. Bridges must be shitting himself because as JLR is charged Bridges is complicit. If only they did it like the old days, waiting for a big crowd outside his office before leading the perp out in cuffs before gently placing a big cop's hand on his head while still managing to whack it on the door opening of the Police Holden Kingswood.
I am suddenly having a good day.
P.s, I once asked a detective mate of mine over a few beers if that was deliberate, "Yeah, of course mate '" was the reply.
Seems a bit odd that by the telephone record, Bridges was complicit, but not charged.
And those big donors are very rich and can buy good lawyers, but Jamie…
And those others charged said,""Our clients are proud New Zealanders and philanthropists. They were urged to follow a process and are now deeply disappointed at being caught up in a donation's fiasco.
Sniff?
I think Winston is, putting it mildly, a blight on NZ politics. I would like it if Jacinda read him the riot but of course she won't because of the power Winston appears to have over her.
To counter this how difficult would it be, politically speaking, for Bridges to say to Ardern that if she strips everything she can from Winston (and if he throws his toys out of the cot and threatens to bring down the govt and cause an early election) then National will support the COL until the general election
Is this doable or even possible?
(Basically I want Winston gone)
On what basis could Bridges make a case to Ardern that his integrity is higher than that of Winston Peters? That is, why should Ardern feel that Peters isn't a fit person to work with but Bridges is a fit person to work with?
Not quite the point of the post (but well done for for the attempted diversion)
Not really. Why would Ardern fire Winston to rely on a promise from Bridges?
Yeah good on you, you managed to to say in a post how untrustworthy Bridges is, well done, big round of applause, herp derp Bridges bad
Its a hypothetical question therefore we can assume everyone is acting in good faith
The point of the post was about the implications, if any, of NZFirst breaking away from the COL and National supporting the govt through to the next election
Would this course of action help Labour or National more
Would this course of action reinforce peoples positive views of MMP and democracy in NZ or would it be viewed as a negative
Take your "COL" and shove it up your arse. Calling people Losers because they have different views than yours is nasty and with regard to your Grand Coalition arrangement to eliminate Peters, that's just further ganging up and bullying to eliminate a rival, but then I guess that comes easily to your ilk. Next they came for the National Supporters but …. etc
Actually I was referring to the Coalition of Labour but using the acronym
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/341924/labour-nz-first-government-what-you-need-to-know
'The government was announced shortly before 7pm on Thursday, a coalition of Labour and New Zealand First – ending nine years of National governments.'
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/109372044/after-a-huge-year-in-politics-one-politician-stands-out
'The unlikely coalition of Labour, NZ First and the Greens is looking locked in.'
Actually I suspect you weren't using it as C.O. Labour as you strike me is too bright to not know that the Labour Party is not a Coalition, there is a C O Labour, NZ1st, Greens. but you didn't use an Anagram for that, did you, plus you even acknowledge you knew it's origin. Neither of your links refer to a COL do they. It's been my experience that everyone using that Anagram is a Completely Unethical National Toady so it's up to you if you fit that title.
Yes dear
Glad you agree and acknowledge your intention.
Thats nice
Come on Pucky, you're/were better than that!
We like you.. when you talk straight.
Even the best of us get a little salty at times
No you were not. Own your snark like a big boy.
oh, I forgot that's what it stood for.
The winningest "losers" in parliament lol
It may have started out as that but I assumed it was now accepted as Coalition of Labour
You want Winston out, fine.
The people didn't.
I figure on the basic level a perceived coalition between Labour and National would go down as well with Labour voters as NZ1 and National went down with NZ1 voters in 1996. The Greens would probably have the integrity to walk and force an early election, in which case Labour is now reliant on national to replace greens and nz1. The "grand coalition" wet dream of
friendless toriesmedia pundits finally eventuates, Labour goes back to 20% or less, nats get bolstered for looking competent, and Luke blows up the death star.Nice "hypothetical". Now, if we include people's characters and histories, Bridges has a fair chance of making the pact 4 months of hell followed by a snap election after he (or his successor) pulls support, NZ1 has a fair chance of being returned to office, and then Winston calls a plague on both parties because he doesn't like being treated like shit. Oh, and people think Labour is full of shit for swapping between two parties who both appear to be similarly dodgy with their donations.
Labour must keep ditching one or both, and only one has a track record of actually working well with Labour.
So coalition is a non event but confidence and supply might be a better option then
To my way of thinking theres only 7 months to the next election so if things turned to custard with Winnie (and on past history thats not impossible) we might not need an early election
The distinction between a formal coalition agreement and simple support for C&S is a subtle one that I suspect most people won't care about – it's the difference between seeing your partner in bed with someone else and simply seeing them having a romantic dinner with that person.
Thats an accurate if slightly disturbing way of looking at it.
I don't know much about what crossbench support means but would that be another option?
That's seeing them having coffee in a cafe.
If you're friends with the other person and your partner is open about it, no worries. If you hate the other person and don't trust your partner because of a past betrayal, you might have an issue.
Well at the very least it would seem that there are a few options for the govt (including future ones) to not be held to hostage by another party threatening an early election
Hypothetically speaking of course
There are all sorts of mathematical possibilities – hell, NZ1 can go with national if Labour try to cut them loose.
It comes down to how contradictory parties are in policy principles and how the personalities work together. And some proposals are more wishful thinking than realistic ideas.
Oh I know mine is wishful thinking but its good to know its possible, if extremely unlikely
Also good to know that Winnie can't hold the country to ransom anymore
Meh.
I'd prefer no nats to no winston.
Interesting, I'd prefer any of the minor parties to Winnie
You almost had me in agreement, then I remembered ACT lol
I predict three MPs for Act this election, possibly even four and they'd be disappointed with two
Maybe. Seymour's really trying hard to appeal to the voters not even NZ1 or the nats will go after openly (well, not since the nat staffer got all "emotional" for some reason).
I mean that seriously. Fuck ACT.
Swapping the party that's only under investigation over donations for the one whose then MP & Whip has been charged would be a good look.
Especially as the leader is on record having interesting phone conversations with the MP in question …
Belated Valentine's Card
http://normanfinkelstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/IMG_3866.jpg
Nice!
Kia Ora The Am Show.
Congratulations on winning NZ of the year.
Poverty is a big driver of most of the bad stats some people don't get it.
I say our farmers can lower their carbon footprint.
There is a study that points out that green house gases produce by big oil is under estimated by 40 %. In my view we need to focus on getting fossil fuel energy out of our energy mix not deflect all the blame on our farmers.
Tikapa beach is nice and clean.
You know that the last government of nine years was lead by a climate change denier under them thousands of heacture of forest got cut down prematurely wind turbine project got canned of course under a government like that farmers were not mitigating their environmental footprint.?????.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Newshub.
Treating others with respect even when they are a different culture is a great quality.
I agree racism is a dumb thing so are haters.
The Milfordsounds roads are fixed the rain made a mess of those roads.
Children can be quite cruel to children that are different to them.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
The Crown did a lot of dirty deeds. Taking Ngāti Apakura whenua.
That's cool pop up health clinics to give advice and health services to the people.
Mana Wahine.
Ka kite Ano
Some Eco Maori Music For The Minute.
https://youtu.be/mWRsgZuwf_8
Kia Ora Newshub.
Times are changing some people can't see when the writings on the walls for Electric cars.
The good old roundabout intercetion are a good low carbon efficient way to sort traffic.
All products need to have a charge built into them to pay for recycling. What a big messy problem for Africa Western waste piling up.
That's cool A new 1 hour Friends HBO being made.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
That's a good cause to champion lowering the voting age some parents have a hard time looking into the future past there hip pockets to see we are stuffing the future up.
Ngāti Kahunga had a good Kapa Haka festival.
Kura Kaupapa is saving tangata whenua o Aotearoa Te reo and cultural kia kaha.
Its cool seeing Iwi fighting to keep their Awa pristine and clean.
Great Waiheke Island is aiming for a predator free sanctuary for Aotearoa native wildlife.
Never to long in the tooth to learn your culture.
Ka kite Ano
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
Kia Ora Newshub.
Aotearoa makes some of the Best Kai in the world with our environment being cleaner than most other countries.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Ngāti Paoa the same thing happened in Te Tairawhiti during the Maori land court scams.
Ka pai.
Sports is good for Te tangata.
Ka kite Ano.