“If you are planning to be a lifelong renter, a reality check.”
That has to be the most hilarious opening line I’ve read for a long time…there is a serious disconnect of understanding in this country between home owners and actual ‘lifelong renters’.
very very few people in this country, with options/money would ever rent their whole life, seriously
Not very flash of Kim Hill to claim the “Are Hamas killing their youth” (so-called) question as her own this morning’s interview with Dr Ramzy Baroud. It’s been a while since I tuned into Saturday mornings. Oh well.
And did I just hear her comment rather off-handedly that his sister will be “busy” given that she’s in Gaza?!
She’s come the odd cropper though, including this memorable occasion fifteen years ago when John Pilger took her to task for her smug and complacent introductory comments…
Lots of little eggs gabby …. 2014: Operation Protective Egg: Killed / Broken 495 were children and 253 women.
Life in Gaza
1.8m people / eggs living in Gaza
4,505 per square kilometre
475,000 living in emergency shelters or with other families
17,200 homes destroyed or severely damaged by Israeli attacks
244 schools damaged
Source: Ocha (26 August 2014)
2008, as part of Operation Cast Egg . Around 1,391 Palestinians were killed, including an estimated 759 civilians, according to B’Tselem. Reports say this included 344 children eggs and 110 women eggs.
“Israel’s favorite metaphor for its periodic strikes on Gaza—”mowing the lawn”—suggests violence that is routine, indiscriminate, and risk-free.”
The regular pattern is for Israel, then, to disregard whatever agreement is in place, while Hamas observes it — as Israel has officially recognized — until a sharp increase in Israeli violence elicits a Hamas response, followed by even fiercer brutality. These escalations, which amount to shooting fish in a pond, are called “mowing the lawn” in Israeli parlance.
“Israeli military strategists talk, chillingly, of “mowing the lawn”. Even leaving aside the morally questionable nature of seeing human flesh as grass”
Eggs / grass aside …. Hamas are a red herring … “The Gaza open air prison camp where 1.94 million Palestinians live behind a blockade and are refused access to the other occupied Palestinian areas and the rest of the world is the problem”. ….
Half of all children have been psychologically traumatised by war, occupation and blockade. Close to 300,000 children need psychosocial help.
Same with The west bank where …. “ • Israeli terrorists, both soldiers and settlers, harass, kidnap, and kill Palestinians with almost complete impunity.
• Also in the West Bank, countless checkpoints are established and manned by Israeli terrorists/soldiers. When these are open and closed is completely arbitrary. They make the simple act of going to school or work an hours-long ordeal. People have died at checkpoints when seeking emergency medical treatment, simply because the Israelis manning them didn’t feel like letting them through
• Over 550,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, in violation of international law.
• Palestine homes are routinely bulldozed, leaving the families that resided in them homeless, to make room for new Jewish-only roads or illegal housing developments.”
“Hamas represents a large constituency. Many Gazans voted for the party because they were disgusted with the corruption of the secular Fatah movement and were impressed with the social service system Hamas had created. Like other resistance movements—the African National Congress, the Irish Republican Army—Hamas was on its way toward becoming a political party. “…
“if you claim to respect democracy, you must recognize the results of free and fair elections. And if you want a party to change its position—and it’s willing to talk—you have to sit down at the table and negotiate with it.,,, But Israel—and by extension the United States—didn’t choose this option.”
Yes, I was stunned when she put it to Dr Ramzy Baroud that is is very hard for Israel to except that Palestinians want the right to return to their land (or some such)
If someone stole stuff from you 70 years ago, and you’ve been asking for it back for 70 years why in the name of all things sane should the thief be shown compassion because they don’t want to give the stolen goods back?
Was she just being the devils advocate?
I do hope so.
Though she even insulted him suggesting he wasn’t alive during the 87 intifada, therefore I suppose without the right to speak for those who were. But he replied with modesty and courtesy that she didn’t deserve.
As Baroud said, we’re sick of hearing about Israels rights.
And another point is, that if Jews have the right to return to a land they claim was theirs 2000 years ago, why do Palestinians not have the same right to return to land that was theirs 70 years ago.
I posted this on open mike on the 17th, but it might of got lost with the budget stuff.
This written by sword fish”……..it’s about how the meme about the honey moon bounce in the polls was started by Ferrari and picked up by msm and spouted as fact
This is a must read. Maybe even post it with sword fishes permission.
I thought that Grant Robertson looked good on The Nation this morning. A bit like a younger version of Steven Joyce in a good way.
Ten years as an MP, three years in Opposition with finance responsibilities, and now as Minister of Finance he comes across as in control of his job and responsibilities.
He looks to be a financial asset for the Government, and has the potential to be a real asset for the country if he stays on track as a prudent and incremental progressive.
Labour may end up benefiting more from his behind the scenes work than from the surface celebrity of Ardern.
One Two, Incrementalism is not fashionable but it is sensible.
Michael Cullen and Labour introduced Kiwi Saver. The impact is only now being truly felt and understood for some nearing home ownership or retirement. That is ten+ years for the policy to really make a difference in people’s lives. It will continue to do good for people and the country.
The so called “Cullen Fund” has countered our debt and added strength to our current retirement planning…. again ten+ years in the making and strengthened by this Government
Both policies were so valuable that the last National Government watered them down, but did not remove them.
That this budget of 2018 is a “Foundation Budget” working towards by increments to the “Well being Budget” of 2019, which will be a world wide first, putting people and the environment front and centre, with money as the change agent used in clever ways to achieve a sustainable way of living.
Any person repeating national memes of “no plan” “we did more” “we are better” “the election was stolen” “not enough” has not been paying attention.
After 9+ years of squeeze… there are so many voices in the wilderness and this new Government cares and that is why they are working so hard and so fast to try to mitigate the many tragic circumstances some people face… it will never be enough for some, but they are doing what they said they would. Put people and environment first incrementally. Sadly powerful forces in the world and here do not like change that shares wealth or power, so working incrementally is key. “Good things take time”
It is good to hear you praise Grant Robertson and I agree with you PG. He is clearly on top of his job. But I take issue with your depiction of Jacinda Ardern as a “surface celebrity”. If you really believe that is all there is to her, then your judgement of her is seriously awry.
While this is the picture her Nat opponents are trying to paint of Jacinda, all the evidence has succeeded in proving the exact opposite. She is highly intelligent and has a maturity well beyond her years. Her grasp of national and international affairs is equal to her predecessor, Helen Clark and the respect and confidence in her that her overseas counterparts have openly expressed… is testament to that. Add to that her strength of character and resilience, and there’s not much more one could ask for.
Her rhetorical skills are right up there too – she absolutely savaged the hapless Bridges with natural triplets and juxtapositions like “too much shouty shouty and not enough planny planny”.
The Gnats, accorded too much sunshine by a limp media, have neglected their skills and become accustomed to lying as a default strategy. It’s weak.
Not at all – Helen never got anything like the ringing endorsement Jacinda got from Angela Merkel. Gnat wishful thinking has fooled you guys bigtime about Jacinda – sure she presents well, but she’s got plenty of depth, and is a much better communicator. There is a sincerity about her which is rare in contemporary politicians – reminiscent of Edward Walker’s description of Ivy.
Of course if you take your views from tragic mistakes like Malcolm Turnbull or the near-sighted and vindictive scribblers of the Herald you won’t pick that up.
Pete George, They are truly complementary. But personally I would like Grant to be more progressive. Jacinda Ardern has cut-through. She has the ability to connect emotionally and shows judgement in having Grant Robertson in that portfolio. Do not think Jacinda is ‘surface’ only. She is a policy wonk with a phenomenal grasp of complexities, and any who work with her soon show admiration for her acumen work ethic and humanity, coupled with sharp wit and eloquence. She is the coalition’s glue.
To Lynn Prent: what happened to the Replies drop-down menu on the RH side? I can only see Comments or Opinions but no longer the replies to my comments!?
Edit: As soon as I submit a comment my details disappear too and I have to re-enter them for each and every comment, which is cumbersome 😉
No, I haven’t knowingly changed anything. But to be sure I played around with settings in two different browsers (MS Edge and G Chrome) and ran a few tests here on TS and it made no difference.
I just noticed it as I commented to that my required name and mail get wiped automatically too. I’m using Firefox and it did update to V60.0.1 the other night between my latest reply with the fields empty and my previous one when they auto-filled in. Mozilla has been making a lot of security changes to Firefox with every update.
I have lost my automatic login and have to enter info individually with a different icon thing. I thought it might be connected with my site going down last night – through Vodafone but it seems that others have problems too. I have Firefox too, and have been getting red notices that I have too update my details which I haven’t got round to.
A flurry of oil and gas exploration is set to be unleashed in Taranaki during the next 18 to 36 months as companies make decisions on whether to ‘drill or drop’ existing permits.
The schedule will see as many as 20 wells being drilled both onshore and offshore in the region before early 2019 as the price of oil steadily rises, to US$80 from below US$40 two years ago.
Among the companies involved in the region are Todd Energy, Tamarind Resources, and OMV.
A Petroleum Exploration and Production Association New Zealand (PEPANZ) spokesman said a decision would be made on a total of 31 exploration permits to be completed in Taranaki, as well as off the east coast of both the North and South Islands over the next three years.
There are 31 oil and gas exploration permits currently active, 22 are offshore. These permits cover an area of 100,000 square kilometers, nearly the size of the North Island, and run as far out as 2030 and could go an additional 40 years under a mining permit.
Another day waking up to find there has been another US shooting. They are becoming so common in the US. But then when you have a lobby group like the NRA sponsored by gun manufacturers legally bribing politicians to make sure that no legislation is passed to slow these things down and protect the people, what can you expect.
The NRA in the US has no shame having elected a man as their NRA president who in testimony has admitted to being a Traitor to his own country and selling guns to those deemed terrorist organizations by the US. He only got out of jail time on a technicality because a lot of the evidence used to convict him was found to be inadmissible as it was given by him during a hearing to a congressional hearing while he was under an immunity deal.
These are the sort of problems you have when you give lobbyists access to legally bribe politicians. This was something you saw in very minor ways starting to creep into NZ under previous National Governments with their Cabinet Club dinners where lobbyists got full access to National MPs and the former PM John Key. Here we saw a small number of deaths to with no one really held accountable, but the deaths here where due to lobbying for lax safety enforcement in places like the logging and mining industry.
A comment made about one young USA shooter has stuck with me. He is supposed to have said something like – society is so bad and everyone is contemptible and humans destroying the earth and that it would be better if all of us died. It is dangerous for young people to start thinking like this before they have had layers of denial of the reality of their, and general human behaviour, to insulate him.
Another item from 17/5/2018 on the apartheid-like laws that used to be the norm in earlier times. A book explores that history.
‘Racist as f***’: Book backs up Taika Waititi’s claims about New Zealand racism https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12053300 Looking at archives and old newspapers, he discovered Māori were treated as “enemies of the state”, long after the Waikato War had finished.
“During a series of epidemics, Māori were banned from moving about the country, because their brown skin was equated with disease,” Hamilton said.
“When smallpox broke out in 1913, Māori villages were sealed off, and Māori were banned from the roads and from trains unless they had a special certificate showing they’d been immunised.
“No Pākehā was ever subjected to these rules. They were blatantly racist, made life almost impossible for Māori, and were in force for many months.”
Māori were also excluded from bars, cinemas and barber shops in South Auckland.
“For much of the 20th century it was hard to get a drink in places like Papakura and Pukekohe if you were the wrong colour,” Hamilton said.
The book details the experience of Rongomanu Bennett, a Māori psychiatrist who was refused a beer in the Papakura Tavern in 1959.
He began a campaign and made headlines around the world.
“The New York Times called Papakura ‘the Little Rock of New Zealand’, after the Arkansas city where African Americans were fighting segregation,” Hamilton said.
The Prime Minister at the time eventually backed up Bennett, and Papakura Tavern agreed to serve Māori.
Apparently in the 70’s there was separate seating for Māori patrons in the Pukekohe theatre. Two years ago, I heard the Tangata Whenua providing a report on the health of a stream in a council meeting being referred to as ‘n*****s’. As residents of Franklin we have the misfortune to receive the eLocal, ensuring at least one Māori bashing article per issue. My list of present day casual racism witnessed is long, but others would be much longer, and no doubt, more damaging.
Bastion Point was in 1976.
Moutoa Gardens 1995.
Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004.
Tuhoe raid – Operation 8 2007.
These have happened in this generation.
Are you sure that you are living in this country, if you think Taika Waititi doesn’t have a point?
Your comment implied that Taiki Waititi had no evidence to back up the present tense. I provided a small number, which you ignored.
If you want to maintain your complacency over the specific racism directed towards Maaori in New Zealand, then continue on as you are. Ignore the living reality of Tangata Whenua and dilute any conversation with generalisations. I’m sure your comfort level will not be disturbed.
There’s an article about a book dealing with historical racism – it was used in relation to Taika Waititi’s comment I pointed out the two did not overlap in terms of history – and lo abuse cometh in my direction. I did not ignore the references you made – I have no argument with them. Your focus is on specific racism towards maori – I find all racism objectionable and I tire of one category of racism being portrayed as more important than others.
If you find abuse in my comment, then I’m not surprised at your perspective.
Generalising about racism, particularly noticeable in NZ is an avoidance technique. No one has suggested that racism is not a global issue. My response to you paraphrases the BLM movement: “Racism towards Maaori matters as well.”. I haven’t seen you acknowledge that the existence of it still causes damage and is harmful.
Let’s acknowledge that racism etc occurs all around the world in Tom Lehrer’s inimitable style.
Then let’s get back to regarding Maori people respectfully and understand their strivings to cope in our capitalist world of take from above (the Highland Clearings syndrome). It should be noted that – Sir Francis Henry Dillon Bell GCMG KC PC was a New Zealand lawyer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of New Zealand from 10 to 30 May 1925. Wikipedia
considered Maori communist because they shared and lived co-operatively, not coldly, individually with rich and abject poor as the settlers were prepared to do. (This is in my memory, and I can’t quote source.) And this country’s citizens are increasingly adopting the same behaviour as a satisfactory culture now.
We have much to learn from Maori in living with those of a different culture and be co-operative to the advantage of both. When we acknowledge that, we will be able to turn aside lingering accusations of racism.
The only reason you know about it is that the BBC et al reported on it. Otherwise, it falls under the category of “none of your goddamn business how people who’ve survived attempted murder choose to convalesce”.
PS: witless assumptions and slavish adherence to Moscow propaganda do not generate “difficult questions”. They just say something about you.
Correct again Ed. The lamestream who can dish the dirt on anyone they so choose, have no idea what’s happened to the two victims in the biggest story in Britain. What the hell!
Try again Ed: Russia is an official suspect of the UK investigation, no matter how much you love or hate them. Suspects don’t get updates; saying so makes no statement as to guilt whatsoever.
Apart from Steven Morris and Patrick Wintour and Jill Lawless and Andrew Griffin and Fiona Hamilton and Leila Nathoo, who’ve all had stories on the Skripal poisoning published in the last 24 hours, that is.
The Skripal poisoning requires a conspiracy, whoever you think did it.
You ‘see a conspiracy’ enacted by the Russians.
I accept there was a conspiracy. There had to be.
But I am not prepared to be judge, jury and executioner based on evidence presented by such dubious sources as MI5, Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
Also, you continually use the word conspiracy as if it were an insult.
Have you looked up what the word means in a dictionary?
To help, you….
noun
a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.
“a conspiracy to destroy the government”
synonyms: plot, scheme, stratagem, plan, machination, cabal; More
the action of plotting or conspiring.
“they were cleared of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice”
synonyms: plotting, collusion, intrigue, connivance, machination, collaboration; treason
“he was due to stand trial for conspiracy to murder”
Ed is not a conspiracy theorist. From what I’ve seen he’s got a good grasp (of reality) in geopolitical, environmental and local issues, etc. Using good independent journalism Ed can’t really go wrong. Craig Murray, John Pilger, Robert Fisk, Rachel Stewart et al.
So first you link to an organisation as though to suggest the organisation is a person, and I simply point out that the person you linked to doesn’t measure up against the other journalists he shares a platform with, and then you ask a question that makes no sense whatsover.
If you want a sense of Robert Mackey’s journalism, read his NYT and Guardian pieces. He tends towards being descriptive.
edit – if you want to argue with yourself over what Mackey did and didn’t get wrong in that piece, you could begin with the content of the 148 comments it attracted. They cover it off quite well. 😉
All I suggested is that The Intercept (or Mackey if you prefer) did a better job than Fisk on this occasion, which is pertinent to Maui’s assertion that Ed is well informed.
It is becoming clearer that the Government’sKiwi build and the increase in state house construction announced in the budget will not be enough to catch up with the 9 years of neglect by the National government.
Should the government be thinking of a solution that could end the housing crisis overnight and not cost the taxpayer a cent, and legislate against perfectly good houses
and apartments being allowed to be left empty, without reasonable excuse?
Ghost homes – properties lie empty in spite of crisis
Inner-city Auckland apartments and residences in Manly, Takapuna, Newmarket and Gulf Harbour rate highest for empty or “ghost” dwellings, an analysis shows.
John Polkinghorne, associate director of specialist property consultancy RCG, said a breakdown of the city’s empty dwellings showed these areas had the highest number of vacant dwellings on Census night.
Stanley Bay, Turanga, Grafton West and Glen Innes East have the next most vacancies in the top 10, he found in his analysis of the 33,330 vacant dwellings from the last Census.
Chris Darby, an Auckland councillor, is concerned about Stanley Bay, where he has noticed many empty properties, particularly in one prestigious street
The analysis showed 75 empty houses there at Census 2013 but Darby says many more are now vacant. One former resident complained how her family home had been left empty and how upsetting she and the family found that…..
……In Auckland, Watercare cannot supply data on low-use properties.
“Our water use data is held within our billing system, which is set up to enable us to support our customers by identifying unusually high water usage. Unfortunately, our system has not been set up to identify customers that use no water,” said a spokeswoman.
You would think it would also be set up to track low use of water by properties.
Low use of water week after week should raise an alarm and have someone dispatched out to check on water monitoring equipment to make sure it has not been tampered with or is faulty.
Marae thats the way Narnia Mahuta you tell them they national and Maori party they stuffed up the prospects for maori they were the government that has suppressed the poor people whom are mostly brown and Maori you are doing good holding your own against two men .Ka pai e hao Ka kite ano
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Show Me The Money! The alternative to state funding of infrastructure is, of course, to fund it by taking on massive amounts of private debt. On this issue, at least, Auckland mayoral challenger, Tamihere, has some solid points to make. ...
If we are to avoid making the earth uninhabitable, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to practically nothing over the next decade. But that will still leave us with the problem of the carbon we have already emitted, which ...
Former Waikato DHB CEO Nigel Murray allegedly misused public funds, spending more than $120,000 of public money on unjustified travel. He was forced to resign and the Serious Fraud Office began an investigation. But despite the SFO finding that the ...
Jeremy Corbyn, we are told, is being advised – not least by his deputy (as well as by some of his would-be successors) – that he must come “off the fence” on the Brexit issue if he wants to bolster ...
The End of Life bill has been read a second time and is now heading for the House for further debate. Personally, I support the proposal. I don't ever epect to take advantage of the Bill's provisions myself, but as ...
Before the substantive issue which this column is about – whether there has been a deterioration in the economic advice given to the government – a paragraph about the budget leaks.read more ...
Below is a translation of the editorial in the June 24 round of weekly workplace bulletins issued all over France by the revolutionary workers’ organisation Lutte Ouvriere. Last Saturday, 8,000 people took to the streets of Belfort (eastern France) to ...
Why hasn't Parliament followed the lead set by our local authorities and declared a climate emergency? The answer is the National Party:The Prime Minister’s admission that she is open to the idea of declaring a climate change emergency is nothing ...
Back in May the government released its Zero Carbon Bill. While much of the bill was welcome, there was one big exception: it contained a secrecy clause, requiring the Climate Change Commission to maintain secrecy over practically everything it does. ...
by Phil Duncan This past week has marked the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Stonewall Inn riots in Christopher Street, New York, the event generally regarded as kicking off the gay liberation movement. Quite a few articles have ...
Southland - land of coal-burning dairy farmers - has become the first region in the country to explicitly vote against declaring a climate emergency. Their reason? They didn't want to "devalue" the word "emergency". Its an argument addressed powerfully in ...
New Zealand has a problem with police chases: officers going after fleeing drivers like rabid dogs, without any consideration for proportionality or public safety, often with fatal results. And according to an in-depth article in the Guardian today, the UK ...
The first full week of the firearms buy-back and amnesty has produced a strong turnout as events roll out nationwide for the first time. “Momentum is slowly starting to build as community collection events are held across the entire country, ...
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...
Million-dollar start to gun collection eventsPolice Minister Stuart Nash says a solid start has been made to the gun buyback and amnesty after the first weekend of community collection events. “Gun owners will walk away with more than ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash has praised Police and gun owners after the first firearms collection event saw a busy turnout at Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch. “Police officers and staff have put a tremendous effort into planning and logistics for the ...
Seventy-eight new Police constables are heading out to the regions following today’s graduation of a new recruit wing from the Royal New Zealand Police College. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the record high number of new Police officers being recruited, ...
Media statement on behalf of Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie and Donna Marie Tai Tokerau Hall: Māori Television has admitted publishing false allegations about former High Court justice, Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie, and his wife, Donna Hall, and it has ...
Announcement today by the Prime Minister of further gun law reform is being shrouded by fear, so that scrutiny of the law is seen as an affront to the victims of the horror attack in March. The Prime Minister acknowledged ...
Misgivings about the practicality and cost of a firearms register is likely to dominate feedback from rural areas on the second round of proposed Arms Act amendments, Federated Farmers says. ...
School Strike 4 Climate NZ organisers Sophie Handford and Raven Maeder delivered a clear message to over 600 local government mayors, chairs, chief executives and councillors at the recent LGNZ conference : make climate change a priority. ...
The Police Association, Te Aka Hāpai backs the government’s emphasis on public safety as the driver of its second tranche of amendments to New Zealand’s firearms law, announced today. ...
The growing housing shortage crisis about more than supply and demand- it is about inequity. Recently released analysis by Kiwibank shows that last year’s “severe” shortage of housing has worsened, with the shortfall growing from 100,000 to 130,0000 ...
One of the country’s largest district health boards has a severe shortage of hospital specialists, says the senior doctors’ union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is joining opposition to possible regulations on the strength of nicotine vaping liquid. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “The Government would certainly benefit from regulations on the strength ...
The Meat Industry Association (MIA) is calling for significant changes to the Zero Carbon Bill with a new analysis using the Government’s preferred modelling indicating that the proposed methane targets are excessive if all other gases go to net zero. ...
Victoria University Feminist Organisation and ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa, in conjunction with the VUW Feminist Law Students, Organise Aotearoa, Fem Force, and with the support of VUW Student Association announced they are sponsoring a march ...
With the Government's firearm buyback scheme starting to draw over 30,000 police man hours away from fighting crime, the safety of law abiding citizens is being compromised. ...
Social Credit Party leader Chris Leitch is calling on the sale of Westland Milk to Chinese company Yili to be put on hold pending an approach to the Government by Westland Milk for funding assistance. ...
Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa seems intent on ensuring the Government’s vaping legislation will heavily target flavours and nicotine levels – a move that would be completely counterproductive to helping Kiwis quit smoking and achieving ...
A new website has launched in response to recent RNZ reporting about Police in Dunedin unlawfully entering people’s homes and breath-testing them. “I was disgusted when I saw what they cops were doing in Dunedin. Their behaviour undermines all of ...
The Head of the New Zealand Maori Council has called for the Government to hold an immediate investigation into the global cosmetics company Sephora after they were caught dumping waste hundreds and thousands of waste paper products embedded with ...
Hundreds of whanau and Maori leaders gathered at a hui in Mangere last weekend where they voted unanimously for an inquiry into Oranga Tamariki. The historic meeting called for a child welfare framework to be developed by Maori, for Maori. ...
Simon Shepherd: The government says its agreement with farmers, that they should pay for agricultural emissions, is historic. But there's no agreement on how. One proposal says farmers should pay a 5 per cent emissions tax. Another suggests farmers ...
The O’Brien Institute for Public Health at Calgary University has just released their report on fluoridation. This institute has, up to now, been staunchly in favour of fluoridation. However, yesterday, with regards to fluoride’s effect on the brain, ...
July 19 (BusinessDesk) - The government is looking to tighten control and impose harsher penalties after the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak revealed cracks in the country's stock management system. ...
Kia Anga Mua Ngā Hapū o Ngāpuhi (KAM) has reached a pivotal milestone following a hui yesterday at Waitangi with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the Government spent $133,530 on producing its ‘Wellbeing Budget’ document, a cost blowout largely driven by spending on graphic design and photography. The $133,530 price tag compares to $86,268 ...
Kahungunu Māori Language Awards. Nominations closed on 5 July 2019, and were judged by the Senior Management Team of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated. The judges wish to acknowledge the very high calibre of all nominations received making it a very ...
High Court of Australia Judge, Justice Stephen Gageler, will address recent criticism of court judgment delays in Australia, at the University of Canterbury (UC) on 23 July at 6.15pm. ...
This summary is provided to assist in the understanding of the Inquiry’s proceedings but does not constitute the official record. The full Minute is available at the link below. ...
The Tertiary Education Commission is laying charges under section 292A of the Education Act 1989 against three individuals for making a false representation for the purpose of receiving, or continuing to receive, free tertiary education from a tertiary education ...
New Zealand food businesses today welcomed a trio of new food safety tools, designed to make it faster, easier and more affordable to follow the rules and keep consumers safe. ...
AUT research shows that Māori children are almost four times more likely than those of European descent to be placed out of home by child protection services ...
The Government announced today that grants of up to $2,500 for energy efficient heaters are now available as part of the Government’s Warmer Kiwi Homes programme. ...
Fonterra’s use of coal has been the target of numerous grassroots campaigns in recent years. Last year 350 Aotearoa affiliated groups, Fossil Free Aoraki and 350 Nelson launched a petition dismissing the dairy giant’s initial target of no new ...
Information sessions on proposals for The Medicinal Cannabis Scheme take place in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch over the next fortnight. The sessions are open to anyone with an interest in learning more about the proposed scheme. ...
“Our children are our most vulnerable, most innocent victims and we do not want to see any more children harmed by these ‘known sex offenders’. The safety of our community must be the paramount consideration.” ...
“The announcement that Fonterra will immediately stop installing any new coal boilers or increasing capacity to burn coal is the signal that the biomass fuel supply industry welcomes” said Brian Cox, Executive Officer of the Bioenergy Association. ...
18 July 2019-- Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA) today welcomed Fonterra’s commitment to build no new coal plants, a “no brainer” for the climate crisis the world faces. The group has been urging this transition for six years now and ...
The increase in demand for cage-free eggs is set to continue according to animal rights organisation SAFE, who says the egg industry should expect this and prepare. ...
Wellington, New Zealand – 350 Pacific made a formal submission to the New Zealand Government’s Environment Parliamentary Select Committee on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, led by the Pacific Climate Warriors (PCWs) based in ...
There used to be a school of thought on the centre right side of politics that the best way to neuter the Greens as a political force would be to let them have a spell in government. Then, according to ...
Today (18 July) is Nelson Mandela International Day when the United Nations highlights the importance of humane conditions of imprisonment. In New Zealand our prisons are overcrowded and understaffed. At 214 prisoners per 100,000 people, we have the fifth ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa will take legal action over the lengthy delay in implementing pay increases for teachers. Novopay announced yesterday that teachers would have to wait until 11 September to see pay increases that they won when they settled ...
EDS has filed its submission on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill. The Bill sets targets for greenhouse gas reductions, provides for the government to set a series of carbon budgets, and sets up a new, independent, Climate ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has identified an absurd case of mission creep at Wellington City Council: the decision to spend $21,750 on two Consumer NZ investigations into different brands of bike lights. ...
The Motor Trade Association is welcoming the release of the Government’s new draft road safety strategy. MTA Chief Executive Craig Pomare says the association is pleased to see vehicle safety has been made a priority in the Road to Zero ...
The Department of Conservation continue to repeat the same old story about attacks on staff and how it is affecting their role in protecting our precious wildlife. NZ herald https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12249704 ...
The government's silence on the fact that the country's second-largest milk processor is on the brink of becoming 25% Chinese Government owned has been deafening. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Second round of gun law changes announced, hundreds with conditions like Down syndrome get early Kiwisaver, and a major refusal to participate in March 15 inquiry.The second major phase of ...
Almost as soon as it was announced, the Royal Commission tasked with probing the lead-up and response to the terrorist attacks in March attracted criticism, both over the process and its engagement with Muslim groups. Former race relations commissioner Joris ...
Following the Silver Ferns’ World Cup victory, another New Zealand team playing korfball – netball’s European cousin - are about to make world championship history of their own. ...
A victim of domestic violence has had to find alternative accommodation after Oranga Tamariki breached her privacy for the second time in three years. ...
While researching NZ on Air for a recent history, Duncan Greive noticed a shocking 30 year trend.News broke over the weekend that Love Island NZ, Three’s biggest announcement of the year, will now not screen in 2019, and realistically is unlikely ...
Joseph Nunweek joins the adoring throngs gathered at the Melbourne Town Hall to watch the New Zealand prime minister. The warm feeling is contagious, but a question hangs in the airThursday, 18 July: a big night for New Zealanders in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Martin Parkinson, secretary of the Prime Minister’s department, has cleared Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop of breaching the government’s code of ministerial standards with their ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentForeign affairs – Australia Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Ardern in ...
Sam Brooks reviews the second season of Big Little Lies, which generated as much social media conversation as its first season did critical acclaim, for better and worse.Light spoilers for the second season of Big Little Lies.Big Little Lies felt like the ...
ANALYSIS:By David Robie Indonesia recently hosted a bold public relations window-dressing expo in Auckland presenting itself as a “Pacific” nation while attempting to provide an unconvincing impression of normality in the two Melanesian provinces known collectively as West ...
Taxing vacant land would be too complex to implement and achieve little - it would be better for the Government to push local councils to implement rates based on land value rather than capital value. ...
The Māori Affairs Select Committee has recommended that anyone wanting to use the word 'Parihaka' for commercial purposes must get permission from the Parihaka Papakainga Trust. ...
European politics is a strange business. Where voters can choose candidates, who disappear after the elections. Where right-wing governments nominate left-sounding candidates. ...
Ruby Porter’s debut novel, Attraction, is a lucid, layered story of three young women on a road trip across the North Island. It’s one of the best books we’ve read this year. Here, Ruby writes about her grandmother – who ...
ByRNZ Pacific West Papuan fighters have killed an Indonesian soldier in a renewed threat to Jakarta’s road project there. State news agency Antara reported the hit-and-run attack on Saturday took place in Nduga regency, where pro-independence forces are ...
In 2003 the Silver Ferns won the Netball World Cup, breaking the Australian Diamonds’ 16-year winning streak. In 2019, they’ve just done the same thing. Leana de Bruin was a rookie in that 2003 team, and talked to The Spinoff ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Associate Professor, Criminology and Justice Studies, RMIT University A Perth man who pleaded guilty to distributing an intimate image of his ex-girlfriend without her consent has been sentenced to a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Piero Moraro, Lecturer in Criminal Justice, Charles Sturt University The Morrison government has introduced new legislation responding to recent protests by animal rights activists in Australia. The bill –named The Criminal Code ...
One of the many unspoken rules of British life is that when one is drinking at the pub with others, one buys rounds. For the naive New Zealander, it’s stressful AF, says Elle Hunt.At the pub one Friday night in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David King, Senior Lecturer, The University of Queensland Dry, moist, productive, hacking, chesty, whooping, barking, throaty. These are just some of the terms people use to describe their cough. While we’re deep ...
What if you could grow a house from seed or 3D print a new subdivision in a week? The housing sector is ripe for disruption – could technology be the magic bullet we need?Jo Aitken sounds like she’s pitching an ...
The architect of the incredible turnaround the Silver Ferns have enjoyed is now off-contract. So now that the World Cup has been won, how can Netball NZ keep Noeline Taurua on the books? Radio NZ’s Ravinder Hunia recounts the journey ...
By RNZ Pacific Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape wants Australia to close the detention centre it has been running on PNG’s Manus island for six years. According to Australian media, Marape has asked Canberra to give him ...
More must be done to tackle critical skill shortages in project management and leadership, the head of the Registered Master Builders Association says. ...
Fifteen tracks, 22 guests, one album. The Spinoff Music listens to Ed Sheeran’s No. 6 Collaborations Project and considers why each track really shouldn’t work – and the sometimes surprising reasons why they do.1. Beautiful People – KhalidKhalid and Ed ...
Emily Writes on her journey from reasonable trepidation to sweet love for the video game Minecraft.It was barely a week after I said to my sister “I don’t let the boys play any games” that my children’s Minecraft obsession began. ...
New Zealanders with life-shortening congenital conditions will have early access to their KiwiSavers after a man with Down Syndrome convinced the government to change the rules. ...
Sephora store employees may have swept some confetti down Auckland city’s drains on Saturday, and people got angry… at an entire generation. On Saturday, French cosmetics giant Sephora opened its first New Zealand store on Auckland’s Queen Street. Excited makeup enthusiasts ...
More than 20,000 Aucklanders don’t have access to regular showers or the ability to wash their clothing. Alice Webb-Liddall tags along on a shift with Orange Sky, who are giving homeless people back these basic needs.On an overcast Friday morning ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Senior Fellow, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University If the first week of the 46th Parliament was heavily ceremonial – dominated by the new governor-general, a raft of first-time MPs ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Walker, Adjunct Professor, School of Communications, La Trobe University In a world run ragged by multiple crises and an unravelling of American global leadership, military confrontation in the Gulf poses risks ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Dalton, Conjoint Senior Lecturer School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle Over recent months, the news has been saturated with headlines claiming we’re experiencing a “killer flu season”. Researchers ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Richard Braczkowski, PhD Candidate – Wildlife Cameraman, The University of Queensland Last week saw the release of the rebooted The Lion King, an attempt to capitalise on the billion-dollar success of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Fenner, Associate Professor at UNSW Art & Design, UNSW Over the past few weeks, artists from around Australia have been creating small artworks depicting the endangered black-throated finch and sending them ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Campbell, Associate Professor, University of Sydney New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian made a “captain’s call” in recent months that raised the ire of many parents, teachers and education groups. She ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Beer, Dean, Research and Innovation, University of South Australia Australia’s biggest city is abuzz with news of yet another housing development declared unsafe for human habitation. This time it is apartments ...
Open Mike 19/05/2018 
In the wake of the March 15 mass-murder, the government moved swiftly to ban semi-automatic firearms, weapons for which there is really no case for being allowed to own in New Zealand. and now, it has announced phase two of ...14 hours ago
I have been unimpressed with Western corporate media coverage of the tensions involving Iran in the Straits of Hormuz. They repeat the line that Iran is the source of current tensions, that it is a major sponsor of terrorism, that ...2 days ago
2 days ago
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Much like Tuvalu, the manmade climate change Cult love to tell people the Maldives is almost totally underwater. In fact the dishonest Maldives Govt d on the same bandwagon, believing they would receive billions of dollars aid from other Countries ...2 days ago
As the entry on Wikipedia shows (and no, one doesn’t necessarily have to regard Wikipedia as the be-all and end-all of truth, because it isn’t on a great many things, to agree with the following): “…a fallacious argument that concludes ...2 days ago
by Daphna Whitmore The story of how the world awoke to a big injustice is starting to be told. The Pacific Games held this month in Samoa is another chapter. On the podium was Laurel Hubbard, the giant transgender weightlifter, ...3 days ago
Our conversations and push against specific supremacist and ultra-Nationalist groups, and the pseudo-intellectual underpinnings of them, need to mature at all levels. But in doing so, it’s going to have to include a more thorough and brutally honest self-examination ...4 days ago
Something I missed: not only did Youth MPs declare a climate emergency; they also launched a campaign to lower the voting age to 16:Youth Parliament week in Parliament has seen the establishment of Make it 16, a campaign to ...4 days ago
The proposed Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill treats biogenic methane emissions differently from all other carbon emissions. The latter are to be measured net so that emissions from fossil fuels can be offset by carbon stored in trees. ...5 days ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...6 days ago
6 days ago
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...7 days ago
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...7 days ago
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
The first full week of the firearms buy-back and amnesty has produced a strong turnout as events roll out nationwide for the first time. “Momentum is slowly starting to build as community collection events are held across the entire country, ...22 hours ago
Media statement on behalf of Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie and Donna Marie Tai Tokerau Hall: Māori Television has admitted publishing false allegations about former High Court justice, Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie, and his wife, Donna Hall, and it has ...11 hours ago
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Second round of gun law changes announced, hundreds with conditions like Down syndrome get early Kiwisaver, and a major refusal to participate in March 15 inquiry.The second major phase of ...18 mins ago
Justice Minister Andrew Little reached consensus with NZ First on a draft bill that would remove abortion from the Crimes Act. ...31 mins ago
Almost as soon as it was announced, the Royal Commission tasked with probing the lead-up and response to the terrorist attacks in March attracted criticism, both over the process and its engagement with Muslim groups. Former race relations commissioner Joris ...42 mins ago
Fraser Newman tells of opening Atlantis Books in Rotorua and Tokoroa – and having to close shop in Whakatāne. ...2 hours ago
Following the Silver Ferns’ World Cup victory, another New Zealand team playing korfball – netball’s European cousin - are about to make world championship history of their own. ...2 hours ago
As NZ Bird Rescue cares for record numbers of ruru/morepork at Auckland, one theory is they're being poisoned. ...2 hours ago
A swamp kauri log exported to China sparked deep discussion among forestry public servants over what is art and what is a log. ...2 hours ago
Anna Rawhiti-Connell shakes her head at the state of our health system, urging MPs to take their duties seriously. ...2 hours ago
A victim of domestic violence has had to find alternative accommodation after Oranga Tamariki breached her privacy for the second time in three years. ...2 hours ago
While researching NZ on Air for a recent history, Duncan Greive noticed a shocking 30 year trend.News broke over the weekend that Love Island NZ, Three’s biggest announcement of the year, will now not screen in 2019, and realistically is unlikely ...2 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Martin Parkinson, secretary of the Prime Minister’s department, has cleared Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop of breaching the government’s code of ministerial standards with their ...5 hours ago
Sam Brooks reviews the second season of Big Little Lies, which generated as much social media conversation as its first season did critical acclaim, for better and worse.Light spoilers for the second season of Big Little Lies.Big Little Lies felt like the ...11 hours ago
Cross-party consensus on gun law reform was a one-time wonder. ...11 hours ago
ANALYSIS: By David Robie Indonesia recently hosted a bold public relations window-dressing expo in Auckland presenting itself as a “Pacific” nation while attempting to provide an unconvincing impression of normality in the two Melanesian provinces known collectively as West ...11 hours ago
Taxing vacant land would be too complex to implement and achieve little - it would be better for the Government to push local councils to implement rates based on land value rather than capital value. ...11 hours ago
European politics is a strange business. Where voters can choose candidates, who disappear after the elections. Where right-wing governments nominate left-sounding candidates. ...13 hours ago
A decade on from his darkest hour, can the NZ First leader again defy the odds and keep his political career alive? ...13 hours ago
Ruby Porter’s debut novel, Attraction, is a lucid, layered story of three young women on a road trip across the North Island. It’s one of the best books we’ve read this year. Here, Ruby writes about her grandmother – who ...14 hours ago
By RNZ Pacific West Papuan fighters have killed an Indonesian soldier in a renewed threat to Jakarta’s road project there. State news agency Antara reported the hit-and-run attack on Saturday took place in Nduga regency, where pro-independence forces are ...14 hours ago
In 2003 the Silver Ferns won the Netball World Cup, breaking the Australian Diamonds’ 16-year winning streak. In 2019, they’ve just done the same thing. Leana de Bruin was a rookie in that 2003 team, and talked to The Spinoff ...14 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Associate Professor, Criminology and Justice Studies, RMIT University A Perth man who pleaded guilty to distributing an intimate image of his ex-girlfriend without her consent has been sentenced to a ...14 hours ago
The second tranche of proposed far-reaching changes includes a gun register, tighter licensing rules, and five-year licences. ...15 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Piero Moraro, Lecturer in Criminal Justice, Charles Sturt University The Morrison government has introduced new legislation responding to recent protests by animal rights activists in Australia. The bill –named The Criminal Code ...15 hours ago
One of the many unspoken rules of British life is that when one is drinking at the pub with others, one buys rounds. For the naive New Zealander, it’s stressful AF, says Elle Hunt.At the pub one Friday night in ...16 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David King, Senior Lecturer, The University of Queensland Dry, moist, productive, hacking, chesty, whooping, barking, throaty. These are just some of the terms people use to describe their cough. While we’re deep ...16 hours ago
The government is planning an overhaul of biosecurity funding, but a lack of detail is making farming sectors nervous. ...16 hours ago
What if you could grow a house from seed or 3D print a new subdivision in a week? The housing sector is ripe for disruption – could technology be the magic bullet we need?Jo Aitken sounds like she’s pitching an ...17 hours ago
By RNZ Pacific Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape wants Australia to close the detention centre it has been running on PNG’s Manus island for six years. According to Australian media, Marape has asked Canberra to give him ...18 hours ago
More must be done to tackle critical skill shortages in project management and leadership, the head of the Registered Master Builders Association says. ...18 hours ago
Emily Writes on her journey from reasonable trepidation to sweet love for the video game Minecraft.It was barely a week after I said to my sister “I don’t let the boys play any games” that my children’s Minecraft obsession began. ...20 hours ago
Sephora store employees may have swept some confetti down Auckland city’s drains on Saturday, and people got angry… at an entire generation. On Saturday, French cosmetics giant Sephora opened its first New Zealand store on Auckland’s Queen Street. Excited makeup enthusiasts ...21 hours ago
More than 20,000 Aucklanders don’t have access to regular showers or the ability to wash their clothing. Alice Webb-Liddall tags along on a shift with Orange Sky, who are giving homeless people back these basic needs.On an overcast Friday morning ...22 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ashlee Curtis, Research Fellow, School of Psychology, Deakin University The Victorian government introduced 24-hour public transport on Friday and Saturday nights in Melbourne from January 1 2016. Services mostly run every hour ...23 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Senior Fellow, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University If the first week of the 46th Parliament was heavily ceremonial – dominated by the new governor-general, a raft of first-time MPs ...23 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Richard Braczkowski, PhD Candidate – Wildlife Cameraman, The University of Queensland Last week saw the release of the rebooted The Lion King, an attempt to capitalise on the billion-dollar success of ...23 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Fenner, Associate Professor at UNSW Art & Design, UNSW Over the past few weeks, artists from around Australia have been creating small artworks depicting the endangered black-throated finch and sending them ...23 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Campbell, Associate Professor, University of Sydney New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian made a “captain’s call” in recent months that raised the ire of many parents, teachers and education groups. She ...23 hours ago
The UN will be investigating the ‘disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by the Israeli occupying forces .
Time for sanctions.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/gaza-killings-israel-hamas-un-war-crimes-investigate-border-deaths-sniper-a8357981.html
I doubt that will ever happen, but we can hope.
Waste of time does the un ever achieve anything?
The UN has achieved a lot – when the US wasn’t deliberately preventing it.
Ed, the OIC has just declared political measures against countries recognising Jerusalem as the capital.
Have been watching the OIC summit live on Al Jazeera this morning,Erdogan is currently speaking.
The BDS movement is gaining in strength.
What are they doing still boycotting soda stream and Teva medicines ?
Trolling for the apartheid Israeli state now.
How low can you go?
🙄
“If you are planning to be a lifelong renter, a reality check.”
That has to be the most hilarious opening line I’ve read for a long time…there is a serious disconnect of understanding in this country between home owners and actual ‘lifelong renters’.
very very few people in this country, with options/money would ever rent their whole life, seriously
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/104021981/renters-planning-to-be-tenants-in-retirement-face-big-savings-target
The fact is high rentals have destroyed the social fabric of this country and the only exits are the social housing or home ownership at any price.
Clearly Stuff need to quote better experts.
Nice piece of archeological work.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12043041
Not very flash of Kim Hill to claim the “Are Hamas killing their youth” (so-called) question as her own this morning’s interview with Dr Ramzy Baroud. It’s been a while since I tuned into Saturday mornings. Oh well.
And did I just hear her comment rather off-handedly that his sister will be “busy” given that she’s in Gaza?!
Yes Bill, her evolution to a system lacky has been slow but certain.
She’s come the odd cropper though, including this memorable occasion fifteen years ago when John Pilger took her to task for her smug and complacent introductory comments…
https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/face-to-face-with-kim-hill-john-pilger-2003
You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs billy.
Lots of little eggs gabby …. 2014: Operation Protective Egg: Killed / Broken 495 were children and 253 women.
Life in Gaza
1.8m people / eggs living in Gaza
4,505 per square kilometre
475,000 living in emergency shelters or with other families
17,200 homes destroyed or severely damaged by Israeli attacks
244 schools damaged
Source: Ocha (26 August 2014)
2008, as part of Operation Cast Egg . Around 1,391 Palestinians were killed, including an estimated 759 civilians, according to B’Tselem. Reports say this included 344 children eggs and 110 women eggs.
19 medic eggs shot in one day 10.30 mins
Hamas is going to get sick of omelets at that rate reasy, or maybe not.
I think your comparing eggs to grass gabbzy
https://www.nrc.no/news/2018/april/gaza-the-worlds-largest-open-air-prison/
“Israel’s favorite metaphor for its periodic strikes on Gaza—”mowing the lawn”—suggests violence that is routine, indiscriminate, and risk-free.”
The regular pattern is for Israel, then, to disregard whatever agreement is in place, while Hamas observes it — as Israel has officially recognized — until a sharp increase in Israeli violence elicits a Hamas response, followed by even fiercer brutality. These escalations, which amount to shooting fish in a pond, are called “mowing the lawn” in Israeli parlance.
“Israeli military strategists talk, chillingly, of “mowing the lawn”. Even leaving aside the morally questionable nature of seeing human flesh as grass”
Eggs / grass aside …. Hamas are a red herring … “The Gaza open air prison camp where 1.94 million Palestinians live behind a blockade and are refused access to the other occupied Palestinian areas and the rest of the world is the problem”. ….
Half of all children have been psychologically traumatised by war, occupation and blockade. Close to 300,000 children need psychosocial help.
Same with The west bank where …. “ • Israeli terrorists, both soldiers and settlers, harass, kidnap, and kill Palestinians with almost complete impunity.
• Also in the West Bank, countless checkpoints are established and manned by Israeli terrorists/soldiers. When these are open and closed is completely arbitrary. They make the simple act of going to school or work an hours-long ordeal. People have died at checkpoints when seeking emergency medical treatment, simply because the Israelis manning them didn’t feel like letting them through
• Over 550,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, in violation of international law.
• Palestine homes are routinely bulldozed, leaving the families that resided in them homeless, to make room for new Jewish-only roads or illegal housing developments.”
http://johnpilger.com/videos/palestine-is-still-the-issue
“Hamas represents a large constituency. Many Gazans voted for the party because they were disgusted with the corruption of the secular Fatah movement and were impressed with the social service system Hamas had created. Like other resistance movements—the African National Congress, the Irish Republican Army—Hamas was on its way toward becoming a political party. “…
“if you claim to respect democracy, you must recognize the results of free and fair elections. And if you want a party to change its position—and it’s willing to talk—you have to sit down at the table and negotiate with it.,,, But Israel—and by extension the United States—didn’t choose this option.”
https://www.alternet.org/noam-chomsky-real-reason-israel-mows-lawn-gaza
https://fpif.org/mowing-lawn-gaza/
https://www.mintpressnews.com/counting-israels-next-mowing-lawn-palestine/216640/
Yes, I was stunned when she put it to Dr Ramzy Baroud that is is very hard for Israel to except that Palestinians want the right to return to their land (or some such)
If someone stole stuff from you 70 years ago, and you’ve been asking for it back for 70 years why in the name of all things sane should the thief be shown compassion because they don’t want to give the stolen goods back?
Was she just being the devils advocate?
I do hope so.
Though she even insulted him suggesting he wasn’t alive during the 87 intifada, therefore I suppose without the right to speak for those who were. But he replied with modesty and courtesy that she didn’t deserve.
As Baroud said, we’re sick of hearing about Israels rights.
And another point is, that if Jews have the right to return to a land they claim was theirs 2000 years ago, why do Palestinians not have the same right to return to land that was theirs 70 years ago.
http://subzpsubzp.blogspot.co.nz/2018/01/farrars-honeymoon-scam_19.html?m=1
I posted this on open mike on the 17th, but it might of got lost with the budget stuff.
This written by sword fish”……..it’s about how the meme about the honey moon bounce in the polls was started by Ferrari and picked up by msm and spouted as fact
This is a must read. Maybe even post it with sword fishes permission.
We need more of this
I thought that Grant Robertson looked good on The Nation this morning. A bit like a younger version of Steven Joyce in a good way.
Ten years as an MP, three years in Opposition with finance responsibilities, and now as Minister of Finance he comes across as in control of his job and responsibilities.
He looks to be a financial asset for the Government, and has the potential to be a real asset for the country if he stays on track as a prudent and incremental progressive.
Labour may end up benefiting more from his behind the scenes work than from the surface celebrity of Ardern.
Unfortunately for the country GR probably does not underatand that incrementalism is a death sentence in a myriad of ways…
Neither do you Pete George…it seems from your comment…
How many disingenuous statements can you identify in your comment…don’t confuse with the backhanded compliments or memes…they’re slightly different…
One Two, Incrementalism is not fashionable but it is sensible.
Michael Cullen and Labour introduced Kiwi Saver. The impact is only now being truly felt and understood for some nearing home ownership or retirement. That is ten+ years for the policy to really make a difference in people’s lives. It will continue to do good for people and the country.
The so called “Cullen Fund” has countered our debt and added strength to our current retirement planning…. again ten+ years in the making and strengthened by this Government
Both policies were so valuable that the last National Government watered them down, but did not remove them.
That this budget of 2018 is a “Foundation Budget” working towards by increments to the “Well being Budget” of 2019, which will be a world wide first, putting people and the environment front and centre, with money as the change agent used in clever ways to achieve a sustainable way of living.
Any person repeating national memes of “no plan” “we did more” “we are better” “the election was stolen” “not enough” has not been paying attention.
After 9+ years of squeeze… there are so many voices in the wilderness and this new Government cares and that is why they are working so hard and so fast to try to mitigate the many tragic circumstances some people face… it will never be enough for some, but they are doing what they said they would. Put people and environment first incrementally. Sadly powerful forces in the world and here do not like change that shares wealth or power, so working incrementally is key. “Good things take time”
+100
Robertson in the steps of Cullen is simply doing what a wise Minister of Finance does: invest for the long term.
Lest I forget, I am on record here being very skeptical of Roberston and he is proving me wrong.
It is good to hear you praise Grant Robertson and I agree with you PG. He is clearly on top of his job. But I take issue with your depiction of Jacinda Ardern as a “surface celebrity”. If you really believe that is all there is to her, then your judgement of her is seriously awry.
While this is the picture her Nat opponents are trying to paint of Jacinda, all the evidence has succeeded in proving the exact opposite. She is highly intelligent and has a maturity well beyond her years. Her grasp of national and international affairs is equal to her predecessor, Helen Clark and the respect and confidence in her that her overseas counterparts have openly expressed… is testament to that. Add to that her strength of character and resilience, and there’s not much more one could ask for.
Her rhetorical skills are right up there too – she absolutely savaged the hapless Bridges with natural triplets and juxtapositions like “too much shouty shouty and not enough planny planny”.
The Gnats, accorded too much sunshine by a limp media, have neglected their skills and become accustomed to lying as a default strategy. It’s weak.
“Her grasp of national and international affairs is equal to her predecessor, Helen Clark ”
You have got to be kidding on that one.
Not at all – Helen never got anything like the ringing endorsement Jacinda got from Angela Merkel. Gnat wishful thinking has fooled you guys bigtime about Jacinda – sure she presents well, but she’s got plenty of depth, and is a much better communicator. There is a sincerity about her which is rare in contemporary politicians – reminiscent of Edward Walker’s description of Ivy.
Of course if you take your views from tragic mistakes like Malcolm Turnbull or the near-sighted and vindictive scribblers of the Herald you won’t pick that up.
Pete George, They are truly complementary. But personally I would like Grant to be more progressive. Jacinda Ardern has cut-through. She has the ability to connect emotionally and shows judgement in having Grant Robertson in that portfolio. Do not think Jacinda is ‘surface’ only. She is a policy wonk with a phenomenal grasp of complexities, and any who work with her soon show admiration for her acumen work ethic and humanity, coupled with sharp wit and eloquence. She is the coalition’s glue.
What do you mean by “behind the scenes work”? Stuff that cannot bear the bright sunlight of transparency and accountability?
Yawn….
How come I keep getting this, when I try to post reminisces of my time in Syria?
Because TS server is not responding because of a ‘Request Timeout’
You know, like it’s given up waiting for you to post your
comment.
it detected the phrase “my time in syria” 🙂
It detected the phrase “my time with the Hay’et Tahrir al-Shamin (read ISIS) in the Yarmouk Syrian refugee camp”
Clever wee server
To Lynn Prent: what happened to the Replies drop-down menu on the RH side? I can only see Comments or Opinions but no longer the replies to my comments!?
Edit: As soon as I submit a comment my details disappear too and I have to re-enter them for each and every comment, which is cumbersome 😉
Have you changed settings in your browser? Specifically, cookie settings?
No, I haven’t knowingly changed anything. But to be sure I played around with settings in two different browsers (MS Edge and G Chrome) and ran a few tests here on TS and it made no difference.
Same as for me.
I just noticed it as I commented to that my required name and mail get wiped automatically too. I’m using Firefox and it did update to V60.0.1 the other night between my latest reply with the fields empty and my previous one when they auto-filled in. Mozilla has been making a lot of security changes to Firefox with every update.
I have lost my automatic login and have to enter info individually with a different icon thing. I thought it might be connected with my site going down last night – through Vodafone but it seems that others have problems too. I have Firefox too, and have been getting red notices that I have too update my details which I haven’t got round to.
Same. Firefox 60 has some big CSS rendering changes under the hood. Developer-oriented link at end of this page: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/60.0/releasenotes/
Ah. Same behaviour in Chrome 61.0 as well.
Drill baby, drill
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/104024959/rise-in-oil-and-gas-exploration-activity-in-taranaki-by-early-2019
My advice to these companies; Don’t
Related:
New Zealand will still be drilling for oil in the deep sea in 2070?!?
When climate change is due to have ravaged most of the natural world.
When super storms are tearing up all infrastructure and making industrial civilisation and agriculture a marginal proposition.
Another day waking up to find there has been another US shooting. They are becoming so common in the US. But then when you have a lobby group like the NRA sponsored by gun manufacturers legally bribing politicians to make sure that no legislation is passed to slow these things down and protect the people, what can you expect.
The NRA in the US has no shame having elected a man as their NRA president who in testimony has admitted to being a Traitor to his own country and selling guns to those deemed terrorist organizations by the US. He only got out of jail time on a technicality because a lot of the evidence used to convict him was found to be inadmissible as it was given by him during a hearing to a congressional hearing while he was under an immunity deal.
These are the sort of problems you have when you give lobbyists access to legally bribe politicians. This was something you saw in very minor ways starting to creep into NZ under previous National Governments with their Cabinet Club dinners where lobbyists got full access to National MPs and the former PM John Key. Here we saw a small number of deaths to with no one really held accountable, but the deaths here where due to lobbying for lax safety enforcement in places like the logging and mining industry.
Apparently 22 school shooting this year!!
The shooter was 17.
A comment made about one young USA shooter has stuck with me. He is supposed to have said something like – society is so bad and everyone is contemptible and humans destroying the earth and that it would be better if all of us died. It is dangerous for young people to start thinking like this before they have had layers of denial of the reality of their, and general human behaviour, to insulate him.
The NZ Herald have run a very interesting and full piece on early Maori history and artefacts found.
Myth of Mangahawea: How scientists uncovered the home of our earliest Polynesian arrivals 19/5/2018
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12043041
Another item from 17/5/2018 on the apartheid-like laws that used to be the norm in earlier times. A book explores that history.
‘Racist as f***’: Book backs up Taika Waititi’s claims about New Zealand racism
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12053300
Looking at archives and old newspapers, he discovered Māori were treated as “enemies of the state”, long after the Waikato War had finished.
“During a series of epidemics, Māori were banned from moving about the country, because their brown skin was equated with disease,” Hamilton said.
“When smallpox broke out in 1913, Māori villages were sealed off, and Māori were banned from the roads and from trains unless they had a special certificate showing they’d been immunised.
“No Pākehā was ever subjected to these rules. They were blatantly racist, made life almost impossible for Māori, and were in force for many months.”
Māori were also excluded from bars, cinemas and barber shops in South Auckland.
“For much of the 20th century it was hard to get a drink in places like Papakura and Pukekohe if you were the wrong colour,” Hamilton said.
The book details the experience of Rongomanu Bennett, a Māori psychiatrist who was refused a beer in the Papakura Tavern in 1959.
He began a campaign and made headlines around the world.
“The New York Times called Papakura ‘the Little Rock of New Zealand’, after the Arkansas city where African Americans were fighting segregation,” Hamilton said.
The Prime Minister at the time eventually backed up Bennett, and Papakura Tavern agreed to serve Māori.
“Book backs up Taika Waititi’s claims about New Zealand racism”
didn’t he say “racist as fuck”
he didn’t say “was”
all this is before he was born.
Apparently in the 70’s there was separate seating for Māori patrons in the Pukekohe theatre. Two years ago, I heard the Tangata Whenua providing a report on the health of a stream in a council meeting being referred to as ‘n*****s’. As residents of Franklin we have the misfortune to receive the eLocal, ensuring at least one Māori bashing article per issue. My list of present day casual racism witnessed is long, but others would be much longer, and no doubt, more damaging.
Bastion Point was in 1976.
Moutoa Gardens 1995.
Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004.
Tuhoe raid – Operation 8 2007.
These have happened in this generation.
Are you sure that you are living in this country, if you think Taika Waititi doesn’t have a point?
All I was saying was that the book quoted only stuff from when before Taika Waititi was born.
Yeah new Zealand is racist IMO in that some members of all races hate other races.
Your comment implied that Taiki Waititi had no evidence to back up the present tense. I provided a small number, which you ignored.
If you want to maintain your complacency over the specific racism directed towards Maaori in New Zealand, then continue on as you are. Ignore the living reality of Tangata Whenua and dilute any conversation with generalisations. I’m sure your comfort level will not be disturbed.
There’s an article about a book dealing with historical racism – it was used in relation to Taika Waititi’s comment I pointed out the two did not overlap in terms of history – and lo abuse cometh in my direction. I did not ignore the references you made – I have no argument with them. Your focus is on specific racism towards maori – I find all racism objectionable and I tire of one category of racism being portrayed as more important than others.
If you find abuse in my comment, then I’m not surprised at your perspective.
Generalising about racism, particularly noticeable in NZ is an avoidance technique. No one has suggested that racism is not a global issue. My response to you paraphrases the BLM movement: “Racism towards Maaori matters as well.”. I haven’t seen you acknowledge that the existence of it still causes damage and is harmful.
Let’s acknowledge that racism etc occurs all around the world in Tom Lehrer’s inimitable style.
Then let’s get back to regarding Maori people respectfully and understand their strivings to cope in our capitalist world of take from above (the Highland Clearings syndrome). It should be noted that –
Sir Francis Henry Dillon Bell GCMG KC PC was a New Zealand lawyer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of New Zealand from 10 to 30 May 1925. Wikipedia
considered Maori communist because they shared and lived co-operatively, not coldly, individually with rich and abject poor as the settlers were prepared to do. (This is in my memory, and I can’t quote source.) And this country’s citizens are increasingly adopting the same behaviour as a satisfactory culture now.
We have much to learn from Maori in living with those of a different culture and be co-operative to the advantage of both. When we acknowledge that, we will be able to turn aside lingering accusations of racism.
Thanks, greywarshark for the well considered comment and link.
Flies have short memories too.
What an amazing coincidence.
Sergei Skripal is sneaked out of hospital the day before the Royal Wedding.
How convenient.
And how convenient for the lying corrupt British state has a compliant media that asks no difficulty questions.
The only reason you know about it is that the BBC et al reported on it. Otherwise, it falls under the category of “none of your goddamn business how people who’ve survived attempted murder choose to convalesce”.
PS: witless assumptions and slavish adherence to Moscow propaganda do not generate “difficult questions”. They just say something about you.
I don’t ‘listen to Moscow.’
I listen to the brilliant George Galloway.
I liked him best crawling around on all fours pretending to be a cat.
Correct again Ed. The lamestream who can dish the dirt on anyone they so choose, have no idea what’s happened to the two victims in the biggest story in Britain. What the hell!
The only fatalities of the event were two guinea pigs and a cat.
And they died of starvation, poor creatures.
‘Industrial strength’ novichok.
They just think we are fools to believe the lies they spin.
They could at least have notified the Russian embassy eddy.
Give them another chance?
Would they have sent a wet team to get him leaving the Hospital?
John le Carre would have a ball with this affair.
You need to look at how implausible MI5’s lies on this are.
Ed, Listening Post doing story re media coverage and Israel/Palestine, tune in, is live now, 🙂
Thank you
Generally speaking, police don’t keep suspects up to date with developments in ongoing investigations.
I’d forgotten how much you hated Russia.
Try again Ed: Russia is an official suspect of the UK investigation, no matter how much you love or hate them. Suspects don’t get updates; saying so makes no statement as to guilt whatsoever.
I suggest you educate yourself by listening to Galloway, Murray, Ford and others on the subject.
Independent, intelligent sources.
Don’t rely on what May and Johnson tell you.
Suspects don’t get updates, Ed, no matter what the man who introduced Nadira Alieva to spanking says.
You’re trying to be witty. Bad idea.
You’re trying to do an impression of an airbag. It’s very good.
As I said, you shouldn’t be trying to be funny. It’s almost as bad as listening to Jim Mora trying to sound serious.
Blows up in an instant but on inspection, is void of anything substantive.
Was going more for “apt metaphor” than humour.
Why is oab always so aggressive?
Youry addingy y toy people’s namesy isy really tediousy already.
The media could at least ask some questions.
Oh, but they’re all at Windsor Castle, simpering away.
Useful fools.
they’re all at Windsor Castle
Apart from Steven Morris and Patrick Wintour and Jill Lawless and Andrew Griffin and Fiona Hamilton and Leila Nathoo, who’ve all had stories on the Skripal poisoning published in the last 24 hours, that is.
You get the point.
It’s a perfect day to make a story disappear.
Are you being argumentative for arguments sake?
Quite tiring.
I get the point: you see conspiracies everywhere, and deeply resent any factual contradiction.
The Skripal poisoning requires a conspiracy, whoever you think did it.
You ‘see a conspiracy’ enacted by the Russians.
I accept there was a conspiracy. There had to be.
But I am not prepared to be judge, jury and executioner based on evidence presented by such dubious sources as MI5, Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
Also, you continually use the word conspiracy as if it were an insult.
Have you looked up what the word means in a dictionary?
To help, you….
noun
a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.
“a conspiracy to destroy the government”
synonyms: plot, scheme, stratagem, plan, machination, cabal; More
the action of plotting or conspiring.
“they were cleared of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice”
synonyms: plotting, collusion, intrigue, connivance, machination, collaboration; treason
“he was due to stand trial for conspiracy to murder”
Ed is not a conspiracy theorist. From what I’ve seen he’s got a good grasp (of reality) in geopolitical, environmental and local issues, etc. Using good independent journalism Ed can’t really go wrong. Craig Murray, John Pilger, Robert Fisk, Rachel Stewart et al.
Craig Murray? A deeply compromised masochist fop (by his own admission) with no access.
Stewart is excellent, but then she doesn’t write foreign policy articles.
Pilger does some good work, despite his bias.
As for Fisk, The Intercept does a better job.
The intercept has some excellent contributing journalists.
Robert Mackey isn’t one of them.
What parts of the linked article did he get wrong?
What?
So first you link to an organisation as though to suggest the organisation is a person, and I simply point out that the person you linked to doesn’t measure up against the other journalists he shares a platform with, and then you ask a question that makes no sense whatsover.
If you want a sense of Robert Mackey’s journalism, read his NYT and Guardian pieces. He tends towards being descriptive.
edit – if you want to argue with yourself over what Mackey did and didn’t get wrong in that piece, you could begin with the content of the 148 comments it attracted. They cover it off quite well. 😉
“as though to suggest”?
All I suggested is that The Intercept (or Mackey if you prefer) did a better job than Fisk on this occasion, which is pertinent to Maui’s assertion that Ed is well informed.
It is becoming clearer that the Government’sKiwi build and the increase in state house construction announced in the budget will not be enough to catch up with the 9 years of neglect by the National government.
Should the government be thinking of a solution that could end the housing crisis overnight and not cost the taxpayer a cent, and legislate against perfectly good houses
and apartments being allowed to be left empty, without reasonable excuse?
Ghost homes – properties lie empty in spite of crisis
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11676319
You would think it would also be set up to track low use of water by properties.
Low use of water week after week should raise an alarm and have someone dispatched out to check on water monitoring equipment to make sure it has not been tampered with or is faulty.
Thanks Ad. I must admit I was a bit doubtful of Grant initially, but after meeting Jacinda on several occasions, I trust her. She is genuine.
Don’t know why this did not attach to your comment Ad
Company’s like this make a mess and when the——–hits the fan they file bankrupt and start another company and carry on cheating.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12054766
Ka kite ano
Marae thats the way Narnia Mahuta you tell them they national and Maori party they stuffed up the prospects for maori they were the government that has suppressed the poor people whom are mostly brown and Maori you are doing good holding your own against two men .Ka pai e hao Ka kite ano