Great to amazon making it's shit TV in good old New Zealand, here is a clip from one of their upcoming delights… prefaced by quite a good comment about the clip, just so you have an idea of what you are letting yourself in for…
"No matter how cynical you might be about propagandistic American media, you are not prepared for how much watching this trailer is like snorting 100% pure John Bolton"
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish activist who has galvanized young people across the world to strike for more action to combat the impact of global warming, politely reminded them that she was a student, not a scientist – or a senator.
“Please save your praise. We don’t want it,” she said. “Don’t invite us here to just tell us how inspiring we are without actually doing anything about it because it doesn’t lead to anything.
“If you want advice for what you should do, invite scientists, ask scientists for their expertise. We don’t want to be heard. We want the science to be heard.”
In remarks meant for Congress as a whole, she said: “I know you are trying but just not hard enough. Sorry.”
… IN: How do you make sure that workers, and particularly workers of color and women, and other marginalized groups have a seat at the table?
NK: Right. I think it means that the green movement has to be taking on the supposedly green companies that are engaged in union busting, like Tesla, and fighting alongside unions to make sure that green jobs are good, unionized jobs.
It’s also in the text of the AOC, of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ed Markey’s resolution that there should be not only a jobs guarantee, but that workers should be guaranteed to be paid at the same level, same level of salary and benefits in their new jobs as they were in their older jobs. So that’s in the text of the resolution. These are protections that can and must be built into the transition…
…
NK: Right. When you look at polling around the momentum for climate action, it actually hews very closely to how well the economy is doing. So because the kinds of climate policies that have tended to be on the agenda have been these market-based solutions, like a carbon tax for instance, right, or cap and trade or maybe paying a little bit more for renewable energy, right, what often happens is that people will get scared about the science. A film like “An Inconvenient Truth” will come out. There’ll be a sense of “Yes, we have to do this.” And then there’ll be a recession, right. People will be struggling to hold on to their homes, they will be desperately looking for jobs and facing those daily crises in an economic emergency.
And then what happens is that interest in climate action goes down, because as they say in France, the gilet jaunes [yellow vest] movement, “You care about the end of the world. We care about the end of the month,” right. And so that’s what happened during the Obama years. There was this momentum, but as the recession really began to bite, the momentum, climate action came to be equated with a luxury that you couldn’t afford in a time of economic downturn…
…
IN: One passage in the book that particularly struck me was when you talked to a woman protesting, saying, “The hard truth is that the answer to the question ‘What can I, as an individual, do to stop climate change?’ is: nothing.” I wondered if you could talk a little bit more about that, because I think there is a growing tension between individual actions, like cutting out meat and driving less and trying to lobbying for giant corporations and governments to reduce their carbon emissions, even change their whole business models, to protect the environment.
NK: Well, I think that I don’t think anybody is arguing or I mean anybody serious is arguing that we are going to achieve the levels of emission reductions that we need through voluntary lifestyle changes. There’s no doubt that you can lower your own personal carbon footprint, right, by cutting out meat, by not flying, by not driving or driving electric [cars] powered by renewables. Most people don’t have these choices, and in order for this to add up to the level of change that we need, you would need every single person to voluntarily do it.
But that said, if we look at the historical precedence where we have seen massive societal change, whether it is the New Deal or whether it is the transformations of the American economy during the Second World War, it was absolutely critical that there was a perception of fairness. Meaning that it was not only working people who were being asked to make changes, to make sacrifices, that it was also massive corporations who were being dragged kicking and screaming to also make sacrifices, to also make changes, to also abide by new regulations that impacted their profits.
And that perception of fairness was absolutely critical in terms of people accepting the change. What we see in France with the gilet jaunes movement is that it is precisely the double standard, right, of seeing the tax breaks being given to big polluters and multimillionaires whose carbon footprints are sky high, while people who are already facing all of these stresses in a precarious economy are being asked to pay more.
I don’t think anybody serious seriously is saying voluntary lifestyle changes are going to do it. But I do think that you can make a serious argument that it’s important if you can, to change your lifestyle so that you can see and show others that actually it is possible to live well within our carbon budget. And that is an important kind of lived reality to be able to hold up in the face of all of this scaremongering that you’re going to get from the Fox Newses and all of the fossil fuel talking points that this is about just destroying people’s lives and so on, right. There are going to be sacrifices if we design this well.
We’re also going to have way better public transit. We can have better jobs and better working conditions, better services like for health care and education and a care economy. We can have a renaissance in public art. There are things that will improve. And yes, there are some things that will contract. We have to be honest about that.
So many environmental responses have just been minor tweaks to an economy based on endless consumption — take your electric car to the drive-through for an Impossible Burger and a Coke with a paper straw. Of course it’s better than the alternative. But it’s nowhere close to the depth of change required if we hope to actually pull our planet back from the brink. Restricting plastic straws is great. But we also need a ban on those significantly larger cylindrical sucking things. And electric cars are nice, if you can afford them. But what we really need is free, zero emissions public transit with energy-efficient non-market housing and health care steps away. We need new ways of thinking, beyond Trumpian temper tantrums or the dangerous incrementalism of the supposedly serious centrists.
Similar attempts at incrementalism is what makes submitting on consultation processes like Auckland Council's Climate Change framework so dispiriting. The framework itself is self-limiting in what it is looking at, and so, is limited in effective change. Anyone can provide feedback – even non-Aucklanders IIRC.
It's a pity she hasn't been heard from about the disgraceful cover-up that the Government has been running on the activities of their employee in Parliament isn't it?
The first article is basically a rehash of the party line. eg. She never claimed there was any sexual assault and so on.
The latter on, a couple of days ago, was one I hadn't seen. Mau has finally come out on the side of the victims. I hadn't seen this as I don't buy the printed Dom/Post any longer and I don't see everything they print.. It is really the first time though that she has broken her silence though isn't it? However yes I was wrong. She has finally come out of her shell. And about time.
Did you ever consider that the Labour panel might have simply described the truth. So far I haven't seen any evidence that indicates otherwise. For that matter when you read Alison Mau's articles closely, she is very cautious about saying talking about generalities rather than specifics.
Or is it just that you just have a pathological need to think that everyone involved in Labour will always just lie for the hell of it?
I think that your attitude says way way more about you than anyone else. Partisan and quite stupid.
Of course I did. After all I don't know they were told the things the victim says she told them. But if I believed the Party line I would have to believe that Ms Ardern didn't know anything about the claims of assault until a few days ago. No-one told her she says. Hmm.
I would have to believe she didn't even suspect anything might have gone on, despite the blogs have been full of the topic for a month and a half. Hmm.
However, what do I think is the likely situation? I really find it very difficult to accept that the victim was lying, and the Party representatives are telling the truth. Very, very difficult to see that as more than a very high odds. Perhaps more likely that winning Powerball but about on a par with winning Lotto.
Another question you ask is whether I think "Labour will always just lie for the hell of it". Of course I don't think that. They will lie if they think it is their interest to lie. That isn't the same thing. It is merely par for the course with politicians who have screwed things up. Good politicians don't actually lie of course. They just fool you into thinking they said something other than what they really did.
As far as your opinion of my attitude goes. I find your opinion quite silly. But everyone is entitled to some silly moments.
However, what do I think is the likely situation? I really find it very difficult to accept that the victim was lying, and the Party representatives are telling the truth. Very, very difficult to see that as more than a very high odds.
You must have observed politics for some time, right? What is the approved way to lie? After all you only have to look at the experts like Bennett, Farrar, or Collins (and some on the left as well). They prevaricate, obstrufacate, and divert.
What Simon Mitchell and co have done is to not do any of those things. What he said was that he never saw or heard anything to do with sexual assault allegations presented to him from the person who said that they had. He also pointed directly to the documents that he received and saw, apparently the same ones that a complainant referred to.
Good politicians don't actually lie of course. They just fool you into thinking they said something other than what they really did.
So point to something in the simple statement that Simon Mitchell put out as an example – show me the where he has said something that can’t be checked in the forensic record or from the other witnesses present.
Try to see any of the traditional political techniques in there for lying without getting caught. Basically I bet that
1. you haven’t tried.
2. you are probably too timid to do so because it would upset your personal bigotry.
Of course I don't think that. They will lie if they think it is their interest to lie.
So where exactly is Simon Mitchell's interest in lying? A volunteer who has no real economic stake in the Labour party and who lends himself to the thankless task of a volunteer on the NZ Council (and it is a thankless task).
This isn't a politician. Most of the time he runs essentially unopposed and probably secretly wishes some would oppose him.
Nigel Howarth is the same. I've run across him a few times. Mu guess is that he will be happy to get back to academia.
Which is EXACTLY why I think that you are an extremely stupid partisan dimwit who is too stupid to use your brains.
But everyone is entitled to some silly moments.
Yes – but you seem to have them all of the time when it comes to anything left-wing. You ever ask yourself why you believe such stupid ideas – because you are a simpleton bigot, Or are you just too lazy to think. Or just too stupid…
Or all three?
The only person I see lying around here is you – and I suspect that you’re mostly lying to yourself. It is cowardly and quite pathetic.
I do too, in life you come to realise that many things are often very simple but some can be elevated, or develop, into something more than they were. In work, business or family slight mismanagements, actions or misunderstandings can either reach good outcomes or outcomes, estrangements and divisions that can never, or often rarely, can be undone. Some media play that up for their own reasons and the National Party are relying on it as almost their only path back to government at this time.
Oh yes. I imagine the first time I met a Prime Minister was before you were born.
"Simon Mitchell". I believe he, and the other people on his panel did, to the best of their ability, do what they were supposed to. Find that nothing happened in other words. If he didn't happen to see something I don't believe that he would have hunted for it. That might have meant being forced to see something he didn't want to.
"(and it is a thankless task)".
Of course it is. However he will now find out the worst. The only thing that matters is to keep attention of the Leader. If you fail at that you will discover that you are expendable. I imagine that is what he is discovering now.
He doesn't really matter of course. The politicians thast have power matter and they are finding it very hard to escape scrutiny.
"The only person I see lying around here is you – and I suspect that you’re mostly lying to yourself. It is cowardly and quite pathetic."
Frankly I give a damn what you think. I don't see the world the way you do and therefore you are striking out with all your impotent rage.
McGregor too was found to have defamed Craig and had instituted her own legal proceedings against him.
The decision says this:
"The disputes between Mr Craig and Ms MacGregor were actually resolved in a confidential settlement in May 2015, with the help of two senior lawyers. That settlement was undone in material part by the involvement of a Mr Williams and a Mr Slater, both of whom have also been engaged in defamation proceedings with Mr Craig.
The defamation case raised the harrasemnt all over again
However Craig offered to settle with McGregor
"During 2018 he did make a number of open offers that both parties withdraw their claims and his last offer included an offer to pay $30,000 on account of costs. Ms MacGregor declined those offers.
Dont see the any reality for a 'poor woman dragged through the Courts' at all.
Dont see the any reality for a 'poor woman dragged through the Courts' at all.
Oh she was. In the cases with Craig against Williams it was perfectly evident that she didn't want to be there and had been compelled to be there.
Go and dig out the reports and the transcripts from the time.
As the Mau article stated…
In 2015, MacGregor had good reason to think the pain might be over. She had settled her sexual harassment case against Craig at the Human Rights Commission. The settlement was confidential, and MacGregor expected to be able to put the whole sorry experience behind her. No chance.
Craig went on to hold two media conferences, publish a pamphlet that went to 1.6 million Kiwi homes, and be interviewed in a sauna on the subject. It's those actions, and MacGregor's response to Craig's original harassment, that formed the nub of the High Court trial last year.
Effectively this particular episode has been through at least 5 legal rounds so far (not counting this one reported), and effectively only the first was initiated by McGregor – the one to the human rights about employment.
The rest of it has been by three complete arseholes – Craig, Williams and Slater using her as a witness pawn in their political and legal games. The High court case just concluded (and maybe its inevitable appeal) was a direct result of Craig breaking his previous agreement after Williams used material held by him in trust for safe-keeping.
Do you think that Craig could be trusted not to drag her into court again? He would in a heart beat as far as I can see. I wouldn’t trust any assurance from him – he doesn’t appear to be particularly aware of the concepts of having personal ethics or morals.
Reading that article, I think that the real problem was that she hadn’t been paid for months during the election campaign and that the Craig had loaned her money rather than paying her. Do you think that was a reasonable behaviour for an employer…
Perhaps you should try reading the articles you link to.
What you have to remember is that the only reason that this came to light again was because that despicable arsehole Jordan Williams gave documents that he was holding in trust for her to Cameron Slater to attack Colin Craig.
This has been well -established across multiple court cases. Perhaps you should try reading rather than playing with yourself and writing your misogynist grunts here.
He's leaving the option open that he could be dictated to by someone else. A political consultant, for instance. A suitable female with political aspirations may see the opportunity to become the power behind JT's throne as mayor. Acquiring whip & fishnet stockings, she may offer her services – to issue instructions in bondage sessions. A traditional lifestyle even before Lou Reed sang about it in the Velvet Underground (firstly in mid 1965, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_in_Furs_(song)).
Yeah, I know, bit of a stretch. Only normal for upper-class Englishmen. But you never know – stranger things have happened.
Chris Trotter giving John Tamihere his day in the court of outraged opinion over his Seig Heil riposte. Foolish and makes him appear to be all mouth and no trousers!
"Godwin has stated that he introduced Godwin's law in 1990 as an experiment in memetics." It worked: "In 2012, "Godwin's law" became an entry in the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary."
"Coined by Leo Strauss in 1953, reductio ad Hitlerum borrows its name from the term used in logic, reductio ad absurdum (reduction to the absurd). According to Strauss, reductio ad Hitlerum is a form of ad hominem, ad misericordiam, or a fallacy of irrelevance. The suggested rationale is one of guilt by association. It is a tactic often used to derail arguments, because such comparisons tend to distract and anger the opponent."
So when a bunch of commentators here were busy likening Trump to Hitler (as recently as the year before last), I bet they didn't know they were exhibiting a syndrome identified more than sixty years ago!
fuck godwins law – and the faux-prohibition it attempts..
(and i say 'faux' because ti my mind it is bullshit..)
a nazi is a nazi..end of story..
and if the direct comparisons cannot be made between germany under hitler – and what trump is doing to immigrant families/children – clearly not enough attention is being paid..
and if you don't compare the barbaric behavior of trump – to the works of hitler..?
Won't disagree – I had the same stance all thro the '70s, all thro the '80s, all thro the '90s. Problem with growing old (with an open mind) is you gradually acquire a tolerance of other views. If empathic, you even end up seeing things from other points of view too.
So my generation of rebels called govts fascist (regardless of whether they were Labour or National, Democrat or Republican) when they acted accordingly, which was most of the time. Police brutality was normal, for instance. Left & right both enjoyed eliminating the civil rights of cannabis smokers – target a minority group, the establishment gets off on that shit.
So demonising Trump, who comes across as a clown rather than a fascist, seems more like missing the point to me. I don't defend his immigration policy, just point it out when folks misrepresent it. He's just doing what he was elected to do. Democracy.
But is it the same today> Everything warps over time and I guess that a syndrome does too, after all it's "a characteristic combination of opinions, emotions, or behaviour."
Hitler seems much closer now than 60 years ago and we understand from the numerous studies of 1930 – 1940s how he found his wormhole to power. I don't think that Godwin's law can be thrown at every mention of that name; perhaps we should update it and replace it with 'Douglas', I have thought that the moustache had a certain familiarity.
"So when a bunch of commentators here were busy likening Trump to Hitler (as recently as the year before last), I bet they didn't know they were exhibiting a syndrome identified more than sixty years ago!"
Except that Trump is trying to create a fascist state. There's been a large amount of political analysis of this. That's not invoking Godwin's Law. A commenter calling another commenter a Nazi is.
You really believe that? Must be a generational thing. Those of us who have had to live much of our lives threatened by the spectre of fascism know it when we see it.
As I pointed out last time this topic was seriously raised, Roger Donaldson would not have made Sleeping Dogs if it hadn't been in our cultural ambience at the time. But Muldoon merely talked tough. He didn't actually do fascism via govt policy. Where is the Wanganui computer now? Trash heap? I recall when it was promising us Orwell's 1984 made real in Aotearoa.
I get that Trump's style is Muldoon a little (but with a dose of LSD & speed thrown in, not to mention Alice in Wonderland). People have a right to see others as a threat, that's human nature, but it's a big political mistake to assume others will see it similarly.
Bolton got fired the other day. Too hardline, apparently. If Trump really was fascist, he wouldn’t have felt that way. To him, his political allies are as disposable as his political enemies. My way or the highway. Makes him more like Stalin than Hitler. But don’t let that comparison tempt you. The Don hasn’t shot anyone. Nor even employed thugs to eliminate irritants. Media libs would have been doing outrage about it if it had happened…
Did. Agree the connection to Roger Stone is worth knowing. "At a televised Trump rally in Miami, Florida, on February 18, 2019, Tarrio was seated directly behind President Trump wearing a "Roger stone did nothing wrong" tee shirt." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Stone
Violent fellow-travellers only, so far. Potential threat, sure. Only 3 years into it, so yet to withstand the test of time. Anti-porn & masturbation is the key – mental/emotional self-discipline as part of group ethos does make guys tough. One to watch…
For me, the big thing was the separation of kids with no intention of ever returning them to their parents. And the deaths in custody. If the deaths were a bureaucratic error, there would be bureaucracy for eventually reuniting the kids and the parents. But the system doesn't even regard immigrants as highly as livestock these days.
Which means his dehumanisation of immigrants wasn't just rhetoric, it was policy he was happy to watch implemented.
As far as he thinks about policy (which isn't much) Dolt45 is an isolationist nazi-adjacant. Bolton is an imperialist. That's why they were at odds. Hard line in different directions.
That he's trying to create an authoritarian state? Yes. Whether that will look like historical fascism or not I don't know. But it's not about my beliefs, there are plenty of people with experience in either studying and writing about fascism and how it arises, or with direct experience of fascism who are making these critiques about Trump. Including Jewish people btw.
"Makes him more like Stalin than Hitler. But don’t let that comparison tempt you. The Don hasn’t shot anyone. Nor even employed thugs to eliminate irritants. Media libs would have been doing outrage about it if it had happened…"
There was a point at which Stalin hadn't shot people yet, so I don't know what you are trying to say there. That the US isn't a fascist state in 2019? Sure, I'd agree with that. Fascism doesn't just spring up one day, so I'm more interested in what the process is.
Having owned and read at least two biographies of Stalin, my guess is that the point he hadn't yet shot anyone was when he was in the seminary, studying to be a priest, prior to his career in the Tsar's secret police.
Fascism is an ideology, historically, more than a behaviour. Trump has no evident ideology (too mercenary). It requires an organisation to give it political form and impact. The USA lacks that. The authoritarian state in that federation has been under attack from the right for a long time – he uses it as an operational convenience to achieve a suitable historical legacy.
As such, I see no evidence that he's any more than a conservative narcissist playing the radical (to steer the establishment away from global elite control).
Definitely. He was quite popular with conservatives in western democracies right up until the invasion of Poland. Even that only thinned out the numbers – took another couple of years for him to get beyond the pale.
"left wingers" who would vote for a guy who hated immigrants. Yeah nah.
He won because he was the loudest fuckwit in an uninspiring pool of primary candidates, and people tried to fight (and report) him like he was a competent politician. All the lying the repugs have done since the 1990s – ken starr, WMD, tea party – bit them in the arse and their anointed blandity (Bush 3) still tried to keep one foot in reality.
People need to figure out how to fight a reality vacuum. Calling it out in contempt seems to do better against bojo than tryinhg to debate with him like he’s a normal huiman being.
No, he's still doing both. I agree re Hitler not taken seriously. Don't agree re your denial of global elites &/or Trump's leading the rightist charge to rout them. Try learning from Brexit.
Try making a damned point about them, rather than just using random incantations.
If drumpf was such an opponent of the "global elites" (depending on how you even define that term), why are the career repugs fucking their own grandmothers' corpses to keep him in power?
Why aren't US billionaires (real ones) pulling funding from the repugs?
If he really is just playing "a conservative narcissist playing the radical (to steer the establishment away from global elite control)", he's not having much success at steering the "establishment". They're not doing anything they don't want to do. He's shitting golden turds for them – neutering the EPA, boosting drilling, firing money into the prison-industrial complex, selling weapons, and making immigrants more scared, powerless, and exploitable. That's why they like him.
As such, I see no evidence that he’s any more than a conservative narcissist playing the radical (to steer the establishment away from global elite control).
You missed one crucial word – “incompetent” is also one of his outstanding qualities. There are several others to do with his inability to work with competent people and his attraction for syncopathic vermin.
the only thing stopping trump from going ballistic against his own are the checks and balances on u.s. system..
but i have said before that trump hasn't invaded anyone (yet)..unlike his nobel peace prize winning predecessor – who was wasting libya about now in his presidency..
(one for those saying trump is no different to those who came before him..
it comes from the same source as his addiction-info – from a writer on the apprentice and the celebrity apprentice..(who i follow on twitter..)
'Trump in reality is far worse than most imagine. He has done horrible things over many decades to many victims. What he is doing to the US will be no different. It’s like living next door to Dahmer and ignoring the smell.'
Ah, I see my reply went into moderation limbo, probably too much quoting from Wikipedia. This bit from Trotter is worth pointing out: "Tamihere, in blurting “Sieg Heil to that”, wasn’t signalling his membership of some perverse right-wing fraternity. All he was doing was signalling his membership of something much less acceptable – the Maori working-class of West Auckland."
I suspect JT is actually making a play for rightist voters – if only to demonstrate that their own side are failing to front impressive contenders – but he could easily pull in all those offended by pc-conformism as well. Speaking the lingo of the land does actually produce a resonance of authenticity in folks' minds (not just `the Maori working-class of West Auckland').
I don't go along with this light attitude to Trump you take DF. Whether he is going to exhibit the right spots to enable the disease to be firmly stated to be fascism or not, what he is doing is serious.
So not a subject for learned unpicking or idle conjecture.
Bush Jr seemed worse. Reagan much worse. Nixon, very much worse. What do you call serious? His attitude on climate change? True, that's a serious problem. Would the USA do any different under a Democrat? Doubt it. History says no.
And Obama has gone down in history as achieving the largest arms trade deal ever. Just google Obama largest arms trade deal in history, you get plenty of sites reporting his track record. Pretty cool for the dude that won the Nobel Peace Prize.
I wasn't running a book on Trump v anybody. He is part of a filmset that has strayed from its desert setting with wide open spaces to roam and gone to the more mannered cityscape, and the actor-in-chief hasn't been tamed yet. Quite unsuitable for his task. I wonder when the people will realise that they are losing stuff they never appreciated and pull back?
Would I be right to say that our Immigration Department is full of white ants that are eating out the heart of NZ enterprise? Its lack of acumen and sensible targetting and systems affecting our businesses – in this case the harvesting of food which must be dealt with in timely fashion which can't wait until some squirts in Immigration and their anally retentive managers and CEO get wise to what we need and the applicants for entry deserve, is affecting our earnings and our standing in the world.
Immigration and social welfare seem to have captured all that is negative and backward in this country, transmogrified it, and turned it into sausages that pass as 'civil servants' up with the ways of the modern world.
I see the white ants among growers, who for decades have been getting cheap imported labour, without ever once even being asked to come up with a plan for harvesting their crops without bending the law. Why is that not part of a resource consent?
If immigration was anything like social welfare, the growers would be asked to come up with an action plan to end their dependence on the state, even a medium term one would do. But,…, nothing,….ever.
Nothing is to be done until it is an emergency. That is how NZ acts and manages isn't it – all else is like communism trying to plan ahead and stifle imagination and opportunities. The freemarket must reign and be bailed out when all the little businessmen and women who imagine themselves gods of business, rather than just beyond being bourgeois, need to have the road swept for them where it has become stony.
So to protect them and their businesses, they can blackmail government because we already have a slowdown in the economy. We neeNothing is to be done until it is an emergency. That is how NZ acts and manages isn't it – all else is like communism trying to plan ahead and stifle imagination and opportunities. The freemarket must reign and be bailed out when all the little businessmen and women who imagine themselves gods of business, rather than just beyond being bourgeois, need to have the road swept for them where it has become stony.
So to protect them and their businesses, they can blackmail government because we already have a slowdown in the economy. We need to help them now and do that other thing you mentioned Augustus. What was it? Plan for future requirements, resource management inadequacy, action to improve situation here – train and transport NZs, set them firmly into a seasonal workforce that pays adequately, enables them to keep their earnings and go back on the dole if that is where they are at (they need to be match-fit to do the seasonal work though). And the NZ seasonal workforce would merge with a Pacific Island one with permanent quotas so they can earn money here to enable improvements back home.
A win-win situation that would be cheered as an adept move better than a sporting maneouvre. And perhaps there should be a sporting fixture, with the visitors, a real friendly with no concussions etc if that is possible, before they go home and they can take half of the proceeds back with them plus goodwill.
Ms Dyson said Ms Barry's behaviour was particularly stark compared to what was an otherwise improving culture in Parliament.
Ms Barry is looking stressed. She feels deeply about not getting her own way in the euthanasia debacle which is so important because she knows she is right, and is backed up by a large number of pigeons who can be relied on to keep pecking at the 'No' door. Spoiler – snide remark coming up – the old saying about watching out or the wind will change Ms Barry and your lines and bags will get locked in place, applies.
(someone pointed out/i agreed) – the problem with the pro-euthanasia is that if people want to end their own lives – there are many ways to do this – (and you can't be prosecuted for it..)
so why must the state be brought into it..?..
why must the insistance be that someone else do it..?
..and with all the inbuilt potential for abuse by greedy relatives/benificiaries of any estate..
I'm confused by the pro-euthanasia crowd – I mean if they want to kill themselves – why don't they. No one is stopping them – no one. But like Phillip ure you gotta wonder why they want to bring the state in, and create situations where avarice becomes the new normal.
You really have to question why the pro-euthanasia crowd think it's OK to undermine the trust in doctors, ignore and put down disabled people's concerns, and generally bash anyone who opposes them.
But hey, why deal with underlying economic problems in society – when the baby boomers are jumping up and down demanding somthing for themselves again.
Dude, I don't support euthanasia. But at least I can see why in some cases a patient might need someone else to end the patient's life because the patient is unable to do so, or provide expert assistance while the patient does so. I just think that bureaucratising the process will be worse than the current situation. Think about it. Coma, some sort of locked in situation, fearful and anxious dementia, or constant pain and immobility leading to a 99.9% chance of a long but painful death… these are valid scenarios in this days and age that can be planned for in advance with living wills.
Just saying they can kill themselves is a mischaracterisation of the problem so gross that, if intentional, I think the description "straw man" could well apply.
FFS stop being sanctimonious the pair of you – reread how I said what I said. Let me lay it out for you – I was having a go at pro-euthanasia people for being sanctimonious – too soon?
As for sickening, you went to a real sick place with the comment
" or constant pain and immobility leading to a 99.9% chance of a long but painful death"
Just more of the usual dismissing the concerns of disabled to prove your point. People can live with constant pain, I have for 35 years, and diminishing mobility, so I'm going to die slowly and painfully – news flash – life is hard and dying is awful.
Here the thing – bugger this euthanasia bill and all the muppets supporting it, when people are living in cars, kids are getting preventable diseases and the bottom 30% keep getting poorer.
They end up being a bunch of sanctimonious prats who have no moral compass.
I did read the comment and quoted the bit I was referring to, which was the same argument as Phillip Ure's: that people supporting voluntary euthanasia legislation are promoting a state-run murder service for people too scared or too lazy to commit suicide. That's a blatant straw man, for the fairly obvious reason that McFlock pointed out above: it's actually for people who are no longer capable of committing suicide.
I didn't address your other point, that it's wrong to consider private member's bills before the government's achieved the goals you're interested in, because it's a silly point.
Why should the 'greedy relatives etc' be brought into the consideration. It is another matter entirely. The law should be straightforward so that the person leaves clear information about their wishes re property etc. The relatives are always interested in dealing with the artifacts of the person's life and that will be covered under what has been already considered and drawn up and used by people who have gone ahead without waiting for the pathetic bunch of pollies who want to wield power, but make only decisions that give them and their mates a boost in the pocketbook.
Some of you people who write here are so distant from the reality of what is needed in a well-run polity that you might as well be on your own island or planet.
I think you shouldn't make ridiculous statements about something you clearly don't have the facts on, so I suggest you read the bill and educate yourself a little.
I don't care whether you respond, or not, it won't stop me posting. If you want to admit defeat in advance, so be it.
The bit about ad homs is amusing considering your reply to PM above. Innocent victim you aint. lol
Its great to see The Rugby World Cup in Asia Japan.
Eco Maori lives with discrimination every day.
That's awesome to see hundreds of thousands of tangata in Australia joining The Climate Change strike today Kia Kaha to everyone around the Papatuanuku who joined in the strike.
That’s the way Andrew thanks for backing our youth to get to vote Ka pai.
Mullens tangi was today it looks like its a hakare for someone of his great Mana. It takes a great man to rise a good whanau in Te Maori Papatuanuku. He gave me a sore face quite a few times he will be missed in Aotearoa.
The more PEE getting taken off our streets is great the shit is poisoning Te tangata whenua.
Smart Environment solutions to monitoring our Wai show great innovation its great to see tangata caring for our Taonga Wai.
Its excellent to see the Wellington tangata supporting Te Reo Maori place names in Wellington.
The Rugby World Cup in Asia Japan is starting in a hour Ka pai. I tryed to sort my free subscription for the Rugby World Cup I could not get it sorted I think someone is stuffing with my subscription as my email address would not load up WTF.
Kia Kaha to all the Tangata Protesting to protect OUR FUTURE'S climate. THE NEANDERTHAL WILL learn to listen to our Rangatahi
Across the globe, millions join biggest climate protest ever
Young and old alike took to the streets in an estimated 185 countries to demand action
Millions of people demonstrated across the world yesterday demanding urgent action to tackle global heating, as they united across timezones and cultures to take part in the biggest climate protest in history.
In an explosion of the youth movement started by the Swedish school striker Greta Thunberg just over 12 months ago, people protested from the Pacific islands, through Australia, across-south east Asia and Africa into Europe and onwards to the Americas.
For the first time since the school strikes for climate began last year, young people called on adults to join them – and they were heard. Trade unions representing hundreds of millions of people around the world mobilised in support, employees left their workplaces, doctors and nurses marched and workers at firms like Amazon, Google and Facebook walked out to join the climate strikes.
Global climate strike: Greta Thunberg and school students lead climate crisis protest – as it happened
In the estimated 185 countries where demonstrations took place, the protests often had their individual targets; from rising sea levels in the Solomon Islands, toxic waste in South Africa, to air pollution and plastic waste in India and coal expansion in Australia.
But the overall message was unified – a powerful demand for an urgent step-change in action to cut emissions and stabilise the climate.
The demonstrations took place on the eve of a UN climate summit, called by the secretary general, António Guterres, to inject urgency into government action to restrict the rise in global temperatures to 1.5C, as agreed under the 2015 Paris agreement.
That's is. Cool the carved waharoa gifted to Japan for the Rugby World Cup.
The International Monetary Fund is correct Aotearoa is doing great. Our governments management of our economy is fine.
Some farmers are going to kick up a stink no matter what Our Coalition government does WHY because they are South Island national supporters.
Ka pai Te Papatuanuku biggest strike for OUR futures Climate Ka pai yes the pollies will have to bend the knee to the intelligent tangata striking for our future.
Hue great mahi helping native trees grow in Hinewai. I research that planting native trees they need to planted in a canopy to protect them from frost when they are young. We are going to plant Te Totara trees they grow fast no need to be treated easy to carve. Ka kite Ano
Cool that the Fisheries Minister has promised to look after the far north 90 mile Tangaroa shores environment to Te tangata whenua. I think tangata whenua need to be included in the mahi and wealth of the industry shear the lollies.
That's is not on its a breach of human rights locking 1200 people who have not been charged with a crime.
Using tangata whenua art to help heal tangata with mental health issues is a good idea Ka pai.
I… Henry we only get one body so it's correct that you took time off to let your injuries heal Kia Kaha.
I think it's great that Soap for Society Organisations are asking for sanitary products donations so they can give them to people who can not afford them
My alarm didn't go for the Allblack delayed game and I miss the 3 pm replay We were moderafiying our Wind Turbine.
That's is a good way to show how much Papatuanuku Warming is a Reality. The Swiss having A Tangi for their taonga Glacier Poziol it has lost 80 % of its mass
.Spark did its best to prove A good service. Its not there Fault that companies in other Countries dropped the BALL. Some people will use anything for leverage. This is all the more reasons to roll out 5 G Services.
Tangata Mental health wellbeing is a big thing as not everyone can figure out weather they have a problem or not. I think some educational program should be interduced to our tamariki about how their thought process actually works. I say the SURGE in Aotearoa mental health problems and rising suercide rates can be directly linked to A surge in PEE use over the last 20 years
Kume Amnesty International is a great organisation highlighting the problems around Papatuanuku the biggest problem we are going to face Human Caused Climate change.
The difference between Aotearoa is we have A Coalition Government that knows Climate change is Reality not like some pollies denies Global warming trying to gain putea. Kia Kaha to all the Tangata strikeing for Our future climate.
Aotearoa is a great position to mitergate climate change. We have a climate that has the fastest tree growth in the world. We have 80 % renewable energy already we have the best clean Sky for Solar power we actually get 20 % more power out of Solar than the manufacturer Stats. We have one of the Tawhirimate places on Papatuanuku great for Wind Turbine.We have great Geothermal resources that can provide back up power for Green Energy as well A Hydro power that can be used as back up power for Green Energy. The only reason why our Emissions have climb is because we have just kicked out a carbon pro Government that did everything to boost our carbon use. Big moterways canning Rail canning planned Wind turbine construction . Changing laws to alow the Cutting down of heaps of trees. ECT.
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
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Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
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Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
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Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
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Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
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Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihan’s gorgeous and sad debut Kōhine, Noelle McCarthy’s memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend Ngāhuia te ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 25 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
“Three Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.” ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunal’s report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallace’s debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that he’s always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe it’s something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. She’s ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
Great to amazon making it's shit TV in good old New Zealand, here is a clip from one of their upcoming delights… prefaced by quite a good comment about the clip, just so you have an idea of what you are letting yourself in for…
"No matter how cynical you might be about propagandistic American media, you are not prepared for how much watching this trailer is like snorting 100% pure John Bolton"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un2zXkM-03U
hilarious
Certainly illustrates the swinging door between the Pentagon, the CIA and Hollywood
Kid has more nous in her little finger than an entire legislature put together has.
https://twitter.com/Independent/status/1174367982107189248
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish activist who has galvanized young people across the world to strike for more action to combat the impact of global warming, politely reminded them that she was a student, not a scientist – or a senator.
“Please save your praise. We don’t want it,” she said. “Don’t invite us here to just tell us how inspiring we are without actually doing anything about it because it doesn’t lead to anything.
“If you want advice for what you should do, invite scientists, ask scientists for their expertise. We don’t want to be heard. We want the science to be heard.”
In remarks meant for Congress as a whole, she said: “I know you are trying but just not hard enough. Sorry.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/17/greta-thunberg-to-congress-youre-not-trying-hard-enough-sorry
On the topic of climate change, there is a good interview with Naomi Klein on Truthdig.
Naomi Klein also in a video on The Intercept:
"What's in a Trump Straw?"
Similar attempts at incrementalism is what makes submitting on consultation processes like Auckland Council's Climate Change framework so dispiriting. The framework itself is self-limiting in what it is looking at, and so, is limited in effective change. Anyone can provide feedback – even non-Aucklanders IIRC.
NK is very clear and clued up sounding.
Alison Mau is one of a group of women who formed a Trust in 2017, to help Rachel MacGregor meet the legal fees needed for a High Court trial.
Here's her report of the outcome just now published: Rachel MacGregor 1, Colin Craig 0.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/115912281/alison-mau-rachel-macgregors-win-is-one-for-all-workers
Is that what Ms Mau has been up to?
It's a pity she hasn't been heard from about the disgraceful cover-up that the Government has been running on the activities of their employee in Parliament isn't it?
So Alwyn, what is this, then? What cave you've been dwelling in? https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/115751933/labour-was-warned-it-had-a-major-problem-before-summer-camp-scandal?rm=a
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/115801937/when-people-speak-out-why-do-we-find-it-so-hard-to-believe
Alwrong is what hes known for.
The first article is basically a rehash of the party line. eg. She never claimed there was any sexual assault and so on.
The latter on, a couple of days ago, was one I hadn't seen. Mau has finally come out on the side of the victims. I hadn't seen this as I don't buy the printed Dom/Post any longer and I don't see everything they print.. It is really the first time though that she has broken her silence though isn't it? However yes I was wrong. She has finally come out of her shell. And about time.
Did you ever consider that the Labour panel might have simply described the truth. So far I haven't seen any evidence that indicates otherwise. For that matter when you read Alison Mau's articles closely, she is very cautious about saying talking about generalities rather than specifics.
Or is it just that you just have a pathological need to think that everyone involved in Labour will always just lie for the hell of it?
I think that your attitude says way way more about you than anyone else. Partisan and quite stupid.
Good call Iprent
"I think that your attitude says way way more about you than anyone else. Partisan and quite stupid."
Nice one
"Did I ever consider .."
Of course I did. After all I don't know they were told the things the victim says she told them. But if I believed the Party line I would have to believe that Ms Ardern didn't know anything about the claims of assault until a few days ago. No-one told her she says. Hmm.
I would have to believe she didn't even suspect anything might have gone on, despite the blogs have been full of the topic for a month and a half. Hmm.
However, what do I think is the likely situation? I really find it very difficult to accept that the victim was lying, and the Party representatives are telling the truth. Very, very difficult to see that as more than a very high odds. Perhaps more likely that winning Powerball but about on a par with winning Lotto.
Another question you ask is whether I think "Labour will always just lie for the hell of it". Of course I don't think that. They will lie if they think it is their interest to lie. That isn't the same thing. It is merely par for the course with politicians who have screwed things up. Good politicians don't actually lie of course. They just fool you into thinking they said something other than what they really did.
As far as your opinion of my attitude goes. I find your opinion quite silly. But everyone is entitled to some silly moments.
You must have observed politics for some time, right? What is the approved way to lie? After all you only have to look at the experts like Bennett, Farrar, or Collins (and some on the left as well). They prevaricate, obstrufacate, and divert.
What Simon Mitchell and co have done is to not do any of those things. What he said was that he never saw or heard anything to do with sexual assault allegations presented to him from the person who said that they had. He also pointed directly to the documents that he received and saw, apparently the same ones that a complainant referred to.
Good politicians don't actually lie of course. They just fool you into thinking they said something other than what they really did.
So point to something in the simple statement that Simon Mitchell put out as an example – show me the where he has said something that can’t be checked in the forensic record or from the other witnesses present.
Try to see any of the traditional political techniques in there for lying without getting caught. Basically I bet that
1. you haven’t tried.
2. you are probably too timid to do so because it would upset your personal bigotry.
So where exactly is Simon Mitchell's interest in lying? A volunteer who has no real economic stake in the Labour party and who lends himself to the thankless task of a volunteer on the NZ Council (and it is a thankless task).
This isn't a politician. Most of the time he runs essentially unopposed and probably secretly wishes some would oppose him.
Nigel Howarth is the same. I've run across him a few times. Mu guess is that he will be happy to get back to academia.
Which is EXACTLY why I think that you are an extremely stupid partisan dimwit who is too stupid to use your brains.
Yes – but you seem to have them all of the time when it comes to anything left-wing. You ever ask yourself why you believe such stupid ideas – because you are a simpleton bigot, Or are you just too lazy to think. Or just too stupid…
Or all three?
The only person I see lying around here is you – and I suspect that you’re mostly lying to yourself. It is cowardly and quite pathetic.
I echo Ianmac – another good call.
I do too, in life you come to realise that many things are often very simple but some can be elevated, or develop, into something more than they were. In work, business or family slight mismanagements, actions or misunderstandings can either reach good outcomes or outcomes, estrangements and divisions that can never, or often rarely, can be undone. Some media play that up for their own reasons and the National Party are relying on it as almost their only path back to government at this time.
"observed politics for some time, right".
Oh yes. I imagine the first time I met a Prime Minister was before you were born.
"Simon Mitchell". I believe he, and the other people on his panel did, to the best of their ability, do what they were supposed to. Find that nothing happened in other words. If he didn't happen to see something I don't believe that he would have hunted for it. That might have meant being forced to see something he didn't want to.
"(and it is a thankless task)".
Of course it is. However he will now find out the worst. The only thing that matters is to keep attention of the Leader. If you fail at that you will discover that you are expendable. I imagine that is what he is discovering now.
He doesn't really matter of course. The politicians thast have power matter and they are finding it very hard to escape scrutiny.
"The only person I see lying around here is you – and I suspect that you’re mostly lying to yourself. It is cowardly and quite pathetic."
Frankly I give a damn what you think. I don't see the world the way you do and therefore you are striking out with all your impotent rage.
While Craig has been highly unsavoury person.
McGregor too was found to have defamed Craig and had instituted her own legal proceedings against him.
The decision says this:
"The disputes between Mr Craig and Ms MacGregor were actually resolved in a confidential settlement in May 2015, with the help of two senior lawyers. That settlement was undone in material part by the involvement of a Mr Williams and a Mr Slater, both of whom have also been engaged in defamation proceedings with Mr Craig.
The defamation case raised the harrasemnt all over again
However Craig offered to settle with McGregor
"During 2018 he did make a number of open offers that both parties withdraw their claims and his last offer included an offer to pay $30,000 on account of costs. Ms MacGregor declined those offers.
Dont see the any reality for a 'poor woman dragged through the Courts' at all.
https://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/cases/craig-v-mcgregor/@@images/fileDecision?r=923.114967511
Oh she was. In the cases with Craig against Williams it was perfectly evident that she didn't want to be there and had been compelled to be there.
Go and dig out the reports and the transcripts from the time.
Effectively this particular episode has been through at least 5 legal rounds so far (not counting this one reported), and effectively only the first was initiated by McGregor – the one to the human rights about employment.
The rest of it has been by three complete arseholes – Craig, Williams and Slater using her as a witness pawn in their political and legal games. The High court case just concluded (and maybe its inevitable appeal) was a direct result of Craig breaking his previous agreement after Williams used material held by him in trust for safe-keeping.
Do you think that Craig could be trusted not to drag her into court again? He would in a heart beat as far as I can see. I wouldn’t trust any assurance from him – he doesn’t appear to be particularly aware of the concepts of having personal ethics or morals.
That poor woman. She has had years of hell due to that vindictive man.
If Colin Craig had paid Ms McGregor more when she wanted it would the situation have run as it has and over so many years?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11708735
Reading that article, I think that the real problem was that she hadn’t been paid for months during the election campaign and that the Craig had loaned her money rather than paying her. Do you think that was a reasonable behaviour for an employer…
Perhaps you should try reading the articles you link to.
What you have to remember is that the only reason that this came to light again was because that despicable arsehole Jordan Williams gave documents that he was holding in trust for her to Cameron Slater to attack Colin Craig.
This has been well -established across multiple court cases. Perhaps you should try reading rather than playing with yourself and writing your misogynist grunts here.
Gee Jimmy you put that so well, you big soft-hearted thing.
"Tamihere says he won't be dictated to by the thought police." Often what politicians don't say is more significant that what they do say, and that could be the case here. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/middayreport/audio/2018713976/midday-news-for-19-september-2019
He's leaving the option open that he could be dictated to by someone else. A political consultant, for instance. A suitable female with political aspirations may see the opportunity to become the power behind JT's throne as mayor. Acquiring whip & fishnet stockings, she may offer her services – to issue instructions in bondage sessions. A traditional lifestyle even before Lou Reed sang about it in the Velvet Underground (firstly in mid 1965, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_in_Furs_(song)).
Yeah, I know, bit of a stretch. Only normal for upper-class Englishmen. But you never know – stranger things have happened.
Chris Trotter giving John Tamihere his day in the court of outraged opinion over his Seig Heil riposte. Foolish and makes him appear to be all mouth and no trousers!
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2019/09/jojo-tamihere-salutes-herr-goff.html
Godwin's law is almost thirty years old: "Promulgated by the American attorney and author Mike Godwin in 1990, Godwin's law originally referred specifically to Usenet newsgroup discussions. It is now applied to any threaded online discussion, such as Internet forums, chat rooms, and comment threads, as well as to speeches, articles, and other rhetoric where reductio ad Hitlerum occurs."
"Godwin has stated that he introduced Godwin's law in 1990 as an experiment in memetics." It worked: "In 2012, "Godwin's law" became an entry in the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary."
"Coined by Leo Strauss in 1953, reductio ad Hitlerum borrows its name from the term used in logic, reductio ad absurdum (reduction to the absurd). According to Strauss, reductio ad Hitlerum is a form of ad hominem, ad misericordiam, or a fallacy of irrelevance. The suggested rationale is one of guilt by association. It is a tactic often used to derail arguments, because such comparisons tend to distract and anger the opponent."
So when a bunch of commentators here were busy likening Trump to Hitler (as recently as the year before last), I bet they didn't know they were exhibiting a syndrome identified more than sixty years ago!
fuck godwins law – and the faux-prohibition it attempts..
(and i say 'faux' because ti my mind it is bullshit..)
a nazi is a nazi..end of story..
and if the direct comparisons cannot be made between germany under hitler – and what trump is doing to immigrant families/children – clearly not enough attention is being paid..
and if you don't compare the barbaric behavior of trump – to the works of hitler..?
just who do you compare it to..?
(as i said – fuck godwins' law..)
Won't disagree – I had the same stance all thro the '70s, all thro the '80s, all thro the '90s. Problem with growing old (with an open mind) is you gradually acquire a tolerance of other views. If empathic, you even end up seeing things from other points of view too.
So my generation of rebels called govts fascist (regardless of whether they were Labour or National, Democrat or Republican) when they acted accordingly, which was most of the time. Police brutality was normal, for instance. Left & right both enjoyed eliminating the civil rights of cannabis smokers – target a minority group, the establishment gets off on that shit.
So demonising Trump, who comes across as a clown rather than a fascist, seems more like missing the point to me. I don't defend his immigration policy, just point it out when folks misrepresent it. He's just doing what he was elected to do. Democracy.
But is it the same today> Everything warps over time and I guess that a syndrome does too, after all it's "a characteristic combination of opinions, emotions, or behaviour."
Hitler seems much closer now than 60 years ago and we understand from the numerous studies of 1930 – 1940s how he found his wormhole to power. I don't think that Godwin's law can be thrown at every mention of that name; perhaps we should update it and replace it with 'Douglas', I have thought that the moustache had a certain familiarity.
It's not a syndrome if it's a thoughtful, reasoned comparison.
"So when a bunch of commentators here were busy likening Trump to Hitler (as recently as the year before last), I bet they didn't know they were exhibiting a syndrome identified more than sixty years ago!"
Except that Trump is trying to create a fascist state. There's been a large amount of political analysis of this. That's not invoking Godwin's Law. A commenter calling another commenter a Nazi is.
Trump is trying to create a fascist state
You really believe that? Must be a generational thing. Those of us who have had to live much of our lives threatened by the spectre of fascism know it when we see it.
As I pointed out last time this topic was seriously raised, Roger Donaldson would not have made Sleeping Dogs if it hadn't been in our cultural ambience at the time. But Muldoon merely talked tough. He didn't actually do fascism via govt policy. Where is the Wanganui computer now? Trash heap? I recall when it was promising us Orwell's 1984 made real in Aotearoa.
I get that Trump's style is Muldoon a little (but with a dose of LSD & speed thrown in, not to mention Alice in Wonderland). People have a right to see others as a threat, that's human nature, but it's a big political mistake to assume others will see it similarly.
Bolton got fired the other day. Too hardline, apparently. If Trump really was fascist, he wouldn’t have felt that way. To him, his political allies are as disposable as his political enemies. My way or the highway. Makes him more like Stalin than Hitler. But don’t let that comparison tempt you. The Don hasn’t shot anyone. Nor even employed thugs to eliminate irritants. Media libs would have been doing outrage about it if it had happened…
Yeah, look up the "proud boys" and their connections to the repugs some time.
Did. Agree the connection to Roger Stone is worth knowing. "At a televised Trump rally in Miami, Florida, on February 18, 2019, Tarrio was seated directly behind President Trump wearing a "Roger stone did nothing wrong" tee shirt." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Stone
Violent fellow-travellers only, so far. Potential threat, sure. Only 3 years into it, so yet to withstand the test of time. Anti-porn & masturbation is the key – mental/emotional self-discipline as part of group ethos does make guys tough. One to watch…
They're not the only ones.
For me, the big thing was the separation of kids with no intention of ever returning them to their parents. And the deaths in custody. If the deaths were a bureaucratic error, there would be bureaucracy for eventually reuniting the kids and the parents. But the system doesn't even regard immigrants as highly as livestock these days.
Which means his dehumanisation of immigrants wasn't just rhetoric, it was policy he was happy to watch implemented.
As far as he thinks about policy (which isn't much) Dolt45 is an isolationist nazi-adjacant. Bolton is an imperialist. That's why they were at odds. Hard line in different directions.
"You really believe that?"
That he's trying to create an authoritarian state? Yes. Whether that will look like historical fascism or not I don't know. But it's not about my beliefs, there are plenty of people with experience in either studying and writing about fascism and how it arises, or with direct experience of fascism who are making these critiques about Trump. Including Jewish people btw.
"Makes him more like Stalin than Hitler. But don’t let that comparison tempt you. The Don hasn’t shot anyone. Nor even employed thugs to eliminate irritants. Media libs would have been doing outrage about it if it had happened…"
There was a point at which Stalin hadn't shot people yet, so I don't know what you are trying to say there. That the US isn't a fascist state in 2019? Sure, I'd agree with that. Fascism doesn't just spring up one day, so I'm more interested in what the process is.
Having owned and read at least two biographies of Stalin, my guess is that the point he hadn't yet shot anyone was when he was in the seminary, studying to be a priest, prior to his career in the Tsar's secret police.
Fascism is an ideology, historically, more than a behaviour. Trump has no evident ideology (too mercenary). It requires an organisation to give it political form and impact. The USA lacks that. The authoritarian state in that federation has been under attack from the right for a long time – he uses it as an operational convenience to achieve a suitable historical legacy.
As such, I see no evidence that he's any more than a conservative narcissist playing the radical (to steer the establishment away from global elite control).
Forget the "global elite control" bs.
Is there any difference between a "conservative narcissist" and the radical you think he plays, once he's in office?
They're still doing the raids.
He still banned immigrants based on religion.
Right wing thugs are still marching with greater vigour.
And anyway did anyone say the same thing about hitler: that he's not really serious about it all? Probably.
Definitely. He was quite popular with conservatives in western democracies right up until the invasion of Poland. Even that only thinned out the numbers – took another couple of years for him to get beyond the pale.
he was also popular with left-wingers – 'cos of the strong domestic (socialist for want of a better word..) polices he instigated..
those 'family-support' domestic polices were what gained him the strong domestic support he had..
and if read without knowing the origin – many if those policies wd be applauded by current leftwingers..
(he didn't just come to power in a vacuum – there are reasons/explanations for the support he had..)
so contrary to what p.m said – many leftists/intellectuals in the west supported hitler – at first..
"left wingers" who would vote for a guy who hated immigrants. Yeah nah.
He won because he was the loudest fuckwit in an uninspiring pool of primary candidates, and people tried to fight (and report) him like he was a competent politician. All the lying the repugs have done since the 1990s – ken starr, WMD, tea party – bit them in the arse and their anointed blandity (Bush 3) still tried to keep one foot in reality.
People need to figure out how to fight a reality vacuum. Calling it out in contempt seems to do better against bojo than tryinhg to debate with him like he’s a normal huiman being.
No, he's still doing both. I agree re Hitler not taken seriously. Don't agree re your denial of global elites &/or Trump's leading the rightist charge to rout them. Try learning from Brexit.
Try making a damned point about them, rather than just using random incantations.
If drumpf was such an opponent of the "global elites" (depending on how you even define that term), why are the career repugs fucking their own grandmothers' corpses to keep him in power?
Why aren't US billionaires (real ones) pulling funding from the repugs?
If he really is just playing "a conservative narcissist playing the radical (to steer the establishment away from global elite control)", he's not having much success at steering the "establishment". They're not doing anything they don't want to do. He's shitting golden turds for them – neutering the EPA, boosting drilling, firing money into the prison-industrial complex, selling weapons, and making immigrants more scared, powerless, and exploitable. That's why they like him.
wot mcflock said..
(‘gplden turds’ comment..)
You missed one crucial word – “incompetent” is also one of his outstanding qualities. There are several others to do with his inability to work with competent people and his attraction for syncopathic vermin.
an adderal/cocaine addiction is also quite distracting..
the only thing stopping trump from going ballistic against his own are the checks and balances on u.s. system..
but i have said before that trump hasn't invaded anyone (yet)..unlike his nobel peace prize winning predecessor – who was wasting libya about now in his presidency..
(one for those saying trump is no different to those who came before him..
it comes from the same source as his addiction-info – from a writer on the apprentice and the celebrity apprentice..(who i follow on twitter..)
'Trump in reality is far worse than most imagine. He has done horrible things over many decades to many victims. What he is doing to the US will be no different. It’s like living next door to Dahmer and ignoring the smell.'
Ah, I see my reply went into moderation limbo, probably too much quoting from Wikipedia. This bit from Trotter is worth pointing out: "Tamihere, in blurting “Sieg Heil to that”, wasn’t signalling his membership of some perverse right-wing fraternity. All he was doing was signalling his membership of something much less acceptable – the Maori working-class of West Auckland."
I suspect JT is actually making a play for rightist voters – if only to demonstrate that their own side are failing to front impressive contenders – but he could easily pull in all those offended by pc-conformism as well. Speaking the lingo of the land does actually produce a resonance of authenticity in folks' minds (not just `the Maori working-class of West Auckland').
You *have to link if you are cutting and pasting from elsewhere. This has been a long standing policy, and I'm getting sick of reminding people.
I was commenting in response to 5.1, where the link was posted…
I don't go along with this light attitude to Trump you take DF. Whether he is going to exhibit the right spots to enable the disease to be firmly stated to be fascism or not, what he is doing is serious.
So not a subject for learned unpicking or idle conjecture.
Bush Jr seemed worse. Reagan much worse. Nixon, very much worse. What do you call serious? His attitude on climate change? True, that's a serious problem. Would the USA do any different under a Democrat? Doubt it. History says no.
History says Obama vetoed the Keystone pipeline, and the orange fuckwit resurrected it.
History says Obama entered into the Paris Accord, while fucko mcliesalot is getting out of it.
And Obama has gone down in history as achieving the largest arms trade deal ever. Just google Obama largest arms trade deal in history, you get plenty of sites reporting his track record. Pretty cool for the dude that won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Nice slide from climate change.
I googled "largest arms trade deal" and got one signed and largely negotiated by the current regime, much larger than the one proposed by Obama.
Play equivalence all you want, in most national interest objectives the current incumbent is one of the worst ever, light years below Obama.
I wasn't running a book on Trump v anybody. He is part of a filmset that has strayed from its desert setting with wide open spaces to roam and gone to the more mannered cityscape, and the actor-in-chief hasn't been tamed yet. Quite unsuitable for his task. I wonder when the people will realise that they are losing stuff they never appreciated and pull back?
Back to real considerations for a balanced left-wing blog!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/399107/growers-say-fruit-will-rot-unless-govt-speeds-up-migrant-worker-decision
Would I be right to say that our Immigration Department is full of white ants that are eating out the heart of NZ enterprise? Its lack of acumen and sensible targetting and systems affecting our businesses – in this case the harvesting of food which must be dealt with in timely fashion which can't wait until some squirts in Immigration and their anally retentive managers and CEO get wise to what we need and the applicants for entry deserve, is affecting our earnings and our standing in the world.
Immigration and social welfare seem to have captured all that is negative and backward in this country, transmogrified it, and turned it into sausages that pass as 'civil servants' up with the ways of the modern world.
I see the white ants among growers, who for decades have been getting cheap imported labour, without ever once even being asked to come up with a plan for harvesting their crops without bending the law. Why is that not part of a resource consent?
If immigration was anything like social welfare, the growers would be asked to come up with an action plan to end their dependence on the state, even a medium term one would do. But,…, nothing,….ever.
Nothing is to be done until it is an emergency. That is how NZ acts and manages isn't it – all else is like communism trying to plan ahead and stifle imagination and opportunities. The freemarket must reign and be bailed out when all the little businessmen and women who imagine themselves gods of business, rather than just beyond being bourgeois, need to have the road swept for them where it has become stony.
So to protect them and their businesses, they can blackmail government because we already have a slowdown in the economy. We neeNothing is to be done until it is an emergency. That is how NZ acts and manages isn't it – all else is like communism trying to plan ahead and stifle imagination and opportunities. The freemarket must reign and be bailed out when all the little businessmen and women who imagine themselves gods of business, rather than just beyond being bourgeois, need to have the road swept for them where it has become stony.
So to protect them and their businesses, they can blackmail government because we already have a slowdown in the economy. We need to help them now and do that other thing you mentioned Augustus. What was it? Plan for future requirements, resource management inadequacy, action to improve situation here – train and transport NZs, set them firmly into a seasonal workforce that pays adequately, enables them to keep their earnings and go back on the dole if that is where they are at (they need to be match-fit to do the seasonal work though). And the NZ seasonal workforce would merge with a Pacific Island one with permanent quotas so they can earn money here to enable improvements back home.
A win-win situation that would be cheered as an adept move better than a sporting maneouvre. And perhaps there should be a sporting fixture, with the visitors, a real friendly with no concussions etc if that is possible, before they go home and they can take half of the proceeds back with them plus goodwill.
Sorry don't know what I did to muck the above up so much. I hope some point shows up as useful.
wot augustus said..
"When has that ever happened though? When has there been a sensible, non-emotional discussion about the right numbers of people in this country?"
https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/101732/david-hargreaves-looks-new-temporary-work-visa-proposals-latest-broken-election
Politicians will continue to avoid this conversation like the plague
Naggie Barry [sick].
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/399108/labour-mp-ruth-dyson-accepts-apology-from-maggie-barry
Ms Dyson said Ms Barry's behaviour was particularly stark compared to what was an otherwise improving culture in Parliament.
Ms Barry is looking stressed. She feels deeply about not getting her own way in the euthanasia debacle which is so important because she knows she is right, and is backed up by a large number of pigeons who can be relied on to keep pecking at the 'No' door. Spoiler – snide remark coming up – the old saying about watching out or the wind will change Ms Barry and your lines and bags will get locked in place, applies.
(someone pointed out/i agreed) – the problem with the pro-euthanasia is that if people want to end their own lives – there are many ways to do this – (and you can't be prosecuted for it..)
so why must the state be brought into it..?..
why must the insistance be that someone else do it..?
..and with all the inbuilt potential for abuse by greedy relatives/benificiaries of any estate..
I'm confused by the pro-euthanasia crowd – I mean if they want to kill themselves – why don't they. No one is stopping them – no one. But like Phillip ure you gotta wonder why they want to bring the state in, and create situations where avarice becomes the new normal.
You really have to question why the pro-euthanasia crowd think it's OK to undermine the trust in doctors, ignore and put down disabled people's concerns, and generally bash anyone who opposes them.
But hey, why deal with underlying economic problems in society – when the baby boomers are jumping up and down demanding somthing for themselves again.
I'm confused by the pro-euthanasia crowd – I mean if they want to kill themselves – why don't they. No one is stopping them – no one.
Say, that's a mighty impressive straw man you have there – did you make it yourself?
have another try..eh..?
You'd like me to fight your straw man? That would be silly – it's made of straw.
Ahh the great bullshiter rises his head again, the year ban taught you nothing.
Dude, I don't support euthanasia. But at least I can see why in some cases a patient might need someone else to end the patient's life because the patient is unable to do so, or provide expert assistance while the patient does so. I just think that bureaucratising the process will be worse than the current situation. Think about it. Coma, some sort of locked in situation, fearful and anxious dementia, or constant pain and immobility leading to a 99.9% chance of a long but painful death… these are valid scenarios in this days and age that can be planned for in advance with living wills.
Just saying they can kill themselves is a mischaracterisation of the problem so gross that, if intentional, I think the description "straw man" could well apply.
FFS stop being sanctimonious the pair of you – reread how I said what I said. Let me lay it out for you – I was having a go at pro-euthanasia people for being sanctimonious – too soon?
As for sickening, you went to a real sick place with the comment
" or constant pain and immobility leading to a 99.9% chance of a long but painful death"
Just more of the usual dismissing the concerns of disabled to prove your point. People can live with constant pain, I have for 35 years, and diminishing mobility, so I'm going to die slowly and painfully – news flash – life is hard and dying is awful.
Here the thing – bugger this euthanasia bill and all the muppets supporting it, when people are living in cars, kids are getting preventable diseases and the bottom 30% keep getting poorer.
They end up being a bunch of sanctimonious prats who have no moral compass.
I did read the comment and quoted the bit I was referring to, which was the same argument as Phillip Ure's: that people supporting voluntary euthanasia legislation are promoting a state-run murder service for people too scared or too lazy to commit suicide. That's a blatant straw man, for the fairly obvious reason that McFlock pointed out above: it's actually for people who are no longer capable of committing suicide.
I didn't address your other point, that it's wrong to consider private member's bills before the government's achieved the goals you're interested in, because it's a silly point.
Why should the 'greedy relatives etc' be brought into the consideration. It is another matter entirely. The law should be straightforward so that the person leaves clear information about their wishes re property etc. The relatives are always interested in dealing with the artifacts of the person's life and that will be covered under what has been already considered and drawn up and used by people who have gone ahead without waiting for the pathetic bunch of pollies who want to wield power, but make only decisions that give them and their mates a boost in the pocketbook.
Some of you people who write here are so distant from the reality of what is needed in a well-run polity that you might as well be on your own island or planet.
'greedy'/impatient relatives is not a bloody minor problem..
it is the major problem as i see it..
and you really can't see the potential for wholesale abuse..?
as killing old people becomes normalised..?
Such ignorance on display 🙄 Have another try
Eligibility criteria in the bill
A person would be eligible for assisted dying if they:
i think there should be the option give them heroin…or heroin and cocaine..
let them enjoy that..
that will postpone thoughts of ending it all..for most..
(b.t.w. allen – this is the last time i respond to you if you include yr usual ad hom..mm-kay..?,,try and lift yr game..
your call…)
I think you shouldn't make ridiculous statements about something you clearly don't have the facts on, so I suggest you read the bill and educate yourself a little.
I don't care whether you respond, or not, it won't stop me posting. If you want to admit defeat in advance, so be it.
The bit about ad homs is amusing considering your reply to PM above. Innocent victim you aint. lol
A Labour MP says the way National's Maggie Barry shouted at her in Parliament was "totally inappropriate"
I guess Maggie mistook Ruth Dyson for one of her staff there for a moment…
Mindsets – mental health; addictions and triggers for prejudice and negative/positive leitmotifs (clowns and their faces bring strong reactions).
Alcohol addiction and its insidious deterioration of society from over-use.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018713955/elizabeth-elliott-fetal-alcohol-spectrum-disorders
and
Phobias about things such as seeing clowns/clown faces.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018713961/not-funny-will-it-spawn-more-clown-phobias
it is a proven formula..
if you want to stimulate/'save' an economy – you increase the incomes of the poorest..
'cos they spend it – it feeds straight back into the economy..
cd labour go against their neoliberal-incrementalist ethos..?
(and end/give a serious nudge to poverty at the same time..)
what is not to love about all that..?
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/09/economist-suggests-literally-giving-money-to-the-poor-to-save-the-economy.html
Muldoon used the phrase "the velocity of money"
Mark Richardsons question at the end is a real gem. Bless him.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/19/scaling-back-graduate-invents-plastic-alternative-from-fish-waste
Kia Ora Newshub.
Its great to see The Rugby World Cup in Asia Japan.
Eco Maori lives with discrimination every day.
That's awesome to see hundreds of thousands of tangata in Australia joining The Climate Change strike today Kia Kaha to everyone around the Papatuanuku who joined in the strike.
That’s the way Andrew thanks for backing our youth to get to vote Ka pai.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News
Mullens tangi was today it looks like its a hakare for someone of his great Mana. It takes a great man to rise a good whanau in Te Maori Papatuanuku. He gave me a sore face quite a few times he will be missed in Aotearoa.
The more PEE getting taken off our streets is great the shit is poisoning Te tangata whenua.
Smart Environment solutions to monitoring our Wai show great innovation its great to see tangata caring for our Taonga Wai.
Its excellent to see the Wellington tangata supporting Te Reo Maori place names in Wellington.
The Rugby World Cup in Asia Japan is starting in a hour Ka pai. I tryed to sort my free subscription for the Rugby World Cup I could not get it sorted I think someone is stuffing with my subscription as my email address would not load up WTF.
Ka kite Ano
Looks like the nation has been taken over by national supporters . Its not worth watching since Lisa left Ana to kai
Kia Kaha to all the Tangata Protesting to protect OUR FUTURE'S climate. THE NEANDERTHAL WILL learn to listen to our Rangatahi
Across the globe, millions join biggest climate protest ever
Young and old alike took to the streets in an estimated 185 countries to demand action
Millions of people demonstrated across the world yesterday demanding urgent action to tackle global heating, as they united across timezones and cultures to take part in the biggest climate protest in history.
In an explosion of the youth movement started by the Swedish school striker Greta Thunberg just over 12 months ago, people protested from the Pacific islands, through Australia, across-south east Asia and Africa into Europe and onwards to the Americas.
For the first time since the school strikes for climate began last year, young people called on adults to join them – and they were heard. Trade unions representing hundreds of millions of people around the world mobilised in support, employees left their workplaces, doctors and nurses marched and workers at firms like Amazon, Google and Facebook walked out to join the climate strikes.
Global climate strike: Greta Thunberg and school students lead climate crisis protest – as it happened
In the estimated 185 countries where demonstrations took place, the protests often had their individual targets; from rising sea levels in the Solomon Islands, toxic waste in South Africa, to air pollution and plastic waste in India and coal expansion in Australia.
But the overall message was unified – a powerful demand for an urgent step-change in action to cut emissions and stabilise the climate.
The demonstrations took place on the eve of a UN climate summit, called by the secretary general, António Guterres, to inject urgency into government action to restrict the rise in global temperatures to 1.5C, as agreed under the 2015 Paris agreement.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/21/across-the-globe-millions-join-biggest-climate-protest-ever
Kia Ora Newshub.
I will watch the Rugby on TV 1 .
That's is. Cool the carved waharoa gifted to Japan for the Rugby World Cup.
The International Monetary Fund is correct Aotearoa is doing great. Our governments management of our economy is fine.
Some farmers are going to kick up a stink no matter what Our Coalition government does WHY because they are South Island national supporters.
Ka pai Te Papatuanuku biggest strike for OUR futures Climate Ka pai yes the pollies will have to bend the knee to the intelligent tangata striking for our future.
Hue great mahi helping native trees grow in Hinewai. I research that planting native trees they need to planted in a canopy to protect them from frost when they are young. We are going to plant Te Totara trees they grow fast no need to be treated easy to carve. Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Cool that the Fisheries Minister has promised to look after the far north 90 mile Tangaroa shores environment to Te tangata whenua. I think tangata whenua need to be included in the mahi and wealth of the industry shear the lollies.
That's is not on its a breach of human rights locking 1200 people who have not been charged with a crime.
Using tangata whenua art to help heal tangata with mental health issues is a good idea Ka pai.
I… Henry we only get one body so it's correct that you took time off to let your injuries heal Kia Kaha.
Ka kite Ano
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
Kia Ora The Am Show.
I think it's great that Soap for Society Organisations are asking for sanitary products donations so they can give them to people who can not afford them
My alarm didn't go for the Allblack delayed game and I miss the 3 pm replay We were moderafiying our Wind Turbine.
That's is a good way to show how much Papatuanuku Warming is a Reality. The Swiss having A Tangi for their taonga Glacier Poziol it has lost 80 % of its mass
.Spark did its best to prove A good service. Its not there Fault that companies in other Countries dropped the BALL. Some people will use anything for leverage. This is all the more reasons to roll out 5 G Services.
Tangata Mental health wellbeing is a big thing as not everyone can figure out weather they have a problem or not. I think some educational program should be interduced to our tamariki about how their thought process actually works. I say the SURGE in Aotearoa mental health problems and rising suercide rates can be directly linked to A surge in PEE use over the last 20 years
Kume Amnesty International is a great organisation highlighting the problems around Papatuanuku the biggest problem we are going to face Human Caused Climate change.
The difference between Aotearoa is we have A Coalition Government that knows Climate change is Reality not like some pollies denies Global warming trying to gain putea. Kia Kaha to all the Tangata strikeing for Our future climate.
Aotearoa is a great position to mitergate climate change. We have a climate that has the fastest tree growth in the world. We have 80 % renewable energy already we have the best clean Sky for Solar power we actually get 20 % more power out of Solar than the manufacturer Stats. We have one of the Tawhirimate places on Papatuanuku great for Wind Turbine.We have great Geothermal resources that can provide back up power for Green Energy as well A Hydro power that can be used as back up power for Green Energy. The only reason why our Emissions have climb is because we have just kicked out a carbon pro Government that did everything to boost our carbon use. Big moterways canning Rail canning planned Wind turbine construction . Changing laws to alow the Cutting down of heaps of trees. ECT.
Ka kite Ano