First of all, warm congratulations of a resounding victory.
But such an overwhelming win presents you and Labour with a real dilemma.
Do you play it safe to ensure another term in 2023 and continued jobs for your members of parliament, or do you go for broke and begin transforming this country.
History shows us that, by and large, the opposition doesn’t undo the transformative reforms initiated by the Labour Party, with the notable exception of Norman Kirk’s superannuation scheme. They tend to tinker around the edges, partly by instilling a sense of the ‘underserving poor’ into the welfare system, but they don’t unravel the reforms completely.
But these are unusual times, in particular because of climate change. Incrementalism is not viable in the face of changes which may lead to the extinction of the entire human race.
So, be bold, be transformative. Take the Greens into coalition (and the Maori Party) and shake this country to its roots. Prepare us for a 100% sustainable future, the only viable option.
While the 26.8% of party votes National received was not its worst ever result — that ignominious claim to fame remains that of former Clutha-Southland MP Bill English
Did Blinglish ever return to his Claimed Home in Dipton or did stay in Wellington?
Leader Judith Collins was defiant yesterday, saying she would not step down from National’s helm and launching a review of its election campaign.
Ah, so she is trying to claim that 35 seats = 35%.
The National caucus meeting tomorrow is going to be memorable for a lot of reasons. No doubt there will be some leaks. The build up started on Saturday night when National's position became clear.
Judith Collins on Morning Report (and elsewhere), incapable of taking responsibility, in denial as much as ever. Self-delusion before an election is one thing, but after that result … it beggars belief. She was given several opportunities by Susie Ferguson to say what she might have done differently, but no.
Real dilemma for Nat MPs now. If she would just do the usual platitudes ("I'm the leader, I take responsibility") then they could leave her there for a few weeks, before making the inevitable change when they are ready. They don't want to install another caretaker.
But the lame duck is quacking herself out of a job.
She's been tramping through the mountain range of born to rule arrogance and privilege so long now it's all she knows.
The obesity comments showed a breathtaking disconnect and appalling judgement all in one swoop which was all her own work.
Trumpian styled politics the electorate rejected and unlike Key's DP reign the electorate's a few terms older and wiser to DP stylings she appears unable to leave behind.
The not taking responsibility from Collins jumped out at me. The flip flop leader is probably going to be the dragon lady at the next caucus meeting. See how it goes with Denise Lee and Collins.
Goodluck to all the remaining and new National MPs.
One of the things that gets me is her comment that "she fears for the future of this country." She doesn't get that 60% or so of New Zealanders fear for the future of NZ, and that is why they voted Labour &/or Green.
I heard her using the… I've only been in the role for a short time excuse, crikey her memory must be short, Jacinda had only been in the role for a short time when she took it out last election.
Cinny, success is Judith's alone…. failure is caused by circumstance or someone else.
She is so full of hubris, but that fellow "Goodfellow" needs to go as well, as he has overseen so much poison and dirty politics and never come forward and called it out.
Talk about The Green's role in the new Government interests me; or rather, the language being used does; it sounds very adversarial, as though the parties will be locking horns and digging up turf with their hooves to fight for their positions; one leader pitched against the other, a battle of wills and a display of ruthlessness.
I don't buy it.
I think it won't be a matter of levering a spot, playing the strongest hand, out-manouvering the opposition.
I think we're in for a remarkable and pleasant surprise.
I think we're in for a remarkable and pleasant surprise.
Here's hoping. Jacinda would be wise to treat that relationship with respect. A lot of the Labour base like what the Green party bring to politics on the left. Hopefully they don't kowtow to the first time Labour voters because they will go back to their National home as soon as they start looking electable
Either the Greens are (somewhat) in the tent, sharing some of the burden of responsibility of Government and decision-making, or they could be a formidable left-Opposition eating away at Labour’s left base over the next three years. The two parties have much in common but also important differences. Labour wasn’t the only party that was given a mandate, as if there’s only one mandate to go around in NZ. A combined mandate is stronger than two (or three) single ones, not just in terms of numbers in the House, but in taking as many people along as possible. I agree that there’s a lot of positioning going on and now is the time.
There won't even be consideration of an arrangement with the Māori Party. Any deal would be a slap in the face to Labour's Māori MPs who are in direct competition with that party which would outweigh any future strategic advantages.
Is she saying that the Labour's Māori MPs are in Parliament to do the Party’s bidding first and for their Māori constituencies second? If yes, it could be a classical pākehā throwaway comment that gives some justification to the distrust of the political system and politicians that is not by Māori, for Māori, about Māori.
If Labour treated the Maori Party poorly in days gone by, it was because some prominent figures in the M.P. asked for it. Sure, there were some difficulties in the past but they were because of other issues prominent at the time. The F&S Act was a case in point. That Lab govt. was damned if it did and damned if it didn't.
And if their approach has not changed since the F&S Act days, how come there were stratospheric levels of Maori roll support for Labour on Saturday?
The F&S was about a stake in existing mussel leases. Treaty notwithstanding, Maori got nothing. And the treaty gives all fisheries, in their entirety, to Maori.
The argument can be made – but not in respect of the near shore stuff. That really was their food basket. That's where foreshore & seabed fell down.
It only allows for Māori to keep their traditional fishing areas
I can't read Te Reo, maybe a job for Robert, but the Treaty probably did not take pains to exclude non-traditional fisheries. They probably said "all", and all means all.
Even if it does cover foreshore and seabed it doesn't cover all of it either because they didn't traditionally fish along the entire coast.
A hell of a lot of Māori whinging about fishing over the last few decades has been Māori trying to grab more than the Treaty of Waitangi promised. Just look at their outright power grab over the Kermadec sanctuary which wasn't part of NZ when the Treaty was signed and thus not covered by the Treaty.
The preamble says it applies to "all parts of this land and (adjoining) islands". As soon as the Crown decided the Kermadecs were "adjoining islands" as part of NZ territory, there you are.
Lost in a war that they started. Considering the Land Wars there's a viable argument that the Treaty no longer applies at all. After all, treaties don't usually survive being broken by war and then the side that started the war keeping all the benefits of the treaty.
Were Māori treated badly? Yes.
Did they have viable arguments about how parliament handled that? Yes.
Should they have started a war? No.
And I'm not a supporter of Might Makes Right but that is definitely what applied at the time.
The preamble says it applies to "all parts of this land and (adjoining) islands". As soon as the Crown decided the Kermadecs were "adjoining islands" as part of NZ territory, there you are.
Nope:
That would make it actively retrospective and no law does that. Even laws that are made retrospective don't have that kind of open-ended aspect to them. Under that sort of bullshit they actually have claim to Antarctica as well.
It applies to their lands that each iwi held (in accordance with the understanding at the time which would have been Held, controlled, and used which is actually quite a large limitation) at the time of the signing as specified in Article the Second. In other words, their traditional lands.
I agree with Sacha that The Standard shouldn't be a place where denialists and aggravators on about hard-won agreements should be able to insert their wrecking bars.
In the last three years there has been increasing emphasis on Māori in government (with lower case) initiatives and funding, e.g. from MBIE and its VM framework.
Collins’s delusional sense of self importance was on full display yesterday when she called that presser for 11.30am in order to tell us nothing really. It’s unbelievable no one told her that pretty much the last person the country wanted to hear from, less than 24 hours after the rout, was the vanquished leader of the National Party.
Yes agree Robert. For my part happy to let them get on with it.
but as labour don’t need the Greens, this is likely to lessen the tussle.
marama Davidson showing poor judgement imho re saying she’d like a cabinet role. She has no ministerial experience and labour don’t need her…….I hope she shuts up.
re Kelvin Davis…..a comment about him yesterday and couldn’t Jacinda find him something else to do. NO! He is the Deputy. That is absolutely right imho.
btw he spoke with a lot of clarity and dignit on tv3 yesterday morning. While people like Grant appear to be more competent, that’s not what we need in a Deputy. We are a bi cultural nation
Agree Anker. The likelihood of Ardern taking the Deputy PM job off a senior Māori MP, whatever their shortcomings, is pretty much zero.
And yes, Greens would be wise to shut it for a bit and let the negotiations play out.
Trish, Neale and Kathryn dissect the election result. Neale Jones was Chief of Staff to Labour Leader Jacinda Ardern, and prior to that was Chief of Staff to Andrew Little. He is the director of Capital Government Relations. Trish Sherson is from corporate affairs firm Sherson Willis, and a former ACT press secretary.
Marama Davidson's demand that she be in cabinet is rather presumptuous. And her over-talking James Shaw on election night also. Like it or not, the Greens are sometimes considered to be too radical, so she needs to back off a bit. Jacinda will be mindful of the huge numbers of new Labour voters this time that she will not want to scare off.
[please provide evidence for the first sentence. A link, and a quote or time stamp. In premod until you or someone else provides the back up. If you don’t have evidence, please withdraw the assertion – weka]
[references below, which are both pre-eletion. So to clarify, Marama Daivdson hasn’t demanded that she be in cabinet since the election. And pre-election her position was described in MSM as a wish not a demand. Please be more careful in future about claims of fact – weka]
I haven't heard any demands of cabinet posts. She was just on Nine-to-Noon and was very reasonable sounding about their expectations. She acknowledged that being tied in a formal coalition might not be the best for the Greens ability to criticize independently
Labour will ignore the Greens and their own left wing at their own peril. It will be a lonely 3 years if they have an opposition to their right and left chipping away at their support
In a situation where Labour has "an opposition to their right and left chipping away at their support" the party will have to adopt a defensive, conservative mode; this is not what the country needs and Jacinda Ardern will be sensitive to that and therefore act to bring as many onside as possible (Green/Maori), imo.
It's not just on Ardern and Labour to make something like that work. Any other parties to that arrangement will also need to behave in a mature responsible way and not carry on like Rick from The Young Ones.
The green party increased their vote and, with covid and even a bit of centre switch-a-roo going on, that's huge.
If labour are going to be mindful of not upsetting the floaters and avoid doing the needed stuff on the left, then that's just going to burn them in '23, where they'll probably leech a chunk of lefty votes.
If, as it has before with a centrist labour party, and the greens get back to around 15%, the big question is will labour have enough votes remaining to form a government? What they do now determines this three years out.
Voters don’t like surprises but a single party commanding a majority is not in the spirit of MMP. As an aside, if we had less wasted vote, Labour would not have an absolute majority.
My view is that Labour was rewarded for its handling of Covid, not for its policy platform, which could be seen as a mandate for BAU. The Greens campaigned hard on policy and did well; I see that as a mandate for transformative policies.
Ardern has claimed that she is progressive and not a pragmatic centrist and that she wants to take as many people along and make decisions based on consensus. Let’s see what this rhetoric really means in practice.
The Greens are strong and experienced in certain policy areas. They have things/people to offer to Government that Labour does not have or necessarily want to.
Voters don’t like surprises but a single party commanding a majority is not in the spirit of MMP.
Wait, what?
What does that sentence even mean?
We have a single party majority government voted in through MMP. This was signalled as likely to happen prior to the election and so we must assume that it is in the spirit of MMP.
Its not in the spirit of democracy but, then, a large part of the reason why we have Representative Democracy is to prevent democracy. The rich really don't want the majority to have a say as the majority aren't likely to agree with what the rich want.
Gosh I hope that the Commission can classify the main reasons for this wastage – deliberate is probably one, then there is the strange idea on computer programs to utilise a cross in a box which indicates you choose something. That's been in for years and I still can't understand why they would throw aside what was normal and do the opposite – because we can?
Using the wrong pen? Not realising that you can't cross out a mistake? Not understanding that you can get a new sheet and have to hand in the old one?
If we can bring down the wastage that is a lot of votes to include.
Wasted is not the same as invalid – it just means that in our MMP system, some votes do not get translated into seats in parliament because small parties did not get over the 5% threshold.
Those 'wasted' votes are then shared out proportionally across the parties who did make it in. Happens every time. It’s why you do not need 50% of the votes on the night to end up with a majority.
Okay thanks Sacha I jumped to conclusion about meaning there. The plethora of new parties happens each time there is a big shakeup no doubt. I remember all sorts of little parties cropping up before. This time they didn't have the good humour of the McGonagle Party.
Hopefully Marama has toned it down. But yes I definitely heard her talking about wanting a cabinet position, which is really badly judged at this stage.
I trust that Jacinda, Grant and their "strong team' will make a good decision about the Greens. Their strategy during the election was perfect. They read things well. So I am happy to let them get on with it.
Someone else commented here that they hoped Jacinda would be respectful to the. Greens. Its' not all credible that she wouldn't be. She maintained a deep level of respect for Winston Peters, who I imagine was very difficult to work with, even post election. Why would she not be respectful to the Greens?If I was the Labour Cabinet, I would want to be shot of all other parties and just take the freedom I had to get on with it. But I know they are wiser heads than I am and that they will make good decisions around this.
bTW Anne Salmond has written a brilliant article about the election result, describing Jacinda as a master navigator. Will try and post later.
AND…….. Congratulations to all on the Standard. Our teams pulled off the most marvellous result. And many of us would have played some role in that.
"We would want to see roles that would progress [our work] programme, and yes, it would involve some ministerial responsibility at that level," she says.
"Across all of our MPs, we will be looking at aligning potential roles with the work programme, as a whole not just down to one person."
Thanks for the careful moderation, it's too easy for commentors to pick stuff up from interviews then misrepresent what someone has said when filtering comments through their own perspectives. It is obvious in this case that Marama Davidson was responding to a hypothetical scenario posed by Kathryn Ryan in the context of an interview and clearly did not express any claim or demand for a cabinet post. That aside, it seems there is a lot of projection, taking comments out of context or building of contexts around throw-away lines where Davidson is concerned. Over the election period, it would be fair to say that she has worked extremely hard to convey Green Party policy, and has put other party leaders to shame with her enthusiasm and presentation.
Sorry can't remember Weka. I have watched so election stuff in the last 48 hours, can't remember where I saw it. But I think someone else on the standard saw it too.
Unless I am dreaming politics now, which is always a possibility! But as sure as I can be I saw it.
just saw your above comment. It wasn’t Radio NZ I saw it on. She may have said ministerial roles. So I could be wrong about the Cabinet thing.
I stand by my point that given the electoral result and the lack of bargining power they have and also her lack of Ministerial experience, I think a poor call. IMHO
Thanks to those ‘new’ voters, Labour’s dominance means that the Greens, despite their own strong turn-out, may find themselves excluded from any meaningful power. On election night Greens coleader Marama Davidson was talking up her own preference to serve as a Cabinet Minister in an Ardern-led Government. But Davidson is getting ahead of herself.
NZ needs to offer itself as the experimental model for a first world decarbonised economy…providing the canvas, policy and training support for all the best (and holistic) ideas that will attract those with vision and abilities required, both from within and without the country…it will also provide investment, with the proviso that much of the ownership will remain public.
Yes while we have the world's attention over our Covid management let's see what other good things we can show to the world re realigning ourselves for climate change advance and attempts to slow that advance.
And of course, remembering that we haven't achieve saintly perfection yet, what about encouraging the greenies of the world to advise us on what they are doing which we haven't got to yet. Do all the greenies of the world have a fact based site where they share their country's advances and trials which we belong to? If there is one could someone advise if – must be scientific, and can anyone look at it.
I am finding so many of the news sites are blocked and while I understand their need for income etc. it is hard for citizen students of the world to gather reliable info. Of course I have to work at my tech skills which are dire. I can't get most pdfs at present and just have to look at converters or whatever that I probably already have. I get worried that there is so much to learn and the amount of general tv time that people spend doesn't give them time to read and imbibe the info coming from science and they end up half-informed, which these days is common.
'Greenies' tell us that one of the main drivers of global warning is excess consumption by Western nations: which is ironic given the emphasis on 'growth' on the part of the major parties. I would suggest that 'green growth' be redefined in terms of an increase in decarbonizatuion, even that growth is at the expense of fossil fuel use.
The problem is how fast can we let the air out of the tyres so we can get started. I suppose the decarb means less vehicles – smaller ones for a start. The boofheads are the sort that rammed their semi-tank into a car on the motorway which was particularly fun because it was a woman. Get them into a lower smaller vehicle and we could have fairer bullbar-fights.
What about putting a vehicle tax on private vehicles higher than a car, or with more seats than six? Gradual, but would brass off the dealers eh.
One of the parties – I don't remember whether it was Labour or the Greens – was advocating banning the import of ICE vehicles from 2030. I would ban them earlier: next week if it were practicable.
It's interesting that after the election a high level public servant of the State Services Commision (responsibility for Auckland) is making comments about how difficult it is for new MP's in parliament.
He is a former candidate for National, and one wonders what his role would have been if National did an ECAN on the Auckland regions local government as some in National were proposing.
No idea; maybe it's some uncurated web thing that automatically grabs an available photo with a name match?
As Lewis Dare Holden was a researcher for the 1986 Royal Commission on the Electoral System, when Lewis Joseph Holden (selected at age 29 as the National party candidate for the Rimutaka electorate in 2014 general) was but an infant, it's safe to assume that they're two different people.
Not disagreeing with LJH's comment about how tough is can be for new MPs, although since he's never been an MP himself that must be second-hand knowledge he's passing on.
Lewis Dare Holden was chief executive of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage prior to his current SSC role, and I think held that role in 2014, at the time of his namesake’s electoral tilt.
Are the elderly the biggest fans of Ayn Rand's thinking – especially The Virtue of Selfishness, without actually having read it or considered its intellectual and philosophical points?
One critique from shaunphilly delves into this in –
Skepticism, Properly Applied – Criticism is not uncivil
and points out that Rand defines selfishness differently from the norm. It seems to me that she ‘objectively’ considers it as focussing on oneself as a person and considering what you want out of life and going for it.
As a disclaimer, I view ethics as not based upon altruism (selflessness) or egoism (selfishness), and view the dichotomy, which Rand employs, between altruism and egoism as misguided as a means of thinking about ethics at a basic level. For me, ethics is based in the value of fairness, derived from freedom and its logical consequences. Further, while an analysis of ethical philosophy can start from consideration of selfish interests, so long as it remains there i[t] never becomes a discussion about ethics at all (I know some people disagree with m[e] on this point, and I’m willing to defend this view)….
This is one aspect of looking at how division and anti-social factors are working in modern society against the wide community, living well in near groups – separate but in reasonable harmony, having respect and trust between peoples, and inclusion though maintaining the right for individuality. It is not impossible but requires consideration between near neighbours, and thought for all.
And the glossing-up with sentimentality of the modern elderly, unwilling to accept death in their time, and willing to divorce themselves from the young in the film Cocoon, where residents of a retirement village choose eternal life amongst their age group by travelling to a distant planet, and one featured older couple leave behind their daughter and their grandchild whom they profess to love. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9BSsIX2j7M
This film was an analogy for so much now; the cult of the deserving elderly not expected to reciprocate with caring interaction with society at all, and the wealthy not ready to reciprocate with Earth society and fixing their eyes and money on space and experimental societies there.
I suspect that in the main the exact opposite is the case….as the link I posted yesterday noted the elderly and young are bullied by the middle aged…note how many (Jim Bolger springs to mind) moderate or even radicalise their views as the spectre of mortality creeps ever closer.
edit
I note how good for retirement homes business the elderly are, especially while they have pensions. One reason that the old are the future, and why welfare gets cut to the young whose opportunities for social mobility and advancement have been pulled away from under their feet. I guess the middle-aged with middle-income are doing the bullying, as they are the ones surging forward with great money-making ideas. Everyone stand aside for the noble young entrepreneurs who have the sensitivity of those carrying out the Highland Clearances.
(This doesn't apply to all entrepreneurial people but of many such as the self-important new-age greenies act as in giving over our footpaths to small fast-moving vehicles never considering that there is an oxymoron? in not being pedantic and pedestrian about 'footpaths' but preferring the pedal-pushers.)
My comparison with the Highland Clearances and determination to dominate and denature by the ruling elite cannot be seen clearly now, but the mindset is there, and unleashed it looks like Judith Collins in full flow, or look back to a notable starter, Jenny Shipley. And all the others female and male who have been recipients of a progressive and reasonably caring society. Now they have got what they want they have wrung the wets out of society and dumped the 'reasonably caring' just leaving the dry 'progressive'; but to what?
This goes beyond greedy. It is the wrong word to use – did I? I can't remember. It is a mindset that needs to change. The world is changing, past systems were tailored for the need at that time.
The mature senior wants his cake and to eat it too; he and she are living longer, lining up for all the medical help of modern times, and as the ad for some retirememt place recently says, 70 is the new 50. The years from 65 to death at near 100 (increasingly) mean nearly one-third of life being paid to be an old-age pensioner.
But the active retired should be doing something for the society that enables them to have this secure life. They should not feel entitled to sit back and enjoy the comforts and do nothing to assist the wellbeing of the young and general society. Many grandparents are helping by raising their grandchildren. That probably wouldn't have been the case if there was more care from the country for our young people. With concern into assisting parents and children and being there when difficulties fall, families wouldn't collapse as now. And for the money-ridden, it would offer savings in tax, health, education and policing.
Life would be better for all if the older people, who tend to be better off, turned right round and looked back at the youth and extended friendship and interest, Not as an onerous task but just a little help, 3-5 hours a week should be a universally expected time, and become part of the general conversation. Not just volunteering by those who feel inclined, and those who do put themselves out. For instance the query would be heard routinely from one retired person to another, 'What are you getting into this year from the government program list?' After a gap year for the retired so they really enjoy a break for themselves and seeing their own family, then choose an interest from the Senior Societal Support program.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump White House has installed two political operatives at the nation’s top public health agency to try to control the information it releases about the coronavirus pandemic as the administration seeks to paint a positive outlook, sometimes at odds with the scientific evidence.
The two appointees assigned to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Atlanta headquarters in June have no public health background. They have instead been tasked with keeping an eye on Dr. Robert Redfield, the agency director, as well as scientists, according to a half-dozen CDC and administration officials who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal government affairs.
The risk that the second wave of the pandemic could derail the Euro zone's recovery from deep recession makes ultra-easy monetary policy all the more necessary, European Central Bank board member Fabio Panetta
Having already agreed to buy up to 1.35 trillion euros of debt through mid-2021 under an emergency purchase scheme, the ECB is not under pressure to act quickly – but investors are still looking for a commitment to bigger and longer debt buys.
A further mention of Steve Keen this time by Yanis Varoufakis.
A commenter's query: I’m currently reading Paul Sweezy’s Stagnation and Financialization and I find it fascinating. I was wondering if there are any books which add political reasons in addition to economic ones to explain the phenomenon described by Sweezy. I am interested in other words in the political economy of stagnation and financialization. It would be great if you could recommend me a book on this, if there is one that is.
Thanks very much
Stelios Papadopoulos
Reply
yanisv
19/01/2012 at 17:04
For the original treatise, see Rudolf Hilferding’s Finance Capital (http://www.marxists.org/archive/hilferding/index.htm). For more easy on the eye recent books (which touch upon stagnation and financialisation) try Steve Keen (Debunking Economics) and James Galbraith (Predator State). You may also be interested in David Laibman’s recent Political Economy after Economics). [Proceeding’s you, it is hard to improve upon Sweezy on these issues.]
Federal Reserve printed more money than ever to support the markets and to keep them stable during Covid-19. In fact 22% of all USD in existence were created in 2020 alone.
I've seen this in several reports, don't know if it is correct but if so it's astounding
Britain needs to impose a three-week period of national lockdown restrictions immediately to stop cases of COVID-19 spiralling, Government scientific adviser Jeremy Farrar said, adding that current regional measures would not be effective
Oh dear, expert criticism of the Tory government.
But if the PM follows such advice he will criticised by the neo-woke champions of the young on the Telegraph such as Madelaine Grant (those who locked youth out of the EU but oppose local lockdowns).
Union national secretary Joe Fleetwood said the union had raised concerns about the risk of having international ships carry domestic freight repeatedly.
He said nearly all domestic sea freight is carried by international ships running international crews who are not covered by New Zealand law.
I reckon this case adds weight to the theory the Auckland outbreak in Auckland came from international crews. Not a great sign there are still holes there but good it was picked up and traced early.
Well looks like this Government has its hands already full on the Foreign, Defence and Antarctic Policies?
First one was during the election which just about everyone failed to raise any questions was the encroachment of the Chinese and possibly the Taiwanese Fishing Fleet into NZ’s EEZ Nth /Nth East of the Kermadec Islands and Sth of the Minerva Reefs.
Apart from Michael Field who mentioned this on Twitter, none of NZ’s fourth estate, NZ’s MFAT said boo or the NZDF release a press release of the RNZAF or RNZN patrolling NZ’s EEZ up in NZ’s Nth’ern waters.
Now we what, I’ve described here on The Standard Blog for those who haven’t been following my comments here over the yrs. Is the last great race as a result of CC nowadays, the last great land grab when the Antarctic Treaty comes up for renewal in & round 2040-47. Well folks it looks like the race is about to kick off with Russia moving its Floating Nuclear Power under down for this years Antarctic Summer?
Yep a Nuclear Power Station in the Antarctic and yet we’re heard boo from Oz or NZ about this. This even more concerning that NZLP never release its Defence manifesto for the election just gone and even more concerning I did find anything on the Antarctic/ Southern Ocean either? There are two major tenders and possibly two others due at the tail end of this coming term or early next term?
The two major ones are this term is the 1 of 2 new Landing Ships with a docking well and the other is a new Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel. These two vessels won’t come cheap either and the Government will be very lucky to get any change out of NZD 1.5B for two of these vessels. The Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel is going to be a whooper of Ship in length 115m plus long, a beam (Width) of some 24m wide and Polar Classification of PC5 as a minimum or a PC6 this in part due to CC as a result of the massive big waves now being encountered down Sth.
There is a bit more to this, in that the Chinese have cleaned out their surrounding waters including around Nth Korea and its also one the reasons for the 9 dash line in the South China Sea so the can rape & pillage that as well.
The Chinese have a very large ocean fishing which is also escorted by the Chinese Coast Guard and those ships aren't just any ship. These Ships have a displacement between a Frigate and Destroyer type Ship, but quite the firepower after the Chinese had a run in with the Chilean and the Argie Navies a couple of yrs back when they caught their EZZ's including in a Chilean No Fishing zone.
The Chinese Fishing Fleet are acting like modern day pirates on the High Seas, with no regards to EEZ's, reporting what they catch, No Fishing Zones, under reporting, breaching just about every international law in regards to fishing and if they get caught in the act. Where they act like thugs or worst sunk ships be it local fishing boats or that nations naval/ coast guard ships. Unless you are the Chilean or Argie Navies which shoot first and ask later, which is something NZ use to do in the 70's & 80's with its Navy and Airforce where everyone knew where they stood if you caught in NZ Waters/ the EEZ.
In other words the Chinese would rape & pillage anyone's waters until you put a shot across the their bows and sunk a fishing boat or boats as the Chinese a quite prepared to throw their weight as well to weak countries or those expose countries that rely on exporting to the Chinese market.
You completely sure there's a rooskie nuke power station going to be installed in Antarctica? Not just the supply ship that's nuke-powered?
There's the floating nuke station Akademik Lomonosov that got towed to a town in the Arctic last year to supply electricity and heat, but I haven't heard of one getting built for Antarctica.
Vostok Station is roughly 1000km from the nearest coast, so a floating nuke wouldn't help them out much, and it would be quite the engineering feat to build transmission lines from the coast to the station.
Having said all that, I'm not all that bovvered by nuke power stations, and I really wouldn't begrudge them one at Vostok Station. Reputedly the coldest place on earth, with a record low of -89 degrees C. Colder than dry ice.
Book: Arihia Latham reviews Te Mahi Oneone Hua Parakore: A Maori Soil Sovereignty and Wellbeing Handbook edited by Jessica Hutchings and Jo Smith. Published by Freerange Press.
an almost wholly unknown and mysterious category of life form, an entire underground realm whose workings are so wondrous and alien that they throw into question what we think life itself is and how it works.
Author: Merlin Sheldrake
"Bluest of Blue seats voters selected Labour MP's and Labour Party to keep the Greens out."
I have heard this theory from local Federated Farmers and as recently as on the Panel being expressed by Tim Watkins.
Actually, I think the "cockies" just don't understand MMP.
On the evidence, they gave two ticks to Labour. So in effect, ditched their own National MP as well. If they did mean to have a Labour government, they just needed the Party tick for Labour. Probably more precise is that they just felt that their beloved National Party is currently a shambles and didn't stand for anything.
Has Fran still got the networks to engineer another "winter of discontent" ? Murmurs of farmers in Rangitata supposedly strategically voting Labour to take the Greens out of play, plenty of media commentary about 'governing from the centre'. You can sense the wheels of the elite's extra-electoral self-preservation mechanisms turning. You can vote for whomever you like sonny, but it’s going to be a certain way…
There is a good discussion on trade – free trade – what trade etc going on the Daily Review 15/10. There is sure to be something you have thought of and some you haven't. Please go on if you have something else in mind McFlock and DTB. We need to think about it.
My belief is that it is only local trading, with some extended stuff, and specialist imports, that enables people to improve their standard of living. But of course cheapness can regn, and getting titimasu in the frigs from Italy! What am I, royalty, to be offered such treats requiring refrigeration from Italy.? Or are they made here under licence?
I remember a story in the New Internationalist. Up high in Nepal the tourists who were into the outdoors would go and stay. They liked tomatoes but for much of the year there wasn't enough warmth and sun locally to make them go red. Then a handy new road was put in and a truck ground its way up from the Indian fields below with lovely red toms. The green ones grown locally were not saleable. The truck had it hard though and one day it ground to a halt at the side of the road. The locals were able to sell their green ones. In a fairly poor community it is a capitalist trick to say that it is fine to compete, it may be literally taking food out of children's mouths. (They themselves probably didn't want to eat all the green tomatoes though they can be used in cooking and chutneys okay.)
This is the reason Murdoch's own son gave for leaving the business – saying it was not a reliable source of news, as the partisanship was impacting on its coverage.
Lee Kuan Yew bound his Singapore nation which was successful under capitalism but Yanis Varoufakis says it isn't a democracy. Can we manage to be successful AND a democracy? I don't think we have enough of the qualities he mentions.
“A nation is great not by its size alone. It is the will, the cohesion, the stamina, the discipline of its people and the quality of their leaders which ensure it an honourable place in history.”
― Kuan Yew Lee, The Wit and Wisdom of Lee Kuan Yew
I agree. The idea getting shopped around today that National voters just voted tactically to keep the Greens at bay is right wing spin. If that was the case Labour wouldn’t have flipped so many safe National seats. It’s just excuse making and speaks to the National Party born-to-rule bullshit mentality. They’re basically saying voters will realise their dumb mistake and come flooding back to where they rightfully belong. They haven’t learned anything from their ousting from office in 2017.
For all I know the National voters could have voted Labour because it is about survival.
Labour could do well with farming deals once Johnson leaves without a Brexit no deal. Talks have not gone well with the EU. NZ needs a persuasive agriculture minister to woo Johnson.
On the Friday 8 days before polling day, Judith Collins was advising an audience that to forestall the Greens they should vote two ticks blue.
To claim now that farmers voted two ticks Labour to forestall them is 1. logical but 2, not what Collins counselled.
So we are to believe that farmers disobeyed Collins, voted two ticks Labour to keep out the Greens?
Why two ticks? Why not just party vote Labour?
There's more to this and it's to do with the National party selecting poor candidates- disloyal, unethical, misogynistic, bullying, born to rule, unsavoury, better left unelected.
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – 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 politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
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 ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
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 ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
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 ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
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 ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
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 ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
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. ...
Why isn't Chloe co-leader of the Greens already? Far more deserving and electable than Marama.
Because she's new – same reason Luxon isn't running National. And, having misplaced Metiria, the Greens need a Maori representative.
I think she is destined to be leader one day but may be a bit too soon at the moment.
How is she more deserving?
Marama Davidson is one brave Woman and has worked hard for her causes .Marama has earned her role.
The text of an email I sent to Jacinda:
First of all, warm congratulations of a resounding victory.
But such an overwhelming win presents you and Labour with a real dilemma.
Do you play it safe to ensure another term in 2023 and continued jobs for your members of parliament, or do you go for broke and begin transforming this country.
History shows us that, by and large, the opposition doesn’t undo the transformative reforms initiated by the Labour Party, with the notable exception of Norman Kirk’s superannuation scheme. They tend to tinker around the edges, partly by instilling a sense of the ‘underserving poor’ into the welfare system, but they don’t unravel the reforms completely.
But these are unusual times, in particular because of climate change. Incrementalism is not viable in the face of changes which may lead to the extinction of the entire human race.
So, be bold, be transformative. Take the Greens into coalition (and the Maori Party) and shake this country to its roots. Prepare us for a 100% sustainable future, the only viable option.
Well done T.V. my sentiments exactly.
Here's hoping it gets read and digested.
Nice one Tony.
And cartoon worth a smile : )
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/decision-2020/huge-win-heavy-loss
I like the Greens – legs tied together as in a Three-legged race, but cheerful and keen looking while the right wingers look manic.
I also…and the snail…and Winston having a race is over smoke : )
The snail – what does that say to you?
Welll…there COULD be much symbolism…but its usually "Slow as a…."
Oh just on a different…as you may be a Cyclist? Or at least Interested from a previous re fwits tryin to harm Cyclists.
Not all are young…
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/video-terrifying-moment-light-truck-rams-cyclist-bike
Pretty shocking ! Good the Police got him….
Did Blinglish ever return to his Claimed Home in Dipton or did stay in Wellington?
Ah, so she is trying to claim that 35 seats = 35%.
At the time, she wasn’t the Leader. Now, as the Leader, she’s made the Leader’s call that the Leader stays on as the Leader. End. Of.
The National caucus meeting tomorrow is going to be memorable for a lot of reasons. No doubt there will be some leaks. The build up started on Saturday night when National's position became clear.
I wonder if Judith will still be leader next week? But then again, who would want the job.
A complete reset is required when the new National caucus is ready to roll.
More leaders
Judith Collins on Morning Report (and elsewhere), incapable of taking responsibility, in denial as much as ever. Self-delusion before an election is one thing, but after that result … it beggars belief. She was given several opportunities by Susie Ferguson to say what she might have done differently, but no.
Real dilemma for Nat MPs now. If she would just do the usual platitudes ("I'm the leader, I take responsibility") then they could leave her there for a few weeks, before making the inevitable change when they are ready. They don't want to install another caretaker.
But the lame duck is quacking herself out of a job.
A staggering ego. Breath-taking, head-shaking Dunning-Kruger effect on display.
Collins has been camped at the top of Mt. Stupid for some time.
She's been tramping through the mountain range of born to rule arrogance and privilege so long now it's all she knows.
The obesity comments showed a breathtaking disconnect and appalling judgement all in one swoop which was all her own work.
Trumpian styled politics the electorate rejected and unlike Key's DP reign the electorate's a few terms older and wiser to DP stylings she appears unable to leave behind.
The not taking responsibility from Collins jumped out at me. The flip flop leader is probably going to be the dragon lady at the next caucus meeting. See how it goes with Denise Lee and Collins.
Goodluck to all the remaining and new National MPs.
One of the things that gets me is her comment that "she fears for the future of this country." She doesn't get that 60% or so of New Zealanders fear for the future of NZ, and that is why they voted Labour &/or Green.
Personal responsibility? ROFL.
I heard her using the… I've only been in the role for a short time excuse, crikey her memory must be short, Jacinda had only been in the role for a short time when she took it out last election.
Cinny, success is Judith's alone…. failure is caused by circumstance or someone else.
She is so full of hubris, but that fellow "Goodfellow" needs to go as well, as he has overseen so much poison and dirty politics and never come forward and called it out.
Talk about The Green's role in the new Government interests me; or rather, the language being used does; it sounds very adversarial, as though the parties will be locking horns and digging up turf with their hooves to fight for their positions; one leader pitched against the other, a battle of wills and a display of ruthlessness.
I don't buy it.
I think it won't be a matter of levering a spot, playing the strongest hand, out-manouvering the opposition.
I think we're in for a remarkable and pleasant surprise.
Here's hoping. Jacinda would be wise to treat that relationship with respect. A lot of the Labour base like what the Green party bring to politics on the left. Hopefully they don't kowtow to the first time Labour voters because they will go back to their National home as soon as they start looking electable
Either the Greens are (somewhat) in the tent, sharing some of the burden of responsibility of Government and decision-making, or they could be a formidable left-Opposition eating away at Labour’s left base over the next three years. The two parties have much in common but also important differences. Labour wasn’t the only party that was given a mandate, as if there’s only one mandate to go around in NZ. A combined mandate is stronger than two (or three) single ones, not just in terms of numbers in the House, but in taking as many people along as possible. I agree that there’s a lot of positioning going on and now is the time.
most of this talk is media looking for stories.
Agree Woodart, and one thing this election has taught us is 60% of the country do not listen to the media …
Jane Patterson on RNZ:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/428654/election-2020-what-now
Is she saying that the Labour's Māori MPs are in Parliament to do the Party’s bidding first and for their Māori constituencies second? If yes, it could be a classical pākehā throwaway comment that gives some justification to the distrust of the political system and politicians that is not by Māori, for Māori, about Māori.
Labour have always treated the Māori party poorly. "Last cab off the rank" etc
It shows how little Labour have changed their approach to Māori since their Foreshore and Seabed Act days
If Labour treated the Maori Party poorly in days gone by, it was because some prominent figures in the M.P. asked for it. Sure, there were some difficulties in the past but they were because of other issues prominent at the time. The F&S Act was a case in point. That Lab govt. was damned if it did and damned if it didn't.
And if their approach has not changed since the F&S Act days, how come there were stratospheric levels of Maori roll support for Labour on Saturday?
The F&S was about a stake in existing mussel leases. Treaty notwithstanding, Maori got nothing. And the treaty gives all fisheries, in their entirety, to Maori.
Not Labour's finest hour.
No it doesn't. It only allows for Māori to keep their traditional fishing areas which is not all of the EEZ.
The argument can be made – but not in respect of the near shore stuff. That really was their food basket. That's where foreshore & seabed fell down.
It only allows for Māori to keep their traditional fishing areas
I can't read Te Reo, maybe a job for Robert, but the Treaty probably did not take pains to exclude non-traditional fisheries. They probably said "all", and all means all.
It says traditional fishing areas.
Even if it does cover foreshore and seabed it doesn't cover all of it either because they didn't traditionally fish along the entire coast.
A hell of a lot of Māori whinging about fishing over the last few decades has been Māori trying to grab more than the Treaty of Waitangi promised. Just look at their outright power grab over the Kermadec sanctuary which wasn't part of NZ when the Treaty was signed and thus not covered by the Treaty.
Which bit says "traditional fishing areas"?
Article the Second.
The problem is that Māori have decided to claim more than what was theirs.
Now, about all that land that was theirs..
Nope. Nothing there about "traditional".
The preamble says it applies to "all parts of this land and (adjoining) islands". As soon as the Crown decided the Kermadecs were "adjoining islands" as part of NZ territory, there you are.
Lost in a war that they started. Considering the Land Wars there's a viable argument that the Treaty no longer applies at all. After all, treaties don't usually survive being broken by war and then the side that started the war keeping all the benefits of the treaty.
Were Māori treated badly? Yes.
Did they have viable arguments about how parliament handled that? Yes.
Should they have started a war? No.
And I'm not a supporter of Might Makes Right but that is definitely what applied at the time.
Nope:
Their lands and adjoining islands. The kermadecs haven't moved that far in a couple of hundred years, have they?
edit: Seems to me that you’re recycling the old argument about broadcasting bandwidth not being included in the Treaty.
I'm not interested in debating Treaty denialists. Nor do I believe this should be a place for that sort of tosh.
I agree with Sacha that The Standard shouldn't be a place where denialists and aggravators on about hard-won agreements should be able to insert their wrecking bars.
Jane Patterson is not Labour.
In the last three years there has been increasing emphasis on Māori in government (with lower case) initiatives and funding, e.g. from MBIE and its VM framework.
Collins’s delusional sense of self importance was on full display yesterday when she called that presser for 11.30am in order to tell us nothing really. It’s unbelievable no one told her that pretty much the last person the country wanted to hear from, less than 24 hours after the rout, was the vanquished leader of the National Party.
but as labour don’t need the Greens, this is likely to lessen the tussle.
marama Davidson showing poor judgement imho re saying she’d like a cabinet role. She has no ministerial experience and labour don’t need her…….I hope she shuts up.
re Kelvin Davis…..a comment about him yesterday and couldn’t Jacinda find him something else to do. NO! He is the Deputy. That is absolutely right imho.
btw he spoke with a lot of clarity and dignit on tv3 yesterday morning. While people like Grant appear to be more competent, that’s not what we need in a Deputy. We are a bi cultural nation
Agree Anker. The likelihood of Ardern taking the Deputy PM job off a senior Māori MP, whatever their shortcomings, is pretty much zero.
And yes, Greens would be wise to shut it for a bit and let the negotiations play out.
Maybe he could be Minister of Iambic Pentameter.
Time for you to have lunch Gabby.
Collins has a job possibility coming up. Even though it is short term it suits her personality perfectly. Halloween.
Or maybe a stunt double in the Joker movie
A re-make of "Grendel"?
(Too harsh? Just joking!)
Bryan Gould's assessment is very good.
https://bryangould.com/lessons-from-the-election/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lessons-from-the-election
A great political commentary this morning on Radionz.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018768995/a-new-political-landscape-commentators-sherson-and-jones
Trish, Neale and Kathryn dissect the election result. Neale Jones was Chief of Staff to Labour Leader Jacinda Ardern, and prior to that was Chief of Staff to Andrew Little. He is the director of Capital Government Relations. Trish Sherson is from corporate affairs firm Sherson Willis, and a former ACT press secretary.
Neale Jones – the National Party is very white: 'there are more members named Chris in parliament than there are Maori members!' lol.
Yes I thought that it was quite a sparkling discussion with flashes of brilliance. But that's juse me.
Marama Davidson's demand that she be in cabinet is rather presumptuous. And her over-talking James Shaw on election night also. Like it or not, the Greens are sometimes considered to be too radical, so she needs to back off a bit. Jacinda will be mindful of the huge numbers of new Labour voters this time that she will not want to scare off.
[please provide evidence for the first sentence. A link, and a quote or time stamp. In premod until you or someone else provides the back up. If you don’t have evidence, please withdraw the assertion – weka]
[references below, which are both pre-eletion. So to clarify, Marama Daivdson hasn’t demanded that she be in cabinet since the election. And pre-election her position was described in MSM as a wish not a demand. Please be more careful in future about claims of fact – weka]
I haven't heard any demands of cabinet posts. She was just on Nine-to-Noon and was very reasonable sounding about their expectations. She acknowledged that being tied in a formal coalition might not be the best for the Greens ability to criticize independently
Labour will ignore the Greens and their own left wing at their own peril. It will be a lonely 3 years if they have an opposition to their right and left chipping away at their support
In a situation where Labour has "an opposition to their right and left chipping away at their support" the party will have to adopt a defensive, conservative mode; this is not what the country needs and Jacinda Ardern will be sensitive to that and therefore act to bring as many onside as possible (Green/Maori), imo.
It's not just on Ardern and Labour to make something like that work. Any other parties to that arrangement will also need to behave in a mature responsible way and not carry on like Rick from The Young Ones.
Election-night exuberance annoy you, did it 🙂
The green party increased their vote and, with covid and even a bit of centre switch-a-roo going on, that's huge.
If labour are going to be mindful of not upsetting the floaters and avoid doing the needed stuff on the left, then that's just going to burn them in '23, where they'll probably leech a chunk of lefty votes.
If, as it has before with a centrist labour party, and the greens get back to around 15%, the big question is will labour have enough votes remaining to form a government? What they do now determines this three years out.
Voters don’t like surprises but a single party commanding a majority is not in the spirit of MMP. As an aside, if we had less wasted vote, Labour would not have an absolute majority.
My view is that Labour was rewarded for its handling of Covid, not for its policy platform, which could be seen as a mandate for BAU. The Greens campaigned hard on policy and did well; I see that as a mandate for transformative policies.
Ardern has claimed that she is progressive and not a pragmatic centrist and that she wants to take as many people along and make decisions based on consensus. Let’s see what this rhetoric really means in practice.
The Greens are strong and experienced in certain policy areas. They have things/people to offer to Government that Labour does not have or necessarily want to.
Wait, what?
What does that sentence even mean?
We have a single party majority government voted in through MMP. This was signalled as likely to happen prior to the election and so we must assume that it is in the spirit of MMP.
Its not in the spirit of democracy but, then, a large part of the reason why we have Representative Democracy is to prevent democracy. The rich really don't want the majority to have a say as the majority aren't likely to agree with what the rich want.
Your IQ is high enough to work it out all by yourself without me holding your hand 😉
You have company.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/123137003/labours-singleparty-majority-is-not-a-failure-of-mmp-it-is-a-sign-nzs-electoral-system-is-working
Is there a significant wasted vote? Could you put link, I'd like to follow that up.
We'll know that when the reeferendum is tallied. 🙂
https://www.electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2020_preliminary/
179,228 votes divvied up among the five parties with seats, i.e. 7.5% of the total vote and almost equalling the Greens’ vote, which is 10 seats.
How else would Labour have 64/120 seats with only (!) 49.1% of the vote?
Gosh I hope that the Commission can classify the main reasons for this wastage – deliberate is probably one, then there is the strange idea on computer programs to utilise a cross in a box which indicates you choose something. That's been in for years and I still can't understand why they would throw aside what was normal and do the opposite – because we can?
Using the wrong pen? Not realising that you can't cross out a mistake? Not understanding that you can get a new sheet and have to hand in the old one?
If we can bring down the wastage that is a lot of votes to include.
Wasted is not the same as invalid – it just means that in our MMP system, some votes do not get translated into seats in parliament because small parties did not get over the 5% threshold.
Those 'wasted' votes are then shared out proportionally across the parties who did make it in. Happens every time. It’s why you do not need 50% of the votes on the night to end up with a majority.
Okay thanks Sacha I jumped to conclusion about meaning there. The plethora of new parties happens each time there is a big shakeup no doubt. I remember all sorts of little parties cropping up before. This time they didn't have the good humour of the McGonagle Party.
Hopefully Marama has toned it down. But yes I definitely heard her talking about wanting a cabinet position, which is really badly judged at this stage.
I trust that Jacinda, Grant and their "strong team' will make a good decision about the Greens. Their strategy during the election was perfect. They read things well. So I am happy to let them get on with it.
Someone else commented here that they hoped Jacinda would be respectful to the. Greens. Its' not all credible that she wouldn't be. She maintained a deep level of respect for Winston Peters, who I imagine was very difficult to work with, even post election. Why would she not be respectful to the Greens?If I was the Labour Cabinet, I would want to be shot of all other parties and just take the freedom I had to get on with it. But I know they are wiser heads than I am and that they will make good decisions around this.
bTW Anne Salmond has written a brilliant article about the election result, describing Jacinda as a master navigator. Will try and post later.
AND…….. Congratulations to all on the Standard. Our teams pulled off the most marvellous result. And many of us would have played some role in that.
"But yes I definitely heard her talking about wanting a cabinet position, which is really badly judged at this stage."
Where did she say that since the election?
This?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018768874/greens-sweep-10-seats
A Ministerial responsibility =/= a Cabinet position.
yes, I want an actual source for the assertion. Moving into moderation mode.
Thanks for the careful moderation, it's too easy for commentors to pick stuff up from interviews then misrepresent what someone has said when filtering comments through their own perspectives. It is obvious in this case that Marama Davidson was responding to a hypothetical scenario posed by Kathryn Ryan in the context of an interview and clearly did not express any claim or demand for a cabinet post. That aside, it seems there is a lot of projection, taking comments out of context or building of contexts around throw-away lines where Davidson is concerned. Over the election period, it would be fair to say that she has worked extremely hard to convey Green Party policy, and has put other party leaders to shame with her enthusiasm and presentation.
Sorry can't remember Weka. I have watched so election stuff in the last 48 hours, can't remember where I saw it. But I think someone else on the standard saw it too.
Unless I am dreaming politics now, which is always a possibility! But as sure as I can be I saw it.
just saw your above comment. It wasn’t Radio NZ I saw it on. She may have said ministerial roles. So I could be wrong about the Cabinet thing.
I stand by my point that given the electoral result and the lack of bargining power they have and also her lack of Ministerial experience, I think a poor call. IMHO
thanks for clarifying anker
mod note for you Reality.
Not a demand, just expressing her wishes/desire/hope.
[Corrected user name]
where did she do that?
https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/107594/hayden-wilson-and-linda-clark-dentons-kensington-swan-assess-what-weekends-election
My bold. This was never a ‘demand’ though.
NZ needs to offer itself as the experimental model for a first world decarbonised economy…providing the canvas, policy and training support for all the best (and holistic) ideas that will attract those with vision and abilities required, both from within and without the country…it will also provide investment, with the proviso that much of the ownership will remain public.
We must learn by doing.
Yes while we have the world's attention over our Covid management let's see what other good things we can show to the world re realigning ourselves for climate change advance and attempts to slow that advance.
And of course, remembering that we haven't achieve saintly perfection yet, what about encouraging the greenies of the world to advise us on what they are doing which we haven't got to yet. Do all the greenies of the world have a fact based site where they share their country's advances and trials which we belong to? If there is one could someone advise if – must be scientific, and can anyone look at it.
I am finding so many of the news sites are blocked and while I understand their need for income etc. it is hard for citizen students of the world to gather reliable info. Of course I have to work at my tech skills which are dire. I can't get most pdfs at present and just have to look at converters or whatever that I probably already have. I get worried that there is so much to learn and the amount of general tv time that people spend doesn't give them time to read and imbibe the info coming from science and they end up half-informed, which these days is common.
'Greenies' tell us that one of the main drivers of global warning is excess consumption by Western nations: which is ironic given the emphasis on 'growth' on the part of the major parties. I would suggest that 'green growth' be redefined in terms of an increase in decarbonizatuion, even that growth is at the expense of fossil fuel use.
The problem is how fast can we let the air out of the tyres so we can get started. I suppose the decarb means less vehicles – smaller ones for a start. The boofheads are the sort that rammed their semi-tank into a car on the motorway which was particularly fun because it was a woman. Get them into a lower smaller vehicle and we could have fairer bullbar-fights.
What about putting a vehicle tax on private vehicles higher than a car, or with more seats than six? Gradual, but would brass off the dealers eh.
What do you have in mind for decarbonization?
What do you have in mind for decarbonization?
One of the parties – I don't remember whether it was Labour or the Greens – was advocating banning the import of ICE vehicles from 2030. I would ban them earlier: next week if it were practicable.
It's interesting that after the election a high level public servant of the State Services Commision (responsibility for Auckland) is making comments about how difficult it is for new MP's in parliament.
He is a former candidate for National, and one wonders what his role would have been if National did an ECAN on the Auckland regions local government as some in National were proposing.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/10/labour-warned-inexperience-could-cause-problems-for-the-next-government.html
I think you might have the wrong Lewis Holden there!
Thanks Uncle Scrim (and thank-you Wikipedia) – quite right.
OK, but why is the photo of Lewis Joseph Holden shown here with the Lewis Dare Holden public servant bio?
https://www.google.com/search?q=Lewis+Dare+Holden&oq=Lewis+Dare+Holden&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
No idea; maybe it's some uncurated web thing that automatically grabs an available photo with a name match?
As Lewis Dare Holden was a researcher for the 1986 Royal Commission on the Electoral System, when Lewis Joseph Holden (selected at age 29 as the National party candidate for the Rimutaka electorate in 2014 general) was but an infant, it's safe to assume that they're two different people.
Not disagreeing with LJH's comment about how tough is can be for new MPs, although since he's never been an MP himself that must be second-hand knowledge he's passing on.
He's right about new MP's needing support.
But then again he is also one of many on the right inferring Labour are a lot of inexperienced lightweights not ready for the job.
Lewis Dare Holden was chief executive of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage prior to his current SSC role, and I think held that role in 2014, at the time of his namesake’s electoral tilt.
sounds like a patronising git to me. If this had been the Nacts it would be
"celebrating the infusion of new talent "
Are the elderly the biggest fans of Ayn Rand's thinking – especially The Virtue of Selfishness, without actually having read it or considered its intellectual and philosophical points?
One critique from shaunphilly delves into this in –
Skepticism, Properly Applied – Criticism is not uncivil
and points out that Rand defines selfishness differently from the norm. It seems to me that she ‘objectively’ considers it as focussing on oneself as a person and considering what you want out of life and going for it.
https://polyskeptic.com/2014/03/25/ayn-rands-the-virtue-of-selfishness-an-introductory-critique/
…Her dichotomy between altruism and selfishness (egoism) is sophomoric philosophy, and misses too much to be as influential as her thinking continues to be.
As a disclaimer, I view ethics as not based upon altruism (selflessness) or egoism (selfishness), and view the dichotomy, which Rand employs, between altruism and egoism as misguided as a means of thinking about ethics at a basic level. For me, ethics is based in the value of fairness, derived from freedom and its logical consequences. Further, while an analysis of ethical philosophy can start from consideration of selfish interests, so long as it remains there i[t] never becomes a discussion about ethics at all (I know some people disagree with m[e] on this point, and I’m willing to defend this view)….
This is one aspect of looking at how division and anti-social factors are working in modern society against the wide community, living well in near groups – separate but in reasonable harmony, having respect and trust between peoples, and inclusion though maintaining the right for individuality. It is not impossible but requires consideration between near neighbours, and thought for all.
One could think of this while listening to the Radionz interview of Kathryn winning Ryan with documentary maker Lance Oppenheim about the division and separation from the wider community of this Florida 'retirement village' which has 100,000 residents having multiple golf courses and diversions.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018769002/some-kind-of-heaven-retirement-living-florida-style
.
This brings to mind the smaller South African Afrikaner township of Orania. There is separation from the wider community on different lines, with estimated 1700 residents. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/oct/24/an-indictment-of-south-africa-whites-only-town-orania-is-booming
.
And the glossing-up with sentimentality of the modern elderly, unwilling to accept death in their time, and willing to divorce themselves from the young in the film Cocoon, where residents of a retirement village choose eternal life amongst their age group by travelling to a distant planet, and one featured older couple leave behind their daughter and their grandchild whom they profess to love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9BSsIX2j7M
This film was an analogy for so much now; the cult of the deserving elderly not expected to reciprocate with caring interaction with society at all, and the wealthy not ready to reciprocate with Earth society and fixing their eyes and money on space and experimental societies there.
I suspect that in the main the exact opposite is the case….as the link I posted yesterday noted the elderly and young are bullied by the middle aged…note how many (Jim Bolger springs to mind) moderate or even radicalise their views as the spectre of mortality creeps ever closer.
Youth are not only the future.
edit
I note how good for retirement homes business the elderly are, especially while they have pensions. One reason that the old are the future, and why welfare gets cut to the young whose opportunities for social mobility and advancement have been pulled away from under their feet. I guess the middle-aged with middle-income are doing the bullying, as they are the ones surging forward with great money-making ideas. Everyone stand aside for the noble young entrepreneurs who have the sensitivity of those carrying out the Highland Clearances.
(This doesn't apply to all entrepreneurial people but of many such as the self-important new-age greenies act as in giving over our footpaths to small fast-moving vehicles never considering that there is an oxymoron? in not being pedantic and pedestrian about 'footpaths' but preferring the pedal-pushers.)
My comparison with the Highland Clearances and determination to dominate and denature by the ruling elite cannot be seen clearly now, but the mindset is there, and unleashed it looks like Judith Collins in full flow, or look back to a notable starter, Jenny Shipley. And all the others female and male who have been recipients of a progressive and reasonably caring society. Now they have got what they want they have wrung the wets out of society and dumped the 'reasonably caring' just leaving the dry 'progressive'; but to what?
the greedy are always the greedy irrespective of age…and sadly too many are driven to positions of influence
This goes beyond greedy. It is the wrong word to use – did I? I can't remember. It is a mindset that needs to change. The world is changing, past systems were tailored for the need at that time.
The mature senior wants his cake and to eat it too; he and she are living longer, lining up for all the medical help of modern times, and as the ad for some retirememt place recently says, 70 is the new 50. The years from 65 to death at near 100 (increasingly) mean nearly one-third of life being paid to be an old-age pensioner.
But the active retired should be doing something for the society that enables them to have this secure life. They should not feel entitled to sit back and enjoy the comforts and do nothing to assist the wellbeing of the young and general society. Many grandparents are helping by raising their grandchildren. That probably wouldn't have been the case if there was more care from the country for our young people. With concern into assisting parents and children and being there when difficulties fall, families wouldn't collapse as now. And for the money-ridden, it would offer savings in tax, health, education and policing.
Life would be better for all if the older people, who tend to be better off, turned right round and looked back at the youth and extended friendship and interest, Not as an onerous task but just a little help, 3-5 hours a week should be a universally expected time, and become part of the general conversation. Not just volunteering by those who feel inclined, and those who do put themselves out. For instance the query would be heard routinely from one retired person to another, 'What are you getting into this year from the government program list?' After a gap year for the retired so they really enjoy a break for themselves and seeing their own family, then choose an interest from the Senior Societal Support program.
Straight out of a Clancy novel.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump White House has installed two political operatives at the nation’s top public health agency to try to control the information it releases about the coronavirus pandemic as the administration seeks to paint a positive outlook, sometimes at odds with the scientific evidence.
The two appointees assigned to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Atlanta headquarters in June have no public health background. They have instead been tasked with keeping an eye on Dr. Robert Redfield, the agency director, as well as scientists, according to a half-dozen CDC and administration officials who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal government affairs.
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-virus-outbreak-pandemics-public-health-new-york-e321f4c9098b4db4dd6b1eda76a5179e
Or how Russia used to have political appointees supervising those who do. The term is Commissar is it not?
Buying up debt as an investment they can later sell – to whom and when? While interest rates offer miserable returns …
Let the grand ponzi roll on..
Debt Jubilee! Some links to much on – all crisp and crunchy not soggy and hopeless.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/the-case-for-a-modern-debt-jubilee – Steve Keen is keen.
and 2012
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1204/S00101/debt-jubilee-for-new-zealand-the-great-reset.htm – Stephen Keys thinks this is the key.
(The names are a coincidence!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_jubilee
https://jubileedebt.org.uk/history-of-debt
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/21/debt-jubilee-is-only-way-avoid-depression/
https://www.ft.com/content/fb2c1718-a193-11ea-94c2-0526869b56b0 Sound the trumpet! Debt jubilees have arrived – Financial Times
https://www.jubileescotland.org.uk/the-issue/history-of-debt/
A further mention of Steve Keen this time by Yanis Varoufakis.
A commenter's query: I’m currently reading Paul Sweezy’s Stagnation and Financialization and I find it fascinating. I was wondering if there are any books which add political reasons in addition to economic ones to explain the phenomenon described by Sweezy. I am interested in other words in the political economy of stagnation and financialization. It would be great if you could recommend me a book on this, if there is one that is.
Thanks very much
Stelios Papadopoulos
Reply
19/01/2012 at 17:04
For the original treatise, see Rudolf Hilferding’s Finance Capital (http://www.marxists.org/archive/hilferding/index.htm). For more easy on the eye recent books (which touch upon stagnation and financialisation) try Steve Keen (Debunking Economics) and James Galbraith (Predator State). You may also be interested in David Laibman’s recent Political Economy after Economics). [Proceeding’s you, it is hard to improve upon Sweezy on these issues.]
I've seen this in several reports, don't know if it is correct but if so it's astounding
Oh dear, expert criticism of the Tory government.
But if the PM follows such advice he will criticised by the neo-woke champions of the young on the Telegraph such as Madelaine Grant (those who locked youth out of the EU but oppose local lockdowns).
Wow, didn't know this.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-ken-rei-logging-ship-carrying-close-contacts-of-new-covid-case-remains-anchored-off-napier/4WJ536K7SII3VT3QG5VVCTJEJI/
I reckon this case adds weight to the theory the Auckland outbreak in Auckland came from international crews. Not a great sign there are still holes there but good it was picked up and traced early.
Weka – Stuff 14 October George Block's column mentions Marama Davidson's wish for a Cabinet role.
Politik, Richard Hartman, 15 October – "Marama Davidson gave a heavy hint that she would want to be a minister this time around".
Sorry I did not quote sources in my earlier post, but I knew I had not made it up.
thanks, I've added to the mod note above.
'Wish' and 'hint' are not the same as 'demand'. Not clear why you wanted to say they were.
Agreed Sacha..and the added "heavy" is Harman making a story of something that is not really a story.
Reality take note.
Helps to think of the writer's agenda..
Maybe the implication being Marama is getting a little "uppity"?
‘Cheeky‘?
Too Lippy?
Well looks like this Government has its hands already full on the Foreign, Defence and Antarctic Policies?
First one was during the election which just about everyone failed to raise any questions was the encroachment of the Chinese and possibly the Taiwanese Fishing Fleet into NZ’s EEZ Nth /Nth East of the Kermadec Islands and Sth of the Minerva Reefs.
Apart from Michael Field who mentioned this on Twitter, none of NZ’s fourth estate, NZ’s MFAT said boo or the NZDF release a press release of the RNZAF or RNZN patrolling NZ’s EEZ up in NZ’s Nth’ern waters.
Now we what, I’ve described here on The Standard Blog for those who haven’t been following my comments here over the yrs. Is the last great race as a result of CC nowadays, the last great land grab when the Antarctic Treaty comes up for renewal in & round 2040-47. Well folks it looks like the race is about to kick off with Russia moving its Floating Nuclear Power under down for this years Antarctic Summer?
Yep a Nuclear Power Station in the Antarctic and yet we’re heard boo from Oz or NZ about this. This even more concerning that NZLP never release its Defence manifesto for the election just gone and even more concerning I did find anything on the Antarctic/ Southern Ocean either? There are two major tenders and possibly two others due at the tail end of this coming term or early next term?
The two major ones are this term is the 1 of 2 new Landing Ships with a docking well and the other is a new Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel. These two vessels won’t come cheap either and the Government will be very lucky to get any change out of NZD 1.5B for two of these vessels. The Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel is going to be a whooper of Ship in length 115m plus long, a beam (Width) of some 24m wide and Polar Classification of PC5 as a minimum or a PC6 this in part due to CC as a result of the massive big waves now being encountered down Sth.
https://twitter.com/MichaelFieldNZ/status/1317979006252118018?s=20
We have fishing relationship with Russia. Are we going to be pate' between Russia, China, and the USA?
There is a bit more to this, in that the Chinese have cleaned out their surrounding waters including around Nth Korea and its also one the reasons for the 9 dash line in the South China Sea so the can rape & pillage that as well.
The Chinese have a very large ocean fishing which is also escorted by the Chinese Coast Guard and those ships aren't just any ship. These Ships have a displacement between a Frigate and Destroyer type Ship, but quite the firepower after the Chinese had a run in with the Chilean and the Argie Navies a couple of yrs back when they caught their EZZ's including in a Chilean No Fishing zone.
The Chinese Fishing Fleet are acting like modern day pirates on the High Seas, with no regards to EEZ's, reporting what they catch, No Fishing Zones, under reporting, breaching just about every international law in regards to fishing and if they get caught in the act. Where they act like thugs or worst sunk ships be it local fishing boats or that nations naval/ coast guard ships. Unless you are the Chilean or Argie Navies which shoot first and ask later, which is something NZ use to do in the 70's & 80's with its Navy and Airforce where everyone knew where they stood if you caught in NZ Waters/ the EEZ.
In other words the Chinese would rape & pillage anyone's waters until you put a shot across the their bows and sunk a fishing boat or boats as the Chinese a quite prepared to throw their weight as well to weak countries or those expose countries that rely on exporting to the Chinese market.
Is it that or just a powered vessel?
This Nuclear Power Station floats on a barge which is towed by ocean going tugs
Nothing new, McMurdo Station =Nuclear power 1962–1972
Russia has a long history of exploration and science on that continent. Read Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen
You completely sure there's a rooskie nuke power station going to be installed in Antarctica? Not just the supply ship that's nuke-powered?
There's the floating nuke station Akademik Lomonosov that got towed to a town in the Arctic last year to supply electricity and heat, but I haven't heard of one getting built for Antarctica.
Vostok Station is roughly 1000km from the nearest coast, so a floating nuke wouldn't help them out much, and it would be quite the engineering feat to build transmission lines from the coast to the station.
Having said all that, I'm not all that bovvered by nuke power stations, and I really wouldn't begrudge them one at Vostok Station. Reputedly the coldest place on earth, with a record low of -89 degrees C. Colder than dry ice.
Some interesting green things that have come up recently in the media.
On Radionz – Fancy fungi – looks like a rose.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018769012/fancy-fungi-ohau-gourmet-mushrooms
Book: Arihia Latham reviews Te Mahi Oneone Hua Parakore: A Maori Soil Sovereignty and Wellbeing Handbook edited by Jessica Hutchings and Jo Smith. Published by Freerange Press.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018769003/book-review-te-mahi-oneone-hua-parakore
And Book on Fungi : https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/entangled-life-9781847925206
There is a life form on our planet so strange and wondrous that it challenges our conception of life itself…Entangled Life introduces
an almost wholly unknown and mysterious category of life form, an entire underground realm whose workings are so wondrous and alien that they throw into question what we think life itself is and how it works.
Author: Merlin Sheldrake
If Brownlee and Smith choose to retire, will we like their replacements?
Having a couple of fading senior MPs around in the National Party might help the Left mightn't it?
"Bluest of Blue seats voters selected Labour MP's and Labour Party to keep the Greens out."
I have heard this theory from local Federated Farmers and as recently as on the Panel being expressed by Tim Watkins.
Actually, I think the "cockies" just don't understand MMP.
On the evidence, they gave two ticks to Labour. So in effect, ditched their own National MP as well. If they did mean to have a Labour government, they just needed the Party tick for Labour. Probably more precise is that they just felt that their beloved National Party is currently a shambles and didn't stand for anything.
Has Fran still got the networks to engineer another "winter of discontent" ? Murmurs of farmers in Rangitata supposedly strategically voting Labour to take the Greens out of play, plenty of media commentary about 'governing from the centre'. You can sense the wheels of the elite's extra-electoral self-preservation mechanisms turning. You can vote for whomever you like sonny, but it’s going to be a certain way…
There is a good discussion on trade – free trade – what trade etc going on the Daily Review 15/10. There is sure to be something you have thought of and some you haven't. Please go on if you have something else in mind McFlock and DTB. We need to think about it.
My belief is that it is only local trading, with some extended stuff, and specialist imports, that enables people to improve their standard of living. But of course cheapness can regn, and getting titimasu in the frigs from Italy! What am I, royalty, to be offered such treats requiring refrigeration from Italy.? Or are they made here under licence?
I remember a story in the New Internationalist. Up high in Nepal the tourists who were into the outdoors would go and stay. They liked tomatoes but for much of the year there wasn't enough warmth and sun locally to make them go red. Then a handy new road was put in and a truck ground its way up from the Indian fields below with lovely red toms. The green ones grown locally were not saleable. The truck had it hard though and one day it ground to a halt at the side of the road. The locals were able to sell their green ones. In a fairly poor community it is a capitalist trick to say that it is fine to compete, it may be literally taking food out of children's mouths. (They themselves probably didn't want to eat all the green tomatoes though they can be used in cooking and chutneys okay.)
Murdoch media gaslighting Ardern.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/election-2020-aussies-hit-back-after-the-australian-columnist-slams-inept-jacinda-ardern/53AIA7UAPEGRJZF4WJKOCES4RE/
This is the reason Murdoch's own son gave for leaving the business – saying it was not a reliable source of news, as the partisanship was impacting on its coverage.
A lot of people got upset here and remarkably across different forums when I asked, "who wants to see Australia burn", on Christmas day.
This is one of the reasons why. Also, nice sunsets.
Interesting interactive here:
https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2020/10/election-2020-results-analysis-labour-day/
If I told you there were just six local areas which showed gains for National and four of them were in South Auckland, would you believe me?
The biggest gain for National was 5.5% in…Mangere North. That is gentrification for you.
Don't know, it may be a creeping evangelisation connection to National Party.
It would be interesting to get to the bottom of it. Evangelism, or gentrification.
I think it would be both. National is courting PI to add to their ethnic blocs.
Lee Kuan Yew bound his Singapore nation which was successful under capitalism but Yanis Varoufakis says it isn't a democracy. Can we manage to be successful AND a democracy? I don't think we have enough of the qualities he mentions.
@ logie97 26.
I agree. The idea getting shopped around today that National voters just voted tactically to keep the Greens at bay is right wing spin. If that was the case Labour wouldn’t have flipped so many safe National seats. It’s just excuse making and speaks to the National Party born-to-rule bullshit mentality. They’re basically saying voters will realise their dumb mistake and come flooding back to where they rightfully belong. They haven’t learned anything from their ousting from office in 2017.
For all I know the National voters could have voted Labour because it is about survival.
Labour could do well with farming deals once Johnson leaves without a Brexit no deal. Talks have not gone well with the EU. NZ needs a persuasive agriculture minister to woo Johnson.
Johnson UK – woo woo! 'All mouth and (no) trousers'. Good luck.
greywarshark the economic shock of Covid is going to impact in 12 – 18 months. NZ needs as many long term trading partners as they can get.
On the Friday 8 days before polling day, Judith Collins was advising an audience that to forestall the Greens they should vote two ticks blue.
To claim now that farmers voted two ticks Labour to forestall them is 1. logical but 2, not what Collins counselled.
So we are to believe that farmers disobeyed Collins, voted two ticks Labour to keep out the Greens?
Why two ticks? Why not just party vote Labour?
There's more to this and it's to do with the National party selecting poor candidates- disloyal, unethical, misogynistic, bullying, born to rule, unsavoury, better left unelected.