Another hut gone The Makokoere Hut in the Waioeka headwaters has been burnt down. This is not part of the TuT/ Poto Williams 50 hut destruction plan in the former National Park. A separate arson. Access and safety has now impacted the two huts on each side. These magnificent small backcountry huts are approx a 3/4 days walk from each other so huts either side are no longer safely accessible. Conservationists and hunters are saddened.
Yep, a decent enough hut, to stop, have a rest, eat some food, and continue. Worked for decades. But totally understandable that it is no longer fit for purpose. Lets burn all that shit down. One hut a time.
Clear some trees, concrete some roads and build some mansions fit for the current time with air conditioning, duckfeather duvets and five star cuisine and a several hundered dollar ticket per night. Are you rich enough?
"Patients are so vulnerable to Covid and these anti-vaxxers have been sneaking in and putting lots of children suffering from heart conditions at risk. At no time has security ever been needed like this," the mother said.
"A really safe space for sick and dying children has been grossly invaded. It’s our one place of refuge from a terminal illness."
She said families needed to be masked and tested on the ward and individuals refusing to comply with the requirements – "especially with their unmasked anti-vaxxer mates sneaking in" – were increasing the risk to other patients.
Not related to antivaxxers but this item is yet another example of our ability to lead normal lives without fear being negatively affected by mad conspiracy theorists and extreme political agitators:
It's time a much harder line is taken to counter all of them regardless of their individual fixations. Currently we are letting these crackpots – be they anti-vaxxers or some other extreme fantasists – get away with their anti-social activities with little more than a wet bus ticket.
Time in jail contemplating their futures is a highly desirable alternative.
Look on the bright side. The hate towards the PM will mostly ( not all) transfer to David Seymour and to a lesser extent, Luxon, after the next election. However, the protests and threats will be way more severe because mainstream groups will be protesting their loss of funding and importance under a Nat/Act coalition. That of course presupposes National and ACT can come to a political arrangement. That isn't a given yet.
Good observation. I've a couple of long time friends who have disappeared down the hole and it's a powerlessness in the face of a rapidly changing world and backlash at the neo-con, globalist world. Whoever is PM next Christmas will be getting just as much grief from the same people. Luxon is no more their thing than Arden, and probably viewed with more suspicion.
I'm inclined to think "useful idiots" might be a tad more accurate as a description. Someone else's agenda is at play and it's on the move and making inroads. If we get Luxon's coronation next year, it will be the 'normie' expression of the same underlying sentiments.
But jail time will just lend credibility to their delusions of persecution.
I think you have had your authoritarian jollies for now. Much of the extremism you are bitching about is a direct reaction to state overreach this past two years.
Keeping people safe during a deadly pandemic is "State overreach"?
If you support as the ones threatening the safety of sick children, by flouting masking and separation rules in hospitals, you are as much of a fucking idiot as they are.
Fit-tested N95s are clearly the best but it is not a binary proposition.
More so than you might imagine. How many times have you taken a respiratory mask fit test? Because I can advise it is remarkably easy to fail.
I am happy to accept that a mask of any kind will stop large droplets that someone might sneeze or cough, but the highly aerosolised viral particles that persist in the air for many hours – are another question again.
The weak point of any mask is the concave gap between the bridge of the nose and the top of the cheeks. All masks intended to be used in hazardous environments, will have a firm shape that fits this space and a strap scheme that applies sufficient force to keep the gap closed reliably. The usual blue and white paper mask most people use, or cheap N95's with a flimsy bit of elastic for a strap simply do not achieve this.
If you wear glasses and find that when you first put a mask on they fog up, this is because the bulk of the air you are inhaling and exhaling is taking the path of least resistance through this gap. And this means the mask is doing little to protect you or anyone else from the very fine, highly suspended viral particles that are the dominant hazard.
But you are criticising those who believe their efforts are effective and want to help their fellow man avoid harm. You call that, "virtue signalling". That's offensive.
You may be able to "prove them wrong" in their belief, but your attempts to prove them "virtue signallers" is misguided and harmful.
Last year I was working at a site which produced lithium hydroxide and at the back end of the plant where it is packaged there is a very fine, invisible to the eye, dust in the air.
Lithium hydroxide is caustic (just like sodium hydroxide) and will definitely cause harm to your airways and lungs if inhaled. The smallest particle sizes are of the similar order to a typical virus.
You can be absolutely certain we took mast fit testing, and proper wearing of our high quality PPE very seriously. The usual kind of mask people wear for COVID protection was simply not an option – a sackable offence if you should be stupid enough to try getting away with using one.
So while I accept the term 'virtue signaling' might be a blunt way of putting it, if you are serious about wanting to reduce virus load, then you need to be serious about the mask. Most people are not.
"Most people" are acting with integrity and to the best of their ability. Based on the best information available to them and their feelings of altruism and their willingness to help others, they are masking-up.
Accusing them of "virtue signalling" is despicable, imo.
One circumstance where a bit of deterrent jail time for the idiots may be appropriate.
Jailed for what exactly?
The hospital appears to be doing its job – if people won't follow masking/testing rules they're not allowed in. People are being arseholes, but I didn't see anything in the article that suggesting criminality.
Some appear to have been infected since covid by "Libertarian philosphy" where "individual freedom" is sacrosanct, no matter what the harm it does to everyone else.
In fact your "freedom should end" where my nose begins".
We interfere with the urge to indulge in the "individual freedom" to punch someone, when another will get hurt.
Anyone who thinks recent actions to reduce the harm caused by covid, which were supported by over 90% at the time was "State overreach" has lost the plot.
"Sue Grey , Liz Gunn, all the other anti vaxxers with their "concern" incl going on alex jones "info wars " FFS !"
Anti-vax followers are a diverse and varied bunch. But the leaders of the movement (and other conspiracy movements) often seem to be narcissist-types, IMHO. They don’t care about anyone else.
"But the leaders of the movement (and other conspiracy movements) often seem to be narcissist-types…"
My thoughts too. Anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of a full blown narcissist, no matter the circumstance, will recognise that is precisely what they are. Add a bit of sociopathy to the mix and you've got a huge amount of damage to individuals and… society as a whole.
Hi Barfly, have you had your MSD issues sorted? Regarding temperatures and behaviour, 42 deg in London!! I thought wow!! What will we get this summer? Sea temperatures are alarming right now. So another stress factor.
“In this video, 4 New Zealand scientists talk about how the water cycle is part of Earth’s system. They point out that Earth’s system consists of 4 subsystems – the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere – which all interact with each other.”
Note the Dates….Published 3 August 2009, Updated 1 October 2012
Did some of those Kids….become engaged with this ? Oh for the Teachers that would connect with them. IMO they probably dont do it just for the pay…but worth every amount.
”The replies are so lucid, well-researched and decently referenced that some academics are calling the bot the death knell for conventional forms of educational assessment. How worried should professors and lecturers be?”
Russia's Special Military Operation, 'SMO' is following the arc of that other infamous undeclared'WAR'.
As the Vietnam War dragged on with no resolution, it became increasingly difficult for the American public and especially broadcast commentators to discern what the US was actually trying to achieve with the war. The same in Russia.
Kremlin TV Stars Combust as Russians Admit War Is Aimless
Yes the comparison with Vietnam is worth making. It can only be understood within the context of the Cold War – which was a decades long, highly intense confrontation with Stalinist Russia and Maoist China, both brutal, totalitarian marxist proto-empires. That was the underlying motivation.
Vietnam itself was a mistake and long recognised as such. Moreover as the futility and stupidity of that mistake became evident to people all across the western world, the will to continue the war, to commit to the escalation necessary to win – evaporated.
The difference worth noting however is that in the West the people were able to protest the war without incurring massive personal cost, such as decade long prison sentences or worse. In Russia right this is not possible; all organised opposition is imprisoned (such as Navalney) or has gone into exile.
Again my point is not that the West is incapable of making terrible mistakes – no human polity is immune from this. It is that open liberal democracy that respects at least the principle of individual rights and the concept of citizenship, and thus contains the means to self-correct those mistakes.
By contrast consider the era of the gulags – a horror that the authoritarian Soviets had no choice but to continue to double down on until the death of the tyrant shook loose the system and brought it to an end. (Well at least until recently when Putin thought it a fine thing to rehabilitate Stalin and the cruel ethos of the prison state.)
By Biden's own admission a resumption of the cold war is underway, and it will take fifty to sixty years to play out. The Ukrainian conflict apparently is just the opening salvo.
I can't provide a link, but see "China – the change agent" on michael-hudson.com
Currently reading "Blood Lands" by Timothy Snyder – about Europe between Hitler and Stalin.
The deliberately engineered famine in the Ukraine, 1931-33 which killed at least 3.3 million people, should make all Ukrainians detest Russians forever!
The reported story is a rare case of (mild) dissent aired in public. There is no right to protest or free speech in Russia, and no permitted independent media, so public dissent might not have the same effect as it did in the USA over the Vietnam war, unfortunately.
Wow!! What entitled behaviour. Scratch the surface and their behaviour is almost scary in relation to rule of law!! Too many Nats think they are a breed apart. Woodhouse Kuriger et al. Wasn't she the woman who "helped" a young Southland MP Todd Barclay?
It begs a question about Xmas holidays this year. Will it be quiet because people have tightened their belts, or will crime spiral completely out of control because crims take advantage of stretched police resources and an over taxed retail sector?
There is no evidence crime is out of control, nor that criminals are taking advantage of a "stretched" police resources.
The only part of the retail sector that is overtaxed is tobacco, as with other government interventions (such as the RB QE) it distorts the market in harmful ways, and this can and does result in greed. The problem with polite middle class society it likes incentives when they do well out of it, but no much when it gives others "ideas" about how to afford the latest phone/big screen TV.
''There is no evidence crime is out of control, nor that criminals are taking advantage of a "stretched" police resources.''
Let's see what happened today:
1- Law abiding citizen has two finger chopped off in a robbery.
2- A probable gang-banger shot dead in a church car park.
3- I have seen hardcore violence at my local supermarket all year. The latest 3 days ago when two security guards tackled a meat thief who had the audacity to say " I'm only trying to feed my whanau – let me go!
I lost count of crimes committed during my month away from this blog.
Are you going by official stats?
''The only part of the retail sector that is overtaxed is tobacco.''
You must live in a great part of the country. In my area many shops are advertising for workers. Shop after shop after shop.
Crime stats are not based on perceptions based on media reports.
While Coster hit back at the politicisation of policing, telling reporters outside that he wanted a more sober and fact-based analysis of crime and justice
That said there is a real upsurge with crime at the "corner dairy" (seeking the overtaxed tobacco) or supermarket level (not all retail) with theft of food – that indicates pressure on budgets.
''Crime stats are not based on perceptions based on media reports.''
That's correct. Stats are also not based on unreported crimes. Stats are also categorised. That means an overall trend of increased violence and nastiness may not show in overall figures. Domestic Violence is an example. Some triggers for the worst type of violence just numbs the mind:
The hapless Police Commissioner was stating how ram raids have reduced. That may be true, but what about youth crime in general? Crime that won't be reported?
The second link gives you the official stats on youth crime, they were trending down (2017 to 2021) but have risen this year. The 15-19 category back at the late 2020 level, and the under 14 now a little higher.
Yep. The local liquor store that has been hit 7 times. My local Countdown. I witnessed a robbery the other night at Countdown. Spoke with the manager there. They no longer call the police. That was at least the third one that week and it was only Wednesday!
You have to get out and talk to people on the coalface.
$20,000 of tobacco being held at the start of weekends … in former times it was a cash till grab (and transfer to safe and or mid-day banking reduced risk).
The retailing of the product is a crime magnet, so who has the smarts to solve this?
I say sell smokes in other ways.
1. automated kiosk (refilled during the day the same way that cash is moved for banks).
2. subscription supply from a warehouse (delivered each week by a courier).
If you were concerned about such crime as your post implied
I think with more and more of these types of incidents occurring … Hopefully more innocent people aren't killed or maimed when doing their jobs
you would have sought discussion about this issue and a way to prevent them. This case demonstrated that defensive systems – such as fog cannons, are not enough to prevent all threat.
The cause is the high value of the (overtaxed) item in the shop. There are only two options reduce the tax and supply by ration card to those who sign up or maintain the tax and supply in safer ways to those who consume.
While Coster hit back at the politicisation of policing, telling reporters outside that he wanted a more sober and fact-based analysis of crime and justice
Coster said social media was encouraging young children to commit crimes – but also fuelling unrealistic fear in the community about crime in general.
The pandemic had led to more crime in cities and towns, he said, as they became less populated and more people spent time at home. Overall, that had been balanced due to less suburban thefts.
But he said police were deeply concerned by “a shape spike” in very young children committing crimes since the pandemic had started.
Coster noted these children, many aged under 14, were not old enough to be criminally culpable for the shoplifting and public intimidation which they were committing.
“Our job is done, in cases with under 14-year-olds, once we have referred them [to other agencies],” he said.
Deputy Police Commissioner Wally Haumaha appeared to agree with some of Mitchell’s concerns around police being expected to pick up extra roles, more suited to welfare agencies
After the select committee review, Haumaha told Stuff he agreed with the sentiment that police could only do so much. He said that iwi, community and social agencies outside of government needed to be resourced to better help young people.
“Our responsibility as police is to work with other agencies and iwi,” he said.
“The problem at the moment is you're seeing with ram raids and youth offending, is these kids have been truanting and out of school. It's a huge social problem. And everybody is grappling with it.”
Nothing at the moment. But he and Mitchell better have a plan after National win the next election otherwise National will be one hit wonders. The message voters send Labour at election time will also apply to National. Law abiding citizens from what I have seen, heard and read, have had a gutsful.
Read the story again. The deceased is exactly the kind of person you think should be in jail, with knee-jerk "lock 'em up and throw away the key". He committed serious crimes.
But if you do believe in the chance of redemption and welcome the support he was getting, have a word with your chums who dismiss that as "kumbaya" and "mush".
Do you?
From the link: “He had sought to turn his life around and had tragically just finished attending an empowerment gathering for people who sought to leave lives of crime.”
Did you read the article? Daniel Eliu was a convicted violent criminal offender and a lifetime gang member.
Before he was gunned down he had apparently attended a Grace Foundation rehabilitation program run by the father of National Party aligned David Letele, himself a former gang member.
Amazing how some gang run rehabilitation programs are slated by right wing nut jobs and others are not…
This is how it ends, a bio diversity disaster, or a mysterious apocalypse that causes the spread of misinformation and violence, or a hearing on Capitol Hill?
The congressional inquiry into last year's Capitol riot will reportedly recommend three criminal charges against former President Donald Trump.
The select committee is scheduled to hold its final meeting on Monday when any charging recommendations would be unveiled.
As well as insurrection, according to various outlets, the panel will suggest Mr Trump be charged with obstructing an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
The nine panellists are expected to approve the final eight-chapter report, drawing on interviews with more than 1,000 witnesses, and submit it to the Department of Justice (DoJ).
The full report will be made public on Wednesday, said chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who is helming the select committee.
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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 ...
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. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
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 ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
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 ...
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 ...
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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 ...
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Another hut gone The Makokoere Hut in the Waioeka headwaters has been burnt down. This is not part of the TuT/ Poto Williams 50 hut destruction plan in the former National Park. A separate arson. Access and safety has now impacted the two huts on each side. These magnificent small backcountry huts are approx a 3/4 days walk from each other so huts either side are no longer safely accessible. Conservationists and hunters are saddened.
An image of it.
https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/10359/makakoere-hut-te-urewera
Yep, a decent enough hut, to stop, have a rest, eat some food, and continue. Worked for decades. But totally understandable that it is no longer fit for purpose. Lets burn all that shit down. One hut a time.
Clear some trees, concrete some roads and build some mansions fit for the current time with air conditioning, duckfeather duvets and five star cuisine and a several hundered dollar ticket per night. Are you rich enough?
Tis the 17th???
Someone is in a hurry for Christmas.
Well, as we are talking about Christmas, all I wish for is a government that talks socialism like Mick Lynch.
Not the neoliberal managers we presently have.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icFkbb_cOYA
Someone nearly gave me a panic attack.
It'll be coal for me
Don’t think so you have been good .
Couldn't fathom out what coal had to do with it. Duh…
Anne, A present under the tree/ in the stocking if you are good, or a piece of coal if you are bad. lol .
First I've heard of that one.
I remember the extra large orange in the toe of the stocking. Always felt a bit cheated – less room in the stocking for toys n' things.
People did that after war time shortages. For me it was a bottle of Fanta… the only time I had soft drink.
Oops, now corrected.
AND they say time travel is NOT possible.
Time is an illusion but a useful one because it helps us keep track of … who we are.
Yeah but what about AGE.
That is not an illusion (bugger)
"Patients are so vulnerable to Covid and these anti-vaxxers have been sneaking in and putting lots of children suffering from heart conditions at risk. At no time has security ever been needed like this," the mother said.
"A really safe space for sick and dying children has been grossly invaded. It’s our one place of refuge from a terminal illness."
She said families needed to be masked and tested on the ward and individuals refusing to comply with the requirements – "especially with their unmasked anti-vaxxer mates sneaking in" – were increasing the risk to other patients.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/starship-hospital-staff-really-stressed-security-ramps-baby-w
"Alex Jones is comparing the doctors at Starship Hospital to Josef Mengele and saying they're doing Nazi-style medical experiments on the baby."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018871196/how-the-case-of-baby-w-made-global-headlines
Sue Grey , Liz Gunn, all the other anti vaxxers with their "concern" incl going on alex jones "info wars " FFS !
….have they any concern for those actually affected by their actions? IMO..None.
One circumstance where a bit of deterrent jail time for the idiots may be appropriate.
IMO ….Selfish jerks..and "Lawyer Sue" might be getting too close to the conspiracy flame
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/480645/lawyer-sue-grey-released-from-custody-after-being-accused-of-contempt-of-court
I should be banned for this but I would consider the John Cleese solution to discipline issues (only in jest)
KJT @ 3.1
Absolutely.
Not related to antivaxxers but this item is yet another example of our ability to lead normal lives without fear being negatively affected by mad conspiracy theorists and extreme political agitators:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/16/new-zealand-set-to-cancel-jacinda-arderns-waitangi-day-bbq-amid-security-concerns
It's time a much harder line is taken to counter all of them regardless of their individual fixations. Currently we are letting these crackpots – be they anti-vaxxers or some other extreme fantasists – get away with their anti-social activities with little more than a wet bus ticket.
Time in jail contemplating their futures is a highly desirable alternative.
Look on the bright side. The hate towards the PM will mostly ( not all) transfer to David Seymour and to a lesser extent, Luxon, after the next election. However, the protests and threats will be way more severe because mainstream groups will be protesting their loss of funding and importance under a Nat/Act coalition. That of course presupposes National and ACT can come to a political arrangement. That isn't a given yet.
Good observation. I've a couple of long time friends who have disappeared down the hole and it's a powerlessness in the face of a rapidly changing world and backlash at the neo-con, globalist world. Whoever is PM next Christmas will be getting just as much grief from the same people. Luxon is no more their thing than Arden, and probably viewed with more suspicion.
Very interesting times ahead, Graeme.
I'm inclined to think "useful idiots" might be a tad more accurate as a description. Someone else's agenda is at play and it's on the move and making inroads. If we get Luxon's coronation next year, it will be the 'normie' expression of the same underlying sentiments.
But jail time will just lend credibility to their delusions of persecution.
In times of political crisis/public insecurity resist the temptation to
1. jail people
2. suppress protest
3. label alternative opinion conspiracy theory (a term invented by the spooks to marginalise truth tellers – and some of it is just that)
4. pretend to be professionals able to prognosis others as narcissists and sociopaths.
Don't become Orwellian.
It is not "alternative opinion".
It is a bunch of deluded idiots putting other people at risk.
They can spout their nonsence in a protest as much as they want. When it is putting already sick kids at extra risk, however!!
I think you have had your authoritarian jollies for now. Much of the extremism you are bitching about is a direct reaction to state overreach this past two years.
Time to pack it in. Otherwise what SPC said.
Keeping people safe during a deadly pandemic is "State overreach"?
If you support as the ones threatening the safety of sick children, by flouting masking and separation rules in hospitals, you are as much of a fucking idiot as they are.
You can see how seriously hospitals are taking masking during a "deadly pandemic" by watching the baby uplift scene.
Yes – here in Brisbane mask wearing even in medical settings is hit and miss now.
If you are wearing a properly fitted and tested mask with no air leaks then well and good. Otherwise they are just virtue signaling.
"If you are wearing a properly fitted and tested mask with no air leaks then well and good. Otherwise they are just virtue signaling."
What???
How about,
If you are wearing a properly fitted and tested mask with no air leaks then well and good. Otherwise they are just trying their best to help everyone else!!
You think people who believe their mask-wearing is protecting their neighbours, relatives and friends, are virtue signalling???
I'm appalled by that claim.
Any mask reduces the viral load you are exposed to. Fit-tested N95s are clearly the best but it is not a binary proposition.
But…virtue signalling!!
The perfect counter to … reason!!
More so than you might imagine. How many times have you taken a respiratory mask fit test? Because I can advise it is remarkably easy to fail.
I am happy to accept that a mask of any kind will stop large droplets that someone might sneeze or cough, but the highly aerosolised viral particles that persist in the air for many hours – are another question again.
The weak point of any mask is the concave gap between the bridge of the nose and the top of the cheeks. All masks intended to be used in hazardous environments, will have a firm shape that fits this space and a strap scheme that applies sufficient force to keep the gap closed reliably. The usual blue and white paper mask most people use, or cheap N95's with a flimsy bit of elastic for a strap simply do not achieve this.
If you wear glasses and find that when you first put a mask on they fog up, this is because the bulk of the air you are inhaling and exhaling is taking the path of least resistance through this gap. And this means the mask is doing little to protect you or anyone else from the very fine, highly suspended viral particles that are the dominant hazard.
Any industrial hygienist will tell you this.
But you are criticising those who believe their efforts are effective and want to help their fellow man avoid harm. You call that, "virtue signalling". That's offensive.
You may be able to "prove them wrong" in their belief, but your attempts to prove them "virtue signallers" is misguided and harmful.
Last year I was working at a site which produced lithium hydroxide and at the back end of the plant where it is packaged there is a very fine, invisible to the eye, dust in the air.
Lithium hydroxide is caustic (just like sodium hydroxide) and will definitely cause harm to your airways and lungs if inhaled. The smallest particle sizes are of the similar order to a typical virus.
You can be absolutely certain we took mast fit testing, and proper wearing of our high quality PPE very seriously. The usual kind of mask people wear for COVID protection was simply not an option – a sackable offence if you should be stupid enough to try getting away with using one.
So while I accept the term 'virtue signaling' might be a blunt way of putting it, if you are serious about wanting to reduce virus load, then you need to be serious about the mask. Most people are not.
"Most people" are acting with integrity and to the best of their ability. Based on the best information available to them and their feelings of altruism and their willingness to help others, they are masking-up.
Accusing them of "virtue signalling" is despicable, imo.
So what would call an action that is intended to look like it is doing something useful – but in reality is not?
Happy to go with your suggestion.
Mask wearing is not about looks.
"So what would call an action that is intended to
look like it is doing something usefulkeep others safe – but inrealityRedLogix' opinion, is not?Happy to go with your suggestion."
Sincerity, altruism, genuine concern for more vulnerable people,
The harm from Covid is also not a binary proposition. Challenging for more linear minds, I know.
Jailed for what exactly?
The hospital appears to be doing its job – if people won't follow masking/testing rules they're not allowed in. People are being arseholes, but I didn't see anything in the article that suggesting criminality.
Endangering others, like they are, is criminal.
No different from speeding through a residential street full of kids playing, at 100k.
Or, ram raiding a dairy with people inside.
Some appear to have been infected since covid by "Libertarian philosphy" where "individual freedom" is sacrosanct, no matter what the harm it does to everyone else.
In fact your "freedom should end" where my nose begins".
We interfere with the urge to indulge in the "individual freedom" to punch someone, when another will get hurt.
Anyone who thinks recent actions to reduce the harm caused by covid, which were supported by over 90% at the time was "State overreach" has lost the plot.
"Sue Grey , Liz Gunn, all the other anti vaxxers with their "concern" incl going on alex jones "info wars " FFS !"
Anti-vax followers are a diverse and varied bunch. But the leaders of the movement (and other conspiracy movements) often seem to be narcissist-types, IMHO. They don’t care about anyone else.
"But the leaders of the movement (and other conspiracy movements) often seem to be narcissist-types…"
My thoughts too. Anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of a full blown narcissist, no matter the circumstance, will recognise that is precisely what they are. Add a bit of sociopathy to the mix and you've got a huge amount of damage to individuals and… society as a whole.
Absolutely. No matter how they pretend…Its ALL about them.
Climate change dangers – a new one
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/16/almost-8000-us-shootings-attributed-to-unseasonable-heat-study
Hi Barfly, have you had your MSD issues sorted? Regarding temperatures and behaviour, 42 deg in London!! I thought wow!! What will we get this summer? Sea temperatures are alarming right now. So another stress factor.
Thanx Patricia – yes MSD is all done and satisfactorily no more anxiety on that score
Great news.
“In this video, 4 New Zealand scientists talk about how the water cycle is part of Earth’s system. They point out that Earth’s system consists of 4 subsystems – the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere – which all interact with each other.”
https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/1256-what-is-the-earth-system
Includes a small…but important video
Note the Dates….Published 3 August 2009, Updated 1 October 2012
Did some of those Kids….become engaged with this ? Oh for the Teachers that would connect with them. IMO they probably dont do it just for the pay…but worth every amount.
Also in link…
https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/citizen_science
Ive been involved with some…so Interesting. I am but a layman…but I do like to know ….and how in small way to help..Our Earth.
.https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-29-09-2022/#comment-1912912
6.2
Some of you are teachers/lecturers , I’m sure.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04397-7
Could make essay marking even harder.
”The replies are so lucid, well-researched and decently referenced that some academics are calling the bot the death knell for conventional forms of educational assessment. How worried should professors and lecturers be?”
Some commenters on TS may consider using it 😉
Could improve their logic
Examiners should be setting and marking "problem solving" exams, not asking for regurgitation of rote learning!
It is lazy exam questions that allows bots, or purchased set answers, to be usable.
Russia's Special Military Operation, 'SMO' is following the arc of that other infamous undeclared 'WAR'.
As the Vietnam War dragged on with no resolution, it became increasingly difficult for the American public and especially broadcast commentators to discern what the US was actually trying to achieve with the war. The same in Russia.
Yes the comparison with Vietnam is worth making. It can only be understood within the context of the Cold War – which was a decades long, highly intense confrontation with Stalinist Russia and Maoist China, both brutal, totalitarian marxist proto-empires. That was the underlying motivation.
Vietnam itself was a mistake and long recognised as such. Moreover as the futility and stupidity of that mistake became evident to people all across the western world, the will to continue the war, to commit to the escalation necessary to win – evaporated.
The difference worth noting however is that in the West the people were able to protest the war without incurring massive personal cost, such as decade long prison sentences or worse. In Russia right this is not possible; all organised opposition is imprisoned (such as Navalney) or has gone into exile.
Again my point is not that the West is incapable of making terrible mistakes – no human polity is immune from this. It is that open liberal democracy that respects at least the principle of individual rights and the concept of citizenship, and thus contains the means to self-correct those mistakes.
By contrast consider the era of the gulags – a horror that the authoritarian Soviets had no choice but to continue to double down on until the death of the tyrant shook loose the system and brought it to an end. (Well at least until recently when Putin thought it a fine thing to rehabilitate Stalin and the cruel ethos of the prison state.)
By Biden's own admission a resumption of the cold war is underway, and it will take fifty to sixty years to play out. The Ukrainian conflict apparently is just the opening salvo.
I can't provide a link, but see "China – the change agent" on michael-hudson.com
Biden is a fair measure smarter than LBJ.
Currently reading "Blood Lands" by Timothy Snyder – about Europe between Hitler and Stalin.
The deliberately engineered famine in the Ukraine, 1931-33 which killed at least 3.3 million people, should make all Ukrainians detest Russians forever!
And I'm only up to about p100 of 408!!
Julia Davis is awesome.
The reported story is a rare case of (mild) dissent aired in public. There is no right to protest or free speech in Russia, and no permitted independent media, so public dissent might not have the same effect as it did in the USA over the Vietnam war, unfortunately.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018871626/principal-experimentalist-explains-nuclear-fusion-breakthrough
As the link says Kim Hill interviews one of the sciencetists who made the break through re nuclear-fusion. I found it informative.
National MP Barbara Kuriger is toast, but what will Luxon do about it? Will he butter it, burn it, burry it, or biff it?
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/mps-emails-show-pattern-of-personal-attacks-on-ministry
Wow!! What entitled behaviour. Scratch the surface and their behaviour is almost scary in relation to rule of law!! Too many Nats think they are a breed apart. Woodhouse Kuriger et al. Wasn't she the woman who "helped" a young Southland MP Todd Barclay?
It begs the question why this wasn’t picked up by the National Party long before the MPI whistle blower blew the whistle in Luxon’s ear.
Ummmm because national doesn't mind you being an entitled bully it's only a problem if ypu get caught.
Elmo's a Poots humper.
https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1603675700313325569
https://twitter.com/noclador/status/1603773315906240514
Tesla’s third largest private shareholder.
https://twitter.com/KoguanLeo/status/1603022448416407553
I think with more and more of these types of incidents occurring, law and order might become a greater issue at next year's election than the economy.
Hopefully more innocent people aren't killed or maimed when doing their jobs, while we continue to wait for Labour to move out of the denial phase.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300767728/machetewielding-robber-chops-off-dairy-workers-fingers-in-vicious-attack
Do you play on Lichess? I wouldn't mind testing your skills.
It begs a question about Xmas holidays this year. Will it be quiet because people have tightened their belts, or will crime spiral completely out of control because crims take advantage of stretched police resources and an over taxed retail sector?
There is no evidence crime is out of control, nor that criminals are taking advantage of a "stretched" police resources.
The only part of the retail sector that is overtaxed is tobacco, as with other government interventions (such as the RB QE) it distorts the market in harmful ways, and this can and does result in greed. The problem with polite middle class society it likes incentives when they do well out of it, but no much when it gives others "ideas" about how to afford the latest phone/big screen TV.
''There is no evidence crime is out of control, nor that criminals are taking advantage of a "stretched" police resources.''
Let's see what happened today:
1- Law abiding citizen has two finger chopped off in a robbery.
2- A probable gang-banger shot dead in a church car park.
3- I have seen hardcore violence at my local supermarket all year. The latest 3 days ago when two security guards tackled a meat thief who had the audacity to say " I'm only trying to feed my whanau – let me go!
I lost count of crimes committed during my month away from this blog.
Are you going by official stats?
''The only part of the retail sector that is overtaxed is tobacco.''
You must live in a great part of the country. In my area many shops are advertising for workers. Shop after shop after shop.
Crime stats are not based on perceptions based on media reports.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/130778313/underfire-police-bosses-tell-mps-they-can-only-do-so-much-about-youth-crime
Yeah. It's only up at the under 14 level – where there is a factor of truancy and acting out for social media show.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/the-whole-truth/300735972/the-whole-truth-what-the-youth-crime-statistics-actually-say
That said there is a real upsurge with crime at the "corner dairy" (seeking the overtaxed tobacco) or supermarket level (not all retail) with theft of food – that indicates pressure on budgets.
''Crime stats are not based on perceptions based on media reports.''
That's correct. Stats are also not based on unreported crimes. Stats are also categorised. That means an overall trend of increased violence and nastiness may not show in overall figures. Domestic Violence is an example. Some triggers for the worst type of violence just numbs the mind:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/130646344/gang-member-tried-to-kill-woman-in-her-home-after-being-denied-cigarette
The hapless Police Commissioner was stating how ram raids have reduced. That may be true, but what about youth crime in general? Crime that won't be reported?
The second link gives you the official stats on youth crime, they were trending down (2017 to 2021) but have risen this year. The 15-19 category back at the late 2020 level, and the under 14 now a little higher.
That is evidence, but not proof.
"There is no evidence crime is out of control"
You obviously do not read or watch the news. Where are you living? Mars?
So reality is based on the news coverage you consume?
Heard of red pill and red pill – Fox and liberal MSM?
Heard of taking off your rose tinted glasses and actually admitting not all is well in paradise.
Evidence is not proof.
Perhaps you should work in a dairy for a few weeks. If you lost a couple of fingers would that be enough proof for you?
What would that prove?
That crime is out of control?
Would losing my wallet to a pick-pocket prove the same thing?
Evidence is not proof.
There is an awful lot of evidence lately.
More than ever before?
Enough to support the claim that crime is "out of control"?
Yep. More than before. It's definitely more than a spike. Many no longer reported.
"Many no longer being reported"
Got proof of that?
Yep. The local liquor store that has been hit 7 times. My local Countdown. I witnessed a robbery the other night at Countdown. Spoke with the manager there. They no longer call the police. That was at least the third one that week and it was only Wednesday!
You have to get out and talk to people on the coalface.
$20,000 of tobacco being held at the start of weekends … in former times it was a cash till grab (and transfer to safe and or mid-day banking reduced risk).
The retailing of the product is a crime magnet, so who has the smarts to solve this?
I say sell smokes in other ways.
1. automated kiosk (refilled during the day the same way that cash is moved for banks).
2. subscription supply from a warehouse (delivered each week by a courier).
A bloke with a kid on the way loses some of his fingers, but yeah, you go make your point
If you were concerned about such crime as your post implied
you would have sought discussion about this issue and a way to prevent them. This case demonstrated that defensive systems – such as fog cannons, are not enough to prevent all threat.
The cause is the high value of the (overtaxed) item in the shop. There are only two options reduce the tax and supply by ration card to those who sign up or maintain the tax and supply in safer ways to those who consume.
NZ in a years time:
Watch | Facebook
‘He Shot My Arm Off!’: Liquor Store Owner Stops Armed Robbery by Firing Back at Suspects – YouTube
Liquor stores for the tillcash? That just shows how sad the US society is.
The statistics do not show higher youth crime.
They do show more incidents involving those under 14.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/the-whole-truth/300735972/the-whole-truth-what-the-youth-crime-statistics-actually-say
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/130778313/underfire-police-bosses-tell-mps-they-can-only-do-so-much-about-youth-crime
No humanity, or concern for the victim, was indicated in the making of your post.
Merry Xmas.
Chess Player on The Standard.
You argued that law and order might become a greater issue at next year's election than the economy. And Labour was in a denial phase.
I quoted experts on crime. I might quote another expert, LPrent, if you lack the debate skills this might not be the site for you.
A baptism of fire for new Hamilton West MP, Tama Potaka. What is he going to do to arrest this massive increase in crime on his watch?
Nothing at the moment. But he and Mitchell better have a plan after National win the next election otherwise National will be one hit wonders. The message voters send Labour at election time will also apply to National. Law abiding citizens from what I have seen, heard and read, have had a gutsful.
"he and Mitchell "
He & Mitchell?
We're pinning our hopes on those two??
Heaven help us all!
This is such a tragedy.
The usual gang apologists like Russell Brown, Kiri Allan and Jarod Gilbert will do what they always do, but I feel for the family of the guy murdered.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300767748/auckland-church-shooting-victim-was-46yearold-daniel-eliu
And other people don't?
Read the story again. The deceased is exactly the kind of person you think should be in jail, with knee-jerk "lock 'em up and throw away the key". He committed serious crimes.
But if you do believe in the chance of redemption and welcome the support he was getting, have a word with your chums who dismiss that as "kumbaya" and "mush".
Do you?
From the link: “He had sought to turn his life around and had tragically just finished attending an empowerment gathering for people who sought to leave lives of crime.”
Mush, right?
Did you read the article? Daniel Eliu was a convicted violent criminal offender and a lifetime gang member.
Before he was gunned down he had apparently attended a Grace Foundation rehabilitation program run by the father of National Party aligned David Letele, himself a former gang member.
Amazing how some gang run rehabilitation programs are slated by right wing nut jobs and others are not…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/emergency-services-respond-to-incident-at-a-church-in-south-auckland/J44CXBJIWRHHTFGRGVW57WCNB4/
Chess Player I feel for the murdered guys previous victims. And yes his family too.
Take a bow, tankies.
/
https://twitter.com/maria_avdv/status/1603386593208844296
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-war-body-armor-chidlren-russia/32091558.html
This is how it ends, a bio diversity disaster, or a mysterious apocalypse that causes the spread of misinformation and violence, or a hearing on Capitol Hill?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64009203