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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TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
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Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
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Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
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TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
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 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
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.
Someone nearly gave me a panic attack.
It'll be coal for me![blush blush](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/embarrassed_smile.png?x42494)
Couldn't fathom out what coal had to do with it. Duh…![frown frown](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/confused_smile.png?x42494)
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.![smiley smiley](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png?x42494)
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
Thanx Patricia – yes MSD is all done and satisfactorily no more anxiety on that score![smiley smiley](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png?x42494)
“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.![devil devil](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/devil_smile.png?x42494)
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