So, one of Act’s big funders wants Act to follow Brash’s Orewa speech model, of “equal” treatment for Maori and Pakeha.
But behind this egalitarian argument, is a fundamental dislike of Maori culture, and a lac k understanding of the inequalities that result in a high proportion of Maori being poor, unemployed, and without hope:
The biggest donor to the Act Party says he gave the money to Don Brash and John Banks so they could stop special treatment for Maori who were “either in jail or on welfare”.
[…]
The campaign came after the Rugby World Cup, which showcased Maori in a way Mr Crimp opposed.
“It was an embarrassment at the Rugby World Cup, [Maori] coming to shore in canoes, with hardly any clothes on, waving spears and poking their tongues out, all painted up.”
He said it was intended as a welcome but would have terrified visitors.
“Every opportunity the Maoris get they have to do this war dance, whether it is for a funeral or something happy or a wedding. They feel they have to take all their clothes off, stick tongues out and wave spears. That’s not New Zealand.”
He said New Zealand was poorer because of Maori claims, welfare, language revival, television and crime.
“The Maori language, that is the biggest waste of money that New Zealand has ever spent on anything … $500 million a year to promote the Maori language.
“It’s making New Zealand poorer by paying the Maori out the welfare and the language.”
That’s “free speech” for you…. and for that I am grateful…. it enables some people to demonstrate the poverty, and sometimes nastiness, of their beliefs.
Thanks. So in contrast to Crimp’s one law for all Pakeha and Maori, he reckons there’s one law (or set of rules) for everyone else, but he can do what he likes.
he has acted that way for as long as I have known of him (45 plus years). Being at death’s door has done absolutely nothing to sweeten his nature except his generosity to the local SPCA (I have to be fair)
Sorry, didn’t end the quote at the right point. in my7.16am comment.
The extract from the article ends here;
“The Maori language, that is the biggest waste of money that New Zealand has ever spent on anything … $500 million a year to promote the Maori language.
“It’s making New Zealand poorer by paying the Maori out the welfare and the language.”
This last sentence is mine : That’s “free speech” for you…. and for that I am grateful…. it enables some people to demonstrate the poverty, and sometimes nastiness, of their beliefs.
Sorry to burst your bubble, I am all for Culture but there is an enormous waste going on just to keep the Nats in Government. Lots of moneys being spent in all the wrong places. It is disgusting – I repeat: DISGUSTING – that the people in Christchurch have to wait to get a roof over their head while PUBLIC money is being spent on items with NO PRIORITY at this time. i.e.paying Gangs on the belief that they may just change their behavior is unbelievable. No wonder that NZ is being taken to the cleaners, no wonder.
While I don’t think anywhere near enough is being done in Christchurch I also don’t think funding for every other programme should be stopped because of Christchurch.
One thing the Government is doing in Christchurch is spending a lot of money they’re just not doing it in ways that actually help Christchurch aside from consultants in Christchurch.
Sorry Chris, I disagree. If there is only so much money in the public purse (taxpayer money) than spending has to be prioritized. Infrastructure is part of public spending and for people to not have basics of clean water and sanitation vs spending on projects currently not on the top of the list is simply irresponsible. There is no other way of saying this: political correctness will not elevate poverty, it just polarizes the parties trying to get “their” project paid for. I am absolutely certain that there is enough money in the Maori Trusts to fund these projects like I mentioned earlier.
Why should Maori Trusts have to pay for it though Gangs are not solely a Maori problem.
You missed my point though that the problem in Christchurch is not that there isn’t enough money being spent down there because a heap is being spent but it is the way it is being spent that is the problem. That won’t be fixed by cutting every programme that someone determines as non-priority.
Clean water and sanitation are a City Council responsibility.
As for Maori Trusts funding gang projects – it would have to be consistent with their trust deeds and, in most cases, all the gang members would have to whakapapa to that particular trust to qualify. In my experience most trusts only give funding for high school and tertiary education
Absolutely, funding of any gang projects are not necessary race related. However, Maori are at the moment the only one getting PUBLIC funding. This I feel is currently completely out of tough with the real needs of any community.
For a relatively recent immigrant you sure know a lot about what Māori get.
Māori are not the only ones that receive government funding. Any funding specifically targeting Māori must also incorporate non-Māori into the mix (anyone can apply under Whānau Ora).
Public funding was established on the back of Māori largesse – what Māori gave up in order for the public to reside peaceably in this country (land, waterways, status, the capacity to be self-sufficient and autonomous etc)..
I recommend you study more what Māori have lost and then compare it to what we have gained before making judgement on how beneficient the public has / is being towards tāngata whenua.
Another gripe that is frequently thrown at Māori by Pākehā is that we seek to separate (apartheid) however what you are advocating is exactly that – Māori fund Māori issues, although we are also taxpayers, business people, earners. Are you suggesting that whatever taxes we pay into the government coffers also be directed towards our own interests. I could live with that especially when the Maori economy is supposedly worth an estimated $37 billion.
Sorry, foreign waka, I completely missed this on Saturday but evidence please:
What gangs are being publicly funded? Evidence that all members of the gang are Māori (should any gang prove to be publicly funded)
I get more than a little annoyed that such divisive and unsubstantiated canards keep being uttered as if they are true with no evidence to back them up. A lie, no matter how often repeated (or by whom) remains a lie
“I am absolutely certain that there is enough money in the Maori Trusts to fund these projects like I mentioned earlier.”
I’m absolutely certain that there is much much more money in Pakeha trusts to pay for the things they (Pakeha) need than there is an any Maori trusts.
We know from media reports that Pakeha use these trusts to access much state assistance, to deprive women of their matrimonial property, to close down companies and still keep the money they have transferred out of it, to get the state to pay for their residential care when they are elderly and so on.
You’re a bit like those I was at school with who bitched about the (few) Maori kids on scholarships to go to boarding school. I was also a scholarship kid paid for by the state, they were paid for by iwi scholarships – you know their own money.
No student or parent did I ever hear whinge about my scholarship – the constant five year refrain about “these Maori” kids being funded by the taxpayer was just another step in demonstrating the irrational, uneducated premise that many Pakeha have about Maori – most pakeha of whom would never have stepped on a marae in their lives.
Often this rhetoric influences foreigners who come here as does the media portrayal – the fact that foreigners get sucked into this only ever reminds me of Muldoon’s statement about raising the IQ of both countries. It just that on this occasion we are on the receiving end.
To Adele and Descendent of Smith
Firstly, you both assume to know what I know, how I live and what my background is. You are wrong on all accounts by the way. However, in regard to by comments- what I am saying is that 2 wrongs do not make one right. Yes, Maori got the colonial treatment albeit to a somewhat lesser extent (not an excuse!) than in other countries. However, NZ has come a long way to pay reparation and a far as I can see Maoris biggest hurdle these days is not so much the payouts themselves but the lack of the trickling down from the Trusts and Elites (this is so familiar)- Oh I can hear the drums already……
This defensive attitude is what truly stays in the way of further development and is politically used and EVERYBODY outside this can see it. Not the ones actually involved, of cause not – what else is new.
Anyway, my comment was directed at Government spending per see as I feel that any money that is collected by law abiding taxpaying people should be used wisely and appropriately. This means that this country needs to first cover the basics for EVERYBODY before it can decide on any other use of moneys. You are talking about the crown when referring to any moneys that Maori claim and seem to forget that it is in fact your neighbor with the 2.5 kids and a mortgage, worry to hold a job if at all having one, getting by on minimum wages who is now asked to pay. So maybe you have to ask the Queen?
As for the study of Maori, yes I have done some, their history, the genealogy and I was on a marae, meetings etc. Possibly more than your average NZlander. But there you go, this is not about race, this is about right or wrong.
I assume things about you based on your comments and it appears to me, as a person with extensive knowledge and lived experience of Te Ao Māori, that your interactions with Māori history have done you little favour as your ignorance is still woefully apparent, and whoopee that you have been on Marae. The days of feting non-Māori for learning about tāngata whenua are well and truly over.
You are suggesting that Māori Trusts should fund Māori social (and presumably health services) because the country cannot afford to do so under the present recessionary climate. Your suggestion does in fact have precedence in history. The introduction into this country of the old age pension exemplifies how Māori were treated differently as citizens.
When the old age pension was introduced in 1908, Registrars were instructed to make Māori access to the pension as difficult as possible. All Māori claims for the pension had to be filtered through the Native Land Court and placed before a magistrate, effectively slowing the process.
Other mechanisms used to deny Māori equal treatment included removing a swathe of Māori names from the pension rolls. For those Māori that could collect a pension their entitlements were reduced to two-thirds of the amount paid to Pākehā. From 1925 the maximum rate payable to Māori was £32.6s per annum or 71% of the maximum of £45.10s. In 1927, many Māori pensions were below £20, less than half the rate paid to Pākehā.
Koroua and Kuia were literally been starved through this inequitable treatment. The extreme poverty of Māori communities became the rationale for different treatment. Pākehā saw Māori poverty as a sign of lower expectation rather than greater need and by the 1920s living in a pa became a reason to disbar Māori from full pension entitlement. Other types of welfare benefits followed a similar discriminatory pattern. Such treatment continued well into the 1940s.
Your type of thinking is a rehash of the colonial mindset and is discriminatory.
Thank god I learned good manners, I would otherwise get a bit stroppy here. You seem to enlarge the issue ever so much just to further your agenda. Woppee? Well, at least I made an effort. How about you? What have you done so far to learn about the people around you if they are not Maori?
As for equal rights to benefits, I belief it these are paid on equal footing. I am not referring to a time some 80 years ago but to the time right now. My comments were specifically to the plight of families and elderly in Christchurch. But with all that politicking that point seem to get lost on you. It is in fact your ignorance that seem to put just yourself into the center and hence no one else counts. Meanwhile, there is hardship due to a major natural event and every cent is needed to get the people back to a reasonable state of affairs. We are not talking about luxuries when providing sanitary facilities and drinking water which are too expensive for any City Council to cover. I belief that in light of this need funding of none urgent items should be suspended – such as benefits to Gangs.
As to your assertion of discrimination, I really don’t follow how you get this out of my comments. Because a civilized, democratic society provides for EVERYBODY equally and that means also for the folks in Christchurch.
Discrimination is such an easy throw around word these days that it seem to be often just used to put someone else at unease. In response to your assumptions, I am tempted to give you more insight but then again, it wont help the issue as your point of view is set and seemingly in a frame of mind that is not really open to any conversation.
The provision of safe drinking water and the provision of sanitation are both core business for territorial and local authorities in New Zealand. That Christchurch, Waimakariri and Selwyn councils have to face an unprecedented bill due to earthquake damage doesn’t change that.
Many councils are faced with similar issues post flooding.
This in no way makes acceptable that some are still waiting to know what will happen to their properties, and hence, whether or not water and sanitation will be supplied to their property in the future. That is in the hands of CERA and the Minister.
There are many who would agree that a lot of the money Government is supposed to be invested in Christchurch is difficult to see at the flaxroots, that again is something that you might want to consider investigating via OIA requests.
What that has to do though with diverting money from educational, well health and other social issues, particularly those to ‘Māori’ is unclear to me. What is even more unclear is why my iwi,hapū and whanau trusts should pay for what are government and community initiatives. Our investment strategies are clear: for us, and for the generations to come. That means that we as the members get our ‘dividend’ in ways other than an annual sum in the bank. Our choice, no one elses business, and certainly not to be spent as you or any politician decides. We suffered too much for too long to give away our hard won financial independence. (BTW, if you think that recompense of approximately 1% of the calculated loss is unreasonable, imagine the cost to the country of proper restitution. )
Lastly, why should the Queen pay the restitution. The profits made from illegal land purchases and sales didn’t flow to the Queen, it went, as usual, to the bankers, pastoralists and other colonial parasites, not Queen Victoria.
Ngā mihi nui ki a koe. If I may just flow on from your words.
Foreign Boat
I have exceptional manners, unless I am confronted by ignorance, especially from someone who should know better. In a discussion on Crimp’s blatant racism you introduce into the Kōrero a back-hander about public money going into all the wrong places (Māori) while the good citizens of Christchurch SUFFER because of inadequate resourcing. Your opinion says that in such dire circumstances, culture (Māori) is expendable and Māori initiatives should have no priority insofar as public spending is concerned. The greater good must prevail. You do not recommend that SPCA funding be curtailed or Creative New Zealand funds be re-directed.
You raise the evil spectre of Gangs receiving public funds at the expense of the neighbour with 2.5 kids, and a mortgage while STRUGGLING to hold onto a minimum wage job. For added emotional effect, you ought to have included the little old lady having to eat cat food because some Maori received funding to attend a well catered hui. Crimp would creak with glee at the hyperbole.
Apparently, Māori are blind to the excesses being poured into their coffers by the generous but increasingly (and rightly) indignant public. The generosity you speak of obviously includes welfare – but numbers show the largest burden to the welfare state is superannuation – and very few Māori receive the super (32,000 as opposed to 550,000 non-Māori). There is also roughly a ten year difference in life expectancy between Māori and Pākehā.
If the generosity includes treaty settlements, Ngai Tahu settlement monies (as an example) equates to roughly $120 for every acre that was stolen, dishonestly acquired, or confiscated. If the generosity includes government spending on targeted social and health services, the health spend (as an example) equates to roughly $90 per Māori head of population in the South Island or 3% of available health funding.
I am fairly sure that the gangster incident that provoked your ‘crimpness’ was when a Dunedin based gang received funding under whānau ora for $50,000. However, compare that amount to the $8billion being siphoned off the rest of the country including Māori communities, businesses, workers, and taxpayers to fuel the Christchurch rebuild – whose stunted progress is more about government ineptitude rather than lack of resources.
I should mention that Ngai Tahu is currently offering accelerated trade training to Māori to help with the rebuild and that Māori organisations across the country were quick to respond to the aftermath of the earthquakes, Rotorua (as an example) sent a team of 18 doctors and nurses to Christchurch to aid in recovery.
If I accuse you of being discriminatory in your viewpoints, to quote koro Crimp “the truth hurts.”
Your comments are such that I will just end this with a short reply:
1/ I was not aware that NZ has Tribal Law instead of an all encompassing State Law.
2/ There is no excuse of Apartheid politics, neither in social nor any other matter and this goes for all sides.
3/ It becomes increasingly obvious that one cannot voice a point of view without being berated in such manner that it seem that no other voice is allowed because of past events.
I am of the view that I am treated in this way because I have identified myself as an immigrant and thus I can reassure you, feel discriminated against. Not that I really care, mind you.
So, as far as I am concerned I will draw my own conclusion and leave it at that.
I’m so glad the Herald gave Crimp such a good hearing. The more that NZ sees what is behind ACT the quicker ACT will be gone.
He said the party had to be more direct, although it was not able to position itself as “anti-Maori”.
Asked if his political views could be labelled racist, he said: “I don’t give a stuff what I’m called. You have to look at the facts and figures. This is the problem with New Zealanders. Most of them dislike the Maoris intensely – I won’t say hate – but they don’t like to say so.”
Would love to know who Crimp spends his time with. And who he does business with in Invercargill.
He goes on to say that there are hardly any Maoris down there, LOL. What a dick.
That interview with the horrible Mr Crimp was so outrageously awful I actually laughed. But sadly, he’s only saying what South Island rednecks are thinking, or saying on talkback/down the pub.
I don’t think so Sookie. Even within the redneck communities I think the subset that believe what Crimp does is very small. He is very extreme. He is a white supremacist and what he is saying is basically promoting cultural genocide. He hates Maoris and he thinks that their culture should not exist because it’s not NZ. The rednecks I know might think that Maori shouldn’t get special treatment etc but I don’t often hear the outright white supremacist stuff.
Yeah Andrews Housing, that bastion of good business ethics and practice.
Give RadioNZ a call, they’re usually open to getting a heads up on things. They’ve had ACT commenting on what the Herald reported about Crimp on the news today.
Exactly! He probably doesn’t realise that tuatara is a Maori word. A surprising number of children to whom I taught Te Reo didn’t realise just how many words had been borrowed into NZ English
Thanks Zorr and TED. A pity that our current Government doesn’t see the connection between taxing the very rich to get the funds for investment which allows the Middle class to grow. TED is probably another nail in the heart of the Austerity plan. The middle Low classes are being harmed but the very rich have no dents and reports say the very rich NZers have increased their wealth. Not fair!
National down 2.5 points to 44.5% and Labour up 1.5 points to 30% in the Roy Morgan Poll.
Disappointing. They have been on the back foot for months and Labour gains less than the margin of error. We had plenty of opportunities but failed to put the boot (or knife) in. Where is Labour’s “mongrel”? Has Labour changed strategists since the failure of last year? Are the same strategists doing the same things and hoping for a different outcome? WTF!!
I’m not keen on Labour’s current strategies. But I take polls with a grain of salt. Long term trends in polls have more value than individual ones. And the 1% difference between National’s loss and Labour’s gain is margin of error stuff.
“Autoparts manufacturer Delphi has developed a diesel-like ignition engine running on gasoline, providing a potential 50 percent efficiency improvement over existing gas-powered engines. Engineers have long sought to run diesel-like engines on gasoline for its higher efficiency and low emissions. Delphi’s engine, using a technique called gasoline-direct-injection compression ignition, could rival the performance of hybrid automobiles at a cheaper cost.”
Not necessarily. The whole thing about oil-based transportation is that there’s no technology in progress that can substantially increase energy efficiency. Well there’s one right there.
I’m not suggesting this engine is going to replace the vehicle fleet in any significant way. More that existing vehicles will simply be scrapped, we’ll have 1/20th the number of cars on the road as we do now, but with this particular type of engine we might end up with 1/10th instead.
Also things like trucks and construction vehicles are much more vital to the industrial economy than private personal transport, so efficiencies of these types will help to keep those vehicles running.
Not necessarily. The whole thing about oil-based transportation is that there’s no technology in progress that can substantially increase energy efficiency. Well there’s one right there.
No, the problem is that there’s no energy source available to replace oil. That one will extend petrol vehicles for a time if it actually works as envisaged (I think it probably will) and it get widely used but to get that will require the government to remove older engines from the road.
I’ve never been as pessimistic as RA and AFKTT. I think industrial society will continue but that it will have to shrink to fit into the energy constrained future. This tech will help there and agree that trucks are more important than cars, trains are also more important than trucks.
There’s a lot that needs planning for and leaving it to the market won’t work. Actually, leaving it to the market invariably leads to collapse.
DTB a product called graphene could make electric motors lighter and more efficient.
The infernal combustion motor will have its day sooner than later!
Its something, but showing that Labour is back in the same spot as Aug 2011 is neither here nor there, given that National has hit multiple scandals so far this year.
Muzza, yet again, I agree. Economy wise, NZ is just a couple of islands off the coast of Australia.
Is the media saying any more about the French politicans taking a 30% pay cut?
I agree with you there muzza. But there’s only one view you get when you are shackled to debt and time worn habits that compel you to persist in chasing personal material gain (if only to pay the mortgage and other debts or tread water) : the wall you are shackled to.
A friend in the energy management profession told me something interesting in the pub last night. The hydro lakes are very low this year, so low that in a non-asset sales year they would be issuing warnings to the public. The companies up for sale are deliberately not saying anything about the problem as that would affect their share price, no doubt because the government ordered them to shut the hell up. Certainly the lakes looked very low when I was up in the Mackenzie a couple of weeks ago. Oh for some media coverage, but of course it will be ignored as usual by this useless bunch of Nat lickspittles we’re stuck with.
There was something on Checkpoint (5-7pm National Radio weeknight news) about this, although they didn’t say it was because of the asset sales. I can’t remember everything, but the guy was saying that the new structure of the industry in NZ encourages thermal energy providers to produce power whereas in the past they didn’t have as much incentive. They mentioned the new law that says if the power companies are forced to implement a rationing scheme then they must actually pay customers money as compensation – a very strong market force to do everything possible to avoid that situation.
Russell Brown has written a brilliantly funny satircal piece over at Public Address where he ruthlessly parodies the faddish foodism of a completely out of touch and pampered New Zealand middle class.
The great thing is the deadpan way in which the whole post appears to be completely serious.
After a lifetime of avoiding all food-fads like the plague I finally fell for this one in Feb this year.
Since then I’ve lost 12 kg and have never enjoyed my food more in my life. And I’m fit again, 8-10 hr tramping days are easy, and I can do real forehand chin-ups again. This at an age when our grandparents were considered ‘old’. This is nothing like usual yo-yo ‘diet’ either… I’m eating as much as I need to feel satisfied and the flab keeps melting off.
And I’m busy DOING things in my life again, doing a new qualification, contemplating a new building project, leading a community project, tackling a major new project at work… and enjoying it.
It’s also why I haven’t had the time for The Standard so much recently…I still drop in daily to read the threads, but I’ve got the energy now to live life the way I believe in; as compared to just sitting around typing about it.
Ultimately food IS political, and my own personal experience convinces me of this. Because there is no doubt in my mind that the standard dietary ‘food pyramid’ serves no-one other than the food industry conglomerates while harming us ordinary people who eat it.
Oh and our grocery bill is around 2/3rds of what it was last year.
That’s great RL. The Paleo diets are pretty interesting. Don’t work for everyone one, but many people seem to get alot of benefit, and there is sound science and evidence to back it up. It’d be good to see the political blogosphere get more nutritionally literate.
I don’t think Mana is anything close to being a Marxist party.
That said, WTF has that got to do with the article? And, perhaps, the electorate doesn’t show favour for Marx due to the spin and BS that has been propagated about over the last century which, as the article shows, was wrong.
On that note, do you have anything to say about what the article highlights, specifically, the failure of capitalism as predicted by Marx?
Dialectical Materialism, though a fascinating bit of the history of philosophy, is a Fail.
Reminds of a John Ralston Saul quip about Marxism in a nutshell being economic determinism and the belief society is a wide open battle field – therefore the only practicing Marxists these days are the neo cons and the big corporate executives.
A story from The Independent about the effects of the international hate campaign against beneficiaries. Excerpt below.
I was talking with a friend in Auckland the other night who was in tears about being vilified for being a beneficiary.
…Earlier this year, a Sunday Times article featured the headline “End the something for nothing culture”. Below was a picture of the Gallagher family from the comedy-drama Shameless, as though these fictional caricatures were real life. This one-time paper of record quoted a Whitehall official on benefit recipients: “If we want them to tap dance, then they will tap dance.” Rod Liddle – who dresses up the boorish rants of a thick pub bore as journalism – claimed that his new year’s resolution “was to become disabled”, perhaps with a “newly invented” illness like fibromyalgia, so he could claim benefits. As the economic catastrophe that began four years ago led to a national jobs’ crisis – there are now over six million people looking for full-time work – the “scrounger'”caricature perversely has become more and more popular.
It is tempting to ignore the ramblings of glorified internet trolls like Liddle, but their projected ignorance has consequences. Six of the biggest disability charities have warned that the campaign of demonisation – by both journalists and politicians – has led to a surge in abuse towards people with disabilities. According to Scope, two-thirds reported abuse in September last year, up from 41 per cent just four months earlier.…
What an utter horror! The Western World is heading in a direction that is just terrifying. We are becoming like swamp birds with cell phones, and with the capacity to do much greater damage.
Of course it’s a horror Olwyn. And so many people love to wallow in it nowadays.
It will get worse because our owners want it to get worse. They want us divided and fighting over the scraps they deign to let trickle our way. The one thing they cannot afford it for us ordinary people realise what has happened and to turn our attention on those who perpetrated it.
Yes. That poor family is portrayed as a drain on society, the person who killed their youngest kids is now a mass murderer, while David Cameron and that shock jock woman make themselves another G & T, and think about how they can make use of this tragedy, if they think about it at all. We often say we must wake up before it’s too late – for the Philpotts and many others it is already too late.
The only thing going to plan in the latest dotcom scam seems to be the tax dodge.
The big pop in Facebook Inc. shares never came.
Buyers did not rush into the market to snap up shares of the social networker. And the big Wall Street banks that brought Facebook public scrambled to prevent the stock from collapsing into declines.
The underwriters averted a potential debacle by scooping up shares of the company during the Nasdaq debut. This propped up the stock, keeping it above the $38 offering price through most of the day.
Regarding bullying brought up in the context of millionaire Act Party donor, actually being a bully seems to be a central part of Maori behaviour.
I remember three Maori co workers. One told me about how she went to school with black eyes from the step father, but “at least it made me FUCKIN tough!”. Oh yeah she was tough as nails for sure, and had one HUGE anger management problem.
Another one told me his father had all kinds of belts, including automotive lol, and he would put the kids names on them so they knew what he would thrash them with.
The 3rd one had a lesbian lover and used fake names to open bank accounts etc. She would demand we call her one name then a month later demand we call her another. When she answered to her lesbian lover over the phone, she would go all meek and pathetic, squeaking “Yes maam… yes maam…yes maam”.
I told them I can remember clearly the times I got smacked as a kid because it only happened twice.
They just stared at me speechless.
Another one told me his father had all kinds of belts, including automotive lol, and he would put the kids names on them so they knew what he would thrash them with.
lol? You must be very proud of the superior human being you have shaped yourself into being KP
And btw, anecdotes from a few acquaintances, even when true, do not consitiute proof of anything about a wider group.
Ever heard of the phrase “If I didn’t laugh I’d cry”.
Drop the self righteous attitude js.
“btw, anecdotes from a few acquaintances, even when true, do not consitiute proof of anything about a wider group.”
I could keep going all day with the anecdotes dude. How about one of the “bros” who rocks on up to the family holiday get together with his girlfriend – he keeps her in the car THE WHOLE WEEKEND, she was only allowed out a couple of times to use the bathroom.
Plus all the Maori social/economic stats.
Guess you think “Once Were Warriors” is only fiction and in no way reflects on Maori. That would be RACIST!
Actually, “Once Were Warriors” is fiction, I heard it from the authors own mouth.
Of course there are people for whom alcohol, anger, violence, poverty is a problem. They come in all ethnicities, religious beliefs or lack of them and in every strata of society
Actually, “Once Were Warriors” is fiction, I heard it from the authors own mouth.
Maybe, yes, however I lived something rather similar until I gathered my courage, left him, and lost custody of my son to him! 🙁
However, it’s true that such things happen in all ethnicities etc.
I could keep going all day with the anecdotes dude.
And they’d still be just that – anecdotes.
BTW, I read a few years back that Maori didn’t hit their kids until after the arrival of the Pakeha. Don’t know how accurate that is but there are numerous cultures around the world that don’t have a culture of hitting their children. The most high profile culture that does, though, is English culture.
The Crimes Act is being revised where it will be a criminal offence to ignore harm being perpetrated on children or vulnerable adults. I have stood up to gangsters and bullies in defence of others whereas you have used the suffering of others to perpetuate your bigoted slant on all Māori.
If anecdote is evidence, I know heaps of Māori that love and respect their children, their old people, and even Pākehā. I know heaps of Māori that will never raise their hands towards another. I know heaps of Māori that will give willingly to help others without payment.
A Pākehā mate of mine just last week had to call into a petrol station on her way to Taupo as she was running out of petrol. Unfortunately for her she had left her purse at home. The Māori proprietors gave her $20 without making her beg or mortgage her home as security.
Prometheus supposedly championed the cause of mankind – your views are so small-minded that I suggest a renaming should take place to whatever Greek God is the champion of lost causes.
The stats are there, the anecdotes are there. Other people have made the same observations.
But you will just keep screaming “Racist! It’s all the whities fault!.”
Had a Maori room mate at the backpackers, he comes back 3am blind drunk reeking of it, and proceeds to try to take a leak in the middle of the room. I jumped out of bed “Whoa dude not there!”, opened the door and he headed for the light – “Oh thanks bro!”
He comes back in and starts crashing around, so the young English tourist back packer in the bunk above him ask him to be quiet. So the Maori guy threatens him “Me and my bros will deal to you!”.
He was always hanging around the social room drinking and smoking. He felt a special affection for the Irish backpackers because of “the Englosh!”. The affection wasn’t reciprocated.
The reason I asked about your descriptor “lesbian” is that it confused me. I didn’t understand how it related to the story and I thought maybe I had missed some important aspect of the story, and that if you could explain it for me I’d be up to speed with everyone else.
lol you do have some funny ideas about me k_p. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything I’d call a “feminist critique”. I mostly read technical manuals.
I’m not going to keep asking you about the lesbian aspect of your story as you clearly don’t want to talk about it.
And that’s ok. Writers often get tired of explaining the choices they make. I do think it’s something you might like to think about though for the sake of your craft.
For every ‘Maori are bashers’ anecdote you can tell, I can source you with Dutch, Sots, Irish, English, etc, etc. People, especially disadvantaged people, can express anger and frustration in inappropriate ways.
My ex was physically, verbally, emotionally and sexually abusive to me. I may be Maori but he was a Scottish New Zealander. So, by your standards, am I to blame because I am Maori or was he just an angry, bitter man who chose his fists, feet and temper to bully and coerce?
My ex was physically, verbally, emotionally and sexually abusive to me. I may be Maori but he was a Scottish New Zealander.
FWIW Hateatea, my ex was the same to me. I am an English/Scots New Zealander, he was a Maori (he died 5 months ago). His family is very different, he was a distinct oddity (drug and alcohol dependent) and so it just goes to show it’s going on amongst all peoples… 🙁
k p, the truth hurts. You have upset a lot of people. I would say your critics are bleeding badly and since you have cut deep they can only use irrational, personal abuse as defence. I would not have the time or courage to discuss the subjects with anyone on this site. They only recognise their own faults in other people.
The Press (today) has several very good articles on the departure of Manners, Courtesy and Respect For Others during the last 50 years. Your critics are an example.
Your critics only want to hear from people who will confirm what they already believe. Even some site Moderators are not without fault.
John 8:7 “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
I haven’t seen Michael Valley posting here recently on why we have to liberate all those poor brown people from their despots all over the middle east and his MSM propaganda slant may have something to do with it but I sometimes think about him and this is one of the moments. I would really like to read his spin on this one.
I had to laugh while reading a speech given by Tim Groser yesterday in which he claims that people who promote localized food production and security of supply are acting instinctually and that not wanting to rely on other countries for food is rooted in people’s hunter and gatherer DNA, which is a little insane to say the least…
Help please.
I see something that will come up in parliament soon that is based on some pretty solid misinformation being bandied about. Nothing unusual about that. Now I want to go lobbying. I can go and see the spokeperson that each party has for this area taking along, I imagine, with a short written document as back up. Do I also go and see each individual MP as well . What else would be effective?
Secondly is there any way here of ensuring that a post goes into moderation deliberately?
There are certain words that guarantee moderation. Mentioning the surname of a famous Austrian with a Chaplin moustache and a fetish for Wagner will do it.
Several months ago I told you that because of my revised view of my 2001 study of reparative therapy changing sexual orientation, I was considering writing something that would acknowledge that I now judged the major critiques of the study as largely correct. After discussing my revised view of the study with Gabriel Arana, a reporter for American Prospect, and with Malcolm Ritter, an Associated Press science writer, I decided that I had to make public my current thinking about the study. Here it is.
Basic Research Question. From the beginning it was: “can some version of reparative therapy enable individuals to change their sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual?” Realizing that the study design made it impossible to answer this question, I suggested that the study could be viewed as answering the question, “how do individuals undergoing reparative therapy describe changes in sexual orientation?” – a not very interesting question.
The Fatal Flaw in the Study – There was no way to judge the credibility of subject reports of change in sexual orientation. I offered several (unconvincing) reasons why it was reasonable to assume that the subject’s reports of change were credible and not self-deception or outright lying. But the simple fact is that there was no way to determine if the subject’s accounts of change were valid.
I believe I owe the gay community an apology for my study making unproven claims of the efficacy of reparative therapy. I also apologize to any gay person who wasted time and energy undergoing some form of reparative therapy because they believed that I had proven that reparative therapy works with some “highly motivated” individuals.
Robert Spitzer. M.D.
Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry,
Columbia University
The advocates of “cure” are frequently those who also insist that sexual orientation is a matter of personal choice – the thrust being that it’s as simple as one’s preference for rugby union over rugby league or pale ale over stout.
The late Phil (?) Raffills, the vehemently anti-gay former principal of Avondale College and religious right Auckland City councillor was one of those on that buzz.
The obvious question I mentally posed when he was in full piety about this: “OK Phil…….tell me about the time when you made the personal choice to be straight rather than gay.”
As I recall the whole thing turned to spectacular farce when a recent past head prefect of Avondale College, personally chosen by Raffills, came out and “confessed” to being gay.
This Young Gay Man Of Disgusting Choice also hinted that Raffills, the educator darling of the Right at the time, was something of a moral bully.
I’m wondering whether the apology will be recognised by the knuckle draggers who’ve been trotting out Spitzers original conclusion to support their bigotry.
It may not be spin you smell…….it may be the stench of a rotten egg. Why ?
Well I don’t know for sure but I do know that in Moerewa and other parts of the North the stunning Ms Parata is known to a number as “Heki Pirau” Parata – translation – “Rotten Egg” Parata.
Granted, BUT, the wharfies would not have got to $91K without media support. Is that capitalism? I do not know. (Q. “Much is invested in having us believe everything we read in newspapers and everything our government tells us. If we are not thinking for ourselves we are easy targets for control and manipulation”. Printed in USA 15 years ago.)
As I see it, the media are just selling to a population pictured in “Corination Streed” .
I hope you mean “public misperception that wharfies routinely take home $91k/yr would not have happened without media support”.
Actually, the Daily Show had a fascinating observation recently, after Obama’s comments about gay marriage: in five years the Fox debate has gone from “gay marriage will end the world” to “he only said it because it’s popular”. While most money comes from corporates, media still need to sell stuff in order to make money – if nobody buys what’s being advertised, the advertisers back off, so the media has to find the balance between money and believability. That’s why Glenn Beck is off air, even though he was their biggest herald. Capitalism is cannibalism.
But the media also shapes perception, so it’s a complex system of persuasion then token acquiescence.
I share your skepticism Muzza. I found this document on the minedu site which does suggest that it is $71k per annum. I presume this includes headmasters salaries which would drive the average up.
@ Foreign Waka 7pm 22/05/2012
I didn’t say that there IS tribal law in New Zealand, I said that the understanding of rangatira in 1840 was that within Te Tiriti, whānau, hapū and iwi would manage their own affairs including their forests, fisheries and traditions while the settlers would manage their people. Given the significant population imbalance in the favour of iwi, this was a reasonable assumption. This they saw as tino rangatiratanga for iwi while the tāngata tiriti would have kawanatanga. This did not turn out to be the case, population ratios changed, the huge influx of new settlers were told nothing of Te Tiriti and the base for grievance was set.
As we saw ourselves (and still do to a degree) as separate nations living side by side with other nations, I would not accept your definition as apartheid, however, I cannot ‘control’ how you see things, nor would I wish to. I merely offered some background and an alternative viewpoint to yours and others. Whether you choose to ponder upon my views, do more research or blithely continue on your particular path is entirely up to you.
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
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 A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, 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 up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
The unidentified foreign intelligence operation discussed in a scathing report by New Zealand’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) last week appears to be a controversial United States intelligence system. The IGIS report said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) decision to host a foreign system from 2012-2020 was “improper” ...
So, one of Act’s big funders wants Act to follow Brash’s Orewa speech model, of “equal” treatment for Maori and Pakeha.
But behind this egalitarian argument, is a fundamental dislike of Maori culture, and a lac k understanding of the inequalities that result in a high proportion of Maori being poor, unemployed, and without hope:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10806938
Mr Crimp is not a nice man as many could attest to. This story in today’s Southland Times is but one of hundreds of similar tales I have heard over the past 45 years or so. He is a wealthy bully.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/6950115/Quake-report-too-expensive#share
Thanks. So in contrast to Crimp’s one law for all Pakeha and Maori, he reckons there’s one law (or set of rules) for everyone else, but he can do what he likes.
he has acted that way for as long as I have known of him (45 plus years). Being at death’s door has done absolutely nothing to sweeten his nature except his generosity to the local SPCA (I have to be fair)
That does seem to be normal for rich pricks.
Sorry, didn’t end the quote at the right point. in my7.16am comment.
The extract from the article ends here;
This last sentence is mine :
That’s “free speech” for you…. and for that I am grateful…. it enables some people to demonstrate the poverty, and sometimes nastiness, of their beliefs.
Sorry to burst your bubble, I am all for Culture but there is an enormous waste going on just to keep the Nats in Government. Lots of moneys being spent in all the wrong places. It is disgusting – I repeat: DISGUSTING – that the people in Christchurch have to wait to get a roof over their head while PUBLIC money is being spent on items with NO PRIORITY at this time. i.e.paying Gangs on the belief that they may just change their behavior is unbelievable. No wonder that NZ is being taken to the cleaners, no wonder.
While I don’t think anywhere near enough is being done in Christchurch I also don’t think funding for every other programme should be stopped because of Christchurch.
One thing the Government is doing in Christchurch is spending a lot of money they’re just not doing it in ways that actually help Christchurch aside from consultants in Christchurch.
Sorry Chris, I disagree. If there is only so much money in the public purse (taxpayer money) than spending has to be prioritized. Infrastructure is part of public spending and for people to not have basics of clean water and sanitation vs spending on projects currently not on the top of the list is simply irresponsible. There is no other way of saying this: political correctness will not elevate poverty, it just polarizes the parties trying to get “their” project paid for. I am absolutely certain that there is enough money in the Maori Trusts to fund these projects like I mentioned earlier.
Why should Maori Trusts have to pay for it though Gangs are not solely a Maori problem.
You missed my point though that the problem in Christchurch is not that there isn’t enough money being spent down there because a heap is being spent but it is the way it is being spent that is the problem. That won’t be fixed by cutting every programme that someone determines as non-priority.
Clean water and sanitation are a City Council responsibility.
As for Maori Trusts funding gang projects – it would have to be consistent with their trust deeds and, in most cases, all the gang members would have to whakapapa to that particular trust to qualify. In my experience most trusts only give funding for high school and tertiary education
Absolutely, funding of any gang projects are not necessary race related. However, Maori are at the moment the only one getting PUBLIC funding. This I feel is currently completely out of tough with the real needs of any community.
Foreign Boat
For a relatively recent immigrant you sure know a lot about what Māori get.
Māori are not the only ones that receive government funding. Any funding specifically targeting Māori must also incorporate non-Māori into the mix (anyone can apply under Whānau Ora).
Public funding was established on the back of Māori largesse – what Māori gave up in order for the public to reside peaceably in this country (land, waterways, status, the capacity to be self-sufficient and autonomous etc)..
I recommend you study more what Māori have lost and then compare it to what we have gained before making judgement on how beneficient the public has / is being towards tāngata whenua.
Another gripe that is frequently thrown at Māori by Pākehā is that we seek to separate (apartheid) however what you are advocating is exactly that – Māori fund Māori issues, although we are also taxpayers, business people, earners. Are you suggesting that whatever taxes we pay into the government coffers also be directed towards our own interests. I could live with that especially when the Maori economy is supposedly worth an estimated $37 billion.
Sorry, foreign waka, I completely missed this on Saturday but evidence please:
What gangs are being publicly funded? Evidence that all members of the gang are Māori (should any gang prove to be publicly funded)
I get more than a little annoyed that such divisive and unsubstantiated canards keep being uttered as if they are true with no evidence to back them up. A lie, no matter how often repeated (or by whom) remains a lie
“I am absolutely certain that there is enough money in the Maori Trusts to fund these projects like I mentioned earlier.”
I’m absolutely certain that there is much much more money in Pakeha trusts to pay for the things they (Pakeha) need than there is an any Maori trusts.
We know from media reports that Pakeha use these trusts to access much state assistance, to deprive women of their matrimonial property, to close down companies and still keep the money they have transferred out of it, to get the state to pay for their residential care when they are elderly and so on.
You’re a bit like those I was at school with who bitched about the (few) Maori kids on scholarships to go to boarding school. I was also a scholarship kid paid for by the state, they were paid for by iwi scholarships – you know their own money.
No student or parent did I ever hear whinge about my scholarship – the constant five year refrain about “these Maori” kids being funded by the taxpayer was just another step in demonstrating the irrational, uneducated premise that many Pakeha have about Maori – most pakeha of whom would never have stepped on a marae in their lives.
Often this rhetoric influences foreigners who come here as does the media portrayal – the fact that foreigners get sucked into this only ever reminds me of Muldoon’s statement about raising the IQ of both countries. It just that on this occasion we are on the receiving end.
To Adele and Descendent of Smith
Firstly, you both assume to know what I know, how I live and what my background is. You are wrong on all accounts by the way. However, in regard to by comments- what I am saying is that 2 wrongs do not make one right. Yes, Maori got the colonial treatment albeit to a somewhat lesser extent (not an excuse!) than in other countries. However, NZ has come a long way to pay reparation and a far as I can see Maoris biggest hurdle these days is not so much the payouts themselves but the lack of the trickling down from the Trusts and Elites (this is so familiar)- Oh I can hear the drums already……
This defensive attitude is what truly stays in the way of further development and is politically used and EVERYBODY outside this can see it. Not the ones actually involved, of cause not – what else is new.
Anyway, my comment was directed at Government spending per see as I feel that any money that is collected by law abiding taxpaying people should be used wisely and appropriately. This means that this country needs to first cover the basics for EVERYBODY before it can decide on any other use of moneys. You are talking about the crown when referring to any moneys that Maori claim and seem to forget that it is in fact your neighbor with the 2.5 kids and a mortgage, worry to hold a job if at all having one, getting by on minimum wages who is now asked to pay. So maybe you have to ask the Queen?
As for the study of Maori, yes I have done some, their history, the genealogy and I was on a marae, meetings etc. Possibly more than your average NZlander. But there you go, this is not about race, this is about right or wrong.
Hmmm the closest I came to mentioning you was you remind me of.
It’s a bit of an extrapolation to take that to me suggesting what you think and know.
Disagreement and a differing view isn’t a personal attack.
Foreign Boat,
I assume things about you based on your comments and it appears to me, as a person with extensive knowledge and lived experience of Te Ao Māori, that your interactions with Māori history have done you little favour as your ignorance is still woefully apparent, and whoopee that you have been on Marae. The days of feting non-Māori for learning about tāngata whenua are well and truly over.
You are suggesting that Māori Trusts should fund Māori social (and presumably health services) because the country cannot afford to do so under the present recessionary climate. Your suggestion does in fact have precedence in history. The introduction into this country of the old age pension exemplifies how Māori were treated differently as citizens.
When the old age pension was introduced in 1908, Registrars were instructed to make Māori access to the pension as difficult as possible. All Māori claims for the pension had to be filtered through the Native Land Court and placed before a magistrate, effectively slowing the process.
Other mechanisms used to deny Māori equal treatment included removing a swathe of Māori names from the pension rolls. For those Māori that could collect a pension their entitlements were reduced to two-thirds of the amount paid to Pākehā. From 1925 the maximum rate payable to Māori was £32.6s per annum or 71% of the maximum of £45.10s. In 1927, many Māori pensions were below £20, less than half the rate paid to Pākehā.
Koroua and Kuia were literally been starved through this inequitable treatment. The extreme poverty of Māori communities became the rationale for different treatment. Pākehā saw Māori poverty as a sign of lower expectation rather than greater need and by the 1920s living in a pa became a reason to disbar Māori from full pension entitlement. Other types of welfare benefits followed a similar discriminatory pattern. Such treatment continued well into the 1940s.
Your type of thinking is a rehash of the colonial mindset and is discriminatory.
Thank god I learned good manners, I would otherwise get a bit stroppy here. You seem to enlarge the issue ever so much just to further your agenda. Woppee? Well, at least I made an effort. How about you? What have you done so far to learn about the people around you if they are not Maori?
As for equal rights to benefits, I belief it these are paid on equal footing. I am not referring to a time some 80 years ago but to the time right now. My comments were specifically to the plight of families and elderly in Christchurch. But with all that politicking that point seem to get lost on you. It is in fact your ignorance that seem to put just yourself into the center and hence no one else counts. Meanwhile, there is hardship due to a major natural event and every cent is needed to get the people back to a reasonable state of affairs. We are not talking about luxuries when providing sanitary facilities and drinking water which are too expensive for any City Council to cover. I belief that in light of this need funding of none urgent items should be suspended – such as benefits to Gangs.
As to your assertion of discrimination, I really don’t follow how you get this out of my comments. Because a civilized, democratic society provides for EVERYBODY equally and that means also for the folks in Christchurch.
Discrimination is such an easy throw around word these days that it seem to be often just used to put someone else at unease. In response to your assumptions, I am tempted to give you more insight but then again, it wont help the issue as your point of view is set and seemingly in a frame of mind that is not really open to any conversation.
The provision of safe drinking water and the provision of sanitation are both core business for territorial and local authorities in New Zealand. That Christchurch, Waimakariri and Selwyn councils have to face an unprecedented bill due to earthquake damage doesn’t change that.
Many councils are faced with similar issues post flooding.
This in no way makes acceptable that some are still waiting to know what will happen to their properties, and hence, whether or not water and sanitation will be supplied to their property in the future. That is in the hands of CERA and the Minister.
There are many who would agree that a lot of the money Government is supposed to be invested in Christchurch is difficult to see at the flaxroots, that again is something that you might want to consider investigating via OIA requests.
What that has to do though with diverting money from educational, well health and other social issues, particularly those to ‘Māori’ is unclear to me. What is even more unclear is why my iwi,hapū and whanau trusts should pay for what are government and community initiatives. Our investment strategies are clear: for us, and for the generations to come. That means that we as the members get our ‘dividend’ in ways other than an annual sum in the bank. Our choice, no one elses business, and certainly not to be spent as you or any politician decides. We suffered too much for too long to give away our hard won financial independence. (BTW, if you think that recompense of approximately 1% of the calculated loss is unreasonable, imagine the cost to the country of proper restitution. )
Lastly, why should the Queen pay the restitution. The profits made from illegal land purchases and sales didn’t flow to the Queen, it went, as usual, to the bankers, pastoralists and other colonial parasites, not Queen Victoria.
Tēnā koe, Hateatea
Ngā mihi nui ki a koe. If I may just flow on from your words.
Foreign Boat
I have exceptional manners, unless I am confronted by ignorance, especially from someone who should know better. In a discussion on Crimp’s blatant racism you introduce into the Kōrero a back-hander about public money going into all the wrong places (Māori) while the good citizens of Christchurch SUFFER because of inadequate resourcing. Your opinion says that in such dire circumstances, culture (Māori) is expendable and Māori initiatives should have no priority insofar as public spending is concerned. The greater good must prevail. You do not recommend that SPCA funding be curtailed or Creative New Zealand funds be re-directed.
You raise the evil spectre of Gangs receiving public funds at the expense of the neighbour with 2.5 kids, and a mortgage while STRUGGLING to hold onto a minimum wage job. For added emotional effect, you ought to have included the little old lady having to eat cat food because some Maori received funding to attend a well catered hui. Crimp would creak with glee at the hyperbole.
Apparently, Māori are blind to the excesses being poured into their coffers by the generous but increasingly (and rightly) indignant public. The generosity you speak of obviously includes welfare – but numbers show the largest burden to the welfare state is superannuation – and very few Māori receive the super (32,000 as opposed to 550,000 non-Māori). There is also roughly a ten year difference in life expectancy between Māori and Pākehā.
If the generosity includes treaty settlements, Ngai Tahu settlement monies (as an example) equates to roughly $120 for every acre that was stolen, dishonestly acquired, or confiscated. If the generosity includes government spending on targeted social and health services, the health spend (as an example) equates to roughly $90 per Māori head of population in the South Island or 3% of available health funding.
I am fairly sure that the gangster incident that provoked your ‘crimpness’ was when a Dunedin based gang received funding under whānau ora for $50,000. However, compare that amount to the $8billion being siphoned off the rest of the country including Māori communities, businesses, workers, and taxpayers to fuel the Christchurch rebuild – whose stunted progress is more about government ineptitude rather than lack of resources.
I should mention that Ngai Tahu is currently offering accelerated trade training to Māori to help with the rebuild and that Māori organisations across the country were quick to respond to the aftermath of the earthquakes, Rotorua (as an example) sent a team of 18 doctors and nurses to Christchurch to aid in recovery.
If I accuse you of being discriminatory in your viewpoints, to quote koro Crimp “the truth hurts.”
Kia Ora Hateaea
Your comments are such that I will just end this with a short reply:
1/ I was not aware that NZ has Tribal Law instead of an all encompassing State Law.
2/ There is no excuse of Apartheid politics, neither in social nor any other matter and this goes for all sides.
3/ It becomes increasingly obvious that one cannot voice a point of view without being berated in such manner that it seem that no other voice is allowed because of past events.
I am of the view that I am treated in this way because I have identified myself as an immigrant and thus I can reassure you, feel discriminated against. Not that I really care, mind you.
So, as far as I am concerned I will draw my own conclusion and leave it at that.
I’m so glad the Herald gave Crimp such a good hearing. The more that NZ sees what is behind ACT the quicker ACT will be gone.
Would love to know who Crimp spends his time with. And who he does business with in Invercargill.
He goes on to say that there are hardly any Maoris down there, LOL. What a dick.
How many of National’s big donors also think this way? Many, I suspect.
That interview with the horrible Mr Crimp was so outrageously awful I actually laughed. But sadly, he’s only saying what South Island rednecks are thinking, or saying on talkback/down the pub.
I don’t think so Sookie. Even within the redneck communities I think the subset that believe what Crimp does is very small. He is very extreme. He is a white supremacist and what he is saying is basically promoting cultural genocide. He hates Maoris and he thinks that their culture should not exist because it’s not NZ. The rednecks I know might think that Maori shouldn’t get special treatment etc but I don’t often hear the outright white supremacist stuff.
Even the rightwing bloggers have come out and slammed the old cretinous fool!
Exactly! Rabid nutmegs, by the looks…
If there were any real journalists in this country, they’d have been asking him probing questions about his business dealings. http://www.business.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/155763/documents How convenient for him that everything is mysteriously “Not Available”.
Yeah Andrews Housing, that bastion of good business ethics and practice.
Give RadioNZ a call, they’re usually open to getting a heads up on things. They’ve had ACT commenting on what the Herald reported about Crimp on the news today.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/106194/act-president-distances-party-from-anti-maori-remarks
So this fuckwit ACToid who hates everything maori (including te reo) owns a business called Tuatara.
Righto.
Exactly! He probably doesn’t realise that tuatara is a Maori word. A surprising number of children to whom I taught Te Reo didn’t realise just how many words had been borrowed into NZ English
That’s surprising and very sad…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBx2Y5HhplI
The TED talk that TED won’t post… such a shame because it is so very excellent and full of truisms that have been forgotten in our corporate world…
What’s it about?
The fact that millionaires aren’t job creators – the community is.
Thanks Zorr and TED. A pity that our current Government doesn’t see the connection between taxing the very rich to get the funds for investment which allows the Middle class to grow. TED is probably another nail in the heart of the Austerity plan. The middle Low classes are being harmed but the very rich have no dents and reports say the very rich NZers have increased their wealth. Not fair!
Transcript and a couple of background pieces.
http://roundtable.nationaljournal.com/2012/05/the-inequality-speech-that-ted-wont-show-you.php
http://nationaljournal.com/features/restoration-calls/too-hot-for-ted-income-inequality-20120516
http://www.geekwire.com/2012/controversial-ted-post-nick-hanauers-talk-taxing-rich/
http://www.nationaljournal.com/features/restoration-calls/the-1-percent-solution-20120517
Wonder why the Republicans dislike such talk? Would Bill English welcome such heresy?
National down 2.5 points to 44.5% and Labour up 1.5 points to 30% in the Roy Morgan Poll.
Disappointing. They have been on the back foot for months and Labour gains less than the margin of error. We had plenty of opportunities but failed to put the boot (or knife) in. Where is Labour’s “mongrel”? Has Labour changed strategists since the failure of last year? Are the same strategists doing the same things and hoping for a different outcome? WTF!!
http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2012/4776
I’m not keen on Labour’s current strategies. But I take polls with a grain of salt. Long term trends in polls have more value than individual ones. And the 1% difference between National’s loss and Labour’s gain is margin of error stuff.
More research shows why a completely pessimistic view about oil isn’t warranted:
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/05/18/1538252/diesel-like-engine-could-boost-fuel-economy-by-50
We’ve already hit Peak Oil and it will be years and more probably decades before the new engine is common enough to make a difference.
Not necessarily. The whole thing about oil-based transportation is that there’s no technology in progress that can substantially increase energy efficiency. Well there’s one right there.
I’m not suggesting this engine is going to replace the vehicle fleet in any significant way. More that existing vehicles will simply be scrapped, we’ll have 1/20th the number of cars on the road as we do now, but with this particular type of engine we might end up with 1/10th instead.
Also things like trucks and construction vehicles are much more vital to the industrial economy than private personal transport, so efficiencies of these types will help to keep those vehicles running.
No, the problem is that there’s no energy source available to replace oil. That one will extend petrol vehicles for a time if it actually works as envisaged (I think it probably will) and it get widely used but to get that will require the government to remove older engines from the road.
I’ve never been as pessimistic as RA and AFKTT. I think industrial society will continue but that it will have to shrink to fit into the energy constrained future. This tech will help there and agree that trucks are more important than cars, trains are also more important than trucks.
There’s a lot that needs planning for and leaving it to the market won’t work. Actually, leaving it to the market invariably leads to collapse.
DTB a product called graphene could make electric motors lighter and more efficient.
The infernal combustion motor will have its day sooner than later!
Look here
http://dimpost.wordpress.com/tracking-poll/
Labour is consistently on the up since late last year. When was Shearer elected again?
Its something, but showing that Labour is back in the same spot as Aug 2011 is neither here nor there, given that National has hit multiple scandals so far this year.
It would not matter if Labour were leading a government today, the outcomes are still going to be the same, the journey there a little different.
Time for people to accept responsibility, and stop looking to a failed system to save them!
Muzza, yet again, I agree. Economy wise, NZ is just a couple of islands off the coast of Australia.
Is the media saying any more about the French politicans taking a 30% pay cut?
I agree with you there muzza. But there’s only one view you get when you are shackled to debt and time worn habits that compel you to persist in chasing personal material gain (if only to pay the mortgage and other debts or tread water) : the wall you are shackled to.
As one trader confirms after a visit to Europe the collapse much worse than the MSM let’s on. How much? Border controls are back in place!
Well, well well!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/politics/6950783/Former-staff-rehired-as-consultants
A friend in the energy management profession told me something interesting in the pub last night. The hydro lakes are very low this year, so low that in a non-asset sales year they would be issuing warnings to the public. The companies up for sale are deliberately not saying anything about the problem as that would affect their share price, no doubt because the government ordered them to shut the hell up. Certainly the lakes looked very low when I was up in the Mackenzie a couple of weeks ago. Oh for some media coverage, but of course it will be ignored as usual by this useless bunch of Nat lickspittles we’re stuck with.
There was something on Checkpoint (5-7pm National Radio weeknight news) about this, although they didn’t say it was because of the asset sales. I can’t remember everything, but the guy was saying that the new structure of the industry in NZ encourages thermal energy providers to produce power whereas in the past they didn’t have as much incentive. They mentioned the new law that says if the power companies are forced to implement a rationing scheme then they must actually pay customers money as compensation – a very strong market force to do everything possible to avoid that situation.
Russell Brown has written a brilliantly funny satircal piece over at Public Address where he ruthlessly parodies the faddish foodism of a completely out of touch and pampered New Zealand middle class.
The great thing is the deadpan way in which the whole post appears to be completely serious.
lols.
russell brown to me epitomises why the liberal elite in this country has consistently lost to the business elite.
oh, they have values, but navel-gazing and self-indulgence are much more fun than fighting for those values.
Check the comments.
What makes you think it is satirical?
After a lifetime of avoiding all food-fads like the plague I finally fell for this one in Feb this year.
Since then I’ve lost 12 kg and have never enjoyed my food more in my life. And I’m fit again, 8-10 hr tramping days are easy, and I can do real forehand chin-ups again. This at an age when our grandparents were considered ‘old’. This is nothing like usual yo-yo ‘diet’ either… I’m eating as much as I need to feel satisfied and the flab keeps melting off.
And I’m busy DOING things in my life again, doing a new qualification, contemplating a new building project, leading a community project, tackling a major new project at work… and enjoying it.
It’s also why I haven’t had the time for The Standard so much recently…I still drop in daily to read the threads, but I’ve got the energy now to live life the way I believe in; as compared to just sitting around typing about it.
Ultimately food IS political, and my own personal experience convinces me of this. Because there is no doubt in my mind that the standard dietary ‘food pyramid’ serves no-one other than the food industry conglomerates while harming us ordinary people who eat it.
Oh and our grocery bill is around 2/3rds of what it was last year.
That’s great RL. The Paleo diets are pretty interesting. Don’t work for everyone one, but many people seem to get alot of benefit, and there is sound science and evidence to back it up. It’d be good to see the political blogosphere get more nutritionally literate.
Karl Marx is still right.
Good article.
If the NZ electorate wanted a marxist govt, the closet part we’ve got in the public eye being the Mana Party, wouldn’t their polling be higher?
I don’t think Mana is anything close to being a Marxist party.
That said, WTF has that got to do with the article? And, perhaps, the electorate doesn’t show favour for Marx due to the spin and BS that has been propagated about over the last century which, as the article shows, was wrong.
On that note, do you have anything to say about what the article highlights, specifically, the failure of capitalism as predicted by Marx?
dtb even main stream economists are saying neoliberalism doesn’t work in post industrial countries now.
It’s not just neo-liberalism but capitalism as a whole – it quite simply doesn’t work.
Dialectical Materialism, though a fascinating bit of the history of philosophy, is a Fail.
Reminds of a John Ralston Saul quip about Marxism in a nutshell being economic determinism and the belief society is a wide open battle field – therefore the only practicing Marxists these days are the neo cons and the big corporate executives.
Cognitive dissonance news of the day. Count the many ways you can see how amazingly wrong Tracy Watkins is
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6950260/Kiwis-are-tolerating-moderate-austerity
Sycophants underpants anyone?
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/owen-jones-hatred-of-those-on-benefits-is-dangerously-out-of-control-7763793.html
A story from The Independent about the effects of the international hate campaign against beneficiaries. Excerpt below.
I was talking with a friend in Auckland the other night who was in tears about being vilified for being a beneficiary.
…Earlier this year, a Sunday Times article featured the headline “End the something for nothing culture”. Below was a picture of the Gallagher family from the comedy-drama Shameless, as though these fictional caricatures were real life. This one-time paper of record quoted a Whitehall official on benefit recipients: “If we want them to tap dance, then they will tap dance.” Rod Liddle – who dresses up the boorish rants of a thick pub bore as journalism – claimed that his new year’s resolution “was to become disabled”, perhaps with a “newly invented” illness like fibromyalgia, so he could claim benefits. As the economic catastrophe that began four years ago led to a national jobs’ crisis – there are now over six million people looking for full-time work – the “scrounger'”caricature perversely has become more and more popular.
It is tempting to ignore the ramblings of glorified internet trolls like Liddle, but their projected ignorance has consequences. Six of the biggest disability charities have warned that the campaign of demonisation – by both journalists and politicians – has led to a surge in abuse towards people with disabilities. According to Scope, two-thirds reported abuse in September last year, up from 41 per cent just four months earlier.…
What an utter horror! The Western World is heading in a direction that is just terrifying. We are becoming like swamp birds with cell phones, and with the capacity to do much greater damage.
Of course it’s a horror Olwyn. And so many people love to wallow in it nowadays.
It will get worse because our owners want it to get worse. They want us divided and fighting over the scraps they deign to let trickle our way. The one thing they cannot afford it for us ordinary people realise what has happened and to turn our attention on those who perpetrated it.
Yes. That poor family is portrayed as a drain on society, the person who killed their youngest kids is now a mass murderer, while David Cameron and that shock jock woman make themselves another G & T, and think about how they can make use of this tragedy, if they think about it at all. We often say we must wake up before it’s too late – for the Philpotts and many others it is already too late.
My giddy aunt! That’s horrific…
The only thing going to plan in the latest dotcom scam seems to be the tax dodge.
The big pop in Facebook Inc. shares never came.
Buyers did not rush into the market to snap up shares of the social networker. And the big Wall Street banks that brought Facebook public scrambled to prevent the stock from collapsing into declines.
The underwriters averted a potential debacle by scooping up shares of the company during the Nasdaq debut. This propped up the stock, keeping it above the $38 offering price through most of the day.
There’s been a few observations in the last 2 years about another dot.com bubble. Here’s the proof I guess.
Regarding bullying brought up in the context of millionaire Act Party donor, actually being a bully seems to be a central part of Maori behaviour.
I remember three Maori co workers. One told me about how she went to school with black eyes from the step father, but “at least it made me FUCKIN tough!”. Oh yeah she was tough as nails for sure, and had one HUGE anger management problem.
Another one told me his father had all kinds of belts, including automotive lol, and he would put the kids names on them so they knew what he would thrash them with.
The 3rd one had a lesbian lover and used fake names to open bank accounts etc. She would demand we call her one name then a month later demand we call her another. When she answered to her lesbian lover over the phone, she would go all meek and pathetic, squeaking “Yes maam… yes maam…yes maam”.
I told them I can remember clearly the times I got smacked as a kid because it only happened twice.
They just stared at me speechless.
Another one told me his father had all kinds of belts, including automotive lol, and he would put the kids names on them so they knew what he would thrash them with.
lol? You must be very proud of the superior human being you have shaped yourself into being KP
And btw, anecdotes from a few acquaintances, even when true, do not consitiute proof of anything about a wider group.
“lol?”
Ever heard of the phrase “If I didn’t laugh I’d cry”.
Drop the self righteous attitude js.
“btw, anecdotes from a few acquaintances, even when true, do not consitiute proof of anything about a wider group.”
I could keep going all day with the anecdotes dude. How about one of the “bros” who rocks on up to the family holiday get together with his girlfriend – he keeps her in the car THE WHOLE WEEKEND, she was only allowed out a couple of times to use the bathroom.
Plus all the Maori social/economic stats.
Guess you think “Once Were Warriors” is only fiction and in no way reflects on Maori. That would be RACIST!
Yeah, and white people have no domestic violence or anger problems.
Not on the level of Maori, I know that from what I have seen and what is in the stats.
“Not on the level of Maori, I know that from what I have seen and what is in the stats.”
So what is the statistical difference between Maori and Pakeha? Where is the research that proves that Maori are better at bullying than non-Maori?
Why didn’t you let her out of the car?
+ 100 felix
We got a felix groupie here. You go girl! lol
There’s no “we”, k_p. Get your own groupies.
I have never been anyone’s groupie before and I don’t know felix that well but I would rather be his / hers than yours!
:”>
Oh that was a story related to me from a close family member, she was frightened and ended up leaving the get together.
Also, why didn’t she leave the car herself?
Oh I assumed it was your family gathering, what with him being your bro and all.
Was your friend frightened for the whole weekend? Sounds awful.
Is it just the three maoris that you’ve met yourself then?
Actually, “Once Were Warriors” is fiction, I heard it from the authors own mouth.
Of course there are people for whom alcohol, anger, violence, poverty is a problem. They come in all ethnicities, religious beliefs or lack of them and in every strata of society
Sorry, I used “only” in the sense that it must be untrue.
Like Charles Dickens – it is fiction but certainly tells us a lot about life, especially for kids, in 18th C England.
Maybe, yes, however I lived something rather similar until I gathered my courage, left him, and lost custody of my son to him! 🙁
However, it’s true that such things happen in all ethnicities etc.
And they’d still be just that – anecdotes.
BTW, I read a few years back that Maori didn’t hit their kids until after the arrival of the Pakeha. Don’t know how accurate that is but there are numerous cultures around the world that don’t have a culture of hitting their children. The most high profile culture that does, though, is English culture.
Like I said the stats are there too.
Predictably enough, racked with white liberal guilt, you seek to explicate maori and blame all the bad stuff on Whities.
White liberal guilt? No, that’s just another delusion from your fragmented mind.
Kiwi Prometheus
The Crimes Act is being revised where it will be a criminal offence to ignore harm being perpetrated on children or vulnerable adults. I have stood up to gangsters and bullies in defence of others whereas you have used the suffering of others to perpetuate your bigoted slant on all Māori.
If anecdote is evidence, I know heaps of Māori that love and respect their children, their old people, and even Pākehā. I know heaps of Māori that will never raise their hands towards another. I know heaps of Māori that will give willingly to help others without payment.
A Pākehā mate of mine just last week had to call into a petrol station on her way to Taupo as she was running out of petrol. Unfortunately for her she had left her purse at home. The Māori proprietors gave her $20 without making her beg or mortgage her home as security.
Prometheus supposedly championed the cause of mankind – your views are so small-minded that I suggest a renaming should take place to whatever Greek God is the champion of lost causes.
What does the word “lesbian” have to do with your story, k_p?
I’m sorry, I don’t understand felix, have I done something wrong?
That’s ok. A lot of people don’t understand felix.
I don’t know if you’ve done something wrong. Why do you ask?
“A lot of people don’t understand felix.”
Is that why felix seems angry and frustrated all the time?
“Why do you ask?”
Just that I mention the “L” word and suddenly you are all over my arse.
I am curious too – in the context of Maori bashing, you slipped in a lesbian. Are you homophobic as well as racist?
See, another bully tactic, scream “Racist!” at anyone who doesn’t tow the PC line.
Defensive, much?? If the cap fits, wear it.
You are happy to stereotype when it suits your agenda. I ma happy to reciprocate using the evidence you have personally supplied
I haven’t stereotyped.
The stats are there, the anecdotes are there. Other people have made the same observations.
But you will just keep screaming “Racist! It’s all the whities fault!.”
Had a Maori room mate at the backpackers, he comes back 3am blind drunk reeking of it, and proceeds to try to take a leak in the middle of the room. I jumped out of bed “Whoa dude not there!”, opened the door and he headed for the light – “Oh thanks bro!”
He comes back in and starts crashing around, so the young English tourist back packer in the bunk above him ask him to be quiet. So the Maori guy threatens him “Me and my bros will deal to you!”.
He was always hanging around the social room drinking and smoking. He felt a special affection for the Irish backpackers because of “the Englosh!”. The affection wasn’t reciprocated.
I guess your mate behaved that way because he’s maori.
(See how much better it works when you don’t confuse the issue by making him Jewish or gay or disabled as well?)
I’m in a state of zen-like calm.
The reason I asked about your descriptor “lesbian” is that it confused me. I didn’t understand how it related to the story and I thought maybe I had missed some important aspect of the story, and that if you could explain it for me I’d be up to speed with everyone else.
You didn’t just appear out of no where to question me about the “L” word. If you are accusing me of something spit it out.
You are quite the political animal, felix.
It’s not a swear word. You don’t need to use the initial.
But why did you use it in your story? What information does it convey to the reader? What changes if the word is omitted?
As a writer of fiction these are the questions you need to ask yourself constantly.
Well you would know from all the feminist “critiques” you have read or written.
lol you do have some funny ideas about me k_p. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything I’d call a “feminist critique”. I mostly read technical manuals.
I’m not going to keep asking you about the lesbian aspect of your story as you clearly don’t want to talk about it.
And that’s ok. Writers often get tired of explaining the choices they make. I do think it’s something you might like to think about though for the sake of your craft.
For every ‘Maori are bashers’ anecdote you can tell, I can source you with Dutch, Sots, Irish, English, etc, etc. People, especially disadvantaged people, can express anger and frustration in inappropriate ways.
My ex was physically, verbally, emotionally and sexually abusive to me. I may be Maori but he was a Scottish New Zealander. So, by your standards, am I to blame because I am Maori or was he just an angry, bitter man who chose his fists, feet and temper to bully and coerce?
FWIW Hateatea, my ex was the same to me. I am an English/Scots New Zealander, he was a Maori (he died 5 months ago). His family is very different, he was a distinct oddity (drug and alcohol dependent) and so it just goes to show it’s going on amongst all peoples… 🙁
Wow, were where you working?
k p, the truth hurts. You have upset a lot of people. I would say your critics are bleeding badly and since you have cut deep they can only use irrational, personal abuse as defence. I would not have the time or courage to discuss the subjects with anyone on this site. They only recognise their own faults in other people.
The Press (today) has several very good articles on the departure of Manners, Courtesy and Respect For Others during the last 50 years. Your critics are an example.
Your critics only want to hear from people who will confirm what they already believe. Even some site Moderators are not without fault.
John 8:7 “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
John72………I guess your full name is John1872.
Get a life in the 21st century for Christ’s Sake.
Manners Courtesy Respect indeed.
I haven’t seen Michael Valley posting here recently on why we have to liberate all those poor brown people from their despots all over the middle east and his MSM propaganda slant may have something to do with it but I sometimes think about him and this is one of the moments. I would really like to read his spin on this one.
Better hurry on down to MSN news where their straw poll today is who would you vote for.
Hooton has already massed his troops so make your vote count.
Don’t stress about it – the Nats are obviously on a steady downward projectory regardless of marketing ploys like instant polls.
Groser promotes ecological disaster
I had to laugh while reading a speech given by Tim Groser yesterday in which he claims that people who promote localized food production and security of supply are acting instinctually and that not wanting to rely on other countries for food is rooted in people’s hunter and gatherer DNA, which is a little insane to say the least…
Jackal He must be back on the happy baccky again.
Fossils promoting fossil fuel !
But I like sugar.
Then grow it. We don’t need to import that stuff either.
Actually, we could grow sugar cane here quite easily, it just needs plenty of sun and fresh water 😛
Got some growing up the driveway. It’s a tasty chew.
I like mangoes too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mango
Could probably grow them in Northland if they don’t already.
Help please.
I see something that will come up in parliament soon that is based on some pretty solid misinformation being bandied about. Nothing unusual about that. Now I want to go lobbying. I can go and see the spokeperson that each party has for this area taking along, I imagine, with a short written document as back up. Do I also go and see each individual MP as well . What else would be effective?
Secondly is there any way here of ensuring that a post goes into moderation deliberately?
There are certain words that guarantee moderation. Mentioning the surname of a famous Austrian with a Chaplin moustache and a fetish for Wagner will do it.
On the second thing – putting “tr*ll” (sub * for o) will chuck a post into the moderation queue.
The birther nonsense that’s been going on over at the sewer recently prompted me to track down something I saw a few weeks ago.
Abraham Africanus I : his secret life, revealed under the mesmeric influence ; mysteries of the White House. New York : J.F. Feeks [1864]
Psychiatry Giant Sorry for Backing Gay ‘Cure’
A draft of Spitzers letter of apology
Several months ago I told you that because of my revised view of my 2001 study of reparative therapy changing sexual orientation, I was considering writing something that would acknowledge that I now judged the major critiques of the study as largely correct. After discussing my revised view of the study with Gabriel Arana, a reporter for American Prospect, and with Malcolm Ritter, an Associated Press science writer, I decided that I had to make public my current thinking about the study. Here it is.
Basic Research Question. From the beginning it was: “can some version of reparative therapy enable individuals to change their sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual?” Realizing that the study design made it impossible to answer this question, I suggested that the study could be viewed as answering the question, “how do individuals undergoing reparative therapy describe changes in sexual orientation?” – a not very interesting question.
The Fatal Flaw in the Study – There was no way to judge the credibility of subject reports of change in sexual orientation. I offered several (unconvincing) reasons why it was reasonable to assume that the subject’s reports of change were credible and not self-deception or outright lying. But the simple fact is that there was no way to determine if the subject’s accounts of change were valid.
I believe I owe the gay community an apology for my study making unproven claims of the efficacy of reparative therapy. I also apologize to any gay person who wasted time and energy undergoing some form of reparative therapy because they believed that I had proven that reparative therapy works with some “highly motivated” individuals.
Robert Spitzer. M.D.
Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry,
Columbia University
Interesting post and link there Joe90.
The advocates of “cure” are frequently those who also insist that sexual orientation is a matter of personal choice – the thrust being that it’s as simple as one’s preference for rugby union over rugby league or pale ale over stout.
The late Phil (?) Raffills, the vehemently anti-gay former principal of Avondale College and religious right Auckland City councillor was one of those on that buzz.
The obvious question I mentally posed when he was in full piety about this: “OK Phil…….tell me about the time when you made the personal choice to be straight rather than gay.”
As I recall the whole thing turned to spectacular farce when a recent past head prefect of Avondale College, personally chosen by Raffills, came out and “confessed” to being gay.
This Young Gay Man Of Disgusting Choice also hinted that Raffills, the educator darling of the Right at the time, was something of a moral bully.
Yep, sounds right.
I’m wondering whether the apology will be recognised by the knuckle draggers who’ve been trotting out Spitzers original conclusion to support their bigotry.
And I’ve always wanted to ask someone like the late Raffills or his ilk when did you decide that you were straight?.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10806979
Parata is quoting average teacher salary of 71,000 , only reached after several years experience.
that is the top of the scale for a class room teacher AND it started on the 13th of may this year.
So the 71k cannot be the average for the ‘ordinary’ teacher.
I smell spin.
It may not be spin you smell…….it may be the stench of a rotten egg. Why ?
Well I don’t know for sure but I do know that in Moerewa and other parts of the North the stunning Ms Parata is known to a number as “Heki Pirau” Parata – translation – “Rotten Egg” Parata.
Teacher average = 71
Warfies average = 91
Both spun the wrong way , these numbers stink!
Someone needs more media support. Does the media care about you and me or is it just making money?
welcome to capitalism.
Granted, BUT, the wharfies would not have got to $91K without media support. Is that capitalism? I do not know. (Q. “Much is invested in having us believe everything we read in newspapers and everything our government tells us. If we are not thinking for ourselves we are easy targets for control and manipulation”. Printed in USA 15 years ago.)
As I see it, the media are just selling to a population pictured in “Corination Streed” .
I hope you mean “public misperception that wharfies routinely take home $91k/yr would not have happened without media support”.
Actually, the Daily Show had a fascinating observation recently, after Obama’s comments about gay marriage: in five years the Fox debate has gone from “gay marriage will end the world” to “he only said it because it’s popular”. While most money comes from corporates, media still need to sell stuff in order to make money – if nobody buys what’s being advertised, the advertisers back off, so the media has to find the balance between money and believability. That’s why Glenn Beck is off air, even though he was their biggest herald. Capitalism is cannibalism.
But the media also shapes perception, so it’s a complex system of persuasion then token acquiescence.
I share your skepticism Muzza. I found this document on the minedu site which does suggest that it is $71k per annum. I presume this includes headmasters salaries which would drive the average up.
Sugar beet would probably grow much better than sugar cane in Aotearoa.
@ Foreign Waka 7pm 22/05/2012
I didn’t say that there IS tribal law in New Zealand, I said that the understanding of rangatira in 1840 was that within Te Tiriti, whānau, hapū and iwi would manage their own affairs including their forests, fisheries and traditions while the settlers would manage their people. Given the significant population imbalance in the favour of iwi, this was a reasonable assumption. This they saw as tino rangatiratanga for iwi while the tāngata tiriti would have kawanatanga. This did not turn out to be the case, population ratios changed, the huge influx of new settlers were told nothing of Te Tiriti and the base for grievance was set.
As we saw ourselves (and still do to a degree) as separate nations living side by side with other nations, I would not accept your definition as apartheid, however, I cannot ‘control’ how you see things, nor would I wish to. I merely offered some background and an alternative viewpoint to yours and others. Whether you choose to ponder upon my views, do more research or blithely continue on your particular path is entirely up to you.
Kia tau te rangimarie