Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Uncaring.
Anyone who voted this government in.
A large proportion of New Zealand teenagers are living in poverty, a study has revealed.
The research from Auckland University showed almost one in five secondary school students and nearly half of all Pacific students were struggling.
Significant differences between ethnicities were highlighted, with about one third of Maori students living in households experiencing poverty.
Published in the International Journal for Equity in Health, the study used data from the Youth 2012 study of 8500 students.
It grouped students by household poverty based on nine indicators of deprivation:
* No car
* No phone
* No computer
* Parental worry about not having enough food
* More than two people sharing a bedroom
* No holidays with family
* Moving home more than twice a year
* Garages or living rooms used as bedrooms
* No parent at home with employment.
Students needed to report two or more indicators before being classed as experiencing poverty, while researchers also examined the interaction between household deprivation and depressive symptoms, smoking and obesity.
Senior lecturer and co-author of the report Dr Terry Fleming said some results mirrored those found by the Ministry of Social Development and the Child Poverty Action Group.
But the suggestion such a large proportion of Pacific youth were living in poverty was worrying.
“When you start excluding a community or ethnic group to that extent that’s pretty harmful.”
If children reported that their household was missing 2 of nine factors, then that was a hardship analog for poverty.
I might have no car, but I don’t have to get kids to school or sports practise.
I might have no holidays with family, but I can take a holiday any time.
I might have no computer at home, but this will not impact on my education.
I have a bedroom, but I only need one – I don’t have someone sleeping in my living room.
As soon as it’s not just about me, but about the kids I’m responsible for as well, then some of those indicators aren’t quite so easy to scoff at.
I see some quite poor people, never seen one without a phone! If no car is a sign of poverty then we must be a rich Nation. Haven’t we one of the highest rates of car ownership in the OECD> So if you dont have all 9 your not in poverty? I am not sure what your saying!
Your regular contributions to this site only confirm the point I make.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under Key’s wretched leadership
Yeah, this is a pretty silly set of indicators to use in such a blunt fashion, as clearly No car, No phone, No computer and no family holidays have other explanations than “poverty” as being the cause of them.
Instead it should be a points system, where you have to get 40 points to be considered in poverty, and things like no phone would score 10 points, whereas things like “garages or living rooms used as bedrooms” would count as 25 points.
I’m not sure that I’d want to raise kids without a phone or a car or a computer or even a family holiday for a week or so with relatives.
Me? I can do without three of those standing on my head. But if I were raising kids, they’re more important for the child’s education and socialisation.
1. Maybe you live very close to a library, and your child isn’t obsessed with screens so they don’t need constant access to a computer / internet.
2. Maybe you don’t have any relatives in the country to visit.
3. Maybe your family doesn’t have anyone who can or needs to drive a car, and your child is encouraged to use their own bike to get everywhere.
4. Maybe you just don’t need a phone, because you get on really closely with your neighbors and you just use theirs.
I’ll admit that #4 is a bit grasping, but the others aren’t too unreasonable.
My point is that not having 2 of those particular 4 things shouldn’t put you in to “poverty”. If you had 3 of those things, or 2 of those things + one of the other more important ones? Fine. But that’s why a more sophisticated scoring system should be used. I’m sure it wouldn’t take more than a few hours to come up with a system than it is better than simply “2 strikes and you’re out”.
The list conspicuously doesn’t mention anything about electricity being cut off or limited use of heating during winter due to prices, which are pretty good indicators as well. Better than “do you go on family holidays”.
Growing up, my family seldom went on holidays, because my parents were saving all their extra money to take us on a 5-week overseas holiday when I turned 12. Turns out they only needed 1/3rd of the money they eventually saved up, so when we came back they bought a car, a new computer and put an extension on the house. But we weren’t in poverty – it was just a choice my parents made.
You can put together a maybe about any of those factors. That doesn’t make it likely or reasonable. For example, these days “computer at home” is equivalent to “has school text books”.
The list mentions long term things that the kids would be aware of, because it’s the kids being surveyed. They wouldn’t know that, for example, a friend of mine turns off all home heating during winter whenever her kids are out.
But if you really want to critique the research, go read it rather than basing your criticism off a news report. And yes, some reasonably complex analyses are used to arrive at the deceptively simple “2 strikes” level reported in the news stories.
well anyone whithout a mobile phone would have an issue finding a job and may even could not keep a job if not ‘available’ on the ring of the bell.
anyone without a car especially rural or semi rural areas would have an issue finding a job, take kids to school or doctor or just go to the next supermarket – and would then be futher taxed by having to buy at a local dairy at a higher price
anyone without a computer or access to a computer and internet would have an issue finding a job or doing study / homework especially in rural semi rural areas where there may be a shortage of libraries that offer access to computer/printer/internet for free
anyone who can’t offer their children a holiday programme or can afford to take time of during school holidays (or even is permitted to do so) and need help from whanau to not leave children unsupervised during 8 weeks of summer holiday may want to disagree with you.
I think we need to see Point 1 – 9 not so much as luxury items. This is not the seventies anymore, people in this day and age can not well function without these items. Btw. I don’t have a mobile phone, but then i am 10 hours a day in my business and I have a landline. Not having a phone means literally that one is invisible and non existent.
Seriously what is poor for you? Half starved in a ditch?
I see some quite poor people, never seen one without a phone! If no car is a sign of poverty then we must be a rich Nation. Haven’t we one of the highest rates of car ownership in the OECD;
Your perceptions aren’t reality though, if you want reality talk to people from the Mission, Food banks and charities who see what’s going on every day.
All Russian sport to be banned from the Olympics due to doping.
Russian hooligans turn up in Marseille during Euro 2016
Anyone else think all this is just a bit too convenient given the war games NATO is playing in the Baltic, Poland and Ukraine at the moment?
Why, of course, the people don’t want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship…
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.
Russians banned from the Olympics? All the more medals for NZ.
So USA banned from the Olympics? Even more medals for NZ.
And ban Africa, Canada, Australia… 🙂
The media is the problem.
Propaganda about Corbyn, Syria, the Ukraine, Iraq…
Feed the plebs with stories about Instagram postings by celebrities.
The decline and fall of Rome had many similarities.
For the last 12 months I have had a $200 sub for an online Ancestory research program. It was OK, as it found a family 19 generations back. But watch out.
I had apparently ticked a box 12 months ago which said it would automatically roll over for another year. Which it did yesterday to the tune of $333. But I had gone as far as I wanted. Stop. I say stop and desist. They said I couldn’t stop. Committed! A phone call last night from I think the Philippines, and a fierce defence of my right to withdraw, and I may have had the contract cancelled.
My point is beware of what you sign up for!
The same goes for Adobe. I bought a month’s subscription to Photoshop a while ago to edit an add for the shop, my old version wouldn’t open the file so had to get the current one. Thought I’d selected all the right options for a single month, non-renewing subscription, but no. A month later Adobe are trying to take another month out of my card.
Unfortunately (for Adobe) they weren’t getting anywhere as I’d used a burner debit card (Loaded Card) that I use for online purchases. I transfer the required amount onto immediately prior to use and generally all’s good.
The upshot with Adobe is that they tried to get the payment for 21 days and then gave up. Adobe’s conditions turned out to be that subscriptions could only be canceled when the subscription was current, or would automatically renew. Adobe did say they would refund if it was canceled within a short time (10 days?). That all came out after the obligatory chat with the robot.
Moral of the story, try and read, and comprehend the conditions when you buy from these online outfits, and expect inertia marketing. It’s an insidious practice but how these globalised pricks roll.
But the process is pretty sneaky Graeme. I wonder how many people get caught out and are unable to know how to argue to cancel. Its a bit like the single phrase buried in pages of Insurance policies as opposed to key rules in big print. I think I will assume that they are all out to get me.
“I wonder how many people get caught out and are unable to know how to argue to cancel. ”
The answer to this is unfortunately a significant amount. Often the amounts aren’t that large, so cardholders don’t bother following up odd small transactions, then spending hours arguing with a robot or $2/hr call centre. A lot of card fraud also works like this, lots of small innocuous transactions adding up to a huge amount.
On the consumer protection side they give lip service and will try and negotiate the best deal for them that they can. The call centre location / robot algorithm is set up to maximise their opportunity. So you’ll end up arguing with someone from a culture with inherent negotiating abilities, and incentivised to get the best deal. The only moderation now is the power of social media, once their practices start to hurt them, they back off or run out of customers.
Another aspect to the online wide boys is taxation. Generally these purchases don’t attract any sales tax anywhere, and profits get a bit amorphous, so no income tax, anywhere.
Unfortunately (for Adobe) they weren’t getting anywhere as I’d used a burner debit card (Loaded Card) that I use for online purchases. I transfer the required amount onto immediately prior to use and generally all’s good.
The first three poverty factors of Paul’s survey are a joke when I think back on my life…. no car … cars were too expensive ….no phone …. even today I only need a phone to connect to the web …. No computer …. they were only in universities and Sinclair had not brought out the ZX80.
OK I know things change but perhaps people need to get a grip on what things really matter in life and starting out. Some of the other factors are suspect too like sleeping in the living-room and bedroom numbers. Well into ‘life’ I was living in a converted stable with just power and cold water, outside privy … maybe that was poverty but it was adequate and cheap …. I had been sleeping in the firm’s darkroom before somebody found a better place to live with her husband and passed the stable onto me.
You didn’t have a Sinclair ZX80 therefore there is no poverty in New Zealand. Do you even believe the shit you type?
OK, OK, I know that your entire sense of self-worth hangs on complete drivel, and examining it makes you uncomfortable, and it’s easier to simply regurgitate the lies you were spoonfed, but seriously; is that the best you can do?
As for the Auckland University study, I note your feeble attempt to belittle its provenance says lots about you and nothing at all about the study.
When I was young I had to walk uphill in bare feet both ways to get to the salt mines, kids today with their fancy shoes & smart phones don’t know how lucky they are, sarc.
1. Our cities have been designed to be car dependent making it essential to own a car. It’s not optional any more.
2. Did you know that it was a requirement to get the unemployment benefit to own a phone? WINZ don’t pay for the phone of course.
3. Computers to have become mandatory. They encase many things including schooling, political engagement, research and many other things that are part and parcel of today’s society.
If we followed your logic the Industrial Revolution would never have happened as nobody would have learned maths because back in my day we didn’t need it.
Draco …. Your points merely confirm my opinion of how society has gone on a wrong materialistic path …. I gather some call it Neoliberalism … a fancy word for a lack of common sense.
The first point was all about making profit. A car in each driveway produces far more profit than the entire number of buses needed to move a city. It’s actually a large part of the proof that the profit motive brings about the worst possible outcome rather than the best as our economists and RWNJs tell us.
The second point has to do with being contactable to get a job.
Those are the only two to do with neo-liberalism.
The third one has to do with being able to access the information needed to govern. Sure, a lot of people don’t use it for that but I’m also sure that that will change over time. It’s a large part of democracy.
And the only thing that can be said about common sense that old saw Common sense isn’t. Most of what’s passed off as ‘common sense’ is simply wrong.
“Governor Graeme Wheeler has today released proposed new urgent restrictions that will mean property investors across the country will need a deposit of at least 40 per cent….”
But that won’t stop investors will it? The equity in existing houses become the deposit for the next. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11677196
Really well planned?
Turkish officials would say that.
Organising a coup at 9.30 p.m. isn’t the best planning I can think of.
More and more people are questioning the reliability of the Guardian as a source after its pro-establishment line over Scotland, Brexit, Ukraine and Corbyn.
I note that you love to close down debate and discussion on many issues by using the words “conspiracy theories’. Is that by design?
Gwynne Dyer is an expert political commentator. He doesn’t buy the well planned argument.
It wasn’t a very competent coup attempt. The first rule of coup-making is: arrest or kill the person you are trying to overthrow. The coup leaders should have been able to grab Erdogan, who was on holiday at the seaside resort of Marmaris, but they didn’t.
They didn’t shut down the internet and social media either, so Erdogan was able to use his cellphone to get a message out on FaceTime, calling on his supporters to defy the soldiers on the streets of Istanbul and Ankara. They didn’t even shut down the broadcast media that sent Erdogan’s call out to the public.
It was three hours before they occupied the offices of TRT, the state broadcaster, and they were chased out again by Erdogan less than an hour later. They didn’t ever try to shut down the private television networks, which have a much bigger audience.
The second rule of coup-making is: act as if you mean it. This usually means that you have to be willing to kill people—but the colonels behind the coup (the generals were all vetted by Erdogan’s people) were reluctant to use large amounts of lethal force.
I like Rachel Stewart’s take.
”I’m pretty convinced that Turkey’s “coup” was about as staged as Milli Vanilli’s singing.”
Everyone has noticed how Erdogan already had purge lists of thousands of people drawn up and ready to go.
Next to be gone is 7000 police officers. (And the police stayed loyal to Erdogan during the coup).
One of the best theories I have seen is that what Ad references as a “well organised coup” was actually a parallel coup. Some military officials got wind that Erdogan was about to launch a massive purge which would catch thousands of them and other officials.
So they quickly organised and launched a rapid, pre-emptive coup ahead of Erdogan.
And failed.
So instead of being removed from their offices, now they are going to be shot.
(I think Erdogan will follow through with his threat to bring back civil capital punishment. Not that that’s an impediment to military tribunal capital punishment.)
This “really well planned coup” let CNN Turkey stay on the air, and let Erdogan do a Facetime appeal on the channel to hundreds of thousands of supporters to come out on the streets.
Then it appears that only a minority of military units took part in the coup, and most of them declined to use the force required to do their jobs. In fact, many coup soldiers looked bewildered and said that they had simply been told that they were on an exercise.
And Erdogan’s personal jet kept its transponder turned on up in the air for over an hour, and it wasn’t shot down even though the coup had interceptors in the air!
Ad, you do know Coup’s are by their very nature, are generally organised by a group of people, in secret. Or if you will, a secret group conspiring to overthrow a government?
So by definition it is a conspiracy, and like most conspiracies, it takes a long time to unravel them. So at present, the case put forward by the guardian, is just another conspiracy theory along with the rest.
All I know is the Kurds I know are freaking out. This is bad for them because Erdogan has reignited the civil war with them, he will use this as excuse to hurt the Kurds more. This is what we should be talking about. Not how a conspiracy has played out, because frankly, that is for historians.
Other home buyers will still need at least a 20% deposit.
But this time all the rules apply nationwide.
“A sharp correction in house prices is a key risk to the financial system, and there are clear signs that this risk is increasing across the country.”
-Graeme Wheeler, Governor of the Reserve bank of New Zealand.
Hopefully this has more effect than the last lot of measures.
CV is right. It is defiantly helping foreign investors and richer people a lot more than Kiwi Mums n Dads owning a 2nd property.
Everything this government does seems to be geared to help non residents and those paying no taxes here rather than people who live here. It is uncanny.
The Treasury has heavily criticised the government’s drug policy. It said (paraphrasing) “that instead of spending $400m a year on trying (and failing) to enforce the illegality of using cannabis it should instead legalise it such that it would gain $150m from taxes on its use.”
This is groundbreaking. Treasury, no less, are saying legalise cannabis. This will bring a gain of $550m to the public purse. Looks like a good policy option for Labour and Greens now that this has Treasury backing.
Well bombings in Brussels, trucks in Nice, ax attacks in Berlin, shootings in Paris, mass sex attacks in Cologne so yeah I think NZ is a better place at the moment
McClay admitted he received new information, while speaking with media on a trade trip to Indonesia.
“I’ve checked overnight and when I was in China I did receive some information from the embassy that an industry body made contact with a New Zealand company in China raising some concerns.
McClay using the old ‘didn’t get the email’ defence when he mis-spoke before.
and no we can’t expect the current National Party led government to do better cause free market, money needs to be made and surely Labour did it too at some stage over the last 100 years of its existence. so all is good in NZ.
+100…she was slagging off Mike Lee because he had an opinion on Auckland airport transport options. Apparently you have to agree with everything or resign. Complete bollocks. She has spent too much time talking to Key’s sheep in parliament….sorry “MP’s”.
Then someone texted in and asked that she declare her interest in supporting Bill Ralston to council. And boy, did she go off.
As usual, Mora and Edwards were utterly ineffective.
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As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
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Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Uncaring.
Anyone who voted this government in.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/82211556/half-of-all-new-zealand-pacific-teenagers-living-in-poverty-study-claims
http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/one-in-five-young-kiwis-live-in-poverty
So you could have no car and no holidays with the family and be classed as living in poverty………
I never knew I was so poor.
NOPE 9 factors NOT 2
I think the article states that if you miss 2 of the 9 factors then you are classed as living in poverty.
Not quite.
If children reported that their household was missing 2 of nine factors, then that was a hardship analog for poverty.
I might have no car, but I don’t have to get kids to school or sports practise.
I might have no holidays with family, but I can take a holiday any time.
I might have no computer at home, but this will not impact on my education.
I have a bedroom, but I only need one – I don’t have someone sleeping in my living room.
As soon as it’s not just about me, but about the kids I’m responsible for as well, then some of those indicators aren’t quite so easy to scoff at.
OOps!!!
I see some quite poor people, never seen one without a phone! If no car is a sign of poverty then we must be a rich Nation. Haven’t we one of the highest rates of car ownership in the OECD> So if you dont have all 9 your not in poverty? I am not sure what your saying!
You’re not sure what other people are saying, and you cut and paste your confusion in two comments.
Your regular contributions to this site only confirm the point I make.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under Key’s wretched leadership
‘Inhumane’ Auckland city businesses drenching homeless with water
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/-inhumane-auckland-city-businesses-drenching-homeless-with-water-q01872
Yeah, this is a pretty silly set of indicators to use in such a blunt fashion, as clearly No car, No phone, No computer and no family holidays have other explanations than “poverty” as being the cause of them.
Instead it should be a points system, where you have to get 40 points to be considered in poverty, and things like no phone would score 10 points, whereas things like “garages or living rooms used as bedrooms” would count as 25 points.
I’m not sure that I’d want to raise kids without a phone or a car or a computer or even a family holiday for a week or so with relatives.
Me? I can do without three of those standing on my head. But if I were raising kids, they’re more important for the child’s education and socialisation.
1. Maybe you live very close to a library, and your child isn’t obsessed with screens so they don’t need constant access to a computer / internet.
2. Maybe you don’t have any relatives in the country to visit.
3. Maybe your family doesn’t have anyone who can or needs to drive a car, and your child is encouraged to use their own bike to get everywhere.
4. Maybe you just don’t need a phone, because you get on really closely with your neighbors and you just use theirs.
I’ll admit that #4 is a bit grasping, but the others aren’t too unreasonable.
My point is that not having 2 of those particular 4 things shouldn’t put you in to “poverty”. If you had 3 of those things, or 2 of those things + one of the other more important ones? Fine. But that’s why a more sophisticated scoring system should be used. I’m sure it wouldn’t take more than a few hours to come up with a system than it is better than simply “2 strikes and you’re out”.
The list conspicuously doesn’t mention anything about electricity being cut off or limited use of heating during winter due to prices, which are pretty good indicators as well. Better than “do you go on family holidays”.
Growing up, my family seldom went on holidays, because my parents were saving all their extra money to take us on a 5-week overseas holiday when I turned 12. Turns out they only needed 1/3rd of the money they eventually saved up, so when we came back they bought a car, a new computer and put an extension on the house. But we weren’t in poverty – it was just a choice my parents made.
Good for you, I guess.
You can put together a maybe about any of those factors. That doesn’t make it likely or reasonable. For example, these days “computer at home” is equivalent to “has school text books”.
The list mentions long term things that the kids would be aware of, because it’s the kids being surveyed. They wouldn’t know that, for example, a friend of mine turns off all home heating during winter whenever her kids are out.
But if you really want to critique the research, go read it rather than basing your criticism off a news report. And yes, some reasonably complex analyses are used to arrive at the deceptively simple “2 strikes” level reported in the news stories.
well anyone whithout a mobile phone would have an issue finding a job and may even could not keep a job if not ‘available’ on the ring of the bell.
anyone without a car especially rural or semi rural areas would have an issue finding a job, take kids to school or doctor or just go to the next supermarket – and would then be futher taxed by having to buy at a local dairy at a higher price
anyone without a computer or access to a computer and internet would have an issue finding a job or doing study / homework especially in rural semi rural areas where there may be a shortage of libraries that offer access to computer/printer/internet for free
anyone who can’t offer their children a holiday programme or can afford to take time of during school holidays (or even is permitted to do so) and need help from whanau to not leave children unsupervised during 8 weeks of summer holiday may want to disagree with you.
I think we need to see Point 1 – 9 not so much as luxury items. This is not the seventies anymore, people in this day and age can not well function without these items. Btw. I don’t have a mobile phone, but then i am 10 hours a day in my business and I have a landline. Not having a phone means literally that one is invisible and non existent.
Seriously what is poor for you? Half starved in a ditch?
I see some quite poor people, never seen one without a phone! If no car is a sign of poverty then we must be a rich Nation. Haven’t we one of the highest rates of car ownership in the OECD;
Your perceptions aren’t reality though, if you want reality talk to people from the Mission, Food banks and charities who see what’s going on every day.
Get out more then.
All Russian sport to be banned from the Olympics due to doping.
Russian hooligans turn up in Marseille during Euro 2016
Anyone else think all this is just a bit too convenient given the war games NATO is playing in the Baltic, Poland and Ukraine at the moment?
Hermann Goering
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jul/17/banned-russian-athletes-smear-campaign-documentary-rio-olympics-2016
http://www.globalresearch.ca/smearing-russia-in-the-eyes-of-public-opinion-politics-propaganda-and-the-weaponization-of-the-rio-olympics/5532250
Russians banned from the Olympics? All the more medals for NZ.
So USA banned from the Olympics? Even more medals for NZ.
And ban Africa, Canada, Australia… 🙂
I’m not sure about that. Aren’t they only sending people who have a chance of a medal anyway? The ones who would have benefited aren’t getting sent.
Eddie the Eagle would win Gold if he was the only entry. 🙂
Yes clearly a plot by the reverse vampires in cahoots with the lizard people.
Fool that is exactly what the real rulers, the praying mantis elite alien advance flottila, want you to believe ☺
Maaaaaybe Russia shouldn’t have had a massive state doping programme then. That might have helped their case to be in the Olympic games a bit.
Too obvious, no one would fall for that.
Do you accept the results of the Chilcott inquiry?
The media is the problem.
Propaganda about Corbyn, Syria, the Ukraine, Iraq…
Feed the plebs with stories about Instagram postings by celebrities.
The decline and fall of Rome had many similarities.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5fbvquHSPJU
For the last 12 months I have had a $200 sub for an online Ancestory research program. It was OK, as it found a family 19 generations back. But watch out.
I had apparently ticked a box 12 months ago which said it would automatically roll over for another year. Which it did yesterday to the tune of $333. But I had gone as far as I wanted. Stop. I say stop and desist. They said I couldn’t stop. Committed! A phone call last night from I think the Philippines, and a fierce defence of my right to withdraw, and I may have had the contract cancelled.
My point is beware of what you sign up for!
The same goes for Adobe. I bought a month’s subscription to Photoshop a while ago to edit an add for the shop, my old version wouldn’t open the file so had to get the current one. Thought I’d selected all the right options for a single month, non-renewing subscription, but no. A month later Adobe are trying to take another month out of my card.
Unfortunately (for Adobe) they weren’t getting anywhere as I’d used a burner debit card (Loaded Card) that I use for online purchases. I transfer the required amount onto immediately prior to use and generally all’s good.
The upshot with Adobe is that they tried to get the payment for 21 days and then gave up. Adobe’s conditions turned out to be that subscriptions could only be canceled when the subscription was current, or would automatically renew. Adobe did say they would refund if it was canceled within a short time (10 days?). That all came out after the obligatory chat with the robot.
Moral of the story, try and read, and comprehend the conditions when you buy from these online outfits, and expect inertia marketing. It’s an insidious practice but how these globalised pricks roll.
But the process is pretty sneaky Graeme. I wonder how many people get caught out and are unable to know how to argue to cancel. Its a bit like the single phrase buried in pages of Insurance policies as opposed to key rules in big print. I think I will assume that they are all out to get me.
“I wonder how many people get caught out and are unable to know how to argue to cancel. ”
The answer to this is unfortunately a significant amount. Often the amounts aren’t that large, so cardholders don’t bother following up odd small transactions, then spending hours arguing with a robot or $2/hr call centre. A lot of card fraud also works like this, lots of small innocuous transactions adding up to a huge amount.
On the consumer protection side they give lip service and will try and negotiate the best deal for them that they can. The call centre location / robot algorithm is set up to maximise their opportunity. So you’ll end up arguing with someone from a culture with inherent negotiating abilities, and incentivised to get the best deal. The only moderation now is the power of social media, once their practices start to hurt them, they back off or run out of customers.
Another aspect to the online wide boys is taxation. Generally these purchases don’t attract any sales tax anywhere, and profits get a bit amorphous, so no income tax, anywhere.
Clever. One to remember.
Yes. Me too Graeme re the burner debit card.
The first three poverty factors of Paul’s survey are a joke when I think back on my life…. no car … cars were too expensive ….no phone …. even today I only need a phone to connect to the web …. No computer …. they were only in universities and Sinclair had not brought out the ZX80.
OK I know things change but perhaps people need to get a grip on what things really matter in life and starting out. Some of the other factors are suspect too like sleeping in the living-room and bedroom numbers. Well into ‘life’ I was living in a converted stable with just power and cold water, outside privy … maybe that was poverty but it was adequate and cheap …. I had been sleeping in the firm’s darkroom before somebody found a better place to live with her husband and passed the stable onto me.
You didn’t have a Sinclair ZX80 therefore there is no poverty in New Zealand. Do you even believe the shit you type?
OK, OK, I know that your entire sense of self-worth hangs on complete drivel, and examining it makes you uncomfortable, and it’s easier to simply regurgitate the lies you were spoonfed, but seriously; is that the best you can do?
As for the Auckland University study, I note your feeble attempt to belittle its provenance says lots about you and nothing at all about the study.
Your contributions above only confirms the point I make.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under Key’s wretched leadership.
Are you happy to live in a country where this happens?
Would’ve been a palace to us!
When I was young I had to walk uphill in bare feet both ways to get to the salt mines, kids today with their fancy shoes & smart phones don’t know how lucky they are, sarc.
Yes, things have changed.
1. Our cities have been designed to be car dependent making it essential to own a car. It’s not optional any more.
2. Did you know that it was a requirement to get the unemployment benefit to own a phone? WINZ don’t pay for the phone of course.
3. Computers to have become mandatory. They encase many things including schooling, political engagement, research and many other things that are part and parcel of today’s society.
If we followed your logic the Industrial Revolution would never have happened as nobody would have learned maths because back in my day we didn’t need it.
Draco …. Your points merely confirm my opinion of how society has gone on a wrong materialistic path …. I gather some call it Neoliberalism … a fancy word for a lack of common sense.
The first point was all about making profit. A car in each driveway produces far more profit than the entire number of buses needed to move a city. It’s actually a large part of the proof that the profit motive brings about the worst possible outcome rather than the best as our economists and RWNJs tell us.
The second point has to do with being contactable to get a job.
Those are the only two to do with neo-liberalism.
The third one has to do with being able to access the information needed to govern. Sure, a lot of people don’t use it for that but I’m also sure that that will change over time. It’s a large part of democracy.
And the only thing that can be said about common sense that old saw Common sense isn’t. Most of what’s passed off as ‘common sense’ is simply wrong.
Would you be glad to raise kids in a stable??
With starting initials of JC you never know! lol
“Governor Graeme Wheeler has today released proposed new urgent restrictions that will mean property investors across the country will need a deposit of at least 40 per cent….”
But that won’t stop investors will it? The equity in existing houses become the deposit for the next.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11677196
A pretty thrilling account of how close the recent Turkish coup came to succeeding:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/18/military-coup-was-well-planned-and-very-nearly-succeeded-say-turkish-officials
As more of these accounts come out, it will help put aside silly conspiracy stories about how it was all just a giant stunt by Erdogan.
Really well planned?
Turkish officials would say that.
Organising a coup at 9.30 p.m. isn’t the best planning I can think of.
More and more people are questioning the reliability of the Guardian as a source after its pro-establishment line over Scotland, Brexit, Ukraine and Corbyn.
I note that you love to close down debate and discussion on many issues by using the words “conspiracy theories’. Is that by design?
Gwynne Dyer is an expert political commentator. He doesn’t buy the well planned argument.
I like Rachel Stewart’s take.
”I’m pretty convinced that Turkey’s “coup” was about as staged as Milli Vanilli’s singing.”
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20160718/gwynne-dyer-half-hearted-coup
https://twitter.com/RFStew/status/755141011693633536
Everyone has noticed how Erdogan already had purge lists of thousands of people drawn up and ready to go.
Next to be gone is 7000 police officers. (And the police stayed loyal to Erdogan during the coup).
One of the best theories I have seen is that what Ad references as a “well organised coup” was actually a parallel coup. Some military officials got wind that Erdogan was about to launch a massive purge which would catch thousands of them and other officials.
So they quickly organised and launched a rapid, pre-emptive coup ahead of Erdogan.
And failed.
So instead of being removed from their offices, now they are going to be shot.
(I think Erdogan will follow through with his threat to bring back civil capital punishment. Not that that’s an impediment to military tribunal capital punishment.)
This “really well planned coup” let CNN Turkey stay on the air, and let Erdogan do a Facetime appeal on the channel to hundreds of thousands of supporters to come out on the streets.
Then it appears that only a minority of military units took part in the coup, and most of them declined to use the force required to do their jobs. In fact, many coup soldiers looked bewildered and said that they had simply been told that they were on an exercise.
And Erdogan’s personal jet kept its transponder turned on up in the air for over an hour, and it wasn’t shot down even though the coup had interceptors in the air!
Really weird shit.
Well planned as defined by ‘Turkish Officials’ not included on the pre coup ‘purge lists’
“Thrilling account” is a term better used for a fictional movie production or bed time story.
The Monty Python esque coup attempt by a military with a strong history of successful coups to its credit, doesn’t qualify as, ‘thrilling’
Ad, you do know Coup’s are by their very nature, are generally organised by a group of people, in secret. Or if you will, a secret group conspiring to overthrow a government?
So by definition it is a conspiracy, and like most conspiracies, it takes a long time to unravel them. So at present, the case put forward by the guardian, is just another conspiracy theory along with the rest.
All I know is the Kurds I know are freaking out. This is bad for them because Erdogan has reignited the civil war with them, he will use this as excuse to hurt the Kurds more. This is what we should be talking about. Not how a conspiracy has played out, because frankly, that is for historians.
Breaking news:
New Zealand property investors will need a 40% deposit, according to new Reserve bank rules.
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2995161/ReserveBankConsultationPaper.pdf
Other home buyers will still need at least a 20% deposit.
But this time all the rules apply nationwide.
“A sharp correction in house prices is a key risk to the financial system, and there are clear signs that this risk is increasing across the country.”
-Graeme Wheeler, Governor of the Reserve bank of New Zealand.
Hopefully this has more effect than the last lot of measures.
Foreign Chinese cash buyers will be happy with these changes.
thats racist dude
It’s a pure economic analysis. Nothing racist about it. It takes local Kiwi competition out of the market and gives cash buyers like them a clear run.
nah its only racist when Labour says it. 🙂
Should you not change “Foreign Chinese cash buyers” to those cashed up the the People’s Liberation Army?
OK not all, like those trying to get the hell out of Hong Kong, and Macau.
CV is right. It is defiantly helping foreign investors and richer people a lot more than Kiwi Mums n Dads owning a 2nd property.
Everything this government does seems to be geared to help non residents and those paying no taxes here rather than people who live here. It is uncanny.
Greenpeace having fun with teh ‘leave and we put 350 million to the NHS Bus”. The bought it.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/greenpeace-bus-nhs-brexit-vote-leave-350-million-repainting-messages-outside-parliament-a7142451.html
RSA Animate: Ha-Joon Chong
Video, autoplays.
Just reported on RNZ.
The Treasury has heavily criticised the government’s drug policy. It said (paraphrasing) “that instead of spending $400m a year on trying (and failing) to enforce the illegality of using cannabis it should instead legalise it such that it would gain $150m from taxes on its use.”
This is groundbreaking. Treasury, no less, are saying legalise cannabis. This will bring a gain of $550m to the public purse. Looks like a good policy option for Labour and Greens now that this has Treasury backing.
Great stuff.
Or at least de-criminalise cannabis.
Yes but better to legalise, then there can be the $150m tax revenue.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11677179
NZ has its problems but still a lot better then Europe at the moment
What are NZs problems?
PR means the Natz
Nothing that can’t be forgotten when reading about an axe attack in Germany.
Well bombings in Brussels, trucks in Nice, ax attacks in Berlin, shootings in Paris, mass sex attacks in Cologne so yeah I think NZ is a better place at the moment
I prefer not to use other peoples’ misery to make myself feel better.
Good for you
That come 2020 there’ll probably be a Labour/Green government 🙂
nah mate by then we will be flying the chinese flag. 🙂
Well it could be worse
true that we could have had that ugly flag that was not the hypno flag.
I did like hypno flag. t’was a good flag for the country, so suiting to the mind set of many.
In the latest ‘major backdown’ by the government…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/82236173/nz-gets-new-assurances-from-chinese-embassy-over-trade-war-fears
McClay using the old ‘didn’t get the email’ defence when he mis-spoke before.
serco…the gift that keeps on giving.
and no we can’t expect the current National Party led government to do better cause free market, money needs to be made and surely Labour did it too at some stage over the last 100 years of its existence. so all is good in NZ.
we now officially don’t give a shit anymore.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/82241264/prison-operator-serco-slammed-over-treatment-of-inmate-at-mt-eden-prison
Michelle Boag on the Panel with no rebuttal from either Mora or Edwards.
Ghastly.
+100…she was slagging off Mike Lee because he had an opinion on Auckland airport transport options. Apparently you have to agree with everything or resign. Complete bollocks. She has spent too much time talking to Key’s sheep in parliament….sorry “MP’s”.
Then someone texted in and asked that she declare her interest in supporting Bill Ralston to council. And boy, did she go off.
As usual, Mora and Edwards were utterly ineffective.
Commons votes for Trident renewal by majority of 355
Over half Labour MPs but not Jeremy Corbyn back motion after Theresa May says she would order nuclear strike
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/18/mps-vote-in-favour-of-trident-renewal-nuclear-deterrent?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H+categories&utm_term=182262&subid=13842748&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
Yes – some of us ARE having an anti-TPPA protest against USA Vice-President Joe Biden.
(It’s Our Future Auckland have called this protest.)
WHEN: Wed 20 July 2016
WHERE: Cnr George Bolt Memorial Drive / Tom Pearce Drive (in front of Z petrol station)
Near Auckland airport.
TIME: 3 – 5.30pm
(It gets HEAPS of traffic!)
Want to ‘stand up and be counted’?
(You may need an umbrella 🙂
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.