….The Australian Border Force say that there is no mass hunger strike in Western Australia. But our sources inside are adamant that there is. And we’ve heard leaked audio that backs that up.
We’ve also asked for comment from the New Zealand Government. This is of course has been a diplomatic issue between the two countries for several years now. And one that Corrections Minister, Kelvin Davis, has been very vocal about in the past. But there is no word tonight from the New Zealand Government. And many detainees feel they could do more.
Kelvin Davis was “very vocal about this in the past”. That is true. But that of course was during the lead up to the last election, before he was returned to his seat in parliament as the member for Te Tai Tokerau.
Since then Kelvin Davis has been virtually silent on the issue.
“In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies … but the silence of our friends.”─ Martin Luther King
No one with any sense voted for Labour after 84. For the lack of choice , spoiled my ballot in 87.
It is a continuing theme of radical propaganda and back-tracking in power. Can someone suggest a good analysis of Lee’s ‘Simple on a Soapbox’. Definitely Lee had an ego but all the figures of that time appear conservative in his vista without the caucus’s voting. ‘We’ll be the laughing stock of the world’ said MJS about the 30 shilling old age pension.
Do you really expect the New Zealand government to tell Australia how it should run its prisons/detention camps?
The PM has certainly been quiet on the issue when she advocated the whole issue of detainees/illegal immigrants around 12 months ago. The pushback from Turnbull was quite severe. I think the (then new) government got the message loud and clear not to tell the Australians how to run their country.
One would have assumed someone with your experience Wayne would know the difference between telling another country what to do and standing up for your own citizens.
The latter being what one assumes Jenny was implying.
Fist point; The australians do run a first world justice system and expect New Zealand to understand that.
Second point, and really the key one I was making; the New Zealand government very quickly learned not to lecture Australia, and that seems to include Kelvin Davis.
The treatment and conditions resulting from this first world justice system is what is in dispute.
To not be seen standing up for your citizens (or to even bother to comment) will create flak at home. More so, if one was previously immensely vocal before being elected into power.
“The australians do run a first world justice system”
No – they run a two-tier system – a first worldish one for Oz citizens and a different one for everybody else. They do this unashamedly in order to deter backdoor immigration, because Australia is still a place that lots of people want to get to. With 2.5 to 3 degrees of warming it will be a place people are desperate to leave. That will be a grim sort of poetic justice.
“Do you really expect the New Zealand government to tell Australia how it should run its prisons/detention camps”
No – I expect it to kowtow to superior economic and military power. But while doing this, I don’t expect it to utter the sort of dull, grey, turgid, privilege and injustice-defending bromides that would make it sound like Wayne Mapp.
Do you really expect the New Zealand government to tell Australia how it should run its prisons/detention camps? Of course.
Why? So then the likes of those who say Davis is silent would be able to criticise him, accusing him of butting into Australian affairs and how he’s an embarrassment to our country for doing that.
Diplomatic issue? The issue is that Davis has to make a choice between being attacked mercilessly for outwardly putting the boot into the Aussies or for not overtly putting the boot into the Aussies. Attacked by the same people.
He isn’t in the headlines about it so he’s doing nothing. Let’s attack him about that too. And if he is in the headlines saying he’s doing something and there’s an outline of constructive steps towards some constructive resolution, lets attack the media outlet as a mouthpiece for the left.
And if constructive steps get the people put on planes to New Zealand and one of them does something wrong, stupid or bad, let’s blame Davis for getting them into the country and boot him again.
It’s a political issue. That’s when you get someone saying, “Evil triumphs when good men do nothing. The silence of Kelvin Davis.”
Hi Pete, I really can’t understand where you are coming from.
Without any evidence at all you slyly accuse, myself, and presumably others, of criticising Kelvin Davis when he is silent about the plight of the detainees, and also when he speaks up for the detainees, saying, “how he’s an embarrassment to our country for doing that”. This is a complete lying smear. For the record I was very much in support of Kelvin Davis’ early advocacy for the detainees, and would be very pleased to see him take up their cause again..
In future Pete, instead of engaging in broad smears, you need to say exactly who it is you claim is criticising Kelvin for standing up for the detainees, and who also criticise him for not standing up for the detainees. And provide some sort of evidence to back up your claims.
Do you really think the Australian Authorities are going to admit what is going on in their Detention Centres. The Australian Government has not had a good history of dealing nicely with indigeneous races, and come to think of it we have not been super good here in New Zealand as well IMHO ?
we must not forget who and what is waiting in the wings…
… Because we’re all so obsessed with Trump I don’t think we take enough time to reflect on how deeply terrifying Pence is. Trump may be a bigot, but Pence is a zealot – he believes his discriminatory views are justified by a higher power. Trump may not care about morals but Pence has a dangerous view of what morality entails. He refuses to eat alone with any woman who isn’t his wife, for example, because he apparently views women as nothing more than dangerous sexual temptations. And despite his beliefs about moral purity, he has no problem associating himself with Trump, a man who pays off porn stars. Also, he reportedly calls his wife “Mother” – which is just really creepy.
The Pences, of course, should be free to believe whatever they like. What they shouldn’t be free to do, however, is impose their bigoted views on everyone else, which is exactly what they’re doing. It is not entirely improbable that Pence might be president soon. If that happens then it seems clear he’ll do his best to turn the country into a real-life version of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Congratulations to Mariah (Carey) for having the best response to the nauseating #10YearChallenge that is currently everywhere on social media. “I don’t get this 10-year challenge, time is not something I acknowledge,” she tweeted alongside two identical pictures of herself. This will now be my go-to line for my editor every time I file copy late.
America, in a yet another public display of it’s new role as now unashamed authoritarian world bully boys and corporate enforcers which of course leads to it’s complete lack of regard for free press (when it suits them), has detained with out charge Press TV’ s journalist Marzieh Hashemi for over six days so far.
And while we are on the subject of free press, here is a piece well worth reading from Aaron Mate on The Nation dismantling more of the increasingly hysterical and unhinged ‘Russia Gate” conspiracies…
Of course you wouldn’t know that the whole Russia Gate conspiracy just one huge smoke screen reading or listening to msm, and unfortunately many on this site.
So while we have all had to hear endlessly week after week to this conspiracy theory (which is all it is at this point) that always goes nowhere, the Democratic party and Hillary Clinton have had to take exactly zero responsibility for losing to a half brain dead z grade TV game show host, why is that?
If you are a Russia gate believer, maybe this is the question you should start asking yourself…
Well, duh. If it was, Trump would be making a prison cell look even uglier than it already did, and we’d all be contemplating President Pence and thinking you really do need to be careful what you wish for. Most criminal investigations don’t feature a “smoking gun,” that’s why we have juries – and why they take longer than five minutes to reach a verdict. That doesn’t make those criminal investigations “conspiracy theories.”
And that’s an important point. Juries are often advised by the judge to arrive at a decision based on `the balance of probabilities’, aren’t they? Which is just as elegant way of saying `take your best guess, folks’.
So, in practice, courts decide more often on the picture painted by circumstantial evidence than on proof. Which is where Mueller III’s unprecedented breaking of media silence comes in.
“Cohen was sentenced in December to three years in prison for lying to Congress, campaign finance violations and financial crimes. He said he took full responsibility for his crimes, but said he acted out of blind loyalty to Mr. Trump, who he said “led me to choose a path of darkness over light.””
“During his nomination hearing this week to become attorney general, William P. Barr was asked if the president would have committed a crime if he had coached a witness to testify falsely — or not to testify at all. “Yes,” Mr. Barr said. “Under an obstruction statute, yes.”” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/us/politics/buzzfeed-cohen-russia-tower.html
The day before Buzzfeed reported evidence that Trump had committed that crime. Mueller III yesterday denied that was accurate. He obviously felt he had to – because of that bunch of calls for him to act by leading congressmen. Looks like he doesn’t have a basis to act against Trump. He’s been gathering circumstantial evidence to paint the picture for two years. Not enough.
As I presume you know “balance of probabilities” is about civil trials. Anything to do with impeachment/Russia collusion is on the criminal standard of “beyond reasonable doubt.”
Thanks Wayne. No, I’ve never studied legal process. Just have the view of the average layman – a general idea of how the system works picked up from long-term observation. Beyond reasonable doubt sounds like a requirement of proof to me.
Buzzfeed used the agreement of two ex-govt officials as basis for their claim that the proof exists. Mueller III denied that their claim was accurate. Sounds like the evidence is debatable: proof to some, not to others. This discord around evidence has long been a phenomenon in science: evidence can be interpreted as proof, but opinions often differ. Even between experts!
Uhhh, when it comes to impeachment and conviction, it’s whatever at least 218 House Representatives and at least 67 senators agree are impeachable “high crimes and misdemeanours”, to whatever standard of proof they agree on. Impeachment and conviction is not a criminal proceeding, and it’s different to a civil matter as well.
It is literally correct to say that if said numbers of Congresspeople agreed that what Individual-1 does with his ties are impeachable “high crimes and misdemeanours”, he’d be outta there. Article 1 of impeachment could be the way he wears them way too long to point at the wizened Toad lurking in his trousers. Article 2 of Impeachment could be the way he uses sellotape to vainly attempt to hold the two dangly bits together.
John Roberts as the presiding justice over the senate trial could put as much effort as he wanted to into pointing out how fkn ridiculous it was, but in the end, if 67 senators voted to convict. it’s a done deal. The more likely procedural way to protect Individual-1 would be for the Senate Majority Leader, aka Yertle McConnell, to refuse to even bring the matter to the senate floor for consideration.
“An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers to be at a given moment in history; conviction results from whatever offense or offenses two-thirds of the other body considers to be sufficiently serious to require removal of the accused from office.”
Funnily enough the powers that be seem to (so far) be entirely relying on the public believing the “smoking gun” theory.
You seem to not realise that “Smoking gun” refers to the strongest kind of circumstantial evidence, as opposed to direct evidence. ie…
The smoking gun theory is as follows….
“Trumps been to Russia and wanted to build a Russian Trump Tower;
There are Russians on the internet putting up adverts and #fake news supporting Bernie/Trump/Stein and these have been amazingly successful at…
getting disenfranchised whites in the rust belt all rilled up (which makes no sence ‘cos there lives/wages/housing/health and that of their children are getting better and better with each passing year)
and getting African Americans all rilled up and resentful (which also makes no sence ‘cos there lives are sweet as too);
Bernie and Trump did well;
Its simply not possible that the public no longer believe in the Corporate Democrats ability to deliver change and (cough) ‘Hope’, and that the public would willingly vote for the likes of Trump or Bernie or Stein, therefore……Trump is a Russian stooge.”
(The smoking gun theory also involves ignoring how much the Democrats/Hilary spent, because apparently the Russians are way way better at pushing their message than any of the agencies working for Hilary)
Oh it’s a conspiracy theory alright, and why any critical thinking person is still buying into it’s bullshit constructed narrative is for me the strangest part of the whole thing..quite disheartening really.
With that in mind I think we need tolay out the cards here and face the facts, Russia gate conspiracists are willing to accept, defend and support the narrative of Ex Bush FBI head Robert Mueller and his various (seriously) dodgy co conspirators over established truth tellers like Glenn Greenwald, Robert Fisk, John Pilger, etc etc….
Well as the old saying goes, ‘you make the bed you lie in’
But I guess on the bright side you always have the in depth hard hitting reporting of the liberal turned war hawk Racheal Maddow to keep you up to date ha.
Robert Fisk as an established truth teller? Isn’t he the discredited journalist who was found to have made up stories & treated them as investigative journalism? Maybe he now works for Buzzfeed ?
I remember reading in the NZ Herald quite a few years ago how Robert Fisk came in for some heavy criticism from other journalists, who said he always seemed to get a very detailed story, when others said they were always suspicious of him.
The first link is to an apology by Fisk for writing an article in 2011 in which he quoted from a forged document (unknown to Fisk at the time), hardly a reason to discredit a journalist with decades of solid war reporting.
BTW your linked source HonestReporting (Defending Israel from Media Bias) also defends Israeli violence against unarmed civilians..detaining children in prison..etc etc
HonestReporting’s Top 10 Posts of 2018 https://honestreporting.com/honestreportings-top-posts-of-2018/
As far as Idrees Ahmad’s (whom I admire) piece goes, that is more problematic, the Syrian conflict is so complex, that I personally try to stay at some distance from it, so i can’t really comment on that article.
But I can see your position re’ Fisk if that is your view on the Syrian conflict nonetheless.
Not sure about the Syrian conflict, but seems some people are now saying Fisk is a stooge of Assad & the Russians. Have no idea if this is even true & in the end all journalists have to be paid by someone. Truly being independent is maybe a difficult thing for journalists to achieve.
Difficult to know re Fisk, but I do remember a lot of journalists saying that he always seemed to get the perfect story which seemed to be embellished.
Tamati is right – we live in societies still struggling with their colonial past. In Aotearoa it is hard to appreciate that there was once a time when it was considered acceptable to exterminate indigenous people.
In Australia ‘Kriol’ is a relatively new Aboriginal language with upwards of 20,000 speakers in the Northern Territory and the neigbouring Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is a creole language – meaning it is a kind of emergency language with specific origin.
It arose early this century when surviving members of decimated language groups congregated at the Roper River Mission in order to escape killings being carried out by cattle station companies. Many adults were multilingual – but not in the same languages. Children had often not developed full language competence .
In this situation the only form of communication was a pidgin which had entered the Northern Territory a few decades before with the cattle trade.
It is easy to forget this history in urban centres but like an old coral reef it repeatedly resurfaces when conservative parties with a strong rural base hold sway in Canberra.
I notice the self-satisfied expression of the one young white man who stands in front of the American Indian (Nathan Philips of the Omaha Nation). His tight smile says you can’t make me move, and you can’t touch me.
I keep seeing the left criticize Trump for stating MAGA. Claiming he wants to bring back racism, slavery and segregation. What a bunch of cucks.
Let’s set the record straight. We are going back to a Great America.
An America where the people trust the government.
An America where we are proud of the USA.
An America where we don’t fear terrorist, but terrorist fear us.
An America where getting a job and livable wage is easy.
An America where we create wealth and prosperity.
An America with a tax surplus and not a multi-trillion dollar deficit.
An America where anyone can afford to go to the hospital.
An America where everyone can go to college.
An America where people aren’t afraid of police.
An America with more schools than prisons.
An America that upholds the bill of rights.
An America that spends money to fix itself before “fixing” the world.
An America where “Made in USA” is cheaper than “Made in China”.
An America that doesn’t have one way tarrifs.
An America that doesn’t allow threats of war from other nations. Looking at you North Korea.
An America that stands for Freedom and Democracy.
That’s the America we are going back to. That is the future. No more free rides for fake allies. No more fake diplomacy while Americans die to terrorist. No more corrupt secret deals. No more profit at the expense of American lives.
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!!
FUCK YOU CLINTON, CTR, DEMOCRATS, AND ANY OTHER FREEDOM HATING TRAITORS!
Those thick youth look like cardboard cutouts compared to the native elders. Those young adults are nothing, not even dust, gone, evaporated back to their nothingness.
“The students, many of whom were wearing “Make America Great Again” caps, from private, all-male Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills were in Washington for an anti-abortion rally on Friday when they were filmed surrounding Nathan Phillips and mocking the Native American’s singing and drumming.”
Frankie the Pope has a message for the little shits.
Pope Francis on Friday addressed a video message to the world’s young indigenous people holding their World Indigenous Youth Gathering in Soloy, Diocese of David, Panama, from January 17 to 21. The young people will then move on to Panama city to join the World Youth Day (WYD) 2019, January 22-27, which the Pope is joining on January 23.
Speaking in Spanish, the Pope is encouraging the indigenous young people to hold on to their cultures and roots by fighting marginalization, exclusion, waste and impoverishment that is threatening them and build another world that is possible and that is more just and human.
[…]
Return to native cultures. Take care of the roots, because from the roots comes the strength that will make you grow, prosper and bear fruit. It must also be a way of showing the indigenous face of our Church in the context of WYD and of affirming our commitment to protect the Common House and to collaborate in building another possible world, that is more just and more human.
“But lesser known are the (Monty Python) troupe’s other feature-length films, including 1983’s “The Meaning of Life.” Amidst a dinner party with Death and a machine that goes “ping!”, audiences are treated to one of the weirdest, most catchy astronomy tunes out there: The Galaxy Song…
… just how accurate is the science? Let’s take a look!
[What’s going on, cobber? Your last few comments look like you’ve walked away from the laptop and your pet hamster has tap danced on the keyboard. If you want to put a link up, please add a short explanation of its relevance. Don’t want to waste people’s time, ae? TRP]
Anyone watch Go South on Prime last night? Really awesome piece of TV. Hopefully this will manage to get on TV networks all round the world. Do more to promote NZ than anything else.
A predictable opinion piece in today’s Herald website by Lawrence Yule National MP for Tukituki and spokesperson for horticulture. Nowt, zip, yadda, nil, nothing about the orchidists paying their workforce a decent wage – but he reckons the Government has a role to play to help them out. Poor petals. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12193308
A leaked poll commissioned by the pro-EU Best for Britain campaign suggests that voters would be less likely to back Labour if the party was committed to stopping Brexit.
According to the poll, passed to the Guardian, almost a third of respondents said they would be less likely to vote Labour, a similar number to those who said it would not make a difference. Twenty-five per cent said it would make them more likely to back Labour, with the rest saying they did not know.
it is not cake and eating it too, rather it is combining representative democracy and direct democracy.
So with that in mind in this case: An election is held that combines the Tory platform with the favored brexit approach of it’s support base (which is looking for the maximum separations with the EU) & the Labour combines it’s platform with the favored brexit approach of it’s support base (which is looking for a continuation of partnership with the EU as much as possible).
Then the representatives of the election result, negotiate their balances to the differences and trade offs with the EU and their supoort base platform, so it remains a winning process for the electorate’s involvement in the process. And either way the election goes, there remains strong bargaining power for the British side.
And i believe, at heart, it is probably that simple in how to complete the process started with the referendum in a way that is diplomatic to all concerned.
Like everyone I’d always believed that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. And then I read this:
The Black Horse
When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!” (Revelation 6:5-6)
And realised that the The Black Horse wasn’t famine at all.
Good riddance to New Zealand’s Biggest Bogans
by E. KERR McROVI, The N.Z. Gerald, Sunday 20 January 2019
You would have to wonder what this country’s Biggest Bogans were doing when they chose the New Zealand taxpayer to fund their calumny from 2008 until we gave them the arse in 2017.
Did they think we were complete saps, willing to roll over and accept their appalling anti-social and criminal behaviour? That we were too primitive and unsophisticated to galvanise ourselves into a posse of right-thinking community policemen and women? A little bit of homework would have shown that we have spectacularly good form in bringing down even highly trained criminals, far less amateurs.
But just to recap … That bunch of foul mouthed, bribe-taking, snitching, backstabbing, housing expenses-rorting, cigar smoke-blowing, hairpulling louts made headlines on a daily – nay, hourly – basis. Since award-winning journalist Nicky Hager exposed to the nation in 2014 that their leader had allowed his office to be the command centre for an illegal, secret campaign of character assassination and vilification run by the infamous and disgusting Cameron FailAll Slater, assisted incompetently and pathetically by his stumble-tongued slave Jordan Williams, this gang of reprobates ran our country’s reputation into the ground with the same lack of concern as their dirty dairy friends foul the water the rest of us used to drink and swim in.
The gang of thugs parked up at the Beehive for nine terrible years quickly drew the attention of Kiwis thanks to their filthy language and their filthy behaviour. [1] When a local woman suffering from asthma asked one of them to stop smoking a cigar in their enclosed box at a football match, the feral fellow turned particularly nasty. Instead of ceasing to smoke, he walked up to the woman and blew smoke in her face. This led to the woman’s husband nearly knocking Coleman’s brains out. [2] And thus it began.
As a result of the publicity over the cigar fracas, a number of people approached the Herald with their own horror stories of encountering the nation’s Biggest Bogans.
A man who had the great misfortune to share a flight with one of these appalling humans recounted his bad behaviour at Christchurch Airport in 2014. It was hours of misery for everyone involved, when the fattest and most unpleasant of all the Bogans bumptiously bypassed security to board a domestic flight. He was fined $2,000 for that bit of idiocy. [3]
Next, a young waitress from Parnell came forward to complain about the leader of the Unruly Gang. She recognised the lout from his many appearances in the media and told how he and his people had come to her cafe and repeatedly pulled her hair while his wife just watched. [4]
Another of these antisocial and repulsive pests was caught by one of our leading artists in the act of befouling our waterways, along with his horrid dirty dairying amigos. [5]
This Unruly, Unholy Mob had no idea just how effective New Zealanders can be at monitoring aberrant behaviour. Those of us who are honest will remember that the gangsters who ran that vicious and secret campaign of character assassination from Wonky John’s office were exposed not by this country’s counter espionage agents or even our investigative police officers. The hapless bumbling tossers in charge of the operation were exposed thanks to a concerned computer expert (“Rawshark”) who had clocked a number of odd incidents and reported them to the renowned journalist Nicky Hager.
So this group of professional louts never had a chance of slipping under the radar. The reaction to these no-hopers was an excellent example of what can happen when we work together.
Spoke to my m8 yesterday who’s grandfather played for Liverpool, about the Liverpudlian gypsies touring New Zealand he reckons they are Northern Ireland protestants one of the worst breed of people on the planet.
‘ That bunch of foul mouthed, bribe-taking, snitching, backstabbing, housing expenses-rorting, cigar smoke-blowing, hairpulling louts made headlines on a daily – nay, hourly – basis. Since award-winning journalist Nicky Hager exposed to the nation in 2014 that their leader had allowed his office to be the command centre for an illegal, secret campaign of character assassination and vilification run by the infamous and disgusting Cameron FailAll Slater, assisted incompetently and pathetically by his stumble-tongued slave Jordan Williams, this gang of reprobates ran our country’s reputation into the ground with the same lack of concern as their dirty dairy friends foul the water the rest of us used to drink and swim in.’
M8’s name is Murphy not sure what his grandfather’s name was but I will ask him the next time I talk to him and let you know, probably feeding me B/S, never thought to ask.
So. My US trip has been a civil rights pilgrimage. There are people in NZ who are actively seeking to emulate the US, to use the same tactics and the same themes to divide our society, poison our discourse, and to use our values against us.
Kia ora the am show There you go duncan kicking the poor vulnerable people.
Its a lollie scramble in the house building boom in Taungara that’s the capitalist way charge what ever one can get from the buyer.???????????????????????????????.
simon you way of running the country into the ground look at what has happened hundreds of people under the bridge and you spout about they way shonky run the country. national sold half of the power companys and in just 5 years the money raised buy the sales of those crown jewels has been losted in capital gain’s and dividend’s a gift to their wealthy share market m8 of 5 billion tipcal national kick the poor vulnerable people.
Alcohol related death’s in NZ IS 600 to 1000 how many die from weed can not find any from consumeing it enough said.
Jason its quite hot in Australia at the minute can cook a egg on the bonnet of a car and your prime minister wants to build more coal power plants that burns heaps of carbon and use heaps of WATER.
I say Michael Mosley diet will be good .Drop the sugar and have porridge in the morning is a good way to to stop the hunger pangs and lose weight it makes the body work to digets it to .
The biggest hitts the tax system’s get is fraud that comes from the white collar crime there was a figure of $1 billion in the media .Goverments and council’s fraud. I say that figure is the tip of the Iceburg.
Global warming it the biggest threat enough said Ka kite ano P.S Mahi ki hoariri
Unequal income distribution is what causes a lot of our society problems health crime slow economy low education levels also Unequal income affects Wahine the people whom raise our tamariki the most .
How unequal is New Zealand?
In New Zealand, income (and probably wealth) was being shared out more and more evenly from the 1950s up until the 1980s – but for the next two decades we had the developed world’s biggest increase in income inequality.
As the graph (at left) shows, in that time, the average income of someone in the richest 1% has doubled, from just under $200,000 to nearly $400,000 (adjusting for inflation). In contrast, the average disposable income for someone in the poorest 10% is only slightly higher than it was in the 1980s. (More details and the source of this graph can be found in Wealth and New Zealand, published by BWB.) That means many New Zealanders struggle to pay their bills and lead a decent life.
Another way to put it is that someone in the richest 10% used to earn five times as much as someone in the poorest 10%; now they earn eight times as much.
Wealth is also very largely in the hands of a few. As the graph (below) shows, in New Zealand the wealthiest tenth own nearly a fifth of the country’s net worth, while the poorest half of the country has less than 5 per cent. That leaves many people in poverty, lacking the resources they need to participate in society and follow their dreams. (Again, further details are available in Wealth and New Zealand.)
What is the connection with poverty?
Inequality connects both ends of the spectrum, wealth and poverty, and argues that they have to be looked at together. The fundamental issue is distribution: how are the economy and society structured, and where do they deliver their rewards?
In other words, poverty doesn’t exist in isolation: people are poor, in part, because the economy directs much of the country’s resources to those who are already doing well. For instance, within a company, pay for ordinary staff can be low because so much of the company’s income goes to senior management and shareholders.
Wealth and poverty can’t be separated.Polling shows New Zealanders have consistently rated inequality as the single biggest issue facing the country since 2014. Over 80 per cent of the country say they are concerned or very concerned about income and wealth imbalances. Internationally, all the world’s major economic bodies – including the IMF, the OECD and the World Bank – have argued for some time that inequality is a major problem and must be addressed. Ka kite ano links below
Here you go the goverments don’t mesure the % of income that the people pay and in the poor peoples case with gst at 15 % we the poor pay the higest % of taxs to income ratio. And the rulers wonder why MAORI are so upset with OUR lot this system is dishing us up Ana to kai
Do the rich really pay the most in tax?
The rich don’t really pay that much in tax – and to the extent that they do, it’s because they get the biggest chunk of the income
The government likes to say that the richest 15% of households (those earning over $150,000) pay three-quarters of all the “net tax” .
The problem with this measure is that it isn’t really about tax. It does start with the amount of income tax paid by different groups – but it then does complicated calculations about how much those groups received in benefit payments, the accommodation supplement, paid parental leave and Working for Families. Those figures are subtracted from the amount of tax paid by each group, to arrive at a strange sort of “net financial contribution to the government’s books” measure.
More useful figures about income tax are in the graph below, which shows how much of our national income goes to each of the country’s ten income groups – and what proportion of the total tax take they contribute
None of these figures, of course, includes capital gains (income made from selling assets such as houses and shares), because we don’t for the most part either tax or record those capital gains.
If we did, since those capital gains will go largely to the richest tenth, the truth about tax in New Zealand is that the rich almost certainly pay less of their income in tax than the poor do. ka kite ano links below
You see people 4 % is what drips off the wealthy’s plates for maori to fight over and some still have the gaul to moan about what Maori/minority cultures get from the system . TIMES ARE GOING TO CHANGE.
Eco Maori say mandatory voting is what is need to get a fair representation for all Kiwis at the minute the pollies are to scared to tackle the big issues that will upset the retired babyboomers whom 98% vote . If everyone votes the politicians will listen to the poor people more.
Kia ora Newshub Some of those Wai falls around Auckland has some old Maori history.
House prices are expensive in Aotearoa at the minute all part of shonkys plan.
I saw that video of that old Native American that was being taunted by that boy so disrespectful those young people are Alot of people are disrespectful these days the old fella was a War veteran to. Public expenses in Aotearoa was one of the lowest in the world so was our grocery prices low as compared to the rest of the World 10 years ago.
If the trees are dangerous ie fall over in bad weather they should be felled but one would think the council would follow dew process after all they set the examples.
That was lucky that no one was hurt in that bombing in Ireland I smell something.
The Orca video under the artic ice is really cool see those Orca have smaller dorsal fins than the ones around NZ. I did not see much publicity on the marine sanctuary being set up around the Ross Sea??????????.
Ka kite ano.
Kia ora Newshub it’s good for our farmers that Jacinda has got a export deal with Britain I still say Britain should stay with the European Union. As for the Air forces Gropper its the same as the roast busters the state white coller people bending the laws to protect there m8. That’s why there is a status of limitations LAW to protect government people from getting held accountable for all the cheating they did while in power.A new government find there dirty deeds cannot litigate against the cheats. The man made drug problem the pills what ever man made drug problem is here and now because the state spent all its resources farcicaly fighting weed that is practically harmless when compared factual with other forms of drugs and ignore these other drugs that has killed many people shonkys the ring leader is the ring leader. duncan your a alt right red neck who thinks a Wahine place is behind a MAN your views change like your underwear. Like I have said the world’s laws are made to protect the ruling classes and hammer the poor people that’s a fact. I have all read put a post up about the gropper ropper CASE.
I won’t wait for shonky who should be hiding under a rock after the Big mess he has made of Atoearoa. Ka kite ano P.S to busy with our Mokopunas
Yea wealth is OK so long as shonky doesn’t have control of it and give it to the few while the many have to struggle to survive its OK if wealth is shared it is well documented that a equal society is much happier and healthier when your share the lollipops I get it wealthy people get a logical block from their $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Quite a common phenomenon around Papatuanukue that has caused all the ills of Papatuanukue don’t worry common people money is going to be a thing of the past we will have a currency that has a consciousness connection to it any cheating people will go broke. Ana to kai Ka kite ano
There you go shonky is a alt right trump supporter trump is ripping of the poor common people like shonky did and giving it to his rich m8 bullshiting about trumps popularity in America Ana to kai Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub It’s cool Jamie Lee Ross is OK more drama for national I see one of their biggest spin doctors is not in good shape.
A tree falling on people picnicking at the shot over river condolences to the people who were involved in the incident Tawhirirmate is a powerful force.
Jacinda is determined to keep Aotearoa exporters to Britain in the good tradition trading partners Ka pai.
Aotearoa is a haven but trying to sail hear in over loaded unsafe boat is a risk to great to make we get some big seas here in the Pacific.
national flogging the same horse weed benefit bashing sorry they won’t get anyone attention but there 25 %core voters 65 % of kiwis support weed laws reforms only fools and horses /bridges.
We seen The Marama /Moon last night at the Farm she was showing off her beauty.
That was awesome that lady Lee had her treasure returned to that were stolen she looked wrapped she was lucky the boys who found them found her Ka kite ano
. . Lock Down: Day 3 – A photo essay with observations . March 28: First day of the first weekend in Lock Down. It feels like it’s been weeks since only Level 3 was declared last Tuesday, only four days ago. Woke up this morning to RNZ; coffee; toast, ...
I’m here in lockdown with my flatmate and her two girls (6 and 2) and it. is. a time. They’re usually really active so to start with the only boardgame in the house is the copy of Guess Who that the 6 year old got for her birthday. Flatmate commented ...
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...
. . Lock Down: Day 2 – A photo essay with observations . March 27 – Day 2 of our Strange New World. The Park and Ride near my suburb, usually filled with hundreds of vehicles, had just… four; . . Another drive into Wellington City on a highway nearly ...
Fortune's Children: Under extraordinary pressure, the leader of the Government and the leader of the Opposition will each show us what they are made of. Have they been blessed with intelligence, grace, wit, poise, toughness, empathy and humour – and in what measure? More importantly, to what extent have they ...
If you’ve ever had the misfortune of having to rent a property on the open market in New Zealand, which is one of the most expensive in the entire world, you’ll likely be keenly aware of just how arrogant and entitled landlords and their real estate agents can be.Unfortunately for ...
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights:In this legal blog we outline some ...
by Equipo Jurídico Pueblos and Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (25/03/2020) An escape plan in question On the night of March 21st and the early morning of the 22nd, the forces of the Colombian state stormed into the Modelo prison in Bogotá, murdering 23 prisoners and injuring 83, in response to the ...
When the government banned semi-automatic weapons in response to a terrorist atrocity, gun-nuts were outraged. Mired in toxic American gun culture, they thought owning weapons whose sole purpose was killing people was some sort of "constitutional right", a necessity for "defending themselves" against the government. Now, the Court of Appeal ...
Just before midnight on Wednesday March 25, Aotearoa New Zealand entered a countrywide alert level four lockdown. For at least the next four weeks, everyone who isn’t an essential worker is confined to their bubble. We are doing this to stop the explosive growth in people contracting and dying from ...
. . Lock Down: Day 1 – A photo essay with observations . Day one of the Level 4 nationwide lock-down (or, DefCon 4 as I sometimes cheekily call it) started at 11.59PM on 25 March. For a moment, most of the nation held it’s collective breath. In that brief ...
Broad, Sunlit Uplands: How those words fired my young imagination! Or, perhaps, it is more accurate to say: how those words fused, in my young mind, with the image printed on every packet of Fielder’s Cornflour. Always fascinated by history, especially modern history, I cannot hear Churchill’s wonderfully evocative words, even ...
. . 24 March 2020 9.46AM Number of covid19 cases in Aotearoa New Zealand: 102 . As of 11.59 on Thursday, most of New Zealand will go into “lock down”. People will be expected not to travel to work; not to socialise; and to stay home. I will not be ...
It will pass. What happens next? Not immediately, but longer term. There are many opinions, fewer certainties. Will it “change everything!” as many confidently, and contradictorily predict? In this post I look at how foresight can help bound some of the uncertainties so you can more objectively consider the future. ...
We’ve been meaning t write something on Cuba and the coronavirus but have just discovered a very good article on the subject in the US left publication Jacobin. The article looks at how Cuba, a poor country but one where capitalism has been done away with, is leading the way ...
In 2018, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey - two British citizens who had purportedly been stripped of their citizenship by the British government - were captured while fighting for Isis in Syria. The British government then conspired to hand them over to the US, and agreed to provide evidence ...
Transformers: The disaster of the Great Depression was transformed into a new and fairer society by the democratic socialism of the First Labour Government. The disaster of the Covid-19 Pandemic offers a similar transformative possibility to the Labour-NZ First-Green Government. Seize the time, Jacinda! You will never have a better ...
Tamper with The System? Well, we already are. But there's a difference between accidentally trickling sand into a precision gearbox versus formulating a plan to alter it on the fly with improvements in mind. One action is more or less innocently unscrupulous, the other amenable to earning an easy ...
Associate Prof George Thomson, Louise Delany, Prof Nick WilsonWhile it is possible that New Zealand can use intense public health controls to eradicate COVID-19 from the country – we must also plan for other scenarios where thousands of New Zealanders are sick – including many urgently hospitalised.1 Better resilience ...
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being ...
We're about to do something unprecedented as a nation. We hope that by taking this extraordinary action before a single life in New Zealand has been lost to the deadly novel virus we will save tens of thousands of lives. Our lives. We'll do it together, in households, in isolation ...
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”So writes the author of Ecclesiastes, a book in the Old Testament that’s counted as a ‘wisdom’ book and written as if by an unnamed king of Jerusalem. But who would have thought there would be a time ...
I was surprised when the prime minister described the Economic Response to Covid-19 package as the ‘largest peacetime government spend in New Zealand's history’. Reflecting – checking through history – I realised that the term ‘spend’ was crucial and the package had no income tax cuts. Even so, it has ...
Years ago the Argentine sociologist Carlos Weisman wrote a book titled “Living within our Means.” It was a critique of Argentine society that focused on the paradoxical question of why, in a land of plenty, there was so much economic instability, inequality, corruption and political turmoil. His conclusion was basically ...
Parliament will be leading by example and adjourning tomorrow after a special sitting to consider an epidemic notice and state of emergency. Day-to-day oversight of the government will be delegated to a select committee. But that's not the only overight mechanism. The OIA will still be law, and (so far) ...
Michael Baker, University of OtagoOverjoyed. That’s not a word epidemiologists normally use, but that’s how I felt after hearing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s announcement about New Zealand’s COVID-19 shutdown of everything except essential services for at least four weeks from midnight on Wednesday. More than anything, I just ...
How much homelessness is caused by house hoarding? We're about to find out. The pandemic has destroyed tourism, which means that house hoarders who put their hoarded properties up as short-term tourist rentals are now offering them on the ordinary rental market:Property investors are pulling properties from Airbnb to offer ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bruce Lieberman It seems like such a simple, straightforward, empowering idea: plant trees – a lot of trees – all over the world, and watch the planet’s temperature fall. Who doesn’t love a tree or two, even far more – the right ...
According to Newshub, Simon Bridges is open to joining a “grand coalition” with Labour as we hunker down to go into a month long lockdown. The idea is sound. Before now, the role of the opposition was to scrutinise and oppose. In the context of what almost amounts to a ...
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or ...
We need to be lifting our game against COVID-19. You and I need to help those working to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while they’re trying to lift the testing and treatment efforts. We don’t want to be playing this game running backwards. Best to play it solidly forward, from ...
Prof Tony Blakely, Prof Michael Baker, and Prof Nick WilsonThe NZ Government must do more to clearly articulate its COVID-19 strategy: eradication or ‘flattening the curve’ mitigation. But to do so means understanding the maths and ethics of both these strategies. In this blog, we adapt our work for ...
A few days ago I was starting to write something about the pandemic, which now seems unconscionable. It took the form of a letter to an agony aunt:“Dear Deidre, I have an ugly confession. I am quite excited by Covid-19.”This is how the piece went:“I’m not a psychopath, honest. Although the ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Climate Feedback Article Review... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Reviews... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of DisastersThe likelihood of extreme events ...
Last week, the government announced a $12 billion initial package to support people during the pandemic. Today, the Reserve Bank is buying government bonds - effectively printing money - to keep up the money supply during the crisis. Normally such moves would have the right apoplectic. Instead, the National Party ...
I am a pundit, somebody who opines and comments on the news. There are no real qualifications to punditry though having a rudimentary way with words and good general knowledge helps. That is one reason there is a constant oversupply of would-be pundits and why it is quite hard to ...
I recently encountered the following prescription from a Faculty of Education at a leading New Zealand University. At first I wondered if it was another product of the postmodern generator (http://www.elsewhere.org/journal/pomo/), designed to create gibberish in the postmodern form, but I’m told it is real: The “schooled” society: Towards the ...
The coronavirus pandemic has of course had a major impact on individual lives and on societies as a whole. But, long after the crisis has passed (assuming it does), we will begin to realise that its real and lasting significance lies in the lessons it has taught us, if only ...
COVID-19 has plunged Aotearoa New Zealand (indeed, the world) into territory that, while maybe not totally unprecedented, certainly hasn’t been seen during the lifetimes of most of us here today. Our borders are closed to non-citizens, we’re being told not to gather in groups of more than 500 outside/100 inside, ...
For the last few weeks, I’ve been urging you to prepare yourself, your family, business, and community for Covid-19. Now it’s time for real action. Yesterday the director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announced another 13 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, bringing our total to date to 52. ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 15, 2020 through Sat, Mar 21, 2020 Editor's Pick Now Isn’t the Time to Forget About Our Climate Change EffortsTasha Tilberg, Lindsey Wixson, and Liu Wen photographed ...
by Jan Rivers The article has been corrected to show that it was Ewen MacAskill, former Guardian journalist and not Luke Harding who travelled to meet Edward Snowden with journalist Glenn Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras. Some of the Guardian’s well-known journalists who did not sign the protest letter are ...
by Cultural Worker Late March 2020 amidst the virus. With gigs crashing and burning all around it was without much hope that I called a long standing rest home booking: “ Hi, I’m supposed to be entertaining at your place this afternoon – is it still on?” “”If you don’t ...
Whenever people demand real change from their politicians, we're told that "politics is the art of the possible". The implication is that change isn't possible, so we'd better just get used to the sucky status quo. But now that there's a pandemic, a lot of things we were previously told ...
Together: In leading New Zealand through the Covid-19 Pandemic, the Prime Minister could do a lot worse than allow herself to be guided by the spirit of collective sacrifice and co-operation that animated the New Zealanders of 80 years ago. Most Kiwis alive today have had no opportunity to prove their ...
It is said that generals fight the last war. In the case of the early stages of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) they had learned from the Great Depression of the 1930s and they fought intelligently and successfully. Later their advice would be ignored in favour of the Austerians who ...
Solidarity Forever: All over the world, the arrival of the Covid-19 virus has exposed the fragility of the walls we erect around ourselves and our loved ones. It has shattered our illusions of autonomy and revealed to us how utterly dependent we all are on other human-beings. Finally, we see ...
Looking across the various arguments for/against the leading candidates to take the Democratic Nomination, you might honestly be very hard pressed to tell. There are a number of things that have now started happening since Amy Klobuchar and “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg both threw the towel in and immediately (and ...
by Daphna Whitmore Abortion is no longer in the Crimes Act in New Zealand. The law reform passed yesterday and now abortion is a medical matter between a woman and her doctor. Many women’s groups and progressive people have campaigned for reform for decades. The women’s liberation movement and some ...
Doug Specht, University of Westminster and Julio Gimenez, University of Westminster When fake news, misreporting and alternative facts are everywhere, reading the news can be a challenge. Not only is there plenty of misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and other scientific topics floating around social media, you also ...
Michael Baker, University of Otago and Nick Wilson, University of OtagoWith some of the toughest border restrictions and a newly-announced NZ$500 million boost to health services, New Zealand is among a small number of countries with a strategy to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. New Zealand is also fortunate in ...
As expected, the government has introduced a sessional order to allow Parliament to operate during the pandemic. You can read it on the Order Paper here, but the short version is that questions and motions can be filed electronicly, select committees can work remotely, and the the Business Committee can ...
Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology; Daniel Angus, Queensland University of Technology; Timothy Graham, Queensland University of Technology, and Tobias R. Keller, Queensland University of Technology News and views about coronavirus has spread via social media in a way that no health emergency has done before. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, ...
So you’ve recently returned from overseas, come into contact with someone who tested positive, got a bit of a dry cough yourself or perhaps just want to self isolate for 14 days to avoid other people who might have COVID-19. Here are a few tips and tricks to help get ...
Our Good Fortune: Precisely because she has never been an ideologue (she calls herself a “pragmatic idealist”) Jacinda Ardern has a political nimbleness and spontaneity which, when infused with her exceptional emotional intelligence, produces spectacular demonstrations of leadership. Jacinda's empathic political personality contrasts sharply with the less-than-sunny ways of her ...
The Abortion Legislation Bill has just passed its third reading, 68-51. NZ First MPs bailed because their referendum amendment didn't pass, but there were plenty of MPs to provide a majority without them. The bill is a long way from perfect - most significantly, it subjects pregnant people who need ...
As most of the world tries to suppress the coronavirus spread, some countries are going it alone – trying to manage the pandemic through so-called “herd immunity”. Herd immunity means letting a large number of people catch a disease, and hence develop immunity to it, to stop the virus spreading. ...
So, as I sit at home with a very, very slight headache (i.e. not at work when I would otherwise be so), the now familiar figure of Ashley Bloomfield reports eight new confirmed cases of COVID-19 including two in Waikato. A surprise, given that we had just twelve yesterday? No. ...
Many who advocated for, and voted for, the current Coalition – particularly those who voted Labour and the Green Party – expected to see a sea change in the reality of social services. A real, deep change of attitude, approach of process through which the system negotiates the difficult and ...
New Zealand’s border restrictions will come with significant job and business losses in the tourism sector, both at home and in the Pacific. But the new travel rules are absolutely necessary to protect the health of New Zealanders and people right across Pacific Islands, because New Zealand is a gateway ...
Professor Philip Hill and Associate Professor James UssherMost infectious diseases have an Achilles heel, the secret is to find it. The question is if we don’t have a drug or a vaccine for COVID-19, is there something else we can do to beat it? Some people estimate that, without ...
The Coalition Governments $12.1 billion economic package to help combat the financial effects of COVID-19 was generally well received across the board, even amongst many business leaders who would normally be critical of a Labour led Government.However there was one glaringly obvious exception, Simon Bridges. The so-called leader of the ...
With confirmed cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand up to 12, many influential people are writing open letters and opinion pieces and doing press conferences asking why we aren’t pulling out all the stops and testing thousands of people a day like they are in South Korea. The thing is, ...
by Daphna Whitmore The willingness to put human life before business shows that sometimes capitalism is capable of suspending its relentless drive for profit. For a short time it can behave differently. Flatten the curve is the public health message since COVID-19 suddenly overwhelmed the hospital system in northern Italy. ...
Worldwide, the 1918 influenza epidemic – wrongly called ‘Spanish’ flu – lasted about two years. However, it lasted about six weeks in New Zealand (remembered as ‘Black November’, because the dead turned a purplish-black). It is thought about 7000 Pakeha died and 2,500 Maori. The population mortality rate was about ...
In a world and a time when the worst off and most vulnerable have been asked, time and again, to foot the bill for the complete subjugating to the will of the 1% thanks to the GFC, at a point where the world as a whole is now seeing quite ...
With the economy already reeling from a crisis that’s barely begun, the Government today sought to provide reassurance to workers and businesses in the form of a massive phallic pun to insert much-needed cash into the private sector and help fight the looming pandemic. Here are the key components: $5.1 ...
I am a member of the working poor and so still need state welfare to make rent. So I had booked an appointment for yesterday with my caseworker at Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ) to apply for a transition to work grant. However the current health advice in New ...
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
Ground-breaking law has passed that will decriminalise abortion and ensure women and pregnant people seeking abortions have compassionate healthcare. ...
The Green Party says that the measures announced by the Government today will help families and businesses to prioritise our collective health and wellbeing in the response to COVID-19. ...
As New Zealanders brace for a global downturn due to Covid-19, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says his Coalition Government’s rescue package "more significant" than any other he's seen around the world. The Coalition is to reveal a multi-billion-dollar stimulus plan on Tuesday afternoon designed to cushion the economic blow ...
We know some people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order A New Zealand First member’s bill drawn from the ballot today seeks to overhaul the youth justice system by instigating a system of demerit points for offences committed by young offenders. “The ‘Youth Justice Demerit Point System’ will put an end to ...
Hon. Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic DevelopmentThe Provincial Growth Fund is investing $6 million in a land-based aquaculture pilot to see whether yellowtail kingfish can be commercially farmed in Northland, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today.A recirculating land-based aquaculture system will be built and operated ...
Hon. Shane Jones, Minister for ForestryForestry Minister Shane Jones has announced two One Billion Trees programme grants of more than $1.18 million to help hapu and iwi in Northland restore whenua and moana.“Many communities around Aotearoa have benefited from One Billion Trees funding since the programme was launched ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign AffairsAhead of the start of the criminal trial in the Netherlands on 9 March, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has reaffirmed the need to establish truth, accountability and justice for the downing of Flight MH17 ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime MinisterThe Government is investing $19.9 million through the Provincial Growth Fund in a game-changing hydrogen energy facility in South Taranaki, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters announced today.“The development of alternative energy initiatives like this one is vital for the Taranaki region’s economy. ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Minister for Foreign AffairsForeign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand is partnering with countries in the Pacific to ensure they are prepared for, and able to respond to the global threat of Coronavirus (COVID-19).“There are currently no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the ...
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
Farmers whose herds were culled in response to the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis will be able to minimise the tax treatment of their income in some circumstances. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says Cabinet has agreed to change the law. It means farmers may be eligible to spread their income over ...
A $27 million dollar package, effective immediately, is being provided to social sector services and community groups to ensure they can continue to provide essential support to communities as we stay at home as a nation to stop the spread of COVID-19, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni announced. “At ...
“The guilty plea today will provide some relief to the many people whose lives were shattered by what happened on March 15,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “These guilty pleas and conviction bring accountability for what happened and also save the families who lost loved ones, those who were injured, ...
The Prime Minister is holding daily press conferences to update New Zealanders on the Government's response to COVID-19. Links to videos and transcripts of these updates below. These transcripts also include All of Government press conferences led by Director Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. 25 March: Live update from the Prime ...
Frontline Police numbers have broken through the 10,000 mark for the first time in history as officers step forward to keep the community safe during the COVID19 lockdown. “Two Police graduations in Auckland and Wellington in the past week have been conducted in unprecedented circumstances,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said. ...
Urgent legislation has been passed to support the package of economic and social measures needed to recover from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “The COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill will cushion New Zealanders from the worst economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Revenue Minister ...
From tomorrow, Government support for farmers and growers affected by drought will be expanded and extended across the country, with access to Rural Assistance Payments (RAPS) available throughout the North Island, parts of the South Island and the Chatham Islands, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced. “These challenging conditions have ...
Parliament has passed amendments to legislation that give the Secretary of Education stronger powers to act in the fight to limit the spread of COVID-19, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “They are part of a suite of changes passed under the COVID-19 Response (Urgent Management Measures) Legislation Bill,” Chris ...
Canada, Australia, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar have joined forces with New Zealand and Singapore by committing to keep supply chains open and remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker today welcomed ...
Immediate freeze on rent increases Tenancies will not be terminated during the lock-down period, unless the parties agree, or in limited circumstances Tenants who had previously given notice can stay in their if they need to stay in the tenancy during the lock-down period Tenants will still be able to ...
As New Zealand unites to lock-down in the fight against COVID-19, the Finance Minister is urging all businesses and workers to stay connected over the next four weeks. “We understand the extreme pressure many businesses are under right now. I know most business owners think of their workers as family ...
A State of National Emergency has been declared across the country as the Government pulls out all the stops to curtail the spread of COVID-19. “Today we put in place our country’s second ever State of National Emergency as we fight a global pandemic, save New Zealanders’ lives and prevent ...
Mr Speaker I wish to make a Ministerial Statement under Standing Order 347 in relation to the recent declaration of a State of National Emergency. Having considered the advice of the Director Civil Defence Emergency Management, the Minister of Civil Defence declared a State of National Emergency for the whole of ...
People needing to travel on domestic flights, trains and Cook Strait ferries to get home before the country moves into level 4 lock-down tomorrow night will be able to continue using the passenger services until midnight on Friday, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Domestic passenger services, particularly ferries, have ...
The Government, retail banks and the Reserve Bank are today announcing a major financial support package for home owners and businesses affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19. The package will include a six month principal and interest payment holiday for mortgage holders and SME customers whose incomes have been ...
Minister of Transport Phil Twyford has today announced details of the Government’s support package to keep key air freight moving and ensure New Zealanders retain access to essential goods during the four-week level 4 lockdown. “The Government is working with airlines and air freight operators to ensure New Zealand’s key ...
New Zealand moved up to COVID-19 Alert Level 3 – Restrict New Zealand to move up to COVID-19 Alert Level 4 – Eliminate, in 48 hours Two-staged approach to give people and businesses time to prepare Level 3, from tomorrow Non-essential businesses must close All events and gatherings must be ...
Good afternoon The Cabinet met this morning to discuss our next actions in the fight against COVID-19. Like the rest of the world, we are facing the potential for devastating impacts from this virus. But, through decisive action, and through working together, do we have a small window to get ...
The Government is announcing significant further support for the economy, workers and businesses as the country unites to prepare for Alert Level 4 in the fight against COVID-19. Cabinet today agreed to remove the cap on the Government’s wage subsidy scheme, which will inject a further $4 billion into the ...
The Government is backing the Reserve Bank’s latest action to support the economy by reducing longer-term interest rates, meaning lower costs for businesses and mortgage holders, and a lower currency to help our exporters. The Minister of Finance has signed a memorandum of understanding and a letter of indemnity with ...
The Government has asked the Commerce Commission to take account of the exceptional circumstances created by COVID-19 when monitoring business behaviour in coming weeks. “The purpose of my request to the Commerce Commission is to make sure businesses can work together in ways that will allow them to provide ...
The New Zealand Government has temporarily closed its High Commission in Bridgetown, Barbados and its Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Due to the increasing scarcity of air links in and out of Bridgetown and Yangon, and the pressure COVID-19 is placing ...
Associate Health and Whānau Ora Minister Peeni Henare has today announced the Government’s plan to support Māori communities and businesses in the face of COVID-19. “Our Government’s $12.1 billion economic package will help many Māori whānau, workers and businesses, whether it’s through wage subsidies, income support and worker redeployment, or ...
The Government and the hospitality industry have worked together to produce guidelines to assist with managing and reducing transmission of COVID-19, Health Minister David Clark announced today. The guidelines developed between the Government, Hospitality New Zealand and SkyCity Entertainment Group, set out how the new restrictions on physical distancing and ...
Four stage Alert System for COVID-19 announced New Zealand moved up to COVID-19 Alert Level 2 – Reduce Contact New Zealanders over 70 and those with certain medical conditions told to stay at home as much as they can to reduce risk of contact with the virus Workplaces to implement ...
Kia ora koutou katoa I’m speaking directly to all New Zealanders today to give you as much certainty and clarity as we can as we fight Covid-19. Over the past few weeks, the world has changed. And it has changed very quickly. In February it would have seemed unimaginable to ...
New Zealand and Singapore have jointly committed to keep supply chains open and to remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker welcomed the commitment. “This is an important collective response, and ...
JOINT MINISTERIAL STATEMENT BY SINGAPORE AND NEW ZEALAND AFFIRMING COMMITMENT TO ENSURING SUPPLY CHAIN CONNECTIVITY AMIDST THE COVID-19 SITUATION The COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis. As part of our collective response to combat COVID-19, Singapore and New Zealand are committed to maintaining open and connected supply chains. We ...
Travel restrictions, closing our border to almost all travelers came into force from 23:59 on Thursday 19 March 2020 (NZDT). All airlines were informed of these restrictions before they came into force. Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says “The transit of passengers between Australia and New Zealand has been agreed upon and ...
The Government has allocated $100 million to help redeploy workers affected by the economic impact of COVID-19, with the hard-hit region of Gisborne-Tairāwhiti to be the first helped, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford, Forestry and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. Phil Twyford ...
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is ramping up support for Tairāwhiti’s wood processing sector to bolster the region’s economy at a time of heightened uncertainty, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. Following earlier announcements today of a regional support package for Tairāwhiti, Minister Jones has also announced a ...
The Coalition Government has stepped in to protect Air New Zealand with a significant financial deal that protects essential routes and allows the company to keep operating. The Government and Air New Zealand have agreed a debt funding agreement through commercial 24-month loan facilities of up to $900 million*. The ...
The Government has taken further measures to protect New Zealanders from the COVID-19 virus, effectively stopping all people from boarding a plane to New Zealand from 11:59pm today, except for returning New Zealanders, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. New Zealanders’ partners, legal guardians or any dependent children travelling with ...
The Government has reinforced its commitment to protecting the health of New Zealanders from COVID-19 through the cancellation of indoor events with more than 100 people. “Protecting the health of New Zealanders is our number one priority, and that means we need to reduce the risks associated with large gatherings,” ...
The New Zealand Government is advising New Zealanders not to travel overseas due to COVID-19, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “We are raising our travel advice to the highest level: do not travel,” Mr Peters said. “This is the first time the New Zealand Government has advised New Zealanders ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today outlined the first tranche of the $600 million aviation sector relief package announced earlier this week as part of the Government’s $12.1 billion COVID-19 economic response. The initial part of the aviation package aims to secure the operators of New Zealand’s aviation security system, and ...
It’s time to lower traffic speeds to reduce crashes and free up hospital beds, say cycling advocates. "This will reduce harm and ease the burden on our health workers and emergency services," says Patrick Morgan from Cycling Action Network. ...
By RNZ Pacific The number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in French Polynesia has risen by four to 34. The update from the government said the hospitalisation rate is unchanged with one person in care. Last night a curfew was declared for the first time, forcing residents across ...
It’s a town where people often feel the rest of the country has given up on them, in the middle of a region where every place feels isolated. So how did Ohura become an unlikely centre of Medieval Combat sports in New Zealand? Alex Braae spent three days there finding ...
If you want to understand some of the thinking behind the policy response to the spread of coronavirus, you might want to read the paper from the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team, which is credited with accelerating the introduction of the current lockdown measures in the UK.The paper builds ...
‘It seems like someone else’s dream of my past.’ For Emma Neale, the painting ‘Wanderlust’ by Dunedin artist Sharon Singer stirs memories of her childhood, and new understandings of guilt and forgiveness.There were gifts from my father when he came home from overseas trips. Love offerings; a bit like those ...
Westpac is forecasting 200,000 jobs will be lost in NZ as a result of the response to the coronavirus pandemic. Chief economist Dominick Stephens estimates economic activity during the four week lock-down would decline by a third, despite the government and the Reserve Bank having “done a lot to calm ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, Ōtaki author Renée.I have a wild tomato flopping all over the path down the back of the veg garden. I picked a ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this ...
Online criminals have been making the most of Covid-19 by preying on people’s fear and doubt. Here are some of the calling cards of these con artists.With most New Zealanders tucked up at home, digital devices are proving to be critical tools for staying connected with each other, making good ...
Author and illustrator Sarah Laing draws a rite of passage in The Lockdown.Reprinted with the permission of the author from Let Me Be Frank, Sarah Laing's blog devoted to "Reading. Writing. Parenting. Angsting." Let Me Be Frank is also the ...
As New Zealand adjusts to a month of lockdown, many pet owners have questions about their furry friends. Alex Casey had a chat with the SPCA – here’s what she learned.AC: My cat had a disgusting abscess on his tail and now has to get his stitches out. ...
Books editor Catherine Woulfe takes an energising walk around the lockdown block of New Zealand books. When the bubbles settled over us they settled over the books too. Libraries were the first to shut down, then the physical bookstores and finally, the hammer blow: online sales and indeed any notion of ...
Convincing its citizens to take lockdown seriously will be a major challenge for Fiji’s government, writes Mandy De Vries. My husband, Howie, and I are lucky enough to live on the beautiful Coral Coast in Fiji. We started a tourism operation here two years ago which was, until recently, booming. ...
New Zealand’s businesses and government are far better prepared for the rapidly escalating global health and economic crisis than they were for the Global Financial Crisis in 2008-09 or the stock market crash in 1987, says Rob Campbell, one of the country’s most experienced corporate leaders. “Executive teams and boards ...
Journalism commentator and former editor Gavin Ellis says media organisations play a vital role in keeping the community informed and, if possible, safe. They also have a crucial part to play in the maintenance of public order and morale, just as they did in the 1940s. With the country in ...
The country has millions of protective gowns, gloves and eyewear – midwives ask: Where are they? David Williams reports Two days into a national lockdown some midwives didn’t have any protective equipment, adding to concerns about safeguards for frontline health workers. On Friday, announcements were made by the Health Ministry ...
Covid-19 lockdown provides valuable time for planning a new business, as Dr Mary-Ellen Gordon explains You have a great idea for a business. You’ve been working to get it up and going. Then, just as you were starting to gain traction, the entire country and much of the rest of ...
Low-income workers whose jobs have disappeared thanks to Covid-19 will increasingly need to access benefit income. When this happens, however, they lose a tax credit for their children. As a direct result of the Covid-19 crisis, the Government has improved its rescue policies for business. We now need to see urgent ...
The strange energy of preparing for level four is over, now the dystopian reality has kicked in. Danyl Mclauchlan writes an essay about home life during a ‘cosy catastrophe’.We start by setting up our home workspaces, covering the kitchen table with such a thick mass of black cables and USB ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison will unvieil on Sunday a $1.1 billion set of measures to make Medicare telehealth services generally available during the coronavirus pandemic and to support mental health, domestic violence and community services. The “Medicare ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. There were 83 new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, down from the previous day's 85 new cases. Details of how many tests have been completed are now bing released ...
By RNZ News New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke to her followers on Facebook today from her office in Premier House. Her chat lasted about 15 minutes and garnered more than 310,000 views. She discussed wage subsidies for full-time and part-time workers, personal protection equipment (PPE) supplies for ...
COMMENTARY:By Bob Howarth (self-isolating in Australia after his latest trip to Timor-Leste) After days of web surfing for Covid-19 coronavirus news around the Asia-Pacific, two areas that appear to need improving in some countries are official communication and fact checking. So here’s my two cents, rupiah, kina or ...
Whether it’s a robot uprising, a woman catfishing into the publishing world or a bunch of lovestruck islanders, NEON has you covered. Here’s what we’re bingeing on NEON for the foreseeable future.WestworldJust in time for lockdown, there’s a buzz-worthy show with endless discussion points coming out on a weekly basis. ...
There’s been a lot of talk about PPE of late – do we have enough, is it getting to the right people, and who exactly are the right people, anyway? Here’s the latest official advice.The Ministry of Health has now circulated updated advice on the appropriate use of PPE (personal ...
A month ago, not many had heard of Ashley Bloomfield. But as the Covid-19 response has ramped up, the director-general of health has become a calm, reassuring presence in a time of uncertainty and fear. Rachel Thomas profiles him, in a piece first published on RNZ.Today, Saturday, director-general of health ...
Jim Kayes tests the waters of social media to see how people are coping with being told to avoid their favourite pastime.“There is something ridiculously exhilarating about catching a fish. The thrill might have faded for the salty angler, but for this rookie, the novice still snagging fish hooks ...
The Government yesterday reassured us there are plenty of masks for front line staff dealing with the public. Yet it seems home care workers, who provide up-close personal care for tens of thousands of people every day, won’t be given them. Yesterday two documents hit my inbox. One was a ...
Hobson’s Choice spokesman Don Brash (a former leader of the National and ACT Parties) is not alone in challenging the justification for tribes claiming to have closed roads to protect their people against Covid. Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters – his remarks apparently ignored by ...
Preliminary results from a survey investigating how well-equipped Māori whānau in the South Island are to stay at home for extended periods show that the majority are prepared to manage their short-term needs, but have increasing anxiety about ...
"The risk of fraud and corruption is compounded during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. When quick decisions are necessary to move vast amounts of resources, bribery, fraud and corruption abound," says Suzanne Snively, Chair of Transparency International ...
By RNZ Pacific Guam remains the Pacific pandemic hot spot with the number of Covid-19 coronavirus cases climbing above 50. On Friday six people tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total to 51. Thirteen of the cases are currently in hospital. READ MORE: Al Jazeera live updates – ...
By Mong Palatino Many Indonesian internet users have expressed anger over the decision of the House of Representatives (DPR) to test its 575 members for Covid-19. Indonesia has a population of more than 260 million. As of today, the country has 913 Covid-19 positive cases with 87 deaths. But ...
New Zealand has 78 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 and five probable cases, the Government has announced today, taking the total to 451. Civil Defence Emergency Management director Sarah Stuart-Black said 12 people are in hospital and two are in intensive care, including one on a ventilator. Twelve are in ...
New Zealand has 78 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 and five probable cases, the Government has announced today, taking the total to 451. Civil Defence Emergency Management director Sarah Stuart-Black said 12 people are in hospital and two are in intensive care, including one on a ventilator. Twelve are in ...
By Michelle Steven in Port MoresbyPacific New Guinea’s National Capital City Covid-19 Task Force team is preparing ahead should there be a possible coronavirus case during the 14-day lockdown. NCD Governor Powes Parkop told a media conference that the capital city would be in total lockdown with no public ...
Leading immigration lawyer Aaron Martin assesses the impact of the announcement of the epidemic notice for migrants. Immigration New Zealand announced that the government epidemic management notice relating to immigration matters comes into effect on 2 ...
Just a tiny handful of print publications will continue through the lockdown, with only daily newspapers specifically identified as being able to continue. Duncan Greive spoke to publishers of magazines and community newspapers about the impact on them and their communities.Publishers of magazines and community newspapers are reeling, after a ...
Just a tiny handful of print publications will continue through the lockdown, with only daily newspapers specifically identified as being able to continue. Duncan Greive spoke to publishers of magazines and community newspapers about the impact on them and their communities.Publishers of magazines and community newspapers are reeling, after a ...
Jacinda Ardern has pleaded with the Australian Prime Minister to make an exception to the rule that bars many of the 650,000 New Zealanders there from receiving a benefit. ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, political commentator and essayist Morgan Godfery.I’M TWEETING AT 2AM.The responsible part of my brain is sending sleep signals. Inconvenient yawns. The ...
Take a vicarious roadie via Attraction, the novel by Ruby Porter that was longlisted for the country’s biggest fiction prize. Released last year, it’s now a slightly eerie snapshot of Aotearoa as we were. Attraction is a New Zealand road trip novel with a heavy dose of postcolonial guilt. Whitewashing, cultural ...
Iwi everywhere put support plans into action, focusing on their kaumātua, writes Kayne Ngātokowhā Peters. Iwi are ramping up support services to assist their people in need following the closure of Ministry of Social Development offices and the move to online and phone assistance from Work and Income. Central North Island ...
It’s been 10 years since the release of Dane Rumble’s solo album The Experiment. Josie Adams looks back on why New Zealand fell so hard and fast.At The Experiment’s launch, a decade ago yesterday, Dane Rumble had only one wish: “I just want to write the best album that I ...
"She blindfolded each of the children with a scarf, saying, ‘There’s going to be a surprise!'": a horror story set at a children's birthday party, by Dunedin writer Emma Neale. As soon as the last child arrived at Bevan’s ninth birthday party, the bashing began. Allan walloped Bevan with a ...
As New Zealand adjusts to our new normal, one thing from the old world remains – commercial breakfast radio. We tuned into the first morning of lockdown on the airwaves. In a time when the world seems completely upside-down, you can thankfully still count on commercial breakfast radio to be there ...
Dynamic Silver Ferns defender Jane Watson shares her heartrending and brave story in the final episode of the Pure As documentary series. The fading scar just below Jane Watson's left shoulder is the only clue to her until-now untold story, of the challenges that have tormented the netball world champion. The dynamic, tenacious ...
By now, everybody should know about staying in their bubble and leaving the house only for essential services and exercise, provided social distancing rules are followed. Does this mean people can still take the boat out, or go surfing? “Staying at home will save lives,” said Jacinda Ardern in a question ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here.New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Donald Trump and Boris Johnson's response to coronavirus has revealed some disturbing attitudes towards segments of the population As New Zealand enters a period of indeterminate lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we (and I mean us as a global population) have learned a lot about the importance of ...
As New Zealand entered national lockdown, The Spinoff commissioned social media polling company Stickybeak to measure the mood of the nation. Stickybeak co-founder David Brain reveals what the poll results show.As soon as the PM made her Monday afternoon announcement that the country was going to alert level three and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra All Australians arriving from overseas will be quarantined in hotels or other facilities under strict supervision for a fortnight, under the latest crackdown in the battle against the coronavirus. Announcing the measure after Friday’s meeting ...
By RNZ News As the number of Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic cases in New Zealand increases, daily demand for protective clothing for medical workers has come under pressure. On the second day of the country’s lockdown, the number of New Zealand’s Covid-19 cases has jumped by 85, with a man ...
Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr and Bernard Hickey 'Zoom' out to talk about the once-in-a-lifetime shock to the global economy this week and what it means for businesses and investors. Just as many other businesses are adjusting to the lockdown, so too are Kiwibank and Newsroom. Chief ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jon MacKay, Lecturer, Business Analytics, University of Auckland New Zealand and much of the world is now under an unprecedented lockdown. Public health experts say this is the best way to suppress the spread of the virus. But how long will such ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Allen Cheng, Professor in Infectious Diseases Epidemiology, Monash University According to Google Trends, the top globally trending topic this week is “orthohantavirus”, as spurious sites claim it’s the next pandemic on the horizon. Take it from me: it’s not. This baseless claim ...
As soon as the Prime Minister announced that the country had moved to a Level Three alert and would then move to a full Level Four lockdown, the only thing on most people's minds in downtown Wellington was how to prepare for living and working from home for at least ...
Two Cents' Worth hosts Bernard Hickey, Nikki Mandow and Gyles Beckford reflect on the most turbulent week in New Zealand’s economic history. They look at two new tools for business and online working advice that were built over a weekend to help deal with the Covid-19 crisis. They also talk ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erica Mealy, Lecturer in Computer Science, University of the Sunshine Coast These past few weeks have shown the brittleness of Australia’s online systems. It’s not surprising the federal government’s traditionally slow-moving IT systems are buckling under the pressure. On Sunday, the federal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arindam Basu, Associate Professor, Epidemiology and Environmental Health, University of Canterbury The number of New Zealanders testing positive for COVID-19 will continue to rise despite the strict conditions of the four-week lockdown that began this week. As of today, there are 368 ...
Advocates say they’re drowning in complaints of exploitation brought on by the lockdown, Dileepa Fonseka reports Migrant associations and unions have been swamped with allegations that some employers have abused the Government’s wage subsidy scheme or skirted their obligations. Indian Workers Association spokesman Mandeep Bela said he had been “flooded” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona MacDonald, Senior Research Fellow, Victoria University For children, school is about more than just learning. This is even more the case for children living in disadvantage as many schools also provide vital food and a welcoming environment. As the COVID-19 pandemic ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Walker, Adjunct Professor, School of Communications, La Trobe University Leaders of the world’s largest economies came together at a virtual G20 this week to “do whatever it takes to overcome the coronavirus pandemic”. But the reality is that global capacity to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Sonnemann, Fellow, Grattan Institute Australian schools and teachers are preparing to shift classes online – some independent schools already have. Remote learning is likely to be the norm in the second term and possibly longer. Even if done well, there are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dilan Thampapillai, Senior Lecturer, ANU College of Law, Australian National University The coronavirus and its attendant emergency measures are set to deliver a profound shock to the residential tenancy market. How it will work out is anybody’s guess, but it is looking ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katherine Gibney, NHMRC early career fellow, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity In three short months, more than half a million cases of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, have been reported worldwide. The US now has the highest number of COVID-19 ...
By Johnny Blades, RNZ Pacific journalist A 43-year-old woman has reportedly died due to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic in Indonesian-administered West Papua province. It is the first recorded death from Covid-19 in the Papua region, and adds to fears that a looming surge in cases could overwhelm the health ...
By JC Gotinga in Manila Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief-of-staff General Felimon Santos Jr has tested positive for the Covid-19 novel coronavirus. Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana shared the information today with reporters covering defence issues. General Santos said yesterday that he was on home quarantine after coming ...
The Fold podcast returns for March into a media world transformed by the impact of Covid-19. Host Duncan Greive records a monopod to assess its impact.In last month’s edition of this podcast, The Spinoff editor Toby Manhire and I discussed RNZ’s Concert debacle. At the time, it was the biggest ...
As New Zealand faces the most brutal recession in living memory, the battle to preserve the core of the economy deepens. Companies are cancelling dividends to protect what cash they have, others are reaching for financial aid from their banks or the government. Yet for some businesses, notably the big ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentPublic health strategy Henry Cooke (Stuff): New model shows coronavirus could kill 80,000 Kiwis without lockdown Kate Newton (RNZ): Modelling shows ...
Shoppers are ignoring physical distancing rules, while rule-flouters face jail time in Sāmoa and the Cook Islands, writes Teuila Fuatai. Scenes from one of Fiji’s best-known fresh produce markets illustrate the difficulties of clamping down on Covid-19. Footage captured at the Sigatoka markets on Viti Levu on Thursday March 26 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Terry Goldsworthy, Associate Professor in Criminology, Bond University As coronavirus continues to affect all aspects of life, law enforcement agencies are playing a more pivotal role in enforcing new health and social regulations while ensuring society continues to function in a civil ...
Open Mike 20/01/2019 
. . Lock Down: Day 3 – A photo essay with observations . March 28: First day of the first weekend in Lock Down. It feels like it’s been weeks since only Level 3 was declared last Tuesday, only four days ago. Woke up this morning to RNZ; coffee; toast, ...1 hour ago
I’m here in lockdown with my flatmate and her two girls (6 and 2) and it. is. a time. They’re usually really active so to start with the only boardgame in the house is the copy of Guess Who that the 6 year old got for her birthday. Flatmate commented ...16 hours ago
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...22 hours ago
Fortune's Children: Under extraordinary pressure, the leader of the Government and the leader of the Opposition will each show us what they are made of. Have they been blessed with intelligence, grace, wit, poise, toughness, empathy and humour – and in what measure? More importantly, to what extent have they ...1 day ago
1 day ago
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...2 days ago
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights: In this legal blog we outline some ...2 days ago
by Equipo Jurídico Pueblos and Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (25/03/2020) An escape plan in question On the night of March 21st and the early morning of the 22nd, the forces of the Colombian state stormed into the Modelo prison in Bogotá, murdering 23 prisoners and injuring 83, in response to the ...2 days ago
When the government banned semi-automatic weapons in response to a terrorist atrocity, gun-nuts were outraged. Mired in toxic American gun culture, they thought owning weapons whose sole purpose was killing people was some sort of "constitutional right", a necessity for "defending themselves" against the government. Now, the Court of Appeal ...2 days ago
Just before midnight on Wednesday March 25, Aotearoa New Zealand entered a countrywide alert level four lockdown. For at least the next four weeks, everyone who isn’t an essential worker is confined to their bubble. We are doing this to stop the explosive growth in people contracting and dying from ...2 days ago
Tamper with The System? Well, we already are. But there's a difference between accidentally trickling sand into a precision gearbox versus formulating a plan to alter it on the fly with improvements in mind. One action is more or less innocently unscrupulous, the other amenable to earning an easy ...3 days ago
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being ...4 days ago
We're about to do something unprecedented as a nation. We hope that by taking this extraordinary action before a single life in New Zealand has been lost to the deadly novel virus we will save tens of thousands of lives. Our lives. We'll do it together, in households, in isolation ...4 days ago
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”So writes the author of Ecclesiastes, a book in the Old Testament that’s counted as a ‘wisdom’ book and written as if by an unnamed king of Jerusalem. But who would have thought there would be a time ...4 days ago
According to Newshub, Simon Bridges is open to joining a “grand coalition” with Labour as we hunker down to go into a month long lockdown. The idea is sound. Before now, the role of the opposition was to scrutinise and oppose. In the context of what almost amounts to a ...6 days ago
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or ...6 days ago
A few days ago I was starting to write something about the pandemic, which now seems unconscionable. It took the form of a letter to an agony aunt:“Dear Deidre, I have an ugly confession. I am quite excited by Covid-19.”This is how the piece went:“I’m not a psychopath, honest. Although the ...6 days ago
I am a pundit, somebody who opines and comments on the news. There are no real qualifications to punditry though having a rudimentary way with words and good general knowledge helps. That is one reason there is a constant oversupply of would-be pundits and why it is quite hard to ...7 days ago
The coronavirus pandemic has of course had a major impact on individual lives and on societies as a whole. But, long after the crisis has passed (assuming it does), we will begin to realise that its real and lasting significance lies in the lessons it has taught us, if only ...1 week ago
COVID-19 has plunged Aotearoa New Zealand (indeed, the world) into territory that, while maybe not totally unprecedented, certainly hasn’t been seen during the lifetimes of most of us here today. Our borders are closed to non-citizens, we’re being told not to gather in groups of more than 500 outside/100 inside, ...1 week ago
by Jan Rivers The article has been corrected to show that it was Ewen MacAskill, former Guardian journalist and not Luke Harding who travelled to meet Edward Snowden with journalist Glenn Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras. Some of the Guardian’s well-known journalists who did not sign the protest letter are ...1 week ago
Looking across the various arguments for/against the leading candidates to take the Democratic Nomination, you might honestly be very hard pressed to tell. There are a number of things that have now started happening since Amy Klobuchar and “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg both threw the towel in and immediately (and ...1 week ago
Some fave speeches: ...1 week ago
Many who advocated for, and voted for, the current Coalition – particularly those who voted Labour and the Green Party – expected to see a sea change in the reality of social services. A real, deep change of attitude, approach of process through which the system negotiates the difficult and ...2 weeks ago
In a world and a time when the worst off and most vulnerable have been asked, time and again, to foot the bill for the complete subjugating to the will of the 1% thanks to the GFC, at a point where the world as a whole is now seeing quite ...2 weeks ago
With the economy already reeling from a crisis that’s barely begun, the Government today sought to provide reassurance to workers and businesses in the form of a massive phallic pun to insert much-needed cash into the private sector and help fight the looming pandemic. Here are the key components: $5.1 ...2 weeks ago
I am a member of the working poor and so still need state welfare to make rent. So I had booked an appointment for yesterday with my caseworker at Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ) to apply for a transition to work grant. However the current health advice in New ...2 weeks ago
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...23 hours ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...4 days ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...5 days ago
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...23 hours ago
It’s time to lower traffic speeds to reduce crashes and free up hospital beds, say cycling advocates. "This will reduce harm and ease the burden on our health workers and emergency services," says Patrick Morgan from Cycling Action Network. ...12 mins ago
By RNZ Pacific The number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in French Polynesia has risen by four to 34. The update from the government said the hospitalisation rate is unchanged with one person in care. Last night a curfew was declared for the first time, forcing residents across ...1 hour ago
It’s a town where people often feel the rest of the country has given up on them, in the middle of a region where every place feels isolated. So how did Ohura become an unlikely centre of Medieval Combat sports in New Zealand? Alex Braae spent three days there finding ...2 hours ago
If you want to understand some of the thinking behind the policy response to the spread of coronavirus, you might want to read the paper from the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team, which is credited with accelerating the introduction of the current lockdown measures in the UK. The paper builds ...2 hours ago
The Māori Party is delaying the launch of its new-look party to fight Covid-19 in Māori communities. ...2 hours ago
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Evil triumphs when good men do nothing.
The silence of Kelvin Davis.
Australian commentary begins at 3:00 minutes
Kelvin Davis was “very vocal about this in the past”. That is true. But that of course was during the lead up to the last election, before he was returned to his seat in parliament as the member for Te Tai Tokerau.
Since then Kelvin Davis has been virtually silent on the issue.
“In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies … but the silence of our friends.”─ Martin Luther King
Labour, the party the left can count on to let them down.
No one with any sense voted for Labour after 84. For the lack of choice , spoiled my ballot in 87.
It is a continuing theme of radical propaganda and back-tracking in power. Can someone suggest a good analysis of Lee’s ‘Simple on a Soapbox’. Definitely Lee had an ego but all the figures of that time appear conservative in his vista without the caucus’s voting. ‘We’ll be the laughing stock of the world’ said MJS about the 30 shilling old age pension.
Do you really expect the New Zealand government to tell Australia how it should run its prisons/detention camps?
The PM has certainly been quiet on the issue when she advocated the whole issue of detainees/illegal immigrants around 12 months ago. The pushback from Turnbull was quite severe. I think the (then new) government got the message loud and clear not to tell the Australians how to run their country.
One would have assumed someone with your experience Wayne would know the difference between telling another country what to do and standing up for your own citizens.
The latter being what one assumes Jenny was implying.
Fist point; The australians do run a first world justice system and expect New Zealand to understand that.
Second point, and really the key one I was making; the New Zealand government very quickly learned not to lecture Australia, and that seems to include Kelvin Davis.
The treatment and conditions resulting from this first world justice system is what is in dispute.
To not be seen standing up for your citizens (or to even bother to comment) will create flak at home. More so, if one was previously immensely vocal before being elected into power.
“The australians do run a first world justice system”
No – they run a two-tier system – a first worldish one for Oz citizens and a different one for everybody else. They do this unashamedly in order to deter backdoor immigration, because Australia is still a place that lots of people want to get to. With 2.5 to 3 degrees of warming it will be a place people are desperate to leave. That will be a grim sort of poetic justice.
“Do you really expect the New Zealand government to tell Australia how it should run its prisons/detention camps”
No – I expect it to kowtow to superior economic and military power. But while doing this, I don’t expect it to utter the sort of dull, grey, turgid, privilege and injustice-defending bromides that would make it sound like Wayne Mapp.
Do you really expect the New Zealand government to tell Australia how it should run its prisons/detention camps? Of course.
Why? So then the likes of those who say Davis is silent would be able to criticise him, accusing him of butting into Australian affairs and how he’s an embarrassment to our country for doing that.
The flaw in your logic is it’s not just an Australian affair.
With so many Kiwis affected, it has become a diplomatic issue between the two countries. Hence, a NZ Government response is largely expected.
Diplomatic issue? The issue is that Davis has to make a choice between being attacked mercilessly for outwardly putting the boot into the Aussies or for not overtly putting the boot into the Aussies. Attacked by the same people.
He isn’t in the headlines about it so he’s doing nothing. Let’s attack him about that too. And if he is in the headlines saying he’s doing something and there’s an outline of constructive steps towards some constructive resolution, lets attack the media outlet as a mouthpiece for the left.
And if constructive steps get the people put on planes to New Zealand and one of them does something wrong, stupid or bad, let’s blame Davis for getting them into the country and boot him again.
It’s a political issue. That’s when you get someone saying, “Evil triumphs when good men do nothing. The silence of Kelvin Davis.”
Hi Pete, I really can’t understand where you are coming from.
Without any evidence at all you slyly accuse, myself, and presumably others, of criticising Kelvin Davis when he is silent about the plight of the detainees, and also when he speaks up for the detainees, saying, “how he’s an embarrassment to our country for doing that”. This is a complete lying smear. For the record I was very much in support of Kelvin Davis’ early advocacy for the detainees, and would be very pleased to see him take up their cause again..
In future Pete, instead of engaging in broad smears, you need to say exactly who it is you claim is criticising Kelvin for standing up for the detainees, and who also criticise him for not standing up for the detainees. And provide some sort of evidence to back up your claims.
Do you really think the Australian Authorities are going to admit what is going on in their Detention Centres. The Australian Government has not had a good history of dealing nicely with indigeneous races, and come to think of it we have not been super good here in New Zealand as well IMHO ?
we must not forget who and what is waiting in the wings…
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/19/president-pence-women-week-in-patriarchy
and some lightness from that article
Sometimes the worst that can happen is what is required to nudge people back onto the right path.
America, in a yet another public display of it’s new role as now unashamed authoritarian world bully boys and corporate enforcers which of course leads to it’s complete lack of regard for free press (when it suits them), has detained with out charge Press TV’ s journalist Marzieh Hashemi for over six days so far.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/american-journalist-iran-press-tv-jailed-190117085325166.html
And while we are on the subject of free press, here is a piece well worth reading from Aaron Mate on The Nation dismantling more of the increasingly hysterical and unhinged ‘Russia Gate” conspiracies…
The Manafort Revelation Is Not a Smoking Gun
Proponents of the Trump-Russia collusion theory wildly overstate their case, again.
https://www.thenation.com/article/manafort-no-smoking-gun-collusion/
Of course you wouldn’t know that the whole Russia Gate conspiracy just one huge smoke screen reading or listening to msm, and unfortunately many on this site.
So while we have all had to hear endlessly week after week to this conspiracy theory (which is all it is at this point) that always goes nowhere, the Democratic party and Hillary Clinton have had to take exactly zero responsibility for losing to a half brain dead z grade TV game show host, why is that?
If you are a Russia gate believer, maybe this is the question you should start asking yourself…
The Manafort Revelation Is Not a Smoking Gun
Well, duh. If it was, Trump would be making a prison cell look even uglier than it already did, and we’d all be contemplating President Pence and thinking you really do need to be careful what you wish for. Most criminal investigations don’t feature a “smoking gun,” that’s why we have juries – and why they take longer than five minutes to reach a verdict. That doesn’t make those criminal investigations “conspiracy theories.”
And that’s an important point. Juries are often advised by the judge to arrive at a decision based on `the balance of probabilities’, aren’t they? Which is just as elegant way of saying `take your best guess, folks’.
So, in practice, courts decide more often on the picture painted by circumstantial evidence than on proof. Which is where Mueller III’s unprecedented breaking of media silence comes in.
“Cohen was sentenced in December to three years in prison for lying to Congress, campaign finance violations and financial crimes. He said he took full responsibility for his crimes, but said he acted out of blind loyalty to Mr. Trump, who he said “led me to choose a path of darkness over light.””
“During his nomination hearing this week to become attorney general, William P. Barr was asked if the president would have committed a crime if he had coached a witness to testify falsely — or not to testify at all. “Yes,” Mr. Barr said. “Under an obstruction statute, yes.”” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/us/politics/buzzfeed-cohen-russia-tower.html
The day before Buzzfeed reported evidence that Trump had committed that crime. Mueller III yesterday denied that was accurate. He obviously felt he had to – because of that bunch of calls for him to act by leading congressmen. Looks like he doesn’t have a basis to act against Trump. He’s been gathering circumstantial evidence to paint the picture for two years. Not enough.
As I presume you know “balance of probabilities” is about civil trials. Anything to do with impeachment/Russia collusion is on the criminal standard of “beyond reasonable doubt.”
Thanks Wayne. No, I’ve never studied legal process. Just have the view of the average layman – a general idea of how the system works picked up from long-term observation. Beyond reasonable doubt sounds like a requirement of proof to me.
Buzzfeed used the agreement of two ex-govt officials as basis for their claim that the proof exists. Mueller III denied that their claim was accurate. Sounds like the evidence is debatable: proof to some, not to others. This discord around evidence has long been a phenomenon in science: evidence can be interpreted as proof, but opinions often differ. Even between experts!
Thank you, Wayne. I was about to ‘blast’ Dennis for that …. LOL.
Very best wishes and positive thoughts for your health battle.
Uhhh, when it comes to impeachment and conviction, it’s whatever at least 218 House Representatives and at least 67 senators agree are impeachable “high crimes and misdemeanours”, to whatever standard of proof they agree on. Impeachment and conviction is not a criminal proceeding, and it’s different to a civil matter as well.
It is literally correct to say that if said numbers of Congresspeople agreed that what Individual-1 does with his ties are impeachable “high crimes and misdemeanours”, he’d be outta there. Article 1 of impeachment could be the way he wears them way too long to point at the wizened Toad lurking in his trousers. Article 2 of Impeachment could be the way he uses sellotape to vainly attempt to hold the two dangly bits together.
John Roberts as the presiding justice over the senate trial could put as much effort as he wanted to into pointing out how fkn ridiculous it was, but in the end, if 67 senators voted to convict. it’s a done deal. The more likely procedural way to protect Individual-1 would be for the Senate Majority Leader, aka Yertle McConnell, to refuse to even bring the matter to the senate floor for consideration.
Or as Gerald Ford put it much more succinctly,
“An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers to be at a given moment in history; conviction results from whatever offense or offenses two-thirds of the other body considers to be sufficiently serious to require removal of the accused from office.”
Funnily enough the powers that be seem to (so far) be entirely relying on the public believing the “smoking gun” theory.
You seem to not realise that “Smoking gun” refers to the strongest kind of circumstantial evidence, as opposed to direct evidence. ie…
The smoking gun theory is as follows….
“Trumps been to Russia and wanted to build a Russian Trump Tower;
There are Russians on the internet putting up adverts and #fake news supporting Bernie/Trump/Stein and these have been amazingly successful at…
getting disenfranchised whites in the rust belt all rilled up (which makes no sence ‘cos there lives/wages/housing/health and that of their children are getting better and better with each passing year)
and getting African Americans all rilled up and resentful (which also makes no sence ‘cos there lives are sweet as too);
Bernie and Trump did well;
Its simply not possible that the public no longer believe in the Corporate Democrats ability to deliver change and (cough) ‘Hope’, and that the public would willingly vote for the likes of Trump or Bernie or Stein, therefore……Trump is a Russian stooge.”
(The smoking gun theory also involves ignoring how much the Democrats/Hilary spent, because apparently the Russians are way way better at pushing their message than any of the agencies working for Hilary)
…the powers that be seem to (so far) be entirely relying on the public believing the “smoking gun” theory.
Now, there’s a conspiracy theory. Who are these “powers that be,” and on what evidence do you make this claim about them?
Oh it’s a conspiracy theory alright, and why any critical thinking person is still buying into it’s bullshit constructed narrative is for me the strangest part of the whole thing..quite disheartening really.
With that in mind I think we need tolay out the cards here and face the facts, Russia gate conspiracists are willing to accept, defend and support the narrative of Ex Bush FBI head Robert Mueller and his various (seriously) dodgy co conspirators over established truth tellers like Glenn Greenwald, Robert Fisk, John Pilger, etc etc….
Well as the old saying goes, ‘you make the bed you lie in’
But I guess on the bright side you always have the in depth hard hitting reporting of the liberal turned war hawk Racheal Maddow to keep you up to date ha.
“People whose opinions I share” != “established truth tellers.”
Robert Fisk as an established truth teller? Isn’t he the discredited journalist who was found to have made up stories & treated them as investigative journalism? Maybe he now works for Buzzfeed ?
@Bazza64
Would you care to put up a link or links to support your claims re; Fisk please.
@Bazza64
Oh you must mean this discredited journalist…
Robert Fisk
27 December 2018
Trump vs Mattis: Watch out when men of war come to the rescue
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jim-mattis-donald-trump-mad-syria-israel-egypt-arafat-sharon-a8700276.html
10 January 2019
The US media has lost one of its sanest voices on military matters – so let’s hope William Arkin’s absence is brief
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/william-arkin-nbc-donald-trump-military-war-pundits-israel-media-a8719956.html
January 17, 2019
Lessons from the Armenian Genocide for Saudi Arabia in Yemen
https://mirrorspectator.com/2019/01/17/lessons-from-the-armenian-genocide-for-saudi-arabia-in-yemen/
3 January 2019
Judge Richard Goldstone suffered for turning his back on Gaza – but not as much as the Palestinians he betrayed
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/israel-gaza-war-judge-richard-goldstone-palestinian-conflict-a8709211.html
I remember reading in the NZ Herald quite a few years ago how Robert Fisk came in for some heavy criticism from other journalists, who said he always seemed to get a very detailed story, when others said they were always suspicious of him.
Googled a couple of things:
https://honestreporting.com/independent-admits-robert-fisk-story-was-false/
https://pulsemedia.org/2016/12/03/robert-fisks-crimes-against-journalism/
Definitely not an expert on Mr Fisk, but when I see his name I always remember this.
The first link is to an apology by Fisk for writing an article in 2011 in which he quoted from a forged document (unknown to Fisk at the time), hardly a reason to discredit a journalist with decades of solid war reporting.
BTW your linked source HonestReporting (Defending Israel from Media Bias) also defends Israeli violence against unarmed civilians..detaining children in prison..etc etc
HonestReporting’s Top 10 Posts of 2018
https://honestreporting.com/honestreportings-top-posts-of-2018/
As far as Idrees Ahmad’s (whom I admire) piece goes, that is more problematic, the Syrian conflict is so complex, that I personally try to stay at some distance from it, so i can’t really comment on that article.
But I can see your position re’ Fisk if that is your view on the Syrian conflict nonetheless.
Not sure about the Syrian conflict, but seems some people are now saying Fisk is a stooge of Assad & the Russians. Have no idea if this is even true & in the end all journalists have to be paid by someone. Truly being independent is maybe a difficult thing for journalists to achieve.
Difficult to know re Fisk, but I do remember a lot of journalists saying that he always seemed to get the perfect story which seemed to be embellished.
Thanks
What a breath of fresh air, thank you Adrian.
Tamati is right – we live in societies still struggling with their colonial past. In Aotearoa it is hard to appreciate that there was once a time when it was considered acceptable to exterminate indigenous people.
In Australia ‘Kriol’ is a relatively new Aboriginal language with upwards of 20,000 speakers in the Northern Territory and the neigbouring Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is a creole language – meaning it is a kind of emergency language with specific origin.
It arose early this century when surviving members of decimated language groups congregated at the Roper River Mission in order to escape killings being carried out by cattle station companies. Many adults were multilingual – but not in the same languages. Children had often not developed full language competence .
In this situation the only form of communication was a pidgin which had entered the Northern Territory a few decades before with the cattle trade.
It is easy to forget this history in urban centres but like an old coral reef it repeatedly resurfaces when conservative parties with a strong rural base hold sway in Canberra.
[Adapted from Balzer et. al., “Pidgin”, 2nd ed., page 149, Lonely Planet, 1999]
“Murica, where a group of vile, MAGA capped racists gleefully harass a Native American elder at an Indigenous Peoples March.
https://twitter.com/UncededClothing/status/1086677183458934784
I notice the self-satisfied expression of the one young white man who stands in front of the American Indian (Nathan Philips of the Omaha Nation). His tight smile says you can’t make me move, and you can’t touch me.
MAGA means – according to a Reddit? post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/5b6a7x/what_does_maga_mean/
The_Donald Rules.
This list is a wonder to behold for the USA.
What does MAGA mean?
I keep seeing the left criticize Trump for stating MAGA. Claiming he wants to bring back racism, slavery and segregation. What a bunch of cucks.
Let’s set the record straight. We are going back to a Great America.
An America where the people trust the government.
An America where we are proud of the USA.
An America where we don’t fear terrorist, but terrorist fear us.
An America where getting a job and livable wage is easy.
An America where we create wealth and prosperity.
An America with a tax surplus and not a multi-trillion dollar deficit.
An America where anyone can afford to go to the hospital.
An America where everyone can go to college.
An America where people aren’t afraid of police.
An America with more schools than prisons.
An America that upholds the bill of rights.
An America that spends money to fix itself before “fixing” the world.
An America where “Made in USA” is cheaper than “Made in China”.
An America that doesn’t have one way tarrifs.
An America that doesn’t allow threats of war from other nations. Looking at you North Korea.
An America that stands for Freedom and Democracy.
That’s the America we are going back to. That is the future. No more free rides for fake allies. No more fake diplomacy while Americans die to terrorist. No more corrupt secret deals. No more profit at the expense of American lives.
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!!
FUCK YOU CLINTON, CTR, DEMOCRATS, AND ANY OTHER FREEDOM HATING TRAITORS!
No end of potential nominees for the Supreme Court there, by the look of it.
Those thick youth look like cardboard cutouts compared to the native elders. Those young adults are nothing, not even dust, gone, evaporated back to their nothingness.
“The students, many of whom were wearing “Make America Great Again” caps, from private, all-male Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills were in Washington for an anti-abortion rally on Friday when they were filmed surrounding Nathan Phillips and mocking the Native American’s singing and drumming.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/20/outcry-after-kentucky-students-in-maga-hats-mock-native-american-veteran
Christians sadly were participants in many colonisations where they tried to exterminate indigenous people.
Frankie the Pope has a message for the little shits.
Pope Francis on Friday addressed a video message to the world’s young indigenous people holding their World Indigenous Youth Gathering in Soloy, Diocese of David, Panama, from January 17 to 21. The young people will then move on to Panama city to join the World Youth Day (WYD) 2019, January 22-27, which the Pope is joining on January 23.
Speaking in Spanish, the Pope is encouraging the indigenous young people to hold on to their cultures and roots by fighting marginalization, exclusion, waste and impoverishment that is threatening them and build another world that is possible and that is more just and human.
[…]
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-01/pope-francis-video-message-world-indigenous-youth-panama.html
…were in Washington for an anti-abortion rally on Friday…
Farkinell, it’s the trifecta…
https://twitter.com/riotwomennn/status/1086721329573830656
Look’s like a nice kid ?
Guess he would be a Republican Trump Supporter no doubt ?
Bye bye Good Friday agreement?.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/police-in-northern-ireland-report-suspected-car-bomb-in-derry-1.3764233
Bit more about the Russian girl and how she got there.
https://www.andrew-drummond.com/2019/01/19/so-who-did-the-dirty-on-oligarchs-girl-nastya-rybka/
Fun and learning. Puts it ALL into perspective.
http://www.astronomy.com/news/2018/08/fact-checking-the-galaxy-song
Manawatu river at Foxton
http://www.horizons.govt.nz/HRC/media/Data/WebCam/Foxton_latest_photo.jpg?ext=.jpg
[What’s going on, cobber? Your last few comments look like you’ve walked away from the laptop and your pet hamster has tap danced on the keyboard. If you want to put a link up, please add a short explanation of its relevance. Don’t want to waste people’s time, ae? TRP]
Anyone watch Go South on Prime last night? Really awesome piece of TV. Hopefully this will manage to get on TV networks all round the world. Do more to promote NZ than anything else.
of course.
https://www.google.com/search?q=askew&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b
You know, Ed got banished for that type of shit.
Where is Ed ?
Commiserating with Paul somewhere.
A predictable opinion piece in today’s Herald website by Lawrence Yule National MP for Tukituki and spokesperson for horticulture. Nowt, zip, yadda, nil, nothing about the orchidists paying their workforce a decent wage – but he reckons the Government has a role to play to help them out. Poor petals.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12193308
Essentially a copying and pasting of previous talking points.
Not exactly in full hiring mode only small producers who do not contract out.
https://www.trademe.co.nz/browse/categoryattributesearchresults.aspx?140=5&154=5015&144=-1&144=200000&search=1&sidebar=1&cid=5000&rptpath=5000-
Voters less likely to back Labour with ‘stop Brexit’ policy, leaked poll suggests
Can’t have your cake and eat it too.
it is not cake and eating it too, rather it is combining representative democracy and direct democracy.
So with that in mind in this case: An election is held that combines the Tory platform with the favored brexit approach of it’s support base (which is looking for the maximum separations with the EU) & the Labour combines it’s platform with the favored brexit approach of it’s support base (which is looking for a continuation of partnership with the EU as much as possible).
Then the representatives of the election result, negotiate their balances to the differences and trade offs with the EU and their supoort base platform, so it remains a winning process for the electorate’s involvement in the process. And either way the election goes, there remains strong bargaining power for the British side.
And i believe, at heart, it is probably that simple in how to complete the process started with the referendum in a way that is diplomatic to all concerned.
Like everyone I’d always believed that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. And then I read this:
And realised that the The Black Horse wasn’t famine at all.
It’s free-market capitalism.
I am not a Christian and don’t believe in the bible or sin so… nice symbolism though.
Neither am I.
But look at all the people who are.
Good riddance to New Zealand’s Biggest Bogans
by E. KERR McROVI, The N.Z. Gerald, Sunday 20 January 2019
You would have to wonder what this country’s Biggest Bogans were doing when they chose the New Zealand taxpayer to fund their calumny from 2008 until we gave them the arse in 2017.
Did they think we were complete saps, willing to roll over and accept their appalling anti-social and criminal behaviour? That we were too primitive and unsophisticated to galvanise ourselves into a posse of right-thinking community policemen and women? A little bit of homework would have shown that we have spectacularly good form in bringing down even highly trained criminals, far less amateurs.
But just to recap … That bunch of foul mouthed, bribe-taking, snitching, backstabbing, housing expenses-rorting, cigar smoke-blowing, hairpulling louts made headlines on a daily – nay, hourly – basis. Since award-winning journalist Nicky Hager exposed to the nation in 2014 that their leader had allowed his office to be the command centre for an illegal, secret campaign of character assassination and vilification run by the infamous and disgusting Cameron FailAll Slater, assisted incompetently and pathetically by his stumble-tongued slave Jordan Williams, this gang of reprobates ran our country’s reputation into the ground with the same lack of concern as their dirty dairy friends foul the water the rest of us used to drink and swim in.
The gang of thugs parked up at the Beehive for nine terrible years quickly drew the attention of Kiwis thanks to their filthy language and their filthy behaviour. [1] When a local woman suffering from asthma asked one of them to stop smoking a cigar in their enclosed box at a football match, the feral fellow turned particularly nasty. Instead of ceasing to smoke, he walked up to the woman and blew smoke in her face. This led to the woman’s husband nearly knocking Coleman’s brains out. [2] And thus it began.
As a result of the publicity over the cigar fracas, a number of people approached the Herald with their own horror stories of encountering the nation’s Biggest Bogans.
A man who had the great misfortune to share a flight with one of these appalling humans recounted his bad behaviour at Christchurch Airport in 2014. It was hours of misery for everyone involved, when the fattest and most unpleasant of all the Bogans bumptiously bypassed security to board a domestic flight. He was fined $2,000 for that bit of idiocy. [3]
Next, a young waitress from Parnell came forward to complain about the leader of the Unruly Gang. She recognised the lout from his many appearances in the media and told how he and his people had come to her cafe and repeatedly pulled her hair while his wife just watched. [4]
Another of these antisocial and repulsive pests was caught by one of our leading artists in the act of befouling our waterways, along with his horrid dirty dairying amigos. [5]
This Unruly, Unholy Mob had no idea just how effective New Zealanders can be at monitoring aberrant behaviour. Those of us who are honest will remember that the gangsters who ran that vicious and secret campaign of character assassination from Wonky John’s office were exposed not by this country’s counter espionage agents or even our investigative police officers. The hapless bumbling tossers in charge of the operation were exposed thanks to a concerned computer expert (“Rawshark”) who had clocked a number of odd incidents and reported them to the renowned journalist Nicky Hager.
So this group of professional louts never had a chance of slipping under the radar. The reaction to these no-hopers was an excellent example of what can happen when we work together.
[1] https://resources.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/l/f/i/z/s/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.1240×700.1lfi0o.png/1504501119377.jpg
[2] https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10413574
[3] https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/63297518/null
[4] https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/67949918/null
[5] https://resources.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/l/f/i/z/s/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.1240×700.1lfi0o.png/1504501119377.jpg
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12192586
Spoke to my m8 yesterday who’s grandfather played for Liverpool, about the Liverpudlian gypsies touring New Zealand he reckons they are Northern Ireland protestants one of the worst breed of people on the planet.
Who’s your mate’s grandfather, Tamati?
just wonderful..Morrissey.’👌
‘ That bunch of foul mouthed, bribe-taking, snitching, backstabbing, housing expenses-rorting, cigar smoke-blowing, hairpulling louts made headlines on a daily – nay, hourly – basis. Since award-winning journalist Nicky Hager exposed to the nation in 2014 that their leader had allowed his office to be the command centre for an illegal, secret campaign of character assassination and vilification run by the infamous and disgusting Cameron FailAll Slater, assisted incompetently and pathetically by his stumble-tongued slave Jordan Williams, this gang of reprobates ran our country’s reputation into the ground with the same lack of concern as their dirty dairy friends foul the water the rest of us used to drink and swim in.’
Wow that’s a mouth full but 100% correct.
Worse than the “Unruly Tourists” are these Yobs taunting them in Hamilton
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12191765
M8’s name is Murphy not sure what his grandfather’s name was but I will ask him the next time I talk to him and let you know, probably feeding me B/S, never thought to ask.
Thanks Tamati. Let us know!
Thread.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1086759055127924739.html
Kia ora the am show There you go duncan kicking the poor vulnerable people.
Its a lollie scramble in the house building boom in Taungara that’s the capitalist way charge what ever one can get from the buyer.???????????????????????????????.
simon you way of running the country into the ground look at what has happened hundreds of people under the bridge and you spout about they way shonky run the country. national sold half of the power companys and in just 5 years the money raised buy the sales of those crown jewels has been losted in capital gain’s and dividend’s a gift to their wealthy share market m8 of 5 billion tipcal national kick the poor vulnerable people.
Alcohol related death’s in NZ IS 600 to 1000 how many die from weed can not find any from consumeing it enough said.
Jason its quite hot in Australia at the minute can cook a egg on the bonnet of a car and your prime minister wants to build more coal power plants that burns heaps of carbon and use heaps of WATER.
I say Michael Mosley diet will be good .Drop the sugar and have porridge in the morning is a good way to to stop the hunger pangs and lose weight it makes the body work to digets it to .
The biggest hitts the tax system’s get is fraud that comes from the white collar crime there was a figure of $1 billion in the media .Goverments and council’s fraud. I say that figure is the tip of the Iceburg.
Global warming it the biggest threat enough said Ka kite ano P.S Mahi ki hoariri
Unequal income distribution is what causes a lot of our society problems health crime slow economy low education levels also Unequal income affects Wahine the people whom raise our tamariki the most .
How unequal is New Zealand?
In New Zealand, income (and probably wealth) was being shared out more and more evenly from the 1950s up until the 1980s – but for the next two decades we had the developed world’s biggest increase in income inequality.
As the graph (at left) shows, in that time, the average income of someone in the richest 1% has doubled, from just under $200,000 to nearly $400,000 (adjusting for inflation). In contrast, the average disposable income for someone in the poorest 10% is only slightly higher than it was in the 1980s. (More details and the source of this graph can be found in Wealth and New Zealand, published by BWB.) That means many New Zealanders struggle to pay their bills and lead a decent life.
Another way to put it is that someone in the richest 10% used to earn five times as much as someone in the poorest 10%; now they earn eight times as much.
Wealth is also very largely in the hands of a few. As the graph (below) shows, in New Zealand the wealthiest tenth own nearly a fifth of the country’s net worth, while the poorest half of the country has less than 5 per cent. That leaves many people in poverty, lacking the resources they need to participate in society and follow their dreams. (Again, further details are available in Wealth and New Zealand.)
What is the connection with poverty?
Inequality connects both ends of the spectrum, wealth and poverty, and argues that they have to be looked at together. The fundamental issue is distribution: how are the economy and society structured, and where do they deliver their rewards?
In other words, poverty doesn’t exist in isolation: people are poor, in part, because the economy directs much of the country’s resources to those who are already doing well. For instance, within a company, pay for ordinary staff can be low because so much of the company’s income goes to senior management and shareholders.
Wealth and poverty can’t be separated.Polling shows New Zealanders have consistently rated inequality as the single biggest issue facing the country since 2014. Over 80 per cent of the country say they are concerned or very concerned about income and wealth imbalances. Internationally, all the world’s major economic bodies – including the IMF, the OECD and the World Bank – have argued for some time that inequality is a major problem and must be addressed. Ka kite ano links below
http://www.inequality.org.nz/understand/
Here you go the goverments don’t mesure the % of income that the people pay and in the poor peoples case with gst at 15 % we the poor pay the higest % of taxs to income ratio. And the rulers wonder why MAORI are so upset with OUR lot this system is dishing us up Ana to kai
Do the rich really pay the most in tax?
The rich don’t really pay that much in tax – and to the extent that they do, it’s because they get the biggest chunk of the income
The government likes to say that the richest 15% of households (those earning over $150,000) pay three-quarters of all the “net tax” .
The problem with this measure is that it isn’t really about tax. It does start with the amount of income tax paid by different groups – but it then does complicated calculations about how much those groups received in benefit payments, the accommodation supplement, paid parental leave and Working for Families. Those figures are subtracted from the amount of tax paid by each group, to arrive at a strange sort of “net financial contribution to the government’s books” measure.
More useful figures about income tax are in the graph below, which shows how much of our national income goes to each of the country’s ten income groups – and what proportion of the total tax take they contribute
None of these figures, of course, includes capital gains (income made from selling assets such as houses and shares), because we don’t for the most part either tax or record those capital gains.
If we did, since those capital gains will go largely to the richest tenth, the truth about tax in New Zealand is that the rich almost certainly pay less of their income in tax than the poor do. ka kite ano links below
http://www.inequality.org.nz/understand/rich-really-pay-tax/
You see people 4 % is what drips off the wealthy’s plates for maori to fight over and some still have the gaul to moan about what Maori/minority cultures get from the system . TIMES ARE GOING TO CHANGE.
Eco Maori say mandatory voting is what is need to get a fair representation for all Kiwis at the minute the pollies are to scared to tackle the big issues that will upset the retired babyboomers whom 98% vote . If everyone votes the politicians will listen to the poor people more.
Why do you need mandatory voting? Can’t you convince people to vote just be explaining how it benefits them?
Kia ora Newshub Some of those Wai falls around Auckland has some old Maori history.
House prices are expensive in Aotearoa at the minute all part of shonkys plan.
I saw that video of that old Native American that was being taunted by that boy so disrespectful those young people are Alot of people are disrespectful these days the old fella was a War veteran to. Public expenses in Aotearoa was one of the lowest in the world so was our grocery prices low as compared to the rest of the World 10 years ago.
If the trees are dangerous ie fall over in bad weather they should be felled but one would think the council would follow dew process after all they set the examples.
That was lucky that no one was hurt in that bombing in Ireland I smell something.
The Orca video under the artic ice is really cool see those Orca have smaller dorsal fins than the ones around NZ. I did not see much publicity on the marine sanctuary being set up around the Ross Sea??????????.
Ka kite ano.
Kia ora Newshub it’s good for our farmers that Jacinda has got a export deal with Britain I still say Britain should stay with the European Union. As for the Air forces Gropper its the same as the roast busters the state white coller people bending the laws to protect there m8. That’s why there is a status of limitations LAW to protect government people from getting held accountable for all the cheating they did while in power.A new government find there dirty deeds cannot litigate against the cheats. The man made drug problem the pills what ever man made drug problem is here and now because the state spent all its resources farcicaly fighting weed that is practically harmless when compared factual with other forms of drugs and ignore these other drugs that has killed many people shonkys the ring leader is the ring leader. duncan your a alt right red neck who thinks a Wahine place is behind a MAN your views change like your underwear. Like I have said the world’s laws are made to protect the ruling classes and hammer the poor people that’s a fact. I have all read put a post up about the gropper ropper CASE.
I won’t wait for shonky who should be hiding under a rock after the Big mess he has made of Atoearoa. Ka kite ano P.S to busy with our Mokopunas
Yea wealth is OK so long as shonky doesn’t have control of it and give it to the few while the many have to struggle to survive its OK if wealth is shared it is well documented that a equal society is much happier and healthier when your share the lollipops I get it wealthy people get a logical block from their $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Quite a common phenomenon around Papatuanukue that has caused all the ills of Papatuanukue don’t worry common people money is going to be a thing of the past we will have a currency that has a consciousness connection to it any cheating people will go broke. Ana to kai Ka kite ano
There you go shonky is a alt right trump supporter trump is ripping of the poor common people like shonky did and giving it to his rich m8 bullshiting about trumps popularity in America Ana to kai Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub It’s cool Jamie Lee Ross is OK more drama for national I see one of their biggest spin doctors is not in good shape.
A tree falling on people picnicking at the shot over river condolences to the people who were involved in the incident Tawhirirmate is a powerful force.
Jacinda is determined to keep Aotearoa exporters to Britain in the good tradition trading partners Ka pai.
Aotearoa is a haven but trying to sail hear in over loaded unsafe boat is a risk to great to make we get some big seas here in the Pacific.
national flogging the same horse weed benefit bashing sorry they won’t get anyone attention but there 25 %core voters 65 % of kiwis support weed laws reforms only fools and horses /bridges.
We seen The Marama /Moon last night at the Farm she was showing off her beauty.
That was awesome that lady Lee had her treasure returned to that were stolen she looked wrapped she was lucky the boys who found them found her Ka kite ano