Fenton St business owner Donna Walsh told the hearing she had to lock the doors of their fashion store, Willow Boutique, between customers because they felt unsafe.
this is something that i do too, and many other businesses. It is just safer.
"Rotorua has 50 motels (in emergency housing) and Auckland has 100. Rotorua has 1.5 per cent of New Zealand's population but has 9 to 10 per cent of the emergency housing population. It's disproportionate.
these are the small low budget motels for the most part that used to house kiwi families coming for an affordable holiday. Not anymore. It is too dangerous now.
Restore Rotorua chairman Trevor Newbrook said the organisation…..,
did not want the consents granted and wanted to stop people from outside Rotorua moving into the city's emergency housing.
He said he found "unbelievable" the continued "denials" of the council, Government departments, MPs and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – whom he said was recorded as saying it was a "perception" people came from out of town.
He said the Ministry of Social Development's report released this year showed a third of those in emergency housing were not living in Rotorua in the 30 days before entering a motel.
I know of one of these people, she sleeps in her unwarranted, unrego'ed car often times as she consideres the motels unsafe. She has her family in Auckland.
Watchdog Security chief executive officer Brett Wilson said despite claims most people were local, it was his view a "significant portion" of those in the motels were from out of town.
For example, his police colleagues had told him about a Palmerston North man recently released from serving a prison sentence for two serious crimes and now living in a Rotorua motel.
We all know at least one person who is in one of these hovels who is not and never was from Rotorua and who has no connection to Rotorua.
The city's police and medical support resources were also impacted and the Government had not given additional resources to compensate.
"We have a lot of interaction with police but in the last 12 months the ability of police has dropped off because they are so tied up with family violence and drug activity in emergency housing."
Yes, it is so fucking bad. And family violence is everywhere.
He said contacts at Rotorua Hospital had said the emergency department was "clogged up" with people from emergency housing as many of them did not have a GP.
Wilson said he had spoken to some people in the motels – many of whom did not want to go on record for fear of retaliation – who told him they don't like the way the contracted motels were being run.
this is what the women who sleeps in her car rather then the motel said. Tiny Dean literally has his own gang masquerading as security. People are quite scared actually.
He described security plans at the motels as "woefully inadequate" and was concerned about some of the people being employed in security roles.
Yeah, Tiny Deans private little militia.
Glenholme resident Ryan Holmes congratulated the council on the "amazing clean-up" before the hearing started. He said graffiti was gone, lawns were mowed and trolleys and rubbish picked up.
In his view: "It is all to create an impression all is well on MSD Mile. If you had been here a week ago, you would have been shocked."
Yeah, cause we are all suckers and bitches to the goverment. And sadly it will take only a few days to again look like the beginning of Skid Row.
Christina Phillips, a retired teacher with over 34 years' experience …..,
she was concerned about the risk to the learning and development of children in central Rotorua emergency housing motels, including there being little to no play equipment or green space for children.
She believed there was no goodwill from the moteliers making big money out of emergency housing to put any of it back into providing safe play environments for children.
we are all concerned and why would these government paid slumlords actually do anything, after all they are just there for emergency housing and no standards apply. Never mind the kids.
Urbano Bistro owner Richard Sewell described the situation as a "catastrophe" and said Rotorua's reputation was "in tatters".snip
He said since writing his submission when he had 17 staff, he now had eight and was struggling to find staff. His revenue was down 45 per cent.
"This might be the end of the road for us."
all of us my friend, all of us. The town that was killed by a government who could not give a fuck, can't be bothered, and really just wants to look good on camera. Never mind the damage hiding behind the camera.
Hennessy's Irish Bar owner Reg Hennessy said he saw the violence, drug dealing and intimidation not only around his central city pub but when he walked his dog along Fenton St while living in Sophia St – at a home he has since sold out of safety concerns.
He said gangs had "mushroomed" in Rotorua and he often drove home on Fenton St at 11pm and saw little kids playing on the road.
He described seeing drugged-out people stumbling around the central city as being like something from a "zombie movie".
yep, all that shite is happening, in plain sight and no the police can't do anything, i don't know maybe they aren't supposed to do anyting.
A lawyer representing Restore Rotorua, Vanessa Hamm, told commissioners she was "dismayed" to hear earlier evidence that suggested having a group such as Restore Rotorua "magnified" the issues residents faced.
"That is really patronising."
Well, you made the government look bad, the ministers as out of touch, and we can't have that.
The commissioners, David Hill, Sheena Tepani and Greg Hill will hear more submissions today and Friday before reconvening Monday, October 31, finishing on Tuesday, November 1.
Do i expect any chances? Not sure. Fact is that Rotorua was screwed over by a government that really could not care at all about the people living there. A government that wanted to be seen as doing something and that rain misery, hell, crime, drugs, open panhandling, prostitution and child abuse on our town, and all that under the guise of kindness.
Reminder to the do-gooders that like the government don't really care about the issues that arrive when one just drops people on a town in a 'out of sight out of mind' frame of thinking, we have no industries others then tourism, and red stag timber. We have lost most of our tourism, Kiwis don't stay in Rotorua anymore as it is now too dangerous, and they are quite right.
We have 11% unemployment – way way way above the 'average' of NZ, and we have a government that can't give a fuck. You want to know why Labour has a chance of losing the next election worse then Cunliffe lost, it is this not giving a fuck.
But i am really happy that Tiny Dean and some people without scruples made millions of the governments tit. I mean there has to be a bright side, and homelessness and misery is a good earner for those that made a career out of the hunger and misery of other people.
Interesting how nobody is talking about Visions of a Helping Hand loaning a van for anti-vaxxers to go riot in Wellington. It also seems like they're linked to Marty Verry through Paul Laing, a former trustee of the group who shares the same name as Red Stag's commercial manager.
The current ideology about local government is driven by central government and across multiple areas: housing development policy, RMA changes, shrinking orle of local government in totality, and removal of control of all water functions.
That is where you will find people don't want to work in local government.
Rotorua is feeling the effects of decades of neglect and Sabine blames it all on the current government. Typical of someone who doesn't seem to know the history behind the situation and the racism that has been rife there for nearly two hundred years. Then she tries to claim its all about something called ideology.
Its got nothing to do with ideology but problems that have been allowed to fester for so many years, and it will take as many years to eradicate.
I’ve heard Tapsell being interviewed a few times now. She sounds fantastic. A breath of fresh air from the current in vogue wokery. My only fear for Rotorua is that she is so good, she’s likely to be shoulder tapped for a higher office.
He is settled married with family here and in Parliament. Unlike the chorus he is working on projects. Today at Reporoa opened a Biogas producer using waste to produce biogas. But you would rather diss our region.
When I see statements like the following I would think that Sabine's 11% figure may be correct.
"According to latest figures from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), there are about 5000 people currently on Job Seeker benefits in Rotorua which represents over 10% of the working age population."
Alwyn, not forgetting the work allowance has increased to $180 odd which means your "Unemployed might be doing a days work a week. They would be underemployed then.
You’re making a basic error. I’d expect more from someone with qualifications in economics.
Investigating the relationship between unemployment and benefit receipt provides technical audiences a shared understanding of the relationship between people who are unemployed and those who receive Jobseeker Support – Work Ready (JS-WR).
…
From there, we examined the proportion of unemployed people in receipt of JS-WR to test the commonly held assumption that there should be a large amount of overlap between the two groups.
We found that levels of unemployment and JS-WR should not be assumed to indicate a single pool of unemployed JS-WR recipients, even when at a similar level or moving in the same direction, as many unemployed people are not in receipt of JS-WR, and many JS-WR recipients are not unemployed.
Amazing quotes spilling out of so many Tory mouths, it's hard to keep up. (Links? all UK media, every minute). Like …
"I am fucking furious and I don’t give a fuck anymore"
That's a deputy Whip!
For historical comparison, probably the closest in NZ would be Shipley/Peters or Lange/Douglas. But this is way more brutal and chaotic than even our worst.
That realisation came faster than the dropping of New Year’s resolutions, which happens annually and not three-yearly. Not voting has almost as many consequences as voting and you lose bragging or whining rights too.
Comedy gold. Couldn't be bothered voting now regret not voting. Well should've, would've, could've, need to get of their ass and vote next time. If you don't vote, then you can't complain about the outcome.
As a young person who's had to move flats three times this year, all I can say is it was a fucking nightmare to register, to the point where it almost verges on voter suppression. One of my flatmates spent about an hour on hold just to be told that, as far as RealMe is concerned, he doesn't exist. Maybe we don't pay rates directly, but I'm paying over $200 a week to the guy who does, so it's pretty outrageous how hard it was to express my basic democratic right.
The image shows "Bryce" standing behind a huge tractor that bears a sign that reads, "STOP strangling farmers they ARE the original environmentalists"
Bryce is wearing heavy boots and is standing on bare ground; soil that's been stripped of its plant-cover, churned up by machinery (and probably herbicide) – it looks lifeless, yet his billboard says, again, that farmers are environmentalists!
Farmers were the original environmentalists when they farmed within the capacity of their land. Now, land is stocked to industrial levels with the aid of shit like palm kernel. Cropping is intensified with the aid of artificial fertilisers and pesticides. And let's not get started on the use and abuse of water.
Farmers must have hired a new PR firm. Their "original environmentalists" message has replaced "We are guardians of the land".
Both are pure BS of course. No mention of the fact that when European settlement began a massive amount of NZ's native forest was felled or burnt off to make way for farms. That continued what Maori had done but to a greater extent.
The loss of animal, bird and plant life must have been colossal.
Bryce is probably keeping 20,000 people alive and is using the tools available to maximize yield.
Bryce probably has an intimate knowledge of soil biology, plant growing and his local environment, that puts him in the top echelon of New Zealand horticulturalists.
Now the dust is slowly settling and the smoke clearing we (…) finally are starting to see some sense. For me, the fact that Jacinda Ardern stepped in to find some loose change to quell the anger of the mob is a watershed moment.
When Latin got dropped from the NZ School Curriculum there was no uproar and Chris Hipkins didn’t try to save it from its untimely death. Perhaps they should have applied to Creative NZ for continuation of funding.
I did Latin at school and Uni. Discussing this today, my friend says that something has to drop off the curriculum if we want to teach Māori, Health and Computer Studies, none of which I was taught at school.
We had Latin, used slide rules (guessing sticks), and certainly nothing about relationships was even mentioned. Instead we practised hymns and Art consisted of dictated notes on pottery but never a drawing pencil or paintbrush in hand.
So I can mourn the loss of Latin, along with Religious Instruction, just as earlier generations lost abacuses in schools, and Rhetoric, Greek and Ancient Sumerian hieroglyphics.
Very few would have paid attention or given a shit if it hadn’t been for those couple of assessors’ comments. It was never about Shakespeare whom most only care about if it is on Netflix. The cancellation of Latin never had the good fortune of becoming a wedge issue in a virtual culture war. Oh well, you win some, you lose some; c’est la vie.
“The regular calls for negotiations to end Russia’s war with Ukraine tend to be more directed at Kyiv or Washington than Moscow, as if they are the main stumbling blocks. Yet it is Vladimir Putin that is demanding that this war leads to a fundamental change in borders and political arrangements, that on any reading of international law he has no right to demand. Vladimir Putin does not preclude talks, but only so long as Russia is allowed to hold on to occupied territory, and even territory from which it has had to retreat. Volodymyr Zelensky demands withdrawal, and while at the start of war he might have been ready to go back to position of 23 February 2022 he now expects to go to the position of eight years earlier before Russia annexed Crimea.”
International law seems increasingly irrelevant given the actions of western powers of late such as the deliberate destruction of the Nordstream pipelines and the blowing up of the Kersh bridge using a truckbomb , seems pretty obvious that the objective of these operations is to prolong and escalate the conflict .
Where does it say in international law that its ok for the united states to occupy land in syria ? or that its ok for israel to continue bulldozing palistinian homes to make more room for israely settlements .The list is very long indeed of the most powerfull countries thumbing their nose at international law.
To my mind addressing Washington and Kyiv to end this war is entirely justified and i'd add London as well .
Well if America had been arming us for ten years and they put in place a pro American gov in order to threaten and in the event of war breaking out weaken australia then yeah i guess they'd have the right .
So far as i know stuart the people of the Donbas wished they'd had more help from Russia not less and could not understand why they took so long to confront the American backed nationalists directly which is why the referendums offering citizenship with the russian federation were taken up so wholeheartedly , they'd had nearly nine years to make up their mind !!
If you knew a little more about the behaviour of the post-soviet Russian state, and the fate of those satellites that chose to leave it, we would hear a great deal less of your pro-despotic assertions.
The West was taken by surprise in 2014, having themselves no plans to go to war with Russia. But in the time since, having learned their lesson, he no longer gets the benefit of the doubt.
The best thing for Russia is a regime change – which, as a brutal kleptocracy, is long overdue. The best thing for Ukraine is a timely cessation of hostilities.
Russian agents like Girkin have no future in a free Ukraine – they will go to considerable lengths to prevent one. In no way do such espiocrats represent a plausible popular separatist movement – he is an agent provocateur, Russia's catspaw, nothing more.
Well, well, the Transmission Gully protesters drove there in hired vans according to today's Dominion Post. Do as we say, not do as we do. At least they should have got up earlier and ridden their bikes there. One thinking person needing to get on with his day managed to outwit them.
The group want the government to "Restore Passenger Rail". So as soon as there's a functioning rail system, they're going to use the train instead of a hired van…
Also looking forward to the impatient car drivers ripping off the banners from the "farmers" blocking the roads today. More likely that the two biggest polluter groups in this country stick together though…
However, there will always be a big difference between the two: Polluting car drivers will always be just a problem and never be the solution to pollution. While farmers are in a more important position, many of them are part of the problem now and they can / must be part of the solution for the future.
When are the two main political parties in the country have the balls telling the polluters that the days of pollution have to come to an end soon?
It is inevitable – even the National (Polluter) Party surely know this – and obviously, significant parts of our daily life, like infrastructure, agriculture, have to be ready for those days.
How long does it take to get ready? How many decades for something on that scale?
Or do we simply block all combustion engines on our roads from one day to another and shoot million of cows within a month to achieve the necessary, internationally agreed targets?
It's worse than that, Jimmy. These people are dicing with death. All it needs is for some P- head, or the Mongrel Mob, to be held up, and you can bet someone will be on their way to ICU.
They put themselves directly in the path of the public in an area which is heavily restricted and operated by only by Police and NZTA appointed traffic control.
So glad there are people like this to protect our children /s
Arizona GOP Candidate Arrested For Allegedly Masturbating In Truck Near Preschool
…
In a Facebook post from May, Kaufman said he wanted “our children protected [from] the progressive left.”
Kaufman was charged with public sexual indecency, but 12News in Phoenix reported that Kaufman could also face a possible felony charge because of his proximity to the preschool.
Can't believe I actually agree with Eaqub (don't buy a house in Auckland its better to rent) Shamubeel for once. I've been saying for years tax brackets need to be adjusted for inflation and both Nats and Labour never adjust them. Riduculous to be paying 30% tax on earnings over $48k which I think was set back in 2009? or 2011.
Sweden calls bullshit and abolishes ministry of environment,due to having a nuclear moment,as it provides solution based measures for its economic future.
The greens disliked by 95% of voters are upset,but will be helped through the transition by an increased spend on mental health.
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, May 19, 2024 thru Sat, May 25, 2024. Story of the week This week's typiclal compendium of stories we'd rather were plot devices in science ficition novels but instead ...
This National government has been aggressively anti-environment, and is currently ramming through its corrupt Muldoonist "fast-track" legislation to give three ministers dictatorial powers over what gets built and where. But that's not the only thing they're doing. On Thursday they introduced a Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, ...
Whenever politicians dole out taxpayer funding to groups or individuals, they must do so in a wholly transparent way with due process to ensure conflicts of interest don’t occur and that the country receives value for money. Unfortunately, it’s not clear that this has occurred in the announcement this week ...
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Up until 1989, you could attend a New Zealand University, and never need to pay a cent for your education. That then changed, of course. The sadists of the Fourth Labour Government introduced substantial fees for study, never having had to pay a cent for their own education. The even ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Minister for Children Karen Chhour is putting children first: Hon KAREN CHHOUR: I move, That the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services and Community Committee to consider the bill.It’s a privilege ...
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When Labour was in power, they wasted time, political capital, and scarce policy resources on trying to extend the parliamentary term to four years, in an effort to make themselves less accountable to us. It was unlikely to fly, the idea having previously lost tworeferendums by huge margins - ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: When Whanau Ora chief executive John Tamihere was asked what his expectations for the Budget next Thursday were, he said: “All hope is lost.” Last year Whānau Ora was allocated $163.1 million in the Budget to last for the next four years ...
Nick Hanne writes – There’s a common malady suffered by bureaucracies the world over. They wish to save us from ourselves. Sadly, NZ officials are no less prone to exhibiting symptoms of this occupational condition.Observe, for instance, the reaction from certain public figures to the news ...
Peter Dunne writes – As the city of Tauranga prepares to elect a new Mayor and Council after three and a half years being run by government-appointed Commissioners, the case for replacing the Wellington City Council with Commissioners strengthens. The Wellington City Council has been dysfunctional for years, ...
This will be s short post. It stems from observations I made elsewhere about what might be characterised as some macro and micro aspects of contemporary collective violence events. Here goes. The conflicts between Israel and Palestine and France and … Continue reading → ...
It may be a relic of a previous era of egalitarianism, but many of us like to think that, in general, most New Zealanders are as honest as the day is long. We’re good like that, and smart as. If we’re not punching above our weight on the world stage, ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Why aren’t politicians taking more action on the housing affordability crisis? The answer might lie in the latest “Register of Pecuniary Interests.” This register contains details of the various financial interests of parliamentarians. It shows that politicians own real estate in significant numbers. The ...
I built a time machine to see you againTo hear your phone callYour voice down the hallThe way we were back thenWe were dancing in the rainOur feet on the pavementYou said I was your second headI knew exactly what you meantIn the country of the blind, or so they ...
Why aren’t politicians taking more action on the housing affordability crisis? The answer might lie in the latest “Register of Pecuniary Interests.” This register contains details of the various financial interests of parliamentarians. It shows that politicians own real estate in significant numbers. The register published on Tuesday contains a ...
Microsoft’s transparency about its failure to meet its own net-zero goals is creditable, but the response to that failure is worrying. It is offering up a set of false solutions, heavily buttressed by baseless optimism. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in ...
Another Friday, another Rāmere Roundup! Here are a few things that caught our eye this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday, our new writer Connor Sharp roared into print with a future-focused take on the proposed Auckland Future Fund, and what it could invest in. On ...
Still Waiting: Māori land remains in the hands of Non-Māori. The broken promises of the Treaty remain broken. The mana of the tangata whenua languishes under racist neglect. The right to wear the huia feather remains as elusive as ever. Perhaps these three transformations are beyond the power of a ...
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Buzz from the Beehive A triumvirate of ministers – holding the Agriculture, Environment and RMA Reform portfolios – has announced the introduction of legislation “to slash the tangle of red and green tape throttling development in key sectors”, such as farming, mining and other primary industries. The exact name of ...
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Ele Ludemann writes – That Kāinga Ora is a mess is no surprise, but the size of the mess is. There have been many reports of unruly tenants given licence to terrorise neighbours, properties bought and left vacant, and the state agency paying above market rates in competition ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s being explained as an “inadvertent error”. However, National MP David MacLeod’s excuse for failing to disclose $178,000 in donations for his election campaign last year is not necessarily enough to prevent some serious consequences. A Police investigation is now likely, and the result ...
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The relentless drone coming out of the Prime Minister and his deputy for a million days now has been that the last government was just hosing money all over the show and now at last the grownups are in charge and shutting that drunken sailor stuff down. There is a word ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to riot-torn New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. Today’s flight will carry around 50 passengers with the most ...
Precious declaration saysYours is yours and mine you leave alone nowPrecious declaration saysI believe all hope is dead no longerTick tick tick Boom!Unexploded ordnance. A veritable minefield. A National caucus with a large number of unknowns, candidates who perhaps received little in the way of vetting as the party jumped ...
Rex Ahdar writes – The Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, likes to trace his political lineage back to the pioneers of parliamentary Maoridom. I will refer to these as the ‘big four’ or better still, the Four Knights. Just as ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Willie Jackson will participate in the prestigious Oxford Union debate on Thursday, following in David Lange’s footsteps. Coincidentally, Jackson has also followed Lange’s footsteps by living in his old home in South Auckland. And like Lange, Jackson might be the sort of loud-mouth scrapper ...
That is the only way to describe an MP "forgetting" to declare $178,000 in donations. The amount of money involved - more than five times the candidate spending cap, and two and a half times the median income - is boggling. How do you just "forget" that amount of money? ...
In this week’s “A View from Afar” podcast Selwyn Manning and spoke about the upcoming US elections and what the possibility of another Trump presidency means for the US role in world affairs. We also spoke about the problems Joe … Continue reading → ...
Hi,Two years ago I briefly featured in Justin Pemberton’s Web of Chaos documentary, which touched on things like QAnon during the pandemic.I mostly prattled on about how intertwined conspiracy narratives are with Evangelical Christian thinking, something Webworm’s explored in the past.(The doc is available on TVNZ+, if you’re not in ...
The Government is leaving the entire construction sector and the community housing sector in limbo. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government released the long-awaited Bill English-led review of Kāinga Ora yesterday, but delayed key decisions on its build plan and how to help community housing providers (CHPs) build ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons Farmers who can’t sleep, worrying they’ll lose everything amid increasing drought. Youth struggling with depression over a future that feels hopeless. Indigenous people grief-stricken over devastated ecosystems. For all these people and more, climate change is taking a clear toll ...
New Zealand’s relationship with China is becoming harder to define, and with that comes a worry that a deteriorating political relationship could spill over into the economic relationship. It is about more than whether New Zealand will join Pillar Two of Aukus, though the Chinese Ambassador, more or less, suggested ...
Been hoping we would see something like this from Sir Geoffrey Palmer. This is excellent.The present Bill goes further than the National Development Act 1979 in stripping away procedures designed to ensure that environmental issues are properly considered. The 1979 approach was not acceptable then and this present approach is ...
He’s Got The Moxie: Only Willie Jackson possesses the credentials to meld together a new Labour message that is, at one and the same moment, staunchly working-class, union-friendly, and which speaks to the hundreds-of-thousands of urban Māori untethered to the neo-tribal capitalist elites of the Iwi Leaders Forum.IT’S ONE OF THE ...
Tree-huggers may well accuse the Government of giving them the fingers, after Energy Minister Simeon Brown announced new measures to protect powerlines from trees, rather than measures to protect trees from powerlines. It can be no coincidence, surely, that this has been announced at the same as Fisheries Minister Shane Jones ...
Willie Jackson will participate in the prestigious Oxford Union debate on Thursday, following in David Lange’s footsteps. Coincidentally, Jackson has also followed Lange’s footsteps by living in his old home in South Auckland. And like Lange, Jackson might be the sort of loud-mouth scrapper who could take over the Labour ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect New Zealanders' right of free speech. The “Protection of Freedom of Expression Bill” will ensure that no organisation or individual, when acting within the law, is unreasonably denied use of a public venue for an organised event or ...
The Green Party unequivocally condemns the governing parties’ attempts to limit the public’s say on the controversial Māori wards legislation, after the select committee considering the legislation set a deadline for submissions of just five days. ...
Disabled children and families nationwide have recently found out they’re no longer able to use disability support funding for programmes during school hours in another quiet update from the Government. ...
Following a horrific case of stalking that ended in tragedy, Labour’s police spokesperson Ginny Andersen has drafted a bill that would add stalking to the Crimes Act. ...
The Rt Hon Winston Peters, joined by Mike King, has announced $24 million over four years for the ‘I Am Hope Foundation’, and will provide young people aged between 5 to 25 years with free mental health counselling services. This funding will help I Am Hope’s ‘Gumboot Friday’ initiative give ...
Te Pāti Māori have launched a petition to stop the repeal of Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act. This announcement comes prior to the first reading of the Section 7AA repeal bill in Parliament today. “Section 7AA forces the Government to adhere to Te Tiriti o Waitangi with respect ...
The Government has yet again failed to do the one thing that needs to happen to ensure houses can be built – commit to ongoing funding, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Treasury officials have outlined many ways in which the Fast Track Approvals Bill is deeply flawed, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking says. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick used this year's State of the Planet to call on the Government to prioritise people and planet as the delivery of the Budget approaches. A full transcript of their speeches can be found below. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have used their State of the Planet speeches to challenge the Government to prioritise people and planet over profit as the delivery of the Budget approaches. ...
The Government’s introduction of legislation that would enable landlords to end tenancies with no reason marks a dark day for the 1.4 million people who rent their home in Aotearoa. ...
The Minister for Mental Health has found the Suicide Prevention Office and mental health support for 111 calls slipping through his fingers, says Labour spokesperson for Mental Health Ingrid Leary. ...
Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Over the next four years, Budget 24 will support the training and recruitment of 1,500 teachers into the workforce, Education Minister Erica Stanford announced today. “To raise achievement and develop a world leading education system we’re investing nearly $53 million over four years to attract, train and retain our valued ...
1. New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Rt Hon Winston Peters; Minister of Health and Minister for Pacific Peoples Hon Dr Shane Reti; and Minister for Climate Change Hon Simon Watts hosted Cook Islands Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Hon Tingika Elikana and Minister of Health Hon Vainetutai Rose Toki-Brown on 24 May ...
The Government has approved two-year extensions for four New Zealand Defence Force deployments to the Middle East and Africa, Defence Minister Judith Collins and Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced today. “These deployments are long-standing New Zealand commitments, which reflect our ongoing interest in promoting peace and stability, and making active ...
The Climate Change Commission Chair, Dr Rod Carr, has confirmed his plans to retire at the end of his term later this year, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Prior to the election, Dr Carr advised me he would be retiring when his term concluded. Dr Rod Carr has led ...
Nine highly respected experts have been appointed to the inaugural board of the new Integrity Sport and Recreation Commission, Sport & Recreation Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Integrity Sport and Recreation Commission is a new independent Crown entity which was established under the Integrity Sport and Recreation Act last year, ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters confirmed today that Vote Foreign Affairs in Budget 2024 will balance two crucial priorities of the Coalition Government. While Budget 2024 reflects the constrained fiscal environment, the Government also recognises the critical role MFAT plays in keeping New Zealanders safe and prosperous. “Consistent with ...
New social housing funding in Budget 2024 will ensure the Government can continue supporting more families into warm, dry homes from July 2025, Housing Ministers Chris Bishop and Tama Potaka say. “Earlier this week I was proud to announce that Budget 2024 allocates $140 million to fund 1,500 new social ...
Introduction Today, we are sharing a red-letter occasion. A Blackball event on hallowed ground. Today we underscore the importance of our mineral estate. A reminder that our natural resource sector has much to offer. Such a contribution will not come to pass without investment. However, more than money is needed. ...
Increasing national and regional prosperity, providing the minerals needed for new technology and the clean energy transition, and doubling the value of minerals exports are the bold aims of the Government’s vision for the minerals sector. Resources Minister Shane Jones today launched a draft strategy for the minerals sector in ...
The coalition Government’s legislation to restore the rights of communities to determine whether to introduce Māori wards has passed its first reading in Parliament, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown says. “Divisive changes introduced by the previous government denied local communities the ability to determine whether to establish Māori wards.” The ...
The coalition Government has today introduced legislation to slash the tangle of red and green tape throttling some of New Zealand’s key sectors, including farming, mining and other primary industries. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop says the Government is committed to unlocking development and investment while ensuring the environment is ...
The decision by Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to approve the continued use of hydrogen cyanamide, known as Hi-Cane, has been welcomed by Environment Minister Penny Simmonds and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay. “The EPA decision introduces appropriate environmental safeguards which will allow kiwifruit and other growers to use Hi-Cane responsibly,” Ms ...
Kia ora, Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou kātoa Tāmaki Herenga Waka, Tāmaki Herenga tangata Ngā mihi ki ngā mana whenua o tēnei rohe Ngāti Whātua ō Ōrākei me nga iwi kātoa kua tae mai. Mauriora. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the EMA for hosting this event. Let me acknowledge ...
The coalition Government is investing in social housing for New Zealanders who are most in need of a warm dry home, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. Budget 2024 will allocate $140 million in new funding for 1,500 new social housing places to be provided by Community Housing Providers (CHPs), not ...
Thousands more young New Zealanders will have better access to mental health services as the Government delivers on its commitment to fund the Gumboot Friday initiative, says Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey. “Budget 2024 will provide $24 million over four years to contract the ...
The Coalition Government’s Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, which will improve tenancy laws and help increase the supply of rental properties, has passed its first reading in Parliament says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “The Bill proposes much-needed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 that will remove barriers to increasing private ...
Standing here in Cassino War Cemetery, among the graves looking up at the beautiful Abbey of Montecassino, it is hard to imagine the utter devastation left behind by the battles which ended here in May 1944. Hundreds of thousands of shells and bombs of every description left nothing but piled ...
I present a legislative statement on the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill Mr. Speaker, I move that the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services and Community Committee to consider the Bill. Thank you, Mr. ...
The Bill to repeal Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has had its first reading in Parliament today. The Bill reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the care and safety of children in care, says Minister for Children Karen Chhour. “When I became the Minister for Children, I made ...
Kia ora koutou, good morning, and zao shang hao. Thank you Fran for the opportunity to speak at the 2024 China Business Summit – it’s great to be here today. I’d also like to acknowledge: Simon Bridges - CEO of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. His Excellency Ambassador - Wang ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days - and bringing ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days - and bringing them ...
The Coalition Government will introduce legislation this year that will enable roadside drug testing as part of our commitment to improve road safety and restore law and order, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Alcohol and drugs are the number one contributing factor in fatal road crashes in New Zealand. In ...
The Government has announced a series of immediate actions in response to the independent review of Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “Kāinga Ora is a large and important Crown entity, with assets of $45 billion and over $2.5 billion of expenditure each year. It ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour is pleased that Pseudoephedrine can now be purchased by the general public to protect them from winter illness, after the coalition government worked swiftly to change the law and oversaw a fast approval process by Medsafe. “Pharmacies are now putting the medicines back on their ...
Tēnā koutou katoa. Da jia hao. Good morning everyone. Prime Minister Luxon, your excellency, a great friend of New Zealand and my friend Ambassador Wang, Mayor of what he tells me is the best city in New Zealand, Wayne Brown, the highly respected Fran O’Sullivan, Champion of the Auckland business ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced that the Government will make it easier for lines firms to take action to remove vegetation from obstructing local powerlines. The change will ensure greater security of electricity supply in local communities, particularly during severe weather events. “Trees or parts of trees falling on ...
Wairarapa Moana ki Pouakani were the top winners at this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy awards recognising the best in Māori dairy farming. Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka announced the winners and congratulated runners-up, Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board, at an awards celebration also attended by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister ...
"On the 27th of March, I sought assurances from the Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs, that the Department’s correct processes and policies had been followed in regards to a passport application which received media attention,” says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. “I raised my concerns after being ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges, to replace Judges who have recently retired. Peter James Davey of Auckland has been appointed a District Court Judge with a jury jurisdiction to be based at Whangarei. Mr Davey initially started work as a law clerk/solicitor with ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is calling on the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) to put ideology to the side and focus on students’ learning, in reaction to the union holding paid teacher meetings across New Zealand about charter schools. “The PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly today announced the appointment of Craig Stobo as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Mr Stobo takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April. Mr Stobo’s appointment is for a five-year term. “The FMA plays ...
Surf Life Saving New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand will continue to be able to keep people safe in, on, and around the water following a funding boost of $63.644 million over four years, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “Heading to the beach for ...
New Zealand and Tuvalu have reaffirmed their close relationship, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand is committed to working with Tuvalu on a shared vision of resilience, prosperity and security, in close concert with Australia,” says Mr Peters, who last visited Tuvalu in 2019. “It is my pleasure ...
New Zealand is gravely concerned about the situation in New Caledonia, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The escalating situation and violent protests in Nouméa are of serious concern across the Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “The immediate priority must be for all sides to take steps to de-escalate the ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met today with Samoa’s O le Ao o le Malo, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, who is making a State Visit to New Zealand. “His Highness and I reflected on our two countries’ extensive community links, with Samoan–New Zealanders contributing to all areas of our national ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced that he has approved Waiheke Island ferry operator Island Direct to be eligible for SuperGold Card funding, paving the way for a commercial agreement to bring the operator into the scheme. “Island Direct started operating in November 2023, offering an additional option for people ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today announced further sanctions on 28 individuals and 14 entities providing military and strategic support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Russia is directly supported by its military-industrial complex in its illegal aggression against Ukraine, attacking its sovereignty and territorial integrity. New Zealand condemns all entities and ...
A year on from the tragedy at Loafers Lodge, the Government is working hard to improve building fire safety, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “I want to share my sincere condolences with the families and friends of the victims on the anniversary of the tragic fire at Loafers ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for having me here in the lead up to my Government’s first Budget. Before I get started can I acknowledge: Simon Bridges – Auckland Business Chamber CEO. Steve Jurkovich – Kiwibank CEO. Kids born ...
Fresh off the back of episode one of Married at First Sight NZ’s new season, Alex Casey and Tara Ward fire up the chat to dissect what the hell we all just watched. Alex Casey: Tara, are you still screaming? I’m screaming. Tara Ward: I started screaming the moment I ...
Fresh off the back of episode one of Married at First Sight NZ’s new season, Alex Casey and Tara Ward fire up the chat to dissect what the hell we all just watched. Alex Casey: Tara, are you still screaming? I’m screaming. Tara Ward: I started screaming the moment I ...
Asia Pacific Report A West Papuan independence group has condemned French “modern-day colonialism in action” in Kanaky New Caledonia and urged indigenous leaders to “fight on”. In a statement to the Kanak pro-independence leadership, exiled United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) president Benny Wenda said the proposed electoral changes ...
“The situation in Gaza is desperate,” Will Alexander said. “It’s obvious to everyone that if Christopher Luxon truly cared, our government could do a lot more.” ...
ANALYSIS:By Nicole George, The University of Queensland New Caledonia’s capital city, Nouméa, has endured widespread violent rioting over the past three days. This crisis intensified rapidly, taking local authorities by surprise. Peaceful protests had been occurring across the country in the preceding weeks as the French National Assembly in ...
EDITORIAL:By Fred Wesley, editor-in-chief of The Fiji Times So 40 Fiji members of Parliament voted in favour of the Special Committee on Emoluments Report on the review of MPs’ salaries, allowances and benefits in Parliament on Friday. Now that’s not going down well with the masses, with many venting ...
First Hovel Grant Bishop Chris ventured out of the High Keep For his annual tour of the slums of the Holey Land. His litter bearers held his palanquin high Above the muck strewn and dilapidated alleys Of the Capital. The menials and peons swarmed around And pleaded for Alms from ...
Opinion: Following France’s President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to New Caledonia on Thursday, attention has turned to the country’s political future beyond the ongoing crisis. The uprising, which began on May 14, has demonstrated the capacity and determination of those involved to shut down the country and to inflict extensive economic ...
Asia Pacific ReportBy a Kanak from Aotearoa New Zealand in Kanaky I’ve been trying to feel cool and nice on this beautiful sunny day in Kanaky. But it has already been spoiled by President Emmanuel Macron’s flashy day-long visit on Thursday. Currently special French military forces are trying to ...
RNZ Pacific The survivors of a massive landslide in a remote village in Papua New Guinea’s highlands are still waiting for official help, more than 24 hours after the disaster. Hundreds are feared dead in Yambali village in Enga province after the landslide bulldozed homes and buried families alive early ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby The United States has said it is “ready to lend a helping hand” to the people of Mulitaka, Enga province, after a devasting landslide swallowed an entire village in Papua New Guinea’s highlands yesterday. US President Joe Biden and his wife said in a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Housing remains one of Australia’s most pressing issues in both state and federal politics. The RBA keeping rates up and high mortgage repayments have left many Australians struggling. For those Australians who don’t own a ...
This plan lacks any thought on how to drive New Zealand forward. Giving away rare minerals owned by every New Zealander for a measly return of 2.1% to the crown last year is simply ludicrous. ...
A West Coast conservation leader is lodging a complaint with Police after an officer barred her from a public meeting in Blackball, called by Resources Minister Shane Jones. The NZ First politician was in the historic coal-mining town on Thursday to launch the Government’s new draft minerals strategy, promising to ...
Editor Madeleine Chapman meets an old rival and wonders what could’ve been. Mōrena and welcome to The Weekend, where dreams and regrets have time and space to flower. What’s the thing in your life that you wish you had given more energy to? It could be a relationship, an exam, ...
This year, Tori Peeters will compete at the Paris Olympics in the javelin. Ten years ago, Madeleine Chapman thought she might be in the same position. She talks to Peeters about what it takes to go all the way and mulls her own life decisions in the process.No New ...
The star of High Country talks Tinkerbell, her love for Hawkeye Pierce and why a 98-year-old environmentalist is the most stylish man on television. Sara Wiseman has been a fixture on New Zealand television screens for nearly three decades. First appearing in Hercules and Xena Warrior Princess during the mid ...
Alex Casey takes a trip to Lincoln to visit the only couple from the first season of Married at First Sight NZ that’s still together. To cross the threshold into Brett and Angel’s marital abode is to be greeted with a welcome that sums up the MAFSNZ season one golden ...
In a new weekly interview series, we ask a different local artist to curate their dream weekend soundtrack. First up: Troy Kingi. Troy Kingi is a man on a well-documented mission to make 10 albums, in 10 genres, over 10 years. But finding himself creatively blocked while making his eighth ...
Reflections on a childhood split across Hong Kong and Auckland. The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I arrive in Hong Kong with my mother in the middle of summer. t’s not a good time to travel here, she tells me. It’s June. We’re ...
Pacific Media Watch Pro-Palestinian protesters dressed in blue “press” vests tonight staged a vigil calling on New Zealand journalists to show solidarity with the media of Gaza who have suffered the highest death toll in any war. They staged the vigil at the Viaduct venue of NZ’s annual Voyager Media ...
Opinion: Outside my house, the autumn breeze blows crisp leaves off trees and leaks through the gap in my ranchslider while I slump on my couch listening to our CEO announcing our restructure. With many ums and ahs, he reads his script, talking of “prioritisation,” “working differently,” and “reconceiving the ...
Just days after Taiwan’s new president called on China to stop making threats, Beijing has launched “punishment” military drills around the island. Everyone was watching to see what China’s reaction to the swearing in of President William Lai Ching-te would be. On Thursday night we found out. China had already ...
For the past six weeks Annie has been sleeping with a teacher named Patrick Drury. Twice he has tried to call it an affair. Twice she has considered correcting him. But she likes how he looks when he says it. She likes that he’s older than her. That he’s recently ...
MONDAY Fast-Track Jones stood in the shade beneath an awning of a train station and waited for the 3:10 to Blackball. He narrowed his eyes and studied the view. A water tower. A windmill. A cattle fence. All else was empty land. Locomotive smoke rose over the horizon. The 3:10 ...
A groundbreaking investigative podcast into the death of Gore three-year-old Lachie Jones has won Melanie Reid and Bonnie Sumner two notable awards at the Voyager Media Awards. Their in-depth reporting and nine-part first season of The Boy in the Water, which led to the case being reopened twice and preceded ...
By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist Scores of people have died in a huge landslide which has struck a remote village in the Papua New Guinean highlands. The landslide reportedly hit Yambali village in Enga Province, about 600 km north-west of Port Moresby. The landslip has buried homes and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lara Herrero, Research Leader in Virology and Infectious Disease, Griffith University Red-Diamond/Shutterstock We’ve now been living with COVID for well over four years. Although there’s still much to learn about SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) at least one thing seems ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clive Schofield, Professor, Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), University of Wollongong The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea has found countries are obliged to protect the oceans from climate change impacts under the law of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca McGirr, Postdoctoral research fellow, Australian National University Bernhard Staehli/Shutterstock Imagine you’re standing near the edge of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, gazing out over the ocean, when the ice near you starts to melt very rapidly. A surge of meltwater flows ...
The Finance Minister prepares to present one of the most difficult budgets, National MP David MacLeod gets himself into trouble and the First Home Buyers Grant is scrapped. ...
The Iranian Solidarity Group NZ met with Minister For Foreign Affairs Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, urging the NZ government to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (the IRGC) as a terrorist organisation. The group continues to advocate for justice ...
On 24th May, 6pm, Palestinian journalists covering Gaza will be honoured in a silent and visually impactful vigil outside Shed 10, 89 Quay Street, Auckland, where the Voyager Media Awards are being held. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Harcourt, Industry Professor and Chief Economist, University of Technology Sydney This should be a golden age for Australian soccer. After all, the big picture is good: the Matildas are waltzing, the Socceroos are well supported and Australia was just awarded hosting ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Wellings, Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations, Monash University Assuming a Labour win in the UK general election – always a risky assumption given Labour’s proclivity for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory – the “Global Britain” bombast emanating ...
The community group People Against Prisons Aotearoa is holding a protest against mass incarceration tomorrow against the Government’s proposed expansion of Waikeria prison. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University Shutterstock OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, and News Corp, the international media conglomerate, have signed a deal that will let OpenAI use and learn from News Corp’s content. In ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jaimon Kelly, Senior Research Fellow in Telehealth delivered health services, The University of Queensland Shutterstock/Nils Versemann For many Australians the emergency department (ED) is the physical and emblematic front door to accessing urgent health-care services. But health-care services are evolving rapidly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Trelease, Senior Lecturer in Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Following the hugely successful recent season of Married At First Sight (MAFS) Australia, fans of the format – and the reality romance genre in general – will be ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic Redfern, Associate Professor, School of Art, RMIT University We Are All Unique by Universal Everything commissioned by Hyundai Motorstudio Senayan Park in Beings at ACMI.Image by Michelle Tran At this week’s launch of Beings by Universal Everything, ACMI board member ...
As Married at First Sight New Zealand returns to our screens this Sunday, Tara Ward speaks to the show’s new relationship experts about what lies ahead. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. John Aiken is teasing Jo Robertson about her cup of ...
A new poem by Wellington writer Erin Donohue. The body’s score Here is what happens if you starve yourself for years. Your body will forget herself. She will have to learn new how a heart beats and she will not get it right. She will need MRIs and a quiet ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Picador, $25)A charming, smash-hit book about ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle “Only the struggle counts . . . death is nothing.” Éloi Machoro — “the Che Guevara of the Pacific” — said this shortly before he was gunned down by a French sniper on 12 January 1985. Machoro, one of the leaders of the newly-formed FLNKS (Kanak ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Wake, Associate Professor, Journalism, RMIT University Photo by Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels The news media play a vital role in shaping the public conversation and covering complex issues such as war, the economy, climate change and technology. Yet our new research ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aviroop Gupta, PhD Candidate, Curtin University Narendra Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has resorted to religious polarisation as it tries to rally its Hindu nationalist base in India’s ongoing general election, which ends on June 1. Just days after voting started ...
Lana Walters’ new show is playing in Auckland for the NZ International Comedy Festival. Madeleine Holden (a parent) and Liv Sisson (not) went along to review. I hadn’t heard of comedian Lana Walters until a colleague posted the following message in one of The Spinoff’s Slack channels: “Has anyone been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paola A. Magni, Associate Professor of Forensic Science, Murdoch University Microgen / Shutterstock When you think of a criminal investigation, you might picture detectives meticulously collecting and analysing evidence found at the scene: weapons, biological fluids, footprints and fingerprints. However, this ...
Recent price falls in the New Zealand market for carbon credits leaves the Government facing the prospect of a significant loss of revenue from carbon auctions this year. The March financial statements from Treasury highlight lower-than-expected revenue ...
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Behind the pretty flower beds at Auckland Botanic Gardens, conservation mahi is under way for the region’s 357 threatened plants. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. At Auckland Botanic Gardens, conservation specialist Ella Rawcliffe has been trying to plant a seed that’s smaller ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karen Scott, Professor in Law, University of Canterbury Christian Charisius/dpa/Getty Images In a significant development for small island nations threatened by rising seas, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) has found greenhouse gases constitute marine pollution. The ...
Oh well, i guess this now makes it official.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/rotorua-emergency-housing-motels-locals-make-heartfelt-pleas-to-commissioners-to-end-chaotic-system/BC5YEMH7KDWSXYHZTS5YEXMSU4/
Do i expect any chances? Not sure. Fact is that Rotorua was screwed over by a government that really could not care at all about the people living there. A government that wanted to be seen as doing something and that rain misery, hell, crime, drugs, open panhandling, prostitution and child abuse on our town, and all that under the guise of kindness.
Reminder to the do-gooders that like the government don't really care about the issues that arrive when one just drops people on a town in a 'out of sight out of mind' frame of thinking, we have no industries others then tourism, and red stag timber. We have lost most of our tourism, Kiwis don't stay in Rotorua anymore as it is now too dangerous, and they are quite right.
We have 11% unemployment – way way way above the 'average' of NZ, and we have a government that can't give a fuck. You want to know why Labour has a chance of losing the next election worse then Cunliffe lost, it is this not giving a fuck.
But i am really happy that Tiny Dean and some people without scruples made millions of the governments tit. I mean there has to be a bright side, and homelessness and misery is a good earner for those that made a career out of the hunger and misery of other people.
Italics are mine.
Thanks for posting Sabine. I would feel outraged if that had happened to the town I lived in.
The time to be outraged was in 2001 when State Houses were being demolished. Bit late now.
"More than 4000 state homes have been sold or demolished in the past five years.
Statistics released under the Official Information Act show the number of Housing NZ properties, divided by region, every five years since 2001.
In 2001, the total number of state houses was 61,217, which increased to a peak of 69,742 in 2011.
Five years on, the number has dropped by 4192 to 65,550."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/82009360/housing-new-zealands-biggest-loser
Interesting how nobody is talking about Visions of a Helping Hand loaning a van for anti-vaxxers to go riot in Wellington. It also seems like they're linked to Marty Verry through Paul Laing, a former trustee of the group who shares the same name as Red Stag's commercial manager.
https://www.redstagtimber.co.nz/people/our-people
https://register.charities.govt.nz/CharitiesRegister/ViewCharity?accountId=bd37b3f0-a7a1-e711-aae0-00155d6b7730&searchId=13fc5a7a-56b8-4144-9a3c-1963ed06d1b7
If Mayor Brown keeps attacking his own agencies he will find so many leave that nothing gets done. Even the contractors will work precisely to rule.
Can Labour and Green councillors organise to control him? Ardern is happy to interfere with water. Can she set a few boundaries today?
Aucklands pt system is already collapsing. GreaterAuckland sets it out at length today.
The stakes are very high.
Good, then he can replace these with civil servants rather then ideological stooges.
Really hoping that Tania Tapsell here in Rotorua does the same.
No one wants to work in local government right now.
All the best to Mayor Tapsell.
who knows, maybe people just don't want to work in local government that is driven by ideology rather then common sense.
Maybe council will actually function better when some of the silo builders get cleared out.
Tania is doing fine. She will be a much better Mayor that the last Ex Labour MP larping as Mayor could have ever hoped and wished to be.
The current ideology about local government is driven by central government and across multiple areas: housing development policy, RMA changes, shrinking orle of local government in totality, and removal of control of all water functions.
That is where you will find people don't want to work in local government.
Rotorua is feeling the effects of decades of neglect and Sabine blames it all on the current government. Typical of someone who doesn't seem to know the history behind the situation and the racism that has been rife there for nearly two hundred years. Then she tries to claim its all about something called ideology.
Its got nothing to do with ideology but problems that have been allowed to fester for so many years, and it will take as many years to eradicate.
There's no magic wand Sabine.
I’ve heard Tapsell being interviewed a few times now. She sounds fantastic. A breath of fresh air from the current in vogue wokery. My only fear for Rotorua is that she is so good, she’s likely to be shoulder tapped for a higher office.
That’s comedy gold there: only the best rise to the top in politics. Case in point: Tories in UK.
Yes true, and Mallard here in NZ.
she’s likely to be shoulder tapped for a higher office.
But she wasn't. They chose Sam Uffindell.
That's the National Party "merit" selection, right there.
Hard to pick someone if they’re not in the race
https://i.stuff.co.nz/bay-of-plenty/128273332/it-wont-be-me-tapsell-rules-herself-out-of-tauranga-race
But if she puts her hat in the ring for Rotorua and goes against the former weather presenter …
That's correct, she didn't enter the selection race.
But you said "shoulder tapped". If National really wanted Tapsell, they could have tapped hard.
Here's how much they rate her. At the election Tapsell was no. 64 on the list. That's 24 places below Matt King.
64th on the list in 2023 and she’s in. Even 85th on the list next year and she’s be a fair shout to get in.
National are going to lose all their electorates and ACT will get no votes?
Cool.
Jack "the former weather presenter" Tamaki Coffey, has been a successful Rotorua business owner who sold his two businesses in July.
"who sold his two businesses in July"
It seems that he could see what was coming. From what I have read about Rotorua lately he would appear to have made an extremely sensible decision.
He is settled married with family here and in Parliament. Unlike the chorus he is working on projects. Today at Reporoa opened a Biogas producer using waste to produce biogas. But you would rather diss our region.
Oh, people like you Sabine? Non ideologue?????You're pushing the truth to suit your story.
Current unemployment Govt figures 3.3% underemployment 9.2%
11% unemployed in Rotorua would be eight thousand and 63 people.
Where do you get your figures from?
When I see statements like the following I would think that Sabine's 11% figure may be correct.
"According to latest figures from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), there are about 5000 people currently on Job Seeker benefits in Rotorua which represents over 10% of the working age population."
https://www.baytrust.org.nz/community-stories/id/299
Alwyn, not forgetting the work allowance has increased to $180 odd which means your "Unemployed might be doing a days work a week. They would be underemployed then.
Come to Rotorua and see.
You’re making a basic error. I’d expect more from someone with qualifications in economics.
https://www.stats.govt.nz/research/investigating-the-relationship-between-unemployment-and-benefit-receipt/
Wgtn council are apparently Advertising for staff in Auckland
What not even Wellingtonians want to work for the ueber lefty that was currently elected. That is funny!!!
We vote for you, we don't wanna work for you.
Is Brown heading for Tauranga?
Tauranga hasn't had any democractically elected Councillors or a mayor for several years now.
Let's see what unfolds instead of crystal ball gazing, perhaps.
Tories in chaos. It warms the cockles…
https://twitter.com/IanMurrayMP/status/1582797073401131009?cxt=HHwWgsDR-avjnPcrAAAA
https://twitter.com/AnnaMcMorrin/status/1582797778492993536?cxt=HHwWgMDRpbGMnfcrAAAA
Chief Whip just resigned.
Send Sharma to Westminster to discover actual "bullying" …
https://twitter.com/DavidLinden/status/1582802699371700231
Amazing quotes spilling out of so many Tory mouths, it's hard to keep up. (Links? all UK media, every minute). Like …
"I am fucking furious and I don’t give a fuck anymore"
That's a deputy Whip!
For historical comparison, probably the closest in NZ would be Shipley/Peters or Lange/Douglas. But this is way more brutal and chaotic than even our worst.
A headline that should be from the Onion, but is actually real, today:
People who didn't bother voting now unhappy with … themselves.
Maybe next time they will make an effort and vote.
That realisation came faster than the dropping of New Year’s resolutions, which happens annually and not three-yearly. Not voting has almost as many consequences as voting and you lose bragging or whining rights too.
Comedy gold. Couldn't be bothered voting now regret not voting. Well should've, would've, could've, need to get of their ass and vote next time. If you don't vote, then you can't complain about the outcome.
Yes Observer it does feel like something from the Onion or the wonderful Australian Shovel
As a young person who's had to move flats three times this year, all I can say is it was a fucking nightmare to register, to the point where it almost verges on voter suppression. One of my flatmates spent about an hour on hold just to be told that, as far as RealMe is concerned, he doesn't exist. Maybe we don't pay rates directly, but I'm paying over $200 a week to the guy who does, so it's pretty outrageous how hard it was to express my basic democratic right.
11 people arrested for protesting about climate change inaction.
Protests in Wellington continue with Groundswell tractors replacing rail activists | Stuff.co.nz
Nek minnit.
Truly ginormous climate protest about to seize the media headlines and streets of New Zealand.
Groundswell NZ's tractor convoys, protests could cause disruption | Stuff.co.nz
The farmers have figured something out here.
https://www.facebook.com/GroundswellNZ/photos/a.220756519846343/587090523212939/
The image shows "Bryce" standing behind a huge tractor that bears a sign that reads, "STOP strangling farmers they ARE the original environmentalists"
Bryce is wearing heavy boots and is standing on bare ground; soil that's been stripped of its plant-cover, churned up by machinery (and probably herbicide) – it looks lifeless, yet his billboard says, again, that farmers are environmentalists!
Stunning disconnect from reality!
Farmers were the original environmentalists when they farmed within the capacity of their land. Now, land is stocked to industrial levels with the aid of shit like palm kernel. Cropping is intensified with the aid of artificial fertilisers and pesticides. And let's not get started on the use and abuse of water.
Not forgetting the impact on the roads by the vehicles that are needed to service this sort of carry-on.
Farmers must have hired a new PR firm. Their "original environmentalists" message has replaced "We are guardians of the land".
Both are pure BS of course. No mention of the fact that when European settlement began a massive amount of NZ's native forest was felled or burnt off to make way for farms. That continued what Maori had done but to a greater extent.
The loss of animal, bird and plant life must have been colossal.
Bryce is probably keeping 20,000 people alive and is using the tools available to maximize yield.
Bryce probably has an intimate knowledge of soil biology, plant growing and his local environment, that puts him in the top echelon of New Zealand horticulturalists.
"Bryce probably has an intimate knowledge of soil biology"
I don't believe Bryce does!
As someone once said "Who needs these bloody farmers anyway, there's plenty of meat in the supermarkets".
False flag.
Now the dust is slowly settling and the smoke clearing we (…) finally are starting to see some sense. For me, the fact that Jacinda Ardern stepped in to find some loose change to quell the anger of the mob is a watershed moment.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018863340/the-sheilah-winn-saga-much-ado-about-funding
When Latin got dropped from the NZ School Curriculum there was no uproar and Chris Hipkins didn’t try to save it from its untimely death. Perhaps they should have applied to Creative NZ for continuation of funding.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/the-detail/300253332/the-detail-latin-unceremoniously-abolished-from-the-new-zealand-curriculum [NB same reporter as above link]
Memento mori
Perhaps they thought the Catholic Church should use some of their booty?
I did Latin at school and Uni. Discussing this today, my friend says that something has to drop off the curriculum if we want to teach Māori, Health and Computer Studies, none of which I was taught at school.
We had Latin, used slide rules (guessing sticks), and certainly nothing about relationships was even mentioned. Instead we practised hymns and Art consisted of dictated notes on pottery but never a drawing pencil or paintbrush in hand.
So I can mourn the loss of Latin, along with Religious Instruction, just as earlier generations lost abacuses in schools, and Rhetoric, Greek and Ancient Sumerian hieroglyphics.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
Caecilius est in horto
I will never forget that!
Very few would have paid attention or given a shit if it hadn’t been for those couple of assessors’ comments. It was never about Shakespeare whom most only care about if it is on Netflix. The cancellation of Latin never had the good fortune of becoming a wedge issue in a virtual culture war. Oh well, you win some, you lose some; c’est la vie.
I never met Caecilius and Metella. Wikipedia tells me they were published in 1970 when I was at TTC. I learnt from Paterson and MacNaughton.
Thanks for the comment about a 'virtual culture war' which gives me a much plainer context to understand the issue.
Nox est perpetua una dormienda.
Good one 🙂
To be clear, my entire comment was my personal opinion.
“The regular calls for negotiations to end Russia’s war with Ukraine tend to be more directed at Kyiv or Washington than Moscow, as if they are the main stumbling blocks. Yet it is Vladimir Putin that is demanding that this war leads to a fundamental change in borders and political arrangements, that on any reading of international law he has no right to demand. Vladimir Putin does not preclude talks, but only so long as Russia is allowed to hold on to occupied territory, and even territory from which it has had to retreat. Volodymyr Zelensky demands withdrawal, and while at the start of war he might have been ready to go back to position of 23 February 2022 he now expects to go to the position of eight years earlier before Russia annexed Crimea.”
https://samf.substack.com/p/getting-to-negotiations?utm_source=email
Can a settlement in Ukraine ever be negotiated? While Putin is the tsar, it seems highly unlikely.
International law seems increasingly irrelevant given the actions of western powers of late such as the deliberate destruction of the Nordstream pipelines and the blowing up of the Kersh bridge using a truckbomb , seems pretty obvious that the objective of these operations is to prolong and escalate the conflict .
Where does it say in international law that its ok for the united states to occupy land in syria ? or that its ok for israel to continue bulldozing palistinian homes to make more room for israely settlements .The list is very long indeed of the most powerfull countries thumbing their nose at international law.
To my mind addressing Washington and Kyiv to end this war is entirely justified and i'd add London as well .
So, despite Putin’s aggression, you’d support him?
Let’s hope the same thinking doesn’t apply if Australia wants to make NZ a part of them. Claiming historical rights going back to early 19th century.
By your logic, they’d have the right.
Well if America had been arming us for ten years and they put in place a pro American gov in order to threaten and in the event of war breaking out weaken australia then yeah i guess they'd have the right .
SMH
Odd that your logic does not extend to Russia's arming of fifth columnists in Donbas – or it would be if you were trying to pretend to be a balanced or rational commenter.
So far as i know stuart the people of the Donbas wished they'd had more help from Russia not less and could not understand why they took so long to confront the American backed nationalists directly which is why the referendums offering citizenship with the russian federation were taken up so wholeheartedly , they'd had nearly nine years to make up their mind !!
So far as i know
That's your problem right there.
If you knew a little more about the behaviour of the post-soviet Russian state, and the fate of those satellites that chose to leave it, we would hear a great deal less of your pro-despotic assertions.
If you know so much more than i stuart why dont you enlighten 'us'?
The conversation began with the question of negotiation in the Ukraine war .Got anything to add ??
Negotiation with Putin is impractical – veracity is not a value for him.
Former Putin adviser says Russian President 'stopped telling the truth' (yahoo.com)
The West was taken by surprise in 2014, having themselves no plans to go to war with Russia. But in the time since, having learned their lesson, he no longer gets the benefit of the doubt.
The best thing for Russia is a regime change – which, as a brutal kleptocracy, is long overdue. The best thing for Ukraine is a timely cessation of hostilities.
Russian agents like Girkin have no future in a free Ukraine – they will go to considerable lengths to prevent one. In no way do such espiocrats represent a plausible popular separatist movement – he is an agent provocateur, Russia's catspaw, nothing more.
Can you provide some context as to why this fellow Girkin is of significance ATM ?
Poverty worse than we thought.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/prime-minister-s-office-apologises-for-misleading-comments-about-new-zealand-s-child-poverty-figures/ar-AA139Ax6?ocid=entnewsntp&cvid=dc305f99749f44ffada3d116d3d41913
[Ironically, your comment is misleading because it doesn’t actually say or imply that. This is your warning – Incognito]
Mod note
Well, well, the Transmission Gully protesters drove there in hired vans according to today's Dominion Post. Do as we say, not do as we do. At least they should have got up earlier and ridden their bikes there. One thinking person needing to get on with his day managed to outwit them.
Where is your link?
Protest like the Amish.
The group want the government to "Restore Passenger Rail". So as soon as there's a functioning rail system, they're going to use the train instead of a hired van…
Also looking forward to the impatient car drivers ripping off the banners from the "farmers" blocking the roads today. More likely that the two biggest polluter groups in this country stick together though…
However, there will always be a big difference between the two: Polluting car drivers will always be just a problem and never be the solution to pollution. While farmers are in a more important position, many of them are part of the problem now and they can / must be part of the solution for the future.
When are the two main political parties in the country have the balls telling the polluters that the days of pollution have to come to an end soon?
It is inevitable – even the National (Polluter) Party surely know this – and obviously, significant parts of our daily life, like infrastructure, agriculture, have to be ready for those days.
How long does it take to get ready? How many decades for something on that scale?
Or do we simply block all combustion engines on our roads from one day to another and shoot million of cows within a month to achieve the necessary, internationally agreed targets?
Here is the story and the video is worth watching. These people are not doing their cause any favours.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/10/video-footage-captures-moment-frustrated-motorist-moves-protesters-van-blocking-transmission-gully.html
It's worse than that, Jimmy. These people are dicing with death. All it needs is for some P- head, or the Mongrel Mob, to be held up, and you can bet someone will be on their way to ICU.
Absolutely, I don't think the Mongrel Mob would take to kindly to being held up by them.
Any fan of direct action has to love that.
I hope they don't stop. Probably need to skill up, but that's ok, everyone has to start somewhere.
and yet here you are talking about it. Bet you weren't doing that when they were lobbying government.
Does it matter if we prevent climate collapse or not?
Didn't find it on the Dom Post – but here's a link from Newshub
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/10/video-footage-captures-moment-frustrated-motorist-moves-protesters-van-blocking-transmission-gully.html
[Side note, if he was listening to Joe Abercrombie, the protesters are lucky all he did was move the van – he's not noted for 'turn the other cheek']
https://joeabercrombie.com/books/the-heroes/
[Yes, of course not serious.]
protestors were right to stand aside, the driver was abusive and potentially dangerous.
The protestors picked the dangerous situation. Not your normal sit in on a motorway on-ramp.
different kind of dangerous (assuming you are correct, by all means present some evidence)
They put themselves directly in the path of the public in an area which is heavily restricted and operated by only by Police and NZTA appointed traffic control.
protestors on a road, shocking.
So glad there are people like this to protect our children /s
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/arizona-gop-candidate-arrested-allegedly-masturbating-truck_n_635007e2e4b03e8038da457f
Incognito, I don't know how to do links from an IPad, but if I raise an issue I always quote the day and source.
Instructions here. This is for copying a link to email but the principle is the same.
Scroll down to "Copying and Pasting to Email"
https://www.wikihow.com/Mail-a-Link-from-an-iPad
With social media linking, make sure you click on the date/time stamp first (it's on every tweet, FB post etc).
is this real?
https://twitter.com/notinaboyband/status/1582843224132972544
Britain is suffering from the old joke:
"Its Eton, Oxford, a safe Conservative constituency, a seat on the Cabinet, and then you are on your own son"
looks true. perhaps they added a bit of drama, but probably didn't need to.
Chief whip remains in post after reportedly resigning earlier | ITV News
One step closer to an annual shot just like the flu jab?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300716977/covid19-pfizer-asks-medsafe-to-approve-ba45-bivalent-vaccine
High court confirms suspicions that Trevor Mallard is irrational,and adds 2% points to Winston in future polls
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/477048/former-speaker-trevor-mallard-unreasonable-irrational-unjustified-in-trespassing-winston-peters-high-court
Winston for Hamilton.
He'd win.
Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrggghghghghghghghghhgghghhg 🤯
Well, that sent a shiver up my spine….
That's the type of inanities people cast votes on. You are right. Let's see how Peters plays this.
Can't believe I actually agree with Eaqub (don't buy a house in Auckland its better to rent) Shamubeel for once. I've been saying for years tax brackets need to be adjusted for inflation and both Nats and Labour never adjust them. Riduculous to be paying 30% tax on earnings over $48k which I think was set back in 2009? or 2011.
'Cynical political ploy': Economist slams National, Labour over tax policies
Every other investment category except farming socks big time.
Our collective Kiwisaver levels are circling the plug hole.
Labour lost their moment to tax assets 4 years ago.
Sweden calls bullshit and abolishes ministry of environment,due to having a nuclear moment,as it provides solution based measures for its economic future.
The greens disliked by 95% of voters are upset,but will be helped through the transition by an increased spend on mental health.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/devastating-consequences-swedish-government-scraps-211437038.html
German Greens need a cold winter before they Come To Jesus.
JLR:
Jesus Loves Reactors.