Further to recent discussions here on begging monks in Auckland:
Inside the fake-monk scam: beggars recruited in China
Fake charity “monks” who target pedestrians on New Zealand’s busiest streets are recruited in China and sent here with the promise of making big money, says a woman who trained as a fake nun.
A Chinese syndicate is behind the scam, says the woman, who was recruited while living in China.
For a fee of 10,000 renminbi ($2065), she could become a Taoist nun, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) street doctor or a fortune teller. Recruits could make their fortunes on streets around the world, she said.
“We were told that if we wanted to go to Western countries, then becoming monks or nuns were the better options, because the West is still not so open to Chinese fortune telling or TCM,” said the woman.
“The cash collected is shared with the syndicate leaders; the percentage split is done by negotiation.”
The fee she paid got her a grey Taoist nun outfit and materials such as wooden beaded prayer bracelets, amulets and images of Buddha and Kuan Yin (the goddess of mercy) to support her solicitation.
The week-long training conducted in her native Zhejiang province included how to size up and approach donors, and knowing when to walk away and when to run.
In the past year, at least three begging monks in Auckland and Wellington have been spoken to by police here, sparking warnings last week for Auckland residents to stop giving money to Queen St beggars.
I don’t think I’ve ever claimed I’ve never copy/pasted from Whale Oil.
I’ve been copy/pasting from Whale Oil quite a bit lately. That’s what tends to happen in blog posts, they’re often built on copy/pastes. It’s also known as quoting.
I have no idea what point you’re trying to make, but that’s not unusual.
That gave me a laugh to start my day with the chicken little joke Phil, cheers.
You would think Pete G would be constructively commenting on the real crime that is on everyones lips and contributing some problem solving idea’s. That of the greedy 1% ripping the other 99% off through tax avoidance, banking ponzi schemes, anti competitive monopoly racketeering.
The way Pete is carrying on you would think the begging monks scam it’s the crime of the century. I nod my head in disbelief he is so selectively blind.
You are not saying that there are no “genuine” beggars though are you Pete? I suppose the upside, if there is one, that the people who gave could afford to give. Downside, many will use this experience to stop being charitable to anyone.
Now, how are we going exposing the tithing scams… 😉
I’m not saying there are no ‘genuine beggars’ but it can be difficult if not impossible to tell the difference. Scammers may it more difficult for genuine beggars.
ASs I’ve said before I think there’s better ways to contribute. I’ve chosen to be a long time contributor to Oxfam for example, who happen to be featured here:
I do think it is a shame that it may make people less likely to give. Even if they give to a scammer ( a dollar or two) it can make folks feel good to give and to think about other ways to give.
The real tragedy is that the Herald sees this as their main news.
As if there aren’t so many other current events stories they could put their resources into.
The corporate media is failing in its duty as the 4th estate.
Corporate media is masquerading as the 4th estate, it’s not impartial or bound by any ethics, regulation or history of any note to adhere to those quaint principles.
Controlling the message, suppressing undesired ones and playing it’s part as DP illuminated.
Look at the apologist piece on charter schools in granny as todays example.
from the NZ Initiative (formed from BRT and Business NZ I think)… and who does “Rosie” cite? David Farrar despite their blurb saying they are neutral and rely on research!
Far more beggars in need than scammers. I personally don’t mind of I give money to a scammer unknowingly if it means next time or last time the money went to someone who needed it.
From what I can tell from Pētera’s argument, it’s more important to not support support scammers than it is to support people in need. Beige ethics.
What a piece of unadulterated shite. You want people to believe that some shadowy syndicate takes money from Chinese nationals who are led to believe that the streets of ‘the west’ are paved with gold? And then to believe that some un-named woman, who apparently spoke to Lincoln Tan, paid the syndicate money to get abroad, but then pulled out and….fled the country?!
Really fucking seriously Pete, if you can’t see the likes of this shite as being nothing more than a thinly veiled attack on the poor, (with a little xeno-phobia thrown in on the side), then fuck, there really isn’t so much as 5/8ths of fuck all hope for you.
By the way Pete, people on visas who cannot work legally and who are all out of cash are more than entitled to beg. But hey, fuck the humanity or any degree of empathy and spread hate and distrust thick and fast Pete….it’s like your sad and bitter old man forte, is it not?
Lincoln Tan must be writing for an anti-poor campaign, which NZ Herald must be a party to. And the woman’s lying. And the two people reporting being pressured to donate must be part of a big conspiracy too. And the Auckland Council and Immigration NZ.
Or really fucking seriously Bill you’re making a dick of yourself.
“it’s like your sad and bitter old man forte” /irony
Anytime we leave this stuff to a form of self regulation, the sky falls in… and a small number of developers get very rich… and avoid future liability with their sequence of ritual company liquidations.
This government refuses to place personal liability on developers, which it did quickly to builders (who can least afford it). There is a clue in there.
It’s not just this government – it was Labour that removed the Romalpa clause for builders which allowed them to repossess materials unpaid for by developers, and also prevented them from holding caveats over properties when money was owed. Builders, electricians, plumbers, etc were just thrown to the wolves and often bankrupted, while developers refused to pay them, liquidated their companies, started up another one and went on to the next project, all with the blessing of the government. I went through this as the director of a small building company ( and was finally bankrupted by a crooked timber company which rorted a guarantee). Interestingly, the IRD usually wiped the unpaid taxes from these small companies with no fuss – evidence of complicity, I thought at the time.
Agreed. I guess I was just referring to them choosing to make builders and designers personally liable during their term but NOT developers, a consciously made distinction. Labour is not a blame-free zone.
And they wonder why people don’t vote for them. Siding with cowboy developers probably cost them tens of thousands of votes. How the hell did they justify it?
You have had a lot to do with developers haven’t you tracey… from reading this hobby horse of yours. However your view is tainted by the particular doings you have had, which have been very specific yes… to do solely with leaky buildings as I recall.
I would suggest that your crusade to place personal liability onto another sector of the business world is short-sighted. It would make no difference to the bad developers – they would just go bankrupt (assets elsewhere) and then rise again from the ashes. Such a personal liability would make no difference to these people.
And in fact your proposal would almost certainly backfire as those professional and competent developers currently active would likely go away, thanks to the personal liability imposition. The increased risk, without associated return, would make the equation unworkable and they would depart…… leaving us with only those bad developers for whom bankruptcy is water off a ducks back.
Your crusade also appears to take no account of the place of limited liability companies in the business world – a large but well settled aspect of our business world.
But builders and designers should lose their shirts and that’s tickety-boo, and presumably the government thought it would make the very difference to those groups you suggest it wouldn’t make to developers?
The logic that saw personal liability imposed on those two groups must apply by extention to developers.
It’s not a crusade vto it’s about pointing out the inconsistency in the application of policy/law which seeks to punish the more vulnerable (builder) but not the one who takes the profit, liquidates and is clear of liability.
“a vigorous campaign for political, social, or religious change.” Nope.
Why would a professional and competent developer go away? They would only need to go away if they were not professional or competent and thereby likely to incur personal liability? Just like the builders and designers who are currently in that category?
Are you a developer vto?
Limited Liability companies also need reform with more exceptions tot he liability. Who do you think devised the limited liability framework vto?
A couple quick points before I have to rush out. I agree that the imposition of personal liability on buidlers and designers appears inconsistent, however that does not detract from the point made above.
“Why would a professional and competent developer go away? They would only need to go away if they were not professional or competent and thereby likely to incur personal liability? Just like the builders and designers who are currently in that category?”..
.. Because, as explained and to repeat, the risk has increased without associated return. It is a simple equation. This has in fact happened with some builders, as you ask. (btw what I do is immaterial but we have significant involvement in this sector).
I understand the apparent unfairness that you outline but I don’t think your suggestions to correct it are the right ones.
When personal liability was slapped on builders and designers following the leaky home disaster I was gobsmacked. It is was all out of place and context while achieving little in the way of improvement to the problem, which problem was of course largely due to the neoliberal approach to such things i.e. self-regulation / the market will fix these things / appeal to self-interest. As such if there were any personal liability to be imposed anywhere then the politicians who implemented these policies should have been the subject.
Holding people accountable for their actions are most definitely the right ones.
Because, as explained and to repeat, the risk has increased without associated return.
You do understand that they’re not entitled to a return don’t you? That it’s not a God given right?
And it doesn’t actually matter if the bludgers don’t get the return that they want and so don’t build houses – the government can and they can do it without profit and without cutting corners that cause leaky buildings etc.
That’s something that people have forgotten. When the private sector won’t provide necessary services then the government must step in. Of course, that does mean that the private sector collapses.
“Holding people accountable for their actions are most definitely the right ones.” …
.. sure take out the llimited liability company so that all business is done in the businesspersons personal capacity. Do you know and understand the history and place of this feature of our current civilisation? The likely effect of the removal of the limited liability company? I know you do DtB. How do you think it would play out? What would the effect be? Wouldn’t like to be the person owning Jetstar… or Spark …. or be a Council officer …. or own shares in the Warehouse … courts would be busy, and so too would insurers (they would have a field day). Have you ever been in business yourself DtB? Where an intimate knowledge of these things can be gained?
I understand the philosophy behind your point there but practically the changes would be world-changing.
next:
“You do understand that they’re not entitled to a return don’t you?”
Did someone suggest there was an entitlement to a return? Certainly not me.
next:
Your point about government doing some of this stuff is your best point and I agree. Governments have done bigger shit than private sector for eons. Government needs to get into house construction in particular, of that there is no doubt. Plenty of past experience at it.
he likely effect of the removal of the limited liability company? I know you do DtB. How do you think it would play out? What would the effect be?
Like this:
Of course, that does mean that the private sector collapses.
It’s interesting that, once the government supports and subsidies are removed, the private sector fails at its core. The claim by the business people that they’re the ones taking the risk is shown for what it is – bollocks. Its the community taking the risk and the business people walking away with the rewards.
As for the claim that business don’t take the risk – bollocks. Our business failed once and the risk came to pass. We went back to square one ….. so please don’t make such silly claims.
… though some risks are placed elsewhere as you suggest (factored into business already)
The amount of risk taken depends upon where you are in the food chain. Small businesses tend to take a lot of risk while large businesses seem to take no risk at all with government often either bailing them out or protecting them in some fashion or other. The preceding discussion about builders and developers is a good case in point.
The builders are small, self-employed businesses with turnover measured in tens of thousands while the developers measure their turnover in millions. And yet, despite the developers calling the shots on building sites, it’s the builders who have had the risk placed upon them via legislation. Legislation that seems, from what I can make out, to be about protecting the developers and, indirectly, the banks from their own actions.
Never mind the fact that, if the developer does get found against in court they can just shut up shop and not pay while starting an identical business.
In other words, let’s not make them accountable because the good ones do nothing wrong anyway and the bad ones won’t take any notice. Weird. I’d rather get rid of them all.
Watch Wanaka’s landscapes get destroyed by developers and farmers as this government uses its failed housing policies in Auckland as a fig-leaf for wrecking the RMA.
It was a monumental piece of work bringing together over 100 different Acts of Parliament. It is nowhere as bad as it has been painted. In any events developers already get fast track preference in Council works departments.
“…Graphic designer Sarah Torrent, 22, spent seven hours being quizzed by officials after landing in New Zealand yesterday and telling border officials she was staying at Dotcom’s house…”
TBH, this behaviour from a government department is outrageous. Who do they think they are? Jumped up little fucking hitlers. What checks and balances are there on the powers of customs to detain without needing to provide a reason? This looks and quacks like government stooges and goons abusing their excessively arbitrary powers – supposedly granted to detect and stop terrorism – to harass the friends of the enemies of the National party.
“..This looks and quacks like government stooges and goons abusing their excessively arbitrary powers – supposedly granted to detect and stop terrorism – to harass the friends of the enemies of the National party…”
Quizzed for several hours? Stand over tactic’s you bet, what on earth justifies that? Let me guess perhaps a call to Finlayson or the GCSB or both. Lucky she wasn’t detained and given a few rounds of waterboarding in an attempt to get a confession she is Raw Shark. It’s appears disturbing the long reach of the National party influence our boarder ministry.
She says rude things about the government (sympathetic to the terrorists!)
Has Syrian parents (all Arabs are terrorists!)
Speaks Arabic (the language of terror!)
Once traded in bitcoin (clearly she funds terrorism!)
She is friends with Kim Dotcom (must be a prostitute or a criminal or maybe she has an illegally downloaded MP3 on her phone).
While none of these things above are actually against the law, she is clearly an exotic dusky foreigner and as such is not to be trusted by any decent National party flunky. After all, she may be a temptress from the harems of ISIL – an actual Mata Hari bolder than brass and bigger than life! She has clearly been sent to spy on all that is good and decent and upright and western with an eye on all sorts of unspeakable crimes!
We must be thankful that our small town/small minded border officials are vigilant in leaping to our defense in the name of the “National party, the National government and John Key”, AKA “All right minded New Zealanders”.
Personally, I am going to start a petition to demand customs officers get bigger shoulder boards, taller, peakier caps and lots more gold braid and medals on their uniforms to better reflect their true importance.
I am going to start a petition to demand customs officers get bigger shoulder boards, taller, peakier caps and lots more gold braid and medals on their uniforms to better reflect their true importance.
You forgot the promise of knighthoods when they retire.
This looks and quacks like government stooges and goons abusing their excessively arbitrary powers – supposedly granted to detect and stop terrorism – to harass the friends of the enemies of the National party.
Desperate losers.
In short, Dotcom’s legal team has done a fantastic job of defending their client. His lawyers have thrown wrench after wrench into the legal process, appealing at nearly every turn and challenging the validity of the warrant executed upon the Dotcom estate.
[…]
The bottom line: Kim Dotcom probably won’t be sent to the United States in 2015, regardless of the outcome.
We have turned into a nasty little country full of shitheads and bullies. I wonder if, after hassling her for hours, did some immigration fool ask “And what do you think of New Zealand?” This is embarrassing. I’m not sorry for being a Kiwi, but I’m sorry FJK is.
All issues of concern to this blog could be most effectively addressed by a Left Wing Govt.
So I was genuinely amazed yesterday that virtually no discussion took place of the points Chris Trotter makes in this link provided by Saarbo…
I havent read (have now)it but I believe the debate about getting into Govt and then militating change versus discussing the change first is widely canvassed here. I think Ad (might have remembered wrongly) is in this camp… do what you have to get elected, then bring about the change.
“For those on the left of New Zealand politics it means shutting-up and letting Andrew Little and his team play for power in the only way that holds out the prospect of victory.”
I think he means everyone but Mr. Trotter. He also seems to be having a bromance with FJK. The talk about FJK understanding the Kiwi psyche and all that makes me sick. He hasn’t even lived in Aotearoa for years and has probably only ever mixed with empty husks like himself. His understanding will all be manufactured by Crosby Textor and Curia polls.
Trotter’s idea of shutting up is the worst thing we could do. We need to organise and defend the people NAct is attacking, not just wait for FAL, the enabler of squirrels. We cannot be passive subjects. We must act.
Why wouldn’t Andrew be able to have a cunning plan that he explains to the voters, not promising lots, but talking about making a change to get on the right track and this is what we are going to do.
Bugger this idea of vote and hope. Say something and do it within for the first 100 days. Spell out your direction and if it is to get a more prosperous NZ and help viable businesses create jobs it will have something for everyone. And with a living wage it will seem like something to bite into, well made and tasty. And if the wage is set for everyone then no business or sector gets advantage, and it will boost the economy and be like a transfusion of exygenated blood to poor old tired, flaccid NZ.
I’ll tell you what Chris Trotter’s problem is – he is at heart an utter defeatist. The sort of guy who talks a big fight and walks the big walk, but when the hour comes when men and women must gird themselves for the fight as the enemy begins to advance towards the barricades he quietly slips away and flees because, deep down, he never thought his side would win anyway.
In case you haven’t noticed, the Left have just lost a third consecutive election.
The current strategy then is crap. It simply hasn’t worked, and if it isn’t changed it will continue not to work, and the Left will not regain Govt. and the power to implement significant change.
Successful strategies always require…
A realistic and accurate assessment of the factors the strategy is attempting to influence.
A realistic and accurate assessment of the oppositions strengths and weaknesses.
A plan that sets goals achievable within the constraints of these realities. (That is strength not weakness)
Self evidently, to date the Left has failed to grasp the realities and set a successful strategy.
What Chris is saying may not be entirely new, but it is rare thinking for the current Left in my experience.
I agree with him completely. It is time to get out of la la land and face up to the ‘brutal realities’.
Which of the ‘realities’ he identifies can you argue are not true?
Which is better : Making some compromise to the realities in order to get change started, even if that is modest and incremental, or remain morally superior but powerless on the sidelines?
Wakey wakey folks. Dream time is over. Unless you want the nightmare of a 4th Key term.
Ae. The thought of a 4th term NACT govt tempts me to power at all costs, but then I read Trotter and come to my senses 😉 I would have less of a problem with the strategy if it weren’t for the fact that Labour still haven’t sorted out their internal shit.
He is talking about compromising the agenda to meet the majority view, and then using your position of power to advocate for a greater rate of change. (Presumably on the back of the success of your incremental changes)
A very different, and much more intelligent long term strategy long than simply deceiving the electorate. (result – straight out on your arse next election)
The reason the left lost the last election is because Labour still has an internal hotcold war between the neoliberals and the lefties. The rest of us are waiting to see if that’s resolvable. And whether Little and the membership can get Labour past it.
I would be asking the lefties to demonstrate they have a strategy that can convince a neo-liberally inclined majority to vote for more definitely Left Wing policies ?
if they couldn’t, I’d be suggesting they might consider whether continuing to have a divided left was good for anyone?
hold on – its the labour caucus that has the in fighting issue weka describes – not “the left” – why are we responsible for the labour caucus deliberately going against the wishes of their membership and running to the media everytime theyve got a boo boo?
also – whos this neoliberally inclined majority? – there isnt one. Either inside labour or the country
More push from the left within Labour, including things that are visible to the wider world so that people can have confidence in the Labour again.
Visible cooperation between Labour, the GP and Mana. I don’t have much hope of the first two working with Mana, but there should definitely be obvious signs between L/GP.
Any of those three parties should court/headhunt the bright ones from the Internet Party. Looks like KDC is abandoning ship, so I reckon the IP should let the leaders go. I still think the IP is a good idea, but without Harre and KDC it’s not going to make serious headway before 2017.
like labour asking for an amnesty for unpaid taxes… it is Little carrying through his promise to look out for SME’s, but it extends to the greedy at the high end I am sure
and supporting the RMA reforms (before even seeing them)
The lost sheep & framu
On the basis of ‘not having a policy is a policy’ I would say that framu you are wrong to suggest that this isn’t the case in NZ generally:
– also – whos this neoliberally inclined majority? – there isnt one. Either inside labour or the country
If people aren’t overtly neo liberal, by not deciding and acting to vote against it, they just reinforce that system and are part of its onward strangling of NZ.
“Funny names they’ve got, the presidents of Indonesia, haven’t they.”
Leighton Smith and his dim colleagues continue to be perplexed by the world
NewstalkZB, Monday 19 January 2015, 8:40 a.m.
The shock jocks at NewstalkZB are not exactly into multiculturalism. They have a real problem with the simplest things, such as foreign names and their sometimes tricky pronunciation. Even indigenous names are a problem for some of them: the station’s notorious Drivetime host Larry “Lackwit” Williams often pauses for effect after reading out—and deliberately butchering the pronunciation of—the names of Māori defendants in criminal cases. Williams and his colleagues often take the opportunity to extract Hebdoesque “humour” out of other cultures: the late Paul Holmes was not merely infuriated by the existence of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, but amused by his preposterous name; Kerre Woodham relentlessly mimicked the accents and pronunciation of distraught Chinese dissidents who tried to protest against her loud support for the Chinese government; Tony Veitch laughed about how the Williams sisters proved that black people were descended from gorillas; and the mere mention of Indonesia’s former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had the likes of the mirthless Glenn ZB and his master Mike Hosking rolling in the aisles.
Indonesian names seem to be a real problem for these people. Just this morning, the doyen of mindless chatter expressed his bemusement with another fiendishly difficult one. It came during a typically learned and sober discussion about Indonesia’s laudable—for NewstalkZB shockjocks at least—execution of six people for drug smuggling…..
LEIGHTON SMITH: Anyway, ummm, ahhhhhh, the errrrrr President of Indonesia, Joko…[pause]…or is it Jocko?… [pause]… No it’s Joko….[long pause]…. Funny names they’ve got, the presidents of Indonesia, haven’t they. But then I suppose “Smith” is funny to them. Ummmm, errrrr, ahhhhh…. Anyway, the six people who copped it—do you think they deserved the death penalty or is there a BROADER perspective? I want your calls…..
One of them. Radio Live is just as bad, and don’t forget shows like Paul Henry’s on TV3, as well as fora like TV1’s Breakfast, which regularly serve as platforms for the most biased and hateful reporting. And the Herald and Listener are not far behind.
Surpluses cause a fall in your net assets. Deficits create private sector wealth while surpluses deplete it. If Government takes in $1000 taxes from private sector but doesn’t spend any of it and they had $100 of their own earnings, their total intake is $1100. The private sector has gone into debt of $1000. Government deficits create private sector wealth while govt surpluses drain it. Learn to love your deficit.
Profit in the private sector comes almost entirely from the government being in deficit. That’s way over simplified of course as the whole thing is complicated by the financial system that has private banks creating money and lending to the government.
If the government was the sole creator of money and spending it into the economy and with no other source then the private sectors profit would exactly match the government’s deficit.
The problem occurs as that private sector profit continually accumulates resulting in ever greater amounts of money in fewer and fewer hands chasing the resources of a single country. This must result in the privatisation of ever more of the countries wealth and the increasing poverty that we see around us. The two go together.
This is the dead-weight loss of profit. This is how capitalism produces poverty.
Miss Israeli’s selfie with Miss Lebanon causes stir and calls for with calls for the Lebanon contestant at the Miss Universe pageant to be stripped of her title for consorting with the enemy. .
Hatred, enmity, prejudice. A difficult life for the people living in those countries.
Berliner Zeitung mistakenly publishes anti-Semitic cartoon
Mistakenly thought that image was a front page of Charlie Hebdo
By Ofer Aderet 05:43 15.01.15 18
The daily Berliner Zeitung in error published an anti-Semitic cartoon on its front page, under the mistaken impression that it was a front page of the satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo. In a tribute to the French magazine a day after the massacre at its editorial offices, the Berlin daily published several of Charlie Hebdo’s past cover pages.
One of them, however, was a fake, showing a cartoon drawn by the anti-Semitic illustrator Joe le Corbeau. The cartoon showed an orthodox Jew, with a caption saying “1 million rebate out of six, for Palestine.” The word “rebate” is a wordplay suggesting rabbis and rebate in German.
People at the Israeli embassy in Berlin noticed the erroneous cartoon and pointed out references that should have alerted the editors at Berliner Zeitung.
These include the fact that the name of the magazine on the cover is Charlo instead of Charlie, and the barcode at the bottom of the cartoon indicates 6,000,000, the number of Jewish Holocaust victims and not a real barcode number.
‘Vodafone may lose around 100 permanent customer care staff, with plans to almost halve the size of its consumer mobile service team, extend the graveyard shift to 7.30am and increase outsourcing to a call centre in the Philippines.
The proposal, outlined in an internal document obtained by the Herald, is part of a restructuring expected to bring 200 to 250 job cuts.’
This is what happens when you invite transnational corporations into one’s country, who don’t pay their taxes or have any sense of societal responsibility.
When are countries and people going to stand up to corporations?
When there are no jobs left?
My second post over at YourNZ, informally known in these parts as YawnZ
This story is from a patient with Canadian citizenship, who went home to a compassion club who helped him get off Benzos (valium class of drugs) and reduce his intake of Opiates, (Morphine class of drugs)
I’m also not going there, sorry, despite being interested in the topic. The man is a blight on the political blogosphere and any attention just supports that.
If you set up a wordpress and post there, you are more likely to get taken seriously, and you can then ask to guest post elsewhere. WordPress is pretty easy.
Not sure where else you could get hosted, given you want to post from a centrist perspective. Does this point to a dearth of centrist political bloggers?
There is certainly a lack of middle NZ blogs, Thedailyblog, thestandard, kiwiblog, whale oil, from left to right…. setting up my own freebie wordpress blog now, my reasoning was his blog is neither left nor right, and no adds, and untill 2 weeks ago I have not participated on blogs online at all.
‘One of New Zealand’s first charter schools is failing, abysmally, and the Ministry of Education must stop dodging questions.’
‘Last year, the first batch of five brave pioneer charter schools began operations. Four received excellent reports from the Education Review Office (ERO).
School number five, Te Kura Hourua ki Whangaruru, however, has been embroiled in trouble almost since the first school bell sounded in February last year.
An early ERO report released under the Official Information Act from an April visit to the school showed problems across the board. A governance facilitator stepped in and the school was reported to be facing problems with management infighting, bullying, drug use, poor teaching, curriculum delivery and student engagement. Over the year, the school roll fell from 61 to 47.’
Sadly charter schools are an ideological tool to privatise and monetise education, so the facts they don’t improve education problems is not an issue for Parata and Seymour.
They desire a failing public system. The elite are educated in their own apartheid system.
I note this article is written by a research fellow of a neo-liberal think tank. They appear to be writing lots about education at the moment.
F
Business Roundtable reinvented, an article that quotes Farrar. On their website they state
Now, which of the following “foundations” does quoting Farrar fit into?
“Every good think tank needs solid foundations. These are ours:
Credibility: Our research is based on a sound theoretical framework and is peer-reviewed on a routine basis
Empirical evidence: Our recommendations are supported by empirical, and often international, evidence.
Non-partisanship: We engage with political parties from across the political spectrum.
Independence: We are an organisation promoting good public policy, not the interests of individual businesses or industries.
Commitment to New Zealand: Members and staff of the Initiative share the vision to build a better New Zealand. We believe in a prosperous, free and fair society with a competitive, open and dynamic economy.”
Wow. Neoliberals now talking about aspiring to failure. Embrace failure! As long as the funding keeps coming from the public, of course. This article is absolutely pitiful and demonstrates the workings of a weak mind besotted with an ideology. It reminds me of a priest justifying why a merciful god allows so much suffering in the world. Excuses for everything, these right wing dreamers.
12 innocent lives killed by two French Muslims with AK47s in paris
50 innocent lives killed by American 1000lb laser guided bomb in Al Bab (some estimates actually say a total of 55 prisoner-civilians and 25 ISIS guards were killed)
The West better start doing the math on why so many people in the world don’t see our claims to superior civilisation as being much more than laughable.
I note the Uk’s version of the GCSB (GCHQ) has been revealed through Snowden’s papers to have been collecting emails of journalists
“The journalists’ communications were among 70,000 emails harvested in the space of less than 10 minutes on one day in November 2008 by one of GCHQ’s numerous taps on the fibre-optic cables that make up the backbone of the internet…
… New evidence from other UK intelligence documents revealed by Snowden also shows that a GCHQ information security assessment listed “investigative journalists” as a threat in a hierarchy alongside terrorists or hackers.”
“nder Ripa, neither the police nor the security services need to seek the permission of a judge to investigate any UK national’s phone records – instead, they must obtain permission from an appointed staff member from the same organisation, not involved in their investigation.
However, there are some suggestions in the documents that the collection of billing data by GCHQ under Ripa goes wider – and that it may not be confined to specific target individuals.”
So, why wouldn’t the GCSB have similar ability to have phone records? That means Mr key can just ask GCSB to provide the public with copies of those texts he deleted?
Yep, that’s in the space of 10 minutes. It shows how ridiculous claiming that reducing the no-warrant surveillance time from 48 hrs to 24 hrs was a “win”.
Indeed, and given the software is doing the filtering… 24 hours is probably 23 hours more than they need. Oh how they will be laughing at us all, again.
Alain de Botton on tolerance. He’s talking about relgion, but I think it applies to politics, which then raises the question of whether tolerance and partisan politics can ever be compatible.
[There are] many ways to be religious and many of the most public ways of being religious that we’re seeing at the moment are perhaps not optimal particularly in their intolerance. Of course, tolerance is right at the heart of many religions, and tolerance does not mean agreeing with people. Sometimes it’s a mistake — we believe that the tolerant person learns to agree or to see the other person’s point of view. No — what tolerance really means is even though you don’t get what the other person’s saying at all, even though you may not even like them, you make an effort to tolerate — in other words, to make space for them — and don’t try and squash their opinions. What we need to learn is how can we live together with people whose views we don’t actually like very much — that’s the far greater challenge — without attempting to convert them or dismissing them and denying their right to exist parallel to us.
After noon Is there any standard regulars/readers involved in early childhood education and what are your views on starting school at 6 as opposed to 5 years old.
My daughter has turned 5 recently my wife is keen on 6 as a start date for shool ,I was happy with 5 purely on a that’s what’s done basis but am open to new ideas.
My best mates kids are Steiner kids and are clever enjoyable kids although I don’t have access to a Steiner school I believe they are advocates of not hurrying kids development.
My son had a look at school at age 5 – wasn’t right so we went the homeschooling way. Did that for a couple of years as part of a Democratic Homeschooling Group. Then he turned 7 and said he wanted to go to school so we put him in (a more child-led school it has to be said) and he loves it, doesn’t want to have holidays – it is so great to see him want to learn and, in his case that had to be self driven almost, when he was ready.
I think we don’t help our children by putting them into the system early, some are okay but a lot find it overwhelming and that has consequences later.
..was that at age 10-11 ‘the boy’ was getting good school reports/grades..
..so i sat him down and offered him a ‘deal’..
..i told him that he could take over the control of his non-school hours..
..that (within reason) he cd pay games when he wanted to..read…do whatever he wished..
..but that his side of the deal was that he had to make sure his homework (which he knew i ideologically opposed..on the grounds the hours spent at school are enough) was done enough to get by..
..and that most importantly his school reports/grades had to stay at the high standard they currently were..
..and it all worked a treat..
..and i feel it was good in building self-sufficiency/motivation..
Listening to there opinions his huge my oldest step daughter was turning goth and starting to fail in the 4th form (year ?) ,she told us she wanted to change schools and when she did she flourished and has finished tertiary has a great job and is living the dream.
in the hearald
“Prime Minister John Key says New Zealand’s likely military contribution to the fight against Islamic State “is the price of the club” that New Zealand belongs to with the likes of the United States, Australia, Britain and Canada in the intelligence alliance known as Five Eyes”
Wars not dirty nasty business it’s just being a club member of planet key.
No justification for joining the reinvasion, just the schoolboy excuse “Everyone else was doing it.” FFS, he’s a childish and hollow adolescent in the skin of a leader.
Changing the thread of things a bit about the huge amount of money being spent on sorrow tinge remembrance of the First World War
Here is Key and another bunch of promoters pushing all the claptrap from the stupid misery of the carnage suffered by many not really knowing what they were fighting over
Sadly percentage wise of the kill NZ comes out on top of the heap
Would the little prick like to do something about reparations to the many NZ communities who worked like hell to rebuild their families and self esteem to make sense of the deplorable loss of that war instead of millions being spent on celebrations or supposedly commemorations knowing that the truth can be found in books if only we as a country had an education system that made the time and people available that might allow the truth to be known but that would probably blow a hole in the hypocrisy which this govt prides itself in, allegiance to a capitalist free market warmongering monichist ruling aristocracy not to forget genocidal policies of cultural reintegration
Stick your money spinning egoistic commemorations up your you know what Key and pay us our money down Does your nz citizenship go back far enough for you to know how it feels to be in a family that has that length of history in this country? We dont need to be reminded we know what kind of people caused that shit but I fear some will never know
. . April 3: Day 9 of living in lock-down… Another late-start to my work day. Everything is temporarily upended as clients are shuffled around so we can minimise our “bubble” by reducing the number of people we help. One of my colleagues has been removed from his clients; his ...
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of a pretty flower, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a cute animal video. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 2: Day eight of living in lock-down… Today, my work day starts late. Our rosters and clients have been dramatically changed, lessening (theoretically) the number of people in our work “bubble”. If just one of us catches covid19 the impact could be considerable as Grey Base Hospital ...
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Lenin Don’t we all know that feeling now.
Prospect Magazine alerted me to this particularly apt quote. It is a much more evocative quote than Hemingway’s “gradually then suddenly” which is also doing ...
Yesterday was the day the consequences of the lockdown suddenly got very real for many. Firms have been closing and laying people off since the outset of the quarantine but this has mostly been happening out of the public eye. The mass closure of a number of iconic New Zealand ...
Brian Williamson1, Prof Nick Wilson2 (1Economic consultant, UK; 2University of Otago Wellington)In this blog, we outline how a win-win social contract could be forged to address the major dimensions of response to the COVID-19 pandemic when using a mitigation strategy: the particular need to protect older people from high ...
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...
No Free Society Without A Free And Functioning News Media: If we are to surrender our civil rights to the broader cause of defeating Covid-19, then foreign corporations must, likewise, surrender their right to inflict immense economic and cultural harm on New Zealanders simply because it improves their bottom line.I’M ...
by Daphna Whitmore A third of the world is under lockdown and a clear assessment of this measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 is urgently needed. With any high-stakes decisions it has to be asked what are we dealing with here? Are the measures warranted? Will they achieve their ...
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...
The swan politicians may be gliding on the water, occasionally snapping at one another. Meanwhile, as the Covid19 crisis illustrates, the officials are desperately paddling below providing the real locomotion. One of the most fatuous recent grandstanding comments (of about a week ago), adding to the public’s anxieties, was ...
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...
Today has felt surreal. I was all set to touch base online with my science communication students when a colleague shared the news that Bauer Media would be shutting down its publications immediately. The first link I saw implied it was Woman’s Weekly affected, and even that shocked me. But ...
Bogeymen, Real And Imagined: Is the number of psychopathic and sociopathic individuals in any given society truly as vanishingly small as we like to tell ourselves? Isn’t it more likely that the mass-shooters and serial-killers filling the headlines represent only the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of frightfulness? ...
Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush appeared before the Epidemic Response Committee today, who asked him for the rules police are using to enforce the lockdown. He refused:Police Commissioner Mike Bush has admitted the advice given to Kiwis about what they're able to do during the lockdown hasn't been clear enough. ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 1: Day seven of living in lock-down… This morning I had a brief chat with one of my neighbours, “D” (social distance between us, a good three or four metres). I learned he had resigned from his previous job and had been hired by another company – ...
Funnily enough, my thought as I start this post is whether it will be well written enough. Or should that be well enough written? Because so much of what I know about good writing came from my two stints at The Listener, which this morning was shut down due to ...
With normal democratic procedures in abeyance, there were two ways to go. First, it was open for the government to dissolve itself and invite the National Party to join a ministry of national salvation. That would have lessened the democratic deficit of the times by having a team of rivals without ...
Dr Kirsty Ross Children and young people can respond differently in times of distress. This also varies by age and developmental stage, with younger children having more magical and imaginative thinking, and older children having more awareness and knowledge of the issues our communities are facing (which brings up ...
Hungary has been a virtual dictatorship for a decade now, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gradually eroded its democracy. But now, its official, with the passage of an indefinite emergency law allowing rule by decree:Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for ...
While the economy is on pause under lockdown, the government is beginning to plan how to cope with the post-lockdown, post-tourism, post-export education world we will eventually find ourselves in. They're planning a lot of infrastructure spending as economic stimulus, and have asked for proposals which can start the moment ...
It's my distraction, setting up tiny scenes to photograph. I've got stuck on the Babushka dolls for now. Something about their bubble shape. Something about their never changing, smiling features, suggesting persistent equanimity. Can we get through everything that is being thrown at us and keep at least a tiny ...
. . March 31: Day six of living in lock-down… This time I managed to sleep a little longer and the alarm woke me at the pre-set time: 6.55am. Then remembered I was working a later shift and could’ve slept in. Oh well, there are things to do at home. ...
Image credit:Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ...
Yesterday's Horizon poll showing support for a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum sliding into the majority for the first time in a year looked like good news for reformers – and it probably is. But the result warrants some scrutiny.The poll is the fifth in a series commissioned ...
For almost a week now, every one of us who isn’t an essential worker has been confined to their bubble. We are allowed to go shopping for groceries, to visit the doctor, and to get a bit of exercise if we stay local. The reason we are doing this is ...
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...
In the absence of a vaccine or a cure for a deadly disease, staying home in your bubble is what you do, the concept is not new. To the best of my knowledge last time we did this in NZ was for polio, in the years before a vaccine came ...
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...
This has been a terrible summer for Hector’s dolphins. The first indication was very low numbers of dolphin sightings during late spring and early summer. The Otago University Marine Mammal Research Team has carried out routine dolphin surveys at Banks Peninsula for more than 30 years. In all that time, ...
On March 17, Finance Minister Grant Robertson was quick out of the blocks with an economic rescue package to help businesses through the inevitable recession resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Robertson had pulled together a scheme in short order that so far seems to have saved many jobs. In his ...
The purpose of the lockdown is to save lives, by reducing the spread of covid-19. We won't know if its really working for another week, but given the devastation that will result if it doesn't - 14,000 dead is the optimistic scenario - its definitely worth trying. But pausing the ...
. . March 30: Day five of living in lock-down… Woke up still in darkness. Alarm hadn’t gone off. Turn to radio clock; it’s a few minutes after 6am… I lie there in the dark, waiting to drift off to sleep… but it ain’t happening. Clock ticks over to 6.55 ...
The story of Les Gray, the public sector psychologist who told the truth about his use of cannabis and set off a storm, has a special place in the lore of cannabis reform in New Zealand.When Paul Shannon interviewed Gray for the 'Dope and Hope' issue of Planet magazine in ...
by Phil Duncan For Marxists, a key concern about social trends is their context – not just their causes, but why they happen when they do. Events and phenomena have causes, but they also are time or period-specific. While much of the left have capitulated recently to postmodernism, most notably ...
Since the lockdown began, we've all suddenly been reminded who the actually essential workers in our society are: not the people at the top who pay themselves the big bucks and rort the perks, but the people at the bottom they screw over and squeeze: cleaners, warehouse staff, truck drivers ...
Kia ora! As I've watched nearly all my remaining work vanish over the past couple of days, it has occured to me that one good way to keep me away from arguing with fools on Twitter all the time (in the knowledge that all we're really doing is processing our ...
Aotearoa New Zealand has committed to trying to extirpate the virus that causes COVID-19 from its shores. To do that, as a society we’ve moved to “Level 4”. That means adapting to unprecedented restrictions on our personal freedoms, particularly to our rights to move freely and associate with friends and ...
When the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency last week, she handed the police powers to enforce it. And almost immediately, we started hearing about heavy-handed, arbitrary "enforcement" by police who (at best) cared more about order than law, or (more likely) had no idea what the rules were ...
. . Lock Down: Day 4 – A photo essay with observations . March 29: Usual wake up routine as RNZ snaps on my radio-clock. Jim Mora’s voice slowly enters my conciousness; there’s talk of a second wave of covid19 taking hold in South Korea; the week in Parliament – ...
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... ‘Misinformation kills’: The link between coronavirus conspiracies and climate denialGrist / Rob Kim / Stringer / CSA Images Scientific ...
The kids did surprisingly well today – meltdown count was about 3, and mostly fairly short ones. (And a fourth while I was writing.) Game-wise I had a go at Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark. It’s a fairly standard RPG with turn-based combat and what they call a “mature storyline” (it ...
by Don Franks Hi David, Nice hearing from you, I’m glad to hear you’re getting by okay in these grim times. You asked how’s it going for us back here in New Zealand. You would have heard that the whole country is locked down and with breaks for exercise and ...
. . 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, ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 22, 2020 through Sat, Mar 28, 2020Articles Linked to on FacebookSun, Mar 22, 2020In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of Disasters by Chelsea Harvey, ...
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 ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections A respected research group, Project Drawdown, finds that deploying solutions consistent with meeting the Paris climate targets would cost tens of trillions of dollars globally. But crucially, those outlays would also yield long-term savings many times larger than the up-front costs. The new 2020 Drawdown ...
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 ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world".Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...
The domestic travel ban has been lifted for stranded foreign tourists trying to get to international airports to fly home, after the Coalition Government announced a plan to help the tens of thousands of foreigners stranded here. Foreign Minister Rt. Hon. Winston Peters spoke with RNZ's Susie Ferguson said foreign ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters believes the country is rediscovering its resilience and self-reliance through its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.He says he is heartened that the mass majority of New Zealanders are following lockdown rules and that the government looking at the future, including paying to keep much ...
New Zealand can emulate the success of the US after the Great Depression by exploiting our own resources to turn the economy around quickly, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr. Peters told Magic Talk that New Zealand has an opportunity to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic a "superior, ...
All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark."Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...
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. ...
We know 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. ...
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 ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
New Zealand’s ability to go hard and go early in the fight against COVID-19 has been underpinned by strong Government finances and the growing economy heading into this global pandemic, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown financial statements for the eight months to the end ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...
The Government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight to and from New Zealand, with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says it’s crucial that trade in vital goods such as medical supplies and ...
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 ...
Medical centres across the country are condensing services, moving online, and ushering in pandemic plans. Josie Adams assesses what it’s like to access and provide essential medical care under alert level four.On Monday, Sandra Russell woke up before dawn and drove to Milford to get her blood tested. She has ...
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, writer and doctor Glenn Colquhoun, with the second of his Letters to Hone Tūwhare and his Travelling Band of Constant Companions. ...
ANALYSIS:By Haiqing Yu of RMIT University and Michael Keane of Curtin University China has gradually emerged out of its shadow of despair as the epicentre where the coronavirus pandemic started. Now, there is face saving required – as well as agenda-setting in the global power play. China played ...
Tech giant Google has released a giant global data set which shows how different countries are locking down, and which NZ regions are most compliant with its lockdown.A giant set of reports released by Google, created using its anonymised cellphone location data reveals the scale of human behaviour change the ...
Comedian Penny Ashton writes on the necessity of the arts, especially during lockdown.On March 22, everyone’s favourite fiscal bloodhounds, the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union, sent out a tweet in response to Creative New Zealand’s announcement that it will dedicate an emergency response package to helping New Zealand’s artists, in the ...
Wellington writer Philippa Swan’s new novel TheNight of All Souls is an homage to Pulitzer-winning and all-round fabulous American writer Edith Wharton. Wharton died in 1937 but, Swan writes, she’s very much of the moment. Nobody does social distancing like Wharton did. While Wharton was still comparatively young, she created the ...
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 ...
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford.I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...
How do you hold a funeral service with the country in lockdown? Where there’s a will – and a tech-savvy uncle – there’s a way, Erin Kavanagh-Hall discovered.I was floating somewhere in the Cook Strait when I heard my grandfather’s funeral had been cancelled.I should elaborate. It was a Monday, ...
‘Stay in your bubble’ didn’t exist 100 years ago, but our ancestors would want us to know how essential it is to do so, says Jai Breitnauer.It was a warm but slightly grey January day in 2019 when I pulled the car over to the side of SH1, just south ...
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...
Every day at 1pm New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announces precise figures on the number of confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 in the country. He is working on the best information available, and during this week the level of community transmission was put at around ...
Most of New Zealand's MPs are in lockdown just like the rest of us, confined to their neighbourhoods and stuck in their bubbles. Checkpoint called a few to ask them what they're doing. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Deery, Lecturer in Early Childhood Education, University of Melbourne “Stupid coronavirus!” I heard my six-year-old mumble while talking in her sleep. Earlier that day her swimming and basketball lessons were cancelled, a birthday party postponed, and she had to race with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University “Zoombombing” in case you haven’t heard, is the unsavoury practice of posting distressing comments, pictures or videos after gatecrashing virtual meetings hosted by the videoconferencing app Zoom. With hundreds of millions ...
Analysis - A leading epidemiologist says health authorities 'really have no idea' of the extent of community spread, Parliament's Epidemic Response Committee gets its teeth into what's going on during the lockdown and the horrendous economic imp ...
The fifth in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall, covering the Covid-19 epidemic within New Zealand. We’ll publish the latest set each day on The Spinoff.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersInformation about confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 ...
The Finance Minister says struggling companies will be able to put some debt into hibernation, under new legislation unveiled today. Watch the latest government update here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Lund, Commissioning Editor, The Conversation Editor’s note: The following is current as at April 3, 2020. Things are changing quickly so best to keep an eye on the latest information from WA Health, as well as the federal government.This article ...
During the challenges associated with lockdown, the Māori Party are congratulating Ngāti Ruanui and South Taranaki on the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling What does the COVID-19 pandemic sound like? For this episode, Dallas Rogers – a senior lecturer in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney – asked academic colleagues from all over ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sven Gallasch, Lecturer in Law, Swinburne University of Technology “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion,” wrote Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (published in 1776), “but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the ...
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Of the larger European countries, Italy is now in third place for known cases per person in the population. Spain has overtaken Switzerland for ...
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui and Te Kaahui o Rauru are celebrating the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South Taranaki Bight. The Court of Appeal found that there ...
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about a massive spike in US jobless claims, and they talk about an inspiring Kiwi app to fight Covid-19 globally. Guest, Pie Funds chief executive Mike Taylor also joins them to talk about the massive market swings and hopes for recovery. Bernard zooms out ...
Political commentators from the left and right sides of the political divide are questioning the powers being exercised by police during the nation-wide “lockdown”. The Asian Invasion 2019 blog draws attention to the warning sounded by former UK Supreme Court Justice Jonathan Sumption when he challenged Covid-19 actions by British ...
Pacific Media Watch The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) has strongly condemned the shoot-to-kill order by President Rodrigo Duterte this week as a ‘dangerous’ opening to target and kill anyone in a public space. “We are raising the alarm in the international community on President ...
The Reserve Bank looks set to start buying council bonds as well as Government bonds to unfreeze financial markets and allow councils to defer rates and jointly invest in infrastructure with the central Government, Dileepa Fonseka reports In what would be another unprecedented move to calm financial markets and help ...
Four PhD students engaged a clinical psychologist to help them navigate an uncertain time in their studies. They share their findings here.As four PhD students from Massey University’s Joint Centre for Disaster Research we, like many others, can’t stop reading and talking about the unfolding events that have gripped our ...
The SpinoffBy Ashleigh Rushton, Lisa McLaren, Marion Tan & Sara Harrison
Covid-19 testing of the wider population is on the cards as World Health Organisation research shows people are most contagious within their first few days of being infected Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says Covid-19 carriers are highly infectious when they show few signs of carrying the virus. People were ...
Z Energy is the latest company to cut its dividend payout and start talking to its banks about strengthening its finances. Chief executive Mike Bennetts said the company, the largest fuel retailer in the country, had been battered by a range of issues over the past 18 months, and was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Kang, Associate professor, University of Technology Sydney Young people in Australia are among the fastest-growing group to contract COVID19. According to the Department of Health, there are now more cases in Australia among people aged 20 – 29 years than any ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassandra Pattinson, Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Getting a good night’s sleep can be difficult at the best of times. But it can be even harder when you’re anxious or have something on your mind – a global pandemic, for example. ...
Journalist and Great Barrier Island resident Lindsay Wright reflects on outer gulf pandemic preparedness. Hardy locals can tough it out but Auckland bach owners and boaties should keep their distance. Aotea Great Barrier, the easternmost island in the Hauraki Gulf, are undergoing a Covid-19-inspired population flood. Great Barrier has scenery that makes ...
The Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand is delighted that the government has moved quickly to provide an initial financial support package for pharmacy. The $15 million package was paid this week to pharmacy contract holders. Pharmaceutical Society president ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference and are "as of 9am" of the day. There were 71 new cases of Covid-19 in ...
A new poem by Wellington poet and bookseller Ash Davida Jane. washed up! it gets tiring pushing the fire alarm every nightbut things keep catching on fireor sometimes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Welcome to the second edition of our lockdown Top 10s. A reminder that this chart has nothing to do with sales or launches or the publishing cycle; these are just books the Unity team love – and this week it’s westerns, full of big skies and long rides and showdowns.AUCKLANDAll ...
Wellington Mayor Andy Foster’s plan to cover revenue shortfalls through borrowing without cutting low priority spending is immoral, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . “Businesses and households across the country are meeting financial challenges ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin John Brophy, Emeritus Professor of Creative writing, University of Melbourne “Katrina, I had in mind a prayer, but only this came,” Bruce Dawe wrote to his infant daughter, new-born, in intensive care, her life in the balance, declaring as poets must ...
The shock closure of Bauer NZ – and with it all of the country’s current affairs magazines – is a stark reminder of the fragile state of local media, writes Mel Bunce, the author of a book on the subject.It is a dark week for journalism in New Zealand, with ...
Join Leonie Hayden as she works through the first four weeks of Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy.Rāmere/FridayWe made it to the end of week one e te whānau. It wasn’t that hard! In fact it was… Māori made easy.To end our week of pronunciation practice we’re going to revisit everything we ...
India faces more challenges battling Covid-19 than any other country in the world. With 1.3 billion inhabitants, hundreds of different languages spoken, and an estimated 80% of the workforce daily wage earners currently without jobs, it could be a recipe for disaster.I’ve been living in India for more than three ...
By Sri Krishnamurthi of Pacific Media Watch The Vanuatu government is using the Covid-19 to impose draconian measures and authoritarian rule by end of last month. Wholesale censorship of all Covid-19 related content has been instituted. Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) took the extraordinary step to ...
People with lower credit scores increased their borrowing upon news of the lockdown, while those with higher scores dropped away. March data from the credit-reporting agency Centrix, which runs credit checks on behalf of banks, finance companies, online lenders, and buy now pay later schemes, showed credit inquiries dropped sharply ...
Small business owners say commercial rent relief is desperately needed if they are to survive past the Covid-19 disruptions. While the wage subsidy helped with staff costs, there is currently no government assistance for commercial rent - which typically accounts for 40 percent of a firm's fixed costs. Landlords and ...
SkyCity is making 200 staff redundant as part of cost cutting because of the Covid-19 virus. The casino operator said it had no choice but to cut the size of the workforce given that once business resumes it will be at much reduced level. Chief executive Graeme Stephens said it's ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Glikson, Earth and paleo-climate scientist, Australian National University At several points in the history of our planet, increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have caused extreme global warming, prompting the majority of species on Earth to die out. In ...
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 contentMedia Henry Cooke (Stuff): There’s no easy way for Government to save media drowning. But a fast fix is ...
Just after midday a cyclist was killed on a straight road on a clear day, after being hit by a van in North Canterbury. Lucinda Rees from NZ School Speeds is asking for the mandatory cyclist/vulnerable road user passing gap, which is in consultation, ...
By Indra Singh in Suva Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says that if Fijians continue to disregard the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic directives from authorities, a nationwide 24-hour curfew could be imposed. His comments come as Fiji yesterday recorded its two latest coronavirus cases, taking the total to seven. Bainimarama said ...
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.Yes, a few cyclists out and about. I remember my first bike bought from Farmers around 1942, five shillings a ...
Internal memos from NZ’s biggest magazine company, which announced its sudden closure yesterday, state they were lobbying to change a ban on publication. But the minister responsible, Kris Faafoi, has doubled down on rejecting that position, calling those internal communications ‘contradictory’ to what they said to him directly.Magazine publishing giant ...
Up to 100,000 foreigners could be seeking to leave the country in coming weeks, now the Government has relaxed domestic travel restrictions for them. ...
The loss of a loved one can be difficult in the best of times. But it’s even more painful when the planes are grounded.Late on Saturday night, three days into New Zealand’s level four lockdown, Harish got a call from his sister in India telling him that his father had ...
Health Minister David Clark has flouted the Government's advice to exercise locally after confirming he drove to a park to go mountain biking on Thursday. ...
Covid-19 cases top 1m; Trump brags he's #1 on Facebook and says he knows about the virus because a 'friend' got it; UK testing scandal grows; Cats more vulnerable to virus than dogsTicking up to a million cases: A gruesome landmark was passed today when we go over one million ...
“So do not fear, I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” Isaiah 41:10 COVID-19 - Lock down: one week on Welcome to the latest Policy Watch ...
Workers at the Port of Lyttelton are resisting the introduction of casual cargo handlers due to concerns about COVID19. RMTU South Island Organizer John Kerr says there is concern about a Lyttelton Port Company (LPC) proposal to "bring in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Strangio, Associate Professor of Politics, Monash University One of Australia’s preeminent historians, Stuart Macintyre, once observed of John Curtin, the Labor Party leader revered for navigating this nation through the dangers of the second world war, that he would have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoff Hanmer, Adjunct Professor of Architecture, University of Adelaide New research the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that SARS CoV 2, which causes the disease known as COVID-19 coronavirus, is more stable on plastic and stainless steel than on cardboard or ...
Open mike 20/01/2015 
Open mike is your post.
. . April 3: Day 9 of living in lock-down… Another late-start to my work day. Everything is temporarily upended as clients are shuffled around so we can minimise our “bubble” by reducing the number of people we help. One of my colleagues has been removed from his clients; his ...12 mins ago
We must root out the traitors among us! ...16 hours ago
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...23 hours ago
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...1 day ago
Yesterday was the day the consequences of the lockdown suddenly got very real for many. Firms have been closing and laying people off since the outset of the quarantine but this has mostly been happening out of the public eye. The mass closure of a number of iconic New Zealand ...1 day ago
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...1 day ago
by Daphna Whitmore A third of the world is under lockdown and a clear assessment of this measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 is urgently needed. With any high-stakes decisions it has to be asked what are we dealing with here? Are the measures warranted? Will they achieve their ...1 day ago
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...2 days ago
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...2 days ago
46 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Global response of evapotranspiration ratio to climate conditions and watershed characteristics in a changing environment Greenhouse effect: the relative contributions of emission height and total absorption Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Climate change induced a ...3 days ago
Image credit: Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ... 3 days ago
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...3 days ago
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...4 days ago
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...5 days 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 ...7 days 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 ...1 week 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 ...1 week 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 ...1 week ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world". Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...22 hours 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. ...7 days 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. ...1 week ago
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...21 hours ago
Medical centres across the country are condensing services, moving online, and ushering in pandemic plans. Josie Adams assesses what it’s like to access and provide essential medical care under alert level four.On Monday, Sandra Russell woke up before dawn and drove to Milford to get her blood tested. She has ...19 mins ago
ANALYSIS: By Haiqing Yu of RMIT University and Michael Keane of Curtin University China has gradually emerged out of its shadow of despair as the epicentre where the coronavirus pandemic started. Now, there is face saving required – as well as agenda-setting in the global power play. China played ...2 hours ago
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...6 hours ago
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...6 hours ago
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...7 hours ago
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford. I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...7 hours ago
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...7 hours ago
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...7 hours ago
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...16 hours ago
Most of New Zealand's MPs are in lockdown just like the rest of us, confined to their neighbourhoods and stuck in their bubbles. Checkpoint called a few to ask them what they're doing. ...17 hours ago
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Further to recent discussions here on begging monks in Auckland:
Donor beware.
if we ever need someone to run around shouting ‘the sky is falling in’..the sky is falling in’…
..we know where to turn..eh..?
..btw..are you still repeating that lie from yesterday that you have never ‘copy/pasted’ from slater..?
I don’t think I’ve ever claimed I’ve never copy/pasted from Whale Oil.
I’ve been copy/pasting from Whale Oil quite a bit lately. That’s what tends to happen in blog posts, they’re often built on copy/pastes. It’s also known as quoting.
I have no idea what point you’re trying to make, but that’s not unusual.
(um..!..yesterday..you..)
“..A bit ironic after you accused me of copy/pasting Slater/Ede yesterday..”
(to be said in petulant/simpering/whining-tones..)
today..you..
“..I’ve been copy/pasting from Whale Oil quite a bit lately..”
different day – different story..eh petey..?
..which one is true..?
..short-term memory-issues..?
..like a drink or two..?..d’ya,.?…hic..!
..and the ‘point i am trying to make’..
..is that every word that comes out of yr mouth is lying-spin..
..tailored/doctored for what you think will ‘fit’ for whatever bullshit/disruption u r pushing..
..i’ve noted it b 4 petey..
..u r as fucken transparant as a sheet of plain-glass…
..and every word out of yr mouth is rightwing lies/spin..
..(it must be a day ending in a ‘y’..)
I’m not aware of ever copy/pasting Ede.
And the intent of your accusation was not just to quote Slater/Ede was it.
“..short-term memory-issues..?” /ironic
“..like a drink or two..?..d’ya,.?…hic..!” /ironic
q.e.d..
..a pirouette worthy of a drunken ex-ballerina..eh..?
..and executed with about as much grace/style…
..”..And the intent of your accusation was not just to quote Slater/Ede was it..”
what fucken ‘accusation’..?..
..i had complimented u for spotting slaters’ u-turn on uber..
..are u able to tell the truth about fucken anything..?
..and have you always been such a congenital-liar/fantasist..?
That gave me a laugh to start my day with the chicken little joke Phil, cheers.
You would think Pete G would be constructively commenting on the real crime that is on everyones lips and contributing some problem solving idea’s. That of the greedy 1% ripping the other 99% off through tax avoidance, banking ponzi schemes, anti competitive monopoly racketeering.
The way Pete is carrying on you would think the begging monks scam it’s the crime of the century. I nod my head in disbelief he is so selectively blind.
why can’t he comment on anything he likes in Open Mike?
the inequality issue has two dedicated posts.
You are not saying that there are no “genuine” beggars though are you Pete? I suppose the upside, if there is one, that the people who gave could afford to give. Downside, many will use this experience to stop being charitable to anyone.
Now, how are we going exposing the tithing scams… 😉
I’m not saying there are no ‘genuine beggars’ but it can be difficult if not impossible to tell the difference. Scammers may it more difficult for genuine beggars.
ASs I’ve said before I think there’s better ways to contribute. I’ve chosen to be a long time contributor to Oxfam for example, who happen to be featured here:
I agree that tithing can be abused. I don’t like the concept, it can be used to scam the vulnerable and gullible.
I was just joshing with ya Pete.
I do think it is a shame that it may make people less likely to give. Even if they give to a scammer ( a dollar or two) it can make folks feel good to give and to think about other ways to give.
Tax beats charity.
Every day.
^^^ this.
As a society we can eliminate poverty but we can’t do so as individuals.
What is more important Pete? A quarter of a million kids living in poverty or a few fake begging monks?
The real tragedy is that the Herald sees this as their main news.
As if there aren’t so many other current events stories they could put their resources into.
The corporate media is failing in its duty as the 4th estate.
yes there is an element of “poor rich people being taken advantage of when being compassionate”… a subliminal message to stop being generous… ??
This sort of stuff
90-year-old among Florida activists arrested for feeding the homeless
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/05/fort-lauderdale-pastors-arnold-abbott-arrested-feeding-homeless
Yikes! It’s as though the solution to poverty is to stop it being seen… Like a little child who closes their eyes and thinks they have disappeared…
Corporate media is masquerading as the 4th estate, it’s not impartial or bound by any ethics, regulation or history of any note to adhere to those quaint principles.
Controlling the message, suppressing undesired ones and playing it’s part as DP illuminated.
Look at the apologist piece on charter schools in granny as todays example.
from the NZ Initiative (formed from BRT and Business NZ I think)… and who does “Rosie” cite? David Farrar despite their blurb saying they are neutral and rely on research!
“Donor beware.”
Far more beggars in need than scammers. I personally don’t mind of I give money to a scammer unknowingly if it means next time or last time the money went to someone who needed it.
From what I can tell from Pētera’s argument, it’s more important to not support support scammers than it is to support people in need. Beige ethics.
What a piece of unadulterated shite. You want people to believe that some shadowy syndicate takes money from Chinese nationals who are led to believe that the streets of ‘the west’ are paved with gold? And then to believe that some un-named woman, who apparently spoke to Lincoln Tan, paid the syndicate money to get abroad, but then pulled out and….fled the country?!
Really fucking seriously Pete, if you can’t see the likes of this shite as being nothing more than a thinly veiled attack on the poor, (with a little xeno-phobia thrown in on the side), then fuck, there really isn’t so much as 5/8ths of fuck all hope for you.
By the way Pete, people on visas who cannot work legally and who are all out of cash are more than entitled to beg. But hey, fuck the humanity or any degree of empathy and spread hate and distrust thick and fast Pete….it’s like your sad and bitter old man forte, is it not?
That would have to be one of the better summations of Pete I’ve seen in a while (‘cept for the old man bit).
The reason he can’t see the thinly veiled attack on the poor is because he IS a thinly veiled attack on the poor.
Heh. Nice work, both of you. Word of warning, keep it up and he’ll write a whingeing post about you on YawnNZ. That’ll learn ya!
Excellent, Bill
@ bill..
+ 1..
..vile curtain-twitching small-town (yes dunedin..!)..racism/furriner-fear…..
..i wonder if petey wears a handkerchief with knotted corners..on his head..?
..and shorts and gumboots..
..i kinda picture him that way..
(and i’m just guessing here..but i think a hobby/pastime cd be gurning..)
Lincoln Tan must be writing for an anti-poor campaign, which NZ Herald must be a party to. And the woman’s lying. And the two people reporting being pressured to donate must be part of a big conspiracy too. And the Auckland Council and Immigration NZ.
Or really fucking seriously Bill you’re making a dick of yourself.
“it’s like your sad and bitter old man forte” /irony
Yawns.
Appropriate signal that its Treasury releasing the RMA reform proposals tomorrow, not MFE. And sad.
Buckle up for a difficult day. Even Dunne is sounding apologetic on it.
*sigh*
Anytime we leave this stuff to a form of self regulation, the sky falls in… and a small number of developers get very rich… and avoid future liability with their sequence of ritual company liquidations.
This government refuses to place personal liability on developers, which it did quickly to builders (who can least afford it). There is a clue in there.
Money first…
It’s not just this government – it was Labour that removed the Romalpa clause for builders which allowed them to repossess materials unpaid for by developers, and also prevented them from holding caveats over properties when money was owed. Builders, electricians, plumbers, etc were just thrown to the wolves and often bankrupted, while developers refused to pay them, liquidated their companies, started up another one and went on to the next project, all with the blessing of the government. I went through this as the director of a small building company ( and was finally bankrupted by a crooked timber company which rorted a guarantee). Interestingly, the IRD usually wiped the unpaid taxes from these small companies with no fuss – evidence of complicity, I thought at the time.
Agreed. I guess I was just referring to them choosing to make builders and designers personally liable during their term but NOT developers, a consciously made distinction. Labour is not a blame-free zone.
@ jan m…
“..It’s not just this government – it was Labour..”
..+ 1..
And they wonder why people don’t vote for them. Siding with cowboy developers probably cost them tens of thousands of votes. How the hell did they justify it?
4th Labour Government Janm.
There are few other things that some of us are not too proud about from that time …
You have had a lot to do with developers haven’t you tracey… from reading this hobby horse of yours. However your view is tainted by the particular doings you have had, which have been very specific yes… to do solely with leaky buildings as I recall.
I would suggest that your crusade to place personal liability onto another sector of the business world is short-sighted. It would make no difference to the bad developers – they would just go bankrupt (assets elsewhere) and then rise again from the ashes. Such a personal liability would make no difference to these people.
And in fact your proposal would almost certainly backfire as those professional and competent developers currently active would likely go away, thanks to the personal liability imposition. The increased risk, without associated return, would make the equation unworkable and they would depart…… leaving us with only those bad developers for whom bankruptcy is water off a ducks back.
Your crusade also appears to take no account of the place of limited liability companies in the business world – a large but well settled aspect of our business world.
But builders and designers should lose their shirts and that’s tickety-boo, and presumably the government thought it would make the very difference to those groups you suggest it wouldn’t make to developers?
The logic that saw personal liability imposed on those two groups must apply by extention to developers.
It’s not a crusade vto it’s about pointing out the inconsistency in the application of policy/law which seeks to punish the more vulnerable (builder) but not the one who takes the profit, liquidates and is clear of liability.
“a vigorous campaign for political, social, or religious change.” Nope.
Why would a professional and competent developer go away? They would only need to go away if they were not professional or competent and thereby likely to incur personal liability? Just like the builders and designers who are currently in that category?
Are you a developer vto?
Limited Liability companies also need reform with more exceptions tot he liability. Who do you think devised the limited liability framework vto?
A couple quick points before I have to rush out. I agree that the imposition of personal liability on buidlers and designers appears inconsistent, however that does not detract from the point made above.
“Why would a professional and competent developer go away? They would only need to go away if they were not professional or competent and thereby likely to incur personal liability? Just like the builders and designers who are currently in that category?”..
.. Because, as explained and to repeat, the risk has increased without associated return. It is a simple equation. This has in fact happened with some builders, as you ask. (btw what I do is immaterial but we have significant involvement in this sector).
I understand the apparent unfairness that you outline but I don’t think your suggestions to correct it are the right ones.
gotta go
understood
When personal liability was slapped on builders and designers following the leaky home disaster I was gobsmacked. It is was all out of place and context while achieving little in the way of improvement to the problem, which problem was of course largely due to the neoliberal approach to such things i.e. self-regulation / the market will fix these things / appeal to self-interest. As such if there were any personal liability to be imposed anywhere then the politicians who implemented these policies should have been the subject.
That is the unfairness tracey
we are in agreement vto
Holding people accountable for their actions are most definitely the right ones.
You do understand that they’re not entitled to a return don’t you? That it’s not a God given right?
And it doesn’t actually matter if the bludgers don’t get the return that they want and so don’t build houses – the government can and they can do it without profit and without cutting corners that cause leaky buildings etc.
That’s something that people have forgotten. When the private sector won’t provide necessary services then the government must step in. Of course, that does mean that the private sector collapses.
“Holding people accountable for their actions are most definitely the right ones.” …
.. sure take out the llimited liability company so that all business is done in the businesspersons personal capacity. Do you know and understand the history and place of this feature of our current civilisation? The likely effect of the removal of the limited liability company? I know you do DtB. How do you think it would play out? What would the effect be? Wouldn’t like to be the person owning Jetstar… or Spark …. or be a Council officer …. or own shares in the Warehouse … courts would be busy, and so too would insurers (they would have a field day). Have you ever been in business yourself DtB? Where an intimate knowledge of these things can be gained?
I understand the philosophy behind your point there but practically the changes would be world-changing.
next:
“You do understand that they’re not entitled to a return don’t you?”
Did someone suggest there was an entitlement to a return? Certainly not me.
next:
Your point about government doing some of this stuff is your best point and I agree. Governments have done bigger shit than private sector for eons. Government needs to get into house construction in particular, of that there is no doubt. Plenty of past experience at it.
Like this:
It’s interesting that, once the government supports and subsidies are removed, the private sector fails at its core. The claim by the business people that they’re the ones taking the risk is shown for what it is – bollocks. Its the community taking the risk and the business people walking away with the rewards.
You’re too idealistic for me fulla…
As for the claim that business don’t take the risk – bollocks. Our business failed once and the risk came to pass. We went back to square one ….. so please don’t make such silly claims.
… though some risks are placed elsewhere as you suggest (factored into business already)
The amount of risk taken depends upon where you are in the food chain. Small businesses tend to take a lot of risk while large businesses seem to take no risk at all with government often either bailing them out or protecting them in some fashion or other. The preceding discussion about builders and developers is a good case in point.
The builders are small, self-employed businesses with turnover measured in tens of thousands while the developers measure their turnover in millions. And yet, despite the developers calling the shots on building sites, it’s the builders who have had the risk placed upon them via legislation. Legislation that seems, from what I can make out, to be about protecting the developers and, indirectly, the banks from their own actions.
Never mind the fact that, if the developer does get found against in court they can just shut up shop and not pay while starting an identical business.
In other words, let’s not make them accountable because the good ones do nothing wrong anyway and the bad ones won’t take any notice. Weird. I’d rather get rid of them all.
Watch Wanaka’s landscapes get destroyed by developers and farmers as this government uses its failed housing policies in Auckland as a fig-leaf for wrecking the RMA.
Am certainly watching both areas.
Ironically, the RMA was devised, approved and implemented by nearly all the neo-liberal celebrities.
It was a monumental piece of work bringing together over 100 different Acts of Parliament. It is nowhere as bad as it has been painted. In any events developers already get fast track preference in Council works departments.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11388728
“…Graphic designer Sarah Torrent, 22, spent seven hours being quizzed by officials after landing in New Zealand yesterday and telling border officials she was staying at Dotcom’s house…”
TBH, this behaviour from a government department is outrageous. Who do they think they are? Jumped up little fucking hitlers. What checks and balances are there on the powers of customs to detain without needing to provide a reason? This looks and quacks like government stooges and goons abusing their excessively arbitrary powers – supposedly granted to detect and stop terrorism – to harass the friends of the enemies of the National party.
you cant be talking about NZ. It must be happening in one of those countries that needs democracy brought to their door.
The puerile and vindictive mode of operation among the NZ law enforcement agencies are in the spotlight again:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11388728
Mind you, they are only trying to emulate the example set by John Key and his bestest mates, Cameron Slater, Jason Ede et al.
Edit: Sanctuary beat me to it while I was still considering a comment but add it for posterity.
@ sanctuary..
“..This looks and quacks like government stooges and goons abusing their excessively arbitrary powers – supposedly granted to detect and stop terrorism – to harass the friends of the enemies of the National party…”
+ 1..
Has the Minister of Customs commented yet?
which is this directed to, tracey?
A deleted comment. You can tell by the broken numbering.
Quizzed for several hours? Stand over tactic’s you bet, what on earth justifies that? Let me guess perhaps a call to Finlayson or the GCSB or both. Lucky she wasn’t detained and given a few rounds of waterboarding in an attempt to get a confession she is Raw Shark. It’s appears disturbing the long reach of the National party influence our boarder ministry.
But… but… but…
She says rude things about the government (sympathetic to the terrorists!)
Has Syrian parents (all Arabs are terrorists!)
Speaks Arabic (the language of terror!)
Once traded in bitcoin (clearly she funds terrorism!)
She is friends with Kim Dotcom (must be a prostitute or a criminal or maybe she has an illegally downloaded MP3 on her phone).
While none of these things above are actually against the law, she is clearly an exotic dusky foreigner and as such is not to be trusted by any decent National party flunky. After all, she may be a temptress from the harems of ISIL – an actual Mata Hari bolder than brass and bigger than life! She has clearly been sent to spy on all that is good and decent and upright and western with an eye on all sorts of unspeakable crimes!
We must be thankful that our small town/small minded border officials are vigilant in leaping to our defense in the name of the “National party, the National government and John Key”, AKA “All right minded New Zealanders”.
Personally, I am going to start a petition to demand customs officers get bigger shoulder boards, taller, peakier caps and lots more gold braid and medals on their uniforms to better reflect their true importance.
You forgot the promise of knighthoods when they retire.
Sir Bartholomew Bottomsup has a nice ring to it.
Actually Sanctuary do you mean something like this?
Given the extra squirrel powers being thrown around, possibly more like this:
http://www.germaniainternational.com/ddr.html
@Anne
Punny.
@ sanctuary..
..and larger clipboards..(preferably ones that make intimidating beeping-noises..)
Desperate losers.
In short, Dotcom’s legal team has done a fantastic job of defending their client. His lawyers have thrown wrench after wrench into the legal process, appealing at nearly every turn and challenging the validity of the warrant executed upon the Dotcom estate.
[…]
The bottom line: Kim Dotcom probably won’t be sent to the United States in 2015, regardless of the outcome.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/01/why-kim-dotcom-hasnt-been-extradited-3-years-after-the-us-smashed-megaupload/1/
We have turned into a nasty little country full of shitheads and bullies. I wonder if, after hassling her for hours, did some immigration fool ask “And what do you think of New Zealand?” This is embarrassing. I’m not sorry for being a Kiwi, but I’m sorry FJK is.
All issues of concern to this blog could be most effectively addressed by a Left Wing Govt.
So I was genuinely amazed yesterday that virtually no discussion took place of the points Chris Trotter makes in this link provided by Saarbo…
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2015/01/2015-2017-struggle-for-time-and-power.html
Honestly, there is nothing for Left Wingers wanting change to discuss there?
I acknowledge the ‘brutal truths’ are hard to swallow, but how much more difficult will it be to digest a 4th Key Govt?
Hmmmm… “more” effectively maybe.
I havent read (have now)it but I believe the debate about getting into Govt and then militating change versus discussing the change first is widely canvassed here. I think Ad (might have remembered wrongly) is in this camp… do what you have to get elected, then bring about the change.
“For those on the left of New Zealand politics it means shutting-up and letting Andrew Little and his team play for power in the only way that holds out the prospect of victory.”
Gee, I wonder who Mr Trotter means?!?
“Gee, I wonder who Mr Trotter means?!?”
I think he means everyone but Mr. Trotter. He also seems to be having a bromance with FJK. The talk about FJK understanding the Kiwi psyche and all that makes me sick. He hasn’t even lived in Aotearoa for years and has probably only ever mixed with empty husks like himself. His understanding will all be manufactured by Crosby Textor and Curia polls.
Trotter’s idea of shutting up is the worst thing we could do. We need to organise and defend the people NAct is attacking, not just wait for FAL, the enabler of squirrels. We cannot be passive subjects. We must act.
Why wouldn’t Andrew be able to have a cunning plan that he explains to the voters, not promising lots, but talking about making a change to get on the right track and this is what we are going to do.
Bugger this idea of vote and hope. Say something and do it within for the first 100 days. Spell out your direction and if it is to get a more prosperous NZ and help viable businesses create jobs it will have something for everyone. And with a living wage it will seem like something to bite into, well made and tasty. And if the wage is set for everyone then no business or sector gets advantage, and it will boost the economy and be like a transfusion of exygenated blood to poor old tired, flaccid NZ.
ok..i followed yr urgings..and steeled myself..and went and read it..
..and really..it is just trotter banging on and on..
(as he does..lordy..!..how he does..!..and so so leavened with great chunks of the bleeding-obvious..)
..and he’s pushing the incrementalist p.o.v..
..urging little to be more/just like key..(who he notes is just like clark..and in that i agree with him..)
..so what is new/novel about that..?
..that is/has always been trotters’ position..
..a comfortable/middle-class fretting at the edges…
..what is it exactly u feel needs to ‘be discussed’..?
..as i said..there is nothing ‘new/novel’ as far as i can see..
(..and should i invoice u 4 the time/energy wasted in this exercise in nothing..?..)
I’ll tell you what Chris Trotter’s problem is – he is at heart an utter defeatist. The sort of guy who talks a big fight and walks the big walk, but when the hour comes when men and women must gird themselves for the fight as the enemy begins to advance towards the barricades he quietly slips away and flees because, deep down, he never thought his side would win anyway.
In case you haven’t noticed, the Left have just lost a third consecutive election.
The current strategy then is crap. It simply hasn’t worked, and if it isn’t changed it will continue not to work, and the Left will not regain Govt. and the power to implement significant change.
What that new strategy should be is worth discussing?
(Even if it distracts us from the more vital topics of drug use, conspiracies, vegetarianism, and the upcoming revolution /sarc)
Successful strategies always require…
A realistic and accurate assessment of the factors the strategy is attempting to influence.
A realistic and accurate assessment of the oppositions strengths and weaknesses.
A plan that sets goals achievable within the constraints of these realities. (That is strength not weakness)
Self evidently, to date the Left has failed to grasp the realities and set a successful strategy.
What Chris is saying may not be entirely new, but it is rare thinking for the current Left in my experience.
I agree with him completely. It is time to get out of la la land and face up to the ‘brutal realities’.
Which of the ‘realities’ he identifies can you argue are not true?
Which is better : Making some compromise to the realities in order to get change started, even if that is modest and incremental, or remain morally superior but powerless on the sidelines?
Wakey wakey folks. Dream time is over. Unless you want the nightmare of a 4th Key term.
His argument is pretty straightforward, actually. Obscure your agenda to the electorate to get elected, then tack left in power.
Ae. The thought of a 4th term NACT govt tempts me to power at all costs, but then I read Trotter and come to my senses 😉 I would have less of a problem with the strategy if it weren’t for the fact that Labour still haven’t sorted out their internal shit.
He is talking about compromising the agenda to meet the majority view, and then using your position of power to advocate for a greater rate of change. (Presumably on the back of the success of your incremental changes)
A very different, and much more intelligent long term strategy long than simply deceiving the electorate. (result – straight out on your arse next election)
The reason the left lost the last election is because Labour still has an internal hotcold war between the neoliberals and the lefties. The rest of us are waiting to see if that’s resolvable. And whether Little and the membership can get Labour past it.
I would be asking the lefties to demonstrate they have a strategy that can convince a neo-liberally inclined majority to vote for more definitely Left Wing policies ?
if they couldn’t, I’d be suggesting they might consider whether continuing to have a divided left was good for anyone?
hold on – its the labour caucus that has the in fighting issue weka describes – not “the left” – why are we responsible for the labour caucus deliberately going against the wishes of their membership and running to the media everytime theyve got a boo boo?
also – whos this neoliberally inclined majority? – there isnt one. Either inside labour or the country
+1
I’d like to see,
More push from the left within Labour, including things that are visible to the wider world so that people can have confidence in the Labour again.
Visible cooperation between Labour, the GP and Mana. I don’t have much hope of the first two working with Mana, but there should definitely be obvious signs between L/GP.
Any of those three parties should court/headhunt the bright ones from the Internet Party. Looks like KDC is abandoning ship, so I reckon the IP should let the leaders go. I still think the IP is a good idea, but without Harre and KDC it’s not going to make serious headway before 2017.
like labour asking for an amnesty for unpaid taxes… it is Little carrying through his promise to look out for SME’s, but it extends to the greedy at the high end I am sure
and supporting the RMA reforms (before even seeing them)
I am not sure if it was Labour party or just Stuart Nash regarding the amnesty for tax defaulters.
thanks for your concern
His Father was a Lefty, eh.
The lost sheep & framu
On the basis of ‘not having a policy is a policy’ I would say that framu you are wrong to suggest that this isn’t the case in NZ generally:
– also – whos this neoliberally inclined majority? – there isnt one. Either inside labour or the country
If people aren’t overtly neo liberal, by not deciding and acting to vote against it, they just reinforce that system and are part of its onward strangling of NZ.
chris wants the left to leave little to it… without interference unlike his public lashings of the party in recent years.
“..In case you haven’t noticed, the Left have just lost a third consecutive election..”
‘in case u haven’t noticed’..’the left’…hasn’t been ‘left’ since the 80’s..
..which has got us to the shit-hole we are currently in..
..so..more of the same..?..y’reckon..?
..just keep veering right..?
“Funny names they’ve got, the presidents of Indonesia, haven’t they.”
Leighton Smith and his dim colleagues continue to be perplexed by the world
NewstalkZB, Monday 19 January 2015, 8:40 a.m.
The shock jocks at NewstalkZB are not exactly into multiculturalism. They have a real problem with the simplest things, such as foreign names and their sometimes tricky pronunciation. Even indigenous names are a problem for some of them: the station’s notorious Drivetime host Larry “Lackwit” Williams often pauses for effect after reading out—and deliberately butchering the pronunciation of—the names of Māori defendants in criminal cases. Williams and his colleagues often take the opportunity to extract Hebdoesque “humour” out of other cultures: the late Paul Holmes was not merely infuriated by the existence of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, but amused by his preposterous name; Kerre Woodham relentlessly mimicked the accents and pronunciation of distraught Chinese dissidents who tried to protest against her loud support for the Chinese government; Tony Veitch laughed about how the Williams sisters proved that black people were descended from gorillas; and the mere mention of Indonesia’s former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had the likes of the mirthless Glenn ZB and his master Mike Hosking rolling in the aisles.
Indonesian names seem to be a real problem for these people. Just this morning, the doyen of mindless chatter expressed his bemusement with another fiendishly difficult one. It came during a typically learned and sober discussion about Indonesia’s laudable—for NewstalkZB shockjocks at least—execution of six people for drug smuggling…..
LEIGHTON SMITH: Anyway, ummm, ahhhhhh, the errrrrr President of Indonesia, Joko…[pause]…or is it Jocko?… [pause]… No it’s Joko….[long pause]…. Funny names they’ve got, the presidents of Indonesia, haven’t they. But then I suppose “Smith” is funny to them. Ummmm, errrrr, ahhhhh…. Anyway, the six people who copped it—do you think they deserved the death penalty or is there a BROADER perspective? I want your calls…..
….ad nauseam, ad absurdum….
A bit like this ghastly stuff from Fox News
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jan/18/fox-news-apologises-terror-pundit-birmingham-muslim-comments
Actually, Paul, NewstalkZB is a LOT like Fox News. It even uses the slogan “Fair and Balanced.”
It is New Zealand’s propagater of hate speech
One of them. Radio Live is just as bad, and don’t forget shows like Paul Henry’s on TV3, as well as fora like TV1’s Breakfast, which regularly serve as platforms for the most biased and hateful reporting. And the Herald and Listener are not far behind.
Yes the Herald highlights the hassling of friends of Dotcom’s at the airport, but their own journalists have been persecuting him for ages.
And has the token Fox Democrat..our very own Josie Pagani.
Chris Trotter and Tim Watkin are also examples of the same sad subspecies.
Peoples Republic of China…German Democratic Republic…..
Surpluses mean unemployment and deficits bring employment
Profit in the private sector comes almost entirely from the government being in deficit. That’s way over simplified of course as the whole thing is complicated by the financial system that has private banks creating money and lending to the government.
If the government was the sole creator of money and spending it into the economy and with no other source then the private sectors profit would exactly match the government’s deficit.
The problem occurs as that private sector profit continually accumulates resulting in ever greater amounts of money in fewer and fewer hands chasing the resources of a single country. This must result in the privatisation of ever more of the countries wealth and the increasing poverty that we see around us. The two go together.
This is the dead-weight loss of profit. This is how capitalism produces poverty.
Miss Israeli’s selfie with Miss Lebanon causes stir and calls for with calls for the Lebanon contestant at the Miss Universe pageant to be stripped of her title for consorting with the enemy. .
Hatred, enmity, prejudice. A difficult life for the people living in those countries.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/beauty/65180435/Miss-Israelis-selfie-with-Miss-Lebanon-causes-stir
Berliner Zeitung mistakenly publishes anti-Semitic cartoon
Mistakenly thought that image was a front page of Charlie Hebdo
By Ofer Aderet 05:43 15.01.15 18
The daily Berliner Zeitung in error published an anti-Semitic cartoon on its front page, under the mistaken impression that it was a front page of the satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo. In a tribute to the French magazine a day after the massacre at its editorial offices, the Berlin daily published several of Charlie Hebdo’s past cover pages.
One of them, however, was a fake, showing a cartoon drawn by the anti-Semitic illustrator Joe le Corbeau. The cartoon showed an orthodox Jew, with a caption saying “1 million rebate out of six, for Palestine.” The word “rebate” is a wordplay suggesting rabbis and rebate in German.
People at the Israeli embassy in Berlin noticed the erroneous cartoon and pointed out references that should have alerted the editors at Berliner Zeitung.
These include the fact that the name of the magazine on the cover is Charlo instead of Charlie, and the barcode at the bottom of the cartoon indicates 6,000,000, the number of Jewish Holocaust victims and not a real barcode number.
Read more…..
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2015/01/18/je-suis-charlie-sauf-pour-les-juifs/
‘Vodafone may lose around 100 permanent customer care staff, with plans to almost halve the size of its consumer mobile service team, extend the graveyard shift to 7.30am and increase outsourcing to a call centre in the Philippines.
The proposal, outlined in an internal document obtained by the Herald, is part of a restructuring expected to bring 200 to 250 job cuts.’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11388787
This is what happens when you invite transnational corporations into one’s country, who don’t pay their taxes or have any sense of societal responsibility.
When are countries and people going to stand up to corporations?
When there are no jobs left?
My second post over at YourNZ, informally known in these parts as YawnZ
This story is from a patient with Canadian citizenship, who went home to a compassion club who helped him get off Benzos (valium class of drugs) and reduce his intake of Opiates, (Morphine class of drugs)
http://yournz.org/2015/01/20/cannabis-and-chronic-pain-a-canadian-story/
still not going to go there
yes thats a bit unfair to you – but im not giving PG the clicks sorry
note: im 100% a supporter of your topic as well
@Framu,
noted, I’ve talked to the Bomber this morning via email, he wouldn’t repost either, but is looking for an author on the subject this year……..
I don’t think Pete is all about the clicks, no adds after all….
I’m also not going there, sorry, despite being interested in the topic. The man is a blight on the political blogosphere and any attention just supports that.
If you set up a wordpress and post there, you are more likely to get taken seriously, and you can then ask to guest post elsewhere. WordPress is pretty easy.
Not sure where else you could get hosted, given you want to post from a centrist perspective. Does this point to a dearth of centrist political bloggers?
There is certainly a lack of middle NZ blogs, Thedailyblog, thestandard, kiwiblog, whale oil, from left to right…. setting up my own freeby blog now
what’s the name..?
..i’ll link to yr pot-stories there..
There is certainly a lack of middle NZ blogs, Thedailyblog, thestandard, kiwiblog, whale oil, from left to right…. setting up my own freebie wordpress blog now, my reasoning was his blog is neither left nor right, and no adds, and untill 2 weeks ago I have not participated on blogs online at all.
The centre cannot hold.
‘One of New Zealand’s first charter schools is failing, abysmally, and the Ministry of Education must stop dodging questions.’
‘Last year, the first batch of five brave pioneer charter schools began operations. Four received excellent reports from the Education Review Office (ERO).
School number five, Te Kura Hourua ki Whangaruru, however, has been embroiled in trouble almost since the first school bell sounded in February last year.
An early ERO report released under the Official Information Act from an April visit to the school showed problems across the board. A governance facilitator stepped in and the school was reported to be facing problems with management infighting, bullying, drug use, poor teaching, curriculum delivery and student engagement. Over the year, the school roll fell from 61 to 47.’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11388805
Sadly charter schools are an ideological tool to privatise and monetise education, so the facts they don’t improve education problems is not an issue for Parata and Seymour.
They desire a failing public system. The elite are educated in their own apartheid system.
I note this article is written by a research fellow of a neo-liberal think tank. They appear to be writing lots about education at the moment.
F
Business Roundtable reinvented, an article that quotes Farrar. On their website they state
Now, which of the following “foundations” does quoting Farrar fit into?
“Every good think tank needs solid foundations. These are ours:
Credibility: Our research is based on a sound theoretical framework and is peer-reviewed on a routine basis
Empirical evidence: Our recommendations are supported by empirical, and often international, evidence.
Non-partisanship: We engage with political parties from across the political spectrum.
Independence: We are an organisation promoting good public policy, not the interests of individual businesses or industries.
Commitment to New Zealand: Members and staff of the Initiative share the vision to build a better New Zealand. We believe in a prosperous, free and fair society with a competitive, open and dynamic economy.”
Wow. Neoliberals now talking about aspiring to failure. Embrace failure! As long as the funding keeps coming from the public, of course. This article is absolutely pitiful and demonstrates the workings of a weak mind besotted with an ideology. It reminds me of a priest justifying why a merciful god allows so much suffering in the world. Excuses for everything, these right wing dreamers.
Lovely bit of commentary on the MSM from the Prime Minister (and Bernard!)
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2015/01/now-that-the-sun-has-axed-page-3-girls-will-britain-ever-be-the-same/
US airstrikes may have killed 50 Syrian civilians being held prisoner in Al Bab by ISIS troops.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/01/11/252671/us-airstrike-in-syria-may-have.html
means to an end my friend, means to an end… a failed human shield?
Hi tracey.
12 innocent lives killed by two French Muslims with AK47s in paris
50 innocent lives killed by American 1000lb laser guided bomb in Al Bab (some estimates actually say a total of 55 prisoner-civilians and 25 ISIS guards were killed)
The West better start doing the math on why so many people in the world don’t see our claims to superior civilisation as being much more than laughable.
I note the Uk’s version of the GCSB (GCHQ) has been revealed through Snowden’s papers to have been collecting emails of journalists
“The journalists’ communications were among 70,000 emails harvested in the space of less than 10 minutes on one day in November 2008 by one of GCHQ’s numerous taps on the fibre-optic cables that make up the backbone of the internet…
… New evidence from other UK intelligence documents revealed by Snowden also shows that a GCHQ information security assessment listed “investigative journalists” as a threat in a hierarchy alongside terrorists or hackers.”
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/19/gchq-intercepted-emails-journalists-ny-times-bbc-guardian-le-monde-reuters-nbc-washington-post
“nder Ripa, neither the police nor the security services need to seek the permission of a judge to investigate any UK national’s phone records – instead, they must obtain permission from an appointed staff member from the same organisation, not involved in their investigation.
However, there are some suggestions in the documents that the collection of billing data by GCHQ under Ripa goes wider – and that it may not be confined to specific target individuals.”
So, why wouldn’t the GCSB have similar ability to have phone records? That means Mr key can just ask GCSB to provide the public with copies of those texts he deleted?
Yep, that’s in the space of 10 minutes. It shows how ridiculous claiming that reducing the no-warrant surveillance time from 48 hrs to 24 hrs was a “win”.
Indeed, and given the software is doing the filtering… 24 hours is probably 23 hours more than they need. Oh how they will be laughing at us all, again.
Yep, and Labour knew that but claimed otherwise… which is a deceit …
… and which indicates they still have the same level of integrity as when last in government
… which means they will get viciously attacked when in government again
some things never change leopards and spots and all that
cant help but agree.
arggh arggghh argggghhh !*@&#^$%
Alain de Botton on tolerance. He’s talking about relgion, but I think it applies to politics, which then raises the question of whether tolerance and partisan politics can ever be compatible.
http://explore.noodle.com/post/108575759288/there-are-many-ways-to-be-religious-and-many-of
India’s “boutique” dairy farms: cows pampered and their social needs catered to
Al Jazeera
AND in CHINA!
Here they do not use commercial fertilisers and generate their own electricity!
The days of NZ dairy prospects are numbered. We need to get afraid and find other means of prosperity NOW.
After noon Is there any standard regulars/readers involved in early childhood education and what are your views on starting school at 6 as opposed to 5 years old.
tell me more
My daughter has turned 5 recently my wife is keen on 6 as a start date for shool ,I was happy with 5 purely on a that’s what’s done basis but am open to new ideas.
My best mates kids are Steiner kids and are clever enjoyable kids although I don’t have access to a Steiner school I believe they are advocates of not hurrying kids development.
My son had a look at school at age 5 – wasn’t right so we went the homeschooling way. Did that for a couple of years as part of a Democratic Homeschooling Group. Then he turned 7 and said he wanted to go to school so we put him in (a more child-led school it has to be said) and he loves it, doesn’t want to have holidays – it is so great to see him want to learn and, in his case that had to be self driven almost, when he was ready.
I think we don’t help our children by putting them into the system early, some are okay but a lot find it overwhelming and that has consequences later.
Cheers I’ve always had a problem with the way we push kids to grow up fast .
one thing i found really worked well..
..was that at age 10-11 ‘the boy’ was getting good school reports/grades..
..so i sat him down and offered him a ‘deal’..
..i told him that he could take over the control of his non-school hours..
..that (within reason) he cd pay games when he wanted to..read…do whatever he wished..
..but that his side of the deal was that he had to make sure his homework (which he knew i ideologically opposed..on the grounds the hours spent at school are enough) was done enough to get by..
..and that most importantly his school reports/grades had to stay at the high standard they currently were..
..and it all worked a treat..
..and i feel it was good in building self-sufficiency/motivation..
Listening to there opinions his huge my oldest step daughter was turning goth and starting to fail in the 4th form (year ?) ,she told us she wanted to change schools and when she did she flourished and has finished tertiary has a great job and is living the dream.
in the hearald
“Prime Minister John Key says New Zealand’s likely military contribution to the fight against Islamic State “is the price of the club” that New Zealand belongs to with the likes of the United States, Australia, Britain and Canada in the intelligence alliance known as Five Eyes”
Wars not dirty nasty business it’s just being a club member of planet key.
And we weren’t even asked if we wanted to be in the club.
Yes. Here we go again:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11389202
No justification for joining the reinvasion, just the schoolboy excuse “Everyone else was doing it.” FFS, he’s a childish and hollow adolescent in the skin of a leader.
right, so he is now loudly courting international attention to this !
and the global audience thinks that the NZ people are fully supportive of his pronouncements !!
And he’s going to market it with the ghosts of the ANZACS I bet.
Changing the thread of things a bit about the huge amount of money being spent on sorrow tinge remembrance of the First World War
Here is Key and another bunch of promoters pushing all the claptrap from the stupid misery of the carnage suffered by many not really knowing what they were fighting over
Sadly percentage wise of the kill NZ comes out on top of the heap
Would the little prick like to do something about reparations to the many NZ communities who worked like hell to rebuild their families and self esteem to make sense of the deplorable loss of that war instead of millions being spent on celebrations or supposedly commemorations knowing that the truth can be found in books if only we as a country had an education system that made the time and people available that might allow the truth to be known but that would probably blow a hole in the hypocrisy which this govt prides itself in, allegiance to a capitalist free market warmongering monichist ruling aristocracy not to forget genocidal policies of cultural reintegration
Stick your money spinning egoistic commemorations up your you know what Key and pay us our money down Does your nz citizenship go back far enough for you to know how it feels to be in a family that has that length of history in this country? We dont need to be reminded we know what kind of people caused that shit but I fear some will never know