When Caribbean islands which normally might experience a category 5 hurricane once every five or ten years, get 2 category 5s in less than a month, we’ve moved beyond Climate Change.
It’s time we started using George Monibot’s term: CLIMATE BREAKDOWN!
And we have that IDIOT at the UNITED NATIONS PISSING IN THE WIND.
We will lead the World into Paradigm shift and combat climate change instead of that dum ass war on each other.
Newshub can reveal the Government has no evidence to suggest that benefit sanctions on solo parents do anything to encourage wayward fathers to pay their share of child support.
In fact, it means the families are at higher risk of hardship and long term welfare dependency.
Currently people on a solo parent benefit can have their payment docked if they don’t name the other parent of their child. In 98 percent of cases that’s the father.
…
The so-called section 70a sanction is aimed at getting child support payments from the absent parent.
More than three months ago Newshub asked the Ministry of Social Development to release, under the Official Information Act, any evidence that the sanctions worked.
MSD refused the request.
But it was forced to turn over more than 100 pages of material before the election, after the Ombudsman intervened.
The reports addressed to Social Development Minister Anne Tolley say, “We do not have sufficient evidence to confirm if the benefit reduction is achieving the policy’s intent.”
Yeah this section if the Act penalises people who take on responsibility where nobody else will.
The penalty only exists when a child is kept by one parent (and of course that child will suffer by extension…as if all the statstics on single parent families and the disadvantage to the child weren’t enough if a handicap the government decides to fuck these kids over even more). It doesn’t apply if the child goes elsewhere like a foster home or extended family.
If you agree that the best place for children is with their own parent, then it is totally inappropriate to penalise sole families in this way.
Why bother naming the father when there is no evidence that it improves payment rates. You are essentially punishing both the parent and the child for no reason.
Why might people not want to name fathers? They may know that the father is in no position to make payments and not want to put them in the line of fire for MSD. The father may have questionable citizenship. There are plenty of reasons why a mother may not want to name a father.
Can you give one valid reason for why they should have too? There is no evidence that it improves payment rates. If you want to punish people you have to have a valid goal. This policy does not appear to have one.
Imagine pregnancy via a stranger raping you, and you decide to keep the child, how on earth are you going to name a stranger. And would you really want your child knowing what they were the result of OR knowing their father (even if you knew his name), if the father did such an act.
Another scenario… pregnant via a one night stand. See guys have no problem with one night stands, possibly because they can’t get pregnant, a one night stand where you only remember their first name, and the guy might not even remember you cause you were both drunk.
Need any more examples? It’s not as cut and dry as some may think.
And who suffers the most, the child and the mother who knows she doesn’t know the name of the father and as if it’s not hard enough being a solo mum, they have even less money to feed their child.
How about not naming the father is because you’ve been threatened with having the living daylights beaten out of you (given NZs domestic violence rates that’s not an unlikely scenario), or the threat of a custody dispute with any history you’ve ever had being publicised or lied about. Or the father simply denying it was him and putting forward several other names to shame the mother as well as avoid responsibility.
How about answering these easy questions?
How does any child cost $20/wk less to take care of? (putting aside the chronic underfunding for the moment)
How do letters on a form in the father’s name make a practical difference?
How do you justify this requirement when evidence provided by MSD shows there is no benefit to this request?
Why do you think you need to know, apart from your need to know?
But what about people who have kids with people they know and NOT as a result of abuse etc?
From what I’ve seen James, fear. Foregoing a portion of a benefit is infinitely preferable to living in fear of a violent man who resents being on the hook for a fifth or more of his after tax income.
Often drunk chicks give in to male pressure and just do it to get it over and done with, so they aren’t hassled and gropped any more. Which sucks, and is really really common.
Anyways… why should they not be named? Because the mother feels there would be no emotional benefit to the child from doing so, Miravox provides a fantastic example on that. Maybe later they might change their mind and name the father, and that’s ok.
Apologies to MSM I allready new that you would not be able to grasp my reality as you are human’s to.There are people out there that no what I have said to be fact. But the positives out come hopefully is that OUR youth will keep out of the shit .
Now all of OUR export based organisations and people working for them If I was YOU
I would get a subscription to pay and support Joseph Parker Campaign to Dominate the WORLD heavy weight boxing .
AS THIS WILL BE THE CHEAPEST WAY TO ADVERTISE NEW ZEALAND AND YOUR EXPORT PRODUCTS TO THE WORLD I will get one because I Love OUR beautiful country
I think there are two polls out this evening. I predict they will close a bit from being so far spark over the last few weeks.
But who knows – polling has been crazy.
I predict:
National up a little
Labour down a little
Greens down in the real danger zone of being wiped out (5-6%)
NZ first a little higher than the greens but not by much.
I predict Greens up, labour up a little, nat’s down a little, not sure about the rest.
What do you do on election night James?
I remember my parents being invited to a ‘party’ on an election night, they didn’t know it was an election party for the local nat’s. They turned up, blue everything, mum and dad basked in the nat’s loss that night, needless to say, the party finished early, everyone (apart from my folks) was feeling a bit blue.
Thanks for the possible invite James, but I’ve already been invited to a gig with our local MP. Had a great time with him and his crew last election, he retained his seat and it’s a only a few blocks away from home, perfect.
Gareth Morgan:The Cat is out of the bag!! Gareth would like us to believe that his primary motivation in entering politics with the TOP Party is to create a more egalitarian and democratic N.Z. Nothing, in my opinion, could be further than the truth .His motivations are revealed by two of his policies.Namely , giving N.Z. a second house of parliament and introducing a constitution.If you look at countries with constitutions you see an ever widening gap between the super wealthy one percenters and the rest of the population. In the U.S. you will see that the constitution has impeded any efforts to bring about more equality. This is not surprising as this was the reason that the founding fathers introduced a constitution in the first place. They feared the power of the common people, and they cleverly introduced a hurdle that would stultify any efforts in that direction. The U.S. constitution has presided over the greatest inequality that exists in the developed world. And there is the two houses of parliament[Congress].They were also created to protect the wealth and position of landowners and to prevent democracy.
The House of Lords, aptly named,in the U.K.is also just such an instrument to protect the rights and property of the wealthy, the aristocracy, and the Monarchy against the”Commons”.
So, basically the Top policies mentioned are there to protect the wealth of the Oligarchs “in waiting”in N.Z. Lord Gareth is anticipating taking up his rightful position in N.Z., as we follow in the footsteps of the more progressive U.S. and U.K. And he will be supported by the ever growing numbers of the super rich and their sycophants , that are naturally increasing in N.Z. with the efforts of the National Party Government.N.Z. has become a bolthole for the oligarchs of the world, people like Peter Thiel,connected to the Five Eyes, and of course an adviser to U.S. president Trump. Thiel was given instant citizenship by another one of our home grown one percenter oligarchs in waiting Sir John Key.And Trademe founder Sam Morgan wrote a letter in support. Get the picture? Birds of a feather flock together.So, a N.Z.constitution and upper house is a plan so cunning that you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel! Do not be fooled by the insidious Top Party Trojan Horse!!
Very hard to shoot and kill a Schrödinger Cat because you never know whether it’s there and dead or alive. Besides, because of Heisenberg’s Principle you can never quite tell where exactly the fluff ball is and how fast it is going. Gareth must hate QM.
after bill loses for the second time this weekend he might just reflect on the fact that now he doesn’t have to try and be a leader to cope with the tiny handed maniac.
Donald Trump has made his strongest threat yet against North Korea, vowing to “totally destroy” the country if it attacks the US or its allies.
In a wideranging speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York overnight, the US President repeated his mocking nickname for Kim Jong-un – “Rocket Man” – and slammed his leadership as a “depraved regime”.
“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” he said.
“Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.
I’ve just heard from a friend who was a staunch John Key supporter, and therefore Nat voter, has voted Labour this time “because of Jacinda”. I hope that is a trend.
“Farmers were encouraged by Fonterra subsidiary Farm Source Waikato to attend Monday’s march in Opposition leader Jacinda Ardern’s home town of Morrinsville, where many voiced their opposition to Labour’s plan to introduce a tax on water.
In a group email obtained by the Herald, the head of Farm Source Waikato, Paul Grave, suggested farmers and their friends and neighbours attend the gathering.
“As you may be aware, a group of Waikato farmers have organised a march in Morrinsville this Monday 18 September to highlight the environmental leadership shown by the dairy industry in our communities,” Grave said.
“The march is a great opportunity for dairy farmers to show solidarity, engage with the Waikato community, and talk about the significant improvements that have been made on-farm in recent years, and plans for further work in the future,” he said.”
Vested interest for Fonterra? Anyway it was a pretty motley protest with many of those present just local Morrinsville folk there to watch the fun. Is that the best that they can do? Ha.
Was the right thing to do at the time, but they have not lived up to their promise and I would sincerely want Fonterra to be reviewed. Haven’t seen it on the agenda so far.
Trump is no longer the Trump who ran for president. He is now just a mouthpiece for the American military machine, which is disastrous for the World. It means that the USA will set up an incident then blame the other side and go to war. This will happen anywhere they choose. They have done it countless times before. They just have to have war, war and war. Incidentally Hilary would have been no better.
PS Let’s hope they can wait till after we vote National out!
I’m off to work now. Someone else will have to tell James he is wrong!
michael barnett of auckland chamber of commerce says that the airline fuel problem could have been alleviated if better infrastructure had been in place. Demand has gone up considerably yet the reserve held in Auckland have remained the same.
Is this the same michael barnett who was one of the troika introducing the Treasury’s system of cutting government planning and regulating out and leaving it instead to business which, now who, know best how to run things efficiently?
(I say who, because companies have in past decades been given the right of being treated as ‘persons’ in law. How a company with its larger strength and capital can be equal to a person can only equate in the brain of a money maker and his lawyer.)
Is it true taxpayers are being asked to stump up for any back up plan for the pipeline? I only ask cos petrol companies do quite well financially dont they? Is AirNZ getting compensation and from whom?
I don’t know and have been wondering myself. They are starting to talk about costs which must be huge. The petrol companies own the refinery I think and probably the holding tanks. The government every now and then like to take on the oil companies that have enough reserves to release a little bit and make the pollies seem effective. So Michael Barnett being one of those cunning rats that ended up in a good possie after doing the dirty on Labour voters, will probably be thinking up something that he can write a serious history essay about that has him in a starring role.
tracey @ (12.1) … I think whoever is responsible should be up for any costs relating to this incident. Such as the company concerned for poaching swamp kauri to send to its overseas business.
No doubt Judith Collins will know what’s going on here, being Minister of energy as well as Minister for Oravida!
I was just talking about this and someone pointed out that the pipeline is supposed to be 30 years old and due for replacement each 25 years. So that has to be taken into account. I’m a bit prejudiced about the swamp kauri digging which seemed to be a perfect vicious circle.
So just in case New Zealand gets an election with no clear result and doesn’t have a government for a few months or indeed quite a few, it’s not the end of the world.
Belgium managed for more than 540 days and failed to descend into anarchy. Perhaps we could repeat the experiment, go for longer, and take our place in the Guinness Book of Records. Think of the money we could save!
Listening peripherally I thought it was a Party Political Broadcast….Kathryn did try…but sadly Bill is unable to speak in other than slogans and soundbites.
She did challenge him on the “Social Investment” issue. Bill continuously parrots this as though it is a solve-all breakthrough but Ryan said it was not working.
I wish she had simply asked “why are there so many people begging and sleeping on the streets of Auckland”.
Very noticeable when I was up there a few weeks ago.
Exactly. He ploughs on regardless of the question. Like the Jehhovva Witness folk who respond with a spiel distantly related to the question.
“Nice day today”
“Yes that is so and in the Bible Jesus says trust in the …”
I caught Dr Lance on AM this morning. I was surprised to hear him say he will be standing for the Maori Party in 2020. I think it’s an announcement that will assist their vote this election, that joker is a mana fest.
I can see him having broad appeal. I think he said something with voter appeal right across the political spectrum. Garner implied that NZ Health needs more money, O’Sullivan disagreed. He feels we need to be using the current Health budget more efficiently. Wow! A politician that doesn’t think more money is the solution. He’s not standing until 2020 and I want to hear more of what he has to say now.
I think the chap has the potential to be quite a force in NZ politics.
Yep I agree. Not convinced personally and we will see. So many Māori women and men doing so much good work – no need to focus on one individual AND it is also worth noting a persons contribution imo
Rosemary
About his outspokenness. I was up his way a year ago and stayed with some immigrants who were keen to get into some business and involved in the community. They seemed to feel that there was a torpor up there, a reluctance to change and acceptance of an unsatisfactory status quo.
What Dr Lance O’Sullivan sees would set his teeth on edge, and no doubt feels more positive stuff needs to be done instead of him being the band aid to the unhealable wound.
This was interesting and probably relates to the problems he sees and the current fuel problem up there. Digging for our roots?
“They seemed to feel that there was a torpor up there, a reluctance to change and acceptance of an unsatisfactory status quo. ”
In some small groups within some small communities maybe….but certainly not on a wider scale.
We are frequent visitors to Kaitaia and points north, and keep returning because on the whole the area retains much of what was good about NZ in times past. There is a real sense of community (has to be because of isolation issues) and a growing group of locals who are asking serious questions regarding the impacts of increasing horticulture on the environment. There is a real engagement from parents trying to support more positive educational outcomes.
There are various NGOs active in the area…trying to address some of the issues that claim the headlines…but it has frustrated me personally that Whanau Ora (as a one stop shop for assisting families with issues across multiple government departments) has been conspicuous by its absence. We have chatted with many people whose lives could have been transformed had WO been active.
AND…the Far North has the very best recycling operation, bar none, in the country. Woe betide the person who tries to pop a juice bottle in with the milk bottles or an empty margarine container in with the janitorials. They have been super sorting for years!
So why aren’t whanau ora there? What are the local Maori people doing and I think that they suffer most of the poverty there. The editor of the paper said he had things stolen from his house while he was inside. Then he saw one of the items being worn by somebody and got the police to deal with the up till then clueless case. There is activity going on but it is the wrong sort.
There is get up and go there, but how much, and can’t they find a way of getting employment and training for the young ones. Perhaps it is a place for a charter school, away from the familiar places and faces over in Kaikohe or a certain distance away. Then they can make changes in their approaches, start learning, have ambitions, take control. There is a huge downward presssure from peer groups in some places. You do more than us, learn more, and what are you? You don’t fit in. That’s not our way.
“So why aren’t whanau ora there?” Waipareira Trust were briefly in the area…they still might be but not prominently. Not on the ‘get stuck in and sort this whanau out before shit gets worse’ scale. Maybe they are being discrete.
There is a charter school in Kaitaia…not sure of the success rate…I will inquire. 😉
“There is a huge downward presssure from peer groups in some places. You do more than us, learn more, and what are you? You don’t fit in. That’s not our way.”
This. This has literally reduced me to tears in relation to some of those families.
BUT there are many families who have dug their toes in and risen up…we have met some because of the disability connection. Having a child with challenges can be a powerful motivator for many, especially mums.
Just got off the phone from a friend who was intending to vote National….largely because another friend had told her that “Labour would give all our money to the United Nations because of Helen Clarke”
This lady is a lady so I didn’t let fly with the string of expletives such a statement deserves.
I just talked about the various Party Policies on disability issues….
Rosemary
You’ve got the power! And just letting it out in little tiny bursts is so controlled and more effective. Doesn’t scare the horses! You are tops, and nothing to do with Gareth Morgan (though I don’t really dislike him. )
“… to do with Gareth Morgan (though I don’t really dislike him. )”
Hah! I threatened our very old cat with Uncle Gareth yesterday as he sunk his fangs into my arm as I tried to remove handicapping knots from his nether regions. Ingrate!
Some individuals just don’t seem to understand that one may just have their best interests at heart.
Or otherwise, have anything but their best interests at heart
it’s amazing how thick some people are , keeping in mind they all get to vote ,
I overheard an old god botherer saying that the greens want to destroy the nz economy so they can help install a one world government.
Just because someone says something, doesn’t necessarily mean they believe it to be true, That god botherer may simply have been opposed to the GP’s ideas about abortion, and been saying whatever it was that they thought would most likely convince whoever they were talking to. Of course, sometimes the shape of a person’s lies reveal more about them than the truth would.
In the past I’ve voted for Act, NZ First or National.
Our country has changed under the current National Government. I believe they’re corrupt, full of spin and self interest, focused on protecting big business at the expense of everyone else. John Key started this agenda and Bill English has followed in his footsteps.
I’ve read read The Standard for the last few years and my eyes have been opened. National must not have a fourth term or NZ future will consist of people who are either obscenely wealthy or dirt poor. Middle NZ will not exist.
I have lots of respect for people that change their politics like that because they’re paying attention to what is going on for NZ. Thanks for commenting.
I’m sorry but I don’t believe that’s true. Jacinda herself told John Campbell that Bill English personally rang her to offer his condolences. There are so many faults with Bill and the Nats without throwing unwarranted shade at them.
I’m not normally one to defend Bill English, but Jacinda Adern said on Checkpoint last night that she had been contacted directly by him giving his condolences. Credit where credit is due.
I heartily agree with the sentiment being expressed. Politics shouldn’t come into it at all.
It was that, if I have read these comments correctly, Winston felt the need to issue a Press Release about it rather than just doing it privately as it appears English did.
The only appalling taint on this sort of thing I can remember was Rob Muldoon to Norman Kirk when Kirk went into hospital for an operation just before his death. Muldoon supposedly sent him a message along the lines of “Get well soon Norm. A pensioner needs your bed”.
A horrible man was Muldoon, so the story is probably true.
It is about 2/3 of the way down this story. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=141378
“Findings from Water New Zealand’s survey, released at the industry group’s conference this morning, showed 77 per cent of the 4,500 people it polled online over a month this year agreed there should be a cost when taking water from the environment for agriculture and horticulture.
Almost three in five people – 59 per cent – believed there should be a cost when taking water from the environment for all users.
So, Benny “If you take out Saddam, I guarantee you, it would have enormous, positive reverberations on the region” Netanyahu reckons threatening to totally destroy a nation of 26 million people is bold and courageous.
In over 30 years in my experience with the UN, I never heard a bolder or more courageous speech.— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) September 19, 2017
Getting them in singles, the old cricket analogy works.
Congrats to all here who have convinced somebody to move over from the dark side.
Had a couple of victories too, a 48 year old grape pruner who has never voted or registered did so as a ” favour ” to me , I think it was just to shut me up.
And an old friend, owner of a few houses including a boarding house, which she does a very good ethical Job of but is daily fielding calls from social services at all hours to house people , said last year ” things have to change “. Switched from a lifetime of Nat voting to TOP, I didn’t disabuse her of the notion, if our side can’t have her vote it’s better that It goes in the bin.
Fingers crossed, Lets Do This.
Seems most of us know Oravida is the company involved with poaching swamp kauri in Ruakaka. Hell, they even advertise the fact digitally … Kauri Ruakaka, formerly known as Kauri Oravida!
So where is msm on this? Why isn’t media investigating the company, as possibly being responsible for the fuel crises disabling NZ at present!
Come on msm, do your job. Work on behalf of the people, not the corrupt, despicable National government! We deserve some honest answers here!
I just heard on Radio NZ news at 1pm that some are questioning how come some staff at the polliing stations are alllowed to take the boxes of votes home with them at night?????
Did anyone else hear this as it seems doggy to me althouugh some lawyer for the commission said “it is o/k as the bioxes have seals on them!! — reallly?
Who can you believe in this corrupt little NZ’s grubby crime with a constantly lying PM?
What would you prefer they do?
Seriously would you want them left for a couple of weeks in the local library or suchlike? Wouldn’t they be safer elsewhere, or do you not think any of the people involved in the election can be trusted?
I bloody went to vote at the university of otago booth today, but I didn’t have time – too many students queuing to vote!
It seems that the best voting prediction possible is that the % at the start of the night’s coverage will barely change, if half the votes have been counted alread 🙂
According to a report on Radio New Zealand they can’t start counting the early votes until 9am on Saturday. The count of the early votes is only an indication of the final result on Election Day, not the final result however.
I’ll bet they keep it very, very quiet until 7pm though.
According to RNZ
“Election officials can begin counting ‘early votes’ – the advance votes cast by voters on the printed electoral roll for the electorate they voted in – at 9 am on election day. Their count of these early votes then becomes publicly available very shortly after the polls close.
If the Electoral Commission’s predictions are accurate, this means up to half of all votes may have been counted and made public at this point. And in the previous two elections, the preference distribution of these early votes quite closely matched the final election night result.”
However they then have all the Special votes and the distribution of these doesn’t normally follow the standard votes. If, as seems possible, both The Green Party and New Zealand First are near the 5% number they will both be sweating until all the special, including the overseas, votes come in. If my memory is correct the Green Party tend to do better in the overseas votes than those in NZ. I don’t know about NZF
According to a report on Radio New Zealand they can’t start counting the early votes until 9am on Saturday.
That’s a relief. With the integrity of the National Party more and more in question, who knows what they’d get up to if they had advanced warning of the count.
I chivvied the electrician who had just gone outside to please walk a little quieter, but he didn’t know why I was saying this. He did say that he missed a step as he walked down the stairs but hadn’t felt the shake.
@Weka and @Tracey
Have a listen to “The Panel” today after the 4.30 news (if you can stomach Mora and The Hairdo) – the item on the Public Service.
Some points well made (by Tamihere in particular) – although there are plenty more.
It is probably one of the biggest issues facing future governments (I think THE biggest) if we are to preserve any semblance of a functioning democracy in future.
A shitload of departments are bad (MPI, MoBIE, MSD/WINZ, MPI, Education, Health …..)
Two, for me are standouts (as in bad)
If he seriously thinks the post-Little change is just about a smiley face, he’s the thick one.
I think it was largely about two things:
an unexpectedly high energy level; and
points of difference in the leadership that demonstrated Labour wasn’t just talking different to National, but that it is different to National. Competence rather than bullshit, generational difference, gender difference. Not a “cosmetic” change as such ( it wouldn’t work if she didn’t have the energy and assurance), but it shows the country something other than two rich middle aged white guys waffling on and pretending to score points off each other.
He’s just headline grabbing. All desperate politicians do it. See Morgan previously with ‘lipstick on a pig’, Peters just about every day, and Seymour’s ‘fucking idiot’.
garrrreth – remember don’t be an arrogant dick ALL the time
Three days ago I made a ‘friends only’ post on my personal Facebook page saying I believe we should be voting on ideas and policies not personalities and tribal affiliations this election. It also said I like some TOP policy. I had no idea what was coming.
My Facebook post was immediately picked up by TOP. Based on my ‘endorsement’ they issued a press release which claimed I’d “sent them a statement”
” Dr Brady said that after watching China’s growing influence for several years, it was time for a special commission to investigate its impact on New Zealand’s democracy.
… recent revelations that National Party MP Dr Jian Yang did not declare his background in military intelligence when applying for citizenship are extremely concerning.
” there was deep concern among her international colleagues at the conference that China is meddling in the affairs of their respective countries, Australia, the US, UK, Canada, EU states and Japan.
China was using the same tactics in most of those countries, including New Zealand. They included:
– Gaining influence over Chinese migrants living in other countries (10 million Chinese live outside China).
– Taking over or integrating the local ethnic Chinese media with the Chinese media controlled by the Communist Party.
– Encouraging local Chinese who are acceptable to the Chinese government to enter politics in their host countries and if elected getting them to promote China’s interests.
– Appoint former local MPs with access to political power to high profile roles in Chinese companies or Chinese-funded entities in the host country.”
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The proposed Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill treats biogenic methane emissions differently from all other carbon emissions. The latter are to be measured net so that emissions from fossil fuels can be offset by carbon stored in trees. ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...
Yesterday the government released its discussion document on action on agricultural emissions. As sadly usual, it proposed enormous subsidies for farm emissions, including for nitrogen-based fertiliser. This is a huge mistake. In addition to being one of the chief drivers ...
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act (this replaced their previous plans to hold a secret consultation with handpicked people). 285 people submitted on ...
Always Playing Catch-Up: Throughout the 1970s, the purchasing power of the ordinary worker’s pay packet – the only meaningful measure of his or her wealth – was being eaten away every passing year by seemingly inexorable rises in the cost-of-living. ...
The Interim Climate Change Committee's report on Action on agricultural emissions: Evidence, analysis and recommendations was finally released today, and as you might guess from the title, it is recommending that we actually act, rather than let farmers keep ...
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...
Agriculture is our biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for 48% of the total. It follows that meeting any credible emissions reduction target requires cutting agricultural emissions, most likely by having fewer cows. But National thinks people shouldn't be ...
How scummy is the UK Home Office? This scummy:The Home Office lied to EU member states to remove victims of human trafficking and modern slavery in breach of European law, according to whistleblowers. Legal experts have said the practice is ...
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...
“We wuz robbed!” is the classic cry of the disappointed losers of a closely contested sporting contest – it is very much to the credit of the Black Caps that we heard no such sentiment from them following the stunning ...
The Youth Parliament is being held this week, and some of the youth MPs are campaigning for a lower voting age:Molly Doyle, 17, is one Youth MP who wants this to change. She is part of a non-partisan campaign run ...
Up till now, Australia has made its living by digging up coal and exporting it to other countries, destroying the global climate in the process. But now they have a new option: exporting solar power:The desert outside Tennant Creek, deep ...
Later this month, thousands of people are expected to march to parliament as part of the #HandsOffOurTamaraki movement. At its heart, the movement is about preserving whānau and demanding that the state stop removing children from their whānau, hapū and iwi. ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh The recent statements made by the former FARC commander, Carlos Lozada (legal name Julian Gallo), where, from his seat in Congress, he praised the Colombian Army demonstrate how low the farianos have sunk. Lozada began by ...
A Woman’s Place is on the Podium was a public meeting in London on 10 July to discuss women’s sports and the impact of transwomen competing against women. The venue was sold out with a packed hall of 750 people. ...
Last month I talked about the no-fly movement: people who refuse to fly or limit it to absolute necessity to avoid destroying the climate. Now, that movement has a somewhat surprising new member: Dutch airline KLM:Dutch airline KLM has launched ...
In the 1960's, humanity faced a terrible threat: global thermonuclear war. Nuclear weapons were uniquely destructive and dangerous, and if more countries got them, the logic of MAD and the pre-emptive strike would put us on a hair-trigger to destruction. ...
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...
Matariki has been and gone, but this year we saw a couple of op-eds arguing that it should be a public holiday, replacing the foreign monarch's fake birthday. And now, New Zealand Republic - a group which campaigns for an ...
The discussion on the quality of economic advice, which we reported last week, has spilled over into a discussion about whether so many senior appointments should be of non-New Zealanders. Recall I discussed the failure to develop career paths within ...
When Nicky Hager revealed US footage of the Operation Burnham raid, obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act, one of the obvious questions was whether Ministers had seen it - and in particular, whether they'd been told that it ...
Northern Ireland is the Alabama of the UK: a backwards region where women and gay people are denied fundamental rights. But Westminster has just decided to fix that:MPs have voted resoundingly to extend same-sex marriage and access to abortion to ...
There's a problem with "synthetic cannabis", and not just the one you think. It's the name.We're in the midst of a wave of news stories that link synthetic drugs to serious harm, through deadly road accidents and accidental overdoses (which ...
Ranjit Kauri, The Dancing Maharani and Other Stories, Swansea, Head and Heart, 2019, £6.99; reviewed by Don Franks Working people are not the same country to country. Our struggles for a better life take place in surroundings of very different ...
Let's Do Them! All Jacinda Ardern has to do to clinch the 2020 General Election is frighten the bejesus out of the electorate by describing in the most graphic terms imaginable what will happen to all the positive beginnings her ...
It may be that we have all misinterpreted the somewhat surprising “bromance” between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. It has been all too easy to assume that it is Kim who is cosying up to Trump rather than the ...
by Michael Roberts So the full circle is completed. The corrupt pro-business conservative New Democracy party in Greece that was ousted by the anti-capitalist Syriza party in 2015 has been returned to office in yesterday’s general election, with an outright ...
When the Australian government passed a series of new spy laws over the last few years, they pinky-promised that they wouldn't use them to spy on journalists and subvert freedom of the press. They lied:The anti-encryption laws passed by the ...
From 1975 to 1989, the spy agencies of South America's right-wing military dictatorships cooperated in Operation Condor, a joint campaign of extermination against the continent's left. Roughly 400,000 people were imprisoned, 30,000 disappeared, and 60,000 murdered - kidnapped, tortured, executed, ...
When she was standing for office, Jacinda Ardern promised she would take abortion out of the Crimes Act. And to be fair, there was some early action on that, with an immediate referral of the issue to the Law Commission ...
When the government introduced the Zero Carbon Bill, people rightly asked what they planned to do to reduce transport emissions, which basicly had no policy at all other than the ETS. Today, they responded, announcing a "feebate" system which would ...
At almost every level, the problem with medicinal cannabis is a lack of good information. In the US, FDA regulations make it hard to research. Most doctors aren't familiar with what research there is and most patients don't know either. ...
Redline is critical of Corbyn for his political weaknesses, but he’s no anti-Semite. There is no substance to the McCarthyist witch-hunt being run by the right wing, and the pro-Israel lobby inside and outside the Labour Party in the UK. ...
The government's billion trees program is the sort of policy which could make a real difference to our emissions and the fight against climate change. But climate scientist Jim Salinger isn't convinced:The Forestry Minister Shane Jones' one billion trees won't ...
Last month the government was celebrating another surplus. Meanwhile, children are starving:One in five children are living in households where putting food on the table is a struggle, according to a new report from the Ministry of Health. It found ...
Show Me The Money! The alternative to state funding of infrastructure is, of course, to fund it by taking on massive amounts of private debt. On this issue, at least, Auckland mayoral challenger, Tamihere, has some solid points to make. ...
If we are to avoid making the earth uninhabitable, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to practically nothing over the next decade. But that will still leave us with the problem of the carbon we have already emitted, which ...
Former Waikato DHB CEO Nigel Murray allegedly misused public funds, spending more than $120,000 of public money on unjustified travel. He was forced to resign and the Serious Fraud Office began an investigation. But despite the SFO finding that the ...
Jeremy Corbyn, we are told, is being advised – not least by his deputy (as well as by some of his would-be successors) – that he must come “off the fence” on the Brexit issue if he wants to bolster ...
The End of Life bill has been read a second time and is now heading for the House for further debate. Personally, I support the proposal. I don't ever epect to take advantage of the Bill's provisions myself, but as ...
Before the substantive issue which this column is about – whether there has been a deterioration in the economic advice given to the government – a paragraph about the budget leaks.read more ...
Below is a translation of the editorial in the June 24 round of weekly workplace bulletins issued all over France by the revolutionary workers’ organisation Lutte Ouvriere. Last Saturday, 8,000 people took to the streets of Belfort (eastern France) to ...
Why hasn't Parliament followed the lead set by our local authorities and declared a climate emergency? The answer is the National Party:The Prime Minister’s admission that she is open to the idea of declaring a climate change emergency is nothing ...
Back in May the government released its Zero Carbon Bill. While much of the bill was welcome, there was one big exception: it contained a secrecy clause, requiring the Climate Change Commission to maintain secrecy over practically everything it does. ...
by Phil Duncan This past week has marked the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Stonewall Inn riots in Christopher Street, New York, the event generally regarded as kicking off the gay liberation movement. Quite a few articles have ...
Southland - land of coal-burning dairy farmers - has become the first region in the country to explicitly vote against declaring a climate emergency. Their reason? They didn't want to "devalue" the word "emergency". Its an argument addressed powerfully in ...
New Zealand has a problem with police chases: officers going after fleeing drivers like rabid dogs, without any consideration for proportionality or public safety, often with fatal results. And according to an in-depth article in the Guardian today, the UK ...
The first full week of the firearms buy-back and amnesty has produced a strong turnout as events roll out nationwide for the first time. “Momentum is slowly starting to build as community collection events are held across the entire country, ...
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...
Million-dollar start to gun collection eventsPolice Minister Stuart Nash says a solid start has been made to the gun buyback and amnesty after the first weekend of community collection events. “Gun owners will walk away with more than ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash has praised Police and gun owners after the first firearms collection event saw a busy turnout at Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch. “Police officers and staff have put a tremendous effort into planning and logistics for the ...
Seventy-eight new Police constables are heading out to the regions following today’s graduation of a new recruit wing from the Royal New Zealand Police College. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the record high number of new Police officers being recruited, ...
Media statement on behalf of Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie and Donna Marie Tai Tokerau Hall: Māori Television has admitted publishing false allegations about former High Court justice, Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie, and his wife, Donna Hall, and it has ...
Announcement today by the Prime Minister of further gun law reform is being shrouded by fear, so that scrutiny of the law is seen as an affront to the victims of the horror attack in March. The Prime Minister acknowledged ...
Misgivings about the practicality and cost of a firearms register is likely to dominate feedback from rural areas on the second round of proposed Arms Act amendments, Federated Farmers says. ...
School Strike 4 Climate NZ organisers Sophie Handford and Raven Maeder delivered a clear message to over 600 local government mayors, chairs, chief executives and councillors at the recent LGNZ conference : make climate change a priority. ...
The Police Association, Te Aka Hāpai backs the government’s emphasis on public safety as the driver of its second tranche of amendments to New Zealand’s firearms law, announced today. ...
The growing housing shortage crisis about more than supply and demand- it is about inequity. Recently released analysis by Kiwibank shows that last year’s “severe” shortage of housing has worsened, with the shortfall growing from 100,000 to 130,0000 ...
One of the country’s largest district health boards has a severe shortage of hospital specialists, says the senior doctors’ union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is joining opposition to possible regulations on the strength of nicotine vaping liquid. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “The Government would certainly benefit from regulations on the strength ...
The Meat Industry Association (MIA) is calling for significant changes to the Zero Carbon Bill with a new analysis using the Government’s preferred modelling indicating that the proposed methane targets are excessive if all other gases go to net zero. ...
Victoria University Feminist Organisation and ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa, in conjunction with the VUW Feminist Law Students, Organise Aotearoa, Fem Force, and with the support of VUW Student Association announced they are sponsoring a march ...
With the Government's firearm buyback scheme starting to draw over 30,000 police man hours away from fighting crime, the safety of law abiding citizens is being compromised. ...
Social Credit Party leader Chris Leitch is calling on the sale of Westland Milk to Chinese company Yili to be put on hold pending an approach to the Government by Westland Milk for funding assistance. ...
Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa seems intent on ensuring the Government’s vaping legislation will heavily target flavours and nicotine levels – a move that would be completely counterproductive to helping Kiwis quit smoking and achieving ...
A new website has launched in response to recent RNZ reporting about Police in Dunedin unlawfully entering people’s homes and breath-testing them. “I was disgusted when I saw what they cops were doing in Dunedin. Their behaviour undermines all of ...
The Head of the New Zealand Maori Council has called for the Government to hold an immediate investigation into the global cosmetics company Sephora after they were caught dumping waste hundreds and thousands of waste paper products embedded with ...
Hundreds of whanau and Maori leaders gathered at a hui in Mangere last weekend where they voted unanimously for an inquiry into Oranga Tamariki. The historic meeting called for a child welfare framework to be developed by Maori, for Maori. ...
Simon Shepherd: The government says its agreement with farmers, that they should pay for agricultural emissions, is historic. But there's no agreement on how. One proposal says farmers should pay a 5 per cent emissions tax. Another suggests farmers ...
The O’Brien Institute for Public Health at Calgary University has just released their report on fluoridation. This institute has, up to now, been staunchly in favour of fluoridation. However, yesterday, with regards to fluoride’s effect on the brain, ...
July 19 (BusinessDesk) - The government is looking to tighten control and impose harsher penalties after the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak revealed cracks in the country's stock management system. ...
Kia Anga Mua Ngā Hapū o Ngāpuhi (KAM) has reached a pivotal milestone following a hui yesterday at Waitangi with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the Government spent $133,530 on producing its ‘Wellbeing Budget’ document, a cost blowout largely driven by spending on graphic design and photography. The $133,530 price tag compares to $86,268 ...
Kahungunu Māori Language Awards. Nominations closed on 5 July 2019, and were judged by the Senior Management Team of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated. The judges wish to acknowledge the very high calibre of all nominations received making it a very ...
High Court of Australia Judge, Justice Stephen Gageler, will address recent criticism of court judgment delays in Australia, at the University of Canterbury (UC) on 23 July at 6.15pm. ...
This summary is provided to assist in the understanding of the Inquiry’s proceedings but does not constitute the official record. The full Minute is available at the link below. ...
The Tertiary Education Commission is laying charges under section 292A of the Education Act 1989 against three individuals for making a false representation for the purpose of receiving, or continuing to receive, free tertiary education from a tertiary education ...
New Zealand food businesses today welcomed a trio of new food safety tools, designed to make it faster, easier and more affordable to follow the rules and keep consumers safe. ...
AUT research shows that Māori children are almost four times more likely than those of European descent to be placed out of home by child protection services ...
The Government announced today that grants of up to $2,500 for energy efficient heaters are now available as part of the Government’s Warmer Kiwi Homes programme. ...
Fonterra’s use of coal has been the target of numerous grassroots campaigns in recent years. Last year 350 Aotearoa affiliated groups, Fossil Free Aoraki and 350 Nelson launched a petition dismissing the dairy giant’s initial target of no new ...
Information sessions on proposals for The Medicinal Cannabis Scheme take place in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch over the next fortnight. The sessions are open to anyone with an interest in learning more about the proposed scheme. ...
“Our children are our most vulnerable, most innocent victims and we do not want to see any more children harmed by these ‘known sex offenders’. The safety of our community must be the paramount consideration.” ...
“The announcement that Fonterra will immediately stop installing any new coal boilers or increasing capacity to burn coal is the signal that the biomass fuel supply industry welcomes” said Brian Cox, Executive Officer of the Bioenergy Association. ...
18 July 2019-- Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA) today welcomed Fonterra’s commitment to build no new coal plants, a “no brainer” for the climate crisis the world faces. The group has been urging this transition for six years now and ...
The increase in demand for cage-free eggs is set to continue according to animal rights organisation SAFE, who says the egg industry should expect this and prepare. ...
Wellington, New Zealand – 350 Pacific made a formal submission to the New Zealand Government’s Environment Parliamentary Select Committee on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, led by the Pacific Climate Warriors (PCWs) based in ...
There used to be a school of thought on the centre right side of politics that the best way to neuter the Greens as a political force would be to let them have a spell in government. Then, according to ...
Today (18 July) is Nelson Mandela International Day when the United Nations highlights the importance of humane conditions of imprisonment. In New Zealand our prisons are overcrowded and understaffed. At 214 prisoners per 100,000 people, we have the fifth ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa will take legal action over the lengthy delay in implementing pay increases for teachers. Novopay announced yesterday that teachers would have to wait until 11 September to see pay increases that they won when they settled ...
EDS has filed its submission on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill. The Bill sets targets for greenhouse gas reductions, provides for the government to set a series of carbon budgets, and sets up a new, independent, Climate ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has identified an absurd case of mission creep at Wellington City Council: the decision to spend $21,750 on two Consumer NZ investigations into different brands of bike lights. ...
The Motor Trade Association is welcoming the release of the Government’s new draft road safety strategy. MTA Chief Executive Craig Pomare says the association is pleased to see vehicle safety has been made a priority in the Road to Zero ...
The Department of Conservation continue to repeat the same old story about attacks on staff and how it is affecting their role in protecting our precious wildlife. NZ herald https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12249704 ...
The government's silence on the fact that the country's second-largest milk processor is on the brink of becoming 25% Chinese Government owned has been deafening. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Second round of gun law changes announced, hundreds with conditions like Down syndrome get early Kiwisaver, and a major refusal to participate in March 15 inquiry.The second major phase of ...
Almost as soon as it was announced, the Royal Commission tasked with probing the lead-up and response to the terrorist attacks in March attracted criticism, both over the process and its engagement with Muslim groups. Former race relations commissioner Joris ...
Following the Silver Ferns’ World Cup victory, another New Zealand team playing korfball – netball’s European cousin - are about to make world championship history of their own. ...
A victim of domestic violence has had to find alternative accommodation after Oranga Tamariki breached her privacy for the second time in three years. ...
While researching NZ on Air for a recent history, Duncan Greive noticed a shocking 30 year trend.News broke over the weekend that Love Island NZ, Three’s biggest announcement of the year, will now not screen in 2019, and realistically is unlikely ...
Joseph Nunweek joins the adoring throngs gathered at the Melbourne Town Hall to watch the New Zealand prime minister. The warm feeling is contagious, but a question hangs in the airThursday, 18 July: a big night for New Zealanders in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Martin Parkinson, secretary of the Prime Minister’s department, has cleared Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop of breaching the government’s code of ministerial standards with their ...
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 contentForeign affairs – Australia Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Ardern in ...
Sam Brooks reviews the second season of Big Little Lies, which generated as much social media conversation as its first season did critical acclaim, for better and worse.Light spoilers for the second season of Big Little Lies.Big Little Lies felt like the ...
ANALYSIS:By David Robie Indonesia recently hosted a bold public relations window-dressing expo in Auckland presenting itself as a “Pacific” nation while attempting to provide an unconvincing impression of normality in the two Melanesian provinces known collectively as West ...
Taxing vacant land would be too complex to implement and achieve little - it would be better for the Government to push local councils to implement rates based on land value rather than capital value. ...
The Māori Affairs Select Committee has recommended that anyone wanting to use the word 'Parihaka' for commercial purposes must get permission from the Parihaka Papakainga Trust. ...
European politics is a strange business. Where voters can choose candidates, who disappear after the elections. Where right-wing governments nominate left-sounding candidates. ...
Ruby Porter’s debut novel, Attraction, is a lucid, layered story of three young women on a road trip across the North Island. It’s one of the best books we’ve read this year. Here, Ruby writes about her grandmother – who ...
ByRNZ Pacific West Papuan fighters have killed an Indonesian soldier in a renewed threat to Jakarta’s road project there. State news agency Antara reported the hit-and-run attack on Saturday took place in Nduga regency, where pro-independence forces are ...
In 2003 the Silver Ferns won the Netball World Cup, breaking the Australian Diamonds’ 16-year winning streak. In 2019, they’ve just done the same thing. Leana de Bruin was a rookie in that 2003 team, and talked to The Spinoff ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Associate Professor, Criminology and Justice Studies, RMIT University A Perth man who pleaded guilty to distributing an intimate image of his ex-girlfriend without her consent has been sentenced to a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Piero Moraro, Lecturer in Criminal Justice, Charles Sturt University The Morrison government has introduced new legislation responding to recent protests by animal rights activists in Australia. The bill –named The Criminal Code ...
One of the many unspoken rules of British life is that when one is drinking at the pub with others, one buys rounds. For the naive New Zealander, it’s stressful AF, says Elle Hunt.At the pub one Friday night in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David King, Senior Lecturer, The University of Queensland Dry, moist, productive, hacking, chesty, whooping, barking, throaty. These are just some of the terms people use to describe their cough. While we’re deep ...
What if you could grow a house from seed or 3D print a new subdivision in a week? The housing sector is ripe for disruption – could technology be the magic bullet we need?Jo Aitken sounds like she’s pitching an ...
The architect of the incredible turnaround the Silver Ferns have enjoyed is now off-contract. So now that the World Cup has been won, how can Netball NZ keep Noeline Taurua on the books? Radio NZ’s Ravinder Hunia recounts the journey ...
By RNZ Pacific Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape wants Australia to close the detention centre it has been running on PNG’s Manus island for six years. According to Australian media, Marape has asked Canberra to give him ...
More must be done to tackle critical skill shortages in project management and leadership, the head of the Registered Master Builders Association says. ...
Fifteen tracks, 22 guests, one album. The Spinoff Music listens to Ed Sheeran’s No. 6 Collaborations Project and considers why each track really shouldn’t work – and the sometimes surprising reasons why they do.1. Beautiful People – KhalidKhalid and Ed ...
Emily Writes on her journey from reasonable trepidation to sweet love for the video game Minecraft.It was barely a week after I said to my sister “I don’t let the boys play any games” that my children’s Minecraft obsession began. ...
New Zealanders with life-shortening congenital conditions will have early access to their KiwiSavers after a man with Down Syndrome convinced the government to change the rules. ...
Sephora store employees may have swept some confetti down Auckland city’s drains on Saturday, and people got angry… at an entire generation. On Saturday, French cosmetics giant Sephora opened its first New Zealand store on Auckland’s Queen Street. Excited makeup enthusiasts ...
More than 20,000 Aucklanders don’t have access to regular showers or the ability to wash their clothing. Alice Webb-Liddall tags along on a shift with Orange Sky, who are giving homeless people back these basic needs.On an overcast Friday morning ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Senior Fellow, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University If the first week of the 46th Parliament was heavily ceremonial – dominated by the new governor-general, a raft of first-time MPs ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Walker, Adjunct Professor, School of Communications, La Trobe University In a world run ragged by multiple crises and an unravelling of American global leadership, military confrontation in the Gulf poses risks ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Dalton, Conjoint Senior Lecturer School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle Over recent months, the news has been saturated with headlines claiming we’re experiencing a “killer flu season”. Researchers ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Richard Braczkowski, PhD Candidate – Wildlife Cameraman, The University of Queensland Last week saw the release of the rebooted The Lion King, an attempt to capitalise on the billion-dollar success of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Fenner, Associate Professor at UNSW Art & Design, UNSW Over the past few weeks, artists from around Australia have been creating small artworks depicting the endangered black-throated finch and sending them ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Campbell, Associate Professor, University of Sydney New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian made a “captain’s call” in recent months that raised the ire of many parents, teachers and education groups. She ...
Open Mike 20/09/2017 
In the wake of the March 15 mass-murder, the government moved swiftly to ban semi-automatic firearms, weapons for which there is really no case for being allowed to own in New Zealand. and now, it has announced phase two of ...14 hours ago
I have been unimpressed with Western corporate media coverage of the tensions involving Iran in the Straits of Hormuz. They repeat the line that Iran is the source of current tensions, that it is a major sponsor of terrorism, that ...2 days ago
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Much like Tuvalu, the manmade climate change Cult love to tell people the Maldives is almost totally underwater. In fact the dishonest Maldives Govt d on the same bandwagon, believing they would receive billions of dollars aid from other Countries ...2 days ago
As the entry on Wikipedia shows (and no, one doesn’t necessarily have to regard Wikipedia as the be-all and end-all of truth, because it isn’t on a great many things, to agree with the following): “…a fallacious argument that concludes ...2 days ago
by Daphna Whitmore The story of how the world awoke to a big injustice is starting to be told. The Pacific Games held this month in Samoa is another chapter. On the podium was Laurel Hubbard, the giant transgender weightlifter, ...3 days ago
Our conversations and push against specific supremacist and ultra-Nationalist groups, and the pseudo-intellectual underpinnings of them, need to mature at all levels. But in doing so, it’s going to have to include a more thorough and brutally honest self-examination ...4 days ago
Something I missed: not only did Youth MPs declare a climate emergency; they also launched a campaign to lower the voting age to 16:Youth Parliament week in Parliament has seen the establishment of Make it 16, a campaign to ...4 days ago
The proposed Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill treats biogenic methane emissions differently from all other carbon emissions. The latter are to be measured net so that emissions from fossil fuels can be offset by carbon stored in trees. ...5 days ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...6 days ago
6 days ago
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...7 days ago
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...7 days ago
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
The first full week of the firearms buy-back and amnesty has produced a strong turnout as events roll out nationwide for the first time. “Momentum is slowly starting to build as community collection events are held across the entire country, ...23 hours ago
Media statement on behalf of Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie and Donna Marie Tai Tokerau Hall: Māori Television has admitted publishing false allegations about former High Court justice, Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie, and his wife, Donna Hall, and it has ...11 hours ago
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Second round of gun law changes announced, hundreds with conditions like Down syndrome get early Kiwisaver, and a major refusal to participate in March 15 inquiry.The second major phase of ...23 mins ago
Justice Minister Andrew Little reached consensus with NZ First on a draft bill that would remove abortion from the Crimes Act. ...37 mins ago
Almost as soon as it was announced, the Royal Commission tasked with probing the lead-up and response to the terrorist attacks in March attracted criticism, both over the process and its engagement with Muslim groups. Former race relations commissioner Joris ...48 mins ago
Fraser Newman tells of opening Atlantis Books in Rotorua and Tokoroa – and having to close shop in Whakatāne. ...2 hours ago
Following the Silver Ferns’ World Cup victory, another New Zealand team playing korfball – netball’s European cousin - are about to make world championship history of their own. ...2 hours ago
As NZ Bird Rescue cares for record numbers of ruru/morepork at Auckland, one theory is they're being poisoned. ...2 hours ago
A swamp kauri log exported to China sparked deep discussion among forestry public servants over what is art and what is a log. ...2 hours ago
Anna Rawhiti-Connell shakes her head at the state of our health system, urging MPs to take their duties seriously. ...2 hours ago
A victim of domestic violence has had to find alternative accommodation after Oranga Tamariki breached her privacy for the second time in three years. ...2 hours ago
While researching NZ on Air for a recent history, Duncan Greive noticed a shocking 30 year trend.News broke over the weekend that Love Island NZ, Three’s biggest announcement of the year, will now not screen in 2019, and realistically is unlikely ...2 hours ago
Noeline Taurua is the coach who took the World Cup winning Silver Ferns from netball duds to darlings in just 11 months. ...2 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Martin Parkinson, secretary of the Prime Minister’s department, has cleared Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop of breaching the government’s code of ministerial standards with their ...6 hours ago
Sam Brooks reviews the second season of Big Little Lies, which generated as much social media conversation as its first season did critical acclaim, for better and worse.Light spoilers for the second season of Big Little Lies.Big Little Lies felt like the ...11 hours ago
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When Caribbean islands which normally might experience a category 5 hurricane once every five or ten years, get 2 category 5s in less than a month, we’ve moved beyond Climate Change.
It’s time we started using George Monibot’s term: CLIMATE BREAKDOWN!
http://www.monbiot.com/2013/10/04/climate-breakdown/
And we have that IDIOT at the UNITED NATIONS PISSING IN THE WIND.
We will lead the World into Paradigm shift and combat climate change instead of that dum ass war on each other.
Yes Hilary you are on my list of strong Lady leaders I admire and our women will aspire to and take charge of OUR future
Well because trump is going on a america first policy’s don’t you think he should stop imposing his neo liberals shit Views on the rest of the WORLD
Don’t worry I’m a happy Married Man and Grandfather and my family comes first.
Also in the Guardian – this piece: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/19/hurricane-maria-caribbean-oecd-aid-rules-assistance
Rules need to change. And if the OECD won’t – where’s the Commonwealth on this? Or do we only notice the minnows for sporting events?
Three hurricanes in a row and we’re two months away from the ‘end’ of the hurricane season. Scary-bad.
So Nat’s infrastructure plan had roads and stadiums being more important than oil pipeline from north to Auckland.
Key failure.
And another Key failure: benefit sanctions.
Newshub’s Lisa Owen reports, what we already knew, but now there’s hard evidence:
Yeah this section if the Act penalises people who take on responsibility where nobody else will.
The penalty only exists when a child is kept by one parent (and of course that child will suffer by extension…as if all the statstics on single parent families and the disadvantage to the child weren’t enough if a handicap the government decides to fuck these kids over even more). It doesn’t apply if the child goes elsewhere like a foster home or extended family.
If you agree that the best place for children is with their own parent, then it is totally inappropriate to penalise sole families in this way.
The penalty can be lifted by swearing an affidavit stating your child was a result of rape/incest.
Why would anyone think this is acceptable to force a parent to make such a choice? What if the child had political ambitions or became famous?
And why (in general – there will always be exceptions) should the father not be named so he can be held to account to make payments for the child?
Why bother naming the father when there is no evidence that it improves payment rates. You are essentially punishing both the parent and the child for no reason.
I asked why not first ……
Why might people not want to name fathers? They may know that the father is in no position to make payments and not want to put them in the line of fire for MSD. The father may have questionable citizenship. There are plenty of reasons why a mother may not want to name a father.
Can you give one valid reason for why they should have too? There is no evidence that it improves payment rates. If you want to punish people you have to have a valid goal. This policy does not appear to have one.
because there’s no point to it because there’s no evidence it improves payment rates.
But fathers not paying when named came before this section so, you first. Why don’t we recover from fathers very well James?
Because demanding a name abuses your victim’s human rights. Personally I think you should be held accountable for that.
How is father a victim?
Morning James, from a womans point of view……
Imagine pregnancy via a stranger raping you, and you decide to keep the child, how on earth are you going to name a stranger. And would you really want your child knowing what they were the result of OR knowing their father (even if you knew his name), if the father did such an act.
Another scenario… pregnant via a one night stand. See guys have no problem with one night stands, possibly because they can’t get pregnant, a one night stand where you only remember their first name, and the guy might not even remember you cause you were both drunk.
Need any more examples? It’s not as cut and dry as some may think.
And who suffers the most, the child and the mother who knows she doesn’t know the name of the father and as if it’s not hard enough being a solo mum, they have even less money to feed their child.
I did say “in general” as there are always exceptions.
As for rape – of course this should never be named – as is already allowed for.
As for one night stands – you miss the point that the woman seems to have no issue with it as well – its not just the guys
But what about people who have kids with people they know and NOT as a result of abuse etc? Why should they NOT be named?
In general?
How about not naming the father is because you’ve been threatened with having the living daylights beaten out of you (given NZs domestic violence rates that’s not an unlikely scenario), or the threat of a custody dispute with any history you’ve ever had being publicised or lied about. Or the father simply denying it was him and putting forward several other names to shame the mother as well as avoid responsibility.
How about you answer my easy question first ?
But what about people who have kids with people they know and NOT as a result of abuse etc? Why should they NOT be named?
Already answered. It’s called “freedom of expression”.
“How about you answer my easy question first ?”
How about answering these easy questions?
How does any child cost $20/wk less to take care of? (putting aside the chronic underfunding for the moment)
How do letters on a form in the father’s name make a practical difference?
How do you justify this requirement when evidence provided by MSD shows there is no benefit to this request?
Why do you think you need to know, apart from your need to know?
From what I’ve seen James, fear. Foregoing a portion of a benefit is infinitely preferable to living in fear of a violent man who resents being on the hook for a fifth or more of his after tax income.
“But what about people who have kids with people they know and NOT as a result of abuse etc?
I just did. These things can (and do) happen when a relationship breaks up.
You obviously know who these women are so answer this.
Who are the women who are in this situation? How many are there? What are their names?
Punishing children through this section hasn’t worked. What next James?
Often drunk chicks give in to male pressure and just do it to get it over and done with, so they aren’t hassled and gropped any more. Which sucks, and is really really common.
Anyways… why should they not be named? Because the mother feels there would be no emotional benefit to the child from doing so, Miravox provides a fantastic example on that. Maybe later they might change their mind and name the father, and that’s ok.
James. have you ever had a one night stand, there may be a little James out there somewhere.
James has vouched for ‘public toilet sex ‘ in the past …..
So God knows who what and where he has stuck it in ……
He says “don’t knock it”
But to solo mums he’d like to sock it ……..
James would go to the authorities and demand to be on the birth certificate and then he would pay all the arrears. Right James?
Are you sure when they say they were raped they do not get questioned about why they didnt press charges.
Why are men not naming themselves James?
Do you really not understand that it’s the mother’s human rights you’re proposing (salivating, probably) to abuse?
He’s a National voter and apparently believes the way that Paula Bennett believes – that some people have less rights than others.
There is the possibility that he understands all to well.
I am sure most fathers know they have become fathers, wonder why they don’t come forward?
If we are not holding to account so many men whose names we know, why add to the list?
We fail to hold to account those whose names we do know. Why is that James
They have also systematically ignored evidence in education. Starting with NS… all the way through to Open plan teaching and digital curriculum.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/@future-learning/2017/08/09/41927/why-no-one-wants-to-teach-in-new-zealand
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/@future-learning/2017/07/20/39380/digital-technology-in-the-classroom-a-teachers-perspective
Released before the election but we didn’t publish it or their blocking of it til after the election…
Apologies to MSM I allready new that you would not be able to grasp my reality as you are human’s to.There are people out there that no what I have said to be fact. But the positives out come hopefully is that OUR youth will keep out of the shit .
Now all of OUR export based organisations and people working for them If I was YOU
I would get a subscription to pay and support Joseph Parker Campaign to Dominate the WORLD heavy weight boxing .
AS THIS WILL BE THE CHEAPEST WAY TO ADVERTISE NEW ZEALAND AND YOUR EXPORT PRODUCTS TO THE WORLD I will get one because I Love OUR beautiful country
Sorry Mate. Joseph Parker – while I’m sure he’s a nice guy just isn’t upto the class required for top level boxing.
That’s why outside NZ very few people pay for his fights.
fish
Ummmmm ……… goat ? I assume we are playing a game naming random animals.
funny you picked that one lol Freudian slip methinks
When asked, Key said, “eel”. English, “turnip”.
Jacinda went with “unicorn”
One of my favourite Lange stories….
A journalist trotting alongside him as he paced towards something more important to do. “A quick word please Mr Lange.”
David said “Wombat”
LoL He was a brilliant and funny man
Touche
James. Same as English?—nice guy just isn’t up to the class required for top level politics —
Perhaps James is English?
I think there are two polls out this evening. I predict they will close a bit from being so far spark over the last few weeks.
But who knows – polling has been crazy.
I predict:
National up a little
Labour down a little
Greens down in the real danger zone of being wiped out (5-6%)
NZ first a little higher than the greens but not by much.
All Blacks 3, England, nil.
Good try Robert my wee puppy dog.
But it was the lions tour I got wrong not England. Your memory is going – it must be an age thing.
LOL
Probably right. National will probably end up taking this out.
Im hoping Im wrong, but I don’t want to be too dissapointed on election night.
There will be some really hard questions about where to go from here after this.
Millsy, the feeling for change is way, way too strong out there.
Cup half full.
Worrying about any other possibility is a waste of energy, energy you will need for celebrating on Saturday night 😀
Wisdom from Alan
+ 1 yep
Help. I don’t worry so I must be abnormal! Now I am worried!
Big crowd rocked-up for Jacinda yet again today.
I predict Greens up, labour up a little, nat’s down a little, not sure about the rest.
What do you do on election night James?
I remember my parents being invited to a ‘party’ on an election night, they didn’t know it was an election party for the local nat’s. They turned up, blue everything, mum and dad basked in the nat’s loss that night, needless to say, the party finished early, everyone (apart from my folks) was feeling a bit blue.
You asked me the other day what am I doing that night – I answered then.
But in short – having people around to watch on the big screen and have a bit of a BBQ.
Why? you angling for an invite?
Cool, I didn’t see your reply the other day.
Thanks for the possible invite James, but I’ve already been invited to a gig with our local MP. Had a great time with him and his crew last election, he retained his seat and it’s a only a few blocks away from home, perfect.
Can you remind us Cinny – dont you have a bet with somebody on here about the outcome of the election?
*edit – yep – found it /open-mike-25062017/
Still standing behind this bet?
yup sure do I’ve it bookmarked, it’s with Red but I think he’s been banned since. Would you like to take the bet up in his place James?
Nope – Ive already said its a close election and could go either way. You were the one who made the bet – but ‘big up’s’ for you for sticking to it.
Shweet as James, may everyone have an exciting Saturday night
So you will be in the country?
I predict:
National steady.
Labour up by 1%
Greens up by 1%
NZ first hammered down to 4.5%
Labour and nats neck and neck.
Greens up, Winston down.
Labour and greens could form a government.
Gareth Morgan:The Cat is out of the bag!! Gareth would like us to believe that his primary motivation in entering politics with the TOP Party is to create a more egalitarian and democratic N.Z. Nothing, in my opinion, could be further than the truth .His motivations are revealed by two of his policies.Namely , giving N.Z. a second house of parliament and introducing a constitution.If you look at countries with constitutions you see an ever widening gap between the super wealthy one percenters and the rest of the population. In the U.S. you will see that the constitution has impeded any efforts to bring about more equality. This is not surprising as this was the reason that the founding fathers introduced a constitution in the first place. They feared the power of the common people, and they cleverly introduced a hurdle that would stultify any efforts in that direction. The U.S. constitution has presided over the greatest inequality that exists in the developed world. And there is the two houses of parliament[Congress].They were also created to protect the wealth and position of landowners and to prevent democracy.
The House of Lords, aptly named,in the U.K.is also just such an instrument to protect the rights and property of the wealthy, the aristocracy, and the Monarchy against the”Commons”.
So, basically the Top policies mentioned are there to protect the wealth of the Oligarchs “in waiting”in N.Z. Lord Gareth is anticipating taking up his rightful position in N.Z., as we follow in the footsteps of the more progressive U.S. and U.K. And he will be supported by the ever growing numbers of the super rich and their sycophants , that are naturally increasing in N.Z. with the efforts of the National Party Government.N.Z. has become a bolthole for the oligarchs of the world, people like Peter Thiel,connected to the Five Eyes, and of course an adviser to U.S. president Trump. Thiel was given instant citizenship by another one of our home grown one percenter oligarchs in waiting Sir John Key.And Trademe founder Sam Morgan wrote a letter in support. Get the picture? Birds of a feather flock together.So, a N.Z.constitution and upper house is a plan so cunning that you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel! Do not be fooled by the insidious Top Party Trojan Horse!!
If the cats out of the bag – morgan will want to shoot it.
#WontSomeoneThinkOfTheKittens ?
Very hard to shoot and kill a Schrödinger Cat because you never know whether it’s there and dead or alive. Besides, because of Heisenberg’s Principle you can never quite tell where exactly the fluff ball is and how fast it is going. Gareth must hate QM.
Love it!!!
+111
after bill loses for the second time this weekend he might just reflect on the fact that now he doesn’t have to try and be a leader to cope with the tiny handed maniac.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11924184
Thank goodness wise heads and true leadership will be there with Jacinda and James.
I’ve just heard from a friend who was a staunch John Key supporter, and therefore Nat voter, has voted Labour this time “because of Jacinda”. I hope that is a trend.
National proxies doing their job:
“Farmers were encouraged by Fonterra subsidiary Farm Source Waikato to attend Monday’s march in Opposition leader Jacinda Ardern’s home town of Morrinsville, where many voiced their opposition to Labour’s plan to introduce a tax on water.
In a group email obtained by the Herald, the head of Farm Source Waikato, Paul Grave, suggested farmers and their friends and neighbours attend the gathering.
“As you may be aware, a group of Waikato farmers have organised a march in Morrinsville this Monday 18 September to highlight the environmental leadership shown by the dairy industry in our communities,” Grave said.
“The march is a great opportunity for dairy farmers to show solidarity, engage with the Waikato community, and talk about the significant improvements that have been made on-farm in recent years, and plans for further work in the future,” he said.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11924010
Should Labour get in power, they need to look beyond farmers, and head straight to the cause: Fonterra.
Vested interest for Fonterra? Anyway it was a pretty motley protest with many of those present just local Morrinsville folk there to watch the fun. Is that the best that they can do? Ha.
Labour changed the legislation so that Fonterra could come into existence. Maybe it’s time to change it back.
Was the right thing to do at the time, but they have not lived up to their promise and I would sincerely want Fonterra to be reviewed. Haven’t seen it on the agenda so far.
Nice review of President Trump’s speech to the United Nations yesterday:
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/09/trump-united-nations-obama/540288/
Kelly’s face palm.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DKHRqCLW0AEEhps.jpg
Yep he’s a fucken Idiot everyone Know’s it except Himself joe90
Trump is no longer the Trump who ran for president. He is now just a mouthpiece for the American military machine, which is disastrous for the World. It means that the USA will set up an incident then blame the other side and go to war. This will happen anywhere they choose. They have done it countless times before. They just have to have war, war and war. Incidentally Hilary would have been no better.
PS Let’s hope they can wait till after we vote National out!
I’m off to work now. Someone else will have to tell James he is wrong!
+100%
Arse. He’s always been a pro-war chickenhawk.
http://www.factcheck.org/2016/02/donald-trump-and-the-iraq-war/
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/donald-trump-is-often-more-hawkish-than-the-washington-elites/502145/
+ 1 yep – the left knew and tried to warn people about this monstrosity of trump. Chickens coming home to roost.
He is who he said he would be. He was very clear about it.
Have any viewers under 30 on this site not voted yet?
A few days ago there were 3,218,857 voters enrolled, which is 90% of those eligible.
Nearly 20,000 fewer people under 30 were registered compared to 2014.
http://www.elections.org.nz/research-statistics/enrolment-statistics-electorate
In the last election, more than 200,000 eligible voters under 30 did not vote.
The Labour support in the polls is strongest from young people.
If there are young people who haven’t voted (or even enrolled ) yet, do so.
lol
“Youthquake”
trotter nails it again
u30? lol good one ad. Perhaps try under 50.
michael barnett of auckland chamber of commerce says that the airline fuel problem could have been alleviated if better infrastructure had been in place. Demand has gone up considerably yet the reserve held in Auckland have remained the same.
Is this the same michael barnett who was one of the troika introducing the Treasury’s system of cutting government planning and regulating out and leaving it instead to business which, now who, know best how to run things efficiently?
(I say who, because companies have in past decades been given the right of being treated as ‘persons’ in law. How a company with its larger strength and capital can be equal to a person can only equate in the brain of a money maker and his lawyer.)
Is it true taxpayers are being asked to stump up for any back up plan for the pipeline? I only ask cos petrol companies do quite well financially dont they? Is AirNZ getting compensation and from whom?
I don’t know and have been wondering myself. They are starting to talk about costs which must be huge. The petrol companies own the refinery I think and probably the holding tanks. The government every now and then like to take on the oil companies that have enough reserves to release a little bit and make the pollies seem effective. So Michael Barnett being one of those cunning rats that ended up in a good possie after doing the dirty on Labour voters, will probably be thinking up something that he can write a serious history essay about that has him in a starring role.
tracey @ (12.1) … I think whoever is responsible should be up for any costs relating to this incident. Such as the company concerned for poaching swamp kauri to send to its overseas business.
No doubt Judith Collins will know what’s going on here, being Minister of energy as well as Minister for Oravida!
I was just talking about this and someone pointed out that the pipeline is supposed to be 30 years old and due for replacement each 25 years. So that has to be taken into account. I’m a bit prejudiced about the swamp kauri digging which seemed to be a perfect vicious circle.
If an elected government failed in an advanced economy with a large agricultural base, would anyone notice? Not in the Netherlands:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-19/dutch-doing-just-fine-without-government-on-decade-high-growth
So just in case New Zealand gets an election with no clear result and doesn’t have a government for a few months or indeed quite a few, it’s not the end of the world.
I recall when we didnt have one for about 9 weeks. Media gave us interesting news stories and joyrnalism.
Belgium managed for more than 540 days and failed to descend into anarchy. Perhaps we could repeat the experiment, go for longer, and take our place in the Guinness Book of Records. Think of the money we could save!
English is being interviewed on RNZ at the moment if any are interested. Defensive as
Youtube stream here….
Listening peripherally I thought it was a Party Political Broadcast….Kathryn did try…but sadly Bill is unable to speak in other than slogans and soundbites.
She did challenge him on the “Social Investment” issue. Bill continuously parrots this as though it is a solve-all breakthrough but Ryan said it was not working.
I wish she had simply asked “why are there so many people begging and sleeping on the streets of Auckland”.
Very noticeable when I was up there a few weeks ago.
Exactly. He ploughs on regardless of the question. Like the Jehhovva Witness folk who respond with a spiel distantly related to the question.
“Nice day today”
“Yes that is so and in the Bible Jesus says trust in the …”
I caught Dr Lance on AM this morning. I was surprised to hear him say he will be standing for the Maori Party in 2020. I think it’s an announcement that will assist their vote this election, that joker is a mana fest.
I can see him having broad appeal. I think he said something with voter appeal right across the political spectrum. Garner implied that NZ Health needs more money, O’Sullivan disagreed. He feels we need to be using the current Health budget more efficiently. Wow! A politician that doesn’t think more money is the solution. He’s not standing until 2020 and I want to hear more of what he has to say now.
I think the chap has the potential to be quite a force in NZ politics.
He seems very ambitious…
He is ambitious…and, from my observations does not enjoy the following in the Far North that you would expect.
There have been a couple of incidents where his ego/arrogance has really ripped some undies.
It’ll be interesting to see how far he goes…
Yep I agree. Not convinced personally and we will see. So many Māori women and men doing so much good work – no need to focus on one individual AND it is also worth noting a persons contribution imo
Rosemary
About his outspokenness. I was up his way a year ago and stayed with some immigrants who were keen to get into some business and involved in the community. They seemed to feel that there was a torpor up there, a reluctance to change and acceptance of an unsatisfactory status quo.
What Dr Lance O’Sullivan sees would set his teeth on edge, and no doubt feels more positive stuff needs to be done instead of him being the band aid to the unhealable wound.
This was interesting and probably relates to the problems he sees and the current fuel problem up there.
Digging for our roots?
“They seemed to feel that there was a torpor up there, a reluctance to change and acceptance of an unsatisfactory status quo. ”
In some small groups within some small communities maybe….but certainly not on a wider scale.
We are frequent visitors to Kaitaia and points north, and keep returning because on the whole the area retains much of what was good about NZ in times past. There is a real sense of community (has to be because of isolation issues) and a growing group of locals who are asking serious questions regarding the impacts of increasing horticulture on the environment. There is a real engagement from parents trying to support more positive educational outcomes.
There are various NGOs active in the area…trying to address some of the issues that claim the headlines…but it has frustrated me personally that Whanau Ora (as a one stop shop for assisting families with issues across multiple government departments) has been conspicuous by its absence. We have chatted with many people whose lives could have been transformed had WO been active.
AND…the Far North has the very best recycling operation, bar none, in the country. Woe betide the person who tries to pop a juice bottle in with the milk bottles or an empty margarine container in with the janitorials. They have been super sorting for years!
As for the swamp kauri thing….hmm…https://publicaddress.net/envirologue/swamp-monsters-the-looting-of-northlands/
So why aren’t whanau ora there? What are the local Maori people doing and I think that they suffer most of the poverty there. The editor of the paper said he had things stolen from his house while he was inside. Then he saw one of the items being worn by somebody and got the police to deal with the up till then clueless case. There is activity going on but it is the wrong sort.
There is get up and go there, but how much, and can’t they find a way of getting employment and training for the young ones. Perhaps it is a place for a charter school, away from the familiar places and faces over in Kaikohe or a certain distance away. Then they can make changes in their approaches, start learning, have ambitions, take control. There is a huge downward presssure from peer groups in some places. You do more than us, learn more, and what are you? You don’t fit in. That’s not our way.
“So why aren’t whanau ora there?” Waipareira Trust were briefly in the area…they still might be but not prominently. Not on the ‘get stuck in and sort this whanau out before shit gets worse’ scale. Maybe they are being discrete.
There is a charter school in Kaitaia…not sure of the success rate…I will inquire. 😉
“There is a huge downward presssure from peer groups in some places. You do more than us, learn more, and what are you? You don’t fit in. That’s not our way.”
This. This has literally reduced me to tears in relation to some of those families.
BUT there are many families who have dug their toes in and risen up…we have met some because of the disability connection. Having a child with challenges can be a powerful motivator for many, especially mums.
I saw someone had printed a poster –
THINK RATIONAL
NOT NATIONAL
VOTE LABOUR
OR GREENS
It would be a good idea if we all printed/wrote one out and left it somewhere noticeable.
There’s another one apparently.
Nats are Rats.
They won’t go till the ship sinks.
Make them go now!
Vote Labour, Green, Maori Party, a people’s future.
Doing my best Greywarshark, doing my best.
Just got off the phone from a friend who was intending to vote National….largely because another friend had told her that “Labour would give all our money to the United Nations because of Helen Clarke”
This lady is a lady so I didn’t let fly with the string of expletives such a statement deserves.
I just talked about the various Party Policies on disability issues….
Rosemary
You’ve got the power! And just letting it out in little tiny bursts is so controlled and more effective. Doesn’t scare the horses! You are tops, and nothing to do with Gareth Morgan (though I don’t really dislike him. )
“… to do with Gareth Morgan (though I don’t really dislike him. )”
Hah! I threatened our very old cat with Uncle Gareth yesterday as he sunk his fangs into my arm as I tried to remove handicapping knots from his nether regions. Ingrate!
Some individuals just don’t seem to understand that one may just have their best interests at heart.
Or otherwise, have anything but their best interests at heart
it’s amazing how thick some people are , keeping in mind they all get to vote ,
I overheard an old god botherer saying that the greens want to destroy the nz economy so they can help install a one world government.
Just because someone says something, doesn’t necessarily mean they believe it to be true, That god botherer may simply have been opposed to the GP’s ideas about abortion, and been saying whatever it was that they thought would most likely convince whoever they were talking to. Of course, sometimes the shape of a person’s lies reveal more about them than the truth would.
In the past I’ve voted for Act, NZ First or National.
Our country has changed under the current National Government. I believe they’re corrupt, full of spin and self interest, focused on protecting big business at the expense of everyone else. John Key started this agenda and Bill English has followed in his footsteps.
I’ve read read The Standard for the last few years and my eyes have been opened. National must not have a fourth term or NZ future will consist of people who are either obscenely wealthy or dirt poor. Middle NZ will not exist.
Yesterday I voted two ticks for Labour.
Apparently 10% of National voters have switched to Labour because of Jacinda.
Top work Fireblade that’s a big call.
I have lots of respect for people that change their politics like that because they’re paying attention to what is going on for NZ. Thanks for commenting.
It shocked me that only Winston Peters formally offered condolences to Jacinda on the loss of her Grandmother.
Leadership is cheap and nasty and seemingly mannerless these days.
Good for you Winston. Old fashioned decency.
Jacinda’s honesty and charm is a breath of fresh air, and she deserves better than this from the rest of the “leaders”
I’m sorry but I don’t believe that’s true. Jacinda herself told John Campbell that Bill English personally rang her to offer his condolences. There are so many faults with Bill and the Nats without throwing unwarranted shade at them.
Anyone can make a mistake red blooded. It’s the type of mistake they make that is important. I don’t see this causes for a major dressing down.
It was meant as a statement and not an attempt to be a major dressing down. My apologies to patricia bremner if it was taken that way.
I’m not normally one to defend Bill English, but Jacinda Adern said on Checkpoint last night that she had been contacted directly by him giving his condolences. Credit where credit is due.
Saw a press release from Winston Peters with his condolences as well.
Update: Oh I see Patricia wrote that already – was reading comment in reverse date/time order in the backend.
I really think I prefer someone who doesn’t feel the need to come out with a Press Release for something like that.
It’s old school professional courtesy. Like thank-you cards after a visit.
I heartily agree with the sentiment being expressed. Politics shouldn’t come into it at all.
It was that, if I have read these comments correctly, Winston felt the need to issue a Press Release about it rather than just doing it privately as it appears English did.
The only appalling taint on this sort of thing I can remember was Rob Muldoon to Norman Kirk when Kirk went into hospital for an operation just before his death. Muldoon supposedly sent him a message along the lines of “Get well soon Norm. A pensioner needs your bed”.
A horrible man was Muldoon, so the story is probably true.
It is about 2/3 of the way down this story.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=141378
Two ticks for Labour. MY husband as well. Labour with a landslide!
Party Green, other tick to Labour Curran here in South Dunedin, voted yesterday.
Good news from a poll! Urban and Rural.
“Findings from Water New Zealand’s survey, released at the industry group’s conference this morning, showed 77 per cent of the 4,500 people it polled online over a month this year agreed there should be a cost when taking water from the environment for agriculture and horticulture.
Almost three in five people – 59 per cent – believed there should be a cost when taking water from the environment for all users.
But agreement was much higher, at 89 per cent, when asked whether water bottling companies should be charged for taking water from the environment.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11924261
So, Benny “If you take out Saddam, I guarantee you, it would have enormous, positive reverberations on the region” Netanyahu reckons threatening to totally destroy a nation of 26 million people is bold and courageous.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/america-first-read-trump-s-full-united-nations-speech-n802676
Netanyahu is an apartheid loving fascist. No surprise that of all the western leaders Trump gets his vote.
Oh shit, this is bad.
(earthquake and buildings, careful people)
Tweets by jorge_guajardo
Getting them in singles, the old cricket analogy works.
Congrats to all here who have convinced somebody to move over from the dark side.
Had a couple of victories too, a 48 year old grape pruner who has never voted or registered did so as a ” favour ” to me , I think it was just to shut me up.
And an old friend, owner of a few houses including a boarding house, which she does a very good ethical Job of but is daily fielding calls from social services at all hours to house people , said last year ” things have to change “. Switched from a lifetime of Nat voting to TOP, I didn’t disabuse her of the notion, if our side can’t have her vote it’s better that It goes in the bin.
Fingers crossed, Lets Do This.
Are we being too nice to the Gnats?
I hope the incoming government rips the corrupt troughers out of every public office in the country.
YAY! THE #TamakiSCAM STORY HAS (finally) MADE THE NEWS!
20 September 2017
LIFTOFF in today’s NZ Herald.
Will Tamaki Regeneration meet its target 7500 builds in 15 years?, via @nzherald http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11923958
Seems most of us know Oravida is the company involved with poaching swamp kauri in Ruakaka. Hell, they even advertise the fact digitally … Kauri Ruakaka, formerly known as Kauri Oravida!
So where is msm on this? Why isn’t media investigating the company, as possibly being responsible for the fuel crises disabling NZ at present!
Come on msm, do your job. Work on behalf of the people, not the corrupt, despicable National government! We deserve some honest answers here!
I just heard on Radio NZ news at 1pm that some are questioning how come some staff at the polliing stations are alllowed to take the boxes of votes home with them at night?????
Did anyone else hear this as it seems doggy to me althouugh some lawyer for the commission said “it is o/k as the bioxes have seals on them!! — reallly?
Who can you believe in this corrupt little NZ’s grubby crime with a constantly lying PM?
What would you prefer they do?
Seriously would you want them left for a couple of weeks in the local library or suchlike? Wouldn’t they be safer elsewhere, or do you not think any of the people involved in the election can be trusted?
Locked up securely overnight? It is an election afterall. If this was happening in Nigeria you woukd scoff.
674,000 have voted and counting….
I bloody went to vote at the university of otago booth today, but I didn’t have time – too many students queuing to vote!
It seems that the best voting prediction possible is that the % at the start of the night’s coverage will barely change, if half the votes have been counted alread 🙂
According to a report on Radio New Zealand they can’t start counting the early votes until 9am on Saturday. The count of the early votes is only an indication of the final result on Election Day, not the final result however.
I’ll bet they keep it very, very quiet until 7pm though.
According to RNZ
“Election officials can begin counting ‘early votes’ – the advance votes cast by voters on the printed electoral roll for the electorate they voted in – at 9 am on election day. Their count of these early votes then becomes publicly available very shortly after the polls close.
If the Electoral Commission’s predictions are accurate, this means up to half of all votes may have been counted and made public at this point. And in the previous two elections, the preference distribution of these early votes quite closely matched the final election night result.”
However they then have all the Special votes and the distribution of these doesn’t normally follow the standard votes. If, as seems possible, both The Green Party and New Zealand First are near the 5% number they will both be sweating until all the special, including the overseas, votes come in. If my memory is correct the Green Party tend to do better in the overseas votes than those in NZ. I don’t know about NZF
That’s a relief. With the integrity of the National Party more and more in question, who knows what they’d get up to if they had advanced warning of the count.
You really are deranged if you actually believe that sort of rubbish.
Sharp earthquake in Marlborough 4 Minutes ago. About 4 second long.
magnitude 5 east of Seddon.
I chivvied the electrician who had just gone outside to please walk a little quieter, but he didn’t know why I was saying this. He did say that he missed a step as he walked down the stairs but hadn’t felt the shake.
@Weka and @Tracey
Have a listen to “The Panel” today after the 4.30 news (if you can stomach Mora and The Hairdo) – the item on the Public Service.
Some points well made (by Tamihere in particular) – although there are plenty more.
It is probably one of the biggest issues facing future governments (I think THE biggest) if we are to preserve any semblance of a functioning democracy in future.
A shitload of departments are bad (MPI, MoBIE, MSD/WINZ, MPI, Education, Health …..)
Two, for me are standouts (as in bad)
Gareth Morgan on people voting on the “Jacindamania”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11924483
“Voters cannot be that think”.
There are a lot of people thinking the same thing.
You said it james, lots of voters I know are that THINK.
If he seriously thinks the post-Little change is just about a smiley face, he’s the thick one.
I think it was largely about two things:
an unexpectedly high energy level; and
points of difference in the leadership that demonstrated Labour wasn’t just talking different to National, but that it is different to National. Competence rather than bullshit, generational difference, gender difference. Not a “cosmetic” change as such ( it wouldn’t work if she didn’t have the energy and assurance), but it shows the country something other than two rich middle aged white guys waffling on and pretending to score points off each other.
He’s just headline grabbing. All desperate politicians do it. See Morgan previously with ‘lipstick on a pig’, Peters just about every day, and Seymour’s ‘fucking idiot’.
or Kelvin Davis calling Jonathan Coleman the “Doctor of Death”.
Is Kelvin Davis desperate? Not sure about that.
Or Reasons fav MP Hone calling National Maori MP’s “little house niggers”
grow up you turd
Hone is desperate, but quite accurate in this instance.
garrrreth – remember don’t be an arrogant dick ALL the time
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/20-09-2017/mike-joy-i-wrote-a-facebook-status-and-top-called-it-an-endorsement/
Apologies To MSM I forget that those muppets have painted a shit view about me.
The only ‘view’ people have about you eco Maori/kiwi is from the content of your post.
You could be headlining the news this evening and we would be none the wiser.
And Winny says no a a water tax for farmers – excellent – even more reason for him to side with National over Labour.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/09/winston-peters-say-he-won-t-support-a-water-tax.html
Short sighted.
Industry leaders absolutely kicking the National Party’s light touch on crucial infrastructure.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/339832/infrastructure-an-enormous-gap-in-governance-industry
Not Xenophobic But this is Scary!
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/09/18/48616/expert-calls-for-inquiry-into-chinese-threat
” Dr Brady said that after watching China’s growing influence for several years, it was time for a special commission to investigate its impact on New Zealand’s democracy.
… recent revelations that National Party MP Dr Jian Yang did not declare his background in military intelligence when applying for citizenship are extremely concerning.
” there was deep concern among her international colleagues at the conference that China is meddling in the affairs of their respective countries, Australia, the US, UK, Canada, EU states and Japan.
China was using the same tactics in most of those countries, including New Zealand. They included:
– Gaining influence over Chinese migrants living in other countries (10 million Chinese live outside China).
– Taking over or integrating the local ethnic Chinese media with the Chinese media controlled by the Communist Party.
– Encouraging local Chinese who are acceptable to the Chinese government to enter politics in their host countries and if elected getting them to promote China’s interests.
– Appoint former local MPs with access to political power to high profile roles in Chinese companies or Chinese-funded entities in the host country.”
September 24th 2017 National the largest party backed by NZF and ACT and the Maoris.
Jacinda will prevail in 2020 in the biggest landslide in recent history after serving her three year apprenticeship.
That is my prediction and Winston’s last term.