This is the story of a southern hemisphere country in which China has significant investments in. It has its government changed with the help of Beijing when the People’s Republic becomes concerned that their business and strategic interests are not being taken care of.
You are in charge of a southern hemisphere country in which China has significant investments, and your policies are threatening China’s business and strategic interests .
‘A visit to Beijing last Friday by Zimbabwe’s military chief, General Constantino Chiwenga, has fuelled suspicions that China may have given the green light to this week’s army takeover in Harare.
If so, the world may just have witnessed the first example of a covert coup d’etat of the kind once favoured by the CIA and Britain’s MI6, but conceived and executed with the tacit support of the 21st century’s new global superpower.
China, Africa’s biggest foreign investor, has more at stake in Zimbabwe, and more political influence, than any other state. This is largely due to its extensive investments in the mining, agriculture, energy and construction sectors. China was Zimbabwe’s top trade partner in 2015, buying 28% of its exports. ‘
This article contains weasel words: vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information. Such statements should be clarified or removed.
In other words, this accusation is irrefutable and therefore meaningless. Someone will deny it.
I can feel a tweet coming: “Xi Jinping thinks he can do raygeem change better than me! Sad! Watch this space!”
Edit: the notion that Zimbaweans might just have done this themselves is apparently beyond the author(s?) of these articles.
Given that Mnangagwa’s supporters amongst the generals and general staff are Zimbaweans, then yes, it could be claimed that “Zimbabweans might just have done this themselves.”
Of course, these specific Zimbabweans may, or may not have, checked in with their foreign contacts from the Chinese, US and other governments before and during their decision to do so.
Which is what I’d expect them to do if they’re half-way competent, as opposed to being the set of alleged puppets with zero agency portrayed in Ed’s links.
So let me see … if hypothetically say Judith Collins was half-way competent, you’d be ok with her checking her ‘foreign contacts’ before colluding with various senior army types to march into the Beehive and arrest Adern?
It may read like a preposterous scenario, but then it’s not too far removed from what happened when the UK govt clearly had a hand in the coup against Gough Whitlam.
OK so no comparisons are exact, but I’m trying to place this coup into a more familiar local context.
And my modest reading of what’s happened is that the Chinese (with a major economic stake in the country) have agreed that Mugabe had reached his ‘use by date’ and gave clear support for regime change; along with the Americans and British signalling they’d keep out of it if things went smoothly.
None of this story will be simple, there will be a convergence of many factors. Mugabe and his wife Grace appear to have triggered much of the crisis themselves, and everyone was completely over the seemingly endless incompetence, corruption and waste of the Mugabe regime.
Still having one of the chief plotters make a trip to China just one week prior isn’t something you can readily hand-wave away. It almost certainly has significance, and points to what happens when a nation hands off too much of its economic sovereignty to a bigger power.
In this instance the outcome may have been relatively benign, but there is no rule that says such entanglements will always be so. You only have to look at the USA’s sorry record in this respect to see how what started as a game of good intentions post WW2 ended up a nightmare decades later in Latin America.
I’m not “hand-waving it away”, I’m looking at it in the context of “the Americans and British signalling they’d keep out of it”, the clear internal momentum for change, and that being presented as something China did on its own, by “flexing its muscle”.
what happens when a nation hands off too much of its economic sovereignty to a bigger power
…might be a better alternative to being a British/Rhodesian colony, depending on your perspective.
And it remains to be seen if being a Chinese ‘client state’ works out much better.
It will of course be different to the British version; the Chinese generally prefer exerting indirect economic power before all other options … but then it’s early days in this cycle of expansion for them.
They certainly haven’t held back from military options in the South China Sea for instance.
(When in Laos about 18 months ago, every conversation with a local, quite unprompted by me, got around to expressing some form of anger or contempt with how Chinese money was buying up their country with zero respect for the Laotian people.)
Actually it’s worth enlarging a bit on my experience in Laos. I was working at a gold mine site in the mountains near the Vietnamese border. Ostensibly owned by some local elites (the gap between rich and poor is a monstrous, staggering gulf), but backed by Chinese money.
The mine itself was probably the most incompetently run site anywhere. Huge amounts of capital injected, yet on the numbers we could see they had to be hemorrhaging cash. And I won’t even start to dwell on the bizarre operational issues from senior management downward.
I was working with a far more experienced guy who was mightily intrigued by all of this.
So he started asking questions and it turns out the mine concession came with rights to a huge amount of forested land, that of course was being illegally strip mined of valuable timber. The gold operation was an elaborate front.
I recently changed jobs and feel free to relate this incident.
The serious answer to that question marty is yes. Our process solutions featured low-energy, low chemical and low water consumption innovations.
In the context of this particular site our energy contribution would have been minuscule, but many of our other projects were remarkably better than standard industry practice. Sometimes dramatically so.
Meh no one will be sad to see Mugabe go – murderous thug that he is. The only matter of interest will be how bad the thug that replaces him will be. If the transition is relatively violence free that’ll be miraculous in itself.
“….Meh no one will be sad to see Mugabe go – murderous thug that he is. ..”
His successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, is just as bad. He may see a bit of economic reform, but Zimbabwe is now a failed state with an utterly corrupt and brutal ruling elite propped up by their sponsors in Beijing.
Africa under British rule eh? Something about that concept worries me. Can’t quite put my finger on it. Oh, yes, it’s the corruption and brutality involved. It smells like failure.
Back in NZ my partner got to be good friends with a lady of Shona background. My recollections are that she narrated Zimbabwe to us as a complex story, but in brief, while most people welcomed the end of colonisation … few believed that what has replaced it was an improvement.
I imagine that today most of the people in that country will feel much the same about the end of Mugabe’s regime … welcomed but skeptical of what may come next.
“White flight” was a very real phenomenon from Zimbabwe.
All kinds of technical, trade and technology specialists packed up and left.
Farmers saw the writing on the wall after numerous intimidation, extortion, home invasion incidents, sold their farms for what they could (if anything) and left.
That’s critical national capacity and capability voting with their feet and their family’s feet.
Like South Africa, the previous colonial regime was intolerable. Like South Africa, the replacement for white colonial rule was intolerable.
Most in the west don’t even know about the wave of xenophobic violence which swept South Africa after the end of apartheid which targeted the settlements and lives of poverty stricken blacks – who were from other parts of Africa.
(Turns out that non-white groups can be extraordinarily tribal and xenophobic).
Or that the number of murders in South Africa rose 6x to 8x under the new post-Apartheid regime, to roughly 40,000 to 50,000 per annum.
OAB remarks on the “corruption and brutality involved” in western colonial rule – very true. But post-colonial rule the “corruption and brutality involved” has merely morphed in its expression, not reduced.
Zuma and Mugabe are just the tip of that iceberg.
But we get to celebrate the end of white rule, and so for some, that seems enough to give the ideological/political thumbs up.
Most in the west don’t even know about the wave of xenophobic violence
The industry I’m in has a lot of white South Africans. While they’re not a demonstrative people as a rule, it’s clear many of them mourn their exile from a land and peoples they still love.
And some of their personal stories of just such violence, godawful horrors the western media never reports … suffice to say I’m not going to burden any of you by repeating them.
Looking at it through that lens means you should probably take the (allegedly) continuing global reduction in violence (cf: Steven Pinker) and poverty (cf: UN, Rosling, etc.) into account too.
Diplomatic sources claim the Americans were happy for Mugabe to be replaced as long as there was no bloodshed, and a smooth transition to the new regime.
It amazes me when people post links that undermine their own claims.
Just who do you think is disabling democracy here, savenz? Are you truly claiming that Zimbabwe was a democratic state under Mugabe? I think we all know that it wasn’t (the people of Zimbabwe certainly know that), and that the coup that’s now occurring isn’t going to transform it into a democratic state, either. It may be very slightly less awful, or it might not – after all Mnangagwa served under Mugabe for a long time and seems to be fine with the levels of corruption and violence that are embedded into the system of his country. He’s doing this for himself, not as a servant of his people.
I was meaning it in general terms not about Zimbabwe but more Ed’s comments of so many lefties defending Chinese government involvement in issues.
China is not a democracy and has pretty serious human rights violations but you would not know it by so many so called lefties being comfortable with that and the spreading of Chinese government influence around the world. You are pretty naive if you think that once ducks are in a row the Chinese will not flex their muscles and implement what they think is right which is how they run their country and start taking greater control in countries of strategic interest.
And also the lack of interest in democracy in local issues here in NZ around zoning and land use which is a hot topic.
Ed, if you read the second link you will find Helen Clark saying “New Zealand must engage with major powers in its region, but that it should not be naive in its interaction with any of them.”
I guess if Jacinda Ardern becomes Robert Mugabe in forty years time we should probably call the army.
The problem in the second link is that Ardern almost ignored the report about growing Chinese influence even though Don Brash is one of those influencers and is fully supportive of it. Neither seem too concerned with NZ losing its sovereignty.
So began a global power play against Mugabe, known as “the Old Man” throughout Zimbabwe. With the Chinese pledging to back the new regime after the coup, both American and Russian intelligence were also told of the plans.
Diplomatic sources claim the Americans were happy for Mugabe to be replaced as long as there was no bloodshed, and a smooth transition to the new regime. (Britain, scandalously, had helped prop up Mugabe for years over fears of instability if he was ousted, having helped to install him in 1980.)
With key global players in agreement, the secret strategy to deal with Mugabe – which The Crocodile was told must appear to the world not to be a coup – was activated.
China does seem to have got permission from the other world powers first.
And that, too, should be a serious concern. When all the major powers are working together to deny a nation it’s own self-determination then smaller nations have to be careful.
EDIT:
That article shows this coup as being a Good Thing and isn’t a scathing denunciation like what we saw after the Fiji coup. That itself is very telling.
Great article on the Daily Blog questioning RNZ’s support for blatant propaganda about Manus.
The notorious guard.
‘…so what Radio NZ are asking us to believe is that member of staff from a group with a long history of abusing refugees should be listened to when they warn us we shouldn’t take any.’
“First-hand experience” – big whoop. The camp guards at Belsen had plenty of first-hand experience of conditions there too. Funnily enough, no-one was interested in hearing their stories about how it was all the inmates’ fault.
If Guyon Espiner had been around, he would have interviewed them and asked no difficult questions. Instead Espiner would have helped the guards blame the inmates.
Ah, the so-called credibility of the source AKA “shoot the messenger” as the discerning fact or factor in ‘deciding the truth’. People should stop pretending to be ‘rational’ and simply state the question, in all honesty: whom do I want to believe most because it is (most) consistent with my own biased views and least likely to have consequences, in thought or action, that may cause internal friction & conflict? That would be a refreshing and more truthful approach, wouldn’t it just?
So your response to Bradbury’s argument is to attack Bradbury. It’s the same argument I’ve been making. Wilson “Security” has been offering hush money: this is a matter of public record.
If you think anonymous Ian is a credible source, that’s on you, not Martyn B.
“So your response to Bradbury’s argument is to attack Bradbury. It’s the same argument I’ve been making.”
Irony or admission? You attack far more than you argue.
“If you think anonymous Ian is a credible source…”
That’s pure hypocrisy.
[3 day ban for flaming. Even in Open Mike you have to make some attempt to debate the politics and not just have a go at someone you disapprove of – weka]
I’ll always attack your beige drivel Peter. The mods here are alert to pointless personal attacks, or tone or language that has the effect of excluding others, so if you think they’re doing a poor job I suggest you take it up with them.
When I assert a fact I provide supporting links, so I’m not a source of anything. Reference to “anonymous Ian”, by the way, is a clue that he’s as credible as I am: which is to say, not credible at all without supporting material.
You really pick your friends stunned mullet.
First the apparatchiks of the Chinese Communist Party, now brutal guards running a concentration camp in the Pacific.
[3 day ban for flaming. Even in Open Mike you have to make some attempt to debate the politics and not just have a go at someone you disapprove of – weka]
I have colleagues who have worked in Australian refugee camps, the Medical and Nursing staff are mostly New Zealanders. All describe the inmates as incredibly damaged individuals, initially by their conflict experiences but then compounded by incarceration.Anyone showing empathy and advocation was soon sacked by the Austalian administration and flown out. What you had left were the sycophantic and psychopathic as evidenced by the ex guard now gaining a voice on RNZ.
The flat rate began this morning along with increased routes and frequency of services while parking charges in the centre of the resort are being hiked.
The move is being promoted as a boon for struggling service workers, which will double bus usage and fix the resort’s chronic traffic problems.
Queenstown mayor Jim Boult said the old bus service was expensive and infrequent, and the $2 flat fee is was a “pioneering game-changer”.
It is part of a wider package of measures that the council is promoting as it tries to quickly lift patronage.
Yeah, he’s a major step forward from actoid V van useless….
Jim’s got a strong record of getting things done, had a couple of miss-steps but generally done good.
All vvu did was look after her mates. And let 5 Mile fill in Hendo’s hole which was going to be the park & ride hub, giving us a slight chance of getting a viable public transport system.
It’s going to be very interesting to see how this plays out. The current operator pretty much trashed what was starting to be a quite good service under the previous operator. Patronage and service had plummeted. You saw more people hitching at bus stops than waiting for a bus.
On the way into town this morning there seemed to be more Ritchies busses on the road, but still people at bus stops with their thumb out.
The commitment by both councils and operator seems to be tepid at best. The busses are pretty old and seem pulled in from wherever they can find them, no local branding, and no commitment or even plans for park and ride. This limits the service to only those that live on the routes, commuters coming from more affordable areas like Cromwell or Kingston / Athol are still forced to park in central Queenstown because there’s even less parking in Frankton or Arrowtown than Queenstown. And what there is, now sports restriction or tow-away signs.
I don’t think failure is really an option. The situation is beyond dire, Frankton Road will hit design capacity in 7 years and since there are no upgrade options due to topography the bus option has to work or we stop. In about 20 years even the most wild projections of bus patronage won’t keep things moving and ferries on the lake are the only option. The NZTA report below paints a pretty grim picture of where the lace is heading if we can’t do something about getting traffic demand down, fast.
Several cycles of zoning growth, out beyond actual demand, followed by speculative development , have got well and truly ahead of not just the current infrastructure, but what is physically possible in the space and terrain. The last few years of SHA madness has just been taking the piss of the roading network.
PS. NZTA did have an alternative to ferries, a gondola, which i can’t see having the capacity or speed to be of use. At least they didn’t try suggesting a monorail
Yes I think we should provide free dental care for our youth till they turn at least 20or 22 . As when they leave the nest there diet changes less good food and more alcohol and those soda pop drinks just rot there teeth realy fast the drinks will start attacking any damage in ones teeth . I think we consume to much alcohol . Before my children venture on there journey of life I made sure they new what the effects of alcohol had on them in a safe environment.
I have told all my children your are what you eat this information goes in one ear and out the other they will learn that what I’m saying to be fact one of my clients told me about his change to a high fiber bread 90 % whole meal flour. I would get all the greens I could but they very expensive and am not in a situation to grow them they are easy to grow I used this bread and my health improved a lot
I like to eat a lot of peppers tomatoes mushrooms onions and peppers are nice raw in salads
The first reason why I am encouraging OUR people to give up smoking is so they can live longer to guide there family’s up there ladders of life and tell them about the hinue on there ladders of life well you no what I mean.
The second reason is one does not take politics seriously until they start going silver on top . And from my observations most of the national voters don’t smoke so they live longer and get to vote longer.
Alot of OUR left voters are smokers and a high % don’t even make it to retirement so our left elderly voices is no where as loud as national elderly have.
And I no that the puppet masters behind the seen of national no this and will manipulate it to there advantage. I.E after I endorse vapors the attack ads on vapors start .So come on lefty’s get a vapor of any thing and stop smoking so we can guarantee OUR moko’s have a wonder full bright future .
Yes I’m a big fan of cryptocurrency the only problem is I got no money to invest in this new currency I have been following Elon Mus for years to I would have Invested in his company’s If I had some spear money. And I see why Elon does not like to be compared to Steve Jobs as in my view Elon is far superior Jobs would not use modern medical practices to extend his life and Jobs was about himself and not much thought about the rest of OUR world I.E his actions would have convinced a lot of people to make the wrong Health choices . The President of the USA has figured out that how he behaves and what he says influences the way a lot of people behave in the USA He is OK at lest we no hes a strait up and does not bullshit around . P.S Jack don’t you get his humor he new whom Jacinda was he would have making a little joke that He did not recognise her I no he gets briefed on everthing and I back him on his view that 2 of OUR super power should get a long and trade as they have the buttons that could destroy our world so this is good logic. I believe that all the country’s of OUR beautiful WORLD should get along forget the old wars and look after THE PEOPLE. Kia Kaha
Totally agree with free dental care for young people. And the importance of a healthy diet. Good food should be affordable by all.
And, yep. I think the older people who vote conservative, tend to live longer than the less well off people – and that has a big impact on elections, one way or another. And it demoralises many less well off people, who give up on voting because they don’t see anyone much in power who represents them.
This creep “Lester Beck” looks like Sen. Al Franken (Groper No. 3 in our series). The first unwelcome touching incident, reminiscent of John Key’s antics, occurs at the 1:03 mark. During the excruciating one and a half minutes from 5:13 he acts like Harvey Weinstein. At 9:47 more Harvey Weinstein. And in the last few seconds, we have Steve Coogan as Garth “The Knife” McVicar….
(By the way, Leighton “Ummm, errrrr, ahhhh, errrrr” Smith could do with some of the therapy prescribed from the 3:25 mark.)
“GROPERS” is researched and presented by GroperWatch, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
No.1 George Herbert Walker Bush
No. 2 Bill O’Reilly
No. 3 Al Franken
No. 4 Robin Brooke
He seemed like one of the few nice guys in the National Party, but that horrible son of his didn’t just ooze out of some filthy swamp sui generis….
Evidence included a trove of emails and text messages between Denham and PR merchant Carrick Graham, who helped organise damaging, paid posts about Clague and Kristin School on the Whale Oil attack blog.
In an email exchange in November 2012, Graham wrote that the campaign had already generated media coverage, forcing the school board to issue two letters to parents.
“It would be safe to say that Clague has had the blow-torch applied to him in terms of a much wider audience being aware of his actions. In terms of reputational hits he is damaged goods.”
Why are individuals like Carrick Graham and Cameron Slater not held accountable for the smear tactics used against innocent individuals?
Is our judicial system too soft in dealing with certain individuals, and/or perhaps do they have friends in high places?
Wow behind the well-sculpted persona, these people have dirty fingernails. Not bright and shiny at all. In fact is it known whether their blood is red, blue, or green?
Sounds like our pure river water. Or perhaps these are people who are gradually reverting back to the water animals we were supposed to have been, before we made the big struggle onto land. (I had to stop watching tv zombies and alien stories, they were affecting my thoughts unhealthily.)
As we know, Labour have no set date for the minimum wage to match the living wage (currently $20.20) and are unwilling to increase core benefit rates.
Yet, some say give Labour a chance, at least they’re heading in the right direction.
Well, that’s as comforting as knowing the fire brigade knows your house is on fire, they’re on their way, yet they won’t be there for a number of years.
Labour have been in government for less than a month. It’s hardly surprising that there are no dates yet for complex things like increases in the minimum wage!
This has clearly been indicated as a priority for the first 100 days. If we get to the end of that time with no progress, feel free to moan and whinge…
“It’s hardly surprising that there are no dates yet for complex things like increases in the minimum wage!”
That’s incorrect.
Dates for the minimum wage to increase have been set, unfortunately increases won’t reach parity with the living wage. Moreover, there is no date set for that.
I’m not moaning and whinging. I’m highlighting this failure and the need (see link above) for Labour to do more now.
So instead of you accepting this lowering of the bar, making incorrect excuses and moaning and whinging at me, make some noise about this and help me get Labour to up their game.
I’d agree that labelling the raising of the minimum wage “complex” and using it as an excuse is disingenuous to say the least.
But it makes sense that raising the minimum wage ‘correctly’ is a big/complex issue if Labour believes in the neoliberal economics briefings from Treasury which will be insisting that the Government has to be wary of setting off “inflationary pressures.”
For putting in place government policy that doesn’t exacerbate the inflationary pressures that you mention. Getting those right would be complicated and many aspects are likely to be missed.
Labour have been in government for less than a month.
yep, it’s going to take awhile to undo the damage that National have done and things are still going to get worse for worse for awhile because that damage.
Can you name those “major economic moves” by Labour that are like signing the TPPA, Colonial Viper? So that I can test whether I believe they are in the right direction.
OMG, you’re really running with the ‘they gave the document a new heading and PR title even though the tens of thousands of measures and clauses in the body are exactly the same, so it’s not the TPPA at all’ line? 😀 😛
Today I got back from a week in Vietnam and the Philippines, representing New Zealand at APEC and the East Asia Summit. I’ve met with world leaders from right across the Asia-Pacific region – including from China, Chile, Canada, Japan, the EU, India and ASEAN nations – and built direct relationships with the leaders and countries.
While I’ve been overseas, the main thing I’ve been doing is renegotiating a new version of the TPP, now called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
As someone who signed a petition against the previous version of the TPP, I wanted to write directly to you and explain how the agreement has changed.
The deal signed by the previous Government sacrificed New Zealand’s interests and ability to make our own choices. That wasn’t acceptable to this Government, or to many New Zealanders.
In the three short weeks we’ve been in office, we’ve managed to make meaningful changes to the agreement, so that:
The deal continues to upholds the unique status of the Treaty of Waitangi;
It preserves New Zealand’s right to make laws in the interests of New Zealanders.
Our mutual agreement with Australia, which is the source of 80% of our overseas investment from CPTPP, means Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses will continue to not apply between our countries and other protections will be in place too;
New Zealand will introduce legislation to ban overseas speculators buying existing houses here in our first 100 days;
Pharmac is fully protected, and no changes will be required to copyright terms;
Private companies who enter into a contract with the Government will not be able to use ISDS clauses if there is a dispute;
Tariffs will be substantially reduced for farmers and they’ll have access to new markets.
These are important changes from previous versions of the agreement. While we haven’t gained all the changes we hoped for on ISDS clauses, we have made significant progress in this area. Nothing in the agreement prevents us from regulating in NZ’s public interest, such as for public health, environment and water. We can also rule out claims relating to tobacco control measures. The Government is clear that we will oppose ISDS in future FTA negotiations.
There are four country-specific items remaining to negotiate between the 11 countries. As soon as the text of the agreement is finalised, it will be publically released, before going through a full parliamentary treaty examination process. We’ll be taking the time to have a conversation with New Zealanders about what it means for our country.
This is not a perfect agreement, but I’m proud of the work we did to improve it, and I’ve been honoured to represent our great country on the world stage.
I’m personally disappointed they seem to be going to sign it, even though in Jacinda’s own words – not a perfect agreement.
New clauses like the treaty of Waitangi – are meaningless – how can Maori interests be preserved if the government of the day – has a different interpretation of what they are entitled to? It may be a right wing government in charge in the future.
The ISDS clause only applies to government contracts so Maori and private interests seem to still be subjected to them.
Well then TC
Let us work out for ourselves that Labour are pulling themselves down. Devote the rest of your apparently boundless time to something positive, invigorating, unlike your vinegary input here. Try spending your time bringing about things of beauty and worth. Or consider spending more time on Kiwiblog or Whaleoil, your writing style will be sure to elevate them to a better overall standard.
“Let us work out for ourselves that Labour are pulling themselves down.”
Get back to me when you have worked it out.
“Or consider spending more time on Kiwiblog or Whaleoil, your writing style will be sure to elevate them to a better overall standard.”
Well, from the cold response I’m getting from some of you so-called lefties, I may have far more chance getting National to improve their game. If they treated the poor better, they’d get far more voting for them. And now that they are in opposition, they may be more willing to listen. However, it will be another 3 years before they have a chance of regaining power, which of course is far to long to wait. So it’s up to us lefties to apply the pressure on Labour to do more now.
I hope once you figure it out you’ll come help and join in.
I don’t recall you having the same zeal in trying to get national to lift their game when they were in government.
The fact is that Labour have made significant progress on several of their 100 days commitments. Off the top of my head they’ve announced plans and initial steps on housing, pike river, and tertiary education, with signs of activity on a few other fronts. Much better than national ever were.
Luckily, people working in child poverty didn’t share your sense of futility. Eventually even the tories were promising to halve it, whereas ten years ago they didn’t believe it was a widespread issue beyond a few bad parents.
As for living minum wage and even living benefits, yes I support those policies. And I’ll keep working towards them.
What I won’t do is use perceived shortcomings in Labour policy as an excuse to ignore the significant steps they’ve already made, or the other excellent policies in the coalition government pipeline. Because dwelling on the required improvements at the expense of endorsing things we want to sustain just sows discouragement and despondancy. But I suspect you already knew that, concern-o-bot.
“As for living minum wage and even living benefits, yes I support those policies. And I’ll keep working towards them.”
How so?
“What I won’t do is use perceived shortcomings in Labour policy as an excuse to ignore the significant steps they’ve already made…”
The shortcomings are real. And it’s got nothing to do with ignoring steps made. It’s about Labour being may aware we’re not willingly going to sit back an accept their shortcomings.
If we fail to make a noise about it, it will signal we’re OK with it. And that is not the message we need to be sending them.
Labour’s unwillingness to do more now is already sowing discouragement and despondency.
So while pressuring them to up their game might ruffle the feathers of a few party cheerleaders, it won’t do more damage than what Labour are already sowing themselves, IMO. Therefore, I disagree.
As for people working in child poverty, well poverty extends that of just children. But those folk seldom get a mention.
How so? Shit I do in real life, both in work and my spare time. And trying to give credit where credit is due, even here.
And yes, your activities here have everything to do with what you ignore, as well as what you place emphasis on. Try having a boss one day who constantly whinges and never gives credit for your good work – would that be a workplace you want to stay in, or a boss you’d do any effort for?
If you think that your comments won’t do any more damage to Labour, why bother? You can have no effect whatsoever if that’s true – it won’t change Labour’s support one iota, if you’re correct. Or do you expect a Labour MP to go “gosh, the Chairman is correct, we need to ‘lift our game’ on the one or two policy areas he’s decided to focus on today!”. As well as the issue you raised last week. I’m sure that got picked up at the next caucus meeting /sarc
Hey, guess what? Solving child poverty will solve almost all adult poverty, because it goes through the parents. And when child poverty is done, there’s no excuse to not address adult poverty. And poverty is now measured formally, can be assessed against benchmarks, and if it can be measured people can be held to account for letting it exist. The vast majority of those gains happened while mr concern-o-bot thought that resisting a national govt was futile.
“I may have far more chance getting National to improve their game…”
Good on you, Chair! There are many here who support your newly expressed aim; will it be Kiwiblog that you’ll chose as your forum? Let us know, so we can visit. We’ll miss you here, sure, but given your perseverance, I believe you will be very effective over there, improving National’s game. All the best.
You forgot about the time frame, hence why it would be pointless at this stage, Robert.
But if Labour have failed to make any major improvements by then (next election) then it will be time to target both. Therefore, at this stage it’s Labour we require to apply pressure on.
National are toothless then, Chair, without any influence or prospects? Perhaps you should apply your talents to picking them up off the floor and rebuilding in the hope of winning back the seats of power beyond this decade. You’re determined enough and it sounds as though they need someone like you.
Why aren’t I backing you, Chair? Because I don’t believe that you are, “attempting to apply public pressure for them to up their game”. It looks and smells to me as though you are attempting to undermine the confidence of Labour supporters here with your constant concern trolling. That’s why.
Labour don’t need supporters at the moment, they’ve already achieved power, Robert. Hence, your logic is delusional.
And if you are genuinely holding back because you distrust me, make some noise on your on account. Show you are not happy with this and push Labour to up their game.
Chairman. Your comments seem… odd today. “Labour don’t need supporters…” – I’m not sure if you’ve thought your statement through very well; every party needs supporters at all times, no matter whether they are in power or not; after all, democracy is supposed to be responsive to the people, and elected representatives need support in whatever they do, I’d have thought. I wonder what you believe I’m “genuinely holding back” from? Trying to erode the confidence of readers here, as you appear to be? It’s not an aim of mine. Have you given more thought to your intention to focus on National and the changes its MPs could make? I support you in that endeavour, for sure!
The democracy we practice only requires us to vote once every three years (general election).
And as a result, elected representatives tend to do as they and the party wish, regardless if we support it.
I was referring to you holding back from publicly speaking out and expressing your disappointed and unhappiness with Labour’s unwillingness to do more on addressing poverty. Such as, the minimum wage having parity with the living wage and increasing core benefit rates.
The question is, do you support these causes (the minimum wage having parity with the living wage and increasing core benefit rates) Robert?
So, it’s ‘go back to sleep, sleepy hobbits, from you is it, Chair? Ordinary folk can’t do anything after casting their vote.
Why then, are you trying to do something here? And why are you trying to get others to do something?
Your ideas seem…confused, contradictory.
I think you are not genuine in your claims. You are a constant negative voice here on TS, bagging Labour for things you claim they won’t do, can’t do, haven’t done.
You seem to be like the person who films the fire saying ,’oh know this is bad’ instead of getting in and helping. And when people say that to you you say,’we must have a record of what happened shouldn’t we, why are you trying to stop me recording this, it’s not about me it’s about the fire right behind me’… a voyeur in other words.
Labour have gone from wanting an increase in the min wage to $16.50 at the election, to wanting a $20 min wage in three years time with NZ First’s help. That is quite a turn around and it’s only 20 cents off the living wage figure you quote. Not really worth complaining about?
You probably have a point on benefit rates though.
2021 is when Labour’s (pushed by NZ First) $20.00 minimum wage increase will take effect.
The current Living wage is $20.20 and increases annually. Therefore, by 2021 Labour’s $20.00 will still be far short of the 2021 living wage. So my point is valid.
Join the Green Party and campaign for a living wage.
A major establishment party just proposed to increase the min wage by 20% over 3 years – something that never looked likely.. probably in living memory.
I voted Green, for what little good that has achieved.
“A major establishment party just proposed to increase the min wage by 20% over 3 years – something that never looked likely.. probably in living memory.”
Wow! Is that meant to impress me? It still doesn’t meet today’s living wage.
People are dying out there, a growing number are struggling, hence we require Labour to do more now.
Oh well roll over and take Bill’s 25 cents increase once in a blue moon which was the alternative. Maybe that would help the people you’re so worried about. “Tui”
During the election campaign, Labour’s policy was clear – in order to reduce immigration they would reduce the number of international students by between 15,000 and 22,000 a year which represents about a quarter of incoming students,” Mr Goldsmith says.
“But Education Minister Chris Hipkins has been giving private assurances to the sector that they shouldn’t worry, he has no intention of carrying out that commitment anytime soon.
“And he is also reported today saying he is ‘not rushing to make changes’.
Lol, National Party press release based on gossip, made by an MP whose government ran an extractive economy that allowed people to be treated like shit.
Well, there is this (below). So there is a grain of truth to what was posted, thus increasing the possibility the accusation may be true. Whatever the case, it seems the Government won’t be rushing to make changes.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins said the Government was not rushing to make changes.
“We plan to talk to and work with the sector to achieve the right balance for the long term success of the sector and New Zealand.”
I don’t have any issues with genuine international students coming to NZ as long as they don’t get residency, citizenship and get work visas to work here. Also it makes more sense should be located in specialist education centres in the Provences where there is enough accomodation.
English is an important skill and students from Asia who speak it fluently can have it open many doors once they RETURN back to their countries which have more jobs than NZ.
International students should be win win, not some scam for work visas here in NZ. Chinese students are under enormous pressure and there is so much demand in China to gain a university place, so if used appropriately it could be a win win if international students get their degree here in NZ, if it is a proper degree!
You don’t see the UK or USA giving every international student in cookery or low level IT a green card and citizenship. No wonder NZ is so popular. We have devalued our international reputation and caused crisis after crisis in our social welfare system from maternity, health, transport, wages and housing. The biggies superannuation is still to come from a decade of stupidity of nonsensical immigration.
At present the student issues has turned into a rout. Students just coming to get citizenship and work, have kids and then get a substandard degree, (in some cases not even knowing the course they were on, let alone being able to communicate in the course language, let alone pass it).
Auckland University dropping like a stone in international leagues as they abandon research and dumb down courses to cash in on cash for students. Other universities previously called polytechs not worrying about quality of course just wanting bums on seats. Wages and standards are declining in tertiary education.
Tertiary education in NZ declining as the lapdogs of capitalism sniff out tasty ways of making more money by taking down our fences around high standards.
Soon our education will only fit us to be National politicians the bottom of the conniving, ethics-free barrel where people don’t know the difference between advantage and advancement.
The interesting thing is that this poor women makes a pittance in wages $175 p/w (probably contract temp work) so therefore needs so much family credit $510 and accomodation supplement $120, to barely survive.
So crashing wages and reducing jobs for locals seems to be not only making many people struggle to survive – it also does not really seem to make sense economically…. and not sure how much longer it can go on. Yet still the cheerleaders say they can’t find enough suitable locals for work to work the temporary, zero hour contracts that seem to be so popular, they need more work permits and temporary workers.
I’m not sure Labour policy of allowing foreign speculation on new build residential dwellings is going to be a winner. As you can see from this, it’s the NZ taxpayer also contributing significantly to the rents which will go offshore if the person is not resident. Or maybe the new build houses will just be left empty as in other countries or sold to new residents. Not sure any will solve our housing crisis for the poor. More like keep contributing to it.
Should NZ taxpayers be subsidising offshore investors to ‘help’ our poor that for some reason can’t be solved without them? Or is that a crock of s&^t?
savenz
That is a great little logo you have developed in talking about housing. Looks rather like a shelter with temporary roof (probably tarpaulin) s&^t.
We should adopt it as expressing and representing NZ shelter design and practice.
The interesting thing is that this poor women makes a pittance in wages $175 p/w (probably contract temp work) so therefore needs so much family credit $510 and accomodation supplement $120, to barely survive.
The government paying for people to have a job. Now, I wouldn’t mind the government doing that as long as it was a government sector job. I’m fully against it when it’s a private sector job. The private sector should not be subsidised by the government. Hell, even the RWNJs say that but they’re also they’re also the biggest suppliers of subsidies to the private sector when they’re in government.
“I don’t have any issues with genuine international students coming to NZ as long as they don’t get residency, citizenship and get work visas to work here”
That requirement may cause a few private tertiary education providers to struggle badly – because in many of the cases I see, the education they provide is technically inferior to the education the student has already received in their home country. e.g. last week an Indian woman with an MCom degree in Economics and Accounting from a decent university completing a one-year business diploma in NZ. The only reasons for these students to do this study in NZ are:
– to improve their English
– to get on a conveyor belt to residency
And you know what happens when business’s ‘soft’, easy money income streams are threatened. All hell breaks loose.
I agree. I actually employed an Indian student through student job search – she was lovely. I didn’t understand at the time why she was completing the same degree (early education) in NZ when she already had achieved it in India. She then got married in an arranged marriage and the new husband came to NZ. It’s a rout.
Nice people often doing it, but like in this case, it’s opening a flood gate and I don’t think the new husband turned out to be a very nice man, because she did not look nearly so happy after she was married.
It’s not the people doing it that are at fault. It is the government for allowing it to happen by not having much much greater controls and valuing our country’s existing residents and citizens and doing what is best for them.
Not prioritising the offshore banks and the trade agreements and businesses that want cheap compliant labour that they can fire at will and that it’s all ok, just shut down welfare for all and sell off the assets to pay for it, it’s all working dandy. (for them).
Yes but it’s through a back door and an entourage following her. She is doing her degree for residency NOT for educational purposes. It’s a scam. Meanwhile other students are not getting jobs while she studies, other students not getting a degree and I think she will stop work and have kids anyway.
I know lots of migrants and most of them no longer work in the area they got into NZ in. They either don’t work at all or are doing something completely different because they were often worked like slaves at slave labour rates and they only did it to gain residency. Once they have citizenship, they do something else or leave the country and work overseas. The slave business then recruits more overseas residents and the rort continues.
But the aged parents and other family members stay in NZ. And the overseas citizens can use the health, super and welfare system in NZ, but actually don’t work here anymore. A ticking time bomb.
That requirement may cause a few private tertiary education providers to struggle badly – because in many of the cases I see, the education they provide is technically inferior to the education the student has already received in their home country.
Which tells us that the education sector is a rort used to bypass the normal residency/immigration process.
And you know what happens when business’s ‘soft’, easy money income streams are threatened. All hell breaks loose.
I’m sure if we simply threw the fuckers in jail for the rort there would be less whinging from them. After all, they’re usually the ones demanding that we be tough on crime.
I looked at buying a property in Paeroa a couple of years back. Asking price was $160,000 and rates were $2200 with an extra $220 levy on top for environment Waikato. At the same time people back here on the ‘shore in Auck were paying $1600 in rates on $700k houses.
At times it’s quite hard to come to grips with how venal some people are.
I used to have the same conversation with my Auckland based father; when I showed him the rates bill on our properties in the Wellington region, the topic of conversation changed quickly. 🙂
In general it’s more unawareness than venality. But I’m not inclined to give Hosking a pass on this.
Those two would fit the profile of venal I’d think.
Auckland Council offers a rates postponement scheme where you can borrow against your house equity to pay the rates. For older people who don’t like having debts and enjoy the concept of a freehold home it can be a little off-putting but the fact is they are not put in any forced hardship when the rates go up through property revaluations. They have a choice while others don’t.
If you don’t mind me asking what general area do you pay them? You must have a wonderful council.
Just very unusual that someone is so pro rates rises. Most people I meet actually paying rates think there is a lot of room for improvement. (For a start a large amount of rates seems to go on roading for example.)
And of course Auckland transport mangers already convicted of fraud and corruption.
Not just in Auckland but in Northland too, where they pay very high rates in general related to their housing.
Councils used to own social housing in Auckland. John Banks sold them.
Now Auckland council “invests” millions in things like Westgate mall to help the developers develop malls. That’s the priority.
It’s not just the amounts people have to pay for rates, it’s the type of spending the council now seems to be prioritising that upsets people and the types of services they are cutting.
It is interesting to see the flow of points that come out when some trigger word like ‘rates’ pops up. And not necessarily connected to the thread in play.
That idea of being able to defer rates as a lien on the house value, which would have to be paid on death, but not be onerous presumably as the house value would have risen, is an excellent one for those wishing to stay in their home in their familiar neighbourhood. The family could still inherit, they would just have to pay the deferred rates (I wonder if there is any interest accumulating also).
It is interesting greywarshark, for example when discussing the deferral of rates people instantly assume they’d defer all of their rates. They’re complaining about rates increases, not rates per se, ergo they only need to defer the increase which is a mosquito bite on the capital gains they’ve been enjoying.
Hey, that’s true didn’t think of that. And the Council would still be getting most of the rates as usual, and only a portion put on hold.
Yep a really good scheme and helping where needed.
Yeah, the council borrows the (deferred) rates and charges interest at much the same rate as what they pay for it. They’ll fund to a max of 80% of equity. Naturally the interest would compound but inflation compounds too so the risks aren’t exactly great there.
I can understand the elderly not liking the thought of it but when you look at it rationally it is a pretty good idea.
Most people I meet actually paying rates think there is a lot of room for improvement.
And they’d be wrong. They don’t pay enough. That’s why we’re having problems with sewage and stuff.
Not just in Auckland but in Northland too, where they pay very high rates in general related to their housing.
Northland suffers from the lack of scale. There’s simply fewer people to spread the cost over while also having a huge area to administer. The effect is that it costs more per capita.
Now Auckland council “invests” millions in things like Westgate mall to help the developers develop malls. That’s the priority.
Yes and that comes from the delusional idea that we need more low paid service jobs to replace the high paid manufacturing jobs that we used to have.
It’s not just the amounts people have to pay for rates, it’s the type of spending the council now seems to be prioritising that upsets people and the types of services they are cutting.
And the people complaining, and you’re a good example, have NFI WTF they’re talking about.
Yes Draco, I think you are coming from the unique perspective of not wanting any individual property rights and the Chinese type system of only government owning land… therefore you seem to be cheerleading for not enough rates the same way as many cheerlead for more taxes.
One of the reason’s I think the left are losing ground amongst average people in this country is that they are out of touch with normal people. That has allowed this weird situation of National and Labour agreeing in many areas in principle but they are doing it for different reasons.
Labour thinks that you can just keep taxing people along with user pays forgetting that in the past, high taxes were all of it, you didn’t have private companies and COO’s every day extracting more and more profit and you had decent wages and conditions and plentiful jobs so the average person didn’t live day to day without knowing if they would have their job the next year. Services were not means tested such as family benefit and you could get loans off government to buy state built houses. If you got injured ACC did lump payments. There was a balance.
National wants to sell off assets cheaply to mates, give everybody a $25 per week tax cut that they borrowed and then watch services plummet so that more can be cut off. The treasury types seem to cheerlead this on as good governance. Likewise 0% tax havens for non residents.
They both seem very attached to free trade and globalism.
Yes Labour has a lot more compassion, but seriously they need to talk to real people who don’t engage in politics because they will hear what should be obvious. Most people are sick of user pays and rampant revenue gathering. Most people are sick of declining service levels and wasteful spending while being asked for more to prop up the wasteful spending.
The holy grail of the left is to want to be more efficient on spending not keep asking for more money… and increase service levels of health and education while not destroying our environment and not be blaming their own voters and citizens for the problem.
Labour are trying to do better, but not sure the TPPA is a good start of things to come. It’s a bad start because you can track that local people are getting poorer under the trade deals (apart from those who own a house or land) and that won’t last into the next generation because it will go in retirement charges and rates.
I think you are coming from the unique perspective of not wanting any individual property rights and the Chinese type system of only government owning land… therefore you seem to be cheerleading for not enough rates the same way as many cheerlead for more taxes.
Non-sequitur.
That rates aren’t high enough is apparent through our declining infrastructure.
By way of brief overview, underlying ownership of all land in New Zealand vests in the Crown or is Maori Land. Land titles are classed by the term of their existence. A “freehold” estate has an uncertain duration of tenure, whereas a “less than freehold” estate exists for a certain length of time. While an owner of a “fee simple” title enjoys the freedom of a full, permanent and absolute tenure in land (i.e. freehold), the tenure of a “cross lease” development is generally limited to 999 years (i.e. less than freehold).
One of the reason’s I think the left are losing ground amongst average people in this country is that they are out of touch with normal people. That has allowed this weird situation of National and Labour agreeing in many areas in principle but they are doing it for different reasons.
What is this ‘normal’ you speak of? Is it National’s ‘mainstream’?
Thing is, politicians are out of touch with the majority of people. They pretty much have to be so that they will do what business wants rather than what the people want. And I think you’ll find that both National and Labour are doing similar things for the same reasons (neo-liberal ideology). Labour has a conscience though and does think that the government should be looking after the interests of the general population and not just some of them like National.
Labour thinks that you can just keep taxing people along with user pays forgetting that in the past, high taxes were all of it, you didn’t have private companies and COO’s every day extracting more and more profit and you had decent wages and conditions and plentiful jobs so the average person didn’t live day to day without knowing if they would have their job the next year. Services were not means tested such as family benefit and you could get loans off government to buy state built houses. If you got injured ACC did lump payments. There was a balance.
Labour really doesn’t think that you can just keep taxing people. And neither do the Greens.
Why do you believe National’s lies?
Labour doesn’t understand the monetary system. If they did then they would’ve canned the ability of private banks to create money – that would be solely the governments privilege and they’d use it to get done what needs to be done for infrastructure and socially. They would bring back in capital controls.
Of course, that would remove the power of the capitalists so watch them scream and make threats as we jumped back to full employment with a health and education system second to none.
National wants to sell off assets cheaply to mates, give everybody a $25 per week tax cut that they borrowed and then watch services plummet so that more can be cut off. The treasury types seem to cheerlead this on as good governance.
Yep. And then they get surprised, but not concerned, when the economy doesn’t do well.
They both seem very attached to free trade and globalism.
They’re both committed to a capitalist global system.
Yes Labour has a lot more compassion, but seriously they need to talk to real people who don’t engage in politics because they will hear what should be obvious. Most people are sick of user pays and rampant revenue gathering. Most people are sick of declining service levels and wasteful spending while being asked for more to prop up the wasteful spending.
Yes they are but is having a good stadium for games really wasteful spending? It possibly does serve a purpose for socialisation and general well being of the populace. We’re not machines.
High wages are a concern but, for Auckland which has a multi-billion dollar budget, they’re a small blip compared to what’s needed for all the services and infrastructure needed. To get those up to where people want them then rates need to go up.
The holy grail of the left is to want to be more efficient on spending not keep asking for more money… and increase service levels of health and education while not destroying our environment and not be blaming their own voters and citizens for the problem.
The Left are more efficient spenders. That’s why the economy usually does better under them rather than under the RWNJs.
But they’re still following that neo-liberal ideology about capitalism and competition being better despite all the new research showing that government services provided by government are better and cost less.
Labour are trying to do better, but not sure the TPPA is a good start of things to come. It’s a bad start because you can track that local people are getting poorer under the trade deals (apart from those who own a house or land) and that won’t last into the next generation because it will go in retirement charges and rates.
The TPPA is a bad idea. So are all the other FTAs and the WTO and the World bank and the IMF. All of those are, from what I can make out, designed to remove a country’s sovereignty so as to implant global capitalism on them.
That bit about land ownership is why we actually need to get rid of it. Piketty and other research has shown that accumulation of wealth over generations is a problem. We need to address it.
Gosh!
I’m paying annual rates of $2400 on a house valued at $140,000. Plus regional council rates of approx $200. I do get a low-income rebate of $600 ‘tho. I guess it’s the price of living in a sparsely populated area. Also the Council have (almost) stopped raw sewage from draining into the river.
PS If you can cope with the rates, houses are getting cheaper here on the Coast. One in my street, ex state house, garage, excellent condition $105,000
I reckon they are going to try and pin some bulls hit setup on me now would YOU DO something illegal knowing the they are following you everymove for one thing how would I be able to do anything I can’t fart and they are spreading that story they are pouring on the bullshit today you all no I’m a good guy so what’s blurring there vision on reality I no what is And I sure you can guess was blurs someone mind a these people are corrupted like they are in the Philippines just not as bad many thanks to my Philippines readers Kia kaha
My question is about paid parental leave. The maximum is $516 per week before tax depending on your salary. Why would Duncan Garner advocate for fathers to receive this when (a) his salary would reduce considerably if he ever took PPL (b) it does not make economic sense for the major breadwinner to reduce his salary and strain the household (c) if both parents were off at the same time the maximum the household income could be was $1024 before tax. The National changes are an excellent sound bite but if we had any journalists out there one might actually look at the effect of the policy
Good points Lucy. It is just an attempt by National to paint Labour as being like Santa Claus giving benefits away to curry favour and not be responsible about the effects.
So Nats in Opposition nudge Labour and goad them as mean in not behaving as National suggest and would wish so they can then condemn Labour as profligate.
It is very malicious and game-playing and fits in with National’s general policies for citizens – that we are just pawns in their political game and have buttons they can push to get any affect they want. Except when people actually sit down and do the sums and think it through like you Lucy.
Hi Lucy I cannot answer any questions about PPL as such, but the excellent questions and points you have made are possible examples of some of the issues that Jacinda Ardern referred to when speaking to Duncan Garner this morning on the AM Show. Article and video are in this link.
Ms Ardern told The AM Show on Monday she likes the idea – despite the flaws in National’s proposal.
“I’ve talked to our Minister, we’re going to see how quickly we can do that,” she says.
“What we’ve tried to pass on to the Opposition is actually when we looked at the idea the officials came back and said ‘actually, there’s this issue and this issue – it’s going to take us a while to work through’.”
The PM also explained in the video that the intention is to get the current proposed extensions to PPL through under urgency because all of these have already been through the Select Committee process.
The further changes to allow both parents to take PPL at the same time have not been through Select Committee consideration and for this reason – and the issues raised by officials – she thinks it is preferable to treat the two proposals separately.
She also indicated that talks were underway to develop the proposal to allow both parents to take PPL at the same time, and to consult with officials and the business community etc to sort out the related issues. They believed that this could be done urgently in the new year to allow a further legislative amendment to be put before Parliament and passed through its various stages during 2018. Apparently there is some consideration of doing this in conjunction with another employment related legislative amendment already in the pipeline.
IMHO the points made by Jacinda Ardern were well reasoned and sensible. No doubt detractors will continue to spin the opposite.
The ideas that both parents could be off at the same time each time they had children would cause a great envy amongst those without jobs, without homes,. and unable to get enough work to be in a position to wanting to have a break to raise their precious child. When you are sleeping in a car or elsewhere you would realise that your own children are not regarded as precious, and the desire to help the new mother for months while the baby settles is absent for the strugglers. Left behind again,.
When employers need skilled workers and young adults want time off for baby raising in months rather than weeks then perhaps employing them may be less attractive. Has anyone thought of that. It may be that people in their 50’s would get priority.
The work remains to be done, the project finished and if it is behind time then very stressful. Employer to male, “Are you part of our team, or going independent? We need you now.” To female there has been an obvious long lead time to this and the real need by baby is understood.
Single mums already get an attitude thrown at them by males who ask why they should pay for someone else’s kid. In this case males in the team might say why do we have to put in double shifts so that this new father can stay home and not pull his weight alongside us. It is just a dream to have both off at the same time for anything more than a week or two. That should be made clear in discussions. Business just isn’t a cow to be milked for more benefits.
Remember that we are only the size of a small city and have managed to lose our perspective on this regularly, thus we are in shit street now. Don’t go off on full frontal acceptance of wishful femme/identity/feelgood politics. What about our businesses?- we need to have a mutual nurturing of the good ones.
Are you suggesting that people should not have the ability to chose a period of reduced income, if they believe that they can manage their financial affairs during that period?
Firstly, the underlying assumption that the man is and should be the “main breadwinner” is nothing but sexist, and while it may still be true for a majority of couples it has been noticeably shifting over time to where more men are “house husbands” with women who are the better educated partner (sometimes by far) with the higher powered career, so it’s time to start shifting these expectations instead of doubling down on them.
Secondly the inherent notion that men are less important as a parent in the care of both new mother and new baby is appallingly sexist and old fashioned.
In summary, on this issue Labour has a major “Not Invented Here” dilemma where they refuse to give credit to National for the idea, and where they cannot bring themselves to recognise equality between the sexes in terms of parenting roles.
1. It’s National and Duncan Garner who are peddling the idea that Labour’s PPL legislation excludes fathers, not Labour.
2. Is it a “not invented here” problem, or a “no we’re not going to take admentments on something that’s already been through select committees and that we’re trying to pass urgently” problem? My money’s on that second one.
National’s interest in PPL is nonexistent. The only reason they’ve raised this issue is that they know it’s a stick they can beat Labour with.
In summary, on this issue Labour has a major “Not Invented Here” dilemma where they refuse to give credit to National for the idea, and where they cannot bring themselves to accept equality between the sexes in terms of parenting.
Come on CV, Jacinda Ardern made it quite clear last Thursday (16 Nov) when answering Q1 in Question Time that she was not against the idea of both parents taking PPL leave at the same time at all – but wanted to look into it separately to the PPL extension currently under urgency.
Since then, she has made a number of further statements on the issue, including on the AM Show this morning as detailed in my comment at 11.2 above – including the reasons she wants to treat the two proposals separately, while also looking at the idea of concurrent PPL leave urgently with a view to introducing a proposal to the House early in 2018.
Where has JA or Labour raised men being main breadwinners and/or being less important as parents in relation to the PPL proposals?
I have been following this very closely and have seen no suggestion that Labour is using these as reasons for holding fire for the meantime on concurrent PPL leave.
Yes, both issues are sexist and old fashioned with actual situations on both changing markedly in recent years.
While I have seen people like Duncan Garner, Paula Bennett raise ‘fathers being treated as less important’ in an attempt to undermine Labour’s position to hold fire in the meantime, the only time I have seen ‘men as main breadwinners’ issue being raised is in Lucy’s comment – but I read this as being in a quite genuine, innocent way.
Gosh CV you need to breathe into a brown paper bag, I think that is the treatment for hyper-ventilating.
The majority of men would still get more pay than their wives. Rule of thumb idea, but women’s pay has remained about 80% of men’s on average, decades after last wave of feminism. The high-powered women who get more than their husbands, or as much, are a minority and so capable that they can ensure they get legislation they need. If we can think also about the low-powered ones that keep plugging along on not very much and what’s good for them, it would be good to hear from you.
But what hasn’t changed is that women have breast milk which is particularly good for the baby, and very good to get off the chest for the mothers. So it makes sense for mothers to be able stay home and feed the baby.
Parents need to have time off for the kids from time to time. Perhaps at the start, the male could stay home for a couple of weeks after the birth so that mother can have some resting and recovery time. After that it would be based on choice and application to the employer.
The majority of men would still get more pay than their wives. Rule of thumb idea, but women’s pay has remained about 80% of men’s on average, decades after last wave of feminism.
There is no gender pay gap in the under 30’s age group where the majority of men and women marry and start planning for families.
That 80% figure you throw out, which is highly debatable, doesn’t factor in the massive destruction of good jobs for working class men, nor does it figure the massive tertiary educational and qualifications disparity between young men and women today, with young women being far more qualified on average than young men.
You got anything to substantiate the assertion that there’s no gender pay gap in the under 30s? Failing that, what’s the reasoning that leads you to that conclusion?
The destruction of working class material security is a given. But again, even if the argument is that all incomes are sinking, how would that translate into some disappearance or lessening of a gender pay gap?
And putting aside the whole “underpaid professions” phenomenon (industries “traditionally” employing women paying less) – you reckon a woman with a chemistry degree will get the same easy access to the same remuneration and benefits as a man with a chemistry degree?
Although that projection actually controls for women being over-represented in lower-paying industries and businesses, rather than simply looking at the basic facts of median income. Useful for analysing what proportion of inequality is due to what factor, but not an outright statement that women in that agegroup are better off.
If you exclude the structural pressures that might force some people as a group to “choose” low-pay work, you might find that they are not mistreated at all. Such a finding would not reflect reality, though.
Although that projection actually controls for women being over-represented in lower-paying industries and businesses, rather than simply looking at the basic facts of median income.
Yes it does do that but Motu found that was less than 1/10 of the overall gender wage gap they found anyway.
Further, far more women under 30 have completed university qualifications than young men, which is a major boon to womens’ job and wage prospects.
“Women under 30” is a slide – it’s women under 25. And it’s 12% for “industries and firms”, 7% for industries alone.
But in those shitty jobs, women were paid slightly more than men, assuming the projections on hours worked were correct.
Interesting use of the IDI, but it’s funny that your take-away message from it seems to be “young women are paid more than young men in shitty jobs (provided we ignore why they are in those shitty jobs in the first place as well as controlling for a few other factors), so this means men will be hard done by some time in the future”.
It reduces in agegroups below 30, and actually hits zero on occasion from year to year, but only in those agegroups where the median income is close to minimum wage anyway. “Levelling down” is the term…
That seems to be the case, although when the median gets below $20/hr the % gap seems to be within a decent statistical error – in the 2017 year the agegroup with no gap was 15-19yrs, last year it was the 20-24 agegroup.
Well, if the mother and new baby are both being cared for by the mother’s partner, then that partner is important no matter their gender.
But if we’re talking about a new baby being cared for, and allowing for breast milk… well, yeah. The mother’s kinda more crucial than the father in that case, wouldn’t you say?
That’s a kind of biological gender essentialism which is no longer in vogue, Bill, and is certainly at odds with the philosophy of total equality between the sexes.
Sure, the person capable of producing breast milk is going to tend to be more crucial in more situations than the person who did not give birth and who cannot produce breast milk.
And the person who gave birth and who can produce that milk may be a man.
As well as the breastfeeding issue, there’s some reasonably solid evidence suggesting that birth and bonding are linked (and thus well being). I don’t have a problem with women being supported to be the primary care giver after birth if that works for them and that’s what they want. Sounds like a solid plan for women and for society.
That’s quite different than saying that women have to be the primary care giver (keep women at home), or that there are no differences between men and women (treat everyone the same). I don’t think anything I’ve said is particularly controversial although obviously people have their own beliefs about it.
The idea that men and women are the same, or should be the same, or something, is quaint. Likewise the idea that gender roles should be locked in.
I believe the point CV was making (genuinely or otherwise) was that the “physical reality” of a body does not determine gender. And that’s right enough.. When I said in my comment above “the person who can….may be a man”, that’s a matter of fact and wasn’t some statement that’s missing a sarc tag.
Personally, I think he was spouting bullshit as usual. Which parent can provide breast milk is a matter of physical reality, not “biological gender essentialism.”
I also think it was a bullshit comment and distorting ideas around gender, sex, biology and equality.
So what’s wrong with biological essentialism? People use it not just to explain women’s bodies but then, by implication, to make normative arguments about what women are best suited for. One day they’re telling us that women’s bodies are the way they are to make babies. The next thing you know, making babies is what women are meant to do.
There’s nothing wrong with talking about women’s bodies having evolved to feed new born babies. Or that “the mother’s kinda more crucial than the father in that case”. That’s biology. And our politics need to take that into account (women have particular needs that are independent of what men need in that situation), as well as making sure that women aren’t economically or socially coerced into a role that just isn’t going to work or is inherently oppressive.
There is something wrong with trying to make out that discussions about that are somehow tied into an individual’s theories about biological essentialism especially where that person then skews the politics around it instead of just being honest about their own beliefs.
And you know, the whole MRA-lite, ‘men are just as important as women’ argument, especially where it’s being used to deny the specific role that women have in caring for new borns, or the differences that might exist around need. The insistence that men and women are equal being used to assert men’s rights, without particular regard for the systemic issues that are still causing huge problems for women. And so on.
Sorry, just been here too many times before.
(and yes, the whole trans and intersex people having babies thing, but I’m guessing that’s not what was being referred to).
Yeah, my understanding of it is that bioligical essentialism is about “Evolution says the woman’s meant to look after the baby while I go out and work,” not “I guess only one of us gets to breastfeed this baby and it’s going to be the one with the breasts.” That second one could be incorporated into a biological essentialist argument by someone with an agenda, but in itself it’s just a statement of fact.
A very close international neighbour of ours, Vanuatu, is heading for a financial clidd now that the Panama Papers have been relaesed and the regulators are really cracking down:
GARNET RD – STOP AUCKLAND TRANSPORT (AT) MADNESS!
STOP THE ‘WAITEMATA (UN)SAFE ROUTE CYCLEWAY’!
WHERE: Old Mill Rd / Garnet Rd ‘Island’.
WHEN: Monday 20 November 2017
WHY: Auckland Transport are building cycle lanes on the grass berms along Old Mill Rd, and (intended) along Garnet Rd.
UNSAFE FOR CYCLISTS AND DRIVERS! These cycle ways which cut across driveways to private homes, are dangerous because drivers will reverse out of their driveways directly on to the cycleway.
Auckland Transport, in a letter from David Nelson, Group Manager, Major Projects, dated 2 November 2017, to Lisa Prager, response to CAS-598750-Q7L3V0 – Engineering of West Lynn Shops:
“…. It is not safe to have cars reversing out into a cycle lane. …”
UNSAFE AND UNSUSTAINABLE FOR TREES!
Trees have already been chopped down in Surrey Crescent on Old Mill Rd.
Locals are also protesting to save local trees.
UNSAFE AND UNSUSTAINABLE FOR WATERWAY (MEOLA CREEK)
The grass berms – which were increased to make more permeable surface to absorb stormwater, have now been partially replaced with cycleway asphalt – which will arguably increase stormwater runoff down into Meola Creek.
UNSUSTAINABLE FOR LOCAL SMALL BUSINESS – WHO WILL LOSE PARKING TO MAKE WAY FOR PROPOSED CYCLEWAY!
I agree with more cycleways but have to agree with Penny,, it often feels like it’s being rammed through without any thought of the least way to disrupt the community. They need to think before they concrete everything and destroy local business at Auckland transport. I’m not sure of the full details but someone who is a massive cyclist says it doesn’t even work from a cyclists point of view… something about not connecting up properly.
I also have a MASSIVE issue with the constant kerb upgrades many of which could last another decade. The paving companies must be good at lobbying. Surely much better use of money that that. It’s also something to do with how roading is funded. If they keep within budget they lose budget but if they spend all their money they get doled out more next time. So theres always a rush to dig up things and spend their budget or they lose money the next funding.
A good example of an unsafe cycleway is Lake Rd from Devonport to Takapuna in Auckland. One day about 12 years ago they started to build it. Few people knew of the plan in advance. We stood up en masse and told the then North Shore City Council of the inevitable consequences. We were told to shut up and do what we were told. Now we have a road that cannot cope with the massive volume of traffic – caused in large part by the removal of one of the lanes to make way for the cycleway – and very few cyclists have ever used it because its way too dangerous.
And …unsafe for people to be able to walk along the footpath in ordinary alert mode .. without having to worry about close brushes with people who wouldn’t take responsibility for bruises, injury and stressful close brushes with fast-moving machines, cyclists behaving like motorists on pedals, having to constantly step aside for important people on bicycles who are prepared to share with pedestrians as long as they walk in the ditch when the footpath is being used as a pavement.
Sexually assault women, then spy on them, harass them — and anyone who asks questions.
The man is utter filth.
.
The Observer has gained access to a secret hitlist of almost 100 prominent individuals targeted by Harvey Weinstein in an extraordinary attempt to discover what they knew about sexual misconduct claims against him and whether they were intending to go public.
The previously undisclosed list contains a total of 91 actors, publicists, producers, financiers and others working in the film industry, all of whom Weinstein allegedly identified as part of a strategy to prevent accusers from going public with sexual misconduct claims against him.
The names, apparently drawn up by Weinstein himself, were distributed to a team hired by the film producer to suppress claims that he had sexually harassed or assaulted numerous women.
Sounds like someone who was our dear leader, harass a waitress, deny deny, dig dirt and try to publicly dismiss and our media chose not to expose or push the issue.
This one too, closer to home. Infosec consultant Morgan Marquis-Boire finally being called to account for his long term sexual violence that was enabled because of his favour with the powers that be.
Had the women around Key not protected him, the men protecting him would still have determined the outcome. Because they’re the ones with the power and being empowered by the current system.
Patriarchal theory isn’t that difficult to understand, and it certainly doesn’t mean men are evil and women can’t do wrong. Don’t know why I have to keep explaining that.
There’s a certain twisted sense of solidarity exists between or within powerful groups of people for sure.
Think of all the bankers from 2008. As far as I’m aware, the only person who got jail time for ripping people off was Bernie Madoff. Bernie’s mistake was to rip off influential rich people.
Or think of ex-IMF head investigated for rape of a maid in New York. Every major news outlet and talking head joined in the destruction of the victim. And Stauss-Kahn walked away. That was no accident or one off.
When you’re “through the door” you’re in, and gender then plays no more of a role than skin colour or anything else. The only thing that counts at that point is the power itself and never doing anything to challenge it or undermine it.
Well in the case of Morgan Marquis-Boire, we’ve seen a decade of women being raped and assaulted because the men in the system weren’t willing to give up power or listen to what women were saying. So I’d say that once one is in the power structure, through the door, gender is most definitely still a major issue.
And that’s not a dynamic unfamiliar to women at all.
Funnily enough, just had a talk with another local about our own Predator-free project today.
Considering the estimated cost of making NZ predator free is $9 billion, and the government investment is $28 million the ideas being proposed while admirable are currently not resourced.
I’ve had a cynicism about National’s far-away slogan rich – Predator-free by 2050 programme, which provided a bargain price exposure to many volunteers and community groups, who have enthusiastically taken the opportunity to get some funding for local projects.
Without a national framework, and consistent rollout, even it all the projects are invidivually successful it is hard to see how it will work at a national level.
Missed the Landcare meeting tonight which might have given some indication, but will be talking to the project coordinator next week. But does anyone else have hands on involvement with this initiative, and how do you see it playing out long term?
It shows 89 per cent of New Zealand youth fret about poverty, while 86 percent are vexed about violence against children.
A whopping 93 per cent worry a lot, or sometimes, about bullying.
UNICEF’s Child Rights Education Advisor Jacqui Southey is not surprised it’s an issue, but is shocked at how big the problem is.
“93 per cent of children is very high. One would hope it would be a lot less than that.”
Meanwhile, 370 children are on Variety’s sponsorship waiting list, with just over half based in Auckland.
Seems things only get worse under National as they cater more exclusively to the rich. Of course, stats like this have been getting worse since the 1980s when the 4th Labour government introduced hyper-capitalism to NZ.
The survey results will most likely be bullshit, skewed by what the children thought the surveyor wanted to hear.
Especially for the 9 to 12 year olds. (How the hell are they going to understand what poverty is, especially since 20% of them will be living in comfortable middle class households?)
To Robert Guyton if you are tuning in today – last year we had a baby blackbird in our garden just fledged with a very gammy leg, it hobbled about but Mum and Dad were feeding it. I phoned the bird lady and she suggested to be humane we try and catch it, place it in a plastic bag and put in the freezer to die a painless death. I was horrified with this suggestion and anyway we couldn’t catch it.
This season a black glossy male with a gammy leg is busy grabbing worms out of our compost and is flying into the climber outside our bedroom window (which houses blackbirds each year by the way) and feeding a clutch of 3 babies. Along with Mum they are good parents.
Which shows the blackbird species does not obviously abandon a disabled chick and will watch over it until it can fly out of harm’s way. Great to see this male has wooed a lady and done the deed and is a responsible father. Makes this time of year such fun in the garden.
Mervin the fledgling magpie came to us in very poor condition with a terribly mangled leg, an inquisitive heading dog, that had to be amputated. He recovered, thrived and at around six months took wing. He’s now quite the magnificent chap who turns up regularly to be hand fed his fav, Winna, with added garlic oil.
Magpies can be magnificent pets – highly social and intelligent. Friends had one for many years who also had a mangled leg and also little flying ability. He ruled the house and garden, including dogs, cats, humans and parrots. He finally died of old age.
Because of our own dogs and Mervs fear of them, we encouraged him to take wing. And the constant running after him with a sheet of newspaper, too.
But I’ve come across a few kept as pets and you’re right, they ruled the roost, cats and dogs terrified of them, but not the chooks. One bird in particular was so terrified by chooks, it would flee and lie flat on it’s back in the lap of the nearest human, trembling and squawking murder, murder.
A neighbours bird would come visiting first thing when it’s people left for work and because Jackie, it’s person would engage in actual pillow talk with it, the damn thing would fly around the the house looking for an open window and then up the stairs, and try to get into bed with you.
Another living next door to my brother would mimic everything from telephones and skillsaws through to squealing kids and barking dogs.
Lovely story – I do love blackbirds even though they are not ‘native’ birds – and they really are the best parents of all bird species in my opinion. I have r and r’d injured birds, abandoned babies etc for many years and they are usually the most responsive to treatment. They also rarely abandon babies and are usually close by – and will use distraction tricks to woo any predator away from the chicks.
The freezer suggestion is used but usually only as a last resort. There are many other ways of euthanazing injured and ill birds before that one.
BUT I wondered – did you mean to post this in yesterday’s Open Mike (20 Nov ) as you have done; or in today’s Open Mike (21 Nov)?
I sure did veuoviper, I felt a bit stupid afterwards and was going to post it in today’s Open Mike. Won’t do this now as you kind folks have commented on our blackbird family. Lovely stories about the magpies although they do make me a bit apprehensive for the dive bombing tactics!!!
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Interesting.
This is the story of a southern hemisphere country in which China has significant investments in. It has its government changed with the help of Beijing when the People’s Republic becomes concerned that their business and strategic interests are not being taken care of.
It is the story of Zimbabwe.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11945674
Be careful Jacinda.
You are in charge of a southern hemisphere country in which China has significant investments, and your policies are threatening China’s business and strategic interests .
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11924169
More on the China connection.
‘A visit to Beijing last Friday by Zimbabwe’s military chief, General Constantino Chiwenga, has fuelled suspicions that China may have given the green light to this week’s army takeover in Harare.
If so, the world may just have witnessed the first example of a covert coup d’etat of the kind once favoured by the CIA and Britain’s MI6, but conceived and executed with the tacit support of the 21st century’s new global superpower.
China, Africa’s biggest foreign investor, has more at stake in Zimbabwe, and more political influence, than any other state. This is largely due to its extensive investments in the mining, agriculture, energy and construction sectors. China was Zimbabwe’s top trade partner in 2015, buying 28% of its exports. ‘
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/17/zimbabwe-was-mugabes-fall-a-result-of-china-flexing-its-muscle
“suspicions”…”may have just”.
In other words, this accusation is irrefutable and therefore meaningless. Someone will deny it.
I can feel a tweet coming: “Xi Jinping thinks he can do raygeem change better than me! Sad! Watch this space!”
Edit: the notion that Zimbaweans might just have done this themselves is apparently beyond the author(s?) of these articles.
Given that Mnangagwa’s supporters amongst the generals and general staff are Zimbaweans, then yes, it could be claimed that “Zimbabweans might just have done this themselves.”
Of course, these specific Zimbabweans may, or may not have, checked in with their foreign contacts from the Chinese, US and other governments before and during their decision to do so.
Which is what I’d expect them to do if they’re half-way competent, as opposed to being the set of alleged puppets with zero agency portrayed in Ed’s links.
So let me see … if hypothetically say Judith Collins was half-way competent, you’d be ok with her checking her ‘foreign contacts’ before colluding with various senior army types to march into the Beehive and arrest Adern?
It may read like a preposterous scenario, but then it’s not too far removed from what happened when the UK govt clearly had a hand in the coup against Gough Whitlam.
OK so no comparisons are exact, but I’m trying to place this coup into a more familiar local context.
I’m not “ok with it”; the whole situation is monstrous and has been for decades.
The stakes are pretty high: incompetent coupsters don’t last long. Especially if they’re nothing but puppets.
And my modest reading of what’s happened is that the Chinese (with a major economic stake in the country) have agreed that Mugabe had reached his ‘use by date’ and gave clear support for regime change; along with the Americans and British signalling they’d keep out of it if things went smoothly.
None of this story will be simple, there will be a convergence of many factors. Mugabe and his wife Grace appear to have triggered much of the crisis themselves, and everyone was completely over the seemingly endless incompetence, corruption and waste of the Mugabe regime.
Still having one of the chief plotters make a trip to China just one week prior isn’t something you can readily hand-wave away. It almost certainly has significance, and points to what happens when a nation hands off too much of its economic sovereignty to a bigger power.
In this instance the outcome may have been relatively benign, but there is no rule that says such entanglements will always be so. You only have to look at the USA’s sorry record in this respect to see how what started as a game of good intentions post WW2 ended up a nightmare decades later in Latin America.
I’m not “hand-waving it away”, I’m looking at it in the context of “the Americans and British signalling they’d keep out of it”, the clear internal momentum for change, and that being presented as something China did on its own, by “flexing its muscle”.
…might be a better alternative to being a British/Rhodesian colony, depending on your perspective.
And it remains to be seen if being a Chinese ‘client state’ works out much better.
It will of course be different to the British version; the Chinese generally prefer exerting indirect economic power before all other options … but then it’s early days in this cycle of expansion for them.
They certainly haven’t held back from military options in the South China Sea for instance.
(When in Laos about 18 months ago, every conversation with a local, quite unprompted by me, got around to expressing some form of anger or contempt with how Chinese money was buying up their country with zero respect for the Laotian people.)
As in NZ, it is locals selling out local interests to foreigners for a quick ¥ ¥ ¥
Actually it’s worth enlarging a bit on my experience in Laos. I was working at a gold mine site in the mountains near the Vietnamese border. Ostensibly owned by some local elites (the gap between rich and poor is a monstrous, staggering gulf), but backed by Chinese money.
The mine itself was probably the most incompetently run site anywhere. Huge amounts of capital injected, yet on the numbers we could see they had to be hemorrhaging cash. And I won’t even start to dwell on the bizarre operational issues from senior management downward.
I was working with a far more experienced guy who was mightily intrigued by all of this.
So he started asking questions and it turns out the mine concession came with rights to a huge amount of forested land, that of course was being illegally strip mined of valuable timber. The gold operation was an elaborate front.
I recently changed jobs and feel free to relate this incident.
Edit . We’re you helping them convert to a low carbon solution?
The serious answer to that question marty is yes. Our process solutions featured low-energy, low chemical and low water consumption innovations.
In the context of this particular site our energy contribution would have been minuscule, but many of our other projects were remarkably better than standard industry practice. Sometimes dramatically so.
Cool.
“Puppets” was your interpretation, not the interpretation of The Guardian story.
I’m surprised you read The Guardian piece as anti-Zimbabwean when it is clearly anti-Chinese.
It’s both.
Reading the text, the headline and story could have been: “Superpowers co-operate with Zimbawean military to remove Mugabe”.
Meh no one will be sad to see Mugabe go – murderous thug that he is. The only matter of interest will be how bad the thug that replaces him will be. If the transition is relatively violence free that’ll be miraculous in itself.
“….Meh no one will be sad to see Mugabe go – murderous thug that he is. ..”
His successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, is just as bad. He may see a bit of economic reform, but Zimbabwe is now a failed state with an utterly corrupt and brutal ruling elite propped up by their sponsors in Beijing.
…with the blessing of “the Americans”, according to “diplomatic sources”: see Ed’s link.
Zimbabwe was a failed state with an utterly corrupt and brutal regime long before it was called Zimbabwe. Different sponsors, though 😉
Edit: not that that’s any comfort to Zimbabweans, but.
Failed state? Zimbabwe had one of the highest ag/hort farming outputs in Africa under British rule.
That imploded under Mugabe.
Africa under British rule eh? Something about that concept worries me. Can’t quite put my finger on it. Oh, yes, it’s the corruption and brutality involved. It smells like failure.
Back in NZ my partner got to be good friends with a lady of Shona background. My recollections are that she narrated Zimbabwe to us as a complex story, but in brief, while most people welcomed the end of colonisation … few believed that what has replaced it was an improvement.
I imagine that today most of the people in that country will feel much the same about the end of Mugabe’s regime … welcomed but skeptical of what may come next.
“White flight” was a very real phenomenon from Zimbabwe.
All kinds of technical, trade and technology specialists packed up and left.
Farmers saw the writing on the wall after numerous intimidation, extortion, home invasion incidents, sold their farms for what they could (if anything) and left.
That’s critical national capacity and capability voting with their feet and their family’s feet.
Like South Africa, the previous colonial regime was intolerable. Like South Africa, the replacement for white colonial rule was intolerable.
Most in the west don’t even know about the wave of xenophobic violence which swept South Africa after the end of apartheid which targeted the settlements and lives of poverty stricken blacks – who were from other parts of Africa.
(Turns out that non-white groups can be extraordinarily tribal and xenophobic).
Or that the number of murders in South Africa rose 6x to 8x under the new post-Apartheid regime, to roughly 40,000 to 50,000 per annum.
OAB remarks on the “corruption and brutality involved” in western colonial rule – very true. But post-colonial rule the “corruption and brutality involved” has merely morphed in its expression, not reduced.
Zuma and Mugabe are just the tip of that iceberg.
But we get to celebrate the end of white rule, and so for some, that seems enough to give the ideological/political thumbs up.
Most in the west don’t even know about the wave of xenophobic violence
The industry I’m in has a lot of white South Africans. While they’re not a demonstrative people as a rule, it’s clear many of them mourn their exile from a land and peoples they still love.
And some of their personal stories of just such violence, godawful horrors the western media never reports … suffice to say I’m not going to burden any of you by repeating them.
morphed in its expression, not reduced.
It’s being perpetrated by the same class of people: meet the new boss.
the new boss is far more “diverse” now so there’s at least that checkbox ticked.
Looking at it through that lens means you should probably take the (allegedly) continuing global reduction in violence (cf: Steven Pinker) and poverty (cf: UN, Rosling, etc.) into account too.
They said that about Saddam…. I guess you need ask the good people of Iraq who they preferred and who now owns and controls their oil reserves.
It amazes me that neoliberal ideologues are such staunch defenders of the foreign policy of the Chinese Communist Party.
Diplomatic sources claim the Americans were happy for Mugabe to be replaced as long as there was no bloodshed, and a smooth transition to the new regime.
It amazes me when people post links that undermine their own claims.
I’ve noticed the third way lefties seem just as keen as the righties on disabling democracy if it suits them and marginalising any dissenters.
Just who do you think is disabling democracy here, savenz? Are you truly claiming that Zimbabwe was a democratic state under Mugabe? I think we all know that it wasn’t (the people of Zimbabwe certainly know that), and that the coup that’s now occurring isn’t going to transform it into a democratic state, either. It may be very slightly less awful, or it might not – after all Mnangagwa served under Mugabe for a long time and seems to be fine with the levels of corruption and violence that are embedded into the system of his country. He’s doing this for himself, not as a servant of his people.
I was meaning it in general terms not about Zimbabwe but more Ed’s comments of so many lefties defending Chinese government involvement in issues.
China is not a democracy and has pretty serious human rights violations but you would not know it by so many so called lefties being comfortable with that and the spreading of Chinese government influence around the world. You are pretty naive if you think that once ducks are in a row the Chinese will not flex their muscles and implement what they think is right which is how they run their country and start taking greater control in countries of strategic interest.
And also the lack of interest in democracy in local issues here in NZ around zoning and land use which is a hot topic.
Ed, if you read the second link you will find Helen Clark saying “New Zealand must engage with major powers in its region, but that it should not be naive in its interaction with any of them.”
I guess if Jacinda Ardern becomes Robert Mugabe in forty years time we should probably call the army.
The problem in the second link is that Ardern almost ignored the report about growing Chinese influence even though Don Brash is one of those influencers and is fully supportive of it. Neither seem too concerned with NZ losing its sovereignty.
China does seem to have got permission from the other world powers first.
And that, too, should be a serious concern. When all the major powers are working together to deny a nation it’s own self-determination then smaller nations have to be careful.
EDIT:
That article shows this coup as being a Good Thing and isn’t a scathing denunciation like what we saw after the Fiji coup. That itself is very telling.
Great article on the Daily Blog questioning RNZ’s support for blatant propaganda about Manus.
The notorious guard.
‘…so what Radio NZ are asking us to believe is that member of staff from a group with a long history of abusing refugees should be listened to when they warn us we shouldn’t take any.’
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/11/20/rnz-believed-manus-island-staff-but-why-should-we/
Hmm who is more believable those with first hand experience albeit some likely bias or that paragon of truth and measure Martin Bradbury?
“First-hand experience” – big whoop. The camp guards at Belsen had plenty of first-hand experience of conditions there too. Funnily enough, no-one was interested in hearing their stories about how it was all the inmates’ fault.
If Guyon Espiner had been around, he would have interviewed them and asked no difficult questions. Instead Espiner would have helped the guards blame the inmates.
+1
Ah, the so-called credibility of the source AKA “shoot the messenger” as the discerning fact or factor in ‘deciding the truth’. People should stop pretending to be ‘rational’ and simply state the question, in all honesty: whom do I want to believe most because it is (most) consistent with my own biased views and least likely to have consequences, in thought or action, that may cause internal friction & conflict? That would be a refreshing and more truthful approach, wouldn’t it just?
Incognito at 7.40am
Nice one. It would pay to copy this and keep it for reference when making judgments on complex issues.
So your response to Bradbury’s argument is to attack Bradbury. It’s the same argument I’ve been making. Wilson “Security” has been offering hush money: this is a matter of public record.
If you think anonymous Ian is a credible source, that’s on you, not Martyn B.
“So your response to Bradbury’s argument is to attack Bradbury. It’s the same argument I’ve been making.”
Irony or admission? You attack far more than you argue.
“If you think anonymous Ian is a credible source…”
That’s pure hypocrisy.
[3 day ban for flaming. Even in Open Mike you have to make some attempt to debate the politics and not just have a go at someone you disapprove of – weka]
I’ll always attack your beige drivel Peter. The mods here are alert to pointless personal attacks, or tone or language that has the effect of excluding others, so if you think they’re doing a poor job I suggest you take it up with them.
When I assert a fact I provide supporting links, so I’m not a source of anything. Reference to “anonymous Ian”, by the way, is a clue that he’s as credible as I am: which is to say, not credible at all without supporting material.
Have a lovely day 😈
You really pick your friends stunned mullet.
First the apparatchiks of the Chinese Communist Party, now brutal guards running a concentration camp in the Pacific.
[3 day ban for flaming. Even in Open Mike you have to make some attempt to debate the politics and not just have a go at someone you disapprove of – weka]
I have colleagues who have worked in Australian refugee camps, the Medical and Nursing staff are mostly New Zealanders. All describe the inmates as incredibly damaged individuals, initially by their conflict experiences but then compounded by incarceration.Anyone showing empathy and advocation was soon sacked by the Austalian administration and flown out. What you had left were the sycophantic and psychopathic as evidenced by the ex guard now gaining a voice on RNZ.
Thank you for that info, really insightful and logical
Way to go Queenstown! $2.00 bus fares – to solve Queenstown traffic and transportation gridlock.
RNZ reports:
That’s what is needed in NZ’s bigger cities, too!
A good start and frequent and reliable trains/buses also needed to make it work in larger cities.
Jim Boult, Queenstown.
Yay – for a voice of change and problem-solving. More please, now we know it can be done, so let’s do it! New Mayor, new ideas.
Yeah, he’s a major step forward from actoid V van useless….
Jim’s got a strong record of getting things done, had a couple of miss-steps but generally done good.
All vvu did was look after her mates. And let 5 Mile fill in Hendo’s hole which was going to be the park & ride hub, giving us a slight chance of getting a viable public transport system.
Sounds good.
Although, I hope they aren’t expecting bus drivers to cover it (i.e. lower wage increases going forward)?
It’s going to be very interesting to see how this plays out. The current operator pretty much trashed what was starting to be a quite good service under the previous operator. Patronage and service had plummeted. You saw more people hitching at bus stops than waiting for a bus.
On the way into town this morning there seemed to be more Ritchies busses on the road, but still people at bus stops with their thumb out.
The commitment by both councils and operator seems to be tepid at best. The busses are pretty old and seem pulled in from wherever they can find them, no local branding, and no commitment or even plans for park and ride. This limits the service to only those that live on the routes, commuters coming from more affordable areas like Cromwell or Kingston / Athol are still forced to park in central Queenstown because there’s even less parking in Frankton or Arrowtown than Queenstown. And what there is, now sports restriction or tow-away signs.
Maybe they want it to fail so they can proclaim that lower fares are not the answer?
Bit like how they ran a few trains a day at non peak times and used that as a basis that trains were not viable in parts of Auckland.
I don’t think failure is really an option. The situation is beyond dire, Frankton Road will hit design capacity in 7 years and since there are no upgrade options due to topography the bus option has to work or we stop. In about 20 years even the most wild projections of bus patronage won’t keep things moving and ferries on the lake are the only option. The NZTA report below paints a pretty grim picture of where the lace is heading if we can’t do something about getting traffic demand down, fast.
http://www.qldc.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Council-Documents/Full-Council-Agendas/2017/28-September-2017/10a.-Attachments-Queenstown-Integrated-Transport-Strategy.pdf
Several cycles of zoning growth, out beyond actual demand, followed by speculative development , have got well and truly ahead of not just the current infrastructure, but what is physically possible in the space and terrain. The last few years of SHA madness has just been taking the piss of the roading network.
PS. NZTA did have an alternative to ferries, a gondola, which i can’t see having the capacity or speed to be of use. At least they didn’t try suggesting a monorail
Yes I think we should provide free dental care for our youth till they turn at least 20or 22 . As when they leave the nest there diet changes less good food and more alcohol and those soda pop drinks just rot there teeth realy fast the drinks will start attacking any damage in ones teeth . I think we consume to much alcohol . Before my children venture on there journey of life I made sure they new what the effects of alcohol had on them in a safe environment.
I have told all my children your are what you eat this information goes in one ear and out the other they will learn that what I’m saying to be fact one of my clients told me about his change to a high fiber bread 90 % whole meal flour. I would get all the greens I could but they very expensive and am not in a situation to grow them they are easy to grow I used this bread and my health improved a lot
I like to eat a lot of peppers tomatoes mushrooms onions and peppers are nice raw in salads
The first reason why I am encouraging OUR people to give up smoking is so they can live longer to guide there family’s up there ladders of life and tell them about the hinue on there ladders of life well you no what I mean.
The second reason is one does not take politics seriously until they start going silver on top . And from my observations most of the national voters don’t smoke so they live longer and get to vote longer.
Alot of OUR left voters are smokers and a high % don’t even make it to retirement so our left elderly voices is no where as loud as national elderly have.
And I no that the puppet masters behind the seen of national no this and will manipulate it to there advantage. I.E after I endorse vapors the attack ads on vapors start .So come on lefty’s get a vapor of any thing and stop smoking so we can guarantee OUR moko’s have a wonder full bright future .
Yes I’m a big fan of cryptocurrency the only problem is I got no money to invest in this new currency I have been following Elon Mus for years to I would have Invested in his company’s If I had some spear money. And I see why Elon does not like to be compared to Steve Jobs as in my view Elon is far superior Jobs would not use modern medical practices to extend his life and Jobs was about himself and not much thought about the rest of OUR world I.E his actions would have convinced a lot of people to make the wrong Health choices . The President of the USA has figured out that how he behaves and what he says influences the way a lot of people behave in the USA He is OK at lest we no hes a strait up and does not bullshit around . P.S Jack don’t you get his humor he new whom Jacinda was he would have making a little joke that He did not recognise her I no he gets briefed on everthing and I back him on his view that 2 of OUR super power should get a long and trade as they have the buttons that could destroy our world so this is good logic. I believe that all the country’s of OUR beautiful WORLD should get along forget the old wars and look after THE PEOPLE. Kia Kaha
Totally agree with free dental care for young people. And the importance of a healthy diet. Good food should be affordable by all.
And, yep. I think the older people who vote conservative, tend to live longer than the less well off people – and that has a big impact on elections, one way or another. And it demoralises many less well off people, who give up on voting because they don’t see anyone much in power who represents them.
GROPERS
No. 5: Lester Beck
This creep “Lester Beck” looks like Sen. Al Franken (Groper No. 3 in our series). The first unwelcome touching incident, reminiscent of John Key’s antics, occurs at the 1:03 mark. During the excruciating one and a half minutes from 5:13 he acts like Harvey Weinstein. At 9:47 more Harvey Weinstein. And in the last few seconds, we have Steve Coogan as Garth “The Knife” McVicar….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgi7W5hSoOs
(By the way, Leighton “Ummm, errrrr, ahhhh, errrrr” Smith could do with some of the therapy prescribed from the 3:25 mark.)
“GROPERS” is researched and presented by GroperWatch, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
No.1 George Herbert Walker Bush
No. 2 Bill O’Reilly
No. 3 Al Franken
No. 4 Robin Brooke
Deadbeat Dads
No. 3 SIR DOUGLAS GRAHAM
He seemed like one of the few nice guys in the National Party, but that horrible son of his didn’t just ooze out of some filthy swamp sui generis….
http://www.noted.co.nz/currently/politics/carrick-graham-without-apologies/
https://treatygate.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/sir-douglas-graham-in-dock.png?w=158&h=309
Deadbeat Dad No. 1: Sir John Key
Deadbeat Dad No. 2: Bill English
Why are individuals like Carrick Graham and Cameron Slater not held accountable for the smear tactics used against innocent individuals?
Is our judicial system too soft in dealing with certain individuals, and/or perhaps do they have friends in high places?
Controversial blogger Cameron Slater, public relations man Carrick Graham and former MP Katherine Rich have failed in a court bid to knock out a defamation claim by three health experts.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/10/04/51558/whaleoil-ex-mp-pr-man-to-face-jury-trial
Wow behind the well-sculpted persona, these people have dirty fingernails. Not bright and shiny at all. In fact is it known whether their blood is red, blue, or green?
Watery, kinda straw-coloured. Smells a bit.
Sounds like our pure river water. Or perhaps these are people who are gradually reverting back to the water animals we were supposed to have been, before we made the big struggle onto land. (I had to stop watching tv zombies and alien stories, they were affecting my thoughts unhealthily.)
I was thinking of urine, but “100% Pure” river water would do.
Heading in the right direction
As we know, Labour have no set date for the minimum wage to match the living wage (currently $20.20) and are unwilling to increase core benefit rates.
Yet, some say give Labour a chance, at least they’re heading in the right direction.
Well, that’s as comforting as knowing the fire brigade knows your house is on fire, they’re on their way, yet they won’t be there for a number of years.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/99027132/growing-demand-for-food-parcels-shows-poverty-is-on-the-rise-salvation-army-says
How bad will things become before Labour gets there?
Labour have been in government for less than a month. It’s hardly surprising that there are no dates yet for complex things like increases in the minimum wage!
This has clearly been indicated as a priority for the first 100 days. If we get to the end of that time with no progress, feel free to moan and whinge…
“It’s hardly surprising that there are no dates yet for complex things like increases in the minimum wage!”
That’s incorrect.
Dates for the minimum wage to increase have been set, unfortunately increases won’t reach parity with the living wage. Moreover, there is no date set for that.
I’m not moaning and whinging. I’m highlighting this failure and the need (see link above) for Labour to do more now.
So instead of you accepting this lowering of the bar, making incorrect excuses and moaning and whinging at me, make some noise about this and help me get Labour to up their game.
I’d agree that labelling the raising of the minimum wage “complex” and using it as an excuse is disingenuous to say the least.
But it makes sense that raising the minimum wage ‘correctly’ is a big/complex issue if Labour believes in the neoliberal economics briefings from Treasury which will be insisting that the Government has to be wary of setting off “inflationary pressures.”
What are the chances? 😎
What are the chances of inflationary pressure?
It will add upward pressure. But than can (through Government actions) and will (through the market place) be mitigated to some extent.
So, it’s like, complicated?
It can be for some.
Not for some.
For putting in place government policy that doesn’t exacerbate the inflationary pressures that you mention. Getting those right would be complicated and many aspects are likely to be missed.
yep, it’s going to take awhile to undo the damage that National have done and things are still going to get worse for worse for awhile because that damage.
Some say, give Labour a chance, they’re heading in the right direction. Not The Chairman though; he says pull ’em down at every opportunity.
I’m not pulling them down, Robert. They’ve taken that position themselves.
I’m attempting to apply public pressure for them to up their game.
Why aren’t you backing me?
Maybe Robert Guyon believes that major economic moves by Labour like signing the TPPA is “heading in the right direction”? 😛 😛 😛
Maybe.
Can you name those “major economic moves” by Labour that are like signing the TPPA, Colonial Viper? So that I can test whether I believe they are in the right direction.
Signing the TPPA is *the* biggest economic move that the new government has committed the country to, to date.
So please evaluate that.
Oh, I see. Did they sign the TPPA, or was it some other agreement?
OMG, you’re really running with the ‘they gave the document a new heading and PR title even though the tens of thousands of measures and clauses in the body are exactly the same, so it’s not the TPPA at all’ line? 😀 😛
Is that true? The only changes were to the heading and PR title?
Crikey! Is it? How do we know this?
Because the brand new Labour Govt didn’t have the time to do anything but turn up on a plane and sign National’s agreement.
also, has it actually been signed?
No changes at all were discussed and or made, Colonial? How do you know this?? Or are you surmising?
From Jacinda’s own email….
Today I got back from a week in Vietnam and the Philippines, representing New Zealand at APEC and the East Asia Summit. I’ve met with world leaders from right across the Asia-Pacific region – including from China, Chile, Canada, Japan, the EU, India and ASEAN nations – and built direct relationships with the leaders and countries.
While I’ve been overseas, the main thing I’ve been doing is renegotiating a new version of the TPP, now called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
As someone who signed a petition against the previous version of the TPP, I wanted to write directly to you and explain how the agreement has changed.
The deal signed by the previous Government sacrificed New Zealand’s interests and ability to make our own choices. That wasn’t acceptable to this Government, or to many New Zealanders.
In the three short weeks we’ve been in office, we’ve managed to make meaningful changes to the agreement, so that:
The deal continues to upholds the unique status of the Treaty of Waitangi;
It preserves New Zealand’s right to make laws in the interests of New Zealanders.
Our mutual agreement with Australia, which is the source of 80% of our overseas investment from CPTPP, means Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses will continue to not apply between our countries and other protections will be in place too;
New Zealand will introduce legislation to ban overseas speculators buying existing houses here in our first 100 days;
Pharmac is fully protected, and no changes will be required to copyright terms;
Private companies who enter into a contract with the Government will not be able to use ISDS clauses if there is a dispute;
Tariffs will be substantially reduced for farmers and they’ll have access to new markets.
These are important changes from previous versions of the agreement. While we haven’t gained all the changes we hoped for on ISDS clauses, we have made significant progress in this area. Nothing in the agreement prevents us from regulating in NZ’s public interest, such as for public health, environment and water. We can also rule out claims relating to tobacco control measures. The Government is clear that we will oppose ISDS in future FTA negotiations.
There are four country-specific items remaining to negotiate between the 11 countries. As soon as the text of the agreement is finalised, it will be publically released, before going through a full parliamentary treaty examination process. We’ll be taking the time to have a conversation with New Zealanders about what it means for our country.
This is not a perfect agreement, but I’m proud of the work we did to improve it, and I’ve been honoured to represent our great country on the world stage.
I’m personally disappointed they seem to be going to sign it, even though in Jacinda’s own words – not a perfect agreement.
New clauses like the treaty of Waitangi – are meaningless – how can Maori interests be preserved if the government of the day – has a different interpretation of what they are entitled to? It may be a right wing government in charge in the future.
The ISDS clause only applies to government contracts so Maori and private interests seem to still be subjected to them.
etc etc
Lot’s of problems.
Well then TC
Let us work out for ourselves that Labour are pulling themselves down. Devote the rest of your apparently boundless time to something positive, invigorating, unlike your vinegary input here. Try spending your time bringing about things of beauty and worth. Or consider spending more time on Kiwiblog or Whaleoil, your writing style will be sure to elevate them to a better overall standard.
“Let us work out for ourselves that Labour are pulling themselves down.”
Get back to me when you have worked it out.
“Or consider spending more time on Kiwiblog or Whaleoil, your writing style will be sure to elevate them to a better overall standard.”
Well, from the cold response I’m getting from some of you so-called lefties, I may have far more chance getting National to improve their game. If they treated the poor better, they’d get far more voting for them. And now that they are in opposition, they may be more willing to listen. However, it will be another 3 years before they have a chance of regaining power, which of course is far to long to wait. So it’s up to us lefties to apply the pressure on Labour to do more now.
I hope once you figure it out you’ll come help and join in.
I don’t recall you having the same zeal in trying to get national to lift their game when they were in government.
The fact is that Labour have made significant progress on several of their 100 days commitments. Off the top of my head they’ve announced plans and initial steps on housing, pike river, and tertiary education, with signs of activity on a few other fronts. Much better than national ever were.
“I don’t recall you having the same zeal in trying to get national to lift their game when they were in government.”
National don’t really represent the poor. And while in power, are less inclined to listen.
Yes, Labour have achieved a few changes, but have little (insufficient policies) when it comes to poverty.
So join in and lets see if we can turn that around.
So you felt no need to limit their damage by “lifting their game”?
Let’s try a different tack – what specific policies would you put on a wish list for this government?
So you felt no need to limit their damage by “lifting their game”?
No. I didn’t feel I’d be listened too. Nor would I be largely supported by their supporters.
The Living wage as the minimum wage and core benefit increases is where I’ll leave it for now. Don’t want us to lose sight of the discussion at hand.
So do you support that cause, the Living wage as the minimum wage and core benefit increases?
Luckily, people working in child poverty didn’t share your sense of futility. Eventually even the tories were promising to halve it, whereas ten years ago they didn’t believe it was a widespread issue beyond a few bad parents.
As for living minum wage and even living benefits, yes I support those policies. And I’ll keep working towards them.
What I won’t do is use perceived shortcomings in Labour policy as an excuse to ignore the significant steps they’ve already made, or the other excellent policies in the coalition government pipeline. Because dwelling on the required improvements at the expense of endorsing things we want to sustain just sows discouragement and despondancy. But I suspect you already knew that, concern-o-bot.
“As for living minum wage and even living benefits, yes I support those policies. And I’ll keep working towards them.”
How so?
“What I won’t do is use perceived shortcomings in Labour policy as an excuse to ignore the significant steps they’ve already made…”
The shortcomings are real. And it’s got nothing to do with ignoring steps made. It’s about Labour being may aware we’re not willingly going to sit back an accept their shortcomings.
If we fail to make a noise about it, it will signal we’re OK with it. And that is not the message we need to be sending them.
Labour’s unwillingness to do more now is already sowing discouragement and despondency.
So while pressuring them to up their game might ruffle the feathers of a few party cheerleaders, it won’t do more damage than what Labour are already sowing themselves, IMO. Therefore, I disagree.
As for people working in child poverty, well poverty extends that of just children. But those folk seldom get a mention.
How so? Shit I do in real life, both in work and my spare time. And trying to give credit where credit is due, even here.
And yes, your activities here have everything to do with what you ignore, as well as what you place emphasis on. Try having a boss one day who constantly whinges and never gives credit for your good work – would that be a workplace you want to stay in, or a boss you’d do any effort for?
If you think that your comments won’t do any more damage to Labour, why bother? You can have no effect whatsoever if that’s true – it won’t change Labour’s support one iota, if you’re correct. Or do you expect a Labour MP to go “gosh, the Chairman is correct, we need to ‘lift our game’ on the one or two policy areas he’s decided to focus on today!”. As well as the issue you raised last week. I’m sure that got picked up at the next caucus meeting /sarc
Hey, guess what? Solving child poverty will solve almost all adult poverty, because it goes through the parents. And when child poverty is done, there’s no excuse to not address adult poverty. And poverty is now measured formally, can be assessed against benchmarks, and if it can be measured people can be held to account for letting it exist. The vast majority of those gains happened while mr concern-o-bot thought that resisting a national govt was futile.
“I may have far more chance getting National to improve their game…”
Good on you, Chair! There are many here who support your newly expressed aim; will it be Kiwiblog that you’ll chose as your forum? Let us know, so we can visit. We’ll miss you here, sure, but given your perseverance, I believe you will be very effective over there, improving National’s game. All the best.
You forgot about the time frame, hence why it would be pointless at this stage, Robert.
But if Labour have failed to make any major improvements by then (next election) then it will be time to target both. Therefore, at this stage it’s Labour we require to apply pressure on.
National are toothless then, Chair, without any influence or prospects? Perhaps you should apply your talents to picking them up off the floor and rebuilding in the hope of winning back the seats of power beyond this decade. You’re determined enough and it sounds as though they need someone like you.
Why aren’t I backing you, Chair? Because I don’t believe that you are, “attempting to apply public pressure for them to up their game”. It looks and smells to me as though you are attempting to undermine the confidence of Labour supporters here with your constant concern trolling. That’s why.
Labour don’t need supporters at the moment, they’ve already achieved power, Robert. Hence, your logic is delusional.
And if you are genuinely holding back because you distrust me, make some noise on your on account. Show you are not happy with this and push Labour to up their game.
Chairman. Your comments seem… odd today. “Labour don’t need supporters…” – I’m not sure if you’ve thought your statement through very well; every party needs supporters at all times, no matter whether they are in power or not; after all, democracy is supposed to be responsive to the people, and elected representatives need support in whatever they do, I’d have thought. I wonder what you believe I’m “genuinely holding back” from? Trying to erode the confidence of readers here, as you appear to be? It’s not an aim of mine. Have you given more thought to your intention to focus on National and the changes its MPs could make? I support you in that endeavour, for sure!
The democracy we practice only requires us to vote once every three years (general election).
And as a result, elected representatives tend to do as they and the party wish, regardless if we support it.
I was referring to you holding back from publicly speaking out and expressing your disappointed and unhappiness with Labour’s unwillingness to do more on addressing poverty. Such as, the minimum wage having parity with the living wage and increasing core benefit rates.
The question is, do you support these causes (the minimum wage having parity with the living wage and increasing core benefit rates) Robert?
So, it’s ‘go back to sleep, sleepy hobbits, from you is it, Chair? Ordinary folk can’t do anything after casting their vote.
Why then, are you trying to do something here? And why are you trying to get others to do something?
Your ideas seem…confused, contradictory.
I think you are not genuine in your claims. You are a constant negative voice here on TS, bagging Labour for things you claim they won’t do, can’t do, haven’t done.
You seem to be like the person who films the fire saying ,’oh know this is bad’ instead of getting in and helping. And when people say that to you you say,’we must have a record of what happened shouldn’t we, why are you trying to stop me recording this, it’s not about me it’s about the fire right behind me’… a voyeur in other words.
Applying public pressure on Labour and openly speaking out is a way of helping, Marty. So why don’t you stop having a go at me and join in and help?
Just cos you’ve lowered the bar doesn’t mean I’m going to mate.
No, it’s Labour that have set the bar so low, Marty. And it seems you’re happy to accept it.
Why lower it even lower then? I thought you wanted to be taken seriously.
Labour have gone from wanting an increase in the min wage to $16.50 at the election, to wanting a $20 min wage in three years time with NZ First’s help. That is quite a turn around and it’s only 20 cents off the living wage figure you quote. Not really worth complaining about?
You probably have a point on benefit rates though.
2021 is when Labour’s (pushed by NZ First) $20.00 minimum wage increase will take effect.
The current Living wage is $20.20 and increases annually. Therefore, by 2021 Labour’s $20.00 will still be far short of the 2021 living wage. So my point is valid.
Join the Green Party and campaign for a living wage.
A major establishment party just proposed to increase the min wage by 20% over 3 years – something that never looked likely.. probably in living memory.
I voted Green, for what little good that has achieved.
“A major establishment party just proposed to increase the min wage by 20% over 3 years – something that never looked likely.. probably in living memory.”
Wow! Is that meant to impress me? It still doesn’t meet today’s living wage.
People are dying out there, a growing number are struggling, hence we require Labour to do more now.
Oh well roll over and take Bill’s 25 cents increase once in a blue moon which was the alternative. Maybe that would help the people you’re so worried about. “Tui”
I just can’t believe the minimum wage is still below the average wage. What’s with that, Chairmy?
This is getting ridiculous.
During the election campaign, Labour’s policy was clear – in order to reduce immigration they would reduce the number of international students by between 15,000 and 22,000 a year which represents about a quarter of incoming students,” Mr Goldsmith says.
“But Education Minister Chris Hipkins has been giving private assurances to the sector that they shouldn’t worry, he has no intention of carrying out that commitment anytime soon.
“And he is also reported today saying he is ‘not rushing to make changes’.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1711/S00121/govt-u-turn-coming-on-international-students.htm
Lol, National Party press release based on gossip, made by an MP whose government ran an extractive economy that allowed people to be treated like shit.
Well, there is this (below). So there is a grain of truth to what was posted, thus increasing the possibility the accusation may be true. Whatever the case, it seems the Government won’t be rushing to make changes.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins said the Government was not rushing to make changes.
“We plan to talk to and work with the sector to achieve the right balance for the long term success of the sector and New Zealand.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/98924553/aspire2-axes-campus-warns-industry-not-a-tap-that-can-be-easily-turned-on-and-off
I don’t have any issues with genuine international students coming to NZ as long as they don’t get residency, citizenship and get work visas to work here. Also it makes more sense should be located in specialist education centres in the Provences where there is enough accomodation.
English is an important skill and students from Asia who speak it fluently can have it open many doors once they RETURN back to their countries which have more jobs than NZ.
International students should be win win, not some scam for work visas here in NZ. Chinese students are under enormous pressure and there is so much demand in China to gain a university place, so if used appropriately it could be a win win if international students get their degree here in NZ, if it is a proper degree!
You don’t see the UK or USA giving every international student in cookery or low level IT a green card and citizenship. No wonder NZ is so popular. We have devalued our international reputation and caused crisis after crisis in our social welfare system from maternity, health, transport, wages and housing. The biggies superannuation is still to come from a decade of stupidity of nonsensical immigration.
At present the student issues has turned into a rout. Students just coming to get citizenship and work, have kids and then get a substandard degree, (in some cases not even knowing the course they were on, let alone being able to communicate in the course language, let alone pass it).
Auckland University dropping like a stone in international leagues as they abandon research and dumb down courses to cash in on cash for students. Other universities previously called polytechs not worrying about quality of course just wanting bums on seats. Wages and standards are declining in tertiary education.
But even as pay and conditions for academics crash, the salaries of senior admin and management staff keep multiplying 😐
Tertiary education in NZ declining as the lapdogs of capitalism sniff out tasty ways of making more money by taking down our fences around high standards.
Soon our education will only fit us to be National politicians the bottom of the conniving, ethics-free barrel where people don’t know the difference between advantage and advancement.
at the end of the day, an uneducated consuming population is a capitalists dream.
Everything going entirely to plan then for our low wage economy.
Saw this from Granny.
Feeding a family of four on just $89 a week? Here’s how you do it
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11944806
The interesting thing is that this poor women makes a pittance in wages $175 p/w (probably contract temp work) so therefore needs so much family credit $510 and accomodation supplement $120, to barely survive.
So crashing wages and reducing jobs for locals seems to be not only making many people struggle to survive – it also does not really seem to make sense economically…. and not sure how much longer it can go on. Yet still the cheerleaders say they can’t find enough suitable locals for work to work the temporary, zero hour contracts that seem to be so popular, they need more work permits and temporary workers.
I’m not sure Labour policy of allowing foreign speculation on new build residential dwellings is going to be a winner. As you can see from this, it’s the NZ taxpayer also contributing significantly to the rents which will go offshore if the person is not resident. Or maybe the new build houses will just be left empty as in other countries or sold to new residents. Not sure any will solve our housing crisis for the poor. More like keep contributing to it.
Should NZ taxpayers be subsidising offshore investors to ‘help’ our poor that for some reason can’t be solved without them? Or is that a crock of s&^t?
savenz
That is a great little logo you have developed in talking about housing. Looks rather like a shelter with temporary roof (probably tarpaulin) s&^t.
We should adopt it as expressing and representing NZ shelter design and practice.
The government paying for people to have a job. Now, I wouldn’t mind the government doing that as long as it was a government sector job. I’m fully against it when it’s a private sector job. The private sector should not be subsidised by the government. Hell, even the RWNJs say that but they’re also they’re also the biggest suppliers of subsidies to the private sector when they’re in government.
“I don’t have any issues with genuine international students coming to NZ as long as they don’t get residency, citizenship and get work visas to work here”
That requirement may cause a few private tertiary education providers to struggle badly – because in many of the cases I see, the education they provide is technically inferior to the education the student has already received in their home country. e.g. last week an Indian woman with an MCom degree in Economics and Accounting from a decent university completing a one-year business diploma in NZ. The only reasons for these students to do this study in NZ are:
– to improve their English
– to get on a conveyor belt to residency
And you know what happens when business’s ‘soft’, easy money income streams are threatened. All hell breaks loose.
I agree. I actually employed an Indian student through student job search – she was lovely. I didn’t understand at the time why she was completing the same degree (early education) in NZ when she already had achieved it in India. She then got married in an arranged marriage and the new husband came to NZ. It’s a rout.
Nice people often doing it, but like in this case, it’s opening a flood gate and I don’t think the new husband turned out to be a very nice man, because she did not look nearly so happy after she was married.
It’s not the people doing it that are at fault. It is the government for allowing it to happen by not having much much greater controls and valuing our country’s existing residents and citizens and doing what is best for them.
Not prioritising the offshore banks and the trade agreements and businesses that want cheap compliant labour that they can fire at will and that it’s all ok, just shut down welfare for all and sell off the assets to pay for it, it’s all working dandy. (for them).
Probably because NZ doesn’t recognize her degree or always puts NZ trained people ahead of her, I’d say she had no choice but to do her degree again.
Yes but it’s through a back door and an entourage following her. She is doing her degree for residency NOT for educational purposes. It’s a scam. Meanwhile other students are not getting jobs while she studies, other students not getting a degree and I think she will stop work and have kids anyway.
I know lots of migrants and most of them no longer work in the area they got into NZ in. They either don’t work at all or are doing something completely different because they were often worked like slaves at slave labour rates and they only did it to gain residency. Once they have citizenship, they do something else or leave the country and work overseas. The slave business then recruits more overseas residents and the rort continues.
But the aged parents and other family members stay in NZ. And the overseas citizens can use the health, super and welfare system in NZ, but actually don’t work here anymore. A ticking time bomb.
Which tells us that the education sector is a rort used to bypass the normal residency/immigration process.
I’m sure if we simply threw the fuckers in jail for the rort there would be less whinging from them. After all, they’re usually the ones demanding that we be tough on crime.
Privileged white jafas showing why us orks are called jafas
“Mike Hosking: Paying rates based on the value of our house is insane ”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11945699
“My rates will go up, but the rubbish collection will be just the same”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/98979846/damien-grant-aucklanders-foot-the-bill-for-councils-borrowed-billions
I looked at buying a property in Paeroa a couple of years back. Asking price was $160,000 and rates were $2200 with an extra $220 levy on top for environment Waikato. At the same time people back here on the ‘shore in Auck were paying $1600 in rates on $700k houses.
At times it’s quite hard to come to grips with how venal some people are.
I used to have the same conversation with my Auckland based father; when I showed him the rates bill on our properties in the Wellington region, the topic of conversation changed quickly. 🙂
In general it’s more unawareness than venality. But I’m not inclined to give Hosking a pass on this.
Those two would fit the profile of venal I’d think.
Auckland Council offers a rates postponement scheme where you can borrow against your house equity to pay the rates. For older people who don’t like having debts and enjoy the concept of a freehold home it can be a little off-putting but the fact is they are not put in any forced hardship when the rates go up through property revaluations. They have a choice while others don’t.
Do you actually pay rates DH?
“Do you actually pay rates DH?
Yes.
If you don’t mind me asking what general area do you pay them? You must have a wonderful council.
Just very unusual that someone is so pro rates rises. Most people I meet actually paying rates think there is a lot of room for improvement. (For a start a large amount of rates seems to go on roading for example.)
And of course Auckland transport mangers already convicted of fraud and corruption.
Not just in Auckland but in Northland too, where they pay very high rates in general related to their housing.
Councils used to own social housing in Auckland. John Banks sold them.
Now Auckland council “invests” millions in things like Westgate mall to help the developers develop malls. That’s the priority.
It’s not just the amounts people have to pay for rates, it’s the type of spending the council now seems to be prioritising that upsets people and the types of services they are cutting.
Who said I was pro rates rises? You look to be projecting there.
It is interesting to see the flow of points that come out when some trigger word like ‘rates’ pops up. And not necessarily connected to the thread in play.
That idea of being able to defer rates as a lien on the house value, which would have to be paid on death, but not be onerous presumably as the house value would have risen, is an excellent one for those wishing to stay in their home in their familiar neighbourhood. The family could still inherit, they would just have to pay the deferred rates (I wonder if there is any interest accumulating also).
Yes there is interest accumulating on deferred rates.
It is interesting greywarshark, for example when discussing the deferral of rates people instantly assume they’d defer all of their rates. They’re complaining about rates increases, not rates per se, ergo they only need to defer the increase which is a mosquito bite on the capital gains they’ve been enjoying.
Hey, that’s true didn’t think of that. And the Council would still be getting most of the rates as usual, and only a portion put on hold.
Yep a really good scheme and helping where needed.
Yeah, the council borrows the (deferred) rates and charges interest at much the same rate as what they pay for it. They’ll fund to a max of 80% of equity. Naturally the interest would compound but inflation compounds too so the risks aren’t exactly great there.
I can understand the elderly not liking the thought of it but when you look at it rationally it is a pretty good idea.
And they’d be wrong. They don’t pay enough. That’s why we’re having problems with sewage and stuff.
Northland suffers from the lack of scale. There’s simply fewer people to spread the cost over while also having a huge area to administer. The effect is that it costs more per capita.
Yes and that comes from the delusional idea that we need more low paid service jobs to replace the high paid manufacturing jobs that we used to have.
And the people complaining, and you’re a good example, have NFI WTF they’re talking about.
Yes Draco, I think you are coming from the unique perspective of not wanting any individual property rights and the Chinese type system of only government owning land… therefore you seem to be cheerleading for not enough rates the same way as many cheerlead for more taxes.
One of the reason’s I think the left are losing ground amongst average people in this country is that they are out of touch with normal people. That has allowed this weird situation of National and Labour agreeing in many areas in principle but they are doing it for different reasons.
Labour thinks that you can just keep taxing people along with user pays forgetting that in the past, high taxes were all of it, you didn’t have private companies and COO’s every day extracting more and more profit and you had decent wages and conditions and plentiful jobs so the average person didn’t live day to day without knowing if they would have their job the next year. Services were not means tested such as family benefit and you could get loans off government to buy state built houses. If you got injured ACC did lump payments. There was a balance.
National wants to sell off assets cheaply to mates, give everybody a $25 per week tax cut that they borrowed and then watch services plummet so that more can be cut off. The treasury types seem to cheerlead this on as good governance. Likewise 0% tax havens for non residents.
They both seem very attached to free trade and globalism.
Yes Labour has a lot more compassion, but seriously they need to talk to real people who don’t engage in politics because they will hear what should be obvious. Most people are sick of user pays and rampant revenue gathering. Most people are sick of declining service levels and wasteful spending while being asked for more to prop up the wasteful spending.
The holy grail of the left is to want to be more efficient on spending not keep asking for more money… and increase service levels of health and education while not destroying our environment and not be blaming their own voters and citizens for the problem.
Labour are trying to do better, but not sure the TPPA is a good start of things to come. It’s a bad start because you can track that local people are getting poorer under the trade deals (apart from those who own a house or land) and that won’t last into the next generation because it will go in retirement charges and rates.
Non-sequitur.
That rates aren’t high enough is apparent through our declining infrastructure.
And you should probably learn about land ownership in NZ:
What is this ‘normal’ you speak of? Is it National’s ‘mainstream’?
Thing is, politicians are out of touch with the majority of people. They pretty much have to be so that they will do what business wants rather than what the people want. And I think you’ll find that both National and Labour are doing similar things for the same reasons (neo-liberal ideology). Labour has a conscience though and does think that the government should be looking after the interests of the general population and not just some of them like National.
Labour really doesn’t think that you can just keep taxing people. And neither do the Greens.
Why do you believe National’s lies?
Labour doesn’t understand the monetary system. If they did then they would’ve canned the ability of private banks to create money – that would be solely the governments privilege and they’d use it to get done what needs to be done for infrastructure and socially. They would bring back in capital controls.
Of course, that would remove the power of the capitalists so watch them scream and make threats as we jumped back to full employment with a health and education system second to none.
Yep. And then they get surprised, but not concerned, when the economy doesn’t do well.
They’re both committed to a capitalist global system.
Yes they are but is having a good stadium for games really wasteful spending? It possibly does serve a purpose for socialisation and general well being of the populace. We’re not machines.
High wages are a concern but, for Auckland which has a multi-billion dollar budget, they’re a small blip compared to what’s needed for all the services and infrastructure needed. To get those up to where people want them then rates need to go up.
The Left are more efficient spenders. That’s why the economy usually does better under them rather than under the RWNJs.
But they’re still following that neo-liberal ideology about capitalism and competition being better despite all the new research showing that government services provided by government are better and cost less.
The TPPA is a bad idea. So are all the other FTAs and the WTO and the World bank and the IMF. All of those are, from what I can make out, designed to remove a country’s sovereignty so as to implant global capitalism on them.
That bit about land ownership is why we actually need to get rid of it. Piketty and other research has shown that accumulation of wealth over generations is a problem. We need to address it.
And, after all that, I’m not a Labour supporter.
Gosh!
I’m paying annual rates of $2400 on a house valued at $140,000. Plus regional council rates of approx $200. I do get a low-income rebate of $600 ‘tho. I guess it’s the price of living in a sparsely populated area. Also the Council have (almost) stopped raw sewage from draining into the river.
PS If you can cope with the rates, houses are getting cheaper here on the Coast. One in my street, ex state house, garage, excellent condition $105,000
Many thanks to the Rock radio for honoring a great Rocknroller Malcolm Young he is a great legend I’m going to get sore ears today Kai Kaha
I reckon they are going to try and pin some bulls hit setup on me now would YOU DO something illegal knowing the they are following you everymove for one thing how would I be able to do anything I can’t fart and they are spreading that story they are pouring on the bullshit today you all no I’m a good guy so what’s blurring there vision on reality I no what is And I sure you can guess was blurs someone mind a these people are corrupted like they are in the Philippines just not as bad many thanks to my Philippines readers Kia kaha
There are complex things going on in your life eco maori. Good luck with sorting those things out.
My question is about paid parental leave. The maximum is $516 per week before tax depending on your salary. Why would Duncan Garner advocate for fathers to receive this when (a) his salary would reduce considerably if he ever took PPL (b) it does not make economic sense for the major breadwinner to reduce his salary and strain the household (c) if both parents were off at the same time the maximum the household income could be was $1024 before tax. The National changes are an excellent sound bite but if we had any journalists out there one might actually look at the effect of the policy
Good points Lucy. It is just an attempt by National to paint Labour as being like Santa Claus giving benefits away to curry favour and not be responsible about the effects.
So Nats in Opposition nudge Labour and goad them as mean in not behaving as National suggest and would wish so they can then condemn Labour as profligate.
It is very malicious and game-playing and fits in with National’s general policies for citizens – that we are just pawns in their political game and have buttons they can push to get any affect they want. Except when people actually sit down and do the sums and think it through like you Lucy.
Hi Lucy I cannot answer any questions about PPL as such, but the excellent questions and points you have made are possible examples of some of the issues that Jacinda Ardern referred to when speaking to Duncan Garner this morning on the AM Show. Article and video are in this link.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/11/jacinda-ardern-likes-national-s-shared-parental-leave-policy.html
An excerpt
Ms Ardern told The AM Show on Monday she likes the idea – despite the flaws in National’s proposal.
“I’ve talked to our Minister, we’re going to see how quickly we can do that,” she says.
“What we’ve tried to pass on to the Opposition is actually when we looked at the idea the officials came back and said ‘actually, there’s this issue and this issue – it’s going to take us a while to work through’.”
The PM also explained in the video that the intention is to get the current proposed extensions to PPL through under urgency because all of these have already been through the Select Committee process.
The further changes to allow both parents to take PPL at the same time have not been through Select Committee consideration and for this reason – and the issues raised by officials – she thinks it is preferable to treat the two proposals separately.
She also indicated that talks were underway to develop the proposal to allow both parents to take PPL at the same time, and to consult with officials and the business community etc to sort out the related issues. They believed that this could be done urgently in the new year to allow a further legislative amendment to be put before Parliament and passed through its various stages during 2018. Apparently there is some consideration of doing this in conjunction with another employment related legislative amendment already in the pipeline.
IMHO the points made by Jacinda Ardern were well reasoned and sensible. No doubt detractors will continue to spin the opposite.
The ideas that both parents could be off at the same time each time they had children would cause a great envy amongst those without jobs, without homes,. and unable to get enough work to be in a position to wanting to have a break to raise their precious child. When you are sleeping in a car or elsewhere you would realise that your own children are not regarded as precious, and the desire to help the new mother for months while the baby settles is absent for the strugglers. Left behind again,.
When employers need skilled workers and young adults want time off for baby raising in months rather than weeks then perhaps employing them may be less attractive. Has anyone thought of that. It may be that people in their 50’s would get priority.
The work remains to be done, the project finished and if it is behind time then very stressful. Employer to male, “Are you part of our team, or going independent? We need you now.” To female there has been an obvious long lead time to this and the real need by baby is understood.
Single mums already get an attitude thrown at them by males who ask why they should pay for someone else’s kid. In this case males in the team might say why do we have to put in double shifts so that this new father can stay home and not pull his weight alongside us. It is just a dream to have both off at the same time for anything more than a week or two. That should be made clear in discussions. Business just isn’t a cow to be milked for more benefits.
Remember that we are only the size of a small city and have managed to lose our perspective on this regularly, thus we are in shit street now. Don’t go off on full frontal acceptance of wishful femme/identity/feelgood politics. What about our businesses?- we need to have a mutual nurturing of the good ones.
Are you suggesting that people should not have the ability to chose a period of reduced income, if they believe that they can manage their financial affairs during that period?
Firstly, the underlying assumption that the man is and should be the “main breadwinner” is nothing but sexist, and while it may still be true for a majority of couples it has been noticeably shifting over time to where more men are “house husbands” with women who are the better educated partner (sometimes by far) with the higher powered career, so it’s time to start shifting these expectations instead of doubling down on them.
Secondly the inherent notion that men are less important as a parent in the care of both new mother and new baby is appallingly sexist and old fashioned.
In summary, on this issue Labour has a major “Not Invented Here” dilemma where they refuse to give credit to National for the idea, and where they cannot bring themselves to recognise equality between the sexes in terms of parenting roles.
1. It’s National and Duncan Garner who are peddling the idea that Labour’s PPL legislation excludes fathers, not Labour.
2. Is it a “not invented here” problem, or a “no we’re not going to take admentments on something that’s already been through select committees and that we’re trying to pass urgently” problem? My money’s on that second one.
National’s interest in PPL is nonexistent. The only reason they’ve raised this issue is that they know it’s a stick they can beat Labour with.
In summary, on this issue Labour has a major “Not Invented Here” dilemma where they refuse to give credit to National for the idea, and where they cannot bring themselves to accept equality between the sexes in terms of parenting.
Come on CV, Jacinda Ardern made it quite clear last Thursday (16 Nov) when answering Q1 in Question Time that she was not against the idea of both parents taking PPL leave at the same time at all – but wanted to look into it separately to the PPL extension currently under urgency.
http://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=197141
Since then, she has made a number of further statements on the issue, including on the AM Show this morning as detailed in my comment at 11.2 above – including the reasons she wants to treat the two proposals separately, while also looking at the idea of concurrent PPL leave urgently with a view to introducing a proposal to the House early in 2018.
Where has JA or Labour raised men being main breadwinners and/or being less important as parents in relation to the PPL proposals?
I have been following this very closely and have seen no suggestion that Labour is using these as reasons for holding fire for the meantime on concurrent PPL leave.
Yes, both issues are sexist and old fashioned with actual situations on both changing markedly in recent years.
While I have seen people like Duncan Garner, Paula Bennett raise ‘fathers being treated as less important’ in an attempt to undermine Labour’s position to hold fire in the meantime, the only time I have seen ‘men as main breadwinners’ issue being raised is in Lucy’s comment – but I read this as being in a quite genuine, innocent way.
Gosh CV you need to breathe into a brown paper bag, I think that is the treatment for hyper-ventilating.
The majority of men would still get more pay than their wives. Rule of thumb idea, but women’s pay has remained about 80% of men’s on average, decades after last wave of feminism. The high-powered women who get more than their husbands, or as much, are a minority and so capable that they can ensure they get legislation they need. If we can think also about the low-powered ones that keep plugging along on not very much and what’s good for them, it would be good to hear from you.
But what hasn’t changed is that women have breast milk which is particularly good for the baby, and very good to get off the chest for the mothers. So it makes sense for mothers to be able stay home and feed the baby.
Parents need to have time off for the kids from time to time. Perhaps at the start, the male could stay home for a couple of weeks after the birth so that mother can have some resting and recovery time. After that it would be based on choice and application to the employer.
There is no gender pay gap in the under 30’s age group where the majority of men and women marry and start planning for families.
That 80% figure you throw out, which is highly debatable, doesn’t factor in the massive destruction of good jobs for working class men, nor does it figure the massive tertiary educational and qualifications disparity between young men and women today, with young women being far more qualified on average than young men.
You got anything to substantiate the assertion that there’s no gender pay gap in the under 30s? Failing that, what’s the reasoning that leads you to that conclusion?
The destruction of working class material security is a given. But again, even if the argument is that all incomes are sinking, how would that translate into some disappearance or lessening of a gender pay gap?
And putting aside the whole “underpaid professions” phenomenon (industries “traditionally” employing women paying less) – you reckon a woman with a chemistry degree will get the same easy access to the same remuneration and benefits as a man with a chemistry degree?
The Motu study released this year showed that young women <25 are paid more than young men.
A pay gap of over 10% exists IN FAVOUR of young women.
http://theconversation.com/women-paid-less-for-same-contribution-to-work-and-sexism-is-to-blame-study-83052
Although that projection actually controls for women being over-represented in lower-paying industries and businesses, rather than simply looking at the basic facts of median income. Useful for analysing what proportion of inequality is due to what factor, but not an outright statement that women in that agegroup are better off.
If you exclude the structural pressures that might force some people as a group to “choose” low-pay work, you might find that they are not mistreated at all. Such a finding would not reflect reality, though.
Yes it does do that but Motu found that was less than 1/10 of the overall gender wage gap they found anyway.
Further, far more women under 30 have completed university qualifications than young men, which is a major boon to womens’ job and wage prospects.
“Women under 30” is a slide – it’s women under 25. And it’s 12% for “industries and firms”, 7% for industries alone.
But in those shitty jobs, women were paid slightly more than men, assuming the projections on hours worked were correct.
Interesting use of the IDI, but it’s funny that your take-away message from it seems to be “young women are paid more than young men in shitty jobs (provided we ignore why they are in those shitty jobs in the first place as well as controlling for a few other factors), so this means men will be hard done by some time in the future”.
Women under < 30 is about right, given that young women under 25 have a roughly 10% pay advantage to young men.
StatsNZ disagree with you.
It reduces in agegroups below 30, and actually hits zero on occasion from year to year, but only in those agegroups where the median income is close to minimum wage anyway. “Levelling down” is the term…
Does that mean the shittier you pay people the less pay gap there is? Makes sense that that would be happening with younger people.
That seems to be the case, although when the median gets below $20/hr the % gap seems to be within a decent statistical error – in the 2017 year the agegroup with no gap was 15-19yrs, last year it was the 20-24 agegroup.
It just refers to the pay disparity, not educational backgrounds, and other factors that may cause individuals to be disadvantaged.
And here you are CV – your own Local paper (assuming you are still down there)
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/ardern-open-flexible-paid-parental-leave
A well written and succinct summary of the situation which pretty much confirms my much rougher comment at 11.2.
Cheers veutoviper. Yep still down in Dunedin.
Well, if the mother and new baby are both being cared for by the mother’s partner, then that partner is important no matter their gender.
But if we’re talking about a new baby being cared for, and allowing for breast milk… well, yeah. The mother’s kinda more crucial than the father in that case, wouldn’t you say?
That’s a kind of biological gender essentialism which is no longer in vogue, Bill, and is certainly at odds with the philosophy of total equality between the sexes.
Which philosophy is this now? No, wait, it’s just your jaundiced characterisation.
Or politicised characterisation.
Sure, the person capable of producing breast milk is going to tend to be more crucial in more situations than the person who did not give birth and who cannot produce breast milk.
And the person who gave birth and who can produce that milk may be a man.
As well as the breastfeeding issue, there’s some reasonably solid evidence suggesting that birth and bonding are linked (and thus well being). I don’t have a problem with women being supported to be the primary care giver after birth if that works for them and that’s what they want. Sounds like a solid plan for women and for society.
That’s quite different than saying that women have to be the primary care giver (keep women at home), or that there are no differences between men and women (treat everyone the same). I don’t think anything I’ve said is particularly controversial although obviously people have their own beliefs about it.
The idea that men and women are the same, or should be the same, or something, is quaint. Likewise the idea that gender roles should be locked in.
That’s a kind of biological gender essentialism…
Or, as others of us refer to it, “physical reality.”
I believe the point CV was making (genuinely or otherwise) was that the “physical reality” of a body does not determine gender. And that’s right enough.. When I said in my comment above “the person who can….may be a man”, that’s a matter of fact and wasn’t some statement that’s missing a sarc tag.
Personally, I think he was spouting bullshit as usual. Which parent can provide breast milk is a matter of physical reality, not “biological gender essentialism.”
I also think it was a bullshit comment and distorting ideas around gender, sex, biology and equality.
So what’s wrong with biological essentialism? People use it not just to explain women’s bodies but then, by implication, to make normative arguments about what women are best suited for. One day they’re telling us that women’s bodies are the way they are to make babies. The next thing you know, making babies is what women are meant to do.
https://fitisafeministissue.com/2015/01/20/biology-is-destiny-a-couple-of-men-explain-why-women-have-curvier-hips-and-fatter-butts/
There’s nothing wrong with talking about women’s bodies having evolved to feed new born babies. Or that “the mother’s kinda more crucial than the father in that case”. That’s biology. And our politics need to take that into account (women have particular needs that are independent of what men need in that situation), as well as making sure that women aren’t economically or socially coerced into a role that just isn’t going to work or is inherently oppressive.
There is something wrong with trying to make out that discussions about that are somehow tied into an individual’s theories about biological essentialism especially where that person then skews the politics around it instead of just being honest about their own beliefs.
And you know, the whole MRA-lite, ‘men are just as important as women’ argument, especially where it’s being used to deny the specific role that women have in caring for new borns, or the differences that might exist around need. The insistence that men and women are equal being used to assert men’s rights, without particular regard for the systemic issues that are still causing huge problems for women. And so on.
Sorry, just been here too many times before.
(and yes, the whole trans and intersex people having babies thing, but I’m guessing that’s not what was being referred to).
Yeah, my understanding of it is that bioligical essentialism is about “Evolution says the woman’s meant to look after the baby while I go out and work,” not “I guess only one of us gets to breastfeed this baby and it’s going to be the one with the breasts.” That second one could be incorporated into a biological essentialist argument by someone with an agenda, but in itself it’s just a statement of fact.
A very close international neighbour of ours, Vanuatu, is heading for a financial clidd now that the Panama Papers have been relaesed and the regulators are really cracking down:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-11-15/the-final-days-of-a-tax-haven
This looks like one of the world’s weakest and poorest states heading towards a Solomon Islands scenario.
Sure hope MFAT are tracking this one.
https://www.facebook.com/penny.bright.104/posts/1888956697783680
WHISTLE-BLOWER ALERT!
(Monday 20 November 2017 – 8.45am)
GARNET RD – STOP AUCKLAND TRANSPORT (AT) MADNESS!
STOP THE ‘WAITEMATA (UN)SAFE ROUTE CYCLEWAY’!
WHERE: Old Mill Rd / Garnet Rd ‘Island’.
WHEN: Monday 20 November 2017
WHY: Auckland Transport are building cycle lanes on the grass berms along Old Mill Rd, and (intended) along Garnet Rd.
UNSAFE FOR CYCLISTS AND DRIVERS! These cycle ways which cut across driveways to private homes, are dangerous because drivers will reverse out of their driveways directly on to the cycleway.
Auckland Transport, in a letter from David Nelson, Group Manager, Major Projects, dated 2 November 2017, to Lisa Prager, response to CAS-598750-Q7L3V0 – Engineering of West Lynn Shops:
“…. It is not safe to have cars reversing out into a cycle lane. …”
UNSAFE AND UNSUSTAINABLE FOR TREES!
Trees have already been chopped down in Surrey Crescent on Old Mill Rd.
Locals are also protesting to save local trees.
UNSAFE AND UNSUSTAINABLE FOR WATERWAY (MEOLA CREEK)
The grass berms – which were increased to make more permeable surface to absorb stormwater, have now been partially replaced with cycleway asphalt – which will arguably increase stormwater runoff down into Meola Creek.
UNSUSTAINABLE FOR LOCAL SMALL BUSINESS – WHO WILL LOSE PARKING TO MAKE WAY FOR PROPOSED CYCLEWAY!
No parking – no stopping – no shopping!
I agree with more cycleways but have to agree with Penny,, it often feels like it’s being rammed through without any thought of the least way to disrupt the community. They need to think before they concrete everything and destroy local business at Auckland transport. I’m not sure of the full details but someone who is a massive cyclist says it doesn’t even work from a cyclists point of view… something about not connecting up properly.
I also have a MASSIVE issue with the constant kerb upgrades many of which could last another decade. The paving companies must be good at lobbying. Surely much better use of money that that. It’s also something to do with how roading is funded. If they keep within budget they lose budget but if they spend all their money they get doled out more next time. So theres always a rush to dig up things and spend their budget or they lose money the next funding.
A good example of an unsafe cycleway is Lake Rd from Devonport to Takapuna in Auckland. One day about 12 years ago they started to build it. Few people knew of the plan in advance. We stood up en masse and told the then North Shore City Council of the inevitable consequences. We were told to shut up and do what we were told. Now we have a road that cannot cope with the massive volume of traffic – caused in large part by the removal of one of the lanes to make way for the cycleway – and very few cyclists have ever used it because its way too dangerous.
And …unsafe for people to be able to walk along the footpath in ordinary alert mode .. without having to worry about close brushes with people who wouldn’t take responsibility for bruises, injury and stressful close brushes with fast-moving machines, cyclists behaving like motorists on pedals, having to constantly step aside for important people on bicycles who are prepared to share with pedestrians as long as they walk in the ditch when the footpath is being used as a pavement.
Sexually assault women, then spy on them, harass them — and anyone who asks questions.
The man is utter filth.
.
The Observer has gained access to a secret hitlist of almost 100 prominent individuals targeted by Harvey Weinstein in an extraordinary attempt to discover what they knew about sexual misconduct claims against him and whether they were intending to go public.
The previously undisclosed list contains a total of 91 actors, publicists, producers, financiers and others working in the film industry, all of whom Weinstein allegedly identified as part of a strategy to prevent accusers from going public with sexual misconduct claims against him.
The names, apparently drawn up by Weinstein himself, were distributed to a team hired by the film producer to suppress claims that he had sexually harassed or assaulted numerous women.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/nov/18/harvey-weinstein-secret-hitlist-sex-scandal
Sounds like someone who was our dear leader, harass a waitress, deny deny, dig dirt and try to publicly dismiss and our media chose not to expose or push the issue.
This one too, closer to home. Infosec consultant Morgan Marquis-Boire finally being called to account for his long term sexual violence that was enabled because of his favour with the powers that be.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/19/16675704/morgan-marquis-boire-hacker-sexual-assault
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/11/report-infosec-researcher-accused-of-numerous-instances-of-sexual-assault/
We owe Chloe a huge debt of gratitude.
The only way this stuff is going to stop is when men stop protecting men, and men start sharing power with women.
Or in Keys case protected by women.
Had the women around Key not protected him, the men protecting him would still have determined the outcome. Because they’re the ones with the power and being empowered by the current system.
Patriarchal theory isn’t that difficult to understand, and it certainly doesn’t mean men are evil and women can’t do wrong. Don’t know why I have to keep explaining that.
Power corrupts absolute etc etc.
There’s a certain twisted sense of solidarity exists between or within powerful groups of people for sure.
Think of all the bankers from 2008. As far as I’m aware, the only person who got jail time for ripping people off was Bernie Madoff. Bernie’s mistake was to rip off influential rich people.
Or think of ex-IMF head investigated for rape of a maid in New York. Every major news outlet and talking head joined in the destruction of the victim. And Stauss-Kahn walked away. That was no accident or one off.
When you’re “through the door” you’re in, and gender then plays no more of a role than skin colour or anything else. The only thing that counts at that point is the power itself and never doing anything to challenge it or undermine it.
Well in the case of Morgan Marquis-Boire, we’ve seen a decade of women being raped and assaulted because the men in the system weren’t willing to give up power or listen to what women were saying. So I’d say that once one is in the power structure, through the door, gender is most definitely still a major issue.
And that’s not a dynamic unfamiliar to women at all.
Nice big feature article on New Zealand’s Predator Free programme in The Atlantic.
It also has a lot of unnecessary commentary on CRISPR gene editing tools for rats, even though no one anywhere is proposing that here.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/11/new-zealand-predator-free-2050-rats-gene-drive-ruh-roh/546011/
Much better than the Economist article that roasts our dairy industry.
Funnily enough, just had a talk with another local about our own Predator-free project today.
Considering the estimated cost of making NZ predator free is $9 billion, and the government investment is $28 million the ideas being proposed while admirable are currently not resourced.
I’ve had a cynicism about National’s far-away slogan rich – Predator-free by 2050 programme, which provided a bargain price exposure to many volunteers and community groups, who have enthusiastically taken the opportunity to get some funding for local projects.
Without a national framework, and consistent rollout, even it all the projects are invidivually successful it is hard to see how it will work at a national level.
Missed the Landcare meeting tonight which might have given some indication, but will be talking to the project coordinator next week. But does anyone else have hands on involvement with this initiative, and how do you see it playing out long term?
Stark figures reveal children in fear of poverty, violence
Seems things only get worse under National as they cater more exclusively to the rich. Of course, stats like this have been getting worse since the 1980s when the 4th Labour government introduced hyper-capitalism to NZ.
The survey results will most likely be bullshit, skewed by what the children thought the surveyor wanted to hear.
Especially for the 9 to 12 year olds. (How the hell are they going to understand what poverty is, especially since 20% of them will be living in comfortable middle class households?)
Possibly but I’m sure that that would have been taken into account to some degree in the designing of the questions.
And 70% actually live in poverty.
Still, it gives a benchmark. Further study needed.
LOONS OF OUR TIME:
No. 1: Judge Jeanine Pirro
This woman is crazy and stupid—even for Fox News! She appears here at the 2:00 mark….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AuSZ6q6ITU
Joe 90 turned up on the small screen looking at youtube. For those who remember 1968 puppetry of Gerry Andersen here are some excerpts.
It shows how Joe 90 got to be so smart.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4utQWy9heEI
To Robert Guyton if you are tuning in today – last year we had a baby blackbird in our garden just fledged with a very gammy leg, it hobbled about but Mum and Dad were feeding it. I phoned the bird lady and she suggested to be humane we try and catch it, place it in a plastic bag and put in the freezer to die a painless death. I was horrified with this suggestion and anyway we couldn’t catch it.
This season a black glossy male with a gammy leg is busy grabbing worms out of our compost and is flying into the climber outside our bedroom window (which houses blackbirds each year by the way) and feeding a clutch of 3 babies. Along with Mum they are good parents.
Which shows the blackbird species does not obviously abandon a disabled chick and will watch over it until it can fly out of harm’s way. Great to see this male has wooed a lady and done the deed and is a responsible father. Makes this time of year such fun in the garden.
Mervin the fledgling magpie came to us in very poor condition with a terribly mangled leg, an inquisitive heading dog, that had to be amputated. He recovered, thrived and at around six months took wing. He’s now quite the magnificent chap who turns up regularly to be hand fed his fav, Winna, with added garlic oil.
Magpies can be magnificent pets – highly social and intelligent. Friends had one for many years who also had a mangled leg and also little flying ability. He ruled the house and garden, including dogs, cats, humans and parrots. He finally died of old age.
Because of our own dogs and Mervs fear of them, we encouraged him to take wing. And the constant running after him with a sheet of newspaper, too.
But I’ve come across a few kept as pets and you’re right, they ruled the roost, cats and dogs terrified of them, but not the chooks. One bird in particular was so terrified by chooks, it would flee and lie flat on it’s back in the lap of the nearest human, trembling and squawking murder, murder.
A neighbours bird would come visiting first thing when it’s people left for work and because Jackie, it’s person would engage in actual pillow talk with it, the damn thing would fly around the the house looking for an open window and then up the stairs, and try to get into bed with you.
Another living next door to my brother would mimic everything from telephones and skillsaws through to squealing kids and barking dogs.
Lovely story – I do love blackbirds even though they are not ‘native’ birds – and they really are the best parents of all bird species in my opinion. I have r and r’d injured birds, abandoned babies etc for many years and they are usually the most responsive to treatment. They also rarely abandon babies and are usually close by – and will use distraction tricks to woo any predator away from the chicks.
The freezer suggestion is used but usually only as a last resort. There are many other ways of euthanazing injured and ill birds before that one.
BUT I wondered – did you mean to post this in yesterday’s Open Mike (20 Nov ) as you have done; or in today’s Open Mike (21 Nov)?
I sure did veuoviper, I felt a bit stupid afterwards and was going to post it in today’s Open Mike. Won’t do this now as you kind folks have commented on our blackbird family. Lovely stories about the magpies although they do make me a bit apprehensive for the dive bombing tactics!!!