This is a ‘congratulatory’ post: in an incredibly short period of time, humans have managed to ‘develop’ to the point where scientists are talking of the 6th mass extinction. Well done us!
About 50,000 years ago, plus or minus 20,000 years, there occurred among homo sapiens what is known as the cognitive revolution.
Among other developments in the brain, humans of the time stopped seeing themselves as a part of Nature, and began believing they were above Nature, a chosen species. That Nature was ‘created’ by ‘a God or Gods’ to serve them, and them alone.
50,000 or so years later, we’re on the point of exterminating ourselves.
The dinosaurs had much smaller brains, but they lasted for millions of years; homo sapiens for the blink of an eyelid in geological age.
Whether you accept we have a very few years left, or that human life will go on in some form forever, all need to realise we’ve made a colossal f*ck-up of it all in an incredibly short period of time, as evidenced by this graph.
“Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. In 2021, it fell on July 29.”
(Can't place the graph in post – but check the link)
The obvious trend is towards complete depletion of the Earth’s resources at some time in the not too distant future. Infinite growth on a finite planet anyone?
There has been much scientific talk about ‘tipping points,’ events which trigger an exponential change leading to probable extinction of our species.
One such crucial tipping point is ice loss in the Arctic (and the Antarctic for that matter).
If/when we lose all ice in the Arctic, (possibly about September next year) all hell will break loose in the world’s climate.
It’s patently obvious that NZ, being such a small player in world terms, can do little to persuade the major polluters to mend their ways, (Cop-out 26 proved that) except by radical example, which this government has been largely reluctant to provide.
What we can and should do is recognise the crisis, and prepare to at least weather (pun intended) the worst that climate change can inflict on us.
Yes, I’m talking about ‘a hermit kingdom,’ or perhaps, to rile up the right wing misogynists, that should be ‘a hermit queendom.’
So, here’s the problem: do we bury our heads in the sand by maintaining either a) that climate change is a myth, or is beneficial because we might be able to grow bananas in Invercargill, or b) initiate immediate steps to mitigate its worst effects on New Zealand?
initiate immediate steps to mitigate its worst effects on New Zealand?
What would such steps look like, how much would it cost and what would be the anticipated outcome?
Sometimes doing nothing, or at least doing something whose benefits outweigh the costs, is the best option. That’s because doing something might produce few if any benefits and take away resources from areas where they could be used more productively.
Bjorn Lomborg has made a similar point. If we can prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths by providing poor countries with clean drinking water, we should seriously think about doing so. (If we can prevent children from being run over and killed in their own driveway, we should consider doing so, especially if there is an easy fix, which there is.)
I’d be interested in your response to how much it’s going to cost to take these steps, what steps exactly are you referring to, and the likely benefits of taking such action.
I blame the Archon and Demiurge for giving us a subconscious mind and the ability to self reflect.. otherwise it would just be another day in paradise before the inevitable happens.
Tony, take a deep breath and relax. No amount of angst will stop the planet doing what the planet has always done.
I'm more worried about a pole shift. The Schumann Resonance 7.83 Hz ( the earths heartbeat, and according to some, what all living things rely on ) has apparently become weaker of the years.
I studied that stuff long ago, have Hapgood's book on it that Einstein wrote the foreword for. The magnetic poles seem to have a random walk sometimes:
the North Pole did wander across North America, right out towards New York, actually, and then back again across to Oregon," says Alan Cooper, an evolutionary biologist with Blue Sky Genetics and the South Australian Museum.
He explains that it "then zoomed down through the Pacific really fast to Antarctica and hung out there for about 400 years and then shot back up through the Indian Ocean to the North Pole again."
He and colleague Chris Turney, an earth scientist at the University of New South Wales, found a new way to study the exact timing of all this, using unusual trees in New Zealand.
It isn't easy for mainstreamers to admit that democracy is anti-democratic, but we're getting a few signs that they're starting to wake up to it:
The modest alterations Democrats proposed to the United States’ ailing democracy finally died in the Senate late Wednesday night, when one of the nation’s most anti-democratic institutions failed to alter an anti-democratic rule… Hours later, Democrats tried to reform Senate filibuster rules in a way that would allow them to pass the bill with a simple majority. But that vote failed too, when Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) joined all 50 Republicans against the rule change.
But the real problem is existential. The uniquely anti-democratic structures of the American political system have historically thwarted any effort to make the United States a more representative nation, especially for its Black, Latino, Native American and other marginalized populations… The chief culprit, however, is not the filibuster but the Senate, a legislative body that is biased in favor of rural, whiter, low-population states at the expense of more populated, Blacker and browner areas of the country.
The filibuster, an arcane Senate rule that places an arbitrary 60-vote threshold on nearly all forms of legislation, further intensifies the Senate’s minoritarian structure: The 52 senators who voted to maintain the rule Wednesday night, in fact, represent 34 million fewer Americans than the 48 who voted to change it. And a total lack of representation for the District of Columbia, whose 700,000 mostly Black and brown residents do not enjoy the benefits of statehood, skews the body even more.
America's left remains split down the middle. Liberals seeking to defend the status quo vs progressive changemakers:
In calls with civil and voting rights groups, White House aides reportedly expressed that the groups could simply “out-organize” the new GOP voter suppression laws without passing new voting rights legislation.
Those groups went public with their complaint about the White House’s inaction on July 13, when 150 civil and voting rights groups published a letter to the White House excoriating Biden for failing to use his position to help pass the legislation despite stating that the new voter suppression laws constituted “the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War.”
From that link, I find it interesting that filibusters have become enormously more common in the time since 2009 than the nearly 2 decades before that (1991-2008).
I heard a Kmart merchandise manager on talkback yesterday. What a bleak picture he painted. The main points of his korero:
1- Kmart(NZ) has 30 containers sitting on the wharf in Australia that are yet to be loaded. They were due in NZ during December. Estimated time of arrival 3-6 months. I reckon longer, if at all, given Kmart Australia has its own sourcing issues. The reason for the delay is lack of crane and forklift operators.
2-Kmarts NZ warehouse is at present only 25% full.
3- He claims shelves are empty, and customers are turning on staff. Customers want product; they expect product…and when they can't buy what they want, staff cop it. I wonder if the government will, too? I can vouch for the empty shelves. My local KM has next to no sporting goods left.
The supposed caller then said something I thought was suss. He claimed ScoMo wants to lower the age ( under18) for gaining crane and forklift licences so vacancies can be filled. Having driven forklifts, I know they are dangerous machines under certain circumstances. But it would seem I was wrong – desperate times call for desperate measures. I believe ScoMo has since reconsidered that option.
It is my thinking that firstly, freight and shipping companies see NZ as an annex of Australia and we are completely dependent on AUS to get any goods, and I mean any. Secondly, by squeezing supply, pricing is thus artificially gauged and I honestly believe that we will see inflation close to double digits in the next 2 years . Our wages will not be able to keep pace and the young ones will jump the ditch. Now, planning and trade negotiations go only so far, what about delivery Management?
American politics throws up gems on a daily basis. Some of them encapsulate some of the realities of the country so well, like this from Mitch McConnell.
"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man."
"I've had a great relationship. In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking," Biden said.
. Yep, they have no idea. I find it incredible. They need to differentiate between what black comedian Chris Rock calls black people and n&^%. Chris gets hot under the collar about this. See his YT clip Black people v *******.(Bring the Pain 1996)
Wow look at the way this lady is driving. Lowering the speed limits on some roads is not going to make any difference to the road toll while people drive like this. Peoples driving attitudes need to change.
While stupid driving is always dangerous, don't dismiss the effect of mandated speed reduction.
The road toll on SH6 has been greatly reduced since speeds were reduced from 100 to 80/90 km/h.
There was quite some opposition at the time from the Kaikoura MP down, citing time lost and the time cost to road freighters.
To contradict this view, the time difference is about 15 minutes for a 110 km journey, and an industry spokesman said that trucks save considerably (50 litres less on a 500 km journey) on fuel usage for every 10 km/h slower.
There have been no fatalities since introduction of these measures on SH6 designed to reduce the road toll.
That is a good result SH6 Mac. What concerns me is too many drivers like this lady that simply ignore all speed limits whether they be 80km/hr or 100km/hr and drive erratically.
How about getting a proper driver licence. It is truly frightening if you think about it. There are more than 40 000 people on the road without ever having learned to use a vehicle safely, road user codes, signs, restrictions etc. Any one of them can risk your life. You don't need lower limits, you need properly trained drivers.
The fatalities cannot be blamed on foreigners now as there are basically no tourists. You will look at bit closer to get to the truth. Lost control, too fast and alcohol would eliminate 95.7% of accidents. That is a lot. None has to do with speed limits but all with lack of skill and alcohol. It would be interesting to know the age group causing these crashes. But alas it is a data jungle and you find US data easier than any in NZ.
No, overestimating skill levels and alcohol is and 40 000 plus unqualified drivers. Driver error would indicate that someone reading texts whilst driving, overtaking to impress mates, showing off what the car "can do" whilst they are incapable of controlling the vehicle, completely unaware that they endanger the rest of the road users. I am not in favor of political correctness cop out excuses. If a driver is to immature to handle a car than they should have to use public transport and go and get more training. End of story.
K-Mart ( and the Warehouse et al ) not being filled up with plastic shit with a limited lifespan and even more hardly-to-be-worn badly made clothes to add to the 115 BILLION garments produced each year would be a win in my book.
For the record, my Chinese socks sourced from Mitre10, used to last two weeks before disintegrating. Now I can get six weeks wear before they get holes. That's progress and proof capitalism is the way to go!
WA has gone its own way by keeping its hard border with the rest of Australia shut to all except a few who apply for exemptions. McGowan reckons its better to wait for the booster rate to be up at about the 80-90% level (currently at about 25%) and millions of RAT tests to be available for use plus other planning for the inevitable Omicron sweep. Not sure if the state can keep Omicron out, as like NZ it's knocking hard at the border, but no doubt casting an eye on all other parts of the country from within WA, the scene hardly looks enticing.
I do think that, like McGowan in WA, Jacinda should be retaining the option of keeping the borders closed after the end of February (the current proposed end to MIQ border opening date) until NZ is 90% boosted, assuming Omicron doesn't get in by accident of course.
At present Labour seems fixated on sticking to this date. Are they in thrall to the business lobby?
How much more evidence of this do we need? We have decades-worth already. Where’s action on climate change, the housing crisis, inequality and infrastructure investment? They can sound tough in opposition but once they had complete control over cabinet very little has happened. Labour need to change their name, they abdicated actually fighting for workers a long time ago.
The problem with blanket assertions like "very little has happened" is that a moment's research can find a different set of facts which rather spoils the strength of other assertions.
The NZLP claims this-
"BOOSTING WAGES
We believe that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. That’s why since 2017, we’ve boosted the minimum wage by $4.25 – bringing it to $20 per hour. We’ve passed the Equal Pay Amendment Bill to ensure people who perform work of the same value are paid the same and started addressing pay inequities in our education and health systems. We’re also implementing Fair Pay Agreements, to improve wages and conditions and support our economic recovery.
RESTORING RIGHTS
We’re making sure workers get a fair deal by strengthening employment law. We’ve brought back meal and rest breaks, strengthened collective bargaining, restored protections for vulnerable workers, and limited 90-day trials to businesses with fewer than 20 employees. We’re committed to improving the Holidays Act to provide more certainty for employers and employees, and we’ve made changes to better protect migrants from exploitation.
LOOKING OUT FOR WELLBEING
We’re keeping workers safe and supporting them to balance their work with other demands. We’ve extended paid parental leave from 18 to 26 weeks, and we’ve doubled the minimum sick leave entitlement to 10 days to make sure no one feels pressured to go to work when they’re unwell. We increased funding to modernise WorkSafe, and launched a new Navigation Service offering free, independent advice and advocacy for people making ACC claims. We’ve also committed to keeping the retirement age at 65.
PROTECTING JOBS
Our strong COVID response has kept Kiwis safe while protecting jobs, allowing us to look ahead. Our wage subsidies have supported around 1.8 million jobs through alert level changes, and we created specific programmes to protect jobs in vulnerable sectors like sports, tourism, and the arts. To help protect those who do experience job loss through no fault of their own, we’re working on the design of a Social Unemployment Insurance scheme that would support workers to retain about 80 percent of their income for a period after they lose their jobs." https://www.labour.org.nz/policy
At New Zealand’s October general election, the Labour Party won a majority of Parliament’s seats and is likely to govern alone. Some of the workplace policies Labour campaigned on included:
Increasing minimum sick leave entitlement to 10 days per year. Labour will seek to increase this entitlement within the first 100 days of the new Government;
Reforming the Holidays Act 2003 to simplify leave calculations and allow annual and sick leave to accrue over time (rather than leave entitlements arising in blocks);
Increasing the minimum wage to $20 per hour in 2021. Labour has promised to take a ‘balanced approach’ to increases beyond 2021.
I was addressing your issue with "fighting for workers". Climate crisis, the housing crisis, increasing inequality and infrastructure investment are issues wider than workers' rights solely, save the inequality issue addressed in part by a $4.50 increase in the hourly minimum wage, doubled sick leave entitlement, workplace conditions improvements, fair pay agreements, pay equality, 90 day contracts etc.
You just can't say that very little has happened. You can argue for more, but argument based on scant regard for reality is not convincing. National do it with their current 'shambles' buzz word. It means less than nothing and is a sign of lack of proper argument.
Have you considered that workers are those most affected by all of those issues? I wasn't talking about 'rights', I'm talking material conditions.
A minimum wage increase is good for those on minimum wage however the majority of workers aren't on minimum wage and haven't seen their wages increase at the same rate.
“Seventy-three per cent of Kiwis received a pay increase of less than inflation last year according to the Labour Cost Index. Annual hourly earnings growth is the same as it was in 2019 pre-Covid and is less than it was in December 2021 according to the Quarterly Economic Survey.
“Increases in wages seems to be coming from New Zealanders working longer hours, with overtime hours up 22.8 per cent.
“We are seeing more activity but we are not yet seeing that translate into what you might expect right now in terms of wage inflation.”
A good article and one which spells out with facts and figures where we're at from the TU perspective. It does acknowledge some improvements and also that more is needed.
It does not however address the issue of "Labour need to change their name, they abdicated actually fighting for workers a long time ago."
Nothing in that article about what the Labour government needs to do. Most employers are private, not public. What do we need to see done, to address these issues, as a government?
What do I as a member tell my LEC and my nearest Labour MP 110 km away to get on with?
I do btw acknowledge that wider issues also impact on workers. But your statement was about "abdication of fighting for workers" and the discussion needs to go beyond that to the actuals of where we'r at, who can do what, and also what is beyond the power of government.
What do I as a member tell my LEC and my nearest Labour MP 110 km away to get on with?
That’s up to you, but I do remember our PM talking about the failure of neo-liberalism, so something that undermines that status quo rather than just hoping for change would be what I expected them to get on with.
I don’t accept that action on any of these issues is beyond the power of government, actually fighting for workers involves a redefining what is possible.
The evidence from Australia seems to be that business hasn't done well as the Omicron outbreak has meant staff shortages, hesitancy on the part of ordinary people to go out and risk being infected. The same businesses that were hard hit during lockdowns have been almost as badly hit with the high infection rate. Think the pressure on McGowan is from separated families more than WA business which is doing just fine. Queensland and other states and territories that had kept Delta out made a mistake in mid December opening up just as Omicron turned up. Once the borders were opened up, it was impossible to go into reverse. Guess it was hard at that point to know how bad things were going to get, but there is no excuse for NZ (like WA) to not learn the mistakes others have made and plan as fast as possible while doing whatever can be done to slow down Omicron's eventual arrival. Can't see businesses in NZ being happy once Omicron arrives tbh, whatever NZ Labour thinks.
Is it going to be broadcast on all the TV networks simultaneously? Which woman's magazine has arranged rights to publish the photos. What dress will Lorde wear and what will she sing?
Who cares? The Herald has been unable to find out anything so is reduced to a publishing a pointless lifestyle puff piece with pics of some wedding dress styles that Ardern might (or might not) wear.
It's being kept a closely-guarded secret. I'm happy to not know any details until the deed is done, the show is over, and the answers to your questions are revealed.
If any more was being announced about it, every detail would constantly be front page news when there are more important things to most of us that are real news.
Chris Luxon claiming the traffic light system is confusing and offering utterly simplistic solutions to complex problems two years into a pandemic is really just a neolib prosperity Christian desperately wanting to retreat into magical thinking that pretending COVID doesn't exist – that somehow by refusing to engage with understanding the tools to manage COVID and pleading for magical silver bullets will make COVID go away.
The recurring meta in National's covid response is the way it's strategy has been shaped by the clash between the Evangelical determinism and neoliberal ideology that is it's caucus's foundation beliefs and empirical requirements of a pandemic response. The party exhibits all the psychological stress one would expect of a political movement exposed to extreme and prolonged cognitive dissonance.
Luxon is merely yet another intellectual featherweight on the right, retreating into irrelevant and plaintive complaining rather than grasping and confronting the truth that the the ideas – and the actions that would flow from those ideas – that underpin his world view are not psychologically consistent with current reality.
Well said Sanc. Luxon blathered and complained endlessly today on RNZ's Morning Report, but when asked a simple question-"should RAT tests be free"-he had no answer saying that could be decided later.
With Luxon's becoming the leader, one assumed that the level of IQ of the opposition had improved. No such luck. Luxon's ranting about the lack of RAT's was so pathetic when those of the meanest of intellect know there is an international shortage. Did he expect the appropriate Ministers or the PM could magic them from their backsides? He has been raving about the government not rapidly producing sufficient ICU beds to handle a massive increase in demand – presumably in support of pandering to the demands of the hospitality industry. It seems he forgot that each bed requires 4-5 advance trained nursing staff. No magic wand would solve that problem, especially when a pandemic, once unleashed, would cause the NZ health system to immediately lose existing staff to infection, burn-out and resignations for self-preservation. He has also demonstrated that he should pull his head out of his rear end so that he can put an ear to the ground. If he did, he would discover what most people are aware of. There has been a great deal of planning, some of it of necessity being tentative. This has been going on at all levels of the health system since before omicron was a thing. How long would it take to get a chauffeur driven limo to take him perhaps 200m or more to the nearest medical practice to ask what preparations have been made?
Those were my thoughts Sanctuary. Luxon's undermining the forward planning with negativity is just a continuation of Bridges without the belligerence.
So according to Nationals play book. "We have done nothing to prepare" "We are late with these non existent actions" and "We have had a month on holiday", and the pearl, "We are confused by the confusing traffic light system"
As for "Pre orders of RAT tests, we have 5000 000 odd, with orders coming in batches through to June. He couldn’t say if they should be free.
Competing with a billion ordered by the USA puts us way down the list, as currently we don't need them.
When asked what he would do Luxon talked all round the question and had no concrete suggestions. He is allowing Bishop to bark at every situation. Situation familiar imo.
I loved it when they took Trump off…I love this even better. I needed that laugh after receiving another credit card charge back from a business that cannot now supply what I purchased.
"More than a third of Covid-19 cases caught at New Zealand’s border over the space of one week were unvaccinated or ineligible due to their age, a snapshot of data shows."
"While non-New Zealand citizens are required to be vaccinated to enter the country, there is no requirement for citizens to be vaccinated."
I would think you would run afoul of the New Zealand Immigration Act 2009, and in particular section 13.
Basically it says that if you are only a New Zealand citizen you can't be kept out and you can't be deported. I don't see how you could change this without making people stateless.
Besides it isn't a crime for New Zealand citizens not to be vaccinated. Why should it be for a New Zealand citizen wanting to enter the country?
Interesting development. The police & prison management seem to have treated this protest with kid gloves. One wonders whether that will embolden Tamaki's supporters to do more of this kind of thing when their leader isn't happy inside and complains to them.
I think most sensible people are wary of going too far in supporting Apostle Tamaki because they know a cult when they see one.
They generally don't go up in bad weather and we're not allowed to use fire hoses (not even just to make them wet)
Well sure, it holds up everything especially at lock up, once lock up happens you have less people on so while theres an idiot on the roof no ones going home, theres plenty of damage that can be done up there (windows etc, can get other places they shouldn't etc)
You have to look after your voter base, FB. Asians kind of get what National stands for. But, apart from a few outliers, Asians don't have a clue what Labour and the Greens are about. It's too wishy washy for them. They just want to make money, look after their families and get on with life. That's a great attitude.
If you're just pointing out the apparently contradictory messaging from National's leader and their mental health spokesperson…
Luxon says:
The first thing I'd say is that we believe we are bigger than our individual identities. We are first and foremost New Zealanders and we believe we are one country. But we fundamentally believe that we should target on the basis of need, not on the basis of ethnicity.
And so, we have real challenges. We've got a responsibility to help people in need. There is an overlap between ethnicity and need. But that should very much be the focus and starting point for that.
Luxon is saying in the first article that National believe in targeting by need, not ethnicity, but Doocey is saying:
We need to increase the access for the Asian population to access mental health services.
Without a specific mental health workforce strategy there is no way we are going to increase that level of service.
I don't think there's a contradiction in real terms because Luxon acknowledges there's often an overlap of ethnicity with need.
It seems like typical politician double-talk. Some people will hear the "need, not ethnicity" message & others will realise that he gives himself wriggle room in the event he ever finds himself in the position of, for example, having to decide whether to disband the Maori Health Authority. (He probably wouldn't dare do that.)
Luxon's trying to find points of policy difference with Labour but I get the impression he's still floundering.
Luxon's announcements/promises add up to one thing: spend more money.
It's not usually expressed like that, but that's what "invest" really means. He did this on day one of his leadership: invest more in education, climate change, etc. Sounds good!
In Hawke's Bay he called for more spending on health and as an aside, more aid for Tonga. I agree with both, but then I also agree with Grant Robertson borrowing the money to make this possible … while Luxon and Bridges say he should borrow less.
They are for all kinds of spending, and against saying where it comes from. It’s a cruel trick to play on (e.g.) nurses, who will be expecting National to demand higher pay for them, based on Luxon’s comments here:
Yep. It will be interesting to see when the new round of Q+A & Newshub Nation shows begin whether the interviewers will press him on where the money’s going to come from for his policy promises.
From what we’ve seen & heard from him so far he’ll probably just continue to be vague & maybe talk about reprioritising…. Others have already pointed out the practical problems with his suggestions that the government should be getting in tons more RATs & boosting the numbers of ICU beds. Such criticisms are easy to make but much harder to implement without the necessary resources being immediately available.
He’s a practiced smooth talker & therefore he may not put his foot in it as often as his predecessors Bridges & Collins. But otherwise he seems to basically be following the same non-plan. He’s far too vague & all over the place for me to consider him potential Prime Ministerial material yet.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has said there's enough money in the Covid Response and Recovery Fund (CRRF) for the costs of the Omicron outbreak – including the purchasing of rapid antigen tests – but warned more money might be needed if the country required a fourth round of vaccinations.
……
"Vaccine purchasing – obviously that's in a reasonable shape in terms of the allocated money for that – if we were to look at a fourth dose and so forth then we would need to find more money for that," Robertson said.
He added that the Government would find the money for an additional round of vaccinations, if they were required.
oh well, surely they would find the money, as the other option would be to bury the 'vaccine mandate' in a dust pile of history, unless they are happy to keep the mandate up and require people to pay for hte vaccines in the future. Which i don't think would go down well.
It's the code I started using a couple of weeks ago for Labour's big bold bright & shiny new Maori policy – apparent evidence of the collective heft now being exercised by their Maori MPs.
Abbreviation of the name of the report. Okay, it's true they haven't formalised it as policy yet – I'm anticipating most of it will be. They won't want to incentivise their Maori MPs to jump ship to the MP.
So I expect that – because it was a design produced by a high-level consensus of Maori leaders, and pan-tribal consensus is usually a rarity – there's a strong likelihood of implementation.
Less so if there had been disagreement about it in the media but the discussion I saw merely featured a few complaints about the concept of co-governance. As if the principles of Te Tiriti ought not to be read as a racial partnership. No sign Asian kiwis are seeking to become the third part of any such partnership!
If that polling is anywhere accurate there isn't a chance in hell that any of the Labour Party Maori MPs would defect. It's very cold out there if you lose your place at the taxpayer supplied trough and they aren't going to risk it. They aren't like Tariana Turia who quit on a question of principle.
There was discussion onsite here a few weeks ago about it. Anyway the govt description linked provides enough indication of provisional agreement on scheme & principles. A sound basis.
So I agree there's no reason for Willie & the others to feel discouraged at this point. Jumping ship only looms if Labour gets cold feet and the PM decides to abandon the thing.
Apparently I subconsciously conflated the two. That would be because they emanate from the same agenda: co-governance based on Treaty rights. I agree that Labour is doing the right thing in principle. In practice, we ought to watch this space…
Well I wouldn't get too excited. Often the holiday break gets folk re-centered & a shift of mood can become evident in the crowd. This time, they're feeling the same as before the break – which will reassure Labour.
Angst around Three Waters? Not enough to shift anything. Losing faith in pandemic strategy? No sign of that either. Best gloss possible – shit can happen fast with omicron, and there's an outside chance it could end up on Labour faces.
Without saying anything interesting or noteworthy. Honeymoon over already. Folks with a question-mark in their heads now shaking them sadly.
As if the guy never heard of the saying hit the ground running. I'm wondering if he's wondering what he ought to say. Preaching to the converted has a snowball's chance in hell of working. Centrists go huh?
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Hi,Thanks for the outpouring of advice and love over the weekend’s Wolves on the Roofpiece. I’m gonna throw some of your comments into a future newsletter, as I think there’s genuinely great advice in there for anyone suffering any kind of chronic pain, or battling the dark nighttime thoughts ...
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 ...
Socrates Takes The Rap: “Corrupting the youth”, the Athenian philosopher Socrates was convicted and executed for this offence more than 2,400 years ago. It is a sure sign of generational desperation: of the old order’s fear of the values and aspirations of its younger citizens; and of a generation no ...
Labour's "independent" review of the electoral system reported back today. You can read the full thing here, but most of it was basicly a rehash of the 2012 Electoral Commission review, and in response to the same questions, produced mostly the same answers: a lower threshold and removing the one-seat ...
ACT preens as party in waiting ahead of Election 2023, read an RNZ headline this morning. Foregone conclusions are totally the new black in election reporting this season. The article that followed was not quite so breathless, and concluded with the reminder that in the end it’s all up to the ...
ACT preens as party in waiting ahead of Election 2023, read an RNZ headline this morning. Foregone conclusions are totally the new black in election reporting this season. The article that followed was not quite so breathless, and concluded with the reminder that in the end it’s all up to the ...
Today transport Minister Michael Wood was stood down after failing to properly declare a conflict of interest. He'd bought shares in Auckland airport "as a teenager", hidden them in a trust when he became an MP, and failed to declare them for seven years, for three of which he was ...
Buzz from the Beehive At least one headline-grabbing ministerial announcement had not been posted on the government’s official website, when Point of Order checked early this afternoon. We learned from other sources that Michael Wood has been stood down as Transport Minister over over failing to properly disclose shares owned ...
Battered by storms, and soaring costs, New Zealand dairy farmers have countered by extracting higher production. As one commentator put it, end-of-season production “has been through the roof” . Westpac senior agri economist Nathan Penny notes in a report in the NZ Herald that we are probably looking at two ...
Not for the first time, David Seymour looks like an answer to a non-existent problem. Reportedly, ACT is promising to establish a Ministry of Regulations to cut through all that bureaucracy and red tape. Yep. To cut down on bureaucracy. Seymour is promising to create a whole new bureaucracy, presumably ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sara Peach In 1989, cartoonist Matt Groening told a reporter that his new television show, “The Simpsons,” would tackle the serious subjects in life. “It always amazes me how few cartoonists in print or animation go after the bigger issues, the kinds ...
This is a cross post from our friends at Bike Auckland. You can see the original post here.An Auckland for EverybodyIt’s 2024, and the Auckland Harbour Bridge is finally open and available to all modes of everyday transport. Using a dedicated lane protected from traffic, people walk, ...
It could be easy to shrug away Education Minister Jan Tinetti’s referral to the Privileges Committee as just another example of a Minister not following the rules of Parliament. But its significance should be recognised in the fact it is only the second time since 2008 that a Member of ...
Seeing is no longer believing. Surprisingly realistic – yet fake – images created by Artificial Intelligence (AI) are here. To date, most have seemed more like curiosities than genuine deception attempts. Last month, it was revealed that New Zealand’s National Party had used the AI image generation app Midjourney to ...
Young climate activists watch a livestream of Jacinda Ardern declaring a climate emergency in December 2020. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: There’s another call this morning to lower the voting age and to lower the threshold for parties to get into Parliament under MMP.Elsewhere, there’s news:most social homes ...
Interesting speech by Rowan Atkinson where he defends free speech. Timely too, as several countries are now facing the introduction of legislation which will be used to attack freedom of speech. New Zealand/Aotearoa is no exception. And this comes on top of actions of censorship, de-platforming and social pressure ...
The left has really been silent and allowed the traditional leftist commitment to free speech to erode and even fall out of favor. This has had an effect on a whole range of leftist issues, from journalism to environmental activism, worker’s rights, animal rights, etc. From June 17 to June ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – dominated today by announcements of who has been awarded King’s Birthday gongs – also carries news of a development in New Zealand’s relationship with Japan. This sits alongside the speech which Defence Minister Andrew Little delivered to the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue ...
The world is full of climate dashboards (and dashboards of dashboards), and so you might imagine that all datasets and comparisons are instantly available in whatever graphical form you like. Unfortunately, we often want graphics to emphasize a particular point or comparison, and generic graphs from the producers of ...
Not Even Close, Comrades! Occupy made it all the way to New Zealand, but its fate here did not differ substantially from its fate everywhere else around the world. The political praxis of identity politics, its extraordinary disintegrative power, made the organisation of any kind of credible threat to the ...
Take Me Home: Bowalley Road, North Otago. The long gravel road after which Chris Trotter’s blog is named. Near the road’s end is the farm where he spent the first nine years of his life.ONE OF THE JOYS of blogging is the instant feedback you get. Certainly, there are the trolls who ...
Steven Levitt, famous for his Freakanomics, shows that being an economist is not just mouthing supply and demand.Brian Easton writes – Anyone can call themselves an ‘economist’. Many do, despite having no qualifications in economics and hardly any formal training; they often make elementary errors. That is the ...
Today is New Zealand’s first King’s Birthday since 1951. It’s not Charlie’s actual birthday, any more than Queen’s Birthday was Liz’s, but it’s a public holiday nonetheless. Until the creation of Matariki, the monarch’s observed birthday marked the start of a black hole in New Zealand’s holiday calendar, stretching ...
All things change. Nations, sporting teams, individuals. All have a time of ascent, and, in time, of decline. Their time on the stage, in the spotlight - however brightly they shone, gone. A new generation in their place.We see it on this day, in what still sounds strange, King’s Birthday. ...
Hi,A few days ago I screwed up my back. Rather, I inflamed an old injury — agitating a naughty protruding disc on my spine so it pinched a nerve, turning my lower back into a swarm of confused electrical signals. As a bonus feature, my entire right leg felt like ...
Seymour smirked at his reflection.Hi he said.Hi Hi Hi Hi the different reflections from the mirrored surfaces around the bathroom responded. Those days are over he thought, no more having to knock on every bloody door in Epsom - everybody knows my name now.The theme tune to Cheers ran through ...
Last Sunday, we looked out across the seas to, of all places, the USA for inspiration and hope. We're going back again today to visit Joe Biden.But first, an octopus. Arguably this creature with more neurons in its arms than head qualifies as this planet’s first intelligent being.Arguably it also qualifies ...
When I left academia in 2011 I was forced to stop two book projects that were in the works. Without institutional support and resourcing it is impossible to conduct in-depth academic research that requires field research in foreign countries and … Continue reading → ...
Buzz from the Beehive Defence Minister Andrew Little, addressing big-wigs from around the world in Singapore, was oh-so-diplomatically disinclined to identify some countries as goodies or baddies in his government’s defence thinking. In his Speech To The IISS Shangri-La Dialogue 2023, he did say New Zealand’s most recent defence assessment ...
This week’s hoon included Wellington City Councillor Tamatha Paulon the politics ofLets Get Wellington Movingand the great battle for the Thorndon Quay cycle way. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: The week’s news in Aotearoa’s political economy I covered via The Kākā for subscribers included:The Labour Government’s ...
Morning all,I’ve been taking a look at some of the new features Substack have released and I’m keen to find out how you access newsletters. Some of the features are only available on certain platforms.Whether you use a mobile device like a phone or tablet, or a PC or laptop. ...
Hello! This is the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the week.Here’s what you may have missed.Last Sunday’s column had a genuinely inspiring story about political leaders getting huge things done in the face of culture wars and conservative resistance. Readers told me this should ...
Steven Levitt, famous for his Freakanomics, shows that being an economist is not just mouthing supply and demand.Anyone can call themselves an ‘economist’. Many do, despite having no qualifications in economics and hardly any formal training; they often make elementary errors. That is the result of a conscious decision of ...
Over the years, we've published several calls for help with translations but most of them were rather generalized in nature like last year's blog post published in February 2022. This time around, we are asking for help with a quite specific task, namely to update existing translations for the rebuttals included ...
1. By what name is this work of art known?a. The Drowning Dog, Francisco Goyab.The Temptation of St Anthony, Hieronymus Boschc.Saturn Devouring His Son Peter, Paul Rubensd.Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown Waves To A Stuff Journalist Through A Window, Stuff Photographer Ricky Wilson2. Who was in the news ...
An effective campaign against the RMA reforms will be a nightmare for Hipkins.Graham Adams writes – After a Budget that failed to excite voters and a lacklustre party conference where his senior colleagues faintly praised him for his proletarian taste in food, the very last thing Chris Hipkins ...
Buzz from the BeehiveEducation Minister Jan Tinetti brings news of a book of rules for school board members at the same time as her own grasp of Parliament’s rule book has been brought into question. Tinetti has announced a compulsory code of conduct to “ensure school board members are ...
Photo by Branden Tate on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for an hour from midday (my apologies for the late start today), including:the Government’s vague promise of sharing the costs of cyclone rebuilding and buy-backs ...
Last night was a big night for our most celebrated radio presenter.Mike Hosking was named the Sir Paul Holmes Broadcaster of the Year - for the third straight year - as well as Best Talk Presenter (breakfast/drive) at the New Zealand Radio awards. Do you feel proud Aotearoa?In the presenter category ...
Speak of the devil. The Australian website Crikey has just launched an investigative series about the notorious lobbying firm Crosby Textor, or C/T as it now prefers to be called. It transpires that two clients of C/T’s American subsidiary will benefit greatly from the AUKUS defence pact between the US, ...
Aotearoa’s failure to deal with the escalating pace of human-induced climate change was starkly on display yesterday. Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR: Our planet is now warming and generating extreme climate events faster than our politicians, voters and institutions can agree to reduce the costs and share the burden of those events ...
It’s Friday and we’ve got a long weekend ahead of us. Here’s our latest roundup of stories that caught our eye this week. The Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt reviewed National’s new housing policy. On Tuesday Matt looked at some of the highlights from Auckland Transport’s ...
The facts are bald and simple; India is now the most populous country in the world and the fifth largest economy and is on track to becoming the fourth. Despite that, New Zealand’s relationship with India could best be described as in its infancy, even though New Zealand has ...
Open access notables Multiple studies indicate changes in the properties of Antarctic bottom water (AABW) over the past half century. These changes involve density and hence will affect both local and distant circulation of the oceans, not least overturning effects that are vital for marine biology but also climate and ...
Completed reads for May: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift Journey to the Centre of the Earth, by Jules Verne Round the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne The Secret of the Island, by Jules Verne From the Earth ...
Ben Roberts-Smith is apparently "Australia’s most decorated living soldier", having won a Victoria Cross for killing people in Afghanistan. But today, after a stupendous self-own defamation case, he's also been proven to be a war criminal who committed multiple murders: Ben Roberts-Smith VC, Australia’s most decorated living soldier, has ...
Hey Uncle Dave, My house got wrecked in the summer floods. Do you know if the government’s got any plans to help me, or are they too busy making bilingual road signs?Noah InsuranceYou picked a good day to ask, Noah, the Govt has just announced there’ll be an offer of ...
The government has looked at imposing a tax on nitrogen fertiliser, used heavily in NZ agriculture, but yesterday Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor conceded he had not convinced farming leaders to go ahead with it. ACT”s Mark Cameron claimed credit in Parliament for “killing” the plan. Both Federated ...
Are women the new Māori?Since Christopher Luxon has been leader National have shown they’re prepared to throw Māori under a bus. Be it not wanting them to have a seat at the table on water management, referring to the Treaty as a “little experiment”, or the monocultural candidate selection polices ...
Are women the new Māori?Since Christopher Luxon has been leader National have shown they’re prepared to throw Māori under a bus. Be it not wanting them to have a seat at the table on water management, referring to the Treaty as a “little experiment”, or the monocultural candidate selection polices ...
Buzz from the Beehive An email from Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta had yet to be posted on the government’s official website, when Point of Order made its morning check on our ministers and what they are (officially) up to. She was providing us with an account – a ...
Multiple reviews are examining options to address a $25M to $40M funding hole in its operating budget and a reported $300M, 70,000 hour maintenance backlog for huts, tracks and visitor assets.Thomas Cranmer writes – Following Friday’s revelation that Budget 2023has left the Department of Conservation ...
Property values fell a further 0.7% in May from April across Aotearoa, but Core Logic sees evidence in the data “the current downturn is winding up.” Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: There are fresh signs this morning the housing market-with-bits-tacked-on economy is brightening up going into winter, and just ...
This is a cross post by Malcom McCracken at Better things are possible. It was from between when National signalled their change in housing policy but before they announced it but highlights why the Medium Density Residential Standards are important. Yesterday, the leader of the National Party, Christopher Luxon, ...
Do the global climate models (GCMs) we use for describing future climate change really capture the change and variations in the region that we want to study? There are widely used tools for evaluating global climate models, such as the ESMValTool, but they don’t provide the answers that I ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). The world is getting hotter and the headlines are scary. So does climate change mean the world is about to pass ...
The Green Party are today launching a campaign asking for people to submit their stories of subpar, substandard and downright awful experiences of renting in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the draft report of the Independent Electoral Review and challenging all political parties to commit to implementing its final recommendations after the 2023 general election. ...
Today, Te Pāti Māori announce Takuta Ferris will contest the Te Tai Tonga seat at this year’s General Election. “Takura ran for the Te Tai Tonga seat for Te Pāti Māori in 2020. It takes tremendous courage and commitment to put your hand up for another round in the ring ...
Focussed immigration has always been essential to our future, but New Zealanders need to be aware of the immediate dire situation our government is putting us in with a predicted record of one hundred thousand new immigrants moving to New Zealand in this year alone. That means we will have ...
Today, President of Te Pāti Māori, John Tamihere has confirmed that Heather Te-Au Skipworth will stand for Te Pāti Māori in the Tukituki electorate this election. ...
During New Zealand First coalition negotiations our policy was to train and resource 1800 new frontline police. We secured this coalition policy win to ensure our streets had a police force that could tackle crime - after years of neglect. Remember those previous nine years of neglect saw a ‘tag ...
Katie Kenny from Stuff published an article today with a lazy attempt at so-called ‘fact checking’ my recent comments on the World Health Organisation’s concerning new regulations being developed. What is most surprising is that throughout this entire ‘fact checking’ process, Kenny never once rang me asking for my side ...
The National Party has released another confused and rushed policy that will only further worsen the inequality that is driven by unaffordable housing. ...
Welcome to sunny and calm Wellington, which I know those of you who are visiting would of course expect to be the case. It’s been a busy week since we put forward the 2023 Budget. Labour MPs have been out across the motu giving the good oil on the Budget. ...
Kia orana, Talofa lava, Mālo e lelei, Taloha ni, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Noa’ia e mauri, Ni sa bula vinaka, Kia ora, Tena Koutou Katoa. Labour Party President Jill Day, Prime Minister Hipkins, Party faithful, delegates and comrades, whānau and friends, it’s a privilege to be here today. I begin my ...
One of my kaumātua up North stood before the Waitangi Tribunal and said: ‘He aha kē ahau, te tangata kore hara i mua i te Atua, e tu nei kia whakawaatia e koe, te tangata tāhae, te tangata hara, te tangata kore tikanga?Ko koe kē te tika, kia tū ...
New Zealanders will be highly concerned that the World Health Organisation proposes to effectively take control of independent decision making away from sovereign countries and place control with the Director General. W.H.O International Health Regulations on future outbreaks of disease aim to give the Director General extraordinary and wide-sweeping powers. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take responsibility for reducing inflation by taxing wealth instead of leaving RBNZ to continue hiking the Official Cash Rate. ...
The Green Party has released its list of candidates for the 2023 election. With a mix of familiar faces, fresh new talent, and strong tangata whenua voices, this exceptional group of candidates are ready to set the direction of the next Government. ...
Thank you for your invitation to be here, after yesterday's budget, and for the opportunity to talk with you. In the economic and social turmoil following the arrival of COVID 19 in New Zealand many concerns emerged. How would we keep our economy going and maintain our exports which are ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson and Disability Issues Minister Priyanca Radhakrishnan have wished the 39-strong New Zealand Special Olympics squad heading to Berlin the best of luck. The New Zealand athletes departed for Germany today and will begin competing from next week. “The athletes heading to the Special Olympics ...
A proposed temporary law change would enable rural Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti landowners dealing with masses of cyclone and flood debris to burn mixed waste so they can replant and return their land to productivity, Environment Minister David Parker said today. The proposed short-term law change would ensure that any ...
Legislation introduced in Parliament today will ensure New Zealand’s emergency management system learns the lessons of recent and previous responses to natural disasters, including severe weather events and other emergencies. The Emergency Management Bill replaces the two decades old Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002. “The strength of our emergency ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka met in Wellington this morning, reaffirming the strength and spirit of New Zealand and Fiji’s relationship, as outlined in the Duavata Relationship Statement of Partnership. “New Zealand and Fiji are connected by a kinship forged in Pacific culture, identity and interests, ...
Primary teachers have agreed to the Government’s pay offer which will see the top base salary step rise to $100,000 by December next year. The settlement will also see a number of improvements to primary teachers’ conditions, including more than double the classroom release time they currently have to ...
Associate Transport Minister Kiri Allan has announced the construction plan for the bridge on State Highway 25A that will reconnect the Coromandel peninsula, bringing more certainty to the region’s recovery efforts. “The Government is committed to reconnecting Coromandel communities quickly, and this plan to repair the damage along the highway ...
Tena koutou katoa and welcome to Parliament. It is a great pleasure for me to host you here today, for the second New Zealand Seafood Sustainability Awards. The awards started in 2020 and officially, are to be held every two years. But as with so many things, COVID got in the ...
Representation for women on public sector boards and committees is the highest it’s ever been with wāhine now making up 53.1 percent of public board and committee members,” Minister for Women Jan Tinetti said. Manatū Wāhine Ministry for Women’s 2022 stocktake of public sector boards and committees shows for the ...
A new law enabling sole parents on a benefit to receive child support payments for their tamariki was passed in Parliament today. “This change is estimated to lift as many as 14,000 children out of poverty and give families a median of $20 extra a week,” said Social Development and ...
Crack down on disposable vapes No new vape shops near schools or marae Restricted descriptions for product flavours The Government is taking action to reduce the number of young people taking up vaping, Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall has announced. “Too many young people are vaping, which is why we’re ...
Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka will visit New Zealand this week, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. “Prime Minister Rabuka officially visited New Zealand in 1998, over 25 years ago, and we look forward to welcoming him here once again,” Chris Hipkins said. “New Zealand and Fiji have a long ...
The King’s Birthday and Coronation Honours List 2023 includes sporting stars and administrators who reflect the best of New Zealand’s sporting community. Sir Wayne Smith has been knighted for services to rugby. Sir Wayne was Assistant Coach of the All Blacks at the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cups and ...
Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa taki tini ‘My success is not mine alone, but that of the people” The King’s Birthday and Coronation Honours list 2023 celebrates Māori from all walks of life, reflecting the achievements of those who have made a significant contribution to ...
The strength and diversity of service in New Zealand is a standout feature of today’s King’s Birthday and Coronation Honours list, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said. “Each of today’s 182 recipients has contributed individually to our country. Viewed collectively, their efforts reflect an overwhelming commitment to service.” Chris Hipkins said. ...
The Defence Ministers of New Zealand and Japan have signed a statement of intent for closer defence cooperation between the two Pacific regional partners. Andrew Little and H. E. Yasukazu Hamada met to sign the ‘Statement of Intent on Defence Cooperation in Maritime Security, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief and ...
New Zealand’s most recent defence assessment identified climate change and geostrategic competition as the two greatest security challenges to our place in the South Pacific. To the first issue, partners engaging and re-engaging with Pacific Island Countries are finding that climate change is a security and existential threat in our ...
The government is continuing to support rangatahi in providing more funding into Maori Trades training and new He Poutama Rangatahi programmes across Aotearoa. “We’re backing 30 new by Māori for Māori Kaupapa employment and training programmes, which will help iwi into sustainable employment or progress within their chosen careers” says ...
Murihiku Marae was officially reopened today, setting a gold standard in sustainable building practices as well as social outcomes for the people of Waihōpai Invercargill, Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan says. “The marae has been a central hub for this community since the 1980’s. With the support of $9.65 million ...
The first major public housing development in Whangārei for decades has reached completion, with 37 new homes opened in the suburb of Maunu today. The project on Tapatahi Crescent and Puriri Park Road, consists of 15 one-bedroom, 4 two-bedroom, 7 three-bedroom, 8 four-bedroom and 3 five-bedroom homes, as well as ...
Trade and Export Growth Minister Damen O’Connor will depart tomorrow for London to represent New Zealand at the Commonwealth Trade Ministers’ Meeting and then to Paris to vice-chair the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting. “My travel to the United Kingdom is well-timed, with the United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement (UK FTA) ...
The Fuel Industry (Improving Fuel Resilience) Amendment Bill would: boost New Zealand’s fuel supply resilience and economic security enable the minimum stockholding obligation regulations to be adapted as the energy and transport environment evolves. “Last November, I announced a six-point plan to improve the resiliency of our fuel supply from ...
The Government is making sure those on low incomes will no longer have to wait five weeks to get the minimum weekly rate of ACC, and improving the data collected to make the system fairer, Minister for ACC Peeni Henare said today. The Accident Compensation (Access Reporting and Other Matters) ...
A compulsory code of conduct will ensure school board members are crystal clear on their responsibilities and expected standard of behaviour, Minister of Education Jan Tinetti said. It’s the first time a compulsory code of conduct has been published for state and state-integrated school boards and comes into effect on ...
Tena koutou katoa and thank you, Mayor Nadine Taylor, for your welcome to Marlborough. Thanks also Doug Saunders-Loder and all of you for inviting me to your annual conference. As you might know, I’m quite new to this job – and I’m particularly pleased that the first organisation I’m giving a ...
The Government will enter into a funding arrangement with councils in cyclone and flood affected regions to support them to offer a voluntary buyout for owners of Category 3 designated residential properties. It will also co-fund work needed to protect Category 2 designated properties. “From the beginning of this process ...
The Government has announced changes to strengthen requirements in venues with pokie (gambling) machines will come into effect from 15 June. “Pokies are one of the most harmful forms of gambling. They can have a detrimental impact on individuals, their friends, whānau and communities,” Internal Affairs Minister Barbara Edmonds said. ...
The total Police workforce is now the largest it has ever been. Police constabulary stands at 10,700 officers – an increase of 21% since 2017 Māori officers have increased 40%, Pasifika 83%, Asian 157%, Women 61% Every district has got more Police under this Government The Government has delivered on ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon Nanaia Mahuta met with Korea President Yoon, as well as Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna, during her recent visit to Korea. “It was an honour to represent Aotearoa New Zealand at the first Korea – Pacific Leaders’ Summit. We discussed Pacific ambitions under the ...
The Government’s Research and Development Tax Incentive has supported more than $2 billion of New Zealand business innovation – an increase of around $1 billion in less than nine months. "Research and innovation are essential in helping us meet the biggest challenges and seize opportunities facing New Zealand. It’s fantastic ...
The next ‘giant leap’ in New Zealand’s space journey has been taken today with the launch of the National Space Policy, Economic Development Minister Barbara Edmonds announced. “Our space sector is growing rapidly. Each year New Zealand is becoming a more and more attractive place for launches, manufacturing space-related technology ...
A new Year 7-13 designated character wharekura will be built in Pāpāmoa, Associate Minister of Education Kelvin Davis has announced. The wharekura will focus on science, mathematics and creative technologies while connecting ākonga to the whakapapa of the area. The decision follows an application by the Ngā Pōtiki ā Tamapahore ...
Protecting the environment by establishing a stronger, more consistent system for freedom camping Supporting councils to better manage freedom camping in their region and reduce the financial and social impacts on communities Ensuring that self-contained vehicle owners have time to prepare for the new system The Self-Contained Motor Vehicle ...
A new law passed last night could see up to 25 percent of Family Court judges’ workload freed up in order to reduce delays, Minister of Justice Kiri Allan said. The Family Court (Family Court Associates) Legislation Bill will establish a new role known as the Family Court Associate. The ...
New Zealand businesses will begin reaping the rewards of our gold-standard free trade agreement with the United Kingdom (UK FTA) from today. “The New Zealand UK FTA enters into force from today, and is one of the seven new or upgraded Free Trade Agreements negotiated by Labour to date,” Prime ...
The Government will reform outdated surrogacy laws to improve the experiences of children, surrogates, and the growing number of families formed through surrogacy, by adopting Labour MP Tāmati Coffey’s Member’s Bill as a Government Bill, Minister Kiri Allan has announced. “Surrogacy has become an established method of forming a family ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little departs for Singapore tomorrow to attend the 20th annual Shangri-La Dialogue for Defence Ministers from the Indo-Pacific region. “Shangri-La brings together many countries to speak frankly and express views about defence issues that could affect us all,” Andrew Little said. “New Zealand is a long-standing participant ...
Research, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall and the Chinese Minister of Science and Technology Wang Zhigang met in Wellington today and affirmed the two countries’ long-standing science relationship. Minister Wang was in New Zealand for the 6th New Zealand-China Joint Commission Meeting on Science and Technology Cooperation. Following ...
5 percent uplift clearer and simpler to navigate Domestic productions can access more funding sources 20 percent rebate confirmed for post-production, digital and visual effects Qualifying expenditure for post-production, digital and visual effects rebate dropped to $250,000 to encourage more smaller productions The Government is making it easier for the ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs (Pacific Region) Carmel Sepuloni will represent New Zealand at Samoa’s 61st Anniversary of Independence commemorations in Apia. “Aotearoa New Zealand is pleased to share in this significant occasion, alongside other invited Pacific leaders, and congratulates Samoa on the milestone of 61 ...
The Government is continuing to support retailers with additional funding for the highly popular Fog Cannon Subsidy Scheme, Police and Small Business Minister Ginny Andersen announced today. “The Government is committed to improving retailers’ safety,” Ginny Andersen said. “I’ve seen first-hand the difference fog cannons are making. Not only do ...
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown conjures up the ghosts of economic reformers past in demanding his council sell its biggest asset It's been a long time since elected representatives and voters have been lectured about TINA – the dogmatic claim that There Is No Alternative to a controversial economic move. TINA was the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Jakubowicz, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Technology Sydney Fifty years after the Whitlam government released its landmark report on multiculturalism in Australia, the Albanese government has launched a major review of its policies to ensure they are serving multicultural communities ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karen Fisher, Associate Professor, University of Auckland Greg Nunes, Author provided The rapidly declining health of New Zealand’s marine environment raises serious questions about how we care for and manage the oceans. A recent stocktake of our marine environment identifies ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Bean, Research Fellow, School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland Hans de Bull, Alchemical Hand Bell of Rudolf II, ca. 1600Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, CC BY-NC-SA Scholars are baffled by a mysterious object from Emperor Rudolf II’s ...
The capital is bursting with life, art and the best vibes in the country right now. The reason? Kia Mau Festival. Sam Brooks interviews the founders and some of the participants about what makes the festival so special.For the bulk of June, Pōneke will feel a little different. The ...
The former transport minister was asked 12 times to sell his Auckland Airport shares and didn’t do it. Emily Writes, a parent, knows exactly what that’s like.It was revealed at question time today that now-former transport minister Michael Wood was asked 12 times by the cabinet office to sell ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott F. Heron, Associate Professor in Physics, James Cook University The Bureau of Meteorology this week declared a 70% chance of an El Niño developing this year. This raises concern for the health of the Great Barrier Reef, which is under continuing ...
Closing its early childhood services may end up costing the council, while also taking away a vital community resource.On the Facebook page for Kauri Kids, the network of council-funded community early childhood education centres across Auckland, things seem rosy. Children experience sustainability by playing with shredded paper; they make ...
National’s five-point infrastructure plan contains some familiar elements. David Williams reports. Political speeches are peppered with anecdotes in an attempt to connect with their audience. A verbal journey from the mountain of political policy to the valleys of the people, if you will. National Party leader Christopher Luxon, speaking at ...
Calls for Michael Wood to be sacked from Cabinet are growing after more details emerged about decisions he made as Transport Minister while a shareholder in Auckland Airport. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard McGee, Senior lecturer in Paediatrics, University of Newcastle Shutterstock If you have been stung by a jellyfish at the beach, you’ll know how painful and unpleasant it can be. But how best to treat jellyfish stings has been debated ...
In an unexpected plot twist, it’s now been revealed embattled minister Michael Wood was actually asked to get rid of his shares in Auckland Airport 12 times. Yesterday, prime minister Chris Hipkins said he believed Wood was asked to divest his shares on about half a dozen occasions – though ...
In an unexpected plot twist, it’s now been revealed embattled minister Michael Wood was actually asked to get rid of his shares in Auckland Airport 12 times. Yesterday, prime minister Chris Hipkins said he believed Wood was asked to divest his shares on about half a dozen occasions – though ...
EU members at Massey University are bitterly disappointed that the Vice-Chancellor has continued to push ahead with disruptive and unnecessary plans to disestablish 178 administration and finance jobs only to establish 141 new roles. A preliminary ...
Watch out, Silicon Valley is trying to make wearable face tech cool again. Its creators say it’s “revolutionary”. Apple reckons its new spatial face computer will blend digital content with the physical world in a way Pokémon Go could only dream of. It will provide an “infinite canvas” for apps, ...
It might not be sinister, but the latest stuff-up by a government minister layers on the pain for Chris Hipkins. A clutch of Auckland airport shares purchased by a teenage Michael Wood, and his failure to get rid of them as a minister, have created a fresh headache for Labour ...
A group of concerned communities and businesses are today appealing to the Government to make a change that will stop the sudden and significant postal price increase that threatens to cut them off. From July 1, New Zealand Post is hiking its postage ...
The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation is disappointed by the new vaping regulations announced by the Government yesterday, saying they are inadequate to address the scale and seriousness of youth vaping in Aotearoa. "While we are pleased that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gavin Prideaux, Professor, Flinders University Dendrolagus ursinus, or Goodfellow’s tree-kangaroo.Shutterstock Kangaroos are an enduring symbol of Australia’s uniqueness. To move, they do what no other large mammals do: they hop along on oversized hind legs. So you may be surprised to ...
This week, two deserving women won Whānau Ora awards. Today, one of them wins the Best Fit award.Tasteful, sophisticated and straight up slay. These are all light words to describe the indescribable outfit that Kim Wi wore to receive her well-deserved Whānau Ora award, alongside her colleague Ngaire Harris. ...
Xiaole Zhan’s vivid, award-winning essay about how music can shape the perception of one’s own body was originally published in Landfall 245. I am seventeen with naked knees hacking into the trachea of a dead sheep. The smell will stain me, like bloodshot snow, or the taste of cigarettes and ...
Chris Hipkins has met with his Fijian counterpart Sitiveni Rabuka in Wellington, offering financial support to the Pacific nation as it addresses the impacts of climate change. In a statement, Hipkins said he had an “inspired discussion” with Rabuka on how our two countries can further cooperate to combat climate ...
The Chairperson of the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Committee is calling for public submissions on the Fuel Industry (Improving Fuel Resilience) Amendment Bill. The bill aims to ensure that New Zealand has adequate fuel stocks to mitigate ...
This week on our pop culture podcast we talk Tina from Turners, Pete Evans’ new ‘do and the secrets of the Love Island villa from Iain Stirling himself. Eat, sleep, crack on, repeat – It’s Love Island week and we could not be more excited to return to ...
“Common sense, driven by Groundswell NZ, seems to be finally permeating the He Waka Eke Noa space. A tax on the world’s most efficient farmers is counterproductive to food security, pricing, and would drive emissions offshore and in greater volume ...
A Malaysian lawyer who petitioned for New Zealand to stop sending plastic recycling to developing countries will be facing off against industry groups in Parliament tomorrow. This Thursday morning, petition leader Lydia Chai will argue for a ban ...
Homelessness is traumatic for young people, with potentially lifelong impacts on their mental, physical, and emotional well-being. According to data by STATS NZ, almost 50% of all those experiencing homelessness in Aotearoa are tamariki and rangatahi. ...
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has released its most recent report on the use of animals in science , stating that 308,872 animals were used for research, testing and teaching in NZ that year, and nearly half (47%) of these animals were ...
Alex Casey chats to Love Island UK narrator Iain Stirling about creating voiceover magic, smoking around the firepit and the fatal flaw in Love Island NZ.Iain Stirling is holding up a small black case like a Deal or No Deal lady. He’s in his spare room in North London, ...
Leading road transport body Transporting New Zealand is calling on all political parties to make transport a top priority in this year’s election. The organisation has released the Road Transport Industry Platform for the 2023 General Election. ...
The Chairperson of the Justice Committee is calling for submissions on the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2023 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill. The 2023 men’s Rugby World Cup will take place from 9 September 2023 to 29 October ...
National’s unveiled a new election year policy dubbed “infrastructure for the future”, which the party said will address the country’s “yawning” infrastructure deficit. It includes a new National Infrastructure Agency that would help coordinate government funding and improve delivery, new partnership deals between the government and local councils to create ...
New Zealand Politics Daily is a collation of the most prominent issues being discussed in New Zealand. It is edited by Dr Bryce Edwards of The Democracy Project. Today’s contentMICHAEL WOOD AUCKLAND AIRPORT SHARES CONFLICT OF INTEREST Luke Malpass (Stuff): Michael Wood, the shares, and the taint of incompetence Thomas Coughlan ...
Duncan Greive has a story on The Spinoff this morning on the awards designed to recognise the service of frontline workers during the pandemic. A year on from the announcement of the awards, hundreds of seemingly eligible people and organisations have been turned down, while around 50,000 awards remain unclaimed. Greive spoke ...
In 2003, a crew member on a New Zealand research vessel snapped a photo of a funny-looking fish. This is the story of how ‘Mr Blobby’ became a deep-sea icon.With its slimy pink skin, bulbous nose and downturned mouth, Mr Blobby is one of the world’s most famous fish. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David King, Senior Lecturer in General Practice, The University of Queensland Pexels/Cottonbro Studio, CC BY Our noses perform important functions every day of our lives, but we often only notice when disease changes how they work. Our sense of ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lucinda McKnight, Senior Lecturer in Pedagogy and Curriculum, Deakin University Shutterstock The world of writing is changing. Things have moved very quickly from keyboards and predictive text. The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) means bots can now write ...
Primary teachers have accepted the latest collective agreement put forward by the education ministry – the fourth offer proposed following lengthy negotiations and strike action. In a statement, the head of the education union NZEI, Mark Potter, said the new agreement included significant wins for teachers. “The biggest win was ...
Fuel companies are preparing marketing campaigns to sheet home the blame for next month's rise in fuel prices – and controversially, to show motorists how to avoid paying ...
The National Party is standing by its call for Michael Wood to be sacked from all his ministerial posts. Wood, who retains his roles in the immigration and Auckland portfolio, was stood down as transport minister yesterday after it emerged he had continued to hold undeclared shares in Auckland Airport. ...
Michael Wood got parked as transport minister yesterday, his explanation about not selling airport shares found wanting. He’s the fifth minister to cause the prime minister problems since January, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grant Duncan, Associate Professor, School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University Getty Images Among a host of other recommendations, the Independent Electoral Review has proposed a referendum on extending the term of parliament to four years (from the current ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grant Duncan, Associate Professor, School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University Getty Images Among a host of other recommendations, the Independent Electoral Review has proposed a referendum on extending the term of parliament to four years (from the current ...
Jacinda Ardern announced military-style awards to formally acknowledge the pandemic’s frontline workers. But a year on, hundreds of seemingly eligible people and organisations have been turned down, while around 50,000 awards remain unclaimed.The early days of the pandemic were a blur for Terry Taylor. The president of the New ...
They’re fielding candidates in the Māori seats for the first time in more than 20 years, but the question has to be asked – why? The National Party made headlines when it was announced they would field Māori electorate candidates in the upcoming election for the first time since 2002. ...
From riding in her Dad's rally car aged 12, school girl Bella Haggarty is now co-driving in some of the country's biggest events. Bella Haggarty is on a fast track to success. The 15-year-old from Rangiora is a Year 11 student at St Margaret’s College in Christchurch, but away from that, ...
A proposal to put te reo Māori on New Zealand's road signs has sparked outcries at the cost and the confusion bilingual signage could bring. But as The Detail finds out, bilingual signage has been around for decades — and it works. In Wales, bilingual signage is everywhere. "You've got road signs ...
There are useful models to follow, particularly from many European cities where outdoor space is prioritised and urban character is considered in planning decisionsOpinion: Many aspiring Kiwi homeowners long ago abandoned the quarter acre dream. But should they have to face the prospect of living in inhospitable urban centres ...
As New Zealand reviews its surrogacy and adoption laws, Dr Anne Else argues that fertility is another area we are falling short Comment: This term Labour set out to tackle the urgent, long-delayed tasks of reforming surrogacy and adoption law. But both projects have become bogged down. The Law Commission's extremely ...
If Wayne Brown’s full selldown of airport shares doesn’t get off the ground, will Auckland’s councillors find a compromise? After months of consultation and policy pruning, Auckland’s councillors will gather tomorrow to vote on Mayor Wayne Brown’s budget proposal - and it looks like it will come down to each ...
A tramper who fell 16m from a Department of Conservation swing bridge was a victim of mismanagement, a former ranger claims A senior DoC ranger who threw in his job over lax safety standards says the department is playing down the seriousness of an accident in which a tramper fell ...
A small Canterbury community claims victory after a David and Goliath battle. David Williams reports. Plans to build a cattle feedlot in a tiny Canterbury valley, near one of the country’s most polluted lakes, have been pulled. Farm company Wongan Hills had been granted city council consent to build massive ...
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By Alice Lolohea of Tagata Pasifika Twenty five broadcasters from 13 Pacific countries touched down in Auckland recently for the Pacific Broadcasters conference. A meet and greet filled with lots of talanoa, networking and healthy debate, the conference was a welcome change from a typical Zoom meeting. Natasha Meleisea, chief ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe and his board have pushed up interest rates yet again – for the twelfth time in 14 months – because they want to damage the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Longstaff, Honorary Professor, Australian National University Shutterstock The unfolding PwC scandal could be considered nothing more than an especially egregious example of ethical failure with dire consequences. However, there are deeper issues to be examined. The most obvious concerns ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liam Byrne, Honorary Fellow, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Luong Thai Linh/ AAP Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s recent trip to Vietnam is a recognition that Australia’s relationship with the Southeast Asian nation is important ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liza Lim, Professor, Sculthorpe Chair of Australian Music, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney The Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho passed away Friday at the age of 70. There’s been an outpouring of grief, sadness and love on social media and ...
Maxim Institute respectfully disagrees with He Arotake Potitanga Motuhake – Independent Electoral Review’s interim report insofar as it advocates for lowering the minimum voting age from 18 to 16 years. There are indeed many decisions made by Parliament ...
The political radar has been switched off for some in Labour and it's Chris Hipkins’ political capital taking the hit, writes political editor Jo MoirComment: Even if the Prime Minister had wanted to act quickly to deal with his Transport Minister’s conflicts of interest, he couldn’t because he was ...
The prime minister has faced further questions on Michael Wood’s failure to properly disclose his Auckland Airport shares, saying the transport minister himself “didn’t really have an adequate explanation” for the oversight. Speaking at this afternoon’s post-cabinet press conference, Chris Hipkins said he trusted that Wood, who was earlier today ...
Asia Pacific Report The self-styled provisional government of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua“with the people” of the Melanesian region have declared political support for full West Papuan membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG). In a statement issued in the Vanuatu capital of Port Vila after a meeting ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ozan Isler, Research Fellow, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Bao Truong / Unsplash Many of our economic and even social interactions are competitive. We use markets to find jobs, but also dates. What does this mean for our ...
This is a ‘congratulatory’ post: in an incredibly short period of time, humans have managed to ‘develop’ to the point where scientists are talking of the 6th mass extinction. Well done us!
About 50,000 years ago, plus or minus 20,000 years, there occurred among homo sapiens what is known as the cognitive revolution.
Among other developments in the brain, humans of the time stopped seeing themselves as a part of Nature, and began believing they were above Nature, a chosen species. That Nature was ‘created’ by ‘a God or Gods’ to serve them, and them alone.
50,000 or so years later, we’re on the point of exterminating ourselves.
The dinosaurs had much smaller brains, but they lasted for millions of years; homo sapiens for the blink of an eyelid in geological age.
Whether you accept we have a very few years left, or that human life will go on in some form forever, all need to realise we’ve made a colossal f*ck-up of it all in an incredibly short period of time, as evidenced by this graph.
“Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. In 2021, it fell on July 29.”
https://www.overshootday.org/
(Can't place the graph in post – but check the link)
The obvious trend is towards complete depletion of the Earth’s resources at some time in the not too distant future. Infinite growth on a finite planet anyone?
There has been much scientific talk about ‘tipping points,’ events which trigger an exponential change leading to probable extinction of our species.
One such crucial tipping point is ice loss in the Arctic (and the Antarctic for that matter).
https://kevinhester.live/2021/12/10/if-we-lose-the-arctic-we-lose-the-globe-weve-lost-the-arctic/
If/when we lose all ice in the Arctic, (possibly about September next year) all hell will break loose in the world’s climate.
It’s patently obvious that NZ, being such a small player in world terms, can do little to persuade the major polluters to mend their ways, (Cop-out 26 proved that) except by radical example, which this government has been largely reluctant to provide.
What we can and should do is recognise the crisis, and prepare to at least weather (pun intended) the worst that climate change can inflict on us.
Yes, I’m talking about ‘a hermit kingdom,’ or perhaps, to rile up the right wing misogynists, that should be ‘a hermit queendom.’
So, here’s the problem: do we bury our heads in the sand by maintaining either a) that climate change is a myth, or is beneficial because we might be able to grow bananas in Invercargill, or b) initiate immediate steps to mitigate its worst effects on New Zealand?
initiate immediate steps to mitigate its worst effects on New Zealand?
What would such steps look like, how much would it cost and what would be the anticipated outcome?
Sometimes doing nothing, or at least doing something whose benefits outweigh the costs, is the best option. That’s because doing something might produce few if any benefits and take away resources from areas where they could be used more productively.
Bjorn Lomborg has made a similar point. If we can prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths by providing poor countries with clean drinking water, we should seriously think about doing so. (If we can prevent children from being run over and killed in their own driveway, we should consider doing so, especially if there is an easy fix, which there is.)
I’d be interested in your response to how much it’s going to cost to take these steps, what steps exactly are you referring to, and the likely benefits of taking such action.
https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/drinking-water
https://www.kidsandcars.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfupload/2002-08-23-driveway-related-paediatric-study.pdf
Ross. What would it cost? !!!!!! It would cost everything. Nothing more. Nothing less. How much were YOU thinking?
I blame the Archon and Demiurge for giving us a subconscious mind and the ability to self reflect.. otherwise it would just be another day in paradise before the inevitable happens.
Tony, take a deep breath and relax. No amount of angst will stop the planet doing what the planet has always done.
I'm more worried about a pole shift. The Schumann Resonance 7.83 Hz ( the earths heartbeat, and according to some, what all living things rely on ) has apparently become weaker of the years.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/earth-north-south-poles-flip-magnetic-field-2018-4
Dylan Thomas
Sage advice… if the light is dying?
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Everything is governed by time, we just think ours is of more importance than anyone's or anything else.
I studied that stuff long ago, have Hapgood's book on it that Einstein wrote the foreword for. The magnetic poles seem to have a random walk sometimes:
This always gives me hope for the planet.
https://youtu.be/EWXdTwFHETA
Yes Stephen, the planet will continue.
And maybe in a million or so years, another intelligent species will evolve to fuck it all up again!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/127553909/covid19-labour-sets-scene-for-omicron-but-what-happens-next
From Luke Malpass
This looks like a handy guide for what to do if you get covid including traffic light details. I've saved this link for future reference.
It isn't easy for mainstreamers to admit that democracy is anti-democratic, but we're getting a few signs that they're starting to wake up to it:
America's left remains split down the middle. Liberals seeking to defend the status quo vs progressive changemakers:
The Democrats want filibuster reform when it suits them but when it doesn't:
https://repustar.com/fact-briefs/do-both-political-parties-have-a-history-of-using-filibusters
From that link, I find it interesting that filibusters have become enormously more common in the time since 2009 than the nearly 2 decades before that (1991-2008).
Interesting isn't it
Can confirm this works well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha2JbLL0Ndo
Glad to hear that, PR.
I heard a Kmart merchandise manager on talkback yesterday. What a bleak picture he painted. The main points of his korero:
1- Kmart(NZ) has 30 containers sitting on the wharf in Australia that are yet to be loaded. They were due in NZ during December. Estimated time of arrival 3-6 months. I reckon longer, if at all, given Kmart Australia has its own sourcing issues. The reason for the delay is lack of crane and forklift operators.
2-Kmarts NZ warehouse is at present only 25% full.
3- He claims shelves are empty, and customers are turning on staff. Customers want product; they expect product…and when they can't buy what they want, staff cop it. I wonder if the government will, too? I can vouch for the empty shelves. My local KM has next to no sporting goods left.
The supposed caller then said something I thought was suss. He claimed ScoMo wants to lower the age ( under18) for gaining crane and forklift licences so vacancies can be filled. Having driven forklifts, I know they are dangerous machines under certain circumstances. But it would seem I was wrong – desperate times call for desperate measures. I believe ScoMo has since reconsidered that option.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jan/20/unpalletable-scott-morrison-hits-reverse-on-plan-to-allow-under-18s-to-drive-forklifts
It is my thinking that firstly, freight and shipping companies see NZ as an annex of Australia and we are completely dependent on AUS to get any goods, and I mean any. Secondly, by squeezing supply, pricing is thus artificially gauged and I honestly believe that we will see inflation close to double digits in the next 2 years . Our wages will not be able to keep pace and the young ones will jump the ditch. Now, planning and trade negotiations go only so far, what about delivery Management?
American politics throws up gems on a daily basis. Some of them encapsulate some of the realities of the country so well, like this from Mitch McConnell.
https://twitter.com/polialertcom/status/1484028301895249922?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1484028301895249922%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnzissues.com%2FCommunity%2Fthreads%2Fdeathsantis-ruperts-next-candidate-for-potus.18909%2Fpage-7
Yeah crazy isn't it
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/biden-tells-interviewer-that-unlike-the-african-american-community-latino-community-is-diverse/
https://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/31/biden.obama/
"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bidens-comments-ruffle-feathers/
"I've had a great relationship. In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking," Biden said.
My favourite all time white liberal clip on voting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrBxZGWCdgs
It would be funny to see their reaction when they're told how racist they're being, heads would explode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFOaMNnkzcw
Wow look at the way this lady is driving. Lowering the speed limits on some roads is not going to make any difference to the road toll while people drive like this. Peoples driving attitudes need to change.
Watch: Speeding Auckland driver's frightening crash caught on camera – NZ Herald
While stupid driving is always dangerous, don't dismiss the effect of mandated speed reduction.
The road toll on SH6 has been greatly reduced since speeds were reduced from 100 to 80/90 km/h.
There was quite some opposition at the time from the Kaikoura MP down, citing time lost and the time cost to road freighters.
To contradict this view, the time difference is about 15 minutes for a 110 km journey, and an industry spokesman said that trucks save considerably (50 litres less on a 500 km journey) on fuel usage for every 10 km/h slower.
There have been no fatalities since introduction of these measures on SH6 designed to reduce the road toll.
That is a good result SH6 Mac. What concerns me is too many drivers like this lady that simply ignore all speed limits whether they be 80km/hr or 100km/hr and drive erratically.
How about getting a proper driver licence. It is truly frightening if you think about it. There are more than 40 000 people on the road without ever having learned to use a vehicle safely, road user codes, signs, restrictions etc. Any one of them can risk your life. You don't need lower limits, you need properly trained drivers.
The fatalities cannot be blamed on foreigners now as there are basically no tourists. You will look at bit closer to get to the truth. Lost control, too fast and alcohol would eliminate 95.7% of accidents. That is a lot. None has to do with speed limits but all with lack of skill and alcohol. It would be interesting to know the age group causing these crashes. But alas it is a data jungle and you find US data easier than any in NZ.
Causes of road accidents in New Zealand
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/07/revealed-over-40-000-drivers-remain-on-restricted-and-learner-licences-for-a-decade.html
So, driver error then.
No, overestimating skill levels and alcohol is and 40 000 plus unqualified drivers. Driver error would indicate that someone reading texts whilst driving, overtaking to impress mates, showing off what the car "can do" whilst they are incapable of controlling the vehicle, completely unaware that they endanger the rest of the road users. I am not in favor of political correctness cop out excuses. If a driver is to immature to handle a car than they should have to use public transport and go and get more training. End of story.
K-Mart ( and the Warehouse et al ) not being filled up with plastic shit with a limited lifespan and even more hardly-to-be-worn badly made clothes to add to the 115 BILLION garments produced each year would be a win in my book.
For the record, my Chinese socks sourced from Mitre10, used to last two weeks before disintegrating. Now I can get six weeks wear before they get holes. That's progress and proof capitalism is the way to go!
WA has gone its own way by keeping its hard border with the rest of Australia shut to all except a few who apply for exemptions. McGowan reckons its better to wait for the booster rate to be up at about the 80-90% level (currently at about 25%) and millions of RAT tests to be available for use plus other planning for the inevitable Omicron sweep. Not sure if the state can keep Omicron out, as like NZ it's knocking hard at the border, but no doubt casting an eye on all other parts of the country from within WA, the scene hardly looks enticing.
Koff:
I do think that, like McGowan in WA, Jacinda should be retaining the option of keeping the borders closed after the end of February (the current proposed end to MIQ border opening date) until NZ is 90% boosted, assuming Omicron doesn't get in by accident of course.
At present Labour seems fixated on sticking to this date. Are they in thrall to the business lobby?
How much more evidence of this do we need? We have decades-worth already. Where’s action on climate change, the housing crisis, inequality and infrastructure investment? They can sound tough in opposition but once they had complete control over cabinet very little has happened. Labour need to change their name, they abdicated actually fighting for workers a long time ago.
The problem with blanket assertions like "very little has happened" is that a moment's research can find a different set of facts which rather spoils the strength of other assertions.
The NZLP claims this-
"BOOSTING WAGES
We believe that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. That’s why since 2017, we’ve boosted the minimum wage by $4.25 – bringing it to $20 per hour. We’ve passed the Equal Pay Amendment Bill to ensure people who perform work of the same value are paid the same and started addressing pay inequities in our education and health systems. We’re also implementing Fair Pay Agreements, to improve wages and conditions and support our economic recovery.
RESTORING RIGHTS
We’re making sure workers get a fair deal by strengthening employment law. We’ve brought back meal and rest breaks, strengthened collective bargaining, restored protections for vulnerable workers, and limited 90-day trials to businesses with fewer than 20 employees. We’re committed to improving the Holidays Act to provide more certainty for employers and employees, and we’ve made changes to better protect migrants from exploitation.
LOOKING OUT FOR WELLBEING
We’re keeping workers safe and supporting them to balance their work with other demands. We’ve extended paid parental leave from 18 to 26 weeks, and we’ve doubled the minimum sick leave entitlement to 10 days to make sure no one feels pressured to go to work when they’re unwell. We increased funding to modernise WorkSafe, and launched a new Navigation Service offering free, independent advice and advocacy for people making ACC claims. We’ve also committed to keeping the retirement age at 65.
PROTECTING JOBS
Our strong COVID response has kept Kiwis safe while protecting jobs, allowing us to look ahead. Our wage subsidies have supported around 1.8 million jobs through alert level changes, and we created specific programmes to protect jobs in vulnerable sectors like sports, tourism, and the arts. To help protect those who do experience job loss through no fault of their own, we’re working on the design of a Social Unemployment Insurance scheme that would support workers to retain about 80 percent of their income for a period after they lose their jobs." https://www.labour.org.nz/policy
If you don't like that as a source try this one from an employer, the Clubs of NZ. https://www.clubsnz.org.nz/members-area/news/new-labour-government-whats-on-the-workplace-reform-agenda/
"5 November 2020
At New Zealand’s October general election, the Labour Party won a majority of Parliament’s seats and is likely to govern alone. Some of the workplace policies Labour campaigned on included:
New protections for contractors"
Yes, like I said, very little has happened in regard to the climate crisis, the housing crisis, increasing inequality and infrastructure investment.
I was addressing your issue with "fighting for workers". Climate crisis, the housing crisis, increasing inequality and infrastructure investment are issues wider than workers' rights solely, save the inequality issue addressed in part by a $4.50 increase in the hourly minimum wage, doubled sick leave entitlement, workplace conditions improvements, fair pay agreements, pay equality, 90 day contracts etc.
You just can't say that very little has happened. You can argue for more, but argument based on scant regard for reality is not convincing. National do it with their current 'shambles' buzz word. It means less than nothing and is a sign of lack of proper argument.
Have you considered that workers are those most affected by all of those issues? I wasn't talking about 'rights', I'm talking material conditions.
A minimum wage increase is good for those on minimum wage however the majority of workers aren't on minimum wage and haven't seen their wages increase at the same rate.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300374351/threequarters-of-workers-get-pay-rises-that-dont-keep-up-with-inflation
A good article and one which spells out with facts and figures where we're at from the TU perspective. It does acknowledge some improvements and also that more is needed.
It does not however address the issue of "Labour need to change their name, they abdicated actually fighting for workers a long time ago."
Nothing in that article about what the Labour government needs to do. Most employers are private, not public. What do we need to see done, to address these issues, as a government?
What do I as a member tell my LEC and my nearest Labour MP 110 km away to get on with?
I do btw acknowledge that wider issues also impact on workers. But your statement was about "abdication of fighting for workers" and the discussion needs to go beyond that to the actuals of where we'r at, who can do what, and also what is beyond the power of government.
That’s up to you, but I do remember our PM talking about the failure of neo-liberalism, so something that undermines that status quo rather than just hoping for change would be what I expected them to get on with.
I don’t accept that action on any of these issues is beyond the power of government, actually fighting for workers involves a redefining what is possible.
That's up to me. Thanks.
That is unless you can get them to undo all the policy and philosophy changes of the 4th Labour Government, then do that. Thanks.
The evidence from Australia seems to be that business hasn't done well as the Omicron outbreak has meant staff shortages, hesitancy on the part of ordinary people to go out and risk being infected. The same businesses that were hard hit during lockdowns have been almost as badly hit with the high infection rate. Think the pressure on McGowan is from separated families more than WA business which is doing just fine. Queensland and other states and territories that had kept Delta out made a mistake in mid December opening up just as Omicron turned up. Once the borders were opened up, it was impossible to go into reverse. Guess it was hard at that point to know how bad things were going to get, but there is no excuse for NZ (like WA) to not learn the mistakes others have made and plan as fast as possible while doing whatever can be done to slow down Omicron's eventual arrival. Can't see businesses in NZ being happy once Omicron arrives tbh, whatever NZ Labour thinks.
No they aren't. They just have much more important things to worry about and they don't have any time to pay any attention to Covid 19.
Covid 19 is yesterday's story. This is 2022.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/which-wedding-dress-will-jacinda-ardern-say-yes-to-for-her-big-day/MBANKU6HJUJNZQHYR36R4HPSUQ/
Is it going to be broadcast on all the TV networks simultaneously? Which woman's magazine has arranged rights to publish the photos. What dress will Lorde wear and what will she sing?
Who cares? The Herald has been unable to find out anything so is reduced to a publishing a pointless lifestyle puff piece with pics of some wedding dress styles that Ardern might (or might not) wear.
It's being kept a closely-guarded secret. I'm happy to not know any details until the deed is done, the show is over, and the answers to your questions are revealed.
If any more was being announced about it, every detail would constantly be front page news when there are more important things to most of us that are real news.
Chris Luxon claiming the traffic light system is confusing and offering utterly simplistic solutions to complex problems two years into a pandemic is really just a neolib prosperity Christian desperately wanting to retreat into magical thinking that pretending COVID doesn't exist – that somehow by refusing to engage with understanding the tools to manage COVID and pleading for magical silver bullets will make COVID go away.
The recurring meta in National's covid response is the way it's strategy has been shaped by the clash between the Evangelical determinism and neoliberal ideology that is it's caucus's foundation beliefs and empirical requirements of a pandemic response. The party exhibits all the psychological stress one would expect of a political movement exposed to extreme and prolonged cognitive dissonance.
Luxon is merely yet another intellectual featherweight on the right, retreating into irrelevant and plaintive complaining rather than grasping and confronting the truth that the the ideas – and the actions that would flow from those ideas – that underpin his world view are not psychologically consistent with current reality.
Well said Sanc. Luxon blathered and complained endlessly today on RNZ's Morning Report, but when asked a simple question-"should RAT tests be free"-he had no answer saying that could be decided later.
So, is the garden gnome thick. Or just being devious??
With Luxon's becoming the leader, one assumed that the level of IQ of the opposition had improved. No such luck. Luxon's ranting about the lack of RAT's was so pathetic when those of the meanest of intellect know there is an international shortage. Did he expect the appropriate Ministers or the PM could magic them from their backsides? He has been raving about the government not rapidly producing sufficient ICU beds to handle a massive increase in demand – presumably in support of pandering to the demands of the hospitality industry. It seems he forgot that each bed requires 4-5 advance trained nursing staff. No magic wand would solve that problem, especially when a pandemic, once unleashed, would cause the NZ health system to immediately lose existing staff to infection, burn-out and resignations for self-preservation. He has also demonstrated that he should pull his head out of his rear end so that he can put an ear to the ground. If he did, he would discover what most people are aware of. There has been a great deal of planning, some of it of necessity being tentative. This has been going on at all levels of the health system since before omicron was a thing. How long would it take to get a chauffeur driven limo to take him perhaps 200m or more to the nearest medical practice to ask what preparations have been made?
So according to Nationals play book. "We have done nothing to prepare" "We are late with these non existent actions" and "We have had a month on holiday", and the pearl, "We are confused by the confusing traffic light system"
As for "Pre orders of RAT tests, we have 5000 000 odd, with orders coming in batches through to June. He couldn’t say if they should be free.
Competing with a billion ordered by the USA puts us way down the list, as currently we don't need them.
When asked what he would do Luxon talked all round the question and had no concrete suggestions. He is allowing Bishop to bark at every situation. Situation familiar imo.
Was funny to hear him remind everyone that he'd "run an airline"!
Yes, that makes all the difference. Confidence should rein, he ran an airline!!!
John Keys' latest apprentice is a drip.
I noticed that too fender. His logic is that he can run an airline (in a semi monopolistic situation) so I can run a country.
He is not coming over well so far.
For anyone interested in the new Fresh Prince remake:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTJz6__YePU&t=334s
I loved it when they took Trump off…I love this even better. I needed that laugh after receiving another credit card charge back from a business that cannot now supply what I purchased.
I like that he skewers everyone, the Star Trek take off is pretty good as well
From Stuff.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300500687/covid19-one-third-of-border-cases-over-one-week-were-unvaccinated
"More than a third of Covid-19 cases caught at New Zealand’s border over the space of one week were unvaccinated or ineligible due to their age, a snapshot of data shows."
"While non-New Zealand citizens are required to be vaccinated to enter the country, there is no requirement for citizens to be vaccinated."
Shouldn't they be??
I would think you would run afoul of the New Zealand Immigration Act 2009, and in particular section 13.
Basically it says that if you are only a New Zealand citizen you can't be kept out and you can't be deported. I don't see how you could change this without making people stateless.
Besides it isn't a crime for New Zealand citizens not to be vaccinated. Why should it be for a New Zealand citizen wanting to enter the country?
https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2009/0051/latest/DLM1440595.html
Interesting. Obviously one of those moments where the stars align and I agree with Alwyn.
Don't get me wrong, almost all of them should be vaccinated. But making that a requirement for returning citizens gets dicey.
Now, whether airlines should require it for everyone who sets foot on their plane, that's another issue.
The good bishop’s supporters make a bid for relevance and support. Will they succeed? Stay tuned, possums.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/destiny-church-protest-brian-tamaki-supporters-barricade-mt-eden-prison-entrance/VXLCCY7ECWXY6PLGJM5VWBGK3A/
Interesting development. The police & prison management seem to have treated this protest with kid gloves. One wonders whether that will embolden Tamaki's supporters to do more of this kind of thing when their leader isn't happy inside and complains to them.
I think most sensible people are wary of going too far in supporting Apostle Tamaki because they know a cult when they see one.
Yes, looking forward to the news tonight so we can get some moving pictures.
' The police & prison management seem to have treated this protest with kid gloves'
Should see what we do when a prisoner gets on a roof…basically nothing, negotiate untill they get bored and climb down
Do you hope for a really bad spell of weather with sleet and gale force winds?
Would it make any difference to how long they stayed there?
They generally don't go up in bad weather and we're not allowed to use fire hoses (not even just to make them wet)
Well sure, it holds up everything especially at lock up, once lock up happens you have less people on so while theres an idiot on the roof no ones going home, theres plenty of damage that can be done up there (windows etc, can get other places they shouldn't etc)
Christopher Luxon says "we should target on the basis of need, not on the basis of ethnicity"
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/01/national-leader-christopher-luxon-responds-to-man-at-public-meeting-who-got-round-of-applause-for-denouncing-use-of-te-reo-m-ori.html
But…
National calls for better mental health services for Asians.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/01/national-calls-for-better-mental-health-services-for-asians.html
You have to look after your voter base, FB. Asians kind of get what National stands for. But, apart from a few outliers, Asians don't have a clue what Labour and the Greens are about. It's too wishy washy for them. They just want to make money, look after their families and get on with life. That's a great attitude.
If you're just pointing out the apparently contradictory messaging from National's leader and their mental health spokesperson…
Luxon says:
Luxon is saying in the first article that National believe in targeting by need, not ethnicity, but Doocey is saying:
I don't think there's a contradiction in real terms because Luxon acknowledges there's often an overlap of ethnicity with need.
It seems like typical politician double-talk. Some people will hear the "need, not ethnicity" message & others will realise that he gives himself wriggle room in the event he ever finds himself in the position of, for example, having to decide whether to disband the Maori Health Authority. (He probably wouldn't dare do that.)
Luxon's trying to find points of policy difference with Labour but I get the impression he's still floundering.
Luxon's announcements/promises add up to one thing: spend more money.
It's not usually expressed like that, but that's what "invest" really means. He did this on day one of his leadership: invest more in education, climate change, etc. Sounds good!
In Hawke's Bay he called for more spending on health and as an aside, more aid for Tonga. I agree with both, but then I also agree with Grant Robertson borrowing the money to make this possible … while Luxon and Bridges say he should borrow less.
They are for all kinds of spending, and against saying where it comes from. It’s a cruel trick to play on (e.g.) nurses, who will be expecting National to demand higher pay for them, based on Luxon’s comments here:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/127552519/nz-needs-to-invest-in-small-hospitals–luxon
Yep. It will be interesting to see when the new round of Q+A & Newshub Nation shows begin whether the interviewers will press him on where the money’s going to come from for his policy promises.
From what we’ve seen & heard from him so far he’ll probably just continue to be vague & maybe talk about reprioritising…. Others have already pointed out the practical problems with his suggestions that the government should be getting in tons more RATs & boosting the numbers of ICU beds. Such criticisms are easy to make but much harder to implement without the necessary resources being immediately available.
He’s a practiced smooth talker & therefore he may not put his foot in it as often as his predecessors Bridges & Collins. But otherwise he seems to basically be following the same non-plan. He’s far too vague & all over the place for me to consider him potential Prime Ministerial material yet.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-fund-could-not-fund-fourth-vaccine-dose-if-necessary-says-grant-robertson/KWWCIICJZMQPXLZJDDW3YBMSCY/
……
oh well, surely they would find the money, as the other option would be to bury the 'vaccine mandate' in a dust pile of history, unless they are happy to keep the mandate up and require people to pay for hte vaccines in the future. Which i don't think would go down well.
he's clearly saying two things:
1+ 2. where will he find the money? – or better from which fund will he take the money.
What the…? Must be some printing error. This shouldn't be happening in my reality.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/labour-regaining-momentum-in-latest-poll-as-nationals-luxon-surge-stalls/BSFRG6IHQ4Q33NZX5XXKHS4XMI/
Don't live in a bubble then. Actually it's margin of error stuff apart from this bit:
I wonder if the pollsters couldn't find many Maori to ask?? Everyone at the marae that day perhaps…
Actually, it's possible that mM worked a miracle for Labour – 1.7% shift from MP. Sorta like a vote of confidence in the scheme, eh?
mM?
It's the code I started using a couple of weeks ago for Labour's big bold bright & shiny new Maori policy – apparent evidence of the collective heft now being exercised by their Maori MPs.
what new Māori policy? Why mM?
Abbreviation of the name of the report. Okay, it's true they haven't formalised it as policy yet – I'm anticipating most of it will be. They won't want to incentivise their Maori MPs to jump ship to the MP.
So I expect that – because it was a design produced by a high-level consensus of Maori leaders, and pan-tribal consensus is usually a rarity – there's a strong likelihood of implementation.
Less so if there had been disagreement about it in the media but the discussion I saw merely featured a few complaints about the concept of co-governance. As if the principles of Te Tiriti ought not to be read as a racial partnership. No sign Asian kiwis are seeking to become the third part of any such partnership!
I just checked online & suspect I may have inadvertently conflated two reports – sorry, if so… https://www.newsroom.co.nz/maori-co-governance-talks-another-covid-19-victim
If that polling is anywhere accurate there isn't a chance in hell that any of the Labour Party Maori MPs would defect. It's very cold out there if you lose your place at the taxpayer supplied trough and they aren't going to risk it. They aren't like Tariana Turia who quit on a question of principle.
I think the thing I used the mM code for may have been related to this:
https://www.dia.govt.nz/three-waters-reform-programme-iwi-maori-interests
There was discussion onsite here a few weeks ago about it. Anyway the govt description linked provides enough indication of provisional agreement on scheme & principles. A sound basis.
So I agree there's no reason for Willie & the others to feel discouraged at this point. Jumping ship only looms if Labour gets cold feet and the PM decides to abandon the thing.
I wondered what on earth māturanga Māori had to do with it.
Maybe you were thinking of the He Puapua report, Dennis?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/explained/125740914/the-contentious-he-puapua-plan-explained
Apparently I subconsciously conflated the two. That would be because they emanate from the same agenda: co-governance based on Treaty rights. I agree that Labour is doing the right thing in principle. In practice, we ought to watch this space…
''Actually it's margin of error stuff apart from this bit:''
Oh, crikey, that's made me feel better, Dennis. And the ''bit'' part makes me feel even better still.
Well I wouldn't get too excited. Often the holiday break gets folk re-centered & a shift of mood can become evident in the crowd. This time, they're feeling the same as before the break – which will reassure Labour.
Angst around Three Waters? Not enough to shift anything. Losing faith in pandemic strategy? No sign of that either. Best gloss possible – shit can happen fast with omicron, and there's an outside chance it could end up on Labour faces.
''Angst around Three Waters''
Still plenty of of gold for the Tories to mine there.
Luxon surge? lol
There was a Not-Collins surge. That was always going to happen, and would have happened if they'd picked Mark Richardson or a funny-shaped potato.
Then Luxon started talking …
lol The ECG started beeping faintly when Dr Collins left, that doesn't mean the patient is spritely
The EEG is still a flat line
Luxon started talking …
Without saying anything interesting or noteworthy. Honeymoon over already. Folks with a question-mark in their heads now shaking them sadly.
As if the guy never heard of the saying hit the ground running. I'm wondering if he's wondering what he ought to say. Preaching to the converted has a snowball's chance in hell of working. Centrists go huh?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/destiny-church-protest-brian-tamaki-supporters-barricade-mt-eden-prison-entrance/VXLCCY7ECWXY6PLGJM5VWBGK3A
You’re late. Covered already by Blade at 12.47pm:
.https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21-01-2022/#comment-1853431
Being completely nosey I now want to know what the hygiene items are:
tweezers to keep his eyebrows looking freshly tweezed
special face cream or shaving cream
extra soft toilet paper
any exotic items of self care – special oils and unguents
or
would it be more banal such as haemorrhoid cream, snake oil ……..
No matter what it is it is clearly worthy of having a fuss made.
He wants holy water and deodorant as the other inmates are treating him like someone who stinks.
He'd also like his botox as the eyebrows are wilting, and he nearly swollowed one.
Someone suggested yesterday it'd be condoms. Someone else, tampons.
Hair dye and grease.
Oh Shangreagh,… Best laugh of the day.
"Snake oil"
Soap, razors, shampoo, toothpaste and toothbrush and toilet paper is the usual stuff we give out and women get extra sanitary items
All very boring sorry
Soap, razors, shampoo, toothpaste and toothbrush and toilet paper is the usual stuff we give out and women get extra sanitary items
All very boring sorry
Fender and Peter and McFlock you are all very 'naughty boys'…….almost as bad as this very naughty girl.
well written keep it up