Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul…
….Now, I understand what you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now
I always scratch my head when confronted with such people, how can people believe such tripe, where is their discernment switch, is it seized up and need of some CRC, or WD40, if you are in the US?
And this is the man who said when speaking about North Korea's Kim Jung Un: "You've got to be honest about what it means to lead a country – it means killing people".
“We pray that the Lord admonish those madmen and help them to understand that any desire to destroy Russia will mean the end of the world.”
Yevgeny Satanovsky, President of the Institute of the Middle East.
“First of all, our main enemy is certainly the United States. What does the U.S. react to? They react to two things: the threat of physical annihilation….
….Not one pundit in the studio argued against Satanovsky’s macabre proposal. Drobnitsky had only one exception: “In our country, we embraced one American we wouldn’t want to kill: that would be Tucker Carlson.”
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty
Apparently, the only one to be spared this threatened holocaust is Tucker Carlson.
Maybe like a cockroach, Tucker Carlson will be able to crawl out from under the rubble.
My DW and I just had a meeting with a guy from Harrisons Solar. I said it would be good for the government to start subsidising solar rather than building more dams etc.
He made an interesting comment. He said it would be better for the government to subsidise batteries. Because that would avoid the load problems power generators have to manage with large numbers feeding power back into the grid.
Indeed food for thought TSM – we have 10 solar panels on our roof plus one large hot water panel which was already in place when we purchased this property. It all helps with the power bill, especially during the spring, summer and autumn seasons. We even manage to export some power back to the grid during the winter months despite the pathetic buy back price. We thought long and hard about a battery to compliment the panels, but as the initial cost of the panels and installation depleted our savings somewhat, we didn't purchase one, simply because of the cost of them (this was 7 years ago). We may well get one if the price keeps reducing.
the problem with lithium batteries is no-one knows how to dispose of them yet at end of life. As always, it's not technology that should be leading but system change. In this case, cradle to grave thinking in design right from the get go.
Power generation should be nationalised and/or power companies forced to deal fairly in Just Transition terms with buying from grid tied solar households. I'm not convinced it's possible to transition to post-carbon with for profit power generation/retail irrespective of the tecnology.
The home battery and Onslow do different things. The home battery reduces and spreads load on the local grid in short time scales (days). Onslow works at a larger and / or longer scale, buffering wind and large scale solar when there's no wind or sun, and providing backup for dry years.
The biggest advantage / feature in Onslow is that it will completely upend the current electricity market by putting control of the peak electricity price with the State.
Ideally Onslow would be run in conjunction with the Clutha hydro system (Clyde and Roxburgh, with Hawea controlled storage), it would also have to be State controlled, that much power over the market would be untenable. So if it happens the first move would be to nationalise Contact, ie Government stands in the market for 100% of Contact or does a deal for the Clutha schemes. The remaining gen-tailers would be reduced to price takers rather than price fixers. Hence National hate the idea with a vengeance.
We still don't know if it's possible to build the thing, and at what price. Those investigations were supposed to be complete last year but have been delayed. Then there's investigations into how it's going to work in the market.
It's a very interesting proposal and I hope Labour gets another term (or two) to bring it to fruition, along with a vey different electricity supply market / industry.
For every house with full solar and unconnected to the grid in areas where they could be it means that the distribution price for every other user goes up as distribution is by far the biggest cost component of electricity supply. Why? Maintenance is hugely expensive as is capital cost and then every storm, earthquake, flood or other natural disaster is very costly for the lines companies. Don’t start on that old myth of if everyone had their own solar then there would be no distribution cost. That bullshit lasts until the first cold overcast winter.
Not being connected does not mean not being charged.
Numerous Rural water schemes have charges if the line goes past the property even if not connected. Big business will still need the supply net and it has to be paid for so what is the betting a similar "not connected – but it goes past so you could be" charge?
"For every house with full solar and unconnected to the grid in areas where they could be it means that the distribution price for every other user goes up as distribution is by far the biggest cost component of electricity supply"
I must admit to being 'that' guy.
TBF, I do live rurally and am independent in respects to water. Also looking to get indepent for the small amount of gas we use.
Part of Bradfords reforms that made me shift, was how the Lines Companies are not obliged to do a repair to the infrastructure of it isn't in their interests. Highly unlikely where I live TBF, but they were setting the rules to the market and I was responding to them.
Full disclosure, I do operate more from the heart reather than the head and it hasn't been a cheap excercise…
Onslow is a huge basin at quite a reasonable height in what is hopefully a quietish earthquake zone. The NI does not have anywhere large enough to do the job.
I don’t know where any of the waikato dams are next to each other.
A hydro battery is almost always pumped a short distance from a lower dam to a higher dam. You typically need to pump from still water so you don’t try to raise sediment. You only pump a short distance to reduce the amount of power required to pump it. Otherwise you pump power into fiction on pipe walls.
Dams require some pretty stringent anchor positions, locations tthat are suitable for two largish dams next to each other are rare.
My feeling is that some of those disparaging of Jacinda Ardern and calling her a dictator and divisive would be fans of Muldoon.
He was a bully who attracted bullies. Ardern said we need to wear masks, they cried, bitched and grizzled. If Muldoon had said wear masks they would has praised his decisiveness and been his mask police.
Muldoon was just as restrictive on our mobility with Carless Days and 80 kmh speed limit.
Can just imagine his Covid response. Total border closure, internal as well, from day one, rationing, with assigned shopping times at supermarkets and any other way he could control peoples lives. All enforced by police and military. He'd have been right in his element.
So he would have buckled to Ampol's bullying and subsidised them to keep it open? Although as tWiggle says below, he looked after his mates.
Oil companies were closing refineries all over the world, especially in Australia. Rationale for keeping a tiny orphan like Marsden Pt going was pretty thin, until everything goes to shit 12 months later, maybe
No loitering round Paliament grounds under Muldoon either. Police with batons would have been in licketty smart. I wondered at the time if Jacinda Ardern's softly-softly approach over the anti-vax protesters at Parliament was influenced by her father's experience on the Red Squad anti-protest policing unit during the 1981 Springbok tour.
I can't believe that liberals can't see what is happening. No, it's not an outlier. It's mainstream and common. Lesbians no longer have female only spaces (in Australia is now breaches Human Rights policy to run lesbian, female only events), they get banned from dating apps if they say female only.
They get told if they don't want dick that they are transphobic. There's almost no difference between that and homophobic straight blokes telling lesbians they just need a good root to come right.
When this pressure is applied to young women, it's basically conversion therapy. There are teens girls who are lesbian, who transition to being a trans man because being female is so goddamn awful socially, then later regret this and detransition only now they have no breasts, maybe no uterus, but have life long health issues associate with hormones and surgery including chronic pain and dysfunction.
Stonewall UK, one of the most influential gender identity lobby groups, is sending trans identified men who look like men into schools to do education work and in this case the dude is telling kids he is a lesbian. Fuck everyone who support this.
This tweet is one of many I see in my twitter feed like this every week. Because I pay attention, listen to lesbians and detrans people and make sure I know what is going on.
tbf, I haven't confirmed the veracity of the second tweet, but it is entirely consistent with everything else I see happening in the UK that has been verified.
The bearded bloke is called Alex Drummond. 50 something, no hormones, no surgery. Identifies as a woman and as a lesbian. Google "Alex Drummond Stonewall" to get the info.
Stonewall sends Alex around British schools talking about diversity and inclusion, and saying that this is what a lesbian looks like. When lesbians say "no" , Stonewall calls us sexual racists.
Ditto for the gay men that are called transphobic for not wanting to engage with a vagina having 'man'.
Ditto for the heterosexual female who would not want to larp lesbian with their now trans identifying male partner, ditto for the heterosexual male who does not want to larp gay couple.
This whole thing of male being women and females being men is just so fucked up. Yet, all the Parties support it. Go figure and never mind the broken and castrated and desexed bodies of those that learned the hard way they were not trans just non conform to sexist stereotypes.
Yes, gay men are as interested in "mangina" (yes, that is a word), as I am in "ladydick" or worse still "girldick". However, the homophobic ideology of gender identity denies the very existence of same sex attraction.
Why this "fucked up" urge/choice to be trans? So difficult to empathise with those who make this bad choice. Should it even be a choice? With appropriate (non-surgical) therapy/counselling/support, many could overcome their illness(es) and (potentially) go on to lead happy, fulfilling and, importantly, normal lives that wouldn't confuse or threaten anyone anymore than ‘normal’ people do already.
“I decided that I didn’t want to be a woman before I had ever even experienced being a woman,” said Mosley, who is now studying psychology at a community college in Michigan. “Now I feel like I will never entirely know.”
…
Mosley said she wishes her doctors had focused more on her mental health instead of endorsing her desire to change her body. “I just took the cure that was handed to me,” she said, “and I ruined my life.”
Georgina Beyer: From prostitution to Parliament [2008] GB: Be who you are. Don't live a lie. Maintain your self-respect in the face of adversity and realize that you are not alone. Seek help when needed and know that all people have a right to be positive contributors to society; to strive to fulfill our potential; and be treated with respect and dignity.
Because even Georgina Beyer in the end was always a male. And no amount of lying will make that go away. And for what its worth, Self ID has very little to do with Transidentified people, no matter where they stand under the Queer/Trans Umbrella.
Self ID gives you the right to go into any female space by simply stating that you are a woman. Say that to the receptionist and she will let you into the female swimming hour at the CHCH pools, into the changing rooms/shower facilities of any gym, and of course lets you lift weights in the female olympic category where you then get to pretend that a 43 year old male on a daily dose of estrogen with a bunged shoulder is a women who competing against 20 year old girls has no supposed advantage. But then, stunning and brave indeed.
So there is a world of difference between Georgina Beyer who did what was good and right for them and the current Queer Ideology that wants to make you believe that your sex was assigned by some unknown deity and that you can 'change' that sex.
I sometimes wonder what Georgina would say to the current mess of males are women when males say they are women.
What does transgender mean?
The ways that transgender people are talked about in popular culture, academia and science are constantly changing, particularly as individuals’ awareness, knowledge and openness about transgender people and their experiences grow.
Because even Georgina Beyer in the end was always a male.
Indeed, like all transwomen she was/is male, and has chosen to identify as a woman, that apparently being her true 'sense of self' and so the identity she is comfortable with. Whether this means GB and/or her sense of self is "fucked up", or “stunning and brave“, is not for me to say.
Although they have always been a very small minority, trans people do seem more numerous that they once were. Perhaps they are only more visible, but either way it would be helpful (imho) to understand why a few teens seem fixated on adopting a trans ID, even to the point of surgery. Consensus expert opinion on various matters trans is a work in progress.
As you say, the whole thing is "just so fucked up" – why do they do it?
Why is it apparently so difficult for these teens to simply choose a conforming identity – some flavour of acceptable 'normal'?
I sometimes wonder what Georgina would say to the current mess of males are women when males say they are women.
Perhaps all sides can take what they need from words spoken 15-years ago.
GB: Be who you are. Don't live a lie. Maintain your self-respect in the face of adversity and realize that you are not alone. Seek help when needed and know that all people have a right to be positive contributors to society; to strive to fulfill our potential; and be treated with respect and dignity.
and no matter how you choose to live, where and with whom, you will not change your sex. You will be male or female. And as a female i would thus like to not see males in female changing rooms, female prison cells, female hospital wards, female sports, female awards and so on.
And i would like for teachers to not socially transition kids that aren't theirs. And i would like for government to not force medical transition as the only healthcare available to kids who questions sex stereo types that they may or may not want to live under.
And i would like for doctors to not castrate and de-sex kids before puberty via chemicals and then via surgery finish the job a few years later. Cause non of that is reversible.
All these males are just that males. Georgina Beyer was nothing more then a male who cut their dick of and wore garments typically associated with females. That was that. And that was all. I can she /her them all day long, but it changes nothing on the fact that Georgina is not a woman, but identifies AS a woman. Georgina is male.
And males thanks to self id do not have to do what Georgina Beyer did in order to become 'woman' – as in human male with a fetish. You can be a woman. You literally just have to state so, and any female will have to be kind to you poor little thing who can't live unless you get to be were literally no one wants you to be. In the Ladies. Go figure. Brave and stunning!!!!!
Consistent with, and following on from my comment @10.2.2.1.1:
I believe that transpeople should be able to adopt a (non-conforming) gender identity that differs from their sex at birth – insisting otherwise seems (to me) punitive and ultimately self-defeating.
I'm opposed to irreversible gender-reassignment therapies for sexually immature people, unless consensus medical opinion indicates a high risk of severe/irreversible self-harm.
I believe that people have the right not to feel threatened, marginalised or otherwise put at risk by the behaviour of a minority of the tiny minority that constitutes the trans community.
That community does, however, have a right to exist – it cannot and should not be unmade. People who decide to leave the trans community should be able to do so on the same basis that they joined – voluntarily.
Stunning and brave they are the most marginalised community ever, the ones that have government, police, academia and health do their bidding at the expense of women – human females of all ages and children in general.
So stunning. So brave. And for what its worth, i don't actually consider males who colonise female spaces, and who want to define what 'woman' and 'womanhood' as either brave or stunning. I consider them predatory, fetishistic, rapey and very emotionally and mentally abusive. And i would assume that in about 5 – 10 years time we will have a thousands of young people with no sexual organs, no sexual function, no reproductive organs, low bone density, all sorts of other health problem, mental health problems and a lot of people will say, but They CHOOSE Iit so ultimately they are responsible. Yes….totally.
Just as the surgeon Marcy Bowers that finished the castration process on Jazz Jennings did. You know the boy that got transed into a girl cause he liked his sisters bathing suit and his mum could not bare the idea that they may not be a proper boy and a cousin was a gender therapist and the rest is history faithfully documented on the Learning Channel making millions of dollars. The castration of boys is now entertainment.!!! So progressive.
Chemically castrated at 10 – surgically castrated at 17, and now at 21 one on his fourth revision surgery, obese, huge health issues and all he got for his trouble was the Eunuch Gender. Asexual, no sexual functions, no reproductive rights, nothing. Struggling to find a place in the world that fits him, struggling to tell his family that he struggles.
Just a poor castrated child that never stood a chance as no one dared to call the parents abusive, no one dared to call TLC who made millions of this poor childs abuse abusive and no one still dares to call Marcy Bowers a transwoman himself abusive for doing the job they does. And Marcy Bowers knows the damage they do.
Bowers also said that the surgery they opt for can leave people sexually dysfunctional – something she said was not discussed enough.
'The idea all sounded good in the very beginning,' she said.
Bowers and Anderson were both interviewed for the Substack newsletter run by Bari Weiss (above)
'Believe me, we're doing some magnificent surgeries on these kids, and they're so determined, and I'm so proud of so many of them and their parents. They've been great.
'But honestly, I can't sit here and tell you that they have better — or even as good — results. They're not as functional. I worry about their reproductive rights later. I worry about their sexual health later and ability to find intimacy.'
Anderson said she feared many young people would regret their decisions.
'It is my considered opinion that due to some of the – let's see, how to say it? what word to choose? – due to some of the, I'll call it just 'sloppy,' sloppy healthcare work, that we're going to have more young adults who will regret having gone through this process,' she told the site.
'And that is going to earn me a lot of criticism from some colleagues, but given what I see – and I'm sorry, but it's my actual experience as a psychologist treating gender variant youth – I'm worried that decisions will be made that will later be regretted by those making them.'
We can be kind to transpeople and we can be kind to women. We can have rights specifically for transpeople, and we can have rights for women. We can not however demand that women pretend that males can be women, and then let these males terrorize any woman – human females of all ages if they state that they are uncomfortable with males in their changing rooms, public showers, female swimming hours/sports/awards/competitions/olympic games, female prison cells, female senior housing, female hospital wards and so on and so forth.
As of now we rather call women – human females of all ages – bodies who bleed, bodies who have vaginas, bodies who give birth / are birth giving enabled, cervix havers, uterus havers, menopausers, menstruators, birth givers, afab, just to satisfy the needs of males who are not well in their own bodies and the women – human females will just have to suck it real hard and swallow, lest someone calls them Terfs and wishes violence upon them.
No-one has to like transpeople, as a group or as individuals – indeed, that would be pretty difficult if one focused solely on the images and impressions of 'transpeople' presented in The Standard. But they are here, and I'd guess not too many of them are truly awful.
It would be interesting to see where this issue (the "fucked up" transgender 'problem') will be in 80 years time, and if any satisfactory global final solution can be found, but we'll be long gone by then.
I do worry about the future of my (now distant) transgender niblings. They are brave (imho), and (subjectively) not particularly stunning.
The whole barrel is rotten. Perhaps it began with a few bad apples long ago, and of course some good ones will remain even now, but the rot in the Metropolitan force has spread.
You read of David Carrick, the officer who kept his uniform, his badge and, for many years, his gun even as he pursued a parallel career as a prolific sex offender, and of course you are sickened by the evil he has done: dozens of rapes and sexual offences against 12 women, over two decades, including imprisoning one of his victims, naked and terrified, in a tiny cupboard under the stairs. But an equal horror comes when you learn that the police had been warned eight times about Carrick’s behaviour – eight – but did nothing. In fairness, that’s not quite right; they did do something. They promoted him in 2009 to an elite armed unit.
We felt it when another serving Met officer, Wayne Couzens, raped and murdered Sarah Everard in 2021. We felt it when, that same year, Met officers were jailed for circulating photographs of the bodies of two murdered sisters – “dead birds”, they called them – for the titillation of their colleagues. And we felt it a year ago when we learned of the group at Charing Cross police station in London who traded WhatsApp messages casually joking about rape and speaking of women in terms so filled with hate the word “misogyny” scarcely does it justice.
snip
So what can be done?
snip
As a first step there needs to be a Macpherson-style investigation of misogyny in the Met.
snip
It’s an extreme solution, but the problem is extreme. The Metropolitan police fails the two tests that count. It cannot demonstrate efficiency – see last September’s damning report by the police inspectorate, finding that the Met is failing when it comes to investigating crime and protecting the vulnerable – and it has lost legitimacy.
snip
But the grimmer truth is that this malady goes far beyond the police. There were 70,000 rapes recorded last year in England and Wales alone – 1,350 a week – and those are just the ones that were reported, estimated as a mere quarter or fifth of all the rapes that happen. Of those recorded, just 1.3% resulted in a suspect being charged. Obviously only a fraction of those ended in a conviction. When fewer than one in a hundred rapists ever face any consequences, it’s time for a society to be honest with itself – and admit that it has, in effect, decriminalised rape. Worse, says Smith, it is creating serial rapists: a man does it once, gets away with it, and realises he can do it again. And again.
There are remedies, starting with a system that investigates the suspect instead of the victim rather than the other way around, as things work, perversely, at the moment. But the first step will be a recognition that a society where a woman is killed by a man every three days – more if you count the women whose suffering of domestic abuse leads to suicide – is confronting an emergency as lethal as any terror threat. Yes, we should tear down and replace the Met and shake up every other decayed force in the land. But this rot goes deeper than the police. It lies within.
women – human females of all ages, are they even human?
I'm pretty sure it's not just old-fuddy-duddy bias on my part, but NZ Policing culture has improved greatly in the past decades. UK policing is having its own Louise Nicholls moment, where the longterm rancid internal culture can no longer be hidden. It will take time to change, as it has here.
A low-state government after the next NZ election will no doubt cut police staffing back again, to our detriment, despite the law 'n order hoo-haa being stirred up by right leaning politicos and press. NACT will focus on pushing more people into privatised prisons by increasing sentences and offences. They may even push for politicisation of the police, by introducing elections for Police Commisioners, as in the UK. Don't forget that Luxon rushed over to the UK to have a strategy confab with the Tories soon after getting his spot. Yay, more importation of UK and US 'failed state' libertarian moves for us if the election goes the NACT's way.
A young rapist got 9 month home D for 4 rapes a few month ago. He will out of home d in about 4 – 5 month.
Yeah, we here in Aotearoa totally have that under control, and that young bloke will have learned his lesson and never rape again, cause staying at home for 9 month at mum'n'pops, watching telly eating popcorn and masturbating to some shitty porn is exactly the punishment a serial rapist should get.
That is not a policing issue, that is a youth justice/courts/sentencing issue. The police in this case clearly took him to prosecution in a timely manner. I imagine his family rustled up a fancy lawyer who made all the right noises. I personally thought it was light for such a nasty set of actions, but generally I trust that the NZ judiciary system tries its best.
Despite the current government's woeful tendency to give in under public pressure to media-pushed causes, here the judiciary is acting independently, as it should. The place for judicial reform is not in the social media arena, but in thoughtful legislative and judiciary review. Otherwise, you're asking for cases to be tried and sentenced in the court of public opinion, an opinion often manipulated by those with hidden agendas.
Part of the cacophony of anti-vax anti-government noise comes from external actors who want to break down trust in state procedures, and to destabilise nations. I don't believe I'm being paranoid about this. The day after the invasion of Ukraine, I saw NZ anti-vax social media pages come out with pro-Russia content. Less than 24 hours after, while the Parliament protest was still under way. Almost identical content over several sites. Certainly not independently derived opinion from the posters. Anti-vax, anti-government conspiracies and pro-Russia position spread by the same sources worries me.
I'm more cautious now about government and state-process issues that blow up through social media and are picked up by the press. Especially when NZ scores high on social freedoms and government transparency. Change in our law and its implementation needs to follow proper process, not just be driven by outrage-of-the-day. Good cheese and good government both take time.
The police literally makes the case for the court. If the police does not make a case it does not go to court. So yeah, it is a policing issue, firstly and then the justice system is equally useless, in the meantime people get raped.
The anti-woke and slightly heavily racist Dr. Caftan, after years of shredding Jacinda Ardern for being too right wing but also too left wing has cut and pasted today a thought piece on Chippy, quoting hard right wing dabblers, Luke Mouthpiss and Matty Hooters.
Everyone says Hipkins will be a better PM than the best thing to happen to NZ politics in three generations.
The author of this crappy article is, as by nature, at sixes and sevens throughout. Still, it appears he's pumping the new PM to be the final solution to the Ardern problem which will no doubt have misogynist white boomers clinking crystal.
As if out of the Transvaal, this sick puppet actually said, “woman of colour” because he couldn’t bring himself to say Māori or Polynesian. Red flag right there.
it shows how much attention is payed to policing others language by the woke. “Person of colour” is the preferred term in UK and America (a ridiculous term in my opinion)
as is person with uterus. or person with vagina. or pregnant people.
Any time we can not name something/someone properly for fear of offending someone who may or may not be that person, or of color, we just show how odious and idiotic is.
I got into a bad situation at a usually protected unnamed beach north of Auckland. It was during the strong easterlies around New Year,
Watched some young people swim 50-60m to a pontoon in a heavy swell and thought I'd like to do that. The lad and I started out but two thirds of the way there I realised I was not comfortable. I know this beach and have swum to that pontoon dozens of times. But that day was different.
When you get into that situation all energy is devoted to trying to get to a point of safety and to keep breathing. The more exhausted you get the harder it is to not take on seawater. The need to keep going forward to safety does not sit well with keeping your head above water.
There are people all around me including my own boy but it becomes terrifying and I am only 10m away from the pontoon. I look out for my child in this heaving water thinking they are in trouble too. Dreadful situation.
We reach the pontoon and I lie down, shocked. The short trip out was into the wind and swell. I assured myself the return would be easier.
It wasn't. The same exhaustion crushed me 20 meters from shore but it was a steep beach and still I couldn't touch the sand. One gulp of water and I am done. Constantly looking out for the precious kid.
Near disaster but two things could have avoided it. One, don't feel like you have to swim because it's your only chance this summer. Two, study hard people's condition after they do the swim you want to do. In hindsight I could see they found it very hard and I should have recognised that.
The difference between life and death in NZ coastal waters is only minutes into a bad decision.
Bless you MB. I for one am glad you are still here.
I had a similar experience years ago….floating on my back and drifting out beyond the waves on a beach I (thought) I knew well. Next thing I knew two life guards are beside me. I look to shore, I am miles away, caught by a rip. So I set off closer in to shore with them and very glad too.
My take away was that even on days when the waves are tiny, going out beyond them is always a risk. That floating and drifting is not an experience for beach swimming, we must keep ourselves aware and safe and observant at all times.
It felt like a very personal story to post on this site, but also very important because it's a real experience. Several people have had similar experiences in the water since, and are now dead.
Easily the closest I have been to drowning and it all happened within the space of 15 mins in a normally sheltered bay only 50m offshore.
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I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and 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). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
The December labour market statistics have been released, showing yet another increase in unemployment. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. And having thrown all these people out of work, National is doubling down on cruelty. Because being vicious will somehow magically create the ...
Boarded up homes in Kilbirnie, where work on a planned development was halted. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are;Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announcedKāinga Ora would be stripped of ...
This week Kiwirail and Auckland Transport were celebrating the completion of the summer rail works that had the network shut or for over a month and the start of electric trains to Pukekohe. First up, here’s parts of the press release about the shutdown works. Passengers boarding trains in Auckland ...
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkBoth 2023 and 2024 were exceptionally warm years, at just below and above 1.5C relative to preindustrial in the WMO composite of surface temperature records, respectively. While we are still working to assess the full set of drivers of this warmth, it is clear that ...
Hi,I woke up feeling nervous this morning, realising that this weekend Flightless Bird is going to do it’s first ever live show. We’re heading to a sold out (!) show in Seattle to test the format out in front of an audience. If it works, we’ll do more. I want ...
From the United-For-Now States of America comes the thrilling news that a New Zealander may be at the very heart of the current coup. Punching above our weight on the world stage once more! Wait, you may be asking, what New Zealander? I speak of Peter Thiel, made street legal ...
Even Stevens: Over the 33 years between 1990 and 2023 (and allowing for the aberrant 2020 result) the average level of support enjoyed by the Left and Right blocs, at roughly 44.5 percent each, turns out to be, as near as dammit, identical.WORLDWIDE, THE PARTIES of the Left are presented ...
Back in 2023, a "prominent political figure" went on trial for historic sex offences. But we weren't allowed to know who they were or what political party they were "prominent" in, because it might affect the way we voted. At the time, I said that this was untenable; it was ...
I'm going, I'm goingWhere the water tastes like wineI'm going where the water tastes like wineWe can jump in the waterStay drunk all the timeI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure ...
Waitangi Day is a time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stand together for a just and fair Aotearoa. Across the motu, communities are gathering to reflect, kōrero, and take action for a future built on equity and tino rangatiratanga. From dawn ceremonies to whānau-friendly events, there are ...
Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
The lead witness in Ngāi Tahu’s freshwater claim says the case raises an “existentialist question” for his people.“My greatest fear is that we will have our connection with our land and waterways extinguished,” Te Maire Tau (Ngāi Tahu/Ngāi Tūāhuriri) said in the Christchurch High Court, before Justice Melanie Harland. The university history ...
New Zealand employers are well-used to the constant evolution of employment and workplace health and safety law – but we think the scope of changes in this area may still surprise in 2025. In our view, the number of changes under active consideration and the potential practical impact of those ...
As New Zealand woke to Waitangi Day, 1600 athletes and their support crew began to descend on the sleepy west coast town of Greymouth, ready to take on the iconic multisport race, the Coast to Coast.Among the cars laden with kayaks, bikes and enough race food to feed a small ...
I collect sailing books, especially solo sailing adventures. I sail a lot and when in meetings, I think about sailing rather than focus on the dry PowerPoint presentations of earnest landlubbers. Just quietly, I also offer dead sailors drinks and occasionally good books over the side when I am at ...
Over the past few weeks, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has had public tiffs with the leaders of both the Cook Islands and Kiribati.The issues: first Peters put foreign aid to Kiribati under review after President Taneti Maamau cancelled a meeting with him. Then this week, Peters accused the PM of ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Appiah Takyi, Senior Lecturer, Department of Planning, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Street vending is a major economic activity in most of Ghana’s urban areas. The vendors bring everyday goods to residents and commuters at affordable prices in ...
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A raft of proposed legislation changes to the media and screen industry have been announced this morning – we read through it all all so you don’t have to. What’s all this then? This morning the Ministry for Culture and Heritage released its draft proposed changes to media and screen ...
David Seymour's recent off-road parliamentary excursion led to a reprimand from the Speaker, who also said the rules didn't apply to this instance. What are the rules? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee Morgenbesser, Associate Professor, School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University, Griffith University Many Americans have watched in horror as Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has been permitted to tear through various offices of the United States government in recent ...
By Patrick Decloitre,RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls has announced he will travel to New Caledonia later this month to pursue talks on the French territory’s political future. These discussions on February 22 follow preliminary talks held last week in Paris in “bilateral” mode ...
As Benjamin Netanyahu threatens to resume war, Hamas outlines widespread Israeli ceasefire violations in document sent to the mediators.By Jeremy Scahill and Sharif Abdel Kouddous of Dropsite News Hamas officials submitted a two-page report to mediators yesterday listing a wide range of Israeli violations of the Gaza ceasefire since ...
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The courts should deal with illegal fishing, not the "court of public opinion", Shane Jones says, as he announces proposed changes to the Quota Management System. ...
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Could iwi and hapū be the unexpected solution to the government’s asset dilemma? David Seymour pressured the prime minister into an unwelcome conversation, and in the couple of weeks since the Act leader raised the issue in his state of the nation speech, privatisation has shifted from absent in the ...
Human rights advocates must uphold human dignity, rights and justice, while rejecting the discriminatory tactics we oppose, writes Taimor Hazou.Two weeks ago the Palestinian Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) launched a campaign inviting New Zealanders to call a hotline if they suspected an Israel Defence Force (IDF) soldier that had ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alix Woolard, Senior Research Fellow, The Kids Research Institute Australia Stock Unit/Shutterstock Have you ever asked someone how their day was, or been chatting casually with a friend, only to have them tell you a horrific story that has left you ...
Will they listen now?
Achieved with threats of personal violence against her and targetted misogynist slurs. The global far right gloat over their victory
https://twitter.com/banthebbc/status/1615935645469532160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1615935645469532160%7Ctwgr%5E4073a06756048ebb365d8fe8e54b37168c95ab33%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vice.com%2Fen%2Farticle%2Fn7zpgz%2Fjacinda-ardern-resignation-new-zealand-far-right
I always scratch my head when confronted with such people, how can people believe such tripe, where is their discernment switch, is it seized up and need of some CRC, or WD40, if you are in the US?
The fuckwittery is astonishing.
https://twitter.com/serenity22/status/1616324701382651904
https://www.insidehook.com/daily_brief/music/pink-floyd-rainbow
You have to wonder if they are even human.
The Pavlovian response of the Troll Bots…. ?
And this is the man who said when speaking about North Korea's Kim Jung Un: "You've got to be honest about what it means to lead a country – it means killing people".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucker_Carlson.
No further comment needed.
He is a vicious idiot Jenny.
It seems vicious idiots love each other
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty
“Russia’s top propagandists, from former President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev to state TV host Vladimir Solovyov, have been spreading the same not-so subtle nuclear threat far and wide”
https://news.yahoo.com/putin-henchmen-threaten-tens-thousands-035652530.html
Apparently, the only one to be spared this threatened holocaust is Tucker Carlson.
Maybe like a cockroach, Tucker Carlson will be able to crawl out from under the rubble.
It's old, but a timely reminder that freedom of the press is important.
My DW and I just had a meeting with a guy from Harrisons Solar. I said it would be good for the government to start subsidising solar rather than building more dams etc.
He made an interesting comment. He said it would be better for the government to subsidise batteries. Because that would avoid the load problems power generators have to manage with large numbers feeding power back into the grid.
Food for thought.
The only type of battery this country should go near is the Onslow one, plus find a suitable site up north.
Indeed food for thought TSM – we have 10 solar panels on our roof plus one large hot water panel which was already in place when we purchased this property. It all helps with the power bill, especially during the spring, summer and autumn seasons. We even manage to export some power back to the grid during the winter months despite the pathetic buy back price. We thought long and hard about a battery to compliment the panels, but as the initial cost of the panels and installation depleted our savings somewhat, we didn't purchase one, simply because of the cost of them (this was 7 years ago). We may well get one if the price keeps reducing.
FWIW, I have lived off grid sonce 2003. Bradfords reforms were the impetus and we were relocating our house.
If you are grid-tied the newish technology Lithium batteries are the way to go. They are at their best when they have a grid back-up/trickle charge.
Partially in response to tsmithfield above, there needs to be some reform around ownership/kaupapa of the power companies too.
the problem with lithium batteries is no-one knows how to dispose of them yet at end of life. As always, it's not technology that should be leading but system change. In this case, cradle to grave thinking in design right from the get go.
Power generation should be nationalised and/or power companies forced to deal fairly in Just Transition terms with buying from grid tied solar households. I'm not convinced it's possible to transition to post-carbon with for profit power generation/retail irrespective of the tecnology.
The home battery and Onslow do different things. The home battery reduces and spreads load on the local grid in short time scales (days). Onslow works at a larger and / or longer scale, buffering wind and large scale solar when there's no wind or sun, and providing backup for dry years.
The biggest advantage / feature in Onslow is that it will completely upend the current electricity market by putting control of the peak electricity price with the State.
Ideally Onslow would be run in conjunction with the Clutha hydro system (Clyde and Roxburgh, with Hawea controlled storage), it would also have to be State controlled, that much power over the market would be untenable. So if it happens the first move would be to nationalise Contact, ie Government stands in the market for 100% of Contact or does a deal for the Clutha schemes. The remaining gen-tailers would be reduced to price takers rather than price fixers. Hence National hate the idea with a vengeance.
We still don't know if it's possible to build the thing, and at what price. Those investigations were supposed to be complete last year but have been delayed. Then there's investigations into how it's going to work in the market.
It's a very interesting proposal and I hope Labour gets another term (or two) to bring it to fruition, along with a vey different electricity supply market / industry.
There's other utility / grid scale storage options coming through as well. This popped up the other day, iron / air batteries that work at a grid scale and lower cost than lithium
For every house with full solar and unconnected to the grid in areas where they could be it means that the distribution price for every other user goes up as distribution is by far the biggest cost component of electricity supply. Why? Maintenance is hugely expensive as is capital cost and then every storm, earthquake, flood or other natural disaster is very costly for the lines companies. Don’t start on that old myth of if everyone had their own solar then there would be no distribution cost. That bullshit lasts until the first cold overcast winter.
Not being connected does not mean not being charged.
Numerous Rural water schemes have charges if the line goes past the property even if not connected. Big business will still need the supply net and it has to be paid for so what is the betting a similar "not connected – but it goes past so you could be" charge?
"For every house with full solar and unconnected to the grid in areas where they could be it means that the distribution price for every other user goes up as distribution is by far the biggest cost component of electricity supply"
I must admit to being 'that' guy.
TBF, I do live rurally and am independent in respects to water. Also looking to get indepent for the small amount of gas we use.
Part of Bradfords reforms that made me shift, was how the Lines Companies are not obliged to do a repair to the infrastructure of it isn't in their interests. Highly unlikely where I live TBF, but they were setting the rules to the market and I was responding to them.
Full disclosure, I do operate more from the heart reather than the head and it hasn't been a cheap excercise…
Onslow is a huge basin at quite a reasonable height in what is hopefully a quietish earthquake zone. The NI does not have anywhere large enough to do the job.
The Waikato hydro power stations are fed from Lake Taupō so could that be recharged by pumping some of the Waikato discharge back up to it?
I don’t know where any of the waikato dams are next to each other.
A hydro battery is almost always pumped a short distance from a lower dam to a higher dam. You typically need to pump from still water so you don’t try to raise sediment. You only pump a short distance to reduce the amount of power required to pump it. Otherwise you pump power into fiction on pipe walls.
Dams require some pretty stringent anchor positions, locations tthat are suitable for two largish dams next to each other are rare.
What about non-water based systems, where weights are lifted?
https://qz.com/1355672/stacking-concrete-blocks-is-a-surprisingly-efficient-way-to-store-energy
Less land usage, can be set up anywhere and no need to fill and maintain a dam.
Has Wayne Smith contacted David Rennie about his old job yet? Has Farrah Palmer, Ruahei Demant …
"Worst PM ever" is trending.. I foolishly clicked it.. was relieved to see Aussies mentioning ScoMo and Kiwis nominating this tinpot dictator
https://twitter.com/m5gnolia/status/1616080119025790983?s=20
Hooboy…
https://twitter.com/Michell64931824/status/1616307896362618881
lol excellent
My feeling is that some of those disparaging of Jacinda Ardern and calling her a dictator and divisive would be fans of Muldoon.
He was a bully who attracted bullies. Ardern said we need to wear masks, they cried, bitched and grizzled. If Muldoon had said wear masks they would has praised his decisiveness and been his mask police.
Muldoon was just as restrictive on our mobility with Carless Days and 80 kmh speed limit.
Can just imagine his Covid response. Total border closure, internal as well, from day one, rationing, with assigned shopping times at supermarkets and any other way he could control peoples lives. All enforced by police and military. He'd have been right in his element.
For all that, he would not have had Ampol bully him into allowing Marsden Point to close.
He wouldn't have allowed it to be privatised in the first place.
Not so sure that Muldoon had clean hands. Quite a few of his mates had close association with his Think Big projects.
So he would have buckled to Ampol's bullying and subsidised them to keep it open? Although as tWiggle says below, he looked after his mates.
Oil companies were closing refineries all over the world, especially in Australia. Rationale for keeping a tiny orphan like Marsden Pt going was pretty thin, until everything goes to shit 12 months later, maybe
No loitering round Paliament grounds under Muldoon either. Police with batons would have been in licketty smart. I wondered at the time if Jacinda Ardern's softly-softly approach over the anti-vax protesters at Parliament was influenced by her father's experience on the Red Squad anti-protest policing unit during the 1981 Springbok tour.
I can't believe that liberals can't see what is happening. No, it's not an outlier. It's mainstream and common. Lesbians no longer have female only spaces (in Australia is now breaches Human Rights policy to run lesbian, female only events), they get banned from dating apps if they say female only.
They get told if they don't want dick that they are transphobic. There's almost no difference between that and homophobic straight blokes telling lesbians they just need a good root to come right.
When this pressure is applied to young women, it's basically conversion therapy. There are teens girls who are lesbian, who transition to being a trans man because being female is so goddamn awful socially, then later regret this and detransition only now they have no breasts, maybe no uterus, but have life long health issues associate with hormones and surgery including chronic pain and dysfunction.
Stonewall UK, one of the most influential gender identity lobby groups, is sending trans identified men who look like men into schools to do education work and in this case the dude is telling kids he is a lesbian. Fuck everyone who support this.
This tweet is one of many I see in my twitter feed like this every week. Because I pay attention, listen to lesbians and detrans people and make sure I know what is going on.
https://twitter.com/c_kennaugh/status/1616590576157163521
tbf, I haven't confirmed the veracity of the second tweet, but it is entirely consistent with everything else I see happening in the UK that has been verified.
The bearded bloke is called Alex Drummond. 50 something, no hormones, no surgery. Identifies as a woman and as a lesbian. Google "Alex Drummond Stonewall" to get the info.
Stonewall sends Alex around British schools talking about diversity and inclusion, and saying that this is what a lesbian looks like. When lesbians say "no" , Stonewall calls us sexual racists.
Thanks for confirmation.
I now about Drummond but didn't realise he was telling school kids he's a lesbian. What ages is that do you know?
No, I don't. Secondary schools I think.
Ditto for the gay men that are called transphobic for not wanting to engage with a vagina having 'man'.
Ditto for the heterosexual female who would not want to larp lesbian with their now trans identifying male partner, ditto for the heterosexual male who does not want to larp gay couple.
This whole thing of male being women and females being men is just so fucked up. Yet, all the Parties support it. Go figure and never mind the broken and castrated and desexed bodies of those that learned the hard way they were not trans just non conform to sexist stereotypes.
Kindness…..for whom?
Yes, gay men are as interested in "mangina" (yes, that is a word), as I am in "ladydick" or worse still "girldick". However, the homophobic ideology of gender identity denies the very existence of same sex attraction.
https://teara.govt.nz/en/gender-diversity/page-1
Why do some young people have such a "fucked up" sense of self? Baffling.
Why this "fucked up" urge/choice to be trans? So difficult to empathise with those who make this bad choice. Should it even be a choice? With appropriate (non-surgical) therapy/counselling/support, many could overcome their illness(es) and (potentially) go on to lead happy, fulfilling and, importantly, normal lives that wouldn't confuse or threaten anyone anymore than ‘normal’ people do already.
Life may seem miserable, and that will change. Cultivate resilience and be patient if you can – Georgina Beyer waited until she was 27.
Because even Georgina Beyer in the end was always a male. And no amount of lying will make that go away. And for what its worth, Self ID has very little to do with Transidentified people, no matter where they stand under the Queer/Trans Umbrella.
Self ID gives you the right to go into any female space by simply stating that you are a woman. Say that to the receptionist and she will let you into the female swimming hour at the CHCH pools, into the changing rooms/shower facilities of any gym, and of course lets you lift weights in the female olympic category where you then get to pretend that a 43 year old male on a daily dose of estrogen with a bunged shoulder is a women who competing against 20 year old girls has no supposed advantage. But then, stunning and brave indeed.
So there is a world of difference between Georgina Beyer who did what was good and right for them and the current Queer Ideology that wants to make you believe that your sex was assigned by some unknown deity and that you can 'change' that sex.
I sometimes wonder what Georgina would say to the current mess of males are women when males say they are women.
Indeed, like all transwomen she was/is male, and has chosen to identify as a woman, that apparently being her true 'sense of self' and so the identity she is comfortable with. Whether this means GB and/or her sense of self is "fucked up", or “stunning and brave“, is not for me to say.
Although they have always been a very small minority, trans people do seem more numerous that they once were. Perhaps they are only more visible, but either way it would be helpful (imho) to understand why a few teens seem fixated on adopting a trans ID, even to the point of surgery. Consensus expert opinion on various matters trans is a work in progress.
As you say, the whole thing is "just so fucked up" – why do they do it?
Why is it apparently so difficult for these teens to simply choose a conforming identity – some flavour of acceptable 'normal'?
Perhaps all sides can take what they need from words spoken 15-years ago.
and no matter how you choose to live, where and with whom, you will not change your sex. You will be male or female. And as a female i would thus like to not see males in female changing rooms, female prison cells, female hospital wards, female sports, female awards and so on.
And i would like for teachers to not socially transition kids that aren't theirs. And i would like for government to not force medical transition as the only healthcare available to kids who questions sex stereo types that they may or may not want to live under.
And i would like for doctors to not castrate and de-sex kids before puberty via chemicals and then via surgery finish the job a few years later. Cause non of that is reversible.
All these males are just that males. Georgina Beyer was nothing more then a male who cut their dick of and wore garments typically associated with females. That was that. And that was all. I can she /her them all day long, but it changes nothing on the fact that Georgina is not a woman, but identifies AS a woman. Georgina is male.
And males thanks to self id do not have to do what Georgina Beyer did in order to become 'woman' – as in human male with a fetish. You can be a woman. You literally just have to state so, and any female will have to be kind to you poor little thing who can't live unless you get to be were literally no one wants you to be. In the Ladies. Go figure. Brave and stunning!!!!!
Consistent with, and following on from my comment @10.2.2.1.1:
I believe that transpeople should be able to adopt a (non-conforming) gender identity that differs from their sex at birth – insisting otherwise seems (to me) punitive and ultimately self-defeating.
I'm opposed to irreversible gender-reassignment therapies for sexually immature people, unless consensus medical opinion indicates a high risk of severe/irreversible self-harm.
I believe that people have the right not to feel threatened, marginalised or otherwise put at risk by the behaviour of a minority of the tiny minority that constitutes the trans community.
That community does, however, have a right to exist – it cannot and should not be unmade. People who decide to leave the trans community should be able to do so on the same basis that they joined – voluntarily.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stunning_and_brave#Usage_notes
That is right.
Stunning and brave they are the most marginalised community ever, the ones that have government, police, academia and health do their bidding at the expense of women – human females of all ages and children in general.
https://twitter.com/womenreadwomen/status/1583356013016907776
So stunning. So brave. And for what its worth, i don't actually consider males who colonise female spaces, and who want to define what 'woman' and 'womanhood' as either brave or stunning. I consider them predatory, fetishistic, rapey and very emotionally and mentally abusive. And i would assume that in about 5 – 10 years time we will have a thousands of young people with no sexual organs, no sexual function, no reproductive organs, low bone density, all sorts of other health problem, mental health problems and a lot of people will say, but They CHOOSE Iit so ultimately they are responsible. Yes….totally.
Just as the surgeon Marcy Bowers that finished the castration process on Jazz Jennings did. You know the boy that got transed into a girl cause he liked his sisters bathing suit and his mum could not bare the idea that they may not be a proper boy and a cousin was a gender therapist and the rest is history faithfully documented on the Learning Channel making millions of dollars. The castration of boys is now entertainment.!!! So progressive.
Chemically castrated at 10 – surgically castrated at 17, and now at 21 one on his fourth revision surgery, obese, huge health issues and all he got for his trouble was the Eunuch Gender. Asexual, no sexual functions, no reproductive rights, nothing. Struggling to find a place in the world that fits him, struggling to tell his family that he struggles.
Just a poor castrated child that never stood a chance as no one dared to call the parents abusive, no one dared to call TLC who made millions of this poor childs abuse abusive and no one still dares to call Marcy Bowers a transwoman himself abusive for doing the job they does. And Marcy Bowers knows the damage they do.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10058951/Leading-transgender-medics-warn-children-given-gender-reassignment-surgery.html
and the interveiw on Bari Weiss substack
https://www.thefp.com/p/top-trans-doctors-blow-the-whistle
We can be kind to transpeople and we can be kind to women. We can have rights specifically for transpeople, and we can have rights for women. We can not however demand that women pretend that males can be women, and then let these males terrorize any woman – human females of all ages if they state that they are uncomfortable with males in their changing rooms, public showers, female swimming hours/sports/awards/competitions/olympic games, female prison cells, female senior housing, female hospital wards and so on and so forth.
As of now we rather call women – human females of all ages – bodies who bleed, bodies who have vaginas, bodies who give birth / are birth giving enabled, cervix havers, uterus havers, menopausers, menstruators, birth givers, afab, just to satisfy the needs of males who are not well in their own bodies and the women – human females will just have to suck it real hard and swallow, lest someone calls them Terfs and wishes violence upon them.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stunning_and_brave#Usage_notes
No-one has to like transpeople, as a group or as individuals – indeed, that would be pretty difficult if one focused solely on the images and impressions of 'transpeople' presented in The Standard. But they are here, and I'd guess not too many of them are truly awful.
It would be interesting to see where this issue (the "fucked up" transgender 'problem') will be in 80 years time, and if any satisfactory global final solution can be found, but we'll be long gone by then.
I do worry about the future of my (now distant) transgender niblings. They are brave (imho), and (subjectively) not particularly stunning.
Georgina Beyer gives an indication in this episode of Alice Sneddens's Bad News: Terfs.
(For which taxpayers contributed approx $48k for 12 mins.)
https://youtu.be/kQ37Nn5q8ec
"willfully deny" 😆
fuck, I can't believe how bad that video is. I want to Fisk it 😈
sexism, the real kind.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/20/violence-against-women-terrorism-police-met-rapists-murderers?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
women – human females of all ages, are they even human?
We do keep count. "Counting Dead Women".
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/oct/02/the-81-women-killed-in-28-weeks
And we wonder why there's a trend of young females trying to become male…
I don't. I totally understand them.
I'm pretty sure it's not just old-fuddy-duddy bias on my part, but NZ Policing culture has improved greatly in the past decades. UK policing is having its own Louise Nicholls moment, where the longterm rancid internal culture can no longer be hidden. It will take time to change, as it has here.
A low-state government after the next NZ election will no doubt cut police staffing back again, to our detriment, despite the law 'n order hoo-haa being stirred up by right leaning politicos and press. NACT will focus on pushing more people into privatised prisons by increasing sentences and offences. They may even push for politicisation of the police, by introducing elections for Police Commisioners, as in the UK. Don't forget that Luxon rushed over to the UK to have a strategy confab with the Tories soon after getting his spot. Yay, more importation of UK and US 'failed state' libertarian moves for us if the election goes the NACT's way.
A young rapist got 9 month home D for 4 rapes a few month ago. He will out of home d in about 4 – 5 month.
Yeah, we here in Aotearoa totally have that under control, and that young bloke will have learned his lesson and never rape again, cause staying at home for 9 month at mum'n'pops, watching telly eating popcorn and masturbating to some shitty porn is exactly the punishment a serial rapist should get.
That is not a policing issue, that is a youth justice/courts/sentencing issue. The police in this case clearly took him to prosecution in a timely manner. I imagine his family rustled up a fancy lawyer who made all the right noises. I personally thought it was light for such a nasty set of actions, but generally I trust that the NZ judiciary system tries its best.
Despite the current government's woeful tendency to give in under public pressure to media-pushed causes, here the judiciary is acting independently, as it should. The place for judicial reform is not in the social media arena, but in thoughtful legislative and judiciary review. Otherwise, you're asking for cases to be tried and sentenced in the court of public opinion, an opinion often manipulated by those with hidden agendas.
Part of the cacophony of anti-vax anti-government noise comes from external actors who want to break down trust in state procedures, and to destabilise nations. I don't believe I'm being paranoid about this. The day after the invasion of Ukraine, I saw NZ anti-vax social media pages come out with pro-Russia content. Less than 24 hours after, while the Parliament protest was still under way. Almost identical content over several sites. Certainly not independently derived opinion from the posters. Anti-vax, anti-government conspiracies and pro-Russia position spread by the same sources worries me.
I'm more cautious now about government and state-process issues that blow up through social media and are picked up by the press. Especially when NZ scores high on social freedoms and government transparency. Change in our law and its implementation needs to follow proper process, not just be driven by outrage-of-the-day. Good cheese and good government both take time.
The police literally makes the case for the court. If the police does not make a case it does not go to court. So yeah, it is a policing issue, firstly and then the justice system is equally useless, in the meantime people get raped.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/91052680/10-years-on-police-rape-survivor-louise-nicholas-welcomes-final-commission-of-inquiry-report-response
Wasn't just my feeling that things had improved after Louise Nicholls' horrendous complaints of police corruption were finally dealt with.
Incredible.
The anti-woke and
slightlyheavily racist Dr. Caftan, after years of shredding Jacinda Ardern for being too right wing but also too left wing has cut and pasted today a thought piece on Chippy, quoting hard right wing dabblers, Luke Mouthpiss and Matty Hooters.Everyone says Hipkins will be a better PM than the best thing to happen to NZ politics in three generations.
The author of this crappy article is, as by nature, at sixes and sevens throughout. Still, it appears he's pumping the new PM to be the final solution to the Ardern problem which will no doubt have misogynist white boomers clinking crystal.
As if out of the Transvaal, this sick puppet actually said, “woman of colour” because he couldn’t bring himself to say Māori or Polynesian. Red flag right there.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/bryce-edwards-prime-minister-chris-hipkins-resets-labour-to-the-right/G3I23PBIO5H4JIN6ZFJNUA3PYE/
it shows how much attention is payed to policing others language by the woke. “Person of colour” is the preferred term in UK and America (a ridiculous term in my opinion)
but here “women of colour” is wrong speak
thats identify politics for you.
Well, you have admitted it is a ridiculous term.
as is person with uterus. or person with vagina. or pregnant people.
Any time we can not name something/someone properly for fear of offending someone who may or may not be that person, or of color, we just show how odious and idiotic is.
And yet, we do it. Lest we not be 'inclusive'.
Stupid, so stupid that he’ll never suspect that he's stupid.
https://twitter.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1616112728581763073
https://twitter.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1616184957403295745
Sounds like me in 4th form on 3rd declension Latin. 🙁
Or in my case, school C and quadratic equations.
I got into a bad situation at a usually protected unnamed beach north of Auckland. It was during the strong easterlies around New Year,
Watched some young people swim 50-60m to a pontoon in a heavy swell and thought I'd like to do that. The lad and I started out but two thirds of the way there I realised I was not comfortable. I know this beach and have swum to that pontoon dozens of times. But that day was different.
When you get into that situation all energy is devoted to trying to get to a point of safety and to keep breathing. The more exhausted you get the harder it is to not take on seawater. The need to keep going forward to safety does not sit well with keeping your head above water.
There are people all around me including my own boy but it becomes terrifying and I am only 10m away from the pontoon. I look out for my child in this heaving water thinking they are in trouble too. Dreadful situation.
We reach the pontoon and I lie down, shocked. The short trip out was into the wind and swell. I assured myself the return would be easier.
It wasn't. The same exhaustion crushed me 20 meters from shore but it was a steep beach and still I couldn't touch the sand. One gulp of water and I am done. Constantly looking out for the precious kid.
Near disaster but two things could have avoided it. One, don't feel like you have to swim because it's your only chance this summer. Two, study hard people's condition after they do the swim you want to do. In hindsight I could see they found it very hard and I should have recognised that.
The difference between life and death in NZ coastal waters is only minutes into a bad decision.
Stay safe.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300789577/spate-of-auckland-tragedies-two-people-dead-at-piha-beach
Bless you MB. I for one am glad you are still here.
I had a similar experience years ago….floating on my back and drifting out beyond the waves on a beach I (thought) I knew well. Next thing I knew two life guards are beside me. I look to shore, I am miles away, caught by a rip. So I set off closer in to shore with them and very glad too.
My take away was that even on days when the waves are tiny, going out beyond them is always a risk. That floating and drifting is not an experience for beach swimming, we must keep ourselves aware and safe and observant at all times.
Thanks, Shanreagh.
It felt like a very personal story to post on this site, but also very important because it's a real experience. Several people have had similar experiences in the water since, and are now dead.
Easily the closest I have been to drowning and it all happened within the space of 15 mins in a normally sheltered bay only 50m offshore.
God bless Jacinda for her compassion and her service.