After four long years of vigorous media activity, inquiries, panels, investigations – Trump-Russia collusion turned out to be a hoax. So, if this epic conspiracy and national security crisis never actually happened, then why is Roger Stone going to prison for supposedly trying to conceal it?
Call to means test our unsustainable pension. I think it will happen eventually but probably when it is far too late to do any good.
FYI we have disabled in this country desperate to reach retirement age because they cannot afford to pay basic costs, even if some of them can work part time. The core benefit is being linked to wages but there is a substantial difference between Super vs Supported Living Payment.
Pensions are 100% financially sustainable. There would be an issue if we lacked the means to feed, house, clothe etc… the retired on the backs of the remaining productive peoples efforts but the country is nowhere near this state rather obviously. Actually trying to cut back on social expenditure has a tendency to exacerbate that.
Shamubeel Eaqub has been banging this drum for years. Yet despite the fact that we're halfway into the Boomer retirement bulge, the NZ economy is in the best shape since forever.
Besides the reality is that NZ gets very good value from it's retired people, most contribute back to the community in all manner of ways. The other relevant fact is that people are living healthy lives for longer. Often people are now quite active well into their 80's, yet the modern workplace starts to discriminate against them when they reach 50.
Nah … means testing is a shitty, simplistic idea that has known perverse outcomes.
Whatever Shamubeel Eaqub says I would take with a grain of salt. (in fact the opposite is probably true). Remember he told us how much better off you were renting a house in Auckland than buying one!
Giving too much money to people who don't need it is an inefficiency, and economists hate that shit – but frequently ignore how much it costs to remove that inefficiency.
Means testsing 700k or 1.8mil people, signing on and signing off according to changing needs… cost that before making a recommendation, I say.
There was a public meeting in Tauranga last night about their gang problem…. where was simon?
This is his electorate, he is talking it up on twitter and in the media, but doesn't even respect his local voters enough to attend a meeting to hear their concerns.
Gangs have been a carbunkle on NZ society for decades, but everything I've read says two things have changed recently, the '501's' being dumped on NZ by Australia, and the flooding of the Western world by meth precursors and product out of China.
With National now largely a front for laundering CCP money I doubt very much if Bridges would want to be put in a compromising position over this.
You'll be going along to the Tauranga Yacht Club next Thursday will you Sacha?
Simon will apparently be holding a Public meeting there and will no doubt open it to questions from the audience. If you are so interested you will of course attend. Or not as the case may be.
Totally hypocritical in view of the fact that Bridges has been screaming about gangs for months, including on Twitter and Facebook just a week ago re the gang problems in Tauranga.
Back in Oct 2019 he was very vocal about opposing any talking with gangs, and proposing that they be denied benefits and other forms of assistance and civil rights.
He then fronted a major law and order policy paper presented to the 83rd Annual National Party Conference in late November 2019 which proposed a raft of measures to crack down on crime with a special focus on gangs including establishing a special/elite police unit similar to the Australian Strike Force Raptor Unit. This was covered widely across all media at the time.
Just in the last week or so he has been vocal in the local Tauranga paper and other media and on Twitter and Facebook on the gang problems in his own electorate, eg
“If you don’t do that, then like a cancer, they will continue to grow.”
Simon will be holding a public meeting in Tauranga to talk about gangs and the recent criminal activity that has been happening in the community.
“On February 27, we are holding a public meeting at the Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club at 6.30pm on gangs and what we should do.”
Then he doesn't even show at the meeting – and as just reported last night, a "blissfully unaware Simon Bridges" apparently signed a "nang" – a nitrous oxide cannister!
In view of the above, IMO Bridges' non-appearance at the meeting would not really seem to be a case of Bridges not wanting to be put in a compromising position as suggested in @3.1.
On reflection having reread the Herald report of last night’s meeting, I can now see why Bridges probably did not attend, or was perhaps not actually welcome to attend (?).
According to the link in Cinny's post @ 3, last night's meeting seems to have been organised or at least facilitated by Tauranga Mayor Terry Powell and Western Bay of Plenty Mayor Gary Webber – and the tone and objectives of the meeting appear to be somewhat at odds with the ‘no tolerance’ type approach that Bridges advocated last Oct and November in his law and order policy document:, ie:
[NOTE – in my extracts below I have focused on the ‘’tone’’ of the comments reported from the meeting rather than on the big issue (meth) and how that needs to be dealt with. The article provides plenty on these aspects.]
"This is about understanding, this is about empathy and this is fundamentally about your safety."
Those of [sic] the words of Tauranga mayor Tenby Powell spoken at a public meeting called after a spike in gang violence in the Western Bay of Plenty.
Roughly 250 people have gathered at a public meeting which is being facilitated by Powell and the Western Bay of Plenty mayor Garry Webber.
Police Area Commander Inspector Clifford Paxton and the Bay of Plenty District Health Board's chief inspector of the health sector Simon Everett are also present.
After opening with a prayer, Paxton said he "needed to walk a fine line" tonight.
"We need to keep our focus wide and to the future, not just to the past," he said.
Paxton also said the public needed to remember gang members were individuals, just as police officers were. …
Powell said the big question was how to deal with it. [ie the meth issue ] "The point of a hui is that we are the community who live among all this and I think we also need to acknowledge that gangs come from our community. They are members of our community too.
"This is about understanding, this is about empathy and this is fundamentally about your safety."
… Paxton said gangs were fulfilling a "social need" and other ways to fill that need had to be found. "Tikanga needs to play a big part of that," he said.
"They [gangs] are here for a reason."
Paxton said police needed to create a relationship with gangs and to show respect in order to move forward.
I suspect the above examples are rather far from what Bridges will advocate at next weeks meeting. It will be interesting to see what happens at that one!
'But, for a mere 60c more per head per day, prisoners are treated to a full roast dinner on Christmas Day complete with piping hot gravy, followed by apple pie with custard for dessert.'
'Come December 25, inmates feast on a lunch made by fellow prisoners at on-site kitchens.'
Yeah the journalist is just ever so slightly exaggerating the description of the meal, I mean the portions are for each prisoner so you only get seconds if theres food left over (which basically means the veges and potatoes, I've personally never seen any meat left over)
Don't get me wrong its certainly better then what a lot of our elderly or most vulnerable get (and no prisoners are not our most vulnerable, they're not even close) but in terms of quality its lesser quality than what I got in the army back in the 2000s (and so it should be) and probably on a par with what the larger shelters provide today
But hey prisoners are feasting and our children aren't I guess is the take home message
IIRC (not from personal exerience behind bars!) the Christmas dinner is a bit of an exception to the usual menu . Is it still a weekly menu right across the prison system where "it is Wednesday, so its sausages tonight" – or whatever is the set meal for all Wednesdays?
Most have fairly state of the art big (stainless steel) commercial kitchens – after all they feed (often) hundreds of people three plus meals a day, 7 days a week.
I am not suggesting that prison meals are likely to be 'piping hot' as the Herald suggested re the Christmas gravy, but the kitchen faciities at larger prisons like Rimutaka are pretty good including in relation to food storage at different temperatures etc – including the equipment used to transport food from the kitchens to the cell blocks etc. Has to be to avoid health issues – just image the logistics of dealing with a major outbreak of campylobacter at a large prison!
Yep. The Herald has reproduced two very unflattering photos of the school lunch rolled out at Flaxmere School under the headings "Would your kids eat this?" and "Would crims eat this?" The article quoting Simon Gault is more balanced. Just shows you how much the Farro Fresh crowd (core Herald readership) hate and despise the working class and won't tolerate any attempt to make their lives better. The Herald is going to go into full-on loony territory this year.
The Herald is going to go into full-on loony territory this year.
Its already started. John Armstrong is in full sack em mode. Remember the hysterical piece about Cunliffe over a letter he signed some 12 years earlier (one of those proforma types from memory) and he screamed for Cunliffe to be sacked from parliament? Well he's started down that road already – this time with Winston of course.
Mr Armstrong ended up apologising to David Cunliffe, but, that may have been self pity over his health issues–who knows–but he has consistently been an NZ National hatchet man, that at least is demonstrable.
"A full stomach makes all the difference to a child's learning, Jacinda Ardern said." So why place all the efforts into lunches Would not breakfast achieve greater results as these pupils will have a full stomach during a FULL school day not just the last 2 hours.
A note to our PM you have not maximised the opportunity here with the opportunity cost being paid by these children.
The post by Pat last night is very important I think. He links to an article on Pundit by Simon Connell. Every strategist in Government should read it and figure out how to disarm the negative effects of the Opposition's double dog whistle. Was Simon's call re 33cents in the dollar an error? No. We got it wrong.
Ok, so Putin's favourite (former) Congressman Rohrabacher has confirmed he did indeed offer to get Assange a pardon if Assange coughed up something to prove the russians didn't hack the DNC emails. Surely there have to be some criminal and electoral law violations in there – offering to procure an official act in exchange for a purely personal political benefit.
The World Health Organisation on Thursday chided the international community for not stepping up enough to finance the battle to contain the novel coronavirus that has shut down many parts of China and killed more than 2,000 people.
The United Nations health agency issued a call earlier this month for US$675 million “to implement priority public health measures in support of countries to prepare for and respond to” the spread of the new coronavirus that causes the potentially deadly respiratory illness known as Covid-19.
“Considering the urgency and considering that we’re fighting a very dangerous enemy, we’re surprised that the response is not really something that we would expect,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a press briefing on Thursday from Geneva.
Why nobody should be giving W.H.O. any money – basically they could have nipped this in the bud early on, but didn’t want to disobey China’s orders. NZ needs to spend it’s money on protecting our own (+ little island nations we protect anyway) NOT giving money to a bunch of toadies.
Didn't happen the last time they were in and it won't happen the next time they're in but look at the bright side, you've got until September to get used the idea!
Fuck I was going to put the boot into Millsy for his bullshit unsubstantiated dribble but you have answered so eloquently that I have calmed down. Well said PR
Grabbed a beer at the airport. A lady’s pouring herself a wine, I wait cause the bottle opener’s front of her.
Mid-pour, without even looking, she hands me the opener.
I say thanks, crack my beer, look up.
Turns out that lady was our whole ass Prime Minister.
What a fuckin G
The trouble is that the power of this story, it’s connection with our culture, has nothing to do with bottle openers. In one of the few times in the duration of the universe I’d agree with him, Eric Crampton tweeted:
There is nothing special about handing someone a bottle opener.
There is something very very special about living in a place where you don’t even notice that it’s the PM sitting across from you until she hands you the bottle opener.
That’s definitely part of it. Just as USians like to say of a newborn that “the kid can grow up to be president some day”, part of New zealand’s national myth is that our leaders are one of us, that we have the same daily lives. There are many stories around the country of chance encounters with senior politicians: a mate from the West Coast has a story about realising the short-wearing guy in front of him at the TAB queue was the then-PM Bill Rowling. Someone met a cabniet minister on the train. Bumped into someone else in the supermarket. Even our last emperor Robert Muldoon would mow his bach’s lawn (and drink-drive, because that was the style at the time). I know student politicians who drank with Winston Peters on a protest to Wellington (his rule was “no politics at the bar”). People would bump into Helen Clark on the Milford Track.
This is a sense I think we’ve lost in recent years – I reckon some of it is due to the tories and their heated seats, but HC’s motorcade speeding episode also helped hurt it. But one reason the bottle-opener hit a chord was because it brings back this national myth.
But there’s something else, too. Empathy is a big part of some styles of leadership. Especially the little touches that inspire trust and show caring. Not platitudes in a speech or inspiring words, the style of leadership where people think you genuinely care and know what their experiences are. Giving someone a hug, helping them out when they’re caught short in the supermarket, the extra nudge of a door as you go through so that it doesn’t slap the next person in the shoulder, recognising the desperate and yearning need of the person beside you to get their beer bottle open as soon as possible – these are all signs of a recognition of the other person’s humanity. One story handed down to me from the WW2 generation was of Montgomery (a well-known jerk to his colleagues) stopping a squaddie and straightening his pack for him – a small move that made that kid’s life a bit better. When Churchill went to the trenches after Gallipoli he instituted a “war on lice” in his unit – it helped them pass the time and also made life a tiny bit better in a way not obvious to an imperious leader.
That’s what the nats can’t understand or copy. That’s why they wave bottle-openers like cargo-cult leaders, hoping that the power of the opener will make people love them as leaders. The power of the move was that it was uncalculated, just instinctive consideration for the person next to you. Judith Collins can wear a necklace of bottle openers, but her brand is built on toughness, crushing, and prison abuse jokes. A demonstration of empathy is not a force multiplier for her. Until they get their own leader with the “Nelson Touch”, national will never be the caring party.
That doesn’t mean they are doomed (there are many leadership styles), it just means that the more they wave around their beer talismans, the more stupid they look.
Which is definitely one perspective, but I also have a certain amount of time for the idea that "news" includes moments deemed to be of public interest by the populace. In which case it's not much different to reporting 2,000 people welcoming sporting heroes home, or that sort of thing.
It's not a nuclear weapons summit, but there is a certain amount of balancing between importance and local interest.
I dunno, that sort of sensitivity is timeless – and it's not even the only instance. When the likely repercussions of doubler-bunking were put to her when the policy was announced, she said something like that it might make criminals think twice before offending. Can't be bothered digging out the clip again. The 2011 one was just the first direct example.
Given that the linked comment it was a direct quote, any misquote of that nature should have been complained about and retracted. It's pretty brutal.
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
Great to see Roger Stone go down for 3.5 years.
All that protested innocence, all those hit jobs from Nixon onwards.
Should have been taken out by blunter means long ago.
How soon do you see Trump pardoning him?
The more I looked the less I liked:
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/481212-roger-stone-russiagate-trump/
Thanks for the link red
having completely failed to make any case for russiagate how do they jail for related acts
Call to means test our unsustainable pension. I think it will happen eventually but probably when it is far too late to do any good.
FYI we have disabled in this country desperate to reach retirement age because they cannot afford to pay basic costs, even if some of them can work part time. The core benefit is being linked to wages but there is a substantial difference between Super vs Supported Living Payment.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/119693594/pension-were-giving-too-much-to-people-who-dont-need-it-one-economist-says
Where would you draw the line?
I think it should remain universal but that people who don't need it should be encouraged not to take apply for it.
Pensions are 100% financially sustainable. There would be an issue if we lacked the means to feed, house, clothe etc… the retired on the backs of the remaining productive peoples efforts but the country is nowhere near this state rather obviously. Actually trying to cut back on social expenditure has a tendency to exacerbate that.
Shamubeel Eaqub has been banging this drum for years. Yet despite the fact that we're halfway into the Boomer retirement bulge, the NZ economy is in the best shape since forever.
Besides the reality is that NZ gets very good value from it's retired people, most contribute back to the community in all manner of ways. The other relevant fact is that people are living healthy lives for longer. Often people are now quite active well into their 80's, yet the modern workplace starts to discriminate against them when they reach 50.
Nah … means testing is a shitty, simplistic idea that has known perverse outcomes.
Simplest? way is via tax action I Change the top rate so it claws back the risen
Ah. You are a Roger Douglas fan I see. That is what he did. Bloody unpopular it was too.
Whatever Shamubeel Eaqub says I would take with a grain of salt. (in fact the opposite is probably true). Remember he told us how much better off you were renting a house in Auckland than buying one!
…but we don't have the means to feed, clothe, house everybody!!
Yeah, we do. We just lack the will to tax the parasites more.
Keep it universal, tax wealth properly. Do same for all other groups too, not just seniors. UBI, etc.
Giving too much money to people who don't need it is an inefficiency, and economists hate that shit – but frequently ignore how much it costs to remove that inefficiency.
Means testsing 700k or 1.8mil people, signing on and signing off according to changing needs… cost that before making a recommendation, I say.
There was a public meeting in Tauranga last night about their gang problem…. where was simon?
This is his electorate, he is talking it up on twitter and in the media, but doesn't even respect his local voters enough to attend a meeting to hear their concerns.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503343&objectid=12310309
Gangs have been a carbunkle on NZ society for decades, but everything I've read says two things have changed recently, the '501's' being dumped on NZ by Australia, and the flooding of the Western world by meth precursors and product out of China.
With National now largely a front for laundering CCP money I doubt very much if Bridges would want to be put in a compromising position over this.
Can't control the message in a real public meeting. Best stick to carefully staged party conferences and photo ops.
You'll be going along to the Tauranga Yacht Club next Thursday will you Sacha?
Simon will apparently be holding a Public meeting there and will no doubt open it to questions from the audience. If you are so interested you will of course attend. Or not as the case may be.
That is at 6.30 pm on February 27th.
Not my neck of the woods but do report back if you make it. Who is hosting and what’s the agenda about?
Nailed it Sacha.
Totally hypocritical in view of the fact that Bridges has been screaming about gangs for months, including on Twitter and Facebook just a week ago re the gang problems in Tauranga.
Back in Oct 2019 he was very vocal about opposing any talking with gangs, and proposing that they be denied benefits and other forms of assistance and civil rights.
https://www.odt.co.nz/star-news/star-national/national-plans-block-gang-members-benefits
He then fronted a major law and order policy paper presented to the 83rd Annual National Party Conference in late November 2019 which proposed a raft of measures to crack down on crime with a special focus on gangs including establishing a special/elite police unit similar to the Australian Strike Force Raptor Unit. This was covered widely across all media at the time.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018724267/simon-bridges-defends-gang-proposals
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/11/29/925940/yesterdaze-tough-on-grease-strong-on-gangs
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12288967
Just in the last week or so he has been vocal in the local Tauranga paper and other media and on Twitter and Facebook on the gang problems in his own electorate, eg
https://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/234472-gang-warfare-cancer-says-simon-bridges.html
https://twitter.com/simonjbridges/status/1228494702942420992
Then he doesn't even show at the meeting – and as just reported last night, a "blissfully unaware Simon Bridges" apparently signed a "nang" – a nitrous oxide cannister!
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/02/nitrous-oxide-canister-signed-by-blissfully-unaware-simon-bridges-appears-online.html
In view of the above, IMO Bridges' non-appearance at the meeting would not really seem to be a case of Bridges not wanting to be put in a compromising position as suggested in @3.1.
Wait and see how stage managed his boat club session is as it could be like their TPPA roadshow.
They have to be careful as Soimon's a bit of a train wreck off the cuff.
It might depend who was organising the meeting and how close the agenda is to where his party are prepared to allow him to speak about it.
On reflection having reread the Herald report of last night’s meeting, I can now see why Bridges probably did not attend, or was perhaps not actually welcome to attend (?).
According to the link in Cinny's post @ 3, last night's meeting seems to have been organised or at least facilitated by Tauranga Mayor Terry Powell and Western Bay of Plenty Mayor Gary Webber – and the tone and objectives of the meeting appear to be somewhat at odds with the ‘no tolerance’ type approach that Bridges advocated last Oct and November in his law and order policy document:, ie:
[NOTE – in my extracts below I have focused on the ‘’tone’’ of the comments reported from the meeting rather than on the big issue (meth) and how that needs to be dealt with. The article provides plenty on these aspects.]
I suspect the above examples are rather far from what Bridges will advocate at next weeks meeting. It will be interesting to see what happens at that one!
Hi VV 🙂
That makes sense, if those hosting the meeting are talking about empathy, then simon wouldn't be involved as it's something he lacks.
Did you miss last nights meeting when he took on the Mob?
The government introduces free school lunches.
Middle class recoils in horror.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12310400
Actually I don't get the 'recoil in horror' bit.
'But, for a mere 60c more per head per day, prisoners are treated to a full roast dinner on Christmas Day complete with piping hot gravy, followed by apple pie with custard for dessert.'
'Come December 25, inmates feast on a lunch made by fellow prisoners at on-site kitchens.'
Yeah the journalist is just ever so slightly exaggerating the description of the meal, I mean the portions are for each prisoner so you only get seconds if theres food left over (which basically means the veges and potatoes, I've personally never seen any meat left over)
Don't get me wrong its certainly better then what a lot of our elderly or most vulnerable get (and no prisoners are not our most vulnerable, they're not even close) but in terms of quality its lesser quality than what I got in the army back in the 2000s (and so it should be) and probably on a par with what the larger shelters provide today
But hey prisoners are feasting and our children aren't I guess is the take home message
IIRC (not from personal exerience behind bars!) the Christmas dinner is a bit of an exception to the usual menu . Is it still a weekly menu right across the prison system where "it is Wednesday, so its sausages tonight" – or whatever is the set meal for all Wednesdays?
Seriously doubt that a prison would serve 'piping hot' anything.
Most have fairly state of the art big (stainless steel) commercial kitchens – after all they feed (often) hundreds of people three plus meals a day, 7 days a week.
Piping hot is hot enough to scald.
At best, it's lukewarm.
I am not suggesting that prison meals are likely to be 'piping hot' as the Herald suggested re the Christmas gravy, but the kitchen faciities at larger prisons like Rimutaka are pretty good including in relation to food storage at different temperatures etc – including the equipment used to transport food from the kitchens to the cell blocks etc. Has to be to avoid health issues – just image the logistics of dealing with a major outbreak of campylobacter at a large prison!
Oh I'm sure they do a great job, but the notion of prisons handing inmates an obvious weapon like that struck me as ridiculous.
LOLOL – that aspect did not even occur to me. Well spotted!
Just as well I am well out of the days when I worked in the Justice sector!
Yep. The Herald has reproduced two very unflattering photos of the school lunch rolled out at Flaxmere School under the headings "Would your kids eat this?" and "Would crims eat this?" The article quoting Simon Gault is more balanced. Just shows you how much the Farro Fresh crowd (core Herald readership) hate and despise the working class and won't tolerate any attempt to make their lives better. The Herald is going to go into full-on loony territory this year.
as expected, it is national's herald after all.
The Herald is going to go into full-on loony territory this year.
Its already started. John Armstrong is in full sack em mode. Remember the hysterical piece about Cunliffe over a letter he signed some 12 years earlier (one of those proforma types from memory) and he screamed for Cunliffe to be sacked from parliament? Well he's started down that road already – this time with Winston of course.
Mr Armstrong ended up apologising to David Cunliffe, but, that may have been self pity over his health issues–who knows–but he has consistently been an NZ National hatchet man, that at least is demonstrable.
Just another hack. Sad end to a career.
"A full stomach makes all the difference to a child's learning, Jacinda Ardern said." So why place all the efforts into lunches Would not breakfast achieve greater results as these pupils will have a full stomach during a FULL school day not just the last 2 hours.
A note to our PM you have not maximised the opportunity here with the opportunity cost being paid by these children.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/409952/pm-jacinda-ardern-serves-up-first-of-many-free-school-lunches-in-hawke-s-bay
Am thrilled to bits about the free school lunches.
Healthy food, healthy brains, those kids will do so much better in school and as a result it will lift them up tremendously.
Those school lunches are a far cry from no lunches, or a bag of chips to last the whole day. Neither of which are the fault of those children.
The post by Pat last night is very important I think. He links to an article on Pundit by Simon Connell. Every strategist in Government should read it and figure out how to disarm the negative effects of the Opposition's double dog whistle. Was Simon's call re 33cents in the dollar an error? No. We got it wrong.
Apologies to Pat but:
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/seriously-but-not-literally-kiwi-edition-or-the-dark-art-of-the-double-secret-dog-whistle
Ta. Worthy of a whole post of its own – with tight moderation to weed out whataboutism, etc.
Officials seem to be accusing the PM of lying or at least misleading about sewage leaking down walls at Middlemore hospital.
Does Mickey have info about this? He made a request for info about this very issue a couple of years ago. Can he shed light on the matter?
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-democracy-reporting/119656710/middlemore-hospital-denies-prime-minister-jacinda-arderns-sewage-down-walls-claim
Some background/answers for you Ross, posted a couple of days ago on The Standard. https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-19-02-2020/#comment-1686258
“There was no sewage leaking down walls, just through the ceiling. Therefore the PM is lying. [headdesk]” – McFlock
Ok, so Putin's favourite (former) Congressman Rohrabacher has confirmed he did indeed offer to get Assange a pardon if Assange coughed up something to prove the russians didn't hack the DNC emails. Surely there have to be some criminal and electoral law violations in there – offering to procure an official act in exchange for a purely personal political benefit.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rohrabacher-assange-trump-pardon_n_5e4eb326c5b615cb7bdc0bf8
It must be noted, though, that so far there is no allegation that Nixon-but-stupider-and-uglier was in on or even aware of this particular sideshow.
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1230228988238401536?s=20
But never let the facts spoil a
patheticstoryhttps://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1230221005924294663?s=20
Oh ho. W.H.O is bitching about funding to contain COVID-19
Why nobody should be giving W.H.O. any money – basically they could have nipped this in the bud early on, but didn’t want to disobey China’s orders. NZ needs to spend it’s money on protecting our own (+ little island nations we protect anyway) NOT giving money to a bunch of toadies.
https://www.colmarbrunton.co.nz/what-we-do/1-news-poll/
Its not looking good for Winnie or the Greens either for that matter
that poll is crap Act 2 never ever
I know, I predict Act to get three, possibly four MPs so they'd be disappointed with two
4 ACT MP's will lead to the biggest ever cut in living standards as wages, benefits and social services are cut to the bone.
Targets and measures will be brought back so we'll be able to see things get better, not worse like they are now
#democracy #labournofriends
National will cut wages
National will cut benefits
National was privatise health and education
National will allow our rivers to be open sewers
Didn't happen the last time they were in and it won't happen the next time they're in but look at the bright side, you've got until September to get used the idea!
I guess on the bright side, you will be able to torture your clients.
Clients? Don't be so reactionary millsy, they're called 'Paihere' meaning people in our care
You wouldn't fit in our work place with that kind of cultural insensitivity…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/117628824/corrections-to-call-prisoners-men-in-our-care-and-refer-to-them-by-their-first-names-sources-say
Fuck I was going to put the boot into Millsy for his bullshit unsubstantiated dribble but you have answered so eloquently that I have calmed down. Well said PR
It’s not about the bottle openers
So this tweet got traction recently:
https://twitter.com/PastTenseOfJav/status/1230018296302325760
It then followed the standard social media cycle for political tweets. After it hit thousands upon thousands of likes, shares, and smooches, the media reported it, tweeters complained the news reported it, and politicians on the other side started grabbing bottle openers like they were infinity stones.
The trouble is that the power of this story, it’s connection with our culture, has nothing to do with bottle openers. In one of the few times in the duration of the universe I’d agree with him, Eric Crampton tweeted:
That’s definitely part of it. Just as USians like to say of a newborn that “the kid can grow up to be president some day”, part of New zealand’s national myth is that our leaders are one of us, that we have the same daily lives. There are many stories around the country of chance encounters with senior politicians: a mate from the West Coast has a story about realising the short-wearing guy in front of him at the TAB queue was the then-PM Bill Rowling. Someone met a cabniet minister on the train. Bumped into someone else in the supermarket. Even our last emperor Robert Muldoon would mow his bach’s lawn (and drink-drive, because that was the style at the time). I know student politicians who drank with Winston Peters on a protest to Wellington (his rule was “no politics at the bar”). People would bump into Helen Clark on the Milford Track.
This is a sense I think we’ve lost in recent years – I reckon some of it is due to the tories and their heated seats, but HC’s motorcade speeding episode also helped hurt it. But one reason the bottle-opener hit a chord was because it brings back this national myth.
But there’s something else, too. Empathy is a big part of some styles of leadership. Especially the little touches that inspire trust and show caring. Not platitudes in a speech or inspiring words, the style of leadership where people think you genuinely care and know what their experiences are. Giving someone a hug, helping them out when they’re caught short in the supermarket, the extra nudge of a door as you go through so that it doesn’t slap the next person in the shoulder, recognising the desperate and yearning need of the person beside you to get their beer bottle open as soon as possible – these are all signs of a recognition of the other person’s humanity. One story handed down to me from the WW2 generation was of Montgomery (a well-known jerk to his colleagues) stopping a squaddie and straightening his pack for him – a small move that made that kid’s life a bit better. When Churchill went to the trenches after Gallipoli he instituted a “war on lice” in his unit – it helped them pass the time and also made life a tiny bit better in a way not obvious to an imperious leader.
That’s what the nats can’t understand or copy. That’s why they wave bottle-openers like cargo-cult leaders, hoping that the power of the opener will make people love them as leaders. The power of the move was that it was uncalculated, just instinctive consideration for the person next to you. Judith Collins can wear a necklace of bottle openers, but her brand is built on toughness, crushing, and prison abuse jokes. A demonstration of empathy is not a force multiplier for her. Until they get their own leader with the “Nelson Touch”, national will never be the caring party.
That doesn’t mean they are doomed (there are many leadership styles), it just means that the more they wave around their beer talismans, the more stupid they look.
Wow. That should be a post McFlock.
I was considering formally submitting it, but work happened and I figured I might as well just flip it up as is before I forget about it.
Think it says more about how shit our media have turned actually.
Which is definitely one perspective, but I also have a certain amount of time for the idea that "news" includes moments deemed to be of public interest by the populace. In which case it's not much different to reporting 2,000 people welcoming sporting heroes home, or that sort of thing.
It's not a nuclear weapons summit, but there is a certain amount of balancing between importance and local interest.
"Judith Collins can wear a necklace of bottle openers, but her brand is built on toughness, crushing, and prison abuse jokes. "
Calling Puckish Rogue!
As a kid visiting my nan I used to see PM Muldoon swimming at Hatfields beach, them were the days huh?
That was from 2011 so I think we can now let it go (I'm still not convinced she wasn't misquoted) and all move on![laugh laugh](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/teeth_smile.png)
I dunno, that sort of sensitivity is timeless – and it's not even the only instance. When the likely repercussions of doubler-bunking were put to her when the policy was announced, she said something like that it might make criminals think twice before offending. Can't be bothered digging out the clip again. The 2011 one was just the first direct example.
Given that the linked comment it was a direct quote, any misquote of that nature should have been complained about and retracted. It's pretty brutal.
Covfefe
When your best response is dolt45's most amazing word, you're on the wrong side of history.