First of all I have personally been involved in designing and building a very similar consent offtake monitoring system – only somewhat simpler as it involved just one weir, one offtake gate and one downstream flow. What seems pretty simple turns out to be a fair bit more complex that you might expect – but in the end I got it running extremely well. We took the need to get it right very seriously and it is one of those projects that I look back with pride. Put simply, all the years I was aware of afterward we never breached consent rules for even a minute.
This Canterbury scheme however seems far more complex than my small system and I am not in the least surprised that from time to time it has allowed breaches of consent. Especially where there are substantial manually controlled gates involved and ambiguous, low resolution data sources.
Nor am I in the least surprised that a Greenpeace spokesperson would put the worst case 'shocker' interpretation on all this. Nor would it surprise me if ECAN management historically failed to fully understand the limitations of the data they were working using and the weak assumptions they were using to determine compliance.
However the article goes on to describe the steps taken since 2019 to greatly improve matters – to the point where:
“Since this more accurate monitoring has been put in place very few exceedances have occurred, and we are generally satisfied with the rate of compliance with the 30 cumec limit.”
That looks more like a technical success story than reason to hand over effective control of the asset to the iwi chiefs.
Yep, iwi should be involved. Framing Three Waters as an iwi vs kiwi issue is just sad, as are the views of the 'creative' behind the 2005 electioneering slogan. Racism, both casual and strident, will continue to be mined/fuelled for political and other purposes – sad.
Give Nothing To Racism (2-minute video; Taika Waititi / NZ Human Right Commission)
Racism starts small. Sometimes it lives in everyday actions and comments that we laugh off, nod in agreement to, excuse, and therefore accept. But we don’t have to. We can stop casual racism from growing into something more extreme. We can give it no encouragement. No respect. No place. No power. We can give it nothing. http://www.givenothing.co.nz
Framing Three Waters as an iwi vs kiwi issue is just sad,
It's a cynical ploy to frame 3Waters as zero-sum, concession to Iwi is a loss to Kiwis. A deliberate effort to cast Māori as potential wrong doers, the blame-worthy enemy who's going to steal your shit, to engage and enrage the base.
Like with the Contergan Children (thalidomide) in Germany. When they and their injuries, their lack of sexual organs, their lack of sexual function, their inability to orgasm, their bodily issues – young people on crutches for life, etc etc etc, when all that becomes so public and so everywhere that you can not hide these children away anymore, then maybe something will change. So probably in a decade or two. And even then you will find that those that did the surgeries, that wrote the prescriptions etc will claim that they did it to safe lifes, and not to fill their coffers, even though their coffers are overflowing with blood money.
But here in NZ, we were late to the party, and it was only 2020 when the curriculum guidelines for Relationships and Sex Education were created and slapped on as an addition to the TKI – from the Ministry of Education.
For those unaware, the TKI guidelines set out the curriculum for all primary and secondary students in NZ. They specify what learning outcomes are needed, to meet curriculum requirements. Curriculum resources can therefore be created by teachers, schools or purchased from third-party organisations.
Guidelines can be found here on this page for both primary and secondary students as a pdf download.
There is a lot to unpick – and justifiably critique in these documents – but the one relevant to this point can be found in both documents (Pg 30 of Yrs 1-8 guide):
In science, ākonga can:
• consider variations in puberty, including the role of hormone blockers
This means that every child within the NZ education system is introduced to the idea – (and due to the diversity of curriculum that can be taught we have no idea how) – that puberty is something that can reasonably be avoided, and puberty blockers are the method to do so.
Our Ministry of Health follows "gender affirming health care" for transgender NZers, including children. (Without getting into details, note that "gender affirming healthcare" is a pre-determined diagnosis and treatment, not equal to quality healthcare).
For young people where these feelings continue into puberty or emerge during puberty, particularly if associated with distress, it is important to see a health professional. Puberty blockers are a medication that can be used to halt the physical changes of an unwanted puberty.
Blockers are a safe and fully reversible medicine that may be used from early puberty through to later adolescence to help ease distress and allow time to fully explore gender health options.
Service providers that can help access blockers include:
paediatric services
youth health services
endocrinologists
primary health care teams.
Late to the party, and staying for the hangover. NZ education normalises the idea of delayed puberty, while offering – without reserve – off-label medications that have no robust clinical evidence of benefit.
In fact, the countries above, that have reviewed evidence have found that the net result is harm.
If this bothers you, write to both the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health, asking them what evidential base did they use as reference for these TKI outcomes, and medical response.
If your concern is for high-quality appropriate care for transgender youth, then you should be bothered. The likelihood of iatrogenic harm from the current approach is high, and the evidence of that occurring is starting to accumulate and be collected.
But where else would failing male athletes retire to to earn a little extra crust for the old days.
And who else would tell the little dears just how to shut up, and suck up then some blokes in suits with fancy titles. Privilege, it is +/-8 inches uncut with a suit and he/him and she/her pronouns.
fucking neoliberals. The hierarchy of oppression sans class analysis is a tool of the patriarchy. And liberals bought into it for the odd seat at the table. But they will never let us have shared power, because then we would dismantle neoliberalism and the whole damned hierarchical structure.
If this is neo liberalism then every party in our government without exception is neo liberal. As they all voted for Self ID in NZ. There are the parties who spearheaded the law, who mocked people in open hearings for not wanting to have Self ID and they should be carrying and in the end will be carrying the responsibility for the misery that will be caused via the many many children de-sexed for gender ideology and conformity, but the opposition parties had no issues going along with it and are thus guilty by association and enabling of harm.
Sexism on the right : own gestational carriers privately.
Sexism on the left: own gestational carriers publicly.
same shit to the gestational carriers. – owned, without agency.
Hi Sabine, Slightly off topic but understand you are based in Rotorua, so just wanted to post this article on Tamati Coffeys latest piece of legislation
"The Rotorua District Councils Representation Arrangement Bill. Do the people of Rotorua know about this?
National's justice spokesman Paul Goldsmith said the initial two-week submission period was "outrageously short".
The Government was trying to "sneak through" the bill, despite it being a significant change to electoral laws.
"Bringing through constitutional change in an obscure local bill is not the way to do things."
He said the effect of moving away from the population-based criteria for Māori wards would effectively change the principle of each vote being equal.
Although the bill was restricted to the Rotorua district council, it would open the door for other councils to follow suit.
"So [Labour] are just sneaking it through and it will then be presented as a fait accompli."
The extension to submissions will also allow more time for the usual Attorney-General report on the bill's implications before MPs have to vote on it again.
Remove the protected category of sex and you are there. We are then all they/thems and that includes the men.
Case in point those that want to remove 'sex attraction' i.e. homosexual, heterosexual, bi-sexual cause bigottry to replace it with 'gender attraction' either same or opposite. Unisex people fucking everything and everyone, and thus yhou can't discriminate. Unless of course they need kids, and then they damn well know who the gestational carrier is going to be. The human dairy cow. Money is to be made.
First they need to figure out which organs to remove to make space for the expanding uterus unless they carry it in a pouch something like a colonosty bag. Never mind the placenta and stuff.
But for what its worth, they probably have no issues with a few hundreds / thousands of men dying trying to carry a pregnancy to term or even just carry it for a month or so before their bodies give up.
Until that day is achieved they now what a gestational carrier is, a women/female by sex and not ideology to exploit by the many for the good of a few.
Weka, I just wanted to say I have enjoyed the thoughtful and fair contributions you have made to this debate.
As an old, pale stale male, I haven't felt it is an appropriate topic for me to comment on, as the issues are something I don't have any personal experience with at all. So, I have stayed on the sidelines with this one.
“Luxon said the government has been blaming international factors for adversely affecting inflation but Singapore is at 2 percent, Australia is at 3.5 and Japan is at 1 percent while dealing with the same challenges.”
When Luxon selects inflation rates that suit his argument he is "talking rubbish/lying again and again and again……….."
And to be consistent we should say that when Bearded Git selects inflation rates that suit his argument he is "talking rubbish/lying again and again and again……….."
You are either deliberately misquoting what I said or you simply don't understand it. I suspect the latter.
What I said is "There is nothing at all in the theory that says that small is always more efficient than large". I have highlighted the critical part of that statement.
You were claiming that it was always the case. You must try harder.
In that case, your characterisation of Arkie's comment is equally false.
Whatever the economies of scale save in "production" duopoly power hands directly over as profits rather than lower prices. Basic economic theory suggests increasing competition will force "producers" to redirect those savings towards consumers, while possibly diminishing those scale-based savings (depending on thresholds for efficiencies in production rather than a straight line relationship between units "produced" and the per-unit cost of that production).
Nope. Because basic economic theory isn't just one chart of supply vs demand, or economies of scale, or monopoly vs competition.
But keep arguing the supposed advantages of having a duopoly supply the bulk of groceries to a country's population. Really nails your flag to the mast.
We were discussing competition within NZ and the existing supermarket duopoly, not Amazon. The Publisher of your textbook is rescinding the deal and wants your advance payment back, all three lollies.
This started off when arkie proposed " It would be fantastic to imagine supermarket buildings being repurposed, housing multiple individual businesses and stalls" and I suggested that Supermarkets supplied a superior service, at a lower price, than did hordes on little speciality shops.
So, you were discussing Amazon, but failed to mention this to us?? No wonder you made no sense because arkie was talking about the supermarket duopoly in NZ and started their comment as follows:
An interesting article about the government apparently considering splitting the supermarket duopoly:
"Many little businesses have to compete for customers, this leads to lower prices, isn't that basic economics to you?".
Then you gave this answer:
No, and I can't think of any Economist I know who would agree with it.
Looks quite clear to me that you think that competition is not good for lowering consumer price and that economy of scale and less competition thanks to the duopoly is preferable for consumers.
Let us know when your economic textbook comes out: Economics-101 by a Dummy.
Oh dear. You are a fan of the selective quote are you.
If you are going to quote what I say quote it in full. Otherwise I will start assuming that you are a politician.
The full context of those comments includes a lot more than you are quoting, but you know that and just pretend it isn't there.
I would suggest that you and arkie would both benefit from reading Economics for Dummies. It is not the best of introductory works but it will certainly teach you more about the subject than you know now.
Arkie and I both have your textbook on pre-order as colouring-in book for the pre-schoolers in our extended families.
I was pretending not linking to the comment and arkie also pretended not linking to the same comment. However, none of us is as pretentious as you: less competition is good!
I chose major G20 countries to compare with NZ which seemed reasonable to me as they would tend to be trading in similar markets to NZ. I didn't contradict Luxon's 3.5% figure for Australia-it would be interesting to know why this is so low (it is forecast to rise to 4.5% by 30/6).
I did find it odd that Luxon got Singapore's inflation rate badly wrong.
I did find it odd that Luxon got Singapore's inflation rate badly wrong.
Well, politicians do make mistakes. (Singapore's core inflation is 2.2%.) But the fact remains that prices in NZ have been increasing at a faster rate for some time, and we can't blame Russia.
As you know, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has been brewing for many years and had been escalating before the actual invasion on 24 Feb and this sent jitters through the global economy before the invasion. This may be too hard to understand for a linear reductionist.
this sent jitters through the global economy before the invasion.
It did? In 2021, the Reserve Bank reviewed the Official Cash Rate (OCR) on seven occasions. You won't find any mention of conflict in Europe, Asia, or Africa (or anywhere else) during the bank's deliberations, though you will find a lot of discussion about inflation.
It's worth noting that the inflation rate for non-tradable goods and services is 6%. Again, it’s difficult to see how Russia can be blamed for a rise in the price of items that aren't subject to much, if any, foreign competition.
“Non-tradable goods and services by definition have relatively little exposure to international competition. Consequently, their prices are more likely to be influenced by developments in the domestic economy, particularly the extent of spare capacity in both production and the labour market.”
Is it a coincidence that at the same time as Government spending has skyrocketed, inflation has surged? It seems not.
"White House aides were out in force on Monday warning that Tuesday's inflation report would be ugly and blaming it on Vladimir Putin. No doubt that beats blaming your own policies. But inflation didn’t wait to appear until the Ukraine invasion, and by now it will be hard to reduce. … the inflation trend began in earnest a year ago at the onset of the Biden Presidency. It has accelerated for most of the last 12 months. That's long before Mr. Putin decided to invade. The timing reflects too much money chasing too few goods, owing mainly to the combination of vast federal spending and easy monetary policy."
The government pandemic response of spending to maintain incomes and thus demand and easy monetary policy is an OECD one – and in the US began under Trump.
Even before the Kremlin ordered Russian troops into separatist territories of Ukraine on Monday, the tension had taken a toll. The promise of punishing sanctions in return by President Biden and the potential for Russian retaliation had already pushed down stock returns and driven up gas prices.
The point is that the Russia-Ukraine conflict is just one of many factors affecting inflation in NZ, most of which are completely beyond the control of NZ Government.
I have no idea what or which conflicts “in Europe, Asia, or Africa (or anywhere else)” you had in mind, but this is a distraction anyway, as the RBNZ is not commonly commenting on specific international conflicts. The notable exception is, of course, the Russian invasion of Ukraine (https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/news/2022/04/monetary-tightening-brought-forward).
The Russian invasion is not blamed for the rise in costs of non-tradeable items by 6% (mainly housing) nor is it singularly blamed for rise in tradeable items (mainly driven by overseas imports such as petrol) by 8.5%. That’s another of your strawmen.
The inflation in the US is not useful here nor is quoting from a RBA Bulleting from 2014. You know your argument is weak when you have to resort to desperate diversions.
The main part of the cost increases was Housing costs.
The main driver for the 6.9 percent annual inflation to the March 2022 quarter was the housing and household utilities group, influenced by rising prices for construction and rentals for housing.
Prices for the construction of new dwellings increased 18 percent in the March 2022 quarter compared with the March 2021 quarter, the largest increase recorded since the series began in 1985.
“Construction firms have been experiencing many supply-chain issues, higher labour costs, and also higher demand, which have pushed up the cost of building a new house,” senior prices manager Aaron Beck said.
Constraining immigration,and enforcing RMA requirements for short term residential accommodation,are quick ,efficient,and cheap ways to reduce housing constraints.
This picture just encapsulates the pressures that MPs, and all public figures, are under when not only does the technology exist to excerpt a demeaning still shot from a film, but then allows the ability to distribute the same extremely widely; especially when the original was not produced for this purpose.
I'm just glad I got out of the public eye before this crap became prevalent.
It always has been there, though, for political purposes. Who remembers Hitler's 'jig' purportedly captured when attending the 1940 capitulation of France signing?
I really appreciate being told I have to have a sense of humour. I've got one, some would say far too often displayed. But I've also got a sense of propriety, of fairness, of appreciation of the travails of public life.
I don't want my political representatives to be so 'thick-skinned' that they are not sensitive to what we need them to be aware of, lke poverty and injustice; nor so ill-attuned like Boris Johnson, or Chris Luxon.
At least, I believe that can't be said of Grant Robertson, though some will of course disagree, who is the brunt of this belittling concoction.
It's a cartoon but without the skill, the wit, the political incision of a good cartoonist.
Luxon talking rubbish/lying again and again and again………..
Yeah I'm sure that will go down a treat with those visiting their local foodbank.
Meanwhile, this graph clearly shows inflation increased significantly throughout 2021 in New Zealand. That date is important as it's a year that Ukraine wasn't invaded by Russia. Bugger.
The governor, Adrian Orr, has told an International Monetary Fund seminar that it had been caught on the backfoot, like many other central banks, by supply chain shocks and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which had exacerbated inflation pressures.
Leading economist Shamubeel Eaqub told Newshub Late New Zealand has yet to see the impacts of Government spending on inflation.
"Most of the inflation so far has been on food, fuel and housing, so we haven't seen that impact of a lot of Government spending in the last couple of years because of the pandemic coming through to inflation yet," he said.
This narrative about spending and govt spending lead inflation in NZ is based on the idea that NZ wages were raised significantly. Instead we have a cost of living crisis because what actually happened was that many industries have been disrupted and have raised their prices, but this has not been passed on to the median wage. Of course if you take economics seriously you to some extent need the idea of demand side inflation to actually manifest in the wage data. On the other hand if you just use economics to assign blame in your massively simplified narrative that inflation must be the govt fault then all the data lining up is beside the point.
Cutting government spending or raising interest rates isn't going to change a lot of the drivers of inflation, though it may eventually generate a recession which could certainly impact prices. Its worth highlighting that most NZers have recently received real wage cuts as their wages went up less than the inflation rate in recent history. Seems like self inflicted austerity probably isn't the best policy solution at present, but my following of the last 14 year economic history of Europe suggests its likely to be tried first.
Ross we were invaded by covid… remember that? Wuhan covid 19, followed by Delta, then Omicron.
All that support by the Government for workers and business and Health,……Health systems vaccines and millions to the food charities……..
now the pain plus Ukraine/Russia effects.
Also the cumulative effects of climate change floods and fires during droughts. Much dearer fruits and vegetables, replacing of roads and bridges, facing the rising seas around our coasts, the creep of housing onto food growing areas…..
All of that. A pandemic world wide has stressed a shaky system.
So, if the Government said “here is your help, but you have to pay for it.’ How many would have died?
Some Business model Charities took money for their workers, but have contributed little to relief for their supposed target "market" Look up the list.!!
Some play the religion card for tax… An absolute rort!!
Our son on the Gold Coast tells of properties rising by 25 to 30%, food costs and petrol costs starting to bite. It appears their property cycle is 3to 4 months behind ours. So watch their inflation.
What I find very interesting is that the motor spirit price in New Zealand has remained pretty well constant in New Zealand since the cut in tax on 15 March.
Meanwhile in Australia the price has dropped by about 47 cents/litre in the same time period. That might stop biting your son quite so much.
Anyone have any idea on why this might have happened? Both countries import most of their fuel so it can't be local production.
You didn't even get to the end of the first sentence I wrote did you? If you had you might have noticed the last few words "since the cut in tax on 15 March".
I was talking about why Australia had shown very a marked drop since them but we hadn't.
According to your own link, over the period from 10-Jan-2022 to 18-Apr-2022 shown in the graph there was no such drop by about 47 cents/litre in Australia!? It appears you cherry-picked the maximum on 21 March, i.e. apples & oranges.
The Ozzies got a fuel tax cut of 22 cents/litre on 29 March.
Any more diversion trolling from you? Try a different country.
I hadn't realised that the 22cent cut in the budget had taken effect immediately. That accounts for a decent chunk of the 47 cents in the time period.
On the other hand can you tell us why Australia, after a 22c cut is now back to about the same price as it was at the start of the year while we, after a 28.5c cut are still about 25c above the price at the beginning of the year?
I suppose so. It totally closed on 1 April, didn't it. On the other hand I believe Australia is down to just 2 refineries and that about 90% of its oil supply is imported refined product. Could the 2 refineries make that much difference?
If so I might have to reconsider my views on keeping Marsden Point going.
“It is 50 years since I read Hannah Arendt’s essay on ‘Lying in Politics’. The essay was prompted by the unauthorised release of the Pentagon Papers, a classified documentary history of US policy-making in the Vietnam War. What shocked many at the time was the evidence that while Lyndon Johnson’s administration continued to tell the American people that its strategy was working, despite the accumulating casualties, top officials knew it was failing. Much of the commentary surrounding the release of the papers, including Arendt’s, turned on the role of deception and self-deception.
One passage in this essay stuck with me and influenced my subsequent efforts to understand how political leaders end up making such poor choices about military power. This is the passage.
‘Oddly enough, the only person likely to be an ideal victim of complete manipulation is the President of the United States. Because of the immensity of his job, he must surround himself with advisers, the “National Security Managers” as they have recently been called by Richard J. Barnet, who “exercise their power chiefly by filtering the information that reaches the President and by interpreting the outside world for him.” The President, one is tempted to argue, allegedly the most powerful man of the most powerful country, is the only person in this country whose range of choices can be predetermined.’
I recalled the passage when considering how Vladimir Putin came to decide on his calamitous war against Ukraine. The key insight was that someone so powerful could also be so badly informed. That was the case with Lyndon Johnson in the mid-1960s. Could it also be the case for Putin in 2022?”
The legacy of ancient Rome has always constituted an important component of the Russian cultural consciousness. The revitalization of classical scholarship in nineteenth-century Russia and new approaches to antiquity prompted many of the Russian Symbolists to seek their inspiration in ancient Rome.
The Russkiy Mir, like the Pax Romana that inspired it, is not attractive to the peoples bordering that unhappy state as it staggers towards oblivion without Gibbons' culprit playing much of a role.
VP doesnt come across as a gullible fool to me in fact when you hear him speaking in interviews and giving speeches he seems way more on to it than most of his western counterparts imo . The question could be if all power bases were snake pits whose would be the dirtiest ? Id argue america's by a comfortable margin .
An important challenge for the left is to expose the emptiness of what Luxon seems committed to spitting out at every opportunity – bullshit like this – and whatever's next, which is likely to be tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that…
Does Boris Johnson know that the UK's 7% inflation is due to the Tory governments over spending?
Does Christopher Luxon know that cutting government spending and handing out the money via tax cuts does not reduce inflationary demand in the economy?
2. Orr QE's money for government response (good, helps government finance prevention of any recession) and to enable more bank lending on property (bad, gets rid of deposit criteria for buying up existing property rather than targeted funds to new building – and so boom in property values)
3. Responding to supply shortage inflation, as if it was demand led (whether public or private sector spending) inflation and so resorting to interest rate rises or demand restraint (causing a recession/unemployment) is not smart.
Salmon is the rising star of the NZ aquaculture scene – its feed conversion ratio runs between 1 & 1.1 kg of feed per kg of grown fish, and the adult fish retail at $30+ a kilo – yielding a profit margin that would make John Key blush. But the moment your water temperature creeps over 18 degrees, fish live or die on a coin toss.
So – here is a litmus test of whether the cohort of managers formed in the post-Brierly period can manage for a sustainable future, or whether they will take no effectual action and let their industry die as global warming pushes through the 2 degree line and heads for 4, which will end salmon farming that has made no provision for temperature moderation.
Throwing a thousand tonnes of dead fish into landfill is pretty lame too. Composting them has been done since the 1950s, and recycling them using Black Soldier Flies is also well established. Unlike other flies, the BSF do not feed as adults, so they are not a plague vector if they are used to process putrescible waste.
Watch this space as our aquaculture industries decline to develop temperature moderation, and fail to compost or otherwise gainfully repurpose this high fertility resource. And when NZ's productivity continues to languish at 1970 levels, you'll know why.
How are the salmon farmers supposed to effect 'temperature moderation ' stuart ? I thought they were aiming to shift their operations into more open areas of the ocean in order to do just that or are you implying that some artificial device exists to bring temps down inside the nets ?
I dont buy farmed salmon i find the industry repugnant .To keep what are normally wild migrating fish in a cage feeding them food they wouldnt ordinarily eat and polluting the area around the ' farm ' in the process is i think anti nature and deserves to fail .I hope it does .
If i remember correctly king salmon applied a year or so ago to get gov money to develope some kind of composting ability did nothing come of that ?
How are the salmon farmers supposed to effect 'temperature moderation
This is a matter each must determine according to their locale. Trout farmers in Jordan have used evaporative cooling – spray jets rather like those used by NZ dairy irrigators. But their situation is recirculating raceways, not sea cages, which are harder to cool because the water moves through them. It may be that sea cages must be abandoned in most areas, and farming transitioned to onshore tanks which can be kept at the optimal 13 degrees. My concern is that farming should not proceed without adapting, praying for cool seasons that will become increasingly rare, on the basis that sea cages have exceptionally low capital costs. The industry is profitable enough to support a greater level of capital investment.
A Dunedin company was composting factory fish offal with bark for decades, and very popular their product proved, especially with rose growers. But given that:
trucks from Havelock and Picton made 160 trips to the Bluegums Landfill in Blenheim, dumping 1269 tonnes of dead fish (RNZ link above)
It would seem that composting efforts fell a bit short of requirements in this instance. Composting fish typically calls for 4 or 5 parts of cellulose material (wood chip or sawdust or straw) to 1 part of fish – so it isn’t hard to imagine an excess mortality on the farms might meet a shortfall of organic matter – which is one of the advantages of BSF.
It's a longish read, so I'll sum it up. The writer developed a severe toothache – intermittent at first, then constant; one tooth to begin with, then several; infection confined to mouth only, then started to wreak havoc through much of her body. Dentists' investigations revealed no evidence of any dental disorder, so insisted that the pain must have other causes, and refused to touch it. The main motive for withholding treatment seems to have been fear of proceedings against them should anything go wrong.
Could this culture of fear in the medical profession spread to NZ? One would like to think not, but a recent personal straw in the wind suggests we shouldn't get complacent. Obtrectatrix uses a wheelchair and asked a well-known handyman franchise to make a couple of ramps so that she could get out on to the deck in it. They refused point-blank. "That's medical – we're not touching that." A couple of bloody ramps, not a series of brain-surgeries! What had they to worry about, for the love of Pete?
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Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
You're a fraud, and you know itBut it's too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the sameYou've got 'em goingAnd you're careful not to show itSometimes you even fool yourself a bitIt's like magicBut it's always been a smoke and mirrors gameAnyone would do the sameForty six billion ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The June general election in Mexico could mark a turning point in ensuring that the country’s climate policies better reflect the desire of its citizens to address the climate crisis, with both leading presidential candidates expressing support for renewable energy. Mexico is the ...
2024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?When I say 2024 I really mean the state of humanity in 2024.Saturday night, we watched Civil War because that is one terrifying cliff we've ...
Buzz from the Beehive A pet project and governmental tunnel vision jump out from the latest batch of ministerial announcements. The government is keen to assure us of its concern for the wellbeing of our pets. It will be introducing pet bonds in a change to the Residential Tenancies Act ...
A recent report generated from a Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) survey of 1,224 rangatahi Māori aged 11-12 found: Cultural connectedness was associated with fewer depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms and better quality of life. That sounds cut and dry. But further into the report the following appears: Cultural connectedness is ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: From the gory details of job-cuts news, you’d think the public service was being eviscerated. While the media’s view of the cuts is incomplete, it’s also true that departments have been leaking the particulars faster than a Wellington ...
Remember the good old days, back when New Zealand had a PM who could think and speak calmly and intelligently in whole sentences without blustering? Even while Iran’s drones and missiles were still being launched, Helen Clark was live on TVNZ expertly summing up the latest crisis in the Middle ...
Costello did not pass on analysis of the benefits of the smokefree reforms to Cabinet, emphasising instead the extra tax revenues of repealing them. Photo: Hagen Hopkins, Getty Images TL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me at 7:26 am today are:The Lead: Casey Costello never passed on ...
True loveYou're the one I'm dreaming ofYour heart fits me like a gloveAnd I'm gonna be true blueBaby, I love youI’ve written about the job cuts in our news media last week. The impact on individuals, and the loss to Aotearoa of voices covering our news from different angles.That by ...
While commentators, including former Prime Minister Helen Clark, are noting a subtle shift in New Zealand’s foreign policy, which now places more emphasis on the United States, many have missed a key element of the shift. What National said before the election is not what the government is doing now. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
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 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
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https://www.newsroom.co.nz/council-disowns-report-revealing-consent-breaches
This story alone explains why we need Three Waters. And why iwi must be involved.
First of all I have personally been involved in designing and building a very similar consent offtake monitoring system – only somewhat simpler as it involved just one weir, one offtake gate and one downstream flow. What seems pretty simple turns out to be a fair bit more complex that you might expect – but in the end I got it running extremely well. We took the need to get it right very seriously and it is one of those projects that I look back with pride. Put simply, all the years I was aware of afterward we never breached consent rules for even a minute.
This Canterbury scheme however seems far more complex than my small system and I am not in the least surprised that from time to time it has allowed breaches of consent. Especially where there are substantial manually controlled gates involved and ambiguous, low resolution data sources.
Nor am I in the least surprised that a Greenpeace spokesperson would put the worst case 'shocker' interpretation on all this. Nor would it surprise me if ECAN management historically failed to fully understand the limitations of the data they were working using and the weak assumptions they were using to determine compliance.
However the article goes on to describe the steps taken since 2019 to greatly improve matters – to the point where:
That looks more like a technical success story than reason to hand over effective control of the asset to the iwi chiefs.
https://www.stats.govt.nz/indicators/river-water-quality-clarity-and-turbidity
Yep, iwi should be involved. Framing Three Waters as an iwi vs kiwi issue is just sad, as are the views of the 'creative' behind the 2005 electioneering slogan. Racism, both casual and strident, will continue to be mined/fuelled for political and other purposes – sad.
https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/33891/iwikiwi-billboard
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ideasroom/dame-anne-salmond-iwi-and-kiwi-beyond-the-binary
Give Nothing To Racism (2-minute video; Taika Waititi / NZ Human Right Commission)
Racism starts small. Sometimes it lives in everyday actions and comments that we laugh off, nod in agreement to, excuse, and therefore accept. But we don’t have to. We can stop casual racism from growing into something more extreme. We can give it no encouragement. No respect. No place. No power. We can give it nothing. http://www.givenothing.co.nz
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/442497/taika-waititi-fronts-anti-racism-campaign-aimed-at-teachers
It's a cynical ploy to frame 3Waters as zero-sum, concession to Iwi is a loss to Kiwis. A deliberate effort to cast Māori as potential wrong doers, the blame-worthy enemy who's going to steal your shit, to engage and enrage the base.
I have for a long time thought that what is good for Maori is good for all of us.
I bemoan the state of my local wai, the Oroua, not much chop from Feilding south
This one may well be a technical success story. There are plenty of others where Ecan has not down such a great job. Nitrate levels, being an example.
Eighty years ago hundreds of thousands of Poles were deported to forced labour camps in Russia's far east The majority of those deported were women and children.
Russia's at it again.
https://twitter.com/VagrantJourno/status/1516758940561948672
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1516758940561948672.html
Well this is what happens when you have Stalin as your role model.
More sexism. SSDD and just as tedious when it was the original manels
https://twitter.com/hjoycegender/status/1516823558592286731?s=21
This is misogyny, far beyond tedious.
https://twitter.com/radphoenixx/status/1516554939107061760?s=21
just found this and thought you might find it interesting.
Lupron and side effects. Btw, it appears that these women got lupron to prevent early puperty and / or promote a 'taller' growth. Madness.
https://revealnews.org/article/women-say-drug-used-to-halt-puberty-has-ruined-their-lives/
When are people going to wake up to the fact that gender affirming medicines for teens with Gender dysphoria is dangerous
Like with the Contergan Children (thalidomide) in Germany. When they and their injuries, their lack of sexual organs, their lack of sexual function, their inability to orgasm, their bodily issues – young people on crutches for life, etc etc etc, when all that becomes so public and so everywhere that you can not hide these children away anymore, then maybe something will change. So probably in a decade or two. And even then you will find that those that did the surgeries, that wrote the prescriptions etc will claim that they did it to safe lifes, and not to fill their coffers, even though their coffers are overflowing with blood money.
Well, apparently when they look for robust clinical evidence of benefits – and find none.
Cue:
Netherlands; https://www.voorzij.nl/more-research-is-urgently-needed-into-transgender-care-for-young-people-where-does-the-large-increase-of-children-come-from/
Finland; https://segm.org/Finland_deviates_from_WPATH_prioritizing_psychotherapy_no_surgery_for_minors
Sweden; https://segm.org/segm-summary-sweden-prioritizes-therapy-curbs-hormones-for-gender-dysphoric-youth
France; https://segm.org/France-cautions-regarding-puberty-blockers-and-cross-sex-hormones-for-youth
the UK in the form of the Interim Cass Review; https://cass.independent-review.uk/publications/interim-report/
But here in NZ, we were late to the party, and it was only 2020 when the curriculum guidelines for Relationships and Sex Education were created and slapped on as an addition to the TKI – from the Ministry of Education.
For those unaware, the TKI guidelines set out the curriculum for all primary and secondary students in NZ. They specify what learning outcomes are needed, to meet curriculum requirements. Curriculum resources can therefore be created by teachers, schools or purchased from third-party organisations.
https://hpe.tki.org.nz/guidelines-and-policies/relationships-and-sexuality-education/
Guidelines can be found here on this page for both primary and secondary students as a pdf download.
There is a lot to unpick – and justifiably critique in these documents – but the one relevant to this point can be found in both documents (Pg 30 of Yrs 1-8 guide):
This means that every child within the NZ education system is introduced to the idea – (and due to the diversity of curriculum that can be taught we have no idea how) – that puberty is something that can reasonably be avoided, and puberty blockers are the method to do so.
Our Ministry of Health follows "gender affirming health care" for transgender NZers, including children. (Without getting into details, note that "gender affirming healthcare" is a pre-determined diagnosis and treatment, not equal to quality healthcare).
https://www.health.govt.nz/your-health/healthy-living/transgender-new-zealanders/transgender-new-zealanders-children-and-young-people
Late to the party, and staying for the hangover. NZ education normalises the idea of delayed puberty, while offering – without reserve – off-label medications that have no robust clinical evidence of benefit.
In fact, the countries above, that have reviewed evidence have found that the net result is harm.
If this bothers you, write to both the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health, asking them what evidential base did they use as reference for these TKI outcomes, and medical response.
If your concern is for high-quality appropriate care for transgender youth, then you should be bothered. The likelihood of iatrogenic harm from the current approach is high, and the evidence of that occurring is starting to accumulate and be collected.
It appears that Norway has now reviewed and found evidence of harm, and ordered immediate cessation of use of puberty blockers.
Unfortunately, the only evidence I have of this is a Tweet but will post an English language link when it becomes available.
https://twitter.com/saeterjenta/status/1517210417499672577
But where else would failing male athletes retire to to earn a little extra crust for the old days.
And who else would tell the little dears just how to shut up, and suck up then some blokes in suits with fancy titles. Privilege, it is +/-8 inches uncut with a suit and he/him and she/her pronouns.
If we just stopped insisting on being female the problems would go away.
fucking neoliberals. The hierarchy of oppression sans class analysis is a tool of the patriarchy. And liberals bought into it for the odd seat at the table. But they will never let us have shared power, because then we would dismantle neoliberalism and the whole damned hierarchical structure.
If this is neo liberalism then every party in our government without exception is neo liberal. As they all voted for Self ID in NZ. There are the parties who spearheaded the law, who mocked people in open hearings for not wanting to have Self ID and they should be carrying and in the end will be carrying the responsibility for the misery that will be caused via the many many children de-sexed for gender ideology and conformity, but the opposition parties had no issues going along with it and are thus guilty by association and enabling of harm.
Sexism on the right : own gestational carriers privately.
Sexism on the left: own gestational carriers publicly.
same shit to the gestational carriers. – owned, without agency.
yes, our government is neoliberal.
Hi Sabine, Slightly off topic but understand you are based in Rotorua, so just wanted to post this article on Tamati Coffeys latest piece of legislation
"The Rotorua District Councils Representation Arrangement Bill. Do the people of Rotorua know about this?
https://theplatform.kiwi/opinions/ardern-struggles-to-defend-unequal-suffrage
Yes, i know about it, but not thanks to the news or Labour. Thanks to Winston Peters, thanks to the Hologram, thanks to some Nationalistas.
Submission period increased thanks to some National MPs that complained about the short submission period.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/public-submissions-on-rotorua-maori-wards-bill-extended-after-concerns-about-rushed-process/SQOH7543B5L2OWK5P42EAXRUNU/
Remove the protected category of sex and you are there. We are then all they/thems and that includes the men.
Case in point those that want to remove 'sex attraction' i.e. homosexual, heterosexual, bi-sexual cause bigottry to replace it with 'gender attraction' either same or opposite. Unisex people fucking everything and everyone, and thus yhou can't discriminate. Unless of course they need kids, and then they damn well know who the gestational carrier is going to be. The human dairy cow. Money is to be made.
not to worry, some progressive men think we will be liberated once science figures out how to do uterus implants into men.
sorry for all the sarcasm, just fucked off I can't write posts about this.
First they need to figure out which organs to remove to make space for the expanding uterus unless they carry it in a pouch something like a colonosty bag. Never mind the placenta and stuff.
But for what its worth, they probably have no issues with a few hundreds / thousands of men dying trying to carry a pregnancy to term or even just carry it for a month or so before their bodies give up.
Until that day is achieved they now what a gestational carrier is, a women/female by sex and not ideology to exploit by the many for the good of a few.
Weka, I just wanted to say I have enjoyed the thoughtful and fair contributions you have made to this debate.
As an old, pale stale male, I haven't felt it is an appropriate topic for me to comment on, as the issues are something I don't have any personal experience with at all. So, I have stayed on the sidelines with this one.
thanks 👍 I think reading and listening is not a bad approach for people that aren't particularly involved. It's a complex set of issues and dynamics.
Still obsessing with terf bullshit? I think you need to get a new hobby before you ruin your life a la Linehan.
[permanent ban for blatant trolling and misogyny. – weka]
Receipts for the misogyny, the word terf used in the way you just used it is a slur.
https://terfisaslur.com/
“Luxon said the government has been blaming international factors for adversely affecting inflation but Singapore is at 2 percent, Australia is at 3.5 and Japan is at 1 percent while dealing with the same challenges.”
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/465554/high-government-spending-fuelling-inflation-rate-luxon
Some current inflation rates:
USA 8.5
UK 7.0
Euro Area 7.5 (Spain 9.8 Germany 7.3 Holland 9.7)
Canada 6.7
NZ 6.9
Singapore 4.3 (not 2% per Luxon)
https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/inflation-rate-?continent=g20
Luxon talking rubbish/lying again and again and again………..
So, can we say that
When Luxon selects inflation rates that suit his argument he is "talking rubbish/lying again and again and again……….."
And to be consistent we should say that when Bearded Git selects inflation rates that suit his argument he is "talking rubbish/lying again and again and again……….."
You can’t think of an economist that thinks competition lowers prices, so economics is well outside of your area of expertise.
You are either deliberately misquoting what I said or you simply don't understand it. I suspect the latter.
What I said is "There is nothing at all in the theory that says that small is always more efficient than large". I have highlighted the critical part of that statement.
You were claiming that it was always the case. You must try harder.
You and your strawmen. You are an bad faith commenter and anyone can read any thread you 'contribute' to and see that amply demonstrated.
Please stop trying.
Owlwyn’s a hoot – next he'll be demanding his own fact-checker
https://www.netsafe.org.nz/how-to-spot-fake-news/
Paraphrasing ≠ quoting.
Alright. For your benefit I shall reword it.
His attempt at paraphrasing what I say is a false representation of what was said.
In that case, your characterisation of Arkie's comment is equally false.
Whatever the economies of scale save in "production" duopoly power hands directly over as profits rather than lower prices. Basic economic theory suggests increasing competition will force "producers" to redirect those savings towards consumers, while possibly diminishing those scale-based savings (depending on thresholds for efficiencies in production rather than a straight line relationship between units "produced" and the per-unit cost of that production).
Maybe, maybe not.
The basic theory would have a great deal of trouble explaining the fact that a company like Amazon exists, and undercuts every one it competes with.
Nope. Because basic economic theory isn't just one chart of supply vs demand, or economies of scale, or monopoly vs competition.
But keep arguing the supposed advantages of having a duopoly supply the bulk of groceries to a country's population. Really nails your flag to the mast.
We were discussing competition within NZ and the existing supermarket duopoly, not Amazon. The Publisher of your textbook is rescinding the deal and wants your advance payment back, all three lollies.
Fail.
This started off when arkie proposed " It would be fantastic to imagine supermarket buildings being repurposed, housing multiple individual businesses and stalls" and I suggested that Supermarkets supplied a superior service, at a lower price, than did hordes on little speciality shops.
.https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15-04-2022/#comment-1883202
So, you were discussing Amazon, but failed to mention this to us?? No wonder you made no sense because arkie was talking about the supermarket duopoly in NZ and started their comment as follows:
Well, this is what you wrote in your comment here (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15-04-2022/#comment-1883360):
First you quoted arkie:
Then you gave this answer:
Looks quite clear to me that you think that competition is not good for lowering consumer price and that economy of scale and less competition thanks to the duopoly is preferable for consumers.
Let us know when your economic textbook comes out: Economics-101 by a Dummy.
Oh dear. You are a fan of the selective quote are you.
If you are going to quote what I say quote it in full. Otherwise I will start assuming that you are a politician.
The full context of those comments includes a lot more than you are quoting, but you know that and just pretend it isn't there.
I would suggest that you and arkie would both benefit from reading Economics for Dummies. It is not the best of introductory works but it will certainly teach you more about the subject than you know now.
Arkie and I both have your textbook on pre-order as colouring-in book for the pre-schoolers in our extended families.
I was pretending not linking to the comment and arkie also pretended not linking to the same comment. However, none of us is as pretentious as you: less competition is good!
Alwyn,
I chose major G20 countries to compare with NZ which seemed reasonable to me as they would tend to be trading in similar markets to NZ. I didn't contradict Luxon's 3.5% figure for Australia-it would be interesting to know why this is so low (it is forecast to rise to 4.5% by 30/6).
I did find it odd that Luxon got Singapore's inflation rate badly wrong.
I did find it odd that Luxon got Singapore's inflation rate badly wrong.
Well, politicians do make mistakes. (Singapore's core inflation is 2.2%.) But the fact remains that prices in NZ have been increasing at a faster rate for some time, and we can't blame Russia.
Singapore's core inflation eases to 2.2% in February – CNA (channelnewsasia.com)
The three B’s: Binary Blaming Bigot.
As you know, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has been brewing for many years and had been escalating before the actual invasion on 24 Feb and this sent jitters through the global economy before the invasion. This may be too hard to understand for a linear reductionist.
Does that mean that when Robertson says "Robertson has pointed to global issues, such as the war in Ukraine ……." he is fantasizing?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/inflation-highest-in-30-years-grant-robertson-blames-global-pressures-christopher-luxon-says-government-addicted-to-spending/77P46GHLMPMQ272WY66EKBJU4U/
Only when Robertson refers to himself in the third person.
Of course, Adrian Orr and Shamubeel Eaqub are also fantasizing (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21-04-2022/#comment-1883994). Yeah, right!
this sent jitters through the global economy before the invasion.
It did? In 2021, the Reserve Bank reviewed the Official Cash Rate (OCR) on seven occasions. You won't find any mention of conflict in Europe, Asia, or Africa (or anywhere else) during the bank's deliberations, though you will find a lot of discussion about inflation.
It's worth noting that the inflation rate for non-tradable goods and services is 6%. Again, it’s difficult to see how Russia can be blamed for a rise in the price of items that aren't subject to much, if any, foreign competition.
“Non-tradable goods and services by definition have relatively little exposure to international competition. Consequently, their prices are more likely to be influenced by developments in the domestic economy, particularly the extent of spare capacity in both production and the labour market.”
Is it a coincidence that at the same time as Government spending has skyrocketed, inflation has surged? It seems not.
The fact checkers agree.
https://thenationaldesk.com/news/fact-check-team/fact-check-team-a-closer-look-at-rising-inflation-in-the-us-russia-ukraine-military-attack-war-money-prices-gas-oil-food
https://www.wsj.com/articles/it-isnt-vladimir-putins-inflation-white-house-joe-biden-consumer-price-index-energy-wages-11649792567
https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2014/sep/pdf/bu-0914-4.pdf
The government pandemic response of spending to maintain incomes and thus demand and easy monetary policy is an OECD one – and in the US began under Trump.
Yes, it did.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/21/business/economy/ukraine-russia-economy.html
The point is that the Russia-Ukraine conflict is just one of many factors affecting inflation in NZ, most of which are completely beyond the control of NZ Government.
I have no idea what or which conflicts “in Europe, Asia, or Africa (or anywhere else)” you had in mind, but this is a distraction anyway, as the RBNZ is not commonly commenting on specific international conflicts. The notable exception is, of course, the Russian invasion of Ukraine (https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/news/2022/04/monetary-tightening-brought-forward).
The Russian invasion is not blamed for the rise in costs of non-tradeable items by 6% (mainly housing) nor is it singularly blamed for rise in tradeable items (mainly driven by overseas imports such as petrol) by 8.5%. That’s another of your strawmen.
The inflation in the US is not useful here nor is quoting from a RBA Bulleting from 2014. You know your argument is weak when you have to resort to desperate diversions.
The main part of the cost increases was Housing costs.
https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/annual-inflation-reaches-30-year-high-of-6-9-percent
Constraining immigration,and enforcing RMA requirements for short term residential accommodation,are quick ,efficient,and cheap ways to reduce housing constraints.
Can you suggest a better way of reducing immigration than the one we followed for the last couple of years?
Here is a sample figure for the year ended August 2021. The net gain dropped from 72,500 to 2,400. What change on that would you try for?
https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/international-migration-august-2021-infoshare-tables#:~:text=migrant%20arrivals%3A%2048%2C000%20(%C2%B1%20600,%C2%B1%20500)%2C%20down%2033%20percent
"Year ended August 2021 (compared with year ended August 2020) provisional estimates were:
Up to the border close in the 2 previous years we had net inflow of 120000,which required 46000 housing units (@2.76pp).Still playing catchup.
Finance Minister looking in to claims government spending may have contributed to runaway inflation.
This picture just encapsulates the pressures that MPs, and all public figures, are under when not only does the technology exist to excerpt a demeaning still shot from a film, but then allows the ability to distribute the same extremely widely; especially when the original was not produced for this purpose.
I'm just glad I got out of the public eye before this crap became prevalent.
It always has been there, though, for political purposes. Who remembers Hitler's 'jig' purportedly captured when attending the 1940 capitulation of France signing?
https://www.professorbuzzkill.com/hitler-jig-myth/
You have to have a sense of humor about these things. Like being hit in the face with a dildo.
Not condoning that thwack, but pity the dildo – oh to be a fly on those eyebrows.
I really appreciate being told I have to have a sense of humour. I've got one, some would say far too often displayed. But I've also got a sense of propriety, of fairness, of appreciation of the travails of public life.
I don't want my political representatives to be so 'thick-skinned' that they are not sensitive to what we need them to be aware of, lke poverty and injustice; nor so ill-attuned like Boris Johnson, or Chris Luxon.
At least, I believe that can't be said of Grant Robertson, though some will of course disagree, who is the brunt of this belittling concoction.
It's a cartoon but without the skill, the wit, the political incision of a good cartoonist.
Luxon talking rubbish/lying again and again and again………..
Yeah I'm sure that will go down a treat with those visiting their local foodbank.
Meanwhile, this graph clearly shows inflation increased significantly throughout 2021 in New Zealand. That date is important as it's a year that Ukraine wasn't invaded by Russia. Bugger.
Inflation – Reserve Bank of New Zealand (rbnz.govt.nz)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/465494/reserve-bank-not-in-a-good-place-admits-governor
Ouch!
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2022/04/leading-economist-shamubeel-eaqub-warns-inflation-caused-by-government-spending-will-come-in-year-or-so.html
Double ouch!
This narrative about spending and govt spending lead inflation in NZ is based on the idea that NZ wages were raised significantly. Instead we have a cost of living crisis because what actually happened was that many industries have been disrupted and have raised their prices, but this has not been passed on to the median wage. Of course if you take economics seriously you to some extent need the idea of demand side inflation to actually manifest in the wage data. On the other hand if you just use economics to assign blame in your massively simplified narrative that inflation must be the govt fault then all the data lining up is beside the point.
Cutting government spending or raising interest rates isn't going to change a lot of the drivers of inflation, though it may eventually generate a recession which could certainly impact prices. Its worth highlighting that most NZers have recently received real wage cuts as their wages went up less than the inflation rate in recent history. Seems like self inflicted austerity probably isn't the best policy solution at present, but my following of the last 14 year economic history of Europe suggests its likely to be tried first.
Ross we were invaded by covid… remember that? Wuhan covid 19, followed by Delta, then Omicron.
All that support by the Government for workers and business and Health,……Health systems vaccines and millions to the food charities……..
now the pain plus Ukraine/Russia effects.
Also the cumulative effects of climate change floods and fires during droughts. Much dearer fruits and vegetables, replacing of roads and bridges, facing the rising seas around our coasts, the creep of housing onto food growing areas…..
All of that. A pandemic world wide has stressed a shaky system.
So, if the Government said “here is your help, but you have to pay for it.’ How many would have died?
Some Business model Charities took money for their workers, but have contributed little to relief for their supposed target "market" Look up the list.!!
Some play the religion card for tax… An absolute rort!!
Some tax laws need to be enforced.
Our son on the Gold Coast tells of properties rising by 25 to 30%, food costs and petrol costs starting to bite. It appears their property cycle is 3to 4 months behind ours. So watch their inflation.
What I find very interesting is that the motor spirit price in New Zealand has remained pretty well constant in New Zealand since the cut in tax on 15 March.
Meanwhile in Australia the price has dropped by about 47 cents/litre in the same time period. That might stop biting your son quite so much.
Anyone have any idea on why this might have happened? Both countries import most of their fuel so it can't be local production.
https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/New-Zealand/gasoline_prices/
https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/Australia/gasoline_prices/
It is sad sight seeing you drooling over your cherry-picked data.
This might perk you up: https://www.mbie.govt.nz/building-and-energy/energy-and-natural-resources/energy-statistics-and-modelling/energy-statistics/weekly-fuel-price-monitoring/
Even you might be able to spot the sudden drop in fuel prices around 15 March 2022.
"Even you might be able …"
You didn't even get to the end of the first sentence I wrote did you? If you had you might have noticed the last few words "since the cut in tax on 15 March".
I was talking about why Australia had shown very a marked drop since them but we hadn't.
According to your own link, over the period from 10-Jan-2022 to 18-Apr-2022 shown in the graph there was no such drop by about 47 cents/litre in Australia!? It appears you cherry-picked the maximum on 21 March, i.e. apples & oranges.
The Ozzies got a fuel tax cut of 22 cents/litre on 29 March.
Any more diversion trolling from you? Try a different country.
I hadn't realised that the 22cent cut in the budget had taken effect immediately. That accounts for a decent chunk of the 47 cents in the time period.
On the other hand can you tell us why Australia, after a 22c cut is now back to about the same price as it was at the start of the year while we, after a 28.5c cut are still about 25c above the price at the beginning of the year?
Competition
There is a Marsden Point factor.
I suppose so. It totally closed on 1 April, didn't it. On the other hand I believe Australia is down to just 2 refineries and that about 90% of its oil supply is imported refined product. Could the 2 refineries make that much difference?
If so I might have to reconsider my views on keeping Marsden Point going.
The fuel price at the pump in rural areas of Darwin NT $1.959 for ULP and filling up the ute tomorrow prior to heading out to my bush block.
An outstation in WA was charging 2lt bottle of milk at $9.50
Oh come on Bearded Git (5) the man of seven houses was probably being facetious (again) …
Must be Ramadan.
/
https://twitter.com/Timesofgaza/status/1516910324724736000
The usual caveats about institutional bias etc etc. But an interesting read.
https://samf.substack.com/p/absolute-ends-with-limited-means?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo0ODA3MDgsIl8iOiI3RjZZOCIsImlhdCI6MTY1MDUwNTIzMCwiZXhwIjoxNjUwNTA4ODMwLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItNjMxNDIyIiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.t2ifv0YBA5xZiUIUnJXZgzZDLiXfBnNKpnK2b6RodG4
“It is 50 years since I read Hannah Arendt’s essay on ‘Lying in Politics’. The essay was prompted by the unauthorised release of the Pentagon Papers, a classified documentary history of US policy-making in the Vietnam War. What shocked many at the time was the evidence that while Lyndon Johnson’s administration continued to tell the American people that its strategy was working, despite the accumulating casualties, top officials knew it was failing. Much of the commentary surrounding the release of the papers, including Arendt’s, turned on the role of deception and self-deception.
One passage in this essay stuck with me and influenced my subsequent efforts to understand how political leaders end up making such poor choices about military power. This is the passage.
I recalled the passage when considering how Vladimir Putin came to decide on his calamitous war against Ukraine. The key insight was that someone so powerful could also be so badly informed. That was the case with Lyndon Johnson in the mid-1960s. Could it also be the case for Putin in 2022?”
The dreams of Russia are focused far in the past.
The legacy of ancient Rome has always constituted an important component of the Russian cultural consciousness. The revitalization of classical scholarship in nineteenth-century Russia and new approaches to antiquity prompted many of the Russian Symbolists to seek their inspiration in ancient Rome.
The Russkiy Mir, like the Pax Romana that inspired it, is not attractive to the peoples bordering that unhappy state as it staggers towards oblivion without Gibbons' culprit playing much of a role.
VP doesnt come across as a gullible fool to me in fact when you hear him speaking in interviews and giving speeches he seems way more on to it than most of his western counterparts imo . The question could be if all power bases were snake pits whose would be the dirtiest ? Id argue america's by a comfortable margin .
An important challenge for the left is to expose the emptiness of what Luxon seems committed to spitting out at every opportunity – bullshit like this – and whatever's next, which is likely to be tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/128415159/inflation-a-real-worry-and-govt-is-to-blame–nationals-christopher-luxon
Luxon's no Key, and his bullshit is easier to see, but unfortunately it's still not obvious enough for most people. That's a big problem.
Does Boris Johnson know that the UK's 7% inflation is due to the Tory governments over spending?
Does Christopher Luxon know that cutting government spending and handing out the money via tax cuts does not reduce inflationary demand in the economy?
Economy for beginners.
1. Treasury warns pandemic will cause recession
2. Orr QE's money for government response (good, helps government finance prevention of any recession) and to enable more bank lending on property (bad, gets rid of deposit criteria for buying up existing property rather than targeted funds to new building – and so boom in property values)
3. Responding to supply shortage inflation, as if it was demand led (whether public or private sector spending) inflation and so resorting to interest rate rises or demand restraint (causing a recession/unemployment) is not smart.
OMG I've seen it all now – Dancing Kiwifruit! lol
https://twitter.com/henrycooke/status/1516940545327009793?cxt=HHwWgsDU2fHYoI0qAAAA
With no effectual response to global warming, we're going to see more of this: Thousand tonnes of dead fish poses problem for King Salmon | RNZ News
Salmon is the rising star of the NZ aquaculture scene – its feed conversion ratio runs between 1 & 1.1 kg of feed per kg of grown fish, and the adult fish retail at $30+ a kilo – yielding a profit margin that would make John Key blush. But the moment your water temperature creeps over 18 degrees, fish live or die on a coin toss.
So – here is a litmus test of whether the cohort of managers formed in the post-Brierly period can manage for a sustainable future, or whether they will take no effectual action and let their industry die as global warming pushes through the 2 degree line and heads for 4, which will end salmon farming that has made no provision for temperature moderation.
Throwing a thousand tonnes of dead fish into landfill is pretty lame too. Composting them has been done since the 1950s, and recycling them using Black Soldier Flies is also well established. Unlike other flies, the BSF do not feed as adults, so they are not a plague vector if they are used to process putrescible waste.
Watch this space as our aquaculture industries decline to develop temperature moderation, and fail to compost or otherwise gainfully repurpose this high fertility resource. And when NZ's productivity continues to languish at 1970 levels, you'll know why.
How are the salmon farmers supposed to effect 'temperature moderation ' stuart ? I thought they were aiming to shift their operations into more open areas of the ocean in order to do just that or are you implying that some artificial device exists to bring temps down inside the nets ?
I dont buy farmed salmon i find the industry repugnant .To keep what are normally wild migrating fish in a cage feeding them food they wouldnt ordinarily eat and polluting the area around the ' farm ' in the process is i think anti nature and deserves to fail .I hope it does .
If i remember correctly king salmon applied a year or so ago to get gov money to develope some kind of composting ability did nothing come of that ?
How are the salmon farmers supposed to effect 'temperature moderation
This is a matter each must determine according to their locale. Trout farmers in Jordan have used evaporative cooling – spray jets rather like those used by NZ dairy irrigators. But their situation is recirculating raceways, not sea cages, which are harder to cool because the water moves through them. It may be that sea cages must be abandoned in most areas, and farming transitioned to onshore tanks which can be kept at the optimal 13 degrees. My concern is that farming should not proceed without adapting, praying for cool seasons that will become increasingly rare, on the basis that sea cages have exceptionally low capital costs. The industry is profitable enough to support a greater level of capital investment.
A Dunedin company was composting factory fish offal with bark for decades, and very popular their product proved, especially with rose growers. But given that:
trucks from Havelock and Picton made 160 trips to the Bluegums Landfill in Blenheim, dumping 1269 tonnes of dead fish (RNZ link above)
It would seem that composting efforts fell a bit short of requirements in this instance. Composting fish typically calls for 4 or 5 parts of cellulose material (wood chip or sawdust or straw) to 1 part of fish – so it isn’t hard to imagine an excess mortality on the farms might meet a shortfall of organic matter – which is one of the advantages of BSF.
A seriously disconcerting story from the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/apr/20/dentists-would-not-treat-my-toothache-now-my-health-has-been-wrecked-for-ever
It's a longish read, so I'll sum it up. The writer developed a severe toothache – intermittent at first, then constant; one tooth to begin with, then several; infection confined to mouth only, then started to wreak havoc through much of her body. Dentists' investigations revealed no evidence of any dental disorder, so insisted that the pain must have other causes, and refused to touch it. The main motive for withholding treatment seems to have been fear of proceedings against them should anything go wrong.
Could this culture of fear in the medical profession spread to NZ? One would like to think not, but a recent personal straw in the wind suggests we shouldn't get complacent. Obtrectatrix uses a wheelchair and asked a well-known handyman franchise to make a couple of ramps so that she could get out on to the deck in it. They refused point-blank. "That's medical – we're not touching that." A couple of bloody ramps, not a series of brain-surgeries! What had they to worry about, for the love of Pete?
Marvelous beasties.
https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1516519608341221379
Thats so cool thanks for that joe , do you reckon thats a juvinile elephant or a particular sort thats just natrually small ?
Straight out of Edgar Allan's story.
https://twitter.com/VICENews/status/1516523515276636163