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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Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
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 ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
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. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
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. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
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 Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
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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