Simon Bridges works tirelessly in front of the camera. His face is the most known in the length and breadth of Aotearoa. Forever portraying Himself. Bits and Pieces.
While his unsteady assistant Paula, plays bowls from time to time, blatantly releasing highly private material. Her Face is likely well known too.
Which is why I hope Simon Bridges – New Zealand's most known man – gets confirmed in the role he chooses this coming Friday.
We will miss him like heck – if he throws in his Towel. Camera tossed from the Sky Tower. And all that.
Two Faces National. These two are the Only persons known in the National paddock.
And God forbid, if David Seymore's strange dancing ass gets accepted. Bodies all over the place. Endless Bodies. Endless bodies and big money everywhere. No Thanks
Fascinating interview with Hooten on RNZ – he is knifing Bridges hard and talking up Todd Muller (who?).
The National party chickens are coming home to roost, with the number of fundies who have won seats meaning the social conservatives and liberal are now split into two factions – in one corner we have the Evangelical wing & the culture warriors coalesced around Bridges and his happy clappy brother in law, in the other the pragmatic, power at all costs brigade with Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye (likely to lose her seat on this polling).
Well, Michelle Boag, the wicked witch of Waiheke, is also putting the boot into Bridges on RNZ and pushing Muller just now. She is more grandiloquent than connected these days, but she probably represents a strand of National party grandee thinking.
Simon might be in front today, but the push to persuade the wavering MPs is clearly on and if tonight poll is equally bad for National then it may be Simon loses, or worse wins on his own vote only.
So – with Todd Muller – working on placing the Farmers as the Government of New Zealand, the Cities and Towns will turn their backs on Mr and Mrs Gum boots.
Don't do it Todd Boy. Cities and Industries, And multiple essential things are required in a Nation.
It’s quite something isn’t it, the way National Party commentators are practically willing the country into an historic recession so they can say “I told you so”.
As for the Nats losing ground. Colmar Brunton that’s due tonight was apparently polling up until yesterday evening so may capture some of the public sentiment developing as the proverbial hit the fan for the Nats.
Oz was doing really well until there was an outbreak in a meatworks in Victoria. Now they are back to where they were 30 days ago.
Meatworks have been hit particularly hard in Canada and the USA as well.
From what I heard they have been doing social distancing in NZ in meatworks and running double shifts. But that's led to problems with drought stricken farmers trying to get rid of stock and finding it hard to book in.
dunno about Canada, but US workers were told to come in even if ill.
There might also be stats on how centralised the US meat industry is comapred to NZ, but I don't know where. A farmer rep on the Daily Show was saying part of the problem is over the past few decades smaller regional plants have shut down in favour of a few larger facilities. If one in five plants goes down to 30% capacity, that's a major hit. If 2 in 15 go down to 30%, not so bad. And the ones at 100% are closer.
An AMAZING person who can nail her comments – I hope she goes far in the future, a real gem. I wouldn't be surprised if these same essential workers are the same that I see receiving handouts at Christmas time
But don't worry something is happening within National that is FAR MORE IMPORTANT !!
South Auckland cry: 'NZ wants to rebuild, but it's on our backs'
Kiwiblog's best commenter is theorising the National Party leadership challenge is a set up to make Simon look strong. They're all in on it, apparently.
Wouldn't like to be the National Party if this is true and the public find out…
Kiwiblog is ridiculous and irrelevant these days, Farrar has turned it into a platform for a parade of has-been detritus defending 1980s neoliberalism and the comments have re-housed all the wing nuts from whaleoil.
Farrar himself just wants to keep the money coming in to Curia, so he’ll hunt with the hares and run with the hounds.
Sometimes I go there, it is the modern day equivalent of the gruesome pleasure of a 18th Century tourist’ visiting Bedlam. A guilty pleasure, as it were.
The technicolour pustulence can be appealing when you're passing through. I do worry about some of the locals. The promoter always seems to be rolling in cash, villagers scrabbling at his hem.
For the public to find out there'd have to be a leaker and that's unlikely to happen isn't it? Chuckle chuckle.
Mind you if you're 'Kiwiblog's best commenter' you'd probably be quite good at playing the Kiwiblog/Farrar bullshit game and floating bullshit to create a picture you want painted.
The funny thing is that while I think Bridges is a twerp and an embarrassment to National there are other perspectives. I think for a supposed intelligent person he is dumb. He may not have got in a position to do something terrible, his Strike Force Raptor troops sorting the people were words, all piss and wind, he didn't get a chance to unleash them. On Thursday morning he's a political pariah. Did he perpetrate any evil?
John Key, 'Sir' John Key is a hero. His words about the GCSB may have been all piss and wind when it came to their relationship to truth and deed, but he had to chance to, and did what went on.
Line them up. One is like shandy made with non-alcoholic beer and one is Sunset Very Strong Rum with its 84.5% of alcohol.
If David Cormack is to be believed Simon Bridges had a evangelical conversion to a full on God botherer a couple of years ago. If that is true, it would explain his near fanatical conviction that he must – MUST! – bring down these Godless socialists.
Yes he is. The quiet infiltration of hard core evangelicals into National is something our ultra media opinionistas seem determined not to discuss, but it is clearly fuelling this split in National.
If the tory christians lose this caucus tussle, maybe the fortunes of minor parties of that space get a boost. Be interesting to hear how it plays out in the Nat party hierarchy beyond caucus, where the real power resides.
Nah the main groomers and child abusers these days are in schools teaching kids all about anal sex, trans delusions, and how it's wrong to judge people. Instead of showing kids how to be safe from predators
[Nice slur on teachers. Next time you try to make a concise point you could perhaps leave the denigration of a large professional group out of it, yes? As it stands, you come across as a disturbed troll with unresolved issues – Incognito]
Matthew 21:12-13 Jesus throws the moneylenders out of the temple
Luke 4:18-19 Jesus proclaims good news to the poor and oppressed
Matthew 25:37-40 Jesus warns of judgement against those who fail to care for the vulnerable and poor
etc etc
SiBri may have had a conversion to something but it wasn't the Way that Jesus preached. How easily those who dabble in church and don't bother to do the homework fall into relying on religious rules, rather than humbling themselves
The funniest 5 minutes on TV in ages was the Voxpop on the Bridges debacle last night. Still laughing on the classic Nat party garden party attender whose opinion of Jacinda was she wished she was leading the Nat party but when shown photos of Muller and Kaye replied " Amy someone" and "Simon Joyce ". Go Team.
Loved that moment too. A reminder to us lefties that a lot of National's support is based on cultural taxonomies and hierarchies. National represent the right sort of people who pay their bills and mow their lawns. Formal ideology, or any actual knowledge of what is happening in the world, come in second. It's quite sobering really, because it's so resistant to any form of persuasion, and insulting it just strengthens the underlying prejudice that the left is uncouth and unpleasant.
A Well summarised and analysed I think. Why it is very hard to move intelligent and efficacious policy in NZ. The myopic citizens of the comfortably-off (never rich) who surprisingly tend to be right-wing Gnats, don't want to see reality. That is as uncouth as it was to the lords and ladies of the Regency era in the light novels I read for stress-relief. That was then says my mind but – it parallels what I see with eyes wide open now, comes in an urgent whisper from the sidelines.
After some years as a tradesman, I found someone having a flash house and right wing views, was a fairly good indication that I needed to get a big deposit, up front.
transmission gully is in the shit. government has been talking about throwing everything at it. looks like the company is about to walk away from it as it would cost less than staying.
also, someone just took a 50ton digger to ripping parts of it up.
covid, everyone left and went back to australia. trucks, utes were found at wellington airport with the keys still in them.
Someone should ask Simon Bridges about that. When he gets a breather from the Nats infighting. That project has been heading for disaster even while he was the Transport Minister trying to persuade everybody it was on time and under budget.
What harsh winters? What a load of bollocks. That project was a dog from the start. National happily awarded the PPP to an Australian company who didn’t really have a clue what road building in NZ’s tricky geological conditions would require. So far the project has needed about 50% more earthworks than originally specced. They were bringing workers in from Australia, who’ve all gone home because of Covid. The ripping up the tarmac that you’ve mentioned is probably the latest effort at relaying work due to mistakes by the building consortium.
different weather up there mate. go read the reports on the slosh and frozen soil. the last winter or the one before where it rained so much no work could be done for months. same reason kapati express way keeps having issues, drainage to do with how the roads were laid. that was the fault of the contractors though, who are actually being contracted to fix it 😀
Last two winters down south have been bloody odd. There's a hole at the bottom of my road that the council has been meaning to fix for 12 months. Some of that is other reasons but the weather has definitely been an issue. Too much rain.
The sales pitch for PPPs like Transmission Gully was that the private parties would finance all the upfront costs and build it and wear the risks, and would then make their money by getting paid an ongoing annual fixed fee starting from when it was opened and operating.
So if the company is about to just walk away, then it looks to me like the PPP model says we should get all the work done so far for free, and the government could then just go ahead and complete the job and get it done at reduced cost with the bonus of not having to pay the annual operating fees.
Or did the National government lie about what PPPs really are and pull a bait and switch on us all when they signed up to the project?
There were always a couple of vehicles used by The Transmission gully workers around our way at night – must have accommodation in the area. Vehicles were there post lockdown but haven't seen them just recently. The plot thickens
Just browsing through the Health website and looked at the workforce tab. Asking both employees and organisations to register their needs.
My questions are:
– When and how and where the contracts to the agencies below awarded- what fees if any do they receive from public money or does the employer pay as usual and why was the decision made to use these two firms?
Beyond has been around a fair while and has always looked to be a mid – upper level agency but the Accent Health if I have the right one looks like it specialised pretty much in the recruitment of overseas health workers and getting visas. Not an obvious choice?
– while there may be a need to allocate available trained staff across the public health system – is this also being used to allocate people to by the private for profit healthcare sector in particular the aged care and outsourced care giving contracts? If it is being used by for profit providers why are they not being advised to advertise over the usual websites and for that matter be required to pay decent wages and have decent conditions of work?
-should public money be used to enhance private contracts
– Is the contract tracing outsourced and if so are they accessing the app data?
Accent Health Recruitment is matching health workers to roles by considering the qualifications and skill sets required, the location where the worker is needed, and the hours they would need to work. Beyond Recruitment is assisting with additional screening questions and reference checks to help determine suitability.
Matthew Paris from UK on Radionz this morning gave me a hollow laugh. Their private company Serco, the efficient operator of all things, has been given the government contract to be part of the Covid-19 tracing system.
Lots of people signing up for it, it would probably have ended up looking like running a bounty-hunter system like in the old USofA. And ballsed up right at the start, they sent one of the applicants a file with addresses of all the other applicants and Matthew Paris says, they now all know those contacts.
How the UK thought that their contracting out was going to be better for this delicate and important task than direct control I don't know. But under present political strictures from the USA's Milton Friedman et al it seems that UK gummint and others of similar mien (mean!), is set at being nothing but an expensive employment agency for ambitious nouveau riche jerks after perks.
Yeah , I have always thought a 4 day working week was the right balance in life, particularly if working for someone else! Bring it on Jacinda – it won,t make any difference to me , as self -employed I work any ,or all, seven days of the week I want to, or need to.
I recall my father once telling me a three day weekend would be perfect, "One day for the house, one day for the family and one for himself". And then he said, "Guess which one misses out at the moment".
Data manipulation in Florida and Georgia by Republican administrations to support re-opening of the state. Listen from 1m19s through to about 2m22s. Amazing. And so delusional to believe they could get away with it – at least when Stalin always reported exceeding his 5-year plans for steel production, there was no public information eco-system that allowed people to check.
Poor old Mike. Yesterday he claimed National could still win but today has conceded defeat.
Still claiming National won the election in 2017, etc. And on the Labour led government which has gained plaudits all over the world for its pandemic response he has this to say:
As opposed to a circus of a panicked, self-absorbed, spineless, self-interested former government that gave up at the first sign of trouble.
Try reading that bit you quoted again, in context! He's actually putting the boot into the Nats. And that's after a moment of honesty: "I have no idea." 🙃
"Unfortunately, for the last half-century, the prevailing political message in many countries has been that governments cannot – and therefore should not – actually govern. Politicians, business leaders, and pundits have long relied on a management creed that focuses obsessively on static measures of efficiency to justify spending cuts, privatization, and outsourcing.
As a result, governments now have fewer options for responding to the crisis, which may be why some are now desperately clinging to the unrealistic hope of technological panaceas such as artificial intelligence or contact-tracing apps. With less investment in public capacity has come a loss of institutional memory (as the UK’s government has discovered) and increased dependence on private consulting firms, which have raked in billions. Not surprisingly, morale among public-sector employees has plunged in recent year"
I thought this was an excellent extract to pass on pat. I have quoted it and you in a comment on TDB in Waatea News today. More people should read this summation I believe, and perhaps we could see more clearly.
Imagine if it seeded here. A Scott Base lab's popular Emperor Penguin turns ill. They pop it on a flight to the Christchurch vet school. Prof + 20 students develop a weird cough. As soon as they twigged I'd hope our Government would slam down on the region/city and secure it tightly. Stop all domestic movement. Aircraft, cars, buses, taxis trains, bikes, pedestrians, insist everyone locks down hard. With the exception of departing international flights. There will be lots of people not feeling well that need to get home to all points on the globe. I think we should follow WHO guidelines and halt all domestic movement but allow taxi, bus and Uber movement to the departure terminal of the Christchurch international airport.
You'd think someone would have had a little tinkle, even if not a full on leak, but yeah, waiting for the likely discrepancies between polls for the line to be reported as national are pulling it back etc.
I suppose I'll have to break a habit and actually watch tv news for a change.
There's a column in Stuff written by someone called Damian Grant. The blurb at the end says " Damien Grant is a regular columnist for Stuff, and an insolvency practitioner and business owner based in Auckland. He writes from a libertarian perspective and is a member of the Taxpayers Union' but not of any political party."
In writing about Todd Muller's writing as a 10 year of how he wanted to be American President, Grant says: " Now, I am not going to criticise a ten-year-old for outsized ambitions; this is the inevitable result of an education system that rewards participation rather than achievement."
What? I dreamt of being an All Black, a famous pop singer and climbing Mt Everest. The inevitable result of an education system that rewards participation rather than achievement I suppose?
I could have dreamt of being a silly arse and ended up being one. But what sort of an education system would it be if I ended up like Damian Grant?
Sentenced to 30 months' jail for fraud and says jail doesn’t change you, nat type shill, would rather buy a new phone than give to charity, and has an all round sort of tosser bigot vibe.
Grant clearly doesn't know anything about the education system – it has a mania for assessment mainly due to influential nitwits (like Grant) constantly demanding it. To cut him some slack, I guess all right-wing libertarians have been pyschically scarred by seeing the state intervene strongly and competently to save people from a deadly virus. And in addition save the economy from far worse damage than it would have experienced without that interference. Kind of blows their worldview to smithereens and makes them babble incoherently.
Why are the National party propagandists so good at unconscious irony?
After decades of pushing for an education system that rewards mindless rote learning, to pass constant narrow testing, he complains about education that "rewards participation rather than achievement".
The aggressive retort by party diplomats is designed to do what it's doing. It's working. It has nothing to do with annoying us and everything to do with no fuel at Chinese bowsers being Don's fault.
Yeah, I've been provoked into flipping out in an outrageous way before, I'm sure I'm not alone. I'm pleased I didn't do so in front of an armed Policeman. When flipping out, calculating the status of the people about is furthermost from your mind.
Nobody is evil to the core but it's hard not to wonder if some of these people being taken down aren't evil at all. They left their insulin in their other pants etc.
I think you're right, we can put wild animals to sleep with tranquiliser darts, we insist on it, anything else is Barbaric, why not humans.
That reminds me of Nigel Latta in his Beyond the Darklands programme. A young chap had spent years drinking and driving, had been through the courts and sent to prison a number of times, but over the years he'd also killed six people. This, according to Nigel Latta, meant that he was 'evil'. It really was quite incredible. Latta's approach in that show was always to interview the subject's friends and family about the person's background to try to explain their behaviour. People who knew this chap described him as essentially a good guy who was kind and worked hard and who'd give you the shirt off his back, but that when he drank he'd do stupid things. Nobody said a bad word against this guy apart from how he was when he drank. Latta went to the trouble of talking to these people presumably to get an insight into things, but still described him as 'evil'. It was an extraordinary conclusion, especially coming from someone who holds themselves out as an expert on 'human behaviour'.
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An event organised by the Auckland PhilippinesSolidarity group Have a three-course lunch at Nanam Eatery with us! Help support the organic farming of our Lumad communities through the Mindanao Community School Agricultural Foundation. Each ticket is $50. Food will be served on shared plates. To purchase, please email phsolidarity@gmail.com or ...
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Prisons are places of unceasing emotional and physical violence, unrelieved despair and unforgivable human waste.IT WAS NATIONAL’S Bill English who accurately described New Zealand’s prisons as “fiscal and moral failures”. On the same subject, Labour’s Dr Martyn Findlay memorably suggested that no prison ...
This is a re-post from Inside Climate News by Ilana Cohen. Inside Climate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Whether or not people accept the science on Covid-19 and climate change, both global crises will have lasting impacts on health and ...
. . American Burlesque As I write this (Wednesday evening, 6 January), the US Presidential election is all but resolved, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the (Dis-)United State of America. Trump’s turbulent political career has lasted just four years – one of the few single-term US presidents ...
The session started off so well. Annalax – suitably chastised – spent a pleasant morning with his new girlfriend (he would say paramour, of course, but for our purposes, girlfriend is easier*). He told her about Waking World Drow, and their worship of Her Ladyship. And he started ...
In a recent column I wrote for local newspapers, I ventured to suggest that Donald Trump – in addition to being a liar and a cheat, and sexist and racist – was a fascist in the making and would probably try, if he were to lose the election, to defy ...
When I was preparing for my School C English exam I knew I needed some quotes to splash through my essays. But remembering lines was never my strong point, so I tended to look for the low-hanging fruit. We’d studied Shakespeare’s King Lear that year and perhaps the lowest hanging ...
When I went to bed last night, I was expecting today to be eventful. A lot of pouting in Congress as last-ditch Trumpers staged bad-faith "objections" to a democratic election, maybe some rioting on the streets of Washington DC from angry Trump supporters. But I wasn't expecting anything like an ...
Melted ice of the past answers question today? Kate Ashley and a large crew of coauthors wind back the clock to look at Antarctic sea ice behavior in times gone by, in Mid-Holocene Antarctic sea-ice increase driven by marine ice sheet retreat. For armchair scientists following the Antarctic sea ice situation, something jumps out in ...
Christina SzalinskiWhen Martha Field became pregnant in 2005, a singular fear weighed on her mind. Not long before, as a Cornell University graduate student researching how genes and nutrients interact to cause disease, she had seen images of unborn mouse pups smaller than her pinkie nail, some with ...
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidates for President and Vice President respectively for the US 2020 Election, may have dispensed with the erstwhile nemesis, Trump the candidate – but there are numerous critical openings through which much, much worse many out there may yet see fit to ...
A growing public housing waiting list and continued increase of house prices must be urgently addressed by Government, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
As we welcome in the new year, our focus is on continuing to keep New Zealanders safe and moving forward with our economic recovery. There’s a lot to get on with, but before we say a final goodbye to 2020, here’s a quick look back at some of the milestones ...
A major investment to tackle wilding pines in Mt Richmond will create jobs and help protect the area’s unique ecosystems, Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor says. The Mt Richmond Forest Park has unique ecosystems developed on mineral-rich geology, including taonga plant species found nowhere else in the country. “These special plant ...
To further protect New Zealand from COVID-19, the Government is extending pre-departure testing to all passengers to New Zealand except from Australia, Antarctica and most Pacific Islands, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “The change will come into force for all flights arriving in New Zealand after 11:59pm (NZT) on Monday ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
US President Donald Trump is pardoning former White House adviser Steve Bannon, who is accused of fraud in a case involving funds for the border wall. ...
Joel Little with Lorde, Dera Meelan with Church & AP, Josh Fountain with Maala and Randa and Benee – producers make good songs great. Now a new fund from NZ on Air is putting the focus on them.Six months ago it looked like the music industry was on the brink ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denise Buiten, Senior Lecturer in Social Justice and Sociology, University of Notre Dame Australia On average, one child is killed by a parent almost every fortnight in Australia. Last week, three children — Claire, 7, Anna, 5, and Matthew, 3 — were ...
This commendable and realistic decision again underlines that it is the police, not government, who are largely responsible for the reduction in cannabis prosecutions over the past 15 years, writes Russell Brown.The news that New Zealand police have discontinued the annual Helicopter Recovery Operation, which has, each summer for more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ilan Noy, Professor and Chair in the Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington We will not be able to put the COVID-19 pandemic behind us until the world’s population is mostly immune through vaccination ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s US inauguration live blog: inauguration news, analysis and reaction, updated throughout Wednesday and Thursday, NZ time. Reach me at catherine@thespinoff.co.nz.4.00pm: What will Trump be doing tomorrow?It’s pretty well known by now that outgoing president Donald Trump intends to throw out the rulebook when it comes to ...
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance is calling out Mayor Phil Goff for his undignified comment that the claim made by Councillor Greg Sayers asking why Auckland Council is funding yoga classes is “bullshit.” Yesterday, Councillor Greg Sayers penned ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne At 4am Thursday AEDT, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be inaugurated as president and vice president of the United States, replacing Donald Trump and Mike Pence. What follows is ...
*This article was originally published on RNZ and is republished with permission. New Zealanders flocked to beaches and lakes this summer, but it wasn't enough to fill the gap left by international tourists in other regions. The tourism industry is struggling to fill a $6 billion hole left by international tourists ...
Summer reissue: Chef Monique Fiso joins us for a chat about Hiakai – her acclaimed Wellington restaurant, and the title of her stunning new book.First published November 3, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its members – click here to learn ...
A new trough was brought to our attention this morning, although ethnicity will limit the numbers of eligible applicants. If you are non-Maori, it looks like you shouldn’t bother getting into the queue – but who knows?We learned of the trough from the Scoop website, where the Kapiti ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Britta Denise Hardesty, Principal Research Scientist, Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship, CSIRO Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing costs economies up to US$50 billion globally each year, and makes up to one-fifth of the global catch. It’s a huge problem not only for the ...
Police stopping major cannabis eradication operations has given the green light to drug dealers and gangs to expand operations, make more profit, and continue to wreak havoc on the most vulnerable in our society, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. ...
Varieties of merino wool footwear are emerging faster than Netflix series about British aristocracy. Michael Andrew takes a look at the rise of the shoe that almost everyone – including his 95-year-old grandma – is wearing.Some might say it all started with Allbirds. After all, to the average consumer, it ...
A new report from New Zealand’s Independent Monitoring Mechanism (IMM) highlights the realities and challenges disabled people faced during the COVID-19 emergency. The report, Making Disability Rights Real in a Pandemic, Te Whakatinana i ngā Tika ...
The Maritime Union is questioning the reasons provided for ongoing delays at the Ports of Auckland. Maritime Union of New Zealand National Secretary Craig Harrison says there is a need for an honest conversation about what has gone wrong at the ...
As New Zealand faces a dire shortage of veterinarians, a petition has been launched urging the Government to reclassify veterinarians as critical workers so we can Get Vets into NZ. “New Zealand desperately needs veterinarians from overseas to counter ...
New Zealand is fast developing a reputation as a South Pacific vandal, says Greenpeace, as the government continues to fight against increased ocean protection. At the upcoming meeting of the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO), ...
The Department of Internal Affairs and Netsafe are urging parents and caregivers to be mindful of the online content their tamariki may be consuming in the lead up to the inauguration of president-elect of the United States of America Joe Biden ...
Care is at the centre of Auckland Zoo’s mandate, and it’s clear to see when you witness the staff doing their day-to-day jobs up close. Leonie Hayden went behind the scenes to talk to two people who would do anything for the animals they look after. “We were having this ...
The Game Animal Council (GAC) is applying its expertise in the use of firearms for hunting to work alongside Police, other agencies and stakeholder groups to improve the compliance provisions for hunters and other firearms users. The GAC has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Verica Rupar, Professor, Auckland University of Technology “The lie outlasts the liar,” writes historian Timothy Snyder, referring to outgoing president Donald Trump and his contribution to the “post-truth” era in the US. Indeed, the mass rejection of reason that erupted in a ...
The internet ain’t what it used to be, thanks to privacy issues, data leaks, censorship and hate speech. But a group of New Zealanders are working on a way to give power back to the people. A flood of headlines over the last week made it clear: the internet has become ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Brooks, Scientia Professor of Evolutionary Ecology; Academic Lead of UNSW’s Grand Challenges Program, UNSW The views of women and men can differ on important gendered issues such as abortion, gender equity and government spending priorities. Surprisingly, however, average differences in sex ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer S. Hunt, Lecturer in National Security, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Every four years on January 20, the US exercises a key tenant of democratic government: the peaceful transfer of power. This year, the scene looks a bit ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle In Australia and around the world, research is showing changes in body weight, cooking, eating and drinking patterns associated with COVID lockdowns. Some changes have been positive, such as people cooking ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hao Tan, Associate professor, University of Newcastle Australian coal exports to China plummeted last year. While this is due in part to recent trade tensions between Australia and China, our research suggests coal plant closures are a bigger threat to Australia’s export ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Asha Bowen, Head, Skin Health, Telethon Kids Institute A year ago, in late January 2020, Australia reported its first cases of COVID-19. Since then, we have seen almost 29,000 confirmed cases and 909 deaths. As cases climbed in Australian cities in 2020, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin Davis, Emeritus Professor of Finance, University of Melbourne Political pressure forced the federal government in 2017 – when Scott Morrison was treasurer – to call the royal commission into misconduct in the banking, superannuation and financial services sector. Commissioner Kenneth Hayne ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justin Ellis, Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Newcastle, University of Newcastle The Rise and Fall of Saint George is a story about place, belonging and community that taps into universal tensions of identity and faith in multicultural societies. Playing for ...
An in-depth analysis of media coverage of the euthanasia and cannabis referendums has found that while both sides of the euthanasia referendum were given reasonably fair and balanced coverage, the YES position in the cannabis debate received a heavily ...
*This article was originally published on RNZ and is republished with permission Auckland has no plans to hand over the ownership of it assets under the government's planned water reforms, with Auckland Mayor Phil Goff saying his top priority is to ensure it stacks up for the city. Despite ...
Auckland Transport is putting nine new electric buses on the roads today, as it dramatically accelerates its plans to get rid of all its diesel buses – in a funding challenge to the council. Public transport operators are being told to not buy any more diesel buses or risk losing their council ...
Summer reissue: Join Michèle A’Court, Alex Casey and Leonie Hayden as they find out exactly what we’re voting on in the cannabis referendum, and discover how legalising weed is a women’s issue.First published August 4, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is ...
A principal analyst for the Climate Change Commission says more needs to be done to reduce agricultural emissions or the country will miss its methane targets. ...
New Zealand needs to be bold in making developers enhance the environment - not just limit its degradation, writes Stephen Knight-Lenihan All human activity should help restore the natural world. This is a concept that may resonate following the upheavals of 2020 and one which is beginning to appear in law. Imagine ...
Derek Challis, son of the legendary author Robin Hyde, died last Thursday. Michelle Leggott pays tribute He opens a suitcase and there they are, the precious manuscript notebooks written by his poet mother Iris Wilkinson aka Robin Hyde. We are in Dunedin for a Hyde conference. Yes, says Derek Arden ...
Former New Zealand gymnast Katya Nosova is now a champion bodybuilder, who was prepared to spend Christmas alone in quarantine to compete in the 'Olympics' of her sport. Katya Nosova was willing to do everything she could to pose on the world stage in her third Ms Olympia. Despite a ...
Concerts and some sports look likely to be on the move in Auckland after a big win for Eden Park – and politicians and officials may now want to win the public some control over the independent stadium. The advent of big concerts at Eden Park will, in all likelihood, mean ...
Despite promises of improvement, questions remain about colonoscopy services in Otago and Southland.David Williams reports The apology, when it came, was fulsome. “On behalf of the Southern DHB, I offer a sincere apology for lapses and inadequacies in colonoscopy services over the past several years,” district health board chair ...
The issues political editor Justin Giovannetti will be keeping an eye on in 2021 (that have nothing to do with Covid-19).New Zealand will be busy in 2021. The border will remain closed to nearly all travellers and Covid-19 will continue to lead the news, but the country has a packed ...
A former case manager says that his experience working with beneficiaries suggests claims of a ‘complete shift’ in the service’s approach are laughable.A former Work and Income case manager who now works with beneficiaries engaging with the service has spoken out on a “toxic” culture which he says denies beneficiaries ...
ACC Minister Carmel Sepuloni must confirm whether the Government supports ACC’s apparent policy to make payouts for illegal overstayers , says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . Union spokesman Jordan Williams says, “Since when was it ACC policy to ...
By RNZ News An independent panel says Chinese officials could have applied public health measures more forcefully in January to curb the initial covid-19 outbreak, and criticised the World Health Organisation (WHO) for not declaring an international emergency until 30 January. The experts reviewing the global handling of the pandemic, ...
Pacific Media Watch newsdesk Fiji’s NGO Coalition on Human Rights has called for stronger accountability and commitment to human rights at home in response to the country taking the world stage as the head of a UN body. The UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR) elected Fiji’s ambassador Nazhat Shameem as ...
Danyl McLauchlan reviews Stuart Ritchie’s Science Fictions, which outlines the staggering systemic flaws in the funding and publication of scientific papers. Back in August of 2006 a number of New Zealand scientists were caught up in a media controversy about whether Māori had a genetic predisposition towards violent crime. It kicked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert G. Patman, Professor of International Relations, University of Otago America is currently experiencing its worst political and constitutional crisis since the civil war when the very survival of Abraham Lincoln’s government “of, by and for the people” was at stake. On ...
Manaaki Rangatahi report that young people experiencing homelessness are being further traumatized within the emergency accommodation where they have sought safety. Often these environments are unsafe, and unsuitable for young people to live in, and rangatahi ...
Can you figure out which of the above is the real Jacinda Ardern? Probably! But one day, that might not be true.There are many reasons to believe the internet shouldn’t exist. Social media empires exerting, intentionally or not, their control over sovereign governments. Baby Shark. Your aunt on Facebook.It pains ...
The Point of Order Ministers on a Mission Monitor has flickered only fleetingly for much of the month. More than once, the minister to trigger it has been David Parker, who set it off again yesterday with an announcement that shows how he has been spending our money. He welcomed ...
Ban Bomb Day event at the New Brighton Pier, 9am, on January 22nd, 2021 January 22nd, 2021, marks the first day the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) Enters into Force and becomes international law. Aotearoa NZ is one of the ...
Why are New Zealand’s 2 Minute Noodles called 3 Minute Noodles in the UK? It’s a puzzle that has taken hold of Dylan Reeve and refuses to let go.I’m a child of the 80s and 90s. I watched a lot of TV and was a big fan of aggressively marketed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonatan A Lassa, Senior Lecturer, Humanitarian Emergency and Disaster Management, College of Indigenous Futures, Arts and Society, Charles Darwin University News of storms battering parts of Queensland and the threat posed by Cyclone Kimi reminded me of a recent experience I’d had. ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that the use of force to effect the arrest of a wanted offender in Auckland was justified and proportionate to the risk he posed. A man, who was well known to Police, was wanted by Police for an aggravated ...
A distinctly colonial institution, banking has long ignored te ao Māori. Teaho Pihama believes investment in tikanga Māori at Kiwibank can have significant, positive outcomes for Māori.In early 90s Tāmaki Makaurau, when Teahooterangi (Teaho) Pihama was growing up riding his bike around the streets of Kingsland until the streetlights came ...
Donald Trump’s awful presidency expires at midday on Wednesday [US time] when Air Force One will have deposited him in Florida. He retreats to his Mar-a-Lago resort and Joseph R Biden Junior takes command of the White House. Trump’s has been an unpleasant presidency, brought about largely by his own ...
The New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA) has elected its National President for 2021. The election took place last Friday at an NZUSA Special General Meeting (SGM) in Wellington. Andrew Lessells, 22, was elected to serve as the National ...
Think twice before you accept that surprise school reunion invite, writes Chris Schulz.It started with a Facebook notification. A school reunion was being organised. It sounded fun, with a fancy dress party set to be held in the city where I grew up, Whanganui. I hadn’t seen some of my ...
Unlike the US, there is very little NZ precedent for politicians to issue discretionary pardons – creating a challenge for those like Prof Sean Davison who might have a humanitarian claim to mercy. ...
Schools have told the Education Review Office that some children lost 10 weeks of learning in last year's lockdowns, but the overall impact of the pandemic is still unclear. In a report based on surveys of thousand of students, teachers and principals during and after last year's national and Auckland ...
The government seems to still be in holiday mode when in the past two weeks alone we have had six homicides, countless firearms incidents, and police needing to arm themselves against gangs almost every second day," says Sensible Sentencing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Crawford, Associate Professor in Construction and Environmental Assessment, University of Melbourne Over the past few years, Australians have embraced online food delivery services such as UberEats, Deliveroo and Menulog. But home-delivered food comes with a climate cost, and single-use packaging is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland When the coronavirus pandemic hit Australia in March 2020, the Morrison government took bold and imaginative action. The most notable examples were its income support programs – JobKeeper, paying a A$750 weekly ...
Ocean Ute, which arrived at Port Taranaki yesterday, is the second live export ship to arrive in New Zealand this year. Taranaki Animal Rights Group has two demonstrations planned for today. A protest at midday and a vigil at 6.30pm tonight . The number ...
The Department of Corrections is well within its rights to refuse Jared Savage’s “Gangland” book from being read by inmates and it is outrageous that resources and time are now potentially going to be wasted in court about it, says Sensible ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Cowling, Associate Professor – Information & Communication Technology (ICT), CQUniversity Australia We’ve probably all been there. We buy some new smart gadget and when we plug it in for the first time it requires an update to work. So we end ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Walker, Vice-chancellor’s fellow, La Trobe University The new trade minister, Dan Tehan, has been handed one of the Morrison government’s most demanding roles. Despite a lot of chest-thumping in government circles about the need to stand up to “Chinese bullying”, Tehan’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Weinstein, Professorial Research Fellow, University of Adelaide There’s no question the rising rate of unemployment is one of the worst consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of Australians seeking work is heading towards 10%, almost double the pre-pandemic Australian average ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Munro, Professor, Faculty of Education and Arts, Australian Catholic University Research during the first phase of remote teaching in Victoria reported some students found the workload “too high”, missed interactions with peers, felt their thinking ability was impaired, and reported a ...
Better the devils you know…
Simon Bridges works tirelessly in front of the camera. His face is the most known in the length and breadth of Aotearoa. Forever portraying Himself. Bits and Pieces.
While his unsteady assistant Paula, plays bowls from time to time, blatantly releasing highly private material. Her Face is likely well known too.
Which is why I hope Simon Bridges – New Zealand's most known man – gets confirmed in the role he chooses this coming Friday.
We will miss him like heck – if he throws in his Towel. Camera tossed from the Sky Tower. And all that.
Two Faces National. These two are the Only persons known in the National paddock.
And God forbid, if David Seymore's strange dancing ass gets accepted. Bodies all over the place. Endless Bodies. Endless bodies and big money everywhere. No Thanks
Fascinating interview with Hooten on RNZ – he is knifing Bridges hard and talking up Todd Muller (who?).
The National party chickens are coming home to roost, with the number of fundies who have won seats meaning the social conservatives and liberal are now split into two factions – in one corner we have the Evangelical wing & the culture warriors coalesced around Bridges and his happy clappy brother in law, in the other the pragmatic, power at all costs brigade with Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye (likely to lose her seat on this polling).
Rent a rant doing as instructed or just having some fun probably filling up airtime.
They risk doing worse with an unskilled media operator but that's not an issue when the media's in your corner is it.
Well, Michelle Boag, the wicked witch of Waiheke, is also putting the boot into Bridges on RNZ and pushing Muller just now. She is more grandiloquent than connected these days, but she probably represents a strand of National party grandee thinking.
Simon might be in front today, but the push to persuade the wavering MPs is clearly on and if tonight poll is equally bad for National then it may be Simon loses, or worse wins on his own vote only.
Anything but real news I guess these days…..she's just another opinionator
Do you think Simon is bright enough to vote for himself?
Not so stupid as to offer a deal to Muller, "You vote for me and I'll vote for you!"
I'd be interested to know if any of these speculating talking heads have clients in the national caucus.
The Farm takes over ?
So – with Todd Muller – working on placing the Farmers as the Government of New Zealand, the Cities and Towns will turn their backs on Mr and Mrs Gum boots.
Don't do it Todd Boy. Cities and Industries, And multiple essential things are required in a Nation.
It’s quite something isn’t it, the way National Party commentators are practically willing the country into an historic recession so they can say “I told you so”.
Granny's done her bit today on that with the mouth being feed (nz businesses) biting the govt over not being like Oz.
The Herald's ambient bias is amazing. Trevett practically urging National to "not lose ground" is quite something.
And Hosking, he is frantic with worry.
Just as well hardly anyone reads it nowadays.
As for the Nats losing ground. Colmar Brunton that’s due tonight was apparently polling up until yesterday evening so may capture some of the public sentiment developing as the proverbial hit the fan for the Nats.
Oz was doing really well until there was an outbreak in a meatworks in Victoria. Now they are back to where they were 30 days ago.
Meatworks have been hit particularly hard in Canada and the USA as well.
From what I heard they have been doing social distancing in NZ in meatworks and running double shifts. But that's led to problems with drought stricken farmers trying to get rid of stock and finding it hard to book in.
Here's a graph (I hope)
Try linking.
Sorry the link is such a long but at the end is a pretty graph.
https://scontent.fwlg2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/99103830_1015063508887603_5323176634096812032_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=0YaLJ2lgBMkAX-FFD-e&_nc_ht=scontent.fwlg2-1.fna&oh=0855e86c2e3bf7238ffd96444a4bca1b&oe=5EECE234
That uptick in Australia shows up clearly. Unfortunate.
The silver lining is that this whole situation will do wonders for the synthetic meat industry.
why should facts get in the way of some RW spin being it's fronted by the COO of Fonterra…..one of the most incompetently managed organisations in NZ.
Up against Fletchers that's no mean feat.
Do you think meat works being hit hard in the USA and Canada has something to do with the temperature as well as hard to social distance on a line?
dunno about Canada, but US workers were told to come in even if ill.
There might also be stats on how centralised the US meat industry is comapred to NZ, but I don't know where. A farmer rep on the Daily Show was saying part of the problem is over the past few decades smaller regional plants have shut down in favour of a few larger facilities. If one in five plants goes down to 30% capacity, that's a major hit. If 2 in 15 go down to 30%, not so bad. And the ones at 100% are closer.
An AMAZING person who can nail her comments – I hope she goes far in the future, a real gem. I wouldn't be surprised if these same essential workers are the same that I see receiving handouts at Christmas time
But don't worry something is happening within National that is FAR MORE IMPORTANT !!
South Auckland cry: 'NZ wants to rebuild, but it's on our backs'
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12333389
Very impressive! Another wahine toa.( just looked it up – tamatai talavou in Samoan)
Wow! Street knowledge more powerful than you'd think. I wonder if it's ironic that she knows she's being pimped by the government?
https://youtu.be/UGkywE_uCEI
Farrar watch:
Kiwiblog's best commenter is theorising the National Party leadership challenge is a set up to make Simon look strong. They're all in on it, apparently.
Wouldn't like to be the National Party if this is true and the public find out…
Kiwiblog is ridiculous and irrelevant these days, Farrar has turned it into a platform for a parade of has-been detritus defending 1980s neoliberalism and the comments have re-housed all the wing nuts from whaleoil.
Farrar himself just wants to keep the money coming in to Curia, so he’ll hunt with the hares and run with the hounds.
his site traffic says otherwise.
A lot of people like watching bumfights for entertainment.
Sometimes I go there, it is the modern day equivalent of the gruesome pleasure of a 18th Century tourist’ visiting Bedlam. A guilty pleasure, as it were.
The technicolour pustulence can be appealing when you're passing through. I do worry about some of the locals. The promoter always seems to be rolling in cash, villagers scrabbling at his hem.
If you believe his site traffic statistics.
IRC Whale Oils were like 2/3 apple safari views …
It's an ugly site, I had a look the other day, just looks old, boring, stale…
For the public to find out there'd have to be a leaker and that's unlikely to happen isn't it? Chuckle chuckle.
Mind you if you're 'Kiwiblog's best commenter' you'd probably be quite good at playing the Kiwiblog/Farrar bullshit game and floating bullshit to create a picture you want painted.
The funny thing is that while I think Bridges is a twerp and an embarrassment to National there are other perspectives. I think for a supposed intelligent person he is dumb. He may not have got in a position to do something terrible, his Strike Force Raptor troops sorting the people were words, all piss and wind, he didn't get a chance to unleash them. On Thursday morning he's a political pariah. Did he perpetrate any evil?
John Key, 'Sir' John Key is a hero. His words about the GCSB may have been all piss and wind when it came to their relationship to truth and deed, but he had to chance to, and did what went on.
Line them up. One is like shandy made with non-alcoholic beer and one is Sunset Very Strong Rum with its 84.5% of alcohol.
If David Cormack is to be believed Simon Bridges had a evangelical conversion to a full on God botherer a couple of years ago. If that is true, it would explain his near fanatical conviction that he must – MUST! – bring down these Godless socialists.
Wasn't his brother-in-law already on that path?
Yes he is. The quiet infiltration of hard core evangelicals into National is something our ultra media opinionistas seem determined not to discuss, but it is clearly fuelling this split in National.
If the tory christians lose this caucus tussle, maybe the fortunes of minor parties of that space get a boost. Be interesting to hear how it plays out in the Nat party hierarchy beyond caucus, where the real power resides.
All those kiddy-fiddlers from those collapsed so-called "Christian "parties had to go somewhere.
Nah the main groomers and child abusers these days are in schools teaching kids all about anal sex, trans delusions, and how it's wrong to judge people. Instead of showing kids how to be safe from predators
[Nice slur on teachers. Next time you try to make a concise point you could perhaps leave the denigration of a large professional group out of it, yes? As it stands, you come across as a disturbed troll with unresolved issues – Incognito]
well, that went south quickly.
Or North, hemisphere depending.
See my Moderation note @ 11:46 AM.
Noted. Apologies for the angry outburst
Ta
It may feel like a thankless, even bleak task at times, but it's an important responsibility. You do it better than I ever managed.

Matthew 21:12-13 Jesus throws the moneylenders out of the temple
Luke 4:18-19 Jesus proclaims good news to the poor and oppressed
Matthew 25:37-40 Jesus warns of judgement against those who fail to care for the vulnerable and poor
etc etc
SiBri may have had a conversion to something but it wasn't the Way that Jesus preached. How easily those who dabble in church and don't bother to do the homework fall into relying on religious rules, rather than humbling themselves
The funniest 5 minutes on TV in ages was the Voxpop on the Bridges debacle last night. Still laughing on the classic Nat party garden party attender whose opinion of Jacinda was she wished she was leading the Nat party but when shown photos of Muller and Kaye replied " Amy someone" and "Simon Joyce ". Go Team.
Loved that moment too. A reminder to us lefties that a lot of National's support is based on cultural taxonomies and hierarchies. National represent the right sort of people who pay their bills and mow their lawns. Formal ideology, or any actual knowledge of what is happening in the world, come in second. It's quite sobering really, because it's so resistant to any form of persuasion, and insulting it just strengthens the underlying prejudice that the left is uncouth and unpleasant.
A Well summarised and analysed I think. Why it is very hard to move intelligent and efficacious policy in NZ. The myopic citizens of the comfortably-off (never rich) who surprisingly tend to be right-wing Gnats, don't want to see reality. That is as uncouth as it was to the lords and ladies of the Regency era in the light novels I read for stress-relief. That was then says my mind but – it parallels what I see with eyes wide open now, comes in an urgent whisper from the sidelines.
"Pay their bills"?
Except their tax bills?
After some years as a tradesman, I found someone having a flash house and right wing views, was a fairly good indication that I needed to get a big deposit, up front.
Heh.
"Between the idea and the reality ….falls the Shadow"
Some news for you.
transmission gully is in the shit. government has been talking about throwing everything at it. looks like the company is about to walk away from it as it would cost less than staying.
also, someone just took a 50ton digger to ripping parts of it up.
covid, everyone left and went back to australia. trucks, utes were found at wellington airport with the keys still in them.
make of that what you will.
Someone should ask Simon Bridges about that. When he gets a breather from the Nats infighting. That project has been heading for disaster even while he was the Transport Minister trying to persuade everybody it was on time and under budget.
I can tell you it mostly was. It was a couple of harsh winters and now covid, which I think has put the nail in.
What harsh winters? What a load of bollocks. That project was a dog from the start. National happily awarded the PPP to an Australian company who didn’t really have a clue what road building in NZ’s tricky geological conditions would require. So far the project has needed about 50% more earthworks than originally specced. They were bringing workers in from Australia, who’ve all gone home because of Covid. The ripping up the tarmac that you’ve mentioned is probably the latest effort at relaying work due to mistakes by the building consortium.
Yep. See article linked below. https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21-05-2020/#comment-1713753
different weather up there mate. go read the reports on the slosh and frozen soil. the last winter or the one before where it rained so much no work could be done for months. same reason kapati express way keeps having issues, drainage to do with how the roads were laid. that was the fault of the contractors though, who are actually being contracted to fix it 😀
Last two winters down south have been bloody odd. There's a hole at the bottom of my road that the council has been meaning to fix for 12 months. Some of that is other reasons but the weather has definitely been an issue. Too much rain.
the road was ripped up by an angry employee a few days ago. it's being kept hush hush. not a lot of goodwill out there.
Can't beat local knowledge. 🙂
Contractors that don't know, weather occurs. LOL.
According to my local info it was about a year behind 2 years ago
The sales pitch for PPPs like Transmission Gully was that the private parties would finance all the upfront costs and build it and wear the risks, and would then make their money by getting paid an ongoing annual fixed fee starting from when it was opened and operating.
So if the company is about to just walk away, then it looks to me like the PPP model says we should get all the work done so far for free, and the government could then just go ahead and complete the job and get it done at reduced cost with the bonus of not having to pay the annual operating fees.
Or did the National government lie about what PPPs really are and pull a bait and switch on us all when they signed up to the project?
Exactly, and all the gear is leased so let the leasor take it back and then rent it for a fraction of the price and get the new MOW finish it. Sorted.
Good detail about all of that: https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2020/05/06/times-up-for-ppps/
There were always a couple of vehicles used by The Transmission gully workers around our way at night – must have accommodation in the area. Vehicles were there post lockdown but haven't seen them just recently. The plot thickens
Marvelous.
Just browsing through the Health website and looked at the workforce tab. Asking both employees and organisations to register their needs.
My questions are:
– When and how and where the contracts to the agencies below awarded- what fees if any do they receive from public money or does the employer pay as usual and why was the decision made to use these two firms?
Beyond has been around a fair while and has always looked to be a mid – upper level agency but the Accent Health if I have the right one looks like it specialised pretty much in the recruitment of overseas health workers and getting visas. Not an obvious choice?
– while there may be a need to allocate available trained staff across the public health system – is this also being used to allocate people to by the private for profit healthcare sector in particular the aged care and outsourced care giving contracts? If it is being used by for profit providers why are they not being advised to advertise over the usual websites and for that matter be required to pay decent wages and have decent conditions of work?
-should public money be used to enhance private contracts
– Is the contract tracing outsourced and if so are they accessing the app data?
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-resources-health-professionals/join-covid-19-surge-workforce
How are workers assigned to roles?
Accent Health Recruitment is matching health workers to roles by considering the qualifications and skill sets required, the location where the worker is needed, and the hours they would need to work. Beyond Recruitment is assisting with additional screening questions and reference checks to help determine suitability.
Matthew Paris from UK on Radionz this morning gave me a hollow laugh. Their private company Serco, the efficient operator of all things, has been given the government contract to be part of the Covid-19 tracing system.
Lots of people signing up for it, it would probably have ended up looking like running a bounty-hunter system like in the old USofA. And ballsed up right at the start, they sent one of the applicants a file with addresses of all the other applicants and Matthew Paris says, they now all know those contacts.
How the UK thought that their contracting out was going to be better for this delicate and important task than direct control I don't know. But under present political strictures from the USA's Milton Friedman et al it seems that UK gummint and others of similar mien (mean!), is set at being nothing but an expensive employment agency for ambitious nouveau riche jerks after perks.
Yeah , I have always thought a 4 day working week was the right balance in life, particularly if working for someone else! Bring it on Jacinda – it won,t make any difference to me , as self -employed I work any ,or all, seven days of the week I want to, or need to.
I recall my father once telling me a three day weekend would be perfect, "One day for the house, one day for the family and one for himself". And then he said, "Guess which one misses out at the moment".
Data manipulation in Florida and Georgia by Republican administrations to support re-opening of the state. Listen from 1m19s through to about 2m22s. Amazing. And so delusional to believe they could get away with it – at least when Stalin always reported exceeding his 5-year plans for steel production, there was no public information eco-system that allowed people to check.
Poor old Mike. Yesterday he claimed National could still win but today has conceded defeat.
Still claiming National won the election in 2017, etc. And on the Labour led government which has gained plaudits all over the world for its pandemic response he has this to say:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12333626
If TVNZ put him in as debate moderator again the country should hit the streets in protest.
Try reading that bit you quoted again, in context! He's actually putting the boot into the Nats. And that's after a moment of honesty: "I have no idea." 🙃
Ah well. He's not a good writer, is he. None on these broadcasters seem to be yet they are all given opinion column inches.
It is telling he has thrown in the towel though!
"Unfortunately, for the last half-century, the prevailing political message in many countries has been that governments cannot – and therefore should not – actually govern. Politicians, business leaders, and pundits have long relied on a management creed that focuses obsessively on static measures of efficiency to justify spending cuts, privatization, and outsourcing.
As a result, governments now have fewer options for responding to the crisis, which may be why some are now desperately clinging to the unrealistic hope of technological panaceas such as artificial intelligence or contact-tracing apps. With less investment in public capacity has come a loss of institutional memory (as the UK’s government has discovered) and increased dependence on private consulting firms, which have raked in billions. Not surprisingly, morale among public-sector employees has plunged in recent year"
https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/105135/mariana-mazzucato-and-giulio-quaggiotto-show-why-countries-embraced-proactive-state
So true…Will we finally learn the lesson?
I suspect the slow start to Kiwibuild had more to do with that, and a lack of spare capacity, than anything else.
Perhaps…although it was the wrong policy in any case. Something that likely would have been realised in time had the state capability existed.
Yes. I never liked it.
They should have simply built a lot more State rental houses.
My feelings as well
I thought this was an excellent extract to pass on pat. I have quoted it and you in a comment on TDB in Waatea News today. More people should read this summation I believe, and perhaps we could see more clearly.
Its a message that cannot be too widely disseminated (imo)
Imagine if it seeded here. A Scott Base lab's popular Emperor Penguin turns ill. They pop it on a flight to the Christchurch vet school. Prof + 20 students develop a weird cough. As soon as they twigged I'd hope our Government would slam down on the region/city and secure it tightly. Stop all domestic movement. Aircraft, cars, buses, taxis trains, bikes, pedestrians, insist everyone locks down hard. With the exception of departing international flights. There will be lots of people not feeling well that need to get home to all points on the globe. I think we should follow WHO guidelines and halt all domestic movement but allow taxi, bus and Uber movement to the departure terminal of the Christchurch international airport.
Dog eat dog at noon for Simon and Todd.
AC/DC – Dog Eat Dog
Isn't the Todd thing a charade to make us all say in unison 'Simon won'
Well that'd be a helluva travel tab Todd Munter's run up for the sake of a subterfuge. Pretty big bubble Munty has by the look of it.
Any spoilers from the 1 news poll?
Nope, but #savesimon is trending #1 on twitter thanks to the input from the left 🙂 Bloody brilliant 🙂
Roll on 6pm, not long now
You'd think someone would have had a little tinkle, even if not a full on leak, but yeah, waiting for the likely discrepancies between polls for the line to be reported as national are pulling it back etc.
I suppose I'll have to break a habit and actually watch tv news for a change.
Hehehe it's more dramatic via the TV news.
heh
There's a column in Stuff written by someone called Damian Grant. The blurb at the end says " Damien Grant is a regular columnist for Stuff, and an insolvency practitioner and business owner based in Auckland. He writes from a libertarian perspective and is a member of the Taxpayers Union' but not of any political party."
In writing about Todd Muller's writing as a 10 year of how he wanted to be American President, Grant says: " Now, I am not going to criticise a ten-year-old for outsized ambitions; this is the inevitable result of an education system that rewards participation rather than achievement."
What? I dreamt of being an All Black, a famous pop singer and climbing Mt Everest. The inevitable result of an education system that rewards participation rather than achievement I suppose?
I could have dreamt of being a silly arse and ended up being one. But what sort of an education system would it be if I ended up like Damian Grant?
Sentenced to 30 months' jail for fraud and says jail doesn’t change you, nat type shill, would rather buy a new phone than give to charity, and has an all round sort of tosser bigot vibe.
What more do you need to know?
Grant clearly doesn't know anything about the education system – it has a mania for assessment mainly due to influential nitwits (like Grant) constantly demanding it. To cut him some slack, I guess all right-wing libertarians have been pyschically scarred by seeing the state intervene strongly and competently to save people from a deadly virus. And in addition save the economy from far worse damage than it would have experienced without that interference. Kind of blows their worldview to smithereens and makes them babble incoherently.
Why are the National party propagandists so good at unconscious irony?
After decades of pushing for an education system that rewards mindless rote learning, to pass constant narrow testing, he complains about education that "rewards participation rather than achievement".
I think Red L has read this.
The aggressive retort by party diplomats is designed to do what it's doing. It's working. It has nothing to do with annoying us and everything to do with no fuel at Chinese bowsers being Don's fault.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/417168/homicide-sexual-assault-charges-plummet-during-lockdown
Overall, 22 percent fewer charges were laid in the District Court during the lockdown.
Homicide, robbery and fraud charges all dropped roughly 40 percent while the biggest change was a 65 percent drop in sexual violence charges.
Charges relating to family violence – expected to rise as households came under pressure in the pandemic – dropped 10 percent.
Majorly, lack of (alcoholic) fuel?
"I ain't got no Woodies or DB Browns Uncle Grey but I could have the postie drop you in a little bag of Gizzy Madness my grey mango."
Or, there's no escape.
Why can't cops just use their tasers or shoot people in the shoulder or the leg or something instead of killing people?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/121584925/shocked-friends-remember-taranaki-man-shot-dead-by-police
Yeah, I've been provoked into flipping out in an outrageous way before, I'm sure I'm not alone. I'm pleased I didn't do so in front of an armed Policeman. When flipping out, calculating the status of the people about is furthermost from your mind.
Nobody is evil to the core but it's hard not to wonder if some of these people being taken down aren't evil at all. They left their insulin in their other pants etc.
I think you're right, we can put wild animals to sleep with tranquiliser darts, we insist on it, anything else is Barbaric, why not humans.
That reminds me of Nigel Latta in his Beyond the Darklands programme. A young chap had spent years drinking and driving, had been through the courts and sent to prison a number of times, but over the years he'd also killed six people. This, according to Nigel Latta, meant that he was 'evil'. It really was quite incredible. Latta's approach in that show was always to interview the subject's friends and family about the person's background to try to explain their behaviour. People who knew this chap described him as essentially a good guy who was kind and worked hard and who'd give you the shirt off his back, but that when he drank he'd do stupid things. Nobody said a bad word against this guy apart from how he was when he drank. Latta went to the trouble of talking to these people presumably to get an insight into things, but still described him as 'evil'. It was an extraordinary conclusion, especially coming from someone who holds themselves out as an expert on 'human behaviour'.
To think, I believed the bullshit they fed us when the Taser was added to their arsenal.
I'd be gutted if National polls over 30% tonight.
Don't the Brunton polls usually over egg the nat vote and squish the reds and greens?
I'd be disappointed if they're above 35%
Usually, yes, but these are no usual times and the one poll may influence the other.
Blimey, 29%, your guts are safe. lol
Gee, I hope not. You don't deserve such a fate. I'm picking they come in at 35%, Labour 50%, Greens 6%, NZF 3%, ACT 2%…
It'll probably be L 42, N 39, G 4.9, NZF 8.
"It's a miracle", Simon will say and liken himself to Lazarus (Tova already has) or even Jesus him/herself!
I wouldn’t want to disappoint Tova!
Whoops, looks like I was wrong. 🙂
todd muller worked for fonterra nuff said