Luxon reminds me more and more of a beauty queen contestant. I am just waiting for him to offer to bring about world peace, cure cancer and end poverty and hunger. No idea how he is going to do any of his 'pledges' but winning is his goal.
Well done Mr Luxon. Now he is on a roll he can practise lots more lies and half truths. He gets away with it and what better incentive than getting way with it so far.
I can't see any circuit breaker or reason why the polls would turn. What event or circumstance could possibly bring people over to the left?
This fear is enhanced when you look at the combined Nact vote over the past 5 elections. With exception of 2020, they basically have an entrenched 46% base. How do we get those people to move now?
We can't wait for National to 'run out of steam' as a government.
A post-October election Labour leadership should just go back to the work that Robertson and Parker prepared for Budget 2023. Being credible on tax is the only way to defeat National.
An adventurous Labour leadership would talk to the Greens about a common tax policy that helps workers and beneficiaries. It has been so easy for National to use the Greens as the boogeyman on tax and that will continue until Labour and Greens settle their tax platform together.
A post-October election Labour leadership should just go back to the work that Robertson and Parker prepared for Budget 2023. Being credible on tax is the only way to defeat National.
Labour lost all credibility on tax when they ruled out taxing wealth – after their own report clearly showed how unjust the current tax system is (and previously, their own tax working group recommended capital taxes). And Labour took a huge risk and went out on a limb against public opinion, to protect the super wealthy. Ardern did the same with her blanket rejection of capital taxes, so it must be a really important core value for Labour to defend inequality and unjust tax.
No one except the Green Party is proposing a wealth tax, and even with a following wind and a pole vault they aren't seeing 88% of New Zealand voters liking that Green tax policy.
Under no form of coalition government will there be a wealth tax implemented.
So that's the Greens sitting out on the tax limb there.
No one except the Green Party is proposing a wealth tax […]
Te Pāti Māori: Suite of tax changes with $30k tax-free bracket, change brackets in favour of lower earnings, remove GST from all food, introduce wealth, foreign companies, land banking and vacant house taxes, increase company tax rate to former 33% rate (policy here).
Not even in Waitaki have I stopped donating, delivering pamphlets, and putting up hoardings. You should have joined us for lunch at Urban Grind on Sunday.
Perfectly possible to know we will lose and also be resolute.
Otherwise I wouldn't have fought campaigns in which we got caned in 2008, 2011, 2014, and in the 2021 Auckland mayoral contest.
completely agree. It's baffling that people want to give up. Even if the left does lose we still need as many MPs in parliament as possible. But it ain't over until it's over. Maybe NZF fucks up and drops below 5%. Maybe there's a big flood that wakes people up. Maybe it's really tight and Nact voters don't turn out because they think it's a done deal and LW party members door knocking and leaflet dropping tip the left over the edge to a win.
I'm not clear whether Bwaghorn is proposing that TPM win all of the Maori seats, but only their current 2% or so of the party vote (which would create the overhang you've outlined).
IMO, this scenario is virtually impossible. Take Waikato-Hauraki, for example: unless Mahuta effectively tells the electorate, 'I'm retiring, don't vote for me, vote for the TPM candidate' – she's going to win that seat.
Or whether Bwaghorn is proposing that TPM get over 5% of the party vote (which is not impossible, they've polled higher this year), which would result in 7 seats.
This is more realistic – but would almost certainly come at the expense of the GP and/or Labour vote (or at least it has in polling this year). The only caveat to this, is if TPM voters are being missed by the current polling measurements (not impossible, this demographic is often undercounted) AND those potential TPM voters actually get out and vote (a much more problematic issue – they often don't)
Either scenario requires an effective shift of at least 5% from the 'right' to the 'left' – regardless of which left party that vote ends up in. That's the bit that we're not seeing in the current polls.
On TV1 News last night there was an item in which Zelensky accused Russia of using food as a weapon. Perhaps Russia and the West need to come to an agreement: the West refrains from supplying weapons and other military hardware to Ukraine, and Russia, in return, ensures that food supplies get through.
mikesh is one of those depressingly common types who spend their whole time railing against western imperialism while bending over backwards to justify Russian imperialism and genocide, and hating on the military industrial complexx as evil under all circumstances, while hailing the glorious and unstoppable military might of Russia.
I don't think I have ever spoken of Iran or North Korea.
Russia, as I understand it, broke off the agreement to allow Ukrainian wheat passage because NATO was smuggling weapons into Ukraine under cover of that agreement. So it seems hypocritical of Zelensky to accuse Russia of “weaponising food”.
"I don't think I have ever spoken of Iran or North Korea."
Precisely my point. They are delivering weapons to this conflict also – albeit the side of the aggressor.
But the pro-Putin "anti-war" types never seem to comment, they only complain about the weapons supplied to Ukraine – the country that was needlessly invaded and is being ruthlessly brutalised by russia. They are deafeningly silent about weapons being supplied to the attacker.
Germany had agreed to be an economic partner of Russia, Nordstrom, and maintained 1% defence spending 2014-2021 (when NATO required an increase to 2% by 2024) – they did not want to work with Trump and his GOP (untrustworthy). It was the beginning of the end of NATO.
Then Putin in Feb 2022 … the German response was swift. And Sweden and Finland joined NATO.
Now Russia has two alternatives, be a subordinate of the alternate hegemony of China (pretending it's a partnership), or post Putin join NATO. Both suck. He's cost them their independence.
and who has made it clear to everyone that joining NATO is an excellent idea.
But when Russia applied to join, and I understand they have made several attempts, they have been turned down. Says it all really.
Now Russia has two alternatives, be a subordinate of the alternate hegemony of China (pretending it's a partnership), or post Putin join NATO. Both suck. He's cost them their independence.
Russia will never be allowed to join NATO, even post Putin, unless they adopt American style neoliberalism, which would allow America to exploit them economically, for her own advantage. That's what Putin is fighting to prevent, in this war. The first moves in this war occurred when a US inspired (fascist?) coup took place in Ukraine, and involved the unconstitutional dumping of the pro Russian president.
The Ukrainians, for all their heroism, and I admit their defence has been heroic, have acted like a bunch of cretins, foolishly teaming up with the evil empire simply to preserve their sovereignty, which Russia was not actually threatening prior to the events of 2014.
"Putin the Tiny" is a pragmatist, who knows what has to be done to ensure Russia's long term security/.
Actually, he is an evil imperialist who invades peaceful neighbours, undertakes mass murder, torture, rape and genocide, and who has made it clear to everyone that joining NATO is an excellent idea. At home, he suffocates his own population with relentless propaganda and oppression, starting from childhood.
But I suppose all evil could be excused as being “pragmatic”, by those who support it.
Being declined membership into a voluntary defence alliance, is hardly cause to launch wars of aggression on many of your neighbours and to commit ubiquitous war crimes abroad and ruthlessly suppress your own population.
You make it sound like everyone but russia, is responsible for russia's actions.
2020 was an anomalous result – and was effectively a vote of confidence in Ardern for her handling of Covid to that date.
Everyone seems to accept that it was a result which is never likely to be repeated again.
However, your chosen period reflects a decade of National government (hence the high percentages). Even in the 2017 election, there wasn't a huge appetite for a change of government (certainly not before Ardern took over as Labour leader)
If you go back to the previous electorate period (5th Labour government) – you get National/ACT totals in the 30s.
What would shift the current 48% centre right total?
Some suggestions (mostly long term ones)
Age. This one is going to take several decades. But NZ will move through the Boomer demographic bulge. And back to a more even demographic spread. Given that, historically, people tend to vote more conservatively as they age – there is likely to be a more left-wing balance appearing.
That conservative trend through age. I've read evidence from the US that Gen X are remaining more liberal for longer, than previous demographics. Therefore more left-wing population (as above). I don't know how applicable this is to the NZ context.
Stop frightening the horses. Radical policies frighten centrists into conservative voting. Incrementalism is much more likely to be effective. And incrementalism requires parties to work with whichever party is in power to work towards achieving their agenda (since you're not going to get it all in one 3-year-term).
Shit is going down in Queenstown, and the mayor says it highlights the need for the 3 Waters reforms:
"The person who receives a compliance order must comply with it and meet the costs of doing so. Failure to comply with the order is an offence, with a maximum fine of $300,000 for a corporate body.
Queenstown's compliance order will give council engineers legal reinforcement to act quickly and decisively. But this goes to the guts of why the Three Waters reforms are important, Lewers admits.
The council should have had a protozoa barrier in place at its Two Mile plant, one of the biggest in the district. Indeed, the council work plan lists that as a necessary upgrade to reach full Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules compliance – but it hadn’t found the funding.
"We've got other intakes in a similar situation, and we're progressively upgrading them as we go," he says.
Recently they've done Arrowtown, they're commissioning the Shotover bores now, they've reached an agreement with Cardrona, and there are still more to do. "I think Two Mile is probably the most difficult and the most expensive," he says. "So we were still working through the options of what to do."
There are two types of barrier. There’s UV treatment, which is cheap and easy and the council will probably set in place now – but it’s not very effective.
Far better is membrane filtration, which has a pore size of 0.1–0.5µm and removes particles, bacteria and protozoa from water. (It’s less effective for viruses – that’s why every water plant needs an array of three or four treatments.)
But membrane filtration is expensive. Lewers says the council had estimates running into the tens of millions of dollars.
Queenstown has "heightened cost pressures" because of the combination of high residential growth and an extremely high visitor load, he says.
But there are many other councils around the country with drinking water and wastewater plants that aren't up to consentable standards, nor up to the new water-quality bar. "This does highlight the challenges," Lewers says. "It also, I think, reinforces the need for water reform."
I've realised you're right. Took a while, but I've been thinking too many other thoughts. No sign yet of Stuff figuring it out, nor the Herald, nor TVNZ, nor Newshub. Slackers all!
Analysis: Queenstown Lakes council has less than 24 hours to issue a plan to deal with its cryptosporidiosis outbreak – New Zealand’s worst waterborne illness crisis since the fatal Havelock North contamination.
At 5.30pm last night, new Three Waters regulator Taumata Arowai slapped the council with the agency’s first compliance order. The stinging indictment was made public soon after 8pm.
If the msm pull finger they might get there within 24 hours of reaction time. If any of the neolib parties show leadership on the issue, the excitement could infuse the campaign. Nah, no chance, given their turgid mental processes.
So Queenstown is in the crap. In a world of ‘every man for himself’ and ‘socialism is bad’ I expect that the National MP, all of his supporters and the Act side of the government after October will be saying, ‘Tough titty, that’s your problem. Government isn’t a charity, let us know how you get on.’
The playground of the rich can't pay for their own sewerage upgrades lol.
If they can afford those house prices they can afford a sewerage levy from the council until the problem is fixed.
The average current house value in Queenstown-Lakes District was up 1.9% in June 2023, compared to a year earlier. Growth was higher than in New Zealand (-11.1%).
The average current house value was $1,672,233 in Queenstown-Lakes District in June 2023. This compares with $907,579 in New Zealand.
Apparently we have a problem with people under 14 stealing stuff – no legal liability and they can refuse to answer police questions (at best they can make it a youth and family court matter).
Maybe it's a time for creative solutions.
ban people under 14, unaccompanied by an adult, from dairy's.
nationwide use of the mosquito (15 metre radius), high pitch sound heard by young people, by dairy's.
automatic infringement notice and record of each one on record and made available to youth court when before it (age 14-17).
have an automatic sentence for shoplifting under 14, of confiscation of any mobile phone for one year, and or ban from ownership/use of one – infringement notice to telecoms companies.
Creative solutions maybe, but not the dreaded Mosquito. This pernicious device uses sound as a weapon against those young enough to hear it. It effectively makes being young a punishable crime in certain areas. It was so abused in the UK that it had to be banned.
Acoustic deterrence was, until recently, used only to repel rats, mice and cockroaches. But … is now just as effective at discouraging human vermin. The Mosquito youth dispersal device … produces a loud, high-pitched whine that can be heard strongly only by children and teenagers, and not at all by people over 25. It allows councils to keep children out of public places, making them safe for law-abiding citizens. It enables shopkeepers to determine who should and should not be permitted to use the streets.
How about creating spaces where young people (and everyone) can go and exist, without the expectation of having to spend money?
These devices are available to buy in New Zealand and unregulated, as far as I know.
The manufacturer has made a device that is heard by youth (up to 25). The ability to hear the higher frequency goes down over the years.
Rules around device licensing is required to regulate manufacture and then use. We could allow devices of a certain range (of frequency, a little higher and under 20 etc or of distance) for specific purposes and then they could be manufactured accordingly.
Shops could ask local police for one if under 14's are stealing stuff – maybe allocated while this remains a problem. Siting could be based on the range to secure the premises (10 metres not necessarily a standard 15 etc) and maybe within the shop.
My world? In our world these devices are legal now. And in our world under 14’s are going into dairy’s and taking stuff again and again and police say all that the shop owner can do is ban them from the shop – they come in anyway.
As these are not ramraids there is no national publicity.
In that scenario, I'd expect to see shop-owners sued by the parents of toddlers (for example) who have had their hearing assaulted through no fault of their own.
Surely it would be much more effective to actually deal with the juvenile criminals.
You do realise that the under 14's do not do it while others are in the dairy?
Community policing is going to have to provide a methodology beyond saying ban them from the shop (they come back anyhow), or maybe identify via CCTV (but the only option is family court atm).
An alternative to that might be to offer the shop owners some sort of dye to spray on the hands and or clothes (that washes off).
Really? I've seen plenty of shoplifters in my time – and mostly they want others in the shop, which distracts the shopkeeper and camouflages their actions.
Effective sanctions (I agree that 'ban them from the shop', with no societal enforcement is worse than useless) – is a better solution.
Private citizens have bought them and use them to control neighbouring sections – they have their section quiet because the neighbours children do not go outside to play because of the noise.
“We are not seeing the leadership we need,” said Sir David King, the UK’s former chief scientific adviser. “This is the biggest challenge civilization has ever faced and yet we can’t get the response we need. I can’t tell you how I feel about them just not showing up. It’s difficult to be optimistic, we are in a terrible place.”
…
“It’s an embarrassing gap. National leaders are just pointing fingers at each other over the lack of progress. Given the events of this summer, where things have just spiraled out of control, you’d think that would concentrate minds.”
…
“Watering down climate commitments and disincentivizing the industries of tomorrow for cynical short term political reasons is not leadership, it is cowardice.”
Holy heck, Mike Hoskins gave Luxon (by the standards of Newstalk National Party) a grilling this morning – will he work with Winston First. Luxon struggled to give a yes or no answer but essentially he said yes if he needs to – coalition of chaos.
Btw you can listen online like I did when someone pointed it out to me, you don;t actually have to listen to the station live
Asked about the inequitable impact raising the pension age would have on Māori, Seymour said raising the superannuation age was "a good reason to look after yourself".
Another reason for looking after yourself, an underfunded health system, and thus a focus on being able to afford a good home and health insurance and a good private school for the children (or the entry price for a posh suburb school zone).
Of Epsom, by Epsom and for Epsom. The gated community class order spokesperson.
(apologies if already posted, but it's worth reading)
Just one example:
"Luxon’s claim that every single health outcome has gone backwards under Labour is untrue. Most of the main health outcomes have remained the same or improved – general mortality, cancer, infant mortality, maternal health."
I check most NZ media each day and this is the first time I've seen this spelled out.
But I've seen dozens of news reports and commentary since the debate telling us who they think "won". There have been far more of those than reports on what is true or false.
The above link is from the TVNZ website, so they deserve credit for that. Any chance they could pass it on to their own political editor, so she could actually do her job for once?
Liar Luxon? Some Kiwis just lap it up – seems lying is a bit of a vote-winner.
So call Luxon on his lies, repeatedly – the Nats are a smoke and mirrors party.
Re Queenstown crypto, a Dr Smith solution could work wonders – simply lower drinkable water standards so enterprise QT can start humming again. Nats really are ratbags.
Smith’s bogus standards create split in Land and Water Forum
[7 March 2017]
“If we are going to clean up our rivers we need all New Zealanders on board. National can’t keep side-lining people and groups it disagrees with – that’s not the way science works.”
Nick Smith’s water policy a washout [24 February 2017]
“We call on New Zealanders to join in the fight for clean safe fresh water. We will not let the government get away with putting our people at increased risk. Fresh water is too important to the health of our communities and our environment.”
Radio NZ reports: Te Pāti Māori’s co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has accused the new government of “deliberate .. systemic genocide” over its policies to roll back the smokefree policy and the Māori Health Authority. The left love hysterical language. If you oppose racial quotas in laws, you are a racist. And now if you sack ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Winston Peters reckons media outlets were bribed by the $55 million Public Interest Journalism Fund. He is not the first to make such an accusation. Last year, the Platform outlined conditions media signed up to in return for funds from the PJIF: . . . ...
Wow, it’s December already, and it’s a Friday. So here are few things that caught our attention recently. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt covered the new government’s coalition agreements and what they mean for transport. On Tuesday Matt looked at AT’s plans for fare increases ...
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The coalition party agreements are mainly about returning to 2017 when National lost power. They show commonalities but also some serious divergencies.The two coalition agreements – one National and ACT, the other National and New Zealand First – are more than policy documents. They also describe the processes of the ...
First QuestionYou’re going to crack down on people ram-raiding dairies, because you say hard-working dairy owners shouldn’t have to worry about getting ram-raided.But once the chemist shops have pseudoephedrine in them again, they're going to get ram-raided all the time. Do chemists not work as hard as dairy owners?Second QuestionYou ...
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Henry Kissinger is finally dead. Good fucking riddance. While Americans loved him, he was a war criminal, responsible for most of the atrocities of the final quarter of the twentieth century. Cambodia. Bangladesh. Chile. East Timor. All Kissinger. Because of these crimes, Americans revere him as a "statesman" (which says ...
Buzz from the Beehive Yes, ministers in the new government are delivering speeches and releasing press statements. But the message on the government’s official website was the same as it has been for the past several days, when Point of Order went looking for news from the Beehive that had ...
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Well that didn’t last long, did it? Mere days after taking on what he called the “awesome responsibility” of being Prime Minister, M Christopher Luxon has started blaming everyone else, and complaining that he has inherited “economic vandalism on an unprecedented scale” – which is how most of us are ...
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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has confirmed that it will be back to the future on planning legislation. This will be just one of a number of moves which will see the new government go backwards as it repeals and cost-cuts its way into power. They will completely repeal one ...
As the new government settles into the Beehive, expectations are high that it can sort out some of the economic issues confronting New Zealand. It may take time for some new ministers to get to grips with the range of their portfolio work and responsibilities before they can launch the changes that ...
TV3 political editor Jenna Lynch was among the corps of political reporters who bridled, when Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters told them what he thinks of them (which is not much). She was unabashed about letting her audience know she had bridled. More usefully, she drew attention to something which ...
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Who’s At The Wheel? The electorate’s message, as aggregated in the polling booths on 14 October, turned out to be a conservative political agenda stronger than anything New Zealand has seen in five decades. In 1975, Bill Rowling was run over by just one bus, with Rob Muldoon at the wheel. In 2023, ...
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Cheers to reader Deane for this quote from Breakfast TV today:Chloe Swarbrick to Brook van Velden re the coalition agreement: “... an unhinged grab-bag of hot takes from your drunk uncle at Christmas”Cheers also to actual Prime Minister of a country Christopher Luxon for dorking up his swearing-in vows.But that's enough ...
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Michael Bassett writes – Like most people, I was getting heartily sick of all the time being wasted over the coalition negotiations. During the first three weeks Winston grinned like a Cheshire cat, certain he’d be needed; Chris Luxon wasted time in lifting the phone to Winston ...
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Lindsay Mitchell writes – A hugely significant gain for ACT is somewhat camouflaged by legislative jargon. Under the heading ‘Oranga Tamariki’ ACT’s coalition agreement contains the following item: Remove Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 According to Oranga Tamariki: “Section ...
A previous column looked at Winston Peters biographically. This one takes a closer look at his record as a minister, especially his policy record.Brian Easton writes – 1990-1991: Minister of Māori Affairs. Few remember Ka Awatea as a major document on the future of Māori policy; there is ...
Is COP28 largely smoke and mirrors and a plan so cunning, you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel? Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: COP28 kicks off on November 30 and up for negotiation are issues like the role of fossil fuels in the energy transition, contributions to ...
PM Elect Christopher Luxon was challenged this morning on whether he would sack Adrian Orr and Andrew Coster.TL;DR: Here’s my pick of top 10 news links elsewhere at 10 am on Monday November 27, including:Signs councils are putting planning and capital spending on hold, given a lack of clear guidance ...
This column expands on a Werewolf column published by Scoop on FridayRoutinely, Winston Peters is described as the kingmaker who gets to decide when the centre right or the centre-left has a turn at running this country. He also plays a less heralded but equally important role as the ...
Last Friday, almost six weeks after election day, National finally came to an agreement with ACT and NZ First to form a government. They also released the agreements between each party and looking through them, here are the things I thought were the most interesting (and often concerning) from the. ...
Maori and Pasifika smoking rates are already over twice the ‘all adult’ rate. Now the revenue that generates will be used to fund National’s tax cuts. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The devil is always in the detail and it emerged over the weekend from the guts of the policy agreements National ...
Perhaps the biggest change that will come to the Beehive as the new government settles in will be a fundamental culture change. The era of endless consultation will be over. This looks like a government that knows what it wants to do, and that means it knows what outcomes ...
So what do you think of the coalition’s decision to cancel Smokefree measures intended to stop young people, including an over representation of Māori, from taking up smoking? Enabling them to use the tax revenue to give other people a tax cut?David Cormack summed it up well:It seems not only ...
A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Nov 19, 2023 thru Sat, Nov 25, 2023. Story of the Week World stands on frontline of disaster at Cop28, says UN climate chiefExclusive: Simon Stiell says leaders must ‘stop ...
On announcement morning my mate texted:Typical of this cut-price, fake-deal government to announce itself on Black Friday.What a deal. We lose Kim Hill, we gain an empty, jargonising prime minister, a belligerent conspiracist, and a heartless Ayn Rand fanboy. One door closes, another gets slammed repeatedly in your face.It seems pretty ...
Buzz from the Beehive Having found no fresh announcements on the government’s official website,Point of Order turned today to Scoop’sLatest Parliament Headlines for its buzz. This provided us with evidence that the Māori Party has been soured by the the coalition agreement announced yesterday by the new PM. “Soured” ...
Yesterday the trio that will lead our country unveiled their vision for New Zealand.Seymour looking surprisingly statesmanlike, refusing to rise to barbs about his previous comments on Winston Peters. Almost as if they had just been slapstick for the crowd.Winston was mostly focussed on settling scores with the media, making ...
Hi,Thanks for getting amongst Mister Organ on digital — thanks to you, we hit the #1 doc spot on iTunes this week. This response goes a long way to helping us break even.I feel good about that. Other things — not so much.New Zealand finally has a new government, and ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.Also in More Than A FeildingFriday The unboxing And so this is Friday and what have we gone and done to ourselves?In the same way that a Christmas present can look lovely under the ...
“And there’ll be no shortage of ‘events’ to test Luxon’s political skills. David Seymour wants a referendum on the Treaty. Winston wants a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Labour’s handling of the Covid crisis. Talk about cans of worms!”LAURIE AND LES were very fond of their local. It was nothing ...
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Misinformation is debated everywhere and has justifiably sparked concerns. It can polarise the public, reduce health-protective behaviours such as mask wearing and vaccination, and erode trust in science. Much of misinformation is spread not ...
A previous column looked at Winston Peters biographically. This one takes a closer look at his record as a minister, especially his policy record.1990-1991: Minister of Māori Affairs. Few remember Ka Awatea as a major document on the future of Māori policy; there is not even an entry in Wikipedia. ...
So New Zealand has a brand-spanking new right-wing government. Not just any new government either. A formal majority coalition, of the sort last seen in 1996-1998 (our governmental arrangements for the past quarter of a century have been varying flavours of minority coalition or single-party minority, with great emphasis ...
And so this is Friday and what have we gone and done to ourselves?In the same way that a Christmas present can look lovely under the tree with its gold ribbon but can turn out to be nothing more than a big box holding a voucher for socks, so it ...
So, after weeks of negotiations, we finally have a government, with a three-party cabinet and a time-sharing deputy PM arrangement. Newsroom's Marc Daalder has put the various coalition documents online, and I've been reading through them. A few things stand out: Luxon doesn't want to do any work, ...
Nothing says strong and stable like having your government announcement delayed by a day because one of your deputies wants to remind everyone, but mostly you, who wears the trousers. It was all a bit embarrassing yesterday with the parties descending on Wellington before pulling out of proceedings. There are ...
Winston Peters will be Deputy PM for the first half of the Coalition Government’s three-year term, with David Seymour being Deputy PM for the second half. Photo montage by Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR:PM-Elect Christopher Luxon has announced the formation of a joint National-ACT-NZ First coalition Government with a ...
THERE ARE SOME SONGS that seem to come from a place that is at once in and out of the world. Written by men and women who, for a brief moment, are granted access to that strange, collective compendium of human experience that comes from, and belongs to, all the ...
By scrapping Aotearoa’s world-leading smokefree laws, this government is sacrificing Māori lives to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. Not only is this plan revolting, but it doesn’t add up. Treasury has estimated that the reversal of smokefree laws to pay for tax cuts will cost our health system $5.25bn, ...
Figures showing National needs to find another $900 million for landlords highlights the mess this coalition Government is in less than a week into the job. ...
Community organisations, mana whenua and the Greens have written to the incoming Minister of Oceans and Fisheries to call for the progression without delay of the Hauraki Gulf/Tīkapa Moana Marine Protection Bill. ...
"On behalf of the Labour Party I would like to congratulate Christopher Luxon on his appointment as Prime Minister,” Labour Party Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
NZ First has gotten their wish to ‘take our country back’ to the 1800s with a policy program that will white-wash Aotearoa and erase tangata whenua rights. By disestablishing the Māori Health Authority this Government has condemned Māori to die seven years earlier than Pākehā. By removing Treaty obligations from ...
Te Pāti Māori have called for the resignation of the Ministry of Foreign and Trade chief executive Chris Seed following his decision to erase te reo Māori from government communications. While the country still waits for a new government to be formed, Mr Seed took it upon himself to undermine ...
The New Zealand Labour Party is urgently calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Israel to put a halt to the appalling attacks and violence, so that a journey to a lasting peace can begin, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
A significant milestone in ratifying the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was reached last night, with 524 of the 705 member European Parliament voting in favour to approve the agreement. “I’m delighted to hear of the successful vote to approve the NZ-EU FTA in the European Parliament overnight. This is ...
The Government is contributing a further $5 million to support the response to urgent humanitarian needs in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, bringing New Zealand’s total contribution to the humanitarian response so far to $10 million. “New Zealand is deeply saddened by the loss of civilian life and the ...
Ellen Rykers talks to a Southland couple with ambitious plans to divert construction waste from landfill. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof, brought to you by AMP. Sign up here. As much as 50% of the waste generated in New Zealand comes from construction and demolition, and a ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is calling for Hastings District Councillor Damon Harvey to be reinstated in his committee chair role and the councillors to instead hold a vote of no confidence in the Mayor following revelations that he was stripped of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alistair Woodward, Professor, School of Population Health, University of Auckland Climate change has many effects, but one of the most significant will feature for the first time at COP28 – its impact on human health. Now under way in Dubai, the latest ...
The new National, ACT and New Zealand First co-governance government has set its sights firmly on removing Māori rights, judging from their coalition agreements. The new government’s first joint announcement included that they would remove the ...
Commenting on proposals to reduce Auckland’s refuse collection from weekly to fortnightly, Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance spokesman, Jordan Williams, said: “Auckland Council’s finances are in dire straits, and clearly serious savings need to be ...
Former National cabinet minister Hekia Parata has resigned from the Royal Commission into the Covid-19 pandemic. She departed the commission on November 15, ahead of the formation of the new government but after the overall election result was known. The National-led coalition has announced it will look to introduce a ...
E tū, the biggest private sector union in Aotearoa New Zealand, is shocked to learn that the National Party’s coalition agreement with ACT would see planned tax breaks for landlords brought forward, costing at least $900 million according to analysis ...
RNZ political reporter Katie Scotcher, Newhub's political editor Jenna Lynch, and the New Zealand Herald's deputy political editor, Thomas Coughlan discuss the coalition government's first week in charge. ...
On Tuesday, MPs will be required to pledge an oath of allegiance to ‘ His Majesty King Charles the Third, His heirs and successors’ before they can be officially sworn into Parliament. This is symbolic of the colonial power that Parliament places ...
Auckland’s new professional football franchise has less than a year to assemble a squad that’s not just competitive, but capable of winning over the city’s fickle fans. Whose signatures should they be hunting?Professional football is returning to Auckland. Billionaire American businessman Bill Foley, owner of NHL champions the Las ...
As a new climate loss and damage fund is operationalised on the first day of the COP28 UN climate conference, Greenpeace Aotearoa is condemning the New Zealand Government’s decision to restart offshore fossil fuel exploration, which will only lead to more ...
The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists have settled their pay negotiations with Te Whatu Ora ending months of bargaining and industrial action. More than 90 per cent of polled ASMS members voted to accept Te Whatu Ora’s latest pay offer ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists and media workers have criticised comments made by Aotearoa New Zealand’s newly-elected Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters — who claimed that a 2020 Labour government media funding initiative constituted “bribery” — as a threat to media freedom. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reports that it ...
ANALYSIS:By Tristan Dunning, University of Queensland, and Martin Kear, University of Sydney While the world remains fixated on the devastating October 7 Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, there has been a pronounced — and mostly unnoticed — escalation in violence against Palestinians in ...
ANALYSIS:By Terence Wood In the wake of New Zealand’s recent election, and subsequent coalition negotiations, Winston Peters has emerged as New Zealand’s Foreign Minister again. I’ve never been able to adequately explain why a populist politician leading a party called New Zealand First would have an interest in a ...
NZME, the owners of the Herald, has been fined close to $200,000 after a “magnetic puzzle toy” sold through its Grabone service was deemed to be unsafe. The fine is an increase on the $88,000 penalty previous imposed by the court after the Commerce Commission appealed the decision. In a ...
On Saturday 2 December, pro-choice supporters will rally and march to defend abortion rights and to counter anti-choice conservatives. The rally starts at 1pm at Te Aro Park (Dixon/Manners) with speakers in the Park before marching. ...
The Reserve Bank surprised everyone this week by warning it may have to raise interest rates again to force inflation down, effectively eliminating the prospect of major mortgage rate cuts over the coming summer. In this week’s episode of When the Facts Change, Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr joins Bernard ...
Ōtepoti supporters of Restore Passenger Rail will slowly walk from the Railway Station to the Octagon on Monday morning, in support of their campaign’s demands that the new Government restores a nationwide passenger rail service and provides ...
Dame Jacinda Ardern observed after she stood down as Prime Minister that "Government isn’t just what you do, it's how you make people feel". While an interesting insight into how she viewed the purpose of government (and, some would argue, an ...
As the show prepares for its final episode, we look back at some of the weird and wonderful moments from the last six years of The Project NZ. The Project NZ burst into the 7pm slot in February 2017, and has since served us everything from Lizzo’s opinion on cheese ...
J Day Is Auckland’s Annual Celebration Of Our Kiwi Cannabis Culture And A Protest Against Prohibition, Held In Albert Park Every Year Since 1992. NORML and friends presents the 31st Annual J Day, usually held on the first Saturday in May every year ...
E Tipu e Rea Whānau Services are deeply concerned at the new Government's plan to scrap Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. As an organisation that works with teenage parents and their tamariki who have a history of state intervention, we know ...
Auckland is considering a move that would reduce kerbside rubbish collections to once a fortnight. It’s part of a council plan to drastically reduce the amount of rubbish produced by households, supported by the recent city-wide rollout of food scrap bins expected to reduce up to 41% of bin contents by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mike W. Morley, Associate Professor and Director, Flinders Microarchaeology Laboratory, Flinders University In June, researchers led by palaeoanthropologist Lee Berger published sensational claims about an extinct human species called Homo naledi online and in the Netflix documentary Unknown: Cave of Bones. They ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Merja Myllylahti, Senior Lecturer, Co-Director Research Centre for Journalism, Media & Democracy, Auckland University of Technology According to a recent survey by the News Media Association, 90% of editors in the United Kingdom “believe that Google and Meta pose an existential threat ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sophie Scott, Associate Professor (Adjunct), Science Communication, University of Notre Dame Australia Shutterstock It’s getting towards the time of the year when you might feel more overwhelmed than usual. There are work projects to finish and perhaps exams in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephanie Wescott, Lecturer in Education, Monash University This week a new report said there was a “curriculum problem” in Australia. Education consultancy group Learning First found the science curriculum lacked depth and breadth and had major problems with sequencing and clarity. While ...
The new government has reiterated its commitment to build a stronger relationship with India. Trade minister Todd McClay will visit the country before the end of the month for a whirlwind trip to meet with his counterpart, reports Thomas Coughlan at the Herald. “I will be working with prime minister ...
The PM says deep spending cuts are needed to fix the ‘economic vandalism’ of the previous government. But Luxon and Willis are already running up some big bills of their own, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In his first week on the job, new Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell is visiting cyclone and flood-ravaged regions to hear what they need from the government. ...
Many news consumers feel a responsibility to bear witness to all sorts of distressing images and events. But deciding to tune out instead doesn’t make you a bad person, writes counsellor Ross Palethorpe. Our attention is demanded everywhere. We are exhorted to witness, to not look away, to act, in ...
They’re cold, they’re caffeinated and they’re classier than an energy drink – iced coffee in a can has gone from novelty to normal in Aotearoa in record time. We tasted 25 to sort the morning must-haves from the mediocre mud water. Just a few short years ago, coffee in a ...
Opinion: The costs of living in New Zealand have been in the news for decades, with particular attention paid to food and housing. Food costs have been mostly blamed on the supermarket duopoly. The economics of the production and distribution of food and associated international commerce relationships and the ...
FICTION 1 The Girl from London by Olivia Spooner (Hachette, $37.99) A free copy of the wildly popular novel about a wartime shipboard romance was up for grabs in last week’s giveaway contest. Readers were asked to recount a shipboard romance in their own lives or someone they knew. ...
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It’s been a big few years for usage of New Zealand’s rail network, according to KiwiRail executives, who have reported unprecedented interest from freight customers as capital investment mounts. But they highlight the need for big jobs such as separating passenger and freight lines and bolstering the rail corridor ...
With a call for petroleum companies and the nations of the world to work together to solve the climate crisis, the United Arab Emirates’ controversial choice of President of COP28, opened the UN’s annual climate negotiations in Dubai yesterday. “Colleagues, let history reflect the fact that this is the ...
The coalition agreements contain many actions on the environment - most of them regressive and some that could take NZ back decades, writes environmentalist Gary Taylor The post New Government crashes environment appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Call it inflation, call it rising cost of living or call it “cozzie livs” as our Aussie friends now do. But it’s impacting different cities around the world very differently. The dry Aussie vernacular disguises a real problem in their biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, which price rises have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Peter Dutton has his tail up, but he’s being careful to manage expectations. As the opposition celebrates its suddenly improved fortunes, Dutton told the party room this week that inevitably the government would recalibrate over ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Breadon, Program Director, Health and Aged Care, Grattan Institute A Senate committee has investigated why so many Australians are missing out on dental care and made 35 recommendations for reform. By far the most sweeping is the call for universal ...
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Coldplay will become the first musical act to play three nights at Auckland’s Eden Park when they visit the country in a year’s time. The band has just announced a third and final show at the venue as part of their global and seemingly never-ending Music of the Spheres world ...
A genuine news story quickly became a springboard for rumour and speculation, with one councillor at the centre of it. Wellington mayor Tory Whanau has a problem with alcohol. She has made that public and is clearly embarrassed. Whanau’s public behaviour was first called into questionin July after reports of ...
In light of the Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters’ recent comments about the media, a group of journalists who serve as E tū delegates say these claims are misinformed. Mr Peters has claimed the Public Interest Journalism Fund was a government “bribe” ...
RNZ News New Zealand’s opposition Labour Party has announced its shadow cabinet to face off against the conservative coalition government. The party endorsed Chris Hipkins as leader and voted Carmel Sepuloni as deputy earlier this month. Sepuloni is also Pacific Peoples minister. Many of the roles are a continuation of ...
It’s been a big few years for usage of New Zealand’s rail network, according to KiwiRail executives who have reported unprecedented interest from freight customers as capital investment mounts. But at the same time, they caution the need for big jobs like separating passenger and freight lines and bolstering ...
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Auckland mayor Wayne Brown has unveiled a proposal he says will encourage more uptake of public transport around the city. He’d like to see a $50 cap on public transport costs per person per week, which would cover bus, rail and inner harbour ferry services. “We need to get the ...
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New Zealand’s new Government created international headlines this week for its decision to reverse the world’s first smoking ‘generation ban’. Now another major u-turn is on the cards, as New Zealand pledges to overturn the world-leading ...
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The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is offering to redesign logos for any renamed government departments for free in an effort to save taxpayers money following concerns that requiring a name change of government departments will give them an excuse to ...
The former justice minister Kiri Allan has revealed she pleaded not guilty to a charge of failing to accompany a police officer in order to test a grey area in the law. Allan’s case, which related to a political career-ending car crash in July, was set to be heard in ...
New Zealand Disability Support Network is seeking assurance that disabled New Zealanders are a priority for the new government after being omitted from their 100 day plan. “Disability support providers wondering how they’ll survive financially, underpaid ...
The Taxpayers’ Union can today reveal that Grant Robertson’s attendance at the Rugby World Cup final in Paris cost taxpayers $39,605. Included in the cost was more than $32,000 in business class flights and more than $5000 in accommodation costs ...
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Former Invercargill mayor and national icon Tim Shadbolt will lend his name to the terminal at Invercargill Airport. The city’s councillors have agreed to pay tribute to Shadbolt’s eight-term tenure as mayor. He was first elected in 1993 and, aside from one term, held the position consistently until 2022. “Sir ...
Anna Galvan admits she’s not great on details. The former Silver Fern struggles to pinpoint a specific match that stands out to her, despite a career spanning 17 years in the elite game and 13 tests for her country. But ask the proud Cantabrian a strategic question on ...
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has unveiled a portfolio and list reshuffle as his party readies to hold the new coalition government to account. The line-up brought ministerial experience that National, Act and NZ First lacked, said Hipkins, and included six women and four men in the top 10. “I am ...
Score card for the Leaders Debate:
Natz win! Outstanding performance by Natz leader Christopher Luxon!
In the category of answers ‘Mostly Untrue’ and ‘False’ – Luxon 6, Hipkins 0.
Such a one-sided contest!
https://twitter.com/Kiwi_Rascal/status/1704488484939964922
Luxon reminds me more and more of a beauty queen contestant. I am just waiting for him to offer to bring about world peace, cure cancer and end poverty and hunger. No idea how he is going to do any of his 'pledges' but winning is his goal.
So true Janice.
Well done Mr Luxon. Now he is on a roll he can practise lots more lies and half truths. He gets away with it and what better incentive than getting way with it so far.
Can you elaborate a bit? What's he done this time?
Open the tweet in 1 above.
I think it is now getting to the panic stage….
I can't see any circuit breaker or reason why the polls would turn. What event or circumstance could possibly bring people over to the left?
This fear is enhanced when you look at the combined Nact vote over the past 5 elections. With exception of 2020, they basically have an entrenched 46% base. How do we get those people to move now?
2008 48.58%
2011 48.38%
2014 47.73%
2017 44.95%
2020 33.17%
2023 48.1% (curia poll of polls)
We can't wait for National to 'run out of steam' as a government.
A post-October election Labour leadership should just go back to the work that Robertson and Parker prepared for Budget 2023. Being credible on tax is the only way to defeat National.
An adventurous Labour leadership would talk to the Greens about a common tax policy that helps workers and beneficiaries. It has been so easy for National to use the Greens as the boogeyman on tax and that will continue until Labour and Greens settle their tax platform together.
Should do it now, as was done with Ardern taking over. Why wait?
Labour lost all credibility on tax when they ruled out taxing wealth – after their own report clearly showed how unjust the current tax system is (and previously, their own tax working group recommended capital taxes). And Labour took a huge risk and went out on a limb against public opinion, to protect the super wealthy. Ardern did the same with her blanket rejection of capital taxes, so it must be a really important core value for Labour to defend inequality and unjust tax.
Polls consistently show strong support for increasing tax on wealth (e.g. 63% support for wealth tax to fund dental care), but Labour knows better.
No one except the Green Party is proposing a wealth tax, and even with a following wind and a pole vault they aren't seeing 88% of New Zealand voters liking that Green tax policy.
Under no form of coalition government will there be a wealth tax implemented.
So that's the Greens sitting out on the tax limb there.
Te Pāti Māori: Suite of tax changes with $30k tax-free bracket, change brackets in favour of lower earnings, remove GST from all food, introduce wealth, foreign companies, land banking and vacant house taxes, increase company tax rate to former 33% rate (policy here).
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/news-extras/story/2018902030/election-2023-rnz-s-guide-to-party-policy
On a limb with Te Pati Maori…who propose more aggressive wealth taxes than the Greens.
NACT could get 45% and lose.
Lab 30 Gr 14 TPM 4 NZF 4.9 means a Left government.
The Greens are on a roll, TPM and Labour may well pick up some of the 12 % undecided.
Let it go.
It's better for the cortizone levels right now just to let this one go.
You gave up on Labour long ago Ad.
Not even in Waitaki have I stopped donating, delivering pamphlets, and putting up hoardings. You should have joined us for lunch at Urban Grind on Sunday.
Perfectly possible to know we will lose and also be resolute.
Otherwise I wouldn't have fought campaigns in which we got caned in 2008, 2011, 2014, and in the 2021 Auckland mayoral contest.
But you DON'T know we will lose….the Greens (who I vote for) may come to the rescue.
completely agree. It's baffling that people want to give up. Even if the left does lose we still need as many MPs in parliament as possible. But it ain't over until it's over. Maybe NZF fucks up and drops below 5%. Maybe there's a big flood that wakes people up. Maybe it's really tight and Nact voters don't turn out because they think it's a done deal and LW party members door knocking and leaflet dropping tip the left over the edge to a win.
Got flooding and a wild fire within about 400kms
His cortizone levels will be the same as yours.
What would happ6if te parti Maori got 7 seats and labour got 30%, the greens 12%
TPM get lots of seats but the right probably still win because of the weird overhang thing.
We would have 123 MPs under this scenario, and Nact would have 63 of them (assuming NZF were under 5%)
https://elections.nz/stats-and-research/mmp-seat-allocation-calculator/#!|percentage|ACT%20New%20Zealand,10,1|Animal%20Justice%20Party%20Aotearoa%20New%20Zealand,,|Aotearoa%20Legalise%20Cannabis%20Party,,|DemocracyNZ,,|Democratic%20Alliance,,|Freedoms%20New%20Zealand,,|Leighton%20Baker%20Party,,|New%20Conservatives,,|New%20Nation%20Party,,|New%20Zealand%20First%20Party,4.9,|New%20Zealand%20Labour%20Party,30,|New%20Zealand%20Loyal,,|NewZeal,,|NZ%20Outdoors%20&%20Freedom%20Party,,|Te%20P%C4%81ti%20M%C4%81ori,3,7|The%20Greens%60%20The%20Green%20Party%20of%20Aotearoa/New%20Zealand,12,1|The%20New%20Zealand%20National%20Party,40,|The%20Opportunities%20Party%20(TOP),,|Vision%20New%20Zealand,,|Women's%20Rights%20Party,,|Other%20party%201,,
link to calculation
I'm not clear whether Bwaghorn is proposing that TPM win all of the Maori seats, but only their current 2% or so of the party vote (which would create the overhang you've outlined).
IMO, this scenario is virtually impossible. Take Waikato-Hauraki, for example: unless Mahuta effectively tells the electorate, 'I'm retiring, don't vote for me, vote for the TPM candidate' – she's going to win that seat.
Or whether Bwaghorn is proposing that TPM get over 5% of the party vote (which is not impossible, they've polled higher this year), which would result in 7 seats.
This is more realistic – but would almost certainly come at the expense of the GP and/or Labour vote (or at least it has in polling this year). The only caveat to this, is if TPM voters are being missed by the current polling measurements (not impossible, this demographic is often undercounted) AND those potential TPM voters actually get out and vote (a much more problematic issue – they often don't)
Either scenario requires an effective shift of at least 5% from the 'right' to the 'left' – regardless of which left party that vote ends up in. That's the bit that we're not seeing in the current polls.
Was wondering if a cup of tea was needed , labour would need to shift its Maori mps up the list for it to work ,
Too late, the list has been published for 2023.
Not worth a cup of tea then
On TV1 News last night there was an item in which Zelensky accused Russia of using food as a weapon. Perhaps Russia and the West need to come to an agreement: the West refrains from supplying weapons and other military hardware to Ukraine, and Russia, in return, ensures that food supplies get through.
No F***ing way.
Your suggestion is to reward 'Putin the Tiny' for his murderous, criminal actions.
Shame on you
mikesh is one of those depressingly common types who spend their whole time railing against western imperialism while bending over backwards to justify Russian imperialism and genocide, and hating on the military industrial complexx as evil under all circumstances, while hailing the glorious and unstoppable military might of Russia.
[mikesh is one of those depressingly common types who spend their whole time railing against western imperialism]
I don't rail against Western (NATO) imperialism (though a good case might be made for doing so). However, Zelensky is a hypocrite.
Speaking of hyprocrisy, I have noticed your repeated calls for Iran and North Korea to cease their supply of arms to russia.
I don't think I have ever spoken of Iran or North Korea.
Russia, as I understand it, broke off the agreement to allow Ukrainian wheat passage because NATO was smuggling weapons into Ukraine under cover of that agreement. So it seems hypocritical of Zelensky to accuse Russia of “weaponising food”.
"I don't think I have ever spoken of Iran or North Korea."
Precisely my point. They are delivering weapons to this conflict also – albeit the side of the aggressor.
But the pro-Putin "anti-war" types never seem to comment, they only complain about the weapons supplied to Ukraine – the country that was needlessly invaded and is being ruthlessly brutalised by russia. They are deafeningly silent about weapons being supplied to the attacker.
"Putin the Tiny" is a pragmatist, who knows what has to be done to ensure Russia's long term security/.
Dismantling and removing memorials associated with Soviet oppression and raising a statue in tribute to Dzerzhinsky is pragmatic?
/
He'll go down in Russian history as a fool.
Germany had agreed to be an economic partner of Russia, Nordstrom, and maintained 1% defence spending 2014-2021 (when NATO required an increase to 2% by 2024) – they did not want to work with Trump and his GOP (untrustworthy). It was the beginning of the end of NATO.
Then Putin in Feb 2022 … the German response was swift. And Sweden and Finland joined NATO.
Now Russia has two alternatives, be a subordinate of the alternate hegemony of China (pretending it's a partnership), or post Putin join NATO. Both suck. He's cost them their independence.
and who has made it clear to everyone that joining NATO is an excellent idea.
But when Russia applied to join, and I understand they have made several attempts, they have been turned down. Says it all really.
Now Russia has two alternatives, be a subordinate of the alternate hegemony of China (pretending it's a partnership), or post Putin join NATO. Both suck. He's cost them their independence.
Russia will never be allowed to join NATO, even post Putin, unless they adopt American style neoliberalism, which would allow America to exploit them economically, for her own advantage. That's what Putin is fighting to prevent, in this war. The first moves in this war occurred when a US inspired (fascist?) coup took place in Ukraine, and involved the unconstitutional dumping of the pro Russian president.
The Ukrainians, for all their heroism, and I admit their defence has been heroic, have acted like a bunch of cretins, foolishly teaming up with the evil empire simply to preserve their sovereignty, which Russia was not actually threatening prior to the events of 2014.
Actually, he is an evil imperialist who invades peaceful neighbours, undertakes mass murder, torture, rape and genocide, and who has made it clear to everyone that joining NATO is an excellent idea. At home, he suffocates his own population with relentless propaganda and oppression, starting from childhood.
But I suppose all evil could be excused as being “pragmatic”, by those who support it.
and who has made it clear to everyone that joining NATO is an excellent idea.
But when Russia applied to join, and I understand they have made several attempts, they have been turned down. Says it all really.
Being declined membership into a voluntary defence alliance, is hardly cause to launch wars of aggression on many of your neighbours and to commit ubiquitous war crimes abroad and ruthlessly suppress your own population.
You make it sound like everyone but russia, is responsible for russia's actions.
Mikesh torture rape deliberately targeting hospitals. What do you propose to stop Putins War crimes..
please fix your username
2020 was an anomalous result – and was effectively a vote of confidence in Ardern for her handling of Covid to that date.
Everyone seems to accept that it was a result which is never likely to be repeated again.
However, your chosen period reflects a decade of National government (hence the high percentages). Even in the 2017 election, there wasn't a huge appetite for a change of government (certainly not before Ardern took over as Labour leader)
If you go back to the previous electorate period (5th Labour government) – you get National/ACT totals in the 30s.
What would shift the current 48% centre right total?
Some suggestions (mostly long term ones)
Shit is going down in Queenstown, and the mayor says it highlights the need for the 3 Waters reforms:
"The person who receives a compliance order must comply with it and meet the costs of doing so. Failure to comply with the order is an offence, with a maximum fine of $300,000 for a corporate body.
Queenstown's compliance order will give council engineers legal reinforcement to act quickly and decisively. But this goes to the guts of why the Three Waters reforms are important, Lewers admits.
The council should have had a protozoa barrier in place at its Two Mile plant, one of the biggest in the district. Indeed, the council work plan lists that as a necessary upgrade to reach full Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules compliance – but it hadn’t found the funding.
"We've got other intakes in a similar situation, and we're progressively upgrading them as we go," he says.
Recently they've done Arrowtown, they're commissioning the Shotover bores now, they've reached an agreement with Cardrona, and there are still more to do. "I think Two Mile is probably the most difficult and the most expensive," he says. "So we were still working through the options of what to do."
There are two types of barrier. There’s UV treatment, which is cheap and easy and the council will probably set in place now – but it’s not very effective.
Far better is membrane filtration, which has a pore size of 0.1–0.5µm and removes particles, bacteria and protozoa from water. (It’s less effective for viruses – that’s why every water plant needs an array of three or four treatments.)
But membrane filtration is expensive. Lewers says the council had estimates running into the tens of millions of dollars.
Queenstown has "heightened cost pressures" because of the combination of high residential growth and an extremely high visitor load, he says.
But there are many other councils around the country with drinking water and wastewater plants that aren't up to consentable standards, nor up to the new water-quality bar. "This does highlight the challenges," Lewers says. "It also, I think, reinforces the need for water reform."
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/lack-of-water-treatment-highlights-urgency-of-three-waters-reforms-admits-queenstown-mayor
There's around 150,000 overseas visitors in town at the moment, plus about 30,000 locals.
This is far bigger in scale than Havelock North already.
Lol- infrastructure in NZ:
There are first world countries, third world countries and Simeon Brown run countries.
Don’t drink the water, don’t breathe the air…
It also shows how messed up that Labour couldn’t put together a palatable reform given the obvious need.
I've realised you're right. Took a while, but I've been thinking too many other thoughts. No sign yet of Stuff figuring it out, nor the Herald, nor TVNZ, nor Newshub. Slackers all!
If the msm pull finger they might get there within 24 hours of reaction time. If any of the neolib parties show leadership on the issue, the excitement could infuse the campaign. Nah, no chance, given their turgid mental processes.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/lack-of-water-treatment-highlights-urgency-of-three-waters-reforms-admits-queenstown-mayor
So Queenstown is in the crap. In a world of ‘every man for himself’ and ‘socialism is bad’ I expect that the National MP, all of his supporters and the Act side of the government after October will be saying, ‘Tough titty, that’s your problem. Government isn’t a charity, let us know how you get on.’
So you would expect.
But another neoliberal creed of Natz and Act is – socialise the costs and privatise the profits.
Don't hold your breath.
Act will probably bargain basement sell water supplies to companies so they can make a profit from publicly owned and built infrastructure
The playground of the rich can't pay for their own sewerage upgrades lol.
If they can afford those house prices they can afford a sewerage levy from the council until the problem is fixed.
That'll become $2,000,000 very quickly if national wins!!
Queenstown houses are obviously "aspirational".
Which makes their ability to pay for their own sewerage system upgrade even more evident….
Apparently we have a problem with people under 14 stealing stuff – no legal liability and they can refuse to answer police questions (at best they can make it a youth and family court matter).
Maybe it's a time for creative solutions.
Creative solutions maybe, but not the dreaded Mosquito. This pernicious device uses sound as a weapon against those young enough to hear it. It effectively makes being young a punishable crime in certain areas. It was so abused in the UK that it had to be banned.
How about creating spaces where young people (and everyone) can go and exist, without the expectation of having to spend money?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/jun/28/manilow-mosquito-youthwave-teenagers
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/jun/24/mosquito-youth-dispersal-alarms-face-ban
The dairy is not a public space, shopkeepers have the right to ban people from them.
Well of course, but the creep factor is what is worrying. How long till they're just put up outside? What's the effect on wildlife, public health?
Anyway, there is no device that works on people under 14 only, but that's fine, ban everyone under 25?
These devices are available to buy in New Zealand and unregulated, as far as I know.
The manufacturer has made a device that is heard by youth (up to 25). The ability to hear the higher frequency goes down over the years.
Rules around device licensing is required to regulate manufacture and then use. We could allow devices of a certain range (of frequency, a little higher and under 20 etc or of distance) for specific purposes and then they could be manufactured accordingly.
Shops could ask local police for one if under 14's are stealing stuff – maybe allocated while this remains a problem. Siting could be based on the range to secure the premises (10 metres not necessarily a standard 15 etc) and maybe within the shop.
So how do the under-14s (including toddlers) who are legitimately accompanied by a parent, enter the shop without discomfort (or even pain)?
Surely it would be easier in your world to just shut down all venues which might be robbed.
My world? In our world these devices are legal now. And in our world under 14’s are going into dairy’s and taking stuff again and again and police say all that the shop owner can do is ban them from the shop – they come in anyway.
As these are not ramraids there is no national publicity.
https://www.slsrtc.co.nz/anti-graffiti
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/north-harbour-news/8566227/New-steps-give-minor-offences-a-hammering
Ideally devices would be activated once someone banned from the shop entered, or was loitering outside with others also banned.
Things like DNA spray do not work with under 14’s as they cannot be prosecuted.
If it is not curbed people will close their shops as they cannot generate a profit because of the theft.
In that scenario, I'd expect to see shop-owners sued by the parents of toddlers (for example) who have had their hearing assaulted through no fault of their own.
Surely it would be much more effective to actually deal with the juvenile criminals.
You do realise that the under 14's do not do it while others are in the dairy?
Community policing is going to have to provide a methodology beyond saying ban them from the shop (they come back anyhow), or maybe identify via CCTV (but the only option is family court atm).
An alternative to that might be to offer the shop owners some sort of dye to spray on the hands and or clothes (that washes off).
Really? I've seen plenty of shoplifters in my time – and mostly they want others in the shop, which distracts the shopkeeper and camouflages their actions.
Effective sanctions (I agree that 'ban them from the shop', with no societal enforcement is worse than useless) – is a better solution.
Not shoplifters under 14 already banned from the shop …it’s a safety in numbers thing.
In a neighbourhood dairy someone might know them and thus the parents can be contacted.
Totally untrue.
A recent debate in parliament indicating there was no UK ban.
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-06-16/debates/81F70BB5-C4E4-46A2-98F2-D53618641550/Anti-LoiteringDevicesSafety
Wow, I thought it had been banned. It's worse that I thought then.
Private citizens have bought them and use them to control neighbouring sections – they have their section quiet because the neighbours children do not go outside to play because of the noise.
Regulation is required alright.
Is NAct 'culture' progressive and effective? Kiwis don't need to vote NAct to find out.
So we now have no recession (most likely never was one) with an increase in GDP, and now contaminated water in Queenstown.
Labour = Good economic managers
Three Waters = Very sensible policy for clean water
National = No idea on economics
Tax cuts for the wealthy = Trickle Up economics
Labour and Left/supporters needs to be loud hailing this from the rooftops………
Fking Aye! Very well summed. Fight back ..and into 'em !
Nicely put Kat…and true. Suddenly the Nats and ACT running around like headless chickens screaming “recession” looks idiotic.
Holy heck, Mike Hoskins gave Luxon (by the standards of Newstalk National Party) a grilling this morning – will he work with Winston First. Luxon struggled to give a yes or no answer but essentially he said yes if he needs to – coalition of chaos.
Btw you can listen online like I did when someone pointed it out to me, you don;t actually have to listen to the station live
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300974737/live-act-waters-down-tax-cuts-commits-to-raising-pension-age
Another reason for looking after yourself, an underfunded health system, and thus a focus on being able to afford a good home and health insurance and a good private school for the children (or the entry price for a posh suburb school zone).
Of Epsom, by Epsom and for Epsom. The gated community class order spokesperson.
A detailed guide to the facts and fiction from the leaders' debate:
Behind the fact-check – details from the first leaders' debate (1news.co.nz)
(apologies if already posted, but it's worth reading)
Just one example:
"Luxon’s claim that every single health outcome has gone backwards under Labour is untrue. Most of the main health outcomes have remained the same or improved – general mortality, cancer, infant mortality, maternal health."
I check most NZ media each day and this is the first time I've seen this spelled out.
But I've seen dozens of news reports and commentary since the debate telling us who they think "won". There have been far more of those than reports on what is true or false.
The above link is from the TVNZ website, so they deserve credit for that. Any chance they could pass it on to their own political editor, so she could actually do her job for once?
Liar Luxon? Some Kiwis just lap it up – seems lying is a bit of a vote-winner.
So call Luxon on his lies, repeatedly – the Nats are a smoke and mirrors party.
Re Queenstown crypto, a Dr Smith solution could work wonders – simply lower drinkable water standards so enterprise QT can start humming again. Nats really are ratbags.
RNZ reported extensively on some of Luxon’s lies regarding Health yesterday: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/498394/the-falsehood-christopher-luxon-was-allowed-to-repeat-in-the-leaders-debate
[from my comment https://thestandard.org.nz/the-great-debate/#comment-1968992]