"The problem with written constitutions is that the inevitable conflicts over their interpretation are resolved by unelected lawyers in judges’ robes. And, as anyone who’s been paying attention to US politics recently knows, allowing judges to determine what should and shouldn’t be included among the fundamental rights of citizens, can throw up some very disturbing results.
With their single house of Parliament, their unwritten – and hence flexible and adaptable – constitution, and their highly efficient electoral machinery, New Zealanders are the masters of their own destiny to a degree unencountered among many peoples. Our courts cannot strike down legislation passed by the House of Representatives, nor can one Parliament bind another – both prohibitions guaranteeing a radically majoritarian mode of government. If the essence of democracy consists of giving effect to the will of the majority, then New Zealand must rank as one of the most democratic nations on Earth"
Whitby in England has announced is doubling the rates on all unoccupied houses, including those used for airbn, in order to increase the supply of residential housing
I mean publishing them for the general public. I just looked again, couldn't find it. I've looked in the past too. Let me know if you find it. Might need to ask the EC or whoever directly.
We're split between the two electorates, Whakatipu is in Southland, but the rest of Central is Waitaki. There's quite a bit of commonality in the Whakatipu / Southland situation, but sfa between Cromwell and Oamaru, was in early 80's when the dam was starting, but not now.
Central Otago will be a seperate electorate at the next review, if the Electoral Commission can figure out how to carve up the rest of South Island. Unfortunately I can't see an outcome that makes more red electorates, just lots much bluer ones. Central would unfortunately be a very deep shade of blue.
I find this column impossible to understand. Anyone?
The Three Waters reforms, Covid Recovery Fund, Provincial Growth Fund, Māori health and education – there's an urgent need to take action on the lack of accountability to New Zealanders, says Auditor-General John Ryan
“I don’t trust CEOs of government agencies… you want trust, you gotta earn it, front up.”
That was the damning assessment from one participant in a study commissioned by the Auditor-General this year, as his office warns of widespread failings in the public accountability of government.
Why did he leave it so late into the 3 Waters legislative process?
If I were Mahuta I would be having a WTF chat with the Auditor General and Hipkins as House manager on a process level. Treasury at least should have warned government this was coming.
But even if you found an alternative to the structural relationship between state corporations and the citizen that causes distrust, would that improve trust?
Or is public trust needed in public corporations when we are far more customers than we are citizens? You get what you pay for not what you engage with. Not a fun conclusion but there's no structural reset on anyone's horizon.
No one appears willing to undo the Public Finance Act, or de-corporatise public utilities and services. On the contrary COVID appears to have accelerated it through health.
Success for the Auditor General would surely be: some extra accountability clause in the 3 Waters bill, on top of the Select Committee ones already added in there.
For example each water entity required to front to Select Committee every year. Or something.
The AG letter to the speakers was last week,following his report to Parliament.
On 27 October when I appeared in front of the Committee, some members expressed concerns about a lack of transparency and accountability over the spending of public money on new initiatives. I share these concerns and I offered to write to the Committee summarising my views on this.
It is difficult, and often not possible, to track spending and what is being achieved
I am concerned by the slow progress in providing this clarity in the reporting requirements. The Public Service Act has been in place since 2020, and five interdepartmental executive boards (IEBs) have been established under the Act. I understand that the Treasury is currently working on publishing the reporting requirements that apply.
Essentially what the AG has persistently found is an absence of Transparency in reporting , no review method for inadequate reporting,follow the money trails are difficult to understand (especially from suppling funding without adequate measurement.
Not a lone voice, and if Luxon has any sense (debatable) he'll stop giving Ardern the free gift of "you want to give the wealthiest everything and the poorest next to nothing".
Confident prediction for 2023: the policy will get dumped by National, or Luxon will. Or both.
The purpose of the National party is to redistribute wealth upwards (or at a minimum prevent its redistribution downwards). Without cutting top tax rates it will need to find other ways to do this. The options would include state asset sales, re-inflating the housing market by stripping out brightline tests and turning on the immigration tap), lowering wages that employers have to pay (immigration tap open, repealing Fair Pay legislation), and so on. Would it be enough though? I can see them delaying tax cuts as a promise for Term 2 after a Term 1 of cost-cutting austerity, i.e. the tax cuts become a reward for the well-off to compensate for the pain that was mostly felt by other people (the less well off) during the austerity phase.
True enough, but their very first purpose is to get elected. Promises can be broken afterwards.
I'm pretty sure that scrapping the 39% rate won't be a campaign commitment. (Whether they do it later is another question: "oh dear, we just had to give this concession to ACT, so sorry, we didn't want to" etc).
So here's my commitment to you. When I become PM, I'll reverse Labour's tax grab. National will repeal each of these tax increases implemented by Labour.
Lets not go through the whole debate for our purposes here in Open Mike.
Being non compos mentis likely affects few people’s ability to vote unless they are medically obviously not able to drag their arses to a booth, or get assistance with early voting. Those unaware of, or not on the non published roll however, are likely in greater numbers–women, debtors etc. Another pool of voters like the “off the grids” that should be enticed and supported to become involved in that basic level of democratic participation.
Age 16–18 should not be a barrier either, including some societal education and support if the legislation were to be enacted.
Any change would require the backing of three quarters of MPs, or a majority vote in a referendum.
Ardern said given the requirement, it “should not just be a matter for consideration by the government of the day alone, but for the Parliament as a whole”.
To get to 92 (75% of parliament) the bill would need some of National to vote against party lines, that’s in addition to getting the vote of every other party.
Hard not to see this as a move to kick the can further down the road while appearing to be acting.
They make everyone re-sit their drivers' license after 80, to make sure they're not drooling on the handbrake.
You could start with compulsory voter restrictions for everyone in rest home hospital-level care then to all with an EPOA and work backwards to 'can't put on their shoes'.
With the responsibility to vote goes IMO all other aspects of being an adult (18 in general terms in NZ). Let 16 years replace being of age appropriate for more "rights" (refer below link) ?? Or is voting at 16 age but other "adult" rights are not age suitable ??
How about those under 25 that are still dependant upon parents incomes to be eligible for an allowance, etc. Come on PM how about aligning 16 to the age for all "adult" age levels ??
I am neither conservative, nor anti-Maori, nor property owning, and I think this is an idiotic development on two levels.
1. I oppose lowering the voting age, on the basis that 16 year olds (in school, and living at home) are more vulnerable to external influence. If we're going with taxation and representation, 8 year olds pay tax, and that is not an argument for 8 year olds voting. 18 is a somewhat arbitrary cut-off, sure, but then so is 16.
2. The Supreme Court is frankly violating the norms of parliamentary sovereignty here. This is not the USA, where courts make policy decisions all the time, and invent laws to justify their own biased nonsense. This is the sort of issue to be resolved via a proper debate within wider New Zealand, not a debate via an unelected and unaccountable judiciary imposing political decisions upon us. NZBORA was never intended to be that.
I don’t follow. The NZ Courts can only point out inconsistencies in legislation, AFAIK, and not dictate Parliament. They either show a clear path or an obstacle.
Correct. The Supreme Court is not violating anything. Parliament will respond and (very probably) the current law (age) will remain … for now.
But it is in the political arena, and like many issues in the "too hard basket" (marriage equality, abortion) it will eventually be taken out of the basket … and of course in years to come everyone will pretend it was never in there!
Decreeing that a voting age of 18 (in place since 1974) is inconsistent with NZBORA (in place since 1990) in 2022 is a nakedly political act on the part of the judiciary here.
It's a sign (along with the nonsense about vaccine mandates somehow breaching fundamental human rights) that NZBORA needs to go.
Ruling out Labour is a dumb move on Winston's behalf.
He has always benefited from being able to go with either side, he has always said making statements about potential coalition partners before the votes are counted was stupid.
A lot of lefty's refuse to accept it but he has in the past got a load of votes from angry labour supporters, people who may want a labour govt but want a handbrake on labours social policies and that even if he didn't go with labour he'd also be a handbrake to the right in immigration and privatization.
By ruling one side out he's not gonna get the angry labour voters and many of the right wing voters he wants to court will blame him for putting labour in power in the first place.
Silly move. Playing both sides of the fence has always been his strength.
My hope is that he sucks as many right wing votes from nat/act as possible but only gets 4.7% of the vote and no electorate seat.
A lot of anti immigration/nationalist populists are bizarrely supporting act right because they don't seem to know that act is in favor of hyper immigration and privatization and foreign ownership. Winston should be able to steal those voters off act and hopefully not break 5% and a few % will make or break this election
My Dad was a swing voter between NZF and Labour. He was rightly angry at Peters' betrayal with the election where he went with National after implying he would go with Labour. Vote Labour in the next few elections. Not sure how long for, but he loved Ardern so voted Labour in the last two. If he was fucked off with Labour I can't imagine him voting Green.
Of interest is cunning old Winston says" HE WONT WORK WITH CURRENT LABOUR PARTY"
after the election labour won't be the current labour party they'll be the newly elected labour government,thats more than enough wriggle room for the old northland tuna to slip through
Unless Labour change all the people from the PM down they will very well be the same government, in their third term. The same people, the same government, no real change in terms of policy, or representation.
This is like pretending that each time John Key got another term it was a different National Party government. It wasn't.
Anyone can refuse to work with anyone, personally i don't think they should, but they all can lay down their priorities and rule out to vote with this or that person/party.
But i guess playing word games makes one feel better about knowing that NZFirst will not come to the aid of Labour should they need it. This next election is going to be so so messy.
However, the interviewer doubled down, and checked whether he was ruling out working with an Ardern-led government – and he claims he is.
To double-check whether there was any wriggle room in his position on Labour, he is asked if he is ruling out working with a Jacinda Ardern-led Government.
Since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting i ruled the regulations of private weapons in the US out. That was babies being shot to pieces and it changed nothing. The political will is not there.
In response to the shooting, President Biden again called on elected officials to take action to stop gun violence and reiterated the need for a ban on assault weapons. He also lamented that the shooting joins other violent attacks on the LGBTQ community, including the 2016 attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and against transgender women.
This was a club how had weekly drag shows and such. You can be assured that that transwomen had been in the club, not sure if one of them got killed by the shooter.
Realised that I was reading the addition "and transwomen" as carrying on from the comment about the Pulse nightclub.
I think it may have just been clumsy phrasing, or a quote not reported in full context.
However, I do think these statements need to be made with clear eyed accuracy. It does no-one any favours, if the harm is asserted without evidence or alternatively under-reported.
He also lamented that the shooting joins other violent attacks on the LGBTQ community, including the 2016 attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and against transgender women.
I could be wrong, but it's possible Biden was taking this opportunity to empathise with and express sympathy for members of minority communities who have been violently attacked. Maybe too 'woke' for some – politicians walk a fine line.
Consider:
He also lamented that the shooting joins other violent attacks on the LGBTQ community, including[1:] the 2016 attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and[2: attacks] against transgender women [as members of the LGBTQ community].
The shooting came during Transgender Awareness Week and hours before Sunday's International Transgender Day of Remembrance, when events around the world are held to mourn and remember transgender people lost to violence.
Why Biden specified "transgender women", instead of "transgender men" or "transgender people" is a mystery. It might make sense if transgender women are victims of violence more often than transgender people in toto, but I don't know if that's the case.
The previous month, a fundamentalist Idaho pastor told his small Boise congregation that gay, lesbian and transgender people should be executed by the government, which lined up with similar sermons from a Texas fundamentalist pastor.
Quotes are from arkie's link @9.2 – the emphasis is mine.
(The name might seem harsh, but the list was compiled after demands when the author was criticised after maintaining a list named Counting Dead Women.)
Context and perspective(s) are important – whether they’re "always necessary" for every statement is a matter for debate, but we all have our obsessions.
Reporting on these particular sentiments is a case in point – lamenting violent attacks on members of minority communities (an expression of sympathy and/or empathy for what some members of these communities go through?) is something that all decent, empathetic people could get behind, imho.
"Context and perspective(s) are important – whether they’re "always necessary" for every statement is a matter for debate, but we all have our obsessions."
I am concerned with this continual repetition of the vulnerability of transwomen in particular, not because expressions of concern are to be denied, but this automatic repetition has played a big part in legislative, policy and institutional changes that have significant impacts on society, but most particularly on women and girls.
So, yes, I approach all promoted comments regarding this with scrutiny.
"Reporting on these particular sentiments is a case in point – lamenting violent attacks on members of minority communities (an expression of sympathy and/or empathy for what some members of these communities go through?) is something that all decent, empathetic people could get behind, imho."
arkie chose that particular paragraph – without knowing the details – to repeat the narrative given above. That transgender women are fundamentally victims of hate. So, I questioned that certainty.
To draw immediate conclusions when so little is known, is not the act of empathy or decency either.
To draw immediate conclusions when so little is known, is not the act of empathy or decency either.
Imho, some will resist empathising with gay, lesbian and transgender people with every fibre of their being – won't matter to them how much time has passed or how much more is known.
The previous month, a fundamentalist Idaho pastor told his small Boise congregation that gay, lesbian and transgender people should be executed by the government, which lined up with similar sermons from a Texas fundamentalist pastor.
I'm going to reply to this, in regards to Biden's remarks and because it is a necessary discussion given that we are currently looking at legislation that seeks to unequivocally and definitively provide a prosecutable recognition of "hate"
The recent attack on Club Q can be rightly called a hateful incident, but until more details are known it is premature to call it or even casually refer to it as a hate crime.
As further details come to light, (and if the perpetrator provides believable testimony regarding motivation), then this might be classed as a hate crime, but I am not aware that this is the case here.
It is important to maintain that distinction despite the inclination to make this assumption. Delaying that declaration until more is known respects the victims of the crime, by not reducing them to a message for political purpose, as Biden appeared to do.
(The fundmentalist pastor sounds like an idiot, and I would hope he is prosecuted under whatever laws apply for wherever he is.)
But Biden is the POTUS and his words carry immense authority and influence.
As mentioned, it is hard to tell whether the addition of "… and against transwomen" was an incomplete reference, or a knowledgeable recognition that amongst the victims were transwomen. But even that is a stretch.
What it appears to be, is the taking of an opportunity caused by a heinous incident, to promote the vulnerability not of transgender children, or transmen – but specifically transwomen.
Why do you think this group was singled out from the rest of the transgender community?
(When this message is promulgating unthinkingly and without evidence it sets the environment for the breaking of single-sex boundaries without question. And that is having significant impacts.)
That is why I respectfully and decisively hold the line on this narrative. The narrative – until it is confirmed – has nothing to do with the hateful crime committed.
Empathy, support and decency that can and should be extended to the victims and their loved ones without that premature label.
Whether or not this is a hate crime, and whether or not hate speech contributed to the mass murderer's ideation and actions, will be for others to determine.
I'm just pleased that Biden chose to lament this and other attacks that have resulted in the deaths of gay, lesbian and transgender people – his is an entirely appropriate response, imho.
I respect your reasons and need to "decisively hold the line on this narrative", just as I respect Biden for his empathetic 'narrative'.
Among those who were fatally shot on Saturday was Daniel Aston, 28, a transgender man who bartended and frequently performed at Club Q. Aston loved 1980s music and hats, his mother told Colorado Public Radio.
She admitted that in the past, she was often worried of her son being targeting for being transgender.
"I always worried about it," she said. "He's a trans man and the trans community are really the biggest targets I can think about it right now."
Who could fail to feel sympathy and empathy for Daniel Aston's mother – you'd have to have a heart of stone.
The fundmentalist pastor sounds like an idiot, and I would hope he is prosecuted under whatever laws apply for wherever he is.
Yep, hate-filled idiots – they’re everwhere. Good luck prosecuting them in some US states though – free speech etc.
""I always worried about it," she said. "He's a trans man and the trans community are really the biggest targets I can think about it right now.""
This mother faces the senseless and immediate loss of her child, and she should be supported, however her heartfelt fears are also not evidence of increased vulnerability.
That's what statistics are for, and statistics show otherwise.
This relentless narrative of persecution despite lack of evidence is not healthy for transgender people, especially those who have other well-being issues. Entwined with the familiar suicidal ideation, it's a catastrophe for many transgender people.
I believe the approach taken by Biden is a harmful one for all these reasons, but I guess it essentially comes down to one question:
Is is true?
If it is, then Biden and anyone else who joins is right to condemn.
This relentless narrative of persecution despite lack of evidence is not healthy for transgender people, especially those who have other well-being issues. Entwined with the familiar suicidal ideation, it's a catastrophe for many transgender people.
Why would transgender people be any less persecuted than other minorities have been, and still are, for sexual orientation, race, etc.?
I think we've reached the point of 'agree to disagree'.
You will have your reasons for believing that there is a "lack of evidence" for the "persecution" of transgender people. We may never know if Daniel Aston would have agreed with you – all we have to go on for now are the heartfelt words of his bereaved mother.
Whether "suicidal ideation" is relevant to Aston's murder (or that of transgender woman Kelly Loving – thanks for the BBC link) is a matter of speculation. What is absolutely certain is that bullets were "not healthy" for Aston, Rump, Loving, Paugh, Green and several others at Club Q that night – rather, they were "a catastrophe".
"You will have your reasons for believing that there is a "lack of evidence" for the "persecution" of transgender people. "
The reason being, that there is none. If you are prepared to provide some then, go ahead. At present, in terms of assault and homicides transgender people are a fairly safe demographic.
That does not mean they are immune from violent acts, just that statistically they are not more likely than any other group to be the victim.
"“Sexual violence is about power and control,” Jack Byrne, one of the ‘Counting Ourselves’ researchers and a trans man, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“If the world tells you that nobody loves and cares for you that puts huge levels of pressure on you and (increases your) vulnerability to be preyed upon.”
Why is the messaging that nobody loves you most often coming from advocates and allies?
If you get a chance look at the website and really see what hard data is provided.
"What is absolutely certain is that bullets were "not healthy" for Aston, Rump, Loving, Paugh, Green and several others at Club Q that night – rather, they were "a catastrophe"."
I don't know where the quotes are from.
Once more, the attack Club Q is rightly condemned. They may, or may not, get a credible motivation from the perpetrator. It is likely he has some grievance against homosexuals, but it is currently not known.
What is being discussed here, is Biden using the incident to repeat a narrative that has little evidence to support it. As you are so vehement that this was the right call, perhaps you will provide it.
The victims were a married, mixed race lesbian couple with an adopted teenage son.
The son had been shot,, the women stabbed and shot and attempts were made to burn their bodies.
Now, is this homicide:
1. Homophobic – with the son being caught up in the incident,
2. Misogynistic – with the son being caught up in the incident,
3. Race based – with the non-person of colour caught up in the incident,
4. Religious fervour – against same-sex marriage, etc.
The perpetrator was known to them, but not an acquaintance. This was a hateful crime – but was it a hate crime?
It seems not.
It appears that the women were killed because they were lesbians, but most specfically – they were lesbians that were involved in organising the annual lesbian MichFest and they maintained the single-sex admission criteria, despite pressure from transwomen activists over the years. The homicide happened AFTER the women gave up the battle, and withdrew their organisational labour resulting not in the admittance of transwomen to the festival, but the cessation of the festival altogether.
This strikes me as pure narcissistic rage that the outcome that had been sought had been thwarted. You can read details here.
The relevant part of this story, is that due to the accepted narrative of the vulnerability of transwomen, this convicted murderer has been, and continues to be held in a women's prison.
These decisions need to make sense, and be backed by robust data and evidence. But instead they are informed by such narratives as the one apparently spouted by Biden (though I acknowledge as president he might have had some intelligence that was not public).
@Molly – as I wrote @7:02 pm yesterday, I think we've reached the point of 'agree to disagree', as confirmed by your comment @10:35 pm, and my response here.
Re the start of this thread @9.2, I believe Biden's effort to empathise with and express sympathy for members of (minority) LGBT communities who have been victimised (and their loved ones), by way of lamenting the murderous attack on people at Club Q, is good.
You would exclude transgender people ("Drop the T"?) from any list of individuals/groups who/that have been persecuted for their behaviour, but persecuted some have been, consistent with the links below and with my halting efforts to empathise with trans people.
Gender Persecution
Strengthening International Norms to Ensure Accountability
Transgender people come from all walks of life, and HRC Foundation has estimated that there are more than 2 million of us across the United States. We are parents, siblings, and kids. We are your coworkers, your neighbors, and your friends.
The transgender community is composed of people – just human, like you and me, and as such more or less susceptible to harrassment, discrimination and even persecution.
That does not mean they are immune from violent acts, just that statistically they are not more likely than any other group to be the victim.
Re "the persecution line", persecution is not necessarily a statistical phenomenon – what does 'persecution' mean to you?
What is being discussed here, is Biden using the incident to repeat a narrative that has little evidence to support it. As you are so vehement that this was the right call, perhaps you will provide it.
You describe my opinion of Biden's 'use' of "the incident" as "vehement" (I would prefer 'firm', naturally), but is it really any more vehement than yours? After all, except for the purposes of quoting, I've avoided phrases such as "pure narcissistic rage" and words like "catastrophe" and "spouted" – phrases and words that betray perhaps a trace of fervour on your part. Not that there's anything wrong with a bit of earnest vehemence/fervour/firmness now and then, imho.
I sincerely hope that Kiwis engaged in the spiralling 'gender wars' (for want of a better term) can negotiate an armistice – I'd feel uneasy if DeSantis-style rhetoric ever became mainstream in NZ.
You have however, provided examples of the narrative not harm. A few of your more contemporary links conflate a group of demographics together, including women and so is talking about violence experienced by everybody but straight men without a declared gender identity.
There are countries where persecution of gay and transgender people is violent and supported/perpetuated by authorities.
Biden's USA is not one of them,
Nor is NZ .
Investigate for yourself the court appearances or records of assault in our media.
Iraq continues to execute homosexuals, but provides free full gender reassignment surgery.
Is that a crime against the LGBTQ+, or will you at least concede that this is an extreme form of gay conversion therapy?
Your selective misrepresentation (by reuse out of context) of my word choice, continued references to tone, and my failure to emphathise studiously avoids the content of what I am saying.
You provided no statistical evidence of harm, you also do not engage in the points put forward for discussion.
Human empathy, and dignity is based is truth.
Your approach creates an environment where truth is willfully discarded.
Do sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) in the United States encounter disproportionate rates of victimization as compared with their cisgender, heterosexual counterparts?
…
The rate of violent victimization for SGMs is 71.1 victimizations per 1000 people compared with 19.2 victimizations per 1000 people for those who are not SGMs. SGMs are 2.7 times more likely to be a victim of violent crime than non-SGMs. These findings raise the importance of further considering sexual orientation and gender identity in victimization and interventions.
Your selective misrepresentation (by reuse out of context) of my word choice, continued references to tone, and my failure to emphathise studiously avoids the content of what I am saying.
@Molly, I've read all your comments in this thread – I’m simply expressing my opinion about Biden's position as reported @9.2.
For the record, I vehemently deny your accusation of "continued references to tone".
I mentioned sympathy/empathy in comments by way of explanation. I regret that you feel I was suggesting that you failed to “emphathise” with victims of the Club Q shooting – that was not my intent. But those idiot pastors in Idaho and Texas, eh?
Human empathy, and dignity is based is truth.
On that we can agree.
Your approach creates an environment where truth is willfully discarded.
On that we must agree to disagree, and I'm sorry you feel this way.
Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the 2018 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, has spoken to the harm of "manufactured hysteria" in the US – Biden's expression of sympathy/empathy for the Club Q shooting victims, and their loved ones, won't resonate with everyone, but it struck a chord with me – and hopefully not only me.
Biden's “expression of sympathy” was coupled with a narrative that you continually fail to substantiate even while admiring it. It appears that your verification method is someone nice said something nice, so it must be true. You post examples of further narrative to support other narrative, not evidence of harm for the specific group of transgender women.
An example is the entirety of your last link:
"People gathered in Orlando, Florida on Sunday for a vigil to show solidarity with the victims of the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs. In 2016, Pulse, a gay nighclub in Orlando, was the scene of another horrific mass shooting. Brandon Wolf survived that shooting and said he plans to offer support to the survivors in Colorado Springs. Wolf said the Pulse shooting propelled him to become a full-time activist for “Equality Florida,” an LGBTQ civil rights organization."
That quote is only the start – the link also contains a 7 minute audio file of an interview with Wolf.
Biden's “expression of sympathy” was coupled with a narrative that you continually fail to substantiate even while admiring it.
@Molly – substantiating this 'narrative' that you find so objectionable is on Biden. I can and do appreciate his stance, as reported @9.2, for the sympathy, empathy and compassion it shows.
I also have compassion for adults and children who strive (and struggle, for any number of reasons) to find their way in the world (those in the US more than some).
Ocasio-Cortez quote-tweeted Boebert’s statement on the Colorado shooting, stating: “you have played a major role in elevating anti-LGBT+ hate rhetoric and anti-trans lies while spending your time in Congress blocking even the most common sense gun safety laws.”
A plugin must've stopped the video from appearing, because all I had was the paragraph, so that makes sense.
We are not talking past each other. You have continued to support the narrative that Biden promulgated that transgender women are vulnerable to violence. You have been given eight opportunities to provide evidence of this claim, and failed to do so.
Conversely, I have provided evidence to you of the recorded violence against transgender people, that has been compiled by those who consider this recording (as I do) important.
It shows a different reality. One you won’t even acknowledge. Why?
Biden could have expressed sympathy for the victims, without creating a narrative when information was not available to support it.
Like the mayor of Colorado Springs took care to say after the shooting:
"Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers told ABC News that the suspect "had considerable ammo" and "was extremely well armed" when they allegedly walked into Club Q. While a motive remains under investigation, Suthers said "it has the trappings of a hate crime."
"But we're going to have to see what the investigation shows in terms of, you know, social media and things like that to make a clear determination exactly what the motive was," the mayor said in an interview on Monday."
"While the suspect is already facing state charges, numerous federal agencies and offices, including the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, are aware of the shooting, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado said in a statement Monday. The office said it would “review all available facts of the incident to determine what federal response is warranted.”
To me this is respectful, empathetic and provides dignity to victims, survivors and loved ones. When information is not yet available, you don't make assumptions.
By the by, when you were unsuccessfully looking for links of evidence of harm, and had to resort to links of narratives of harm, did it occur to you that statements such as Biden's have created an instant assertion that transwomen are a vulnerable minority, even though you have been unable to find evidence of this?
It’s a reaction that has been cultivated by links such as those you have provided.
Now, if transwomen are considered even more vulnerable than dead children in NZ, what impact does that have on public discussion, legislation and policy?
Well, perhaps it means that women who request confirmation that single-sex spaces, provisions, services etc remain single-sex are considered obsessive bigots for putting restrictions on the demands of transwomen to be included – because everybody "knows" how vulnerable transgender women are.
A plugin must’ve stopped the video from appearing, because all I had was the paragraph, so that makes sense.
It’s not an autoplay audio file. Try clicking on the circled triangle, in the red-orange rectangle containing the text “LISTEN NOW”, immediately to the right of the headline.
Here is the relevant quote reporting Biden's response (see @9.2)
He [Biden] also lamented that the shooting joins other violent attacks on the LGBTQ community, including the 2016 attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and against transgender women.
The report in the link @9.2 continues with an actual Biden quote:
"Places that are supposed to be safe spaces of acceptance and celebration should never be turned into places of terror and violence. Yet it happens far too often," he said in a statement. "We must drive out the inequities that contribute to violence against LGBTQI+ people. We cannot and must not tolerate hate."
You perceived Biden's reported response as constituting a 'narrative' (formulated by you) "that transgender women are vulnerable to violence", whereas I perceived "Biden was taking this opportunity to empathise with and express sympathy for members of minority communities who have been violently attacked." (see @9.2.1.2)
Since we disagree on Biden's intent (each seeing what we want to see), I hope (for a third time) that we can agree to disagree. Perhaps consider that this exchange would have been briefer but for the use of the term "transgender women" in the report excerpt @9.2.
Re your narrative, the mass murder at Club Q shows trans women are vulnerable to violence, and they are not unique in this regard.
(Don't get an orange rectangle – just white space)
Ok. I saw within the article I provided a full quote, so agree that arkie's original comment was incomplete and/or paraphrased. This has been acknowledged more than once.
Any reference to "and transgender women" implies targets were selected due to gender identity – the motive was (and remains, at present) unknown;
Thus any such reference is both assumptive and premature.
There automatically was the oft repeated vulnerability of transwomen that is not supported by evidence,
4, Despite looking, you couldn't find any additions to the link I provided which makes transwomen a particularly safe demographic. Much safer than children. (You no doubt came across some NZ incidents? Do you want to post?)
"Re your narrative, the mass murder at Club Q shows trans women are vulnerable to violence, and they are not unique in this regard."
Everyone is vulnerable to a bullet from a gun, or senseless violence, so why are transwomen continually referred to as especially vulnerable – without evidence of veracity? This sentence doesn't really make sense.
You refuse to recognise this storytelling has and continues to have an impact on discussions around women's right's and single sex spaces.
I've tried enough now to get you to understand the wider ramifications of a Pavlov type response.
I'm finished. Carry on if you need to.
(Oh, and feel free to post the one NZ transwoman murder while you're at it. I'm sure it would've come up in your searches.)
You have continued to support the narrative that Biden promulgated that transgender women are vulnerable to violence.
@Molly – I don't believe that Biden's stance, as reported @9.2, is evidence that Biden promugated the narrative that transgender women are vulnerable to violence – that’s not how I read it.
Most people, including transgender people, have probably been vulnerable to violence at some time in the their life.
After reading the full text of Biden's (empathetic and statesman-like, imho) statement on 20 November 2022, I now agree with you that it indicates he believes transgender women are vulnerable to violence. Biden’s focus on the LGBTQI+ community is entirely appropriate in context – as for why he devoted a whole sentence to transgender women, “the epidemic of violence and murder” is a clue.
Of course, there’s no pleasing some people. Transgender women and dying – damned if you do and damned if you don’t
While no motive in this attack is yet clear, we know that the LGBTQI+ community has been subjected to horrific hate violence in recent years. Gun violence continues to have a devastating and particular impact on LGBTQI+ communities across our nation and threats of violence are increasing. We saw it six years ago in Orlando, when our nation suffered the deadliest attack affecting the LGBTQI+ community in American history. We continue to see it in the epidemic of violence and murder against transgender women – especially transgender women of color. And tragically, we saw it last night in this devastating attack by a gunman wielding a long rifle at an LGBTQI+ nightclub in Colorado Springs.
Places that are supposed to be safe spaces of acceptance and celebration should never be turned into places of terror and violence. Yet it happens far too often. We must drive out the inequities that contribute to violence against LGBTQI+ people. We cannot and must not tolerate hate.
Today, yet another community in America has been torn apart by gun violence. More families left with an empty chair at the table and hole in their lives that cannot be filled. When will we decide we've had enough? We must address the public health epidemic of gun violence in all of its forms. Earlier this year, I signed the most significant gun safety law in nearly three decades, in addition to taking other historic actions. But we must do more. We need to enact an assault weapons ban to get weapons of war off America's streets.
Today, Jill and I are praying for the families of the five people killed in Colorado Springs last night, and for those injured in this senseless attack.
You refuse to recognise this storytelling has and continues to have an impact on discussions around women's right's and single sex spaces.
First I've heard of this particular refusal of mine – talk about “a Pavlov type response.” Personally I would have avoided using “storytelling” as a pejorative so soon after the Club Q attack. Btw, I support women's rights and single sex spaces – don't know about Jill and Joe Biden.
Thank you for posting three links to statistics regarding the violence experienced by transgender people.
Two actually come from the same source, and do note the high incidence of harm to transgender women. The further analysis that they link to – which applies to your third link about gun violence – shows that they are highly represented in other groups that make them (along with others in the group) exposed to situations where violence can occur.
You cannot assume that transgender women are vulnerable because of their gender identity when so many other significant factors are in play. That is not to say that it is NOT a factor, just that the impact of it has to be determined to state with confidence that it was the primary factor.
A quick search on Google Scholar pulled up this study based on prostitutes translates quite closely to the figures of harm you posted, when you account for the 72% of transgender women involved in prostitution:
If we are talking about job harm, then prostitution has to be one of the most vulnerable. Is it any wonder that those within it have higher rates of assault and violence?
"Personally I would have avoided using “storytelling” as a pejorative so soon after the Club Q attack.
Yeah, I know. My word choice is not to your taste. I'll live with the criticism. Your critique of the use of "narcissistic rage"when discussing the following makes your vocabulary advice less than persuasive:
"The discussion turns to the “blunt force wounds” (bruising, basically) found on Reed. Dr. Rogers found bruises on the top part of a finger, thighs, knees, other parts of legs, and the front part of the abdomen. (It should be noted that Dr. Rogers uses his report to assist him for much of his testimony.) The Prosecution asks if Reed’s bruises could be due to an assailant pinning her down. He says that “it’s a possibility,” but cannot give any further confirmation.
Dr. Rogers proceeds to talk about the gunshot wounds found on Reed. There were two gunshot wounds, one on the front left side of the chest, the other on the front side of the left shoulder. The bullet that caused the former wound passed through the ribs and left lung. Since there was no exit wound, the bullet remained in the lung. This wound also contained “stippling,” or gunpowder residue; stippling is only present when the gun is very close to the target when fired. There was hemorrhaging associated with this wound, meaning that Reed was still alive at the time she received this wound. The second bullet wound, the one to the shoulder, also had hemorrhaging and signs of stippling. This one penetrated soft tissue.
He also details multiple stab wounds (“deep” cuts) and incise wounds (“shallow” cuts), he reckons over 40 total: 28 on head/neck area, 12 on torso, one on right arm, and some on both hands. He goes through them, one by one. Of note is that some of the stab/incise wounds had hemorrhaging, while others did not. This means the assailant stabbed Reed while she was still alive and continued to stab her after she died. He adds that some of the wounds were consistent with a double-edged blade, some with a single-edged blade, and others were indeterminable.
Dr. Rogers then discusses 2 gunshot wounds found on Dimabu. One appears to be a grazing wound, that is, a wound where the bullet just brushes against the skin rather than piercing the skin. He admits that he isn’t certain this is a grazing wound, but it’s his best guess, based on his experience. The second bullet pierced his heart. Photos are shown of Diambu’s injuries. Dr. Rogers concludes the bullet to the heart was the cause of Diambu’s death…
..The summary of Wright’s injuries is as follows:
“Blunt injuries” consist of one scrape to the left side of Wright’s neck.
There are 4 gunshot wounds on Wright, in 2 pairs — that is, there are two wounds where bullets entered, and two where they exited. Both hit critical organs. One bullet entered through the left breast, the second on the left back. This latter is “possibly” indicative of Wright being shot in the back as she was lying on her stomach.
There is a stab wound on the left side of Wright’s neck.
…
Dr. Rogers agrees with Dr. Herman’s conclusion that Wright died due to multiple bullet and stab wounds…."
It is taken you over ten attempts to provide statistics to back up your assertion that transwomen are a particularly vulnerable group. And those statistics are not evidence of that fact, because of the other factors.
So, when I say you have a Pavlov response, it is because you only sought out the evidence after many requests, and still maintain this is the right sequence. (We'll ignore the fact that the quality provided is still low).
"Btw, I support women's rights and single sex spaces"
These days, due to language appropriation and legislative, policy and guideline changes, that sentence means very little in isolation.
Until we have those official statistics, we should handle the data we do have with care. Anyone that tells you this is clear-cut – on either side of this often vexed debate – is wrong.
"Btw, I support women's rights and single sex spaces"
These days, due to language appropriation and legislative, policy and guideline changes, that sentence means very little in isolation.
@Molly, how about this more long-winded sentence?
I support women's and transgender women's rights, and spaces exclusively for the use of each of the following: women, transgender men, transgender women, and men.
Open to brief alternatives that aren't hostile to the above groups.
"I support women's and transgender women's rights, and spaces exclusively for the use of each of the following: women, transgender men, transgender women, and men."
Right, it appears that after skipping over relevant points we've now made the leap to a different topic. Can do, but with this proviso – you shouldn't really care about whether I think you support women's rights or not.
You – and I – should just be working towards clearly explaining our own views, and attempting to understand the other's position. We don't need labels to do this.
With that in mind, a couple of follow up questions:
What is your idea of space?
Single-sex facilities, services, support services, sports, women's organisations, prison estate, awards, scholarships, language specific to each group?
It looks like you are advocating for third and fourth spaces.
Interestingly, most women's right advocates have no problem accommodating trans identified women of any type in their single-sex spaces.
(Men – on the other hand – unanimously want trans identified men out of their spaces, and into women's.)
Women who have suggested third spaces to accommodate these men have been called transphobic, bigoted, and TERVEN – so welcome to the club.
How is the provision of third and fourth spaces practically and financially viable across the board, so as to be a reasonable solution?
Would there not be a further difficulty in having to create yet more spaces for the additional gender identities, including the non-binary, and the new WPATH category of eunuch, and nullgenders?
Can you see how this solution has additional problems?
The difficulty with your stated position, is not that it wouldn’t be supported by women who want to retain single-se spaces, it is the option that is most often and consistently refused by transgender people.
Many (or the loudest) don’t want a third option, (or I’m guessing, a fourth) unless it is the only option (ie. unisex provision only). Many (OTL) want only admittance into the single-sex space to which they do not belong (for a myriad of reasons).
Now, a solution that does not guarantee safety (- but that guarantee is impossible to give) – is that men, collectively ensure that trans identified men are safe in their single-sex spaces.
No boundary breaking required.
(Numbering of questions autocorrected to irrelevance. Leaving it, as not important).
Right, it appears that after skipping over relevant points we've now made the leap to a different topic.
@Molly – please be gentle. You were the first to mention women's rights and single sex spaces in this thread.
You refuse to recognise this storytelling has and continues to have an impact on discussions around women's right's and single sex spaces.
1. What is your idea of space?
Was thinking public loos, changing rooms/showers – maybe also in private businesses such as gyms. There are (were?) some women-only gyms in Palmy. Yes, prison cells too – hadn't thought of them.
2. It looks like you are advocating for third and fourth spaces.
Yes – can't please everyone, but (cost aside) this might displease the least, although it would make transgender people more visible, which is probably not what many of them want – tricky.
It's good that most women's rights advocates have no problem accommodating transgender men of any type in their single-sex spaces, but (to my mind) this is more about whether even a small number of woman using a single-sex space might have a problem. If it turned out that none did, then that would simplify things – only third spaces (for transgender women) would be needed.
Men – on the other hand – unanimously want trans identified men out of their spaces, and into women's.
Gosh – all men? That's depressing. Not me though – third spaces for transgender women would be fine as far as I'm concerned.
3. How is the provision of third and fourth spaces practically and financially viable across the board, so as to be a reasonable solution?
Don't know how easy/financially feasible the provision of third spaces would be – imho some accommodation is required. What might the alternative(s) be – to 'unmake' transgender women, or otherwise fix them (and men) so that only one space is required? Is this a realistic option, given men’s propensity for violence, and the idea that men unanimously want transgender women out of their spaces?
Now, a solution that does not guarantee safety (- but that guarantee is impossible to give) – is that men, collectively ensure that trans identified men are safe in their single-sex spaces.
Since you raised the issue of practicality in 3, might I suggest that the idea of all men in their single sex spaces being non-violent towards transgender women seems more like a lovely dream than an alternative solution – implementation without the necessary behaviour modification could increase the incidence of assaults on transgender women. Safer to put men and transgender women in separate cages, imho.
Otoh, if you have a practical plan to modify behaviour en masse, how about rolling it out first in Russia/Ukraine before moving on to war zones closer to home.
I know you are unlikely to believe it, but I am being gentle, as best I can. If you look back, I try not to ascribe motives or intentions, but make the assumption that perhaps the other person in the conversation has not considered, or does not know, and work towards that. It can come across as abrupt, where clarity is intended. I think there also may be an expectation of a different style of engagement because of my female name. This approach seems to be more common and accepted in males.
That said. I do genuinely appreciate you continuing this exchange.
The single-sex spaces was introduced, because the conversation is affected by an assumption that transwomen are vulnerable and need to be accommodated in women's single-sex spaces for that reason.
You are correct about the unanimous – it was a left over adjective from an edit – and by the time I noticed it, the edit had gone. I know there are men who would support trans identified men in their spaces. I'd even go further and say there are those that would ensure their safety and comfort while in them.
It's interesting that you had only considered single-sex spaces to refer to facilities for changing and toileting. Transwomen have demanded and been admitted to breastfeeding forums, pregnancy support groups, women's organisations, women's clubs – the list goes on. The impacts range from mild to significant, but there is always an impact.
There is so much in regards to facilities that should be considered and when I was trying to organise my own thoughts, I wrote a series of threads on Twitter (… I know..). I'll link them to text here so they don't take up so much space. I'd probably be able to write them more clearly now, but they are a good record of what and how I think.
They began mostly in response to the constant accusation that keeping single-sex spaces was akin to claiming all transwomen are predatory:
The second was when I undertook the online research for statistics that I asked you to do. I will endeavour to read all links provided to me in conversations, after someone has taken the time to do so, but I also think that self-discovery of information is much more persuasive then me providing links for which the source or the author is then condemned without discussion of content.
On the topic of women's rights and gender ideology, there are very few "left-wing" publications that accurately report concerns, and give space to women's rights advocates – unless they include men.
In regards to additional spaces, it is the safest environments that are most likely to be able to afford accommodation in third spaces. When government and councils are strapped for resources, this provision (that is fundamentally unnecessary – especially if all they do is "want to pee") is a waste of resources.
"It's good that most women's rights advocates have no problem accommodating transgender men of any type in their single-sex spaces, but (to my mind) this is more about whether even a small number of woman using a single-sex space might have a problem. If it turned out that none did, then that would simplify things – only third spaces (for transgender women) would be needed."
That's an interesting perspective. Given that many women have indicated a problem with trans-identified men using their spaces, and they have been ignored and accused of transphobia, bigotry and hatred, your concession to women who might be concerned about other women (with a gender identity) using single-sex spaces is one that hasn't been offered many times before.
Moving on to prisons, which you had not given much thought to. In NZ's prison estate, there are no official published statistics, and though people have tried to do OIR, there has been some difficulty in ascertaining how accurate they are.
Submissions for the amendments for the BDMRR bill asked for clarity on the how single-sex spaces would be ensured, and were told that there was no impact. This was said, knowing that single-sex spaces had already been breached, and the concerns around spaces such as prisons, had already been realised:
While the discussion was taking place the NZ media published opinion pieces and narratives around the vulnerability of transwomen, and this does do much to derail the concerns of women when they are raised.
"Since you raised the issue of practicality in 3, might I suggest that the idea of all men in their single sex spaces being non-violent towards transgender women seems more like a lovely dream than an alternative solution – implementation without the necessary behaviour modification could increase the incidence of assaults on transgender women. Safer to put men and transgender women in separate cages, imho."
Cages? I suspect you are talking specifically about prisons here, rather than toilet facilities, or other single-sex spaces. Like any instance where people are confined involuntarily, it requires a different consideration, I agree.
I have several times on this platform posted a link to a facility that has been in place in the LA County Jail system, that not only caters to transgender identified men, but homosexual men that are at elevated risk. There are other vulnerable males in the prison system that could also benefit from separation, but this example is one that shows a working solution:
Any government that imprisons their citizens, should also ensure their safety while imprisoned, and such allocation of resources seems necessary to me. So neither impractical or financially wasteful in this particular instance.
Otoh, if you have a practical plan to modify behaviour en masse, how about rolling it out first in Russia/Ukraine before moving on to war zones closer to home.
I don't really understand what you are saying here. Unless, you thought that when I wrote of practical considerations and financial costs – it applied to all single sex spaces.
What is important, is that solutions are found that do not assume that because women's single-sex spaces are a safeguarding and privacy measure that works for women, that women's spaces are therefore the safest place to put men.
The person who committed the crime identified as 'Non binary' with 'they/them' pronouns.
Question: did they do that to wriggle out of a hate crime? And if so can we assume that men would and will appropriate a trans identity in order to receive a better and lesser punishment, or instead of being locked up in a male prison will get transferred to a female prison, or to just get out of a hate crime that they committed. And Just a few hours later 10 people were being gunned down by another disgruntled person in a shop.
The question however stands, are men – criminal men, in this case a mass murderer claiming a trans identity to get a get out of jail card?
If so, then it would be truly despicable. But that too was already foretold by those that quite a few lefties would call 'terf' or 'bigot' or 'phobe' or even just 'cassandra'. That wimpy little criminal penis havers would do exactly that to get locked in the female prisons, cause 'they / them' or 'she/her'. Or to get a a lower sentence. Cause just because the dude wanted to do the crime does not mean he wants to do the time.
Given that I consider non-binary to be a nonsense, I can't claim to accept this as a pertinent fact.
Do I suspect they (or their lawyers) considered doing so, in order to have lesser punitive action from the prosecutors and justice system? Yes, I suspect so.
However, under current legislation and guidance, there is no way either to discount or confirm that suspicion. The deciding factor is the self-declaration. The problem was foreseen, identified and ignored. This is just another iteration.
The victims of the crime, those killed, injured and all those who care for them, need to have a justice system that works equitably for everyone, regardless of sex, race, disability, religious reasons, sexual orientation or gender identity.
Any death from this random violence is a tragedy. In terms of justice, it should be neither lessened nor elevated by the victims protected characteristics, but treated as diligently as possible. I'm not supportive of this two tier empathy system that seems to develop alongside hate legislation.
Grieving for the development of a world view where such acts of violence is seen as an answer.
The return of the wild goose. I can hear it honking. Winston returns to the flock and is welcomed, forgiven, and installed as leader to the delight of the faithful who held to the tale of the Second Coming.
"The centre cannot hold……." Yeats had it, just a century late.
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TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
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Food for thought
[unlinked quote deleted]
Will we remain so?…particularly now QE2 has passed.
I deleted your unlinked quote. Feel free to post it again with a link.
Food for thought
"The problem with written constitutions is that the inevitable conflicts over their interpretation are resolved by unelected lawyers in judges’ robes. And, as anyone who’s been paying attention to US politics recently knows, allowing judges to determine what should and shouldn’t be included among the fundamental rights of citizens, can throw up some very disturbing results.
With their single house of Parliament, their unwritten – and hence flexible and adaptable – constitution, and their highly efficient electoral machinery, New Zealanders are the masters of their own destiny to a degree unencountered among many peoples. Our courts cannot strike down legislation passed by the House of Representatives, nor can one Parliament bind another – both prohibitions guaranteeing a radically majoritarian mode of government. If the essence of democracy consists of giving effect to the will of the majority, then New Zealand must rank as one of the most democratic nations on Earth"
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2022/11/if-it-aint-broke-why-fix-it.html
Will we remain so?…particularly now QE2 has passed.
Good article Pat
Another problem caused by the empty home hoarding parasites.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/ghost-houses-increasing-why-are-40000-homes-lying-vacant-in-auckland/MD7REG67TBCIWB2NITGJCH5SH4/
As speculators are now buying into lower decile areas and leaving the houses empty. House alarms that blare continuously for days unattended.
Whitby in England has announced is doubling the rates on all unoccupied houses, including those used for airbn, in order to increase the supply of residential housing
Far out.
I can't see our government ever implementing such a sensible reform to address homelessness.
In this country seems our parliamentarians grovel and cower at feet of the landlord lobby over enacting even the smallest housing reform.
Anyone here from the Waitaki electorate?
Also does anyone have a link to the booth-by-booth breakdown of voting from the 2020 election … especially for Waitaki?
not sure if they do that now because of postal voting.
Waitaki as central government electorate of course they do.
I mean publishing them for the general public. I just looked again, couldn't find it. I've looked in the past too. Let me know if you find it. Might need to ask the EC or whoever directly.
https://www.electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2020/statistics/votes-by-voting-place-electorate-index.html
Plotting a coup over the hill?
That is exactly what I wanted thankyou Graeme.
There's also a spatial map version around but it's more useful within cities.
Just gearing my mind to the political landscape, and also trying to find good Labour people in WakandaWanaka.
We're split between the two electorates, Whakatipu is in Southland, but the rest of Central is Waitaki. There's quite a bit of commonality in the Whakatipu / Southland situation, but sfa between Cromwell and Oamaru, was in early 80's when the dam was starting, but not now.
Central Otago will be a seperate electorate at the next review, if the Electoral Commission can figure out how to carve up the rest of South Island. Unfortunately I can't see an outcome that makes more red electorates, just lots much bluer ones. Central would unfortunately be a very deep shade of blue.
Holy Gunrack a seat bluer than Waitaki. All we need.
It's more about the networks for me.
I find this column impossible to understand. Anyone?
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/auditor-general-calls-for-wide-reaching-reviews-of-failing-public-accountability?utm_source=Friends+of+the+Newsroom&utm_campaign=4e7ff8f90f-Daily_Briefing+21.11.2022&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_71de5c4b35-4e7ff8f90f-95522477
Crikey damning as a sample of Maori interviewees.
Why did he leave it so late into the 3 Waters legislative process?
If I were Mahuta I would be having a WTF chat with the Auditor General and Hipkins as House manager on a process level. Treasury at least should have warned government this was coming.
But even if you found an alternative to the structural relationship between state corporations and the citizen that causes distrust, would that improve trust?
Or is public trust needed in public corporations when we are far more customers than we are citizens? You get what you pay for not what you engage with. Not a fun conclusion but there's no structural reset on anyone's horizon.
No one appears willing to undo the Public Finance Act, or de-corporatise public utilities and services. On the contrary COVID appears to have accelerated it through health.
It looks more like a political statement rather than a formal report. Wonder how the criteria for success or failure is measured?
Hard to avoid the political lens.
Success for the Auditor General would surely be: some extra accountability clause in the 3 Waters bill, on top of the Select Committee ones already added in there.
For example each water entity required to front to Select Committee every year. Or something.
The AG letter to the speakers was last week,following his report to Parliament.
https://www.oag.parliament.nz/2022/accountability-concerns?utm_source=Subs&utm_medium=Subs&utm_campaign=OPC+letter
Essentially what the AG has persistently found is an absence of Transparency in reporting , no review method for inadequate reporting,follow the money trails are difficult to understand (especially from suppling funding without adequate measurement.
Higher risk's of corruption then are open etc.
A National party insider calls for Nats to scrap their tax policy, especially the top rate cut:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/its-time-for-to-74414030
Not a lone voice, and if Luxon has any sense (debatable) he'll stop giving Ardern the free gift of "you want to give the wealthiest everything and the poorest next to nothing".
Confident prediction for 2023: the policy will get dumped by National, or Luxon will. Or both.
The purpose of the National party is to redistribute wealth upwards (or at a minimum prevent its redistribution downwards). Without cutting top tax rates it will need to find other ways to do this. The options would include state asset sales, re-inflating the housing market by stripping out brightline tests and turning on the immigration tap), lowering wages that employers have to pay (immigration tap open, repealing Fair Pay legislation), and so on. Would it be enough though? I can see them delaying tax cuts as a promise for Term 2 after a Term 1 of cost-cutting austerity, i.e. the tax cuts become a reward for the well-off to compensate for the pain that was mostly felt by other people (the less well off) during the austerity phase.
True enough, but their very first purpose is to get elected. Promises can be broken afterwards.
I'm pretty sure that scrapping the 39% rate won't be a campaign commitment. (Whether they do it later is another question: "oh dear, we just had to give this concession to ACT, so sorry, we didn't want to" etc).
I think a bigger problem than the money maths for Luxon is this language, and his fading credibility …
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/03/christopher-luxon-s-full-state-of-the-nation-speech-as-he-vows-to-repeal-labour-s-tax-grab.html
So here's my commitment to you. When I become PM, I'll reverse Labour's tax grab. National will repeal each of these tax increases implemented by Labour.
No “wriggle room” as the journos love to say.
Some of our reactionary conservative, anti Māori, multiple property owning brethren will likely be bricking themselves over this ruling…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/479175/supreme-court-rules-in-favour-of-make-it-16-to-lower-voting-age
We probably need an upper age limit as well. In the category Two legs good, three legs bad.
Snowball in Animal Farm: "No animal shall drink alcohol. No animal shall sleep in a bed. Four legs good, two legs bad."
Sphinx to Oedipus: "What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, three legs in the evening, and no legs at night?"
Lets not go through the whole debate for our purposes here in Open Mike.
Being non compos mentis likely affects few people’s ability to vote unless they are medically obviously not able to drag their arses to a booth, or get assistance with early voting. Those unaware of, or not on the non published roll however, are likely in greater numbers–women, debtors etc. Another pool of voters like the “off the grids” that should be enticed and supported to become involved in that basic level of democratic participation.
Age 16–18 should not be a barrier either, including some societal education and support if the legislation were to be enacted.
Debate is coming whether you want it or not to Parliament.
PM is signalling legislation will be introduced and it will be a conscience vote.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/479195/voting-age-16-law-to-be-drafted-requiring-three-quarters-of-mps-to-pass-ardern
That's just a chat between Chippie as House leader and Speaker.
Luxon is clear it's 18 for his team.
Then it will not happen:
To get to 92 (75% of parliament) the bill would need some of National to vote against party lines, that’s in addition to getting the vote of every other party.
Hard not to see this as a move to kick the can further down the road while appearing to be acting.
Lets extend that 16 years old parameter to drinking age and adult court age for those caught committing crime – what could possibly go wrong?????
They make everyone re-sit their drivers' license after 80, to make sure they're not drooling on the handbrake.
You could start with compulsory voter restrictions for everyone in rest home hospital-level care then to all with an EPOA and work backwards to 'can't put on their shoes'.
Great come back (Not) – FFS.
With the responsibility to vote goes IMO all other aspects of being an adult (18 in general terms in NZ). Let 16 years replace being of age appropriate for more "rights" (refer below link) ?? Or is voting at 16 age but other "adult" rights are not age suitable ??
How about those under 25 that are still dependant upon parents incomes to be eligible for an allowance, etc. Come on PM how about aligning 16 to the age for all "adult" age levels ??
https://www.studylink.govt.nz/products/a-z-products/student-allowance/2-parents.html
I am neither conservative, nor anti-Maori, nor property owning, and I think this is an idiotic development on two levels.
1. I oppose lowering the voting age, on the basis that 16 year olds (in school, and living at home) are more vulnerable to external influence. If we're going with taxation and representation, 8 year olds pay tax, and that is not an argument for 8 year olds voting. 18 is a somewhat arbitrary cut-off, sure, but then so is 16.
2. The Supreme Court is frankly violating the norms of parliamentary sovereignty here. This is not the USA, where courts make policy decisions all the time, and invent laws to justify their own biased nonsense. This is the sort of issue to be resolved via a proper debate within wider New Zealand, not a debate via an unelected and unaccountable judiciary imposing political decisions upon us. NZBORA was never intended to be that.
I don’t follow. The NZ Courts can only point out inconsistencies in legislation, AFAIK, and not dictate Parliament. They either show a clear path or an obstacle.
Correct. The Supreme Court is not violating anything. Parliament will respond and (very probably) the current law (age) will remain … for now.
But it is in the political arena, and like many issues in the "too hard basket" (marriage equality, abortion) it will eventually be taken out of the basket … and of course in years to come everyone will pretend it was never in there!
Decreeing that a voting age of 18 (in place since 1974) is inconsistent with NZBORA (in place since 1990) in 2022 is a nakedly political act on the part of the judiciary here.
It's a sign (along with the nonsense about vaccine mandates somehow breaching fundamental human rights) that NZBORA needs to go.
Huh?
Baby – bathwater
I cannot wait until Peters is no longer able to stand for parliament and we don't have to put up with this democracy munting bullshit.
https://twitter.com/ClintVSmith/status/1594476152877301761
Ruling out Labour is a dumb move on Winston's behalf.
He has always benefited from being able to go with either side, he has always said making statements about potential coalition partners before the votes are counted was stupid.
A lot of lefty's refuse to accept it but he has in the past got a load of votes from angry labour supporters, people who may want a labour govt but want a handbrake on labours social policies and that even if he didn't go with labour he'd also be a handbrake to the right in immigration and privatization.
By ruling one side out he's not gonna get the angry labour voters and many of the right wing voters he wants to court will blame him for putting labour in power in the first place.
Silly move. Playing both sides of the fence has always been his strength.
My hope is that he sucks as many right wing votes from nat/act as possible but only gets 4.7% of the vote and no electorate seat.
A lot of anti immigration/nationalist populists are bizarrely supporting act right because they don't seem to know that act is in favor of hyper immigration and privatization and foreign ownership. Winston should be able to steal those voters off act and hopefully not break 5% and a few % will make or break this election
imo any angry Labour voter would vote Green, not Winston Peters.
My Dad was a swing voter between NZF and Labour. He was rightly angry at Peters' betrayal with the election where he went with National after implying he would go with Labour. Vote Labour in the next few elections. Not sure how long for, but he loved Ardern so voted Labour in the last two. If he was fucked off with Labour I can't imagine him voting Green.
Neither can I when he has voted NZF in the past. I'm the opposite, I could never vote for NZF. I have voted Greens in the past.
My Dad was an intermittent NZF voter who would swing to Labour and back, I'm aware of the dynamic and issues.
As b points out below, Peters didn't rule out Labour, he's just playing the same old bullshit game.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/luxon-won-t-rule-out-nz-first-coalition-after-peters-says-no-to-current-labour-party/ar-AA14lh4t?cvid=789dada705e34a9aea9ab7b74b6c7e4e&ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover
Of interest is cunning old Winston says" HE WONT WORK WITH CURRENT LABOUR PARTY"
after the election labour won't be the current labour party they'll be the newly elected labour government,thats more than enough wriggle room for the old northland tuna to slip through
thanks. That makes way more sense. The news the other day was behind the NZH paywall so I couldn't see what he was actually saying.
Unless Labour change all the people from the PM down they will very well be the same government, in their third term. The same people, the same government, no real change in terms of policy, or representation.
This is like pretending that each time John Key got another term it was a different National Party government. It wasn't.
Anyone can refuse to work with anyone, personally i don't think they should, but they all can lay down their priorities and rule out to vote with this or that person/party.
But i guess playing word games makes one feel better about knowing that NZFirst will not come to the aid of Labour should they need it. This next election is going to be so so messy.
However, the interviewer doubled down, and checked whether he was ruling out working with an Ardern-led government – and he claims he is.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/nz-first-leader-winston-peters-would-he-work-again-with-labour/WJHT3DVJFNBW5FYG2SKKFTGZRE/?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=nzh_fb&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2OWMAklt2SbS-Oi8QYY1g-kItOnlsykeWvkieGWd209lldqAOH9tQd0Is#Echobox=1668812817
Now, no one can weasel words like Winston – but this seems unusually definite, from him.
Oh OK ta,
Absolutely tragic news out of America… a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs.
Some are taking this as a reason for "hate speech" legislation.
I take it as a reason for proper gun control legislation.
https://twitter.com/roblogic_/status/1594506589418885120?s=20&t=Vh6CPTxJZbG-O8lKSXpJ6w
Since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting i ruled the regulations of private weapons in the US out. That was babies being shot to pieces and it changed nothing. The political will is not there.
they'll defend their right to be murdered by their neighbours till the death
¿Por qué no los dos?
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/colorado-springs-mass-shooting-club-q/
"…other violent attacks on the LGBTQ community, including the 2016 attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and against transgender women."
Wasn't The Pulse nightclub incident also a gay nightclub, making the target in both incidents gay men?
Why do you think Biden added "…and against transgender women."?
Have there been similar targeted attacks against trans-identified males?
If this was a club for the alphabet community chances are that transwomen would very well have been present in a gay club as many of them are gay.
Yes, I understand that, but I'm pretty sure at the time they hadn't identified the victims as transgender, but gay men.
I've been looking the lists some have provided for Transgender Awareness Week and couldn't find that reference.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_killed_for_being_transgender
For contrast.. the most ignored demographic..
https://twitter.com/seerutkchawla/status/1594304747447656451?s=20&t=cF1LXKe14X123QLHHCAgDw
The result of Ronald Reagan taking Mental Health out of Healthcare and putting it into 'community based care' which of course did not work.
This was a club how had weekly drag shows and such. You can be assured that that transwomen had been in the club, not sure if one of them got killed by the shooter.
Thanks. I still stupidly sometimes forget drag queens come under transgender now, rather than just a stage persona.
NY Times had a tribute article to most of the Pulse nightclub victims here:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/us/orlando-shooting-victims/jason-benjamin-josaphat
Realised that I was reading the addition "and transwomen" as carrying on from the comment about the Pulse nightclub.
I think it may have just been clumsy phrasing, or a quote not reported in full context.
However, I do think these statements need to be made with clear eyed accuracy. It does no-one any favours, if the harm is asserted without evidence or alternatively under-reported.
I could be wrong, but it's possible Biden was taking this opportunity to empathise with and express sympathy for members of minority communities who have been violently attacked. Maybe too 'woke' for some – politicians walk a fine line.
Consider:
He also lamented that the shooting joins other violent attacks on the LGBTQ community, including [1:] the 2016 attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and [2: attacks] against transgender women [as members of the LGBTQ community].
Why Biden specified "transgender women", instead of "transgender men" or "transgender people" is a mystery. It might make sense if transgender women are victims of violence more often than transgender people in toto, but I don't know if that's the case.
Quotes are from arkie's link @9.2 – the emphasis is mine.
There are a few lists maintained online:
One I linked t above:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_killed_for_being_transgender
UK specific: https://kareningalasmith.com/2021/04/21/counting-dead-trans-people/
(The name might seem harsh, but the list was compiled after demands when the author was criticised after maintaining a list named Counting Dead Women.)
Wider scope: LGBT people:
ttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acts_of_violence_against_LGBT_people
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_violence_against_LGBT_people_in_the_United_States
I'm sure as with all such lists there are omissions. I believe its always necessary to put such statements as Biden's in context and perspective.
Context and perspective(s) are important – whether they’re "always necessary" for every statement is a matter for debate, but we all have our obsessions.
Reporting on these particular sentiments is a case in point – lamenting violent attacks on members of minority communities (an expression of sympathy and/or empathy for what some members of these communities go through?) is something that all decent, empathetic people could get behind, imho.
"Context and perspective(s) are important – whether they’re "always necessary" for every statement is a matter for debate, but we all have our obsessions."
I am concerned with this continual repetition of the vulnerability of transwomen in particular, not because expressions of concern are to be denied, but this automatic repetition has played a big part in legislative, policy and institutional changes that have significant impacts on society, but most particularly on women and girls.
So, yes, I approach all promoted comments regarding this with scrutiny.
"Reporting on these particular sentiments is a case in point – lamenting violent attacks on members of minority communities (an expression of sympathy and/or empathy for what some members of these communities go through?) is something that all decent, empathetic people could get behind, imho."
arkie chose that particular paragraph – without knowing the details – to repeat the narrative given above. That transgender women are fundamentally victims of hate. So, I questioned that certainty.
To draw immediate conclusions when so little is known, is not the act of empathy or decency either.
Imho, some will resist empathising with gay, lesbian and transgender people with every fibre of their being – won't matter to them how much time has passed or how much more is known.
Not Biden though – good for him.
https://pl.usembassy.gov/president_transgender_day/
I'm going to reply to this, in regards to Biden's remarks and because it is a necessary discussion given that we are currently looking at legislation that seeks to unequivocally and definitively provide a prosecutable recognition of "hate"
The recent attack on Club Q can be rightly called a hateful incident, but until more details are known it is premature to call it or even casually refer to it as a hate crime.
As further details come to light, (and if the perpetrator provides believable testimony regarding motivation), then this might be classed as a hate crime, but I am not aware that this is the case here.
It is important to maintain that distinction despite the inclination to make this assumption. Delaying that declaration until more is known respects the victims of the crime, by not reducing them to a message for political purpose, as Biden appeared to do.
(The fundmentalist pastor sounds like an idiot, and I would hope he is prosecuted under whatever laws apply for wherever he is.)
But Biden is the POTUS and his words carry immense authority and influence.
As mentioned, it is hard to tell whether the addition of "… and against transwomen" was an incomplete reference, or a knowledgeable recognition that amongst the victims were transwomen. But even that is a stretch.
What it appears to be, is the taking of an opportunity caused by a heinous incident, to promote the vulnerability not of transgender children, or transmen – but specifically transwomen.
Why do you think this group was singled out from the rest of the transgender community?
(When this message is promulgating unthinkingly and without evidence it sets the environment for the breaking of single-sex boundaries without question. And that is having significant impacts.)
That is why I respectfully and decisively hold the line on this narrative. The narrative – until it is confirmed – has nothing to do with the hateful crime committed.
Empathy, support and decency that can and should be extended to the victims and their loved ones without that premature label.
Whether or not this is a hate crime, and whether or not hate speech contributed to the mass murderer's ideation and actions, will be for others to determine.
I'm just pleased that Biden chose to lament this and other attacks that have resulted in the deaths of gay, lesbian and transgender people – his is an entirely appropriate response, imho.
I respect your reasons and need to "decisively hold the line on this narrative", just as I respect Biden for his empathetic 'narrative'.
Who could fail to feel sympathy and empathy for Daniel Aston's mother – you'd have to have a heart of stone.
Yep, hate-filled idiots – they’re everwhere. Good luck prosecuting them in some US states though – free speech etc.
@Drowsy M. Kram
""I always worried about it," she said. "He's a trans man and the trans community are really the biggest targets I can think about it right now.""
This mother faces the senseless and immediate loss of her child, and she should be supported, however her heartfelt fears are also not evidence of increased vulnerability.
That's what statistics are for, and statistics show otherwise.
This relentless narrative of persecution despite lack of evidence is not healthy for transgender people, especially those who have other well-being issues. Entwined with the familiar suicidal ideation, it's a catastrophe for many transgender people.
I believe the approach taken by Biden is a harmful one for all these reasons, but I guess it essentially comes down to one question:
Is is true?
If it is, then Biden and anyone else who joins is right to condemn.
The BBC have released details about the five victims:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63705862
Why would transgender people be any less persecuted than other minorities have been, and still are, for sexual orientation, race, etc.?
I think we've reached the point of 'agree to disagree'.
You will have your reasons for believing that there is a "lack of evidence" for the "persecution" of transgender people. We may never know if Daniel Aston would have agreed with you – all we have to go on for now are the heartfelt words of his bereaved mother.
Whether "suicidal ideation" is relevant to Aston's murder (or that of transgender woman Kelly Loving – thanks for the BBC link) is a matter of speculation. What is absolutely certain is that bullets were "not healthy" for Aston, Rump, Loving, Paugh, Green and several others at Club Q that night – rather, they were "a catastrophe".
@Drowsy M. Kram
"You will have your reasons for believing that there is a "lack of evidence" for the "persecution" of transgender people. "
The reason being, that there is none. If you are prepared to provide some then, go ahead. At present, in terms of assault and homicides transgender people are a fairly safe demographic.
That does not mean they are immune from violent acts, just that statistically they are not more likely than any other group to be the victim.
One of the researchers for the Counting Ourselves report repeats the persecution line:
"“Sexual violence is about power and control,” Jack Byrne, one of the ‘Counting Ourselves’ researchers and a trans man, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“If the world tells you that nobody loves and cares for you that puts huge levels of pressure on you and (increases your) vulnerability to be preyed upon.”
Why is the messaging that nobody loves you most often coming from advocates and allies?
If you get a chance look at the website and really see what hard data is provided.
https://countingourselves.nz/2018-survey-report/
"What is absolutely certain is that bullets were "not healthy" for Aston, Rump, Loving, Paugh, Green and several others at Club Q that night – rather, they were "a catastrophe"."
I don't know where the quotes are from.
Once more, the attack Club Q is rightly condemned. They may, or may not, get a credible motivation from the perpetrator. It is likely he has some grievance against homosexuals, but it is currently not known.
What is being discussed here, is Biden using the incident to repeat a narrative that has little evidence to support it. As you are so vehement that this was the right call, perhaps you will provide it.
To put into context. A triple murder trial concluded last week for a triple-homicide that took place in 2016.
The victims were a married, mixed race lesbian couple with an adopted teenage son.
The son had been shot,, the women stabbed and shot and attempts were made to burn their bodies.
Now, is this homicide:
1. Homophobic – with the son being caught up in the incident,
2. Misogynistic – with the son being caught up in the incident,
3. Race based – with the non-person of colour caught up in the incident,
4. Religious fervour – against same-sex marriage, etc.
The perpetrator was known to them, but not an acquaintance. This was a hateful crime – but was it a hate crime?
It seems not.
It appears that the women were killed because they were lesbians, but most specfically – they were lesbians that were involved in organising the annual lesbian MichFest and they maintained the single-sex admission criteria, despite pressure from transwomen activists over the years. The homicide happened AFTER the women gave up the battle, and withdrew their organisational labour resulting not in the admittance of transwomen to the festival, but the cessation of the festival altogether.
This strikes me as pure narcissistic rage that the outcome that had been sought had been thwarted. You can read details here.
The relevant part of this story, is that due to the accepted narrative of the vulnerability of transwomen, this convicted murderer has been, and continues to be held in a women's prison.
These decisions need to make sense, and be backed by robust data and evidence. But instead they are informed by such narratives as the one apparently spouted by Biden (though I acknowledge as president he might have had some intelligence that was not public).
These messages of persecution, are not benign.
@Molly – as I wrote @7:02 pm yesterday, I think we've reached the point of 'agree to disagree', as confirmed by your comment @10:35 pm, and my response here.
Re the start of this thread @9.2, I believe Biden's effort to empathise with and express sympathy for members of (minority) LGBT communities who have been victimised (and their loved ones), by way of lamenting the murderous attack on people at Club Q, is good.
You would exclude transgender people ("Drop the T"?) from any list of individuals/groups who/that have been persecuted for their behaviour, but persecuted some have been, consistent with the links below and with my halting efforts to empathise with trans people.
The transgender community is composed of people – just human, like you and me, and as such more or less susceptible to harrassment, discrimination and even persecution.
Re "the persecution line", persecution is not necessarily a statistical phenomenon – what does 'persecution' mean to you?
You describe my opinion of Biden's 'use' of "the incident" as "vehement" (I would prefer 'firm', naturally), but is it really any more vehement than yours? After all, except for the purposes of quoting, I've avoided phrases such as "pure narcissistic rage" and words like "catastrophe" and "spouted" – phrases and words that betray perhaps a trace of fervour on your part. Not that there's anything wrong with a bit of earnest vehemence/fervour/firmness now and then, imho.
I sincerely hope that Kiwis engaged in the spiralling 'gender wars' (for want of a better term) can negotiate an armistice – I'd feel uneasy if DeSantis-style rhetoric ever became mainstream in NZ.
Aotearoa New Zealand is where woke goes to die!??
@Drowsy M Kram
Thank you for taking the time to provide links.
You have however, provided examples of the narrative not harm. A few of your more contemporary links conflate a group of demographics together, including women and so is talking about violence experienced by everybody but straight men without a declared gender identity.
There are countries where persecution of gay and transgender people is violent and supported/perpetuated by authorities.
Biden's USA is not one of them,
Nor is NZ .
Investigate for yourself the court appearances or records of assault in our media.
Iraq continues to execute homosexuals, but provides free full gender reassignment surgery.
Is that a crime against the LGBTQ+, or will you at least concede that this is an extreme form of gay conversion therapy?
Your selective misrepresentation (by reuse out of context) of my word choice, continued references to tone, and my failure to emphathise studiously avoids the content of what I am saying.
You provided no statistical evidence of harm, you also do not engage in the points put forward for discussion.
Human empathy, and dignity is based is truth.
Your approach creates an environment where truth is willfully discarded.
The shooter in Colorado was stopped by an unarmed veteran and a transwoman, not a drag queen as reported in NYT
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/colorado-springs-club-q-hero-gunman-b2230055.html
As to the question:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aba6910 (my bold)
Thanks arkie (@11:29 am)
@Molly, I've read all your comments in this thread – I’m simply expressing my opinion about Biden's position as reported @9.2.
For the record, I vehemently deny your accusation of "continued references to tone".
I mentioned sympathy/empathy in comments by way of explanation. I regret that you feel I was suggesting that you failed to “emphathise” with victims of the Club Q shooting – that was not my intent. But those idiot pastors in Idaho and Texas, eh?
On that we can agree.
On that we must agree to disagree, and I'm sorry you feel this way.
Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the 2018 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, has spoken to the harm of "manufactured hysteria" in the US – Biden's expression of sympathy/empathy for the Club Q shooting victims, and their loved ones, won't resonate with everyone, but it struck a chord with me – and hopefully not only me.
Oops, 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida.
@arkie
Your link – once again – relates to an amalgamation of sexual orientatin and gender identity.
The stats that have been compiled by transgender allies and often referenced on Trans Remembrance Day are here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_killed_for_being_transgender
Every death a tragedy, but few in number no matter how you look at it.
However, let's take a brief look..
Between the years 2004-2019 32 victtms recorded worldwide.
During the same period:
Between 2004 and 2019, there have been 139 victims under the age of 15 in New Zealand alone
https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/the-homicide-report/index.html
Do we hold a Child Remembrance Day?
@Drowsy M.Kram
Biden's “expression of sympathy” was coupled with a narrative that you continually fail to substantiate even while admiring it. It appears that your verification method is someone nice said something nice, so it must be true. You post examples of further narrative to support other narrative, not evidence of harm for the specific group of transgender women.
An example is the entirety of your last link:
That quote is only the start – the link also contains a 7 minute audio file of an interview with Wolf.
@Molly – substantiating this 'narrative' that you find so objectionable is on Biden. I can and do appreciate his stance, as reported @9.2, for the sympathy, empathy and compassion it shows.
I also have compassion for adults and children who strive (and struggle, for any number of reasons) to find their way in the world (those in the US more than some).
If you can’t see the evidence of harm to transgender women, then we will probably continue to talk past each other.
@Drowsy M.Kram
A plugin must've stopped the video from appearing, because all I had was the paragraph, so that makes sense.
We are not talking past each other. You have continued to support the narrative that Biden promulgated that transgender women are vulnerable to violence. You have been given eight opportunities to provide evidence of this claim, and failed to do so.
Conversely, I have provided evidence to you of the recorded violence against transgender people, that has been compiled by those who consider this recording (as I do) important.
It shows a different reality. One you won’t even acknowledge. Why?
Biden could have expressed sympathy for the victims, without creating a narrative when information was not available to support it.
Like the mayor of Colorado Springs took care to say after the shooting:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/colorado-lgbtq-club-shooting-suspect-held-murder-hate/story?id=93776669
The Federal Office was equally circumspect:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/21/us/anderson-lee-aldrich-colorado-springs-shooting-suspect/index.html
To me this is respectful, empathetic and provides dignity to victims, survivors and loved ones. When information is not yet available, you don't make assumptions.
By the by, when you were unsuccessfully looking for links of evidence of harm, and had to resort to links of narratives of harm, did it occur to you that statements such as Biden's have created an instant assertion that transwomen are a vulnerable minority, even though you have been unable to find evidence of this?
It’s a reaction that has been cultivated by links such as those you have provided.
Now, if transwomen are considered even more vulnerable than dead children in NZ, what impact does that have on public discussion, legislation and policy?
Well, perhaps it means that women who request confirmation that single-sex spaces, provisions, services etc remain single-sex are considered obsessive bigots for putting restrictions on the demands of transwomen to be included – because everybody "knows" how vulnerable transgender women are.
It’s not an autoplay audio file. Try clicking on the circled triangle, in the red-orange rectangle containing the text “LISTEN NOW”, immediately to the right of the headline.
@Molly – imho we are, in that this exchange has exposed "an unbridgeable gulf between their [our] respective perceptions".
Here is the relevant quote reporting Biden's response (see @9.2)
The report in the link @9.2 continues with an actual Biden quote:
You perceived Biden's reported response as constituting a 'narrative' (formulated by you) "that transgender women are vulnerable to violence", whereas I perceived "Biden was taking this opportunity to empathise with and express sympathy for members of minority communities who have been violently attacked." (see @9.2.1.2)
Since we disagree on Biden's intent (each seeing what we want to see), I hope (for a third time) that we can agree to disagree. Perhaps consider that this exchange would have been briefer but for the use of the term "transgender women" in the report excerpt @9.2.
Re your narrative, the mass murder at Club Q shows trans women are vulnerable to violence, and they are not unique in this regard.
@Drowsy M. Kram
(Don't get an orange rectangle – just white space)
Ok. I saw within the article I provided a full quote, so agree that arkie's original comment was incomplete and/or paraphrased. This has been acknowledged more than once.
Tragically, since we started this conversation another multiple shooting has been reported. The gun violence remains a scourge of the US.
The points you keep missing are:
4, Despite looking, you couldn't find any additions to the link I provided which makes transwomen a particularly safe demographic. Much safer than children. (You no doubt came across some NZ incidents? Do you want to post?)
Everyone is vulnerable to a bullet from a gun, or senseless violence, so why are transwomen continually referred to as especially vulnerable – without evidence of veracity? This sentence doesn't really make sense.
You refuse to recognise this storytelling has and continues to have an impact on discussions around women's right's and single sex spaces.
I've tried enough now to get you to understand the wider ramifications of a Pavlov type response.
I'm finished. Carry on if you need to.
(Oh, and feel free to post the one NZ transwoman murder while you're at it. I'm sure it would've come up in your searches.)
@Molly – I don't believe that Biden's stance, as reported @9.2, is evidence that Biden promugated the narrative that transgender women are vulnerable to violence – that’s not how I read it.
Most people, including transgender people, have probably been vulnerable to violence at some time in the their life.
After reading the full text of Biden's (empathetic and statesman-like, imho) statement on 20 November 2022, I now agree with you that it indicates he believes transgender women are vulnerable to violence. Biden’s focus on the LGBTQI+ community is entirely appropriate in context – as for why he devoted a whole sentence to transgender women, “the epidemic of violence and murder” is a clue.
Of course, there’s no pleasing some people. Transgender women and dying – damned if you do and damned if you don’t
First I've heard of this particular refusal of mine – talk about “a Pavlov type response.” Personally I would have avoided using “storytelling” as a pejorative so soon after the Club Q attack. Btw, I support women's rights and single sex spaces – don't know about Jill and Joe Biden.
@Drowsy M. Kram
Thank you for posting three links to statistics regarding the violence experienced by transgender people.
Two actually come from the same source, and do note the high incidence of harm to transgender women. The further analysis that they link to – which applies to your third link about gun violence – shows that they are highly represented in other groups that make them (along with others in the group) exposed to situations where violence can occur.
https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications/2019-02/Transgender_infographic_508_0.pdf
eg. 72% were involved in sex work,
65% had been homeless, 61% had disabilities etc.
It is not one factor in isolation here.
You cannot assume that transgender women are vulnerable because of their gender identity when so many other significant factors are in play. That is not to say that it is NOT a factor, just that the impact of it has to be determined to state with confidence that it was the primary factor.
A quick search on Google Scholar pulled up this study based on prostitutes translates quite closely to the figures of harm you posted, when you account for the 72% of transgender women involved in prostitution:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9698636/
If we are talking about job harm, then prostitution has to be one of the most vulnerable. Is it any wonder that those within it have higher rates of assault and violence?
"Personally I would have avoided using “storytelling” as a pejorative so soon after the Club Q attack.
Yeah, I know. My word choice is not to your taste. I'll live with the criticism. Your critique of the use of "narcissistic rage" when discussing the following makes your vocabulary advice less than persuasive:
It is taken you over ten attempts to provide statistics to back up your assertion that transwomen are a particularly vulnerable group. And those statistics are not evidence of that fact, because of the other factors.
So, when I say you have a Pavlov response, it is because you only sought out the evidence after many requests, and still maintain this is the right sequence. (We'll ignore the fact that the quality provided is still low).
"Btw, I support women's rights and single sex spaces"
These days, due to language appropriation and legislative, policy and guideline changes, that sentence means very little in isolation.
For any diehards or insomniacs still following this conversation, an article with some good links and a good summation paragraph:
https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-how-many-trans-people-murdered-uk
@Molly, how about this more long-winded sentence?
Open to brief alternatives that aren't hostile to the above groups.
@Drowsy M. Kram
"I support women's and transgender women's rights, and spaces exclusively for the use of each of the following: women, transgender men, transgender women, and men."
Right, it appears that after skipping over relevant points we've now made the leap to a different topic. Can do, but with this proviso – you shouldn't really care about whether I think you support women's rights or not.
You – and I – should just be working towards clearly explaining our own views, and attempting to understand the other's position. We don't need labels to do this.
With that in mind, a couple of follow up questions:
Single-sex facilities, services, support services, sports, women's organisations, prison estate, awards, scholarships, language specific to each group?
Interestingly, most women's right advocates have no problem accommodating trans identified women of any type in their single-sex spaces.
(Men – on the other hand – unanimously want trans identified men out of their spaces, and into women's.)
Women who have suggested third spaces to accommodate these men have been called transphobic, bigoted, and TERVEN – so welcome to the club.
Can you see how this solution has additional problems?
The difficulty with your stated position, is not that it wouldn’t be supported by women who want to retain single-se spaces, it is the option that is most often and consistently refused by transgender people.
Many (or the loudest) don’t want a third option, (or I’m guessing, a fourth) unless it is the only option (ie. unisex provision only). Many (OTL) want only admittance into the single-sex space to which they do not belong (for a myriad of reasons).
Now, a solution that does not guarantee safety (- but that guarantee is impossible to give) – is that men, collectively ensure that trans identified men are safe in their single-sex spaces.
No boundary breaking required.
(Numbering of questions autocorrected to irrelevance. Leaving it, as not important).
@Molly – please be gentle. You were the first to mention women's rights and single sex spaces in this thread.
Was thinking public loos, changing rooms/showers – maybe also in private businesses such as gyms. There are (were?) some women-only gyms in Palmy. Yes, prison cells too – hadn't thought of them.
Yes – can't please everyone, but (cost aside) this might displease the least, although it would make transgender people more visible, which is probably not what many of them want – tricky.
It's good that most women's rights advocates have no problem accommodating transgender men of any type in their single-sex spaces, but (to my mind) this is more about whether even a small number of woman using a single-sex space might have a problem. If it turned out that none did, then that would simplify things – only third spaces (for transgender women) would be needed.
Gosh – all men? That's depressing. Not me though – third spaces for transgender women would be fine as far as I'm concerned.
Don't know how easy/financially feasible the provision of third spaces would be – imho some accommodation is required. What might the alternative(s) be – to 'unmake' transgender women, or otherwise fix them (and men) so that only one space is required? Is this a realistic option, given men’s propensity for violence, and the idea that men unanimously want transgender women out of their spaces?
Since you raised the issue of practicality in 3, might I suggest that the idea of all men in their single sex spaces being non-violent towards transgender women seems more like a lovely dream than an alternative solution – implementation without the necessary behaviour modification could increase the incidence of assaults on transgender women. Safer to put men and transgender women in separate cages, imho.
Otoh, if you have a practical plan to modify behaviour en masse, how about rolling it out first in Russia/Ukraine before moving on to war zones closer to home.
@Drowsy M Kram
I know you are unlikely to believe it, but I am being gentle, as best I can. If you look back, I try not to ascribe motives or intentions, but make the assumption that perhaps the other person in the conversation has not considered, or does not know, and work towards that. It can come across as abrupt, where clarity is intended. I think there also may be an expectation of a different style of engagement because of my female name. This approach seems to be more common and accepted in males.
That said. I do genuinely appreciate you continuing this exchange.
The single-sex spaces was introduced, because the conversation is affected by an assumption that transwomen are vulnerable and need to be accommodated in women's single-sex spaces for that reason.
You are correct about the unanimous – it was a left over adjective from an edit – and by the time I noticed it, the edit had gone. I know there are men who would support trans identified men in their spaces. I'd even go further and say there are those that would ensure their safety and comfort while in them.
It's interesting that you had only considered single-sex spaces to refer to facilities for changing and toileting. Transwomen have demanded and been admitted to breastfeeding forums, pregnancy support groups, women's organisations, women's clubs – the list goes on. The impacts range from mild to significant, but there is always an impact.
There is so much in regards to facilities that should be considered and when I was trying to organise my own thoughts, I wrote a series of threads on Twitter (… I know..). I'll link them to text here so they don't take up so much space. I'd probably be able to write them more clearly now, but they are a good record of what and how I think.
They began mostly in response to the constant accusation that keeping single-sex spaces was akin to claiming all transwomen are predatory:
Safeguarding and risk assessment
The vulnerability of trans identified males
Understanding women's differences
The second was when I undertook the online research for statistics that I asked you to do. I will endeavour to read all links provided to me in conversations, after someone has taken the time to do so, but I also think that self-discovery of information is much more persuasive then me providing links for which the source or the author is then condemned without discussion of content.
On the topic of women's rights and gender ideology, there are very few "left-wing" publications that accurately report concerns, and give space to women's rights advocates – unless they include men.
In regards to additional spaces, it is the safest environments that are most likely to be able to afford accommodation in third spaces. When government and councils are strapped for resources, this provision (that is fundamentally unnecessary – especially if all they do is "want to pee") is a waste of resources.
And yes, I did do a thread on toilet design too.
"It's good that most women's rights advocates have no problem accommodating transgender men of any type in their single-sex spaces, but (to my mind) this is more about whether even a small number of woman using a single-sex space might have a problem. If it turned out that none did, then that would simplify things – only third spaces (for transgender women) would be needed."
That's an interesting perspective. Given that many women have indicated a problem with trans-identified men using their spaces, and they have been ignored and accused of transphobia, bigotry and hatred, your concession to women who might be concerned about other women (with a gender identity) using single-sex spaces is one that hasn't been offered many times before.
Moving on to prisons, which you had not given much thought to. In NZ's prison estate, there are no official published statistics, and though people have tried to do OIR, there has been some difficulty in ascertaining how accurate they are.
Submissions for the amendments for the BDMRR bill asked for clarity on the how single-sex spaces would be ensured, and were told that there was no impact. This was said, knowing that single-sex spaces had already been breached, and the concerns around spaces such as prisons, had already been realised:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/112432880/transgender-prisoner-investigated-for-sexual-assault-behind-bars
While the discussion was taking place the NZ media published opinion pieces and narratives around the vulnerability of transwomen, and this does do much to derail the concerns of women when they are raised.
"Since you raised the issue of practicality in 3, might I suggest that the idea of all men in their single sex spaces being non-violent towards transgender women seems more like a lovely dream than an alternative solution – implementation without the necessary behaviour modification could increase the incidence of assaults on transgender women. Safer to put men and transgender women in separate cages, imho."
Cages? I suspect you are talking specifically about prisons here, rather than toilet facilities, or other single-sex spaces. Like any instance where people are confined involuntarily, it requires a different consideration, I agree.
I have several times on this platform posted a link to a facility that has been in place in the LA County Jail system, that not only caters to transgender identified men, but homosexual men that are at elevated risk. There are other vulnerable males in the prison system that could also benefit from separation, but this example is one that shows a working solution:
https://youtu.be/2thDt4twxww
Any government that imprisons their citizens, should also ensure their safety while imprisoned, and such allocation of resources seems necessary to me. So neither impractical or financially wasteful in this particular instance.
Otoh, if you have a practical plan to modify behaviour en masse, how about rolling it out first in Russia/Ukraine before moving on to war zones closer to home.
I don't really understand what you are saying here. Unless, you thought that when I wrote of practical considerations and financial costs – it applied to all single sex spaces.
What is important, is that solutions are found that do not assume that because women's single-sex spaces are a safeguarding and privacy measure that works for women, that women's spaces are therefore the safest place to put men.
There's an article in the NYT with a first hand account from someone at Club Q;
https://archive.ph/L1sA1
The person who committed the crime identified as 'Non binary' with 'they/them' pronouns.
Question: did they do that to wriggle out of a hate crime? And if so can we assume that men would and will appropriate a trans identity in order to receive a better and lesser punishment, or instead of being locked up in a male prison will get transferred to a female prison, or to just get out of a hate crime that they committed. And Just a few hours later 10 people were being gunned down by another disgruntled person in a shop.
Sadness everywhere.
Because being a self-loathing non binary person means it can't possibly be hate crime.
And besides, the killings will continue until you do what we want.
https://twitter.com/abughazalehkat/status/1595225986215383040
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2022/11/23/2137984/-The-Q-Club-mass-shooter-is-trolling-he-s-a-homophobic-man-according-to-those-who-know-him
The question however stands, are men – criminal men, in this case a mass murderer claiming a trans identity to get a get out of jail card?
If so, then it would be truly despicable. But that too was already foretold by those that quite a few lefties would call 'terf' or 'bigot' or 'phobe' or even just 'cassandra'. That wimpy little criminal penis havers would do exactly that to get locked in the female prisons, cause 'they / them' or 'she/her'. Or to get a a lower sentence. Cause just because the dude wanted to do the crime does not mean he wants to do the time.
.
Given that I consider non-binary to be a nonsense, I can't claim to accept this as a pertinent fact.
Do I suspect they (or their lawyers) considered doing so, in order to have lesser punitive action from the prosecutors and justice system? Yes, I suspect so.
However, under current legislation and guidance, there is no way either to discount or confirm that suspicion. The deciding factor is the self-declaration. The problem was foreseen, identified and ignored. This is just another iteration.
The victims of the crime, those killed, injured and all those who care for them, need to have a justice system that works equitably for everyone, regardless of sex, race, disability, religious reasons, sexual orientation or gender identity.
Any death from this random violence is a tragedy. In terms of justice, it should be neither lessened nor elevated by the victims protected characteristics, but treated as diligently as possible. I'm not supportive of this two tier empathy system that seems to develop alongside hate legislation.
Grieving for the development of a world view where such acts of violence is seen as an answer.
His conservative p-head pron star father is relieved he isn't gay.
Little wonder the killer turned out the way he did.
https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1595519454900805649
https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/im-sorry-i-let-my-son-down-father-of-accused-colorado-club-shooter-speaks-out/509-6c4ad66e-35ef-41a5-9255-bca31cea3a73
Well, that is what self id is all about. Pretending to not be a thing.
"Pretending"!
It is what they know to be true. Says so, in the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationship Registration Bill.
Expecting words to have literal meanings is so Boomer of you, Sabine.
sadly to young to be a boomer……i am the generation of their children lol
Doesn't matter… if you identify as a Boomer…
The information coming out about the shooter's life is revealing a very dysfunctional family, and chaotic upbringing.
Why doesn’t Winston just rejoin National, and be done with it?
This is a rhetorical question, right, and no one needs to answer it, yes?
The return of the wild goose. I can hear it honking. Winston returns to the flock and is welcomed, forgiven, and installed as leader to the delight of the faithful who held to the tale of the Second Coming.
"The centre cannot hold……." Yeats had it, just a century late.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-coming
Because his Party does not need National, they need him. That is the joy of MMP.