I would say this against Biden or Trump or whoever team was running their show, but the State Department acting to shield Israel from investigation into breaches of the Geneva Conventions in Gaza is sickening.
Employers are looking for help in managing restructuring and redundancies at a rate not seen since the global financial crisis, the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) says.
Fired yesterday: 750 Filipino workers for recruiter ELE from 10 building sites
Likely more great monitoring by MBIE as well. I still don't know why Labour let such high volumes of workers in when local benefit numbers were still higher than before COVID. MBIE at times seemed to be working against the interests of New Zealanders.
Apparently Labour, under pressure from business opened up the taps, Immigration staff expressed concerns about the future mess that would result but MBIE bosses told them to process the migrants in as fast as possible with bare minimum checks, coz that is what the government wanted.
Unsurprisingly National are not making doing anything a priority coz they can just blame Labour for it all.
"Is Brazil a Spanish-speaking country? No, it’s not. But do Brazilians speak Spanish? Some of them! In fact, around 460,000 Brazilians speak Spanish, according to Ethnologue. The two languages are similar in many ways, though more in their written form than their pronunciation. As such, many Brazilians are able to understand Spanish, though they may not speak it fluently. "
The emerging consensus in international sport based on fair competition and community sport rules having provision for safety in contact sport meant this was a minor issue.
The coalition agreement states the new government would “ensure publicly funded sporting bodies support fair competition that is not compromised by rules relating to gender”.
Major sports bodies will continue to work on transgender inclusion guidelines, despite the agreement between National and New Zealand First which aims to remove transgender women from women’s sport.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Thursday that transgender New Zealanders would still be able to play sport under the new government, but “balance, fairness, inclusion and safety” were key. He said new sports minister Chris Bishop would “pick that up” in the new year.
“We want sporting organisations – and by and large many have been doing a fantastic job – working their way through what is quite a complex issue with a range of emotion on all sorts of sides, to say they are finding ways to balance safety, inclusion and fairness,” he said.
That said, it is obvious that emphasis has changed
NZ First took active steps to contact and listen to women* the same way they took active steps to contact and listen to anti-vaxxers. For political position and votes.
Well, no. You've personalised it and slighted a commenter here, and it's given Populuxe1 whiplash!
Muttonbird didn't do that.
Winston hoovered up the votes of the natural remedies people, the antivax people and quite possibly, the transphobic women, by speaking at their meetings or engaging with the leaders of those groups/movements. Do you believe politically-astute women, such as several who comment here, who could otherwise have given their vote to the New Zealand Women's Rights Party, would have attended a meeting for Winston, or voted for him because he represents their key issue? If so, why? I think Muttonbird is more likely to be correct in this instance.
Do you believe politically-astute women, such as several who comment here, who could otherwise have given their vote to the New Zealand Women's Rights Party, would have attended a meeting for Winston, or voted for him because he represents their key issue? If so, why?
Yes, I do. Because I actually listen to and talk with them. And because anyone who is voting strategically and is no longer committed to the left (there are many like this), voting NZF gives them political power.
Maybe it's a surprise to some that women's sex based rights are a primary, overarching political issue for many women.
Winston hoovered up the votes of the natural remedies people, the antivax people and quite possibly, the transphobic women, by speaking at their meetings or engaging with the leaders of those groups/movements
And how about the gender critical women in those communities who aren't transphobic?
Well, no. You've personalised it and slighted a commenter here, and it's given Populuxe1 whiplash!
Muttonbird didn't do that.
I made it personal to one person, MB made it personal to a number of people. His commented as pointed to Molly. He will know she is a gender critical woman, and while he didn't call her transphobic directly, he may as well have.
Besides, I was making a point about communication and politics. I didn't call MB a misogynist. I mirrored what he did in a way that would bring home both the problem with his communication on this topic, and the problem with his politics.
Well, yes, I see that you hold the view that "gender critical women" may have chosen to vote for Winston. I can see that Muttonbird holds the view that Winston would more likely have attracted "transphobic women" to vote for him, in light of the other groups he cultivated prior to the election. I favour Muttonbird's assessment, not because of any qualities "gender critical women" may have, but because of what I perceive to be Winston's strategies and the audience he seems to appeal to most. I guess there's no way to know for sure, the ideological makeup of the women who voted for Winston because of his expressed views on this issue, but my feeling is in line with Muttonbird's. That's without taking into account any previous comments made here on The Standard.
MB's politics on gender/sex mean that the term transphobic is almost meaningless. Does he mean women who hate trans people? What does hate mean there? JKR kind of hate, or KKK kind of hate, or something else?
Or does he also mean women who think women's sex based rights matter, that women have the right to single sex spaces (toilets, changing rooms) and single sex services (rape crisis, cervical screening) separate from males?
Peters is a grifter who play the gender wars like maestro violinist while the left wrung their hands wondering what was going on. But the prospective voters that Peters was courting still have agency, and aren't a hive mind. It was the women voters that MB called those women transphobic, as if any woman who had concerns and was interested in NZF's person was transphobic.
I see no evidence at all that the only women attracted to Peters' messaging were those that hate trans people.
I guess there's no way to know for sure, the ideological makeup of the women who voted for Winston because of his expressed views on this issue, but my feeling is in line with Muttonbird's.
Other than listening to and talking with such people.
Who could determine whether they were "gender critical" or"transphobic".
My point is that there's no way to know and therefore the guess that the Winston-magnet would draw reactionary, rather than reasonable thinkers, seems fair to me.
I know it’s the silly season, but that takes the Christmas cake lol
Who could determine whether they were “gender critical” or”transphobic”.
It’s not that hard. Many of us have been doing it for a long time. It’s not too different from any other political sphere, but it does require knowledge of the issues. What I see in this debate on TS is people often arguing from a place of relative ignorance. Calling JKR transphobic without understanding what her positions are would be an example.
My point is that there’s no way to know and therefore the guess that the Winston-magnet would draw reactionary, rather than reasonable thinkers, seems fair to me.
Whereas I think the people that chose to vote for Peters covers a range of people. My dad used to vote Peters, he wasn’t a reactionary. Besides, the dividing line wasn’t reactionary vs reasonable, it was transphobic vs gender critical. There seems to be an a priori implication here that anyone voting for Peters because of gender/sex is inherently transphobic/irrational. I can see the reasonable rationales for voting for Peters over gender even though I disagree with them. The reason I know this is because I had these conversations in the past year with women and men leaving the left over gender identity politics, and I talked and argued with them about the issues in voting on the right instead, and in that my position was to understand their positions, not simply pillory them.
NZF voters cover a range of people and politics. I know NZF voters who aren’t reactionaries.
On the specific issue of women voting for NZF over gender/sex, I have zero doubt that some of them are reactionaries and that you know some of those. I know some too. I’m not claiming I’ve talked to all NZF women voters, nor that I know all their motives, so I’m not sure how you got to that question, hence my comment about the silly season.
What I’m pointing to is a dynamic of former left wing voters, now not voting on the left, because of gender/sex policies. This is well known. I’ve been talking with those people for ages, and it’s not restricted to NZ. I’m not saying they are the only NZF voters, I’m pointing out that the characterisation of NZF women voters as inherently transphobic and/or reactionary is unfounded.
I’m less interested in establishing a narrative of which groups is the bigger number than I am in teasing out a more nuanced perspective, as well as straight up resisting the GI political approach of castigate and ostracise (for reasons I often talk about).
" I can see the reasonable rationales for voting for Peters over gender even though I disagree with them."
People may have voted for Peter's over gender, but now they are getting the rest of his political package; attacks on the media, Māori language, Te Trite, "woke" thinking etc.
The "natural health" crowd I'm familiar with, which overlaps the anti-tax crowd I also rub shoulders with, switched their support to Winston following his series of meetings up and down the country. I regard them as reactionaries who didn't look past their singular issue to see what they were supporting. Extrapolating out from that experience, I suspect that many of those who joined the NZFirst circus late in the piece, as a result of Winston's honeyed words, are similarly reactionary. Is that not a reasonable assumption to make?
Extrapolating out from that experience, I suspect that many of those who joined the NZFirst circus late in the piece, as a result of Winston’s honeyed words, are similarly reactionary. Is that not a reasonable assumption to make?
Tbh, I think it speaks more to your politics than theirs. I likewise move in the natural health crowd, although I don’t put scare quotes around that because I think it’s normal and natural 🙂 In that group I know people who fell hard down the rabbit hole, and I know people that are still the same thoughtful people they were before the pandemic even where we disagree on issues. I would never characterise a whole sub culture as reactionary, not least because it’s not been my experience of them.
Regarding gender identity politics, it’s not really a feature in my community yet, but it’s starting to become apparent. And the big problem we face is that because of TRA politics and the castigate/ostracise approach, few liberals and progressive will speak to the gender critical issues. Because they are afraid to. This is how reactionary politics comes to dominate.
(again, I don’t see that whole subculture as reactionary).
No Debate was an intentional strategy from pro-GI lobby groups esp in the UK, it was very successful for a long time in preventing progressives from talking through and resolving the conflicts between women’s rights and trans rights. That left a vacuum which the right and the reactionary alt cultures have filled. Own goal lefties. It serves TRA pol, because it’s much easier to ignore the feminists and continue with the narrative of good trans allies, bad everyone else who wants to talk about the issues they must be evil conservatives. But that narrative is simply, flat out wrong.
"I would never characterise a whole sub culture as reactionary…"
Nor I – I labeled those who committed their vote to Winston late in the piece, following his charm-offensive across the motu.
I have a question for you, weka. Do you know if any of the women who were planning to vote New Zealand Women's Rights Party, shifted their vote to Winston?
Cool, so we’ve narrowed it down to counter culture women who voted NZF after NZF adopted a GC policy.
I see no evidence that all or most of those women are reactionary, although obviously some are. Nor do I see any reason to draw the conclusion that they are, unless one is unaware of the range of positions within GC politics (or chooses to ignore them).
Do you know if any of the women who were planning to vote New Zealand Women’s Rights Party, shifted their vote to Winston?
Off the top of my head, no. I could ask around. I could ask on TS, but it’s not safe to do so /irony.
I can tell you that if I weren’t a committed deep green leftie, and I decided to vote based on women’s rights, I might choose NZF over NZWRP because voting NZF would increase the chances of a brake on GII being further rolled out in NZ policy, law and society. Voting NZWRP is the long game. The problem is that much damage can be done in the meantime.
Apparently, you (and Robert below) do too. Unless you just drag out the "transphobic" accusation for those who may hold a different perspective than you.
That's a fucking stupid article, why did you present it as something worth reading?
The probably updated headline reads,
Transgender athletes could be banned from publicly funded women’s sport under new Government policy
Why would transmen who are not using testosterone be banned from publicly funded women's sport? It's not about transgender atheletes, it's about male bodied people being allowed to compete in female bodied people's sport. Safety and fairness and plain old sexism are the core of the problem.
What is actually happening is that there is a push to set boundaries on participation in sport based on biological sex not gender. Anyone presenting this as a gender identity/bigotry issue is either ignorant or disingenuous.
Pro-gender lefties upset at NACTFirst sorting this issue out in a conservative frame should have thought about that when attacking gender critical people on the left that wanted good solutions for women and trans people /
It's more breathtaking to me that this is the issue that (mostly younger) lefties choose to rally around and protest about. And they can't see how offensive and unreasonable their behaviour is, and how it probably influenced the election.
If it influenced the election it was only because Winston exploited the inflamed who were gullible enough to believe he represented the issue that most inflamed them.
Firstly, that doesn't negate the wrongness of the government setting itself up as moral arbiter of an issue like this. Second, they have a democratic right to protest. Third, Spiked! is so ideologically suspect I wouldn't touch it with lead gloves.
. 1. That didn’t stop L/G from making an equivalent judgement, but you happened to agree with it
. 2. That wasn’t a protest it was a thug’s veto, the violence is well documented around the world, but ignored by craven NZ media
. 3. So you didn’t read the article and prefer to remain ignorant of the very real issues at play and the increasing degradation of women’s sports and violations of their safety
These aren’t simple black and white issues with goodies and baddies. But if the left continues to force this issue and prioritise male peccadilloes over women’s rights, then fair minded people will vote accordingly
(nb, this comment box markup is messing up numbered lists!)
. 1. That didn’t stop L/G from making an equivalent judgement, but you happened to agree with it
First of all, you're assuming I had an opinion in the first place, and second of all, when did Labour threaten to cut off contestable funding for groups unless they exclude certain demographics?
. 2. That wasn’t a protest it was a thug’s veto, the violence is well documented around the world, but ignored by craven NZ media
To paraphrase Blackadder, yes, it was awfully sharp tomato soup. And attacking the media is always the first stop of a fascist.
. 3. So you didn’t read the article and prefer to remain ignorant of the very real issues at play and the increasing degradation of women’s sports and violations of their safety
The article is woefully out of date and fails to take into account more recent medical research and the rules individual sporting organisations have put in place to endure fair competition. I realise some people do like to drag out the outliers and pretend its a conspiracy, but reality rarely works like that.
These aren’t simple black and white issues with goodies and baddies. But if the left continues to force this issue and prioritise male peccadilloes over women’s rights, then fair minded people will vote accordingly
No, but then I'm not the one treating them like "simple black and white issues with goodies and baddies" – that would be you and this government seeing everything as a nail when all you have is a hammer, and does nothing to address the issue of an entire demographic being excluded from the right to participate in organised sport.
That article is out of date on international sport.
The first position was transsexual status and hormone levels within the female norm. As it notes this was challenged because of the advantage of going through puberty as a male. It has already been determined (under fair competition rules) those who went through puberty as males are excluded (or are to be) from near all international sport.
Following on from that is the issue of player safety in community sport involving physical contact, if those who went through puberty as males are allowed to participate. That is on-going.
So why not let individual sports organisations make those decisions? How is this anything the government should be involving itself in?
Sure. And why not let sports organisations start discriminating against women in other ways? Why should we have Human Rights Legislation covering things like this?
Pro-gender lefties
Honestly, it's breathtaking how your language switches straight to right wing idioms when your hobbyhorse gets trundled out. I get whiplash.
Honestly, it's breathtaking how many lefties a) refuse to acknowledge the existence of the large number of left wing gender critical feminists and allies who were working on this for a good decade before the right jumped in.
Even more breathtaking is the implication that feminists can't think for themselves and might very well have reached their conclusions based on class analysis, feminism, and fairness.
Btw, your argument about letting sports organisations choose rather than having central government protections for women, is straight out of the RW play book. Very libertarian.
See how that works? I don't think you are RW/libertarian (I think you are ignorant as well as having chosen a side against women). But when we react from relative ignorance, we comes to stupid assumptions like the on you made about my language. Would it hurt you to learn the history of gender/sex politics and understand the various dynamics and groups involved?
I am quite familiar with the history of gender/sex politics, thanks, and you are not its pope. You're welcome to think for yourself. That's absolutely swell and grand. I just find it interesting how quickly you rush to embrace the authoritarian right whenever anyone disagrees with you on this particular topic, even though historically they'd prefer you stay in the kitchen.
I'd rather let sports organisations choose (and let's face it, you're more worried they'll choose to include trans people than you are about the libertarian right) because most of them operate at the community level.
Anyway, I'll leave it there. The straw people are giving me hay fever.
[please produce three examples of where I ‘rush to embrace the authoritarian right’ on GC politics. Examples need to be quotes of my words, links, and an explanation from yourself on what you think I am doing. This is mandatory.
You’ve been throwing out such statements generally in the past day, but when it comes to authors, you cannot misrepresent what we say. It’s not that you have a particular opinion about my or others’ politics, it’s that you are using slurs with zero evidence or argument to support your assertion. I won’t moderate for disagreement, I will moderate for disrespect to authors or moderators.
You can either present the evidence I have asked for, or clearly and genuinely withdraw the assertion, or risk a ban. You are in premod until the is resolved. Know that given the time of year, my patience is pretty thin. – weka]
You’d know all about straw, since you seem incapable of even acknowledging there is a legitimate clash of rights here. But you do you. Whitewashing and wallpapering over problems, and accusing people who complain of being hateful bigots, is a great recipe for the future 👍🏼
Actually I do agree that there is a legitimate clash of rights. The difference is I don't see a particularly good outcome in "solving" it by using state power and threats to funding in order to marginalise and excluding an entire class of people.
The problem here is that when someone says something like this,
My personal feeling is that while J K Rowling has become quite loathsome with her doubling down on being all chummy with outright fascists on social media, banning a harmless exhibition is the worst kind of superficial virtue signaling.
it's very hard to argue back politically. The slur is clear (JKR is chummy with outright fascists on SM), but there is not only no evidence provided for this, but the outright fascists aren't even named. So the casual slurring continues in a long running political war that is fraught with this kind of low level debate manipulation.
I've now shifted you from premod to the ban list until 6/1/24, because I'm on holiday.
You will be back in premod at the end of the ban. If you comment before the 6th the comment will go into Trash, but I will see it in the back end and can take it from there. Otherwise, please comment in the week starting the 6th
Please attend to the mod request above sooner rather than later, or I will ban you for a longer time just to get it off my workload. This is resolvable, it's simply a matter of establishing the boundaries here on what is ok and what isn't.
Administrators (often volunteers) are susceptible to coercion and funding directives. They can be excellent administrators for the sport, while being ignorant of the reasons behind any of the sports categories within their code.
They should – as responsible adults – maintain the categories within their sports codes – unless there is compelling evidence (which there is not) for removing those sports categories from their codes.
The principle most applicable here is Chesterton's Fence:
We maintain weight classes, and age categories for the same reasons of safety and fairness that sex categories exist.
However, the ill-considered erosion of the sex-category has already bled into age category infiltration. When the adults leave the room in this respect, they tend not to look back in case something bad happens:
"More recently, there’s the shameful case of the 50-year-old man — who identifies as a teenage girl — who was allowed to compete against young girls in a swim facility in Barrie, Ontario.
Apparently, no one in authority thought to protect the young girls who had to share a changeroom with that person. In this brave new world, no one had the courage or the common sense to tell him he should leave immediately or be thrown out."
I added that link, because it was the earlier news report on the government decision and should have been in the original post.
Fairness was already at the core, thus it is being decided that those who went through puberty as males are to be excluded from near all of international women's sport.
Safety was also already at the core, with community sports organisations able to make decisions on safety grounds, whether age, weight or sex.
The coalition agreement states the new government would “ensure publicly funded sporting bodies support fair competition that is not compromised by rules relating to gender”.
The real issue in community sport is safety. The National Party PM and Sports Minister get that
So while
Major sports bodies will continue to work on transgender inclusion guidelines, despite the agreement between National and New Zealand First which aims to remove transgender women from women’s sport.
There is this
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Thursday that transgender New Zealanders would still be able to play sport under the new government, but “balance, fairness, inclusion and safety” were key. He said new sports minister Chris Bishop would “pick that up” in the new year.
“We want sporting organisations – and by and large many have been doing a fantastic job – working their way through what is quite a complex issue with a range of emotion on all sorts of sides, to say they are finding ways to balance safety, inclusion and fairness,” he said.
PS I mentioned Fox News because its focus is on college/university sport (where the scholarships are an incentive for grifters and deprive women of opportunity or make for unfair competition – this is not where we are). And otherwise unbalanced reporting on this and other issues, leading to societal conflict for exploitation by the GOP/politicians.
I submitted to the Sports NZ consultation on this policy. I know that some women's organisations, and individual sportswomen also attempted to have their concerns addressed, but were not given access to the process other than as individual submitters.
You can look at the list of involved stakeholders to determine whether the policy was predetermined – despite the pretence of consultation:
Through consultation on the Guiding Principles for Transgender Inclusion in Community Sport, the sector identified a need for more resources to support understanding and awareness of rainbow communities more broadly. A working group was then formed with sector representatives from NZ Rugby, NZ Cricket, NZ Football, NZ Netball, Golf NZ, Swimming NZ, School Sport NZ, Waka Ama NZ and Aktive Auckland, whose help and expertise made this work possible.
We partnered with InsideOUT Kōaro, who are leading experts in inclusion of rainbow communities, to develop a suite of resources to support rainbow inclusion in community sport and recreation. Through this, InsideOUT consulted with many groups in Aotearoa that support members of various rainbow communities."
It's surprising no one has considered the option of Oz and other foreign based gangs, associated with organised crime, being banned from operating branches here.
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The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
The December labour market statistics have been released, showing yet another increase in unemployment. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. And having thrown all these people out of work, National is doubling down on cruelty. Because being vicious will somehow magically create the ...
Boarded up homes in Kilbirnie, where work on a planned development was halted. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are;Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announcedKāinga Ora would be stripped of ...
This week Kiwirail and Auckland Transport were celebrating the completion of the summer rail works that had the network shut or for over a month and the start of electric trains to Pukekohe. First up, here’s parts of the press release about the shutdown works. Passengers boarding trains in Auckland ...
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkBoth 2023 and 2024 were exceptionally warm years, at just below and above 1.5C relative to preindustrial in the WMO composite of surface temperature records, respectively. While we are still working to assess the full set of drivers of this warmth, it is clear that ...
Hi,I woke up feeling nervous this morning, realising that this weekend Flightless Bird is going to do it’s first ever live show. We’re heading to a sold out (!) show in Seattle to test the format out in front of an audience. If it works, we’ll do more. I want ...
From the United-For-Now States of America comes the thrilling news that a New Zealander may be at the very heart of the current coup. Punching above our weight on the world stage once more! Wait, you may be asking, what New Zealander? I speak of Peter Thiel, made street legal ...
Even Stevens: Over the 33 years between 1990 and 2023 (and allowing for the aberrant 2020 result) the average level of support enjoyed by the Left and Right blocs, at roughly 44.5 percent each, turns out to be, as near as dammit, identical.WORLDWIDE, THE PARTIES of the Left are presented ...
Back in 2023, a "prominent political figure" went on trial for historic sex offences. But we weren't allowed to know who they were or what political party they were "prominent" in, because it might affect the way we voted. At the time, I said that this was untenable; it was ...
I'm going, I'm goingWhere the water tastes like wineI'm going where the water tastes like wineWe can jump in the waterStay drunk all the timeI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure ...
Waitangi Day is a time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stand together for a just and fair Aotearoa. Across the motu, communities are gathering to reflect, kōrero, and take action for a future built on equity and tino rangatiratanga. From dawn ceremonies to whānau-friendly events, there are ...
Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
The PSA have released a survey of 4000 public service workers showing that budget cuts are taking a toll on the wellbeing of public servants and risking the delivery of essential services to New Zealanders. Economists predict that figures released this week will show continued increases in unemployment, potentially reaching ...
The Prime Minister’s speech 10 days or so ago kicked off a flurry of commentary. No one much anywhere near the mainstream (ie excluding Greens supporters) questioned the rhetoric. New Zealand has done woefully poorly on productivity for a long time and we really need better outcomes, and the sorts ...
President Trump on the day he announced tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China, unleashing a shock to supply chains globally that is expected to slow economic growth and increase inflation for most large economies. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 9 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 3Politics: New Zealand Government cabinet meeting usually held early afternoon with post-cabinet news conference possible at 4 pm, although they have not been ...
Trump being Trump, it won’t come as a shock to find that he regards a strong US currency (bolstered by high tariffs on everything made by foreigners) as a sign of America’s virility, and its ability to kick sand in the face of the world. Reality is a tad more ...
A listing of 24 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 26, 2025 thru Sat, February 1, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
What seems to be the common theme in the US, NZ, Argentina and places like Italy under their respective rightwing governments is what I think of as “the politics of cruelty.” Hate-mongering, callous indifference in social policy-making, corporate toadying, political bullying, intimidation and punching down on the most vulnerable with ...
If you are confused, check with the sunCarry a compass to help you alongYour feet are going to be on the groundYour head is there to move you aroundSo, stand in the place where you liveSongwriters: Bill Berry / Michael Mills / Michael Stipe / Peter Buck.Hot in the CityYesterday, ...
Shane Jones announced today he would be contracting out his thinking to a smarter younger person.Reclining on his chaise longue with a mouth full of oysters and Kina he told reporters:Clearly I have become a has-been, a palimpsest, an epigone, a bloviating fossil. I find myself saying such things as: ...
Warning: This post contains references to sexual assaultOn Saturday, I spent far too long editing a video on Tim Jago, the ACT Party President and criminal, who has given up his fight for name suppression after 2 years. He voluntarily gave up just in time for what will be a ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is global warming ...
Our low-investment, low-wage, migration-led and housing-market-driven political economy has delivered poorer productivity growth than the rest of the OECD, and our performance since Covid has been particularly poor. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty this ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.As far as major government announcements go, a Three Ministers Event is Big. It can signify a major policy development or something has gone Very Well, or an absolute Clusterf**k. When Three Ministers assemble ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead for all Kiwis, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. In the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Speech in Auckland today, Christopher Luxon laid out the path to the prosperity that will affect all aspects of New Zealanders’ lives. ...
The latest set of accounts show the Government has successfully checked the runaway growth of public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “In the previous government’s final five months in office, public spending was almost 10 per cent higher than for the same period the previous year. “That is completely ...
The Government’s welfare reforms are delivering results with the number of people moving off benefits into work increasing year-on-year for six straight months. “There are positive signs that our welfare reset and the return consequences for job seekers who don't fulfil their obligations to prepare for or find a job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Orr, Veterinarian, Southern Cross University Mitchell Orr/Unsplash Late last year, rumours swirled online that HomeSafeID, a private Australian pet microchip registry, had stopped operating. On Feburary 5 2025, a notice appeared on the HomeSafeID website, ostensibly from the site’s ...
The government is taking far too long to allocate the 1500 social homes it announced nine months ago and the hold up is stalling desperately-needed homes, says a community housing provider. ...
The media is rife with headlines about people killing animals for kicks. Please don’t.In memory of an Auckland swan, a Bay of Plenty octopus and a Taranaki striped marlin.Imagine this. It’s 7.15am. You’re paddling around on a serene lake with your sweetheart. It seems likely that she’ll give ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra US President Donald Trump has agreed to “consider” exempting Australia from the 25% tariff he has imposed on imports of steel and aluminium to the US. Trump gave the undertaking during a wide-ranging 40-minute ...
Pacific Media Watch Israeli police have confiscated hundreds of books with Palestinian titles or flags without understanding their contents in a draconian raid on a Palestinian educational bookshop in occupied East Jerusalem, say eyewitnesses. More details have emerged on the Israeli police raid on a popular bookstore in occupied East ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist China and the Cook Islands’ relationship “should not be disrupted or restrained by any third party”, says Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, as opposition leaders in Rarotonga express a loss of confidence in Prime Minister Mark Brown. In response to questions from the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Ogden, Associate Professor in Global Studies, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Donald Trump is moving rapidly to change the contours of contemporary international affairs, with the old US-dominated world order breaking down into a multipolar one with many centres of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ronnie Das, Associate Professor in Data Analytics, The University of Western Australia In the recent Border-Gavaskar series against India, Steve Smith agonisingly missed out reaching 10,000 Test runs in front of his home crowd at the Sydney Cricket Ground, falling short by ...
In a brand new documentary series for The Spinoff, comedians and best friends Brynley Stent and Kura Forrester embark on a cross-country quest to find love. Bryn & Ku’s Singles Club is a brand new documentary series for The Spinoff following award-winning comedians and friends Brynley Stent and ...
🚐 Bryn and Ku pack their bags and swap the bleak dating scene of Tāmaki Makaurau for some meet and mingle events in Ōtautahi that will take them out of their comfort zone. ❣️ Bryn & Ku’s Singles Club follows comedians Brynley Stent and Kura Forrester as they head out ...
"The relationship between China and the Cook Islands does not target any third party," the Chinese Foreign Ministry says, as opposition leaders in Rarotonga plan protest. ...
From tradwives to ‘petite blonde’ preferences, this season feels like a throwback for all the wrong reasons, writes Alex Casey. First of all: I know. Complaining about bad stuff on Married at First Sight Australia is like complaining that water is wet. But I’ve been bobbing around in these waters ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a public servant who’s ‘trying to get better’ explains her approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female. Age: 24. Ethnicity: Pākehā and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zena Assaad, Senior Lecturer, School of Engineering, Australian National University Ziv Lavi/Shutterstock Last week, Google quietly abandoned a long-standing commitment to not use artificial intelligence (AI) technology in weapons or surveillance. In an update to its AI principles, which were first ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brenainn Simpson, PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland Florian Nimsdorf / Shutterstock About 400 kilometres northwest of Sydney, just south of Dubbo, lies a large and interesting body of rock formed around 215 million years ago by erupting volcanoes. Known as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mareike Riedel, Senior lecturer in law, Macquarie University The dramatic rise in antisemitic incidents has dominated headlines in Australia in recent months, with calls for urgent action to address what many are calling a crisis. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane McAdam, Scientia Professor and ARC Laureate Fellow, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Sydney For a long time, it seemed refugee law had little relevance to people fleeing the impacts of climate change and disasters. Nearly 30 years ago, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maggie Kirkman, Senior Research Fellow, Global and Women’s Health, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University Krakenimages.com/Shutterstock You’ve heard of the gender pay gap. What about the gap in medical care? Cardiovascular diseases – which can lead to heart ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Iain White, Professor of Environmental Planning, University of Waikato Getty Images Urban planning has a long history of promoting visionary ideas that advocate for particular futures. The most recent is the concept of the 15-minute city, which has gained traction globally. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew King, Associate Professor in Climate Science, ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather, The University of Melbourne Earth is crossing the threshold of 1.5°C of global warming, according to two major global studies which together suggest the planet’s climate has ...
As support for the coalition dips, the PM and his soon-to-be-deputy have engaged in a public war of words. Stewart Sowman-Lund has the details in today’s edition of The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Support slips If there was ever a political honeymoon, or ...
Failure by successive governments has left the South Island’s freshwater in a near disastrous state, the High Court has been told, in a case that could force the Crown to jointly manage water bodies with Ngāi Tahu.Individual Ngāi Tahu leaders, and the collective group Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, are ...
Nearing the end of his career, the world’s greatest unicycle racer chases the sport’s most elusive record. There’s something different about world-class athletes. Even if you know nothing about their sport, you can see it. It’s the way they move – precise, powerful. It’s how they carry themselves – focused, ...
Migrants with money are the focus of new visa settings that the government hopes will boost the economy. Alice Neville explains.What’s all this then? On Sunday, as part of the government’s big plan to kickstart economic growth, changes were announced to the Active Investor Plus visa category, with the ...
Swirly World Sails South, by Andrew Fagan (2012)I feel Andrew is totally under-rated as an author. Alongside his latest book, Swirly World: Lost at Sea, his earlier sailing book is among my favourites. It tells of his trip around New Zealand – via the Auckland Islands. When he set out, ...
A lineup of prominent figures have joined the call to halt the deportation of a mother convicted of inflicting injuries on her baby, as fears grow she could be another victim of a ...
Comment: Saturday February 1 was the grim fourth anniversary of the military coup in Myanmar. The date seems to have gone unnoticed back here in New Zealand. Even before war in Ukraine and then Gaza, Myanmar got little attention. Yet it is the most destructive conflict in our region. The ...
We’re on the brink of a ‘tidal wave’ of misinformation.No one knows the size of it, but there’s a warning that leaving it to the government to sort out won’t work.In the year of local government elections, expect computer-generated content where the sources and authenticity are murky; more complaints about ...
Luxon pronounces "te reo" incorrectly.
Will he have to re sit this course over summer?
He didn't attend the first time around – his wife did.
Nick Rockel points us to The White Man Behind a Desk's very funny lampoonery:
https://youtu.be/3BKH5jdXu6o
I would say this against Biden or Trump or whoever team was running their show, but the State Department acting to shield Israel from investigation into breaches of the Geneva Conventions in Gaza is sickening.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/un-security-council-us-block-accountability-international-gaza_n_6583338ce4b04da984257b9c
Israel must stop degrading its human rights to be as bad as everyone else in the Middle East.
IMO Israel hasn't changed it's modus operandi – what has changed is the volume of and coverage of their atrocities.
The Crown makes no defence, it admits total fault and wants the case to go away anyway.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/crown-opposes-urgent-waitangi-tribunal-claim-to-halt-disestablishment-of-maori-health-authority/TRTJOKVJPBAFBFGTFYKH2COSX4/
Has the migrant worker tap been turned off yet?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/301029438/record-level-of-employers-looking-for-help-laying-off-staff-ema
Didn't you get the memo , 5% + is the target unemployment rate to keep wages down and inflation in check.
There's obviously no one intelligent enough in government to fins a better way.
Can't read the article but:
Fired yesterday: 750 Filipino workers for recruiter ELE from 10 building sites
Likely more great monitoring by MBIE as well. I still don't know why Labour let such high volumes of workers in when local benefit numbers were still higher than before COVID. MBIE at times seemed to be working against the interests of New Zealanders.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/fired-yesterday-750-filipino-workers-for-recruiter-ele-from-10-building-sites/U54OHRRZWNHX3L72VGC2ULLGXU/
Apparently Labour, under pressure from business opened up the taps, Immigration staff expressed concerns about the future mess that would result but MBIE bosses told them to process the migrants in as fast as possible with bare minimum checks, coz that is what the government wanted.
Unsurprisingly National are not making doing anything a priority coz they can just blame Labour for it all.
Par for the course in my experience at INZ – quality mattered until time frames blew out, and then quality was suddenly optional.
Abby Martin Speech on Julian Assange at National Press Club
7 minute speech – well worth the watch.
The Speaker wishes Ricardo Menéndez March, "Feliz Navidad" – classy 🙂
Does Brownlee speak Spanish?
Only at Christmas.
I thought it was a nice touch though.
He could have greeted Seymour in parseltongue, but so far as I saw, missed the opportunity.
I thought Ricardo was from…Brazil.
"Growing up in Tijuana, Mexico, Ricardo…"
https://www.greens.org.nz/ricardo_menendez_march
"Is Brazil a Spanish-speaking country? No, it’s not. But do Brazilians speak Spanish? Some of them! In fact, around 460,000 Brazilians speak Spanish, according to Ethnologue. The two languages are similar in many ways, though more in their written form than their pronunciation. As such, many Brazilians are able to understand Spanish, though they may not speak it fluently. "
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/which-languages-spoken-brazil-ofer-tirosh#
I've been watching Fox News and the three headed hydra confabulation has too.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/opinion-is-the-participation-of-transgender-women-really-the-biggest-issue-facing-nz-sport/PJTG5AYZ3BH27F2AE2KDAEX35Y/
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/governments-tough-stance-on-transgender-sports-sparks-controversy/SUOGZO7QZBEJJDD267U4K7DXVA/
I understand that NZ First took active steps to contact and listen to women, when concerns were raised fairly early on in the campaign trail.
It's likely that informed their response rather than Fox News.
The emerging consensus in international sport based on fair competition and community sport rules having provision for safety in contact sport meant this was a minor issue.
That said, it is obvious that emphasis has changed
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/301030897/sports-continue-with-transgender-inclusion-despite-coalition-agreement
NZ First took active steps to contact and listen to women* the same way they took active steps to contact and listen to anti-vaxxers. For political position and votes.
*By women, I think you mean transphobic women.
Wot Mutton said.
Says the misogynist.
See how that works?
Well, no. You've personalised it and slighted a commenter here, and it's given Populuxe1 whiplash!
Muttonbird didn't do that.
Winston hoovered up the votes of the natural remedies people, the antivax people and quite possibly, the transphobic women, by speaking at their meetings or engaging with the leaders of those groups/movements. Do you believe politically-astute women, such as several who comment here, who could otherwise have given their vote to the New Zealand Women's Rights Party, would have attended a meeting for Winston, or voted for him because he represents their key issue? If so, why? I think Muttonbird is more likely to be correct in this instance.
Yes, I do. Because I actually listen to and talk with them. And because anyone who is voting strategically and is no longer committed to the left (there are many like this), voting NZF gives them political power.
Maybe it's a surprise to some that women's sex based rights are a primary, overarching political issue for many women.
And how about the gender critical women in those communities who aren't transphobic?
I made it personal to one person, MB made it personal to a number of people. His commented as pointed to Molly. He will know she is a gender critical woman, and while he didn't call her transphobic directly, he may as well have.
Besides, I was making a point about communication and politics. I didn't call MB a misogynist. I mirrored what he did in a way that would bring home both the problem with his communication on this topic, and the problem with his politics.
Well, yes, I see that you hold the view that "gender critical women" may have chosen to vote for Winston. I can see that Muttonbird holds the view that Winston would more likely have attracted "transphobic women" to vote for him, in light of the other groups he cultivated prior to the election. I favour Muttonbird's assessment, not because of any qualities "gender critical women" may have, but because of what I perceive to be Winston's strategies and the audience he seems to appeal to most. I guess there's no way to know for sure, the ideological makeup of the women who voted for Winston because of his expressed views on this issue, but my feeling is in line with Muttonbird's. That's without taking into account any previous comments made here on The Standard.
MB's politics on gender/sex mean that the term transphobic is almost meaningless. Does he mean women who hate trans people? What does hate mean there? JKR kind of hate, or KKK kind of hate, or something else?
Or does he also mean women who think women's sex based rights matter, that women have the right to single sex spaces (toilets, changing rooms) and single sex services (rape crisis, cervical screening) separate from males?
Peters is a grifter who play the gender wars like maestro violinist while the left wrung their hands wondering what was going on. But the prospective voters that Peters was courting still have agency, and aren't a hive mind. It was the women voters that MB called those women transphobic, as if any woman who had concerns and was interested in NZF's person was transphobic.
I see no evidence at all that the only women attracted to Peters' messaging were those that hate trans people.
Other than listening to and talking with such people.
What, all of them?
How might you do that?
Who could determine whether they were "gender critical" or"transphobic".
My point is that there's no way to know and therefore the guess that the Winston-magnet would draw reactionary, rather than reasonable thinkers, seems fair to me.
I know it’s the silly season, but that takes the Christmas cake lol
It’s not that hard. Many of us have been doing it for a long time. It’s not too different from any other political sphere, but it does require knowledge of the issues. What I see in this debate on TS is people often arguing from a place of relative ignorance. Calling JKR transphobic without understanding what her positions are would be an example.
Whereas I think the people that chose to vote for Peters covers a range of people. My dad used to vote Peters, he wasn’t a reactionary. Besides, the dividing line wasn’t reactionary vs reasonable, it was transphobic vs gender critical. There seems to be an a priori implication here that anyone voting for Peters because of gender/sex is inherently transphobic/irrational. I can see the reasonable rationales for voting for Peters over gender even though I disagree with them. The reason I know this is because I had these conversations in the past year with women and men leaving the left over gender identity politics, and I talked and argued with them about the issues in voting on the right instead, and in that my position was to understand their positions, not simply pillory them.
You are confident, weka, that you can talk with all of the women who voted for NZFirst?
I remain puzzled, but am pleased to have earned my slice of Christmas cake.
well no.
NZF voters cover a range of people and politics. I know NZF voters who aren’t reactionaries.
On the specific issue of women voting for NZF over gender/sex, I have zero doubt that some of them are reactionaries and that you know some of those. I know some too. I’m not claiming I’ve talked to all NZF women voters, nor that I know all their motives, so I’m not sure how you got to that question, hence my comment about the silly season.
What I’m pointing to is a dynamic of former left wing voters, now not voting on the left, because of gender/sex policies. This is well known. I’ve been talking with those people for ages, and it’s not restricted to NZ. I’m not saying they are the only NZF voters, I’m pointing out that the characterisation of NZF women voters as inherently transphobic and/or reactionary is unfounded.
I’m less interested in establishing a narrative of which groups is the bigger number than I am in teasing out a more nuanced perspective, as well as straight up resisting the GI political approach of castigate and ostracise (for reasons I often talk about).
Weka wrote:
" I can see the reasonable rationales for voting for Peters over gender even though I disagree with them."
People may have voted for Peter's over gender, but now they are getting the rest of his political package; attacks on the media, Māori language, Te Trite, "woke" thinking etc.
The "natural health" crowd I'm familiar with, which overlaps the anti-tax crowd I also rub shoulders with, switched their support to Winston following his series of meetings up and down the country. I regard them as reactionaries who didn't look past their singular issue to see what they were supporting. Extrapolating out from that experience, I suspect that many of those who joined the NZFirst circus late in the piece, as a result of Winston's honeyed words, are similarly reactionary. Is that not a reasonable assumption to make?
Tbh, I think it speaks more to your politics than theirs. I likewise move in the natural health crowd, although I don’t put scare quotes around that because I think it’s normal and natural 🙂 In that group I know people who fell hard down the rabbit hole, and I know people that are still the same thoughtful people they were before the pandemic even where we disagree on issues. I would never characterise a whole sub culture as reactionary, not least because it’s not been my experience of them.
Regarding gender identity politics, it’s not really a feature in my community yet, but it’s starting to become apparent. And the big problem we face is that because of TRA politics and the castigate/ostracise approach, few liberals and progressive will speak to the gender critical issues. Because they are afraid to. This is how reactionary politics comes to dominate.
(again, I don’t see that whole subculture as reactionary).
No Debate was an intentional strategy from pro-GI lobby groups esp in the UK, it was very successful for a long time in preventing progressives from talking through and resolving the conflicts between women’s rights and trans rights. That left a vacuum which the right and the reactionary alt cultures have filled. Own goal lefties. It serves TRA pol, because it’s much easier to ignore the feminists and continue with the narrative of good trans allies, bad everyone else who wants to talk about the issues they must be evil conservatives. But that narrative is simply, flat out wrong.
"I would never characterise a whole sub culture as reactionary…"
Nor I – I labeled those who committed their vote to Winston late in the piece, following his charm-offensive across the motu.
I have a question for you, weka. Do you know if any of the women who were planning to vote New Zealand Women's Rights Party, shifted their vote to Winston?
Cool, so we’ve narrowed it down to counter culture women who voted NZF after NZF adopted a GC policy.
I see no evidence that all or most of those women are reactionary, although obviously some are. Nor do I see any reason to draw the conclusion that they are, unless one is unaware of the range of positions within GC politics (or chooses to ignore them).
Off the top of my head, no. I could ask around. I could ask on TS, but it’s not safe to do so /irony.
I can tell you that if I weren’t a committed deep green leftie, and I decided to vote based on women’s rights, I might choose NZF over NZWRP because voting NZF would increase the chances of a brake on GII being further rolled out in NZ policy, law and society. Voting NZWRP is the long game. The problem is that much damage can be done in the meantime.
Thanks, weka, that's what I was angling for.
Ow, my neck
Cool. I know who they consulted with.
Apparently, you (and Robert below) do too. Unless you just drag out the "transphobic" accusation for those who may hold a different perspective than you.
That's a fucking stupid article, why did you present it as something worth reading?
The probably updated headline reads,
Why would transmen who are not using testosterone be banned from publicly funded women's sport? It's not about transgender atheletes, it's about male bodied people being allowed to compete in female bodied people's sport. Safety and fairness and plain old sexism are the core of the problem.
What is actually happening is that there is a push to set boundaries on participation in sport based on biological sex not gender. Anyone presenting this as a gender identity/bigotry issue is either ignorant or disingenuous.
Pro-gender lefties upset at NACTFirst sorting this issue out in a conservative frame should have thought about that when attacking gender critical people on the left that wanted good solutions for women and trans people /
So why not let individual sports organisations make those decisions? How is this anything the government should be involving itself in?
Honestly, it's breathtaking how your language switches straight to right wing idioms when your hobbyhorse gets trundled out. I get whiplash.
It's more breathtaking to me that this is the issue that (mostly younger) lefties choose to rally around and protest about. And they can't see how offensive and unreasonable their behaviour is, and how it probably influenced the election.
#LetWomenSpeak
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/12/14/the-trans-colonisation-of-womens-sports/
If it influenced the election it was only because Winston exploited the inflamed who were gullible enough to believe he represented the issue that most inflamed them.
Firstly, that doesn't negate the wrongness of the government setting itself up as moral arbiter of an issue like this. Second, they have a democratic right to protest. Third, Spiked! is so ideologically suspect I wouldn't touch it with lead gloves.
. 1. That didn’t stop L/G from making an equivalent judgement, but you happened to agree with it
. 2. That wasn’t a protest it was a thug’s veto, the violence is well documented around the world, but ignored by craven NZ media
. 3. So you didn’t read the article and prefer to remain ignorant of the very real issues at play and the increasing degradation of women’s sports and violations of their safety
These aren’t simple black and white issues with goodies and baddies. But if the left continues to force this issue and prioritise male peccadilloes over women’s rights, then fair minded people will vote accordingly
(nb, this comment box markup is messing up numbered lists!)
First of all, you're assuming I had an opinion in the first place, and second of all, when did Labour threaten to cut off contestable funding for groups unless they exclude certain demographics?
To paraphrase Blackadder, yes, it was awfully sharp tomato soup. And attacking the media is always the first stop of a fascist.
The article is woefully out of date and fails to take into account more recent medical research and the rules individual sporting organisations have put in place to endure fair competition. I realise some people do like to drag out the outliers and pretend its a conspiracy, but reality rarely works like that.
No, but then I'm not the one treating them like "simple black and white issues with goodies and baddies" – that would be you and this government seeing everything as a nail when all you have is a hammer, and does nothing to address the issue of an entire demographic being excluded from the right to participate in organised sport.
Your last comment is an outright falsehood–characteristic of that side of the debate. Males of any identity can compete with their natal sex class.
You realise this is right up there with saying Pasifika kids can't play sports with white kids because they're bigger, don't you?
That's a new one– women's rights = apartheid eh?
Yeah that's totes sane and reasonable. 🙄
@Populuxe1
"You realise this is right up there with saying Pasifika kids can't play sports with white kids because they're bigger, don't you?"
I hope after some reflection you realise how poor (and fundamentally racist) this comment is, without needing others to point it out.
Actually, a bit sexist as well given the context, implying that women and men have no significant difference in their biology.
Given the festive season, I'll link to a song to help you out on this:
https://youtu.be/dbk4zQttKyE?si=q4LfJld_XcgcTMmf
"this never happens"
https://www.shewon.org
That article is out of date on international sport.
The first position was transsexual status and hormone levels within the female norm. As it notes this was challenged because of the advantage of going through puberty as a male. It has already been determined (under fair competition rules) those who went through puberty as males are excluded (or are to be) from near all international sport.
Following on from that is the issue of player safety in community sport involving physical contact, if those who went through puberty as males are allowed to participate. That is on-going.
Sure. And why not let sports organisations start discriminating against women in other ways? Why should we have Human Rights Legislation covering things like this?
Honestly, it's breathtaking how many lefties a) refuse to acknowledge the existence of the large number of left wing gender critical feminists and allies who were working on this for a good decade before the right jumped in.
Even more breathtaking is the implication that feminists can't think for themselves and might very well have reached their conclusions based on class analysis, feminism, and fairness.
Btw, your argument about letting sports organisations choose rather than having central government protections for women, is straight out of the RW play book. Very libertarian.
See how that works? I don't think you are RW/libertarian (I think you are ignorant as well as having chosen a side against women). But when we react from relative ignorance, we comes to stupid assumptions like the on you made about my language. Would it hurt you to learn the history of gender/sex politics and understand the various dynamics and groups involved?
I am quite familiar with the history of gender/sex politics, thanks, and you are not its pope. You're welcome to think for yourself. That's absolutely swell and grand. I just find it interesting how quickly you rush to embrace the authoritarian right whenever anyone disagrees with you on this particular topic, even though historically they'd prefer you stay in the kitchen.
I'd rather let sports organisations choose (and let's face it, you're more worried they'll choose to include trans people than you are about the libertarian right) because most of them operate at the community level.
Anyway, I'll leave it there. The straw people are giving me hay fever.
[please produce three examples of where I ‘rush to embrace the authoritarian right’ on GC politics. Examples need to be quotes of my words, links, and an explanation from yourself on what you think I am doing. This is mandatory.
You’ve been throwing out such statements generally in the past day, but when it comes to authors, you cannot misrepresent what we say. It’s not that you have a particular opinion about my or others’ politics, it’s that you are using slurs with zero evidence or argument to support your assertion. I won’t moderate for disagreement, I will moderate for disrespect to authors or moderators.
You can either present the evidence I have asked for, or clearly and genuinely withdraw the assertion, or risk a ban. You are in premod until the is resolved. Know that given the time of year, my patience is pretty thin. – weka]
You’d know all about straw, since you seem incapable of even acknowledging there is a legitimate clash of rights here. But you do you. Whitewashing and wallpapering over problems, and accusing people who complain of being hateful bigots, is a great recipe for the future 👍🏼
Actually I do agree that there is a legitimate clash of rights. The difference is I don't see a particularly good outcome in "solving" it by using state power and threats to funding in order to marginalise and excluding an entire class of people.
mod note.
Additional notes: examples of where you have been making claims as slurs, without evidence.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-22-12-2023/#comment-1982111
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-22-12-2023/#comment-1982099
The problem here is that when someone says something like this,
it's very hard to argue back politically. The slur is clear (JKR is chummy with outright fascists on SM), but there is not only no evidence provided for this, but the outright fascists aren't even named. So the casual slurring continues in a long running political war that is fraught with this kind of low level debate manipulation.
I've now shifted you from premod to the ban list until 6/1/24, because I'm on holiday.
You will be back in premod at the end of the ban. If you comment before the 6th the comment will go into Trash, but I will see it in the back end and can take it from there. Otherwise, please comment in the week starting the 6th
Please attend to the mod request above sooner rather than later, or I will ban you for a longer time just to get it off my workload. This is resolvable, it's simply a matter of establishing the boundaries here on what is ok and what isn't.
Banned another 2 months because I'm sick of waiting. If you respond before then to moderation I will pick it up from Trash and take a look.
Administrators (often volunteers) are susceptible to coercion and funding directives. They can be excellent administrators for the sport, while being ignorant of the reasons behind any of the sports categories within their code.
They should – as responsible adults – maintain the categories within their sports codes – unless there is compelling evidence (which there is not) for removing those sports categories from their codes.
The principle most applicable here is Chesterton's Fence:
https://fs.blog/chestertons-fence/
We maintain weight classes, and age categories for the same reasons of safety and fairness that sex categories exist.
However, the ill-considered erosion of the sex-category has already bled into age category infiltration. When the adults leave the room in this respect, they tend not to look back in case something bad happens:
https://torontosun.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-will-no-one-stand-up-for-common-sense
I added that link, because it was the earlier news report on the government decision and should have been in the original post.
Fairness was already at the core, thus it is being decided that those who went through puberty as males are to be excluded from near all of international women's sport.
Safety was also already at the core, with community sports organisations able to make decisions on safety grounds, whether age, weight or sex.
What was
What now is
The real issue in community sport is safety. The National Party PM and Sports Minister get that
So while
There is this
PS I mentioned Fox News because its focus is on college/university sport (where the scholarships are an incentive for grifters and deprive women of opportunity or make for unfair competition – this is not where we are). And otherwise unbalanced reporting on this and other issues, leading to societal conflict for exploitation by the GOP/politicians.
I submitted to the Sports NZ consultation on this policy. I know that some women's organisations, and individual sportswomen also attempted to have their concerns addressed, but were not given access to the process other than as individual submitters.
You can look at the list of involved stakeholders to determine whether the policy was predetermined – despite the pretence of consultation:
https://sportnz.org.nz/diversity-equity-and-inclusion/transgender-and-rainbow-inclusion/
"How were these created?
It's surprising no one has considered the option of Oz and other foreign based gangs, associated with organised crime, being banned from operating branches here.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/12/21/analysis-the-govt-gets-tough-on-gangs-but-the-laws-already-exist/
Reti announces $50 million immunisation programme for Māori. Wonder if it includes a jab for smoking.
If only we had a Maori health authority set up and running, so this could be delivered easily!!
Delivered easily… perhaps.
Effectively and efficiently – may not have been in their bailiwick:
https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/pages/230505i-hmac-report-final.pdf
Maoriwashing (equivalent to greenwashing). It's a pretence.
Sincere question, (which seems to provoke accusations of racism), even though I can see it will be an individual perspective only for most:
How do you define the Māori demographic in NZ, in respect to these political conversations?
Is it by self-id, genetic ancestry, adherence to identified traditional cultural practices or something else?