Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Selfish.
New Zealand’s middle class.
‘Chris Trotter: The middle class have become selfish survivalists.
What has happened to the New Zealand middle class? Why has the social strata that encompasses our best educated, most highly skilled, most entrepreneurial and financially literate citizens failed so miserably to respond to our nation’s needs?
When did the middle class relinquish the moral and civic leadership upon which its claims to social pre-eminence rested? How, and by whom, has the middle class been superseded?………………
……Separated from its former working class allies; dictated to by an international ruling class it cannot control; the New Zealand middle class is, today, almost entirely absorbed with its own survival. House prices, retirement plans, and the fecklessness of the lower orders are the obsessions du jour. The besetting conundrum: how to ensure their children enjoy a middle class existence without relinquishing their own in the process?
The generous and collaborative middle class, which won New Zealand international acclaim for its progressive economic, social and political reforms, has largely ceased to exist. Without allies, and without hope, its selfish successor squabbles fractiously on a dwindling sand hill, fatally encumbered by the shabby detritus of its own illusory superiority.’
The 0.1% are finding that the bottom 90% have little left to steal. So now they are turning their thieving schemes on to the top 10% and the top 5%. Their homes, retirement savings, pension schemes, jobs.
Oh look we are number 1…
1. New Zealand: New Zealand’s economy could have grown by 44 percent between 1990 and 2010, but the country did only achieve 28 percent growth due to inequality. Hence, it lost 15.5 percentage points — more than any other country. This is particularly surprising, given that New Zealand was once considered a paradise of equality https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/01/05/how-inequality-made-these-western-countries-poorer/
What is it about a middle class and generations which where brought up being taught about the importance of telling the truth and punished, (often physically) for not, that sees them now accept and expect dishonesty and downright lies from our most senior politicians?
What consequences are there for they way they are raising their own children and grandchildren?
That is a brilliant, insightful article by Trotter – thanks Paul, for putting it up. These two bits are most telling, “Up until 1981, New Zealand society remained the co-creation of its working and middle classes,” and “The economic, cultural and political elites who had accepted the terms of the post-war social-democratic settlement were replaced by those who understood, and were fiercely loyal to, the policies of the new order.”
The two quotes put together explain the tricky situation in which political parties of the left now find themselves, while the latter by itself explains Key’s popularity. Key’s commitment to the new order keeps punishment at bay for the middle class, while demanding punishment for the working class and the poor as evidence of his commitment. Which makes it very difficult for the working class and the middle class to be allies – the championing of one means the punishment of the other. And this is where it gets tricky for parties of the left – they need the support of a mixture of working class and middle class voters if they are to gain office in a bona fide fashion.
The working class and under class are the least likely in society to vote.
Electoral logic has told Labour and Greens to not bother focussing on getting those votes.
So the working class and under class vote less and less. Many here have said how shite life as a beneficiary was under Labour. That’s not by accident. Labour have chosen which class they back.
That’s why the push has to come from the grass roots. One can only hope that New Zealanders will eventually take heart from the places where this seems to be starting to happen, like the UK and the US. According to my friends in Australia, even Shorten is making some left-leaning moves now. But all I am saying is that there really is a dilemma involved, it is not just about careerists comfortably ensconcing themselves, and a way past it needs to be be found.
The New Zealand Election Study (NZES) suggests that in 2011 – for the first time since reliable data was first collected in 1963 – National gained more working-class votes than Labour.
Even in the 70s, a time when Muldoon is widely alleged to have made deep inroads into the blue-collar vote, Labour had, in fact, easily won the working-class constituency (Muldoon’s success was actually grounded much more in middle and lower middle class support).
It’s not that National were the beneficiaries of a significant wkg-class swing in 2011, though. In fact, their share of the wkg-class vote actually fell slightly (down 1 point on 2008). Rather, Labour suffered a huge 6 point fall in their blue-collar share – with (as you’ve implied) a good deal of it heading towards Non-Voting. Thus, National slipping slightly with workers and their families, while Labour – in total freefall – sails past them on the way down.
As I’ve been saying all along and repeated only yesterday to bill murray. Labour will not improve its position significantly until it shows the non-voters that they can have confidence again in Labour actually doing something for them.
Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Greedy.
Compass.
Ex-Middlemore kitchen staff say Compass owes them thousands
Ten staff who worked for decades in Middlemore Hospital’s kitchen before the Compass Group took over the operation say they are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars by the company.
Compass is one of the world’s biggest catering companies, and supplies nearly half of all public hospital meals in New Zealand.
The company has been the focus of protests in recent months about the quality of the food that it has supplied to hospitals in Otago and Southland. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/306857/kitchen-staff-say-compass-owes-them-thousands
One of many juicy outsourced arrangements struck in health under Ryall and watched over by some rather toxic managers they’ve installed around the system.
Waiakto’s upper level has been flushed in its Chiefs image since he joined and my what a lovely upstanding fellow Dr Murray is.
Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Cruel, uncaring.
‘We feel targeted because we’re black’
Yep there are lessons here for us all – if you allow people to empower themselves miracles can happen – if you suppress and treat people as lower and lesser you create more problems as well as more injustice and misery.
First appearing eight days ago. It took the establishment media a while to work out their attack angle. “She is taking our batches”. As if Wealthy or upper Middle Class would be really hard done by if they couldn’t keep a spare holiday home empty for 11 months of the year, while families live in garages and cars.
Yes, according to the media, batch owners are the real victims here.
But that is a side issue. Crone, admitting that she has a batch herself.
Adding the equivalent of one week’s capital gain to the annual rates bill will change nothing for speculative investors. It amounts to a 2% tax.
Still, it *looks* like they’re doing something, I guess, and it gives Ms Crone’s chum Paula Bennett an out for central govt doing nothing to address demand-side pressures.
“Geez … all the flak I’m coppin’ from John Key and Andrew Little and Kelvin, and all we did was put out a short statement! It’s a little bit cheeky but what the hell. Anyway, here it is. Read and enjoy folks.”
and then into the ‘get the band back together’ stuff
I’m hoping Hone plays a smart game with this – it can be done and we’ll just have to wait and see. I really hope he doesn’t do a Jon Snow and get all worked up, change the plans and just run in swinging his sword. There will be a time for that but now is the time to build the forces so the real King of the North is actually back.
Mayoral candidate Phil Goff said extra rates on empty properties would not make a big impact on the housing problem and could be unnecessarily complicated.
He said some people had properties that were not permanently occupied for legitimate reasons – like baches, or the estates of people who have died – and it could take an army of bureaucrats to work out which ones need to be charged extra.
Sez he who lives in a millionaire rural property in Clevedon.
In my opinion Goff’s line of attack is specious and unsubstantiated,
33 thousand empty homes in Auckland is not a small number, compared to the number of homeless families in Auckland, it is actually more.
And Crone’s idea of using water usage to locate these properties is thinking outside the box, requiring very little extra paper work.
And Crone’s idea of using water usage to locate these properties is thinking outside the box, requiring very little extra paper work.
Yes, but it’s also very trivially avoided: just leave the taps running.
It actually incentivises people to pour perfectly fine drinking water down the drain, because it’s cheaper than paying the increased rates.
Targeting vacant houses is a mugs game anyway. Target the land-bankers.
I’ve previously suggested ramping up the annual rates dramatically on land that is not built on (or actively under development, eg in the process of having plans drawn up for housing or subdividing further etc).
Easily fixed. Pop out each month and alter the water flow. Two taps this month. Half a tap next month. Sure that an electronic unit could be developed to make water use variable.
yeah, but then you’re beginning to get into a fair amount of effort to try to fake only a single metric that might be used in addition to other things like public reports, contact mail addresses, and comparing with historic water usage on the property.
All for the sake of committing fraud each and every time they claim cheaper rates for having an occupied dwelling.
but then you’re beginning to get into a fair amount of effort to try to fake only a single metric that might be used in addition to other things like public reports, contact mail addresses, and comparing with historic water usage on the property.
But the whole point of using water usage is that it was supposed to be a quick and inexpensive measure. As soon as you start collating other information and trying to make judgements from it, it’s no longer quick and inexpensive. Also you’re much more likely to reach the wrong conclusions in some cases.
For a couple of hundred dollars you can buy a pretty clever irrigation timer that seasonally adjusts water usage add a rain sensor and youre away. Usage will be variable and all you need to do is screw it to an outside tap and send the water down the drain.
Classic case of someone open their mouth without considering how easy it would be to circumvent and then looking like an idiot to people with a modicum of common sense.
And it is a quick and inexpensive measure for a large chunk of the problem.
The more effort and expense people are prepared to go to, the smaller the number who will do it.
And sooner or later you have the simple equation of the penalty for failure in whatever dodge they come up wit vs the trouble of just renting out the damned house.
It seems that they’re only talking about 2% increase in rates or about $100 per year compared to several hundred dollars per month for the water.
If they want to do something about this then the amount is going to have to be several thousand dollars per year. Essentially, multiples of the rates bill as it would have to be more than the untaxed capital gains.
Not sure where you’re getting this 2% number from:
Auckland bach owners who do not use their places frequently would be hit with a massive rate hike under a policy proposed by a mayoral candidate.
National Party-aligned Auckland Future mayoral candidate Vic Crone is proposing measures to help solve the city’s housing shortage that target unoccupied properties. Buildings sitting empty for more than six months may be in line for rates increases of up to fifty percent.
In an unsubstantiated knee jerk reaction in defence of the privileges of the well off, mayoral hopeful and long time parliamentary trougher Phill Goff says that it is legitimate for properties like, baches to remain unoccupied while families live in cars.
News Flash Phill,
If it is connected to town supply. It is not a bach it is an extra home.
and its obvious you haven’t built any buildings the last decades
… useless one-liners ……
I understand the myriad and interwoven issues dontcha worry about that. The reason for pointing the finger mostly at the builders is that they are the ones putting the buildings together, and are the last line of construction. They know when they put together a detail that will likely leak, or fail under weight of time, but they still proceed to do so…. of course they ladle the fingers of blame thick and fast and all over the place… as they do… better than any other finger-pointers on the planet….
Our business and associations take us deep into the world of building design, consenting and construction.. as deep as you can go… and this is the conclusion we come to
Builders, as a whole industry and as individuals, need to lift their game…. they are letting the country down
and in Chch you can add greed and ripoffs to that
builders like to call a spade a spade – so there’s a spade for them
“and its obvious you haven’t built any buildings the last decades”
and that would be a wrong assumption
“I understand the myriad and interwoven issues dontcha worry about that. The reason for pointing the finger mostly at the builders is that they are the ones putting the buildings together, and are the last line of construction. They know when they put together a detail that will likely leak, or fail under weight of time, but they still proceed to do so…. of course they ladle the fingers of blame thick and fast and all over the place… as they do… better than any other finger-pointers on the planet….”
that statement demonstrates exactly how moronic blaming “the end of the chain” is…
The problems are systemic and what we witness now is the foretold result of three decades of perverse incentives, self regulation and the dumbing down of ALL sectors of the construction industry and education/training organizations that support them.
As with everything it starts at the beginning…not the end.
I understand and agree almost completely with that… but I think you miss it with you last sentence…
It also starts, or ends, at the end…
If the detail is assessed as likely to leak or fail, then don’t build it… but they so very often do …. “it was on the drawings” goes the first finger of blame,.
as I said – the last line of defence and first line of actual construction. They need to stand up. They are not standing up.
I know all the other systemic stuff but that doesn’t abrogate their responsibility when banging the bare steel nail into the waterfront deck
“as I said – the last line of defence and first line of actual construction. They need to stand up. They are not standing up.”
Why would they?….producer statements, limited liability companies,a dearth of training, products and services provided from without at below local cost and no oversight, regulatory system without the ability to oversee or dispute/correct and finally no penalty even when it all turns to crap.
so the guy on the end of the nail gun is going to resolve that?…..right.
yeah, I’m with Pat.
It’s way past the point that the guy getting $25/hr should be hung out to dry and blamed for all the BS.
Thats like blaming the Pike river miners for the mine setup.
There are good builders, there are good buildings, but housing has become another commodity and management process has corrupted the craft.
You’re missing the point vto, and really making pat’s point too
The document was largely discussing how bureaucracy has lost its industry skills, experience and knowledge. Expecting a builder to identify flaws in structural design is part of the problem. A builder is neither an engineer nor an architect, it’s not their skillset or job to critique bodgy plans or bad stock.
Again, I understand and agree mostly with pat’s point, especially as it relates to failed industry due to neoliberal policy settings…
but do not agree with letting the builders off the hook so easily. . .
the time when leaky buildings were being built is a good example. It was combo of design (internal gutters were popular), poor regulatory setup (thanks neoliberalists), and frankly shoddy crap workmanship. The poorly designed internal gutters, vetted by the regulations, should still have worked better than they have…. in fact many have worked fine and don’t need repair. You will find that the ones that have failed were the ones built with crap workmanship…
… as for the view don’t blame the guy on $25/hour… I am actually not – I am blaming the person who owns the building business and employs the nail-gunner at $25/hour while charging him out at $55/hour.
The building sector, comprising the builders, needs to stand up and take responsibility to a far greater extent than they are currently.
Building co. owners aren’t about to drive themselves out of business and lose all their custom by second guessing what their clients ask them to do, let alone reporting their clients to regulatory authorities.
… as for the view don’t blame the guy on $25/hour… I am actually not – I am blaming the person who owns the building business and employs the nail-gunner at $25/hour while charging him out at $55/hour.
Pretty much what you have to charge if you have a small team of 4-5 builders and don’t want to go broke fast. Factor in the non chargable stuff like estimating, office admin, downtime, vehicles, leave and a whole heap of other costs and you are only left with a very small amount of that $55. Pretty much the 5%-10% you make on materials is your profit.
For the little guys it’s a whole stack of risk for very little reward and it’s seriously scary how many have inadequate insurance…
Basically I don’t think the Left understand how tight most small businesses are doing it at the moment. Yes, 10% of small businesses are making a killing but for 90% its week to week hoping enough custom will come in the door and enough invoices will be paid for you to make payroll and pay your own mortgage.
The reason for pointing the finger mostly at the builders is that they are the ones putting the buildings together, and are the last line of construction.
And they’re employees or, most common in Auckland, contractors which don’t have in income if the refuse to do it the way that the managers tell them to.
They know when they put together a detail that will likely leak, or fail under weight of time
Well, after talking to my nephew who’s been in the construction industry for more than 20 years, that may not actually be true. Apparently, many builders simply don’t know how to build good houses any more.
the standard in ChCh is appalling I agree ( i assume its no better in Auckland from reports I’ve heard)…..but the causes won’t be remedied by jumping on the guy that doesn’t know how to use a tape or hammer or care that his workmanship is crap.
if you sack all the incompetents the problems still remain and even less gets done.
“… as for the view don’t blame the guy on $25/hour… I am actually not – I am blaming the person who owns the building business and employs the nail-gunner at $25/hour while charging him out at $55/hour.”
The problem is the vast majority of building business owners (particularly group home) are little more than salesmen/managers who have no construction experience and due to the systems outlined in the link there is nothing to keep them to any sort of standard…it is a downward spiral and we now have a situation where even so called experienced LBPs lack basic skills and knowledge and those charged with inspecting their plans/work are no longer industry experienced as they used to be…..the complete loss of knowledge in the entire industry is frightening to behold.
You should be blaming this piss poor excuse we now have for a training system that spits out ‘qualified’ builders in less than 18 months.
We desperately need to go back to an hours based system ideally 6-8000 before final qualification.
Not to mention the myriad of other issues. Sheeting it home to the guy at the bottom scraping by on fuck all is way to simplistic.
From a dissenting opinion on Police search powers, here’s what a U.S. Supreme Court justice sounds like who has real experience with those in the hands of the Police.
“For generations, black and brown parents have given their children ‘the talk’ — instructing them never to run down the street; always keep your hands where they can be seen; do not even think of talking back to a stranger— all out of fear of how an officer with a gun will react to them.”
And later:
“By legitimizing the conduct that produces this double consciousness, this case tells everyone, white and black, guilty and innocent, that an officer can verify your legal status at any time. It says that your body is subject to invasion while courts excuse the violation of your rights. It implies that you are not a citizen of a democracy but the subject of a carceral state, just waiting to be cataloged.
We must not pretend that the countless people who are routinely targeted by police are “isolated.” They are the canaries in the coal mine whose deaths, civil and literal, warn us that no one can breathe in this atmosphere. They are the ones who recognize that unlawful police stops corrode all our civil liberties and threaten all our lives. Until their voices matter too, our justice system will continue to be anything but.”
I’ve never heard a Supreme Court judge provide such plainspoken opinion about the Police like this. I wonder if Maori experience of the New Zealand Police is also like this. After going through the Teina Pora case, Justice Sotomayor’s words ring out strong here.
I find it really depressing that this comment, the subject of which is so integral to free citizenship, can’t raise a single comment in reply.
What does that say ?
Doesn’t mean that readers of TS haven’t read Ad’s comment. Sometimes really gritty, well researched or fascinating comments go by without any comment. I don’t think it’s any indication of the quality of the comment.
Also, readers may have particular areas of interest and may not feel compelled to react to each and every subject raised, it doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t care.
The content of Ad’s comment is covered in the documentary series “The System”, an expose of the U.S justice system. A real eye opener. Here’s the link to the series if you’re interested:
I listened to Andrew Little this morning on RNZ and I got a bit confused as to his position on the soldiers remaining. He seemed to have 50 cents each way. I would prefer he just said bring them home and provide a clear distinction to ShonKey. Maybe I misheard him.
AL doesnt need to risk taking a position shonky and his msm shills can take advantage of.
Playing the ‘I will let you know when I get there’ card is the way through many of these issues.
This then plays on nacts deception and lying practices which shield the reality in favour of spin and bs which most seem to be understanding alot more now.
Yes – you did mishear him, Nick.
He said quite clearly that the Iraqui troops were useless, that the NZ troops were doing a good job trying to train them (it sounds an impossible task) and that other country’s troops were the ones making a difference against ISIS – not Iraqui troops. He didn’t like NZ Troops being there on that mission. He’d said so right from the start. He thinks when ISIS is defeated Iraq will go into civil disorder and that is the time the NZ troops will be needed, in a peacekeeping role for the UN which is what NZ troops are very good at.
Edit – he also said something about if it was him he wouldn’t be extending their current mission which ShonKey has done.
I heard more of his usual lawyerish, naunced waffling. Little needs training to make a clear statement then shut his mouth. Eg: “As Prime Minister, I would bring our troops back home.”
Voters are looking for a clear policy choice and confidence that it will be delivered. Waffle kills both of those.
I have to agree. Long winded responses have been a millstone around Labour’s neck for decades. Many of us have all but lost our voices trying to tell them.
On the other hand we have managed to convince them that announcing policy planks several A4 size pages long is not a good idea. Took 20 years but we made it.
New research suggests welfare fraudsters are facing a tougher time than tax evaders, despite tax evasion costing taxpayers three times more.
A study by Victoria University shows tax discrepancies cost the Government $1.24 billion in 2014, while welfare fraud cost the Government $30.6 million.
However, tax evaders are far less likely to be investigated, prosecuted or imprisoned, and far more likely to have debts written off.
Victoria did a similar study awhile back – don’t know if is the same or an updated one, as part of ongoing analysis.
This is interesting. Tax evasion:
“The Government lost about $1,240,000,000 in tax discrepancies in 2014
– About 0.01% of taxpayers are investigated each year
– About 60-80 people are prosecuted for tax evasion each year
– It costs about $2.86 to recover $100 of evaded tax”
Vs welfare fraud:
“The Government lost about $30,553,600 in welfare fraud in 2014
– About 5% of beneficiaries are investigated each year
– About 800-1000 people are prosecuted for welfare fraud each year
– It costs about $17 to recover every $100 of fraudulently obtained welfare payments”
There’s a big discrepancy between prosecution rates and recovery costs, that is, it’s less costly to recover evaded tax but they prosecute only 60 – 80 tax evaders yet they prosecute more welfare fraudsters, 800 – 1000 even though the recovery cost is far greater. Looks fairly biased doesn’t it.
Wellingtonians would have seen billboards on the motorway and in Thorndon illustrating this bias. The billboards have the face of a man on one side and the words “tax evasion, $229,000. Fine.” The other side also has a man’s face and the words “welfare fraud, $70,000, jail.”
They are professionally manufactured signs on advertising hoardings. Don’t know who put them there.
In today’s Rural News there is a regular segment called “The Hound”
This is what he says at the end of an attack piece on Rachel Stewart
” an ex train driving, lesbian ,farm hating falconer”
This sort of shit has to stop in a national publication.
The hounds email is hound@rural news.co.nz
Oh and he calls Eugenie Sage a farmer hater and suggests that she is likely to get the primary sector portfolio if a labour green government is elected.
I can’t find the hound online I guess they’re to cunning to make this rubbish too publicly available.
If I had a mutt this nasty It would be getting put down .
Although the piece you mention is not up yet, the other articles exhibit the same ignorant bigotry.
It is a strange thing that those who claim to – call things as they see them – call a spade a spade – talk bluntly – those types of people can never handle the same thing done back to them…
… if you call a spade a spade to a person who claims to call a spade a spade, they typically react with spluttering bluster and bullshit..
Cheers . I think its straight out dirty poltics coming from the right still in operation in nz , as apposed to some knuckle dragging moron getting to spot his poison.
That is nasty, and also discriminatory. What has anyone’s sexuality got to do with anything? The writer sounds like they are spitting out the words, lesbian, like someone from the 1950’s.
Now speaking of mutt’s being put down. What would you, b wags, as a rural worker make of my friend’s comment to me the other day, when discussing animal death, saying her ex husband killed the puppies his work dogs had, with a blow to the head with a mallet?
My friend lived on the farm for 30 years. Calls her husband a good kind compassionate farmer. I would think otherwise. I’d call him a wanker actually. In fact he’s just the kind of person I would report had I witnessed such brutality. Is this a common practice? When I asked why weren’t the female dogs speyed she said it affected their work performance.
I also have spoken with a woman, and ex vet nurse, who runs an animal sanctuary. She rescues mis treated farm dogs but can’t re home them because they were never socialised around humans and are too dangerous to be domestic pets.
A few weeks ago I helped round up some sheep that got loose on the development. The farmer dog’s had their ribs showing and were cowering in the back of the work truck, looking dejected and frightened.
Why is it that people spend $1000’s each year on ridiculously pampered house dogs and put them in stupid little jackets, offending the dog’s sense of dignity, when it appears that it’s completely acceptable at the other end of the scale to abuse a dog because it’s a work animal?
That’s what made me laugh (bitterly) about the whole ‘Kiwi Values’ thing, farm dogs/working dogs are a great example of animal cruelty in NZ, it’s a brutal world for those wonderful loyal dogs.
You also got that misoginist/homophobe remark, isn’t that the kinda thing we have extended the troops stay overseas to protect NZ from (so said Gerry!).
I don’t think they can see the irony there either.
Yeah, and that Gezza speaking about NZ troops in Iraq, went totally off script when he said “we could have an Orlando type situation here in NZ”. What?
I experienced things on a farm Rosie no kid should ever witness at that age, sheep home killed throats cut, pups killed on the fencepost with a blow to the head exactly as you describe, dogs fed 2 tux triangle biscuits every couple days, work harder when they are hungry is their excuse.
In the 70’s and 80’s when I grew up things were like that and worse, these guys were handed this down from their fathers, and their fathers before them.
Times were different, there is no excuse now however, it’s just down to a lack of education and lack of farmers telling other farmers there dogs look bad, and not ignoring mal treatment.
I have two dogs, love them to bits they live inside with me, well fed and looked after, cycles can be broken it just takes education, dog handling, health and training education.
Sorry you had to witness such violence and cruelty at a young age. That’s unbelievably awful. Really bad for a child, for anyone, but especially a child.
When I was a kid in the 70’s and teen in the 80’s we lived in a small coastal/semi rural town. We rented grazing for our horses on farms and luckily I didn’t see any animal violence, despite spending so much time there, but I knew something was wrong. I was always creeped out by some of the gnarlier farm men. God knows what they got up to. I did see their dogs though, the state of them was bad. And that’s what I saw the other day on the back of the truck and the same kind of agro creepy bloke. It was shortly after my friend told me about the puppies on her farm and it made me wonder what’s changed.
I agree these methods of animal handling are passed down.
Great that you’re taking good care of your dog buddies. Bet they look after you in turn. Humans and animals are capable of having strong and loyal friendships eh.
That’s a hell of leap but seen as you asked.
yes I’ve tapped some pups on the head it was years ago and i hated it , Iv’e also tapped somewhere around 4000 possums on the head .
There are bad people in all walks of life farmers are no different, I personally am very careful to avoid miss mates , and spaying dogs does not affect performance in fact it means your bitch is not out of action for up to 6 weeks a year and spayed bitches eat less.
Most retired farm dogs work in teams and meet many other dogs so would be fine as pets but they wont be house trained .
A well timed hammer to the head of a young animal would be as humane as any other method of killing . deaths never nice
Another thing our government is good at. And the next minute the same experts are wondering why Kiwis buy property as an investment and why Kiwis have so little savings.
The real victim is the banks because how can they be expected to have savers insurance with their paltry profits unlike all the other OECD banks. sarc.
National leaves Kiwi savers the most vulnerable in OECD
Dude, WTF. Your idea that “interest” covers “risk” is idealistic bullshit from another era.
Also the idea that if a bank folds savers should consequently lose their monies is daft. It’s the kind of thing which set in motion what used to be called ‘bank panics’ and in more recent decades ‘bank runs’.
Its also completely unnecessary FFS, why is it that savers should take on the risks assumed by shitty bank management when deposit returns are sweet F.A.
As the days and weeks go by, it has become increasingly apparent that many Bernie Sanders supporters will simply never, ever endorse or vote for Hillary Clinton. If anything, the coronation of Hillary was so replete with scheming and dirty tricks, more than a few Bernie supporters who may have been open to a Clinton candidacy a few months ago, now consider themselves diehard Bernie or Busters.
Philadelphia: Cheri Honkala, the leader of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, announced that her group was organizing the world’s largest “fart-in” to be held on July 28 at the Wells Fargo Center during Hillary Clinton’s anticipated acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination.
“We will be holding a massive bean supper for Bernie Sanders delegates on American Street in my Kensington neighborhood on the afternoon of July 28,” she said. “We are setting up a Clintonville there, modeled on the Hoovervilles of the 1930s where the poor and unemployed built shanty towns. The Sanders delegates, their bellies full of beans, will be able to return to the Wells Fargo Center and greet the rhetorical flatulence of Hillary Clinton with the real thing.”
Honkala said she would issue an invitation to Sanders to join the bean supper, which she is calling Beans for Hillary. She has asked donors to send cans of beans to 1301-W Porter Street, Philadelphia, Pa., 19148.
Chris Hedges, an author and activist who is an ordained Presbyterian minister, will open the Beans for Hillary meal with a nondenominational prayer.
“I am happy to bless a meal that will be put to such effective political use,” Hedges said.
Interesting that we have had 38 Prime Ministers to date. Hope soon the other Treaty partner gets a look in, you know for fairness and those sort of lofty ideals.
Your not very good at this, you make things up and then say people mean that, then make a joke of it.
Maori have had a shocking deal, but there is nothing in the treaty that says one has to be PM, so what rule specifically regarding the running of the Nation in our treaty do you think has been broken there. in specific.
Plus you post just a blatantly provocative statement like a trap and sat back and waited for someone to reply to it you could have an argument with so fire away.
White population was larger than the Maori & Polynesian population when I grew up, I would say the political parties refused to allow a maori to lead them as the whites were so damn racist.
But that was back then, Now, Winstons in with a chance, Hone leads a party, Tolleysd in there, Bennett claims Maori ancestry, would you not agree, things are not perfect but progress has been made?
I think the problem is where you said “Maori have just as much chance of reaching the top as anyone else,”. To me that is incompatible with the reality of racism. Māori haven’t had just as much chance as anyone else, that’s the point.
I got the mediteranean brown., i’m also Albanian, Albania is near Turkey but you know I see Maori getting respect for being Maori, tell someone your Albanian and you spend the afternoon talking to a customs clerk, oversea’s they follow you around the shops, in Greece they hate us, I got a knife to my throat and a group of young greeks crowded around and without any doubt the answer to the question, are you Albanian? would mean my life or death, lucky for me I look Albanian but have a kiwi accent and a NZ passport i was lucky.
So what I am saying is racism is all over, I’ve experienced it, you don’t have to be Maori to be brown nor too feel the sting of racist attitudes.
Marty grills me like he thinks i’m some out of touch white man? No?
Richardrawshark, with a knife held to your throat I suspect you understand what real racism (and real fear) is like. Not comfy abstractions to do with other people not getting six figure salaries often enough.
Would Maori representation currently be close to proportional? In terms of Parliament representatives? MP’s?
-CV, Albanians don’t get 6 figure salaries. They don’t even let you park their cars(Makines). Cough..
We often refer in racism to times past as if racism is as strong as it was then, and is still occurring as such, we need to keep current and keep focused on removing barriers. Also based on my regional area, my perception may be skewed, as this is a forestry town and Maori here in the main are doing good.
@CV, that’s interesting, I’ll remember that next time you are arguing that Labour don’t have enough Asian MPs.
@Richard, complex question, and it depends on what one believes about the treaty. Do I think that there is still institutional racism that disadvantages Māori from positions of power? Yes. Do I think that there are NZers who would actively work and vote against Māori MP becoming leader of a political party where they could become PM if that MP were overtly political and proactive about the treaty? Yes. Do Māori have to deal with personal prejudice regularly? Yes. Things aren’t the same as they were but that doesn’t mean those institutional and personal racists don’t exist.
The whole point of putting the link was to show historically and photographicly the situation – the photos tell the story and that story has continued to the present. The inequality is outrageous and I wanted my post to show that. Oh well, what a pity, nevermind…
Can’t we do it with less hostility, anger breeds anger, hate breeds hate. sarcasm breeds sarcasm.
I fully support your goals Marty, I disagree with your blunt methods, at times.
Also IMHO the most effective human rights activists who have made the biggest inroads at removing racial barriers and attitudes did it with the most peaceful actions.
lastly in my fist post I did ask
“and what’s that supposed to mean, ”
it was my first line, first words, you could have just answered me because your reasons were valid and I was missing the point you we’re making.
What’s the Māori prison population like compared to pakeha Richard? What’s the Māori rate of poverty in comparison? What are the Māori health statistics in comparison? If you know the answers to some of those questions, then you’ll know it doesn’t mean they have a higher chance of becoming PM than people of european descent.
maybe opportunity.. is a better word, but they have less chance there to, I agree with you Maui, your dead right, the reply to Marty was more about his provocative post than him being wrong completely.
Plus I didn’t get the part he made it sound like it was a treaty obligation that we elect a Maori PM?
In so much if we want to tackle inequality we should be focusing on targets that would have greater outcomes for more people than pleasing a single person for a token of equality that in reality would mean little but a simple race achievement.
It’s an example that shows who still holds the power. A couple of hundred years ago 500 or so chiefs from around the country signed this dude’s document. Since then Māori have barely been represented on local councils and have only had a fraction more representation in Parliament. I think those chiefs/leaders would have hoped for a lot more say on how they could govern their people, the areas they lived in and on the sharing of power with pakeha. But it hasn’t happened,
Winston could be the first, Obama in America, times are changing Maui, racism and homophobia are nothing compared to when I grew up, and our offspring won’t even recognize it when they get to our age. I hope.
“This week, the United Kingdom will vote on whether the nation should leave the European Union – the discussion coming on heels of intensifying displeasure with the way Brussels handles the waves of immigrants and financial troubles besieging Europe. Right-wing parties are on the rise all across the European Union, and even in Germany the support for the AFD – the right-wing Alternative for Germany party – is rapidly growing despite resistance from political establishment. What started as an anti-euro movement is now branded as “anti-immigrant” and “anti-Islam” – but what’s behind these accusations and what’s behind its growing popularity? We ask the leader of the AFD; Dr. Frauke Petry is on Sophie&Co today…
FFS I don’t like the way this is heading, I have Muslim relatives in Brussels and English relatives in the UK, and Muslim Relatives in Italy and of course Albania. Good proper Muslims. Unlike my atheist self.
Mum just came back, the catch up news has not been good, My sister in the UK has an English husband and child she is returning to raise her son here as things are getting real bad over there.
Apparently I wouldn’t recognize the North East, Newcastle or Sunderland now, totally different demographic without sounding racist.
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
The Department of Conservation is in greater need of a commissioner than Health NZ, a veteran scientist says The post The risks and rewards of remaking DoC appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Selfish.
New Zealand’s middle class.
‘Chris Trotter: The middle class have become selfish survivalists.
What has happened to the New Zealand middle class? Why has the social strata that encompasses our best educated, most highly skilled, most entrepreneurial and financially literate citizens failed so miserably to respond to our nation’s needs?
When did the middle class relinquish the moral and civic leadership upon which its claims to social pre-eminence rested? How, and by whom, has the middle class been superseded?………………
……Separated from its former working class allies; dictated to by an international ruling class it cannot control; the New Zealand middle class is, today, almost entirely absorbed with its own survival. House prices, retirement plans, and the fecklessness of the lower orders are the obsessions du jour. The besetting conundrum: how to ensure their children enjoy a middle class existence without relinquishing their own in the process?
The generous and collaborative middle class, which won New Zealand international acclaim for its progressive economic, social and political reforms, has largely ceased to exist. Without allies, and without hope, its selfish successor squabbles fractiously on a dwindling sand hill, fatally encumbered by the shabby detritus of its own illusory superiority.’
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/81241583/chris-trotter-the-middle-class-have-become-selfish-survivalists
Brilliant article,
Read all of it.
Arent the middle class disappearing across the globe due to the neoliberal policies which favour the wealthy and powerful screwing everyone else.
So the middle either gets itself up or slides down as there’s effectively no middle ground to habitate over time.
Thomas Piketty Believes There’s Still Time to Save the Middle Class
Neoliberals Managing the Decline of the Middle Class
Yep. The rich are taking it all and turning the rest of us into impoverished serfs.
The 0.1% are finding that the bottom 90% have little left to steal. So now they are turning their thieving schemes on to the top 10% and the top 5%. Their homes, retirement savings, pension schemes, jobs.
And, of course, more state assets with government guaranteed profits from taxes that they themselves don’t pay.
Oh look we are number 1…
1. New Zealand: New Zealand’s economy could have grown by 44 percent between 1990 and 2010, but the country did only achieve 28 percent growth due to inequality. Hence, it lost 15.5 percentage points — more than any other country. This is particularly surprising, given that New Zealand was once considered a paradise of equality
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/01/05/how-inequality-made-these-western-countries-poorer/
What is it about a middle class and generations which where brought up being taught about the importance of telling the truth and punished, (often physically) for not, that sees them now accept and expect dishonesty and downright lies from our most senior politicians?
What consequences are there for they way they are raising their own children and grandchildren?
Humanity’s storm is coming. No one will be able to escape from what they have done.
Thanks Paul
That is a brilliant, insightful article by Trotter – thanks Paul, for putting it up. These two bits are most telling, “Up until 1981, New Zealand society remained the co-creation of its working and middle classes,” and “The economic, cultural and political elites who had accepted the terms of the post-war social-democratic settlement were replaced by those who understood, and were fiercely loyal to, the policies of the new order.”
The two quotes put together explain the tricky situation in which political parties of the left now find themselves, while the latter by itself explains Key’s popularity. Key’s commitment to the new order keeps punishment at bay for the middle class, while demanding punishment for the working class and the poor as evidence of his commitment. Which makes it very difficult for the working class and the middle class to be allies – the championing of one means the punishment of the other. And this is where it gets tricky for parties of the left – they need the support of a mixture of working class and middle class voters if they are to gain office in a bona fide fashion.
The working class and under class are the least likely in society to vote.
Electoral logic has told Labour and Greens to not bother focussing on getting those votes.
So the working class and under class vote less and less. Many here have said how shite life as a beneficiary was under Labour. That’s not by accident. Labour have chosen which class they back.
That’s why the push has to come from the grass roots. One can only hope that New Zealanders will eventually take heart from the places where this seems to be starting to happen, like the UK and the US. According to my friends in Australia, even Shorten is making some left-leaning moves now. But all I am saying is that there really is a dilemma involved, it is not just about careerists comfortably ensconcing themselves, and a way past it needs to be be found.
The New Zealand Election Study (NZES) suggests that in 2011 – for the first time since reliable data was first collected in 1963 – National gained more working-class votes than Labour.
Even in the 70s, a time when Muldoon is widely alleged to have made deep inroads into the blue-collar vote, Labour had, in fact, easily won the working-class constituency (Muldoon’s success was actually grounded much more in middle and lower middle class support).
It’s not that National were the beneficiaries of a significant wkg-class swing in 2011, though. In fact, their share of the wkg-class vote actually fell slightly (down 1 point on 2008). Rather, Labour suffered a huge 6 point fall in their blue-collar share – with (as you’ve implied) a good deal of it heading towards Non-Voting. Thus, National slipping slightly with workers and their families, while Labour – in total freefall – sails past them on the way down.
As I’ve been saying all along and repeated only yesterday to bill murray. Labour will not improve its position significantly until it shows the non-voters that they can have confidence again in Labour actually doing something for them.
Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Greedy.
Compass.
Ex-Middlemore kitchen staff say Compass owes them thousands
Ten staff who worked for decades in Middlemore Hospital’s kitchen before the Compass Group took over the operation say they are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars by the company.
Compass is one of the world’s biggest catering companies, and supplies nearly half of all public hospital meals in New Zealand.
The company has been the focus of protests in recent months about the quality of the food that it has supplied to hospitals in Otago and Southland.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/306857/kitchen-staff-say-compass-owes-them-thousands
One of many juicy outsourced arrangements struck in health under Ryall and watched over by some rather toxic managers they’ve installed around the system.
Waiakto’s upper level has been flushed in its Chiefs image since he joined and my what a lovely upstanding fellow Dr Murray is.
Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Cruel, uncaring.
‘We feel targeted because we’re black’
http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/we-feel-targeted-because-we-re-black
Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
Yet there are people who still care and who are unselfish.
Te Puea marae represents the best of New Zealand.
Yep there are lessons here for us all – if you allow people to empower themselves miracles can happen – if you suppress and treat people as lower and lesser you create more problems as well as more injustice and misery.
I sometimes think that the influence of The Standard is more far reaching than even the authors know.
http://thestandard.org.nz/the-ghost-house-epidemic-and-the-invisible-hand/
Widely condemned by both “Left”* and “Right”.
First appearing eight days ago. It took the establishment media a while to work out their attack angle. “She is taking our batches”. As if Wealthy or upper Middle Class would be really hard done by if they couldn’t keep a spare holiday home empty for 11 months of the year, while families live in garages and cars.
Yes, according to the media, batch owners are the real victims here.
But that is a side issue. Crone, admitting that she has a batch herself.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/top/306759/crone-targets-unoccupied-homes
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/306795/crone-would-up-rates-on-empty-baches
*(That is if you consider a neo-liberal Rodgergnome “Left”, so right wing he once lost Labour’s safest of safe seats)
Adding the equivalent of one week’s capital gain to the annual rates bill will change nothing for speculative investors. It amounts to a 2% tax.
Still, it *looks* like they’re doing something, I guess, and it gives Ms Crone’s chum Paula Bennett an out for central govt doing nothing to address demand-side pressures.
Hone on facebook
“Geez … all the flak I’m coppin’ from John Key and Andrew Little and Kelvin, and all we did was put out a short statement! It’s a little bit cheeky but what the hell. Anyway, here it is. Read and enjoy folks.”
and then into the ‘get the band back together’ stuff
I’m hoping Hone plays a smart game with this – it can be done and we’ll just have to wait and see. I really hope he doesn’t do a Jon Snow and get all worked up, change the plans and just run in swinging his sword. There will be a time for that but now is the time to build the forces so the real King of the North is actually back.
He has to scale the wall somehow.
Or get someone to open the gate.
hmmm open the gate from the inside is an interesting idea – maybe find a giant or two 🙂
Sorry, Hone = Mance Rayder, Little = Stannis.
Cunliffe had much more in common with Stannis than Little does.
Nah Hone = Jon snow 😎
Winston = Jon Snow. His ex mates knifed him well and good, but he still came back.
Are you saying that Winston is a zombie? Or a vampire?
re you guys doing spoilers now?
darn sorry bout that
No worries, I’ll probably have forgotten by the time I get round to watching it.
Hair is sort of similar – that’s about it though
John Snow knows fuck-all.
Lol
One hereditary monarch is plenty, thanks.
btw – YAY thanks for fixing the comment thing for me – I so appreciate it – big hugs!!!
Rushing to fill the breach
Sez he who lives in a millionaire rural property in Clevedon.
In my opinion Goff’s line of attack is specious and unsubstantiated,
33 thousand empty homes in Auckland is not a small number, compared to the number of homeless families in Auckland, it is actually more.
And Crone’s idea of using water usage to locate these properties is thinking outside the box, requiring very little extra paper work.
Goff was part of Roger Douglas’s coup d’état
Never forget that.
He is a neoliberal through and through.
Easily fixed. Leave a tap running some of the time in a semi furnished house.
I wouldn’t consider baches to be a legitimate reason.
Yes, but it’s also very trivially avoided: just leave the taps running.
It actually incentivises people to pour perfectly fine drinking water down the drain, because it’s cheaper than paying the increased rates.
Targeting vacant houses is a mugs game anyway. Target the land-bankers.
I’ve previously suggested ramping up the annual rates dramatically on land that is not built on (or actively under development, eg in the process of having plans drawn up for housing or subdividing further etc).
Leaving the taps on would just have an almost identical meter reading month to month. No seasonal variation or general noise.
Easily fixed. Pop out each month and alter the water flow. Two taps this month. Half a tap next month. Sure that an electronic unit could be developed to make water use variable.
yeah, but then you’re beginning to get into a fair amount of effort to try to fake only a single metric that might be used in addition to other things like public reports, contact mail addresses, and comparing with historic water usage on the property.
All for the sake of committing fraud each and every time they claim cheaper rates for having an occupied dwelling.
But the whole point of using water usage is that it was supposed to be a quick and inexpensive measure. As soon as you start collating other information and trying to make judgements from it, it’s no longer quick and inexpensive. Also you’re much more likely to reach the wrong conclusions in some cases.
For a couple of hundred dollars you can buy a pretty clever irrigation timer that seasonally adjusts water usage add a rain sensor and youre away. Usage will be variable and all you need to do is screw it to an outside tap and send the water down the drain.
Classic case of someone open their mouth without considering how easy it would be to circumvent and then looking like an idiot to people with a modicum of common sense.
And it is a quick and inexpensive measure for a large chunk of the problem.
The more effort and expense people are prepared to go to, the smaller the number who will do it.
And sooner or later you have the simple equation of the penalty for failure in whatever dodge they come up wit vs the trouble of just renting out the damned house.
Leaving the taps running in Auckland will quickly have you running up several hundred dollars in water bills every month.
And if that’s cheaper than the increased rates that you would otherwise pay, then it’s worth it.
It won’t be.
It seems that they’re only talking about 2% increase in rates or about $100 per year compared to several hundred dollars per month for the water.
If they want to do something about this then the amount is going to have to be several thousand dollars per year. Essentially, multiples of the rates bill as it would have to be more than the untaxed capital gains.
Not sure where you’re getting this 2% number from:
Emphasis mine.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/306795/crone-would-up-rates-on-empty-baches
Is there no low the Right wouldn’t contemplate to protect their privilege?
Easy fix for any scum who chooses to waste water to hide their keeping houses empty while families live in cars.
Lock em up and throw away the key.
In an unsubstantiated knee jerk reaction in defence of the privileges of the well off, mayoral hopeful and long time parliamentary trougher Phill Goff says that it is legitimate for properties like, baches to remain unoccupied while families live in cars.
News Flash Phill,
If it is connected to town supply. It is not a bach it is an extra home.
Not enough housing, not enough builders, poor workmanship and design, dodgy imported materials and nobody responsible…….think again.
http://canterbury.royalcommission.govt.nz/documents-by-key/20120813.4973/$file/ENG.SCA.0002.RED.pdf
Thought you were talking about Auckland for a second!
am talking about NZ….Auckland is still part of here I believe.
Yep. NZ will have poor buildings for decades to come… thanks to the standards applied to buildings going up right now today…
bureaucracy left right and centre aint changing nothing except adding to costs as the local authority ticks boxes ….
Frankly, I lay the blame squarely with the builders…
then you would be blaming the wrong party
no I wouldn’t
then it is obvious you havn’t read the linked submission
and its obvious you haven’t built any buildings the last decades
… useless one-liners ……
I understand the myriad and interwoven issues dontcha worry about that. The reason for pointing the finger mostly at the builders is that they are the ones putting the buildings together, and are the last line of construction. They know when they put together a detail that will likely leak, or fail under weight of time, but they still proceed to do so…. of course they ladle the fingers of blame thick and fast and all over the place… as they do… better than any other finger-pointers on the planet….
Our business and associations take us deep into the world of building design, consenting and construction.. as deep as you can go… and this is the conclusion we come to
Builders, as a whole industry and as individuals, need to lift their game…. they are letting the country down
and in Chch you can add greed and ripoffs to that
builders like to call a spade a spade – so there’s a spade for them
“and its obvious you haven’t built any buildings the last decades”
and that would be a wrong assumption
“I understand the myriad and interwoven issues dontcha worry about that. The reason for pointing the finger mostly at the builders is that they are the ones putting the buildings together, and are the last line of construction. They know when they put together a detail that will likely leak, or fail under weight of time, but they still proceed to do so…. of course they ladle the fingers of blame thick and fast and all over the place… as they do… better than any other finger-pointers on the planet….”
that statement demonstrates exactly how moronic blaming “the end of the chain” is…
The problems are systemic and what we witness now is the foretold result of three decades of perverse incentives, self regulation and the dumbing down of ALL sectors of the construction industry and education/training organizations that support them.
As with everything it starts at the beginning…not the end.
I understand and agree almost completely with that… but I think you miss it with you last sentence…
It also starts, or ends, at the end…
If the detail is assessed as likely to leak or fail, then don’t build it… but they so very often do …. “it was on the drawings” goes the first finger of blame,.
as I said – the last line of defence and first line of actual construction. They need to stand up. They are not standing up.
I know all the other systemic stuff but that doesn’t abrogate their responsibility when banging the bare steel nail into the waterfront deck
“as I said – the last line of defence and first line of actual construction. They need to stand up. They are not standing up.”
Why would they?….producer statements, limited liability companies,a dearth of training, products and services provided from without at below local cost and no oversight, regulatory system without the ability to oversee or dispute/correct and finally no penalty even when it all turns to crap.
so the guy on the end of the nail gun is going to resolve that?…..right.
yeah, I’m with Pat.
It’s way past the point that the guy getting $25/hr should be hung out to dry and blamed for all the BS.
Thats like blaming the Pike river miners for the mine setup.
There are good builders, there are good buildings, but housing has become another commodity and management process has corrupted the craft.
You’re missing the point vto, and really making pat’s point too
The document was largely discussing how bureaucracy has lost its industry skills, experience and knowledge. Expecting a builder to identify flaws in structural design is part of the problem. A builder is neither an engineer nor an architect, it’s not their skillset or job to critique bodgy plans or bad stock.
Again, I understand and agree mostly with pat’s point, especially as it relates to failed industry due to neoliberal policy settings…
but do not agree with letting the builders off the hook so easily. . .
the time when leaky buildings were being built is a good example. It was combo of design (internal gutters were popular), poor regulatory setup (thanks neoliberalists), and frankly shoddy crap workmanship. The poorly designed internal gutters, vetted by the regulations, should still have worked better than they have…. in fact many have worked fine and don’t need repair. You will find that the ones that have failed were the ones built with crap workmanship…
… as for the view don’t blame the guy on $25/hour… I am actually not – I am blaming the person who owns the building business and employs the nail-gunner at $25/hour while charging him out at $55/hour.
The building sector, comprising the builders, needs to stand up and take responsibility to a far greater extent than they are currently.
Building co. owners aren’t about to drive themselves out of business and lose all their custom by second guessing what their clients ask them to do, let alone reporting their clients to regulatory authorities.
… as for the view don’t blame the guy on $25/hour… I am actually not – I am blaming the person who owns the building business and employs the nail-gunner at $25/hour while charging him out at $55/hour.
Pretty much what you have to charge if you have a small team of 4-5 builders and don’t want to go broke fast. Factor in the non chargable stuff like estimating, office admin, downtime, vehicles, leave and a whole heap of other costs and you are only left with a very small amount of that $55. Pretty much the 5%-10% you make on materials is your profit.
For the little guys it’s a whole stack of risk for very little reward and it’s seriously scary how many have inadequate insurance…
Basically I don’t think the Left understand how tight most small businesses are doing it at the moment. Yes, 10% of small businesses are making a killing but for 90% its week to week hoping enough custom will come in the door and enough invoices will be paid for you to make payroll and pay your own mortgage.
And they’re employees or, most common in Auckland, contractors which don’t have in income if the refuse to do it the way that the managers tell them to.
Well, after talking to my nephew who’s been in the construction industry for more than 20 years, that may not actually be true. Apparently, many builders simply don’t know how to build good houses any more.
“Apparently, many builders simply don’t know how to build good houses any more”
is what we see
the amount of shoddy workmanship around Chch post-eq is frightening…
caveat emptor unfortunately
the standard in ChCh is appalling I agree ( i assume its no better in Auckland from reports I’ve heard)…..but the causes won’t be remedied by jumping on the guy that doesn’t know how to use a tape or hammer or care that his workmanship is crap.
if you sack all the incompetents the problems still remain and even less gets done.
“… as for the view don’t blame the guy on $25/hour… I am actually not – I am blaming the person who owns the building business and employs the nail-gunner at $25/hour while charging him out at $55/hour.”
The problem is the vast majority of building business owners (particularly group home) are little more than salesmen/managers who have no construction experience and due to the systems outlined in the link there is nothing to keep them to any sort of standard…it is a downward spiral and we now have a situation where even so called experienced LBPs lack basic skills and knowledge and those charged with inspecting their plans/work are no longer industry experienced as they used to be…..the complete loss of knowledge in the entire industry is frightening to behold.
Yes it is frightening..
Another industry failure recurring due to the philosophies, policies and attitudes of the new New Zealand since 1984…
pretty much
You should be blaming this piss poor excuse we now have for a training system that spits out ‘qualified’ builders in less than 18 months.
We desperately need to go back to an hours based system ideally 6-8000 before final qualification.
Not to mention the myriad of other issues. Sheeting it home to the guy at the bottom scraping by on fuck all is way to simplistic.
From a dissenting opinion on Police search powers, here’s what a U.S. Supreme Court justice sounds like who has real experience with those in the hands of the Police.
“For generations, black and brown parents have given their children ‘the talk’ — instructing them never to run down the street; always keep your hands where they can be seen; do not even think of talking back to a stranger— all out of fear of how an officer with a gun will react to them.”
And later:
“By legitimizing the conduct that produces this double consciousness, this case tells everyone, white and black, guilty and innocent, that an officer can verify your legal status at any time. It says that your body is subject to invasion while courts excuse the violation of your rights. It implies that you are not a citizen of a democracy but the subject of a carceral state, just waiting to be cataloged.
We must not pretend that the countless people who are routinely targeted by police are “isolated.” They are the canaries in the coal mine whose deaths, civil and literal, warn us that no one can breathe in this atmosphere. They are the ones who recognize that unlawful police stops corrode all our civil liberties and threaten all our lives. Until their voices matter too, our justice system will continue to be anything but.”
I’ve never heard a Supreme Court judge provide such plainspoken opinion about the Police like this. I wonder if Maori experience of the New Zealand Police is also like this. After going through the Teina Pora case, Justice Sotomayor’s words ring out strong here.
I find it really depressing that this comment, the subject of which is so integral to free citizenship, can’t raise a single comment in reply.
What does that say ?
Doesn’t mean that readers of TS haven’t read Ad’s comment. Sometimes really gritty, well researched or fascinating comments go by without any comment. I don’t think it’s any indication of the quality of the comment.
Also, readers may have particular areas of interest and may not feel compelled to react to each and every subject raised, it doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t care.
The content of Ad’s comment is covered in the documentary series “The System”, an expose of the U.S justice system. A real eye opener. Here’s the link to the series if you’re interested:
http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/ajam-presents-thesystem.html
thanks Rosie
JUST TESTING……..Good morning everyone.
Morning
I listened to Andrew Little this morning on RNZ and I got a bit confused as to his position on the soldiers remaining. He seemed to have 50 cents each way. I would prefer he just said bring them home and provide a clear distinction to ShonKey. Maybe I misheard him.
AL doesnt need to risk taking a position shonky and his msm shills can take advantage of.
Playing the ‘I will let you know when I get there’ card is the way through many of these issues.
This then plays on nacts deception and lying practices which shield the reality in favour of spin and bs which most seem to be understanding alot more now.
Yes – you did mishear him, Nick.
He said quite clearly that the Iraqui troops were useless, that the NZ troops were doing a good job trying to train them (it sounds an impossible task) and that other country’s troops were the ones making a difference against ISIS – not Iraqui troops. He didn’t like NZ Troops being there on that mission. He’d said so right from the start. He thinks when ISIS is defeated Iraq will go into civil disorder and that is the time the NZ troops will be needed, in a peacekeeping role for the UN which is what NZ troops are very good at.
Edit – he also said something about if it was him he wouldn’t be extending their current mission which ShonKey has done.
Thanks for your good ears Jenny
Here’s the interview: http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201805247/little-says-key-has-not-made-case-for-longer-iraq-deployment
I heard more of his usual lawyerish, naunced waffling. Little needs training to make a clear statement then shut his mouth. Eg: “As Prime Minister, I would bring our troops back home.”
Voters are looking for a clear policy choice and confidence that it will be delivered. Waffle kills both of those.
QFT
I have to agree. Long winded responses have been a millstone around Labour’s neck for decades. Many of us have all but lost our voices trying to tell them.
On the other hand we have managed to convince them that announcing policy planks several A4 size pages long is not a good idea. Took 20 years but we made it.
The Herald seems to have heard what I heard Andrew Little say re troops in Middle East.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11660080
Betcha someone will pick that article to bits and turn it on its head,
DTB,TC ,Nick????
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/welfare-fraudsters-hit-harder-than-tax-evaders-research/
New research suggests welfare fraudsters are facing a tougher time than tax evaders, despite tax evasion costing taxpayers three times more.
A study by Victoria University shows tax discrepancies cost the Government $1.24 billion in 2014, while welfare fraud cost the Government $30.6 million.
However, tax evaders are far less likely to be investigated, prosecuted or imprisoned, and far more likely to have debts written off.
The language is the clue:
Welfare Fraudster “a person who engages in fraud : cheat”
vs
Tax evader “to escape from by trickery or cleverness”
I get the feeling that this is all part the unthinking acceptance of ‘bludgerism’ and blaming the bottom.
Imagine an after match function, where the people who bring nothing are given a free pass, but woe betide anyone taking more than one mallowpuff.
Victoria did a similar study awhile back – don’t know if is the same or an updated one, as part of ongoing analysis.
This is interesting. Tax evasion:
“The Government lost about $1,240,000,000 in tax discrepancies in 2014
– About 0.01% of taxpayers are investigated each year
– About 60-80 people are prosecuted for tax evasion each year
– It costs about $2.86 to recover $100 of evaded tax”
Vs welfare fraud:
“The Government lost about $30,553,600 in welfare fraud in 2014
– About 5% of beneficiaries are investigated each year
– About 800-1000 people are prosecuted for welfare fraud each year
– It costs about $17 to recover every $100 of fraudulently obtained welfare payments”
There’s a big discrepancy between prosecution rates and recovery costs, that is, it’s less costly to recover evaded tax but they prosecute only 60 – 80 tax evaders yet they prosecute more welfare fraudsters, 800 – 1000 even though the recovery cost is far greater. Looks fairly biased doesn’t it.
Wellingtonians would have seen billboards on the motorway and in Thorndon illustrating this bias. The billboards have the face of a man on one side and the words “tax evasion, $229,000. Fine.” The other side also has a man’s face and the words “welfare fraud, $70,000, jail.”
They are professionally manufactured signs on advertising hoardings. Don’t know who put them there.
Or in other terms:
“People who commit welfare fraud are 10 times more likely to be prosecuted than tax evaders, who do 33 times more damage to the economy.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/306926/welfare-fraud-targeted-more-than-tax-evasion
In today’s Rural News there is a regular segment called “The Hound”
This is what he says at the end of an attack piece on Rachel Stewart
” an ex train driving, lesbian ,farm hating falconer”
This sort of shit has to stop in a national publication.
The hounds email is hound@rural news.co.nz
Oh and he calls Eugenie Sage a farmer hater and suggests that she is likely to get the primary sector portfolio if a labour green government is elected.
I can’t find the hound online I guess they’re to cunning to make this rubbish too publicly available.
If I had a mutt this nasty It would be getting put down .
Here mr waghorn http://www.ruralnewsgroup.co.nz/rural-news/rural-opinion/hound
Although the piece you mention is not up yet, the other articles exhibit the same ignorant bigotry.
It is a strange thing that those who claim to – call things as they see them – call a spade a spade – talk bluntly – those types of people can never handle the same thing done back to them…
… if you call a spade a spade to a person who claims to call a spade a spade, they typically react with spluttering bluster and bullshit..
there aint too many spades in the world you see
Cheers . I think its straight out dirty poltics coming from the right still in operation in nz , as apposed to some knuckle dragging moron getting to spot his poison.
+1
That is nasty, and also discriminatory. What has anyone’s sexuality got to do with anything? The writer sounds like they are spitting out the words, lesbian, like someone from the 1950’s.
Now speaking of mutt’s being put down. What would you, b wags, as a rural worker make of my friend’s comment to me the other day, when discussing animal death, saying her ex husband killed the puppies his work dogs had, with a blow to the head with a mallet?
My friend lived on the farm for 30 years. Calls her husband a good kind compassionate farmer. I would think otherwise. I’d call him a wanker actually. In fact he’s just the kind of person I would report had I witnessed such brutality. Is this a common practice? When I asked why weren’t the female dogs speyed she said it affected their work performance.
I also have spoken with a woman, and ex vet nurse, who runs an animal sanctuary. She rescues mis treated farm dogs but can’t re home them because they were never socialised around humans and are too dangerous to be domestic pets.
A few weeks ago I helped round up some sheep that got loose on the development. The farmer dog’s had their ribs showing and were cowering in the back of the work truck, looking dejected and frightened.
Why is it that people spend $1000’s each year on ridiculously pampered house dogs and put them in stupid little jackets, offending the dog’s sense of dignity, when it appears that it’s completely acceptable at the other end of the scale to abuse a dog because it’s a work animal?
That’s what made me laugh (bitterly) about the whole ‘Kiwi Values’ thing, farm dogs/working dogs are a great example of animal cruelty in NZ, it’s a brutal world for those wonderful loyal dogs.
You also got that misoginist/homophobe remark, isn’t that the kinda thing we have extended the troops stay overseas to protect NZ from (so said Gerry!).
We live in a country full of horrible ironies.
We live in a NZ where these business owners feel like victims:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/81250908/company-involved-in-bobby-calf-scandal-closes-down
I don’t think they can see the irony there either.
Yeah, and that Gezza speaking about NZ troops in Iraq, went totally off script when he said “we could have an Orlando type situation here in NZ”. What?
I experienced things on a farm Rosie no kid should ever witness at that age, sheep home killed throats cut, pups killed on the fencepost with a blow to the head exactly as you describe, dogs fed 2 tux triangle biscuits every couple days, work harder when they are hungry is their excuse.
In the 70’s and 80’s when I grew up things were like that and worse, these guys were handed this down from their fathers, and their fathers before them.
Times were different, there is no excuse now however, it’s just down to a lack of education and lack of farmers telling other farmers there dogs look bad, and not ignoring mal treatment.
I have two dogs, love them to bits they live inside with me, well fed and looked after, cycles can be broken it just takes education, dog handling, health and training education.
Sorry you had to witness such violence and cruelty at a young age. That’s unbelievably awful. Really bad for a child, for anyone, but especially a child.
When I was a kid in the 70’s and teen in the 80’s we lived in a small coastal/semi rural town. We rented grazing for our horses on farms and luckily I didn’t see any animal violence, despite spending so much time there, but I knew something was wrong. I was always creeped out by some of the gnarlier farm men. God knows what they got up to. I did see their dogs though, the state of them was bad. And that’s what I saw the other day on the back of the truck and the same kind of agro creepy bloke. It was shortly after my friend told me about the puppies on her farm and it made me wonder what’s changed.
I agree these methods of animal handling are passed down.
Great that you’re taking good care of your dog buddies. Bet they look after you in turn. Humans and animals are capable of having strong and loyal friendships eh.
That’s a hell of leap but seen as you asked.
yes I’ve tapped some pups on the head it was years ago and i hated it , Iv’e also tapped somewhere around 4000 possums on the head .
There are bad people in all walks of life farmers are no different, I personally am very careful to avoid miss mates , and spaying dogs does not affect performance in fact it means your bitch is not out of action for up to 6 weeks a year and spayed bitches eat less.
Most retired farm dogs work in teams and meet many other dogs so would be fine as pets but they wont be house trained .
A well timed hammer to the head of a young animal would be as humane as any other method of killing . deaths never nice
Thanks for that B wags. I’m glad you clarified the spaying situation. I thought it sounded like an iffy excuse.
Possums, god forgive me for being a hypocrite, I have slightly less sorrow about.
Just wish there was a humane way of breeding them out of existence.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11660502
NZ Employers are angels compared to these guys!
i dont think thats any sort of useful comparison – unless your doing some framing
Another thing our government is good at. And the next minute the same experts are wondering why Kiwis buy property as an investment and why Kiwis have so little savings.
The real victim is the banks because how can they be expected to have savers insurance with their paltry profits unlike all the other OECD banks. sarc.
National leaves Kiwi savers the most vulnerable in OECD
https://blog.greens.org.nz/2016/06/21/national-leaves-kiwi-savers-the-most-vulnerable-in-oecd/
When you loan someone money you’re taking the risk that you’re not going to get it back.
That’s why interest is paid on the loan – to cover the risk. Your bank deposit is a loan to the bank. If the bank loses, so should you.
Dude, WTF. Your idea that “interest” covers “risk” is idealistic bullshit from another era.
Also the idea that if a bank folds savers should consequently lose their monies is daft. It’s the kind of thing which set in motion what used to be called ‘bank panics’ and in more recent decades ‘bank runs’.
Its also completely unnecessary FFS, why is it that savers should take on the risks assumed by shitty bank management when deposit returns are sweet F.A.
Risk is the entire basis of capitalism according to the RWNJs and economists. If you don’t like the risks then don’t put your money in the bank.
If we’re going to have a capitalist economy then the rules actually need to be capitalist
Sanders supporters fighting back anyway they can:
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2016/06/20/sanders-supporters-plan-worlds-largest-fart-in-during-hillary-clintons-acceptance-speech/
As the days and weeks go by, it has become increasingly apparent that many Bernie Sanders supporters will simply never, ever endorse or vote for Hillary Clinton. If anything, the coronation of Hillary was so replete with scheming and dirty tricks, more than a few Bernie supporters who may have been open to a Clinton candidacy a few months ago, now consider themselves diehard Bernie or Busters.
Philadelphia: Cheri Honkala, the leader of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, announced that her group was organizing the world’s largest “fart-in” to be held on July 28 at the Wells Fargo Center during Hillary Clinton’s anticipated acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination.
“We will be holding a massive bean supper for Bernie Sanders delegates on American Street in my Kensington neighborhood on the afternoon of July 28,” she said. “We are setting up a Clintonville there, modeled on the Hoovervilles of the 1930s where the poor and unemployed built shanty towns. The Sanders delegates, their bellies full of beans, will be able to return to the Wells Fargo Center and greet the rhetorical flatulence of Hillary Clinton with the real thing.”
Honkala said she would issue an invitation to Sanders to join the bean supper, which she is calling Beans for Hillary. She has asked donors to send cans of beans to 1301-W Porter Street, Philadelphia, Pa., 19148.
Chris Hedges, an author and activist who is an ordained Presbyterian minister, will open the Beans for Hillary meal with a nondenominational prayer.
“I am happy to bless a meal that will be put to such effective political use,” Hedges said.
Interesting that we have had 38 Prime Ministers to date. Hope soon the other Treaty partner gets a look in, you know for fairness and those sort of lofty ideals.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_New_Zealand
and what’s that supposed to mean, Maori have just as much chance of reaching the top as anyone else, join a political party.
There is nothing in the treaty that says you get to be PM for a term, cus your Maori’s, that really would be racist.
So you think we’ve had equal opportunity for both Treaty partners since 1840 – lol
No
Your not very good at this, you make things up and then say people mean that, then make a joke of it.
Maori have had a shocking deal, but there is nothing in the treaty that says one has to be PM, so what rule specifically regarding the running of the Nation in our treaty do you think has been broken there. in specific.
Plus you post just a blatantly provocative statement like a trap and sat back and waited for someone to reply to it you could have an argument with so fire away.
Why haven’t there been any Māori PM’s then?
You know the heredity of all our past PM’s Marty? Because I don’t and it would be a bold claim to make in NZ.
Try answering the question – what do you think are the reasons?
White population was larger than the Maori & Polynesian population when I grew up, I would say the political parties refused to allow a maori to lead them as the whites were so damn racist.
But that was back then, Now, Winstons in with a chance, Hone leads a party, Tolleysd in there, Bennett claims Maori ancestry, would you not agree, things are not perfect but progress has been made?
I think the problem is where you said “Maori have just as much chance of reaching the top as anyone else,”. To me that is incompatible with the reality of racism. Māori haven’t had just as much chance as anyone else, that’s the point.
I got the mediteranean brown., i’m also Albanian, Albania is near Turkey but you know I see Maori getting respect for being Maori, tell someone your Albanian and you spend the afternoon talking to a customs clerk, oversea’s they follow you around the shops, in Greece they hate us, I got a knife to my throat and a group of young greeks crowded around and without any doubt the answer to the question, are you Albanian? would mean my life or death, lucky for me I look Albanian but have a kiwi accent and a NZ passport i was lucky.
So what I am saying is racism is all over, I’ve experienced it, you don’t have to be Maori to be brown nor too feel the sting of racist attitudes.
Marty grills me like he thinks i’m some out of touch white man? No?
Yes racism is in many places and many situations. That doesn’t change the fact that Māori don’t have as much chance as anyone else though.
Richardrawshark, with a knife held to your throat I suspect you understand what real racism (and real fear) is like. Not comfy abstractions to do with other people not getting six figure salaries often enough.
“haven’t”, do you think that applies today?
Would Maori representation currently be close to proportional? In terms of Parliament representatives? MP’s?
-CV, Albanians don’t get 6 figure salaries. They don’t even let you park their cars(Makines). Cough..
We often refer in racism to times past as if racism is as strong as it was then, and is still occurring as such, we need to keep current and keep focused on removing barriers. Also based on my regional area, my perception may be skewed, as this is a forestry town and Maori here in the main are doing good.
@CV, that’s interesting, I’ll remember that next time you are arguing that Labour don’t have enough Asian MPs.
@Richard, complex question, and it depends on what one believes about the treaty. Do I think that there is still institutional racism that disadvantages Māori from positions of power? Yes. Do I think that there are NZers who would actively work and vote against Māori MP becoming leader of a political party where they could become PM if that MP were overtly political and proactive about the treaty? Yes. Do Māori have to deal with personal prejudice regularly? Yes. Things aren’t the same as they were but that doesn’t mean those institutional and personal racists don’t exist.
The whole point of putting the link was to show historically and photographicly the situation – the photos tell the story and that story has continued to the present. The inequality is outrageous and I wanted my post to show that. Oh well, what a pity, nevermind…
Can’t we do it with less hostility, anger breeds anger, hate breeds hate. sarcasm breeds sarcasm.
I fully support your goals Marty, I disagree with your blunt methods, at times.
Also IMHO the most effective human rights activists who have made the biggest inroads at removing racial barriers and attitudes did it with the most peaceful actions.
lastly in my fist post I did ask
“and what’s that supposed to mean, ”
it was my first line, first words, you could have just answered me because your reasons were valid and I was missing the point you we’re making.
No one asked you to comment on what I wrote – I’d have preferred if you didnt.
Answer my question now.
“Why haven’t there been any Māori PM’s then?”
Coz they fucked Winston over.
There’s been a Maori Acting PM iirc.
He’s not THAT old mate
What’s the Māori prison population like compared to pakeha Richard? What’s the Māori rate of poverty in comparison? What are the Māori health statistics in comparison? If you know the answers to some of those questions, then you’ll know it doesn’t mean they have a higher chance of becoming PM than people of european descent.
maybe opportunity.. is a better word, but they have less chance there to, I agree with you Maui, your dead right, the reply to Marty was more about his provocative post than him being wrong completely.
Plus I didn’t get the part he made it sound like it was a treaty obligation that we elect a Maori PM?
In so much if we want to tackle inequality we should be focusing on targets that would have greater outcomes for more people than pleasing a single person for a token of equality that in reality would mean little but a simple race achievement.
It’s an example that shows who still holds the power. A couple of hundred years ago 500 or so chiefs from around the country signed this dude’s document. Since then Māori have barely been represented on local councils and have only had a fraction more representation in Parliament. I think those chiefs/leaders would have hoped for a lot more say on how they could govern their people, the areas they lived in and on the sharing of power with pakeha. But it hasn’t happened,
Winston could be the first, Obama in America, times are changing Maui, racism and homophobia are nothing compared to when I grew up, and our offspring won’t even recognize it when they get to our age. I hope.
“It’s an example that shows who still holds the power”
why I failed to see the symbolism of that tonight is beyond me, of course that is true.
All good.
‘Chancellor Merkel has given up German sovereignty – right-wing party leader’
https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/347415-brexit-germany-rightwing-party/
“This week, the United Kingdom will vote on whether the nation should leave the European Union – the discussion coming on heels of intensifying displeasure with the way Brussels handles the waves of immigrants and financial troubles besieging Europe. Right-wing parties are on the rise all across the European Union, and even in Germany the support for the AFD – the right-wing Alternative for Germany party – is rapidly growing despite resistance from political establishment. What started as an anti-euro movement is now branded as “anti-immigrant” and “anti-Islam” – but what’s behind these accusations and what’s behind its growing popularity? We ask the leader of the AFD; Dr. Frauke Petry is on Sophie&Co today…
FFS I don’t like the way this is heading, I have Muslim relatives in Brussels and English relatives in the UK, and Muslim Relatives in Italy and of course Albania. Good proper Muslims. Unlike my atheist self.
Mum just came back, the catch up news has not been good, My sister in the UK has an English husband and child she is returning to raise her son here as things are getting real bad over there.
Apparently I wouldn’t recognize the North East, Newcastle or Sunderland now, totally different demographic without sounding racist.