Folks, there’s an elephant in the room, and nobody seems to be taking any real notice of it – or even recognising it is there.
• over the next two decades five or six billion people could/will die as a direct result of climate change.
• the tropics will move north and south, pushing the arid zones before them. Large areas will be just too hot to live in, or too dry to farm in.
• famines will rack most of Africa, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and southern China, South America, and even North America and Australia.
• millions of people will be forced on the move, potentially destabilizing societies, especially in the developed world.
• weather ‘events’ will occur with increasing frequency and rising intensity, destroying crops and houses – and lives! More heat means more water vapour, which means more intense rain, in some areas!
• and I haven’t even mentioned rising sea levels!
The point I’m making is that social democratic policies are all very nice and worth voting for – but this country should be taking climate change very very seriously. There is no hope in being reactive – we must be proactive.
marty mars posted a good linky from The Guardian a few days back. It’s worth revisiting:
These pervasive exhortations to individual action — in corporate ads, school textbooks, and the campaigns of mainstream environmental groups, especially in the west — seem as natural as the air we breath. But we could hardly be worse-served.
While we busy ourselves greening our personal lives, fossil fuel corporations are rendering these efforts irrelevant. The breakdown of carbon emissions since 1988? A hundred companies alone are responsible for an astonishing 71 percent. You tinker with those pens or that panel; they go on torching the planet.
The freedom of these corporations to pollute – and the fixation on a feeble lifestyle response – is no accident. It is the result of an ideological war, waged over the last forty years, against the possibility of collective action. Devastatingly successful, it is not too late to reverse it.
mlpc 2: “100-200 Million People Per Year Will Be Starving to Death During the Next Ten Years.”
Stanford professor Dr. Paul Ehrlich declared in April 1970 that mass starvation was imminent. His dire predictions failed to materialize as the number of people living in poverty has significantly declined and the amount of food per person has steadily increased, despite population growth. The world’s Gross Domestic Product per person has immeasurably increased despite increases in population.
Damn, now to prove that there is real stuff to be worrying about, I have to find 100 to 200 million people willing to starve to death. I had planned a small holiday this year to look at a part of NZ that will be under water in a decade, and now this! Can’t I have any happiness or relaxation in between the urgent efforts to get action on a, b, c, and so on, all the numerous insurmountable disasters that can only be mitigated? How many people really have to starve to death before someone notices, shows concern and starts to act?
Defeat the Bill! The struggle against the Employment Contracts Bill, 1991 https://iso.org.nz/…/defeat-the-bill-the-struggle-against-the-employment-contracts-bill…
( copy the FULL title and paste all of it when you google it )
Essential reading in our time for those wishing to know one of the key weapons used to bring about the neo liberal subversion . This will explain the hows and whys of much of the poverty today . And the ones responsible , even the Union Reps who were also responsible.
……………………………………………………………
Contrast the hypocrisy here of Ken Douglas’s statement after being one of the chief Judas’s…
Ken Douglas, then president of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, recalled in the 1996 documentary Revolution:
” The Employment Contracts Act was deliberately intended to individualise the employment relationship. It was a natural outcome of the ideological propaganda of rugged individualism, of self-interest and greed and the appeal to individuals that you could find better for you by climbing over the tops of your colleagues, your mates, and so on. Ruth Richardson was very clear, very blunt, very honest about its purpose. It was to achieve a dramatic lowering of wages, very, very quickly ”
……………………………………………………………
We have seen the spotlight on the viscous fall out of Ruth Richardson’s ‘Mother of all Budgets’ recently , – and the effects it still has in the year 2017, – 26 years later !!!!
Both the Employment Contracts Act and the Mother of all Budgets were brought into legislation in 1991. Their destructive social effect has never been truly addressed . All political party’s have skirted around the issue and not come clean. Instead they prefer to pontificate and wring their hands as to the cause of poverty in NZ today and use it as a political football.
It is time a new light is shone on these recent historical causes and then properly addressed .
I believe so , to be honest,… the fact is ,… that we now have several generations who have grown up completely unaware of recent history , and the root causes of the ailments of our country in 2017.
They are without a point of reference with which to make any realistic comparison.
And it is not good enough that we leave it to gather dust , and relegate it to a side topic of some lecturers talk on recent political history…
This needs to be presented not only in an easily presented format to the general public to establish causal factors for modern problems , but also stressed that these were/ are the direct causes for the poverty and discord surrounding government decisions today in the year 2017 … 26 years after the fact.
Once exposed to a new generation of workers , and then becoming again part of the political narrative today ,… it would force the question … ” what should we do about it ? ”
It will not be until that happens that any real long term solutions can occur.
“According to TV1 political editor Corin Dann, the Greens have made “a bold statement on social justice”. On Spin-Off, Simon Wilson suggested, “For the left, which was looking like it was going to watch another election slide by, it was the most impressive statement of the year.” Columnist Stacey Kirk argues, Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei, is “counting on New Zealanders to not only voice concern over inequality, but to collectively do something about it that may go against the nature of their very core.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, the most hyperbolic response has come from veteran left columnist Chris Trotter who reckons the reform platform adopted by the Greens is not merely radical but “revolutionary”. Turei’s declarations at the weekend, in his eyes, “will have the same electrifying effect as the cry which swept through Paris on 14 July 1789 – ‘To the Bastille!’” Yes, he actually did compare the Greens’ platform with the start of the French revolution which cut off the heads of much of the ruling class there and ushered in a whole new social order. And the Greens, well Metiria Turei in particular, has “set the 2017 election on fire”.*”
“First, you stake your claim. Then, you fight for it “
It’s a real shame they couldn’t just work together on this one.
Think of the momentum lost. First we had the call from the Children’s Commissioner, then came the Greens proposal and just as all eyes turned to see if Labour would run with it, they stopped it dead in its track.
Therefore, unless voters give the Greens the numbers, or Labour buckle under public pressure, it’s little more than wishful thinking.
“wishful thinking” is a powerful seed crystal around which gems are built, so long as action follows words. Opposition or dismissal serves as tension, and creative tension is a vital component of any successful venture. If The Green’s proposals had been met with universal, uncritical support from The Labour Party, they would have been doomed to extinction; this reluctant retreat is positive and encouraging, imo.
“If The Green’s proposals had been met with universal, uncritical support from The Labour Party, they would have been doomed to extinction; this reluctant retreat is positive and encouraging, imo. “
Sorry, Robert, but I disagree. Public perception is changing. Inequality and poverty (along with all its ills) are of voter concern.
Moreover, with the Greens proposal being costed at $1.4 billion, Labour could still increase benefits (along with its own proposals) and still maintain around a $3 billion surplus, thus it’s far from outlandish.
This so-called “reluctant retreat” has been Labour’s position when it was last in power and also for its last nine years in opposition. And going off those past election results, a number would say this “reluctant retreat” is playing a part in them becoming extinct.
I’d be interested to know how the wider Labour support base feels on this matter?
tl;dr it’s because currently the huge majority of Americans get their health insurance as a mostly-employer-paid benefit. Switching to single-payer takes a huge cost off the employers, but will require a huge tax increase to pay for it.
Five Auckland motels have received more than $1.3 million of taxpayer money in just three months to house homeless people.
Figures obtained by Checkpoint with John Campbell under the Official Information Act show in the three months ending 31 December 2016, the Budget Travellers Inn in Papatoetoe received $351,958 in emergency housing special needs grants from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), the highest of any emergency provider in New Zealand.
Alfred Ngaro Social Housing Associate Minister Alfred Ngaro Photo: Supplied
The grants are given to people “when all other options are exhausted, to provide a short-term solution”, but Salvation Army social policy unit director Ian Hutson said the situation could have been avoided.
“What we’re reaping is related to the lack of early intervention, and ideally we don’t want more and more emergency accommodation, what we want is affordable housing,” Mr Hutson said.
Rounding out the five providers given the most grants were the Knightsbridge Motor Lodge in Papatoetoe, at $334,578; 540 Motel in Otahuhu, at $242,187; the Allenby Park Hotel in Papatoetoe, at $220,750; and the Rockfield Motel in Penrose at $199,649.
In total, the ministry granted 8860 grants to 2616 people in the last quarter of last year – at a total cost of $7,735,788, or an average of about $2.5m per month.
Associate Minister for Social Housing Alfred Ngaro said the government was working on other options.
“You’ve got to build the supply to meet the demand” – Associate Minister for Social Housing Alfred Ngaro duration 5′ :52″ from Checkpoint Add to playlist Download
It probably makes sense to have short term emergency housing in a motel style accommodation. Boarding houses, which used to be quite common, are now much less evident.
Quite a few people have a temporary need. Even if there was sufficient social housing there may not be vacancies in the places and at the times needed. In that case the temporary housing fills the gap.
Temporary housing, such as motels come with everything, which is probably what many people need. There will be people with literally nothing, ex prisoners for instance. They could not furnish a house, at least not immediately. They often used to be in central city boarding houses, but many of these have gone.
So I would expect that this type of housing will be a permanent feature of the housing system, even when more social housing is built.
And you are still rabbiting on about expensive temporary band aid fixes instead of being honest and coming clean about the real causative factors as to why we have such an appalling percentage of poverty ridden homeless family’s and individuals in New Zealand today.
You are becoming more and more hard to take seriously , Wayne , just like Paula Bennett and the Double Dipping PM.
“You’ve got to build the supply to meet the demand” – Associate Minister for Social Housing Alfred Ngaro
Uh, duh-uh, is that right, Alfred? Fuck, if only someone had had the intellectual superpowers required to figure that out sooner – then maybe your government wouldn’t have spent 9 years deferring maintenance on, demolishing or selling state houses and hardly building any. Here’s a thought – maybe your government could fucking build some and stop blowing our dosh on motels?
Ta … as you say the info on Iran is completely new to me as well.
Interesting how in the USA the term ‘negative income tax’ is also used. It’s worth keeping in mind there are different forms of UBI and the discussion can easily get sidetracked into pointless detail unless it’s clear what’s being talked about.
But to me the three big factors which count are:
1. It’s unconditional. It potentially eliminates the toxic stigmatisation associated with targeted benefits and all the shaming, bullying hoops you jump through to get them
2. It rewards otherwise unpaid domestic work, the efforts of a stay-at-home partner who looks after the home, the kids and contributes to the households social and community life
3. It eliminates the poverty traps inherent in all targeted benefits and gives people more opportunity and flexibility to organise their lives the way they want
Making the case for universal basic income (UBI) has always required advocates to address two criticisms of the idea:
1. Giving people cash will cause them to work less, hurt the economy, and deprive them of the meaning that work provides in life.
2. Providing an income floor set at a reasonable level for everyone is unaffordable.
1. People will work anyway if you pay them or not. This is actually how the capitalists manage to exploit people for their own benefit. Basically, working is more challenging and fulfilling than not working.
2. If society cannot ensure that everyone can have a decent living standard then there’s one of two problems: 1) The nation has run out of resources or 2) All the wealth is in the hands of the few.
Studies show that the problem is always the latter. The inevitable result of capitalism is that all the wealth will end up in the hands of the few.
Moreover, at least some of the labor force participation decline that the NITs caused was socially desirable. Stanford economist Eric Hanushek, evaluating the non-labor force effects of the NIT experiments, found that “for youth the reduction in labor supply brought about by the negative income tax is almost perfectly offset by increased school attendance.” Other than that, the bulk of the decline seems attributable to longer spells of unemployment, as people used money from the negative income tax to fund longer searches for jobs. That’s a good thing: Research from Stanford’s Raj Chetty has found that longer job searches improve matching between candidates and jobs, increasing economic efficiency.
Another way that WINZ helps fuck things up is by pushing people into jobs that aren’t suited to them.
Re: Debts/Arrears. What this client has been told is completely inaccurate.
You can get arrears going back years….in fact as far back as you possibly need. [Case law: Scoble, established that in the ministry is aware of your situation then it is their responsibility to advise you of your entitlement, ie an application for any benefit is an application for all benefits]
Debts – everything is reviewable, there is no one month limit as this client was told.
I think that Guyon actually asked if that was a bigger problem than immigration!
And the answer was that it was regulations over land which cut down the supply.
Demand apparently has no part to play.
And it is so interesting that Fletchers and other construction companies are having difficulties. Yet everything is being done to assist these companies. It makes one wonder if our businesses are well run. They are relatively spoon-fed but can’t manage without getting bargains on every aspect except the salaries at the upper level and the dividends to the hard-eyed men who invest in their high-priced shares. http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201851880/construction-industry-says-fletcher-s-problems-are-widespread
You could call our present society set-up The Rain of the Highwaymen, they bail you up on your way to having a life, and steal all your goodies so you never have a chance to really enjoy having anything. And they dump misery on you leaving you uncomfortable, and shivering with no roof or tree to shelter under.
Heard that interview-completely unbelievable figures from Joyce. Utter rubbish. Tripe.
In the Queenstown Lakes District we have just had Dwelling Capacity Reports prepared by expert planners and expert economic/growth evidence presented in relation to this. The conclusion from the experts: the Queenstown Lakes District has sufficient zoned capacity for housing way past 2048 and easily complies with the current government’s recently introduced standard on zoned residential capacity.
According to Mr. Joyce in this situation house prices should be falling in the QLD. Far from it; average prices are close to a million in Queenstown and not far behind in Wanaka, and still rising.
The culprits? Land bankers, speculators and builders. NOT the culprit; regulations in the Queenstown Lakes District Council District Plan.
Yes bearded git – what we have been saying here so often. But the general public is insulated from the bright clear light that we beam out that reveals lies and obfuscations – like the ultraviolet light and LEDs used at crime scenes. So the crimes of government and their fellow grifters go undetected!
You could call our present society set-up The Rain of the Highwaymen, they bail you up on your way to having a life, and steal all your goodies so you never have a chance to really enjoy having anything.
Ashamed, I am. I’ve betrayed my Orkney roots; my people. Porridge! What was I thinking?? A rush of thin blue neoliberal blood to my head and I’ve destroyed years of Deep Green activism; porridge! The gruel-drawer; it’s in my DNA. Can I blame James? No, I’ll take it on my hairy chin; I’m a disgrace.
November 2018 could be a very interesting election in Arizona, with both Senate seats and the governor up for grabs in a state that’s steadily shading from red to purple.
If Menendez (a Dem) is out, New Jersey law for replacing him is a mess and internally self-contradictory. It’s possible Christie could immediately appoint a Republican to replace him, who would be in place until the 2018 elections.
I was interested to see that Arizona law requires that the appointee to a Senate seat must be of the same party as the person being replaced.
A pity that all the states (including New Jersey) don’t have such a rule.
It is hard to see why a State Governor should have the ability to change the organisation of the US Senate.
When it comes to the way states organise their electoral affairs, don’t do your head in trying to figure out why. Just absorb and enjoy the “down the rabbit hole” weirdness of it all, and be thankful that for all that’s wrong with our system, it could be a lot worse.
Here’s more on the New jersey situation if you’re of a mind for it.
I’m sure that Christie thought very deeply about the matter while he spent the day on the beach with his family when everyone else was banned.
I can’t get too excited by the crocodile tears from the democrats in New Jersey though. Nearly every state allows it and most will do it.
Appointing someone from a different party than the incumbent is pretty common.
For example
“In five cases, a governor appointed himself; all five of these greedy governors ran for re-election, and all five lost. In 11 of 49 cases (22%), the incoming senator was of a different party than the one he replaced.”
From https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/appointed-senators-rarely-win-re/
An interesting wrinkle with Christie is he’s spent the last couple of years crawling to Trump’s every whim. And taken a bunch of humiliating slaps but no rewards for his trouble. I can’t help wondering how much of that he can take before he suddenly turns and bites back hard.
The USA – I find it hard to know when its reports are satire or for real. McCain having brain surgery. How do we know he wasn’t in need of it when elected? And Ad says there is a Senator Flake. Really? Probably called Snow Flake.
It’s like Reality TV, but are there deep dark goings on behind the false front. What do they call that – ah I know – conspiracy.
Consumer NZ is warning people to limit their use of Colgate Total toothpaste because it contains a chemical banned in some countries.
The toothpaste contains triclosan, an antibacterial chemical that used to be found in soap, toothpaste and body wash.
Last year, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned products that contain any one of 19 ingredients, including triclosan, that had not been proven safe…
…Cosmetic companies including Colgate-Palmolive said last year it had either reformulated, or was reformulating products to delete the most common of the 19 ingredients, including triclosan and triclocarban…
…But Consumer NZ researcher Jessica Wilson said Colgate Total toothpaste in New Zealand still contained the unnecessary chemical.
“Triclosan is a broad spectrum antibacterial agent in a range of products from toothpaste to paint. We’ve been concerned about it for some time because we don’t want them to be in products you have frequent contact with,” Wilson said…
My granddad used soot from the chimney. He’d walk over to the open fire-place with his toothbrush, rummage up in the chimney and walk back to the bathroom brushing the while.
Having remembered and written about my grandad who died aged 81 of heart failure, I googled the practice of using soot for toothpaste, and it was widespread.
Was it a coal fire? That I do not remember. As a young man he was a high country shepherd which most probably involved wood fires, but coal fires in Christchurch were common.
Yeah dentures were also quite popular back in the day, and people used to get all their teeth extracted as a wedding preparation. My Mum was forced to use salt when she was a kid and she hated it and her teeth are wrecked. Toothpaste FTW
1: hold the government and other opposition parties to account
2: use private members’ bills to change NZ law, e.g. hitting kids
3: influence policy development
4: show people what principled politicians look like.
Well the Greens are more useless than Labour because at least Labour get into power every so often (but don’t include the Greens)
National steal the Lefts ideas because most NZers want a center government, center-left or center-right is just fine for them so National takes from theleft and the voters are happy
I, on the other hand would like to see WFF ended, interest put back on student loans, no more diary conversions, cleaner water ways, means tested super, 100 MPs, no increase in refugees allowed into NZ, lower tax on secondary jobs, more charter schools etc etc
But some of that/most of that will never happen but as long as the Greens are kept out of power I’ll happily concede some of the things I want to make sure they don’t wreck the country
“Now when do you imagine the Greens are going to crack 20%”
I am sure that if you asked someone from the US in 1958 when a black person would be elected President the answer would have been “Never”.
Well it did happen and it only took 50 years.
It might be a bit harder for the Green Party here of course.. The actions of the female co-leader with her long running fraud activities is going to put it back another decade or two but someday we will get a caucus of sensible candidates and it will happen.
The actions of the female co-leader with her long running fraud activities…
Was talking to a National Party supporter the other day and they were going on about that and bad it was. Conversation moved on a bit it was mentioned by this person that he’d asked Ruth Richardson (Early 1990s) to get of the Estate Tax. She laughed at him and told him that if he couldn’t avoid the Estate Tax then perhaps he should go Labour.
The interesting thing about it is that it was considered Ok to avoid taxes although doing so is definitely against the law.
That although the government at the time a) knew that this avoidance occurred and b) knew how it occurred they had no intention of changing it which, of course, is corruption.
I haven’t seen anything to suggest that National has changed.
Actually the Greens have an advantage as things like climate change get worse (another possible extreme weather event battering the windows as I type). But even without that, I reckon in the next couple of elections could well see the greens in the 15-20% range. Higher if Trotter’s broflakes put a stop to Labour’s rejuvenation.
One other brake on Green progression if NZ1/peters in particular. If peters goes I think NZ1 will start becoming a bedfellow of the nats and start leeching their vote, rather than anyone who is looking for an alternative for the nats. So an election or two after peters leaves then the greens will expand a bit more.
But that’s me puling figures from my arse. Shane Jones could be the next Winston Peters, you never know (although at best I reckon he’s just a Dunne)
Greens that bail to topsy are not greens, that is obvious – probably more likely middle types scared they will lose their tiny baubles. Don’t worry plenty of real environmentalists and social activists joining the greens to make up for the skedaddlers.
There was a meeting in Ashhurst the other day where the residents were very unhappy about the problems with the Manawatu Gorge,
The people in Woodville are even more depressed.
Did any Green MP, preferably Ms Genter, attend to tell them what the Green Party solution would be?
Out of curiosity what is it? Does anyone have any idea? With the general Green Party antipathy to highways I, as a reasonably regular traveller to Hawkes Bay would like to know.
The Green Party’s Palmerston North candidate Thomas Nash said work was being done to create a “transport triangle” between Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga, and a similar arrangement could happen with Manawatu, Wellington and Wairarapa.
Modern and reliable rail links between the three areas would take trucks off the road, thereby taking pressure off the Saddle Rd, he said.
Palmerston North would benefit largely from investment in rail, as the city was a distribution hub for the lower North Island, he said.
“It’s all about thinking long term.”
I can see how a fossil fuel dinosaur like you would take that as not needing a road, but most people would read that as what it says. Use rail and road sensibly, together.
So what you are saying is that cars are all supposed to use the saddle road.
The only alternative to that, given he doesn’t seem to think that any alternative road is proposed would be the Pahiatua Track, which is about 20 km south.
That means, of course, that Woodville is being condemned to a slow death as the traffic won’t get near it.
It also means that all the road traffic, and there are an awful lot of cars each day, will have go through Ashhurst and then over the dreadful Saddle Road.
Would the Green Party improve that road? All the candidate talks about is the railway. What improvements does he propose to the highway?
He also doesn’t seem to bother about the fact that the bulk of the train traffic actually goes north to Hawkes bay, not south to the Wairarapa.
He also talks about thinking “long term”. Just how long does he mean?
No what I’m saying is you misrepresented what he said. It’s a paragraph in a media report, I really think if you want to know more you should ask the party. But I also know you routinely tell lies about the Greens and so I doubt your interest in their view is genuine.
I won’t be surprise the about the ongoing slips in the Manawatu Gorge are earthquake related and the ongoing weather events of late have sped up the rate of movement on the Cliff face?
The powers it be may have now realize that they maybe pissing money down the hole?
This is super concerning.. people are dying from taking plastic pot
Meanwhile someone is profiting from what appears to be fatal plastic pot
FFS Legalize cannabis, people don’t die from cannabis. Then they could go out into the back yard and pick their own medicine instead of some plastic pot death dealing arsehole making money. Regulate cannabis, then there would be no plastic pot market whatsoever.
Black market obviously can’t keep up with the cannabis demand, and in comes the plastic pot, could be oven cleaner sprayed on oregano for all the buyer knows.
I’m so over this crap still happening, no action, and now fatalities.
The brief disruption was due to stopping the primary server to extract a Samsung EVO850 120GB SSD that appears to have stopped working. The other 5 Intel drives are working fine on the system.
There were only 20 of you on the site at the time, so I figured that it was about as low as I was going to get before about 0200. I guess the weather is as bad or worse everywhere else as it is in Auckland.
Sorry I was one of the 20, but was watching ‘death in paradise’. So I didn’t even notice. But as always just in case you don’t hear it enough. Thanks for the great job lprent.
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Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
A ballot for a single member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe) The bill would extend union rights to employees in triangular relationships, where they are (nominally) employed by one party, but ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
The Government’s newly announced funding for biodiversity and tourism of $30-million over three years is a small fraction of what is required for conservation in this country. ...
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
The Forum has raised concerns regarding the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill and the Regulatory Standards Bill, which, if enacted, will radically undermine existing human rights protections, Indigenous rights, and constitutional safeguards ...
The passage of time hasn’t been kind to Ngāi Tahu.When its High Court hearing over wai māori (freshwater) commenced last week, 52 months after the claim was filed, the tribe mourned the loss of two named first plaintiffs – Bishop Richard Wallace, of Makaawhio, and Theo Bunker, of Wairewa – ...
Margie Apa, Nicholas Jones, Diana Sarfati, the board of Health New Zealand … and will Lester Levy be next?The biggest names in our health service are tumbling like dominos.It’s been called a bloodbath and a crisis.What’s going on?Every day there’s a new story about shortages, patients having to wait for ...
Opinion: The coalition Government’s recent revisions to the business investor visa, officially the Active Investor Plus but commonly known as the ‘golden visa’, has put pay-for-residency back in the headlines. While many object to the commodification of citizenship implicit in this policy, questions should be asked about its potential as ...
One Christmas, to thank him for helping me hugely with my writing (on a mentor scheme), I sent Michael King a dark blue cashmere scarf. I chose it with the awful knowledge that he was battling cancer, and I somehow thought it might keep him warm and make him feel ...
Comment: Readers may recall the commentaries from academics that appeared on these pages as well as on many media outlets, alarmed and appalled by the disbanding of the Marsden panels for humanities and the social sciences.The Marsden Fund is a “blue skies” initiative established by Simon Upton in the 1990s. ...
Everything you missed from day five of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard seven hours of submissions. Read our recaps of the previous hearings here.An “insult to every one of our tīpuna” was the first advice the Justice Committee heard on the Treaty principles bill ...
The same councillors who decry excessive spending on pet projects just voted to pump millions of dollars into a greenhouse for flowers. On Thursday last week, Wellington City Council voted to consult on repairing Begonia House, the greenhouse for exotic flowers in Wellington Botanic Garden. The options for repairs range ...
It’s important to respect people’s right to free speech and peaceful assembly, but how much political deference is due when it isn’t peaceful? Commenting on Destiny Church members storming a children’s event at the Te Atatū library and community centre on Saturday, prime minister Christopher Luxon said it’s important to ...
Comment: US is capitulating to Moscow’s demands before negotiations over Ukraine even begin The post The day the West died appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Asia Pacific Report Two Palestinian resistance groups have condemned “the brutal assault” on prisoners at Ofer Prison, saying it was “barbaric criminal behaviour that reflects the fascist and terrorist nature of” Israel. In the joint statement, Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) called the attack a “miserable attempt” by Israel ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist in Avarua, Rarotonga Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown hopes to have “an opportunity to talk” with the New Zealand government to “heal some of the rift”. Brown returned to Avarua on Sunday afternoon (Cook Islands Time) following his week-long state visit to China, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sonia R. Grover, Clinical Professor of Gynaecology, The University of Melbourne Polina Zimmerman/Pexels Menstruation, or a period, is the bleeding that occurs about monthly in healthy people born with a uterus, from puberty to menopause. This happens when the endometrium, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ella Barclay, Senior Lecturer, School of Art and Design, Australian National University Despite the perceived outrage at Khaled Sabsabi’s depiction of Hassan Nasrallah in his 2007 work You, Australian art has long made subjects of outlaws and questionable figures. And it is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Louise Pryke, Honorary Research Associate, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Sydney Lisa Tomasetti/Opera Australia “It’s an old song”, Hermes (Christine Anu) sings at the opening of Hadestown, but “we’re gonna sing it again and again”. Based on a ...
An additional $13 million will be invested in tourism infrastructure, including upgrading huts and resolving the backlog in Milford Sound concessions. ...
The reality is that we have no obligation to tolerate the intolerant. They are using violence to shut down and silence others. The result of tolerating intolerant views is the loss of everyone’s freedom of speech except for the one who most effectively ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Davis, Associate Professor in Conservation, Edith Cowan University Adwo/Shutterstock Humans have been poisoning rodents for centuries. But fast-breeding rats and mice have evolved resistance to earlier poisons. In response, manufacturers have produced second generation anticoagulant rodenticides such as bromadiolone, widely ...
Alex Casey unearths Simon Court’s full sales pitch for how menstrual cups could end poverty. On Friday last week, Act MP Simon Court was accused of “mansplaining” during a parliamentary committee hearing about benefit sanctions. After submitter Rachel Dibble shared her concerns about period poverty and the impact that sanctions ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato It’s an unfortunate fact that bad people sometimes want guns. And while laws are designed to prevent guns falling into the wrong hands, the determined criminal can be highly resourceful. There are three main ...
Asia Pacific Report Two independent Jewish Voices groups in Aotearoa New Zealand have written an open letter to the government condemning the Zionist “colonisation” project leading to genocide and criticising the role of the NZ Jewish Council for its “unelected” and “uncritical support” for Israel. The groups, Alternative Jewish Voices ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Newspoll, conducted February 10–14 from a sample of 1,244, gave the Coalition a 51–49 lead, unchanged from the previous Newspoll, ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you enjoy whip-smart satire: The White Lotus (Neon, February 17) HBO’s award-winning The White Lotus is back for what critics are calling “an absolutely exquisite third ...
NZPF called for a slowdown of the curriculum change, asking for one subject at a time, so that teachers and principals could be fully trained and feel confident and competent to implement the changes, New Zealand Principals’ Federation (NZPF) President ...
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Folks, there’s an elephant in the room, and nobody seems to be taking any real notice of it – or even recognising it is there.
• over the next two decades five or six billion people could/will die as a direct result of climate change.
• the tropics will move north and south, pushing the arid zones before them. Large areas will be just too hot to live in, or too dry to farm in.
• famines will rack most of Africa, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and southern China, South America, and even North America and Australia.
• millions of people will be forced on the move, potentially destabilizing societies, especially in the developed world.
• weather ‘events’ will occur with increasing frequency and rising intensity, destroying crops and houses – and lives! More heat means more water vapour, which means more intense rain, in some areas!
• and I haven’t even mentioned rising sea levels!
The point I’m making is that social democratic policies are all very nice and worth voting for – but this country should be taking climate change very very seriously. There is no hope in being reactive – we must be proactive.
marty mars posted a good linky from The Guardian a few days back. It’s worth revisiting:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/true-north/2017/jul/17/neoliberalism-has-conned-us-into-fighting-climate-change-as-individuals
Relax, it’s not an elephant. It’s just a figment of your imagination.
Trying reading this:
https://www.thegwpf.com/earth-day-predictions-that-were-all-wrong/
mlpc
2: “100-200 Million People Per Year Will Be Starving to Death During the Next Ten Years.”
Stanford professor Dr. Paul Ehrlich declared in April 1970 that mass starvation was imminent. His dire predictions failed to materialize as the number of people living in poverty has significantly declined and the amount of food per person has steadily increased, despite population growth. The world’s Gross Domestic Product per person has immeasurably increased despite increases in population.
Damn, now to prove that there is real stuff to be worrying about, I have to find 100 to 200 million people willing to starve to death. I had planned a small holiday this year to look at a part of NZ that will be under water in a decade, and now this! Can’t I have any happiness or relaxation in between the urgent efforts to get action on a, b, c, and so on, all the numerous insurmountable disasters that can only be mitigated? How many people really have to starve to death before someone notices, shows concern and starts to act?
Defeat the Bill! The struggle against the Employment Contracts Bill, 1991
https://iso.org.nz/…/defeat-the-bill-the-struggle-against-the-employment-contracts-bill…
( copy the FULL title and paste all of it when you google it )
Essential reading in our time for those wishing to know one of the key weapons used to bring about the neo liberal subversion . This will explain the hows and whys of much of the poverty today . And the ones responsible , even the Union Reps who were also responsible.
……………………………………………………………
Contrast the hypocrisy here of Ken Douglas’s statement after being one of the chief Judas’s…
Ken Douglas, then president of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, recalled in the 1996 documentary Revolution:
” The Employment Contracts Act was deliberately intended to individualise the employment relationship. It was a natural outcome of the ideological propaganda of rugged individualism, of self-interest and greed and the appeal to individuals that you could find better for you by climbing over the tops of your colleagues, your mates, and so on. Ruth Richardson was very clear, very blunt, very honest about its purpose. It was to achieve a dramatic lowering of wages, very, very quickly ”
……………………………………………………………
We have seen the spotlight on the viscous fall out of Ruth Richardson’s ‘Mother of all Budgets’ recently , – and the effects it still has in the year 2017, – 26 years later !!!!
Both the Employment Contracts Act and the Mother of all Budgets were brought into legislation in 1991. Their destructive social effect has never been truly addressed . All political party’s have skirted around the issue and not come clean. Instead they prefer to pontificate and wring their hands as to the cause of poverty in NZ today and use it as a political football.
It is time a new light is shone on these recent historical causes and then properly addressed .
This is important enough to deserve it’s own thread don’t you think?
I believe so , to be honest,… the fact is ,… that we now have several generations who have grown up completely unaware of recent history , and the root causes of the ailments of our country in 2017.
They are without a point of reference with which to make any realistic comparison.
And it is not good enough that we leave it to gather dust , and relegate it to a side topic of some lecturers talk on recent political history…
This needs to be presented not only in an easily presented format to the general public to establish causal factors for modern problems , but also stressed that these were/ are the direct causes for the poverty and discord surrounding government decisions today in the year 2017 … 26 years after the fact.
Once exposed to a new generation of workers , and then becoming again part of the political narrative today ,… it would force the question … ” what should we do about it ? ”
It will not be until that happens that any real long term solutions can occur.
Radical or radicle?
“According to TV1 political editor Corin Dann, the Greens have made “a bold statement on social justice”. On Spin-Off, Simon Wilson suggested, “For the left, which was looking like it was going to watch another election slide by, it was the most impressive statement of the year.” Columnist Stacey Kirk argues, Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei, is “counting on New Zealanders to not only voice concern over inequality, but to collectively do something about it that may go against the nature of their very core.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, the most hyperbolic response has come from veteran left columnist Chris Trotter who reckons the reform platform adopted by the Greens is not merely radical but “revolutionary”. Turei’s declarations at the weekend, in his eyes, “will have the same electrifying effect as the cry which swept through Paris on 14 July 1789 – ‘To the Bastille!’” Yes, he actually did compare the Greens’ platform with the start of the French revolution which cut off the heads of much of the ruling class there and ushered in a whole new social order. And the Greens, well Metiria Turei in particular, has “set the 2017 election on fire”.*”
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/07/20/have-the-greens-gone-radical/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radicle
Good old Chris – not one to ever be scared of a bit of hyperbole and bombast.
Good old Stunned Mullet , not one to ever be scared of a bit of subversion of debates and advancing right wing biased propaganda.
“For the left, which was looking like it was going to watch another election slide by, it was the most impressive statement of the year.”
Indeed. Until Labour took the shine right off it declining to support it.
It seems Labour would rather maintain a $4 billion plus budget surplus than work with the Greens to further help address poverty.
Without Labour’s support (or unless the Greens become the majority coalition party) the proposal is virtually a dead duck.
First, you stake your claim. Then, you fight for it. The greater part of the struggle is in defence.
“First, you stake your claim. Then, you fight for it “
It’s a real shame they couldn’t just work together on this one.
Think of the momentum lost. First we had the call from the Children’s Commissioner, then came the Greens proposal and just as all eyes turned to see if Labour would run with it, they stopped it dead in its track.
Therefore, unless voters give the Greens the numbers, or Labour buckle under public pressure, it’s little more than wishful thinking.
“wishful thinking” is a powerful seed crystal around which gems are built, so long as action follows words. Opposition or dismissal serves as tension, and creative tension is a vital component of any successful venture. If The Green’s proposals had been met with universal, uncritical support from The Labour Party, they would have been doomed to extinction; this reluctant retreat is positive and encouraging, imo.
“If The Green’s proposals had been met with universal, uncritical support from The Labour Party, they would have been doomed to extinction; this reluctant retreat is positive and encouraging, imo. “
Sorry, Robert, but I disagree. Public perception is changing. Inequality and poverty (along with all its ills) are of voter concern.
Moreover, with the Greens proposal being costed at $1.4 billion, Labour could still increase benefits (along with its own proposals) and still maintain around a $3 billion surplus, thus it’s far from outlandish.
This so-called “reluctant retreat” has been Labour’s position when it was last in power and also for its last nine years in opposition. And going off those past election results, a number would say this “reluctant retreat” is playing a part in them becoming extinct.
I’d be interested to know how the wider Labour support base feels on this matter?
Wildly euphoric, and looking forward eagerly to finding new and innovative ways of cooperating with a positive attitude.
According or acrudding?
For anyone curious about why single payer healthcare is such a struggle to sell to voters in the US, here’s a good explanation.
http://www.salon.com/2017/07/20/how-to-sell-single-payer-health-care-its-a-great-policy-but-has-a-huge-political-drawback/
tl;dr it’s because currently the huge majority of Americans get their health insurance as a mostly-employer-paid benefit. Switching to single-payer takes a huge cost off the employers, but will require a huge tax increase to pay for it.
And it would still be cheaper than what they have now.
That’s the point that the US doesn’t seem to get. Their privatised healthcare costs far more than a state provided one.
Exactly. But then they voted for Trump – and around 40%, after 6 months of his idiocy, would still do so! 🙄
You really have to wonder.
Check this out showing how screwed our housing situation really is now under “Brighter future” National Party plan!!!!!!
Well done John Campbell!!
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/327597/motels-given-millions-to-house-homeless
Motels given millions to house homeless
5:49 am on 28 March 2017
Michelle Cooke, Checkpoint Producer
@Mich_Cooke michelle.cooke@radionz.co.nz
Five Auckland motels have received more than $1.3 million of taxpayer money in just three months to house homeless people.
Figures obtained by Checkpoint with John Campbell under the Official Information Act show in the three months ending 31 December 2016, the Budget Travellers Inn in Papatoetoe received $351,958 in emergency housing special needs grants from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), the highest of any emergency provider in New Zealand.
Alfred Ngaro Social Housing Associate Minister Alfred Ngaro Photo: Supplied
The grants are given to people “when all other options are exhausted, to provide a short-term solution”, but Salvation Army social policy unit director Ian Hutson said the situation could have been avoided.
“What we’re reaping is related to the lack of early intervention, and ideally we don’t want more and more emergency accommodation, what we want is affordable housing,” Mr Hutson said.
Rounding out the five providers given the most grants were the Knightsbridge Motor Lodge in Papatoetoe, at $334,578; 540 Motel in Otahuhu, at $242,187; the Allenby Park Hotel in Papatoetoe, at $220,750; and the Rockfield Motel in Penrose at $199,649.
In total, the ministry granted 8860 grants to 2616 people in the last quarter of last year – at a total cost of $7,735,788, or an average of about $2.5m per month.
Associate Minister for Social Housing Alfred Ngaro said the government was working on other options.
“You’ve got to build the supply to meet the demand” – Associate Minister for Social Housing Alfred Ngaro duration 5′ :52″ from Checkpoint Add to playlist Download
It probably makes sense to have short term emergency housing in a motel style accommodation. Boarding houses, which used to be quite common, are now much less evident.
Quite a few people have a temporary need. Even if there was sufficient social housing there may not be vacancies in the places and at the times needed. In that case the temporary housing fills the gap.
Temporary housing, such as motels come with everything, which is probably what many people need. There will be people with literally nothing, ex prisoners for instance. They could not furnish a house, at least not immediately. They often used to be in central city boarding houses, but many of these have gone.
So I would expect that this type of housing will be a permanent feature of the housing system, even when more social housing is built.
And you are still rabbiting on about expensive temporary band aid fixes instead of being honest and coming clean about the real causative factors as to why we have such an appalling percentage of poverty ridden homeless family’s and individuals in New Zealand today.
You are becoming more and more hard to take seriously , Wayne , just like Paula Bennett and the Double Dipping PM.
“It probably makes sense to have short term emergency housing in a motel style accommodation.”
It’s a very poor response that shouldn’t have been required. Short-term thinking forces costly “solutions” such as motel emergency accommodation.
It probably only makes sense if the moteliers are Gnat donors.
“You’ve got to build the supply to meet the demand” – Associate Minister for Social Housing Alfred Ngaro
Uh, duh-uh, is that right, Alfred? Fuck, if only someone had had the intellectual superpowers required to figure that out sooner – then maybe your government wouldn’t have spent 9 years deferring maintenance on, demolishing or selling state houses and hardly building any. Here’s a thought – maybe your government could fucking build some and stop blowing our dosh on motels?
A good read on UBI. Includes info from places like Iran I wasn’t aware of.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/20/15821560/basic-income-critiques-cost-work-negative-income-tax
Ta … as you say the info on Iran is completely new to me as well.
Interesting how in the USA the term ‘negative income tax’ is also used. It’s worth keeping in mind there are different forms of UBI and the discussion can easily get sidetracked into pointless detail unless it’s clear what’s being talked about.
But to me the three big factors which count are:
1. It’s unconditional. It potentially eliminates the toxic stigmatisation associated with targeted benefits and all the shaming, bullying hoops you jump through to get them
2. It rewards otherwise unpaid domestic work, the efforts of a stay-at-home partner who looks after the home, the kids and contributes to the households social and community life
3. It eliminates the poverty traps inherent in all targeted benefits and gives people more opportunity and flexibility to organise their lives the way they want
A good read here:
http://www.top.org.nz/what_is_the_ubi_why_do_we_want_it
1. People will work anyway if you pay them or not. This is actually how the capitalists manage to exploit people for their own benefit. Basically, working is more challenging and fulfilling than not working.
2. If society cannot ensure that everyone can have a decent living standard then there’s one of two problems: 1) The nation has run out of resources or 2) All the wealth is in the hands of the few.
Studies show that the problem is always the latter. The inevitable result of capitalism is that all the wealth will end up in the hands of the few.
This bit needs to be highlighted as well:
Another way that WINZ helps fuck things up is by pushing people into jobs that aren’t suited to them.
This is our ridiculous welfare system…this is a MUST LISTEN interview with RadioNZ.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201851767
Re: Debts/Arrears. What this client has been told is completely inaccurate.
You can get arrears going back years….in fact as far back as you possibly need. [Case law: Scoble, established that in the ministry is aware of your situation then it is their responsibility to advise you of your entitlement, ie an application for any benefit is an application for all benefits]
Debts – everything is reviewable, there is no one month limit as this client was told.
QFT
Steve Joyce this morning. Unbelievable at the art of fudging, nay lying. He actually is the John Key type for Nats, better than Blinglish at PM.
Nats have found some figures that seem to let them off the hook about lack of housing and high prices. 56% of the price of buildings is because of the land and particularly the regulations. Again it is all Council’s fault and the citizens who raise objections to speculators wishes.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201851877/land-use-rules-blamed-for-high-auckland-house-prices
I think that Guyon actually asked if that was a bigger problem than immigration!
And the answer was that it was regulations over land which cut down the supply.
Demand apparently has no part to play.
And it is so interesting that Fletchers and other construction companies are having difficulties. Yet everything is being done to assist these companies. It makes one wonder if our businesses are well run. They are relatively spoon-fed but can’t manage without getting bargains on every aspect except the salaries at the upper level and the dividends to the hard-eyed men who invest in their high-priced shares.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201851880/construction-industry-says-fletcher-s-problems-are-widespread
And those highly salaried are riding mountain bikes and having accidents that cost $15 million from ACC and the citizens, men between 30-55 are into it, can afford it, and are getting big salaries so are costly to all us plebeians.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201851882/is-mountain-biking-the-new-golf
You could call our present society set-up The Rain of the Highwaymen, they bail you up on your way to having a life, and steal all your goodies so you never have a chance to really enjoy having anything. And they dump misery on you leaving you uncomfortable, and shivering with no roof or tree to shelter under.
Reign, rein or rain?
All of the above?
a lot of pain not just on the plains in Spain, no gains, stays the same, an in grained – migraine.
National are really ‘ back to nature’ sort of guys… their answer to the housing crisis is to encourage us all to become more like these guys …
🙂
Bigfoot caught on tape (Patterson footage stabilized) – YouTube
you tube▶ 1:49
Can’t help wondering if some ceo might have lost money doing a political buddy a favour. No $11,000 book for him.
That $11,000 is a joke.
I made one easily enough with frogprint’s software.
http://www.frogprints.co.nz/Photobooks/
The dearest a4 option with 100 pages is $134.
http://www.frogprints.co.nz/photobooks/?s=pricelist
(I know this sounds like an ad but I’m not associated with them, just used the software.)
And there are lots of overseas self-publishing options as well.
I think that’s a pretty fair price for a presentation copy of ‘War and Peace’ printed on $20 notes!
@Greywarshark
Heard that interview-completely unbelievable figures from Joyce. Utter rubbish. Tripe.
In the Queenstown Lakes District we have just had Dwelling Capacity Reports prepared by expert planners and expert economic/growth evidence presented in relation to this. The conclusion from the experts: the Queenstown Lakes District has sufficient zoned capacity for housing way past 2048 and easily complies with the current government’s recently introduced standard on zoned residential capacity.
According to Mr. Joyce in this situation house prices should be falling in the QLD. Far from it; average prices are close to a million in Queenstown and not far behind in Wanaka, and still rising.
The culprits? Land bankers, speculators and builders. NOT the culprit; regulations in the Queenstown Lakes District Council District Plan.
Yes bearded git – what we have been saying here so often. But the general public is insulated from the bright clear light that we beam out that reveals lies and obfuscations – like the ultraviolet light and LEDs used at crime scenes. So the crimes of government and their fellow grifters go undetected!
Very nicely put
Wonder no more – they aren’t.
Sounds about right.
Choosing the right frame. A reminder of the importance of framing your argument to fit your opponent’s worldview if you want to be persuasive.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2017/jul/20/the-power-of-framing-its-not-what-you-say-its-how-you-say-it
– Paula Bennett
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/07/govt-admits-it-had-no-idea-of-emergency-housing-costs.html
*weeps over porridge
Porridge! Porridge! bloody tory. weeps over GRUEL,
my man ,Who do you think you are? james?
Ashamed, I am. I’ve betrayed my Orkney roots; my people. Porridge! What was I thinking?? A rush of thin blue neoliberal blood to my head and I’ve destroyed years of Deep Green activism; porridge! The gruel-drawer; it’s in my DNA. Can I blame James? No, I’ll take it on my hairy chin; I’m a disgrace.
Nat voter? Otherwise, back o’ the line, pal.
Porridge for us 24th sept onwards.-james had better get used to gruel between now and then.
Luxury!
Gruel and better shoeboxes. What more could us peasants want.
Dont like porridge – More a bacon and egg or a nice toasted bagel kinda guy (although really hard to get really good quality bagels in NZ)
Sorry james, gruel for you it will be.-we might have bagels though, to celebrate.
Not having any idea as to what’s happening in the real world seems to be endemic to National.
U.S. Senate numbers are getting unstable.
Menendez going on trial probably means Chris Christie will tilt one vote towards the Republicans.
If McCain doesn’t come back after brain surgery, there will be a hiatus while the State Governor chooses a new one. Also Senator Flake is vulnerable.
Can’t see the Dems taking back the Senate any time soon. But it’s impossible to bet on major legislation getting through when things are this tight.
What happens if McCain needs to be replaced.
http://heavy.com/news/2017/07/john-mccain-replacement-how-when-chosen-elected-appointed-special-election-who/
November 2018 could be a very interesting election in Arizona, with both Senate seats and the governor up for grabs in a state that’s steadily shading from red to purple.
If Menendez (a Dem) is out, New Jersey law for replacing him is a mess and internally self-contradictory. It’s possible Christie could immediately appoint a Republican to replace him, who would be in place until the 2018 elections.
I was interested to see that Arizona law requires that the appointee to a Senate seat must be of the same party as the person being replaced.
A pity that all the states (including New Jersey) don’t have such a rule.
It is hard to see why a State Governor should have the ability to change the organisation of the US Senate.
When it comes to the way states organise their electoral affairs, don’t do your head in trying to figure out why. Just absorb and enjoy the “down the rabbit hole” weirdness of it all, and be thankful that for all that’s wrong with our system, it could be a lot worse.
Here’s more on the New jersey situation if you’re of a mind for it.
http://www.politico.com/states/new-jersey/story/2017/07/20/christies-last-big-move-could-be-filling-menendezs-seat-113458
I’m sure that Christie thought very deeply about the matter while he spent the day on the beach with his family when everyone else was banned.
I can’t get too excited by the crocodile tears from the democrats in New Jersey though. Nearly every state allows it and most will do it.
Appointing someone from a different party than the incumbent is pretty common.
For example
“In five cases, a governor appointed himself; all five of these greedy governors ran for re-election, and all five lost. In 11 of 49 cases (22%), the incoming senator was of a different party than the one he replaced.”
From
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/appointed-senators-rarely-win-re/
An interesting wrinkle with Christie is he’s spent the last couple of years crawling to Trump’s every whim. And taken a bunch of humiliating slaps but no rewards for his trouble. I can’t help wondering how much of that he can take before he suddenly turns and bites back hard.
He may have had enough.
Chris Christie: Getting Russian Opposition Research Is ‘Probably Against the Law’
http://time.com/4861843/chris-christie-donald-trump-jr-russia-meeting/
The USA – I find it hard to know when its reports are satire or for real. McCain having brain surgery. How do we know he wasn’t in need of it when elected? And Ad says there is a Senator Flake. Really? Probably called Snow Flake.
It’s like Reality TV, but are there deep dark goings on behind the false front. What do they call that – ah I know – conspiracy.
RIP Roy – thanks
https://youtu.be/SD5–ayepA8
Okay so wtf is going on here
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/94960318/chemical-in-colgate-total-possible-hormone-disrupter-and-carcinogenic
Worried about things? Fair enough.
They used to use salt to clean their teeth… and salt desiccates bacteria and kills them.
I use baking soda. My aunt and uncle used to use salt. Toothpaste is weird.
My granddad used soot from the chimney. He’d walk over to the open fire-place with his toothbrush, rummage up in the chimney and walk back to the bathroom brushing the while.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimney_sweeps%27_carcinoma
The two are not parallel, using soot for toothpaste and working as a chimney sweep. Interesting article, though.
I’ve heard of people using charcoal so that makes a kind of sense. Was it a coal fire though?
Having remembered and written about my grandad who died aged 81 of heart failure, I googled the practice of using soot for toothpaste, and it was widespread.
Was it a coal fire? That I do not remember. As a young man he was a high country shepherd which most probably involved wood fires, but coal fires in Christchurch were common.
The soot was of course rinsed and spat out.
Thanks, I like stories like this.
Yeah dentures were also quite popular back in the day, and people used to get all their teeth extracted as a wedding preparation. My Mum was forced to use salt when she was a kid and she hated it and her teeth are wrecked. Toothpaste FTW
Go back even further and pre-refined carb cultures had very healthy teeth and no toothpaste.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/94970051/another-former-green-candidate-joins-gareth-morgans-top
“The Greens have been around 17 years and never been in Government. You’ve got to ask yourself what you’re doing it for.”
Exactly
They are doing it because this country would be the lesser if they didn’t.
They’re doing it for the paycheck, at least the other parties get things done
1: hold the government and other opposition parties to account
2: use private members’ bills to change NZ law, e.g. hitting kids
3: influence policy development
4: show people what principled politicians look like.
5. Get paid approx 160 grand a year but not make a jot of difference
blah blah blah, from the dude who votes on the right so insists the left are useless. How come National have to keep stealing the left’s ideas then?
Well the Greens are more useless than Labour because at least Labour get into power every so often (but don’t include the Greens)
National steal the Lefts ideas because most NZers want a center government, center-left or center-right is just fine for them so National takes from theleft and the voters are happy
I, on the other hand would like to see WFF ended, interest put back on student loans, no more diary conversions, cleaner water ways, means tested super, 100 MPs, no increase in refugees allowed into NZ, lower tax on secondary jobs, more charter schools etc etc
But some of that/most of that will never happen but as long as the Greens are kept out of power I’ll happily concede some of the things I want to make sure they don’t wreck the country
Haters gonna hate.
All good things. Now when do you imagine the Greens are going to crack 20%?
In my lifetime, or my grandkids?
Ok so this sounds snarky, but it’s still a valid question.
“Now when do you imagine the Greens are going to crack 20%”
I am sure that if you asked someone from the US in 1958 when a black person would be elected President the answer would have been “Never”.
Well it did happen and it only took 50 years.
It might be a bit harder for the Green Party here of course.. The actions of the female co-leader with her long running fraud activities is going to put it back another decade or two but someday we will get a caucus of sensible candidates and it will happen.
Was talking to a National Party supporter the other day and they were going on about that and bad it was. Conversation moved on a bit it was mentioned by this person that he’d asked Ruth Richardson (Early 1990s) to get of the Estate Tax. She laughed at him and told him that if he couldn’t avoid the Estate Tax then perhaps he should go Labour.
The interesting thing about it is that it was considered Ok to avoid taxes although doing so is definitely against the law.
That although the government at the time a) knew that this avoidance occurred and b) knew how it occurred they had no intention of changing it which, of course, is corruption.
I haven’t seen anything to suggest that National has changed.
Well, pessimistic rather than snarky 🙂
Actually the Greens have an advantage as things like climate change get worse (another possible extreme weather event battering the windows as I type). But even without that, I reckon in the next couple of elections could well see the greens in the 15-20% range. Higher if Trotter’s broflakes put a stop to Labour’s rejuvenation.
One other brake on Green progression if NZ1/peters in particular. If peters goes I think NZ1 will start becoming a bedfellow of the nats and start leeching their vote, rather than anyone who is looking for an alternative for the nats. So an election or two after peters leaves then the greens will expand a bit more.
But that’s me puling figures from my arse. Shane Jones could be the next Winston Peters, you never know (although at best I reckon he’s just a Dunne)
“The Greens have been around 17 years and never been in Government. You’ve got to ask yourself what you’re doing it for.”
Lol, just looked to see who said that. It was David Hay, who when he was a GP member got kicked out for slagging off his own party in public.
He does sounds like a good match for TOP.
“One of the appeals of TOP is that Gareth [Morgan] is really all about the policies, getting into Government, making a difference.”
Oh good, confirmation from one of the TOP candidates that they do indeed intend to be in government this year.
lol indeed but not as funny as Labour shafting the Greens in favour of Peter Dunne, that was pretty funny don’t you think
It might be if I knew what you were talking about. Seems like a pretty random comparison though tbh.
Greens that bail to topsy are not greens, that is obvious – probably more likely middle types scared they will lose their tiny baubles. Don’t worry plenty of real environmentalists and social activists joining the greens to make up for the skedaddlers.
Labour was around for about 20 years before they made government.
And the Greens have accomplished quite a bit even outside of government.
There was a meeting in Ashhurst the other day where the residents were very unhappy about the problems with the Manawatu Gorge,
The people in Woodville are even more depressed.
Did any Green MP, preferably Ms Genter, attend to tell them what the Green Party solution would be?
Out of curiosity what is it? Does anyone have any idea? With the general Green Party antipathy to highways I, as a reasonably regular traveller to Hawkes Bay would like to know.
Yes there were GP people there. I suggest you go look it up and if you have questions for them I’d suggest asking them about that.
The best I could find was this.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/94545961/politicians-quibble-about-best-solution-to-manawatu-gorge-closure
Basically it says you don’ need a road. Stick everything on a train.
How many a day are they going to have for people who currently travel by car from one side to the other?
The Wairarapa candidate seemed to be a great deal more realistic but not much use.
http://times-age.co.nz/gorge-alternatives-not-viable/
Not quite.
The Green Party’s Palmerston North candidate Thomas Nash said work was being done to create a “transport triangle” between Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga, and a similar arrangement could happen with Manawatu, Wellington and Wairarapa.
Modern and reliable rail links between the three areas would take trucks off the road, thereby taking pressure off the Saddle Rd, he said.
Palmerston North would benefit largely from investment in rail, as the city was a distribution hub for the lower North Island, he said.
“It’s all about thinking long term.”
I can see how a fossil fuel dinosaur like you would take that as not needing a road, but most people would read that as what it says. Use rail and road sensibly, together.
So what you are saying is that cars are all supposed to use the saddle road.
The only alternative to that, given he doesn’t seem to think that any alternative road is proposed would be the Pahiatua Track, which is about 20 km south.
That means, of course, that Woodville is being condemned to a slow death as the traffic won’t get near it.
It also means that all the road traffic, and there are an awful lot of cars each day, will have go through Ashhurst and then over the dreadful Saddle Road.
Would the Green Party improve that road? All the candidate talks about is the railway. What improvements does he propose to the highway?
He also doesn’t seem to bother about the fact that the bulk of the train traffic actually goes north to Hawkes bay, not south to the Wairarapa.
He also talks about thinking “long term”. Just how long does he mean?
No what I’m saying is you misrepresented what he said. It’s a paragraph in a media report, I really think if you want to know more you should ask the party. But I also know you routinely tell lies about the Greens and so I doubt your interest in their view is genuine.
I won’t be surprise the about the ongoing slips in the Manawatu Gorge are earthquake related and the ongoing weather events of late have sped up the rate of movement on the Cliff face?
The powers it be may have now realize that they maybe pissing money down the hole?
http://quakelive.co.nz/ show’s two fault lines either side of the Manawatu Gorge
This is super concerning.. people are dying from taking plastic pot
Meanwhile someone is profiting from what appears to be fatal plastic pot
FFS Legalize cannabis, people don’t die from cannabis. Then they could go out into the back yard and pick their own medicine instead of some plastic pot death dealing arsehole making money. Regulate cannabis, then there would be no plastic pot market whatsoever.
Black market obviously can’t keep up with the cannabis demand, and in comes the plastic pot, could be oven cleaner sprayed on oregano for all the buyer knows.
I’m so over this crap still happening, no action, and now fatalities.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/94977752/police-reported-to-be-investigating-multiple-synthetic-cannabis-deaths
The brief disruption was due to stopping the primary server to extract a Samsung EVO850 120GB SSD that appears to have stopped working. The other 5 Intel drives are working fine on the system.
There were only 20 of you on the site at the time, so I figured that it was about as low as I was going to get before about 0200. I guess the weather is as bad or worse everywhere else as it is in Auckland.
Sorry I was one of the 20, but was watching ‘death in paradise’. So I didn’t even notice. But as always just in case you don’t hear it enough. Thanks for the great job lprent.