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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And it's a pleasure that I have knownAnd it's a treasure that I have gainedAotearoa’s coalition government is fragile. It’s held together by the obsequious sycophancy of Christopher Luxon, who willingly contorts his party into the fringe positions of his junior coalition partners and is unwilling to contradict them. The ...
The Select Committee hearing submissions on the fast-track consenting legislation is starting to become a beat-up of regional councils. The inflexibility and slow workings of the Councils were prominent in two submissions yesterday. One, from the Coromandel Marine Farmers Association, simply said that the Waikato Regional Council’s planning decisions were ...
Back in April, the High Court surprised everyone by ruling that Ministers are above the law, at least as far as the Waitangi Tribunal is concerned. The reason for this ruling was "comity" - the idea that the different branches of government shouldn't interfere with each other's functions. Which makes ...
Buzz from the BeehiveTolling was mentioned when Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced the government was re-introducing the Roads of National Significance (RoNS) programme, with 15 “crucial” projects to support economic growth and regional development across New Zealand. All RoNS would be four-laned, grade-separated highways, and all funding, financing, and ...
or the past 14 years, ever since the Spanish government cheated on an autonomy deal, Catalonia has reliably given pro-independence parties a majority of seats in their regional parliament. But now that seems to be over. Catalans went to the polls yesterday, and stripped the Catalan parties of their majority. ...
David Farrar writes – Radio NZ report: Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins said the Electoral Commission should make sure the system ran smoothly and “taking away the right of thousands of people to vote” was not the answer. “Thousands of people enroled and voted on the day. If ...
Don Brash writes – There was a rather revealing headline in the Herald on Sunday today (12 May). It read “One in 8 Auckland homes on market were bought during boom, may now sell for loss”. The first line of text noted that “New data shows one in ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – At a time when universities are understandably nervous regarding the establishment of the University Advisory Group (UAG) and the Science System Advisory Group (SSAG) it may seem strange – or even fool-hardy – to state that there are long-standing issues in the tertiary sector ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – A lack of perspective can make something quite large or important seem small or irrelevant. Against a backdrop of high-profile, negative statistics it is easy to overlook the positive. For instance, the fact that 64 percent of Maori are employed is rarely reported. For ...
Earlier this year, the Herald ran a series of articles amounting to a sustained campaign against raised pedestrian crossings, by reporter Bernard Orsman. A key part of that campaign concerned the raised crossings being installed as part of the Pt Chevalier to Westmere project, with at least 10 articles over ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 19 include:PM Christopher Luxon is expected to hold his weekly post-cabinet news conference at 4:00pm on Monday.Parliament is not sitting this week. It resumes next week for a two-week sitting session up to and ...
Hi,Thanks to all the beautiful Worms who came to the LA Webworm popup on Saturday.It was a way to celebrate the online store we launched last week — and it was super special.As I talk about a lot, I really value our community here — and it was a BLAST ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, May 5, 2024 thru Sat, May 11, 2024. (Unfortunate) Story of the week "Grief that stops at despair is an ending that I and many others, most notably ...
Last night the largest solar storm in decades resulted in Aurorae being seen across Aotearoa, causing many to ask why?Why was the sky pink? What was all this stuff about the power grid? Have we, as so many have wondered since the election, reached the end of days?I had a ...
We have been on the road in England, squeezing down narrow lanes, flying up the M6, loving hedgerows and villages and cathedrals, liking the 21st century less.There have been moments when it’s felt like a movie trope. The pub in Exford, lovely seventeenth century bar, almost more dogs than people, ...
There’s a solar-storm on at the moment, and since the South Island is having a day and night with clear skies, that means Aurorae. I have just got back from a midnight visit to Tunnel Beach – southwards-looking over the Sea, and without the light pollution. Quite a few others ...
Michael Bassett writes – I’m not sure that it’s much comfort to anyone to know that the post-Covid surge in violent crimes, gang activity, ram raids, random shootings, thuggery and stabbings is occurring in other countries as well as New Zealand. These days, wagging school, out-of-control welfare and ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – Cast your mind back to mid-December. A new Prime Minister had just been sworn in, the new Government started its 100-day programme, and Christmas was only days away.Amid all the haste, a report landed that would have deserved our attention.I am talking about the ...
TL;DR: An unseasonally early icy blast at the same time as some long-overdue maintenance almost caused Aotearoa-NZ’s electricity system to black out this week. That’s because a quadropoly of gentailers1 have prioritised paying dividends from their rising profits and adding debt over investing in 1.5 GigaWatts of new wind farms ...
Hi,Before we crack into today’s Webworm, I wanted to acknowledge the fact that Israel is pushing into Rafah. Over 100,000 Palestinians are now attempting to flee the one place that was deemed “safe”.Trouble is, the place they’re fleeing to is already destroyed. Total annihilation is the end goal here.“Israel is ...
‘It has been said that figures rule the world. Maybe. I am quite sure that it is figures which show us whether it is being ruled well or badly.’ GoetheI was struck at a recent conference on equity for the elderly, how many presenters implicitly relied upon Statistics New Zealand. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveReporting on defence spending late last year, RNZ said the coalition government will have to make some tough calls this term to help the force address staff shortages and ageing infrastructure. “These are huge, huge amounts of government spending. It’s a significant proportion of the government’s ...
Peter Dunne writes – I am always wary when I hear that the Controller and Auditor-General has commented on or made recommendations to the government about an issue of public policy that does not relate strictly to public expenditure. According to the legislation, the role of the Controller ...
How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought NZ to the brink of economic and cultural chaos Chris Trotter writes – TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition ...
And why did the Crown not challenge the Tribunal’s jurisdiction? Gary Judd writes – Retired District Court Judge, David Harvey, has posted on his A Halflings View Substack an excellent summary of Justice Isacs’ judgment declining to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result?As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and ...
Macklemore isn’t someone I’d usually think about. Sure I liked his big hit from a few years back, everybody did it was catchy and cool with some memorable lines. But if I was going to think of artists who might speak out on political matters or world events, he wouldn’t ...
Another week goes by in the Luxon government’s efforts to roll back the past 70 years of social progress. The school lunches programme is to be downgraded by $107 million, and women need bother their heads no longer about pay equity, let alone expect ACC to provide adequate sexual violence ...
Brrr, the first cold snap of the year. Hope you’re rugged up nice and warm. Here are some stories that caught our eye this week… This Week on Greater Auckland On Monday, we had a post from a new contributor, Connor Sharp, who dug into the public feedback ...
Almost all of the Wellington City Council’s recommended zoning changes to allow many more apartments and townhouses in its inner-suburbs have been approved.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guest on geopolitics, ...
Open access notablesA Global Increase in Nearshore Tropical Cyclone Intensification, Balaguru et al., Earth's Future:Tropical Cyclones (TCs) inflict substantial coastal damages, making it pertinent to understand changing storm characteristics in the important nearshore region. Past work examined several aspects of TCs relevant for impacts in coastal regions. However, ...
Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result? As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and always answered “yes”, with very few ...
Thus far May has followed on from a quiet April in the blogging department, but in fairness, it has been another case of doing what I am supposed to be doing, namely writing original fiction. Plus reading. So don’t worry – I have been productive. But in order to reassure ...
Buzz from the Beehive A new government agency will open for business on July 1 – the Social Investment Agency. As a new standalone central agency effective from 1 July, it will lead the development of social investment across Government, helping ministers understand who they need to invest in, what ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The ...
Alwyn Poole writes – After being elected to Parliament in 2008 the maiden speech of Hipkins was substantially around education policy. He was Labour’s spokesperson for education 2011 – 2017. He was Minister for Education from 2017 until February 2023. This is approximately 88% of the time Labour ...
Eric Crampton writes – A fashion industry group is lobbying for protections. They make the usual arguments and a newer one. None of it makes sense. An industry group says it pumped $7.8 billion into the economy last year – that’s 1.9 percent of New Zealand’s GDP. ...
In December 2006, Fiji's military leader Voreqe Bainimarama overthrew the elected government in a coup. He ruled Fiji for the next 16 years, first as dictator, then as "elected" Prime Minister. But now, he's finally been sent to jail where he belongs. Sadly, this isn't for his real crime of ...
Don't like National's corrupt Muldoonist "fast-track" law? Aotearoa's environmental NGO's - Greenpeace, Forest & Bird, WWF, Coromandel Watchdog, Coal Action Network Aotearoa, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, and others - have announced a joint march against it in Auckland in June: When: 13:00, 8 June, 2024 Where: Aotea Square, Auckland You ...
Seymour describes sushi as too woke for school meals. There are no fish sushi meals recommended by the School Lunches programme. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Government will swap out hot meals for packaged sandwiches to save $107 million on school lunches for poor kids. MSD has pulled ...
I don't mind stealin' bread from the mouths of decadenceBut I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled, yeahBut it's on the table, the fire's cookin'And they're farmin' babies, while slaves are workin'The blood is on the table and the mouths are chokin'But I'm goin' hungry, yeahSome ...
The Ardern Government’s chickens came home to roost yesterday with the news that the country is short of natural gas. In 2018, Labour banned offshore petroleum exploration, and industry executives say that the attendant loss of confidence by the industry impacted overall investment in onshore gas fields. Energy Resources Minister ...
Hi,If you’ve been digging through the newly launched Webworm store (orders are being dispatched worldwide as I type!) you’ll have noticed the best model we had was Calvin.This is Calvin.Calvin.Calvin is 7, and is the son of my producer over on Flightless Bird, Rob — aka “Wobby Wob”. Rob also ...
This video includes 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). Climate change is everywhere. And when something's everywhere it can feel like it's nowhere. So how do we get our heads ...
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford will head to the United Kingdom this week to participate in the 22nd Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) and the 2024 Education World Forum (EWF). “I am looking forward to sharing this Government’s education priorities, such as introducing a knowledge-rich curriculum, implementing an evidence-based ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford has today thanked outgoing New Zealand Qualifications Authority Chair, Hon Tracey Martin. “Tracey Martin tendered her resignation late last month in order to take up a new role,” Ms Stanford says. Ms Martin will relinquish the role of Chair on 10 May and current Deputy ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and President Emmanuel Macron of France today announced a new non-governmental organisation, the Christchurch Call Foundation, to coordinate the Christchurch Call’s work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. This change gives effect to the outcomes of the November 2023 Call Leaders’ Summit, ...
Distinguished public servant and former diplomat Sir Maarten Wevers will lead the independent review into the disability support services administered by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. The review was announced by Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston a fortnight ago to examine what could be done to strengthen the ...
Today’s announcement by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster of a National Gang Unit and district Gang Disruption Units will help deliver on the coalition Government’s pledge to restore law and order and crack down on criminal gangs, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. “The National Gang Unit and Gang Disruption Units will ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today expressed regret at North Korea’s aggressive rhetoric towards New Zealand and its international partners. “New Zealand proudly stands with the international community in upholding the rules-based order through its monitoring and surveillance deployments, which it has been regularly doing alongside partners since 2018,” Mr ...
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies MNZM is the new Chief of Defence Force, Defence Minister Judith Collins announced today. The Chief of Defence Force commands the Navy, Army and Air Force and is the principal military advisor to the Defence Minister and other Ministers with relevant portfolio responsibilities in the defence ...
Legislation to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has been introduced to Parliament. The Bill’s introduction reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the safety of children in care, says Minister for Children, Karen Chhour. “While section 7AA was introduced with good intentions, it creates a conflict for Oranga ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week travel to the UK and Italy to meet with her defence counterparts, and to attend Battles of Cassino commemorations. “I am humbled to be able to represent the New Zealand Government in Italy at the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of what was ...
The upcoming Budget will include funding for up to 50 charter schools to help lift declining educational performance, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced today. $153 million in new funding will be provided over four years to establish and operate up to 15 new charter schools and convert 35 state ...
“The results of the public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has now been received, with results indicating over 13,000 submissions were made from members of the public,” Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “We heard feedback about the extended lockdowns in ...
Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, other Members of Parliament Acting Chief of Defence Force, Secretary of Defence Distinguished Guests Defence and Diplomatic Colleagues Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon, tēna koutou, apinun tru It’s a pleasure to be back in Port Moresby today, and to speak here at the Kumul Leadership ...
Health, infrastructure, renewable energy, and stability are among the themes of the current visit to Papua New Guinea by a New Zealand political delegation, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Papua New Guinea carries serious weight in the Pacific, and New Zealand deeply values our relationship with it,” Mr Peters ...
The coalition Government is launching Roads of Regional Significance to sit alongside Roads of National Significance as part of its plan to deliver priority roading projects across the country, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The Roads of National Significance (RoNS) built by the previous National Government are some of New Zealand’s ...
A high-level New Zealand political delegation in Honiara today congratulated the new Government of Solomon Islands, led by Jeremiah Manele, on taking office. “We are privileged to meet the new Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet during his government’s first ten days in office,” Deputy Prime Minister and ...
New Zealand voted in favour of a resolution broadening Palestine’s participation at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The resolution enhances the rights of Palestine to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly while stopping short of admitting Palestine as a full ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
New Zealand’s ability to cope with climate change will be strengthened as part of the Government’s focus to build resilience as we rebuild the economy, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “An enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
"The United Kingdom’s Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill has just passed its final stage in Parliament (last night, NZ time) and will soon be enshrined into law. This will mean that the UK has banned export of farmed animals by sea. The Australian ...
The Government’s success in designing a national climate adaptation framework will depend entirely on its propensity to utilise landscape architects. ...
A memo accidentally released by Wellington City Council shows at least $5.2 million of pipes needing urgent repair have just been covered up by $55 million of brand new bus and cycle lanes on Thorndon Quay. ...
A damning briefing paper released by a group of offshore wind developers warns that if Trans Tasman Resources gets the go-ahead to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight, it would spell the end of New Zealand’s chance to embrace offshore wind ...
The government intends for new charter schools to be operating by the beginning of 2025. How does the model work? Shanti Mathias explains. What did David Seymour announce? On Tuesday, Act Party leader and minister for education David Seymour said the upcoming government budget would include $153m of new funding ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Walker-Munro, Senior Lecturer (Law), Southern Cross University Drones are an example of the ‘dual-use technologies’ that can fall foul of research security concerns.Goh Rhy Yan / Unsplash Over the weekend, Queensland University of Technology PhD student Xiaolong Zhu became national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda Gallo, Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences, School of Health, University of the Sunshine Coast gpointstudio/Shutterstock Growing a healthy baby relies on getting enough nutrients while pregnant. But rather than following a healthy diet to provide those nutrients, we’re concerned too many ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Trelease, Senior Lecturer in Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology Netflix/ABC Television producer and screenwriter Shonda Rhimes has come a long way since being a scriptwriter for the 2002 film Crossroads. Her production company Shondaland now shines in its delivery ...
Some of our brightest talent has flown north for the British summer as cricketing opportunities increase for our up-and-coming female cricketers. Included in that group is Otago Sparks batter and wicketkeeper Olivia Gain who has travelled to England for the second successive year as she looks to gain more ...
A new national gang unit – coupled with smaller ‘disruption units’ – will target and ‘harass’ gang members, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. A gang crackdown Throughout National’s election campaign and into its time in government, ...
The government is still trying to work out how it will meet its pledge to end Covid mandates, given the mandates were scrapped more than a year ago. ...
The government is still trying to work out how it will meet its pledge to end Covid mandates, given the mandates were scrapped more than a year ago. ...
It was the first glimmer of hope – ever – for New Zealanders with the worst type of multiple sclerosis. A drug treatment that can halt a cruel descent into immobility, incontinence and the loss of agency that comes with PPMS – the primary progressive form of the disease. Pharmac ...
“Sadly, these things are never a juicy conspiracy,” Shane Jones says of his office neglecting to include a dinner with mining interests in his ministerial diary. “They’re largely a cock-up – not a particularly polite expression but it is a regular feature of politics.” On Tuesday, in a Newsroom story, ...
The bill opens the door to hate. It’s our collective job to shut it, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell.Just over 11 years ago, most of the country was basking in the refracted light of a big gay rainbow. National MP Maurice Williamson’s speech in support of the Marriage Equality Bill, and ...
Nurses, teachers, med students, midwives and social workers are among professions that require students to complete unpaid work placements to qualify. A campaign is seeking to change that reality.“It’s really hard to write an essay when you’ve only had two hours’ sleep because you’re been up all night attending ...
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What happens when cash is king – and then your bank leaves. A businessman in a town that hasn’t had a bank for three years says the Reserve Bank’s plans to put more cash in the hands of its people and introduce digital cash could save hours of time. John ...
The people have spoken, in their hundreds. Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton has been overwhelmingly voted the favourite New Zealand book of 2023 as nominated by ReadingRoom readers. The vote can informally be regarded as the People’s Choice award – ahead of tonight’s Ockham book awards, where Catton’s novel is competing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt Garrow, Editorial Web Developer The government has handed down its budget for 2024–25. It’s delivered a $9.3 billion surplus for the financial year just about to finish but is forecasting a $28.3 billion deficit for next year. Here’s the key points: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Jim Chalmers has produced a benign third budget aimed at soothing hard-pressed voters agitated about their high cost of living and punishing interest rates. At the same time he has walked a tightrope, trying ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra Treasurer Jim Chalmers promised an “inflation-fighting and future-making budget” and he has delivered by introducing measures aimed at directly bringing down inflation. Combined, his A$300-per-household energy rebate and ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Bartos, Professor of Economics, University of Canberra Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been bitten by the giveaway bug. This budget contains not only the well-foreshadowed tax cuts for all taxpayers, but a range of new spending measures in health, education, infrastructure, aged ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews French authorities have imposed a curfew on New Caledonia’s capital Nouméa and banned public gatherings after supporters of the Pacific territory’s independence movement blocked roads, set fire to buildings and clashed with security forces. Tensions in New Caledonia have been inflamed by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Greste, Professor of Journalism and Communications, Macquarie University Governments and their agencies wield awesome power. At times, it is quite literally the power over life and death. That is why in any functioning democracy, we have robust checks and balances designed ...
As the world commemorates the 71st Everest Day, it's not just a celebration of human achievement but also a reflection of the enduring bond between New Zealand and Nepal. This day marks the historic feat of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa ...
Individuals in Wellington, led by City Councillor Nīkau Wi Neera, are working to use the ‘hecklers veto’ to shut down Inflection Point , a gender-critical event to be held at a Te Papa venue this weekend featuring speakers such as Bob McCoskrie ...
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A strategic asset for Auckland that has been fought over for years as either sacrosanct or a sacred cow looks certain to be sold and the proceeds of around $1.3 billion put in a new investment fund. A year after bitter political struggle ended in a compromise in which Auckland ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – the Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. The number of voices raising concerns about the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill is rapidly growing. This is especially apparent now that Parliament’s select committee is listening to submissions from the public to evaluate the ...
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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.