Turia and her fellow kuias have one agenda and one agenda only. Privatisation of social services.
Imposing higher rents and more user pays on poor Maori to lift them out of poverty is like smashing someone's broken leg with a sledgehammer to fix it.
As I understand it Whānau Ora was set up not with new funding but with funding previously dedicated to Māori from other areas.
It is a trait peculiar to the National Party to want to divest government responsibility from its commitments. You see it all the time when they cut funding, or sell stuff, or set up new agencies outside of government to do what should be core government business.
I think this is the case with Whānau Ora also. Divesting responsibility for what essentially is an historic problem caused by The Crown. That is the continued very, very poor social and health outcomes for Māori.
The Māori Party's philosophy is that they, the Māori business elite, have the answers but Māori themselves just do not believe this and that has been proven by the ejection of the Māori Party from parliament.
Remember the Māori Party, just like their stablemate the National Party, was formed specifically to oppose the Labour Party. Indeed if the National Party were to stand candidates in Māori seats they would be a who's who of former or present Māori Party associates.
As Peeni Henare said, 'It's election year and things get political'.
I am confident Māori will make the right choice at the polls later this year and return a Labour led government.
"I will say, however, that it's not only him, it's the culture around him. It's his leadership team. It's his prominent supporters. It's his online Bernie Bros and their relentless attacks on lots of his competitors, particularly the women. And I really hope people are paying attention to that, because it should be worrisome that he has permitted this culture — not only permitted, [he] seems to really be very much supporting it."
PUMAs are a Democrat sub-tribe: "Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel pointed out on Twitter that diehard Clinton supporters known as PUMAs, short for "Party Unity My Ass," relentlessly attacked then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and his supporters during his primary run against Clinton in 2008. And MSNBC's Steve Kornacki noted that 25 percent of Clinton primary voters later backed Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the general election against Obama…"
"It is the interpretation of the findings, rather than the findings themselves, that matters politically. The researchers note that this high-needs population also lacks “features of human capital important for workforce readiness”: its members are likely to leave school early, experience significant mental illness, and have weak brain development in their early years. This is worrying, the researchers say, because these people will be left behind in the age of automation. And so we should be “delivering interventions” and “investing in individuals’ education and training potential”."
Who's we?? If you want to spend your time and money helping losers, stick up your hand! Huh, nobody. Thought so.
"As the researcher Jess Berentson-Shaw sets out in her book Pennies from Heaven, a huge evidence base suggests that simply increasing family income has a drastic effect on social problems. It frees families from the constant strain of worrying about bills, helps them shake off debt and other burdens, and allows them to spend more money on their children’s development, which is what the evidence overwhelmingly shows they do." Ah, socialism. Okay, worth a few taxpayer dollars – if that outcome gets verified.
"While cash will not solve all the problems, it is impossible to imagine that the scale of dysfunction the research identifies would still exist in a world where we have largely or wholly eliminated poverty. Yet I could not see poverty mentioned once in the Poulton and D’Souza research. It is this bizarre absence that lends their work the air of an expedition that quit partway through. This question is certain to crop up in this year’s election campaign, in which poverty will be a central issue."
Such certainty is rare and impressive. We've finally got someone who can predict the future!! Okay, there's a more feasible prosaic explanation: Max Rashbrooke has been spilt the inside word from the National and Labour camps, where the decision has already been made.
"It is the interpretation of the findings, rather than the findings themselves, that matters politically. The researchers note that this high-needs population also lacks “features of human capital important for workforce readiness”: its members are likely to leave school early, experience significant mental illness, and have weak brain development in their early years. This is worrying, the researchers say, because these people will be left behind in the age of automation. And so we should be “delivering interventions” and “investing in individuals’ education and training potential”."
They need opportunity.ie the opportunity to be available to work,and have meaningful employment.
That great disaster of the late 20th century,was under the propoganda of the washington consensus and the privitization of public assets and contracting out of services such as waste water,gardening cleaning etc from councils under the fallacy that private enterprise could do it better.(read Stiglitz globalization on this)
A number of councils prior understood the social contract,and provided employment to people without skills.
The significant depreciation of human capital is now evident in the community,and the cost is greater to fix as it jumps the generational gap.
If, in short, we are to end the world that this recent research describes, in which a small part of the population battles immense difficulties on multiple fronts, we will need to deal with the deep and interlocking structures that shape their lives – the racism they are exposed to, the substandard housing in which they live, and above all the inadequate benefits and pitifully low pay on which they are supposed to survive. We cannot stop partway on the path towards fixing social problems.
For those who clapped when Julian Assange got arrested – I hope you proud now another journalist is getting the same bullshit lies said about them. Oh and charged with cyber crimes is Glenn Greenwald for being a journalist.
You're an idiot james, you didn't read the nytimes piece did you. Your comment makes that clear. Maybe you should read about things before you comment.
Any doubts I may have harboured that this government was no different from the last with respect to sorting out the disaster zone that is MOH:DSS have been completely dispelled.
If anything this mob are worse.
Despite the fact that just about no one is satisfied with the performance of MOH:DSS and to some their existence is more insecure than fifty years ago, this Current Mob have seen fit to appoint the Group Manager of DSS for the past decade in a key position in the Minister's office.
Indeed.
One of those bureaucrats that some were demanding be purged from the Ministry and banned from having anything to do with disability is a Private Secretary or whatever the hell they call them.
What a fucking joke.
Any hope of any meaningful change is gone.
And the Grand Announcement the other day about Funded Family Care reform and the repeal of the Part 4 amendment was perhaps a tad premature.
There's no real timetable and as yet no date for submissions or Select Committee hearings.
Was told to keep checking the MOH website.
Paula Tesorero spoke out the other day about the failure of This Mob to address the grave concerns around assessments and allocations…no wonder the government has already stated this much needed work is not going to happen.
I called Salesa's office and it was suggested I speak with Toni Atkinson…etc. I sputtered disbelievingly and sought confirmation it was indeed the same person.
My original inquiry was regarding submissions on the repeal of the PHDACT…parliament website and MOH both devoid of any information.
Salesa's EA did call back today, to her great credit.
"Ugh" indeed, although not exactly Peter and my response.
" On Monday he visited Bogota, Colombia and met US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who promised Guaido more US support in his effort to unseat Maduro "
…..Australia is one of the world's largest producers and exporters of coal. Total domestic production has more than doubled since the early 1990s and export volumes have grown strongly. Australia produced around 510 million tonnes (Mt) of coal in 2017/18, of which around 75 per cent (380 Mt) was exported, up from 55 per cent in 1990/91
Would it really hurt Australia for it to go back to 1991 levels of coal production?
I don't think that the 1991 Australian economy was in ruin with only half the coal production of today. But to hear the coal lobbyists tell it, even a slight reduction in coal exports would be the ruination of the country.
This industry is all about greed, to hell with the consequences.
Australian government report predicted severe wildfires 11 years ago
A 2008 report commissioned by the Australian government predicted that climate change would cause the fire season to start earlier and be more intense after about 2020
…..Australians, myself included, are in a state of shock. At least 24 people have died, more than 2000 homes have been gutted, and 8 million hectares – an area the size of Scotland – have burned. For months now, the brown and red skies and smell of smoke have been a constant reminder of the tragedy unfolding around us .
The fires are being driven by record-breaking hot, dry conditions, which make vegetation more likely to catch fire when exposed to ignition sources like lightning strikes or discarded cigarettes. On 8 January, the Bureau of Meteorology announced that 2019 was both Australia’s driest and warmest year on record. On 18 December, the country had its hottest ever single day, when the average maximum temperature reached 41.9°C.
Despite these extremes, the Australian government has acted almost as if nothing unusual is happening. In November, deputy prime minister Michael McCormack told ABC Radio that “we’ve had fires in Australia since time began”. He dismissed the role of climate change in the current fires as the “ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital-city greenies”.
The Government dominated the political agenda this week with its two-day conference pitching all manner of public infrastructure projects for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories shortest in our political economy this week: The Government ploughed ahead with offers of PPPs to pension fund managers ...
You know that it's a snake eat snake worldWe slither and serpentine throughWe all took a bite, and six thousand years laterThese apples getting harder to chewSongwriters: Shawn Mavrides.“Please be Jack Tame”, I thought when I saw it was Seymour appearing on Q&A. I’d had a guts full of the ...
So here we are at the wedding of Alexandra Vincent Martelli and David Seymour.Look at all the happy prosperous guests! How proud Nick Mowbray looks of the gift he has made of a mountain of crap plastic toys stuffed into a Cybertruck.How they drink, how they laugh, how they mug ...
Some continue to defend David Seymour on school lunches, sidestepping his errors to say:“Well the parents should pack their lunch” and/or “Kids should be grateful for free food.”One of these people is the sitting Prime Minister.So I put together a quick list of why complaint is not only appropriate - ...
“Bugger the pollsters!”WHEN EVERYBODY LIVED in villages, and every village had a graveyard, the expression “whistling past the graveyard” made more sense. Even so, it’s hard to describe the Coalition Government’s response to the latest Taxpayers’ Union/Curia Research poll any better. Regardless of whether they wanted to go there, or ...
Prof Jane Kelsey examines what the ACT party and the NZ Initiative are up to as they seek to impose on the country their hardline, right wing, neoliberal ideology. A progressive government elected in 2026 would have a huge job putting Humpty Dumpty together again and rebuilding a state that ...
See I try to make a differenceBut the heads of the high keep turning awayThere ain't no useWhen the world that you love has goneOoh, gotta make a changeSongwriters: Arapekanga Adams-Tamatea / Brad Kora / Hiriini Kora / Joel Shadbolt.Aotearoa for Sale.This week saw the much-heralded and somewhat alarming sight ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom3, NZ Herald, Stuff, BusinessDesk-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT-$, WSJ-$, Bloomberg-$, New York Times-$, The Atlantic-$, The Economist-$ ...
By international standards the New Zealand healthcare system appears satisfactory – certainly no worse generally than average. Yet it is undergoing another redisorganisation.While doing some unrelated work, I came across some international data on the healthcare sector which seemed to contradict my – and the conventional wisdom’s – view of ...
When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he knew that he was upending Europe’s security order. But this was more of a tactical gambit than a calculated strategy ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Over the last year, I’ve been warning about Luxon’s pitch to privatise our public assets.He had told reporters in October that nothing was off the cards:Schools, hospitals, prisons, and ...
When ASPI’s Cyclone Tracy: 50 Years On was published last year, it wasn’t just a historical reflection; it was a warning. Just months later, we are already watching history repeat itself. We need to bake ...
1. Why was school lunch provider The Libelle Group in the news this week?a. Grand Winner in Pie of The Yearb. Scored a record 108% on YELP c. Bought by Oravida d. Went into liquidation2. What did our Prime Minister offer prospective investors at his infrastructure investment jamboree?a. The Libelle ...
South Korea has suspended new downloads of DeepSeek, and it was were right to do so. Chinese tech firms operate under the shadow of state influence, misusing data for surveillance and geopolitical advantage. Any country ...
Previous big infrastructure PPPs such as Transmission Gully were fiendishly complicated to negotiate, generated massive litigation and were eventually rewritten anyway. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesLong stories shortest: The Government’s international investment conference ignores the facts that PPPs cost twice as much as vanilla debt-funded public infrastructure, often take ...
Woolworths has proposed a major restructure of its New Zealand store operating model, leaving workers worried their hours and pay could be cut. Public servants are being asked how productive their office is, how much they use AI, and whether they’re overloaded with meetings as part of a “census”. An ...
Robert Kaplan’s book Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis paints a portrait of civilisation in flux. Drawing insights from history, literature and art, he examines the effect of modern technology, globalisation and urbanisation on ...
Sexuality - Strong and warm and wild and freeSexuality - Your laws do not apply to meSexuality - Don't threaten me with miserySexuality - I demand equalitySong: Billy Bragg.First, thank you to everyone who took part in yesterday’s survey. Some questions worked better than others, but I found them interesting, ...
Hi,I just got back from a week in Japan thanks to the power of cheap flights and years of accumulated credit card points.The last time I was in Japan the government held a press conference saying they might take legal action against me and Netflix, so there was a little ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on the week in geopolitics, including Donald Trump’s wrecking of the post-WW II political landscape; andHealth Coalition Aotearoa co-chair Lisa ...
Hi,I just got back from a short trip to Japan, mostly spending time in Tokyo.I haven’t been there since we shot Dark Tourist back in 2017 — and that landed us in a bit of hot water with the Japanese government.I am glad to report I was not thrown into ...
I’ve been on Substack for almost 8 months now.It’s been good in terms of the many great individuals that populate its space. So much variety and intelligence and humour and depth.I joined because someone suggested I should ‘start a Substack,’ whatever that meant.So I did.Turning on payments seemed like the ...
Open access notables Would Adding the Anthropocene to the Geologic Time Scale Matter?, McCarthy et al., AGU Advances:The extraordinary fossil fuel-driven outburst of consumption and production since the mid-twentieth century has fundamentally altered the way the Earth System works. Although humans have impacted their environment for millennia, justification for ...
Australia should buy equipment to cheaply and temporarily convert military transport aircraft into waterbombers. On current planning, the Australian Defence Force will have a total of 34 Chinook helicopters and Hercules airlifters. They should be ...
Indonesia’s government has slashed its counterterrorism (CT) budgets, despite the persistent and evolving threat of violent extremism. Australia can support regional CT efforts by filling this funding void. Reducing funding to the National Counterterrorism Agency ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Resource Management (Prohibition on Extraction of Freshwater for On-selling) Amendment Bill (Debbie Ngarewa-Packer) The bill does exactly what it says on the label, and would effectively end the rapacious water-bottling industry ...
Twilight Time Lighthouse Cuba, Wigan Street, Wellington, Sunday 6 April, 5:30pm for 6pm start. Twilight Time looks at the life and work of Desmond Ball, (1947-2016), a barefooted academic from ‘down under’ who was hailed by Jimmy Carter as “the man who saved the world”, as he proved the fallacy ...
Foreign aid is being slashed across the Global North, nowhere more so than in the United States. Within his first month back in the White House, President Donald Trump dismantled the US Agency for International ...
Nicola Willis has proposed new procurement rules that unions say will lead to pay cuts for already low-paid workers in cleaning, catering and security services that are contracted by government. The Crimes (Theft by Employer) Amendment Bill passed its third reading with support from all the opposition parties and NZ ...
Most KP readers will not know that I was a jazz DJ in Chicago and Washington DC while in grad school in the early and mid 1980s. In DC I joined WPFW as a grave shift host, then a morning drive show host (a show called Sui Generis, both for ...
Long stories shortest: The IMF says a capital gains tax or land tax would improve real economic growth and fix the budget. GDP is set to be smaller by 2026 than it was in 2023. Compass is flying in school lunches from Australia. 53% of National voters say the new ...
Last year in October I wrote “Where’s The Opposition?”. I was exasperated at the relative quiet of the Green Party, Labour and Te Pati Māori (TPM), as the National led Coalition ticked off a full bingo card of the Atlas Network playbook.1To be fair, TPM helped to energise one of ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkGood data visualizations can help make climate change more visceral and understandable. Back in 2016 Ed Hawkins published a “climate spiral” graph that ended up being pretty iconic – it was shown at the opening ceremony of the Olympics that year – and ...
An agreement to end the war in Ukraine could transform Russia’s relations with North Korea. Moscow is unlikely to reduce its cooperation with Pyongyang to pre-2022 levels, but it may become more selective about areas ...
This week, the Government is hosting a grand event aimed at trying to interest big foreign capital players in financing capital works in New Zealand, particularly its big rural motorway programme. Financing vs funding: a quick explainer The key word in the sentence above is financing. It is important ...
In a month’s time, the Right Honourable Winston Peters will be celebrating his 80th birthday. Good for him. On the evidence though, his current war on “wokeness” looks like an old man’s cranky complaint that the ancient virtues of grit and know-how are sadly lacking in the youth of today. ...
As noted, early March has been about moving house, and I have had little chance to partake in all things internet. But now that everything is more or less sorted, I can finally give a belated report on my visit to the annual Regent Booksale (28th February and 1st March). ...
Information operations Australia has banned cybersecurity software Kaspersky from government use because of risks of espionage, foreign interference and sabotage. The Department of Home Affairs said use of Kaspersky products posed an unacceptable security ...
The StrategistBy Linus Cohen, Astrid Young and Alice Wai
One of the best understood tropes of screen drama is the scene where the beloved family dog is barking incessantly and cannot be calmed. Finally, somebody asks: What is it, girl? Has someone fallen down a well? Is there trouble at the old John Key place?One is reminded of this ...
The ’ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia, plays a significant role in the global cocaine trade and is deeply entrenched in Australia, influencing the cocaine trade and engaging in a variety of illicit activities. A range of ...
In the US, the Trump regime is busy imposing tariffs on its neighbours and allies, then revoking them, then reimposing them, permanently poisoning relations with Canada and Mexico. Trump has also threatened to impose tariffs on agricultural goods, which will affect Aotearoa's exports. National's response? To grovel for an exemption, ...
Troy Bowker’s Caniwi Capital’s Desmond Gittings, former TradeMe and Warehouse executive Simon West, former anonymous right wing blogger / Labour attacker & now NZ On Air Board member / Waitangi Tribunal member Philip Crump, Canadian billionaire Jim Grenon who used to run vaccine critical, Treaty of Waitangi critical, and trans-rights ...
The free school lunch program was one of Labour's few actual achievements in government. Decent food, made locally, providing local employment. So naturally, National had to get rid of it. Their replacement - run by Compass, a multinational which had already been thrown out of our hospitals for producing inedible ...
New draft government procurement guidelines will remove living wage protections for thousands of low-paid workers in Aotearoa New Zealand, said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff. “The Minister of Finance Nicola Willis has proposed a new rule saying that the Living Wage no longer needs to be paid in ...
The Trump administration’s effort to divide Russia from China is doomed to fail. This means that the United States is destroying security relationships based on a delusion. To succeed, Russia would need to overcome more ...
Māori workers now hold more high-skilled jobs than low-skilled jobs with 46 percent in high-skilled jobs, 14 percent in skilled jobs, and 40 percent in low-skilled jobs. Resource teachers of literacy and Te Reo Māori are “devastated” by a proposal from the Education Minister to stop funding 174 roles from ...
Knowing what is going on in orbit is getting harder—yet hardly less necessary. But new technologies are emerging to cope with the challenge, including some that have come from Australian civilian research. One example is ...
This is a guest post by Malcolm McCracken. It previously appeared on his blog Better Things Are Possible and is shared by kind permission. New Zealand’s largest infrastructure project, the City Rail Link (CRL), is expected to open in 2026. This will be an exciting step forward for Auckland, delivering better ...
“The reality is I'm just saying to you I'm proud of the work we're doing. We're doing a great job”, said Luxon, pushing back at Auckland Council’s reports of rising homelessness and pleas for help. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories shortest:Christopher Luxon denies his Government caused a ...
Should I stay, or should I go now?Should I stay, or should I go now?If I go, there will be troubleAnd if I stay, it will be doubleSo come on and let me knowSongwriters: Topper Headon, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Joe Strummer.Christopher,Tomorrow marks seventeen months since the last election. We’re ...
Homelessness in Auckland has risen by 53% in 4 months - that’s 653 peopleliving in cars, on streets and in parks.The city’s emergency housing numbers have fallen by about 650 under National too - now at record lows.Housing First Auckland is on the frontlines: There is “more and more ...
A growing consensus holds that the future of airpower, and of defense technology in general, involves the interplay of crewed and uncrewed vehicles. Such teaming means that more-numerous, less-costly, even expendable uncrewed vehicles can bring ...
Only two more sleeps to the Government’s Jamboree Investor Extravaganza! As a proud New Zealander I’m very much hoping for the best: Off-shore wind farms! Solar power! Sustainable industry powered by the abundant energy we could be producing!I wonder, will they have a deal already lined up, something to announce ...
After decades of gradual decline, Australia’s manufacturing capability is no longer mission-fit to meet national security needs. Any whole-of-nation effort to arrest this trend needs to start by making the industrial operating environment more conducive ...
Back in October 2022, Restore Passenger Rail hung banners across roads in Wellington to protest against the then-Labour government's weak climate change policy. The police responded by charging them not with the usual public order offences, but with "endangering transport", a crime with a maximum sentence of 14 years in ...
Luxon’s popularity continues to fall, and a new survey shows voters rank fixing the health system as the top priority. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesLong stories shortest in Aotearoa’s political economy this morning: National’s pollster finds Christopher Luxon has fallen behind Chris Hipkins as preferred PM for the first ...
The CTU is calling for an apology from Nicola Willis after her office made a false characterisation of CTU statements, which ultimately saw him blocked from future Treasury briefings. New data shows that Māori make up 83% of those charged under new gang laws. Financial incentives are being offered to ...
Australia’s cyber capabilities have evolved rapidly, but they are still largely reactive, not preventative. Rather than responding to cyber incidents, Australian law enforcement agencies should focus on dismantling underlying criminal networks. On 11 December, Europol ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters Finally, there’s some good news to report from NOAA, the parent organization of the National Hurricane Center, or NHC: During the highly active 2o24 Atlantic hurricane season, the NHC made record-accurate track forecasts at every time interval (12-, ...
The Australian government has prioritised enhancing Australia’s national resilience for many years now, whether against natural disasters, economic coercion or hostile armed forces. However, the public and media response to the presence of Chinese naval ...
It appears that Auckland Transport is finally set to improve Auckland’s busiest non-frequent bus route, the 120. As highlighted in my post a month ago on Auckland’s busiest bus routes, the 120 is the busiest route that doesn’t already run frequently all day/week and carries more passengers than many other ...
Economists have earned their reputation for jargon and tunnel vision, but sometimes, it takes an someone as perceptive as Simplicity economist Shamubeel Eaqub to identify something simple and devastating. As he pointed out recently, the coalition government is trying to attract foreign investment here to generate economic growth, while – ...
Opinion & AnalysisSimeon Brown, left, and Deloitte partner David LovattIn September 2024, Deloitte Partner David Lovatt, was contracted by the National Government to help National ostensibly understand “the drivers behind HNZ’s worsening financial performance”.1 i.e. deficit.The report shows the last version was dated December 2024.It was formally released this week ...
This cobbled-together government was altogether more the beneficiary of Labour getting turfed out than anything it managed to do itself. Even the worthless cheques they were writing didn't buy all that much favour.How’s it all looking now?Shall we take a look at a Horizon poll?The Government’s performance is making only ...
There's horrible news from the US today, with the Trump regime disappearing Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student, for protesting against genocide in Gaza. Its another significant decline in US human rights, and puts them in the same class as the authoritarian dictatorships they used to sponsor in South ...
Yesterday National announced plans to amend the Public Works Act to "speed up" land acquisition for public works. Which sounds boring and bureaucratic - except its not. Because what "land acquisition" means is people's homes being compulsorily acquired by the state - which is inherently controversial, and fairly high up ...
Contenders: The next question after “Will Luxon really go?” is, of course, “Will that work?” The answer to that question lies not so much in the efficacy of Luxon’s successor as it does in the perceived strength of the Centre-Left alternative.AT LEAST TWO prominent political commentators are alluding publicly to the ...
Ice will melt, water will boilYou and I can shake off this mortal coilIt's bigger than usYou don't have to worry about itIt's circumstantialIt's nothing written in the skyAnd we don't even have to trySongwriters: Neil Finn / Tim Finn.Preparing for the future.Many of you will be familiar with the ...
Shane Jones’ display on Q&A showed how out of touch he and this Government are with our communities and how in sync they are with companies with little concern for people and planet. ...
Labour does not support the private ownership of core infrastructure like schools, hospitals and prisons, which will only see worse outcomes for Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is disappointed the Government voted down Hūhana Lyndon’s member’s Bill, which would have prevented further alienation of Māori land through the Public Works Act. ...
The Labour Party will support Chloe Swarbrick’s member’s bill which would allow sanctions against Israel for its illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories. ...
The Government’s new procurement rules are a blatant attack on workers and the environment, showing once again that National’s priorities are completely out of touch with everyday Kiwis. ...
With Labour and Te Pāti Māori’s official support, Opposition parties are officially aligned to progress Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick’s Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in Palestine. ...
Te Pāti Māori extends our deepest aroha to the 500 plus Whānau Ora workers who have been advised today that the govt will be dismantling their contracts. For twenty years , Whānau Ora has been helping families, delivering life-changing support through a kaupapa Māori approach. It has built trust where ...
Labour welcomes Simeon Brown’s move to reinstate a board at Health New Zealand, bringing the destructive and secretive tenure of commissioner Lester Levy to an end. ...
This morning’s announcement by the Health Minister regarding a major overhaul of the public health sector levels yet another blow to the country’s essential services. ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill that will ensure employment decisions in the public service are based on merit and not on forced woke ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ targets. “This Bill would put an end to the woke left-wing social engineering and diversity targets in the public sector. ...
Police have referred 20 offenders to Destiny Church-affiliated programmes Man Up and Legacy as ‘wellness providers’ in the last year, raising concerns that those seeking help are being recruited into a harmful organisation. ...
Te Pāti Māori welcomes the resignation of Richard Prebble from the Waitangi Tribunal. His appointment in October 2024 was a disgrace- another example of this government undermining Te Tiriti o Waitangi by appointing a former ACT leader who has spent his career attacking Māori rights. “Regardless of the reason for ...
Police Minister Mark Mitchell is avoiding accountability by refusing to answer key questions in the House as his Government faces criticism over their dangerous citizen’s arrest policy, firearm reform, and broken promises to recruit more police. ...
The number of building consents issued under this Government continues to spiral, taking a toll on the infrastructure sector, tradies, and future generations of Kiwi homeowners. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Prime Minister to rule out joining the AUKUS military pact in any capacity following the scenes in the White House over the weekend. ...
The Green Party is appalled by the Government’s plan to disestablish Resource Teachers of Māori (RTM) roles, a move that takes another swing at kaupapa Māori education. ...
The Government’s levies announcement is a step in the right direction, but they must be upfront about who will pay its new infrastructure levies and ensure that first-home buyers are protected from hidden costs. ...
The Government’s levies announcement is a step in the right direction, but they must be upfront about who will pay its new infrastructure levies and ensure that first-home buyers are protected from hidden costs. ...
After months of mana whenua protecting their wāhi tapu, the Green Party welcomes the pause of works at Lake Rotokākahi and calls for the Rotorua Lakes Council to work constructively with Tūhourangi and Ngāti Tumatawera on the pathway forward. ...
New Zealand First continues to bring balance, experience, and commonsense to Government. This week we've made progress on many of our promises to New Zealand.Winston representing New ZealandWinston Peters is overseas this week, with stops across the Middle East and North Asia. Winston's stops include Saudi Arabia, the ...
Green Party Co-Leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have announced the party’s plans to deliver a Green Budget this year to offer an alternative vision to the Government’s trickle-down economics and austerity politics. ...
At this year's State of the Planet address, Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick announced the party’s plans to deliver a Green Budget this year to offer an alternative vision to the Government’s trickle-down economics and austerity politics. ...
The Government has spent $3.6 million dollars on a retail crime advisory group, including paying its chair $920 a day, to come up with ideas already dismissed as dangerous by police. ...
The Green Party supports the peaceful occupation at Lake Rotokākahi and are calling for the controversial sewerage project on the lake to be stopped until the Environment Court has made a decision. ...
ActionStation’s Oral Healthcare report, released today, paints a dire picture of unmet need and inequality across the country, highlighting the urgency of free dental care for all New Zealanders. ...
Analysis: Not many saw it.But when applause built at a Unity Week hui on the anniversary of the Christchurch terror attack, and Prime Minister Chistopher Luxon joined in, it seemed photo-worthy.Abdur Razzaq, of the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand (FIANZ), introduced Luxon to the hui by noting the ...
Do BetterKing Luxon saddled his mighty war steed TitanicAnd rode out to inspect his realm.The King passed by the Mayoress of King’s LandingSitting on a burst water pipe.“Lame-O”, scoffed the King.The King passed by a pile of burning offalSurrounded by weeping school urchins.“Get a Marmite sandwich,” snorted the King.The King ...
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – In Bislama, they say, “Wan nambanga i foldaon“. A great tree has fallen. The nambanga, or banyan tree, is the centrepiece of many a Vanuatu village. Its massive network of boughs provides shade, shelter and strength. I’ve only ever seen ...
COMMENTARY:By Greg Barns When it comes to antisemitism, politicians in Australia are often quick to jump on the claim without waiting for evidence. With notable and laudable exceptions like the Greens and independents such as Tasmanian federal MP Andrew Wilkie, it seems any allegation will do when it comes ...
By Emma Andrews, RNZ Henare te Ua Māori journalism intern Māori contributions to the Aotearoa New Zealand economy have far surpassed the projected goal of “$100 billion by 2030”, a new report has revealed. The report conducted by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) and Te Puni Kōkiri, ...
A global renewable energy developer backing one of New Zealand’s last standing offshore wind farm proposals says it would be “difficult” to cohabit with seabed mining.Danish developer Michael Hannibal, a partner in Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, is visiting New Zealand for the Government’s infrastructure investment summit. His firm and the NZ ...
A wide-ranging conversation with the opposition spokesperson on foreign affairs. Even before the second Trump term began, the world was a volatile place. But since January 20, across eight whiplash weeks, the pace of change has been astonishing. Donald Trump’s America First geopolitics, melding expansionist and isolationist instincts, has created ...
Surviving terror can be isolating, trauma expert Jo Dover says.Dover – a Brit who is in New Zealand to hold resilience workshops with the Muslim community, speak publicly, and meet government officials – has supported people affected by terrorism, conflict and war for almost three decades. She arrived in Christchurch ...
Two trade experts based in Delhi expressed some mild optimism about Luxon's chances, but with a major caveat: NZ would have to abandon hope of including dairy in any deal.. ...
MONDAYAt precisely 0300 hours I gave last-minute instructions to a team of crack troops who had sworn their allegiance in the war against woke left-wing social engineering and diversity targets in the public sector. They assembled in the basement bunker at the Beehive. It was built to withstand nuclear radiation. ...
It’s been six years since a lone gunman opened fire at two mosques in Christchurch, killing 51 people, shattering the country’s innocence and changing lives forever.Now a young Afghan-Kiwi couple, who were praying in another mosque in the Garden City that fateful day, is releasing a film in remembrance of ...
Gabi Lardies for now, Mad Chapman next week. Despite allegations they’re filled with shit books, I cannot pass by a little library without having a peek inside. Two weeks ago, stretching my legs from a hard morning sitting on my non-ergonomic wheely chair, I spied two curious spines in the ...
Poet Kate Camp learned to swim late in life. Now it’s a defining component of her identity. But why won’t she write about it? I learned to swim in a 15 metre pool in the backyard of Mandi’s place in Paraparaumu. That’s not true. I learned to swim in a ...
The highs, lows and silver linings of single-parenting a toddler. He lay there prone, unmoving, his dark eyes glassy and fixed on the ceiling above. My daughter looked at him, then at me. “Is that… Daddy?” I sighed. “No, darling, that’s not Daddy.” I grabbed the man to whom her ...
The star of Secrets at Red Rocks takes us through his life in television, including being duped by the Goodnight Kiwi and botching a song on Shortland Street. Whether he’s musing over a murder mystery as a cop in One Lane Bridge or in the midst of a surprise tandem ...
With the passenger seat withdrawn like this, for extra leg room, it occurs to Llew that someone has been having sex in this car. He and Nancy haven’t had sex since Waiheke. Barely even a kiss. Nancy shields her nipples with a forearm now out of the shower and Llew’s ...
With five regular season games remaining, the Wellington Phoenix women are still in with a great chance of finishing in the top six of the A-League and making the business end of this season’s competition.This Saturday night, they travel across the Tasman to face bottom of the table Sydney FC, ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Giff Johnson, editor of the Marshall Islands Journal and RNZ Pacific correspondent in Majuro The late Member of Parliament Jeton Anjain and the people of the nuclear test-affected Rongelap Atoll changed the course of the history of the Marshall Islands by using Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior ship to ...
Health Minister Simeon Brown rejected advice from officials to lower the bowel screening age to 58 for the general population and 56 for Māori and Pacific people, just-released documents show. ...
Much was made in the build-up about the bipartisan spirit of the summit, with both government and opposition aware of the need to see through projects beyond election cycles. ...
COMMENTARY:By Gavin Ellis New Zealand-based Canadian billionaire James Grenon owes the people of this country an immediate explanation of his intentions regarding media conglomerate NZME. This cannot wait until a shareholders’ meeting at the end of April. Is his investment in the owner of The New Zealand Herald and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carolina Quintero Rodriguez, Senior Lecturer and Program Manager, Bachelor of Fashion (Enterprise) program, RMIT University Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock When you come home from a run or a sweaty gym session, do you immediately fling your clothes into the washing machine for a hot ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexis Vassiley, Lecturer, School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University Aussie Family Living/Shutterstock A battle is underway on the mine sites in Western Australia’s remote Pilbara region. Unions are keen to get back into the iron ore industry after decades ...
"It will be a chance, really, for an update as to the different lines of diplomatic efforts that are going in across securing peace in Ukraine," Luxon said. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pat McConville, Lecturer in Ethics, Law, and Professionalism, School of Medicine, Deakin University Master1305/Shutterstock This week, doctors announced that an Australian man with severe heart failure had left hospital with an artificial heart that had kept him alive until he could ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tanya Latty, Associate Professor, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney Mircea Costina/Shutterstock About 90% of flowering plants rely on animals to transfer their pollen and optimise reproduction, making pollination one of nature’s most important processes. Bees are usually ...
A first step of good faith would be the reinstatement of a Social Sector Budget lockup for Budget 2025, inviting a cross-section of organisations representing the diversity of our population to hear key Budget messages firsthand. ...
The great thing about living on a rotating planet with an orbiting rocky satellite is that opportunities for orbs to align, well, come around. Here’s how to enjoy tonight’s lunar eclipse. In May 2024, Aotearoa was blessed with the celestial phenomenon of an exceptionally strong solar storm, causing the aurora ...
A new poem by Ted Greensmith-West. My grief is like a never-ending anticipation of impending dooms The dark hand that lurks behind the curtain is like Dorothy in photonegative with snarled teeth and pigtails… and acts as the constant reminder that Cole is dead forever now, like dust. // The ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Fourth Estate, $38) Dream Count is the first novel in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato Shutterstock Nearly 30 years before the Christchurch terror attacks of March 15 2019, New Zealand had to grapple with the horrors of another mass shooting. The Aramoana massacre on November 13 1990 left ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alice Nason, Research Associate, Foreign Policy and Defence, United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney Shutterstock Following the recent imposition of steel and aluminium tariffs, the Australian government is coming to terms with the reality of engaging with a US ally ...
Watching the impeachment live on Al Jazeera, Adam Schiff is currently breaking it down,
Here's the link if any are interested.
Good summary of where Māori leaders are coming from on the Whānau Ora funding issue: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/407826/whanau-ora-head-warns-minister-over-funding-allocation
Turia and her fellow kuias have one agenda and one agenda only. Privatisation of social services.
Imposing higher rents and more user pays on poor Maori to lift them out of poverty is like smashing someone's broken leg with a sledgehammer to fix it.
Actually it is indigenisation of social services, by Maori, for Maori
[lprent: Corrected your ’email’ so it doesn’t look like a hijacking. ]
What Wayne said. Māori aren't 'private', they're treaty partners with the Crown, and as such are entitled to have their own social security services.
Weka, thank you. Better set out than I did. Probably I was too cryptic.
Shorthand is inevitable on topics like this.
I thought yours was a good summation too Wayne. Two ways of looking at the same thing.
As I understand it Whānau Ora was set up not with new funding but with funding previously dedicated to Māori from other areas.
It is a trait peculiar to the National Party to want to divest government responsibility from its commitments. You see it all the time when they cut funding, or sell stuff, or set up new agencies outside of government to do what should be core government business.
I think this is the case with Whānau Ora also. Divesting responsibility for what essentially is an historic problem caused by The Crown. That is the continued very, very poor social and health outcomes for Māori.
The Māori Party's philosophy is that they, the Māori business elite, have the answers but Māori themselves just do not believe this and that has been proven by the ejection of the Māori Party from parliament.
Remember the Māori Party, just like their stablemate the National Party, was formed specifically to oppose the Labour Party. Indeed if the National Party were to stand candidates in Māori seats they would be a who's who of former or present Māori Party associates.
As Peeni Henare said, 'It's election year and things get political'.
I am confident Māori will make the right choice at the polls later this year and return a Labour led government.
Well who would have thought that something like this could happen, right?
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/glenn-greenwald-charged-with-cybercrimes-over-reporting-in-brazil-2020-1?r=US&IR=T
might be time to find a nice country that has no issues with married men who are also reporter. But then……….go to bed with dogs wake up with fleas.
Trump's latest BS:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/21/trump-climate-1tn-trees-davos
"These alarmists always demand the same thing: absolute power to dominate, transform and control every aspect of our lives."
Trump swans around promoting "religious freedom". Which is bascially letting people do the exact above.
Developments at Ihumātao: https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/22-01-2020/the-dispute-at-ihumatao-has-been-settled/
Why Hilary won't support Bernie: "Nobody wants to work with him. He got nothing done." https://www.salon.com/2020/01/21/hillary-clinton-wont-commit-to-backing-bernie-sanders-if-he-faces-trump-nobody-likes-him/
"I will say, however, that it's not only him, it's the culture around him. It's his leadership team. It's his prominent supporters. It's his online Bernie Bros and their relentless attacks on lots of his competitors, particularly the women. And I really hope people are paying attention to that, because it should be worrisome that he has permitted this culture — not only permitted, [he] seems to really be very much supporting it."
PUMAs are a Democrat sub-tribe: "Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel pointed out on Twitter that diehard Clinton supporters known as PUMAs, short for "Party Unity My Ass," relentlessly attacked then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and his supporters during his primary run against Clinton in 2008. And MSNBC's Steve Kornacki noted that 25 percent of Clinton primary voters later backed Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the general election against Obama…"
Is it time to concede that Student Loans have been the biggest policy failure in a generation and simply write them off and start again.
We now have Kiwis unable to come home through fear of being arrested on the border.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12300609
Housing would have to be a bigger failure, surely.
Possibly.
The Student Loan failure can be fixed in a day though. Housing will take decades
Wonder what the proportion of people with tertiary education is now out of the whole adult population.
https://www.stats.govt.nz/infographics/new-zealand-as-a-village-of-100-people-education-and-employment
Ta. One out of three aint bad.
They could simply pay their loan – like they agreed.
simple really.
"A multinational team of researchers, including New Zealanders Stephanie D’Souza and Richie Poulton, have just published research in Nature showing that a relatively small number of our citizens are responsible for a disproportionately large number of benefit claims, public hospital stays and criminal convictions. This will surprise almost no one, although it does no harm to have our intuitions confirmed." https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/22-01-2020/it-is-folly-to-take-on-social-dysfunction-while-avoiding-all-mention-of-the-p-word/
"It is the interpretation of the findings, rather than the findings themselves, that matters politically. The researchers note that this high-needs population also lacks “features of human capital important for workforce readiness”: its members are likely to leave school early, experience significant mental illness, and have weak brain development in their early years. This is worrying, the researchers say, because these people will be left behind in the age of automation. And so we should be “delivering interventions” and “investing in individuals’ education and training potential”."
Who's we?? If you want to spend your time and money helping losers, stick up your hand! Huh, nobody. Thought so.
"As the researcher Jess Berentson-Shaw sets out in her book Pennies from Heaven, a huge evidence base suggests that simply increasing family income has a drastic effect on social problems. It frees families from the constant strain of worrying about bills, helps them shake off debt and other burdens, and allows them to spend more money on their children’s development, which is what the evidence overwhelmingly shows they do." Ah, socialism. Okay, worth a few taxpayer dollars – if that outcome gets verified.
"While cash will not solve all the problems, it is impossible to imagine that the scale of dysfunction the research identifies would still exist in a world where we have largely or wholly eliminated poverty. Yet I could not see poverty mentioned once in the Poulton and D’Souza research. It is this bizarre absence that lends their work the air of an expedition that quit partway through. This question is certain to crop up in this year’s election campaign, in which poverty will be a central issue."
Such certainty is rare and impressive. We've finally got someone who can predict the future!! Okay, there's a more feasible prosaic explanation: Max Rashbrooke has been spilt the inside word from the National and Labour camps, where the decision has already been made.
"It is the interpretation of the findings, rather than the findings themselves, that matters politically. The researchers note that this high-needs population also lacks “features of human capital important for workforce readiness”: its members are likely to leave school early, experience significant mental illness, and have weak brain development in their early years. This is worrying, the researchers say, because these people will be left behind in the age of automation. And so we should be “delivering interventions” and “investing in individuals’ education and training potential”."
They need opportunity.ie the opportunity to be available to work,and have meaningful employment.
That great disaster of the late 20th century,was under the propoganda of the washington consensus and the privitization of public assets and contracting out of services such as waste water,gardening cleaning etc from councils under the fallacy that private enterprise could do it better.(read Stiglitz globalization on this)
A number of councils prior understood the social contract,and provided employment to people without skills.
The significant depreciation of human capital is now evident in the community,and the cost is greater to fix as it jumps the generational gap.
Rashbrooke's article concludes:
It's hardly an outrageous position to take.
Correct. He's just the latest in a long line of others who have said the same. I agree with them (in principle). I recommend Max's book too.
For those who clapped when Julian Assange got arrested – I hope you proud now another journalist is getting the same bullshit lies said about them. Oh and charged with cyber crimes is Glenn Greenwald for being a journalist.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/21/world/americas/glenn-greenwald-brazil-cybercrimes.html
I clapped when Assange was arrested.
and I’m ok with Greenwald being arrested as well. I’m sure he will receive a fair trail and the evidence will decide what happens.
You're an idiot james, you didn't read the nytimes piece did you. Your comment makes that clear. Maybe you should read about things before you comment.
.
Any doubts I may have harboured that this government was no different from the last with respect to sorting out the disaster zone that is MOH:DSS have been completely dispelled.
If anything this mob are worse.
Despite the fact that just about no one is satisfied with the performance of MOH:DSS and to some their existence is more insecure than fifty years ago, this Current Mob have seen fit to appoint the Group Manager of DSS for the past decade in a key position in the Minister's office.
Indeed.
One of those bureaucrats that some were demanding be purged from the Ministry and banned from having anything to do with disability is a Private Secretary or whatever the hell they call them.
What a fucking joke.
Any hope of any meaningful change is gone.
And the Grand Announcement the other day about Funded Family Care reform and the repeal of the Part 4 amendment was perhaps a tad premature.
There's no real timetable and as yet no date for submissions or Select Committee hearings.
Was told to keep checking the MOH website.
Paula Tesorero spoke out the other day about the failure of This Mob to address the grave concerns around assessments and allocations…no wonder the government has already stated this much needed work is not going to happen.
No wonder with Toni Atkinson having their Ear.
SSDD.
Ugh. Where did you hear about that?
I called Salesa's office and it was suggested I speak with Toni Atkinson…etc. I sputtered disbelievingly and sought confirmation it was indeed the same person.
My original inquiry was regarding submissions on the repeal of the PHDACT…parliament website and MOH both devoid of any information.
Salesa's EA did call back today, to her great credit.
"Ugh" indeed, although not exactly Peter and my response.
In case people have missed the latest step: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/407748/carer-funding-reforms-don-t-address-fundamental-problems-advocates
I know this is under the radar but this race is vital for the direction of UK Labour in the next five years.
The Canary has provided a background too how the would be leaders have voted in the last few years.
https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2020/01/21/the-image-that-tells-you-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-labour-leadership-candidates/
" On Monday he visited Bogota, Colombia and met US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who promised Guaido more US support in his effort to unseat Maduro "
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/venezuela-intelligence-agents-raid-guaido-offices-opposition-200122040320110.html
Fascinating, isn't it?
When you think about the different factions, the US led geopolitic is no less corrupt than the Russia/China geopolitic.
The profits of doom
And it is still increasing.
Would it really hurt Australia for it to go back to 1991 levels of coal production?
I don't think that the 1991 Australian economy was in ruin with only half the coal production of today. But to hear the coal lobbyists tell it, even a slight reduction in coal exports would be the ruination of the country.
This industry is all about greed, to hell with the consequences.