Brown said he would be implementing the Local Water Done Well policy this year which was about working with councils and giving them "greater tools and opportunities to have ring-fenced, sufficient, water-service delivery funding and financing".
But councils would also have to provide their own plans to government, once the legislation was in place, he said.
He's made a lunge for aeshetic appeal: not only do fences not need to be rings, any true conservative would cling like hell to the straight line.
The minister said councils were responsible for water investment and he wanted to know whether the water rates they have been raising from ratepayers have been going directly back into water infrastructure.
Brown said he would be implementing the Local Water Done Well policy this year which was about working with councils and giving them "greater tools and opportunities to have ring-fenced, sufficient, water-service delivery funding and financing". But councils would also have to provide their own plans to government, once the legislation was in place, he said.
This idea that a policy ought to be followed by appropriate action seems guaranteed to win the wee fella a reputation as an extreme radical.
I have real skepticism that rural councils with high industrial dependence on water that don't have volumentric water charging will be courageous and face farmers down.
Minister Brown knows he is in the frame for it, but he needs a really big drought to focus everyone's mind.
If ordinary NZ residents used the same amount of water as our dairy farms, we would have a population of about 60 million people. Let's see if the same people as StopThreeWaters are prepared to roll over National for similar reasons.
Brown is being told by Infrastructure New Zealand that Local Water Done Well is no where enough.
Moroney said (water body) financial independence from councils will allow them to borrow to fund significant backlogs in asset renewal and replacement.
She said in the meantime it was likely that central government will need to consider credit wrapping council water services and providing bridging fundinguntil the new entities were established and self-sufficient.
Infrastructure NZ was also recommending volumetric water charges be explored so that, like other utilities such as telecommunications and electricity, consumer demand could be better managed and a direct service-related revenue stream created.
Perhaps I'm a lone voice on the left, but I don't think the Treaty arrangements will last the 2040 Bicentennary unless we are prepared to face some fresh legislation on how it's relevant now.
Black letter originalism will serve New Zealand about as well as it does in the United States.
We definitly need to find a way to have the conversation and modernize the treaty arrangements to better reflect society. The trick will be figuring out how the hell we do it.
Has seemed that way since I realised it 30 years ago but the response to Sir Geoffrey's reconstitutionalising campaign suggests that few kiwis are capable of intellectual progress. First off, everyone must factor in the equality demographics that put our 16% asian import group on parity with 16% Maori.
Labour & National remain dead keen on getting the Asians up & over that parity threshold – just another left/right collusion thing. However they both have failed to man up to the ethnic justice consequences of their immigration policies.
The normalcy of left/right paralysis is a key feature of our ongoing stasis. Folks do other stuff instead of noticing this phenomenon, so I only mention it in the spirit of public service. Better for everyone to get real about what's going on! The SJW syndrome has taken a beating in the public mind due to idiocy contagion but it remains an essential stance.
"First off, everyone must factor in the equality demographics that put our 16% asian import group on parity with 16% Maori."
Why? Makes no sense. All that means is that you can use immigration volumes to diminish the Maori voice and influence. Exactly what happened post treaty and how much of the land was stolen. Immigrant interests put ahead of Maori. The history of this is all there plain to see.
It is exactly why it has to be a partnership – a joint approach between Maori and the crown. It is why we need Maori seats in parliament, it is why we need Maori seats on councils and so on.
The thing is all those who seem to want a "discussion" seem opposed to the nature of a partnership are are fixated on individualistic approaches of one person one vote. This is capitalistic. The notion that a Maori voice could be larger than its sum of people is clearly a problem for some, but it must be so in a modern context of the treaty and the massive levels of immigration that has occurred since then.
Reminder too that much of the opposition to Maori was capitalism against their communistic tendencies e.g. collective ownership of land.
The treaty only had two parties to it. It is time they worked together as equals for the betterment of the country.
Only if you discount the civil rights of asians. However it's up to them to lobby for parity or complain about de facto discrimination.
I don't disagree with the rest of your comment but advise caution around the one-nation syndrome ACT are promoting – no suitable poll has measured belief in the holist/fundamentalist paradigm. It could come in around 30% of voters.
The sensible thing for the left & right to do is avoid measuring the public mind. Continue the fraudulent attempt to misrepresent it instead will be common ground Labour & National keep on colluding upon.
I see no difference between the civil rights of Asians and those of Europeans – we're all here because the Treaty allows it. We all vote in those to represent us.
(Appreciating the fact that previously European immigrants discriminated against Asians and other multitude of groups).
one-nation syndrome ACT are promoting
I don't even see how that was relevant to my comment. I'm clearly opposed to that being the only paradigm – in a democracy we elect people to look after not just the majority but also minorities and special interest groups. The tyranny of the majority is well purported to be evil.
Linked to that is also why I detest legislation passed under "urgency".
Really. Pretty much every person, family and otherwise, I am aware of kept their UK citizenship and passport, after emigrating here. Both old and recent. People like my father-in-law used to deliberately travel out on one passport and back on the other to sow confusion with government systems.
NZ allows dual citizenship. Given some of our immigration disasters we would likely have less immigrants from places like India if they had to give up their citizenship as India does not allow dual citizenship if living in India.
Anyway last census gave info about country of birth.
bwaghorn – my husband emigrated to Aotearoa N Z in 1962 as a $10 Pom which didn't necessitate him having a passport to enter. We travelled to UK in 1998, hubby on a UK passport. He has since let it lapse and is now a very proud Kiwi with citizenship and a A-NZ passport. I suppose he could reapply for a UK passport, but he has no intention of doing so and due to our 'mature' age we have no intention of travelling to UK or pretty much anywhere.
Like Jilly Bee's husband I'm entitled to a UK passport (by right of birth) and so is Obtrectatrix (by patriality). Neither of us has bothered to obtain or renew one this many decades (seen the cost of 'em lately?). All it ever gained us was a slightly quicker passage through Customs and Immigration at Heathrow.
One practical thing we can do this year as non-Maori is to join Maori at the local treaty signing celebrations to show that we are in this together. It seems to me over the years Maori place much, much greater importance on this at a local level – whereas pakeha seem content with just the national event at Waitangi to represent them.
Would be great to see a much larger non-European contingent at all events. A peaceful sort of protest and an acknowledgement to Maori that we value the treaty too.
Starmer thinks that NATO will be at war with Russia within 20 years.
Sir Keir Starmer has warned that "Russia is a constant threat" and that we must be "mindful of that threat from Russia to Europe." The Labour leader was speaking during a visit to British troops de…
It is more the (correct) accusation of him repeatedly invading and slaughtering his neighbours, that worries people.
Putin's initially offhand comment that "Russia's borders do not end anywhere", now repeated on official russian propaganda bill boards – I suppose means nothing.
A recent posting, to the Counterpunch website, concerning the origins of the cold war, seems to have a bearing on the Ukraine war.
Fleming’s testimony in the 1971 House hearings on “Cold War? Origins and Developments” gives us another way of thinking about the way the crisis in Ukraine might have been managed by the United States in 2022. A knowledge of Russian history might have given our leaders pause before acting on the idea of NATO expansion to that country’s borders, an obvious apple of discord for a people thrice traumatized by the invasions so vividly described by Fleming. If the goal of our policy in Ukraine had been peace and stability in that part of the world instead of the absorption of that country into our own system, we would have followed his recommendation in dealing with Russia, to show a good deal more diplomatic imagination and sensitivity than a militarized foreign policy allows.
Might be time to get those cannon back into their slots in Auckland's North Head fortifications? They went in originally due to general paranoia about the Tsar's imminent invasion, so Putin's just recycling imperial foreign policy.
Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia agreed on Friday to set up a common Baltic defense zone on their borders with Russia and Belarus amid growing security concerns.
The defense ministers of the three Baltic countries met on Friday in Riga to approve the construction of "anti-mobility defensive installations" on their eastern frontiers. They also agreed to develop missile-artillery cooperation.
Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur stressed the need for bunkers at the border, saying: “Russia's war in Ukraine has shown that in addition to equipment, ammunition and manpower, we also need physical defensive structures at the border from the first meter to protect Estonia."
Starmer has no credibility whatsoever when it comes to human rights. Kitty Laing summed him up precisely on LBC radio the other day. Her criticism stands, in spite of the groveling apology she was forced to make…
Laing also deleted her Instagram after using her account to call UK's Labour Party leader Keir Starmer a "total moral coward" for invoking Israel's “right to defend" itself on his LBC radio show.
Laing has apologized and stated, "With hindsight I realize how naïve I have been and that much of the information on social media surrounding the conflict is unsubstantiated and hurtful."
An actual war would be a failure of containment, the reason NATO exists was to prevent a war with the USSR/Soviet Union over borders.
George Kennan would have welcomed the end of the Warsaw Pact, with the end of the Communist Internationale aspect of Kremlin imperialism, while aware American hubris could result in a revival of an aggressive Russian nationalism.
And it is unlikely NATO will exist in its current form in 20 years time.
The greatest risk being American isolationism.
There is the chance of a EU having its own military and defence agreements with Russia and the remnant of NATO (UK/Norway/Canada and USA).
Equivalence being no American or Russian missiles in Turkey or Cuba (1962), no missiles in W and E Europe (198*) and no American or Russian forces in Europe (20**).
Russia gains the most from the change, though politicians lose the nationalism card and the importance of a strong military declines (part of their current status in the world).
RNZ National's coverage of international events is a continuing insult
Monday 22 January 2024
On the 7 a.m. news: the death toll in the latest "mowing of the lawn" in the Gaza concentration camp has exceeded 25,000. In a small but welcome change, the newsreader (Nicola Wright) did not add the usual propaganda provocation (almost certainly dictated by that notorious RNZ board) "according to the Hamas-run health authority."
However, that small sign of resistance by one of the poor souls forced to read this awful stuff was instantly negated when she read out her next sentence: "The conflict began in October when Hamas militants killed more than thirteen hundred people."
That's a lie. It's naked propaganda that might as well have come straight out of that blood-soaked regime in Tel Aviv. There was no acknowledgement in that "news report" that more than 300 of the people killed in the October 7 breakout were IOF soldiers. And there was no mention of the fact that a large number of the Israeli deaths were because their homes and cars were fired on by Israeli troops, who were ordered to follow the dictates of the disturbing "Hannibal directive" and kill everybody in the vicinity of an attacker, in order to prevent hostage-taking.
This distortion of reality passing for news has persisted, in respect to the slaughter in Gaza, for more than three months now. But it's not the only case where RNZ has shown contempt for its audience. The panicked reaction of its board after one journalist tried to put a little context into the station's coverage of the Ukraine proxy war was an occasion for international scorn and derision….
Thanks, Kay. I thought after I posted that it might have been Catriona McLeod. All of them are virtually indistinguishable, with their flat, carefully affectless tone reading out material they surely know is propaganda. Or maybe it just doesn't bother them.
I listened to Marama T'Pole read the 2 p.m. news today; for the first item she read for nearly a minute from a press release by ACT ninny David Seymour, then featured him speaking, or more precisely, rambling, for about fifteen seconds; for the second, she read out, again for an extended period, Mr. Netanyahu's attempt to justify his refusal to negotiate with the "monsters" of Hamas. In neither case was there any counter-argument reported.
Any dissent at all seems to have been eliminated at RNZ. It was a different story when someone of character and conscience, like Lloyd Scott, was there…
RNZ news this morn etc ; although i did notice they said " health ministry figures say"…….where as previously they invairyably read "Hammas controlled gaza health ministry figures "
If RNZ does change from a propaganda conduit to a real news outlet, tomorrow it will be running this latest report from Israel's most read publication, Yedioth Ahronoth. My bet, though, is that it will stick to its tried and untrue "experts" at CNN and the British state propaganda network.
In 2022, a TGI survey indicated that Israel Hayom, distributed for free, is Israel's most read newspaper, with a 31% weekday readership exposure, followed by Yedioth Ahronoth, with 23.9%, Haaretz with 4.7%, and Maariv with 3.5%
Also Simeon Brown is studiously neutral on CIAL's intent despite the government owning 25% of it.
With Luxon likely contaminated being an ex-AIRNZ CEO, the Minister of Finance conflicted out, and Simeon Brown silent, it makes it very hard for any future decision to be "called in" by a relevant Minister.
This political integration would also make special enabling legislation very difficult to propose in Cabinet let alone Parliament.
So that says this proposed new South Island airport is heading straight to Environment Court.
The business case decision will put unusual weight on the Canterbury Holding Company, worse than the Dunedin stadium decision did on their own holding company.
"We’re a bunch of part-timers, and you’re constantly fighting this negative force, a corporation with deep pockets, with people on huge salaries and bonuses…"
Story of the modern world.
"There’s also a proposal to dredge for gold in the Clutha River behind them, so Duxson says they feel pincered by industrialisation, and assaulted by pollution in a beautiful environment."
The airport’s 45 million dollars already spend signals their intent.
The protestations of vineyard owners in the area won't counter that.
Long ago, I stayed the night in a Rabbit Board house at Tarras. It's a bleak landscape, worn out, heavily exploited by gold seekers and farmers, now vinters, soon tourists.
The smell of aviation fuel though, eh! That'll do something to the ambience!
Destination Queenstown, Lake Wanaka Tourism, Queenstown Airport, QLDC Council, the bunches of academics already aligned against it, and they haven't got to how Fulton Hogan and the effect it will have on their masterplanned development on Lake Dunstan
You say the Government will adopt the 3Waters framework as constructed by Labour, so I guess you'll feel the same about the RMA replacement, likewise painstakingly built by Labour, which might impact upon your last sentence.
I guess if life necessitates reading the advice of a bureaucrat, stylistic critique is a suitable response. However public servants will see it as an affront: they have as much right to issue a political manifesto as any other stroppy citizen.
I expect Shane has got them in a tizz right now. They may even be bristling with indignation!
The insanity of US politics. Some of the economic indicators are good and it's not because whatever is happening is good, it's because Trump is going to be elected? What?
Americans as much as anywhere deserve the politicians they get.
The Handmaid's Tale has much closer analogue in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, UAE, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, African countries from Mali and Somalia upwards, most of India, all of China during the 1-child policy era (with leader and Party worship), and in a small-state form Tonga.
So, the weasel thinks his interpretation of the ToW is the correct one and the rest of NZ is wrong. He had better not come within spitting distance of me:
How he gets that from this is the mystery. He is not competent to lead any debate.
What does the Treaty say?
The Treaty has three articles.
In the English version, Māori cede the sovereignty of New Zealand to Britain;
Māori give the Crown an exclusive right to buy lands they wish to sell and, in return, are guaranteed full rights of ownership of their lands, forests, fisheries and other possessions;
and Māori are given the rights and privileges of British subjects.
The Treaty in Māori was deemed to convey the meaning of the English version, but there are important differences.
Maori version
Most significantly, in the Māori version the word ‘sovereignty’ was translated as ‘kawanatanga’ (governance).
Some Māori believed that the governor would have authority over the settlers alone; others thought that were giving up the government over their lands but retaining the right to manage their own affairs.
The English version guaranteed ‘undisturbed possession’ of all properties, but the Māori version guaranteed ‘tino rangatiratanga’ (full authority) over ‘taonga’ (treasures, which can be intangible).
The precise nature of the exchange within the Treaty of Waitangi is a matter of debate.
In recognition of his suddenly-important Maori heritage, I propose we rechristen the ACT party leader as Tewi Seymour. (Or "Rawiri", or any of the other equivalents to "David" that appear to exist in Te Reo.)
“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own…”
Good lord, I finally read this piece by Trotter and I’m thinking the challenge is with the nominal left as well as the reactionary right. The politics of fear.
I said in a previous comment this could have been written by Hitler himself.
What I don't understand is how VUW lend their name to this hatred. Particularly when the Democracy Oligarchy Project's Bryce Edwards seeks and receives obscure funding and also runs a paid substack platform.
I don't think Trotter is like Hitler. He's more in the line of one of those self-satisfied, reactionary buffoons that infest the public discourse in the United States. The way that Trotter has behaved on RNZ's light talk show The Panel over the years—scolding people who spoke out against the Deep South jury that exonerated the killer of Trayvon Martin, mocking the suffering of a political prisoner, speaking with arch condescension about the problem of "Waitakere Man" and the "Jake the Muss vote"—is very much in the spirit of such mean-spirited drones as John Podhoretz, Bret Stephens, or John Kass.
Nah, just saying it reads like Hitler. The framing of Maori as dangerous to the nation is similar to the way Hitler described Jews. Here for instance he equates the government's de-Maorification program to the previous government's pandemic response, therefore equating Maori with a virus:
Like the rest of the country, Māori leaders would have observed the enormous difficulties experienced by the New Zealand Police in assembling sufficient non-lethal force to clear Parliament Grounds of anti-government protesters in March 2022. Were such occupations and disruptions to be replicated all over the country, the ability of the Police to both keep the peace and enforce the law – without recourse to deadly force – would be seriously compromised.
Once again, I can’t see how VUW want to be associated with this.
[I see that you ignored my earlier Mod note for you today. Never mind, this is your last warning.
You’re a one-trick pony and your MO is to take down or out third party players with your idiosyncratic vacuous smears that are often rooted in a distant past. As such, you contribute nothing but noise to this site.
My critique of Robert Ayson's comments were anything but "vacuous". They were a verbatim report of some extremely chilling comments he made, claiming that American killing of civilians was morally superior to that of other countries. The same applies to the wandery, timid remarks by his colleague Paul Sinclair.
As for being "rooted in a distant past", the same things are being done right now, and the same people are excusing them. Professor Ayson is one of the most rabid anti-Russian voices in academia, as anyone who has heard him on Radio NZ, where he continues to be used as an "expert", would understand.
Your first link was indeed one of your idiosyncratic ‘verbatim reports’ aka transcripts. There was no commentary from you. There was no ‘critique’. A transcript is not a critique.
Your second link was even worse. It contained some unhinged rambling about comedians and targeted a colleague of the person whom you did NOT critique in your first link, with only a mention of his name.
Here you double down on attacking two people employed by the same university and find them ‘guilty by osmosis’. There is no valid argument or critique – it is vacuous and moronic.
You claim that your first target continues to be used by Radio NZ as an “expert” and that he’s “one of the most rabid anti-Russian voices in academia”. You don’t provide a shred of evidence for these baseless and moronic accusations.
I googled the RNZ website and I could not find a single reference to that academic AND Russia in the last year.
Despite our collective efforts to encourage you to lift your game you keep wasting our time with your moronic comments. Take seven weeks off – Incognito]
There’s not a single mention in the written text of Russia. So, I wasted almost 7 minutes listening to the interview and there’s not a single mention of Russia in it either.
When I wrote “academic AND Russia”, I capitalised “AND”, which means both criteria had to be met in the Google search (it’s simple operator logic that’s used in advanced searching in search engines such as Google – yes, I know how to do internet searches).
You’ve now finally dredged up one measly RNZ link that doesn’t even support your unhinged accusations, e.g., “Professor Ayson is one of the most rabid anti-Russian voices in academia”.
You’re still wasting more of my time. You attack third-party people with your misplaced superiority and misguided rants. Your comments are not critiques, as you allege, and they are generally unhinged unsupported ramblings of a “moronic superhero”.
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Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
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Melting permafrost is poisoning Alaska's rivers.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-are-alaskas-rivers-turning-orange/
If this doesn't scare you about about climate change, I don't know what would.
National are perfectly positioned to use Labour's comprehensive research work and legislative framing on water governance and management.
Pretty much everything minus the co-governance.
Looking forward to the nationwide debate on volumetric charging in the rural councils.
Are they perfectly positioned to meet the legal challenges from iwi as a result of "minus the co-governance"?
Any Waitangi Tribinal recommendations are just that, recommendations.
Radical conservative dudester sends signal:
He's made a lunge for aeshetic appeal: not only do fences not need to be rings, any true conservative would cling like hell to the straight line.
This idea that a policy ought to be followed by appropriate action seems guaranteed to win the wee fella a reputation as an extreme radical.![yes yes](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/thumbs_up.png?x42494)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/507244/serious-concerns-about-councils-ability-to-manage-water-issues-minister
I have real skepticism that rural councils with high industrial dependence on water that don't have volumentric water charging will be courageous and face farmers down.
Minister Brown knows he is in the frame for it, but he needs a really big drought to focus everyone's mind.
If ordinary NZ residents used the same amount of water as our dairy farms, we would have a population of about 60 million people. Let's see if the same people as StopThreeWaters are prepared to roll over National for similar reasons.
Brown is being told by Infrastructure New Zealand that Local Water Done Well is no where enough.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2024/01/three-large-north-canterbury-fires-under-control-to-be-investigated.html?ref=ves-nextauto
Perhaps I'm a lone voice on the left, but I don't think the Treaty arrangements will last the 2040 Bicentennary unless we are prepared to face some fresh legislation on how it's relevant now.
Black letter originalism will serve New Zealand about as well as it does in the United States.
We definitly need to find a way to have the conversation and modernize the treaty arrangements to better reflect society. The trick will be figuring out how the hell we do it.
I agree it needs a massive revamp with all parties ,especially Maori at the table, but you just know that isn't where act are coming from!!
I beg to differ. I suspect that's exactly where ACT are coming from.
Has seemed that way since I realised it 30 years ago but the response to Sir Geoffrey's reconstitutionalising campaign suggests that few kiwis are capable of intellectual progress. First off, everyone must factor in the equality demographics that put our 16% asian import group on parity with 16% Maori.
Labour & National remain dead keen on getting the Asians up & over that parity threshold – just another left/right collusion thing. However they both have failed to man up to the ethnic justice consequences of their immigration policies.
The normalcy of left/right paralysis is a key feature of our ongoing stasis. Folks do other stuff instead of noticing this phenomenon, so I only mention it in the spirit of public service. Better for everyone to get real about what's going on! The SJW syndrome has taken a beating in the public mind due to idiocy contagion but it remains an essential stance.
"First off, everyone must factor in the equality demographics that put our 16% asian import group on parity with 16% Maori."
Why? Makes no sense. All that means is that you can use immigration volumes to diminish the Maori voice and influence. Exactly what happened post treaty and how much of the land was stolen. Immigrant interests put ahead of Maori. The history of this is all there plain to see.
It is exactly why it has to be a partnership – a joint approach between Maori and the crown. It is why we need Maori seats in parliament, it is why we need Maori seats on councils and so on.
The thing is all those who seem to want a "discussion" seem opposed to the nature of a partnership are are fixated on individualistic approaches of one person one vote. This is capitalistic. The notion that a Maori voice could be larger than its sum of people is clearly a problem for some, but it must be so in a modern context of the treaty and the massive levels of immigration that has occurred since then.
Reminder too that much of the opposition to Maori was capitalism against their communistic tendencies e.g. collective ownership of land.
The treaty only had two parties to it. It is time they worked together as equals for the betterment of the country.
Makes no sense
Only if you discount the civil rights of asians. However it's up to them to lobby for parity or complain about de facto discrimination.
I don't disagree with the rest of your comment but advise caution around the one-nation syndrome ACT are promoting – no suitable poll has measured belief in the holist/fundamentalist paradigm. It could come in around 30% of voters.
The sensible thing for the left & right to do is avoid measuring the public mind. Continue the fraudulent attempt to misrepresent it instead will be common ground Labour & National keep on colluding upon.
I see no difference between the civil rights of Asians and those of Europeans – we're all here because the Treaty allows it. We all vote in those to represent us.
(Appreciating the fact that previously European immigrants discriminated against Asians and other multitude of groups).
one-nation syndrome ACT are promoting
I don't even see how that was relevant to my comment. I'm clearly opposed to that being the only paradigm – in a democracy we elect people to look after not just the majority but also minorities and special interest groups. The tyranny of the majority is well purported to be evil.
Linked to that is also why I detest legislation passed under "urgency".
Most modern immigrants are dual citizenship holders(something I detest)
Where.as most euro kiwis on have 1 country to call home.
Really. Pretty much every person, family and otherwise, I am aware of kept their UK citizenship and passport, after emigrating here. Both old and recent. People like my father-in-law used to deliberately travel out on one passport and back on the other to sow confusion with government systems.
NZ allows dual citizenship. Given some of our immigration disasters we would likely have less immigrants from places like India if they had to give up their citizenship as India does not allow dual citizenship if living in India.
Anyway last census gave info about country of birth.
bwaghorn – my husband emigrated to Aotearoa N Z in 1962 as a $10 Pom which didn't necessitate him having a passport to enter. We travelled to UK in 1998, hubby on a UK passport. He has since let it lapse and is now a very proud Kiwi with citizenship and a A-NZ passport. I suppose he could reapply for a UK passport, but he has no intention of doing so and due to our 'mature' age we have no intention of travelling to UK or pretty much anywhere.
Like Jilly Bee's husband I'm entitled to a UK passport (by right of birth) and so is Obtrectatrix (by patriality). Neither of us has bothered to obtain or renew one this many decades (seen the cost of 'em lately?). All it ever gained us was a slightly quicker passage through Customs and Immigration at Heathrow.
One practical thing we can do this year as non-Maori is to join Maori at the local treaty signing celebrations to show that we are in this together. It seems to me over the years Maori place much, much greater importance on this at a local level – whereas pakeha seem content with just the national event at Waitangi to represent them.
Would be great to see a much larger non-European contingent at all events. A peaceful sort of protest and an acknowledgement to Maori that we value the treaty too.
Agreed.
I'm going to Te Rau Aroha Marae at Motupohue/Bluff, for the Te Waipounamu event.
Starmer thinks that NATO will be at war with Russia within 20 years.
Sir Keir Starmer has warned that "Russia is a constant threat" and that we must be "mindful of that threat from Russia to Europe." The Labour leader was speaking during a visit to British troops de…
And some accuse Putin of paranoia !!??
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/350152552/nato-warns-all-out-war-russia-next-20-years
It is more the (correct) accusation of him repeatedly invading and slaughtering his neighbours, that worries people.
Putin's initially offhand comment that "Russia's borders do not end anywhere", now repeated on official russian propaganda bill boards – I suppose means nothing.
A recent posting, to the Counterpunch website, concerning the origins of the cold war, seems to have a bearing on the Ukraine war.
Fleming’s testimony in the 1971 House hearings on “Cold War? Origins and Developments” gives us another way of thinking about the way the crisis in Ukraine might have been managed by the United States in 2022. A knowledge of Russian history might have given our leaders pause before acting on the idea of NATO expansion to that country’s borders, an obvious apple of discord for a people thrice traumatized by the invasions so vividly described by Fleming. If the goal of our policy in Ukraine had been peace and stability in that part of the world instead of the absorption of that country into our own system, we would have followed his recommendation in dealing with Russia, to show a good deal more diplomatic imagination and sensitivity than a militarized foreign policy allows.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/01/19/d-f-flemings-and-arnold-toynbees-lessons-of-russian-history-as-a-way-of-understanding-the-war-in-ukraine/
Though not specifically about the Ukraine war, I think it is well worth a read.
Might be time to get those cannon back into their slots in Auckland's North Head fortifications? They went in originally due to general paranoia about the Tsar's imminent invasion, so Putin's just recycling imperial foreign policy.
The Balts know.
Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia agreed on Friday to set up a common Baltic defense zone on their borders with Russia and Belarus amid growing security concerns.
The defense ministers of the three Baltic countries met on Friday in Riga to approve the construction of "anti-mobility defensive installations" on their eastern frontiers. They also agreed to develop missile-artillery cooperation.
Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur stressed the need for bunkers at the border, saying: “Russia's war in Ukraine has shown that in addition to equipment, ammunition and manpower, we also need physical defensive structures at the border from the first meter to protect Estonia."
https://www.politico.eu/article/latvia-lithuania-estonia-common-defense-zone-russia-border-security-concerns/
You're confusing their blustering, violence-minded, Nazi-honoring politicians with their population.
https://thegrayzone.com/tag/baltic/
Starmer has no credibility whatsoever when it comes to human rights. Kitty Laing summed him up precisely on LBC radio the other day. Her criticism stands, in spite of the groveling apology she was forced to make…
An actual war would be a failure of containment, the reason NATO exists was to prevent a war with the USSR/Soviet Union over borders.
George Kennan would have welcomed the end of the Warsaw Pact, with the end of the Communist Internationale aspect of Kremlin imperialism, while aware American hubris could result in a revival of an aggressive Russian nationalism.
And it is unlikely NATO will exist in its current form in 20 years time.
The greatest risk being American isolationism.
There is the chance of a EU having its own military and defence agreements with Russia and the remnant of NATO (UK/Norway/Canada and USA).
Equivalence being no American or Russian missiles in Turkey or Cuba (1962), no missiles in W and E Europe (198*) and no American or Russian forces in Europe (20**).
Russia gains the most from the change, though politicians lose the nationalism card and the importance of a strong military declines (part of their current status in the world).
RNZ National's coverage of international events is a continuing insult
Monday 22 January 2024
On the 7 a.m. news: the death toll in the latest "mowing of the lawn" in the Gaza concentration camp has exceeded 25,000. In a small but welcome change, the newsreader (Nicola Wright) did not add the usual propaganda provocation (almost certainly dictated by that notorious RNZ board) "according to the Hamas-run health authority."
However, that small sign of resistance by one of the poor souls forced to read this awful stuff was instantly negated when she read out her next sentence: "The conflict began in October when Hamas militants killed more than thirteen hundred people."
That's a lie. It's naked propaganda that might as well have come straight out of that blood-soaked regime in Tel Aviv. There was no acknowledgement in that "news report" that more than 300 of the people killed in the October 7 breakout were IOF soldiers. And there was no mention of the fact that a large number of the Israeli deaths were because their homes and cars were fired on by Israeli troops, who were ordered to follow the dictates of the disturbing "Hannibal directive" and kill everybody in the vicinity of an attacker, in order to prevent hostage-taking.
This distortion of reality passing for news has persisted, in respect to the slaughter in Gaza, for more than three months now. But it's not the only case where RNZ has shown contempt for its audience. The panicked reaction of its board after one journalist tried to put a little context into the station's coverage of the Ukraine proxy war was an occasion for international scorn and derision….
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1669228835936632832.html
I look at Al Jazeera – just can't bear the bias and the shallowness of RNZ's reporting.
It's usually very good on Israel-Palestine. But its coverage of Syria is as bad and as biased as anything in the U.S. or Britain.
Nicola Wright wasn't the newsreader this morning. Karen McCarthy (IIRC)
Thanks, Kay. I thought after I posted that it might have been Catriona McLeod. All of them are virtually indistinguishable, with their flat, carefully affectless tone reading out material they surely know is propaganda. Or maybe it just doesn't bother them.
I listened to Marama T'Pole read the 2 p.m. news today; for the first item she read for nearly a minute from a press release by ACT ninny David Seymour, then featured him speaking, or more precisely, rambling, for about fifteen seconds; for the second, she read out, again for an extended period, Mr. Netanyahu's attempt to justify his refusal to negotiate with the "monsters" of Hamas. In neither case was there any counter-argument reported.
Any dissent at all seems to have been eliminated at RNZ. It was a different story when someone of character and conscience, like Lloyd Scott, was there…
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10052013/#comment-630836
RNZ news this morn etc ; although i did notice they said " health ministry figures say"…….where as previously they invairyably read "Hammas controlled gaza health ministry figures "
is that a shift ?
Let's hope so, my friend.![smiley smiley](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png?x42494)
If RNZ does change from a propaganda conduit to a real news outlet, tomorrow it will be running this latest report from Israel's most read publication, Yedioth Ahronoth. My bet, though, is that it will stick to its tried and untrue "experts" at CNN and the British state propaganda network.
[link required]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspapers_in_Israel
Max Blumenthal got that wrong.
Thanks for that correction, my friend.
I hadn't realised this:
"… Finance Minister Nicola Willis's husband, Duncan Small, was a senior manager at Air NZ and has worked for CIAL on the Tarras airport project."
‘Bribery, bullshit and bullying’. Why plans for an international airport in Tarras have become so controversial. | The Post
Also Simeon Brown is studiously neutral on CIAL's intent despite the government owning 25% of it.
With Luxon likely contaminated being an ex-AIRNZ CEO, the Minister of Finance conflicted out, and Simeon Brown silent, it makes it very hard for any future decision to be "called in" by a relevant Minister.
This political integration would also make special enabling legislation very difficult to propose in Cabinet let alone Parliament.
So that says this proposed new South Island airport is heading straight to Environment Court.
The business case decision will put unusual weight on the Canterbury Holding Company, worse than the Dunedin stadium decision did on their own holding company.
I suspect this debate will grow this year.
"We’re a bunch of part-timers, and you’re constantly fighting this negative force, a corporation with deep pockets, with people on huge salaries and bonuses…"
Story of the modern world.
"There’s also a proposal to dredge for gold in the Clutha River behind them, so Duxson says they feel pincered by industrialisation, and assaulted by pollution in a beautiful environment."
As above…
The dredging proposal has been declined.
The 2021 peoposal to expand Wanaka Airport is dead.
Also the Lake Onslow Battery Dam proposal is dead.
No need to presume defeat in Tarras.
The airport’s 45 million dollars already spend signals their intent.
The protestations of vineyard owners in the area won't counter that.
Long ago, I stayed the night in a Rabbit Board house at Tarras. It's a bleak landscape, worn out, heavily exploited by gold seekers and farmers, now vinters, soon tourists.
The smell of aviation fuel though, eh! That'll do something to the ambience!
Oh sure, they've bought land. They have intent.
The others with intent include:
Destination Queenstown, Lake Wanaka Tourism, Queenstown Airport, QLDC Council, the bunches of academics already aligned against it, and they haven't got to how Fulton Hogan and the effect it will have on their masterplanned development on Lake Dunstan
https://ehq-production-australia.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/0247e594adc4b9d7d73f910fb11d162289aa0e0d/original/1678134994/6298970d7dfa86d5086b3a19297f9fd3_PC_21_Attachment_L_-_Hydrological_Assessment_-_e3Scientific_Limited.pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIA4KKNQAKIOR7VAOP4%2F20240121%2Fap-southeast-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20240121T212622Z&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=0fadc62a4eccceb4aa47be1c7d40b03d2285bf8f969a2b421b914c51c48cbfed
CIAL have no friends here, only the ones they've bought.
Odds on so far and with the current RMA in effect, is CIAL will lose.
You say the Government will adopt the 3Waters framework as constructed by Labour, so I guess you'll feel the same about the RMA replacement, likewise painstakingly built by Labour, which might impact upon your last sentence.
We don't have a replacement for the RMA. The Labour ones were repealed in December. There's no new consent process for Tarras Airport.
Nor is there even the start of a new draft replacement RMA from National.
I bet it doesn't occur this term.
National will find a way to fast track the Tarras consent.
It will be given consent, with no right of appeal to the Environment Court, before this parliament term ends.
One can suspect a torrent on Tor and tourettes on social media if that happens.
Though the parliamentary language constraint would result in an empty thhell echo as per the Tarrath tourihtth.
"The dredging proposal has been declined."
Just needs to be re-submitted. This Government will green-light it.
"The 2021 proposal to expand Wanaka Airport is dead."
Ditto.
"Also the Lake Onslow Battery Dam proposal is dead."
Out of spite, by this Government. If they'd thought of it, green light!
Shane smells a rat, yet doesn't seem to realise that the public service play was aimed at making Seymour look a fool (not all that hard).
I guess if life necessitates reading the advice of a bureaucrat, stylistic critique is a suitable response. However public servants will see it as an affront: they have as much right to issue a political manifesto as any other stroppy citizen.
I expect Shane has got them in a tizz right now. They may even be bristling with indignation!![surprise surprise](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/omg_smile.png?x42494)
The insanity of US politics. Some of the economic indicators are good and it's not because whatever is happening is good, it's because Trump is going to be elected? What?
Americans as much as anywhere deserve the politicians they get.
I always thought the handmaids tale wasn't all that far from a potential reality with the faith based divide it depicts in America.
The true believers are very committed to what they believe in be it orange45, god, guns etc
The Handmaid's Tale has much closer analogue in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, UAE, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, African countries from Mali and Somalia upwards, most of India, all of China during the 1-child policy era (with leader and Party worship), and in a small-state form Tonga.
So, the weasel thinks his interpretation of the ToW is the correct one and the rest of NZ is wrong. He had better not come within spitting distance of me:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/507272/te-tiriti-o-waitangi-partnership-a-misinterpretation-david-seymour-believes
What David Seymour says
How he gets that from this is the mystery. He is not competent to lead any debate.
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/treaty/treaty-faqs
In recognition of his suddenly-important Maori heritage, I propose we rechristen the ACT party leader as Tewi Seymour. (Or "Rawiri", or any of the other equivalents to "David" that appear to exist in Te Reo.)
How to get there (remix)
“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own…”
Epictetus
Good lord, I finally read this piece by Trotter and I’m thinking the challenge is with the nominal left as well as the reactionary right. The politics of fear.
https://democracyproject.substack.com/p/when-push-comes-to-shove
I said in a previous comment this could have been written by Hitler himself.
What I don't understand is how VUW lend their name to this hatred. Particularly when the
DemocracyOligarchy Project's Bryce Edwards seeks and receives obscure funding and also runs a paid substack platform.Nothing democratic about it.
Well Good Lord again, I think saying his post is something Hitler could have written is also inflammatory and reactionary.
I don't think Trotter is like Hitler. He's more in the line of one of those self-satisfied, reactionary buffoons that infest the public discourse in the United States. The way that Trotter has behaved on RNZ's light talk show The Panel over the years—scolding people who spoke out against the Deep South jury that exonerated the killer of Trayvon Martin, mocking the suffering of a political prisoner, speaking with arch condescension about the problem of "Waitakere Man" and the "Jake the Muss vote"—is very much in the spirit of such mean-spirited drones as John Podhoretz, Bret Stephens, or John Kass.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-19072013/#comment-664870
Nah, just saying it reads like Hitler. The framing of Maori as dangerous to the nation is similar to the way Hitler described Jews. Here for instance he equates the government's de-Maorification program to the previous government's pandemic response, therefore equating Maori with a virus:
Once again, I can’t see how VUW want to be associated with this.
VUW employs some extremely unsavoury people. Perhaps the most unsavoury of all are to be found in its splendidly titled School of Strategic Studies….
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-19112015/#comment-1097870
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-06102016/#comment-1240595
[I see that you ignored my earlier Mod note for you today. Never mind, this is your last warning.
You’re a one-trick pony and your MO is to take down or out third party players with your idiosyncratic vacuous smears that are often rooted in a distant past. As such, you contribute nothing but noise to this site.
Lift your game – Incognito]
Mod note
My critique of Robert Ayson's comments were anything but "vacuous". They were a verbatim report of some extremely chilling comments he made, claiming that American killing of civilians was morally superior to that of other countries. The same applies to the wandery, timid remarks by his colleague Paul Sinclair.
As for being "rooted in a distant past", the same things are being done right now, and the same people are excusing them. Professor Ayson is one of the most rabid anti-Russian voices in academia, as anyone who has heard him on Radio NZ, where he continues to be used as an "expert", would understand.
[So, yesterday, when you embraced your moniker “moronic superhero” and implied that you were going to wear it as a badge of honour (https://thestandard.org.nz/labour-and-the-democrats/#comment-1985972) you weren’t joking.
Your first link was indeed one of your idiosyncratic ‘verbatim reports’ aka transcripts. There was no commentary from you. There was no ‘critique’. A transcript is not a critique.
Your second link was even worse. It contained some unhinged rambling about comedians and targeted a colleague of the person whom you did NOT critique in your first link, with only a mention of his name.
Here you double down on attacking two people employed by the same university and find them ‘guilty by osmosis’. There is no valid argument or critique – it is vacuous and moronic.
You claim that your first target continues to be used by Radio NZ as an “expert” and that he’s “one of the most rabid anti-Russian voices in academia”. You don’t provide a shred of evidence for these baseless and moronic accusations.
I googled the RNZ website and I could not find a single reference to that academic AND Russia in the last year.
Despite our collective efforts to encourage you to lift your game you keep wasting our time with your moronic comments. Take seven weeks off – Incognito]
Mod note
@ Morrissey,
FFS!
I clicked on this link: https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018882476/analysis-white-house-official-s-trip-to-nz
There’s not a single mention in the written text of Russia. So, I wasted almost 7 minutes listening to the interview and there’s not a single mention of Russia in it either.
When I wrote “academic AND Russia”, I capitalised “AND”, which means both criteria had to be met in the Google search (it’s simple operator logic that’s used in advanced searching in search engines such as Google – yes, I know how to do internet searches).
You’ve now finally dredged up one measly RNZ link that doesn’t even support your unhinged accusations, e.g., “Professor Ayson is one of the most rabid anti-Russian voices in academia”.
You’re still wasting more of my time. You attack third-party people with your misplaced superiority and misguided rants. Your comments are not critiques, as you allege, and they are generally unhinged unsupported ramblings of a “moronic superhero”.
I’m tempted to double your current ban![angry angry](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/angry_smile.png?x42494)