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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This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
“We’re not here to interfere in people’s property rights,” Ngāi Tahu’s Te Maire Tau has told the High Court.Tau, a historian, Upoko (traditional leader) of Ngāi Tūāhuriri, and a university professor of history, is the lead witness in a case designed to force the Crown to recognise the tribe’s rangatiratanga ...
Pacific Media Watch Trump administration officials barred two Associated Press (AP) reporters from covering White House events this week because the US-based independent news agency did not change its style guide to align with the president’s political agenda. The AP is being punished for using the term “Gulf of Mexico,” ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific Presenter/Bulletin editor France’s top diplomat in the Pacific region says talks around the “unfreezing” of New Caledonia’s highly controversial electoral roll are back on the table. The French government intended to make a constitutional amendment that would lift restrictions prescribed under the Nouméa Accord, which ...
By bringing these global voices to the fight for free expression in New Zealand, we’ll continue to protect and expand our culture of free speech, says Nathan Seiuli, the Free Speech Union's Events Manager. ...
The issue is no longer a hypothetical one. US President Donald Trump will not explicitly suggest death camps, but he has already consented to Israel’s continuing a war that is not a war but rather a barbaric assault on a desolate stretch of land. From there, the road to annihilation is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cecelia Cmielewski, Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University To be selected as the artist and curator team to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale is considered the ultimate exhibition for an artistic team. To have your selection rescinded, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steve Turton, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Geography, CQUniversity Australia Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia is bearing down on the northwest coast of Australia and is likely to make landfall early Friday evening. It’s a monster storm of great concern to Western Australia. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Ireland-Piper, Associate Professor, ANU National Security College, Australian National University A Victorian government decision to allow dingo culling in the state’s east until 2028 has reignited debate over what has been dubbed Australia’s most controversial animal. Animals Australia, an animal welfare ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University Overnight, Robert F. Kennedy Jr was confirmed as the secretary of the US Health and Human Services Department. Put simply, this makes him the most influential figure in overseeing the health and wellbeing of more ...
Everything you missed from day five of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard eight hours of submissions.Read our recaps of the previous hearings here.It was another work from home day for the Justice Committee, the only people in Room 3 being security guards, committee ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor & Principal Fellow in Urban Risk & Resilience, The University of Melbourne Juris Teivans/Shutterstock In Australia, fatal road crashes are climbing again, especially since the pandemic, and despite years of attempts to reduce road trauma, the numbers ...
In its eagerness to appease supporters of Israel, the media is happy to ride roughshod over due process and basic rights. It’s damaging Australia’s (and New Zealand’s?) democracy.COMMENTARY:By Bernard Keane Two moments stand out so far from the Federal Court hearings relating to Antoinette Lattouf’s sacking by the ...
“The reality is we’re getting poorer. The government this year is leaning heavy on chasing economic growth, which is absolutely the right thing to do.” ...
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 The Vegetarian by Han Kang (Granta, $28) Han Kang’s astounding novel was based on an ...
This new docuseries about two single comedians looking for love is also a joyful celebration of female friendship. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. “How many people do you think are boning right now?” Kura Forrester asks Brynley Stent as the bright ...
A new poem by Freya Turnbull. Hunger Song – After Kaveh Akbar (Untitled With Hunger And Matcheads) I hold my age in ripped fishnet hold an empty vessel oldyoung body cracks like gunshot like killa i was a father ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominik Koll, Honorary Lecturer, Australian National University View of the Pacific Ocean from the International Space Station.NASA Earth must have experienced something exceptional 10 million years ago. Our study of rock samples from the floor of the Pacific Ocean has found ...
Troy Rawhiti-Connell reviews Kia Tupu Te Ara, a documentary chronicling the meteoric rise of Aotearoa’s groundbreaking metal band. “Two brothers attempt to storm the world of thrash metal with the Māori language, despite the fact they’re both still teenagers,” reads the synopsis of Kent Belcher’s documentary, Kia Tupu Te Ara. ...
Three freelance writers have been awarded grants to work on their ambitious journalism projects. In January, The Spinoff announced the Vince Geddes In-Depth Journalism Fund, supported by the Auckland Radio Trust (ART). The fund was established to provide much-needed financial and editorial support to talented freelance journalists, empowering them to ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist in Avarua, Rarotonga China has confirmed details of its meeting with Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown for the first time, saying Beijing “stands ready to have an in-depth exchange” with the island nation. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters during his ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ 2023 strategic foreign policy assessment, “Navigating a shifting world”, accurately foresaw a more uncertain and complex time ahead for New Zealand. But already it feels out of date. The ...
Our parliamentary throuple may be the longest running in the country, but cracks are showing. Gabi Lardies wonders if differing attachment styles may be to blame. Though no one ever anticipated happiness or roses in the three-way coalition, the relationship has wobbled on for over a year without breaking up. ...
As Mike White’s dark satire returns for a third season, we look back on some of The White Lotus’s most memorable characters. The White Lotus looks like a dream holiday, but this resort is anything but paradise. Set in an exclusive five star hotel resort, HBO’s award-winning series is a ...
Analysis: Would the last scientist to leave the building please turn out the lights? Because the confirmation of Robert F Kennedy Jr as US Secretary of Health suggests we’re heading back to the dark ages.It’s a sad irony that President John F Kennedy propelled America into the space age; now his nephew ...
The crux of my message today is that New Zealand needs to bend two curves. One is the long-term economic growth trajectory, which needs to bend upwards to expand our productive capacity and national real incomes. The second is our net public debt ...
Away from the tense scenes on the paepae, under a closely guarded canvas tent, te iwi Māori do the real work of Waitangi: talking. We were invited inside to listen. ...
The Jono & Ben star is self-aware and surrounded by extraordinary women in Three’s latest local comedy series. The first episode of Vince, written by and starring Jono Pryor, opens with intrigue, a loincloth and a man in the middle of some kind of breakdown. As the titular character, a ...
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.
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.
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!
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