However, this just might be a good thing. If states and local councils go over and above these federal laws.
An example of this , is the cities of San Francisco and Oakland are suing the world’s largest oil companies. The judge in the case has asked some questions.
It’s taking a huge amount of energy away from mitigation, to refighting the case for AGW adam – If you need to have further proof of the damage these vandals (Trump and Pruitt) have done over the past year – here is a regularly updated list compiled by National Geographic: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/how-trump-is-changing-science-environment/
Which makes the list of atrocities even more valid! If you haven’t read it you should.
I can refer you to a different site if you wish – but the atrocities carried out overturning every step towards mitigation for climate change made by Obama and cancelling every environmental protection they can think of is enormous.
The business community are getting stuck into Jacinda Ardern.
Claiming they are suffering from “uncertainty”.
In their view expressing wanting to do something positive about climate change is creating uncertainty which is bad for the economy. The implication being that the Labour led Government is bad for the economy.
Dredging up all their old stupid talking points, and attack lines.
Their viciousness shouldn’t be surprising, it is one of the reasons that we as a society cannot make the necessary changes to save ourselves and protect future generations.
Jacinda Ardern’s decision to take a walk down the steps of Parliament on Monday was well intentioned, but is symbolic of the Government’s confusion around managing an economy.
In what may be a first, the prime minister personally went to greet representatives of Greenpeace and receive a petition calling for the end of oil exploration.
Few seriously doubt that oil and gas is a sunset industry. But there still is genuine debate about whether New Zealand has the gas reserves in operational fields to manage the transition away from fossil fuels.
Personally speaking, I am one of the “few” that think that the oil and gas industry is a “sunset industry”.
And am doing my damnedest to make sure it becomes so.
We need to confront these tired old attack lines.
The smoking industry did it. To continue with their deadly but profitable busisness Instead of confronting the science head on, they deliberately set out to create uncertainty.
They want certainty, let’s give them certainty.
Let’s make it our job as activists to remove all uncertainty. And without compromise,make these greedy, self centred wreckers know, in no uncertain terms, that the age of fossil fuels will, and must end, and as soon as possible. No more delaying tactics, no more fudging and avoiding the issue. The time has come to take a stand.
Jenny, while I agree completely with your sentiments, I despair for the future of the human race!
JohnSelway’s posting above yours is suggesting that the EPA shouldn’t rely on verifiable science for decisions on protecting the environment, which effectively means doing nothing.
Ask the people of New Zealand to give up their cars for the sake of the world and you’ll get a look of blank amazement, followed probably by abuse.
We shall remain re-active when we should be being pro-active! We won’t seriously begin to do anything about mitigating climate change until it’s far too late to do anything effective.
But hey, we have to try. If it takes getting in the face of oil exploration companies to make people realise how damned serious the problem is, count me in!
“Ask the people of New Zealand to give up their cars for the sake of the world and you’ll get a look of blank amazement, followed probably by abuse.”
Of course you will unless you provide clear evidence that giving up their cars will save the world. First of course you would have to provide clear evidence that the world is somehow in imminent danger from something.
“so youre saying there is no need to reduce green house gas emissions?”
No.
This is what I said…
“Of course you will unless you provide clear evidence that giving up their cars will save the world. First of course you would have to provide clear evidence that the world is somehow in imminent danger from something.”
“First of course you would have to provide clear evidence that the world is somehow in imminent danger from something.”
Repeating it dosn’t clarify it….that reads that you dont think there is evidence the world is in imminent danger but perhaps thats not what you mean to say…it would be surprising if it was.
When we do see indisputable evidence for climate change….
…northern rich countries will look to feed then house their populations at lower latitudes. As that’s were former deserts are getting increased rain, and former first world cities are under snow… …glaciers…
So you’d expect say Russia invading any port to its south, Crimea say, and be heavily invested in airports and regimes to the south, aka Turkey, Syria.
Oh, done, and done. Russia believes in climate change.
Eu, France heavily engaged in western Africa…
Only the US thinks climate change is joke, but hey aside from Mexico, where have they got to go…. …Australia.
Not sure how you get from my comment to yours but I’m certainly not a climate change denier at all, sorry to disappoint.
There’s plenty of evidence for climate change everywhere. The climate has always changed and always will. The climate has never been stable for any real amount of time.
I was simply stating that if you are going to ask everyone to give up their cars to save the world then unless you provide clear evidence that giving up their cars will save the world then of course they aren’t going to do it. Obviously if everyone in NZ gave up their cars tomorrow, it wouldn’t affect the world’s climate at all and it certainly wouldn’t stop the climate from changing. (Unless you’ve got evidence that it would, in which case I’ll be happy to change my viewpoint)
If you’re wanting to make peoples lives more difficult and cost them money then you need to be pretty specific else why would they do what you want them too?
good. Do it. Give us some certainty. At least then we know whats going and can plan and implement for it.
The problem isn’t expressing something positive about the reaction to climate change, it’s that Jacinda has done that and then gone and given a speech about Business as usual. Which Jacinda is the right Jacinda?
Nah – in business speak, ‘certainty’ doesn’t just mean the absence of uncertainty. It means a guarantee that policy options they are particularly opposed to are ruled out. It is a deeply coded word and contains an implicit threat – “rule out the options we don’t like, or else!”
It’s pretty funny how you think that someones behaviour, actions and stated intenions creating uncertainty is an “attack” line.
It’s also funny how you think that you are one of the ” “few” that think that the oil and gas industry is a “sunset industry”. when the states that “Few seriously doubt that oil and gas is sunset industry”
Did you just read the headline and go into full white knight outrage mode that someone had been mildly critical of the prime minister?
Two (pre-prepared?*) questions to Ardern right at the end of Question 5, Bridges to Ardern on “Does she stand by her reported statement when personally receiving a petition from Greenpeace on Monday to end oil and gas exploration that the Government was “actively considering” the issue?”
And an extract with Shaw’s two questions. * I have left in the preceding question from Bridges and Ardern’s answer as Shaw’s first question seems to partly ignore the first sentence of Ardern’s answer re Fonterra. This pretty much indicates that Shaw’s questions were pre-prepared and not reactive to the realtime flow of the discussion – and he reads both questions from a paper in the video.
Hon Simon Bridges: Speaking of the environment, what would be the cost to the climate if Fonterra were no longer able to use natural gas for most of their processing plants and had to revert back to coal in order to continue production and safeguard international food security?
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Even Fonterra has acknowledged that they need to tackle this issue head on, even if the Opposition hasn’t. I’m sure I don’t need to educate that member that there are already gas reserves that can run as far as 2046 and that the decisions around exploration permits this year would run for 14 years plus an extra 20 on top of that. This is about decisions that will affect the next 30 years. This is a Government willing to have that debate even if that last one wasn’t.
Hon James Shaw: Is the Prime Minister aware of Fonterra’s plan to be carbon neutral by 2050 and to phase out coal use entirely?
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Yes. They share our ambition to be carbon neutral by 2050—again, something that the Opposition clearly does not.
Hon James Shaw: Is looking for new fossil fuels the same thing as shutting down existing operations, and what year are the existing operations currently scheduled to wind down?
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: As I acknowledged, we’ve not said that we would be altering current operations, and a number of those fields actually have a shelf life that goes out as far as, potentially, 2046.
I agree Ad – and I don’t confuse Qs with the media. Just been rather in the news since Shaw’s announcement last Sunday.
In fact one of the few subjects of the five Press Releases issued by the Greens in the last week, and 23 PRs in the last month since 23 Feb that have got any traction in the media. Figures from Greens website.
Interesting how business can demand ‘certainty’ but the rest of us are completely exposed to market discipline. No certainty that our jobs won’t be downsized or outsourced to India or China. No certainty that the tax base will support a public healthcare system that can treat us in a timely, clinically up-to-date manner if we get osteoarthritis or cancer (better cripple yourself financially with that private health insurance), if you are young no certainty of ever owning a house….
An interesting vignette of privilege in action.
But … but… but the economy…. but… but… but gratitude to business.
Mind you Labour dropped taxes they hadnt proposed so scared were they of the back lash, so you cant blame business for thinking some wind and bs will get Labour to give them what they want.
As for business confidence some of that appears to be ideologically based rather than reality based
” “A net 10 percent of businesses reported a lift in own trading activity in the December 2017 quarter, an easing from the net 13 percent in the previous quarter. Previous QSBO surveys have shown business confidence tends to fall after Labour takes office, in contrast to a lift in confidence when National takes office, but the effect on actual activity has been muted. Businesses may be worried about the outlook for the New Zealand economy under the new Labour-led Government, but for now this is not reflected in demand in their own business.”
I agree. They are worried, that is why they say they are “uncertain”.
Jacinda has sent a message. Like all big issues, this won’t be settled easily, or without a fight. The big money is talking scheming and targeting any apparent weakness.
In spite of losing in Supreme Court, NZ bureaucrats are up to it again, denying Greenpeace charitable status.
We all thought things would get better under a Labour/Green/NZ First government…
“Greenpeace Executive Director, Dr Russel Norman, says the Charities Board decision not to grant the environmental organisation charity status is unsurprising given that the Board has resolutely opposed Greenpeace’s application all along, in spite of previously losing the battle in the Supreme Court.”
Good to know, but unfortunately our entire country is now plagued with half witted bureaucrats who spend their budgets on lawyers to defend their poor decisions and try to take others down.
Get rid of the rot in the public service!
TPPA is another example, what normal person thinks that lawyers can solve all their problems???
A, too many lawyers in parliament making bad decisions and thinking other lawyers will save them at great costs to the country which the country can’t afford to constantly defend a poor agreement from lazy bureaucrats who wouldn’t have an original or practical thought if their life depended on it.
The world is going to end. I’m blaming Shane Jones. You see I’ve been on MikeWatch – in the ward seeing whether Hosking will survive.
“The government doesn’t have the bank balance to bluster their way into financial catastrophe in a company they own 51 per cent of.”
If Air New Zealand “goes pear-shaped, airlines don’t lose a few million, they lose a few hundred million. The margins are tiny, the risk is huge.” We only have money for SCF, eh Mike?
Anyone’d think Jones had started World War 3 or the outspew was about his beloved Warriors – ‘Jones is a dangerous man, attack dog, Machiavellian, threatening people, thuggish, wage war, loutish assault …’
For those of us who live in the provinces, we applaud Jones’ words. We pay far more to fly Air NZ Blenheim to Wellington that it costs to fly Christchurch to Auckland. We subsidise the bigger urban flights.
Have to agree with Shane Jones on this (a first!), the NZ taxpayers owns 1/2 the airline and they should not be price gouging and cutting off domestic travel so they can spend money on sponsoring dinners for Obama for example.
Too much of corporations time is being spent brown nosing and networking for themselves to get better job offers and photo opportunities, rather than actually looking after their long term company prospects.
Air NZ should not be an airline that rips people off. Too many companies in this country are a NZ company when it suits them for marketing, but they do little to support everyone in NZ and have become used to ripping Kiwi’s off.
Fonterra is another one, I think overseas people are paying less for NZ milk and cheese than locals! It’s disgraceful! Then they wonder why Kiwis are going off milk, butter and cheese! I wonder??????? and a lot of Kiwi’s think dairy is an evil polluter – well if the company has little social conscience and is polluting while pretending they are not, of course people are not going to support the corporation!
(If the dimwits in corporate marketing have not worked this out, people are onto fake news. So maybe have substance behind any claims and actually become a good corporate citizen instead of fat cats say on 8 million posting loses, pretending they care about NZ and Kiwis.)
Yesterday some religious group was hanging around the tuck shop at Miss 13s High School handing out bibles.
Question please….. is this common in other NZ High Schools?
I’m really not down with religious propaganda being preached at school unless it’s Social Studies and they are covering and discussing all denominations.
🙂 not particularly relevant but your comment took me back 45 years to my Fourth form English teacher he told a fellow pupil to categorise the Bible – when the student defined it as a “Historical Novel” I learned firsthand what apoplexy looks like.
And isn’t apoplexy a wonderful word. I think I first found it in one of Jane Austin’s books – “Mansfield Park” ?
Anyway, I wondered what it was like and found out with a vengeance when I told my father at age 12 or 13 that I was not going to go through with “confirmation” at Bible class at our Presbyterian Church as I did not believe in Christ as my saviour and it would be hypocritical to do so.
Father was an elder in the Church and Head of Sunday School, Bible Class etc at the time – embarassing much! I thought he was going to explode. He was bright red and puffed up – and I immediately thought so this is apoplexy! LOL.
He asked me to leave him for 10 minutes to think about it. We remet at the appointed time when he had calmed down and said that it was obviously my decision to make but he wanted me to write up the reasons for my decision.
I presented him with an essay with my reasons etc, and having read it, he asked me if he could give it to the meeting of Elders of the Church (Session?). I agreed and offered to present it to them in person, which duly happened.
On the Sunday that all the rest of my age group took confirmation, I was there in the back by myself – at my own volition as parents had given me the option. At the end of the ceremony the Minister referred to the fact that I was the only one who had declined to take confirmation and summarised my essay to the whole meeting. He said that he and the other Elders were extremely impressed with the thought I had put into my decision and essay; and that they accepted my decision with respect.
My parents later told me that while they had hoped I would go through with confirmation, they were so proud of me that I was prepared to stand up and go against the flow for my own well thought out decision.
Cinny you are correct. The insidious ways they get religion into secular areas is an ongoing battle. My personal experience was a “homework group” Which turned out to be evangelical bible studies. When they changed the name to Bible Studies, their number went from 18 down to 3.
This has to be watched, as I found some Board members thought through personal bias that this was fine, and I was doing the devil’s work!! When confronted with the Education Act 1964 many were amazed. I would get told we are a Christian country.
The decision to be secular was to avoid religious confrontations. Schools are supposed to be closed for religious instruction, and parents can opt their children into or out of the programme offered, but they need to know!!
So ask your Principal who in the school makes decisions regarding religious instruction? When? Where? How often? Format and content of lessons? Who will lead these sessions? What happens to the children opted out by parents? What about religious texts bibles etc.?
The insidious ways they get religion into secular areas is an ongoing battle. My personal experience was a “homework group” Which turned out to be evangelical bible studies. When they changed the name to Bible Studies, their number went from 18 down to 3.
I’ve heard of other cases like this. It seems that these religious people are more than prepared to lie to get their indoctrination into schools (and in pretty much everything else for that matter).
I’ll start her with comparative religion i.e. many people believe in different things and different gods but your dad doesn’t believe in any of those.
We do good and treat people well not because we have to but because we want to. We don’t lie, cheat or steal because it makes others feel bad.
Something like that anyway – she’s only fucking 4 and she is still having trouble with the whole “Where do babies come from” so I might sort that out before introducing her to abstruse concepts like religion and god
Enough is enough,
I was teaching then!! From 1961 through to 2001 with time off for my family 35 years The law was altered but basically the same in the remaining Intermediates through till 2001.Cheers.
Not in NZ, but that reminded me of some bible or other getting passed out at my High School. I think they might have been those ones that hang around (or used to hang around) hotel rooms or whatever.
Anyway. One kid ripped his up. And got suspended if my memory serves me right. And this was in a non-denominational school of some 2000 pupils
That said, for a whole host of reasons, I can’t quite see that bibles would be successfully passed out in schools these days.
Your best bet would probably to speak to these people.
As far as I’m concerned handing out bibles like that at school should be illegal with a very, very large fine for the church thrown in when they do it.
An on-line news site yesterday (can’t find it now) was reporting a broad break-down of the guest list to tonight’s Obama dinner. Of particular interest to me was the fact 27 National Party MPs have been invited and only 13 Labour MPs.
Jacinda Ardern (of course) was one of the invitees but isn’t attending due to a prior engagement. David Parker – the government’s power house – is not invited yet Alfred Ngaro – the dim bulb from National – is invited. Strange.
The dinner has been arranged by the NZ/US Society who I imagine are made up of predominantly Republican orientated individuals, especially now we have a Republican backed US Ambassador. Perhaps that accounts for the disparity.
Maybe that is why the democrats are not trusted anymore, too many right wing decisions not in the interests of most American’s. (Food for thought for NZ Labour).
Remember post US financial Crisis Obama bailed out the banks, but failed to stipulate any part of the company or the money being paid back, or the executive fees being lowered.
So the banks who caused it, got bailed out, became richer and many American’s lost their job, house, savings.
Doesn’t sound like a trustworthy decision. But Obama and Key hit it off, and enjoy their golf games with so much in common.
Yes, Ad, and that is why I see the media which is commenting on the Key/Obama relationship to the detriment of PM Ardern is mischief-making.
I’d also ask who is former President Obama now when people say he is still one of the most powerful men in the world? Surely he is an elder statesman now and wise, but in terms of power beyond that accorded by respect, persuasion and reason, what has he?
Certainly the current President is disdainful, the Democrats do not have an ascendancy and corporate America is still that.
Am well aware of that Ad @ 8.1, but at a NZ level the participants in the US/NZ society probably regard themselves as having more in common with National. In other words, if they were able to vote in NZ elections they would vote National – hence the reason double the no. of Nats over Lab. invited to their little party.
Also noted Anne the cheesy little pic of bridges talking to Obama on his JOHN the pony tail pullers cellphone. What really is the purpose of Obama’s visit.? How much is it costing us? Bet it was arranged before the change of govt.
Key has been posting photos of himself and the son (forgotten his name) on Facebook knowing they will be picked up and plastered all over the media. No coincidence imo.
Another example of the attempts to belittle Jacinda (aided and abetted by the Nat media) and cut her out of the general picture… make her look like she doesn’t count… she’s not up to the job so best ignored kind of thing.
Reality for activists on the ground in Russia. This is quite depressing reading so I’m going to call for some caution for readers. The FSB is in my eyes a criminal organization hell bent on crushing any dissent, and bolstering Putan at any cost. The reality is that is at the cost of ordinary women and men right across Russia. Here are but two examples.
If you think starting a trade war with Russia will help these people. Then your deeply deluded. Governments like this, love external threats, it helps them crush the people at home.
We’re not meant to think of anything in terms of those people (ie – people just like us).
The only time we get any media exposure is when a dairy is robbed, some-one is shot or something stupid or banal can be ridden off our backs for some “human interest” story/headline.
In other words, we are meant to actively discount ourselves and are encouraged to do that at every turn.
“Big Boys”* count. Only “Big Boys” count. And we’re given endless helpful tips on discerning who the “Big Boys” are – through headlines and lead stories endlessly informing us of just how important, smart and influential those “Big Boys” are.
And so while we are discounted, marginalised and disappeared, we can nevertheless get to share in a sense of power and importance by lending our voice or support to some agenda of some “Big Boy” or other.
It’s been working a treat for quite a while now…we keep on disappearing ourselves while simultaneously lifting up those who can only survive by way of our invisibility.
The fact those stories are from sites on the margins of the internet, and the fact they represent the merest tip of what is heaped on our heads and shoveled into our lives every day by these “Big Boys” and their configurations of power – surely that shows us all we need to see, no?
*inclusive of women, but seeing as how we’re talking about systems of patriarchal power, I thought the term “Big Boy” was appropriate enough.
They spend $150,000 on a CEO selection process then get slammed for not asking an opinion of the eventual appointee’s former employee.
The former Chairman, who resigned over the matter, should also bear some of he responsibility for misappropriation of funds by that CEO in that he gave authorisation for expenditure held in large part to be unable to be authorised as legitimate business.
I hope the Serious Fraud Office will truly perform its duties here.
One of the things that is why NZ (and a lot of western countries) going down the toilet. They can not even do the most practical thing in relation to their job and nobody in the executive team does any due diligence anymore as they employ a range of ‘consultants’ to do their thinking or lack of it, for them.
As for spending $150k on one person’s recruitment – it’s not just the applicant they chose that are the crooks!!!
No wonder the health system is in trouble with these lazy dimwits at the helm paying gold for other incompetents.
C level execs employing D level execs… the rout continues
Yeah. Something about this churn/renewal in the National caucus. It stands in stark contrast to what the NZ Labour caucus did.
Sure, a few moved on, but far too many hung on in there. And in spite of leadership contests not going their way, they achieved, through a fair amount of monkey wrenching to secure a bit of fiefdom for themselves.
And I think it’s worth remembering back a few years when the suggestion that too many in the NZ Labour caucus would rather be big fish in a pond or puddle of opposition than give way to change, wasn’t by any means a marginal opinion.
All those years spent securing power instead of allowing NZ Labour to prepare for it…
And well, are we now looking at a one term government that merely hankers for the days and policies and strategies of a pre-2008 NZ Labour Party that we, the voting public, have already rejected once?
As a side bar.
What’s happened to that process of internal democratisation that was begun a few years back, but never seen through to a conclusion? Can we take it that since Ardern’s leadership hasn’t been endorsed (rubber stamped) by any membership vote yet, that it’s being viewed as “best forgotten”?
Where have resigned Labour MPs gone I wonder versus post parliament for Nats? How many keep pursuing forms of public service versus going to work in the private sector? Might be an interrsting analysis?
I think traditionally, the “revolving door” serves ex-National mps better than it does ex-NZ Labour mps.
Cullen went to Kiwi Bank, yes? (But now he’s back….along with Simpson). Clark went to the UN and is now…who knows? Goff stayed…and stayed…and stayed. (and is still in politics).
King wouldn’t let go. (What’s she up to now?)
The big names of NZ Labour are (and after an entire decade!) still very much associated with NZ Labour. All but dead ducks and their carefully managed proteges flapping…slowly and slower.
I don’t agree about a “one term government” Bill.
Jacinda and her coalition partner and supply and support group will have worked out how to appeal to the electorate in 20 20. National not so much.
Prior to his appointment as head of the Waikato DHB Dr Murray was dismissed from Fraser Health in Canada. A British Colombia government ordered review established that Fraser Health was the worst performing medical entity in all of Canada. It took 12 months to clean the outfit up after Dr Murray was shown the door.
Naturally it was going to be a disaster. I feel Dr Murray’s best defense is to point out that of course we were robbed blind, we got what we asked for. We paid $150,000 to establish that of all the available medical executives in the world, Dr Murray was the best choice. We got what we deserved.
Even with the justified expenses: The executive medical fraternity travel first class around the world on luxury holidays masquerading as conferences while the dedicated and honest nurses doing the hard yards struggle to make ends meet.
Ground these high flying chooks. Their job is running hospitals not testing the world’s Hilton suites and jet-ski facilities.
Ah, so it was in Canada. Well, you can’t go wasting money on ringing all the way to Canada, can you. After all, it was only $150,000 wasted.
I believe the protocol is to put /sarc after such a comment………..
Some years ago, I outed a con man from a position where he could have done a lot of damage. In his case, the phone number to a referee was to his own phone, which eventually got him caught, when he used the same number for his work.
It seems that he had been a con artist in business firms but instead of prosecuting
him for fraud, these firms just let him go for some other entity to pick up. We prosecuted him, and the firm that he went to work for was advised of his criminal record.
Fear of being seen to employ conmen, fear of looking stupid because firms were conned by these men, overcame their sense of responsibility to the community.
I am pleased to see the Minister of Education has the make up of the “Teacher’s Council” Bill to have 7 teachers nominated by teachers and 6 by the department.
This recognises teachers, and values their opinions.
Further steps to limit who gets the title “Teacher” according to educational qualifications. Yes Yes!! Others are coaches, instructors, teacher aides, etc.
Well done Chris.
One thing Labour and NZ First is doing well in, is primary and secondary education decisions. If only they could be more consistent with forward thinking, in other areas of policy.
Well what do you know, another rat leaving the opposition. Jonathan Colman has resigned and first thing that came to mind was “what a coincidence”.
This morning on Morning Report there was a damning report on the rotting wall linings of a Middlemore Hospital, it is contained in the wall linings as we speak but it will be dangerous to health if it works its way through to the wall surfaces. It is a bad situation for the hospital and has been left unattended for years. It has been known since 2012 or thereabouts and I thought to myself, what the hell was the last Minister of Health doing about it sitting on his behind doing sweet all.
Then, lo and behold he has quit, do these people have inside knowledge of the shit going to hit the fan or is it just their skilled way of escaping responsibility that allows this to happen. Shame on all ministers of the crown who do absolutely jack shit about their portfolios when in office.
Apparently even the hospital boilers are blowing up nearly killing people. The CFO’s just go to another DHB, and advance their careers leaving a dangerous trail of unmaintained destruction in their wake.
Apparently he is going into a role with the private sector – why would anybody want to employ such an incompetent minister, he had a high opinion of himself and was arrogant and that sums it up for him – plus his love of cigars – go figure.
Coleman is going to a job running a private sector health company. Acurity health group. There should be a period of time where his right to use the intellectual property, resources & networks built up as Ministered the Crown is restricted. Mind you’ve was no shining light as Minister so good luck to them.
Nearly a year before Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired senior FBI official Andrew McCabe for what Sessions called a “lack of candor,” McCabe oversaw a federal criminal investigation into whether Sessions lacked candor when testifying before Congress about contacts with Russian operatives, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The government has introduced legislation to ban letting fees for tenants. Also it is said that greater security of tenure and a 12 month period before rents can be raised will also be introduced before the end of the year.
Stumping up with a four week bond, a two week rental deposit and another week’s rent as a ‘letting fee’ must be very difficult for some, with moving costs on top.
” In just 10 days, the minimum wage will be increased to $16.50 per hour. This raise was one of the Government’s top priorities. It will benefit approximately 164,000 workers and their families, and will increase wages throughout the economy by $129 million per year.
We are further committed to raising the minimum wage for working New Zealanders to $20 by 2021.”
And us pensioners will have warmer homes courtesy of the winter warmth grant Starting in 2018, the Winter Energy Payment will begin from 1 July to 30 September and from 2019 for five months from 1 May to 30 September.
Who need worry so much about the coal-man, or the Coleman for that matter………..
Of Course they could have installed solar panels on the oldies houses to help them all year around, but of course that would be cutting down corporate profits and that is why in the age of carbon neutrality power companies have inexplicably been allowed to charge more for people who use solar panels. Go figure. Of course that was under a Natz government, but haven’t seen the Labour government trying to kill two birds with one stone, aka save money and save environment.
Please note – not every house, situation or season is suitable for solar panels. The energy payment will be gratefully received in this household (although we do have solar panels) as the house has to be kept extra warm for my husband who has Alzheimers and feels the cold.
Yep don’t want to reward a company manufacturing something that is sustainable and will reduce carbon footprint when the oil and gas industry need the corporate welfare so much. Coal is also popular and not too much fuss after Pike River, I see.
Newshub jonathan coleman Good ridence OUR health system are in a shambles it all about te tangata te tangata not one’s own agenda.
Wow Facebook is getting served for letting Cambridge analytics abuse the data of 50 million Americans.
The problem is its not just Facebook that has breach te tangata the people trust there are other companies that have done that as well one has to hold all the offenders to account to stop this cheating the people the 99.9 % of Common people of there democract voice Ka pai Ka kite ano
There you go Newhub works are losing there share of the money pie many thanks for reporting this I say it would be at least 10% from jobs I have worked the wages haven’t changed in 20 years rents are just about one person wage to pay per week I know things were much easier 20 years ago Ka pai Ka kite ano P.S. Anthony Joshua is sceared
The project you gave it your best Paddy good on you I heard that Obama called shonky a bad golf cheat lol The sandflys have been going hard for the last few days idiots you won’t even be able to fathom what they get up to. Your a Naki man Paddy that explains it Ka pai Ka kite ano
The project I never ever have a face book page I new it’s to open to minupulation.
Profits Of Rage one of my favourite bands they are onto it Jesse and Kanoe Ka pai Ka kite ano there song UN___THE WORLD is excerlint the video is tops to ka kite ano
For those with a serious or even passing interest in what is happening in Syria and Eastern Ghouta in particular.
It would be hard to go past this essay.
“Ghouta: Issues Behind the Apocalypse: Armed and civil rebellion, Class and Islam”
By Michael Karadjis
There is a a hell of lot to unpack here.
Maybe it would be best if you just scrolled down to the headline article that you are most interested in. And take the time to read the attached links, and footnotes.
Newshub I could not have our morning talk the Tokoroa red neck sandflys allways block my phone and another phone on the cell tower from getting the standard website disprit exclusive brethren lol we got a good sports weekend coming up Kia kaha people Duncan hope you had a good time at the Obama dinner I wish I was there he is brilliant. The health system are stressed because of shonky and his m8.
Some people should realise that they are ways we can both be winners. When Eco Maori is determined he gets his way fulls top. Stop listening to the sandflys and think of a way we both WIN I’M not the bad guy your adviser are leading you in the wrong direction there only objective is to try and damage my Mana not your wellbeing. Ka kite ano
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
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Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
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The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
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When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
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The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
What could possibly go wrong?
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/scott-pruitt-will-restrict-the-epas-use-of-legitimate-science/
Scott Pruitt’s year of environmental destruction
It’s fucking depressing
However, this just might be a good thing. If states and local councils go over and above these federal laws.
An example of this , is the cities of San Francisco and Oakland are suing the world’s largest oil companies. The judge in the case has asked some questions.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/21/a-judge-asks-basic-questions-about-climate-change-we-answer-them
It’s taking a huge amount of energy away from mitigation, to refighting the case for AGW adam – If you need to have further proof of the damage these vandals (Trump and Pruitt) have done over the past year – here is a regularly updated list compiled by National Geographic:
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/how-trump-is-changing-science-environment/
Urgh – Nat Geo….I have gone off them every since they were bought by Fox
Which makes the list of atrocities even more valid! If you haven’t read it you should.
I can refer you to a different site if you wish – but the atrocities carried out overturning every step towards mitigation for climate change made by Obama and cancelling every environmental protection they can think of is enormous.
And so it begins.
The business community are getting stuck into Jacinda Ardern.
Claiming they are suffering from “uncertainty”.
In their view expressing wanting to do something positive about climate change is creating uncertainty which is bad for the economy. The implication being that the Labour led Government is bad for the economy.
Dredging up all their old stupid talking points, and attack lines.
Their viciousness shouldn’t be surprising, it is one of the reasons that we as a society cannot make the necessary changes to save ourselves and protect future generations.
Personally speaking, I am one of the “few” that think that the oil and gas industry is a “sunset industry”.
And am doing my damnedest to make sure it becomes so.
We need to confront these tired old attack lines.
The smoking industry did it. To continue with their deadly but profitable busisness Instead of confronting the science head on, they deliberately set out to create uncertainty.
They want certainty, let’s give them certainty.
Let’s make it our job as activists to remove all uncertainty. And without compromise,make these greedy, self centred wreckers know, in no uncertain terms, that the age of fossil fuels will, and must end, and as soon as possible. No more delaying tactics, no more fudging and avoiding the issue. The time has come to take a stand.
Jenny, while I agree completely with your sentiments, I despair for the future of the human race!
JohnSelway’s posting above yours is suggesting that the EPA shouldn’t rely on verifiable science for decisions on protecting the environment, which effectively means doing nothing.
Ask the people of New Zealand to give up their cars for the sake of the world and you’ll get a look of blank amazement, followed probably by abuse.
We shall remain re-active when we should be being pro-active! We won’t seriously begin to do anything about mitigating climate change until it’s far too late to do anything effective.
But hey, we have to try. If it takes getting in the face of oil exploration companies to make people realise how damned serious the problem is, count me in!
“Ask the people of New Zealand to give up their cars for the sake of the world and you’ll get a look of blank amazement, followed probably by abuse.”
Of course you will unless you provide clear evidence that giving up their cars will save the world. First of course you would have to provide clear evidence that the world is somehow in imminent danger from something.
so youre saying there is no need to reduce green house gas emissions?
“so youre saying there is no need to reduce green house gas emissions?”
No.
This is what I said…
“Of course you will unless you provide clear evidence that giving up their cars will save the world. First of course you would have to provide clear evidence that the world is somehow in imminent danger from something.”
“First of course you would have to provide clear evidence that the world is somehow in imminent danger from something.”
Repeating it dosn’t clarify it….that reads that you dont think there is evidence the world is in imminent danger but perhaps thats not what you mean to say…it would be surprising if it was.
In your first reply you stated “so you’re saying there is no need to reduce green house gas emissions?”
That’s not what I said at all, I didn’t even mention greenhouse gas emissions. So I repeated what I stated so that you could read it again.
ah…. this game…so basically a denier…glad we cleared that up.
OMG a climate change denier! I didn’t think the species still existed!
When we do see indisputable evidence for climate change….
…northern rich countries will look to feed then house their populations at lower latitudes. As that’s were former deserts are getting increased rain, and former first world cities are under snow… …glaciers…
So you’d expect say Russia invading any port to its south, Crimea say, and be heavily invested in airports and regimes to the south, aka Turkey, Syria.
Oh, done, and done. Russia believes in climate change.
Eu, France heavily engaged in western Africa…
Only the US thinks climate change is joke, but hey aside from Mexico, where have they got to go…. …Australia.
Oh, and getting a idiot elected in the US.. Russia keeps its goals off the world agenda.
Not sure how you get from my comment to yours but I’m certainly not a climate change denier at all, sorry to disappoint.
There’s plenty of evidence for climate change everywhere. The climate has always changed and always will. The climate has never been stable for any real amount of time.
I was simply stating that if you are going to ask everyone to give up their cars to save the world then unless you provide clear evidence that giving up their cars will save the world then of course they aren’t going to do it. Obviously if everyone in NZ gave up their cars tomorrow, it wouldn’t affect the world’s climate at all and it certainly wouldn’t stop the climate from changing. (Unless you’ve got evidence that it would, in which case I’ll be happy to change my viewpoint)
If you’re wanting to make peoples lives more difficult and cost them money then you need to be pretty specific else why would they do what you want them too?
good. Do it. Give us some certainty. At least then we know whats going and can plan and implement for it.
The problem isn’t expressing something positive about the reaction to climate change, it’s that Jacinda has done that and then gone and given a speech about Business as usual. Which Jacinda is the right Jacinda?
what are you uncertain about? That you should be getting out of the fossil fuel market?
Nah – in business speak, ‘certainty’ doesn’t just mean the absence of uncertainty. It means a guarantee that policy options they are particularly opposed to are ruled out. It is a deeply coded word and contains an implicit threat – “rule out the options we don’t like, or else!”
9 years of getting everything they want… now consultation and they all squeal.
+111
There should be no uncertainty…..it has been clearly signalled…carbon neutral by 2050….all journeys begin with a first step and this is it.
If we dont take it then obviously the journey has been cancelled.
It’s pretty funny how you think that someones behaviour, actions and stated intenions creating uncertainty is an “attack” line.
It’s also funny how you think that you are one of the ” “few” that think that the oil and gas industry is a “sunset industry”. when the states that “Few seriously doubt that oil and gas is sunset industry”
Did you just read the headline and go into full white knight outrage mode that someone had been mildly critical of the prime minister?
All of this post-oil Zero Carbon Economy stuff should be falling on James Shaw.
He is working assiduously behind the scenes, but he needs to come out of the shadows. Particularly about the oil and gas industry.
It’s the first time in a while that we have seen a peak of what economic transition from oil might feel like for our regions.
It looked yesterday like the PM was covering for a Green issue. Which is fine, it’s her job as head of the government.
But its well time for the Greens to step into the mainstream media on the effects of their signature piece of legislation and its intended effects.
Oh but Shaw did step up yesterday, Ad.
Two (pre-prepared?*) questions to Ardern right at the end of Question 5, Bridges to Ardern on “Does she stand by her reported statement when personally receiving a petition from Greenpeace on Monday to end oil and gas exploration that the Government was “actively considering” the issue?”
https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=198878
Shaw comes in at about 4.18 min – less than a minute from the end of 5.12 mins.
Here is the Hansard – https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/HansS_20180321_051750000/5-question-no-5-prime-minister
And an extract with Shaw’s two questions. * I have left in the preceding question from Bridges and Ardern’s answer as Shaw’s first question seems to partly ignore the first sentence of Ardern’s answer re Fonterra. This pretty much indicates that Shaw’s questions were pre-prepared and not reactive to the realtime flow of the discussion – and he reads both questions from a paper in the video.
Hon Simon Bridges: Speaking of the environment, what would be the cost to the climate if Fonterra were no longer able to use natural gas for most of their processing plants and had to revert back to coal in order to continue production and safeguard international food security?
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Even Fonterra has acknowledged that they need to tackle this issue head on, even if the Opposition hasn’t. I’m sure I don’t need to educate that member that there are already gas reserves that can run as far as 2046 and that the decisions around exploration permits this year would run for 14 years plus an extra 20 on top of that. This is about decisions that will affect the next 30 years. This is a Government willing to have that debate even if that last one wasn’t.
Hon James Shaw: Is the Prime Minister aware of Fonterra’s plan to be carbon neutral by 2050 and to phase out coal use entirely?
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Yes. They share our ambition to be carbon neutral by 2050—again, something that the Opposition clearly does not.
Hon James Shaw: Is looking for new fossil fuels the same thing as shutting down existing operations, and what year are the existing operations currently scheduled to wind down?
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: As I acknowledged, we’ve not said that we would be altering current operations, and a number of those fields actually have a shelf life that goes out as far as, potentially, 2046.
Questions in the House are lovely but don’t confuse them for the media.
Shaw needs to break cover, even moreso than Jones.
I agree Ad – and I don’t confuse Qs with the media. Just been rather in the news since Shaw’s announcement last Sunday.
In fact one of the few subjects of the five Press Releases issued by the Greens in the last week, and 23 PRs in the last month since 23 Feb that have got any traction in the media. Figures from Greens website.
Exactly. Greens rarely get media coverage of their releases.
Interesting how business can demand ‘certainty’ but the rest of us are completely exposed to market discipline. No certainty that our jobs won’t be downsized or outsourced to India or China. No certainty that the tax base will support a public healthcare system that can treat us in a timely, clinically up-to-date manner if we get osteoarthritis or cancer (better cripple yourself financially with that private health insurance), if you are young no certainty of ever owning a house….
An interesting vignette of privilege in action.
No certainty about air travel in regions.
But … but… but the economy…. but… but… but gratitude to business.
Mind you Labour dropped taxes they hadnt proposed so scared were they of the back lash, so you cant blame business for thinking some wind and bs will get Labour to give them what they want.
Consumer confidence back to pre election levels
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12016263
As for business confidence some of that appears to be ideologically based rather than reality based
” “A net 10 percent of businesses reported a lift in own trading activity in the December 2017 quarter, an easing from the net 13 percent in the previous quarter. Previous QSBO surveys have shown business confidence tends to fall after Labour takes office, in contrast to a lift in confidence when National takes office, but the effect on actual activity has been muted. Businesses may be worried about the outlook for the New Zealand economy under the new Labour-led Government, but for now this is not reflected in demand in their own business.”
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/91611/nzier-business-opinion-survey-shows-usual-fall-confidence-after-labour-led-government
I agree. They are worried, that is why they say they are “uncertain”.
Jacinda has sent a message. Like all big issues, this won’t be settled easily, or without a fight. The big money is talking scheming and targeting any apparent weakness.
There is a FB “destructometer” and as of last night our time it stood at $50 billion USD and counting….
https://qz.com/1233816/facebook-has-lost-50-billion-in-market-value-over-the-past-two-days/
US will consider re-entering TPP, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin says
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/21/us-will-consider-re-entering-tpp-treasury-secretary-mnuchin-says.html?__source=sharebar%7Cfacebook&par=sharebar#_gus&_gucid=&_gup=Facebook&_gsc=6Zy6dBd
Time to get your submission in – even David Parker – says the current agreement ‘is not perfect’ and is a ‘7 out of 10’.
New Zealand deserves their politicians to get 10 out of 10 so make a submission! (link below)
US will almost certainly join, as was always predicted and that is why there is only suspension of some of the most toxic rules not deletion.
The agreement is already toxic, and delivering nothing but worsening conditions to most Kiwis!
Those with vineyards will benefit however so apparently all worth it!
https://us4.campaign-archive.com/?u=2af728ed394d2e3c92f383cd5&id=f04082dc6b
As I said, by the end of March the USA will be back in.
Yep. And we all know our politicians Kowtow to anybody overseas. NZ rights gone by lunchtime.
Also interesting in the context of Anne’s comment below @ 8.
When have you previously said that here on TS, adam?
Date(s) and comment nos please.
In spite of losing in Supreme Court, NZ bureaucrats are up to it again, denying Greenpeace charitable status.
We all thought things would get better under a Labour/Green/NZ First government…
“Greenpeace Executive Director, Dr Russel Norman, says the Charities Board decision not to grant the environmental organisation charity status is unsurprising given that the Board has resolutely opposed Greenpeace’s application all along, in spite of previously losing the battle in the Supreme Court.”
http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/press/Greenpeace-isnt-a-charity-its-a-necessity/
All the current board members are National Party appointments. Peeni Henare is the responsible minister.
Good to know, but unfortunately our entire country is now plagued with half witted bureaucrats who spend their budgets on lawyers to defend their poor decisions and try to take others down.
Get rid of the rot in the public service!
TPPA is another example, what normal person thinks that lawyers can solve all their problems???
A, too many lawyers in parliament making bad decisions and thinking other lawyers will save them at great costs to the country which the country can’t afford to constantly defend a poor agreement from lazy bureaucrats who wouldn’t have an original or practical thought if their life depended on it.
The world is going to end. I’m blaming Shane Jones. You see I’ve been on MikeWatch – in the ward seeing whether Hosking will survive.
“The government doesn’t have the bank balance to bluster their way into financial catastrophe in a company they own 51 per cent of.”
If Air New Zealand “goes pear-shaped, airlines don’t lose a few million, they lose a few hundred million. The margins are tiny, the risk is huge.” We only have money for SCF, eh Mike?
Anyone’d think Jones had started World War 3 or the outspew was about his beloved Warriors – ‘Jones is a dangerous man, attack dog, Machiavellian, threatening people, thuggish, wage war, loutish assault …’
For those of us who live in the provinces, we applaud Jones’ words. We pay far more to fly Air NZ Blenheim to Wellington that it costs to fly Christchurch to Auckland. We subsidise the bigger urban flights.
That’s one hell of an assertion. Can you prove it?
Can you explain why you subsides the bigger urban flights.
Have to agree with Shane Jones on this (a first!), the NZ taxpayers owns 1/2 the airline and they should not be price gouging and cutting off domestic travel so they can spend money on sponsoring dinners for Obama for example.
Too much of corporations time is being spent brown nosing and networking for themselves to get better job offers and photo opportunities, rather than actually looking after their long term company prospects.
Air NZ should not be an airline that rips people off. Too many companies in this country are a NZ company when it suits them for marketing, but they do little to support everyone in NZ and have become used to ripping Kiwi’s off.
Fonterra is another one, I think overseas people are paying less for NZ milk and cheese than locals! It’s disgraceful! Then they wonder why Kiwis are going off milk, butter and cheese! I wonder??????? and a lot of Kiwi’s think dairy is an evil polluter – well if the company has little social conscience and is polluting while pretending they are not, of course people are not going to support the corporation!
(If the dimwits in corporate marketing have not worked this out, people are onto fake news. So maybe have substance behind any claims and actually become a good corporate citizen instead of fat cats say on 8 million posting loses, pretending they care about NZ and Kiwis.)
Yesterday some religious group was hanging around the tuck shop at Miss 13s High School handing out bibles.
Question please….. is this common in other NZ High Schools?
I’m really not down with religious propaganda being preached at school unless it’s Social Studies and they are covering and discussing all denominations.
Thanks in advance.
🙂 not particularly relevant but your comment took me back 45 years to my Fourth form English teacher he told a fellow pupil to categorise the Bible – when the student defined it as a “Historical Novel” I learned firsthand what apoplexy looks like.
LMAO !!! Thanks Barfly, that was funny. It’s the little things I love about TS, like the beautiful vocab commentators use, well said 🙂
Wonderful anecdote, Barfly!
And isn’t apoplexy a wonderful word. I think I first found it in one of Jane Austin’s books – “Mansfield Park” ?
Anyway, I wondered what it was like and found out with a vengeance when I told my father at age 12 or 13 that I was not going to go through with “confirmation” at Bible class at our Presbyterian Church as I did not believe in Christ as my saviour and it would be hypocritical to do so.
Father was an elder in the Church and Head of Sunday School, Bible Class etc at the time – embarassing much! I thought he was going to explode. He was bright red and puffed up – and I immediately thought so this is apoplexy! LOL.
He asked me to leave him for 10 minutes to think about it. We remet at the appointed time when he had calmed down and said that it was obviously my decision to make but he wanted me to write up the reasons for my decision.
I presented him with an essay with my reasons etc, and having read it, he asked me if he could give it to the meeting of Elders of the Church (Session?). I agreed and offered to present it to them in person, which duly happened.
On the Sunday that all the rest of my age group took confirmation, I was there in the back by myself – at my own volition as parents had given me the option. At the end of the ceremony the Minister referred to the fact that I was the only one who had declined to take confirmation and summarised my essay to the whole meeting. He said that he and the other Elders were extremely impressed with the thought I had put into my decision and essay; and that they accepted my decision with respect.
My parents later told me that while they had hoped I would go through with confirmation, they were so proud of me that I was prepared to stand up and go against the flow for my own well thought out decision.
Great!! LOL
What was the expected answer?
It isn’t much of a novel – plot, structure and story is hard to follow.
Don’t know, Cinny, re whether it is common at other schools, but giving away bibles is usually a tactic of the Gideons or Bible Society here in NZ.
Here is a Google search re their activities in NZ
https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=Gideons+nz&rlz=1C1LDJZ_enNZ499&oq=Gideons+nz&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.9765j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
I also tried “handing out bibles schools nz” and there are a few interesting links in that search
https://www.google.co.nz/search?rlz=1C1LDJZ_enNZ499&ei=xs2yWrfkA4ya8wWZxqWIBw&q=handing+out+bibles+schools+nz&oq=handing+out+bibles+schools+nz&gs_l=psy-ab.12…47629.50922.0.53820.4.4.0.0.0.0.308.1098.2-3j1.4.0….0…1.1.64.psy-ab..0.3.838…0i7i30k1j33i22i29i30k1j33i160k1.0.bKuczrhGtc8
But have you asked the school itself?
I will be interested what you find out.
Cinny you are correct. The insidious ways they get religion into secular areas is an ongoing battle. My personal experience was a “homework group” Which turned out to be evangelical bible studies. When they changed the name to Bible Studies, their number went from 18 down to 3.
This has to be watched, as I found some Board members thought through personal bias that this was fine, and I was doing the devil’s work!! When confronted with the Education Act 1964 many were amazed. I would get told we are a Christian country.
The decision to be secular was to avoid religious confrontations. Schools are supposed to be closed for religious instruction, and parents can opt their children into or out of the programme offered, but they need to know!!
So ask your Principal who in the school makes decisions regarding religious instruction? When? Where? How often? Format and content of lessons? Who will lead these sessions? What happens to the children opted out by parents? What about religious texts bibles etc.?
I’ve heard of other cases like this. It seems that these religious people are more than prepared to lie to get their indoctrination into schools (and in pretty much everything else for that matter).
My young daughter has yet to ask me about God and Jesus etc but one day I’m going to have to explain to her why some people believe such silly things
Hi John, maybeI replace God with words like love, consciousness, unity .
Not using the ‘G’ word (and all the personal baggage that inevitably comes with it), can free up a dialogue.
I’ll start her with comparative religion i.e. many people believe in different things and different gods but your dad doesn’t believe in any of those.
We do good and treat people well not because we have to but because we want to. We don’t lie, cheat or steal because it makes others feel bad.
Something like that anyway – she’s only fucking 4 and she is still having trouble with the whole “Where do babies come from” so I might sort that out before introducing her to abstruse concepts like religion and god
“When confronted with the Education Act 1964 many were amazed.”
So would I be considering it was repealed in 1989.
LOL. But I believe that PB was a teacher quite a long time ago from comments she has made here on TS re her age and former profession.
Enough is enough,
I was teaching then!! From 1961 through to 2001 with time off for my family 35 years The law was altered but basically the same in the remaining Intermediates through till 2001.Cheers.
heh.
Not in NZ, but that reminded me of some bible or other getting passed out at my High School. I think they might have been those ones that hang around (or used to hang around) hotel rooms or whatever.
Anyway. One kid ripped his up. And got suspended if my memory serves me right. And this was in a non-denominational school of some 2000 pupils
That said, for a whole host of reasons, I can’t quite see that bibles would be successfully passed out in schools these days.
Gideons are the ones who put them in hotel rooms AFAIK. See 7.2
Yep – it is the Gideons
Your best bet would probably to speak to these people.
As far as I’m concerned handing out bibles like that at school should be illegal with a very, very large fine for the church thrown in when they do it.
An on-line news site yesterday (can’t find it now) was reporting a broad break-down of the guest list to tonight’s Obama dinner. Of particular interest to me was the fact 27 National Party MPs have been invited and only 13 Labour MPs.
Jacinda Ardern (of course) was one of the invitees but isn’t attending due to a prior engagement. David Parker – the government’s power house – is not invited yet Alfred Ngaro – the dim bulb from National – is invited. Strange.
The dinner has been arranged by the NZ/US Society who I imagine are made up of predominantly Republican orientated individuals, especially now we have a Republican backed US Ambassador. Perhaps that accounts for the disparity.
The US Democratic Party would comfortably span all New Zealand parties – except maybe Act.
Their churches are necessarily far broader than ours.
Maybe that is why the democrats are not trusted anymore, too many right wing decisions not in the interests of most American’s. (Food for thought for NZ Labour).
Remember post US financial Crisis Obama bailed out the banks, but failed to stipulate any part of the company or the money being paid back, or the executive fees being lowered.
So the banks who caused it, got bailed out, became richer and many American’s lost their job, house, savings.
Doesn’t sound like a trustworthy decision. But Obama and Key hit it off, and enjoy their golf games with so much in common.
Yes, Ad, and that is why I see the media which is commenting on the Key/Obama relationship to the detriment of PM Ardern is mischief-making.
I’d also ask who is former President Obama now when people say he is still one of the most powerful men in the world? Surely he is an elder statesman now and wise, but in terms of power beyond that accorded by respect, persuasion and reason, what has he?
Certainly the current President is disdainful, the Democrats do not have an ascendancy and corporate America is still that.
Am well aware of that Ad @ 8.1, but at a NZ level the participants in the US/NZ society probably regard themselves as having more in common with National. In other words, if they were able to vote in NZ elections they would vote National – hence the reason double the no. of Nats over Lab. invited to their little party.
His trip is funded by Banks which will explain the guest list
Also noted Anne the cheesy little pic of bridges talking to Obama on his JOHN the pony tail pullers cellphone. What really is the purpose of Obama’s visit.? How much is it costing us? Bet it was arranged before the change of govt.
I wish JOHN key would piss off
Key has been posting photos of himself and the son (forgotten his name) on Facebook knowing they will be picked up and plastered all over the media. No coincidence imo.
Another example of the attempts to belittle Jacinda (aided and abetted by the Nat media) and cut her out of the general picture… make her look like she doesn’t count… she’s not up to the job so best ignored kind of thing.
Reality for activists on the ground in Russia. This is quite depressing reading so I’m going to call for some caution for readers. The FSB is in my eyes a criminal organization hell bent on crushing any dissent, and bolstering Putan at any cost. The reality is that is at the cost of ordinary women and men right across Russia. Here are but two examples.
https://libcom.org/news/support-political-prisoner-anarchist-evgeny-karakashev-21032018
https://therussianreader.com/2018/03/20/emand-extension-hearing-penza-terrorists/
If you think starting a trade war with Russia will help these people. Then your deeply deluded. Governments like this, love external threats, it helps them crush the people at home.
We’re not meant to think of anything in terms of those people (ie – people just like us).
The only time we get any media exposure is when a dairy is robbed, some-one is shot or something stupid or banal can be ridden off our backs for some “human interest” story/headline.
In other words, we are meant to actively discount ourselves and are encouraged to do that at every turn.
“Big Boys”* count. Only “Big Boys” count. And we’re given endless helpful tips on discerning who the “Big Boys” are – through headlines and lead stories endlessly informing us of just how important, smart and influential those “Big Boys” are.
And so while we are discounted, marginalised and disappeared, we can nevertheless get to share in a sense of power and importance by lending our voice or support to some agenda of some “Big Boy” or other.
It’s been working a treat for quite a while now…we keep on disappearing ourselves while simultaneously lifting up those who can only survive by way of our invisibility.
The fact those stories are from sites on the margins of the internet, and the fact they represent the merest tip of what is heaped on our heads and shoveled into our lives every day by these “Big Boys” and their configurations of power – surely that shows us all we need to see, no?
*inclusive of women, but seeing as how we’re talking about systems of patriarchal power, I thought the term “Big Boy” was appropriate enough.
Very articulately put.
Thank you tracey. I have my moments 😉
Many in fact Bill
😉
+111
We cannot afford the rich.
Waikato Hospital Board processes.
They spend $150,000 on a CEO selection process then get slammed for not asking an opinion of the eventual appointee’s former employee.
The former Chairman, who resigned over the matter, should also bear some of he responsibility for misappropriation of funds by that CEO in that he gave authorisation for expenditure held in large part to be unable to be authorised as legitimate business.
I hope the Serious Fraud Office will truly perform its duties here.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/health/2018/03/more-than-half-of-former-waikato-dhb-ceo-nigel-murray-s-spending-unjustified-report.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Simcock
One of the things that is why NZ (and a lot of western countries) going down the toilet. They can not even do the most practical thing in relation to their job and nobody in the executive team does any due diligence anymore as they employ a range of ‘consultants’ to do their thinking or lack of it, for them.
As for spending $150k on one person’s recruitment – it’s not just the applicant they chose that are the crooks!!!
No wonder the health system is in trouble with these lazy dimwits at the helm paying gold for other incompetents.
C level execs employing D level execs… the rout continues
Johnathan Coleman has resigned. More sacarine BS about his great service blah blah blah but our health and hospital systems degraded under his watch
Yeah. Something about this churn/renewal in the National caucus. It stands in stark contrast to what the NZ Labour caucus did.
Sure, a few moved on, but far too many hung on in there. And in spite of leadership contests not going their way, they achieved, through a fair amount of monkey wrenching to secure a bit of fiefdom for themselves.
And I think it’s worth remembering back a few years when the suggestion that too many in the NZ Labour caucus would rather be big fish in a pond or puddle of opposition than give way to change, wasn’t by any means a marginal opinion.
All those years spent securing power instead of allowing NZ Labour to prepare for it…
And well, are we now looking at a one term government that merely hankers for the days and policies and strategies of a pre-2008 NZ Labour Party that we, the voting public, have already rejected once?
As a side bar.
What’s happened to that process of internal democratisation that was begun a few years back, but never seen through to a conclusion? Can we take it that since Ardern’s leadership hasn’t been endorsed (rubber stamped) by any membership vote yet, that it’s being viewed as “best forgotten”?
He has only been in parliament since 2005.
Where have resigned Labour MPs gone I wonder versus post parliament for Nats? How many keep pursuing forms of public service versus going to work in the private sector? Might be an interrsting analysis?
I think traditionally, the “revolving door” serves ex-National mps better than it does ex-NZ Labour mps.
Cullen went to Kiwi Bank, yes? (But now he’s back….along with Simpson). Clark went to the UN and is now…who knows? Goff stayed…and stayed…and stayed. (and is still in politics).
King wouldn’t let go. (What’s she up to now?)
The big names of NZ Labour are (and after an entire decade!) still very much associated with NZ Labour. All but dead ducks and their carefully managed proteges flapping…slowly and slower.
I don’t agree about a “one term government” Bill.
Jacinda and her coalition partner and supply and support group will have worked out how to appeal to the electorate in 20 20. National not so much.
Prior to his appointment as head of the Waikato DHB Dr Murray was dismissed from Fraser Health in Canada. A British Colombia government ordered review established that Fraser Health was the worst performing medical entity in all of Canada. It took 12 months to clean the outfit up after Dr Murray was shown the door.
Naturally it was going to be a disaster. I feel Dr Murray’s best defense is to point out that of course we were robbed blind, we got what we asked for. We paid $150,000 to establish that of all the available medical executives in the world, Dr Murray was the best choice. We got what we deserved.
Even with the justified expenses: The executive medical fraternity travel first class around the world on luxury holidays masquerading as conferences while the dedicated and honest nurses doing the hard yards struggle to make ends meet.
Ground these high flying chooks. Their job is running hospitals not testing the world’s Hilton suites and jet-ski facilities.
Ah, so it was in Canada. Well, you can’t go wasting money on ringing all the way to Canada, can you. After all, it was only $150,000 wasted.
I believe the protocol is to put /sarc after such a comment………..
Some years ago, I outed a con man from a position where he could have done a lot of damage. In his case, the phone number to a referee was to his own phone, which eventually got him caught, when he used the same number for his work.
It seems that he had been a con artist in business firms but instead of prosecuting
him for fraud, these firms just let him go for some other entity to pick up. We prosecuted him, and the firm that he went to work for was advised of his criminal record.
Fear of being seen to employ conmen, fear of looking stupid because firms were conned by these men, overcame their sense of responsibility to the community.
I am pleased to see the Minister of Education has the make up of the “Teacher’s Council” Bill to have 7 teachers nominated by teachers and 6 by the department.
This recognises teachers, and values their opinions.
Further steps to limit who gets the title “Teacher” according to educational qualifications. Yes Yes!! Others are coaches, instructors, teacher aides, etc.
Well done Chris.
One thing Labour and NZ First is doing well in, is primary and secondary education decisions. If only they could be more consistent with forward thinking, in other areas of policy.
See Colemans resigned, which will spark a by election.
Very safe Nat seat
Weren’t the Greens keen for Northcote? What about a “northland’ effort by NZ First, Labour and Greens to defeat the Natz in another ‘safe’ seat?
But he was a nice white boy….
The quiet, home-schooled son
[…]
Neighbors said the Conditt family, who live in a neat white house with a blue picket fence around the front porch,
[..]
“They are a really nice, calm family,” said retiree Jeff Reeb, who lives next door. “They have always been extremely nice.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-texas-blast-conditt/deadly-texas-blast-suspect-was-quiet-home-schooled-idUSKBN1GX2J0
to Joe90 at 13 ; Yes, knocks the particular threads of prejudice somewhat!
Let’s hope it causes their widespread questioning.
Jonathan Coleman has resigned from parliament. In 2017 his so-called safe National seat had the following party votes:
Nat 18005
Act 261
Total 18266
Lab 12639
Gr 2496
Nzf 2221
Total 17356
TOP 845
Only 910 between the 2 blocs. Have excluded TOP. Will be interesting to see what happens in the by-election.
Coleman is an unpleasant politician and will not be sadly missed. And he let the Health system down.
Slight correction. Jonathon Coleman was the worst performing Minister Of Health in living memory.
Bill English was worst.
Coleman was useless but Shipley was worse….theres a pattern with National and the Health portfolio
I hope he gets that throat seen to.
Well what do you know, another rat leaving the opposition. Jonathan Colman has resigned and first thing that came to mind was “what a coincidence”.
This morning on Morning Report there was a damning report on the rotting wall linings of a Middlemore Hospital, it is contained in the wall linings as we speak but it will be dangerous to health if it works its way through to the wall surfaces. It is a bad situation for the hospital and has been left unattended for years. It has been known since 2012 or thereabouts and I thought to myself, what the hell was the last Minister of Health doing about it sitting on his behind doing sweet all.
Then, lo and behold he has quit, do these people have inside knowledge of the shit going to hit the fan or is it just their skilled way of escaping responsibility that allows this to happen. Shame on all ministers of the crown who do absolutely jack shit about their portfolios when in office.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018637191/rot-mould-plagues-middlemore-hospital-buildings
Apparently even the hospital boilers are blowing up nearly killing people. The CFO’s just go to another DHB, and advance their careers leaving a dangerous trail of unmaintained destruction in their wake.
Apparently he is going into a role with the private sector – why would anybody want to employ such an incompetent minister, he had a high opinion of himself and was arrogant and that sums it up for him – plus his love of cigars – go figure.
I don’t know……Cunliffe got another job
At least Cunliffe went back to stuff he had done before
Coleman is going to a job running a private sector health company. Acurity health group. There should be a period of time where his right to use the intellectual property, resources & networks built up as Ministered the Crown is restricted. Mind you’ve was no shining light as Minister so good luck to them.
+1 Venezia
Bhutan: Only carbon negative country in the world.
I hope that link works.
Interesting…and with a slightly higher population density than NZ.
“Former US President Barack Obama is questioning Sir John Key’s counting skills in the golfing match that Team NZ won yesterday.”
Remember Key said the other day that “Obama was a stickler for the golf rules.”
This implies that Key is not such a man and Obama knows it.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12017861
Auckland Regional Fuel Tax by 1 July.
Bill introduced this afternoon.
Auckland LTP counts as consultation I presume.
Fast work Minister Twyford.
I bet some will wish it had gone to the working groups they keep cursing 😉
This is getting interesting.
Nearly a year before Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired senior FBI official Andrew McCabe for what Sessions called a “lack of candor,” McCabe oversaw a federal criminal investigation into whether Sessions lacked candor when testifying before Congress about contacts with Russian operatives, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/exclusive-fired-fbi-official-authorized-criminal-probe-sessions/story?id=53914006
More good moves from a caring government.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/03/government-moves-to-scrap-letting-fees-for-tenants.html
The government has introduced legislation to ban letting fees for tenants. Also it is said that greater security of tenure and a 12 month period before rents can be raised will also be introduced before the end of the year.
Stumping up with a four week bond, a two week rental deposit and another week’s rent as a ‘letting fee’ must be very difficult for some, with moving costs on top.
And more happy news.
” In just 10 days, the minimum wage will be increased to $16.50 per hour. This raise was one of the Government’s top priorities. It will benefit approximately 164,000 workers and their families, and will increase wages throughout the economy by $129 million per year.
We are further committed to raising the minimum wage for working New Zealanders to $20 by 2021.”
And us pensioners will have warmer homes courtesy of the winter warmth grant Starting in 2018, the Winter Energy Payment will begin from 1 July to 30 September and from 2019 for five months from 1 May to 30 September.
Who need worry so much about the coal-man, or the Coleman for that matter………..
Of Course they could have installed solar panels on the oldies houses to help them all year around, but of course that would be cutting down corporate profits and that is why in the age of carbon neutrality power companies have inexplicably been allowed to charge more for people who use solar panels. Go figure. Of course that was under a Natz government, but haven’t seen the Labour government trying to kill two birds with one stone, aka save money and save environment.
Please note – not every house, situation or season is suitable for solar panels. The energy payment will be gratefully received in this household (although we do have solar panels) as the house has to be kept extra warm for my husband who has Alzheimers and feels the cold.
Pleased you are going to get the winter payment Firepig. Keep well.
That would’ve been lovely for the solar panel manufacturing corporates savey.
Yep don’t want to reward a company manufacturing something that is sustainable and will reduce carbon footprint when the oil and gas industry need the corporate welfare so much. Coal is also popular and not too much fuss after Pike River, I see.
Yup how far into a solar panel’s lifespan does it exceed in output the energy expended in its manufacture savey?
If I want to, I could use the payments for the next two years and pay for a sixth PV panel.
That would provide enough PV generation to run a 1 kw heater during the middle of the day for 18 minutes every hour the sun shone.
A solar panel is not the best way to provide heat in the middle of a winter’s night.
Of course they help with the overall power bill, but you still have to have enough money to heat the house. That is what the money is for.
The individual owner decides how to use it. Rather clever idea, that- let the citizen consumer decide.
Do I install another panel? Or use the $30 to buy power to heat the house, all day and night? Or wood? Or gas? Or whisky?
Hmmmmmm…………
Newshub jonathan coleman Good ridence OUR health system are in a shambles it all about te tangata te tangata not one’s own agenda.
Wow Facebook is getting served for letting Cambridge analytics abuse the data of 50 million Americans.
The problem is its not just Facebook that has breach te tangata the people trust there are other companies that have done that as well one has to hold all the offenders to account to stop this cheating the people the 99.9 % of Common people of there democract voice Ka pai Ka kite ano
There you go Newhub works are losing there share of the money pie many thanks for reporting this I say it would be at least 10% from jobs I have worked the wages haven’t changed in 20 years rents are just about one person wage to pay per week I know things were much easier 20 years ago Ka pai Ka kite ano P.S. Anthony Joshua is sceared
The project you gave it your best Paddy good on you I heard that Obama called shonky a bad golf cheat lol The sandflys have been going hard for the last few days idiots you won’t even be able to fathom what they get up to. Your a Naki man Paddy that explains it Ka pai Ka kite ano
The project I never ever have a face book page I new it’s to open to minupulation.
Profits Of Rage one of my favourite bands they are onto it Jesse and Kanoe Ka pai Ka kite ano there song UN___THE WORLD is excerlint the video is tops to ka kite ano
For those with a serious or even passing interest in what is happening in Syria and Eastern Ghouta in particular.
It would be hard to go past this essay.
“Ghouta: Issues Behind the Apocalypse: Armed and civil rebellion, Class and Islam”
By Michael Karadjis
There is a a hell of lot to unpack here.
Maybe it would be best if you just scrolled down to the headline article that you are most interested in. And take the time to read the attached links, and footnotes.
https://mkaradjis.wordpress.com/2018/03/21/ghouta-issues-behind-the-apocalypse-armed-and-civil-rebellion-class-and-islam/
Newshub I could not have our morning talk the Tokoroa red neck sandflys allways block my phone and another phone on the cell tower from getting the standard website disprit exclusive brethren lol we got a good sports weekend coming up Kia kaha people Duncan hope you had a good time at the Obama dinner I wish I was there he is brilliant. The health system are stressed because of shonky and his m8.
Some people should realise that they are ways we can both be winners. When Eco Maori is determined he gets his way fulls top. Stop listening to the sandflys and think of a way we both WIN I’M not the bad guy your adviser are leading you in the wrong direction there only objective is to try and damage my Mana not your wellbeing. Ka kite ano