I've kinda got an issue with their just brushing aside and minimising population growth as a contributing issue.
Like many other things, that's an area where New Zealand's only significant contribution can come from leading by example. We could choose to say we reject the idea of continual growth (including population growth) and choose to find ways to make steady state and circular economics work.
We could choose to reject the hand-wringing and bedwetting about the fact that the native birth rate is below replacement. And embrace the idea that that gives us more opportunity to welcome some from parts of the world that will get hammered by the changes coming.
Explicitly embracing the idea of below-replacement birth rates and falling populations could set a highly visible example to the rest of the world. In a similar way to our nuclear-free stance.
It's the kind of change that can only happen by shifting general social attitudes.
One way to help shift general social attitudes with respect to populations is pieces like the one wags linked start talking about the good aspects of lower populations and fewer kids per family, rather than just brushing the issue aside.
Yet leaders are significantly products of their formative environments.
AOC was late teens/early twenties going through the GFC, watching the flaws of lightly regulated free-market rapaciousness while the social environment around her was filled with disgust at their "leaders" inadequate response. Would she have become the leader she is now if the environment around hadn't had the senseof there being a better way?
Similarly Greta Thunberg is coming of age at a time when the general social environment is demanding climate change action. Yet there have been high profile serious people having a damn good go at leading on this topic for decades and getting very little traction.
Leadership is a synergy of the leader's personal qualities and the environment they are in.
and where was the social environment that determined that growth come what may was desirable?….the demand for that was promoted by a narrow section of society that captured the 'leadership'. The synergy argument dosnt hold water when that fact is examined
Growth is clearly and self-evidently desirable when your environment is one where the best strategy for the success of your own group is to overwhelm the"other" by sheer force of numbers, and there's also significant vacant or underused territory your group can expand into to grab more resource to support the expansion of your group.
Both those factors have been true for the vast majority of people for the vast majority of human history. But they stopped being true sometime in the last few generations. That's a helluva lot of cultural inertia and memory to try to turn around.
Going from survival of the fitest to we are all one is most likely beyond what evolution made us . But there is hope i guess. I see glimmers of hope in the younger generations .
We have been able to benefit from how: oil based products, pesticides, water management, the improvement of medicine and more that have allowed the pop. to increase to 7.7b.
What is the cost of these ? and for how long can this continue for
IMO to manage what we are facing a large portion of the solution is our pop. and what is the viable carrying capacity of the earth with changes that need to be implemented ASAP, but that is only one persons observations 🤔
But Gaia may have a natural solution with the visit of the 4 horseman
I was looking at the stuff website and a strange woman started to talk so I tracked down which image appeared to be live and when I found it I couldn't get an image or stop the sound. Strange.
(Everything's up to date in Kansas [insert chosen location here] city, They've gone about as far as they can go. What next!)
I saw a Newshub update on this but when I went to their website it wasn't there. Happened once before too – slack editing, or evidence that TV3 liaison is somewhat haphazard.
"Brazilian beetles, first released in 2011, haven’t wasted any time getting stuck into the swathes of tradescantia (Tradescantia fluminensis) that are infesting gardens, reserves and conservation land. Three beetle species have been released − a leaf beetle (Neolema ogloblini), a stem beetle (Lema basicostata), and a tip beetle (Neolema abbreviata) − which were selected to attack different parts of the plant." https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/publications/newsletters/biological-control-of-weeds/issue-84/tradescantia-be-gone
Traditionally known as wandering jew, the Newshub reporter called it wandering willy. Not the first media reporter I've seen do this, so I suspect some moron, or group of morons, decided that the traditional name is disrespectful to jews so deemed it politically incorrect. The basic idea behind this type of thinking is that media consumers are morons, so any other moron or group of morons can get away with telling them what to do.
Anyway, gardeners have tried various methods of eliminating the plant, and I can verify from many years of personal experience on different properties that success is only achieved where infestations are fairly small and localised, and even then it takes diligence and time. Just a single broken piece an inch long will grow roots and become an inch long. If it lies exposed on the ground through summer, even continuous sun-baking will not dry it out. It is resilient, will bide it's time, and root when the rains come.
The Newshub report showed that large swathes of the plant have been consumed by the beetles, so the control design seems effective. That's taken eight years though, so it ain't fast. No adverse effects reported, so I hope the govt decides on general release soon.
I recall it in the '60s as being called "Wandering Willie" then too, never really saw it spelled out in full so whether with a Kwiw accent it was also "jew" or "dew" is another one of the things people are finding to fret over whereas, as always, there are much bigger issues that need the focus.
My father was chatting with our Jewish next door neighbour over the back fence one weekend afternoon, and idly pointed to the mass of green weed that had colonised our compost heap, the fence and progressing onward over everything it could reach.
Dad was saying how "he was going to get stuck in and eradicate this wandering …" and our neighbour smiled and said "yeah we call it Wandering Christian actually :-)"
Hey Red, your comment box now has these new smiley options available at a click. I've just seen my lapse in proof-reading, so must apologise to all for this:
"Just a single broken piece an inch long will grow roots and become an inch long." I thought I was writing "become a new plant". However my subconscious decided to replace it with a re-run of what I had typed a few moments earlier.
This is a new type of senior moment! Unless other elderly commentators can prove earlier versions of same, I will claim inventor's rights…
Calm down! I only ever knew it as wandering wiĺlie as a kid in the 50s. We thought it was hilarious because it was our dad's name. Maybe it's a regional thing.
Oh, how interesting. Thanks Jan – and also Rapunzel – for corroboration that it did indeed predate the pc era. I can park the grumpy old man syndrome for a while.
Good thinking. I recall as a kid in the fifties when almost all suburban families had a chicken run out back. No supermarkets in Aotearoa till the seventies.
My ex-partner installed one three years ago. Built herself a multi-level shelter at one end with laying straw in roosts & trapdoors above for easy extraction of eggs, has four hens. Observing them on visits reminded me that hen-pecking is a form of bullying. Given that all birds are residual dinosaurs, one wonders if T Rex also did hen-pecking. That would have been awesome to watch.
You must have lived South of the Bombay Hills. Apparently the first supermarkets were in Auckland as early as 1957. There was one with a large car park no less in 1958. Ah civilization had reached our shores.
I grew up in Napier in the 1950's. I can only remember one of the neighbours who had chickens at that time. They were fairly common for people who lived on rather bigger bits of land out in Greenmeadows, Taradale and Clive though.
Maybe regional variations applied then, which we didn't know about. My childhood was in New Plymouth, then college in Wanganui, didn't arrive in Auckland till early '68. I didn't know about that one in Devonport. Students never went to such remote places – poor people still packed buses & trains then (cars were not an option for students).
I had chickens in my Napier state house in 1957, as on Napier's main Emerson Street at 'Woolworths' they sold 'day old' chicks every august, – that we would fatten them up for Xmas dinner.
Yes cleangreen, my Dad had chickens, Rhode Island Reds and Black Orpingtons. In 1951 Mum used to buy 24 day old chicks, twice a year from her cousin who had a hatchery. They used to come by train from Hamilton to Te Kuiiti. The worst part of the trip was the 26 miles of rough metal road to Benneydale in Dad's T Ford!! The good old days,
We don't all live in the bush (I wish). Management varies and varied solutions are useful.
NZ originally had vast numbers of birds that browsed at various trophic levels of the forest. Now Moa are extinct, and the people trying to make things 'like they were' – what time-point was ideal? Can we bring the Moa back with genetics labs, PR and capital?
Obviously, we want functional ecology. Conservation is a lofty but confused goal. Whereever invasives can be turned to human use their control becomes a lot easier (but eradication nigh on impossible).
No more pesticides, no excuses. The impending loss of insects will cost us everything. It is as urgent an issue as climate change.
Auckland council use(d?) early season rust fungi (from Tradescantia) to spray on Tradescantia and reduce its rampancy (to varying extent) in the region. A new bio-control is obviously welcome it's efficacy remains to be seen.
Animals perform a number of ecosystem functions and when these are understood and managed correctly, they might (gladly) do a lot of work for you while creating animal products e.g. weeding, tilling, fertilising, insect control, turn unpalatable materials to palatable materials.
Our Farmers understand the pulses of seasons, and how this ties in with production. As their ecological understanding grows (some are exemplars in their field) biodiversity will become synonymous with production where many more seasonal pulses can be used to obtain yields. Slowly, balance might be restored as trees (and all they bring) repopulate the landscape.
In urban areas, we can create habitat for bugs. And of course stop using insecticides.
If you have chickens and Tradescantia/Oxalis, well, you know what to do.
I'm not going to recommend this piece by Jane Bowron to read except if you are interested to find how many mixed metaphors can be jumbled together to say very little in a column. Here's an example.
"Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern dropped the controversial policy like a hot spud and pledged that while she's at the helm that dog will never hunt again.
Result. Peters' fan base is deliriously happy that he's finally manned up to show who calls the shots; Simon Bridges has lost any bit of skin he has left in the game; and St Jacinda looks like a cynical politician unable to stick to her guns and exact core Labour Party policy."
The writer, Jane Bowron, takes four opening paragraphs to start even before the topic of the headline is introduced. It's fluff, an opinion piece written to fill a space. I wonderd when reading it if she's actually spoofing bad writing. She succeeded if that was her aim.
There’s a lot of talk about reform and leadership at the United Nations’ podium and a lot of working against it in the UN corridors. And it’s not simply sabotage – member states have always guarded against the system being hijacked by others. What will it take for the UN to change, given that its very structure cements a status quo as a means of ensuring neutrality? To discuss this, Oksana is joined by Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand and former administrator of the UN Development Program. This interview took place at the Horasis Global Meeting in Cascais, Portugal.
It has always seemed to me that examining the words of Helen Clark to discern signs of intelligence is a waste of time. But I've got an open mind. If you found any evidence of such, I'd consider the potential merit of it…
Let's put it this way, HC's views, whether you regard them as intellectual or not, are informed by an accumulated experience several orders of magnitude greater than all of us regulars here put together
Edit: If you really thirst for intellectual, can I recommend this guy?
Indeed. One cannot deny the extent of her operational experience. It's the learning therefrom that is in question. I'm curious to see if she has any helpful analysis of the problem, but not enough to overcome the distaste based on prior experience of her (non-)contributions. If she actually produced a solution to the problem there's a very real danger of folks dropping dead from astonishment…
Nifty presentation, which I managed to endure due to exercise of willpower to overcome dislike of maths. Incorporating physics into the design was clever, and lack of real-world application acknowledged, but it ended with a teaser: the pi-implied circle, invisible in the presentation, would only be revealed to viewers who choose to watch the next thrilling installment of maths-by-graphic. Not me.
Engineering math was my stumbling block too; I could follow it as long as I could map it onto something physical. But the point where it became totally abstract I struggled. Fourier transforms yes, Laplace transforms no.
3Blue1Brown does a brilliant job of breaking this barrier down with visuals and modern interpretations that I only wish was around 40 years earlier .
Mathematicians are the princes of the modern world, and despite my limitations I always wished to be fully admitted to their ranks. Ah well we all have our failed dreams.
I take your point despite never viewing mathematicians with respect. I always discounted them due to their propensity for abstractions being even worse than that of physicists (hard to believe). But I ought to acknowledge that maths is used to validate and empower physics, and certainly forms the basis of computing. I wonder if our service provider (LPrent) will volunteer a personal take on this interface between imaginal and real.
A mathematician is having problems with a leaky sink, so he calls a plumber. The plumber comes over and quickly fixes the sink. The professor is happy until he gets the bill. He tells the plumber, "This is outrageous! You charge more for an hour than I make in a whole day!"
The plumber tells him, "You know, we are always looking for more plumbers. You could become a plumber and triple your salary. Just make sure you say you only made it to 6th grade, they don't like educated people."
The professor takes him up on the offer and becomes a plumber. His salary triples and he doesn't have to work nearly as hard. But after a few years, a law gets passed that all licensed plumbers must have at least an 8th grade education…Not wanting to admit he lied on his application, he signs up for night classes.
On the first day of night School they all attend math class. The teacher wants to gauge the class so he asks the former mathematician, "What is the formula for the area of a circle?"
He walks up to the board and realizes he has forgotten the formula. So he begins to attempt to derive the formula, filling the board with complicated mathematics. He ends up figuring out it is negative pi times radius squared, but he knows that's incorrect, so he starts over, but again he comes up with the same equation.
After staring at the board for a minute he hears one of the plumbers in the class behind him whisper, "Switch the limits on the integral, dummy!"
Mathematics is a part of physics. Physics is an experimental science, a part of natural science. Mathematics is the part of physics where experiments are cheap.
Good grief Dennis Frank, you obviously never knew Helen Clark. She is extremely intelligent – way ahead of the vast majority of people. However what she did try to do with varying success was to speak publicly in a manner those of average intelligence would better understand. It was not a case of dropping to their level, but rather to get her points across. I fear you mistook her intentions to be that of a person of average intelligence.
I met Helen Clark on many occasions, and I'm with you. I didn't share her politics, but there was no doubting her sharp intellect. There was a certain derangement about her from some on the right, which we saw again with the lefts attitude towards John Key, but IMHO Clark was amongst the most competent of PM's this county has seen.
But having it and using it are two different things, eh? I tend to judge on the basis of performance – don't you? Why not take a look at the interview RL posted and report back here if she proposes a solution to the UN problem that seems viable?
I know you ain't no leftist, so that puts you in a credible position to evaluate her performance objectively. If she merely circles around the problem, discussing dimension of it without advancing the situation one iota, I trust you'll be honest enough to report that back to us too.
Hi Dennis. My comments were specifically about her time as PM. I also have no time for the UN. IMHO it is a largely corrupt and essentially useless organisation that has lost it's way entirely. So no sorry, I won't be listening to the interview.
Despite your heroic efforts to peddle this false equivalence, Clark was not given to outrageous manifestations of dishonesty like Key's "I don't recall".
Clark burnt herself on efforts like the anti-smacking bill, Key destroyed his reputation by insider trading and self serving actions like constraining the brightline to two years so his own investments would make the cut.
Like Trump he was and is a self-serving piece of shite with no business pretending to act for a democratic polity. Morally crippled rightwingers look on him with envy rather than contempt, but this defeats their arguments with the Left before they even begin.
Look I understand you have this deep abiding need to lie your worthless ass off to defend the thoroughly unsavoury reputation of the worst PM NZ has ever seen, but my objections to this lying self-serving ineffectual ambulant cesspool of corruption are entirely rational.
So don't be accusing me of KDS – that's not a thing – unless it applies to scoundrels like yourself, for whom, judging by your comments, lying and stealing are public virtues.
He’s not dead yet – the convention on eulogies does not apply.
Despite claims to the contrary, she was a woman of substance and integrity, but one possible fault (which I tend to share with her), she did not suffer fools gladly. And woe betide anyone who played silly buggers with her. Very early on in her parliamentary career, I decided to play the devil's advocate at a meeting. No prizes for guessing who came off second best by a long shot. 🙁
I've often hoped to meet her again one day and ask her if she remembered that incident.
“And woe betide anyone who played silly buggers with her”
At the risk of blowing my cover totally I can retell this tale about HC.
In 2001 I was working with a good friend in the Beehive on a technical contract relating to the building power system. The only time we were allowed to do full black start testing was after midnight on a Sunday evening. Most of the work was located in the basement, but we also had reason to access the '10th floor' where much of the HVAC equipment is located. The only way to get there is by lift to the 9th floor and then stairs up.
My mate is a madman I should add.
So there we are sometime late at night, the lift doors open on the foyer of the 9th floor and there is HC striding with he back to us, paperwork under one arm, from one office to another and as we step out my friend bursts into his best Muldoon imitation (which is very damn good) and says "Heh, heh, heh …. so that's the little girlie that got the job".
HC freezes to a halt, pauses ominously just long enough for my bowels to turn to water, swivels malevolently on her heels and imperiously announces "Fucking uppity tradesmen. Use the back entrance!" And with a wicked grin vanishes into her office.
What a cool story! Your friend sounds like a rare breed. McPhail's version of Muldoon was okay, but he couldn't ever seem to reproduce the genuine menace element of the Muldoon style. You know, the bit that always had his cabinet cowering like underdogs.
And who would have thought she actually had a sense of humour! All them smiley interviews didn't hint at it. Just showed her as well-trained.
To give her credit for street cred, her pulling the academic put-down of the working class in your story was convincing. Spinning on a dime to deliver that line demonstrates true expertise. Gutsy giving the fingers to politically correct supporters while exhibiting classic intelligentsia elitism. Only two observers, nobody would ever believe them, so she could reveal her true self in that moment. That's real authenticity!
Helen and a great sense of humour Dennis. But for some reason she rarely showed it in public. I can only assume someone advised her to stick with the serious persona – perhaps because as a woman any show of humour would lead to ridicule of her further down the track. Just guessing mind you.
I would have liked her more if she had, Anne. And ridicule damages only if you let it – an adept operator can usually turn it to advantage. Lange was exemplary in that respect and I valued him for being a refreshing new style of kiwi politician. Too bad he proved inept in the exercise of power.
Now the new leader of Ukraine is reminding us how potent humour can be in politics. The sooner we get that element back into our political mix, the better. Mind you, the necessity is considerably more dire in the USA…
Hi Anne. Apart form the times I met her, there was one event that enhanced my view of Helen Clark enormously. It was an interview she gave in 2002 with John Campbell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dET78Z5b5s). It was a dirty piece of journalism by Campbell, and Clark handled herself with considerable professionalism. I have never rated Campbell since, and never will.
With a little chill down my neck, I agree with John Roughan (!) that the Prime Minister is wasting her massive political capital by not using it, and delivering a timid government:
Yeah, likewise. "If last Wednesday she had announced a capital gains tax limited to investment property, excluding farms, business, shares, all productive investment, it would have been greeted with relief."
That's hitting the nail on the head. He goes on to make the point that this group of professional investors are largely responsible for making homes unaffordable to young kiwi home-buyers. So hitting the guilty would be popular.
Yes, but. Excessive immigration produced by National and Labour govts is even more responsible for creating the real-estate bubble. Maintenance of that trend by the coalition has merely stabilised the bubble. Collapsing the bubble to provide equity for young kiwi families is deemed too hard by the coalition: they are being held to ransome by older generations playing the market. Investors win again.
Inflows of capital are the problem, not of people. And no govt will fix housing being treated as an investment asset class without tackling the economic settings that enable it.
Fair point. I spent so many years in Ak watching immigrant Chinese inflate the bubble I'm probably biased. Just because I profited from their input enough to get wealthy doesn't mean I stopped feeling disgusted by the trend. Empathy with those made into losers by govt policy seems to come naturally, then there's the deliberate repudiation of intergenerational equity on top of that, so unprincipled as to fill me with intense contempt for whichever govt is currently doing it. Currently, a govt I've been supporting…
Or not. Depends how neoliberal they want to be seen as. Most of the expert analysis on the gfc, since the gfc, asserts that the regulations implemented were intended to create public impressions – not to change the way the market operates. Sham regulation has been a thing since Clinton.
As well as dealing with the stuff of government like drought, Christchurch rebuild, Kaikoura rebuild, Pike River, and Wellington earthquake, he also had a crack at changing the flag.
So far under this government:
– Poverty is the same
– Wealth disparity is the same
– Homelessness is the same
– Environmental damage is the same
– Tax levels are the same
It's about time Ardern did something more ethan emote well.
But in the main your points cannot be denied. And Robertson has a vision I think of following in Douglas', Cullen's footsteps – Sir Grant Robertson awarded to him for holding off the simple citizens of Nz massing to attack the citadel of wealth and power.
I have been disabled for 27 years and always been left without “quality support and having a valued life in the community,” as Tish rightly suggests.
It seems that we disabled are considered not worth saving or caring about any more over the last thirty years.
I was severely chemically expose in 1992 and have suffered from brain injuries, nervous system damage, and immune system dysfunction ever since. It is now far harder to stay alive.
These injuries all occurred after exposure at my workplace and since after a seven year Workers Compensation claim no-one has ever been blamed, so I have fallen right through the social safety net.
The most insulting part was when I reached the retirement age (65) my disability payment funding support was cut out and I was thrown straight onto the lower payment system on the general pension, so now I cannot get good disability treatments because no funding is available for them on the pension for the disabled.
You're sounding like the chairman now – you're a member of the party aren't you? If so you don't know the results your party have achieved? They've just done a year in office haven't they?
Two context-absent, graph-absent, analysis-absent propaganda lists. Awesome.
None of their policies have been shown to alleviate the previous government's issues of poverty, homelessness, environmental damage, economic productivity, or wealth disparity.
Don't worry if they existed, the Salvation Army would have picked them up.
Time this government was held to account from all sides.
When you look through those propaganda lists, keep in mind that none of those things would have happened without a change of government.
The question is, why do all their policy efforts look like they're hamstrung by a bunch of provincial conservatives and corrupt influence-peddlers? Well, we do know the answer to that question, don't we? If you want a left-wing agenda implemented, vote for left-wing parties, not right-wing ones or corrupt populists. A left-wing agenda necessitates a left-wing majority and right now there isn't one.
Here (the following below) is how Max Rashbrooke sums it up:
In short, today's announcement is likely to load pressure onto the debate about public debt, and push the government into a pretty sub- optimal position. We can also now understand the intensity of the opposition to a capital gains tax, or indeed any tax increase. Opposition parties now no longer need fight every single one of the government's plans – because to the extent that those plans rely on revenue that a capital gains tax would have raised, they have all just been shut down in one go.
Government accounting methods are largely based on forecasting. Thus, the added revenue stream from a CGT would improve the economic outlook, meaning the Government would be able to increase the capital and operating allowances in the next Budget.
Regards the terrible bombing massacre in Sri Lanka, the 'will to power' indeed often seeks to disposses innocence in one way or another, as i saw recently intimated in a relatively rarified clarity of reason headline relating to English perspective lately; but as we recently demonstrated we also know here in NZ, and of which there is no better day than Easter Sunday as symbolism of, the 'will to power' is also an instrument to the creation of innocence, depending on choice in how it is used.
I think information is helpful for discussion Pat.
Creative destruction: Will technology create or kill jobs? 22 Apr, 2019 5:00am
New Zealanders are being asked to share their views on whether technological changes will cost jobs or create them as the Government looks to formulate a policy on the future of work. The Productivity Commission has published an issues paper which explores the possible impacts of new technology on the labour market. It has been tasked with producing a full report by March 2020.
"While technological change brings significant overall benefits, it also creates frictions and costs for particular groups in society," the issues paper notes.
"Sustained economic growth requires innovation, and innovation cannot be decoupled from creative destruction. "This 'replacement of the old' involves the devaluation of prior investments in machinery and skills, leaving the owners of older equipment and workers who used it worse off. For some, these costs can be severe."
However on the positive side the paper acknowledges significant job creation due to new technology.
For example, since 1999, the number of jobs classified as 'Computer systems design and related services' has increased from 8700 to 32,600, it notes.
Bare facts background here. Who are doing these jobs – have NZs had every chance to train and move into them. And why have jobs not expanded in the trades in a parallel way? Isn't this a very unbalanced society, full of dreams, visions for the future, and limited connection with their own vulnerable humanity and even less of that of others?
yes GWS…I would have copied and pasted some of the relevant information but with the changes i havnt yet worked out how to….however my point is why is this work being redone?..didnt Labour have a Future of Work working party only a couple of years ago?…do they think our attention spans are so short?…when are they going to come to some conclussions and make decisions?….this is getting a little absurd
Any way that you can persuade James Shaw to follow your prescription? He seems to think the only reason he is in Government is to give him an opportunity to skive off overseas while ignoring the complete shambles that is the Census.
"Mr Twyford's defence is that promises made by Jacinda Ardern as Labour leader are completely different from promises made by Jacinda Ardern as Prime Minister."
other than keeping those precious Uni Students happy
This is a false meme from the right wing. The fees free policy encourages all tertiary education both academic and vocational. It encourages young people into post secondary training who were most likely to forego that training due to cost other class barriers.
"This is a false meme from the right wing" really !!! tell that to those students at ECE/Primary/Secondary that are in need of assistance, that there is inadequate funding. Try asking about students/parents regarding RTL or dyslexia, support for those with learning needs, Leaky school buildings that there is no funding to remediate, inadequate remuneration, etc That thanks to shortfalls will struggle to be able to benefit from tertiary education funding and extra funding for accomodation.
I would suggest, Muttonbird, try talking to teachers and find out how in need the sector is.
Up late last night watching how-to renovation videos on Youtube, and came across this new series by Grand Designs – The Street.
How did Grand Designs: The Street come about?
'I went to The Netherlands on a trip with a bunch of leaders of local councils and politicians in 2010 to look at a large self-build town there, Almere, built on reclaimed land near Amsterdam. The Dutch have always stolen a march on us in terms of housing initiatives. Now, Almere is full of self-built homes, but nine years ago it was already advancing, and I got so excited I had to go and see Channel 4, simply to say ‘it’s amazing what’s happening there, let’s film it’. It was a sort of self-build heaven.
Meanwhile, a small local authority at Bicester, Cherwell District Council, had also been bitten by the Almere bug. In fact, they wanted to replicate Almere and facilitate Britain's first self-build and custom-build site on a grand scale. They were negotiating with the MOD to buy an old military site as they wanted to see what it would be like if they invited the general public to build their own homes. It’s this experiment that we’ve been following for the last 5 years. In the process, we’ve witnessed the first 10 pioneering households build a street of very different homes. But it’s just the start. Ultimately there will be thousands of homes, some social housing, some custom-build as well as self-build. I believe it’s a model that could be copied by local authorities up and down the land.'
A better solution – I think – then selling off crown or local government land to developers to provide housing. Another not mentioned benefit is that you end up with a long-term community, made up of a variety of people from all walks of life, instead of what we have now in many areas – segregation by economics.
Her thesis is that Syria was a differently formatted WW, and the constellations have shifted post US defeat(or failure to gain a victory…regime change)
Counting in the Ukrainian presidential election is indicating a rout: comedian Volodymyr Zelensky is currently at 73%, incumbent Poroshenko is at less than 25%.
Life imitates art: "Zelensky starred in the long-running satirical drama Servant of the People in which his character accidentally becomes Ukraine's president."
"He plays a teacher who is elected after his expletive-laden rant about corruption goes viral on social media. He ran under a political party with the same name as his show."
The traditional path to political success in democracies is to be all things to all people. He could signal that he will be that traditionalist by continually recycling the name of his show/party, for instance by ending all his speeches with "your servant, Volodymyr".
Equally, he ought to sign off on his emails to his patron, the oligarch, "your servant, Volodymyr". When he issues a polite request to the Ukrainian media, same sign-off. That way everyone ends up on the same page and all can acknowledge that he is indeed a classic democratic politician.
Humour is the best strategy when conducting foreign relations, as the ongoing UN dysfunction continues to prove. So his relations with Russia will improve immensely as soon as he suggests to Putin that they team up in the Vlad & Volod Show, a weekly current affairs review which will feature laughter as the best medicine.
Putin needs to loosen up more, and presenting as more human than Russians knew he could be would be a clever move for him. Entertaining the populace of both countries simultaneously would be tremendously therapeutic. Even more vodka could get sold.
Latest update: "Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Petro Poroshenko have gained 73.17 percent and 24.5 percent of the vote, respectively, the country’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has said after it processed 90.1 percent of the voting protocols. Zelenskiy is leading in all regions, except Lviv region."
Are all the people who are convinced that Trump only made it to the Presidency going to start in on the story that Zelensky only got the votes reported here because the Russians rigged the result?
Clearly it must all be due to Putin's machinations.
Collusion? Depends on the angle you view it from, eh? View it from the left, you may be able to discern puppet strings…
"Zelensky, whose only previous political role was playing the president in a TV show, trounced incumbent Petro Poroshenko by taking 73 percent of the vote, according to partial official results. Poroshenko garnered just 24 percent, losing to the 41-year-old comedian and actor across the country, with 42 percent of ballots counted."
"Exit polls showed Zelensky took 87 percent of the vote in eastern Ukraine and defeated Poroshenko even in the west, where the incumbent traditionally enjoyed strong support. Poroshenko, 53, said the results were clear and enough reason to "call my opponent and congratulate him". "I will leave office but I want to firmly stress — I will not quit politics," Poroshenko said in a speech at his campaign headquarters… "We realise that the Kremlin might be enjoying the election result," he said."
"The outgoing leader came to power after a 2014 pro-Western uprising ousted a Kremlin-backed regime, triggering Moscow's annexation of Crimea. His supporters credited him with rebuilding the army and securing an Orthodox Church independent of Russia. But many feel the country's ruling elite have forgotten the promises of the revolution."
"The comic shunned traditional campaign rallies and instead performed comedy gigs and used social media to appeal to voters." Way to go, dude! Don't bore voters to death at those old robotic rallies, entertain them instead. Politics as fun! Enchant those voters!
My idea of European clowns is often they are politically savvy. Also they understand people's norms and how to tickle their humour, so understands people. This man could do a very good job compared to someone who has just sold himself for a whim or campaign money and is taking on a task above his level of competence. USA!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Hopkins#Personal_life – Katie Hopkins bounces off walls from one job to another. There is money to be made in the UK from being foul apparently – and our forebears came here with such high-flown notions in their head. Every advancement for the people had to be fought long and hard for – now they come here to gobble up what we managed to create.
We know that London in the UK has fatbergs in its sewers, is Katie Hopkins something that got washed up onto the street after one of the blockages that can be about 3.5m high? They require daily work as they emerge under the city. Or perhaps noxious gases have affected her memory – our noses are very sensitive and closely situated to the brain. There must be some explanation for the poor quality journalism and the media's acceptance of this attacking, harrowing method of soapboxing, but without the soap.
Perhaps it is that she has some big health issues – borderline healthy – and she takes it out on her unfortunate prey.
Of course D'Felon has to get in on the fuckwittery.
Notice two words missing here: 1. Christians (victims) 2. Muslims (perpetrators). Seems like the sleazy folks at NPR are trying to cover something up! https://t.co/gLXA2FtPZD
The Sri Lanka death toll is now over 200 and involves multiple churches. A far worse terrorist attack than the one in New Zealand! Yet this is a terrorist attack against Christians. Where is the unceasing wall to wall coverage that we got on the New Zealand attacks?
Winston Peters again in the gun and I’d have to agree that this government is being held back by him and his party.
When you have the entire country ready for some sort of CGT and Nat MPs wanting to return to Maori seats yet Peters is the fly in the ointment you have to wonder what kind of damage he is now doing to the country.
Besides which, the difference between paying income tax at ones marginal rate based on a bright line test of 10 years, and a CGT at 15% is basically nil. (I’m aware the current test is 5 years, but am leaving some room to extend)
Robertson said it was “unlikely” to be a further extension of the bright-line test as they've taken a CGT off the table and the bright-line test represents a form of that.
Not me – the TWG showed the biggest capital freeloaders were Ag,Forestry, & Fishing. The Gnats cannot in any case be trusted to do what they promise – Key campaigned on fixing housing – he fixed it so kiwis couldn't buy it anymore.
If the Gnats rolled out a fully costed set of economic policies that actually addressed declining outcomes, productivity and sustainability, which is well beyond them – they still could not be trusted to implement them.
A chapter of accidents. He had some hospital care and was sent home in a taxi although his parnter would have picked him up. He didn't arrive home. Then she phoned the hospital but they had nothing to tell her, and not knowing where he was she phoned the police. Some time after the hospital advised that he had been admitted after a fall, and she could come and get him after treatment. Then she found he had a gash across his forehead and was in intensive care.
The taxi should be instructed to take a patient to his or her home not drop them off at the shops. The instructions from the hospital should be quite clear. Better still phone the family.
The supershitty is too busy being grand to listen to the wants of ratepayers and the holes round ornamental trees should have been filled in as they say has been requested for a long time. When you think of the constant conniptions by Health and Safety on small business and private people, the authorities are playing us for suckers, local and national government.
"But hey hold on, the Statistics Department concludes: “Inflation was low in the March 2019 quarter because of falls in the prices of petrol and international airfares.” Right. So, apparently, the people struggling to pay for their smokes at the supermarket can take comfort from the fact that the price of getting to the Amalfi Coast for their winter holidays just got cheaper. So, maybe we’re not measuring the price fluctuations in any basket of goods that’s relevant to most New Zealanders. By the way, the cost of non–tradeable goods and services rose by 3% in the past year. So much for inflation being low to non-existent. In the real world, prices are going up."
Cheers . Im having problems with being unable to right comments some times due to the cursor being in the name section and not being able to get ot to shift to the comment box .
I’m afraid I won’t be of much help to you, but hopefully somebody else might shed some light upon this.
I assume you use a mobile phone.
I never use a mobile phone and always type on a keyboard and in Word first. Thanks to this, many a stupid comment of mine got deleted before it even made it into the TS comment box …
It also avoids the strain on eyes, neck, and fingers using a device that’s euphemistically called a smart-phone
That happens to me on the computer where I select all in the name box, cut and paste it into where I want it to be. Then put my name back in the right place. Then I haven't lost the bits of comment that have got into the name box while I have merrily been typing away. I admire you people who are doing it all from a phone. Marvels.
The iwi owners of Shelly Bay argue Sir Peter Jackson has long lost the right to have any say over what happens at the Wellington site…
… But to Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust (PNBST) trustee Neville Baker, the whole argument missed one crucial point – the land in question belonged to iwi and it was up to them to do with it what they wanted.
Taranaki Whānui – of which PNBST is part of – settled its Treaty of Waitangi case with the Crown in 2009 and, almost to the day of settlement, used money it got to buy the Shelly Bay land.
Baker said the land was bought because it was historically used by iwi and "we felt we should buy it back".
Baker, on Monday, said Jackson then gave up his rights to influence what happened there.
"The point really is, we have the right to develop what we own and it is no-one else's decision."
I agree Jackson should but out. It's just sad that the Trust appears wedded to capitalism and has partnered with Cassel's "The Wellington Company"… kind of ironic.
It's a shame that Jackson and Maori cannot come to a mutually satisfactory conclusion. Opportunities for suitable Maori to have apprenticeships with him. People need to see him as having something to offer instead of going all sour because he didn't play their game.
No-one else in NZ could have done the job with LOR and we now have another string to our bow, big film making and model making. With so many people willing to spit on entrepreneurs it isn't surprising that we languish in a jobless low wage environment – you don't kick a possible employer in the teeth because you want more money, you keep talking and thinking. He is here, and could be worked with to build up an apprenticeship, get some ongoing advantages.
They don't come often – cunning minds work at how to get opportunities, not march in the streets complaining. But the leaders of the march might as well have said 'Let them eat grass' – nothing could have been the outcome.
MOSCOW — Jewish officials say an arson fire was set at the largest yeshiva in Russia as the faithful were gathered there for a Passover meal.
No one was reported injured in the Friday fire at the Torat Chaim school in an eastern Moscow suburb.
Olga Esaulova, a spokeswoman for Moscow's chief rabbi, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying the fire was set in a storage area for kosher meat and that swastikas were drawn at the yeshiva's entrance.
Yet Volodymyr Zelensky will be the first Jewish president of Ukraine (and the second Jewish head of a European nation) and Poland's resurrected their oldbeat the Jew ritual, too. Funny old world, eh.
Born in Napier and educated at Wellington's Victoria University, Peach was a Kiwi teacher killed by a British policemen during an anti-fascist protest in 1979. April 23 marks the 40th anniversary of his death. He was just 33 years old.
I've got one source saying more Labour MPs than expected are mulling whether to vote for the deal - including names who were not on the letter to Juncker and Tusk— Emilio Casalicchio (@e_casalicchio) 17 October 2019 I've compiled a list of possible reasons why Labour ...
On Wednesday, the government was loudly telling us that it needed to legislate to allow it to impose "control orders" - effectively a parole regime, but imposed without charge, prosecution, conviction or real evidence - on suspected terrorists because they couldn't be prosecuted for their supposed crimes. Today, it turns ...
On Monday, the Hit and Run inquiry heard from NZDF's former director of special operations, who claimed that the defence Minister knew everything about the Operation Burnham raid. Today, the inquiry heard from that (former) Minister - and it turns out that he didn't know nearly as much as NZDF ...
Yoga gurus and cult leaders – I’ve seen a few. Two weeks ago, I unknowingly joined an alleged new-age cult at the Kāpiti coast, together with a giant kraken and some neatly dressed pensioners who would make any book club proud.They were among the two hundred people of all ages ...
The last decade has seen a trend of increasing weapons availability to police. Assault rifles. Tasers on every hip. Guns in cars. And following the march 15 massacre, pistols on every hip, all over the country. At the same time, its also seen an increase in the abuse of force: ...
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been busy preparing for our summer paper on Science Communication. Looking for something amusing about ‘risk’ in science, I came across this neat xkcd.com cartoon about why so many people come knocking on my door (or phoning me, or emailing me) desperately wanting ...
by John Edmundson The International Socialist Organisation (ISO) have recently reposted a February article, by Romany Tasker-Poland, explaining ISO’s position in the “trans rights” debate. It is available on their website and on their Facebook Page. The article sets out to explain why “socialists support trans rights”. It reads more ...
"Auckland City Mission: 10% of Kiwis experiencing food insecurity", RNZ, 16 October 2019:About half a million people are experiencing food insecurity, according to new research from the Auckland City Mission. Food insecurity, or food poverty, is defined as not having enough appropriate food. The City Mission said over the last ...
Media Statement for Immediate Release 16th October 2019 “Fake News” from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers Despite comments from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers—Herald Newspaper Tuesday Oct 15th–there is very little evidence ...
Would You Buy A Used Propaganda Video From This Man? Bridges and the National Party’s strategists have discovered that the ideas and attitudes considered acceptable by today’s editors and journalists are no longer enforceable. The rise and rise of the Internet and the social media platforms it spawned means that ...
There is plenty of evidence of the way the business mentality has permeated every level of society since the recrudescence of market liberalism 35 years ago. You only need to think of how citizens in need of help from their government, their state, their country, are now routinely described as ...
John MacCormickOver the last 40 years, New Zealanders – and people in other countries – have experienced big changes in the jobs they do and where they live and work. These changes include: a decline in manufacturing jobs an increase in jobs in ‘information-intensive’ industries (which are better paid ...
Nick Wilson, Leah Grout, Mereana Wilson, Anja Mizdrak, Phil Shoemack, Michael BakerProtecting waterways has the benefits of: (1) protecting water from hazardous microbes; (2) minimising cancer risk and other problems from nitrates in water; (3) avoiding algal blooms that are hazardous to health; (4) protecting mahinga kai uses (cultural ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women In a press release today Massey University announced it has decided to rebrand and reorientate after struggling to be a University for grown-ups. For some time the University has wanted to be a safe play space for wee-woke-misogynists who have been really badly triggered ...
After a brief dalliance with 'hard Revoke' it looks like the Lib Dems are changing ground on on Brexit, with leader Jo Swinson reverting to calling for a second referendum on Johnson's deal.The party has tabled an amendment to the Queen’s speech requesting that any deal brought back from Brussels ...
The government has decided that someone has done Something Bad. But despite their belief, there seems to be no evidence that they have actually broken the law. So the government's solution is to pass a retrospective law allowing them to be punished anyway, on a lower standard of proof. If ...
So, Judith Collins has done a Facebook rant about climate change, peddling the same shit National has been shovelling for the past twenty years: the impacts are overstated, there's no need to do anything about it, and its too hard anyway (oh, and its so unfair that people who peddle ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzThere is a lot of discussion on the benefits of ...
I came across this song quite by accident. If it isn't one of Greta Thunberg's favourites - it should be.Video courtesy of YouTube.This post is exclusive to Bowalley Road. ...
Last month, NZDF's shoddy coverup of what it knew about civilian casualties in Operation Burnham began to fall apart, with the revelation that a report on the matter, which NZDF claimed not to have, had been sitting in an NZDF safe for the past nine years. Yesterday, the man responsible ...
While many imagine that countries like the USA and Europe dominate space activities, in fact India is now a major player on this stage. It launches satellites for its own purposes and also commercially, and has constellations orbiting our planet and returning data of vital importance to that nation in ...
Thanks to a report from the Acting Inspector General of Intelligence and Security following a complaint by Nicky Hager, we have come to find out that the SIS illegally spied on Mr. Hager on behalf of the NZDF after publication of Hager’s 2011 book, Other People’s Wars. The NZDF justified ...
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING MYTH 1: Global temperatures are rising at a rapid, unprecedented rate. FACT: The HadCRUT3 surface temperature index, produced by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, shows warming to 1878, cooling to 1911, ...
For the past week, Extinction Rebellion has been peacefully protesting in London to demand action on climate change. The British government's response? Ban their protests:Police have banned Extinction Rebellion protests from continuing anywhere in London, as they moved in almost without warning to clear protesters who remained at the movement’s ...
An essay by Judith Collins MP reported on Carbon News yesterday seems to show an alarming shift in attitude within the National Party. Collins argues against the Zero Carbon Bill, the Paris Agreement, and downplays the magnitude of climate impacts. The Paris Agreement was adopted in December 2015 and ratified ...
When they were running for election, Labour promised to overhaul the Employment Relations Act and introduce fair pay agreements to set basic pay and conditions on an industry level, preventing bad employers from undercutting good ones. They followed this up by establishing a working group, which reported back in January ...
A list of indicators of bad science – many of these are found in articles promoted by anti-fluoride activists. Anti-fluoride activists have been pouring money into a scaremongering campaign warning pregnant women not to drink fluoridated water. They claim fluoride will lower the IQ of their future child. Fluoride ...
Nothing Left To Say: Labour's pollster, Stephen Mills, remains swaddled-up in the comforting myths of the 1980s. As if the experience of Roger Douglas’s genuinely radical post-Muldoon policy agenda was literally a once-in-a-lifetime thing – as much as the party could possibly absorb for at least the next 50 years.MEMO ...
The Royal Commission on abuse in care is very significant for the disability community. For many decades last century, thousands of disabled children, and adults who managed to survive, were locked away from families and communities. This was not for anything they had done, but for the perceived threat their ...
With an unfair voting system, uneven electorates and an un-elected upper house, the UK's "democracy" is barely worthy of the name. But now the government wants to make it worse:The government has been accused of suppressing voters’ rights with the potential disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of people after plans ...
Back in the 90's and early 2000's, the building industry was building leaky homes which should never have been granted consent. Now it turns out they've been building dodgy office blocks as well:New imaging technology has revealed hundreds of major buildings nationwide have defective or missing concrete or reinforcing steel. ...
Local body election results were released over the weekend, to joy or despair depending on where you live. In Auckland, Phil Goff trounced John Tamihere, who is muttering darkly about running for Parliament again (but which party would want him?) Wellington is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Weta Workshop, except ...
How could government evolve over the next decades? Reports of democracy’s imminent demise are greatly exaggerated. However, satisfaction with political systems in many countries is low, so there is much to do for governments of all political stripes to improve relevance and trust. Digital technologies are seen as one ...
Two years have now gone by since the Friday afternoon when my university-student son and I headed out of our Barcelona flat to a nearby primary school, designated as a polling station for the vote that was to be held the following Sunday: the referendum on Catalonia’s independence from Spain ...
Overruled: The joint decision of Finance Minister, Grant Robertson (Labour) and his Associate Minister, David Parker (Labour) arguably the two most powerful ministers in Jacinda Ardern’s government, to grant OceanaGold the consents which Land Information Minister, Eugenie Sage (Greens) had earlier denied them, offers bitter proof of how hard fighting ...
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...
A Statement on Abortion Law Reform by the Council of Disobedient Women On the eve of bringing an end to antiquated, anti-women abortion laws Green MP Jan Logie intends to write women out of the Bill. With a stroke of the pen, the woke are aiming for total erasure ...
Musings continue apace about “the experienced businessman!” soon to be taking up a National Party MP position. Or to be more accurate, being parachuted into a seat to shut down their former MP Jamie-Lee Ross, who despite his own shortcomings shed at least some more light on the inner workings ...
The Ugandan government wants to murder gay people:Uganda has announced plans to impose the death penalty on homosexuals. The bill, colloquially known as “Kill the Gays” in Uganda, was nullified five years ago on a technicality, but the government said on Thursday it plans to resurrect it within weeks. The ...
Freedom Of Speech? The Säuberung (cleansing by fire) was the work of the German Student Union which, on 10 May 1933, under the watchful eye of the Nazi Reichminister for Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, consigned 25,000 books to the flames in a ritual exorcism of “un-German thought”. According to the logic of the ...
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...
New Zealand has prided itself for decades with regard to its lack of pollution, and all will be aware that the ‘100% Pure New Zealand‘ meme is under threat through land, water and air pollution of various causes. There is another type of contamination that the country also faces: light ...
New Zealand’s media is doing its part in Japan, reassuring those in the path of the storm that they won’t miss any rugby while away from their flooded homes. New Zealand sports reporters stationed in Japan for the Rugby World Cup have had the rare and heartwarming opportunity to inform ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones is the only Cabinet member in favour of putting it all on green. As Finance Minister Grant Robertson finds himself with an enormous $7.5 billion surplus, the Government has begun intense, at times contentious conversations about whether to put the money on red or black at ...
by Susanne Kemp At the start of September close to 100,000 school teachers went on strike in Jordan. They demanded a 50% pay rise. A pay rise actually agreed to by the regime back in 2014. In early October, however, in the face of government repression and threats, the teachers’ ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhy do people still think climate change isn’t real?David ...
Back in 2011, journalist Nicky Hager published Other People's Wars, an expose on NZDF's activities over the previous decade of the "war on terror". NZDF didn't like this, and especially didn't like the fact that it was base don leaks from their own. So, they had the SIS investigate him ...
The Zero Carbon Bill is due back from select committee in two weeks, and will likely pass its final stages in November. So naturally, farmers are planning a hate-march against it. But they're not just demanding lower methane targets so they can keep on destroying the planet; they're also demanding ...
Last year, California burned. This year, to stop it happening again (or rather, to stop themselves from being found liable if it happens again), Pacific Gas and Electric is cutting power to half the state for a week:Schools are closed. Traffic lights down. Tunnels dark. Businesses unopened. Hospitals running on ...
The Best Way: Missing from the on-line voting debate is any reference to the voting system that produces turn-out figures ranging from 77 to 93 percent of registered voters. The voting system used to collect and count the votes cast in our parliamentary elections. The system that involves citizens making ...
Among the great new bunch of political friends we have been making recently is the excellent Australian-based Marxist gender-critical site, Freer Lives. So we asked the comrade who set up that blog to write something for Redline on the blog, himself, his analysis of the rise of gender politics and ...
by Don Franks The Auckland City Mission is struggling with a 40 percent increase in demand for food parcels this year. A total of 23,020 were needed by June. Last month Missioner Chris Farrelly told the Herald the “cupboards are bare” and without an emergency food drive, he can’t see ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Massey Wellington Student Association had a sit-in today. Imagine a sit-in. On a campus. Against a women’s rights meeting. Did the ’60s really happen or did we fucking dream it? They gathered in the student square, an echo chamber. Sitting on soft pillows ...
For some reasons, my post about the mystery message from inside the Downing Street bunker seemed to catch people's attention. Quite a lot of hits from NZ (unsurprisingly) and the USA (a bit more puzzlingly, but hi there, USAians!!) and 76 views from the Ukraine.I've celebrated my Ukrainian readers in ...
First, almost a score of Labour MPs seem to have sent a letter to the EU basically begging them to accept a deal - any deal - just so Britain can get the Heck on with Brexiting instead of being trapped in limbo:
by Phil Duncan In 2016 the National-led government suspended the Parent Visa Category, through which migrants were able to bring their parents into New Zealand. Since then over 5,700 people have been in immigration limbo, stuck on the visa wait list. Labour is now bringing back the scheme. Well, sort ...
The following was released yesterday (Tues, October 8) by the women’s liberation organisation Speak Up for Women. On 23 September Speak Up For Women announced that we would be holding an event at the Massey University Theaterette in Wellington. The event is called Feminism 2020. The intention of the event ...
The government is currently consulting on plans to improve freshwater quality. So naturally, farmers oppose it:South Taranaki farmers are preparing to fight proposed national freshwater changes that some fear will bankrupt them. The Government's proposed National Environment Standard on Freshwater Management, released in September, rated the Waingongoro River as one ...
Yesterday was the last day for (reliably) posting your vote away in local body elections. Turnouts are mostly much lower than the equivalent time last year (Palmerston North is down 2.3%), and so naturally people are pushing their online-voting snake oil again. Because the online census worked so well, lets ...
This essay, on the political legacy of the eugenics movement, by Kenan Malik was originally published in the Observer on 6 October 2019, under the headline ‘The spirit of eugenics is still with us, as immigrants know to their cost’. Birth control. Intelligence tests. Town planning. Immigration controls. It’s striking how ...
Another year, and the government has announced another enormous government "surplus". And just like last year, its nothing of the sort. When we have people homeless and sick and hungry, when we have schools and hospitals still falling down, when we have underpaid public servants and infrastucture unmaintained or unbuilt, ...
James Forsyth at The Spectator (I know, I know) has tapped one of his contacts inside Number Ten for an insight into the Johnson administration's thinking and strategy.It is fascinating, unsettling and quite, quite mad. Some key points:Negotiations have stalled and the Johnson administration are keen to blame the EU: ...
Fatal Contact: With the arrival of captain James Cook in October 1769, the islands of what would become New Zealand ceased to be the preserve of Polynesian navigators and settlers and became a part of both the world’s map and the world’s history.THE MAORI NATIONALIST assault upon the historical meaning ...
Another round of tactical talks about forming a Government of National Unity have come to nothing with the Liberal Democrats still refusing countenance putting Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street:Opposition talks on Monday made little headway over when to try and vote down Boris Johnson's government and who might succeed him as ...
by Nick Rogers The debate around the meaning of sex and gender made an appearance at this year’s British Labour Party conference in Brighton. Women’s Place UK – an organisation that questions the demand that biological males who self-identify as woman should have access to women’s spaces, to all-women shortlists, ...
Yesterday I went down to Wellington to participate in the Extinction Rebellion protest. Its part of the latest global wave of XR actions, with actions happening all over the world. Some of those protests are massively disruptive: in Canada, XR is blocking major bridges, stopping people from getting to work. ...
The Workshop is a charitable trust for public good. The Workshop undertake research to find ways of communicating that will build support for the solutions that work to solve complex social and environmental problems. See their Report on Talking about Poverty and Welfare Reform below. ...
What is language? We generally assume that it a facility unique to humans, allowing us to share what’s in and on our minds. We can tell of our plans, our past exploits, our knowledge. It also allows us to lie. And yet there are vast numbers of people we can’t ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...
Speaking at the Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) biennial conference, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters told unionists that any future attacks on the Government won't work. "Now, we are being attacked by the union movement in this country. You can have your views but I'm here to say standing ...
We want every New Zealander to be happy, safe, and healthy. To do this, we need to support strong, safe communities, and a robust and efficient health system. ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark has used his powers to overrule a noise complaint ruling against Whenuapai airbase on the grounds of "national security". The Environment Court last month released a ruling in favour of a private developer, declaring the Auckland airbase had to comply with noise restrictions when it performs ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has opened fire against "unreconstructed morons" after NZ First MP Shane Jones was photographed on holiday holding an AR-15 rifle. Mr Peters is defending Mr Jones, telling Magic Talk host Peter Williams that his MP was just having fun "like most people do". "The ...
New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau was in attendance during the morning blessing of the Rotorua Lakefront development project. Around 60 people gathered on the shores of Lake Rotorua, including city mayor Steve Chadwick and deputy Dave Donaldson. The Lakefront development is a ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...
Speaking to Radio NZ, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the tightening of the parental category visa is a direct result of the Party’s coalition negotiations with the Labour Party. He said the new changes switch the financial onus from the parent moving to New Zealand to the child ...
The Coalition Government is set to cut red tape in the building and construction sector in an effort to allow more houses to be built, including prefabricated houses. The changes will enable the mass factory production of "high quality" buildings, slash the likely number of building inspections for factory produced ...
Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to tackle homelessness and make sure everyone has a warm, dry home. And today, on World Homeless Day, we want to report back and update you on our progress so far. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has hit back at National Party leader Simon Bridges who criticized the Coalition Government’s approach to crime, and said that the latter isn't credible in his attack on the Government over gang recruitment. "We've got as massive drug problem in this country. It is ...
New Zealand Mānuka honey exporters have welcomed an initiative by the Coalition Government to help secure the term “mānuka honey” to be used exclusively by Kiwi exporters, ensuring that our multimillion-dollar industry is protected. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had recently announced that a Provincial Growth Funding of $5.7 ...
Political commentator Mike Hosking has labelled New Zealand First leader Winston Peters as “the voice of reason in a government soft on drugs”, for the Party’s stance on drug testing at music festivals. “If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in,” Mr Hosking said. The Labour ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau has announced Provincial Growth Funding to ensure work opportunities in Turangi and Whanganui, through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi. A fund of $500,000 will go to Rafting NZ in Turangi for a 16-week river guide training course to train ...
Treasury has shown that the Coalition Government has a $7.5 billion surplus, which is $4 billion higher than what was expected in the 2019 Budget unveiled last May. It is also $2 billion higher than the actual surplus unveiled this time last year, and at a size that has not ...
Official Information Act figures released to NZME show there were 350 assaults on officers in the year to the end of June, 79 more than the year before. The increase in attacks have sparked calls for more legal protection for first responders to be enacted. The assaults included officers being ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
We're making progress on tackling the long-term challenges: from homelessness, to strengthening border security, to bringing banking back New Zealand's small towns. ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones has backed the ambitious plan to move Auckland’s port to Northport, at Whangarei harbour, which he says will be the “King Kong of infrastructure”. The plan is part of the recommendations of a six-person independent working group, which has recommended the Ports of Auckland be ...
A six-member independent working group selected the option of moving Auckland’s port to Northport, in Whangarei, ahead of other options. In what could be New Zealand’s most ambitious infrastructure project yet, a major expansion of the Marsden Point port could happen within 15 years. The project, officially called the “Upper ...
The final Electricity Price Review recommended prohibiting prompt payment discounts but allowing “reasonable” late fees. The findings of this review was welcomed by the Coalition Government, but they hope companies will follow through with its recommendations without regulations needed to be passed. Meridian Energy had already stopped prompt payment discounts, ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi,will invest nearly $600,000 to ensure work opportunities for locals in Turangia and Whanganui, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “I’m pleased to announce the PGF ...
An export-led economy is one of New Zealand First’s key principles, and our commitment to achieving this is shown by the continuing skyrocketing demand for our beef and sheep meat exports. Beef + Lamb New Zealand's New Season Outlook 2019-20 report forecasts beef, lamb and mutton prices to lift from ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today in Gisborne an investment of $17.27m into bringing “world-leading” food-growing technology and the creation of more than 100 new jobs in the East Coast city. The funding comes from the Provincial Growth Fund, and included a $15 million loan to LeaderBrand, a ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development More than 100 people in Tairāwhiti’s Tolaga Bay will benefit from two employment initiatives supported by the Provincial Growth Fund, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. “Tolaga Bay is an incredibly tight-knit community, but one in ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is supporting Gisborne business Leaderbrand to produce salad vegetables year round and create more jobs in the Tairāwhiti region, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Our support for Leaderbrand will help them build large greenhouses ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has praised the promise by New Zealand’s biggest banks not to close any provincial branches while the Coalition Government trials regional banking hubs across the country. The Minister said the announce was the “first sign of hope for regional communities”, many of which have ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First is proud to have delivered an upgrade of the SuperGold Card website and a new smartphone app, which will help unlock the full benefits of the SuperGold Card for 750,000 New Zealand seniors.Party Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters, ...
Delivering a key election campaign promise, New Zealand First is proud to have accomplished a long overdue upgrade of the SuperGold Card today. At an event in Auckland, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters joined Minister for Seniors Hon. Tracey Martin in unveiling the new website and smartphone app which ...
The Government today announced its support for a project that could substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from cattle. The announcement was made as part of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor’s visit to Nelson’s Cawthron Aquaculture Park. The Cawthron Institute will receive $100,000 from the Government’s ...
Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni has welcomed the first reading of the New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension Legislation Amendment Bill. “Every New Zealander has a stake in New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension,” says Carmel Sepuloni. “They are our most common form of social assistance – nearly 800,000 New ...
Babies in Auckland aged six months and over can receive a free vaccination and children will all have access to vaccines, Associate Minister of Health Julie Anne Genter announced today at Papatoetoe High School. The move comes as part of Government efforts to step up the fight against measles. ...
***Check against delivery*** Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here, and to have the honour of opening this important conference on behalf of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. Let us take the opportunity to acknowledge all the people who have helped make today possible, including our special ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash says the safety of frontline officers and members of the public will be the focus of a new trial of specialist Police response teams in three of our largest urban centres. Police have this morning released details of an initiative to be trialled in Counties Manukau, ...
The Minister of Fisheries is calling for entries for a new public award to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector. “I have established the Seafood Sustainability Awards to recognise and celebrate those throughout industry, tangata whenua and communities who demonstrate outstanding dedication and innovation towards the sustainability of New Zealand’s ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter welcomes leaders in the private sector taking action on closing their gender pay gaps to ensure a fairer workplace for all New Zealanders. Ms Genter today launched a new report, Addressing the gender pay gap and driving women’s representation in senior leadership, from the Champions for ...
Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. The release underlines the importance of government proposals to combat climate pollution, ensure clean freshwater, protect biodiversity, make land use more sustainable, and reduce waste and plastic. Environment ...
The Government has approved funding for a new acute mental health facility for Waikato which will provide better care and support to people with mental health and addiction issues. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Dr David Clark announced the $100 million project to replace the aging Henry Rongomau ...
The Government is making progress on its goal to integrate te reo Māori into education by 2025, with over 500 teachers and support staff already graduating from Te Ahu o te Reo Māori, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Kelvin Davis made the announcement at an awards ceremony in Waikanae today, for ...
Statistics Minister James Shaw has welcomed the first release of 2018 Census data. The first release of data today, 23 September, includes key data on population, regional growth, the number of homes and the size of different ethnic groups in New Zealand. Data from the 2018 Census will support the ...
Minister for Statistics James Shaw today announced a public consultation on a proposed algorithm charter for government agencies. The charter has been developed by the Government Chief Data Steward in response to growing calls for more transparency in government use of data. Computer algorithms – procedures or formulas for solving ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, Climate Change Minister James Shaw and visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte co-hosted a business roundtable in Auckland this morning focused on working together to address climate change. “The Netherlands is an important partner for New Zealand. We share a strong agricultural history. Sustainable agribusiness and ...
The Government is taking action to build an inclusive economy where more of us receive our fair share at work and businesses can compete on great products and services, not undercutting wages and conditions, Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. Two consultations launched today seek feedback ...
The future for New Zealand’s threatened indigenous freshwater fish looks brighter with the passing of the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill in Parliament today said Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage. “Until now, our freshwater fish legislation has been 20 years out of date. We have lacked effective tools to ...
At 1.30pm tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of Kiwis will join about 65 million people around the globe in ShakeOut, the world’s biggest earthquake drill. The annual drill is to remind people of the right action to take during an earthquake which is to Drop, Cover, Hold, and to practise their ...
Kiwis are benefiting from higher wage growth and low inflation under the Coalition Government. Stats NZ data out today shows the rise in the cost of living remains low, as annual Consumers Price Index (CPI) inflation fell to 1.5% in September from 1.7% in June. “The low inflation comes as ...
New Zealand’s economic strength and resilience has been recognised in a major update on the state of the global economy. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook released overnight shows a reduced global growth forecast over the next two years as issues like the US-China trade war and Brexit take hold. ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little has today introduced a new Bill to prevent terrorism and support the de-radicalisation of New Zealanders returning from overseas. The Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill gives the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to the High Court to impose control orders on New Zealanders who ...
A Bill that proposes targeted changes to simplify the processes for Māori land owners when engaging with the Māori Land Court has had its First Reading today. “The approach taken by the Government is to ensure that the protection of Māori land remains a priority as we seek to improve ...
Let me first thank all the new unionists and members in the room. There is nothing more important to improving people’s working lives than people making the decision to care, to get on board and help, to take up the reins and get involved. Congratulations to you. You bring the ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark has signed a certificate exempting the activity of engine testing at Whenuapai Airbase from the Resource Management Act 1991. The Act gives the Minister of Defence the power to exempt activities for the purposes of national security. The certificate will mean the recent Environment Court ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced New Zealand will join the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action while attending APEC meetings in Chile. The objective of the 39 member Coalition is to share information and promote action to tackle climate change. It was formed in April this year, in ...
Feedback sought– Lyttelton commercial zone parking The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to remove on-site car parking requirements for new developments in the Lyttelton commercial zone. The proposal, by Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section 71 of the Greater ...
Hon Minister Poto Williams Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration MEDIA STATEMENT Tuesday 15 October 2019 Feedback sought – Hagley Oval The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal about Hagley Oval. The proposal was developed by Regenerate Christchurch ...
Ladies and gentlemen, NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff, members of respective unions – thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. This might be preaching to the choir, but the importance of trade unions in New Zealand’s historical arch is difficult to understate. And it is my belief that ...
"Let’s start by acknowledging that it has been a huge year. " Police Association Annual Conference James Cook Grand Chancellor Hotel Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou katoa. President of the Police Association, Chris Cahill; Members of the Association and ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters and Minister of Defence Ron Mark have announced the New Zealand Government’s decision to again deploy a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 (P-3) maritime patrol aircraft to support the implementation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions imposing sanctions against North Korea. New ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand continues to have serious concerns for peace and stability in north-east Syria. “Recent reports that hundreds of ISIS-affiliated families have fled from a camp are deeply concerning from a humanitarian and security perspective”, Mr Peters says. “While we acknowledge Turkey’s domestic security ...
Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor is warning travelling Kiwis to be vigilant as the high-season for the crop-eating brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is under way. “We’re on high alert to stop BMSB arriving in NZ. The high season runs until April 30 and we’ve strengthened our measures to stop stink ...
The Government is moving swiftly to change the law to improve the welfare and pastoral care of students living in university halls of residence and other tertiary hostels. Cabinet has agreed to several changes, including creating a new mandatory Code of Practice that sets out the duty of pastoral care ...
The Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage has launched a new comprehensive trapping guide for community trappers to help them protect our native birds, plants and other wildlife, at Zealandia in Wellington today. ‘A practical guide to trapping’, has been developed by the Department of Conservation (DOC), and was launched during ...
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter welcomes PHARMAC’s move to improve access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs). PHARMAC has today announced it will fund the full cost of Mirena and Jaydess for anyone seeking long term contraception, lifting previous restrictions on access to Mirena. “I welcome women having greater choices ...
The Government has approved the next stage of a major redevelopment of Taranaki Base Hospital, which will deliver new and improved facilities for patients. Health Minister Dr David Clark has announced details of a $300 million dollar project to build a new East Wing at the New Plymouth hospital. It ...
Extra funding will allow Rural Support Trusts to help farming families, says Minister for Rural Communities and Agriculture Damien O’Connor. “I know that rural families are worried about some of the challenges facing them, including the ongoing uncertainty created by the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak. “Those concerns sit alongside ongoing worries ...
Thank you for the opportunity to be here to present certificates to the 16 graduates who have completed a beekeeping course delivered by the Howard League. Let us start by acknowledging Auckland Prison’s Deputy Prison Director Tom Sherlock, and Acting Assistant Regional Commissioner of Corrections Northern Region Scott Walker - ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson leaves this weekend to attend the APEC Finance Ministers meeting in Santiago, Chile. Discussions between APEC Finance Ministers at the meeting will include the effects of the current global economic uncertainty, risks for APEC economies and sustainable development of the region. While at APEC Grant Robertson ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says for Pacific people, language can be a source of strength. It can help ground us and give us confidence. When we speak them, our languages provide us with an immediate and intimate access to our identity and our story - and ...
The Coalition Government has announced an action plan to improve the wellbeing of disabled New Zealanders by addressing inequalities in play, active recreation and sport. The initiative includes training to develop a workforce that understands the needs of children and young people with a range of impairments, advocacy for fit ...
The construction sector is being freed up to allow more homes to be built more quickly as the Government cuts through some of the red tape of the Building Act. “Every New Zealander deserves a warm, dry, safe home and old inefficiencies in the Building Act make building slow and ...
The faces said it all. The smiles of the European leaders crowded round Boris after the Brexit deal was struck. The deal his opponents – no, pretty much everyone – said was impossible.So what’s in it? The detail is still opaque, but subject to gremlins in the fine print, ...
Iran attracts an onslaught of negative media in New Zealand and Western media. But is it fair or deserved? David Robie has spent several weeks travelling in the country on sabbatical and finds the media negativity far from the reality of the “most friendly” country he has ever visited ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Leigh Sullivan discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan. They talk about Alan Jones accusing Prime Minister Scott Morrison of failing the immediate needs of drought-striken farmers, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anita Parbhakar-Fox, Senior Research Fellow in Geometallurgy/Applied Geochemistry, The University of Queensland Last month, scientists uncovered a mineral called Edscottite. Minerals are solid, naturally occurring substances that are not living, such as quartz or haematite. This new mineral was discovered after an ...
The Auckland-based collective talk origins, ambitions and making the rave accessible to everybody.Friendly Potential is an outfit that defies easy summary. They’re among the country’s most ambitious and prolific club promoters. In their almost five-years of operation, they’ve been responsible for the local debuts of electronic music icons including Detroit ...
Analysis: Two polls show support for Labour sliding, the government is accused of breaking another promise and the Greens's refusal to back a bill forces Labour to rely on National to get it through. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kiera Lindsey, University of Technology Sydney One spring morning in 1850, over 8,000 Sydneysiders marched through town to protest the resumption of transportation – the act of sending British criminals to Australia. It was the largest protest in Australia thus far, an ...
Two shareholders of failed insurance firm company CBL are leading a class action against the firm's former directors seeking compensation for financial losses. ...
Sam Brooks recaps the third episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, and wonders why some of these queens don’t know how to sew.This episode asks, and sort of answers the main question that millions of people across the world: why would you come on Drag Race and not know how to sew?!There ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John M Clarke, Team Leader, Regional Projections, CSIRO Last month we lost Dr Penny Whetton – one of the world’s most respected climate scientists and a brilliant mentor to the next generation of researchers. Penny will also be remembered as a passionate ...
Ten moose were upended into the Dusky Sounds in 1910. Now, their descendants are getting their day in the sun.The climate crisis is affecting wildlife all over the country: rockhopper penguin populations are in drastic decline, tuatara eggs aren’t hatching females, and the ice walls keeping predators away from kea ...
Security footage of NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell being thrown out of a Tauranga bar looks unlikely to ever be aired - despite his leader Winston Peters promising a screening. ...
Amnesty International is concerned that Justice Minister Andrew Little's Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill could have the potential to undermine human rights in New Zealand. The Bill would give the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to ...
Expect the old campaigner Winston Peters to be at his belligerent best as he gears up for another election. He’s kept his party alive for 27 years and he shows no sign of quitting. The omens may be bleak—polls this week showed his party below the 5% threshold– but Peters ...
The National Party has agreed to take down any videos breaching the current rules around the use of parliamentary TV footage, as all parties try to reach consensus. ...
Recently the Health Promotion Agency released a report into hazardous drinking in New Zealand. The report shows that Māori who drink alcohol and live in deprived circumstances are less likely to have a harmful relationship with alcohol if they ...
Turkey-US joint-statement on military ops within Syria’s territory.The Turkish Embassy in New Zealand issued Evening Report this unabridged United States of America-Republic of Turkey joint-statement detailing what both sides agreed to regarding Turkey’s military operations within the so-called security zone within Syrian territory near Turkey’s southern border. It is ...
Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash didn’t mention what winners will receive, when he proudly called for entries for a new public award “to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector”. Nor did he mention the cost to taxpayers of this initiative. Point of Order’s checks with the website where more details have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona R Martin, Senior Lecturer in Convergent and Online Media, University of Sydney One of the basic tenets of the ABC Act is independence from government. Yet once again, in contravention to that principle, the federal government is trying to push through ...
A new poem by Auckland poet Lily Holloway.modernity to globalisationwhen I get there as still life and landscape and also portraitureseeking the cacti in small pots who dot the globeslices of pie offer up the vision after the sermonexpressing emotions without coherent narrative supportbecause no artist responded to this callemploying ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi to rule out any taxpayer-funded purchase or bailout for Mediaworks’s channel Three. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “For the last few months Mediaworks ...
The Police Commissioner's announcement that squadcars of officers with automatic rifles will patrol New Zealand's streets is dangerous and unnecessary, according to the criminal justice community organisation People Against Prisons Aotearoa. The ...
News broke this morning that Mediaworks is seeking to sell off, and even contemplating closing, its TV division. What might that mean for journalism?For journalism in New Zealand, the loss of Three’s TV division is a devastating blow. It is not yet known whether any of the news properties will ...
In our defence of our coalition Government policy on climate change, we fully support Government plan to use rail funding for rail infrastructure upgrades to promote use rail infrastructure for freight around NZ. ...
The billions of tonnes of plastic in our oceans isn’t going away any time soon, but innovative companies here and abroad are working together to find silver linings to this daunting problem.Fishing boats head out to sea and set their nets. They go back to shore. They head back out, ...
An EveningReport.nz investigation by Kevin ListKiwibank services. Image by Kevin List.Evening Report looks into the separation of Kiwibank from New Zealand Post, and considers the impact on the public’s access to banking services in their communities.Kiwibank. What’s going on? Kiwibank and New Zealand Post are in the ...
Local Government New Zealand today confirmed what many local election commentators have observed; that more of the voting public cast their ballots in favour of women candidates than ever before. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington (this week we totted up the data a day early, on Wednesday, to let our books ed. ...
New Zealand's mineral manufacturing sector is expected to face some testing times, with softer prices, tighter margins and sluggish export markets. ...
Portugal has been painted by pro-cannabis legalisation groups as a model to follow. Yet just last month, the mayor of Porto contradicted his previous pro-harm reduction position and endorsed reintroducing criminal penalties for drug use in public spaces. ...
Chief of Defence Force Air Marshal Kevin Short announced today the inclusion of six Cook Island First World War soldiers in the New Zealand and Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s official rolls of honour. ...
The latest statistics released by the Health Promotion Agency showing a dramatic fall in the numbers of cigarettes being sold in supermarkets, service stations, and liquor stores are being welcomed by the Vaping Trade Association of New Zealand (VTANZ). ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.NZ First Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Where to from here? How NZ First will win in ...
Aotearoa Climate Emergency (ACE), a climate change network, will host a conference in Wellington on 11 November (Armistice Day) to promote holding a Citizens Assembly in 2020, as a way of breaking the current political deadlock on treating climate ...
MediaWorks’ owners have called time after years of losses from its TV division. Sources say the company will announce it is for sale – if no buyers emerge, it will close within months.Three is facing the biggest crisis in its three decade history today, as its ownership will soon announce ...
Sam Brooks reviews Amazon Prime’s Modern Love, an anthology series based on the New York Times column dedicated to ‘love in all its forms’. A first date that ends up in the emergency room. A flagging marriage that finds new energy through tennis. The founder of a dating app who doesn’t ...
If we want to grow support for New Zealand’s aid, we need to get better at partnering with the ‘unlike-minded’ as well as the ‘like-minded’, and much better at telling people what we do with the money they give, says Josie Pagani, Executive ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Orsola De Marco, Astrophysicist , Macquarie University If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au.How are stars made? –Zali, age 8, Karkoo, South Australia. How are stars made? Well, stars are not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gita Mishra, Professor of Life Course Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland All women know to expect the time in life when their periods finish and they reach menopause. Many might even look forward to it. What many women don’t ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul McGreevy, Professor of Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare Science, University of Sydney Since ancient times, horse behaviour, and the bond between horses and humans, has been a source of intrigue and fascination. The horse-lore that has accumulated over the centuries is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachael Wallis, Lecturer and Honorary Research Fellow, University of Southern Queensland A move to the country is often presented in popular culture as an idyllic life, a place where you can escape the pressures of the city. It’s in television shows such ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW The just-announced inquiry into Australia’s retirement income system ought to be anything but run-of-the-mill. Taking place 25 years after the introduction of compulsory superannuation, it provides an opportunity to either fix a broken system, or discard ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Allan McCay, Law Lecturer, University of Sydney The rise of artificial intelligence has led to widespread concern about the role of humans in the workplaces of the future. Indeed, Israeli historian, futurist and publishing sensation Yuval Noah Harari warns in his most ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Saunders, Phd candidate, University of Wollongong Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains images and names of deceased people. You leave Sydney and head for holidays on the South Coast. You plan to catch a quick surf, ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Clayton Mitchell denies accusations around a night out, food insecurity on the rise, and UK PM Boris Johnson secures deal with dubious prospects.NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell has got himself in a spot of late night bother in a Tauranga ...
As the rugby world wrestles with the new reality that players can, and will, be dismissed for accidental contact with an opponent’s head it's worth pondering the fate of three All Blacks not selected for the Ireland quarterfinal. ...
A new exhibition in Raetihi offers a rare opportunity to see early, colonialism-focused works by Wellington artist Barbara Strathdee, writes Pat Baskett. ...
Italy's Ambassador to New Zealand Fabrizio Marcelli responds to Newsroom stories - and The Detail podcasts - questioning the price of imported tinned tomatoes in light of reports of slave labour in the industry in his home country. ...
A measles outbreak in Samoa suspected to be responsible for the death of a one-year-old was “inevitable”, according to an expert who thinks NZ could have prevented it. ...
The big shock of the results in the weekend’s local elections was the unseating of Justin Lester as Wellington mayor. We invited him to pen a sort-of-valedictory.My three years as the mayor of Wellington ended on Sunday and I will forever remain grateful for the experience.I’m also acutely aware of ...
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Alex Braae reviews a night spent on the Intercity overnight sleeper bus getting from Wellington to Auckland.The most important thing to understand about long haul bus travel is that it’s all about getting exactly ...
Britain and the EU have agreed new terms for divorce. But with the Conservatives’ Northern Irish support party unimpressed, can the British prime minister at last put an end to the interminable shitstorm?At last, a deal! A palpable deal! A path out of the endless brain-melt!“Where there is a will, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Government sources insist shock jock Alan Jones didn’t drive Thursday’s announcement of a cash payment to drought-striken farmers about to be turfed off their household support because they’d reached the four year time limit. They ...
The proposition that global warming driven by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a risk that needs to be dealt with has achieved a large measure of agreement among policymakers. The proposition that it has to be dealt with right now and at great cost has no such consensus.One point ...
A bill to improve the pastoral care of students living in halls of residence has flown through its first reading in Parliament, thanks to cross-party support. ...
In this week's MediaRoom column: could MediaWorks close its TV operations altogether? And the Herald restructures its newsroom to remove a layer of management and shake up its investigative team. ...
Twenty-five young people who represent the future of the Asia-New Zealand relationship have been acknowledged as ‘ones to watch’, by the Asia New Zealand Foundation Te Whītau Tūhono. ...
The taboo that surrounds immigration and our refugee qouta, are two issues rising in New Zealand that need to start being given attention to challenge the fruit loops of the far left. ...
Winston Peters has been ordered to answer questions about whether he received a letter from MSD asking him to check details of his living arrangements, three years before discovering he'd been overpaid. ...
To celebrate 10 years since the start of New Zealand’s Next Top Model, our reality TV podcast The Real Pod is going to recap it week by week. Here are 10 of the most incredible revelations from the very first episode. 1) Colin Mathura-Jeffree was an emo kidThis was the moment ...
Open mike 22/04/2019 
I find this unbelievable:
On Wednesday, the government was loudly telling us that it needed to legislate to allow it to impose "control orders" - effectively a parole regime, but imposed without charge, prosecution, conviction or real evidence - on suspected terrorists because they couldn't be prosecuted for their supposed crimes. Today, it turns ...12 hours ago
Yoga gurus and cult leaders – I’ve seen a few. Two weeks ago, I unknowingly joined an alleged new-age cult at the Kāpiti coast, together with a giant kraken and some neatly dressed pensioners who would make any book club proud.They were among the two hundred people of all ages ...14 hours ago
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been busy preparing for our summer paper on Science Communication. Looking for something amusing about ‘risk’ in science, I came across this neat xkcd.com cartoon about why so many people come knocking on my door (or phoning me, or emailing me) desperately wanting ...19 hours ago
Media Statement for Immediate Release 16th October 2019 “Fake News” from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers Despite comments from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers—Herald Newspaper Tuesday Oct 15th–there is very little evidence ...2 days ago
Would You Buy A Used Propaganda Video From This Man? Bridges and the National Party’s strategists have discovered that the ideas and attitudes considered acceptable by today’s editors and journalists are no longer enforceable. The rise and rise of the Internet and the social media platforms it spawned means that ...2 days ago
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz There is a lot of discussion on the benefits of ...3 days ago
Thanks to a report from the Acting Inspector General of Intelligence and Security following a complaint by Nicky Hager, we have come to find out that the SIS illegally spied on Mr. Hager on behalf of the NZDF after publication of Hager’s 2011 book, Other People’s Wars. The NZDF justified ...3 days ago
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING MYTH 1: Global temperatures are rising at a rapid, unprecedented rate. FACT: The HadCRUT3 surface temperature index, produced by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, shows warming to 1878, cooling to 1911, ...3 days ago
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...1 week ago
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...1 week ago
We're rebuilding our hospitals, protecting our oceans, and taking mental health seriously. ...10 hours ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...2 days ago
The Government today announced its support for a project that could substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from cattle. The announcement was made as part of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor’s visit to Nelson’s Cawthron Aquaculture Park. The Cawthron Institute will receive $100,000 from the Government’s ...13 hours ago
Iran attracts an onslaught of negative media in New Zealand and Western media. But is it fair or deserved? David Robie has spent several weeks travelling in the country on sabbatical and finds the media negativity far from the reality of the “most friendly” country he has ever visited ...6 hours ago
A new law targeting potential returning terrorists like Mark Taylor raises questions about human rights and whether the bill is being rushed. ...8 hours ago
The Auckland-based collective talk origins, ambitions and making the rave accessible to everybody.Friendly Potential is an outfit that defies easy summary. They’re among the country’s most ambitious and prolific club promoters. In their almost five-years of operation, they’ve been responsible for the local debuts of electronic music icons including Detroit ...11 hours ago
Analysis: Two polls show support for Labour sliding, the government is accused of breaking another promise and the Greens's refusal to back a bill forces Labour to rely on National to get it through. ...11 hours ago
Two shareholders of failed insurance firm company CBL are leading a class action against the firm's former directors seeking compensation for financial losses. ...11 hours ago
Amnesty International is concerned that Justice Minister Andrew Little's Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill could have the potential to undermine human rights in New Zealand. The Bill would give the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to ...12 hours ago
Politicians come crawling back after the holidays to repair some 'bad optics'. James Elliott pulls no punches in his news of the week. ...15 hours ago
New Zealand's mineral manufacturing sector is expected to face some testing times, with softer prices, tighter margins and sluggish export markets. ...16 hours ago
Environmental groups are urging the government to crack down on commercial industries whose activities are harming the marine environment. ...16 hours ago
Struggling media company MediaWorks is putting its TV business Three on the sale block, after axing and scaling back shows. ...17 hours ago
As the rugby world wrestles with the new reality that players can, and will, be dismissed for accidental contact with an opponent’s head it's worth pondering the fate of three All Blacks not selected for the Ireland quarterfinal. ...22 hours ago
This week's biggest-selling NZ books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan NZ bestseller list and described by Steve Braunias. ...22 hours ago
A new exhibition in Raetihi offers a rare opportunity to see early, colonialism-focused works by Wellington artist Barbara Strathdee, writes Pat Baskett. ...22 hours ago
Italy's Ambassador to New Zealand Fabrizio Marcelli responds to Newsroom stories - and The Detail podcasts - questioning the price of imported tinned tomatoes in light of reports of slave labour in the industry in his home country. ...22 hours ago
A measles outbreak in Samoa suspected to be responsible for the death of a one-year-old was “inevitable”, according to an expert who thinks NZ could have prevented it. ...22 hours ago
Plans for Facebook’s proposed “stablecoin”, Libra, appear to be unraveling as awareness about its adverse effects grows. ...22 hours ago
Explosives were used to blast a millions-of-years-old rock overhang in a national park. ...22 hours ago
Medical issues, party leaks and a surprise resignation have taken their toll - but Winston Peters argues his party is as strong as ever. ...22 hours ago
What's different about what Donald Trump did this time to finally snap Democrats into action and launch an impeachment inquiry? ...22 hours ago
Former MediaWorks news chief and Newsroom co-editor Mark Jennings looks at who or what might save Three now it has been put on the block. ...1 day ago
In this week's MediaRoom column: could MediaWorks close its TV operations altogether? And the Herald restructures its newsroom to remove a layer of management and shake up its investigative team. ...1 day ago
Judith Collins is filling the blackhole that is National’s climate policy with social media posts appealing to science deniers. ...1 day ago
https://i.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/112123654/climate-change-a-reply-to-the-five-most-common-comments-from-readers
Busting bullshit memes for dummies.
I've kinda got an issue with their just brushing aside and minimising population growth as a contributing issue.
Like many other things, that's an area where New Zealand's only significant contribution can come from leading by example. We could choose to say we reject the idea of continual growth (including population growth) and choose to find ways to make steady state and circular economics work.
We could choose to reject the hand-wringing and bedwetting about the fact that the native birth rate is below replacement. And embrace the idea that that gives us more opportunity to welcome some from parts of the world that will get hammered by the changes coming.
Explicitly embracing the idea of below-replacement birth rates and falling populations could set a highly visible example to the rest of the world. In a similar way to our nuclear-free stance.
We could be leading by example as you say…except none in the positions to implement it have either the ability or the desire to accomplish it
It's the kind of change that can only happen by shifting general social attitudes.
One way to help shift general social attitudes with respect to populations is pieces like the one wags linked start talking about the good aspects of lower populations and fewer kids per family, rather than just brushing the issue aside.
Not necessarily…it can be accomplished that way if you are unconcerned about the length of time it will take to achieve….and then theres leadership
Yet leaders are significantly products of their formative environments.
AOC was late teens/early twenties going through the GFC, watching the flaws of lightly regulated free-market rapaciousness while the social environment around her was filled with disgust at their "leaders" inadequate response. Would she have become the leader she is now if the environment around hadn't had the senseof there being a better way?
Similarly Greta Thunberg is coming of age at a time when the general social environment is demanding climate change action. Yet there have been high profile serious people having a damn good go at leading on this topic for decades and getting very little traction.
Leadership is a synergy of the leader's personal qualities and the environment they are in.
and where was the social environment that determined that growth come what may was desirable?….the demand for that was promoted by a narrow section of society that captured the 'leadership'. The synergy argument dosnt hold water when that fact is examined
Growth is clearly and self-evidently desirable when your environment is one where the best strategy for the success of your own group is to overwhelm the"other" by sheer force of numbers, and there's also significant vacant or underused territory your group can expand into to grab more resource to support the expansion of your group.
Both those factors have been true for the vast majority of people for the vast majority of human history. But they stopped being true sometime in the last few generations. That's a helluva lot of cultural inertia and memory to try to turn around.
again , it was only ever true for a segment of society….the dissenters were always disregarded….synergy be buggered
Going from survival of the fitest to we are all one is most likely beyond what evolution made us . But there is hope i guess. I see glimmers of hope in the younger generations .
We have been able to benefit from how: oil based products, pesticides, water management, the improvement of medicine and more that have allowed the pop. to increase to 7.7b.
What is the cost of these ? and for how long can this continue for
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12224127
IMO to manage what we are facing a large portion of the solution is our pop. and what is the viable carrying capacity of the earth with changes that need to be implemented ASAP, but that is only one persons observations 🤔
But Gaia may have a natural solution with the visit of the 4 horseman
I was looking at the stuff website and a strange woman started to talk so I tracked down which image appeared to be live and when I found it I couldn't get an image or stop the sound. Strange.
(Everything's up to date in Kansas [insert chosen location here] city, They've gone about as far as they can go. What next!)
I saw a Newshub update on this but when I went to their website it wasn't there. Happened once before too – slack editing, or evidence that TV3 liaison is somewhat haphazard.
"Brazilian beetles, first released in 2011, haven’t wasted any time getting stuck into the swathes of tradescantia (Tradescantia fluminensis) that are infesting gardens, reserves and conservation land. Three beetle species have been released − a leaf beetle (Neolema ogloblini), a stem beetle (Lema basicostata), and a tip beetle (Neolema abbreviata) − which were selected to attack different parts of the plant." https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/publications/newsletters/biological-control-of-weeds/issue-84/tradescantia-be-gone
Traditionally known as wandering jew, the Newshub reporter called it wandering willy. Not the first media reporter I've seen do this, so I suspect some moron, or group of morons, decided that the traditional name is disrespectful to jews so deemed it politically incorrect. The basic idea behind this type of thinking is that media consumers are morons, so any other moron or group of morons can get away with telling them what to do.
Anyway, gardeners have tried various methods of eliminating the plant, and I can verify from many years of personal experience on different properties that success is only achieved where infestations are fairly small and localised, and even then it takes diligence and time. Just a single broken piece an inch long will grow roots and become an inch long. If it lies exposed on the ground through summer, even continuous sun-baking will not dry it out. It is resilient, will bide it's time, and root when the rains come.
The Newshub report showed that large swathes of the plant have been consumed by the beetles, so the control design seems effective. That's taken eight years though, so it ain't fast. No adverse effects reported, so I hope the govt decides on general release soon.
Update: Looks like Newshub got around to posting it late last night: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/04/kiwi-teenagers-take-experimental-biological-weed-buster-to-the-world.html
I recall it in the '60s as being called "Wandering Willie" then too, never really saw it spelled out in full so whether with a Kwiw accent it was also "jew" or "dew" is another one of the things people are finding to fret over whereas, as always, there are much bigger issues that need the focus.
My father was chatting with our Jewish next door neighbour over the back fence one weekend afternoon, and idly pointed to the mass of green weed that had colonised our compost heap, the fence and progressing onward over everything it could reach.
Dad was saying how "he was going to get stuck in and eradicate this wandering …" and our neighbour smiled and said "yeah we call it Wandering Christian actually :-)"
"Just a single broken piece an inch long will grow roots and become an inch long." I thought I was writing "become a new plant". However my subconscious decided to replace it with a re-run of what I had typed a few moments earlier.
This is a new type of senior moment! Unless other elderly commentators can prove earlier versions of same, I will claim inventor's rights…
Calm down! I only ever knew it as wandering wiĺlie as a kid in the 50s. We thought it was hilarious because it was our dad's name. Maybe it's a regional thing.
Oh, how interesting. Thanks Jan – and also Rapunzel – for corroboration that it did indeed predate the pc era. I can park the grumpy old man syndrome for a while.
So many unobservant observers out there.
Tradescantia, oxalis…. run chickens on the 'problem'. Watch the problem converted to eggs and meat.
To be thorough – add the biocontrol which will now actively seek out any remainder.
Also, taking early occurring rust fungi from either plant and spreading it around on 'healthy' patches of weed to weaken it considerably.
Great idea for weed eradication – chickens – wonderful weeders – and you get eggs – yeah!
Good thinking. I recall as a kid in the fifties when almost all suburban families had a chicken run out back. No supermarkets in Aotearoa till the seventies.
My ex-partner installed one three years ago. Built herself a multi-level shelter at one end with laying straw in roosts & trapdoors above for easy extraction of eggs, has four hens. Observing them on visits reminded me that hen-pecking is a form of bullying. Given that all birds are residual dinosaurs, one wonders if T Rex also did hen-pecking. That would have been awesome to watch.
You must have lived South of the Bombay Hills. Apparently the first supermarkets were in Auckland as early as 1957. There was one with a large car park no less in 1958. Ah civilization had reached our shores.
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/grocery-shopping-canned-food
I grew up in Napier in the 1950's. I can only remember one of the neighbours who had chickens at that time. They were fairly common for people who lived on rather bigger bits of land out in Greenmeadows, Taradale and Clive though.
Maybe regional variations applied then, which we didn't know about. My childhood was in New Plymouth, then college in Wanganui, didn't arrive in Auckland till early '68. I didn't know about that one in Devonport. Students never went to such remote places – poor people still packed buses & trains then (cars were not an option for students).
Alwwn,
I had chickens in my Napier state house in 1957, as on Napier's main Emerson Street at 'Woolworths' they sold 'day old' chicks every august, – that we would fatten them up for Xmas dinner.
Yes cleangreen, my Dad had chickens, Rhode Island Reds and Black Orpingtons. In 1951 Mum used to buy 24 day old chicks, twice a year from her cousin who had a hatchery. They used to come by train from Hamilton to Te Kuiiti. The worst part of the trip was the 26 miles of rough metal road to Benneydale in Dad's T Ford!! The good old days,
I had relatives in Napier in the fifties, and spent many a school holiday there. They had chooks. This was in Thackeray Street.
That'll save our forests bleepy.
We don't all live in the bush (I wish). Management varies and varied solutions are useful.
NZ originally had vast numbers of birds that browsed at various trophic levels of the forest. Now Moa are extinct, and the people trying to make things 'like they were' – what time-point was ideal? Can we bring the Moa back with genetics labs, PR and capital?
Obviously, we want functional ecology. Conservation is a lofty but confused goal. Whereever invasives can be turned to human use their control becomes a lot easier (but eradication nigh on impossible).
No more pesticides, no excuses. The impending loss of insects will cost us everything. It is as urgent an issue as climate change.
Auckland council use(d?) early season rust fungi (from Tradescantia) to spray on Tradescantia and reduce its rampancy (to varying extent) in the region. A new bio-control is obviously welcome it's efficacy remains to be seen.
Animals perform a number of ecosystem functions and when these are understood and managed correctly, they might (gladly) do a lot of work for you while creating animal products e.g. weeding, tilling, fertilising, insect control, turn unpalatable materials to palatable materials.
Our Farmers understand the pulses of seasons, and how this ties in with production. As their ecological understanding grows (some are exemplars in their field) biodiversity will become synonymous with production where many more seasonal pulses can be used to obtain yields. Slowly, balance might be restored as trees (and all they bring) repopulate the landscape.
In urban areas, we can create habitat for bugs. And of course stop using insecticides.
If you have chickens and Tradescantia/Oxalis, well, you know what to do.
Guinea Pigs like it as well.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/112157454/you-need-popularity-to-become-a-leader-but-it-can-be-bad-for-leadership
I'm not going to recommend this piece by Jane Bowron to read except if you are interested to find how many mixed metaphors can be jumbled together to say very little in a column. Here's an example.
"Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern dropped the controversial policy like a hot spud and pledged that while she's at the helm that dog will never hunt again.
Result. Peters' fan base is deliriously happy that he's finally manned up to show who calls the shots; Simon Bridges has lost any bit of skin he has left in the game; and St Jacinda looks like a cynical politician unable to stick to her guns and exact core Labour Party policy."
The writer, Jane Bowron, takes four opening paragraphs to start even before the topic of the headline is introduced. It's fluff, an opinion piece written to fill a space. I wonderd when reading it if she's actually spoofing bad writing. She succeeded if that was her aim.
"If we can hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominos will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate."
Agree, terrible article wish I'd never read it…but I did and it raised a question in my mind
Did the MSM ever see any negatives in the 'popularity" of Teflon John? Not that I recall.
An interesting interview with Helen Clark.
https://soundcloud.com/rttv/worlds-apart-neutered-for-neutrality-helen-clark-former-prime-minister-of-new-zealand
It has always seemed to me that examining the words of Helen Clark to discern signs of intelligence is a waste of time. But I've got an open mind. If you found any evidence of such, I'd consider the potential merit of it…
Let's put it this way, HC's views, whether you regard them as intellectual or not, are informed by an accumulated experience several orders of magnitude greater than all of us regulars here put together
Edit: If you really thirst for intellectual, can I recommend this guy?
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAw
Indeed. One cannot deny the extent of her operational experience. It's the learning therefrom that is in question. I'm curious to see if she has any helpful analysis of the problem, but not enough to overcome the distaste based on prior experience of her (non-)contributions. If she actually produced a solution to the problem there's a very real danger of folks dropping dead from astonishment…
“prior experience of [his/]her (non-)contributions”
People do look at all of us for that.
They've as much chance of making any sense of her after they've dropped dead, not because of her limitations but because of their own.
That is quite some site.
Nifty presentation, which I managed to endure due to exercise of willpower to overcome dislike of maths. Incorporating physics into the design was clever, and lack of real-world application acknowledged, but it ended with a teaser: the pi-implied circle, invisible in the presentation, would only be revealed to viewers who choose to watch the next thrilling installment of maths-by-graphic. Not me.
Engineering math was my stumbling block too; I could follow it as long as I could map it onto something physical. But the point where it became totally abstract I struggled. Fourier transforms yes, Laplace transforms no.
3Blue1Brown does a brilliant job of breaking this barrier down with visuals and modern interpretations that I only wish was around 40 years earlier
.
Mathematicians are the princes of the modern world, and despite my limitations I always wished to be fully admitted to their ranks. Ah well we all have our failed dreams.
I take your point despite never viewing mathematicians with respect. I always discounted them due to their propensity for abstractions being even worse than that of physicists (hard to believe). But I ought to acknowledge that maths is used to validate and empower physics, and certainly forms the basis of computing. I wonder if our service provider (LPrent) will volunteer a personal take on this interface between imaginal and real.
A mathematician is having problems with a leaky sink, so he calls a plumber. The plumber comes over and quickly fixes the sink. The professor is happy until he gets the bill. He tells the plumber, "This is outrageous! You charge more for an hour than I make in a whole day!"
The plumber tells him, "You know, we are always looking for more plumbers. You could become a plumber and triple your salary. Just make sure you say you only made it to 6th grade, they don't like educated people."
The professor takes him up on the offer and becomes a plumber. His salary triples and he doesn't have to work nearly as hard. But after a few years, a law gets passed that all licensed plumbers must have at least an 8th grade education…Not wanting to admit he lied on his application, he signs up for night classes.
On the first day of night School they all attend math class. The teacher wants to gauge the class so he asks the former mathematician, "What is the formula for the area of a circle?"
He walks up to the board and realizes he has forgotten the formula. So he begins to attempt to derive the formula, filling the board with complicated mathematics. He ends up figuring out it is negative pi times radius squared, but he knows that's incorrect, so he starts over, but again he comes up with the same equation.
After staring at the board for a minute he hears one of the plumbers in the class behind him whisper, "Switch the limits on the integral, dummy!"
PS. I cribbed this from some forum ages back 🙂
Mathematics is a part of physics. Physics is an experimental science, a part of natural science. Mathematics is the part of physics where experiments are cheap.
Vladimir Arnold.
Good grief Dennis Frank, you obviously never knew Helen Clark. She is extremely intelligent – way ahead of the vast majority of people. However what she did try to do with varying success was to speak publicly in a manner those of average intelligence would better understand. It was not a case of dropping to their level, but rather to get her points across. I fear you mistook her intentions to be that of a person of average intelligence.
Anne I agree with your take on Helen Clark as she was the real true caring PM we ever had since Michael Joseph Savage..
Not even Norm Kirk?
I met Helen Clark on many occasions, and I'm with you. I didn't share her politics, but there was no doubting her sharp intellect. There was a certain derangement about her from some on the right, which we saw again with the lefts attitude towards John Key, but IMHO Clark was amongst the most competent of PM's this county has seen.
But having it and using it are two different things, eh? I tend to judge on the basis of performance – don't you? Why not take a look at the interview RL posted and report back here if she proposes a solution to the UN problem that seems viable?
I know you ain't no leftist, so that puts you in a credible position to evaluate her performance objectively. If she merely circles around the problem, discussing dimension of it without advancing the situation one iota, I trust you'll be honest enough to report that back to us too.
Hi Dennis. My comments were specifically about her time as PM. I also have no time for the UN. IMHO it is a largely corrupt and essentially useless organisation that has lost it's way entirely. So no sorry, I won't be listening to the interview.
Very different things.
Key was not an honest man. Most people are annoyed by liars.
There it is … KDS in evidence again.
Despite your heroic efforts to peddle this false equivalence, Clark was not given to outrageous manifestations of dishonesty like Key's "I don't recall".
Clark burnt herself on efforts like the anti-smacking bill, Key destroyed his reputation by insider trading and self serving actions like constraining the brightline to two years so his own investments would make the cut.
Like Trump he was and is a self-serving piece of shite with no business pretending to act for a democratic polity. Morally crippled rightwingers look on him with envy rather than contempt, but this defeats their arguments with the Left before they even begin.
You have one of the worst cases of KDS I have seen. In fact I’d say it’s incurable. I’d argue the toss, but you’re beyond rational debate.
Look I understand you have this deep abiding need to lie your worthless ass off to defend the thoroughly unsavoury reputation of the worst PM NZ has ever seen, but my objections to this lying self-serving ineffectual ambulant cesspool of corruption are entirely rational.
So don't be accusing me of KDS – that's not a thing – unless it applies to scoundrels like yourself, for whom, judging by your comments, lying and stealing are public virtues.
He’s not dead yet – the convention on eulogies does not apply.
Yep, you've got it bad.
The only thing I've got bad is a troll who won't stop apologizing for the worthless son of a bitch.
Come up with some facts to dispute my characterization Shadrach – if you've got anything better to offer than your usual ersatz wildebeests.
Liars make me MAD shatrack.
They don't help your spelling either.
Despite claims to the contrary, she was a woman of substance and integrity, but one possible fault (which I tend to share with her), she did not suffer fools gladly. And woe betide anyone who played silly buggers with her. Very early on in her parliamentary career, I decided to play the devil's advocate at a meeting. No prizes for guessing who came off second best by a long shot. 🙁
I've often hoped to meet her again one day and ask her if she remembered that incident.
“And woe betide anyone who played silly buggers with her”
At the risk of blowing my cover totally I can retell this tale about HC.
In 2001 I was working with a good friend in the Beehive on a technical contract relating to the building power system. The only time we were allowed to do full black start testing was after midnight on a Sunday evening. Most of the work was located in the basement, but we also had reason to access the '10th floor' where much of the HVAC equipment is located. The only way to get there is by lift to the 9th floor and then stairs up.
My mate is a madman I should add.
So there we are sometime late at night, the lift doors open on the foyer of the 9th floor and there is HC striding with he back to us, paperwork under one arm, from one office to another and as we step out my friend bursts into his best Muldoon imitation (which is very damn good) and says "Heh, heh, heh …. so that's the little girlie that got the job".
HC freezes to a halt, pauses ominously just long enough for my bowels to turn to water, swivels malevolently on her heels and imperiously announces "Fucking uppity tradesmen. Use the back entrance!" And with a wicked grin vanishes into her office.
What a cool story!
Your friend sounds like a rare breed. McPhail's version of Muldoon was okay, but he couldn't ever seem to reproduce the genuine menace element of the Muldoon style. You know, the bit that always had his cabinet cowering like underdogs.
And who would have thought she actually had a sense of humour! All them smiley interviews didn't hint at it. Just showed her as well-trained.
To give her credit for street cred, her pulling the academic put-down of the working class in your story was convincing. Spinning on a dime to deliver that line demonstrates true expertise. Gutsy giving the fingers to politically correct supporters while exhibiting classic intelligentsia elitism. Only two observers, nobody would ever believe them, so she could reveal her true self in that moment. That's real authenticity!
Helen and a great sense of humour Dennis. But for some reason she rarely showed it in public. I can only assume someone advised her to stick with the serious persona – perhaps because as a woman any show of humour would lead to ridicule of her further down the track. Just guessing mind you.
I would have liked her more if she had, Anne. And ridicule damages only if you let it – an adept operator can usually turn it to advantage. Lange was exemplary in that respect and I valued him for being a refreshing new style of kiwi politician. Too bad he proved inept in the exercise of power.
Now the new leader of Ukraine is reminding us how potent humour can be in politics. The sooner we get that element back into our political mix, the better. Mind you, the necessity is considerably more dire in the USA…
Hi Anne. Apart form the times I met her, there was one event that enhanced my view of Helen Clark enormously. It was an interview she gave in 2002 with John Campbell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dET78Z5b5s). It was a dirty piece of journalism by Campbell, and Clark handled herself with considerable professionalism. I have never rated Campbell since, and never will.
That's down to your examining skills franko, more praxis needed.
But he's praxis to the maxis as it is.
Don't I gnosis.
🙂
Nah, I know that folks will oblige me by gleefully reporting any genuine pearls of wisdom. So far, zilch, so commentators are busy proving me right…
Crikey!
RT
IKR?!
How did that link get past the dragons and the shark infested moat that protect The Standard
McFlock and the gang will be having conniptions
I think they'll be fine.
But what they don't know won't hurt them.
With a little chill down my neck, I agree with John Roughan (!) that the Prime Minister is wasting her massive political capital by not using it, and delivering a timid government:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12223853
Yeah, likewise. "If last Wednesday she had announced a capital gains tax limited to investment property, excluding farms, business, shares, all productive investment, it would have been greeted with relief."
That's hitting the nail on the head. He goes on to make the point that this group of professional investors are largely responsible for making homes unaffordable to young kiwi home-buyers. So hitting the guilty would be popular.
Yes, but. Excessive immigration produced by National and Labour govts is even more responsible for creating the real-estate bubble. Maintenance of that trend by the coalition has merely stabilised the bubble. Collapsing the bubble to provide equity for young kiwi families is deemed too hard by the coalition: they are being held to ransome by older generations playing the market. Investors win again.
Inflows of capital are the problem, not of people. And no govt will fix housing being treated as an investment asset class without tackling the economic settings that enable it.
Fair point. I spent so many years in Ak watching immigrant Chinese inflate the bubble I'm probably biased. Just because I profited from their input enough to get wealthy doesn't mean I stopped feeling disgusted by the trend. Empathy with those made into losers by govt policy seems to come naturally, then there's the deliberate repudiation of intergenerational equity on top of that, so unprincipled as to fill me with intense contempt for whichever govt is currently doing it. Currently, a govt I've been supporting…
The visible Chinese buyers were just fronting the capital flows from China, same as the Americans, Australians and Brits were doing.
Contempt for the people who made you rich franko? You're a peach aren't you.
You really believe the govt did it?? What part of market forces don't you get?
Govts regulate markets.
Or not. Depends how neoliberal they want to be seen as. Most of the expert analysis on the gfc, since the gfc, asserts that the regulations implemented were intended to create public impressions – not to change the way the market operates. Sham regulation has been a thing since Clinton.
I guess its possible shes saving it to spend on far more pressing things like cc .
if her interview yesterday is any indication it wont be used on that either
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018691820/the-search-for-a-political-solution-to-climate-change
Thank you for the link. I swear Noelle McCarthy’s accent is getting less understandable with time.
I remember saying similar about John Key.
As well as dealing with the stuff of government like drought, Christchurch rebuild, Kaikoura rebuild, Pike River, and Wellington earthquake, he also had a crack at changing the flag.
So far under this government:
– Poverty is the same
– Wealth disparity is the same
– Homelessness is the same
– Environmental damage is the same
– Tax levels are the same
It's about time Ardern did something more ethan emote well.
Key “dealing with” Pike River? pffft
Resulted in the most comprehensive industrial safety legislation ever in this country.
Let’s ask the Pike families who they credit for that, shall we.
Go right ahead.
The Christchurch rebuild hasn't been good either.
There have been small changes though Ad.
But in the main your points cannot be denied. And Robertson has a vision I think of following in Douglas', Cullen's footsteps – Sir Grant Robertson awarded to him for holding off the simple citizens of Nz massing to attack the citadel of wealth and power.
I have a hunch your paygrade is beyond this: the incremental raising of minimum wage to living wage is lifting the income of some wage slaves.
Any evidence for this?
Union for example?
You're coming down with a case of the IRekons
Just my experience.
Last two performances reviews (roughly annually), I have gone up $1 an hour at each.
The first one, the poor manager said "because the minimum wage is going up, your wage is going up".
Silly bugger didn't try and say it was linked to performance.
To be fair I am in hospitality, so not far away from the minimum wage.
Nice baiting though Ad.
I struggle to point to anything else I would shout from the rooftops about this regime.
Me too.
I have been disabled for 27 years and always been left without “quality support and having a valued life in the community,” as Tish rightly suggests.
It seems that we disabled are considered not worth saving or caring about any more over the last thirty years.
I was severely chemically expose in 1992 and have suffered from brain injuries, nervous system damage, and immune system dysfunction ever since. It is now far harder to stay alive.
These injuries all occurred after exposure at my workplace and since after a seven year Workers Compensation claim no-one has ever been blamed, so I have fallen right through the social safety net.
The most insulting part was when I reached the retirement age (65) my disability payment funding support was cut out and I was thrown straight onto the lower payment system on the general pension, so now I cannot get good disability treatments because no funding is available for them on the pension for the disabled.
Cleangreen, I am so sorry about all you have experienced.
I don't know what to say other than apologise to you.
Life must be incredibly tough for you.
Thanks ankerawshark.
Yes, it is tough but my time in the NZ army taught me to keep on fighting to stay alive.
I am very sorry about the Chill down the back of your neck. So strange how you trolls blame Jacinda for everything.
So childish. Probably because you suck off the Herald rubbish.
Point to their results.
You're sounding like the chairman now – you're a member of the party aren't you? If so you don't know the results your party have achieved? They've just done a year in office haven't they?
https://www.labour.org.nz/year_in_review_2018
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/91882/government-completes-its-100-day-plan-here-what-it-has-done
Two context-absent, graph-absent, analysis-absent propaganda lists. Awesome.
None of their policies have been shown to alleviate the previous government's issues of poverty, homelessness, environmental damage, economic productivity, or wealth disparity.
Don't worry if they existed, the Salvation Army would have picked them up.
Time this government was held to account from all sides.
Ardern and Robertson are coasting.
lol What did they say when you emailed them your concerns?
Wait.
Just wait.
When you look through those propaganda lists, keep in mind that none of those things would have happened without a change of government.
The question is, why do all their policy efforts look like they're hamstrung by a bunch of provincial conservatives and corrupt influence-peddlers? Well, we do know the answer to that question, don't we? If you want a left-wing agenda implemented, vote for left-wing parties, not right-wing ones or corrupt populists. A left-wing agenda necessitates a left-wing majority and right now there isn't one.
That's right, Marty. He has a valid point.
In fact, some things have exacerbated.
And the future isn't looking much better.
Here (the following below) is how Max Rashbrooke sums it up:
In short, today's announcement is likely to load pressure onto the debate about public debt, and push the government into a pretty sub- optimal position. We can also now understand the intensity of the opposition to a capital gains tax, or indeed any tax increase. Opposition parties now no longer need fight every single one of the government's plans – because to the extent that those plans rely on revenue that a capital gains tax would have raised, they have all just been shut down in one go.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/387291/capital-gains-tax-shutdown-threatens-govt-s-other-plans
In theory at least, any tax changes from the TWG were tax neutral, so I don't understand how a CGT could have funded more stuff than current settings.
Only tax neutral for the first five years. Then the tax revenue projections start to vastly outweigh the proposed tax cuts.
That's a long way into the future for a government – even if they got 9 years, they would barely see the start of that by the time it was implemented.
Carbon taxes and other options seem like a better bet.
Government accounting methods are largely based on forecasting. Thus, the added revenue stream from a CGT would improve the economic outlook, meaning the Government would be able to increase the capital and operating allowances in the next Budget.
Carbon taxes don't address tax free capital gains, thus the unfairness in our tax system.
Moreover, I would require far more detail to agree carbon taxes and other options are a better bet.
Regards the terrible bombing massacre in Sri Lanka, the 'will to power' indeed often seeks to disposses innocence in one way or another, as i saw recently intimated in a relatively rarified clarity of reason headline relating to English perspective lately; but as we recently demonstrated we also know here in NZ, and of which there is no better day than Easter Sunday as symbolism of, the 'will to power' is also an instrument to the creation of innocence, depending on choice in how it is used.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12223646
Good grief…Groundhog Day
I think information is helpful for discussion Pat.
Creative destruction: Will technology create or kill jobs? 22 Apr, 2019 5:00am
New Zealanders are being asked to share their views on whether technological changes will cost jobs or create them as the Government looks to formulate a policy on the future of work. The Productivity Commission has published an issues paper which explores the possible impacts of new technology on the labour market. It has been tasked with producing a full report by March 2020.
"While technological change brings significant overall benefits, it also creates frictions and costs for particular groups in society," the issues paper notes.
"Sustained economic growth requires innovation, and innovation cannot be decoupled from creative destruction. "This 'replacement of the old' involves the devaluation of prior investments in machinery and skills, leaving the owners of older equipment and workers who used it worse off. For some, these costs can be severe."
However on the positive side the paper acknowledges significant job creation due to new technology.
For example, since 1999, the number of jobs classified as 'Computer systems design and related services' has increased from 8700 to 32,600, it notes.
Bare facts background here. Who are doing these jobs – have NZs had every chance to train and move into them. And why have jobs not expanded in the trades in a parallel way? Isn't this a very unbalanced society, full of dreams, visions for the future, and limited connection with their own vulnerable humanity and even less of that of others?
yes GWS…I would have copied and pasted some of the relevant information but with the changes i havnt yet worked out how to….however my point is why is this work being redone?..didnt Labour have a Future of Work working party only a couple of years ago?…do they think our attention spans are so short?…when are they going to come to some conclussions and make decisions?….this is getting a little absurd
"Climate change is our generation's nuclear moment."
What are they doing about it?
Wringing their hands. And young people are sick of it.
+++++++++++++++++Yes Sasha
Labour’s Climate Change policies = all talk no do.
You mean the Green/Labor/NZFirst Government policies.
Plenty of talk from all of them so far.
I think its up to us Cleangreen
Boycott overseas travel, stop consuming in the extreme way we do , be happy doing it
Any way that you can persuade James Shaw to follow your prescription? He seems to think the only reason he is in Government is to give him an opportunity to skive off overseas while ignoring the complete shambles that is the Census.
James Shaw with Climate Change = Minister Robertson with tax reform.
Shaw has bigger things in mind than yours can cope with .
Frantically mouth rinsing, to get rid of the halitosis, although it doesn’t smell like uranium this time …
Labour needs to do what they promised to do.
"Mr Twyford's defence is that promises made by Jacinda Ardern as Labour leader are completely different from promises made by Jacinda Ardern as Prime Minister."
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/02/jacinda-ardern-breaks-the-first-promise-she-made-as-labour-leader.html
Hopefully our Govt. will be able to keep a few important commitments to those in real need – other than keeping those precious Uni Students happy 🤫
This is a false meme from the right wing. The fees free policy encourages all tertiary education both academic and vocational. It encourages young people into post secondary training who were most likely to forego that training due to cost other class barriers.
"This is a false meme from the right wing" really !!! tell that to those students at ECE/Primary/Secondary that are in need of assistance, that there is inadequate funding. Try asking about students/parents regarding RTL or dyslexia, support for those with learning needs, Leaky school buildings that there is no funding to remediate, inadequate remuneration, etc That thanks to shortfalls will struggle to be able to benefit from tertiary education funding and extra funding for accomodation.
I would suggest, Muttonbird, try talking to teachers and find out how in need the sector is.
Up late last night watching how-to renovation videos on Youtube, and came across this new series by Grand Designs – The Street.
A better solution – I think – then selling off crown or local government land to developers to provide housing. Another not mentioned benefit is that you end up with a long-term community, made up of a variety of people from all walks of life, instead of what we have now in many areas – segregation by economics.
First episode currently on Youtube:
Grand Designs – The Street – Episode 1
Just letting you know Molly that i have copied and put in How to get here as this sounds interesting and may show us the way.
Pretty interesting
https://www.salon.com/2019/04/21/reporter-sharmine-narwani-on-the-secret-history-of-americas-defeat-in-syria/
A long read but a good one.
Her thesis is that Syria was a differently formatted WW, and the constellations have shifted post US defeat(or failure to gain a victory…regime change)
Yes, I've just read that. Sharmine Narwani is no slouch and certainly no government's patsy
I read an account she wrote of the Palestinian/Syrian relationship. Its a very complex relationship.
There's no two paragraph sound bite with Sharmine's articles. They're
very informative.
Like to read that
Here ya go
https://mideastshuffle.com/2014/11/17/stealing-palestine-who-dragged-palestinians-into-syrias-conflict/
Ta
Much appreciated
Counting in the Ukrainian presidential election is indicating a rout: comedian Volodymyr Zelensky is currently at 73%, incumbent Poroshenko is at less than 25%.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48007487
One can imagine the eyes of comedians all over the world lighting up as the possibilities of this trend occur to them…
Life imitates art: "Zelensky starred in the long-running satirical drama Servant of the People in which his character accidentally becomes Ukraine's president."
"He plays a teacher who is elected after his expletive-laden rant about corruption goes viral on social media. He ran under a political party with the same name as his show."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48007487
He talks of ending the war in the east with a massive infowar program, and also intends to re start the Minsk process.
Apparently the various embassies are scrambling, they don't know what to make of him .How much he's under Kolomoisky's thumb no one knows.
Pretty hard to avoid the influence of oligarchs in Ukraine.
The traditional path to political success in democracies is to be all things to all people. He could signal that he will be that traditionalist by continually recycling the name of his show/party, for instance by ending all his speeches with "your servant, Volodymyr".
Equally, he ought to sign off on his emails to his patron, the oligarch, "your servant, Volodymyr". When he issues a polite request to the Ukrainian media, same sign-off. That way everyone ends up on the same page and all can acknowledge that he is indeed a classic democratic politician.
Humour is the best strategy when conducting foreign relations, as the ongoing UN dysfunction continues to prove. So his relations with Russia will improve immensely as soon as he suggests to Putin that they team up in the Vlad & Volod Show, a weekly current affairs review which will feature laughter as the best medicine.
Putin needs to loosen up more, and presenting as more human than Russians knew he could be would be a clever move for him. Entertaining the populace of both countries simultaneously would be tremendously therapeutic. Even more vodka could get sold.
Latest update: "Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Petro Poroshenko have gained 73.17 percent and 24.5 percent of the vote, respectively, the country’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has said after it processed 90.1 percent of the voting protocols. Zelenskiy is leading in all regions, except Lviv region."
https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/zelenskiy-leading-with-73-17-percent-followed-by-poroshenko-with-24-5-percent.html
Are all the people who are convinced that Trump only made it to the Presidency going to start in on the story that Zelensky only got the votes reported here because the Russians rigged the result?
Clearly it must all be due to Putin's machinations.
Collusion? Depends on the angle you view it from, eh? View it from the left, you may be able to discern puppet strings…
"Zelensky, whose only previous political role was playing the president in a TV show, trounced incumbent Petro Poroshenko by taking 73 percent of the vote, according to partial official results. Poroshenko garnered just 24 percent, losing to the 41-year-old comedian and actor across the country, with 42 percent of ballots counted."
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/ukraine-comedian-volodymyr-zelensky-wins-presidency-in-landslide-2026466
"Exit polls showed Zelensky took 87 percent of the vote in eastern Ukraine and defeated Poroshenko even in the west, where the incumbent traditionally enjoyed strong support. Poroshenko, 53, said the results were clear and enough reason to "call my opponent and congratulate him". "I will leave office but I want to firmly stress — I will not quit politics," Poroshenko said in a speech at his campaign headquarters… "We realise that the Kremlin might be enjoying the election result," he said."
"The outgoing leader came to power after a 2014 pro-Western uprising ousted a Kremlin-backed regime, triggering Moscow's annexation of Crimea. His supporters credited him with rebuilding the army and securing an Orthodox Church independent of Russia. But many feel the country's ruling elite have forgotten the promises of the revolution."
"The comic shunned traditional campaign rallies and instead performed comedy gigs and used social media to appeal to voters." Way to go, dude! Don't bore voters to death at those old robotic rallies, entertain them instead. Politics as fun! Enchant those voters!
The Ukranians got sick and tired of the clowns running their country so they put in a real clown instead.
My idea of European clowns is often they are politically savvy. Also they understand people's norms and how to tickle their humour, so understands people. This man could do a very good job compared to someone who has just sold himself for a whim or campaign money and is taking on a task above his level of competence. USA!
Te radar for Governor General.
Ursula Carlson for the Attorney General.
Hadn't heard Urzila Carlson. She exaggerates how sweet we are in NZ! Acshually a bit like PM Jacinda.
Britain. How do they produce such filth?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12224324
The rise of the extreme right in Britain makes me think it's a once great nation on a steep decline.
Hopkins is living proof that racism and hate can take years off people’s lives.
Ugly person
Imagine if Piers Morgan and Hopkins had a child together.
Would definitely be a candidate for anti christ superstar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Hopkins#Personal_life – Katie Hopkins bounces off walls from one job to another. There is money to be made in the UK from being foul apparently – and our forebears came here with such high-flown notions in their head. Every advancement for the people had to be fought long and hard for – now they come here to gobble up what we managed to create.
We know that London in the UK has fatbergs in its sewers, is Katie Hopkins something that got washed up onto the street after one of the blockages that can be about 3.5m high? They require daily work as they emerge under the city. Or perhaps noxious gases have affected her memory – our noses are very sensitive and closely situated to the brain. There must be some explanation for the poor quality journalism and the media's acceptance of this attacking, harrowing method of soapboxing, but without the soap.
Perhaps it is that she has some big health issues – borderline healthy – and she takes it out on her unfortunate prey.
Probably the same way this country makes a whaleoil, a Henry or a Hoskins.
Of course D'Felon has to get in on the fuckwittery.
Disha Doucha must have inside knowledge on the perpetrators.
Well you won't find out reading The Standard.
Further signs the Nats are being dragged to the left (Labour also being dragged to the right for other reasons).
After NZ's most racist man, Don Brash, banned Nat MPs from standing in Maori seats, Jo Hayes considers 'going home'.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/112087438/national-mp-jo-hayes-keen-to-stand-in-mori-electorate
Winston Peters again in the gun and I’d have to agree that this government is being held back by him and his party.
When you have the entire country ready for some sort of CGT and Nat MPs wanting to return to Maori seats yet Peters is the fly in the ointment you have to wonder what kind of damage he is now doing to the country.
The sooner he fucks off the better.
Question:
Who here would party vote National if they campaigned for CGT on rental properties?
Given that Labour are now unable to do so…I would.
Not a chance, the rest of the damage is too high.
Besides which, the difference between paying income tax at ones marginal rate based on a bright line test of 10 years, and a CGT at 15% is basically nil. (I’m aware the current test is 5 years, but am leaving some room to extend)
I suggested the other day that JA could extend the bright line test to 25 years but Wayne told me she doesn't rule by decree.
I don't know for sure but I imagine Peters owes a great deal to Labour right now.
It would require legislative change, but will probably be part of the 2020 election policy suite.
Robertson said it was “unlikely” to be a further extension of the bright-line test as they've taken a CGT off the table and the bright-line test represents a form of that.
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/99226/finance-minister-grant-robertson-effectiveness-taxing-land-bankers-why-bright-line-test
CGT is just a tax, but a good political party really smokes.
Not me – the TWG showed the biggest capital freeloaders were Ag,Forestry, & Fishing. The Gnats cannot in any case be trusted to do what they promise – Key campaigned on fixing housing – he fixed it so kiwis couldn't buy it anymore.
If the Gnats rolled out a fully costed set of economic policies that actually addressed declining outcomes, productivity and sustainability, which is well beyond them – they still could not be trusted to implement them.
A man of 89 in Auckland falls because of a large gap in the pavement and dies. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12224015
A chapter of accidents. He had some hospital care and was sent home in a taxi although his parnter would have picked him up. He didn't arrive home. Then she phoned the hospital but they had nothing to tell her, and not knowing where he was she phoned the police. Some time after the hospital advised that he had been admitted after a fall, and she could come and get him after treatment. Then she found he had a gash across his forehead and was in intensive care.
The taxi should be instructed to take a patient to his or her home not drop them off at the shops. The instructions from the hospital should be quite clear. Better still phone the family.
The supershitty is too busy being grand to listen to the wants of ratepayers and the holes round ornamental trees should have been filled in as they say has been requested for a long time. When you think of the constant conniptions by Health and Safety on small business and private people, the authorities are playing us for suckers, local and national government.
"But hey hold on, the Statistics Department concludes: “Inflation was low in the March 2019 quarter because of falls in the prices of petrol and international airfares.” Right. So, apparently, the people struggling to pay for their smokes at the supermarket can take comfort from the fact that the price of getting to the Amalfi Coast for their winter holidays just got cheaper. So, maybe we’re not measuring the price fluctuations in any basket of goods that’s relevant to most New Zealanders. By the way, the cost of non–tradeable goods and services rose by 3% in the past year. So much for inflation being low to non-existent. In the real world, prices are going up."
http://werewolf.co.nz/2019/04/gordon-campbell-on-scrapping-the-capital-gains-tax/
Ah…theres that convenient CPI in operation again
How the fuck have i become waghorni.
That bloody cursor is still in the name bit ever time i go to comment
No sure, I think that’s why one of your comments ended up in moderation, briefly.
Cheers . Im having problems with being unable to right comments some times due to the cursor being in the name section and not being able to get ot to shift to the comment box .
I’m afraid I won’t be of much help to you, but hopefully somebody else might shed some light upon this.
I assume you use a mobile phone.
I never use a mobile phone and always type on a keyboard and in Word first. Thanks to this, many a stupid comment of mine got deleted before it even made it into the TS comment box …
It also avoids the strain on eyes, neck, and fingers using a device that’s euphemistically called a smart-phone
That happens to me on the computer where I select all in the name box, cut and paste it into where I want it to be. Then put my name back in the right place. Then I haven't lost the bits of comment that have got into the name box while I have merrily been typing away. I admire you people who are doing it all from a phone. Marvels.
Maybe a hyphen is the way to go,
like wag-horni
bit suspect but probably true 🤔
Hint for jackson – stfu
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/112188523/wellington-mayor-wont-take-legal-action-over-sir-peter-jacksons-shelly-bay-serve
I agree Jackson should but out. It's just sad that the Trust appears wedded to capitalism and has partnered with Cassel's "The Wellington Company"… kind of ironic.
It's a shame that Jackson and Maori cannot come to a mutually satisfactory conclusion. Opportunities for suitable Maori to have apprenticeships with him. People need to see him as having something to offer instead of going all sour because he didn't play their game.
No-one else in NZ could have done the job with LOR and we now have another string to our bow, big film making and model making. With so many people willing to spit on entrepreneurs it isn't surprising that we languish in a jobless low wage environment – you don't kick a possible employer in the teeth because you want more money, you keep talking and thinking. He is here, and could be worked with to build up an apprenticeship, get some ongoing advantages.
They don't come often – cunning minds work at how to get opportunities, not march in the streets complaining. But the leaders of the march might as well have said 'Let them eat grass' – nothing could have been the outcome.
But but… the Nazis are in Ukraine.
/
https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/arson-disrupts-passover-meal-at-russia-s-largest-yeshiva-in-eastern-moscow-suburb-1.7142895
But but ..the Nazis are in Ukraine
You're bang on there Joe
Not often we agree
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/11/ultranationalism-in-ukraine-a-photo-essay
Yet Volodymyr Zelensky will be the first Jewish president of Ukraine (and the second Jewish head of a European nation) and Poland's resurrected their old beat the Jew ritual, too. Funny old world, eh.
Duuuh!
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/387548/airbnb-likely-cause-of-high-rents-in-queenstown-researcher
RIP Blair Peach. Not forgotten.