Defenders of the Labour Party on this matter won't want to read this. It will do your head in. And don’t come gunning after me for highlighting it.
Nevertheless, this is how a number of New Zelanders see this issue being played out.
The mishandling is continuing. Got to wonder who is advising them? And if it ends up costing Labour the election, they only have themselves to blame.
[baiting the community this time. Two day ban last time, four days this time. People who want to have considered debate on this topic are more than welcome to start or continue a discussion. Those that want to use it to bash Labour, concern troll, or shit stir can expect to get my attention – weka]
I read it online I had already cancelled Stuff, then I "tweeted" this "So glad I cancelled Stuff Sun paper at least I avoided paying for that. Winston Peter's & Tracey Martin's unsolicited opinions on this carry much more balance than Vance's. The twisting of the context of Shane Jones' words the other day shows just how conflated the facts now are."
Who are these "Nevertheless, this is how a number of New Zelanders see this issue being played out." A number of others are waiting on straight facts not Vances interpretation of them. I can see this not playing out well for the National Party, once this is reviewed the media will be very tempted to turn their thoughts back to the unresolved internal matters. I had forgotten until yesterday the murky offer to Lee Ross to return in time with possible promotion.
One assumes Winston and co knows how damaging this can potentially be for Labour.
Hence, it's logical to assume it's in their own (NZF's) self interest to lessen the damage. As I've already explained to you, Winston requires Labour and National to be in a position where they both require his Party's support. Allowing him to play them both off against each other so as he and his Party can secure a better deal.
And again, as I've already explained to you, I've not spoken (out in the real world) to anyone who trust Labour over this. And of course, Labour require voters to trust in Jacinda as without it (voter trust) they are unlikely to do well come next election.
Moreover, Labour party defenders of this matter seem to be totally unaware of how their defence is only making things worse for the party.
This is an issue the party needs to own and correct. Constant denial is only making it (the wider public perception) worse. So is being secretive as it looks as they are covering up.
Moreover, if we are to take Jacinda on her word of only recently finding out, hence for the party to take action on this. Then of course those that knew but failed to tell her where preventing action from being taken. Hence, protecting and enabling the culture to continue.
Why would you expect the police commissioner to get involved at that level of detail?
The commissioner of the police has a particular role inside the police, and it really isn't about running around working on individual cases. It is mainly administrative.
The chief executive of Police is known as the Commissioner and is appointed by the Governor General. Mike Bush (MNZM) is the current Commissioner of New Zealand Police. The Commissioner of Police is accountable to the Minister of Police for the administration of police services, but acts independently in carrying out law enforcement decisions.
Nationally we have 12 districts, which are administered from Police National Headquarters in Wellington, and a number of national service centres that provide administrative and specialised support, such as forensic services.
At best this would be a district level issue for investigation and would come after a complaint is made to the police.
To take just one other out of the jumble of topics you raised, the Francis review was an internal review undertaken by parliamentary services.
In other words it was done by an employer looking at how to better serve all of their employees and the institution. There are 85 recommendations in the review report. I just read them – perhaps you should indicate which one of those said that the police should be involved in rejigging parliamentary services HR system?
But even if criminal activities like sexual assault were identified by the Francis review, there would have been little that could have been done anyway at a criminal level – which is what you appear to be asking for.
In my view, the problem with our current system for dealing with sexual assaults is that it depends far too strongly on having a complainant, and the complainant being the victim or someone responsible for them like a parent or guardian. This makes it difficult through to impossible to deal with even something as awful as serial rapists without a complainant.
The process of going to the police is never going to be easy, and never more so in the wake of the revelations of the Louise Nicholls about Rotorua police culture or in the wake of the police treatment on complainants in the roastbusters in West Auckland. That makes it really difficult to think that going to the police about a sexual assault is going to do anything.
That is the basic problem that needs to be looked at. Personally I think that sexual assaults should be able to be reported to the police by anyone and the police should be required to take a case even if they don't have the complainant, but there is sufficient evidence to lay a charge.
I'd also like that decision about laying a charge to be taken away from the police or at least oversighted from outside the police because the idea isn't to just win cases – it is to make sure that offenders are aware of the consequences.
Of course amongst the public having John Tamihere and Willy Jackson waving their dicks on radio didn't help either. They sounded like they were only sorry they weren't out there raping with the boys. I'd have liked to laid complaint of offensive behaviour on that as well. Why bother going to a useless patsy rubber stamp like the BSA.
But FFS: please try to actually offer realistic ideas. Handwringing is so useless.
I know what the role of Bush is, he is in charge of enforcing the law. Perhaps he needed to make a statement when the Francis report was released so that people could have confidence in the police when reporting harassment, intimidation or a sexual crime.
Without a complaint a conviction cannot occur.
The police dragged their heels over Bazeley's recommendations. The same cannot be done about the Francis recommendations within Parliament.
Do Parliamentary Services actually know what to do and what to recommend a complainant does?
That refers mostly to bullying, harassment, and discrimination to be dealt with by the organisational HR.
You can also go direct to the Human Rights Commission, especially if it is systemic within the organisation.
There are other legal options
Sometimes behaviour which is bullying or harassment, may also be civil harassment covered by the Harassment Act 1997 and the complainant could apply for a restraining order.
If behaviour includes violence, is criminal harassment (where the person intends, and knows it is likely, for the harassment to cause the other person to reasonably fear for their own or their family’s safety) or is another criminal offence, it should be reported to the Police.
The police are pretty strictly there for crimes. Which they pretty much have sole jurisdiction over.
While anyone can make a report, generally the police will only act on an actual complaint. There are exceptions. But they are mostly to do with minors, dependents, and people unable to make complaints.
Now I personally wouldn't be adverse to some changes in the laws around this. However, that is a matter for parliament to introduce and actually pass. With our system, arbitrarily trying to make the rules up according to some individuals idea of what is a good idea just leads you into criminal or civil legal hot water.
The police above all other groups are aware of this – they work at the intersection between parliament's mandate to them, the courts who judge if they have made a case, and the population going off and exploring the limits to the laws. It tends to make them somewhat cautious about exploring new territory outside of their mandates – not helped by being chronically understaffed.
What does piss me off is fools who seem to not know what the current situation is and then somehow want to believe in weird magic rather than considered legislation that tries to see the bounds of natural justice and the limits of the law in seeking it.
Personally I tend to view such fools as just being the lynch mob and being just as big a nuisance as the perpetrators of crimes.
Advice – Avoid the National Party. The word is out that they have a very bad strain of measles, the sort that goes on and affects the brain. Keep clear and don't pay attention to their ravings.
Nevertheless, this is how a number of New Zelanders see this issue being played out.
Yep, currently around 38 – 43% of them, depending on whose polling is correct. And you, of course – drawing a discreet "a number of New Zealanders" veil over your personal opinion is very Pete Georgian of you, and just as transparent.
Winston has some history of his own, Owen Glenn. Probably on Bennett's agenda next week. Bennett probably can't wait until the PM returns.
Seriously, there needs to be a strategy to protect a complainant from being used as a porn by any MP. Parliamentary privilege has been abused by Bennett. To think a mature woman would put a 19 year old into the position of not knowing how the situation would play out and the outcome is irresponsible.
Your word wisdom is wonderful. It’s good to draw attention to TC and his/her approach to the left with, what is it called, compassionate trolling? Which is an underhand way of distracting attention from latent hostility, which sooner or later leads to sinking teeth into (left) ankles when everyone thought it was such a nice wee doggie.
I cannot ask you a question as you are unable to respond for 4 days.
Bennett had other options available to her, discussions with the speaker.
Even though the identity of the 19 year old is not publicly known, she can easily be identified by some people, this alone is problematic for her to be able to process being caught up in a situation which she needs a lot of support with and legal advice.
It is about the wellbeing of the complainant and not putting any further pressure on her.
There is a police process in making a complaint. The Spinoff could have handled the situation much better and made it about the process and how overlooked the Francis report has been.
With any crime, once out of the hands of the police, then it is the job of the court.
The complainant is the person who the verdict has a direct impact on.
Another issue about the Francis review was that it was about parliamentary staff (including the members). I don't think that you're likely to find a single word in it about parliamentary staff interactions with volunteers or even parliamentary staff interactions with members of the public
Perhaps you should just do something useful and read it. In particular look at Appendix B at the terms of reference. The scope of the people being covered is in point 3 of appendix B
Waving the Francis review around like a rugby talisman really just indicates that you need to learn more before speaking in public.
Where is it? Links are far more useful than unsubstantiated assertions. Apart from the informational and debate aspects, it also allows a verification that you have actually found something relevant rather than everyone having to spin bullshit into thin air.
The comment editor has a link function in the bar – looks like a chain link.
There is no report it was an expression. There needs to be a separate report done for parliamentary staff and volunteers.
The terms of reference in the Francis report were not wide enough. It needed to be mandatory for every MP and going back a decade. The same for Parliamentary Services staff.
However you should really actually read the recommendations of the Francis review for instruction. You will find a very large number of the 85 recommendations come down to writing down expectations so that people have to sign to show that they have seen them. This is a normal part of everyday life in business and work.
Even then, there are quite a lot of the sections of which I sign rights away on. One of those is to be able to work for whatever volunteer organisations I chose to – like this one. Or women’s refuge or helping people with their websites or training people or helping kids get holiday jobs or even (gasp) the Labour Party along with numerous others
The problem here is that by the sound of it, most if not of the incidents occurred when all, complainants and complained against were working as volunteers rather than as employees of the parliamentary services. Certainly there has never actually be anything specific to indicate that the incidents occurred in the workplace or as part of the work that the complained was doing for his employer.
It is not the usual thing that you find volunteers who don't get paid for their effort signing contracts about their behaviour. By several parts of contract law, that would make a for a void contract because of the lack of consideration. There are also a number of issues with it in labour law as well – mostly to do with condition similar to slavery or serfdom.
If you want to destroy all volunteer work, then please don't hesitate to declare yourself. Just at present you're sounding like a Taxpayers 'union' advocate.
Perhaps you could start addressing the issues and the problems rather than just trying to fire up the old magic please… You are pretty awful at mixing up the impossible to do without any reference to the known facts. It makes your contribution rather moot.
…have given a blunt opinion on some matters I raised.
I'm known for it. You have managed to have less blunt (ie hammerfall) opinions than it seems that I am wont to do these days .
I had to go back and rapidly reread the Francis review – which looks like every other HR review I have ever read. But was worth a second run through. BTW: never read a HR review lying bed on a tablet unless you want to go to sleep is all that I can say. I lost two hours due to the involuntary nap.
It's pretty obvious that Sara trusts Bennett more than anyone in the Labour party. If you read the time line it's not hard to see why.There is an excellent article that the chairman links to at the top. Vance absolutely nails it.
There is an excellent article that the chairman links to at the top. Vance absolutely nails it.
No it doesn’t. What it demonstrates is that Andrea Vance is determined to act as judge, jury and executioner.
It seems to me that the Andrea Vance would prefer to ignore natural justice (which is exactly what her saying that Simon Mitchell shouldn’t have spoken up in his on defense is), and that there has been direct contradiction of her and Paula Bennetts assertion that anything more than allegations of bullying and harassment were put in front of them.
Clearly Vance seems to thinks that there was – presumably based on what the complainants have said or presented to her (at least I hope so). The problem is that there is contradictory evidence being offered that she appears to be not willing to look at. She doesn’t even refer to it in her rant except to denigrate it without saying why.
Naki: it is exactly the same kind of behaviour that I expect to see from you on these pages – but you are a simple minded troll. She is a senior reporter and one who I’d usually trust a little. Assertions without saying why she believes one account over another. A complete lack of supporting evidence apart from unseen material. And a simple minded denigration of those contradicting her without offering any basic argument. Ir just diminishes my respect fro her writing without offering anything new to chew on,
Perhaps she should take her own advice. Perhaps she should review why she is willing to believe what appears to be one side but not the other and why she isn’t making it obvious why she thinks that.
Sure I can understand that she doesn’t like certain politicians (at least one of those, like Shane Jones, have long been in my shit list). However that is about the only thing that Vance’s rant did offer some clarity on.
The complainants have several other avenues for them to proceed through. If they have chosen their only route to be Paula Bennett, then that is a decision they will have to live with. Paula Bennett isn’t renowned for her ability to follow through past her own advantage.
If they actually want to get something resolved, then they should look at the review of the original allegations and the other option being provided to look at the differences between their accounts of what went on with the NZ Council and what the council members are saying.
Plus based on the allegations she has been making ‘Sarah’ should at the very least report a possible crime to the police and maybe lay a complaint. She is alleging some kind of sexual predator around. Better the police know about it with direct information on them rather than having it filtered through a parliamentary media more known for their delight in waving bloody political scalps around than accuracy.
What a load of laughable tosh from Andrea Vance who would appear to be a little sick in the head or she's a closet Nat. I suspect a bit of both.
I have been in and out of the Labour Party since 1972 and at no time did I experience or witness any antagonism towards women. The truth is the opposite. What is more, it has been a darn sight safer than National over the years!
We have two alleged cases of harassment and sexual assault (one of them by someone who was not a party member) and that constitutes:
"rot in the Labour Party and the Party being allergic to women?"
Bear in mind this is the same woman who started out as a hack for that piece of now defunct British trash called "The News of the World". We had our own version once called "The Truth" which printed anything but the truth.
Fleetwood Mac with Mr Finn gave us I Dont Know Why Sometimes I Get Frightened and a welter of 1980s MOR romance-rock for a big and generous show at the stadium.
And in town Michael Houston, our best ever pianist pianist, rocked the Town Hall with the local synphonia.
May the spirit of the music live on in Dunedin. The drummer is fantastic in Fleetwood Mac – Fleetwood himself?
And Mr Houston – I think these are his last concerts. A man who managed to relearn how to use his hands and continue with his career after he was affected by carpal syndrome I think. Wonderful dedication.
Good for Dunedin – music of all sort abounds there. Would Dunedin like to be known as the NZ City of Music? As a change from being the hosts of uni students in slum dwellings which is an image I have.
Also Rapunzel asked about a Mark Knopfler mention – did you hear what it was, she would like to know?
Queenstown will be the first. How nice for them having everything foisted on them because their place is a big money magnet for profit.
Big money magnet for exposure is more like it. All the big brands are here for the exposure, not the profits they might generate in town. Losses are rationalised by the perceived brand exposure they get by being in and associated with Queenstown. And some of those annual losses are substantial.
Will be interesting how 5G goes here. 4G is patchy and variable between providers. At our gallery in CBD Spark is fine, Voda customers have to go outside to take a call. Similar story out in the basin where there's large where one or both providers are 2G or nothing because of terrain, 50m away it'll be full 4G.
Interesting bit about the exposure. Big outfits will buy in to a site to prevent a competitor gaining a position in the great competitive shuffle and shoulder pushing before they can settle down to a nice cartel. It's really like being on the ground under the hooves of stampeding cattle forthe ordinary person, the micro business of the local.
And you watch Graeme with a bemused expression as there is nothing you can do but try and foot it finely amongst the herd. I hope you are doing good business coming into Christmas.
I know of one major NZ retail brand that has downsized their Queenstown operation dramatically after huge losses and won't be bringing any other of their stable of brands to Queenstown, they'd be in most NZ malls or main streets and often anchor tenant. Wouldn't be surprised if some of the big box retailers that have sprouted this cycle don't pack it in as well, some of the stories doing the rounds regarding their performance can't be sustainable, even for big corporate retailers. These are like on a good day they might take enough to cover the wages, just staff / low level manager pub chatter but probably got some truth to it.
We're fortunate we're in a niche that the corporates can't handle, too small and specialised, so keep it small and personal with overheads to match. Have watched lots of cash bonfires in this town. That's the main driver of the economy (cash burn)
I think cynically that is the way of the neolibs. Without any sanctions on them, till we force them, they can push some sort of business and if it goes belly up the ordinary people have lost their all, while they can go on and invent some more money to finance another lot of wealth creation? and also they can make money out of dealing with any problems.
See-saw, they win at the top and can hedge for a crash, and then they win at the bottom when they produce some panacea, open a private hospital for the survivors etc. And that is why Donald Trump is a success and a good businessman; he understands that having the money and power is what it's all about. Laws and limits are just mosquito bites to the wealthy. Climate change controls go hand in hand with Money creation controls. And we don't let them take over our cash systems, and should be anxious how Kiwibank thinks it is getting modern by banning cheques. B.stards.
And we tend to go skipping after the Aussies. We don't have kangaroos but we do have wallabies. Hey that rhymes, perhaps someone would like to make a rap about it.
Radionz has sport and rugby dominating its page except for a celebration of a ‘great’ losing event of WW2 the Battle of Arnhem 'Operation Market Garden'. Celebrating famous cock-ups with lots of blood and gore – is that all that deadheads can find to do?
' The British 1st Airborne Division lost nearly ¾ of its strength and did not see combat again. '
There were about 8,000 of the Allies dead or captured or missing. Indefinite about the Germans – one figure is 3,300. 453 I think of Dutch dead and a large number turfed out of their homes which were looted and the contents sent to bombed out Germans.
… the bridge that the 1st Airborne had fought so hard for was eventually destroyed by the Allies to deny German forces its use. On 7 October, it was bombed and destroyed by Martin B-26 Marauders of 344th Bomb Group, USAAF…
This is the British for you – might explain the enthusiasm for Brexit. It's not the winning that counts, it's the bravehearted community charging forward and trying that is so great' sort of thing. Being wrongheaded elevated to an art!
Although a disaster for the British 1st Airborne Division, their fight north of the Rhine is considered an example of courage and endurance and one of the greatest feats of arms in the Second World War. Despite being the last great failure of the British Army, Arnhem has become a byword for the fighting spirit of the British people and has set a standard for the Parachute Regiment.
Nothing warms the English heart quite like a glorious defeat. Of course, this kind of heroic but doomed mission in which you lose most of your combat personnel was just about routine for German elite divisions in the last years of the war, but no-one makes a fuss about that – sucks to be the losers, I guess.
Well they should take a leaf out of the history book and celebrate their own glorious losses? It can be a new tourism venture. Think how the tourist dollar could flow into the Middle East when the oil runs out. They will travel by camel of course, it will be very special and high priced.
Oh dear, there are hurdles to jump for real estate agents that will lessen their lightness of being as they float in their hot-air balloons within the housing bubble.
A survey of 1861 real estate professionals around the country found 59 percent cited changing regulation as their top concern, whereas two years ago it was sixth on the list.
The Real Estate Institute said implementing new anti-money laundering laws has cost the industry tens of millions of dollars.
"The real estate industry has had to deal with more legislative changes in the last two years than we've dealt with in the five years prior," REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell said.
They would complain – they are in an elite business level with top money. Their CE seems to be from UK and worked in Australia as well in top jobs. All has been tops for them, why should it change? They have had more change in the last two years (Labour) than they had in the prior five (National). QED
"The Real Estate Institute said implementing new anti-money laundering laws has cost the industry tens of millions of dollars."
Another way of reading this comment would be "Real Estate Sellers are finding things more difficult now they aren't able to sell as much property to dubious offshore buyers and meth traders."
Is the industry unable to see that most of us are delighted with this pressure they complain of.
Went to a barfoot auction house in Auckland last week and mostly kiwi buyers /sellers and not that many, not like the old days, packed with Asian buyers.
Then a slanted rather poisonous piece as PM Jacinda attempts to deal with bad behaviour from a male in the Party's employ against women within his ambit.
And the last about snakes possibly finding NZ comfortable. And an image of a green snake looking unpleasantly menacing which makes me think of Hehir above.
Oh dear, we are going to have to think, if only we had Rutherford here now some might say. But we do have thinkers here still, they just haven't been given the space and equipment and the action after their discoveries and models have shown us the way. Rutherford didn't have a royal suite but managed with his great team, to do world shifting stuff. Now we can shift rubbish to a Better Useful End.
And have we got it in our heads that we are supposed to be kindly, thoughtful people who aren't cruel to cows and other animals. Recently a ship with 8000 cattle was being refused docking overseas because of a legal wrangle over unpaid bills I suspect. Or perhaps they didn't have the certification as to disease or legalities of ownership. And the country was being begged to allow docking so they could obtain more food or the cattle would starve. Don't know what happened, but if good people don't watch out for other sentient beings, the machine minds will rule!
Now we have problems in NZ. We don't want international ships arriving without certification that they are clean, for our own sakes. And we don't want them arriving without complying with our rules about live animal transport. Should we allow this level of transport anyway? We have had enough problem with imported disease through the M.bovis – don't we ever learn? Hah. Silly question, of course we do, usually after lacking any precautionary, or rigid measures to ensure effectiveness.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) says until it's satisfied the Yangtze Fortune meets animal welfare conditions, the export certificate won't be issued. The ship arrived at the Napier Port yesterday afternoon to collect 4700 breeding cows to set up dairy farms in China.
No doubt one of the milk-rush companies has set this up, probably a National Party supporter. (I'm going out on a limb there. But it's 80:20 likely.)
A Warren/Sanders team would be interesting, but while I think he might go for it if he got the nom, she might be more inclined to go with a blandstander, especially from one of the the swing states. Strategy.
Can't see a Warren Saunders ticket happening, so yeah, probably a lesser candidate from a swing state or minority group, such as Beto, Harris or mayor Pete.
But a long way to go yet, and Biden has to go first.
There is absolutely no way she would go for Sanders. Much safer to go for a younger candidate, probably male, and probably from the midwest. So O'Rouke or Buttigieg.
Yeah, she probably wouldn't, but it's not as crazy as it sounds.
Firtly, I think they have much more sympathetic platforms than Warren and anyone else.
Secondly, Sanders would play "bad cop" making Warren a "compromise builder".
Thirdly, it might shut up the "bernie or bust" idiots, which would go a huge way to making the dems a unified force (rather than the candidate having to face the republicans while being sniped at from the back).
Joe90 – are you putting up links with your comments? There is none showing. You are wonderfully enigmatic but you usually have some explanation to enlighten.
They're there, some of us can't see them. I have to open a different browser to see the twitter embeds. I've been assuming this is to do with the adblocks and such I run on my main browser, but I haven't tested that. I'll tell Lynn.
just restarted Firefox with extensions disabled and all the tweets are visible now. Will try turning them on one at a time to see which extension is doing that.
Looks like it's the DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials addon. Which makes sense, so check for any extensions you have that are designed to limit tracking or provide extra privacy when browsing/searching.
I've been assuming this is to do with the adblocks and such I run on my main browser, but I haven't tested that.
It will be. I'm using OEmbed with for things like facebook, twitter, and youtube embeds (and a number of others). It is really restricted, but to make them 'live' with links, linkable they have to live and active.
Some adblockers will block them out. That is really up to user taste. I could just get the code to treat them as being empty comments without at least some text 🙁
Only Joe's words. I thought there must be some thing like you have said. I have my adblocker turned off i think. I need peaceful background to be able to concentrate on the news which is usually startling enough to keep me awake at night if I let it. So I will know what to do if I want to see tweets. Thanks for info.
I also can't use a browser with lots of things flashing at me or moving images. With Firefox you can restart in safe mode, which turns off all extensions. Restart again, then go into the extensions list and turn them back on one at a time. This will tell you which one it is. It wasn't adblocker on mine, it was an extension blocking tracking.
I also have a second browser with no extensions, so I can view webpages that aren't loading right.
It wasn't the adblocker, it was some DuckDuckGo extension (don't even know why I had it). See up thread. Am relieved I can see everything again, it will make writing posts easier too.
Ug, the problem I have now is that when I click on a link to a specific comment, my browser tries to load that but ends up off by half a page. I assume that's the tweets loading doing that.
Mine does that jumping around. When I go away from where I have been looking, it's a devil of a job to find it again sometimes. Goes to the right place then dashes off. I am on Firefox/Linux. Thanks weka for advice above will have to try that tomorrow.
I think it is something to do with slow page loading. I get it too on other websites such as Stuff. The only thing that seems to work (for me) is to slow down and be more patient 😉
Mine only does that if I'm in a different post, say I'm reading an Open Mike comment then click a lying: the preferred denier comment. If i'm already in today's Open Mike and click on another today's Open Mike comment it correctly goes straight there.
The tweets loading might be doing it, but it also used to behave like that before the latest editor in previous versions that didn't load the tweets.
Methinks next year's general election will have a very strong focus on Climate Change. Something for Greens and Labour to seriously work closely on together in the meantime, to keep National in Opposition.
i agree – things are currently moving very fast – as far as widespread awareness coupled with ever more strident demands to politicians to do what nesds to be done..are concerned..
those demands unheard will easily tip over into anger..
and one fact we can take to the bank – is that these demands are only going to get louder/more widespread..
we have known this was coming – for about the last 30 yrs..and we have done s.f.a. about it – we have just got worse – in our consumption etc..
this couple with global political stasis for those decades..
as all bowed to the alters of neoliberalism/growth..
You do understand that the singularity ie the SSW event is an analogue for the repair of the polar ozone hole ( under the Montreal agreement) and is a significant test on the understanding (theory) under an instantaneous forcing ie a natural experiment.
Thanks to all the Australian academics how have come out in strong tau toko of the extinction Rebellion. Ka kaha to all the intelligent tangata who protest the pollies who are trying to lead US down the wrong PATH.
'We declare our support for Extinction Rebellion': an open letter from Australia's academics
Leading academics from around the country say it is their moral duty to rebel to ‘defend life itself
We the undersigned represent diverse academic disciplines, and the views expressed here are those of the signatories and not their universities. While our academic perspectives and expertise may differ, we are united on one point: we can no longer tolerate the failure of the Australian government, or any other government, to take robust and urgent action to address the worsening ecological crisis.
It is unconscionable that we, our children and grandchildren should have to bear the terrifying brunt of this unprecedented disaster. When a government wilfully abrogates its responsibility to protect its citizens from harm and secure the future for generations to come, it has failed in its most essential duty of stewardship. The ‘social contract’ has been broken, and it is therefore not only our right, but our moral duty, to rebel to defend life itself
We also recognise the crucial role First Nations people in Australia and across the globe, have played for tens of thousands of years, and continue to play, in maintaining species, and caring for the land, water and air. We therefore declare our support for the urgent establishment of a treaty with First Nation Australians, to recognise Indigenous sovereignty and to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to continue protecting what they have already cared for, for so long Ka kite Ano link below.
I…. Papatuanuku has already given us the tools for sequestration of CARBON trees mash wetlands habits . We don't have to spend billion trying to perfect a machine to do the job that a Forest already does for us. We just need to spend billions planting trees and restoration of other natural habitat. We could also us wood products to replace alot of(steel high carbon) commodity we have the tech to do this. After all its not ROCKET SCIENCE. We can plant trees in all the land that is erosion prone and still be able to farm the land to as Te Whenua holds more water when trees are planted in the correct places fence lines steep gullies. Let's move away from the mono styles of farming and work with Papatuanuku to restore our future to have a habitatable climate.
Greta Thunberg: ‘We are ignoring natural climate solutions’
Film by Swedish activist and Guardian journalist George Monbiot says nature must be used to repair broken climate.
The protection and restoration of living ecosystems such as forests, mangroves and seagrass meadows can repair the planet’s broken climate but are being overlooked, Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot have warned in a new short film.
Natural climate solutions could remove huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as plants grow. But these methods receive only 2% of the fundingspent on cutting emissions, say the climate activists
In the film, Monbiot says: “There is a magic machine that sucks carbon out of the air, costs very little, and builds itself. It’s called a tree.” A recent scientific analysis concluded that growing billions of trees across the world is the single biggest and cheapest way to tackle the climate crisis, though coal, oil and gas burning must also end.
“We are living in the beginning of a mass extinction and our climate is breaking down,” says Thunberg in the film. “But we can still fix this – you can still fix this.”
“It’s simple,” she says. “We need to protect, restore, and fund.” That means protecting tropical forests that are being cut down at the rate of 30 football pitches a minute, she said, restoring the large areas of the planet that have been damaged and stopping the funding of things that destroy nature and instead paying for activities that help it.
The film’s producer, Tom Mustill of Gripping Films, said: “We tried to make the film have the tiniest environmental impact possible. We took trains to Sweden to interview Greta, charged our hybrid car at George’s house, used green energy to power the edit and recycled archive footage rather than shooting new.”
Te tangata whenua o Aotearoa need business advice from genuine Maori a lot of Te pakiha business men can't help them selves they just see innocent tangata whenua as sheep to be fleeced that's CAPTILSIM.
Yes all Our Marae need to be insured we have heaps of Marae in Te Tairawhiti.
We must nurture Te tamariki mental health as we only get one chance with some of our Rangatahi. Some Tangata have to stop being self-centered and put Te mokopuna welbing in the centre of our way of planning for the future.
Ruahine to much on your win in the Tarakihi Rugby league championship. I have been thinking about coming for a tiki tour there to check out a renewable energy outfit there. Ma Te Wa.
Te Waiata is good for the wairua Te Haka is awesome Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa Culture is Papatuanuku famous Ka pai kia kaha Whanau.
Eco Maori thinks that this is the best way to get poor countries to preserve their natural habitatable forests. Rewarding them to keep the trees in the Papatuanuku maybe offer Brazil money to keep the Amazon safe Maybe Jeff could pony up some putea to make this a reality. Our Papatuanuku is A living being we only get one chance if we make a big MESS our future will be Stuffed.
Gabon becomes the first African country to receive funding for preserving its rainforests
About 80 per cent of Gabon is covered by forests, sheltering a rich variety of wildlife.
(CNN) — In an effort to fight climate change, the United Nations announced Sunday that Gabon will become the first African country paid with international funds to preserve its rainforest.
Through the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), Norway will pay $150 million to Gabon to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and battle deforestation. The announcement was made at the Climate Action Summit in New York, where world leaders gathered to discuss how to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
CAFI is a collaborative partnership between the UN Development Program (UNDP), six Central African countries, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Bank and a coalition of donors including the United Kingdom, Norway and South Korea
Covered in forests
Up to 80% of Gabon is covered with forests, according to a report in Mongabay, a website of environmental news.
In the statement, Ola Elvestuen, Norway's minister of climate and environment, said he hopes the partnership will help Gabon maintain 98% of the forests.
"I am very pleased with this results-based partnership through CAFI, which includes a historic carbon floor price to further encourage Gabon to continue to preserve its rainforest. This is a major breakthrough for REDD+ in Africa," Elvestuen said.
For many years, Gabon has been a leader in Africa in preserving its rainforests Ka kite Ano link below.
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
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Ouch!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/115898326/the-labour-party-is-allergic-to-women
Warning!
Defenders of the Labour Party on this matter won't want to read this. It will do your head in. And don’t come gunning after me for highlighting it.
Nevertheless, this is how a number of New Zelanders see this issue being played out.
The mishandling is continuing. Got to wonder who is advising them? And if it ends up costing Labour the election, they only have themselves to blame.
[baiting the community this time. Two day ban last time, four days this time. People who want to have considered debate on this topic are more than welcome to start or continue a discussion. Those that want to use it to bash Labour, concern troll, or shit stir can expect to get my attention – weka]
I read it online I had already cancelled Stuff, then I "tweeted" this "So glad I cancelled Stuff Sun paper at least I avoided paying for that. Winston Peter's & Tracey Martin's unsolicited opinions on this carry much more balance than Vance's. The twisting of the context of Shane Jones' words the other day shows just how conflated the facts now are."
Who are these "Nevertheless, this is how a number of New Zelanders see this issue being played out." A number of others are waiting on straight facts not Vances interpretation of them. I can see this not playing out well for the National Party, once this is reviewed the media will be very tempted to turn their thoughts back to the unresolved internal matters. I had forgotten until yesterday the murky offer to Lee Ross to return in time with possible promotion.
One assumes Winston and co knows how damaging this can potentially be for Labour.
Hence, it's logical to assume it's in their own (NZF's) self interest to lessen the damage. As I've already explained to you, Winston requires Labour and National to be in a position where they both require his Party's support. Allowing him to play them both off against each other so as he and his Party can secure a better deal.
And again, as I've already explained to you, I've not spoken (out in the real world) to anyone who trust Labour over this. And of course, Labour require voters to trust in Jacinda as without it (voter trust) they are unlikely to do well come next election.
Moreover, Labour party defenders of this matter seem to be totally unaware of how their defence is only making things worse for the party.
This is an issue the party needs to own and correct. Constant denial is only making it (the wider public perception) worse. So is being secretive as it looks as they are covering up.
Moreover, if we are to take Jacinda on her word of only recently finding out, hence for the party to take action on this. Then of course those that knew but failed to tell her where preventing action from being taken. Hence, protecting and enabling the culture to continue.
Anyone with half a brain would sit back wait , see how this plays out, then make a comment, and this goes for you and the media
There is an exception to sitting back. It is never ok to sit back when someone may be having harm caused to them.
I have just looked back to May 22 2019 a NZ Herald link on the approach which was taken to the sexual allegations in Parliament.
At the least Mallard needed to speak to Bush to get some direction.
Did Mallard speak to the Minister of Police or the Commissioner of Police?
Were there any discussions between the Minister of Police and the Commissioner of Police?
Is the Commissioner of Police currently investigating any matters raised by the Francis report?
Why would you expect the police commissioner to get involved at that level of detail?
The commissioner of the police has a particular role inside the police, and it really isn't about running around working on individual cases. It is mainly administrative.
At best this would be a district level issue for investigation and would come after a complaint is made to the police.
To take just one other out of the jumble of topics you raised, the Francis review was an internal review undertaken by parliamentary services.
In other words it was done by an employer looking at how to better serve all of their employees and the institution. There are 85 recommendations in the review report. I just read them – perhaps you should indicate which one of those said that the police should be involved in rejigging parliamentary services HR system?
But even if criminal activities like sexual assault were identified by the Francis review, there would have been little that could have been done anyway at a criminal level – which is what you appear to be asking for.
In my view, the problem with our current system for dealing with sexual assaults is that it depends far too strongly on having a complainant, and the complainant being the victim or someone responsible for them like a parent or guardian. This makes it difficult through to impossible to deal with even something as awful as serial rapists without a complainant.
The process of going to the police is never going to be easy, and never more so in the wake of the revelations of the Louise Nicholls about Rotorua police culture or in the wake of the police treatment on complainants in the roastbusters in West Auckland. That makes it really difficult to think that going to the police about a sexual assault is going to do anything.
That is the basic problem that needs to be looked at. Personally I think that sexual assaults should be able to be reported to the police by anyone and the police should be required to take a case even if they don't have the complainant, but there is sufficient evidence to lay a charge.
I'd also like that decision about laying a charge to be taken away from the police or at least oversighted from outside the police because the idea isn't to just win cases – it is to make sure that offenders are aware of the consequences.
Of course amongst the public having John Tamihere and Willy Jackson waving their dicks on radio didn't help either. They sounded like they were only sorry they weren't out there raping with the boys. I'd have liked to laid complaint of offensive behaviour on that as well. Why bother going to a useless patsy rubber stamp like the BSA.
But FFS: please try to actually offer realistic ideas. Handwringing is so useless.
I know what the role of Bush is, he is in charge of enforcing the law. Perhaps he needed to make a statement when the Francis report was released so that people could have confidence in the police when reporting harassment, intimidation or a sexual crime.
Without a complaint a conviction cannot occur.
The police dragged their heels over Bazeley's recommendations. The same cannot be done about the Francis recommendations within Parliament.
Do Parliamentary Services actually know what to do and what to recommend a complainant does?
Bush could give some direction on this.
So could anyone.
https://www.employment.govt.nz/resolving-problems/types-of-problems/bullying-harassment-and-discrimination/general-process/
That refers mostly to bullying, harassment, and discrimination to be dealt with by the organisational HR.
You can also go direct to the Human Rights Commission, especially if it is systemic within the organisation.
There are other legal options
The police are pretty strictly there for crimes. Which they pretty much have sole jurisdiction over.
https://www.police.govt.nz/advice/victims/victims-rape-or-sexual-assault
While anyone can make a report, generally the police will only act on an actual complaint. There are exceptions. But they are mostly to do with minors, dependents, and people unable to make complaints.
Now I personally wouldn't be adverse to some changes in the laws around this. However, that is a matter for parliament to introduce and actually pass. With our system, arbitrarily trying to make the rules up according to some individuals idea of what is a good idea just leads you into criminal or civil legal hot water.
The police above all other groups are aware of this – they work at the intersection between parliament's mandate to them, the courts who judge if they have made a case, and the population going off and exploring the limits to the laws. It tends to make them somewhat cautious about exploring new territory outside of their mandates – not helped by being chronically understaffed.
What does piss me off is fools who seem to not know what the current situation is and then somehow want to believe in weird magic rather than considered legislation that tries to see the bounds of natural justice and the limits of the law in seeking it.
Personally I tend to view such fools as just being the lynch mob and being just as big a nuisance as the perpetrators of crimes.
Protected Disclosures Act 2000
The Act requires public sector organisations to operate internal procedures for receiving and dealing with reports of serious wrong doing.
So much is always asked from the complainant when a sexual assault has occured.
What to do and where to go should not be such a hard decision to make.
Advice – Avoid the National Party. The word is out that they have a very bad strain of measles, the sort that goes on and affects the brain. Keep clear and don't pay attention to their ravings.
Thanks, taking your advice.
Thank you for your concern.
Nevertheless, this is how a number of New Zelanders see this issue being played out.
Yep, currently around 38 – 43% of them, depending on whose polling is correct. And you, of course – drawing a discreet "a number of New Zealanders" veil over your personal opinion is very Pete Georgian of you, and just as transparent.
Winston has some history of his own, Owen Glenn. Probably on Bennett's agenda next week. Bennett probably can't wait until the PM returns.
Seriously, there needs to be a strategy to protect a complainant from being used as a porn by any MP. Parliamentary privilege has been abused by Bennett. To think a mature woman would put a 19 year old into the position of not knowing how the situation would play out and the outcome is irresponsible.
Nevertheless, Bennett pushing the issue got Labour to act on it.
And if Labour handled this better from the get go, Bennett wouldn't have this stick to bash them with.
Whichever way you look at it, it all comes back on Labour.
Your lame labour lashing is legendary.
You were in it early this morning to steal ‘souls’ away for your misguided agenda to ‘save’ the Left. I wonder who pays the Piper.
Your admiration for Paula Bennett, the Scarlet Pimpernel of National, is quaint and fits well with your MO on this site.
I know you cannot reply to this comment of mine but I wanted it out there to let you and others know what I think. As such, it does not need a reply.
incognito
Your word wisdom is wonderful. It’s good to draw attention to TC and his/her approach to the left with, what is it called, compassionate trolling? Which is an underhand way of distracting attention from latent hostility, which sooner or later leads to sinking teeth into (left) ankles when everyone thought it was such a nice wee doggie.
I cannot ask you a question as you are unable to respond for 4 days.
Bennett had other options available to her, discussions with the speaker.
Even though the identity of the 19 year old is not publicly known, she can easily be identified by some people, this alone is problematic for her to be able to process being caught up in a situation which she needs a lot of support with and legal advice.
It is about the wellbeing of the complainant and not putting any further pressure on her.
So going to the Spinoff, who would turn it into headlines for over a week was 'a comfort to her'?
Was there not a woman MP , even in the Labour party, she could confide in
There is a police process in making a complaint. The Spinoff could have handled the situation much better and made it about the process and how overlooked the Francis report has been.
With any crime, once out of the hands of the police, then it is the job of the court.
The complainant is the person who the verdict has a direct impact on.
Another issue about the Francis review was that it was about parliamentary staff (including the members). I don't think that you're likely to find a single word in it about parliamentary staff interactions with volunteers or even parliamentary staff interactions with members of the public
Perhaps you should just do something useful and read it. In particular look at Appendix B at the terms of reference. The scope of the people being covered is in point 3 of appendix B
Waving the Francis review around like a rugby talisman really just indicates that you need to learn more before speaking in public.
I can see another report with recommendations on parliamentary staff and volunteers.
Where is it? Links are far more useful than unsubstantiated assertions. Apart from the informational and debate aspects, it also allows a verification that you have actually found something relevant rather than everyone having to spin bullshit into thin air.
The comment editor has a link function in the bar – looks like a chain link.
There is no report it was an expression. There needs to be a separate report done for parliamentary staff and volunteers.
The terms of reference in the Francis report were not wide enough. It needed to be mandatory for every MP and going back a decade. The same for Parliamentary Services staff.
Entirely likely.
However you should really actually read the recommendations of the Francis review for instruction. You will find a very large number of the 85 recommendations come down to writing down expectations so that people have to sign to show that they have seen them. This is a normal part of everyday life in business and work.
Even then, there are quite a lot of the sections of which I sign rights away on. One of those is to be able to work for whatever volunteer organisations I chose to – like this one. Or women’s refuge or helping people with their websites or training people or helping kids get holiday jobs or even (gasp) the Labour Party along with numerous others
The problem here is that by the sound of it, most if not of the incidents occurred when all, complainants and complained against were working as volunteers rather than as employees of the parliamentary services. Certainly there has never actually be anything specific to indicate that the incidents occurred in the workplace or as part of the work that the complained was doing for his employer.
It is not the usual thing that you find volunteers who don't get paid for their effort signing contracts about their behaviour. By several parts of contract law, that would make a for a void contract because of the lack of consideration. There are also a number of issues with it in labour law as well – mostly to do with condition similar to slavery or serfdom.
If you want to destroy all volunteer work, then please don't hesitate to declare yourself. Just at present you're sounding like a Taxpayers 'union' advocate.
Perhaps you could start addressing the issues and the problems rather than just trying to fire up the old magic please… You are pretty awful at mixing up the impossible to do without any reference to the known facts. It makes your contribution rather moot.
I intend to read the Francis report.
You raised some good points and have given a blunt opinion on some matters I raised.
I'm known for it. You have managed to have less blunt (ie hammerfall) opinions than it seems that I am wont to do these days .
I had to go back and rapidly reread the Francis review – which looks like every other HR review I have ever read. But was worth a second run through. BTW: never read a HR review lying bed on a tablet unless you want to go to sleep is all that I can say. I lost two hours due to the involuntary nap.
It's pretty obvious that Sara trusts Bennett more than anyone in the Labour party. If you read the time line it's not hard to see why.There is an excellent article that the chairman links to at the top. Vance absolutely nails it.
No it doesn’t. What it demonstrates is that Andrea Vance is determined to act as judge, jury and executioner.
It seems to me that the Andrea Vance would prefer to ignore natural justice (which is exactly what her saying that Simon Mitchell shouldn’t have spoken up in his on defense is), and that there has been direct contradiction of her and Paula Bennetts assertion that anything more than allegations of bullying and harassment were put in front of them.
Clearly Vance seems to thinks that there was – presumably based on what the complainants have said or presented to her (at least I hope so). The problem is that there is contradictory evidence being offered that she appears to be not willing to look at. She doesn’t even refer to it in her rant except to denigrate it without saying why.
Naki: it is exactly the same kind of behaviour that I expect to see from you on these pages – but you are a simple minded troll. She is a senior reporter and one who I’d usually trust a little. Assertions without saying why she believes one account over another. A complete lack of supporting evidence apart from unseen material. And a simple minded denigration of those contradicting her without offering any basic argument. Ir just diminishes my respect fro her writing without offering anything new to chew on,
Perhaps she should take her own advice. Perhaps she should review why she is willing to believe what appears to be one side but not the other and why she isn’t making it obvious why she thinks that.
Sure I can understand that she doesn’t like certain politicians (at least one of those, like Shane Jones, have long been in my shit list). However that is about the only thing that Vance’s rant did offer some clarity on.
The complainants have several other avenues for them to proceed through. If they have chosen their only route to be Paula Bennett, then that is a decision they will have to live with. Paula Bennett isn’t renowned for her ability to follow through past her own advantage.
If they actually want to get something resolved, then they should look at the review of the original allegations and the other option being provided to look at the differences between their accounts of what went on with the NZ Council and what the council members are saying.
Plus based on the allegations she has been making ‘Sarah’ should at the very least report a possible crime to the police and maybe lay a complaint. She is alleging some kind of sexual predator around. Better the police know about it with direct information on them rather than having it filtered through a parliamentary media more known for their delight in waving bloody political scalps around than accuracy.
porn or pawn? I am not clear on this.
Well, the complainants probably are being used as pawns by Paula Bennett, but one has to hope like hell that she isn't using them as porn…
Correction to 1.4 correct word is pawn not porn.
TC @ 1
What a load of laughable tosh from Andrea Vance who would appear to be a little sick in the head or she's a closet Nat. I suspect a bit of both.
I have been in and out of the Labour Party since 1972 and at no time did I experience or witness any antagonism towards women. The truth is the opposite. What is more, it has been a darn sight safer than National over the years!
We have two alleged cases of harassment and sexual assault (one of them by someone who was not a party member) and that constitutes:
"rot in the Labour Party and the Party being allergic to women?"
Bear in mind this is the same woman who started out as a hack for that piece of now defunct British trash called "The News of the World". We had our own version once called "The Truth" which printed anything but the truth.
Dunedin rocked last night.
Fleetwood Mac with Mr Finn gave us I Dont Know Why Sometimes I Get Frightened and a welter of 1980s MOR romance-rock for a big and generous show at the stadium.
And in town Michael Houston, our best ever pianist pianist, rocked the Town Hall with the local synphonia.
Very big weekend for this beautiful city.
May the spirit of the music live on in Dunedin. The drummer is fantastic in Fleetwood Mac – Fleetwood himself?
And Mr Houston – I think these are his last concerts. A man who managed to relearn how to use his hands and continue with his career after he was affected by carpal syndrome I think. Wonderful dedication.
Mr Fleetwood drove the show from start to finish via rhythm section. Total stage leader.
Houston, well, full mastery of Mozart, and the Southern Synphonia in fine form. And excellent acoustics in the Town Hall compared to the stadium.
Good for Dunedin – music of all sort abounds there. Would Dunedin like to be known as the NZ City of Music? As a change from being the hosts of uni students in slum dwellings which is an image I have.
Also Rapunzel asked about a Mark Knopfler mention – did you hear what it was, she would like to know?
If you have a moment I was a bit intrigued by a reference to Mark Knopfler in regards the show – love to hear what that was in regards to.
Film about 5g doing the rounds of the rohe I think. We have seen it in Nelson. About it – film Generation Zapped. https://www.flicks.co.nz/movie/generation-zapped/
Coming 9/10 to Auckland – Titirangi. https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/articles/events/2019/10/generation-zapped-film-screening/
And stuff on what it is all about. https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/109733512/this-year-is-all-about-5g-heres-what-you-need-to-know
Mass surveillance at the back of it all will be the outcome. Every new development, invention gets weaponised. https://www.rfsafe.com/5g-network-uses-nearly-same-frequency-as-weaponized-crowd-control-systems/
Queenstown will be the first. How nice for them having everything foisted on them because their place is a big money magnet for profit. https://www.odt.co.nz/business/queenstown-among-first-get-5g
(Do these guys look grey and bloodless to you?)
Big money magnet for exposure is more like it. All the big brands are here for the exposure, not the profits they might generate in town. Losses are rationalised by the perceived brand exposure they get by being in and associated with Queenstown. And some of those annual losses are substantial.
Will be interesting how 5G goes here. 4G is patchy and variable between providers. At our gallery in CBD Spark is fine, Voda customers have to go outside to take a call. Similar story out in the basin where there's large where one or both providers are 2G or nothing because of terrain, 50m away it'll be full 4G.
Interesting bit about the exposure. Big outfits will buy in to a site to prevent a competitor gaining a position in the great competitive shuffle and shoulder pushing before they can settle down to a nice cartel. It's really like being on the ground under the hooves of stampeding cattle forthe ordinary person, the micro business of the local.
And you watch Graeme with a bemused expression as there is nothing you can do but try and foot it finely amongst the herd. I hope you are doing good business coming into Christmas.
I know of one major NZ retail brand that has downsized their Queenstown operation dramatically after huge losses and won't be bringing any other of their stable of brands to Queenstown, they'd be in most NZ malls or main streets and often anchor tenant. Wouldn't be surprised if some of the big box retailers that have sprouted this cycle don't pack it in as well, some of the stories doing the rounds regarding their performance can't be sustainable, even for big corporate retailers. These are like on a good day they might take enough to cover the wages, just staff / low level manager pub chatter but probably got some truth to it.
We're fortunate we're in a niche that the corporates can't handle, too small and specialised, so keep it small and personal with overheads to match. Have watched lots of cash bonfires in this town. That's the main driver of the economy (cash burn)
I think cynically that is the way of the neolibs. Without any sanctions on them, till we force them, they can push some sort of business and if it goes belly up the ordinary people have lost their all, while they can go on and invent some more money to finance another lot of wealth creation? and also they can make money out of dealing with any problems.
See-saw, they win at the top and can hedge for a crash, and then they win at the bottom when they produce some panacea, open a private hospital for the survivors etc. And that is why Donald Trump is a success and a good businessman; he understands that having the money and power is what it's all about. Laws and limits are just mosquito bites to the wealthy. Climate change controls go hand in hand with Money creation controls. And we don't let them take over our cash systems, and should be anxious how Kiwibank thinks it is getting modern by banning cheques. B.stards.
It sounds justifiable but looked at closely it stinks like a dead kangaroo. https://cecaust.com.au/media-releases/morrison-banning-cash-so-australians-cant-escape-bail-negative-interest-rates
And we tend to go skipping after the Aussies. We don't have kangaroos but we do have wallabies. Hey that rhymes, perhaps someone would like to make a rap about it.
Radionz has sport and rugby dominating its page except for a celebration of a ‘great’ losing event of WW2 the Battle of Arnhem 'Operation Market Garden'. Celebrating famous cock-ups with lots of blood and gore – is that all that deadheads can find to do?
' The British 1st Airborne Division lost nearly ¾ of its strength and did not see combat again. '
There were about 8,000 of the Allies dead or captured or missing. Indefinite about the Germans – one figure is 3,300. 453 I think of Dutch dead and a large number turfed out of their homes which were looted and the contents sent to bombed out Germans.
… the bridge that the 1st Airborne had fought so hard for was eventually destroyed by the Allies to deny German forces its use. On 7 October, it was bombed and destroyed by Martin B-26 Marauders of 344th Bomb Group, USAAF…
This is the British for you – might explain the enthusiasm for Brexit. It's not the winning that counts, it's the bravehearted community charging forward and trying that is so great' sort of thing. Being wrongheaded elevated to an art!
Although a disaster for the British 1st Airborne Division, their fight north of the Rhine is considered an example of courage and endurance and one of the greatest feats of arms in the Second World War. Despite being the last great failure of the British Army, Arnhem has become a byword for the fighting spirit of the British people and has set a standard for the Parachute Regiment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arnhem#British_plan
Nothing warms the English heart quite like a glorious defeat. Of course, this kind of heroic but doomed mission in which you lose most of your combat personnel was just about routine for German elite divisions in the last years of the war, but no-one makes a fuss about that – sucks to be the losers, I guess.
Well they should take a leaf out of the history book and celebrate their own glorious losses? It can be a new tourism venture. Think how the tourist dollar could flow into the Middle East when the oil runs out. They will travel by camel of course, it will be very special and high priced.
The Arnhem Road bridge was destroyed by Dutch Engineers upon the German invasion, then rebuilt by the Germans and completed in 1944.
What has this , one of many failed UK military operations, have to do with Brexit?
Was there a referendum too ?
Don't worry your pretty head about it, it brings two ideas, like two colours together, and they turn our brown, so unexpected who'd have thunk it.
Here is an explanation from wikipedia that will enlighten you on colours and you will have learned something today.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown
Oh dear, there are hurdles to jump for real estate agents that will lessen their lightness of being as they float in their hot-air balloons within the housing bubble.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/399296/anti-money-laundering-laws-costing-real-estate-industry-multi-millions
A survey of 1861 real estate professionals around the country found 59 percent cited changing regulation as their top concern, whereas two years ago it was sixth on the list.
The Real Estate Institute said implementing new anti-money laundering laws has cost the industry tens of millions of dollars.
"The real estate industry has had to deal with more legislative changes in the last two years than we've dealt with in the five years prior," REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell said.
They would complain – they are in an elite business level with top money. Their CE seems to be from UK and worked in Australia as well in top jobs. All has been tops for them, why should it change? They have had more change in the last two years (Labour) than they had in the prior five (National). QED
"The Real Estate Institute said implementing new anti-money laundering laws has cost the industry tens of millions of dollars."
Another way of reading this comment would be "Real Estate Sellers are finding things more difficult now they aren't able to sell as much property to dubious offshore buyers and meth traders."
Is the industry unable to see that most of us are delighted with this pressure they complain of.
Went to a barfoot auction house in Auckland last week and mostly kiwi buyers /sellers and not that many, not like the old days, packed with Asian buyers.
You'd have to wonder why ScoMo would want his personal paedophile protector to hold his hand.
https://twitter.com/benpershing/status/1175033473591119876
A number of links connecting in thought. First had a headline – Strangulation offences: Five a day charged since law changed.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/insight/audio/2018713972/getting-tough-how-new-zealand-could-stop-domestic-violence
Then a slanted rather poisonous piece as PM Jacinda attempts to deal with bad behaviour from a male in the Party's employ against women within his ambit.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/398745/if-only-the-czar-knew-how-long-will-jacinda-ardern-get-benefit-of-the-doubt-over-sex-assault-claims
Liam Hehir This article first appeared on Pundit.co.nz.
* (Liam Hehir is a Palmerston North lawyer and conservative political columnist and blogger for Pundit who has formerly volunteered for the National Party.)
And the last about snakes possibly finding NZ comfortable. And an image of a green snake looking unpleasantly menacing which makes me think of Hehir above.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/399142/counting-the-ways-climate-change-will-affect-us-and-how-we-will-affect-the-climate
Our self inflicted disaster.
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1175470497036996609
sobering
Sad, and we will follow.
Oh dear, we are going to have to think, if only we had Rutherford here now some might say. But we do have thinkers here still, they just haven't been given the space and equipment and the action after their discoveries and models have shown us the way. Rutherford didn't have a royal suite but managed with his great team, to do world shifting stuff. Now we can shift rubbish to a Better Useful End.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/environment/399221/indonesia-to-send-contaminated-recycling-back-to-nz
And have we got it in our heads that we are supposed to be kindly, thoughtful people who aren't cruel to cows and other animals. Recently a ship with 8000 cattle was being refused docking overseas because of a legal wrangle over unpaid bills I suspect. Or perhaps they didn't have the certification as to disease or legalities of ownership. And the country was being begged to allow docking so they could obtain more food or the cattle would starve. Don't know what happened, but if good people don't watch out for other sentient beings, the machine minds will rule!
Now we have problems in NZ. We don't want international ships arriving without certification that they are clean, for our own sakes. And we don't want them arriving without complying with our rules about live animal transport. Should we allow this level of transport anyway? We have had enough problem with imported disease through the M.bovis – don't we ever learn? Hah. Silly question, of course we do, usually after lacking any precautionary, or rigid measures to ensure effectiveness.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/398930/live-export-ship-arrives-in-napier-for-thousands-of-cows-without-certification
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) says until it's satisfied the Yangtze Fortune meets animal welfare conditions, the export certificate won't be issued.
The ship arrived at the Napier Port yesterday afternoon to collect 4700 breeding cows to set up dairy farms in China.
No doubt one of the milk-rush companies has set this up, probably a National Party supporter. (I'm going out on a limb there. But it's 80:20 likely.)
@ grey..
have you ever thought of spreading yr news-gathering activities outside of all the local ones that most already see..?
(asking for a friend..)
Simon Bridges showing his true colours, again. Businesses and property rights trump everything else; Māori don’t get a single mention, of course.
http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/5/348381
Anything for a dollar.
https://twitter.com/Ritaflood/status/1175506466456760320
Iowa.
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1175561434073305098
edit:
https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1175561796331159557
I wonder if Warren will offer the VP to Biden? Always the bridesmaid… 🙂
yeah yeah one result way out and all that – just a funny thought
I think when Biden doesn't get the nomination he'll head off into the sunset to spend more time with his
record playerphonographwax cylinder.Fair bet.
A Warren/Sanders team would be interesting, but while I think he might go for it if he got the nom, she might be more inclined to go with a blandstander, especially from one of the the swing states. Strategy.
Can't see a Warren Saunders ticket happening, so yeah, probably a lesser candidate from a swing state or minority group, such as Beto, Harris or mayor Pete.
But a long way to go yet, and Biden has to go first.
There is absolutely no way she would go for Sanders. Much safer to go for a younger candidate, probably male, and probably from the midwest. So O'Rouke or Buttigieg.
Yeah, she probably wouldn't, but it's not as crazy as it sounds.
Firtly, I think they have much more sympathetic platforms than Warren and anyone else.
Secondly, Sanders would play "bad cop" making Warren a "compromise builder".
Thirdly, it might shut up the "bernie or bust" idiots, which would go a huge way to making the dems a unified force (rather than the candidate having to face the republicans while being sniped at from the back).
Joe90 – are you putting up links with your comments? There is none showing. You are wonderfully enigmatic but you usually have some explanation to enlighten.
They're there, some of us can't see them. I have to open a different browser to see the twitter embeds. I've been assuming this is to do with the adblocks and such I run on my main browser, but I haven't tested that. I'll tell Lynn.
Pretty sure that's it.
just restarted Firefox with extensions disabled and all the tweets are visible now. Will try turning them on one at a time to see which extension is doing that.
Looks like it's the DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials addon. Which makes sense, so check for any extensions you have that are designed to limit tracking or provide extra privacy when browsing/searching.
It will be. I'm using OEmbed with for things like facebook, twitter, and youtube embeds (and a number of others). It is really restricted, but to make them 'live' with links, linkable they have to live and active.
Some adblockers will block them out. That is really up to user taste. I could just get the code to treat them as being empty comments without at least some text 🙁
You can click directly on the embedded Twitter 'cards' that work like links do.
good point. Grewarshark, what can you see in Joe90's tweets? Can you see the embedded tweet? Or only Joe's words?
Only Joe's words. I thought there must be some thing like you have said. I have my adblocker turned off i think. I need peaceful background to be able to concentrate on the news which is usually startling enough to keep me awake at night if I let it. So I will know what to do if I want to see tweets. Thanks for info.
I also can't use a browser with lots of things flashing at me or moving images. With Firefox you can restart in safe mode, which turns off all extensions. Restart again, then go into the extensions list and turn them back on one at a time. This will tell you which one it is. It wasn't adblocker on mine, it was an extension blocking tracking.
I also have a second browser with no extensions, so I can view webpages that aren't loading right.
Try turning it off for this site. Most ad blockers will allow you to exclude particular sites from their attentions.
And we don't have ads…
It wasn't the adblocker, it was some DuckDuckGo extension (don't even know why I had it). See up thread. Am relieved I can see everything again, it will make writing posts easier too.
Just disabled for this page and can't see whatever used to be on the right hand side below the Feed. Is that gone now? I used to see links to things.
Ug, the problem I have now is that when I click on a link to a specific comment, my browser tries to load that but ends up off by half a page. I assume that's the tweets loading doing that.
Ah, mine has been doing that for ages as well. Must be a different calculation.
Mine does that jumping around. When I go away from where I have been looking, it's a devil of a job to find it again sometimes. Goes to the right place then dashes off. I am on Firefox/Linux. Thanks weka for advice above will have to try that tomorrow.
I think it is something to do with slow page loading. I get it too on other websites such as Stuff. The only thing that seems to work (for me) is to slow down and be more patient 😉
Mine only does that if I'm in a different post, say I'm reading an Open Mike comment then click a lying: the preferred denier comment. If i'm already in today's Open Mike and click on another today's Open Mike comment it correctly goes straight there.
The tweets loading might be doing it, but it also used to behave like that before the latest editor in previous versions that didn't load the tweets.
Mine was doing the same before the site allowed embedded tweets.
what browser are you all using? Firefox/mac here.
Mine goes initially to the right place and then jumps up the page.
Firefox/PC.
Same, immediate scroll to the comment and then scrolls down a dozen or more.
FF 69.0 on MacOS 10.14.6
Microsoft Edge using InPrivate mode.
Humanity's self inflicted disaster, greed, and polling trends pretty much speak for themselves. Anything I could say would be verbiage, I reckon.
Methinks next year's general election will have a very strong focus on Climate Change. Something for Greens and Labour to seriously work closely on together in the meantime, to keep National in Opposition.
Methinks this too.
@ mary a.
i agree – things are currently moving very fast – as far as widespread awareness coupled with ever more strident demands to politicians to do what nesds to be done..are concerned..
those demands unheard will easily tip over into anger..
and one fact we can take to the bank – is that these demands are only going to get louder/more widespread..
we have known this was coming – for about the last 30 yrs..and we have done s.f.a. about it – we have just got worse – in our consumption etc..
this couple with global political stasis for those decades..
as all bowed to the alters of neoliberalism/growth..
but this will all come to an end..soon enough..
i agree – things are currently moving very fast
Fast ,so sudden we need a new y-axis.
http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/clisys/STRAT/gif/pole10_sh.gif
https://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/meteorology/figures/ozone/omds_2019_toms+omi+omps.pdf
national will not be running an election strategy based on climate change
You do understand that the singularity ie the SSW event is an analogue for the repair of the polar ozone hole ( under the Montreal agreement) and is a significant test on the understanding (theory) under an instantaneous forcing ie a natural experiment.
https://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/meteorology/figures/ozone/to3caps_2019_toms+omi+omps.pdf
Climate dynamics will start shortly as wind reversals in the polar vortex inact.
The trouble for National will be finding anything they can campaign on credibly…
Thanks to all the Australian academics how have come out in strong tau toko of the extinction Rebellion. Ka kaha to all the intelligent tangata who protest the pollies who are trying to lead US down the wrong PATH.
'We declare our support for Extinction Rebellion': an open letter from Australia's academics
Leading academics from around the country say it is their moral duty to rebel to ‘defend life itself
We the undersigned represent diverse academic disciplines, and the views expressed here are those of the signatories and not their universities. While our academic perspectives and expertise may differ, we are united on one point: we can no longer tolerate the failure of the Australian government, or any other government, to take robust and urgent action to address the worsening ecological crisis.
It is unconscionable that we, our children and grandchildren should have to bear the terrifying brunt of this unprecedented disaster. When a government wilfully abrogates its responsibility to protect its citizens from harm and secure the future for generations to come, it has failed in its most essential duty of stewardship. The ‘social contract’ has been broken, and it is therefore not only our right, but our moral duty, to rebel to defend life itself
We also recognise the crucial role First Nations people in Australia and across the globe, have played for tens of thousands of years, and continue to play, in maintaining species, and caring for the land, water and air. We therefore declare our support for the urgent establishment of a treaty with First Nation Australians, to recognise Indigenous sovereignty and to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to continue protecting what they have already cared for, for so long Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/sep/20/we-declare-our-support-for-extinction-rebellion-an-open-letter-from-australias-academics
I…. Papatuanuku has already given us the tools for sequestration of CARBON trees mash wetlands habits . We don't have to spend billion trying to perfect a machine to do the job that a Forest already does for us. We just need to spend billions planting trees and restoration of other natural habitat. We could also us wood products to replace alot of(steel high carbon) commodity we have the tech to do this. After all its not ROCKET SCIENCE. We can plant trees in all the land that is erosion prone and still be able to farm the land to as Te Whenua holds more water when trees are planted in the correct places fence lines steep gullies. Let's move away from the mono styles of farming and work with Papatuanuku to restore our future to have a habitatable climate.
Greta Thunberg: ‘We are ignoring natural climate solutions’
Film by Swedish activist and Guardian journalist George Monbiot says nature must be used to repair broken climate.
The protection and restoration of living ecosystems such as forests, mangroves and seagrass meadows can repair the planet’s broken climate but are being overlooked, Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot have warned in a new short film.
Natural climate solutions could remove huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as plants grow. But these methods receive only 2% of the fundingspent on cutting emissions, say the climate activists
In the film, Monbiot says: “There is a magic machine that sucks carbon out of the air, costs very little, and builds itself. It’s called a tree.” A recent scientific analysis concluded that growing billions of trees across the world is the single biggest and cheapest way to tackle the climate crisis, though coal, oil and gas burning must also end.
“We are living in the beginning of a mass extinction and our climate is breaking down,” says Thunberg in the film. “But we can still fix this – you can still fix this.”
“It’s simple,” she says. “We need to protect, restore, and fund.” That means protecting tropical forests that are being cut down at the rate of 30 football pitches a minute, she said, restoring the large areas of the planet that have been damaged and stopping the funding of things that destroy nature and instead paying for activities that help it.
The film’s producer, Tom Mustill of Gripping Films, said: “We tried to make the film have the tiniest environmental impact possible. We took trains to Sweden to interview Greta, charged our hybrid car at George’s house, used green energy to power the edit and recycled archive footage rather than shooting new.”
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/19/greta-thunberg-we-are-ignoring-natural-climate-solutions
Kia Ora Newshub.
That was someone policy important heaps of people don't build housing warla a housing short banks and realestate rubbing there hands together.
Jenna Google is investing 2 billion dollars into new Renewable energy to power there operations with Renewable energy all over the Papatuanuku.
I can remember seeing Thomas Cook was a big thing in Aotearoa a few years ago.
The Pike River whanau are finally getting what they want. Hopefully they will get JUSTICE.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Te tangata whenua o Aotearoa need business advice from genuine Maori a lot of Te pakiha business men can't help them selves they just see innocent tangata whenua as sheep to be fleeced that's CAPTILSIM.
Yes all Our Marae need to be insured we have heaps of Marae in Te Tairawhiti.
We must nurture Te tamariki mental health as we only get one chance with some of our Rangatahi. Some Tangata have to stop being self-centered and put Te mokopuna welbing in the centre of our way of planning for the future.
Ruahine to much on your win in the Tarakihi Rugby league championship. I have been thinking about coming for a tiki tour there to check out a renewable energy outfit there. Ma Te Wa.
Te Waiata is good for the wairua Te Haka is awesome Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa Culture is Papatuanuku famous Ka pai kia kaha Whanau.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora The Am Show.
The reason someone can't get a good Wahine is because they are to selfish self-centred muppet.
Ka kite Ano
Eco Maori thinks that this is the best way to get poor countries to preserve their natural habitatable forests. Rewarding them to keep the trees in the Papatuanuku maybe offer Brazil money to keep the Amazon safe Maybe Jeff could pony up some putea to make this a reality. Our Papatuanuku is A living being we only get one chance if we make a big MESS our future will be Stuffed.
Gabon becomes the first African country to receive funding for preserving its rainforests
About 80 per cent of Gabon is covered by forests, sheltering a rich variety of wildlife.
(CNN) — In an effort to fight climate change, the United Nations announced Sunday that Gabon will become the first African country paid with international funds to preserve its rainforest.
Through the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), Norway will pay $150 million to Gabon to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and battle deforestation. The announcement was made at the Climate Action Summit in New York, where world leaders gathered to discuss how to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
CAFI is a collaborative partnership between the UN Development Program (UNDP), six Central African countries, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Bank and a coalition of donors including the United Kingdom, Norway and South Korea
Covered in forests
Up to 80% of Gabon is covered with forests, according to a report in Mongabay, a website of environmental news.
In the statement, Ola Elvestuen, Norway's minister of climate and environment, said he hopes the partnership will help Gabon maintain 98% of the forests.
"I am very pleased with this results-based partnership through CAFI, which includes a historic carbon floor price to further encourage Gabon to continue to preserve its rainforest. This is a major breakthrough for REDD+ in Africa," Elvestuen said.
For many years, Gabon has been a leader in Africa in preserving its rainforests Ka kite Ano link below.
https://edition-m.cnn.com/2019/09/23/africa/gabon-paid-to-fight-deforestation-intl/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fedition.cnn.com%2Fafrica%3Fno-st%3D9999999999