Our local Landcare group is working on a Predator Free initiative and is selling these traps at a discount to residents.
They require less monitoring than their previous manual traps (which are atill available for free), as they reset. The carcasses are often carried away by other animals, and have no toxins in them.
They are looking forward to these traps because the level of volunteer time necessary is much lower.
Some of the larger programmes like Ark in the Park seem to be holding back on the gas-fired traps until there are more tests of it operating at real scale.
Personally I would rather they just got on with it and converted to the full system. It’s much less messy, and of course no poisons used at all. Just chocolate and peanut butter.
We need all of the remaining forests in the Auckland region fully grid-trapped if we are going to slow the decline of our bird species.
You have to wonder about sustainability though. Intensive rodent control has only been around for a decade or two. Rats have been here for around a thousand years.
The subantarctic islands have been excellent test beds, and leading to much larger land masses like the Macquarrie and South Georgia groups.
It’s important not to look at this as a one-hit wonder, but as a programme that has to be sustained as long as we can.
Naw … climate change is bogus, dreamt up originally by a bunch of technocratic Globalists and obscenely rich fascists called the Bilderberg Society. It was hotter in the 1940’s than it is now on average.
And those bogus figures that were quoted when they first called it ‘ Global warming’ then had to change it to ‘climate change’ because the evidence didn’t match the theory?
Its caused by a naturally occurring thinning of cloud cover , particularly around the tropics. And cyclical sunspot activity.
So don’t panic , the Bilderbergers wont get their trillions of unearned carbon tax payers dollars paid into their bank accounts , jobs will stay in the west and not relocated to the third world to take advantage of sweatshop labour , we can stop filling younger people with anxiety about their futures and the world will continue to turn happily despite all the bogus scaremongering.
Shocking to realize just how easily we can all be had by unelected power hungry rich pratts, … isn’t it.
Enjoy this morning in this globally warming bloody freezing great outdoors this fine –
and totally normal – winters day.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[I don’t allow climate change denial under my posts. You are now banned from today’s CC post, and any future posts I write on CC. I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt that you haven’t seen me saying no ‘CC denial’ in any of the CC posts I’ve written in the past year, but if I go and see that you have commented on any in the past and thus seen the moderation notes then you can expect that I will either require an apology for derailing the discussion under my post today or I will issue a ban. You are in moderation until I see an acknowledgement that you have read and understood this note. Please don’t start arguing with me about CC (I suggest a read of the Policy on wasting moderator time) – weka]
Satre?… you mean ‘ satire’ surely. And no , I most certainly didn’t mean it as satire. And neither does Wikileaks or Rep. Steve Scalise ( the Republican who was shot by anti Trump agitators ) nor did the FBI apparently…
But don’t just take my word for it … judge for yourself….
WIKILEAKS Release VIDEO FBI Investigation of Al Gore’s Global …
Video for WIKILEAKS Release VIDEO FBI Investigation of Al Gore’s Global Warming Carbon TAX▶ 12:59 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYOBPmeHV7A
No indeed it is not satire, and nor is it particularly a chink either.
Nor was the medieval warm period when they grew grapes in England or the freezing snaps that killed Mammoths so fast they died with tussock still in their trunks…
And as was mentioned in the later clip…. ‘ I don’t think there’s any SUV’s on Venus…
I think we are so accustomed to thinking in terms of gradual change occurring over millennia ( as we have been taught ) we just cannot comprehend rapid climactic change that happens in our lifetimes , we become alarmed and draw the conclusion that it must be something we as species have caused…
Where in fact it is natural earth / planetary / solar cycles . The carbon we emit is a drop in the bucket on a global level , barring high density concentrations such as city’s which then become a direct health risk. And as you know , carbon is one of the most common elements on earth.
But this natural state of affairs also makes us vulnerable to opportunists such as Al Gore and other unscrupulous individuals…
A fool’s errand: Al Gore’s $15 trillion carbon tax | Watts Up With That? https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/05/…/a-fools-errand-al-gores-15-trillion-carbon-tax/
https://xkcd.com/1732/
Go look at the medieval warm period, then go look at the bottom of the comic.
Natural cycles are very slow. Humans are fast.
You also mention carbon dioxide.
Well, have a look at this: https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/24/
That’s blatantly clear – humans increased CO2 globally from 280 ppm to 400 ppm. That isn’t a drop in the bucket, and it is global, not in cities only.
I find myself agreeing with my fellow arachnid on many topics, this is not one of them!
W.K. you seem to be on an Al Gore tangent here. Just because he made some docos on climate change doesn’t make the whole thing fake. If we want the world to change we have to be willing to change our own minds and when it comes to climate change, peer reviewed science is where we need to look for answers not some US politician with his head up a lot of corporate arses.
I liken it to a snowball effect. Gradual at first and then it just goes helter skelter toward the end.
We are getting to the end. The Greenland Inuits have already said that the sun no longer rises and sets where it should on the solstice, suggesting that bigger forces are at play than anything our self aggrandisement could ever hope to achieve.
I’m not sure that I buy your warming denial – but the carbon credit market was never going to work – folk who cheat on their taxes will cheat on their carbon taxes too. And so it proved in NZ.
On climate change I neither confirm nor deny.I however witnessed people being arrested in the late sixties over free speech issues.Fifty years later certain people seem to have forgotten the struggle, and that the authorities were repressive to stop free speech.Those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it !!!
I think Weka puts the time and effort into climate change posts because they very much believe there is a problem that mankind should do something about. Keen to try and make a difference. When an accepted paradigm it leaves the forum clear for discussions that revolve around making a difference.
When the forum becomes a ‘yes’/’no’ ping-pong match making a difference takes a back-seat to an ebb and flow that goes nowhere.
There are bipartisan forums around and the participants do nothing but bat the ‘yes and ‘no’ ball backwards and forward, over years they achieve nothing. In Weka’s posts, it’s a given that we’re making it get warmer.
What we are going to do about it is far more interesting conversation than ping pong.
Pretty much. I spent many years here as a commenter before authoring, and saw a huge amount of time wasted on climate denial debates that pushed back against the denial but stopped use from working on solutions to the actual problem. We’re out of time now, and people who want to argue about reality have plenty of other places to do it.
I’m getting to the point that Red is talking about, where people who throw up those blocks to action should now be considered in the same light as people who clad buildings in flammable materials.
I find the mentality fascinating.Throughout history there have been scientific theories that were universally held to be true , that over time have been proved to be false.The people who have disproved the theories have initially been seen as heretical , and treated with hostility.The high priests of the prevailing order have always done all in their power to censor any dissenting voices .It is usually a truth to power situation, with the authorities possessing all the power.Whether they possess the truth is another question.My position on man made climate change is that it is not proven.Nor is the premise that there is no man made climate change. Nor the degree that either is true. I am studying the evidence on both sides of the argument, and so far I am not convinced either way.So I welcome debate. If you don’t welcome debate ,and believe the science is proven, you have in my opinion a closed mind !!!
It’s taken a long time to get climate change taken seriously in the mainstream. A lot of people have tried to suppress and undermine research that shows climate change, over several decades.
Throughout history there have been scientific theories that were universally held to be true , that over time have been proved to be false. The people who have disproved the theories have initially been seen as heretical , and treated with hostility
All that is true. But you then make the mistake of assuming that ALL heretical beliefs must also be true. Not so. The vast majority of them turn out to be just wrong.
So how do you tell the difference between an heretical belief that is wrong, and one that just might overturn the common consensus? The answer is that you or I don’t. We don’t get to make that call. The only thing that trumps good science is BETTER science. And the only people who can make that call are the experts in the area.
Of course heretical beliefs will be resisted by the ‘prevailing order’. This is how it should be, especially when the prevailing ideas and models reliably deliver predictive and useful results. Like when the scientists predict that the sub-polar regions will warm the fastest … and when I go there I can see this is exactly what is happening.
On the other hand if a heretic can demonstrate a model that works better, is physically and intellectually consistent and delivers results , then yes over time their ideas WILL win out. If it turns out the current CC science has overlooked something fundamental, and we really can belch unlimited amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere with impunity … then so be it.
But so far the heretics have utterly failed at this. Their data is either misinterpreted, mangled, or just lies. Their models all contradict each other. One week it’s the sun, the next it’s fucking volcanoes. They slag off at climate computer models, while typing on a computer and daily using all manner of things all designed and tested using software tools.
They spout risible conspiracy theories that propose tens of thousands of researchers, in hundreds of institutions, in dozens of countries have all secretly conspired to fake the same data, the same theories and same models for more than a hundred years since Arrhenius. With NFC as to how absurd that sounds to someone with even basic academic experience.
And then refuse to look at the documented evidence that their entire edifice of intellectual bullshit is the outcome of a manufactured campaign of confusion, fear and doubt bought and paid for by a small group of fossil carbon enterprises using the same techniques first used by tobacco companies to protect their profits. And for no other reason.
Do you have an imaginary friend who thinks scientists “prove” things? Do they know about paragraphs? Newsflash: science deals in probabilities, not proofs. Here’s Gavin Schmidt of NASA (from his essay “Unsettled Science”).
…knowledge about science is not binary – science isn’t either settled or not settled. This is a false and misleading dichotomy. Instead, we know things with varying degrees of confidence – for instance, conservation of energy is pretty well accepted, as is the theory of gravity (despite continuing interest in what happens at very small scales or very high energies), while the exact nature of dark matter is still unclear. The forced binary distinction implicit in the phrase is designed to misleadingly relegate anything about which there is still uncertainty to the category of completely unknown. i.e. that since we don’t know everything, we know nothing.
Personally, I can see how eg. CO2 is a greenhouse gas by considering its atomic structure. If the addition of millions of tonnes of the stuff to the atmosphere didn’t cause the ice to melt (etc. etc.) that would be quite surprising.
As for the “alternative” “explanations”, what RL said: they’re a mess of confusing and contradictory rhetoric, and there is evidence that this is deliberate.
I wouldn’t let someone derail my posts with flat earth or black people are less smart than white people arguments either. No-one’s free speech has been denied, I moved posts to the appropriate place. WK is free to say what the like in Open Mike (within the rules of the site). I also put some boundaries in place for behaviour, which is very normal for humans. There are lots of places where we don’t get to do and say whatever we want. Beyond that, I’ll place more importance on the free time of authors than the free speech of people who lack respect for the people who run this place.
I think this is satyr-like. We can’t afford to be light-hearted, jokey about the death of our known planet. The unknown planet, will remain unknown to us.
[RL: Just want to add my support for weka’s action here. It saddened me to read what you have written Wild Katipo. I personally enjoy your broad contribution here a lot, but we are past the point where CC denial is acceptable discourse, any more than we tolerate blatant bigotry.]
Hi WK, I have a touch of empathy for where you are coming from, a mate of mine for 10 years has said something similar.
What about yes to your opinions and then add the 100 odd years of human use of fossil fuels etc on top of the cycle you elude to.
I can not fathom the amount of damage to our environment by humans use of oil for fertiliser, plastics, fuel etc.
Yes, human carbon emissions are raising the CO2 content of the atmosphere, which in turn is warming the planet. Melting ice is a symptom of this warming.
Hahah lol, now who’s laughing? Stop filling your mind with gobshite and learn some Physics.
WK I thought you were a conpiracy idiot when you called Clinton a murderer in reply to me. Glad you’ve gone full lost it mode now no need to wonder anymore.
my insults aren’t usually witty, and with some commenters the amount of “you fucking moron”-style phrases I need to remove from my replies before posting is quite substantial.
It also reveals how Labour are using foreign students to do unpaid work and putting them in substandard housing conditions. And they may also be breaching immigration regulations.
Import foreign students to work for free and stick them in shitty rundown accommodation while at the same time running a campaign against foreign students taking jobs and people having to live in substandard housing.
Most new programs have teething problems and it would appear there are shortfalls in the planning and delivery. Matt McCarten is an ideas man. Ideas men are only as good as the staff that chase them around making all their dreams come true. I suspect some break-down there, it happens when budgets are tight and assistance often voluntary.
In your haste to point out “Ha! Gotcha, they’re doing the same thing as they accuse others of doing.” As I say, we all have hiccups when trying something new, it’s how those hiccups are managed that matters.
How would you react to a phone call from me BM? “Hiya BM, I’ve got a couple of students that are helping us with the election, can they billet in that little flat under your place until after the election?”
I think you’d say “Can’t you stick them in a motel somewhere?”
The accommodation wasn’t suitable, Labour are fixing the problem by billeting them amongst Labour supporters. I think it’s a quality solution, a Kiwi solution. I wonder if National HQ would be ringing members and asking if someone could move in with them for 3 months? I think they’d be banging them up in some concrete block motel unit on a busy intersection in South Auckland.
Wow, these kids are going to homestay with Kiwi families, they’ll go home with fabulous memories and if they wish, handy campaign skills.
I have no problem at all with a political party trying to engage with young folk and encourage enrollment, but the scheme is clearly a Labour Party one, so it seems odd to have presented it as anything else.
As for cheap (free) foreign labour being housed in substandard accommodation, this wasn’t a problem that ‘evolved’, it was an issue from day one… we have enough problems with the orchardists housing workers in Flaxmere hovels and shipping containers, we don’t need that sort of carry on from the Party who are supposed to be sorting these issues out for us.
This isn’t exactly a ‘Momentum Movement’, mores the pity.
PG, Is this the same rag which said, “Barclay was the victim of an organised campaign against him,” and other excuses in order to avoid Todd from taking responsibility. Why am I not surprised.
Whilst I know the obvious response to this, the NZ Herald story leaves me wondering how much Labour leadership knew and how much of this was going on during the time McCarten was a part of Labour, and how much has happened since. There needs to be a proper investigation into this to determine exactly what happened, and that should happen before terms like “Labour Sweat Shop” get banded about.So far it looks like a “Campaign of Change, a Labour affiliated project, runs over-crowded residences and potentially exploiting students
Not that is that catchy, however, that appears to be all that has actually been determined (other than Joyce & Rimmer sayig otherwise).
I do like the hypocrisy from everyone involved though… A) the something is not so bad if it is my side and it is being blown out of proportion, and B) Obviously when it is the other side the worst possible interpretation is true and the opposition are hypocrites of the worst degree.
Labour have taken an oversubscribed programme begun by Matt.
They have met with the people concerned and given them options.
Andrew Little has said “all that matters is the people.” He fronted media with sincerity. He said “this is not a good look”. “Andrew Kirton has taken over”
As a Labour supporter, I am sorry they have been left to deal with the fall-out.
Sometimes people over reach, and someone tidies up.
That was not deliberate or covered up in any way, nor criminal.
Sadly trolls will use this against the party, as they need a diversion currently.
This is from the pamphlet “2017 Labour Campaign Fellowship” that NZ Labour originally sent out.
Given the global political climate, there has never been a better time to get on the campaign trail and to work towards a Labour victory in New Zealand’s most important city, Auckland.
Tell me that’s not dishonestly leveraging off the “global political climate” that’s seen a resurgence of social democracy in the UK and USA, that NZ Labour are most assuredly not a part of.
I said in another comment that I suspected this whole thing was probably predicated on misleading the likes of enthusiastic Sanders supporters who thought they could experience a Sanders type groundswell in another country. Now I’ve read the literature, I’m not sure it’s not worse than that.
The publicity document says twice, “We are sorry that we cannot pay you for your work.” So the claim that they were not getting pay was what they signed up for. No deceit there.
Is that the same ‘programme’ that Hone Harawira was having a laugh at a month or so ago (enlisting Americans to persuade people to vote Labour or some such), that plenty enough people said was just Hone spouting bullshit?
Yup. Seems so.
Labour is shipping in foreign support for its election campaign with dozens of United States’ Democrats signalling an interesting in helping with the campaign. The move was uncovered by Te Tai Tokerau contender Hone Harawira, who says it’s “really dumb” of Labour to enlist foreign support “to tell Maori people how to vote”. But it’s been seized on by Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis as an example of Harawira’s “desperate” attempts to win the seat.
Ah – so the “bullshit” was largely about how he characterised it – “tell Maori how to vote”. Oh, and getting pissy about overseas volunteers after jumping in bed with KDC’s cash.
I don’t really give a monkey’s about money from a NZ resident. And I don’t really give a monkey’s about overseas volunteers aiding campaign work.
But seeing as how Labour just released an immigration policy that Nigel Farage could have penned, this simply and rather deservedly isn’t going to end well for Labour.
Waiting for the posts that echo their “talking points” to hit 🙂
Are you meaning my ‘bias’ to be the observation from reading their policies that NZ Labour and UKIP have very similar ideas on immigration?
Or are you meaning my ‘bias’ from multiple observations that NZ Labour are nowt but a pack of liberal incompetents, who might soon be seen to be working through some weird Theresa May type election strategy – even though the field is wide open for a troupe of ragged monkeys to rather convincingly take the Beehive?
I’ve got too many fairly well considered opinions to know what bias you’re referring to there McFlock!
You were waiting for the posts that echo their “talking points” to hit. I’m sure that whatever post you read, you’ll see the echoes of “talking points”.
Anyone who thinks the NZLabour immigration policy is “very similar” to UKIP’s could probably see anything they damned well want.
If there are posts submitted that act by way of damage control and that don’t offer much beyond a parroting of official Labour Party responses, then yes, the post can reasonably be said to be built around “talking points”.
Of course, the strategy at the moment might be to pull up the covers and close both eyes in the hope it all goes away. Given that nothing’s up so far, I’m suspecting that’s the game plan thus far. (Maybe there’ll be a line or two constructed by tomorrow that someone can spin on?)
Meanwhile.
You obviously haven’t set the two policies of NZ Labour and UKIP side by side and read them McFlock. If you had, you’d be well aware that they share the same basic thrust and rely on some of the same justifications for stemming immigration.
And you’d be aware (if you set down a third document – UK Labour’s immigration) that both the aforementioned policies are a blue million miles away from a social democratic immigration policy.
But doesn’t UK Labour seek to not reduce immigration? I haven’t compared all three policies, but I suspect you are leaving out a critical point here, which is the ideological lines being drawn around whether it’s ok ever to reduce immigration numbers or let them keep increasing.
UK Labour flat stick refused to issue any immigration targets, and also very explicitly excluded foreign students from any immigration numbers.
The reason UK Labour refuses to issue ‘targets’ is because they quite rightly point to the fact that a capitalist economy will go through phases where the rate of immigration needs to be increased as well as phases where it needs to be decreased. It’s not a blanket either/or scenario.
You obviously haven’t set the two policies of NZ Labour and UKIP side by side and read them McFlock. If you had, you’d be well aware that they share the same basic thrust and rely on some of the same justifications for stemming immigration.
I found one comment where you made a big deal about how Robertson and a UKIP guy said that the policies were about immigration, not immigrants, and recall I think that you did a more in depth post.
Thing is, even if the policies were similar in wording, UKIP are doing it from the “oppressed English” perspective, and I suspect their announced policy is a stepping stone towards a white-britain objective. NZLabour, I think, are honestly stating the full extent of what they believe is necessary to address basic economic problems NZ faces.
But that having been said, I don’t think the policies match up as well as you think. Sure, they both talk about infrastructure pressure, but that’s understandable in NZ. Dunno about the UK. I disagree that immigration overly affects infrastructure pressures, but the pressures do exist and are serious.
They both talk about limiting immigration for a few years, but Labour talks net – UKIP talks gross. Subtle, but actually a very different level of emphasis.
So I think that the similarities you speak of are at best, er, “skin deep”… 🙂
The reason UK Labour refuses to issue ‘targets’ is because they quite rightly point to the fact that a capitalist economy will go through phases where the rate of immigration needs to be increased as well as phases where it needs to be decreased. It’s not a blanket either/or scenario.
So, you haven’t read them, in spite of being to comments where the links were provided.
The Robertson Nutall comparison was in light of both being accused of racism with respects to their, much more than skin deep, similar immigration policies and both offering up an almost identical response. And then the troubling bit that you miss – Nutall getting howled down in a live TV debate as opposed to (it seems) some quiet sage nodding going on in NZ.
probably read them at the time to see if you had a point. Don’t recall being overly impressed.
I could go back and double check my impressions, but I can’t really be bothered. It’s all a bit tangential to my basic position that you’re not exactly impartial when it comes to interpreting NZLabour or anyone who defends it.
That’s nothing at all like the approach NZ Labour have taken.(There is nothing in their policy acknowledging that immigration flows sometimes need to increase) They’ve committed to reducing immigration by ~ 30 000 – mostly through targeting students (people that UK Labour has specifically excluded from immigration numbers)
That’s nothing at all like the approach NZ Labour have taken. They’ve committed to reducing immigration by ~ 30 000 – mostly through targeting students (people that UK Labour has specifically excluded from immigration numbers)
the bit about adjusting immigration up and down in response to the capitalist economy is similar. It’s not like NZ Labour are going immigration per se is bad and we should always limit it. They’re saying what we’re doing at the moment isn’t working and we need to turn it down for a while until we sort these other issues out.
I don’t see what the problem with the student thing is, unless one takes the position that immigration should alway be allowed and that reductions in numbers is always bad.
You missed the bit about allowing context and precedent to have a reasonable influence too.
This would be why it’s a fairly bold claim to suggest that NZLabour and fucking UKIP mean roughly the same thing, even if they happen to say roughly the same words.
NZ Labour have not one thing to say about immigration increasing. Nothing.
The ‘problem’ with students is that denying them work visas does nothing for any supposed stresses and strains on infrastructure and services, which is what NZ Labour is basing it’s policy on. That, and students aren’t immigrants or even residents. They are here on a temporary basis to study before the overwhelming majority leave the country having made a worthwhile contribution to NZ in the interim.
edit – I should add. UK Labour, again in stark contrast to NZ Labour (and UKIP) ,were also explicit that they would not use mis-management (run down infrastructure) as an excuse to put the boot in on immigrants or prospective immigrants.
So now instead of trying to approach facts with a degree of impartiality, the idea is to willfully interpret words differently depending on some tribal allegiance or some such? 🙄
Fair call, he happened to be closer to the mark than usual, my bad.
I mean, it wasn’t a telemarketing campaign to get votes for Labour (as he portrayed it), but it did actually involve people coming from the US (probably not Trump supporters though), so he did get that much right.
That is what RNZ pays Guyon to do, I can’t see anything sinister in that.
Winston learnt a few survival tricks while working in Australian mines. He could be a good chair for a Pike River Board of Inquiry were the government to change.
I can’t see that happening under Prime MInister Paula Bennett.
A performance review of the embattled Ministry of Health is expected to be highly critical of the ministry’s leadership team, according to sector sources.
…
Sector sources indicated to RNZ the review was expected to be highly critical of ministry leadership.
…
It followed the revelation the ministry last month incorrectly allocated $38 million to DHBs and last Friday asked for the money back so it could be reallocated.
That forced financially stretched DHBs to go back to the drawing board with their budgeting for the next financial year starting in July.
Some DHB bosses told RNZ under condition of anonymity yesterday the budget blunder was the straw that had broken the camel’s back in the DHBs’ relationship with the ministry.
Canterbury DHB member Jo Kane told RNZ the combative nature of working with the senior management was extraordinary.
NZ current state of health care – it’s impacting negatively on large numbers of people’s lives.
I wonder when or if polies will tumble to the fact with population increase and rising costs it would be grossly incompetent if allocations did not increase instead spinning the tale every time they are questioned?
Except these temps have happened there before, well over 100 years ago.
[RL: Last warning. CC denial is not tolerated in this thread.]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[I don’t allow climate change denial under my posts. I suspect you are well aware of this, so take this as a warning. If I see you running CC denial lines under any of my posts again I will ban you site wide for wasting my moderator time. You are now in moderation until I see an acknowledgement of this note – weka]
Man made climate change is what I deny. I really don’t give a shit if you believe that or not.
[I also don’t give a shit what you believe. What I care about is whether you will waste my time as a moderator in the future. I see nothing to suggest you won’t, so am going to put a ban in place now. 6 weeks. If I ever see you running CC denial lines under my posts again I will ban you site wide for much longer. Read the policy about wasting moderator time. – weka]
Yip I am sure weka or MS will be penning a post as we speak to rail against slave workers being exploited for zero pay whilst living in poor conditions.
Any one know if these poor saps were lured here on working visas or are they tourists?
[Read the Policy. Commenters don’t get to tell authors what to write about, or have a go at them about what they don’t write about. We’re all volunteers here and none of us have much spare time. Bear in mind that authors here do the work to provide *you with a space to comment irrespective of the value of your comments. Feel free to submit a Guest Post for consideration if you feel strongly that a topic should be covered, but I’m guessing you just want other people to do the work for you. – weka]
[fucks sake, it’s like herding bloody ferrets here today. Just to put this in context, I spent my spare time this morning writing a post and moderating several people who should know better, and I haven’t had the chance yet to catch up on whatever has happened with Labour on this, other than to see a tweet that Andrew Little fronted up and owned it this morning. Get a clue, and do something useful, like perhaps put up a link with commentary so people can inform themselves, instead of just sitting in the comments and having a moan – weka]
The articles on both the Herald and Politik are lacking coherence and detail.
They sound like internships at political campaigns that follow the US model, of no pay. However, some internships charge for inclusion, which does not seem to be the case here. An Campaign for Change intended to be an inclusive movement I understand, similar to Momentum perhaps.
Given the very low standard of paid accommodation that even our NZ state houses supply, the complaints about the accommodation offered need to be put into perspective:
“POLITIK has been sent photographs showing:
Cramped dormitory alcoves
A broken and unusable shower
Bathroom cupboard doors hanging off their hinges
Unfinished construction work with material piled beside mattresses”
Is that it? Some suggestions.
– Marae accommodation is usually in an wharenui, move the mattresses to an open space. Healthier, and less restrictive.
– Use another shower.
– Keep your toiletries in your toilet bag
– Move the materials out of the way.
Internships are not paid employment, and I would prefer that our youth are encouraged to get involved, participate and become vocal. But the issue is not one that seems to warrant such censure from the information that is at hand.
Does provide distraction from Barclay though? (Privacy Act, refusal to cooperate with Police, Police dropping the case, PM lying, PM forgetting, PM statement where he forgot to lie, Barclay implying the PM lied, Barclay forgetting, Barclay remembering when he told the truth but only from a lying perspective, Barclay reiterating staff privacy abuse, PM fund being used to pay off staff…)
Oh look! A cupboard door off it’s hinges, and people not being paid for volunteer work they have signed up to!
In terms of volunteering overseas, I think it is important to have the specialised skills that are needed by the population you visit. Unless you do, it is superfluous.
“Stable, healthy affordable and accessible accommodation is a requirement every person on earth, so that they can participate and positively contribute to the community and environment in which they live.”
But I’m guessing you have your own definition. And your payment question was to segue into a tirade about paid workers rights and conditions of work. Which are all valid when applied universally. But you are likely to pick and choose which negates your application.
Go ahead.
Explain how so many of the homeless in NZ are avoiding paying taxes because they have not got accommodation and so avoid receiving “payments” that everyone else does. Cunning on a level of Panama Trust tax avoiders no doubt.
I wasn’t asking for your definition. Accommodation in return for work is payment. If these ‘fellows’ can refuse to carry out tasks without any repercussions, I guess it could be argued they’re not being ‘paid’.
yes Little fessed up apologised and labour have moved to fix the problem , as opposed to the nats lying and denying , paying of those they have wronged and and other scum behavior, i might vote Little just on this display of integrity .
It wasn’t a good look for Labour, despite Little fronting. And even he admitted it was embarrassing.
The way ACT is talking, there could still be more to come on this.
The timing couldn’t be much worse what with the election coming up and Labour’s stance on immigration. Moreover, Labour provided the Nats with a distraction, just as they were getting hammered over the Barclay and English debacle.
Whether it’s done much damage, guess we’ll find out in the next poll.
I dunno, it does sound a bit shit to live in for several weeks. Make do for a few days maybe, but not for an extended period. Although in that situation, you might be tempted to get a screwdriver from the Warehouse and screw the door back on. But depending on how many showers are available and how many people are there, a broken shower can really foul up the morning schedule.
McCarten fucked up and accepted too many people when he should have had a cutoff and a list of alternates. And the accommodation was also insufficient.
Is this a Labour Party initiative or is it a separate entity and movement? The articles state it is separate but ignores that and continue as if it is a full Labour Party project.
I personally think we need to motivate our own young people, but don’t understand why people would want to come to NZ to volunteer unless they have a false idea of what is on offer.
The NZ political scene is not as charged as others, the overseas media don’t often relate NZ issues in depth. It would be interesting to have comments from a couple of those involved, to understand what attracted them here and what they expected. If those expectations were warranted by erroneous information, then that shows bad organisation indeed. If they were just ill-informed then that bad organisation was exacerbated by a lack of personal fact-finding.
Well, going from the article it started as a Labour campaign programme but became an independent programme to generally get out the vote. However it was organised by Labour so Labour still has some obligations.
The volunteer exchange thing is pretty common – people learn new skills, get and provide a fresh perspective, and it builds relationships between left wing parties. There’s a certain amount of couch-surfing expected, and you provide free help to your hosts, but there are reasonable limits to those expectations.
“The volunteer exchange thing is pretty common – people learn new skills, get and provide a fresh perspective, and it builds relationships between left wing parties. “
I understand that reasoning, but think that the decision to use non-domestic volunteers is short-sighted and indicates a lack of vision. If it was a question of motivation then at least making an attempt to address that lack in NZ youth, would have been a good start to get momentum to get them to vote.
“There’s a certain amount of couch-surfing expected, and you provide free help to your hosts, but there are reasonable limits to those expectations.”
That’s true. But the photos and the complaints so far are not high exploitation. I would like to see more detail about the length of internship, the offers made, and the concerns they have rather than what has been provided in the news so far.
Hey, if they come, use ’em. Otherwise you’re trying to run a campaign as well as find interesting things to take the tourists too, when they actually want to find out how a campaign is run in NZ.
I personally think we need to motivate our own young people, but don’t understand why people would want to come to NZ to volunteer unless they have a false idea of what is on offer.
Learning how other parties of similar mindset operates can produce valuable new ideas.
It probably gives you an insight into the state of one of our marae that is likely running itself into the ground in order to serve the community, providing dozens of health and social services on next to nothing. Meanwhile at WINZ and in the New Zealand Health system money is splashed about wasted and people lives are thrown into disarray.
Compare and contrast the way that Andrew Little has fronted in this matter
‘It’s the wrong thing to do’: Little on ‘sweat shop’ complaints over Labour-linked scheme
with
the underhanded way in which National dealt with Sky City, Saudi sheep, GCSB spying for Groser, appointment of Ian Fletcher and of course the latest Todd Barclay coverup
Andrew Little can’t remember McCarten mentioning any of this, or remember the extensive questioning from the police about it, or remember paying hush money from the party leader’s fund… that’s how he’d handle it if he were a nat, rather than someone with integrity.
So up above where you describe the luring of these slaves from overseas as a Labour party program out of control you lied?
Matt was getting paid for by the tax payer. In the campaign office.
Little denied this and lied.
But hey, we all know if the political whore Matt McCarten is involved its going to be a fuckup. No surprises there. Tax thief mongrel should have gone to prison.
2: I said “going by the article”. If it used parliamentary services funding, then at no time could it have been a Labour Party campaigning tool.
So my interpretation of the article might have been wrong. This was unintentional, unlike calling volunteers “slaves”. That’s the difference between being “incorrect” and being “a liar” like you.
[pull your head in i.e. stick to the politics and the debates. Read the Policy – flaming is not allowed. I’ve done enough moderating today so am on a short fuse. Count this as a warning – weka]
So McFlock calling me a “fucking liar” isnt flaming or rate as having a tanty?
LOL
[banned for one week. I suggest you read the Policy in regards to wasting moderator time. – weka]
[just had a look at the back end moderation list and see you’ve been banned multiple times this year already for similar behaviour. Extending ban out to 2 months. If I see you doing this stuff when you come back, expect a much longer ban. – weka]
Labour leader Andrew Little says his adviser Matt McCarten’s taxpayer-funded salary is within the rules because McCarten will be doing “outreach” work for Little rather than campaign work.
“Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox said it was “slave labour”.
“They came from the States thinking they were getting something when they were doing something else, that is slave labour, not free labour, and they should be ashamed of themselves,” Fox said.
“There is a stench in the air, and it’s the stench of hypocrisy.””
So are the interns being punished if they don’t do the work they are told to do? e.g. beaten. Is their movement restricted? Are they under economic duress so that if they don’t do the work they won’t be able to eat? Are they being kept away from family and friends and forced to work?
What utter fuckwits. I hope this comes out fully and they never work in politics again. It’s the most important election of my life and they do this shit 3 months out? I’m sure they have their side to the story, but ffs, what were they thinking?
Ahh, so someone not involved, who has something to gain from characterising it a certain way has said it was slave labour…. Yeah, sounds legit…
This is why there needs to be an actual investigation… so far it is labour saying “we will sort this thing out, even though we had handed over management of it awhile back” and all parties that oppose them jumping up and down and sprouting weird hyperbole statements
Picking that “Campaign For Change NZ” gave the impression to young Sanders supporters that something exciting was afoot in NZ politics.
Then what? They get here and realise that the “change” amounted to the tired old drudge of swapping out for the mere sake of swapping in. ..a bit like campaigning for Clinton in other words.
Thanks for the links. Have just listened to Andrew Little on Checkpoint and he seems to be awfully uninformed…
Anyway (slightly tangential). I wonder how he squares the line that interns haven’t got anything to do with immigration because they are only here for a set time, with NZ Labour immigration policy that is targeting international students who are also only here for a set time…
From what I could tell, some of the problem with international students is that they were being promised jobs afterwards, and too many of the courses were substandard.
Temporary at 15 or 115 students is one thing. Thousands is a different matter. I see it more with tourism, which is a huge burden on the country despite the money it makes. And extra million or two people in NZ every year. They’re temporary, but they impact on resource use and space.
There are sham courses. They can be identified and shut down. If that means bringing education under the public umbrella again, then good.
No international student I’ve known has been able to just get a job and citizenship off the back of studying here. A few have managed to settle, and had to go through the same expensive and bollocks process as any other immigrant.
Denying work visas will not make any difference to international student numbers, but may mean that financially marginal ones are kept out and richer, perhaps in some cases more mediocre ones, will fill the gap they leave.
And again. Seeing as how NZ Labour based its policy on this notion that infrastructure and services are strained and ‘need a break’, then even by their own professed terms, the actual policy fails.
“No international student I’ve known has been able to just get a job and citizenship off the back of studying here. ”
Are you saying that Labour are wrong and there is no current govt policy to bring students in with the idea that they get jobs afterwards?
And again. Seeing as how NZ Labour based its policy on this notion that infrastructure and services are strained and ‘need a break’, then even by their own professed terms, the actual policy fails.
I’m saying that privately run sham courses can be identified and shut down. International students shouldn’t be counted in immigration numbers. They are not residents and they are not migrants. That’s the UK Labour policy that I just happen to agree with because, well …it’s sensible.
Taking the ability to pick up even seasonal work away from international students, while simultaneously promoting temporary work visas for immigrant labour will lead to more people being in the country at a given time which ,according to NZ Labour’s reasoning for it’s immigration policy, is a really bad thing for infrastructure and services.
And if they were doing bogus courses and those courses were going to be shut down, then all good. But why have Labour decided to with-hold work visas from all international students (with some caveats for a few exceptions)?
Hasn’t Bill ‘Crazy’ McKibben been sedated and placed in a padded cell yet?
Maybe – just maybe – the planet is trying to keep things in balance, what with minus 79˚ Celsius temps (along with -90˚C wind chill) in the Antarctic this week, parts of Newfoundland still blocked by sea ice, more snow in South Africa, the Arctic having one of the slowest melt seasons resulting in – shock! – its frozen ice cap still remaining. In other words, due to the extreme COLD in some parts, the planet is warming itself up in others…
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[no climate change denial under my posts. Take this as a warning. Read the Policy about wasting moderator time – weka]
And before you go blithering on … I’m personally in email contact with people in the Arctic on a daily basis. I worked there all winter and saw what is really happening with my own eyes.
Blatant, lying bullshit on this topic is to my mind every bit as criminal as installing flammable cladding on building, when the spec called for fire proof.
Did you talk to locals who remembered the cold old days when you were there. And would be good to have your personal account and impressions seeing as you’ve just seen it.
Yeah I mentioned it a while back in April I think.
Basically the sea freeze up locally was in early November instead of late September, about six weeks late.
And in January instead of temperatures regularly between -40 to -50degC, they hovered around 15 to 20 degC warmer. We got one day when it briefly hit -48degC, but for the most part it was between -25 to -35degC.
Last summer they had two days when it hit +30degC !!! Absolutely catastrophic for the tundra.
As for the local Inuit … they harbour no stupid doubts whatsoever. It is their lived experience. One guy I talked with had lived as a hunter with his family for almost seven years as a young man, in the local area. In a stone hut. I cannot start to express how impressive that is in such a deeply hostile environment … even now when it is warming.
These are people who absolutely live their lives by the weather, and within just one generation they have seen it change dramatically. When I read pure bullshit from commenters above I really just wish they would stop reading delusional crap on the internet, get off their arses and get into the real world for a while. The scientists, the researchers, the techies who support them and the people who live in the Arctic are the ones who I respect.
I dont think we get fast change. For instance the life of the native American plains warrior chasing buffalo we all know it, was gone in a lifetime. A young man or woman born free, died old in a reservation.
Is “sweat shop scandal” the phrase de jour to deflect from Barclay?
So, the accommodation offered by the marae with such superficial defects such as: cupboard door off it’s hinges, is too substandard to offer for FREE to overseas visitors looking to pad their CV’s (- or less cynically – looking to help spread representative democracy around the globe) but good enough for the iwi who usually use the marae?
Compare and contrast what was included in the accommodation, to what was recently in the news about the standard of living offered to some NZers after they pay for it: here and here.
appreciating your in depth comments on this today Molly. If you come across a decent write up that describes the scheme and then what the problems are, please let me know. Mostly I’m just seeing some shoddy reporting that conflates various things, plus the usual jump to Labour bashing.
+100 Molly and Weka….a non-issue already being sorted out….definitely a distraction from Barclay. The marae where the interns are staying is denying the stories of terrible conditions but says not 5-star.
Meanwhile Marama Fox is on RNZ Campbell Live as I’m writing this calling the intern story “corruption’ and asking what “what labour laws have been broken here” and “Labour needs to be more transparent”.
Fox is a National Party stooge. The MP, if it still exists, has to be the “last cab off the rank” after 23 September.
I did hear someone postulate that someone from the Maori Party was stirring but there may be no truth in it.
So it is true. The youngsters were invited to come here and help out in the election campaign. There seems to be a global movement where young ‘social democrats’ spend time in allied countries during campaign periods. It has presumably been set up to help them gain knowledge and experience – and provide more foot soldiers on the ground for the local social-democratic parties.
Most are currently being hosted by an Auckland marae but it looks like there are more of them than can be comfortably accommodated. So the Maori Party uses the situation to discredit Labour and infer “unlawful conduct”.
The MP has been absorbing the Crosby/Textor tactics at the knees of their lords and masters in the National Party for eight years and now they’re putting it into practice. What a bunch of hypocritical prats – and that’s just putting it nicely. 👿
Bìt rich to blame the Māori Party. If they used a political advantage just shows that they’ve learned the Westminster system well – just about as good as labour and the gnats. 😨
Interesting being pointed to moderation notes after posting my comment. The point I’m trying to make is that when something negative happens to the left, complete silence. At least Cam Slater (and I’m no fan) will expose bad behavior on the right as much as he does to the left. I guess the old saying rings true – “there are none so blind…”
[read the site Policy. It’s not ok to tell authors what to write, or criticise them for what they do or don’t write. There are good reasons for this that supersede any perceived politics du jour. As I said in my moderation note, I spent so much time moderating stupid shit yesterday that I couldn’t keep up with the unfolding issues that were happening politically let alone have time to write about them. When that happens, moderators tend to come down harder so that their time doesn’t get wasted. We’re all doing this in our spare time – weka]
for the record, I didn’t tell anyone to write anything, I was merely passing comment
[let me make it really clear then. You asked “So why is there nothing in here on Labours sweat shop scandal?”. It’s possible that you were genuinely curious, but if that were the case you would have said so when you were moderated. I took your question to be a criticism of the authors here. Likewise you followed that up with “The point I’m trying to make is that when something negative happens to the left, complete silence.” It’s hard to see how that is not a criticism of the authors here.
It’s against the rules to ‘pass comment’ on what the authors of the site should or shouldn’t write or otherwise attack the site/authors for that. There’s also a bit about wasting moderator time. You’re new here, and I tend to cut newbies more slack because I think the new blood is good for the place, but other moderators don’t. It’s up to you – weka]
NB: use of a question mark at the end of a sentence denotes that the sentence is what we hu-mans call “a question”. This and the previous sentence also provide examples of “comments”. Please note the lack of question mark.
True, and I’d add I’m noticing people putting their criticisms as a question in an attempt to get around moderation. If the question isn’t a genuine question and is just an attack that won’t work.
…As well as naming Behailu Kebede, a father of one, originally from Ethiopia and employed as a taxi driver, the newspaper published five photos. One of the captions on a photo of Kebede stated that his ‘faulty fridge started the Grenfell Tower inferno. …”…
Kebede cannot be blamed in any way for the fact that Grenfell was turned into a towering inferno within minutes in the early hours of June 14. Citing BBC Panorama, on Monday, the Mail, as part of an effort to distance itself from its earlier report, wrote, “Firefighters who successfully tackled the fridge fire that started the Grenfell Tower thought their job was done and began to leave—only realising how quickly it had spread when they stepped outside. Units were called to what they believed to be a standard fridge fire at the doomed high-rise, and within minutes told residents the fire was out in the flat.
“The crew was leaving the building when firefighters outside spotted flames rising up the side of the building. …”..
No one should accept the claim that the fire was even caused by a faulty fridge. The Mail report makes no mention of the warning made by the Grenfell Action Group, who posted in a blog last November: “The Grenfell Action Group believe that the KCTMO [Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation—who ran the block on behalf of the local council], narrowly averted a major fire disaster at Grenfell Tower in 2013 when residents experienced a period of terrifying power surges that were subsequently found to have been caused by faulty wiring.”…
In addition, some witnesses who escaped and local residents reported seeing blue flames as the tower set alight, which is consistent with the escape of gas. Recent work on the flats involved the gas supply. A number of residents and the Grenfell Action Group previously reported their concern to the KCTMO and Fire Brigade about exposed gas pipes.
The Financial Times reported that only in March, just three months before the fire broke out, the “Grenfell Tower’s leaseholders association wrote to the London Fire Brigade complaining about the still-exposed gas pipe and its location in the stairwell. … The pipe, the letter says ‘has put our life in danger and we don’t feel secure in the building any more’.”
(That is really thorough reporting of matters that need attention from a Royal Commission with WIDE powers of investigation and remediation.)
“While rare pepes are nothing more than fun and games for much of the developed world, they’re a matter of survival in Venezuela. “We’re based in Venezuela, and our business has been saved by bitcoin many times,” said the developer.
The developer claims roughly 80 percent of the offices around the area where Rare Pepe Party is being developed have shut down over the past year. The biggest businesses on their street have also dropped as much as 90 percent of their employees.
“In that timeframe, thanks to bitcoin related business, we’ve grown our employee base from just 5 to 10 (we’re still a small company),” said the developer. “We’ve air-conditioned our office. Year-over-year we’ve been improving, so we’re banking big on bitcoin and now over Counterparty assets.”
According to the developer, there is no legal framework for bitcoin-related businesses in Venezuela. Having said that, SEBIN, which the developer described as Venezuela’s secret police, has been targeting anyone involved in bitcoin for extortion and bribes, especially bitcoin miners. “Anything bitcoin related is a big no-no here at the moment,” said the developer. “This week I got wind of at least two mining operators getting knocks on their doors.””
That really is a crime-ridden culture, when the powers stop business, trading unless they are controlling, getting a cut from everything. We have tax on interest gathering even cents from savings a/cs. The powers talk about cutting out cash so that small transactions and small aid can’t be given at will anywhere but has to go through some machine, some scrutiny. A huge way to impoverish and oppress.
That’s the real worry about the black economy. The government can’t keep going on low tax from the wealthy, they need the reimbursement from the many who haven’t got enough to pay trained suits to find clever diversions and cul de sacs to wheel their piles into hiding till the taxmen ride by.
Yes there was a problem, anytime anybody gives anything a go hurdles pop up. It’s how me manage those hurdles that counts.
Andrew Little should give his thoughts on what happened while sitting around a table full of food, dinner time at one of the loving homes these kids are now being billeted in.
One of Matt’s team, the people that do the actual work, will get them all networked up. It’ll be fine.
I wonder if we could get Todd to leave a recording device running in Bill’s cabinet meeting? I think we’d hear…
“I want to be better at it guys, I’m getting training but I fear I’ll always be a crap liar.”
Is this storm in a teacup over the living and working conditions of some kids on an OE…
Sounds like it.
I suspect a small handful of kids who were expecting VIP accommodation are behind it. I did hear someone postulate that someone from the Maori Party was stirring but there may be no truth in it.
That’s Australia. Similar to North Korea’s treatment of a fellow human being?
Whatever happened to Otto Warmbier in N Korea, it destroyed a healthy man http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/93946575
A recent report on real fraud that is not being revealed to our eyes. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11870607
SFO chief executive and director Julie Read appeared before a parliamentary select committee today alongside the office’s responsible minister Paula Bennett….
“One of the accounting firm’s surveys showed that something like 40 to 60 per cent of businesses reported they had been the subject of financial crime in the last three or four years. A lot of that is not reported because people don’t want to admit their firms have been the subject of financial crime.”
Read said companies were less likely to report financial crime in times of economic growth, given it often did not greatly affect their bottom line.
Documents released earlier this year revealed Police investigate less than 5 per cent of fraud cases referred from the banking sector.
I see that firms have been making enough money that they can stand theft. And I see that Paula Bennett has the SFO in her purrview.
Perhaps if people worried about the leakage of returns because of theft and fraud from business, paid for by the general public, they would spend less of their precious time trying to whip up a storm about young people spending their holidays helping out our beleaguered people’s party. Also perhaps Muck Rack is worth a look by dedicated bloggers.
Winnie will be having a quiet cigar and whiskey this evening and thanking providence that he is up against such a gaggle of buffoons in the upcoming election.
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“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 19 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Meh … its raining again…
But its not so bad … less than 3 months til a change of government !!!
YAY !!! 🙂
Supertramp – It’s Raining Again – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZUE4_PtOk0
A big team just installed the gas-fired self-resetting rat traps on 1000 hectares of Mt Taranaki:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1706/S00471/worlds-largest-rat-trapping-network-completed-by-community.htm
There now also are hundreds of them set around my neighborhood, and I’ve installed one myself. I just love all these predator-free stories. Inspiring.
The benefits of technology , eh ?
50 years ago you would have to venture out in the rain with steel capped gummies on using the old style rat traps….
It’s going to be interesting to see how that goes. Hopefully it’s good enough.
Wonder what the maintenance schedule is and how they’re going to maintain that.
Our local Landcare group is working on a Predator Free initiative and is selling these traps at a discount to residents.
They require less monitoring than their previous manual traps (which are atill available for free), as they reset. The carcasses are often carried away by other animals, and have no toxins in them.
They are looking forward to these traps because the level of volunteer time necessary is much lower.
Some of the larger programmes like Ark in the Park seem to be holding back on the gas-fired traps until there are more tests of it operating at real scale.
Personally I would rather they just got on with it and converted to the full system. It’s much less messy, and of course no poisons used at all. Just chocolate and peanut butter.
We need all of the remaining forests in the Auckland region fully grid-trapped if we are going to slow the decline of our bird species.
You have to wonder about sustainability though. Intensive rodent control has only been around for a decade or two. Rats have been here for around a thousand years.
Agreed, but this is a breakthrough technique.
The subantarctic islands have been excellent test beds, and leading to much larger land masses like the Macquarrie and South Georgia groups.
It’s important not to look at this as a one-hit wonder, but as a programme that has to be sustained as long as we can.
Naw … climate change is bogus, dreamt up originally by a bunch of technocratic Globalists and obscenely rich fascists called the Bilderberg Society. It was hotter in the 1940’s than it is now on average.
And those bogus figures that were quoted when they first called it ‘ Global warming’ then had to change it to ‘climate change’ because the evidence didn’t match the theory?
Its caused by a naturally occurring thinning of cloud cover , particularly around the tropics. And cyclical sunspot activity.
So don’t panic , the Bilderbergers wont get their trillions of unearned carbon tax payers dollars paid into their bank accounts , jobs will stay in the west and not relocated to the third world to take advantage of sweatshop labour , we can stop filling younger people with anxiety about their futures and the world will continue to turn happily despite all the bogus scaremongering.
Shocking to realize just how easily we can all be had by unelected power hungry rich pratts, … isn’t it.
Enjoy this morning in this globally warming bloody freezing great outdoors this fine –
and totally normal – winters day.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[I don’t allow climate change denial under my posts. You are now banned from today’s CC post, and any future posts I write on CC. I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt that you haven’t seen me saying no ‘CC denial’ in any of the CC posts I’ve written in the past year, but if I go and see that you have commented on any in the past and thus seen the moderation notes then you can expect that I will either require an apology for derailing the discussion under my post today or I will issue a ban. You are in moderation until I see an acknowledgement that you have read and understood this note. Please don’t start arguing with me about CC (I suggest a read of the Policy on wasting moderator time) – weka]
I hope this is satre.
Satre?… you mean ‘ satire’ surely. And no , I most certainly didn’t mean it as satire. And neither does Wikileaks or Rep. Steve Scalise ( the Republican who was shot by anti Trump agitators ) nor did the FBI apparently…
But don’t just take my word for it … judge for yourself….
WIKILEAKS Release VIDEO FBI Investigation of Al Gore’s Global …
Video for WIKILEAKS Release VIDEO FBI Investigation of Al Gore’s Global Warming Carbon TAX▶ 12:59
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYOBPmeHV7A
It’s strange, WK is someone whose posts I normally agree with totally. But there is a funny chink in his armour on the subject of global warming.
Like Ed, I assumed what he wrote was satire – but it doesn’t appear to be!
Does that invalidate everything else he has said – of course not – but isn’t human nature a wondrous thing!
No indeed it is not satire, and nor is it particularly a chink either.
Nor was the medieval warm period when they grew grapes in England or the freezing snaps that killed Mammoths so fast they died with tussock still in their trunks…
And as was mentioned in the later clip…. ‘ I don’t think there’s any SUV’s on Venus…
I think we are so accustomed to thinking in terms of gradual change occurring over millennia ( as we have been taught ) we just cannot comprehend rapid climactic change that happens in our lifetimes , we become alarmed and draw the conclusion that it must be something we as species have caused…
Where in fact it is natural earth / planetary / solar cycles . The carbon we emit is a drop in the bucket on a global level , barring high density concentrations such as city’s which then become a direct health risk. And as you know , carbon is one of the most common elements on earth.
But this natural state of affairs also makes us vulnerable to opportunists such as Al Gore and other unscrupulous individuals…
A fool’s errand: Al Gore’s $15 trillion carbon tax | Watts Up With That?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/05/…/a-fools-errand-al-gores-15-trillion-carbon-tax/
Where can we get the good stuff on chemtrails? Is HAARP going to turn my pets gay?
Andre
That is the question for which we are all breathlessly awaiting an answer.
ahhh thats why my hamster is gay, i thought is was something i said
All hamsters are gay, but they’ll go bi for the right partner. It’s not something you said, and it’s not HAARP. It just is.
https://xkcd.com/1732/
Go look at the medieval warm period, then go look at the bottom of the comic.
Natural cycles are very slow. Humans are fast.
You also mention carbon dioxide.
Well, have a look at this: https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/24/
That’s blatantly clear – humans increased CO2 globally from 280 ppm to 400 ppm. That isn’t a drop in the bucket, and it is global, not in cities only.
Stop lying to yourself.
I find myself agreeing with my fellow arachnid on many topics, this is not one of them!
W.K. you seem to be on an Al Gore tangent here. Just because he made some docos on climate change doesn’t make the whole thing fake. If we want the world to change we have to be willing to change our own minds and when it comes to climate change, peer reviewed science is where we need to look for answers not some US politician with his head up a lot of corporate arses.
Something we are agreed upon.
I liken it to a snowball effect. Gradual at first and then it just goes helter skelter toward the end.
We are getting to the end. The Greenland Inuits have already said that the sun no longer rises and sets where it should on the solstice, suggesting that bigger forces are at play than anything our self aggrandisement could ever hope to achieve.
I’m not sure that I buy your warming denial – but the carbon credit market was never going to work – folk who cheat on their taxes will cheat on their carbon taxes too. And so it proved in NZ.
Wild katipo read Mobil Exxon’s in house research.
Then read Royal Dutch Shell’s in house research.
Does that invalidate everything else he has said
No, it just further reduces the already diminishing likelihood that his dense screeds are worth reading.
Trend to agree – what a rant.
+ 1
He is a great spell checker though
On climate change I neither confirm nor deny.I however witnessed people being arrested in the late sixties over free speech issues.Fifty years later certain people seem to have forgotten the struggle, and that the authorities were repressive to stop free speech.Those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it !!!
I think Weka puts the time and effort into climate change posts because they very much believe there is a problem that mankind should do something about. Keen to try and make a difference. When an accepted paradigm it leaves the forum clear for discussions that revolve around making a difference.
When the forum becomes a ‘yes’/’no’ ping-pong match making a difference takes a back-seat to an ebb and flow that goes nowhere.
There are bipartisan forums around and the participants do nothing but bat the ‘yes and ‘no’ ball backwards and forward, over years they achieve nothing. In Weka’s posts, it’s a given that we’re making it get warmer.
What we are going to do about it is far more interesting conversation than ping pong.
Pretty much. I spent many years here as a commenter before authoring, and saw a huge amount of time wasted on climate denial debates that pushed back against the denial but stopped use from working on solutions to the actual problem. We’re out of time now, and people who want to argue about reality have plenty of other places to do it.
I’m getting to the point that Red is talking about, where people who throw up those blocks to action should now be considered in the same light as people who clad buildings in flammable materials.
No-one’s free speech is being affected here. Thanks for your “concern”.
I find the mentality fascinating.Throughout history there have been scientific theories that were universally held to be true , that over time have been proved to be false.The people who have disproved the theories have initially been seen as heretical , and treated with hostility.The high priests of the prevailing order have always done all in their power to censor any dissenting voices .It is usually a truth to power situation, with the authorities possessing all the power.Whether they possess the truth is another question.My position on man made climate change is that it is not proven.Nor is the premise that there is no man made climate change. Nor the degree that either is true. I am studying the evidence on both sides of the argument, and so far I am not convinced either way.So I welcome debate. If you don’t welcome debate ,and believe the science is proven, you have in my opinion a closed mind !!!
It’s taken a long time to get climate change taken seriously in the mainstream. A lot of people have tried to suppress and undermine research that shows climate change, over several decades.
Throughout history there have been scientific theories that were universally held to be true , that over time have been proved to be false. The people who have disproved the theories have initially been seen as heretical , and treated with hostility
All that is true. But you then make the mistake of assuming that ALL heretical beliefs must also be true. Not so. The vast majority of them turn out to be just wrong.
So how do you tell the difference between an heretical belief that is wrong, and one that just might overturn the common consensus? The answer is that you or I don’t. We don’t get to make that call. The only thing that trumps good science is BETTER science. And the only people who can make that call are the experts in the area.
Of course heretical beliefs will be resisted by the ‘prevailing order’. This is how it should be, especially when the prevailing ideas and models reliably deliver predictive and useful results. Like when the scientists predict that the sub-polar regions will warm the fastest … and when I go there I can see this is exactly what is happening.
On the other hand if a heretic can demonstrate a model that works better, is physically and intellectually consistent and delivers results , then yes over time their ideas WILL win out. If it turns out the current CC science has overlooked something fundamental, and we really can belch unlimited amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere with impunity … then so be it.
But so far the heretics have utterly failed at this. Their data is either misinterpreted, mangled, or just lies. Their models all contradict each other. One week it’s the sun, the next it’s fucking volcanoes. They slag off at climate computer models, while typing on a computer and daily using all manner of things all designed and tested using software tools.
They spout risible conspiracy theories that propose tens of thousands of researchers, in hundreds of institutions, in dozens of countries have all secretly conspired to fake the same data, the same theories and same models for more than a hundred years since Arrhenius. With NFC as to how absurd that sounds to someone with even basic academic experience.
And then refuse to look at the documented evidence that their entire edifice of intellectual bullshit is the outcome of a manufactured campaign of confusion, fear and doubt bought and paid for by a small group of fossil carbon enterprises using the same techniques first used by tobacco companies to protect their profits. And for no other reason.
Do you have an imaginary friend who thinks scientists “prove” things? Do they know about paragraphs? Newsflash: science deals in probabilities, not proofs. Here’s Gavin Schmidt of NASA (from his essay “Unsettled Science”).
Personally, I can see how eg. CO2 is a greenhouse gas by considering its atomic structure. If the addition of millions of tonnes of the stuff to the atmosphere didn’t cause the ice to melt (etc. etc.) that would be quite surprising.
As for the “alternative” “explanations”, what RL said: they’re a mess of confusing and contradictory rhetoric, and there is evidence that this is deliberate.
You don’t seem to be learning anything at all.
I suggest reading the policy.
I wouldn’t let someone derail my posts with flat earth or black people are less smart than white people arguments either. No-one’s free speech has been denied, I moved posts to the appropriate place. WK is free to say what the like in Open Mike (within the rules of the site). I also put some boundaries in place for behaviour, which is very normal for humans. There are lots of places where we don’t get to do and say whatever we want. Beyond that, I’ll place more importance on the free time of authors than the free speech of people who lack respect for the people who run this place.
I think this is satyr-like. We can’t afford to be light-hearted, jokey about the death of our known planet. The unknown planet, will remain unknown to us.
Okey dokey.
[RL: Just want to add my support for weka’s action here. It saddened me to read what you have written Wild Katipo. I personally enjoy your broad contribution here a lot, but we are past the point where CC denial is acceptable discourse, any more than we tolerate blatant bigotry.]
Hi WK, I have a touch of empathy for where you are coming from, a mate of mine for 10 years has said something similar.
What about yes to your opinions and then add the 100 odd years of human use of fossil fuels etc on top of the cycle you elude to.
I can not fathom the amount of damage to our environment by humans use of oil for fertiliser, plastics, fuel etc.
sheesh – I honestly thought WK was being very dark and cynical. But no, seems not.
Nope again , folks …
Al Gore: I Was Wrong About Global Warming… | Learn … – YouTube
Video for anonymous global warming hoax you tube▶ 36:19
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cxdzm2fnA4
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
And the last clip was put out by Anonymous… btw…
This graph was put out by Nature.
So was this video.
My advice is stop filling your mind with junk bullshit.
LOL … nature . Exactly.
Not man made carbon emissions.
Thank you.
Well WK ,you’ve got me bewildered on your epiphany too.
Can I ask you about your thoughts on 9/11?
Yes, human carbon emissions are raising the CO2 content of the atmosphere, which in turn is warming the planet. Melting ice is a symptom of this warming.
Hahah lol, now who’s laughing? Stop filling your mind with gobshite and learn some Physics.
WK I thought you were a conpiracy idiot when you called Clinton a murderer in reply to me. Glad you’ve gone full lost it mode now no need to wonder anymore.
that other people have faults doesn’t mean you are free of them
I know I have plenty of faults more than your mind could concieve.
Edit. I took all my witty insults to you out of my comment. That’s my gift to you for today lol.
lol
my insults aren’t usually witty, and with some commenters the amount of “you fucking moron”-style phrases I need to remove from my replies before posting is quite substantial.
The McCarten ‘non-partisan’ Campaign for Change sham is exposed at Politik:
Labour Party volunteer workers rebel over living conditions.
It also reveals how Labour are using foreign students to do unpaid work and putting them in substandard housing conditions. And they may also be breaching immigration regulations.
Unbelievable hypocrisy by Labour.
Import foreign students to work for free and stick them in shitty rundown accommodation while at the same time running a campaign against foreign students taking jobs and people having to live in substandard housing.
Hard to believe.
Most new programs have teething problems and it would appear there are shortfalls in the planning and delivery. Matt McCarten is an ideas man. Ideas men are only as good as the staff that chase them around making all their dreams come true. I suspect some break-down there, it happens when budgets are tight and assistance often voluntary.
In your haste to point out “Ha! Gotcha, they’re doing the same thing as they accuse others of doing.” As I say, we all have hiccups when trying something new, it’s how those hiccups are managed that matters.
How would you react to a phone call from me BM? “Hiya BM, I’ve got a couple of students that are helping us with the election, can they billet in that little flat under your place until after the election?”
I think you’d say “Can’t you stick them in a motel somewhere?”
The accommodation wasn’t suitable, Labour are fixing the problem by billeting them amongst Labour supporters. I think it’s a quality solution, a Kiwi solution. I wonder if National HQ would be ringing members and asking if someone could move in with them for 3 months? I think they’d be banging them up in some concrete block motel unit on a busy intersection in South Auckland.
Wow, these kids are going to homestay with Kiwi families, they’ll go home with fabulous memories and if they wish, handy campaign skills.
I have no problem at all with a political party trying to engage with young folk and encourage enrollment, but the scheme is clearly a Labour Party one, so it seems odd to have presented it as anything else.
As for cheap (free) foreign labour being housed in substandard accommodation, this wasn’t a problem that ‘evolved’, it was an issue from day one… we have enough problems with the orchardists housing workers in Flaxmere hovels and shipping containers, we don’t need that sort of carry on from the Party who are supposed to be sorting these issues out for us.
This isn’t exactly a ‘Momentum Movement’, mores the pity.
PG, Is this the same rag which said, “Barclay was the victim of an organised campaign against him,” and other excuses in order to avoid Todd from taking responsibility. Why am I not surprised.
+111
Yes it is the same rag. But that is beside the point.
Is what Harman is saying true?
Yep, doesn’t seem to be bothering anyone one here though, which surprises me.
Endless posts on slumlords and the exploitation of foreign students yet not a squeak about this.
Obviously different when it’s your team doing something dodgy, no idea how any person could take Labour seriously after this.
Whilst I know the obvious response to this, the NZ Herald story leaves me wondering how much Labour leadership knew and how much of this was going on during the time McCarten was a part of Labour, and how much has happened since. There needs to be a proper investigation into this to determine exactly what happened, and that should happen before terms like “Labour Sweat Shop” get banded about.So far it looks like a “Campaign of Change, a Labour affiliated project, runs over-crowded residences and potentially exploiting students
Not that is that catchy, however, that appears to be all that has actually been determined (other than Joyce & Rimmer sayig otherwise).
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11880417
I do like the hypocrisy from everyone involved though… A) the something is not so bad if it is my side and it is being blown out of proportion, and B) Obviously when it is the other side the worst possible interpretation is true and the opposition are hypocrites of the worst degree.
No, it bothers us but we’re taking the report with a truckload of salt considering that the source is a National Party cheerleader.
And mistakes do happen. The article does say that Labour are looking in to it which is more than what National do with slumlords.
+ 1
Yep poor little bm didn’t get what he wanted boo hoo
Labour have taken an oversubscribed programme begun by Matt.
They have met with the people concerned and given them options.
Andrew Little has said “all that matters is the people.” He fronted media with sincerity. He said “this is not a good look”. “Andrew Kirton has taken over”
As a Labour supporter, I am sorry they have been left to deal with the fall-out.
Sometimes people over reach, and someone tidies up.
That was not deliberate or covered up in any way, nor criminal.
Sadly trolls will use this against the party, as they need a diversion currently.
This is from the pamphlet “2017 Labour Campaign Fellowship” that NZ Labour originally sent out.
http://stage.wp.hum.uu.nl/wp-content/uploads/sites/181/2017/04/170424-2-New-Zealand-Labour-Party-2017-Campaign-Fellowship.pdf
Tell me that’s not dishonestly leveraging off the “global political climate” that’s seen a resurgence of social democracy in the UK and USA, that NZ Labour are most assuredly not a part of.
I said in another comment that I suspected this whole thing was probably predicated on misleading the likes of enthusiastic Sanders supporters who thought they could experience a Sanders type groundswell in another country. Now I’ve read the literature, I’m not sure it’s not worse than that.
Message or messenger?
Are you saying this story isn’t true, that it has no validity.
The publicity document says twice, “We are sorry that we cannot pay you for your work.” So the claim that they were not getting pay was what they signed up for. No deceit there.
Pete George I believe you are essentially dishonest.
I’m sure Matt will have a perfectly clear, legit and not at all shifty explanation.
LOL.
Like when he was filling out the PAYE forms for the Union?
Is that the same ‘programme’ that Hone Harawira was having a laugh at a month or so ago (enlisting Americans to persuade people to vote Labour or some such), that plenty enough people said was just Hone spouting bullshit?
Yup. Seems so.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11841952
edit: updated reading article
Ah – so the “bullshit” was largely about how he characterised it – “tell Maori how to vote”. Oh, and getting pissy about overseas volunteers after jumping in bed with KDC’s cash.
I don’t really give a monkey’s about money from a NZ resident. And I don’t really give a monkey’s about overseas volunteers aiding campaign work.
But seeing as how Labour just released an immigration policy that Nigel Farage could have penned, this simply and rather deservedly isn’t going to end well for Labour.
Waiting for the posts that echo their “talking points” to hit 🙂
have fun with that. I’m sure you’ll find your bias confirmed. /sarc
Are you meaning my ‘bias’ to be the observation from reading their policies that NZ Labour and UKIP have very similar ideas on immigration?
Or are you meaning my ‘bias’ from multiple observations that NZ Labour are nowt but a pack of liberal incompetents, who might soon be seen to be working through some weird Theresa May type election strategy – even though the field is wide open for a troupe of ragged monkeys to rather convincingly take the Beehive?
I’ve got too many fairly well considered opinions to know what bias you’re referring to there McFlock!
That’s the stuff, yeah.
So you had nothing at all actually in mind – just a kind of preemptive ad hominem lashing out by way of nobly defending a political party.
You were waiting for the posts that echo their “talking points” to hit. I’m sure that whatever post you read, you’ll see the echoes of “talking points”.
Anyone who thinks the NZLabour immigration policy is “very similar” to UKIP’s could probably see anything they damned well want.
If there are posts submitted that act by way of damage control and that don’t offer much beyond a parroting of official Labour Party responses, then yes, the post can reasonably be said to be built around “talking points”.
Of course, the strategy at the moment might be to pull up the covers and close both eyes in the hope it all goes away. Given that nothing’s up so far, I’m suspecting that’s the game plan thus far. (Maybe there’ll be a line or two constructed by tomorrow that someone can spin on?)
Meanwhile.
You obviously haven’t set the two policies of NZ Labour and UKIP side by side and read them McFlock. If you had, you’d be well aware that they share the same basic thrust and rely on some of the same justifications for stemming immigration.
And you’d be aware (if you set down a third document – UK Labour’s immigration) that both the aforementioned policies are a blue million miles away from a social democratic immigration policy.
But doesn’t UK Labour seek to not reduce immigration? I haven’t compared all three policies, but I suspect you are leaving out a critical point here, which is the ideological lines being drawn around whether it’s ok ever to reduce immigration numbers or let them keep increasing.
UK Labour flat stick refused to issue any immigration targets, and also very explicitly excluded foreign students from any immigration numbers.
The reason UK Labour refuses to issue ‘targets’ is because they quite rightly point to the fact that a capitalist economy will go through phases where the rate of immigration needs to be increased as well as phases where it needs to be decreased. It’s not a blanket either/or scenario.
I found one comment where you made a big deal about how Robertson and a UKIP guy said that the policies were about immigration, not immigrants, and recall I think that you did a more in depth post.
Thing is, even if the policies were similar in wording, UKIP are doing it from the “oppressed English” perspective, and I suspect their announced policy is a stepping stone towards a white-britain objective. NZLabour, I think, are honestly stating the full extent of what they believe is necessary to address basic economic problems NZ faces.
But that having been said, I don’t think the policies match up as well as you think. Sure, they both talk about infrastructure pressure, but that’s understandable in NZ. Dunno about the UK. I disagree that immigration overly affects infrastructure pressures, but the pressures do exist and are serious.
They both talk about limiting immigration for a few years, but Labour talks net – UKIP talks gross. Subtle, but actually a very different level of emphasis.
So I think that the similarities you speak of are at best, er, “skin deep”… 🙂
The reason UK Labour refuses to issue ‘targets’ is because they quite rightly point to the fact that a capitalist economy will go through phases where the rate of immigration needs to be increased as well as phases where it needs to be decreased. It’s not a blanket either/or scenario.
Which is pretty much what NZ Labour said too.
So, you haven’t read them, in spite of being to comments where the links were provided.
The Robertson Nutall comparison was in light of both being accused of racism with respects to their, much more than skin deep, similar immigration policies and both offering up an almost identical response. And then the troubling bit that you miss – Nutall getting howled down in a live TV debate as opposed to (it seems) some quiet sage nodding going on in NZ.
probably read them at the time to see if you had a point. Don’t recall being overly impressed.
I could go back and double check my impressions, but I can’t really be bothered. It’s all a bit tangential to my basic position that you’re not exactly impartial when it comes to interpreting NZLabour or anyone who defends it.
@ Weka.
That’s nothing at all like the approach NZ Labour have taken.(There is nothing in their policy acknowledging that immigration flows sometimes need to increase) They’ve committed to reducing immigration by ~ 30 000 – mostly through targeting students (people that UK Labour has specifically excluded from immigration numbers)
When did I ever claim to be impartial? I form reasonably intelligent opinions. Nothing impartial about that.
there should at least be the attempt to look at the facts in an impartial way, and from those draw your opinion, surely.
That’s nothing at all like the approach NZ Labour have taken. They’ve committed to reducing immigration by ~ 30 000 – mostly through targeting students (people that UK Labour has specifically excluded from immigration numbers)
the bit about adjusting immigration up and down in response to the capitalist economy is similar. It’s not like NZ Labour are going immigration per se is bad and we should always limit it. They’re saying what we’re doing at the moment isn’t working and we need to turn it down for a while until we sort these other issues out.
I don’t see what the problem with the student thing is, unless one takes the position that immigration should alway be allowed and that reductions in numbers is always bad.
Precisely what I do McFlock. You missed the bit about allowing context and precedent to have a reasonable influence too.
This would be why it’s a fairly bold claim to suggest that NZLabour and fucking UKIP mean roughly the same thing, even if they happen to say roughly the same words.
NZ Labour have not one thing to say about immigration increasing. Nothing.
The ‘problem’ with students is that denying them work visas does nothing for any supposed stresses and strains on infrastructure and services, which is what NZ Labour is basing it’s policy on. That, and students aren’t immigrants or even residents. They are here on a temporary basis to study before the overwhelming majority leave the country having made a worthwhile contribution to NZ in the interim.
edit – I should add. UK Labour, again in stark contrast to NZ Labour (and UKIP) ,were also explicit that they would not use mis-management (run down infrastructure) as an excuse to put the boot in on immigrants or prospective immigrants.
So now instead of trying to approach facts with a degree of impartiality, the idea is to willfully interpret words differently depending on some tribal allegiance or some such? 🙄
Well, the track record of the speakers and the parties they represent, anyway. That counts as context.
Did people call bullshit on Hone on that? I remember it coming up but …
Here’s a wee snippet of commentary that followed you bringing it to peoples’ attention here.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-20042017/#comment-1322070
Fair call, he happened to be closer to the mark than usual, my bad.
I mean, it wasn’t a telemarketing campaign to get votes for Labour (as he portrayed it), but it did actually involve people coming from the US (probably not Trump supporters though), so he did get that much right.
And then in the end of that thread Karen was pretty much bang on.
I’m sure you mean “as usual”, no? 😉
I guessed you would be, but I didn’t 🙂
Classic -my apologies bill I gave you a hard time for the same imo lapse a bit ago. I forgot all about that. Oh no! I’ve got billshititis arrrrggggg
Me too, but I’m sure we would have remembered the details if we were being interviewed by the cops 🙂
on RNZ guyon just now trying to trip peters up over Barclay, but Peters had him on toast. This is the simplest scandal I have ever seen says Winnie.
That is what RNZ pays Guyon to do, I can’t see anything sinister in that.
Winston learnt a few survival tricks while working in Australian mines. He could be a good chair for a Pike River Board of Inquiry were the government to change.
I can’t see that happening under Prime MInister Paula Bennett.
The point is that Guyon’s attack failed because it never had any credibility in the first place. Have a listen:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201848434/peters-baying-for-bill-english-s-resignation
Guyon introduces an argument that Todd Barcley may have been present therefore the recordings would not be illegal. Now that’s a spin worthy of WO.
1. I am absolutely positive that this would have been used as a defence right back at the beginning if it were available.
2. Bill English’s text talks about increased level of payment due to privacy breaches.
What a waste of interviewing time.
+100 Gristle there would have been no issue from the start…what worries me is Espiner must have known that but still tried to help the Gnats.
Meanwhile, Coleman is under fire over the government’s record on health care. Bet Coleman is cheering Barclay.
RNZ: “Coleman grilled over ‘in progress’ Health Ministry review”
NZ current state of health care – it’s impacting negatively on large numbers of people’s lives.
The Minister is now personally attacking elected DHB members. Not a good look.
That’s typical National: When their policies inevitably cause problems they attack the people who bring those problems to light.
I wonder when or if polies will tumble to the fact with population increase and rising costs it would be grossly incompetent if allocations did not increase instead spinning the tale every time they are questioned?
Except these temps have happened there before, well over 100 years ago.
[RL: Last warning. CC denial is not tolerated in this thread.]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[I don’t allow climate change denial under my posts. I suspect you are well aware of this, so take this as a warning. If I see you running CC denial lines under any of my posts again I will ban you site wide for wasting my moderator time. You are now in moderation until I see an acknowledgement of this note – weka]
Climate change denial? Lol you really cover the whole spectrum don’t you?
You are in moderation, please see note above.
and see my reply.
Man made climate change is what I deny. I really don’t give a shit if you believe that or not.
[I also don’t give a shit what you believe. What I care about is whether you will waste my time as a moderator in the future. I see nothing to suggest you won’t, so am going to put a ban in place now. 6 weeks. If I ever see you running CC denial lines under my posts again I will ban you site wide for much longer. Read the policy about wasting moderator time. – weka]
Pay current rates and potentially receive nothing or pay more and potentially be paid out?
Insurance that is more likely to pay claims, would cost more – Insurance Ombudsman.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/93667156/more-reliable-life-insurance-would-mean-higher-premiums
Insurance is a scam.
Also: Why insurance should be a state monopoly
ACC worked well when it was a pay-go state monopoly.
Pundit does not open in Firefox or Chrome yesterday or today.
Anyone else able to get in? No signal no response blank.
http://www.pundit.co.nz/
Nor in Safari of Firefox mac. I’m guessing the site is down.
Online again at Pundit.
Pretty quiet on here about this guys
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11880417
It’s headlining on Stuff.
Yip I am sure weka or MS will be penning a post as we speak to rail against slave workers being exploited for zero pay whilst living in poor conditions.
Any one know if these poor saps were lured here on working visas or are they tourists?
[Read the Policy. Commenters don’t get to tell authors what to write about, or have a go at them about what they don’t write about. We’re all volunteers here and none of us have much spare time. Bear in mind that authors here do the work to provide *you with a space to comment irrespective of the value of your comments. Feel free to submit a Guest Post for consideration if you feel strongly that a topic should be covered, but I’m guessing you just want other people to do the work for you. – weka]
[fucks sake, it’s like herding bloody ferrets here today. Just to put this in context, I spent my spare time this morning writing a post and moderating several people who should know better, and I haven’t had the chance yet to catch up on whatever has happened with Labour on this, other than to see a tweet that Andrew Little fronted up and owned it this morning. Get a clue, and do something useful, like perhaps put up a link with commentary so people can inform themselves, instead of just sitting in the comments and having a moan – weka]
weka.
No where did I tell anyone what to write. My tongue was firmly in my cheek. Did I need to tag that as sarcasm for you?
[any time you invoke the authors you need to take extra care. How would I know if you were being sarcastic or not. – weka]
The articles on both the Herald and Politik are lacking coherence and detail.
They sound like internships at political campaigns that follow the US model, of no pay. However, some internships charge for inclusion, which does not seem to be the case here. An Campaign for Change intended to be an inclusive movement I understand, similar to Momentum perhaps.
Given the very low standard of paid accommodation that even our NZ state houses supply, the complaints about the accommodation offered need to be put into perspective:
“POLITIK has been sent photographs showing:
Cramped dormitory alcoves
A broken and unusable shower
Bathroom cupboard doors hanging off their hinges
Unfinished construction work with material piled beside mattresses”
Is that it? Some suggestions.
– Marae accommodation is usually in an wharenui, move the mattresses to an open space. Healthier, and less restrictive.
– Use another shower.
– Keep your toiletries in your toilet bag
– Move the materials out of the way.
Internships are not paid employment, and I would prefer that our youth are encouraged to get involved, participate and become vocal. But the issue is not one that seems to warrant such censure from the information that is at hand.
Does provide distraction from Barclay though? (Privacy Act, refusal to cooperate with Police, Police dropping the case, PM lying, PM forgetting, PM statement where he forgot to lie, Barclay implying the PM lied, Barclay forgetting, Barclay remembering when he told the truth but only from a lying perspective, Barclay reiterating staff privacy abuse, PM fund being used to pay off staff…)
Oh look! A cupboard door off it’s hinges, and people not being paid for volunteer work they have signed up to!
In terms of volunteering overseas, I think it is important to have the specialised skills that are needed by the population you visit. Unless you do, it is superfluous.
For unskilled volunteers looking to gain experience and personal enhancement only, I am inclined to agree with Ivan Illich – To Hell with Good Intentions
Accommodation is payment, right?
If you are asking for my definition:
“Stable, healthy affordable and accessible accommodation is a requirement every person on earth, so that they can participate and positively contribute to the community and environment in which they live.”
But I’m guessing you have your own definition. And your payment question was to segue into a tirade about paid workers rights and conditions of work. Which are all valid when applied universally. But you are likely to pick and choose which negates your application.
Go ahead.
Explain how so many of the homeless in NZ are avoiding paying taxes because they have not got accommodation and so avoid receiving “payments” that everyone else does. Cunning on a level of Panama Trust tax avoiders no doubt.
I wasn’t asking for your definition. Accommodation in return for work is payment. If these ‘fellows’ can refuse to carry out tasks without any repercussions, I guess it could be argued they’re not being ‘paid’.
“The articles on both the Herald and Politik are lacking coherence and detail.”
Nevertheless, Little told NZME “I can’t deny it – it is embarrassing.”
I don’t know what Little can or can’t deny. What is the “it” that was asked?
Little was commenting on the mess that has occurred in regards to this Labour-linked scheme.
yes Little fessed up apologised and labour have moved to fix the problem , as opposed to the nats lying and denying , paying of those they have wronged and and other scum behavior, i might vote Little just on this display of integrity .
Denying it would have dug a lager hole.
It wasn’t a good look for Labour, despite Little fronting. And even he admitted it was embarrassing.
The way ACT is talking, there could still be more to come on this.
The timing couldn’t be much worse what with the election coming up and Labour’s stance on immigration. Moreover, Labour provided the Nats with a distraction, just as they were getting hammered over the Barclay and English debacle.
Whether it’s done much damage, guess we’ll find out in the next poll.
Oooo…. Labour have a policy on imagination? I guess a bit of auto-spell check intervened.
Lol, indeed.
Oh. You fixed it. I quite like the idea of a policy on imagination.
I dunno, it does sound a bit shit to live in for several weeks. Make do for a few days maybe, but not for an extended period. Although in that situation, you might be tempted to get a screwdriver from the Warehouse and screw the door back on. But depending on how many showers are available and how many people are there, a broken shower can really foul up the morning schedule.
McCarten fucked up and accepted too many people when he should have had a cutoff and a list of alternates. And the accommodation was also insufficient.
Is this a Labour Party initiative or is it a separate entity and movement? The articles state it is separate but ignores that and continue as if it is a full Labour Party project.
I personally think we need to motivate our own young people, but don’t understand why people would want to come to NZ to volunteer unless they have a false idea of what is on offer.
The NZ political scene is not as charged as others, the overseas media don’t often relate NZ issues in depth. It would be interesting to have comments from a couple of those involved, to understand what attracted them here and what they expected. If those expectations were warranted by erroneous information, then that shows bad organisation indeed. If they were just ill-informed then that bad organisation was exacerbated by a lack of personal fact-finding.
Well, going from the article it started as a Labour campaign programme but became an independent programme to generally get out the vote. However it was organised by Labour so Labour still has some obligations.
The volunteer exchange thing is pretty common – people learn new skills, get and provide a fresh perspective, and it builds relationships between left wing parties. There’s a certain amount of couch-surfing expected, and you provide free help to your hosts, but there are reasonable limits to those expectations.
Thanks McFlock.
“The volunteer exchange thing is pretty common – people learn new skills, get and provide a fresh perspective, and it builds relationships between left wing parties. “
I understand that reasoning, but think that the decision to use non-domestic volunteers is short-sighted and indicates a lack of vision. If it was a question of motivation then at least making an attempt to address that lack in NZ youth, would have been a good start to get momentum to get them to vote.
“There’s a certain amount of couch-surfing expected, and you provide free help to your hosts, but there are reasonable limits to those expectations.”
That’s true. But the photos and the complaints so far are not high exploitation. I would like to see more detail about the length of internship, the offers made, and the concerns they have rather than what has been provided in the news so far.
Hey, if they come, use ’em. Otherwise you’re trying to run a campaign as well as find interesting things to take the tourists too, when they actually want to find out how a campaign is run in NZ.
Learning how other parties of similar mindset operates can produce valuable new ideas.
It probably gives you an insight into the state of one of our marae that is likely running itself into the ground in order to serve the community, providing dozens of health and social services on next to nothing. Meanwhile at WINZ and in the New Zealand Health system money is
splashed aboutwasted and people lives are thrown into disarray.All the labourites are busy with their self-flagellation.
Well, seems like mccarten made a complete hash of things.
Compare and contrast the way that Andrew Little has fronted in this matter
‘It’s the wrong thing to do’: Little on ‘sweat shop’ complaints over Labour-linked scheme
with
the underhanded way in which National dealt with Sky City, Saudi sheep, GCSB spying for Groser, appointment of Ian Fletcher and of course the latest Todd Barclay coverup
Andrew Little can’t remember McCarten mentioning any of this, or remember the extensive questioning from the police about it, or remember paying hush money from the party leader’s fund… that’s how he’d handle it if he were a nat, rather than someone with integrity.
Has Mr Little fronted yet about paying McCarten with tax payer monies or is he still telling porkies?
what the fuck are you talking about now?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/83952502/Labour-spin-doctor-not-doing-campaign-work-rather-public-outreach-Andrew-Little
or this
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11704572
but it turns dear Matt has been luring slaves from overseas under false pretenses on behalf of his masters.
Industrial strength hypocrisy doesnt begin to cover it.
Its going to be great fun in the election campaign with Labour wanting to expel foreign students !
Oh, I see now. You’re just a fucking liar.
“Get out the vote” campaigns aren’t “vote for Labour” campaigns.
So up above where you describe the luring of these slaves from overseas as a Labour party program out of control you lied?
Matt was getting paid for by the tax payer. In the campaign office.
Little denied this and lied.
But hey, we all know if the political whore Matt McCarten is involved its going to be a fuckup. No surprises there. Tax thief mongrel should have gone to prison.
the potential mass immigration fraud is far more interesting tho.
I wonder how that will play out.
quietly, in your own fantasies.
okay:
1: “luring of slaves”? Fuck you.
2: I said “going by the article”. If it used parliamentary services funding, then at no time could it have been a Labour Party campaigning tool.
So my interpretation of the article might have been wrong. This was unintentional, unlike calling volunteers “slaves”. That’s the difference between being “incorrect” and being “a liar” like you.
Ohhhh McFlock…having a wee tanty are we?
[pull your head in i.e. stick to the politics and the debates. Read the Policy – flaming is not allowed. I’ve done enough moderating today so am on a short fuse. Count this as a warning – weka]
any answer on if Little has fronted on his lies about MCCartens wages?
What did he say that wasn’t true?
weka.
So McFlock calling me a “fucking liar” isnt flaming or rate as having a tanty?
LOL
[banned for one week. I suggest you read the Policy in regards to wasting moderator time. – weka]
[just had a look at the back end moderation list and see you’ve been banned multiple times this year already for similar behaviour. Extending ban out to 2 months. If I see you doing this stuff when you come back, expect a much longer ban. – weka]
McFlock.
Labour leader Andrew Little says his adviser Matt McCarten’s taxpayer-funded salary is within the rules because McCarten will be doing “outreach” work for Little rather than campaign work.
Total lie.
I guess parliamentary services will be onto him then. Or not. Have a nice holiday.
“Luring slaves” …seriously?
Yeah seriously.
“Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox said it was “slave labour”.
“They came from the States thinking they were getting something when they were doing something else, that is slave labour, not free labour, and they should be ashamed of themselves,” Fox said.
“There is a stench in the air, and it’s the stench of hypocrisy.””
So are the interns being punished if they don’t do the work they are told to do? e.g. beaten. Is their movement restricted? Are they under economic duress so that if they don’t do the work they won’t be able to eat? Are they being kept away from family and friends and forced to work?
This is a transcript of an interview by BFM with someone who claims to be one of the US student interns.
Little is going to be on Checkpoint this afternoon to give his explanation.
wow
on what fucking planet do you target 15 and get 115?!
I mean, I’ve organised stuff and overshot by 20-30%, you can manage around that, but shiii-iiit…
thanks Carolyn.
What utter fuckwits. I hope this comes out fully and they never work in politics again. It’s the most important election of my life and they do this shit 3 months out? I’m sure they have their side to the story, but ffs, what were they thinking?
Ahh, so someone not involved, who has something to gain from characterising it a certain way has said it was slave labour…. Yeah, sounds legit…
This is why there needs to be an actual investigation… so far it is labour saying “we will sort this thing out, even though we had handed over management of it awhile back” and all parties that oppose them jumping up and down and sprouting weird hyperbole statements
David C
What does the C stand for. Curly pig’s tale?
Clown
Picking that “Campaign For Change NZ” gave the impression to young Sanders supporters that something exciting was afoot in NZ politics.
Then what? They get here and realise that the “change” amounted to the tired old drudge of swapping out for the mere sake of swapping in. ..a bit like campaigning for Clinton in other words.
they are all Sanders supporters?
I don’t mean to suggest they all are. My point is that I wouldn’t be surprised if they were the basic “target audience” as far as the US goes.
There’s a link to the original promotional literature in this subsequent comment.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-22062017/#comment-1343698
This twitter thread from Russell Brown presents his view on the intern matter
There’s also other stuff been linked on twitter about the Marae where the interns have been staying. There’s been articles for a while about some local Māori not being happy about the way some others are dominating the Marae.
Apparently it’s the same Marae where the Alliance Party was launched in the 1990s.
Thanks for the links. Have just listened to Andrew Little on Checkpoint and he seems to be awfully uninformed…
Anyway (slightly tangential). I wonder how he squares the line that interns haven’t got anything to do with immigration because they are only here for a set time, with NZ Labour immigration policy that is targeting international students who are also only here for a set time…
From what I could tell, some of the problem with international students is that they were being promised jobs afterwards, and too many of the courses were substandard.
Temporary at 15 or 115 students is one thing. Thousands is a different matter. I see it more with tourism, which is a huge burden on the country despite the money it makes. And extra million or two people in NZ every year. They’re temporary, but they impact on resource use and space.
There are sham courses. They can be identified and shut down. If that means bringing education under the public umbrella again, then good.
No international student I’ve known has been able to just get a job and citizenship off the back of studying here. A few have managed to settle, and had to go through the same expensive and bollocks process as any other immigrant.
Denying work visas will not make any difference to international student numbers, but may mean that financially marginal ones are kept out and richer, perhaps in some cases more mediocre ones, will fill the gap they leave.
And again. Seeing as how NZ Labour based its policy on this notion that infrastructure and services are strained and ‘need a break’, then even by their own professed terms, the actual policy fails.
“No international student I’ve known has been able to just get a job and citizenship off the back of studying here. ”
Are you saying that Labour are wrong and there is no current govt policy to bring students in with the idea that they get jobs afterwards?
And again. Seeing as how NZ Labour based its policy on this notion that infrastructure and services are strained and ‘need a break’, then even by their own professed terms, the actual policy fails.
how so?
I’m saying that privately run sham courses can be identified and shut down. International students shouldn’t be counted in immigration numbers. They are not residents and they are not migrants. That’s the UK Labour policy that I just happen to agree with because, well …it’s sensible.
Taking the ability to pick up even seasonal work away from international students, while simultaneously promoting temporary work visas for immigrant labour will lead to more people being in the country at a given time which ,according to NZ Labour’s reasoning for it’s immigration policy, is a really bad thing for infrastructure and services.
Have you read the policy?
No I haven’t.
You didn’t answer my question (the first one).
I’m not aware of a government policy that states that, no.
When I was working at Maccas I knew several of them.
Anecdote != fact.
And if they were doing bogus courses and those courses were going to be shut down, then all good. But why have Labour decided to with-hold work visas from all international students (with some caveats for a few exceptions)?
Because it applies to all courses and not just a few.
Why should we even be giving international students work visas? Doing so is detrimental to the people who actually live here.
Hasn’t Bill ‘Crazy’ McKibben been sedated and placed in a padded cell yet?
Maybe – just maybe – the planet is trying to keep things in balance, what with minus 79˚ Celsius temps (along with -90˚C wind chill) in the Antarctic this week, parts of Newfoundland still blocked by sea ice, more snow in South Africa, the Arctic having one of the slowest melt seasons resulting in – shock! – its frozen ice cap still remaining. In other words, due to the extreme COLD in some parts, the planet is warming itself up in others…
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[no climate change denial under my posts. Take this as a warning. Read the Policy about wasting moderator time – weka]
the Arctic having one of the slowest melt seasons
Utter fucking bullshit.
http://neven1.typepad.com/.a/6a0133f03a1e37970b01bb09a1ef98970d-pi
And before you go blithering on … I’m personally in email contact with people in the Arctic on a daily basis. I worked there all winter and saw what is really happening with my own eyes.
Blatant, lying bullshit on this topic is to my mind every bit as criminal as installing flammable cladding on building, when the spec called for fire proof.
+ 1
Exactly, just utter lies.
Did you talk to locals who remembered the cold old days when you were there. And would be good to have your personal account and impressions seeing as you’ve just seen it.
Yeah I mentioned it a while back in April I think.
Basically the sea freeze up locally was in early November instead of late September, about six weeks late.
And in January instead of temperatures regularly between -40 to -50degC, they hovered around 15 to 20 degC warmer. We got one day when it briefly hit -48degC, but for the most part it was between -25 to -35degC.
Last summer they had two days when it hit +30degC !!! Absolutely catastrophic for the tundra.
As for the local Inuit … they harbour no stupid doubts whatsoever. It is their lived experience. One guy I talked with had lived as a hunter with his family for almost seven years as a young man, in the local area. In a stone hut. I cannot start to express how impressive that is in such a deeply hostile environment … even now when it is warming.
These are people who absolutely live their lives by the weather, and within just one generation they have seen it change dramatically. When I read pure bullshit from commenters above I really just wish they would stop reading delusional crap on the internet, get off their arses and get into the real world for a while. The scientists, the researchers, the techies who support them and the people who live in the Arctic are the ones who I respect.
Thanks.
I dont think we get fast change. For instance the life of the native American plains warrior chasing buffalo we all know it, was gone in a lifetime. A young man or woman born free, died old in a reservation.
So why is there nothing in here on Labours sweat shop scandal?
[see my moderation notes here https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-22062017/#comment-1343561 – weka]
Is “sweat shop scandal” the phrase de jour to deflect from Barclay?
So, the accommodation offered by the marae with such superficial defects such as: cupboard door off it’s hinges, is too substandard to offer for FREE to overseas visitors looking to pad their CV’s (- or less cynically – looking to help spread representative democracy around the globe) but good enough for the iwi who usually use the marae?
Compare and contrast what was included in the accommodation, to what was recently in the news about the standard of living offered to some NZers after they pay for it: here and here.
appreciating your in depth comments on this today Molly. If you come across a decent write up that describes the scheme and then what the problems are, please let me know. Mostly I’m just seeing some shoddy reporting that conflates various things, plus the usual jump to Labour bashing.
+100 Molly and Weka….a non-issue already being sorted out….definitely a distraction from Barclay. The marae where the interns are staying is denying the stories of terrible conditions but says not 5-star.
Meanwhile Marama Fox is on RNZ Campbell Live as I’m writing this calling the intern story “corruption’ and asking what “what labour laws have been broken here” and “Labour needs to be more transparent”.
Fox is a National Party stooge. The MP, if it still exists, has to be the “last cab off the rank” after 23 September.
Aha… I said the following at 17.2 (3;49pm):
I did hear someone postulate that someone from the Maori Party was stirring but there may be no truth in it.
So it is true. The youngsters were invited to come here and help out in the election campaign. There seems to be a global movement where young ‘social democrats’ spend time in allied countries during campaign periods. It has presumably been set up to help them gain knowledge and experience – and provide more foot soldiers on the ground for the local social-democratic parties.
Most are currently being hosted by an Auckland marae but it looks like there are more of them than can be comfortably accommodated. So the Maori Party uses the situation to discredit Labour and infer “unlawful conduct”.
The MP has been absorbing the Crosby/Textor tactics at the knees of their lords and masters in the National Party for eight years and now they’re putting it into practice. What a bunch of hypocritical prats – and that’s just putting it nicely. 👿
Bìt rich to blame the Māori Party. If they used a political advantage just shows that they’ve learned the Westminster system well – just about as good as labour and the gnats. 😨
I’ll blame Labour and the MP for their Mexican standoff. But Fox just dropped hugely in my estimation for comparing this to slave labour 🙁
yep – she doesn’t think things through very well imo.
Like the RMA reforms she stupidly backed, for instance.
yes there is a list of them there for sure.
I haven’t listened to that yet, but that does drop Fox in my estimation a lot. Plus the whole slave labour thing. We are so immature in this country.
wow – “immature”, that’s hilarious coming from the left and is indeed industrial strength hypocrisy
Interesting being pointed to moderation notes after posting my comment. The point I’m trying to make is that when something negative happens to the left, complete silence. At least Cam Slater (and I’m no fan) will expose bad behavior on the right as much as he does to the left. I guess the old saying rings true – “there are none so blind…”
[read the site Policy. It’s not ok to tell authors what to write, or criticise them for what they do or don’t write. There are good reasons for this that supersede any perceived politics du jour. As I said in my moderation note, I spent so much time moderating stupid shit yesterday that I couldn’t keep up with the unfolding issues that were happening politically let alone have time to write about them. When that happens, moderators tend to come down harder so that their time doesn’t get wasted. We’re all doing this in our spare time – weka]
See note.
for the record, I didn’t tell anyone to write anything, I was merely passing comment
[let me make it really clear then. You asked “So why is there nothing in here on Labours sweat shop scandal?”. It’s possible that you were genuinely curious, but if that were the case you would have said so when you were moderated. I took your question to be a criticism of the authors here. Likewise you followed that up with “The point I’m trying to make is that when something negative happens to the left, complete silence.” It’s hard to see how that is not a criticism of the authors here.
It’s against the rules to ‘pass comment’ on what the authors of the site should or shouldn’t write or otherwise attack the site/authors for that. There’s also a bit about wasting moderator time. You’re new here, and I tend to cut newbies more slack because I think the new blood is good for the place, but other moderators don’t. It’s up to you – weka]
NB: use of a question mark at the end of a sentence denotes that the sentence is what we hu-mans call “a question”. This and the previous sentence also provide examples of “comments”. Please note the lack of question mark.
True, and I’d add I’m noticing people putting their criticisms as a question in an attempt to get around moderation. If the question isn’t a genuine question and is just an attack that won’t work.
Supplemental: a “question” is an interrogative statement designed to elicit information, but that’s not important right now.
Squeeze that lemon to the last drop. The Daily Mail has found a beaut story from their point of view, low down looking up people’s trousers.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/06/21/mail-j21.html
…As well as naming Behailu Kebede, a father of one, originally from Ethiopia and employed as a taxi driver, the newspaper published five photos. One of the captions on a photo of Kebede stated that his ‘faulty fridge started the Grenfell Tower inferno. …”…
Kebede cannot be blamed in any way for the fact that Grenfell was turned into a towering inferno within minutes in the early hours of June 14. Citing BBC Panorama, on Monday, the Mail, as part of an effort to distance itself from its earlier report, wrote, “Firefighters who successfully tackled the fridge fire that started the Grenfell Tower thought their job was done and began to leave—only realising how quickly it had spread when they stepped outside. Units were called to what they believed to be a standard fridge fire at the doomed high-rise, and within minutes told residents the fire was out in the flat.
“The crew was leaving the building when firefighters outside spotted flames rising up the side of the building. …”..
No one should accept the claim that the fire was even caused by a faulty fridge. The Mail report makes no mention of the warning made by the Grenfell Action Group, who posted in a blog last November: “The Grenfell Action Group believe that the KCTMO [Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation—who ran the block on behalf of the local council], narrowly averted a major fire disaster at Grenfell Tower in 2013 when residents experienced a period of terrifying power surges that were subsequently found to have been caused by faulty wiring.”…
In addition, some witnesses who escaped and local residents reported seeing blue flames as the tower set alight, which is consistent with the escape of gas. Recent work on the flats involved the gas supply. A number of residents and the Grenfell Action Group previously reported their concern to the KCTMO and Fire Brigade about exposed gas pipes.
The Financial Times reported that only in March, just three months before the fire broke out, the “Grenfell Tower’s leaseholders association wrote to the London Fire Brigade complaining about the still-exposed gas pipe and its location in the stairwell. … The pipe, the letter says ‘has put our life in danger and we don’t feel secure in the building any more’.”
(That is really thorough reporting of matters that need attention from a Royal Commission with WIDE powers of investigation and remediation.)
Rare Pepes: the cryptocurrency which will save Venezuela.
https://cryptoinsider.com/venezuelan-developers-using-bitcoin-rare-pepes-fight-dismal-economy/
“While rare pepes are nothing more than fun and games for much of the developed world, they’re a matter of survival in Venezuela. “We’re based in Venezuela, and our business has been saved by bitcoin many times,” said the developer.
The developer claims roughly 80 percent of the offices around the area where Rare Pepe Party is being developed have shut down over the past year. The biggest businesses on their street have also dropped as much as 90 percent of their employees.
“In that timeframe, thanks to bitcoin related business, we’ve grown our employee base from just 5 to 10 (we’re still a small company),” said the developer. “We’ve air-conditioned our office. Year-over-year we’ve been improving, so we’re banking big on bitcoin and now over Counterparty assets.”
According to the developer, there is no legal framework for bitcoin-related businesses in Venezuela. Having said that, SEBIN, which the developer described as Venezuela’s secret police, has been targeting anyone involved in bitcoin for extortion and bribes, especially bitcoin miners. “Anything bitcoin related is a big no-no here at the moment,” said the developer. “This week I got wind of at least two mining operators getting knocks on their doors.””
That really is a crime-ridden culture, when the powers stop business, trading unless they are controlling, getting a cut from everything. We have tax on interest gathering even cents from savings a/cs. The powers talk about cutting out cash so that small transactions and small aid can’t be given at will anywhere but has to go through some machine, some scrutiny. A huge way to impoverish and oppress.
That’s the real worry about the black economy. The government can’t keep going on low tax from the wealthy, they need the reimbursement from the many who haven’t got enough to pay trained suits to find clever diversions and cul de sacs to wheel their piles into hiding till the taxmen ride by.
Is this storm in a teacup over the living and working conditions of some kids on an OE they could never afford on their own or……
“Uh-oh, even with their empty war-chest they’ve rustled up a little army of keen soldiers. What can we do to smear shite all over this?”
Helps them try to put a lid on the debarclay, too.
Yes there was a problem, anytime anybody gives anything a go hurdles pop up. It’s how me manage those hurdles that counts.
Andrew Little should give his thoughts on what happened while sitting around a table full of food, dinner time at one of the loving homes these kids are now being billeted in.
One of Matt’s team, the people that do the actual work, will get them all networked up. It’ll be fine.
I wonder if we could get Todd to leave a recording device running in Bill’s cabinet meeting? I think we’d hear…
“I want to be better at it guys, I’m getting training but I fear I’ll always be a crap liar.”
Joyce: “Well that’s that then.”
Is this storm in a teacup over the living and working conditions of some kids on an OE…
Sounds like it.
I suspect a small handful of kids who were expecting VIP accommodation are behind it. I did hear someone postulate that someone from the Maori Party was stirring but there may be no truth in it.
This is the world of neolib capitalism in Australia. With business friends and colleagues like this who needs enemies?
Aussie bankers drug colleague with valium and laxatives in attempt to discredit him
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/93945621
That’s Australia. Similar to North Korea’s treatment of a fellow human being?
Whatever happened to Otto Warmbier in N Korea, it destroyed a healthy man
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/93946575
Rather quiet on here about Labour’s involvement in the “Campaign for Change” controversy
seriously? Look upthread. You tories don’t need to pretend to be any more stupid and unprincipled than you actually are, it becomes a caricature.
see, I actually think that is witty ;-p
you should have seen my first three drafts though 😉
hah. Mine too. Just imagining the version of TS where all the edits and deletes were still visible. Including moderator notes 😉
I think they call it “4Chan” 🙂
lol, omg, come on, we’re not that bad are we?
mine bloody are lol
A recent report on real fraud that is not being revealed to our eyes.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11870607
SFO chief executive and director Julie Read appeared before a parliamentary select committee today alongside the office’s responsible minister Paula Bennett….
“One of the accounting firm’s surveys showed that something like 40 to 60 per cent of businesses reported they had been the subject of financial crime in the last three or four years. A lot of that is not reported because people don’t want to admit their firms have been the subject of financial crime.”
Read said companies were less likely to report financial crime in times of economic growth, given it often did not greatly affect their bottom line.
Documents released earlier this year revealed Police investigate less than 5 per cent of fraud cases referred from the banking sector.
I see that firms have been making enough money that they can stand theft. And I see that Paula Bennett has the SFO in her purrview.
Perhaps if people worried about the leakage of returns because of theft and fraud from business, paid for by the general public, they would spend less of their precious time trying to whip up a storm about young people spending their holidays helping out our beleaguered people’s party. Also perhaps Muck Rack is worth a look by dedicated bloggers.
Winnie will be having a quiet cigar and whiskey this evening and thanking providence that he is up against such a gaggle of buffoons in the upcoming election.
yup. Boo! 🙂
i think he said something to that tune to the PM yesterday and today.
Yep both labour and national , thank god labour are so bad it doesn’t really matter
Conflating the Barclay crime cover-up by the outgoing PM with some short term intern accommodation problems smacks of desperation.