[Please note, we are trialling something new for Open Mike and Daily Review.
In order to keep OM and DR free for other conversations, all comments, link postings etc about the US election now need to go in the dedicated US election discussion here.
If you are unsure, post in that thread rather than here. It’s not possible for moderators to shift comments from OM to there, so any comments here may get deleted.
“…One of the major problems the residents face is that of law and order, which we have made our main agenda for the bypolls.
Immigration is another issue the party feels strongly about.
But for now, we will concentrate on the law and order situation in the area.
There have been a large number of instances wherein people and businesses from ethnic communities are regularly targeted by criminals and nothing is being done to fight the problem.
Our party will stand in support of the ethnic communities and ensure that their concerned are heard and addressed.
….”
I predict that Roshan Nauhria and his NZ Peoples’ Party will take votes from National in the Mt Roskill
by-election.
Penny Bright
‘Anti-privatisation / anti-corruption Public Watchdog’
It wouldn’t surprise me in the least, if after the election, the New Zealand People’s Party goes the way others like it have gone before, and it withers and dies off.
The following comment is from Jenny. It got caught in moderation and I can’t find a way to release it manually. Jenny, you should be free to comment now. TRP.
Syria Solidarity: National day of action 29th October
Civilians in Aleppo and across Syria are being intensively bombed by Russia with bunker bombs, phosphorous bombs, napalm, thermobaric and cluster bombs; and by the Syrian regime with chlorine containing barrel bombs; targetting homes, schools, hospitals, rescue teams, and underground shelters .
Like many Syrian cities, Aleppo has been under a starvation siege. The regime and Russian have even bombed the city’s water supply.
Despite these atrocious crimes against humanity, Aleppo’s people show tremendous solidarity and caring for each other, as they work to find the wounded under the rubble, and rush them to undergound clinics for treatment. Hundreds of democratically run community councils have been formed across Syria in the liberated areas. They have produced a tremendous amount of art, literature, music, and electronic media documenting the revolution and counter revolution in Syria.
The “peace” talks have broken down. It is clear that Russia and the Assad regime are looking for a military solution to enable the genocidal Assad regime to continue in power.
Most of the fighters killing Syrian civilians are not Syrians. They include soliders from Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq, many of them conscripted or desperately poor with no other options for a living.
The Assad regime and Russia have killed half a million Syrian people. The genocide has to stop! The regime regularly uses rape and torture as weapons.
The war started because people across Syria went onto the streets to demand democracy, and instead were shot, rounded up, tortured, raped and killed. So the people took up arms to defend themselves. The Assad regime has vowed to continue to obliterate the population until it accepts his rule.
Both the United States and Russia have re-defined the people’s struggle for democracy as a “war on terror” and are both responsible for killing civilians.
Isis grew in Syria with the encouragement of the Assad regime. Assad deliberately released extremists from his jails, who went on to join Isis in Syria. The regime leaves Isis alone, and Isis is continually attacking the democratic opposition groups. The democratic opposition has been forced to fight on two fronts, against the attacks from the regime and from Isis. Despite the evils perpetrated by Isis, it has killed a fraction of the number of people, that the Assad regime has. The Assad regime with its Russian and Iranian allies are the greater evil.
Stop the bombing! Troops out!
No more genocide! Solidarity with the Syrian Revolution!
Victory for Syrian people now!
Wellington action:
2-3pm 29th October, Russian Embassy, 57 Messines Road, Karori
[https://www.facebook.com/events/1837996156434984/]
Auckland action:
2-3pm 29th October, Aotea Square
[https://www.facebook.com/events/104432090029183/]
“…One of the major problems the residents face is that of law and order, which we have made our main agenda for the by polls”
I totally agree, especially those residents who fail to pay their fair share, still access services and then have the audacity to label themselves an ‘anti-corruption Public Watchdog’,. Practice what you preach and pay your bloody rates.
You know, Penny is making a brave stand against anti-democratic government practices. And she isn’t getting away with anything. She may be quixotic, but the council have behaved badly.
She has as much right to comment as a Tory troll. Probably more.
I think the Council has been very patient. What Penny is demanding is that details of every contract be made public. This is not required by the legislation and for reasons of commercial privacy is not done anywhere else either. There are plenty of auditors and other safeguards against “corruption” and those few instances from legacy councils have been detected and dealt with. I have a friend who contracts to Council to process some of the Resource Consent applications which cannot be done in time by Council staff during busy periods. Her hourly rate is avaialble to the applicant (who is paying the costs of processing) and the other costs are standard for all applications. There is absolutely no need for these transactions to be on some sort of public register.
“Commercial sensitivity” has been used increasingly frequently to obscure transactions that frankly could not meet a public interest standard – like the gratuitous theft of our electricity generation resources, the vast web of corruption that has delayed or prevented the Christchurch rebuild, or the antidemocratic empire building of the Ports of Auckland
I want government to err on the side of public interest rather than that of corporate convenience and blatant corruption.
Your friend’s application processing may meet that standard – but if it does, why would she object to publication? If information is sensitive because it might encourage competition, that is in fact the only reason we want commercial involvement in council activity in any case – when they can lower costs.
My only objection to Penny is that she used to spam threads.
hi visubversa,
just a couple of things, while the ‘applicant ‘ may pay the costs, tis not thier money.
if all these contracts are a matter if public record then there is no commercial disadvantage.
may even make some of those contesting for the public teat, ‘sharpen their pencils’.
The scope of that accountability is set by the LGOIMA, with the same right to appeal to Ombudsmen as with the OIA. If there was any requirement to share line-by-line accounts with anyone who requested them, there would have been a ruling to that effect by now. Auckland Council is behaving no differently than others.
If they hadn’t spent vastly more in legal fees messing her around I might accept the explanation. The truth is they cherish their secrecy and waste our money preserving it. Technocratic oversight is not effective without community feedback. Penny offers that kind of feedback – but they are jealous of their secondhand authority and so they hate her.
“Behaving no differently to the others”
No doubt – like Dunedin’s former mayor who created a rates blowout to fund a stadium more than two thirds of Dunedin never wanted and will never use.
We need to cultivate a scrupulous local government culture – the prevailing culture is anything but.
Do you have examples of Council messing Ms Bright around rather than vice versa?
Every article I’ve read shows them being forced into court by her actions and winning every step of the way, yet still offering the same avenue as other ratepayers to relieve her debt when her house is sold.
They didn’t have to defend the actions – they could have treated her as a concerned citizen and cooperated with her. It would’ve been cheaper – and she is not a competing robber corporate poised to exploit their spurious ‘commercial secrecy’.
Civic involvement is considered a healthy attribute by responsible governments.
If council did exactly what Ms Bright has demanded they would immediately face lawsuits from many big companies for breach of contract. That’s not a hallmark of good stewardship of public resources and would see them replaced by govt-appointed commissioners in no time.
As with most things Bright raises, the answer lies in govt changing national laws, not at council level. Challenging the wrong target is a waste of valuable public energy. Citizens deserve better from our advocates.
If council did exactly what Ms Bright has demanded they would immediately face lawsuits from many big companies for breach of contract.
Which tells us that the contract was, and is, wrong. Which, of course, means that you don’t put those clauses into contracts going forward. If the businesses don’t like that then they’re quite welcome not to take up the contract.
Challenging the wrong target is a waste of valuable public energy.
It’s not the wrong target. It’s one of the many targets that are available.
1. There is an LGOIA that Penny has been using to try and get the information that apparently applies
2. Council has been refusing on grounds of commercial sensitivity which is not a moral position and apparently not covered by the law either (really, I’d love to see the law that says that we must take into account a businesses feelings)
3. If that bit is in the contract, and I really doubt that it is, then that contract is breaking the law as you cannot contract out of the law.
The council really is morally obliged to make that information available to the public as it’s their city and they have every right and duty to know these things.
And there’s the point of where to start. If the law as it is apparently supports then you need to go to the council and prove that they’re the ones breaking the law. If it turns out that they’re not breaking the law then you go to the government and get them to change the law.
The LGOIMA like the OIA explicitly includes commercial confidentiality as a factor. Please educate yourself about the law before any more of this nonsensical bluster. Having one mouthy fool in this area is bad enough. People deserve smarter activists.
Demanding that councils keep information secret from ratepayers is a breach of the bona fide required to form contracts. Councils are responsible to their constituents and cannot contract out of that responsibility. The corporates would lose.
I think that’s the legal position – if you flip it, a corporation would be in a world of trouble if they tried to sign binding secrecy from their shareholders.
If ACT weren’t just a lying pack of assholes they’d be all over this – for neo-liberalism to work it’s supposed to impose commercial standards of propriety on government. But Prebble et al only want to make off with the capital value of state assets like Landcorp.
Totally agree Paul. Why should Penny Bright not question the council and why are the council constantly pushing everything into the legal realm with millions of ratepayers money being pushed into private legal firms. No kick back or relationships there, we are led to believe.
Democracy and public accountability is on the decline because nobody (apart form people like Penny) have the time, stomach and energy to fight lawyers for years. The council are constantly proved wrong such as Ports of Auckland. People like Darren Watson have to fight for years to be proved right with other government run organisations. Auckland council were so incompetent that the unitary plan was thrown out.
We have the CEO of Wellington council giving 8 million dollars to Singapore Airlines privately and the Kaipara council bankrupting themselves with dodgy waste water and subdivision speculation.
Auckland council apparently has something like a 17% approval rate I read in the Metro, which is internationally so low, it’s in the gutter. Even Metro were pondering why the Mayoral candidates and the council itself were not concerned at how low they are perceived by the rate payers and how little they are trusted.
The council managers and executives are in a bubble that hopefully someone at some stage will burst and at the same time release our rates so it can be used more wisely than the council paying $500 an hour lawyers (if not more) to hide their conduct to the public and speculate on hidden deals.
Penny is protesting against the unjust laws that prevent Aucklanders from seeing how their city is managed. Such laws promote corruption which has been in the news lately.
In other words, she’s doing a hell of a lot more for this city and this country by not paying her rates than you are with your abject compliance with the way things are and kowtowing to the rich and powerful.
Just testing, to see if this comment goes through when I am logged in – recently the comments I have made when logged-in have disappeared into the spam.
@Robert Guyton
Thanks for your cheerful, informative and encouraging series being published here –
The Essential Forest Gardener. We are all reading with interest and grateful for your reminiscences and guidance so we can take our skills and thinking a further useful step.
For those who haven’t seen it – here is a relevant 6 min vid clip on how we need bees but don’t love and respect them properly.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqA42M4RtxE
Thanks, greywarshark. I’m really enjoying the feedback and questions each Sunday when the post goes up (thanks, TS people). I hope you’ll enjoy tomorrow’s post, in which I introduce chaos to the mix: “Chaotic is the word that springs to the lips of the conservative gardener, seeing a forest garden for the first time, and the order that does in fact exist in these gardens is a lot more complex than that found in a lawn-and-box-hedge garden, giving the impression of disorder. ”
🙂
I’d not read anything from you here for a while and worried about you! Good to hear you’re still connected.
hi robert,
a belated thank you from the manawatu, for the post last sunday.
about 10 yrs ago we relocated a whare on to 3 acres.
orchard, chooks, and 3 x 15 m2 raised garden beds, courtesy of my horticulturalist father in law.
cooch is the constant battle and 18 mmonths ago, decided to ‘decooch’ one of the beds. most of the day digging, sweating and being at one with the soil. excellent.
less than a month later you would think i had sown cooch!
head dropped, big bottom lip, and an excuse to ignore the garden and throw up my hands.
gave myself an uppercut and got back into the garden a month ago.
your post last week was just the tonic to get stuck into some toms, corn peas etc.
thanks again, just what ineeded to read.
btw a big loss this year with the passing of bill mollisson, the founder of permaculture.
Hi gsays
Couch and de-couching – the former a reality, the latter a delusion 🙂
I have another garden which was 100% couch, initially. I released the wild chervil and began to feel sympathy for the couch! Cow parsley/wild chervil (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthriscus_sylvestris) disposes couch silently and ruthlessly, growing in its place and providing a wealth of useful services to anyone brave enough to utilize it.
Yes, it was a pity about Bill. I felt worse when Masanobu Fukuoka passed. Each provided shoulders for us to survey the scene from. Now it’s up to us 🙂
Don’t worry about me. you’re the man doing the heavy lifting who’s important. I am popping up on Bowalley Road which has limited its biting insects with a net of fine mesh unlike TS. Damn those midges! I read somewhere that the migratory animals like caribou? are partly motivated to go so they can outrun the critters.
I’m still working for better things and trying to network and get to know the pragmatic idealist entrepreneurs around the place who stay focussed on target. Good to know of the Guytons for instance.
Trouble is Robert G that the midges tend to inject a little bit of toxic stuff into everyone they contact. I can’t stand the itching, and am wary of sickness from some new virus.
For the individual activist there are excessive stresses and wrong-thinking side paths out there to avoid so we have time and energy to work with others to achieve numerous small outcomes advancing human and planet wellbeing. There is a need to stay focussed on the target of forming communities which are based on working with mutual respect and friendship and practicality in planning actions. And underpinning all this, simple kindness and well-wishing for each other, but not weakly accepting the rights of everyone as equal.
I think midges can not learn anything that is of value to society, and cannot teach anything that is not already observable in society to the alert, thoughtful and discerning. So it is a waste of precious time communicating with them.
Keeping a healthy mind and body, with also some humour (not always directed at the other regarded as foolish or toxic either) is more important than
dialogue with every shallow, addled time-waster with a shrivelled intellect.
Who’s side are Turkey on? I’d suggest they are now helping ISIS. It’s not enough that the Russians and the Assad regime are bombing YPG/YPJ position – now the Turks are bombing the only force in the region who are actually winning against ISIS.
Stuart Munro put this up yesterday in response to me, and sorry Stuart I did not responded yesterday.
But this is a almost forgotten aspect of the ISIS madness.We get they want to destroy objects, but the desire to remove a people for existence for a minor theological difference – this is by definition, unreasonable, they can’t be negotiated with. This is a blight, only love can bet these sickos, love and support for the YPJ/YPG.
I think there are a surprising number of localised cultures in the region that deserve our support, and learning something about each of them is important to understand whether the actions of combatants are reasonable. Unhappily the larger powers seem to care little for such communities.
I heard this this morning too, and thought is Kim Hill a secret commenter on The Standard. It was such a Standard-esque exchange (someone wrote in asking if KH was a misandrist as they thought she was hard on male interviewees).
Ms Georgia Harris @greentea2177
@ScoopTrust @SaturdayRNZ how do i find the soundbite where Kim Hill calls a misogynist an idiot? It was glorious.
[In order to keep OM and DR free for other conversations, all comments, link postings etc about the US election now need to go in the dedicated US election discussion here.
If you are unsure, post in that thread rather than here. It’s not possible for moderators to shift comments from OM to there, so any comments here may get deleted – weka]
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A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Recent extreme weather events showed the importance of a well-functioning insurance system, says Commerce and Consumer Affairs minister Andrew Bayly. ...
By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Brakenridge, Postdoctoral research fellow at Swinburne University, Centre for Urban Transitions, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute The Conversation, Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock People have a pretty intuitive sense of what is healthy – standing is better than sitting, exercise is great for overall ...
The Wellington-based Reserve Force soldier is now almost three years into his New Zealand Army career with 5th/7th Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment. ...
"The Government needs to release the review immediately as this reckless approach to change risks disjointed decision making and creates more distress and uncertainty for staff," Fitzsimons said. ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Jeremiah Manele has been elected Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, polling 31 votes to 18 over rival candidate and former opposition leader Mathew Wale with one abstention. The final result of the election by secret ballot was announced by the Governor-General, Sir David Vunagi, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Priestley Habru, PhD candidate, public diplomacy, University of Adelaide Former foreign minister Jeremiah Manele has been elected the next prime minister of Solomon Islands, defeating the opposition leader, Matthew Wale, in a vote in parliament. The result is a mixed bag for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shaun Eaves, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Jamey Stutz, CC BY-SA How often do mountains collapse, volcanoes erupt or ice sheets melt? For Earth scientists, these are important questions as we try ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Flood, Professor of Sociology, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock Most young adult men in Australia reject traditional ideas of masculinity that endorse aggression, stoicism and homophobia. Nonetheless, the ongoing influence of those ideas continues to harm men and the people ...
The NZQA proposal released to staff today would involve a net loss of 35 roles. There are 66 roles being disestablished with 13 of those currently vacant, and 31 new roles proposed, said Fleur Fitzsimons Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga ...
Alex Casey talks to Loren Taylor, the writer, director and star of new film The Moon is Upside Down, about assembling her dream ensemble cast, toilet paper pads and turning literal dreams into reality. There’s a moment in The Moon is Upside Down where frazzled anaesthetist Briar (Loren Taylor) gets ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassy Dittman, Senior Lecturer/Head of Course (Undergraduate Psychology), Research Fellow, Manna Institute, CQUniversity Australia With winter sports swinging into action, adults around the country have volunteered or been volunteered by others (humorously known as being “volun-told”) to coach junior sports teams. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karleen Gribble, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University richardernestyap/Shutterstock Parents are often advised to burp their babies after feeding them. Some people think burping after feeding is important to reduce or prevent discomfort crying, or to ...
Workers at a major ASB contact centre in Auckland have voted to take strike action and withdraw their labour following disappointing pay negotiations with the employer and an "offer" to workers that would leave them worse off than the previous year. ...
As the government tries to get the country back on track with a school phone ban, Tara Ward has an idea for where they should turn their attention to next.New Zealand students returned to school on Monday morning, but their cellphones did not. The government’s new phone ban began ...
The Labour Party is demanding Peters be stood down, saying "he's embarrassed the country" with a "totally unacceptable" attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. ...
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance, whose members were victims of a China-backed cyber attack, is discussing forming a standing committee to deal with foreign influence. ...
The PSA is concerned that the voluntary redundancies being offered to staff by Stats NZ will impact on the agency’s ability to deliver on its core functions. ...
Results ranged from surprisingly yum to soul-destroying. I love cooking. The kitchen is a hearth of culinary creation, of sensory delights, of gastronomic poetry. I also can’t afford anything nice. Why does a pack of instant noodles and some milk cost ten bucks? I love you, Aotearoa, but I miss ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Police in Solomon Islands are on high alert ahead of the election of the prime minister today. The two candidates for the top job are former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele at the head of the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation, which is ...
He’s fine but it feels like I’m losing a friend and it’s making me bitter. How do I say ‘enough is enough’? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzHey Hera,I’ve recently moved in with a girlfriend, her partner Steve, and his friend. We all live in a lovely little house. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Chartres, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine & Health, University of Sydney shutterstockAhmet Misirligul/Shutterstock You go to the gym, eat healthy and walk as much as possible. You wash your hands and get vaccinated. You control your health. This is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Hendriks, Research Fellow and Lecturer, Curtin University Children and young people may be seeing news headlines about men murdering women or footage of people rallying to call for action. Perhaps they or their friends have even gone to the protests. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Balanzategui, Senior Lecturer in Media, RMIT University ABC “Bluey mania” shows no sign of abating. Bluey’s season finale, The Sign, was the most viewed ABC program of all time on iView. A “hidden” follow-up episode, aptly named The Surprise, created ...
Labour market figures came in softer than the Reserve Bank had forecast, but they won’t be enough to move the needle on interest rates, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Unemployment ...
The campaign will engage the community and encourage submissions on the bill to the New Zealand government by the closing submission deadline of Friday 31st of May 2024 4pm. ...
The paper raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand's political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency plays in that. ...
The Urban Habitat Collective was an attempt to built an innovative new form of apartment building in Wellington. Here’s why it failed, and why the idea could still work, writes co-founder Bronwen Newton. When we started the Urban Habitat Collective in November 2018, we thought we were starting a revolution, ...
Two decades ago this week, a controversial law that attempted to define ownership of the foreshore and seabed prompted a formidable display of outrage and kōtahitanga as 15,000 marched to parliament. Jamie Tahana looks back.‘Hīkoi, hīkoi,” they chanted by the thousands as the biggest Māori march in a generation ...
A Labour Party Member’s Bill aims to plug a culpability gap between manslaughter and health and safety breaches The post New push for corporate killing laws appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Terence O’Brien had the rare and no doubt undesired distinction of rising to one of the most exalted positions in New Zealand diplomacy, then being unceremoniously recalled to Wellington without explanation just when his career was at its zenith. What is perhaps more surprising is that he appears to have ...
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Why has New Zealand slipped from third to 12th on Quality of Death Indexes over the past decade or so? Hospice New Zealand Chief Executive Wayne Naylor has a list of reasons. “We don’t have a current national strategy – the Government hasn’t renewed our 2001 strategy, so we don’t ...
While women’s sport is exploding in Aotearoa and around the world, you still don’t hear a lot of talk about athletes and their periods, RED-S, breastfeeding and visible panty-lines. SASS (Suze and Sez Sports)Talk isn’t afraid to have that kōrero.LockerRoom founder Suzanne McFadden and Olympian broadcaster Sarah ...
On an unusually hot night in January 2019, a little boy’s lifeless body was found face up in a small town’s sewage oxidation pond. To the police, it was an open and shut case: three-year-old Lachlan Jones had run away from his home in the Southland town of Gore, climbed ...
Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter has apologised in Parliament after National accused her of intimidating and attacking one of its ministers in the House. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Prime Minister and state and territory leaders met on Wednesday as the national cabinet to discuss a crisis gripping Australia – the horrific number of women murdered this year. The killings have shocked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Radhika Raghav, Teaching Fellow, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Otago Netflix Indian director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is known for his big-budget Bollywood production, featuring grand sets, star casts, meticulously choreographed dance sequences and lavish costumes, jewellery and furnishings. ...
Sir Robert devoted his life to disability rights after living in institutions in his younger years, says Kaihautū Tika Hauātanga | Disability Rights Commissioner Prudence Walker. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University Violence against women is not a women’s problem to solve, it is a whole of society problem to solve; and men in particular have to take responsibility. Those were the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Allen, Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of Newcastle Snapshot freddy/ShutterstockPlans to revive an old coal-fired power station using bioenergy are being considered in the Hunter region of New South Wales. Similar plans for the station ...
Responding to the long-awaited release of judges’ special allowances, including free air travel and hotels for spouses, generous sabbaticals, and access to limousines, Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Alex Murphy said: “In what world does your employer ...
Analysis - The United States has unveiled plans to boost the weapons trade with Australia and the UK, on the same day that Winston Peters is expected to sketch NZ's position on AUKUS. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University Since Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum in October 2023, diverse commentaries have sought to explain why it failed. But what does an analysis of media ...
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In order to keep OM and DR free for other conversations, all comments, link postings etc about the US election now need to go in the dedicated US election discussion here.
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From which party will the newly-formed NZ Peoples’ Party take votes in the upcoming Mt Roskill by-election?
Labour or National?
http://www.indianweekender.co.nz/Pages/ArticleDetails/7/6973/New-Zealand/We-want-balance-of-power-in-NZ-politics-Roshan-Nauhria
“…One of the major problems the residents face is that of law and order, which we have made our main agenda for the bypolls.
Immigration is another issue the party feels strongly about.
But for now, we will concentrate on the law and order situation in the area.
There have been a large number of instances wherein people and businesses from ethnic communities are regularly targeted by criminals and nothing is being done to fight the problem.
Our party will stand in support of the ethnic communities and ensure that their concerned are heard and addressed.
….”
I predict that Roshan Nauhria and his NZ Peoples’ Party will take votes from National in the Mt Roskill
by-election.
Penny Bright
‘Anti-privatisation / anti-corruption Public Watchdog’
What’s happening with your ongoing disagreement with Auckland Council Penny ?
Irrelevant and has nothing to do with the subject matter Penny Bright has posted about.
The NZ People’s Party will prove to be a fizzer. I am picking less than 10% of the vote and a distant third.
It wouldn’t surprise me in the least, if after the election, the New Zealand People’s Party goes the way others like it have gone before, and it withers and dies off.
The following comment is from Jenny. It got caught in moderation and I can’t find a way to release it manually. Jenny, you should be free to comment now. TRP.
Syria Solidarity: National day of action 29th October
Civilians in Aleppo and across Syria are being intensively bombed by Russia with bunker bombs, phosphorous bombs, napalm, thermobaric and cluster bombs; and by the Syrian regime with chlorine containing barrel bombs; targetting homes, schools, hospitals, rescue teams, and underground shelters .
Like many Syrian cities, Aleppo has been under a starvation siege. The regime and Russian have even bombed the city’s water supply.
Despite these atrocious crimes against humanity, Aleppo’s people show tremendous solidarity and caring for each other, as they work to find the wounded under the rubble, and rush them to undergound clinics for treatment. Hundreds of democratically run community councils have been formed across Syria in the liberated areas. They have produced a tremendous amount of art, literature, music, and electronic media documenting the revolution and counter revolution in Syria.
The “peace” talks have broken down. It is clear that Russia and the Assad regime are looking for a military solution to enable the genocidal Assad regime to continue in power.
Most of the fighters killing Syrian civilians are not Syrians. They include soliders from Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq, many of them conscripted or desperately poor with no other options for a living.
The Assad regime and Russia have killed half a million Syrian people. The genocide has to stop! The regime regularly uses rape and torture as weapons.
The war started because people across Syria went onto the streets to demand democracy, and instead were shot, rounded up, tortured, raped and killed. So the people took up arms to defend themselves. The Assad regime has vowed to continue to obliterate the population until it accepts his rule.
Both the United States and Russia have re-defined the people’s struggle for democracy as a “war on terror” and are both responsible for killing civilians.
Isis grew in Syria with the encouragement of the Assad regime. Assad deliberately released extremists from his jails, who went on to join Isis in Syria. The regime leaves Isis alone, and Isis is continually attacking the democratic opposition groups. The democratic opposition has been forced to fight on two fronts, against the attacks from the regime and from Isis. Despite the evils perpetrated by Isis, it has killed a fraction of the number of people, that the Assad regime has. The Assad regime with its Russian and Iranian allies are the greater evil.
Stop the bombing! Troops out!
No more genocide! Solidarity with the Syrian Revolution!
Victory for Syrian people now!
Wellington action:
2-3pm 29th October, Russian Embassy, 57 Messines Road, Karori
[https://www.facebook.com/events/1837996156434984/]
Auckland action:
2-3pm 29th October, Aotea Square
[https://www.facebook.com/events/104432090029183/]
And the march to the U.K. and U.S. embassies? When is that happening?
“…One of the major problems the residents face is that of law and order, which we have made our main agenda for the by polls”
I totally agree, especially those residents who fail to pay their fair share, still access services and then have the audacity to label themselves an ‘anti-corruption Public Watchdog’,. Practice what you preach and pay your bloody rates.
You know, Penny is making a brave stand against anti-democratic government practices. And she isn’t getting away with anything. She may be quixotic, but the council have behaved badly.
She has as much right to comment as a Tory troll. Probably more.
+1 Stuart Munro.
I think the Council has been very patient. What Penny is demanding is that details of every contract be made public. This is not required by the legislation and for reasons of commercial privacy is not done anywhere else either. There are plenty of auditors and other safeguards against “corruption” and those few instances from legacy councils have been detected and dealt with. I have a friend who contracts to Council to process some of the Resource Consent applications which cannot be done in time by Council staff during busy periods. Her hourly rate is avaialble to the applicant (who is paying the costs of processing) and the other costs are standard for all applications. There is absolutely no need for these transactions to be on some sort of public register.
I don’t agree.
“Commercial sensitivity” has been used increasingly frequently to obscure transactions that frankly could not meet a public interest standard – like the gratuitous theft of our electricity generation resources, the vast web of corruption that has delayed or prevented the Christchurch rebuild, or the antidemocratic empire building of the Ports of Auckland
I want government to err on the side of public interest rather than that of corporate convenience and blatant corruption.
Your friend’s application processing may meet that standard – but if it does, why would she object to publication? If information is sensitive because it might encourage competition, that is in fact the only reason we want commercial involvement in council activity in any case – when they can lower costs.
My only objection to Penny is that she used to spam threads.
hi visubversa,
just a couple of things, while the ‘applicant ‘ may pay the costs, tis not thier money.
if all these contracts are a matter if public record then there is no commercial disadvantage.
may even make some of those contesting for the public teat, ‘sharpen their pencils’.
Keeping details of contracts from the people that the contract is with is not for reasons of privacy but to protect corruption.
Then the law is wrong and needs to be changed.
Actually, there is. Democracy requires that the people be informed and not kept in the dark.
“the council have behaved badly” – in what way?
They are secretive for a start.
There’s no honest reason for them to deny Penny’s requests and they’ve spent vastly more on legal fees messing her around than she is in arrears.
Councils and governments are accountable to citizens – when they decide they’re not they are in the wrong, and due for a comeuppance.
The scope of that accountability is set by the LGOIMA, with the same right to appeal to Ombudsmen as with the OIA. If there was any requirement to share line-by-line accounts with anyone who requested them, there would have been a ruling to that effect by now. Auckland Council is behaving no differently than others.
If they hadn’t spent vastly more in legal fees messing her around I might accept the explanation. The truth is they cherish their secrecy and waste our money preserving it. Technocratic oversight is not effective without community feedback. Penny offers that kind of feedback – but they are jealous of their secondhand authority and so they hate her.
“Behaving no differently to the others”
No doubt – like Dunedin’s former mayor who created a rates blowout to fund a stadium more than two thirds of Dunedin never wanted and will never use.
We need to cultivate a scrupulous local government culture – the prevailing culture is anything but.
Do you have examples of Council messing Ms Bright around rather than vice versa?
Every article I’ve read shows them being forced into court by her actions and winning every step of the way, yet still offering the same avenue as other ratepayers to relieve her debt when her house is sold.
They didn’t have to defend the actions – they could have treated her as a concerned citizen and cooperated with her. It would’ve been cheaper – and she is not a competing robber corporate poised to exploit their spurious ‘commercial secrecy’.
Civic involvement is considered a healthy attribute by responsible governments.
Just because what they’re doing is legal doesn’t mean to say that it’s right.
And as it happens to keep the people uninformed then it really does happen to be wrong.
If council did exactly what Ms Bright has demanded they would immediately face lawsuits from many big companies for breach of contract. That’s not a hallmark of good stewardship of public resources and would see them replaced by govt-appointed commissioners in no time.
As with most things Bright raises, the answer lies in govt changing national laws, not at council level. Challenging the wrong target is a waste of valuable public energy. Citizens deserve better from our advocates.
Which tells us that the contract was, and is, wrong. Which, of course, means that you don’t put those clauses into contracts going forward. If the businesses don’t like that then they’re quite welcome not to take up the contract.
It’s not the wrong target. It’s one of the many targets that are available.
If you want to change the way Councils operate, you need to change the laws they follow. Those are set by central government, not by councils.
Protesting at council is a waste of other people’s energy. By all means, waste your own but encouraging others is not that moral.
1. There is an LGOIA that Penny has been using to try and get the information that apparently applies
2. Council has been refusing on grounds of commercial sensitivity which is not a moral position and apparently not covered by the law either (really, I’d love to see the law that says that we must take into account a businesses feelings)
3. If that bit is in the contract, and I really doubt that it is, then that contract is breaking the law as you cannot contract out of the law.
The council really is morally obliged to make that information available to the public as it’s their city and they have every right and duty to know these things.
And there’s the point of where to start. If the law as it is apparently supports then you need to go to the council and prove that they’re the ones breaking the law. If it turns out that they’re not breaking the law then you go to the government and get them to change the law.
The LGOIMA like the OIA explicitly includes commercial confidentiality as a factor. Please educate yourself about the law before any more of this nonsensical bluster. Having one mouthy fool in this area is bad enough. People deserve smarter activists.
Demanding that councils keep information secret from ratepayers is a breach of the bona fide required to form contracts. Councils are responsible to their constituents and cannot contract out of that responsibility. The corporates would lose.
That’s how it should be, yes, but is that how it is or will the council simply roll over like a good corporate dog?
So far, they’ve been rolling over like a good dog.
I think that’s the legal position – if you flip it, a corporation would be in a world of trouble if they tried to sign binding secrecy from their shareholders.
If ACT weren’t just a lying pack of assholes they’d be all over this – for neo-liberalism to work it’s supposed to impose commercial standards of propriety on government. But Prebble et al only want to make off with the capital value of state assets like Landcorp.
Long past time some asset thieves went to prison.
Councils are required to get the best price on behalf of ratepayers. You don’t achieve that by disclosing previous ones.
But carry on yelling at them clouds rather than putting activist energy in the right places to secure the change you want.
Council secrecy is a guarantee that they will not serve their constituency or work constructively with their community. There is no place for it.
Actually, that would be exactly how you get them.
At least she is actually saying something and she stands for something , unlike wretched trolls.
Totally agree Paul. Why should Penny Bright not question the council and why are the council constantly pushing everything into the legal realm with millions of ratepayers money being pushed into private legal firms. No kick back or relationships there, we are led to believe.
Democracy and public accountability is on the decline because nobody (apart form people like Penny) have the time, stomach and energy to fight lawyers for years. The council are constantly proved wrong such as Ports of Auckland. People like Darren Watson have to fight for years to be proved right with other government run organisations. Auckland council were so incompetent that the unitary plan was thrown out.
We have the CEO of Wellington council giving 8 million dollars to Singapore Airlines privately and the Kaipara council bankrupting themselves with dodgy waste water and subdivision speculation.
Auckland council apparently has something like a 17% approval rate I read in the Metro, which is internationally so low, it’s in the gutter. Even Metro were pondering why the Mayoral candidates and the council itself were not concerned at how low they are perceived by the rate payers and how little they are trusted.
The council managers and executives are in a bubble that hopefully someone at some stage will burst and at the same time release our rates so it can be used more wisely than the council paying $500 an hour lawyers (if not more) to hide their conduct to the public and speculate on hidden deals.
Penny is protesting against the unjust laws that prevent Aucklanders from seeing how their city is managed. Such laws promote corruption which has been in the news lately.
In other words, she’s doing a hell of a lot more for this city and this country by not paying her rates than you are with your abject compliance with the way things are and kowtowing to the rich and powerful.
Just testing, to see if this comment goes through when I am logged in – recently the comments I have made when logged-in have disappeared into the spam.
Looks like I am freed from the spam-trap! Thank you, whoever is responsible.
@Robert Guyton
Thanks for your cheerful, informative and encouraging series being published here –
The Essential Forest Gardener. We are all reading with interest and grateful for your reminiscences and guidance so we can take our skills and thinking a further useful step.
For those who haven’t seen it – here is a relevant 6 min vid clip on how we need bees but don’t love and respect them properly.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqA42M4RtxE
Thanks, greywarshark. I’m really enjoying the feedback and questions each Sunday when the post goes up (thanks, TS people). I hope you’ll enjoy tomorrow’s post, in which I introduce chaos to the mix: “Chaotic is the word that springs to the lips of the conservative gardener, seeing a forest garden for the first time, and the order that does in fact exist in these gardens is a lot more complex than that found in a lawn-and-box-hedge garden, giving the impression of disorder. ”
🙂
I’d not read anything from you here for a while and worried about you! Good to hear you’re still connected.
hi robert,
a belated thank you from the manawatu, for the post last sunday.
about 10 yrs ago we relocated a whare on to 3 acres.
orchard, chooks, and 3 x 15 m2 raised garden beds, courtesy of my horticulturalist father in law.
cooch is the constant battle and 18 mmonths ago, decided to ‘decooch’ one of the beds. most of the day digging, sweating and being at one with the soil. excellent.
less than a month later you would think i had sown cooch!
head dropped, big bottom lip, and an excuse to ignore the garden and throw up my hands.
gave myself an uppercut and got back into the garden a month ago.
your post last week was just the tonic to get stuck into some toms, corn peas etc.
thanks again, just what ineeded to read.
btw a big loss this year with the passing of bill mollisson, the founder of permaculture.
Hi gsays
Couch and de-couching – the former a reality, the latter a delusion 🙂
I have another garden which was 100% couch, initially. I released the wild chervil and began to feel sympathy for the couch! Cow parsley/wild chervil (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthriscus_sylvestris) disposes couch silently and ruthlessly, growing in its place and providing a wealth of useful services to anyone brave enough to utilize it.
Yes, it was a pity about Bill. I felt worse when Masanobu Fukuoka passed. Each provided shoulders for us to survey the scene from. Now it’s up to us 🙂
cheers robert, for the tip and example of correct spelling of couch.
said it often, never written it down.
Most people spell it “Bloody couch!”.
Don’t worry about me. you’re the man doing the heavy lifting who’s important. I am popping up on Bowalley Road which has limited its biting insects with a net of fine mesh unlike TS. Damn those midges! I read somewhere that the migratory animals like caribou? are partly motivated to go so they can outrun the critters.
I’m still working for better things and trying to network and get to know the pragmatic idealist entrepreneurs around the place who stay focussed on target. Good to know of the Guytons for instance.
Migratory animals – they’re the ones, greywarshark! We learn a lot from them.
(We can learn from the midges too 🙂
Trouble is Robert G that the midges tend to inject a little bit of toxic stuff into everyone they contact. I can’t stand the itching, and am wary of sickness from some new virus.
For the individual activist there are excessive stresses and wrong-thinking side paths out there to avoid so we have time and energy to work with others to achieve numerous small outcomes advancing human and planet wellbeing. There is a need to stay focussed on the target of forming communities which are based on working with mutual respect and friendship and practicality in planning actions. And underpinning all this, simple kindness and well-wishing for each other, but not weakly accepting the rights of everyone as equal.
I think midges can not learn anything that is of value to society, and cannot teach anything that is not already observable in society to the alert, thoughtful and discerning. So it is a waste of precious time communicating with them.
Keeping a healthy mind and body, with also some humour (not always directed at the other regarded as foolish or toxic either) is more important than
dialogue with every shallow, addled time-waster with a shrivelled intellect.
Who’s side are Turkey on? I’d suggest they are now helping ISIS. It’s not enough that the Russians and the Assad regime are bombing YPG/YPJ position – now the Turks are bombing the only force in the region who are actually winning against ISIS.
http://syria.liveuamap.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide_of_Yazidis_by_ISIL
Stuart Munro put this up yesterday in response to me, and sorry Stuart I did not responded yesterday.
But this is a almost forgotten aspect of the ISIS madness.We get they want to destroy objects, but the desire to remove a people for existence for a minor theological difference – this is by definition, unreasonable, they can’t be negotiated with. This is a blight, only love can bet these sickos, love and support for the YPJ/YPG.
Thanks Adam.
I think there are a surprising number of localised cultures in the region that deserve our support, and learning something about each of them is important to understand whether the actions of combatants are reasonable. Unhappily the larger powers seem to care little for such communities.
I heard this this morning too, and thought is Kim Hill a secret commenter on The Standard. It was such a Standard-esque exchange (someone wrote in asking if KH was a misandrist as they thought she was hard on male interviewees).
Ms Georgia Harris @greentea2177
@ScoopTrust @SaturdayRNZ how do i find the soundbite where Kim Hill calls a misogynist an idiot? It was glorious.
…
Saturday Morning @SaturdayRNZ 7m7 minutes ago
Whomp, here it is (well, in amongst nearly a quarter hour of listener responses):
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/201821015/listener-feedback-to-saturday-22-october-2016 …
[In order to keep OM and DR free for other conversations, all comments, link postings etc about the US election now need to go in the dedicated US election discussion here.
If you are unsure, post in that thread rather than here. It’s not possible for moderators to shift comments from OM to there, so any comments here may get deleted – weka]