Technically Customs doesn't deal with biosecurity, that's MPI's job. Customs check for illegal imports and collect taxes and duties on legal imports along with checks and clearance of exports.
Two seperate agencies that work together, but with quite different responsibilities.
Unfortunately having less Customs staff won't improve the border entry experience of Fred and Sue National Voter coming back from their tri annual overseas jaunt.
The ICJ report about lack of Israeli compliance with aid delivery is going to be withering (and it was one of two areas where the Israeli judge voted with the majority).
Yes. The situation is beyond dire. There is no attempt by the IDF or the government to hide the depravity of the soldiers behaviour. The Israeli minister of defence Yoav Gallant, did tell his soldiers at the beginning of the operation that all constraints were released. The rampant posting of war crimes by individual soldiers on tik tok can only be viewed as the result of these kinds of directives coming from the very top. Disturbingly, polling shows the vast majority of Israeli citizens are in favour of these types of actions. Looting of Palestinian property has become a commonplace soldierly activity as has the careful placement of explosives to bring down all the structures of a civil society that survived the bombing. This includes Universities and Mosques.
The IDF includes those those shell or use helicopter drones to fire "nails" at civilians waiting for a truck delivering aid – to associate receiving aid from UNRWA with risk of death. These continuing events are going to impact on the ICJ follow up report.
Israel would want to end UNRWA, even if it was full of pacifists who reported to Israel what they knew about Hamas (because they see continuing refugee claim status as inimical to their own political goals).
“Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe.
The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.
Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.
Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
it's empire that is killing the planet. We are most definitely fighting empire.
'We' is all the people that are choosing life.
What Roy is pointing to is the necessity of having a story that gives hope and shows a way through the current mess. The stories of how bad things are were necessary to wake people up, now we need stories of how things can work out.
I'm deeply skeptical of anyone that tries to couch modern political discourse as some kind of titanic moral struggle between good and evil. It's basically warmed over dialectic theory leavened with a dash of Samuel Huntington's clash of civilisations.
However, I do think the quote Robert's provided points to a real problem we (as in, the wider left) have in an increasingly divided world: the lack of a clear, coherent, consistent message that's backed up with actual political action that resonates with voters.
Good and evil? I don't see them mentioned. I see the Empire as the super-set and "we" as a subset; one wishing to make change from within; none of us are outside of the empire but each of us has the ability and opportunity to transform the medium we have co-created. As weka wrote, and I blather on about regularly, story is the technology we can each access and apply in order to dissolve what pretends to be the-only-world-that-can-be.
Maybe let's start with do you accept there is a climate ecological crisis that have the potential to collapse human civilisation?
Absolutely! I just think the propensity to philosophise about the crises (because there is definitely more than one) we are facing is getting in the way of actually building a coherent, saleable policy programme to face them.
The sound of her breathing is what these orcs seek to drown out with their petty cancelling; the more we despair and lose heart, the more they prosper.
You have to tune your ears to hear her, over the clamour and glamour.
It feels like references to the empire is others- farmers, the Chinese/Americans/Nact voters.
Not those (well, maybe the Americans). Empire wasn't my word, but my reference to it was patriarchal, neoliberal capitalism. It's the system we use to run society. And yes, we all have varying degrees of choice within that. Voting is one that most people can utilise. Some people have lots of consumer choices, some have very little. Our choices give the system its strength and agency.
Personal choice is necessary: to vote in central and local governments that will act for life, and all the other myriad ways in which we can have influence.
It's not sufficient. Power relations exist and some people have a lot more power than others and are abusing it. Yes, they are the other, the ones who will kill us if they can. They have to be stopped.
Funny how these conversations can cause a bit of mental chewing gum that lasts all week.
I've re-read your comment as I was under the illusion that voting was a way to defeat the empire. I've got it now.
It occurred to me while stacking this seasons firewood away that we can't vote neo liberalism out of office. Sure tinker, as I did this election – Party Vote for Te Maori Party. It will be defeated by lots of little paper cuts, each of us not giving the system our attention/money/time, in whatever wee ways we can.
"Yes, they are the other, the ones who will kill us if they can. They have to be stopped."
I'm not so sure I want to spend too much energy stopping folk, I would rather be building what is needed when turning away from/fleeing The Empire. (Capital letters, that escalated quickly).
It was pointed out to me here, I've forgotten who but I was a bit bemused with a chum who was boots 'n all at the Wellies occupation. It was suggested to me some of us are of the disposition to pull down, highlight the deficienciesd of the system while others are more likely to be building the alternative structires/systems.
We are allies, just sometimes ego and politics get in the way.
I jest. Good question; where do we draw the line? Discretion is the challenge for every person. The Empire seems entirely unable to moderate itself; only individuals can do that (some of us do it poorly 🙂
Despite having lauded bicycles since I was a boy and ridden them most of my life, I would wave them goodbye, in return for the kind of world I am envisaging 🙂
Likewise, for me it would be the internet I would give up in exchange for the world I imagine. Being able to imagine such a society stops one from going mad and it enables us to work for change even though we may not get the exact vision we have in mind. It's a big challenge for many, the idea of sacrifice and something better.
I think I would be ok with a handmade toy bike though.
There has to be a limit – would you give your child a model battleship? A waka made from a craddy stick though, sure 🙂
The Chinese built single-large-wheeled barrows and should have declared those the pinnacle of wheeled vehicles; had they done that, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in now 🙂
"Are you perpetuating the Empire by giving your young one such a model?"
I don't think so. Or at least the empire is a tad weaker when you have made the toy. Opens up the possibility of the skills needed to acheive said whittling (material selection, knife sharp, imagination engaged, resilience, patience ), to be passed on.
Money, or at least the need and certainly the love of it, is what keeps us bound to the empire/machine. I've never been happier at around day 8/9/10 of family and friends camping trip. When lots of those sacrifices noticed in the first few days are gone and forgotten. We are reliant on the food staples and what ever we can catch, swap or forage.
Surely a wheeled vehicle is ok if, say. horse powered.
No GTA for me. (Abe’s Oddesey was more my cup of tea.)
In a similar vein, I have chosen to depower the empire by not watching the 6pm news (occasionally see it when I have tea with Mum, and despair), no FB, X, or any other social media (apart from rare questions on the Motobrick site), sharing as often as I can – eg eggs and green tomato chutney.
Independence and resilience of my water and electricity. Working on gas supply (Bio digester in a 1000 litre IBC then gas filtered and pumped into a queen size air bed).
I get yr point about getting back to basics, we are all going to have preferred ways of getting there. TBF, most would prefer not to have to 'get there'.
Or the wheels inside of a clock 🙂 Nothing wrong with keeping the time, is there? That's the sound of the Empire, measuring your days 🙂
Second hand books are great for children, right? The Little Engine That Could, The Little Golden Book of Cars and Trucks, Little Toot, Tootle, etc. etc. All propaganda for the Empire.
Back on track, anyone?
Don't get me started on Old MacDonald, who as we ALL know, had a farm 🙂 Many of the earliest books children hear and see, feature cows, sheep, pigs, horse, chickens. Phil (see below) might have something to say about indoctrination such as that 🙂
Why should what I say 'alienate otherwise friends'..?
I am just speaking the truth..and yes..the truth can be confronting..(I am sure that anyone (with a pulse) reading about the forever plastics in butter/pigs… won't be able to look at either without thinking 'forever plastics'..and if I have helped open their eyes to the realities/dangers of what they eat/feed their children…this is a good thing..surely..?
Tell me how it isn't..
And 'the point' is to point out these realities..of the widespread addiction to eating flesh/fat…
To maybe help people to think about these issues..
(Where else are they gonna get it..?…the denial is widespread/institutional..)
And yes robert..I am 'right' in my presentation of these arguments…
Nothing to do with ego…just dealing with the facts of the matter..
Facts that not many (otherwise self-regarding as ' good guys' face up to..eh..?..)
weka – as someone who objected to the use of the word, "strident" on TS because it inflames some readers here, you seem curiously relaxed about the use of "flesh addicts", which surely must offend many, many more.
I'm not saying Phil is wrong in his proposal.
I'm saying his use of that term is significantly counter-productive to the aims he professes to have.
I'm not personally upset by the term Phil uses. I just think others will be 🙂
Regarding Phil and your conversation here, I completely agree that the term flesh addict is going to put people off becoming vegan or moving towards becoming vegan. I thought you explained this clearly and well (I understood). Phil is a zealot and imo prefers his zealotry to real politik. This is what I meant when I said he is an ally to people like me. He’s more like to drive people to keep eating meat than the opposite.
Regarding TS and language, your fundamental mistake in these conversations about language is that you appear to think the issue is primarily one of people being offended. It’s not. People say offensive things on TS all the time, including one of the two trustees that owns the site. If I moderated on what offended me personally, a big chunk of comments would go, lol. It’s not about offending people, it’s about two things: class politics, and flaming the commentariat.
Regarding flaming, if Phil started calling specific people here flesh addicts, I expect most people (like me) would roll our eyes and focus on the politics. Some might respond by being offensive back eg talking about much they loved their BLT for breakfast this morning. Where that tips over into flaming (people being intentionally rude, mean or offensive with the goal of winding other people up and this being heated and likely to get out of control and absent any actual political discussion), mods would step in. But if politics are still being discussed that’s going to be more important than offence per se. Mods vary in where the line is on this. We currently moderate more tightly on offence intended to inflame than say 5 or 10 years ago.
Regarding class politics, this related to what might put people off from commenting or reading here. For instance, racism against Māori would put Māori people from being here. Not simply because it is personally offensive, but because racism is endemic in NZ and affects a whole class of people and has serious political and social consequences. I don’t consider omnivores to be akin to that.
Robert…do you not think compulsions to/inability to stop (even if riddled with forever plastics)…are markers of addiction..?
And if you can see they are…what moniker would you prefer I use..?
And I find any claims my words/arguments will stop people breaking those addictions..and becoming vegan..as laughable..
And I write in a calm manner/state…I am not agitated as I write these words…all I am doing is drawing attention to (uncomfortable to many) facts..
And irrefutable facts can help to focus/change the mind of the reader..
And that is what I am doing here… trying to focus/change minds..
And to bring it down to the personal level…I am bloody old…older than I thought I would ever reach..
I am fit/healthy..on no meds of any sort..I awake with a skip in my step..
And the only difference between me..and others my age in really fucked conditions..with weekly pill-boxes..is I don't use alcohol… haven't eaten flesh/fat for over 40 years…
And I look back to my 40's..when I met a handful of old vegans…men and women..then in their 70's…
And all of them fit/healthy..and glowing with like..
They are the role models I followed ..
And am so grateful to have arrived at a place similar to what they had/enjoyed ..
I know what I know robert..
And I would contend my arguments are pretty much irrefutable ..
Asking you not to name-shame your audience has opened your floodgates, Phil.
I was (note) only focused on that one matter. Your broader argument, I have no great issue with and feel no great need to engage with, and consequently, won't.
That happened in the 19th C. Dickens exposing the nature of working class life at the home of empire (and a Queens foreign husband shocked by London's third world infrastructure).
Some see the word as it is and say why and others see the way the world could be and say why not.
Yep, he is a neo Blairist hold out. Time for Chippy to move on.
It is almost 40 years now of Roger ‘n’ Ruth, 1984–2024. The neo liberal state, contracting out, SOEs, State Sector Act, Reserve Bank Act, Refining NZ, market rents, two tier health system, and all the other travesties visited on the people’s infrastructure, services and resources.
Greens and Te Pāti Māori are leading the way at the moment, NZ Labour can make a comeback and participate in the next Govt. if their Caucus drops Cap‘n’s calls and reverts to democracy of ordinary members. A grovelling apology to working class people would not go amiss.
Each boomer funeral changes the landscape, the Three Amigos in office at the moment is hopefully their last gasp–how ridiculous, two Deputy PMs!
"It is almost 40 years now of Roger ‘n’ Ruth, 1984–2024."
I take the decline of democracy back further to 50 years when Muldoon took power. It was his reign of terror which led to the birth of Roger 'n' Ruth. Had Muldoon not introduced his failed 'think big' policies and his otherwise austere handling of the country's finances, Douglas would not have had much of a leg to stand on. He had been captured by extreme right economic thinking 5 decades ago, which we now know evolved into the global libertarian umbrella called the Atlas network.
Muldoon was also responsible for introducing 'dirty politics' to NZ which had hitherto been largely absent from our political scene. It continued to flourish after he had gone and culminated in Nicky Hager's book "Dirty Politics". There are still untold stories dating back to those times which have been buried in layers of bureaucracy so they may never see the light of day.
I take yr wider point about Muldoon and the finances and D.P.
Surely Think Big was anything but a failure, the Hydro has stood us in great stead today, Marsden Point held it's own (till sold transferred to the private sector by Labour then ignored by Labour so it could be decommissioned).
I do think we need to shift a little towards the way of doing some things the way we did pre '84 Labour. Like a lot of youth, as a nation, we lack resilience.
A rag tag collection of pirates can lob rockets at ships and we have major shocks and delays in crucial supplies – pharmaceuticals for example.
If we had a MoW, we could be building the two ports needed for the ferry upgrade and not be subject to Nicotine Willis conflating ferry cost with the port building.
Neo-liberalism doesn't serve us (citizenry), it serves the 1%.
We have to be laser focused on dealing with the political reality that exists here and now. Anything other than that is wasted time, energy, and intellect.
The past is the past, and bad stuff happened there as various commissions of inquiry into state institutions demonstrate. Rape in marriage was only finally legislated against in 1986.
My point is a call to action–Rogernomics has had more than its chance and failed miserably, whole generations of kids have student loans and live in rented dumps. Time for new gens to step up and do it differently.
if there is any pining…it was fun driving down the Desert Road in a Ford Custom 300 V8 at sunrise en route to Wellington for a weekend trip–on a car plant workers wage–when there was just over 2 mill population…
Rogernomes will pine too when they finally get retired…
I believe that the only Ministry Parker resigned from was the minor position of being Revenue Minister.
That was the job that both Labour and National gave to Peter Dunne. It wasn't in Cabinet but gave Peter all the perks, and salary, of a Minister.
Parker may have resigned the Revenue job but he retained the more significant positions and his job in Cabinet. If he had really quit on principle he would have resigned all his Ministerial positions and reverted to the back bench. I don't think that that was ever on the cards as it would have meant the loss of half his salary and all the perks of a Minister.
That is a slur Alwyn-probably because you hate the fact that Parker supports a wealth tax.
Parker may well be hoping for a change of leadership that will green light a WT. He might stay at parliament under those circumstances. After all this looks very much like a one-term government.
9000 New Zealand nurses have registered to work in Australia in the past 10 months.
Appearing on AM's political panel on Friday, Jackson said the country needs to come up with new ideas to fix its nursing shortage.
He said both Labour and National should look at a free education strategy for nurses that bonds them to New Zealand.
1.nurses do not pay any TD while working in New Zealand – the government writes off half of the amount liable and the rest is added onto the interest free debt
After 20 years work here, write any left off.
nursing students are required to do 1100 hours of free, unpaid placements in a clinical setting.
2.that's 6 months FT and is serious time during the course. Apprentices get 80% of the MW. About $20,000 for 1100 hours.
sure does. Two things have happened since the 80s. One is that to become a registered nurse you have to do a 3 year full time degree or to become an enrolled nurse it's 1.5 years full time. The other is that to train at a tertiary institution you have to pay for it.
Plus factor in the cost of housing, and the stress of working in a chronically underfunded and understaffed health system
All of that stems from neoliberalism
No brainer really as to why we have a nursing shortage.
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The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkBoth 2023 and 2024 were exceptionally warm years, at just below and above 1.5C relative to preindustrial in the WMO composite of surface temperature records, respectively. While we are still working to assess the full set of drivers of this warmth, it is clear that ...
Hi,I woke up feeling nervous this morning, realising that this weekend Flightless Bird is going to do it’s first ever live show. We’re heading to a sold out (!) show in Seattle to test the format out in front of an audience. If it works, we’ll do more. I want ...
From the United-For-Now States of America comes the thrilling news that a New Zealander may be at the very heart of the current coup. Punching above our weight on the world stage once more! Wait, you may be asking, what New Zealander? I speak of Peter Thiel, made street legal ...
Even Stevens: Over the 33 years between 1990 and 2023 (and allowing for the aberrant 2020 result) the average level of support enjoyed by the Left and Right blocs, at roughly 44.5 percent each, turns out to be, as near as dammit, identical.WORLDWIDE, THE PARTIES of the Left are presented ...
Back in 2023, a "prominent political figure" went on trial for historic sex offences. But we weren't allowed to know who they were or what political party they were "prominent" in, because it might affect the way we voted. At the time, I said that this was untenable; it was ...
I'm going, I'm goingWhere the water tastes like wineI'm going where the water tastes like wineWe can jump in the waterStay drunk all the timeI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure ...
Waitangi Day is a time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stand together for a just and fair Aotearoa. Across the motu, communities are gathering to reflect, kōrero, and take action for a future built on equity and tino rangatiratanga. From dawn ceremonies to whānau-friendly events, there are ...
Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
The PSA have released a survey of 4000 public service workers showing that budget cuts are taking a toll on the wellbeing of public servants and risking the delivery of essential services to New Zealanders. Economists predict that figures released this week will show continued increases in unemployment, potentially reaching ...
The Prime Minister’s speech 10 days or so ago kicked off a flurry of commentary. No one much anywhere near the mainstream (ie excluding Greens supporters) questioned the rhetoric. New Zealand has done woefully poorly on productivity for a long time and we really need better outcomes, and the sorts ...
President Trump on the day he announced tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China, unleashing a shock to supply chains globally that is expected to slow economic growth and increase inflation for most large economies. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 9 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 3Politics: New Zealand Government cabinet meeting usually held early afternoon with post-cabinet news conference possible at 4 pm, although they have not been ...
Trump being Trump, it won’t come as a shock to find that he regards a strong US currency (bolstered by high tariffs on everything made by foreigners) as a sign of America’s virility, and its ability to kick sand in the face of the world. Reality is a tad more ...
A listing of 24 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 26, 2025 thru Sat, February 1, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
What seems to be the common theme in the US, NZ, Argentina and places like Italy under their respective rightwing governments is what I think of as “the politics of cruelty.” Hate-mongering, callous indifference in social policy-making, corporate toadying, political bullying, intimidation and punching down on the most vulnerable with ...
If you are confused, check with the sunCarry a compass to help you alongYour feet are going to be on the groundYour head is there to move you aroundSo, stand in the place where you liveSongwriters: Bill Berry / Michael Mills / Michael Stipe / Peter Buck.Hot in the CityYesterday, ...
Shane Jones announced today he would be contracting out his thinking to a smarter younger person.Reclining on his chaise longue with a mouth full of oysters and Kina he told reporters:Clearly I have become a has-been, a palimpsest, an epigone, a bloviating fossil. I find myself saying such things as: ...
Warning: This post contains references to sexual assaultOn Saturday, I spent far too long editing a video on Tim Jago, the ACT Party President and criminal, who has given up his fight for name suppression after 2 years. He voluntarily gave up just in time for what will be a ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead for all Kiwis, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. In the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Speech in Auckland today, Christopher Luxon laid out the path to the prosperity that will affect all aspects of New Zealanders’ lives. ...
The latest set of accounts show the Government has successfully checked the runaway growth of public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “In the previous government’s final five months in office, public spending was almost 10 per cent higher than for the same period the previous year. “That is completely ...
The Government’s welfare reforms are delivering results with the number of people moving off benefits into work increasing year-on-year for six straight months. “There are positive signs that our welfare reset and the return consequences for job seekers who don't fulfil their obligations to prepare for or find a job ...
Jotham Napat has been elected as the new prime minister of Vanuatu. Napat was elected unopposed in Port Vila today, receiving 50 votes with two void votes. He is the country’s fifth prime minister in four years and will lead a coalition government made up of five political parties — ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By A J Brown, Professor of Public Policy & Law, Centre for Governance & Public Policy, Griffith University Australia has turned the corner on its decade-long slide on Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), once again ranking in the top ten least ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Bridges, Senior Lecturer in Public Relations and Director of Academic Program – Communication, Creative Industries, Screen Media, Western Sydney University Stock Rocket/Shutterstock For new parents struggling with challenges such as breastfeeding and sleep deprivation, social media can be a great ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott French, Senior Lecturer in Economics, UNSW Sydney US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have stated an exemption for Australia from Trump’s executive order placing 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imported into the US is “under consideration”. ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon's attempts to turn the tables back on the Opposition at Question Time today went down like a lead balloon, Jo Moir writes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brenton Griffin, Casual Lecturer and Tutor in History, Indigenous Studies, and Politics, Flinders University American Primeval/Netflix On January 24, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon Church, penned a statement condemning the ...
It comes as Whangārei District Council is under fire from the Director General of Health Dr Diana Sarfati after it voted in December against adding fluoridation to the water. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Strangio, Emeritus Professor of Politics, Monash University Is history repeating itself in Labor’s fortress state of Victoria? At the 1990 federal election, Bob Hawke’s Labor government had a near-death experience when it lost nine seats in Victoria. A furious Hawke laid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Nissen, HERA Program Director – Health Workforce Optimisation Centre for the Business & Economics of Health, The University of Queensland Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock If you’ve tried to get an appointment to see a GP or specialist recently, you will likely have felt ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peta Ashworth, Professor and Director, Curtin Institute for Energy Transition, Curtin University Large power grids are among the most complicated machines humans have ever devised. Different generators produce power at various times and at various costs. A generator might fail and another ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Orr, Veterinarian, Southern Cross University Mitchell Orr/Unsplash Late last year, rumours swirled online that HomeSafeID, a private Australian pet microchip registry, had stopped operating. On Feburary 5 2025, a notice appeared on the HomeSafeID website, ostensibly from the site’s ...
The government is taking far too long to allocate the 1500 social homes it announced nine months ago and the hold up is stalling desperately-needed homes, says a community housing provider. ...
The agency is setting a 12-week limit on how much rent debt a tenant can accumulate as part of a change in approach that will also see almost half of the outstanding dept wiped away. ...
The media is rife with headlines about people killing animals for kicks. Please don’t.In memory of an Auckland swan, a Bay of Plenty octopus and a Taranaki striped marlin.Imagine this. It’s 7.15am. You’re paddling around on a serene lake with your sweetheart. It seems likely that she’ll give ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra US President Donald Trump has agreed to “consider” exempting Australia from the 25% tariff he has imposed on imports of steel and aluminium to the US. Trump gave the undertaking during a wide-ranging 40-minute ...
Pacific Media Watch Israeli police have confiscated hundreds of books with Palestinian titles or flags without understanding their contents in a draconian raid on a Palestinian educational bookshop in occupied East Jerusalem, say eyewitnesses. More details have emerged on the Israeli police raid on a popular bookstore in occupied East ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist China and the Cook Islands’ relationship “should not be disrupted or restrained by any third party”, says Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, as opposition leaders in Rarotonga express a loss of confidence in Prime Minister Mark Brown. In response to questions from the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Ogden, Associate Professor in Global Studies, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Donald Trump is moving rapidly to change the contours of contemporary international affairs, with the old US-dominated world order breaking down into a multipolar one with many centres of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ronnie Das, Associate Professor in Data Analytics, The University of Western Australia In the recent Border-Gavaskar series against India, Steve Smith agonisingly missed out reaching 10,000 Test runs in front of his home crowd at the Sydney Cricket Ground, falling short by ...
In a brand new documentary series for The Spinoff, comedians and best friends Brynley Stent and Kura Forrester embark on a cross-country quest to find love. Bryn & Ku’s Singles Club is a brand new documentary series for The Spinoff following award-winning comedians and friends Brynley Stent and ...
🚐 Bryn and Ku pack their bags and swap the bleak dating scene of Tāmaki Makaurau for some meet and mingle events in Ōtautahi that will take them out of their comfort zone. ❣️ Bryn & Ku’s Singles Club follows comedians Brynley Stent and Kura Forrester as they head out ...
"The relationship between China and the Cook Islands does not target any third party," the Chinese Foreign Ministry says, as opposition leaders in Rarotonga plan protest. ...
From tradwives to ‘petite blonde’ preferences, this season feels like a throwback for all the wrong reasons, writes Alex Casey. First of all: I know. Complaining about bad stuff on Married at First Sight Australia is like complaining that water is wet. But I’ve been bobbing around in these waters ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a public servant who’s ‘trying to get better’ explains her approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female. Age: 24. Ethnicity: Pākehā and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zena Assaad, Senior Lecturer, School of Engineering, Australian National University Ziv Lavi/Shutterstock Last week, Google quietly abandoned a long-standing commitment to not use artificial intelligence (AI) technology in weapons or surveillance. In an update to its AI principles, which were first ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brenainn Simpson, PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland Florian Nimsdorf / Shutterstock About 400 kilometres northwest of Sydney, just south of Dubbo, lies a large and interesting body of rock formed around 215 million years ago by erupting volcanoes. Known as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mareike Riedel, Senior lecturer in law, Macquarie University The dramatic rise in antisemitic incidents has dominated headlines in Australia in recent months, with calls for urgent action to address what many are calling a crisis. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane McAdam, Scientia Professor and ARC Laureate Fellow, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Sydney For a long time, it seemed refugee law had little relevance to people fleeing the impacts of climate change and disasters. Nearly 30 years ago, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maggie Kirkman, Senior Research Fellow, Global and Women’s Health, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University Krakenimages.com/Shutterstock You’ve heard of the gender pay gap. What about the gap in medical care? Cardiovascular diseases – which can lead to heart ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Iain White, Professor of Environmental Planning, University of Waikato Getty Images Urban planning has a long history of promoting visionary ideas that advocate for particular futures. The most recent is the concept of the 15-minute city, which has gained traction globally. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew King, Associate Professor in Climate Science, ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather, The University of Melbourne Earth is crossing the threshold of 1.5°C of global warming, according to two major global studies which together suggest the planet’s climate has ...
As support for the coalition dips, the PM and his soon-to-be-deputy have engaged in a public war of words. Stewart Sowman-Lund has the details in today’s edition of The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Support slips If there was ever a political honeymoon, or ...
Once again a National government poses a risk to our bio-security.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350189692/nzs-gatekeepers-governments-public-service-chopping-block
Labour's world first effort to eliminate mbovis (this arose during a National administration in 2017).
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/mbovis-eradication-makes-gains-three-years-detection
National in the 1990's – white clover leaf weevil, varrua jacobsini beemite and didymo.
Technically Customs doesn't deal with biosecurity, that's MPI's job. Customs check for illegal imports and collect taxes and duties on legal imports along with checks and clearance of exports.
Two seperate agencies that work together, but with quite different responsibilities.
Unfortunately having less Customs staff won't improve the border entry experience of Fred and Sue National Voter coming back from their tri annual overseas jaunt.
Fair point, but customs will deal with people who bring in undeclared stuff – and if overworked and with queues and don't check ….
There are plenty of Aussie visitors we definitely don't want to sneak in, such as cane toads. If we get those, our wildlife is stuffed.
Mind you, it wouldn't matter to Tourism NZ. As far as that body is concerned, this country has no pollution, no child abuse and no criminal gangs.
It's Paradise on Earth with the ability to accommodate any number of overseas visitors.
A cynic might suggest that NZ's drug problems have always served the nats well.
Maybe reducing the capacity to prevent trafficking and to also allow sale of a product used to make meth is part of a competitive market policy …
This in a world where one Mexican gang has been identified lacing cocaine and meth with fentanyl to ensure their consumers are totally addicted.
The ICJ report about lack of Israeli compliance with aid delivery is going to be withering (and it was one of two areas where the Israeli judge voted with the majority).
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/350189708/children-starting-die-malnutrition-northern-gaza-food-crisis-worsens
Background
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2024/02/israeli-forces-opened-fire-on-food-aid-truck-un-documents-and-satellite-analysis-reveals.html
The UK uses Jordan Air Force Hercules to drop pallets with aid in north Gaza.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68360902
Yes. The situation is beyond dire. There is no attempt by the IDF or the government to hide the depravity of the soldiers behaviour. The Israeli minister of defence Yoav Gallant, did tell his soldiers at the beginning of the operation that all constraints were released. The rampant posting of war crimes by individual soldiers on tik tok can only be viewed as the result of these kinds of directives coming from the very top. Disturbingly, polling shows the vast majority of Israeli citizens are in favour of these types of actions. Looting of Palestinian property has become a commonplace soldierly activity as has the careful placement of explosives to bring down all the structures of a civil society that survived the bombing. This includes Universities and Mosques.
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2024/02/20/exp-israel-soldiers-jeremy-diamond-pkg-022009aseg1-cnni-world.cnn
https://www.972mag.com/israeli-soldiers-looting-gaza/
Remember when the world lost it's shit over the Taliban and Islamic State destroying sites of religious, archeological and cultural significance.
But not a sausage about the IDF reducing hundreds of Byzantine, Phoenician and Ottoman sites to rubble.
https://www.channel4.com/news/over-200-heritage-sites-in-gaza-destroyed-says-culture-ministry
The Israelis do seem to have major beef with UNRWA, what with a number of employees turning out to be massacre participants.
11 of them I recall – out of a staff of 30,000 employees in the area. Are the other 29,989 also to be tarred with the same brush?
The IDF includes those those shell or use helicopter drones to fire "nails" at civilians waiting for a truck delivering aid – to associate receiving aid from UNRWA with risk of death. These continuing events are going to impact on the ICJ follow up report.
Israel would want to end UNRWA, even if it was full of pacifists who reported to Israel what they knew about Hamas (because they see continuing refugee claim status as inimical to their own political goals).
Cameras on fishing boats might have to go, regretfully, as a necessary cost-cutting measure, mind; just trimming the sails of state!
"In 2017, Jones received a candidate donation of $10,000 from fishing company Talley's.
The minister acknowledged previous involvement within the industry, but said industry interests would not influence policy."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/509580/rollout-of-cameras-on-fishing-boats-under-review
that deserves a post.
Yes a post and a tui billboard.
I wonder what our esteemed Minister of Fisheries has to say about this – the article states quite clearly that there had been two commercial fishers in the area. https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350189945/never-seen-anything-it-hundreds-dead-fish-wash-beaches
As the old saying goes: Shane Jones is as crooked as a dog's hind leg.
But the difference now is that he no longer cares to hide it.
Brighten up, everyone!
“Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe.
The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.
Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.
Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
Arundhati Roy
We are not fighting ghosts, empires, autocrats, demons, kings, spells, or alien lizard people.
We're not even a "we".
Arundhati is doing a spooky and honestly it's not helpful.
it's empire that is killing the planet. We are most definitely fighting empire.
'We' is all the people that are choosing life.
What Roy is pointing to is the necessity of having a story that gives hope and shows a way through the current mess. The stories of how bad things are were necessary to wake people up, now we need stories of how things can work out.
I'm deeply skeptical of anyone that tries to couch modern political discourse as some kind of titanic moral struggle between good and evil. It's basically warmed over dialectic theory leavened with a dash of Samuel Huntington's clash of civilisations.
However, I do think the quote Robert's provided points to a real problem we (as in, the wider left) have in an increasingly divided world: the lack of a clear, coherent, consistent message that's backed up with actual political action that resonates with voters.
Good and evil? I don't see them mentioned. I see the Empire as the super-set and "we" as a subset; one wishing to make change from within; none of us are outside of the empire but each of us has the ability and opportunity to transform the medium we have co-created. As weka wrote, and I blather on about regularly, story is the technology we can each access and apply in order to dissolve what pretends to be the-only-world-that-can-be.
That's nice, but what does it have to do with my comment?
Maybe let's start with do you accept there is a climate ecological crisis that have the potential to collapse human civilisation?
Absolutely! I just think the propensity to philosophise about the crises (because there is definitely more than one) we are facing is getting in the way of actually building a coherent, saleable policy programme to face them.
thanks for clarifying!
The sound of her breathing is what these orcs seek to drown out with their petty cancelling; the more we despair and lose heart, the more they prosper.
You have to tune your ears to hear her, over the clamour and glamour.
I am gonna beat an old drum here.
It feels like references to the empire is others- farmers, the Chinese/Americans/Nact voters.
Truth is we are the empire or at least give the empire its strength.
Be it supermarket users, fossil fuel addicts, google customers, Trade Me traders. It's our decisions that keep giving the empire its power.
Every dollar we spend is a political decision.
Not those (well, maybe the Americans). Empire wasn't my word, but my reference to it was patriarchal, neoliberal capitalism. It's the system we use to run society. And yes, we all have varying degrees of choice within that. Voting is one that most people can utilise. Some people have lots of consumer choices, some have very little. Our choices give the system its strength and agency.
Personal choice is necessary: to vote in central and local governments that will act for life, and all the other myriad ways in which we can have influence.
It's not sufficient. Power relations exist and some people have a lot more power than others and are abusing it. Yes, they are the other, the ones who will kill us if they can. They have to be stopped.
Funny how these conversations can cause a bit of mental chewing gum that lasts all week.
I've re-read your comment as I was under the illusion that voting was a way to defeat the empire. I've got it now.
It occurred to me while stacking this seasons firewood away that we can't vote neo liberalism out of office. Sure tinker, as I did this election – Party Vote for Te Maori Party. It will be defeated by lots of little paper cuts, each of us not giving the system our attention/money/time, in whatever wee ways we can.
"Yes, they are the other, the ones who will kill us if they can. They have to be stopped."
I'm not so sure I want to spend too much energy stopping folk, I would rather be building what is needed when turning away from/fleeing The Empire. (Capital letters, that escalated quickly).
It was pointed out to me here, I've forgotten who but I was a bit bemused with a chum who was boots 'n all at the Wellies occupation. It was suggested to me some of us are of the disposition to pull down, highlight the deficienciesd of the system while others are more likely to be building the alternative structires/systems.
We are allies, just sometimes ego and politics get in the way.
It's not just about money; imagine you whittled a wooden toy for your child; cleverly articulated with wheels that turn!
Are you perpetuating the Empire by giving your young one such a model?
I say, yes.
If not a truck, a sheep then, a cow, a fishing boat…
what if the wooden toy was a bike?
Ha! You answered my question with a question 🙂
I jest. Good question; where do we draw the line? Discretion is the challenge for every person. The Empire seems entirely unable to moderate itself; only individuals can do that (some of us do it poorly 🙂
Despite having lauded bicycles since I was a boy and ridden them most of my life, I would wave them goodbye, in return for the kind of world I am envisaging 🙂
Likewise, for me it would be the internet I would give up in exchange for the world I imagine. Being able to imagine such a society stops one from going mad and it enables us to work for change even though we may not get the exact vision we have in mind. It's a big challenge for many, the idea of sacrifice and something better.
I think I would be ok with a handmade toy bike though.
Wee clogs, perhaps 🙂
There has to be a limit – would you give your child a model battleship? A waka made from a craddy stick though, sure 🙂
The Chinese built single-large-wheeled barrows and should have declared those the pinnacle of wheeled vehicles; had they done that, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in now 🙂
"Are you perpetuating the Empire by giving your young one such a model?"
I don't think so. Or at least the empire is a tad weaker when you have made the toy. Opens up the possibility of the skills needed to acheive said whittling (material selection, knife sharp, imagination engaged, resilience, patience ), to be passed on.
Money, or at least the need and certainly the love of it, is what keeps us bound to the empire/machine. I've never been happier at around day 8/9/10 of family and friends camping trip. When lots of those sacrifices noticed in the first few days are gone and forgotten. We are reliant on the food staples and what ever we can catch, swap or forage.
I read what you say, but I don't accept your view 🙂
Come on, a miniature truck is a hook for the child to normalise and accept the beasts of the Empire: fossil-fuel-powered, wheeled vehicles.
Next, you'll be promoting Grand Theft Auto as a nice enough sort of a gift 🙂
Surely a wheeled vehicle is ok if, say. horse powered.
No GTA for me. (Abe’s Oddesey was more my cup of tea.)
In a similar vein, I have chosen to depower the empire by not watching the 6pm news (occasionally see it when I have tea with Mum, and despair), no FB, X, or any other social media (apart from rare questions on the Motobrick site), sharing as often as I can – eg eggs and green tomato chutney.
Independence and resilience of my water and electricity. Working on gas supply (Bio digester in a 1000 litre IBC then gas filtered and pumped into a queen size air bed).
I get yr point about getting back to basics, we are all going to have preferred ways of getting there. TBF, most would prefer not to have to 'get there'.
Or the wheels inside of a clock 🙂 Nothing wrong with keeping the time, is there? That's the sound of the Empire, measuring your days 🙂
Second hand books are great for children, right? The Little Engine That Could, The Little Golden Book of Cars and Trucks, Little Toot, Tootle, etc. etc. All propaganda for the Empire.
Back on track, anyone?
Don't get me started on Old MacDonald, who as we ALL know, had a farm 🙂 Many of the earliest books children hear and see, feature cows, sheep, pigs, horse, chickens. Phil (see below) might have something to say about indoctrination such as that 🙂
@ gsays…
You left out flesh-addicts…
Flesh-addiction is often factored out…largely by flesh-addicts..
True.
I am surprised you didn't pick up on that when you went into bat for EVs a day or two ago.
Yes..I noted that about myself..told myself to do better next time..
Hence this one..
Yep, you go boyfriend. Get stuck in.
"Flesh-addicts" is an othering that upsets at gut-level – a visceral pain for all readers who eat meat.
I suggest it's unfair of you to use the term as part of your mindful approach to turning omnivores here toward a more restricted diet.
Um..no…I am describing what it is..
It is an addiction….an addiction to eating the flesh and fat of animals…
And if some addicts find that revelation (?) to be discomfiting…?…
So be it…I would note it is far more discomfiting for the animals they kill/dismember..and then eat..
And after lives of suffering/misery…
Addicts hate being confronted with the realities of their addiction…
Denial is part of the addict package..
Not to mention the list of diseases..the fucking over of the environment…
And just the other day the guardian had an article on forever plastics…(which also cause a raft of disease…)..
And the main vehicle for their journey into humans is..(drumroll..!)..butter…
And red meat…especially pork…
So that great kiwi breakfast involving bacon and butter…must be like mainlining forever plastics..
Digest that one the next time you tuck into some poor pig…(creatures smarter than dogs..say many..)
So..y'know..!…all that up against some flesh-addicts shifting uneasily in their seats..?
No match….flesh addicts it is..
(Pray tell me how it isn't..)
You are, but in doing so, you're alienating otherwise-friends.
What's the point?
To demonstrate that you are right?
Why should what I say 'alienate otherwise friends'..?
I am just speaking the truth..and yes..the truth can be confronting..(I am sure that anyone (with a pulse) reading about the forever plastics in butter/pigs… won't be able to look at either without thinking 'forever plastics'..and if I have helped open their eyes to the realities/dangers of what they eat/feed their children…this is a good thing..surely..?
Tell me how it isn't..
And 'the point' is to point out these realities..of the widespread addiction to eating flesh/fat…
To maybe help people to think about these issues..
(Where else are they gonna get it..?…the denial is widespread/institutional..)
And yes robert..I am 'right' in my presentation of these arguments…
Nothing to do with ego…just dealing with the facts of the matter..
Facts that not many (otherwise self-regarding as ' good guys' face up to..eh..?..)
Doubling-down, eh!
And with righteous indignation; how could you not bring those-who-are-wrong on-board!
for those of us who think eating food from animals is both ethical and a necessity (within a sustainable context), Phil is an ally.
Care to explain just how eating animals is both 'ethical'..and a 'necessity'..?
On the surface your claim just seems an exercise in self-justication…for your current carnivorous practises..
I would be interested to see if there are any other 'facts' behind/about it..
As far as I see it..you either chow down on animals..or you don't…and I am yet to hear any 'ethical' justifications for the former..
And how is eating animal flesh in any way 'sustainable'..?
Especially for the eaten animal..
@ robert..
No..just answering your response..
And just think how many people now know that butter/pig-flesh are riddled with forever plastics…
Gross..eh..?
And I would contend far more disturbing than the use of the term 'flesh-addict'…eh..?
That bacon butty will never again be the same..eh..?
weka – as someone who objected to the use of the word, "strident" on TS because it inflames some readers here, you seem curiously relaxed about the use of "flesh addicts", which surely must offend many, many more.
I'm not saying Phil is wrong in his proposal.
I'm saying his use of that term is significantly counter-productive to the aims he professes to have.
I'm not personally upset by the term Phil uses. I just think others will be 🙂
Morena Robert.
Regarding Phil and your conversation here, I completely agree that the term flesh addict is going to put people off becoming vegan or moving towards becoming vegan. I thought you explained this clearly and well (I understood). Phil is a zealot and imo prefers his zealotry to real politik. This is what I meant when I said he is an ally to people like me. He’s more like to drive people to keep eating meat than the opposite.
Regarding TS and language, your fundamental mistake in these conversations about language is that you appear to think the issue is primarily one of people being offended. It’s not. People say offensive things on TS all the time, including one of the two trustees that owns the site. If I moderated on what offended me personally, a big chunk of comments would go, lol. It’s not about offending people, it’s about two things: class politics, and flaming the commentariat.
Regarding flaming, if Phil started calling specific people here flesh addicts, I expect most people (like me) would roll our eyes and focus on the politics. Some might respond by being offensive back eg talking about much they loved their BLT for breakfast this morning. Where that tips over into flaming (people being intentionally rude, mean or offensive with the goal of winding other people up and this being heated and likely to get out of control and absent any actual political discussion), mods would step in. But if politics are still being discussed that’s going to be more important than offence per se. Mods vary in where the line is on this. We currently moderate more tightly on offence intended to inflame than say 5 or 10 years ago.
Regarding class politics, this related to what might put people off from commenting or reading here. For instance, racism against Māori would put Māori people from being here. Not simply because it is personally offensive, but because racism is endemic in NZ and affects a whole class of people and has serious political and social consequences. I don’t consider omnivores to be akin to that.
Morena weka.
"This is what I meant when I said he is an ally to people like me."
I misunderstood your comment. Thanks for making that clear 🙂
Thanks also, for your fulsome explanation of language.
Robert…do you not think compulsions to/inability to stop (even if riddled with forever plastics)…are markers of addiction..?
And if you can see they are…what moniker would you prefer I use..?
And I find any claims my words/arguments will stop people breaking those addictions..and becoming vegan..as laughable..
And I write in a calm manner/state…I am not agitated as I write these words…all I am doing is drawing attention to (uncomfortable to many) facts..
And irrefutable facts can help to focus/change the mind of the reader..
And that is what I am doing here… trying to focus/change minds..
And to bring it down to the personal level…I am bloody old…older than I thought I would ever reach..
I am fit/healthy..on no meds of any sort..I awake with a skip in my step..
And the only difference between me..and others my age in really fucked conditions..with weekly pill-boxes..is I don't use alcohol… haven't eaten flesh/fat for over 40 years…
And I look back to my 40's..when I met a handful of old vegans…men and women..then in their 70's…
And all of them fit/healthy..and glowing with like..
They are the role models I followed ..
And am so grateful to have arrived at a place similar to what they had/enjoyed ..
I know what I know robert..
And I would contend my arguments are pretty much irrefutable ..
Asking you not to name-shame your audience has opened your floodgates, Phil.
I was (note) only focused on that one matter. Your broader argument, I have no great issue with and feel no great need to engage with, and consequently, won't.
Make sure you take your ball with you…
And thank you for being my foil on this..
Ball? Pig-skin, or plastic?
And foil?
I read your comment on addictive substances.
Roy's language will seem foreign to some.
Pretty familiar language to Jews, Muslims, Christians of all stripes, Zoroastrians etc
They each have their valid side.
That happened in the 19th C. Dickens exposing the nature of working class life at the home of empire (and a Queens foreign husband shocked by London's third world infrastructure).
Some see the word as it is and say why and others see the way the world could be and say why not.
Beautiful quote from a beautiful and intelligent woman Robert hardly needs to be " interpreted " by anyone in my view.
How can the latest child poverty stats not be a searing indictment of the bankrupt incrementalism dogma that clark/ardern/hipkins clung to..?
And their collective failure to put right what shipley/richardson had wrought..
It's all coming home to roost… isn't it..?
And surely it is why labour must ditch that incrementalism that has plauged the party since the days of douglas..
And reinvent itself as an effective social democrat party..with policies to match..
Surely they won't just deliver more of the same..?
The short term answer was a rent freeze, longer term FPA/Industry Awards.
Over-reacting to pressure for more migrant workers did not help.
That won't happen under Hipkins, Phillip.
Yep, he is a neo Blairist hold out. Time for Chippy to move on.
It is almost 40 years now of Roger ‘n’ Ruth, 1984–2024. The neo liberal state, contracting out, SOEs, State Sector Act, Reserve Bank Act, Refining NZ, market rents, two tier health system, and all the other travesties visited on the people’s infrastructure, services and resources.
Greens and Te Pāti Māori are leading the way at the moment, NZ Labour can make a comeback and participate in the next Govt. if their Caucus drops Cap‘n’s calls and reverts to democracy of ordinary members. A grovelling apology to working class people would not go amiss.
Each boomer funeral changes the landscape, the Three Amigos in office at the moment is hopefully their last gasp–how ridiculous, two Deputy PMs!
"It is almost 40 years now of Roger ‘n’ Ruth, 1984–2024."
I take the decline of democracy back further to 50 years when Muldoon took power. It was his reign of terror which led to the birth of Roger 'n' Ruth. Had Muldoon not introduced his failed 'think big' policies and his otherwise austere handling of the country's finances, Douglas would not have had much of a leg to stand on. He had been captured by extreme right economic thinking 5 decades ago, which we now know evolved into the global libertarian umbrella called the Atlas network.
Muldoon was also responsible for introducing 'dirty politics' to NZ which had hitherto been largely absent from our political scene. It continued to flourish after he had gone and culminated in Nicky Hager's book "Dirty Politics". There are still untold stories dating back to those times which have been buried in layers of bureaucracy so they may never see the light of day.
The Atlas network is the velvet glove… the IMF, CIA and direct warfare are more assertive means of Empire-building
(international monetary fund, not the impossible missions force)
"The Atlas network is the velvet glove"
QFT
I take yr wider point about Muldoon and the finances and D.P.
Surely Think Big was anything but a failure, the Hydro has stood us in great stead today, Marsden Point held it's own (till
soldtransferred to the private sector by Labour then ignored by Labour so it could be decommissioned).https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsden_Point_Oil_Refinery
Interestingly NZ First as part of the coalition agreement has an investigation to look at re-opening the refinery.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/02/08/nz-firsts-doomed-deal-to-reopen-marsden-point-refinery/
I do think we need to shift a little towards the way of doing some things the way we did pre '84 Labour. Like a lot of youth, as a nation, we lack resilience.
A rag tag collection of pirates can lob rockets at ships and we have major shocks and delays in crucial supplies – pharmaceuticals for example.
If we had a MoW, we could be building the two ports needed for the ferry upgrade and not be subject to Nicotine Willis conflating ferry cost with the port building.
Neo-liberalism doesn't serve us (citizenry), it serves the 1%.
No point pining for pre-1984 New Zealand.
Exactly!
We have to be laser focused on dealing with the political reality that exists here and now. Anything other than that is wasted time, energy, and intellect.
The past is the past, and bad stuff happened there as various commissions of inquiry into state institutions demonstrate. Rape in marriage was only finally legislated against in 1986.
My point is a call to action–Rogernomics has had more than its chance and failed miserably, whole generations of kids have student loans and live in rented dumps. Time for new gens to step up and do it differently.
if there is any pining…it was fun driving down the Desert Road in a Ford Custom 300 V8 at sunrise en route to Wellington for a weekend trip–on a car plant workers wage–when there was just over 2 mill population…
Rogernomes will pine too when they finally get retired…
It was 2.6M in 1964, silent one.
I agree it won't happen under hipkins..
Given parker resigned his ministry on a matter of principle after hipkins ditched all his work on wealth taxes..he would have to be a contender..?
I believe that the only Ministry Parker resigned from was the minor position of being Revenue Minister.
That was the job that both Labour and National gave to Peter Dunne. It wasn't in Cabinet but gave Peter all the perks, and salary, of a Minister.
Parker may have resigned the Revenue job but he retained the more significant positions and his job in Cabinet. If he had really quit on principle he would have resigned all his Ministerial positions and reverted to the back bench. I don't think that that was ever on the cards as it would have meant the loss of half his salary and all the perks of a Minister.
Well said alwyn. Until the Greens and/or Te Pati Maori can attract and maintain a significant voting block it is unlikely we will see any real change.
Or Labour manages to find something resembling moral courage. Preferably before they piss away the entire left's credibility.
That is a slur Alwyn-probably because you hate the fact that Parker supports a wealth tax.
Parker may well be hoping for a change of leadership that will green light a WT. He might stay at parliament under those circumstances. After all this looks very much like a one-term government.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/science-environment-68349490
First one of the 3 private groups on a NASA contract to have a go.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67962397
Odysseus drunk on arrival:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/350191122/moon-lander-its-side-after-tipping-over-touchdown
1.nurses do not pay any TD while working in New Zealand – the government writes off half of the amount liable and the rest is added onto the interest free debt
After 20 years work here, write any left off.
2.that's 6 months FT and is serious time during the course. Apprentices get 80% of the MW. About $20,000 for 1100 hours.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2024/02/willie-jackson-suggests-labour-national-work-together-on-free-education-bonding-scheme-to-keep-new-zealand-nurses.html
In a conversation, I think on RNZ, with a statistician, he came up with a wee fact.
Over half the nurses that got registration in Aotearoa this year are from overseas.
A lot of them will move on, but we can incentivise more locals to train and to stay.
Absolutely, I agree.
Our nursing staff should reflect the population it serves.
It's wrong for many reasons to 'sub-contract' the training of nurses.
Another reason neo-liberalism needs to be taken to the back paddock and shot.
sure does. Two things have happened since the 80s. One is that to become a registered nurse you have to do a 3 year full time degree or to become an enrolled nurse it's 1.5 years full time. The other is that to train at a tertiary institution you have to pay for it.
Plus factor in the cost of housing, and the stress of working in a chronically underfunded and understaffed health system
All of that stems from neoliberalism
No brainer really as to why we have a nursing shortage.
Given how understaffed some places are, it is a surprise how few enrolled nurses we have to support registered nurses.
https://www.tewhatuora.govt.nz/assets/Whats-happening/Work-underway/Taskforces/Nursing-Pipeline-Programme/Enrolled-Nurse-Recommendations-Paper-Dec-2021.pdf
what is TD?
Tertiary (loan) Debt.