The sudden favouring of the very few who have user logins (authors or people with very old logins) has been fixed.
A option in the discussion page “Users must be registered and logged in to comment” got knocked on by accident 19 hours ago. I’ve now turned it back off.
Thank you! I saw the Word Press logo and thought I was on KiwiBlog.
Imagine the horror.
I’m on 999 posts over there, by the way. I promised the boys I’d make my 1,000th a real rip-snorter, but I still haven’t produced. I have a severe case of writer’s block, I’m afraid….
These days I always seem to have writers block for human level English.
Fortunately I don’t currently have it in c++, C#, python, … I have had blocks in those in the past and have found that writing English in troll suppression mode has usually sufficient to drive me back to rationality.
But this drought in English has been ongoing for a while. Perhaps I should start to resurrect writing in my piss-poor human French or German (or even historian Latin) to see if I can kickstart the English habit again.
Or perhaps just stopping the habit of writing anything on cellphones would help. I have to say that while they are great communication devices, they are piss-poor devices for writing coherently.
You’re correct, Anne. It’s not really writer’s block, it’s laziness on my part. I do really want to write a magnum opus, but I just can’t work up the enthusiasm. Maybe it’s all those down-votes taking their toll….
“Auckland’s century-old stormwater pipes overflow into the ocean almost every time it rains, and it’s putting many of the city’s beaches out of action.
It only takes 5mm of rain to fall before the combined sewage and stormwater pipes overflow.
“The frequency with which it happens in Auckland is a bit of a concern, because it’s 50 times a year,” says Auckland University wastewater engineer Dr Lokesh Padhye.
A Weekend Herald investigation found in a year, around 1 million cubic metres of wastewater is disposed of in the harbour each year.”
The important response from Watercare to sewerage spillovers in the Auckland isthmus region is the Central Interceptor project. See the video and explanation in the link below:
Back in the day most of the stormwater and wastewater were put into the same pipe and outflow. It’s taken the the best chunk of a century to gradually separate them. The Central Interceptor project – about $1.3b of work – deals with a whole bunch more of the separations. It’s not a full cure, but it’s a big step forward.
Some of those other places like Piha need to get much stronger support from the local community to get a comprehensive solution. Putting a population that size on septic tanks is ridiculous.
All septic tanks are ridiculous, in my view. Disposal of humanure to soil is the best practice. There are ways to do this in all situations (even in a space craft 🙂 and those methods could be developed into an exact and beneficial science, if there was the will to do so. Governments, councils, communities and households are loathe to explore the potential of “earth closets” because as individuals, we think poo is icky.
I don’t think that it is a problem with it being icky. More a problem with population densities and geography.
In Piha the basic soil is a high metal sand that doesn’t foster any kind of conversion into humus. A dog crap dropped on soil can take months to disappear. Furthermore the section sizes aren’t that different from somewhere like Grey Lynn because of the topography which doesn’t provide a lot of room for spreading whatever comes out of an “earth closet”.
I suspect that they’d have to truck the “night soil” a rather long way away to any place where it’d get a earth breakdown.
But I think that Ad is rather hoping to get any kind of sewerage system because the pump architecture and costs are rather high.
What they should do in Piha is to knock half of the houses down. That would reduce the density of septic tanks and the pollution and health risks associated with them.
I take your point, lprent and enjoyed your reference to night soil; there’s a future in collecting and disposal to soil of humanure in communities like Piha, imo. Where soils are sandy and un-lively as those you describe, importing activated soil from elsewhere and using that as a destination for night soil should be considered. Coupled with that would be a change in the diets of the residents but I recognise that is a big ask just now 🙂 Seperating liquid from solid at the site of delivery is necessary too; asking people to learn to separate their stuff was difficult enough when plastic recycling was started, so taking to people about the management of their bodily functions would be a challenge, though not an insurmountable one. Soil organisms had adapted to utilise humanure perfectly and no uv light, oxygenating clever-clogs system devised by humans will ever match them. It’s all about recognising where the best designs and processes come from and that ain’t the drawing board.
“In Piha the basic soil is a high metal sand that doesn’t foster any kind of conversion into humus. A dog crap dropped on soil can take months to disappear.”
In the Humanure system and variations, you don’t need soil to make humanure. You can even make it in a wheelie bin if you want. As Robert suggests, human crap is designed to break down with just microbes.
As Robert suggests, human crap is designed to break down with just microbes.
No, it’s not designed to do that – other organisms have evolved to do that.
But, still, I’d probably use a treatment plant and then deliver the product from that to the forested hills. Let nature take its course from there fertilising both the forests and the plains beneath them.
Whereas I’d take the pressure off the centralised system by having as much used onsite as possible and where appropriate, and where not appropriate take off site and use elsewhere. Makes the systems more resilient too.
Which means that you need to keep the centralised system.
And, no, it doesn’t make them more resilient. Think about it – when was the last time that the sewer system failed so completely that it caused issues? All you’re doing is using more resources to achieve the same end.
The last big failure I’m aware of is the Chch2. Some people set up modified humanure systems in response.
“All you’re doing is using more resources to achieve the same end.”
That depends on how you view it. If you use the humanure to grow trees and biomass locally then it’s a net gain.
If you are talking about centralised sewerage that is already in existence, then of course keep it. But it’s hugely wasteful to use potable water to dispose of human waste, and that’s going to be an issue going forward. There’s no problem with running two systems but using the least resource-dependent one the most.
Which is one of those things that doesn’t happen often enough to warrant all the extra resources going into every house effectively having its own treatment plant.
That depends on how you view it.
No it doesn’t. It’s most definitely bounded by physical reality.
If you use the humanure to grow trees and biomass locally then it’s a net gain.
Define locally. To put it another way, most houses don’t have enough land to be fully self-sufficient.
There’s no problem with running two systems but using the least resource-dependent one the most.
Yes there is because running two systems uses more resources.
One good reason to root for the Pittsburgh Steelers today
At an event the night before his inauguration, Donald Trump shouted out Patriots owner Bob Kraft in the crowd, complimenting him for a “great quarterback” in Tom Brady, and “great coach” in Bill Belichick. Belichick, who wrote a letter to Trump wishing him luck the day before the election, did not want to talk about it.
No, I don’t know who the Rooneys support. They’re probably Republican, it doesn’t matter. The reason anyone who cares about sporting values should root against the Patriots is because they have a nasty and foolish extreme right wing quarterback, and a coach who grovels to political slimeballs.
Then of course there’s the whole deflation-of-the-footballs scandal.
Well dont forget the Steelers with Impedegate (2013) • Steroidgate (1970-2007) • Salarycapgate (2000) • Shouldergate (1978) • PEDSgate (3x since 1991) • Crampgate (2012) • Tampergate (1994: Capers)
and are recognised as one of the largest cheats in NFL history. But thats OK if you like the owner huh?
God bless Google. But like all things – a few left wing people in NZ not cheering for a US team in a sport that most NZ does not care about will hardly upset Trump.
In fact – as a lot of people are saying its this kind of silly petulant behaviour that got him voted in in the first place.
Did you just write that Trump voters DISLIKE “silly petulant behaviour”? Come on, now, James, a laugh is a laugh but that’s just taking it beyond a joke.
And, as you probably know, a lot of fans feel contempt for Brady….
You mean the Democrats have lost it for a few years. Trump won’t last, but Pennsylvania will.
…and I would guess that a lot of Steelers team members are Trump voters.
Nonsense. The Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is similar to the new Waikato Chiefs coach Colin Cooper: frightened to say anything that might cause offence to loud-mouthed and aggressive white racists. But, in stark contrast to the young Republicans and flag-worshippers like Tom Brady, most NFL players, including the Pittsburgh Steelers, are in fact thoughtful and intelligent…..
Ramon Foster, the Steelers’ NFLPA representative, said the majority of the players support 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s right to protest racial inequality and police brutality during the national anthem.
Re: Trump *protests*
“So a bunch of people — most of them women — marched. What the media didn’t show you is who organized those marches and what they stand for. Let me give you an example; specifically, in Washington DC according to a tweet that was uncovered by Gateway Pundit (and which the person involved has since deleted)”
AWW, the person in this link is raving and making extreme assertions and leaps.
Do you think these marches were some kind of endorsement of Sharia Law? That’s ridiculous.
Perhaps one of the supporters/organisers of one of the marches supports some aspects of Sharia Law – the one shown is about charging interest on loans. That doesn’t mean she unthinkingly endorses all extreme versions of that belief system (ie cliterectomy). There are plenty of people who see themselves as Christian but don’t deny evolution, see homosexuality as a sin or battle to ban abortion.
BTW, the teaching about charging interest is also an historical Christian view – Antonio and Shylock argue about it in detail in The Merchant of Venice. It arises from the interpretation of a parable about Laban’s sheep.
Maybe your establishment minded detractors will prefer this link to the New York Times where they report that George Soros the multi-billionaire has links to more than 50 “partner” organisations of the Womens March on Washington D.C.
In other words, this is all part of a continuing deep state struggle by globalists like Soros to weaken and delegitimise Trump’s new Presidency.
Fair enough, james. He was blindsided. Here’s another asshat being hit, even harder, this time entirely within the rules of fair play. I don’t think anyone would do anything but applaud this one….
Yes, plenty of opportunities for teachers in our fine metropolis… just so long as they don’t mind dossing down in a cardboard box under Grafton Bridge.
National have failed our economy on housing. Of course National general handling of the economy is poor at best, interested in favoring the few, which makes NZ less innovative as the payoff to risk is lowered, the wealthy get the pie nomatter what under National. The mechanism of borrowing off your home to invest in a business is now an age issue, young dont got no home, oldies do.
Of course Hooten thinks the only thing we should consider when voting in the election, yet to be called, is Winston, or someother outlier distraction. Well, Clinton missed it, the economy of three northern states hurting middle class lifestyles mainly. So anywonder hOoten also does.
Its the economy of the middle that has been ravaged by tax cut happy politicians fuelling wealth for the weathiest while hurting poor and midle classes. Its a joke when English claims that half dont pay tax, whose fault is that when his policies lower relative incomes of the poorest and middle classes, and hand productivity gains to the wealthiest.
Combined party vote ceiling: 42% (maximum possible, though very unlikely IMO)
Most likely combined party vote LAB + GR: 35% to 37%
Party vote floor (again very unlikely, though possible IMO): 33%
Also:
1) There is zero chance that Winston will go with Labour/Greens if their combined party vote is under 40%. There is zero chance that LAB/GR can form a government without NZ First.
2) There is a better than 50/50 chance that National will put Paula Bennett at the top of the ticket. (Clarification: this is speculation on behalf of myself and my political team; I have no direct knowledge of this).
3) Labour list MP job security is VERY sensitive to any downward move in party vote cf. 2014. I am somewhat surprised given this circumstance that Little did not secure Rongotai or Mt Albert as his own seat as having no electorate MP experience may be a line of attack used by National.
4) The Gareth Morgan Party will waste a large number of votes which would otherwise go to Labour or Greens. In several ways, his is the new New Zealand Party.
5) Overall, 2:1 chance of a NAT win this year, which will move towards 3:1 if Bennett eventually gets put at the top of the ticket. The Labour Leadership team was geared up to fight Key, their approaches all have to be rethought now, and with Bennett they have even fewer strategies to oppose her than English. (Bennett needs a couple months of intensive coaching first).
6) If Bennett is put at the top of the ticket, National’s marketing pitch will be: working class beneficiary of Tainui decent made good, perfect as NZ’s first Maori PM and NZ’s first Maori Woman PM.
Reference – read this puff piece and tell me they aren’t positioning her hard already with clear prepared lines and spin.
“I didn’t have a job and it looked pretty bleak actually and I reckon it’s a credit to this country that there are opportunities and you get a second chance.
“And if you step up to them and then step in New Zealanders reward you for that hard work.”
Ms Bennett says those values drove her to the National Party…
Ms Bennett, of Tainui descent, spoke of her Maori heritage saying “I know where I come from and what it means”.
“I am incredibly proud of my Maori heritage and where I come from,” she said.
“Like a lot of New Zealanders I grew up certainly knowing that I was Tanui, certainly recognising that particularly through my grandmother in the Waikato.
“So I know where I come from and I know what that means but I also grew up in a household that didn’t speak Maori and that was kind of focused on being a New Zealander.”
I can see where you are coming from with these predictions CV and I don’t like it !!
Do you really think Paula is the answer? Also, won’t the TOP take votes off the Right as well as the Left?
1) I think that with Bennett, National have a crystal clear PR case to put to the country – in essence, working class background, beneficiary, experienced Cabinet Minister, and now the first Maori Woman Prime Minister of New Zealand. In this way National could use the culture of identity politics promulgated by the left, against the left.
2) TOP: the people attracted to TOP will be people who want an alternative to the two big parties (and damn if they’ll ever vote for the “hippies”). It’s certainly up for discussion as to whether or not these voters will be predominantly disaffected Labour voters or disaffected National voters.
3) With Key gone and the social conservatism of English and Bennett, I think most of the Conservative Party vote might fold back into National. If so, that’s a couple of percent boost there for the NATs.
TOP party appeal is hard to guess at. I see the ideas of Gareth Morgan as essentially still mainstream economics (e.g if we just tweek our tax policies a bit the the market will solve all the underlying problems causing inequity and such). But this idea is likely to appeal to many on the Left and I read 7.3 above as the opinion of just such a potential convert. I would not be surprised if lots of prior Labour supporters give TOP a punt.
Do you know any history? The New Zealand party took votes off the government of the day. But then again, I suppose you are all post truth now?
Your diatribe is actually just spin for the national party, and holds nothing for working people. So I take it you are embracing your inner middle class prat?
You were not the only one who picked trump would win once the dnc went crazy, but you are the only one who has gone full man love of trump.
So as you are not interested in the hopes and dreams of working people anymore, why don’t you go help whale oil? Nothing you write talks to the people who did not vote, nothing you now rant about actually helps working people, it is nothing more than vainglorious gasconade.
p.s if you come back with anything trump, or the left are with their head in the sand. I’ll just know you off into lala land. Because i’ll say this only once, organise or get out of the way.
“You were not the only one who picked trump would win once the dnc went crazy, but you are the only one who has gone full man love of trump.”
This.
“p.s if you come back with anything trump, or the left are with their head in the sand. I’ll just know you off into lala land. Because i’ll say this only once, organise or get out of the way.”
And this.
CV is has been banned for 4 weeks. Perhaps we should get on and organise while we have some breathing space 🙂
I was intending to reply to CV’s political predictions post by making a prediction myself; that CV would suffer a lengthy ban from the Standard for anarchic, anti-progressive trolling.
It seems CV was too quick with his anti-worker trolling and I was too slow with my prediction.
Adam, are you aware if CVs suggested National party strategy is *the* National party strategy you have just engaged in shooting the messenger, and demanded that nobody should discuss the election positioning of the Government in an election year. You should stop attacking people who are trying to assist with your understanding of the political landscape!
Even the big US media outlets acknowledged the lie in their headlines, to their credit. But they will need to figure out a whole different way to cover this administration. Look, even the Auckland Herald has a story about that: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11787056
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
And there is not a single major media outlet that will promote or encourage anything that might hold the potential to challenge institutional power and authority. So yes, the likes of yesterdays marches and protests will get covered. But only in ways and to an extent that ensures everything remains safe and in its proper place.
So today, I see some headlines about audience or viewing figures. And I see opinion pieces and analytical wankery on what it all means or might mean or doesn’t mean. That, apparently, is where the ball is. And so that’s where we’re all meant to rush headlong to.
Please do let me know how my reply is off-topic or irrelevant to that, so I can avoid the same error again?
The first para is not about some tittle-tattle about a dishonest politician. You really think, even for a second, that a lying spokesperon or politician is in any was a threat to institutional power or authority?
For fucks sake, that kind of shit can be (and is) analysed and turned over, buried and dug up again to be poked at, precisely because it is utterly meaningless in terms of power or in terms of challenges to it.
Meanwhile, stuff that could (if reported thoroughly and honestly) lead to institutional power being seriously challenged or undermined (such as major follow up reports on the marches and protests) is swept under the carpet.
It seems you completely missed the point of the post. Shit happens.
You need to ask Donald Trump, Kellyanne Conway, and the Trump administration Spokes person as to why they would lie about crowd sizes, and why would it matter to them (comparing dick sizes is usually something blokes do, and this reminds me a bit like that….mine is bigger then yours 🙂 blablahbalh ) .
Cause the women and their supporters showed up, at their expense, took days of work, spend hours in trains/busses/cars etc, braved the same shit weather etc. as did the Trump supporters.
Or maybe the showing of supporters was just a showing of the actually numbers of support each candidate got in the End.
I mean D. Trump won by 80.000 votes in three states to carry the electoral College, so one could say that 250.000 coming to his installment was a good shot.
Hillary Clinton got almost three million more votes by individual voters then DTrump, so the size of 3.3 million would reflect that no?
As for what its good? I don’t know, should we just do away with Protests/Rallies so as to not upset the nice people?
Maybe its only got to do with this : ” Good girls go to heaven but bad girls go every where ”
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Sorry Bill, but I found this opinion piece asinine, short-sighted and very trivializing. If I do you a disservice by saying you don’t have much faith in the democratic process, then I apologize. I am persuaded after following the American media, both pre and post Rupert Murdoch, that they do uncover the truth – even if eventually. When someone as stupid and ignorant and arrogant as Trump, doesn’t even bother to hide his failings, but instead tries to re-term the word “liar” with “fake news” and “alternative reality”, then your football analogy is trite. Trump is telling you the game isn’t football, but baseball, and regrettably you seem to be defending the indefensible. Because this US election is so far removed from the traditional political model, largely because of Russian cyber-warfare and a partisan FBI director’s shenanigans, a megalomaniac has gained the White House. I don’t doubt for a minute, that the full weight of the American Press will investigate and publish, nor that that saner heads will prevail, both in the US Senate and House. Look for an early impeachment, with the media doing what it’s supposed to do – shine a light on the truth for all to see. That’s democracy at work. Despite what economists like to think, politics encompasses economics, not the other way round.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
@Skeptic – The Russian thing and FBI shenanigans were not the main factors of Trump being elected, rather it was the DNC who decided to choose Clinton over Bernie Sanders and decided to rig the outcome of the primary. It certainly wasnt “the mainstream media doing what it’s supposed to do – shine a light on the truth for all to see” – democracy wasn’t working….. the few media corporations (6 of them I think) are hugely corrupted themselves. The US Senate and the House are ‘owned’ by the Corporations and Banks, I doubt “saner heads will prevail”. Ironically it may be Trump that ends up blowing up the media corruption……my 10c worth.
Nic you are in la la land if you believe sanders a socialist would have won election. A socialist can’t even win in Nz and we have a lot stonger left bent or affliction than the US The issue I see is both democrats and republicans had terrible candidates ( including sanders) if democrats had put up any one half middle ground ie Bieden etc they would have strolled in
Sorry Nick, but as my pseudonym implies, I don’t and never have subscribed to conspiracy theories – all of my tertiary studies have settled beyond any shadow of doubt that so-called conspiracies deflate in direct proportion to the number of people purportedly involved – and therefore are, by and large, figments of the imaginations of deluded souls believing in Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and the Man in the Moon. Rather than a huge conspiracy involving thousands of ordinary motivated members of the DNC, and the hundreds of thousands making up the US media, all of whom are supposedly acting in secret to undermine Bernie Sanders, and the tens of thousands of people supporting and assisting the elected officials of one the most open states on the planet – again supposedly acting secret to advance the aims of the “Corporations & Banks” (numbering in their millions if you include all their employees) and not one of these is going to leak the big secret – yeah right! Sorry mate, but the real “secret” is that although it takes a while, ulterior motives will always be shown the light of day. Blowhards and egotists are always revealed for what they really are. And despite it’s very tarnished reputation, and self censorship depending on its editorial slant, the US media is mostly very, very good at uncovering facts. Given the release of various documents under the US FOI Act, and comparing these with back copies of newspapers of the day, their facts are surprisingly accurate even if their opinions are not. I think Trump is due to find this unpalatable truth out very shortly.
Nope. Skeptic is saying conspiracies almost always get found out. The more people involved, the quicker it’s found out (on average). So if there had been some kind of conspiracy beyond the clumsy fumblings revealed by the DNC e-mails, we can be very confident we would have found out by now.
Nope he does not, he categorically states “I don’t and never have subscribed to conspiracy theories”. Then move’s towards a dnc consisting of thousands, ummmm on what planet? The DNC has some 300 odd members, but in real terms the committee is run by sub-committees. With power held firmly in the fundraising and election steering committees. So sure if it was thousands, fine. Hundreds we’d even get a feel for it. But 12 people, it’s possible they can keep their mouth shut for years. So confidence we could find out, nope, that is just a theory as well.
“A conspiracy theory is an attempt to explain a perceived real-world occurrence through the actions of a secretive, usually evil and very selfish group. Not all conspiracy theories are wrong, but if the theory requires greater suspension of disbelief than random chance would to explain the occurrence,”
So the theory is the DNC helped h.r.c get the nomination by making it difficult for anyone else to run, the use of super delegates, and the by timing of elections. Then the media helped by ignoring other canditates, or extensively talking about h.r.c and her suport by super delegates.
So that is the conspiracy theory as it stands. I did not think it was that far out, or weird, and actually did a good job explaining what happen, but ,once again it is only a thoery. Much like your possition Andre, you are just offering a conspiracy theory as well. That everyone who looked dirty was clean. I find that harder to belive.
Skeptic, Trump is president and the Media were big influencers in that outcome. The fact parts seemed minor. The sensationalism was front and center. US media dropped the ball.
I’m thinking you missed the point of the piece Skeptic.
I’ve no idea why you’re banging on about ‘uncovering the truth’ when the piece clearly wasn’t about that…or about “fake news” (a term coined by Liberals that’s well and truly biting them on the arse now).
And the football analogy wasn’t about what Trumps says or wants or any fucking thing to do with Trump…it was about mindlessly running around to “achieve” something with no accompanying strategy or eye to the bigger picture or thought to exactly what it is that’s been done or what might be achieved by it – jist get the ba – get the ba! Kick it. Kick it! Kick it!!
Anyway.
Cyber warfare? Fuck off. Irrelevant to the piece.
FBI directors? Fuck off. Irrelevant to the piece.
Did you even read the fucking words I posted? Or did you just imagine a springboard and go all ‘bouncey, bouncey’ dive, dive?
The only reason I’m not kicking your comment to Open Mike is because (unfortunately) it’s sat as a piece of distracting smash for three hours now and has essentially already derailed discussion.
Labour and Greens combined will be less then 40%. NZF will be less than 10% How can there ever be another Labour led government? This is the 21st century. Labour governments were a feature of last century.
I know most RWNJs here will be upset that the anarchist CV has been banned for the first time of many this year. But with that first banning, it is time for the rest of us socially conscious people to celebrate that we might for once discuss a change in government on policy rather than strategy.
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Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
“It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April to meet the Prime Minister’s ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
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The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
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While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, 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. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
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On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
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As a young gymnast, Aimee Didierjean was always conscious of making sure her underwear wasn’t showing on the competition floor. A peek of a bra strap, or briefs if a leotard rode up, would cost a gymnast points in her routines. “When I was growing and going through puberty, it ...
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The sudden favouring of the very few who have user logins (authors or people with very old logins) has been fixed.
A option in the discussion page “Users must be registered and logged in to comment” got knocked on by accident 19 hours ago. I’ve now turned it back off.
Thank you.
Thank you! I saw the Word Press logo and thought I was on KiwiBlog.
Imagine the horror.
I’m on 999 posts over there, by the way. I promised the boys I’d make my 1,000th a real rip-snorter, but I still haven’t produced. I have a severe case of writer’s block, I’m afraid….
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2016/12/general_debate_20_december_2016.html/comment-page-1#comment-1840994
These days I always seem to have writers block for human level English.
Fortunately I don’t currently have it in c++, C#, python, … I have had blocks in those in the past and have found that writing English in troll suppression mode has usually sufficient to drive me back to rationality.
But this drought in English has been ongoing for a while. Perhaps I should start to resurrect writing in my piss-poor human French or German (or even historian Latin) to see if I can kickstart the English habit again.
Or perhaps just stopping the habit of writing anything on cellphones would help. I have to say that while they are great communication devices, they are piss-poor devices for writing coherently.
Placebo seem to have nailed it..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69aCTCP1t9Q&feature=youtu.be
I have a severe case of writer’s block, I’m afraid….
Not possible. 😮 😮 😮
You’re correct, Anne. It’s not really writer’s block, it’s laziness on my part. I do really want to write a magnum opus, but I just can’t work up the enthusiasm. Maybe it’s all those down-votes taking their toll….
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2016/12/key_retires.html/comment-page-1#comment-1831641
Well , if it were me I would lay the blame at the door of the new president of the USA. Four years of that megalomaniac is a very depressing thought.
Thanks Anne. That’s a splendid wheeze!
testing
No summer swimming at several Auckland beaches
“Auckland’s century-old stormwater pipes overflow into the ocean almost every time it rains, and it’s putting many of the city’s beaches out of action.
It only takes 5mm of rain to fall before the combined sewage and stormwater pipes overflow.
“The frequency with which it happens in Auckland is a bit of a concern, because it’s 50 times a year,” says Auckland University wastewater engineer Dr Lokesh Padhye.
A Weekend Herald investigation found in a year, around 1 million cubic metres of wastewater is disposed of in the harbour each year.”
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/01/no-summer-swimming-at-several-auckland-beaches.html
The important response from Watercare to sewerage spillovers in the Auckland isthmus region is the Central Interceptor project. See the video and explanation in the link below:
https://www.watercare.co.nz/about-watercare/projects/central-interceptor/Pages/default.aspx
Back in the day most of the stormwater and wastewater were put into the same pipe and outflow. It’s taken the the best chunk of a century to gradually separate them. The Central Interceptor project – about $1.3b of work – deals with a whole bunch more of the separations. It’s not a full cure, but it’s a big step forward.
Some of those other places like Piha need to get much stronger support from the local community to get a comprehensive solution. Putting a population that size on septic tanks is ridiculous.
All septic tanks are ridiculous, in my view. Disposal of humanure to soil is the best practice. There are ways to do this in all situations (even in a space craft 🙂 and those methods could be developed into an exact and beneficial science, if there was the will to do so. Governments, councils, communities and households are loathe to explore the potential of “earth closets” because as individuals, we think poo is icky.
Billy at his best….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6HYbX7GQVQ
I don’t think that it is a problem with it being icky. More a problem with population densities and geography.
In Piha the basic soil is a high metal sand that doesn’t foster any kind of conversion into humus. A dog crap dropped on soil can take months to disappear. Furthermore the section sizes aren’t that different from somewhere like Grey Lynn because of the topography which doesn’t provide a lot of room for spreading whatever comes out of an “earth closet”.
I suspect that they’d have to truck the “night soil” a rather long way away to any place where it’d get a earth breakdown.
But I think that Ad is rather hoping to get any kind of sewerage system because the pump architecture and costs are rather high.
What they should do in Piha is to knock half of the houses down. That would reduce the density of septic tanks and the pollution and health risks associated with them.
I take your point, lprent and enjoyed your reference to night soil; there’s a future in collecting and disposal to soil of humanure in communities like Piha, imo. Where soils are sandy and un-lively as those you describe, importing activated soil from elsewhere and using that as a destination for night soil should be considered. Coupled with that would be a change in the diets of the residents but I recognise that is a big ask just now 🙂 Seperating liquid from solid at the site of delivery is necessary too; asking people to learn to separate their stuff was difficult enough when plastic recycling was started, so taking to people about the management of their bodily functions would be a challenge, though not an insurmountable one. Soil organisms had adapted to utilise humanure perfectly and no uv light, oxygenating clever-clogs system devised by humans will ever match them. It’s all about recognising where the best designs and processes come from and that ain’t the drawing board.
http://www.zingbokashi.co.nz/about-ecoflo-composting-toilets/
I know of folk who have composting toilets in their housetrucks and motorhomes.
If they can work in tiny homes….
“In Piha the basic soil is a high metal sand that doesn’t foster any kind of conversion into humus. A dog crap dropped on soil can take months to disappear.”
In the Humanure system and variations, you don’t need soil to make humanure. You can even make it in a wheelie bin if you want. As Robert suggests, human crap is designed to break down with just microbes.
No, it’s not designed to do that – other organisms have evolved to do that.
But, still, I’d probably use a treatment plant and then deliver the product from that to the forested hills. Let nature take its course from there fertilising both the forests and the plains beneath them.
Whereas I’d take the pressure off the centralised system by having as much used onsite as possible and where appropriate, and where not appropriate take off site and use elsewhere. Makes the systems more resilient too.
Which means that you need to keep the centralised system.
And, no, it doesn’t make them more resilient. Think about it – when was the last time that the sewer system failed so completely that it caused issues? All you’re doing is using more resources to achieve the same end.
The last big failure I’m aware of is the Chch2. Some people set up modified humanure systems in response.
“All you’re doing is using more resources to achieve the same end.”
That depends on how you view it. If you use the humanure to grow trees and biomass locally then it’s a net gain.
If you are talking about centralised sewerage that is already in existence, then of course keep it. But it’s hugely wasteful to use potable water to dispose of human waste, and that’s going to be an issue going forward. There’s no problem with running two systems but using the least resource-dependent one the most.
Which is one of those things that doesn’t happen often enough to warrant all the extra resources going into every house effectively having its own treatment plant.
No it doesn’t. It’s most definitely bounded by physical reality.
Define locally. To put it another way, most houses don’t have enough land to be fully self-sufficient.
Yes there is because running two systems uses more resources.
I’d like the locals to take a cup of cement and agree to Watercare getting a decent comprehensive system in there. Piha locals
I’d like the locals to take a cup of cement and agree to Watercare getting a decent comprehensive system in there.
Piha locals like to stop things.
“Piha locals like to stop things”
Then could we issue each of them with a bung?
One good reason to root for the Pittsburgh Steelers today
http://deadspin.com/bill-belichick-on-trump-mentioning-him-in-speech-weve-1791431753
So support the other team just because the owner supported the candidate you didn’t like.
That is so petty and pathetic.
No, I don’t know who the Rooneys support. They’re probably Republican, it doesn’t matter. The reason anyone who cares about sporting values should root against the Patriots is because they have a nasty and foolish extreme right wing quarterback, and a coach who grovels to political slimeballs.
Then of course there’s the whole deflation-of-the-footballs scandal.
Well dont forget the Steelers with Impedegate (2013) • Steroidgate (1970-2007) • Salarycapgate (2000) • Shouldergate (1978) • PEDSgate (3x since 1991) • Crampgate (2012) • Tampergate (1994: Capers)
and are recognised as one of the largest cheats in NFL history. But thats OK if you like the owner huh?
God bless Google. But like all things – a few left wing people in NZ not cheering for a US team in a sport that most NZ does not care about will hardly upset Trump.
In fact – as a lot of people are saying its this kind of silly petulant behaviour that got him voted in in the first place.
Did you just write that Trump voters DISLIKE “silly petulant behaviour”? Come on, now, James, a laugh is a laugh but that’s just taking it beyond a joke.
And, as you probably know, a lot of fans feel contempt for Brady….
http://deadspin.com/is-this-the-dildo-thrown-onto-the-field-yesterday-by-a-1788407737
PA. is now a Trump state, and I would guess that a lot of Steelers team members are Trump voters.
PA. is now a Trump state
You mean the Democrats have lost it for a few years. Trump won’t last, but Pennsylvania will.
…and I would guess that a lot of Steelers team members are Trump voters.
Nonsense. The Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is similar to the new Waikato Chiefs coach Colin Cooper: frightened to say anything that might cause offence to loud-mouthed and aggressive white racists. But, in stark contrast to the young Republicans and flag-worshippers like Tom Brady, most NFL players, including the Pittsburgh Steelers, are in fact thoughtful and intelligent…..
http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/11117937-74/johnson-steelers-cockrell
Re: Trump *protests*
“So a bunch of people — most of them women — marched. What the media didn’t show you is who organized those marches and what they stand for. Let me give you an example; specifically, in Washington DC according to a tweet that was uncovered by Gateway Pundit (and which the person involved has since deleted)”
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=231774
AWW, the person in this link is raving and making extreme assertions and leaps.
Do you think these marches were some kind of endorsement of Sharia Law? That’s ridiculous.
Perhaps one of the supporters/organisers of one of the marches supports some aspects of Sharia Law – the one shown is about charging interest on loans. That doesn’t mean she unthinkingly endorses all extreme versions of that belief system (ie cliterectomy). There are plenty of people who see themselves as Christian but don’t deny evolution, see homosexuality as a sin or battle to ban abortion.
BTW, the teaching about charging interest is also an historical Christian view – Antonio and Shylock argue about it in detail in The Merchant of Venice. It arises from the interpretation of a parable about Laban’s sheep.
AKA – the stupidest man on the internet.
/
Hi AsleepWhileWalking
Maybe your establishment minded detractors will prefer this link to the New York Times where they report that George Soros the multi-billionaire has links to more than 50 “partner” organisations of the Womens March on Washington D.C.
In other words, this is all part of a continuing deep state struggle by globalists like Soros to weaken and delegitimise Trump’s new Presidency.
http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2017/01/20/billionaire-george-soros-has-ties-to-more-than-50-partners-of-the-womens-march-on-washington/
Trump is antifascist anti communist.
The latter I suspect gets on your wik.
Just noting that neither Russia nor China are communist any more – they are State Capitalism / market economy hybrids.
10 GIFs That Will Make You Feel Better About Inauguration Day
by ANNA MERIAN, Jezebel, Jan. 20, 2017
Today was a very difficult day for many Americans. Please take a moment and see if these GIFs make you feel a tiny bit better, though?
1. White supremacist thought leader Richard Spencer getting punched right in his head twice.
……
http://theslot.jezebel.com/10-gifs-that-will-make-you-feel-better-about-inaugurati-1791451682
Now – I think the guy is an asshat – but I dont condone violence and especially do not feel better watching someone being smacked in the head.
Fair enough, james. He was blindsided. Here’s another asshat being hit, even harder, this time entirely within the rules of fair play. I don’t think anyone would do anything but applaud this one….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUdYgBhF9-w
meh … kinda got to agree with you on that one.
Issues more important than discussing whether Obama or Trump had a bigger crowd.
Teacher shortages in Auckland due to the housing crisis.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/322867/pupils-due-back-but-akl-schools-still-scrambling-to-find-teachers
Yes, plenty of opportunities for teachers in our fine metropolis… just so long as they don’t mind dossing down in a cardboard box under Grafton Bridge.
Yes boss
National have failed our economy on housing. Of course National general handling of the economy is poor at best, interested in favoring the few, which makes NZ less innovative as the payoff to risk is lowered, the wealthy get the pie nomatter what under National. The mechanism of borrowing off your home to invest in a business is now an age issue, young dont got no home, oldies do.
Of course Hooten thinks the only thing we should consider when voting in the election, yet to be called, is Winston, or someother outlier distraction. Well, Clinton missed it, the economy of three northern states hurting middle class lifestyles mainly. So anywonder hOoten also does.
Its the economy of the middle that has been ravaged by tax cut happy politicians fuelling wealth for the weathiest while hurting poor and midle classes. Its a joke when English claims that half dont pay tax, whose fault is that when his policies lower relative incomes of the poorest and middle classes, and hand productivity gains to the wealthiest.
CV’s NZ Election Predictions 2017
I will update these if needed down the track
Labour/Greens block
Combined party vote ceiling: 42% (maximum possible, though very unlikely IMO)
Most likely combined party vote LAB + GR: 35% to 37%
Party vote floor (again very unlikely, though possible IMO): 33%
Also:
1) There is zero chance that Winston will go with Labour/Greens if their combined party vote is under 40%. There is zero chance that LAB/GR can form a government without NZ First.
2) There is a better than 50/50 chance that National will put Paula Bennett at the top of the ticket. (Clarification: this is speculation on behalf of myself and my political team; I have no direct knowledge of this).
3) Labour list MP job security is VERY sensitive to any downward move in party vote cf. 2014. I am somewhat surprised given this circumstance that Little did not secure Rongotai or Mt Albert as his own seat as having no electorate MP experience may be a line of attack used by National.
4) The Gareth Morgan Party will waste a large number of votes which would otherwise go to Labour or Greens. In several ways, his is the new New Zealand Party.
5) Overall, 2:1 chance of a NAT win this year, which will move towards 3:1 if Bennett eventually gets put at the top of the ticket. The Labour Leadership team was geared up to fight Key, their approaches all have to be rethought now, and with Bennett they have even fewer strategies to oppose her than English. (Bennett needs a couple months of intensive coaching first).
6) If Bennett is put at the top of the ticket, National’s marketing pitch will be: working class beneficiary of Tainui decent made good, perfect as NZ’s first Maori PM and NZ’s first Maori Woman PM.
Reference – read this puff piece and tell me they aren’t positioning her hard already with clear prepared lines and spin.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/reflective-paula-bennett-shares-her-story-bleak-time-unemployed-solo-mum-nationals-deputy-leader
I can see where you are coming from with these predictions CV and I don’t like it !!
Do you really think Paula is the answer? Also, won’t the TOP take votes off the Right as well as the Left?
1) I think that with Bennett, National have a crystal clear PR case to put to the country – in essence, working class background, beneficiary, experienced Cabinet Minister, and now the first Maori Woman Prime Minister of New Zealand. In this way National could use the culture of identity politics promulgated by the left, against the left.
2) TOP: the people attracted to TOP will be people who want an alternative to the two big parties (and damn if they’ll ever vote for the “hippies”). It’s certainly up for discussion as to whether or not these voters will be predominantly disaffected Labour voters or disaffected National voters.
3) With Key gone and the social conservatism of English and Bennett, I think most of the Conservative Party vote might fold back into National. If so, that’s a couple of percent boost there for the NATs.
Thanks CV. So you think it is only lefties that don’t like Paula pulling up the ladder behind her?
TOP party appeal is hard to guess at. I see the ideas of Gareth Morgan as essentially still mainstream economics (e.g if we just tweek our tax policies a bit the the market will solve all the underlying problems causing inequity and such). But this idea is likely to appeal to many on the Left and I read 7.3 above as the opinion of just such a potential convert. I would not be surprised if lots of prior Labour supporters give TOP a punt.
Do you know any history? The New Zealand party took votes off the government of the day. But then again, I suppose you are all post truth now?
Your diatribe is actually just spin for the national party, and holds nothing for working people. So I take it you are embracing your inner middle class prat?
You were not the only one who picked trump would win once the dnc went crazy, but you are the only one who has gone full man love of trump.
So as you are not interested in the hopes and dreams of working people anymore, why don’t you go help whale oil? Nothing you write talks to the people who did not vote, nothing you now rant about actually helps working people, it is nothing more than vainglorious gasconade.
p.s if you come back with anything trump, or the left are with their head in the sand. I’ll just know you off into lala land. Because i’ll say this only once, organise or get out of the way.
CV hates working people. Presumably that’s why he was thrown out of NZ Labour, Dunedin South.
CV hates working people so much he proposes doubling the price of fuel overnight.
He also hates left wing people. Hard to see if there’s anything else.
“You were not the only one who picked trump would win once the dnc went crazy, but you are the only one who has gone full man love of trump.”
This.
“p.s if you come back with anything trump, or the left are with their head in the sand. I’ll just know you off into lala land. Because i’ll say this only once, organise or get out of the way.”
And this.
CV is has been banned for 4 weeks. Perhaps we should get on and organise while we have some breathing space 🙂
Damn.
I was intending to reply to CV’s political predictions post by making a prediction myself; that CV would suffer a lengthy ban from the Standard for anarchic, anti-progressive trolling.
It seems CV was too quick with his anti-worker trolling and I was too slow with my prediction.
Organise – Indeed!
Adam, are you aware if CVs suggested National party strategy is *the* National party strategy you have just engaged in shooting the messenger, and demanded that nobody should discuss the election positioning of the Government in an election year. You should stop attacking people who are trying to assist with your understanding of the political landscape!
Nic the NZer, if that all it was, I would have said nothing – but…
Not sure you’ll have the opportunity.
I predict multiple suspensions for CV on the Standard this year for repeated and petulant trolling of socially conscious opinions.
Not sure CV has ever gotten over Phil Twyford’s call for data on Chinese speculative purchasing of Auckland property.
It seems to have consumed him down there in Dunedin South.
Davos 2017 – A Basic Income for All: Dream or Delusion?
https://youtu.be/7rL6gJkdlNU
Plenty of discussion about the substance rather than the distraction in this post and its links: https://thestandard.org.nz/starting-out-with-an-obvious-lie/
Even the big US media outlets acknowledged the lie in their headlines, to their credit. But they will need to figure out a whole different way to cover this administration. Look, even the Auckland Herald has a story about that: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11787056
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
From the original post:
Please do let me know how my reply is off-topic or irrelevant to that, so I can avoid the same error again?
The first para is not about some tittle-tattle about a dishonest politician. You really think, even for a second, that a lying spokesperon or politician is in any was a threat to institutional power or authority?
For fucks sake, that kind of shit can be (and is) analysed and turned over, buried and dug up again to be poked at, precisely because it is utterly meaningless in terms of power or in terms of challenges to it.
Meanwhile, stuff that could (if reported thoroughly and honestly) lead to institutional power being seriously challenged or undermined (such as major follow up reports on the marches and protests) is swept under the carpet.
It seems you completely missed the point of the post. Shit happens.
Thank you for the reply. Seems several of us missed your point.
Yup.
Still scratching my head about that one :-). I thought it was clear enough.
You need to ask Donald Trump, Kellyanne Conway, and the Trump administration Spokes person as to why they would lie about crowd sizes, and why would it matter to them (comparing dick sizes is usually something blokes do, and this reminds me a bit like that….mine is bigger then yours 🙂 blablahbalh ) .
Cause the women and their supporters showed up, at their expense, took days of work, spend hours in trains/busses/cars etc, braved the same shit weather etc. as did the Trump supporters.
Or maybe the showing of supporters was just a showing of the actually numbers of support each candidate got in the End.
I mean D. Trump won by 80.000 votes in three states to carry the electoral College, so one could say that 250.000 coming to his installment was a good shot.
Hillary Clinton got almost three million more votes by individual voters then DTrump, so the size of 3.3 million would reflect that no?
As for what its good? I don’t know, should we just do away with Protests/Rallies so as to not upset the nice people?
Maybe its only got to do with this : ” Good girls go to heaven but bad girls go every where ”
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
It was probably around 600,000. Only a small fraction of Obama’s turnout in 2009 of course.
According to Trump’s new press secretary Sean Spicer, there are more than 100,000 people in this photo….
http://previews.123rf.com/images/paha_l/paha_l1203/paha_l120302479/12489119-Rows-of-green-seats-in-an-empty-stadium-Focus-on-front-seats-Stock-Photo.jpg
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Sean Spicer is pretty terrible, but it appears he’s actually
better than the guy Trump first chose as his “communications director”
This is not a parody of a reality show, I swear….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4064608/Donald-Trump-s-communications-director-Jason-Miller-quits-amid-sex-scandal-rumors.html
Trump’s Secretary of Education.
Sorry Bill, but I found this opinion piece asinine, short-sighted and very trivializing. If I do you a disservice by saying you don’t have much faith in the democratic process, then I apologize. I am persuaded after following the American media, both pre and post Rupert Murdoch, that they do uncover the truth – even if eventually. When someone as stupid and ignorant and arrogant as Trump, doesn’t even bother to hide his failings, but instead tries to re-term the word “liar” with “fake news” and “alternative reality”, then your football analogy is trite. Trump is telling you the game isn’t football, but baseball, and regrettably you seem to be defending the indefensible. Because this US election is so far removed from the traditional political model, largely because of Russian cyber-warfare and a partisan FBI director’s shenanigans, a megalomaniac has gained the White House. I don’t doubt for a minute, that the full weight of the American Press will investigate and publish, nor that that saner heads will prevail, both in the US Senate and House. Look for an early impeachment, with the media doing what it’s supposed to do – shine a light on the truth for all to see. That’s democracy at work. Despite what economists like to think, politics encompasses economics, not the other way round.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
@Skeptic – The Russian thing and FBI shenanigans were not the main factors of Trump being elected, rather it was the DNC who decided to choose Clinton over Bernie Sanders and decided to rig the outcome of the primary. It certainly wasnt “the mainstream media doing what it’s supposed to do – shine a light on the truth for all to see” – democracy wasn’t working….. the few media corporations (6 of them I think) are hugely corrupted themselves. The US Senate and the House are ‘owned’ by the Corporations and Banks, I doubt “saner heads will prevail”. Ironically it may be Trump that ends up blowing up the media corruption……my 10c worth.
Nic you are in la la land if you believe sanders a socialist would have won election. A socialist can’t even win in Nz and we have a lot stonger left bent or affliction than the US The issue I see is both democrats and republicans had terrible candidates ( including sanders) if democrats had put up any one half middle ground ie Bieden etc they would have strolled in
Clinton didn’t rate Sanders either Red.
Sorry Nick, but as my pseudonym implies, I don’t and never have subscribed to conspiracy theories – all of my tertiary studies have settled beyond any shadow of doubt that so-called conspiracies deflate in direct proportion to the number of people purportedly involved – and therefore are, by and large, figments of the imaginations of deluded souls believing in Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and the Man in the Moon. Rather than a huge conspiracy involving thousands of ordinary motivated members of the DNC, and the hundreds of thousands making up the US media, all of whom are supposedly acting in secret to undermine Bernie Sanders, and the tens of thousands of people supporting and assisting the elected officials of one the most open states on the planet – again supposedly acting secret to advance the aims of the “Corporations & Banks” (numbering in their millions if you include all their employees) and not one of these is going to leak the big secret – yeah right! Sorry mate, but the real “secret” is that although it takes a while, ulterior motives will always be shown the light of day. Blowhards and egotists are always revealed for what they really are. And despite it’s very tarnished reputation, and self censorship depending on its editorial slant, the US media is mostly very, very good at uncovering facts. Given the release of various documents under the US FOI Act, and comparing these with back copies of newspapers of the day, their facts are surprisingly accurate even if their opinions are not. I think Trump is due to find this unpalatable truth out very shortly.
Are you saying there have never been conspiracies Skeptic? Because it seems you are, and that is a very dangerous position.
Nope. Skeptic is saying conspiracies almost always get found out. The more people involved, the quicker it’s found out (on average). So if there had been some kind of conspiracy beyond the clumsy fumblings revealed by the DNC e-mails, we can be very confident we would have found out by now.
Nope he does not, he categorically states “I don’t and never have subscribed to conspiracy theories”. Then move’s towards a dnc consisting of thousands, ummmm on what planet? The DNC has some 300 odd members, but in real terms the committee is run by sub-committees. With power held firmly in the fundraising and election steering committees. So sure if it was thousands, fine. Hundreds we’d even get a feel for it. But 12 people, it’s possible they can keep their mouth shut for years. So confidence we could find out, nope, that is just a theory as well.
A conspiracy is different to “conspiracy theory”.
“A conspiracy theory is an attempt to explain a perceived real-world occurrence through the actions of a secretive, usually evil and very selfish group. Not all conspiracy theories are wrong, but if the theory requires greater suspension of disbelief than random chance would to explain the occurrence,”
from http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/List_of_conspiracy_theories
So the theory is the DNC helped h.r.c get the nomination by making it difficult for anyone else to run, the use of super delegates, and the by timing of elections. Then the media helped by ignoring other canditates, or extensively talking about h.r.c and her suport by super delegates.
So that is the conspiracy theory as it stands. I did not think it was that far out, or weird, and actually did a good job explaining what happen, but ,once again it is only a thoery. Much like your possition Andre, you are just offering a conspiracy theory as well. That everyone who looked dirty was clean. I find that harder to belive.
Skeptic, Trump is president and the Media were big influencers in that outcome. The fact parts seemed minor. The sensationalism was front and center. US media dropped the ball.
I’m thinking you missed the point of the piece Skeptic.
I’ve no idea why you’re banging on about ‘uncovering the truth’ when the piece clearly wasn’t about that…or about “fake news” (a term coined by Liberals that’s well and truly biting them on the arse now).
And the football analogy wasn’t about what Trumps says or wants or any fucking thing to do with Trump…it was about mindlessly running around to “achieve” something with no accompanying strategy or eye to the bigger picture or thought to exactly what it is that’s been done or what might be achieved by it – jist get the ba – get the ba! Kick it. Kick it! Kick it!!
Anyway.
Cyber warfare? Fuck off. Irrelevant to the piece.
FBI directors? Fuck off. Irrelevant to the piece.
Investigations, publishing findings, saner heads, impeachment?!
Did you even read the fucking words I posted? Or did you just imagine a springboard and go all ‘bouncey, bouncey’ dive, dive?
The only reason I’m not kicking your comment to Open Mike is because (unfortunately) it’s sat as a piece of distracting smash for three hours now and has essentially already derailed discussion.
edit – Actually. Fuck it. Gone.
“jist get the ba – get the ba!”
Lovely bit of Scots dialect there, Bill. Very Partick Thistle.
Abby Martin getting close to what people are feeling on the ground, protesting yesterday. More to come, this is just a teaser.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtGHM9Uqbtg
Naomi Klein on Trump Election: “This is a Corporate Coup d’État”
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/1/20/naomi_klein_on_trump_election_this
Labour and Greens combined will be less then 40%. NZF will be less than 10% How can there ever be another Labour led government? This is the 21st century. Labour governments were a feature of last century.
I know most RWNJs here will be upset that the anarchist CV has been banned for the first time of many this year. But with that first banning, it is time for the rest of us socially conscious people to celebrate that we might for once discuss a change in government on policy rather than strategy.
Oh, please, yes. Seems too many on left wing blogs and other sites focus on strategy and treating politics as a team sport.
Sadly too many think of it as a not just a team sport, but as a contact sport.
There is a lot of attacking the person / or messenger.
hmm, I think strategy is important, but can you please explain what you mean so I can see if we mean the same thing?
Lol
Didn’t he only come back from self imposed exile a day or two back?
Must have wanted to boost his right wing street cred with a ban.
This is pathetic.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]