mmmmm……I’d keep your knees together a while longer, Red, or at least insist on withdrawl – that big Kahuna might look irresistable after a couple of drinks, but reduced WFF and DPB will be one heck of a hangover….
I see Bernard is being more circumspect about it now.
But his #8 really means “get rid of interest free student loans and working for families”. These are two policies he seems particularly offended by and has been bleating about them for years.
Yeah, I dont know how he expects people to pay their rent,etc when they lose their WFF, but I guess when you are rolling in it, you dont worry about those things.
I noticed that he wants the super age raised to 67. Which will be a kick in the teeth for those who have slogged their guts for 40-50 years doing manual work and then to find that they have to wait two more years to qualify for national super so they can retire at last.
I have noticed that those who wish to see the national super age raised are those who have spent all their working lives sitting on their asses in an office and eating chocolate.
9 Reducing consumption of imports, and saving, producing and exporting more.
Why do people always expect an export led recovery to more growth to work?
We have limited resources so why are politicians and economists so enthusiastic about using them up as fast as possible? Do they want our children and grand-children to have nothing?
Is it really that important to force most people to work so that a few can have more nothing money in the bank?
Can we please start asking two questions:
1.) What is the economy?
2.) What is it that we want the economy to do?
I have a couple of answers:
1.) The economy is the environment
2.) To support our society in such a way so that everyone has a reasonable living standard without destroying the environment.
Unfortunately our “economists” and politicians believe that the economy is money and that it’s purpose is to make a few people rich and everybody else poor.
Smile and wave
Smile and wave
When the country’s problems are so grave
The economy’s in a stew, somehow we’ll muddle through
It’ll be all right if I smile and wave.
Tax cuts will make the country grow
Cut public staff to pay the way
If the unemployment rate gets high
Everyone can work on the cycleway
Australia equality’s our goal
How to increase our growth at all?
We’ll cut taxes and wages here
We’ll catch up if they follow us and fall
Smile and wave
Smile and wave
When the country’s problems are so grave
The economy’s in a stew, somehow we’ll muddle through
It’ll be all right if I smile and wave.
Tax cuts will make the country grow
Or maybe just our debt will blow
Cut public staff to pay the way
Though unemployment ranks are raised
Everyone can work on my cycleway
Smile and wave
Smile and wave
Australia equality’s our goal
How to increase our growth at all?
We’ll cut taxes, jobs and wages here
Sell our best assets all offshore
Perhaps we’ll catch up if they fall
NZ’s example is green and rich
The Ireland of the South Pacific
We’ll soon be a world financial hub
Yet another throw away line thats flubbed
The bankers now own the Irish blood
More downgrades and we’re in the bailout club
Smile and wave
Smile and Wave
Aren’t you getting bored?
Not just photo ops, it takes work to do the PM’s job
The criticisms are tiring, everyone’s got a beef
Last thing you need is a bloody ship on a reef.
Her logic is that we’ve had big disasters and Key handled them well. But he hasn’t and the economy is crap. There is zero analysis in this piece. It reads like a National party press release. And she’s hinting Key might last to a third term? Who pays her to write this simplistic shit?
Exactly. Their assured victory is looking less assured so the memo went out: say that Key’s had a lot to deal with and yeah he’s not perfect but he tries so hard and he’s a nice guy…
Helen Clark – the prime minister we can thank for NZ winning the RWC staging rights – was only mentioned once on Q&A this morning. During a short segment at the end of the programme with Auck. Central’s Jacinda Ardern and Nikki Kaye, some political analyst (not Jon Johannson) made the comment that in 2008 he thought Judith Tizard was tainted by her association with Helen Clark and that is why she lost the seat to Nikki Kaye.
No response from anyone. I’m disgusted and am thinking I will not bother to watch tonight.
Actually, I’m also getting a little fed up with how late the games are. I may just record it. I nod off and wake early these days. Nodded off a couple of times during the Wales – Aussie match.
Not the forgone conclusion that National has been relying on.
I wonder how dirty they are going to get when threatened – more throat slashing gestures? More blame shift?ing More tanties from Key?
I think we have “game on”!
Watch the dirty tricks come thick and fast… the rumours… innuendo… claims of electoral fraud and related activity… suggestions of social (throw sex in there too) deviation… you name it, it’ll be on the Nat’s agenda!
Rumours of social (an sexual) deviation – have the rumours about a prominent MP hopeful who had an affair with a drug addict going to suddenly go away?
Claims of electoral fraud and related activity – just two days ago David Parker posted on Kiwiblog implying that the Sensible Sentencing Trust had brought David Garrett a place on Act’s list, which as far as I am aware has been shown to be completely false given the SST has never given any money to Act.
I’m not trying in anyway to imply that National are squeaky clean, quite the opposite but don’t pretend like it’s a game that only right wing parties play.
On a different note I’ve noticed a lot of posts on here recently about the disappearance of Act, which is fair enough given how they are polling.
However polls like this (not withstanding other rumours etc.) would suggest that Act will get back in through Epsom, as I seem to remember an earlier poll in Epsom saying that many of the people who planned to vote National would vote for the Act candidate if they perceived that National needed them.
I’m not trying in anyway to imply that National are squeaky clean, quite the opposite but don’t pretend like it’s a game that only right wing parties play.
I’ve been following the ‘political game’ for 35 years, and I can tell you the left-wing parties are as pure as fresh snow when compared to activites of right-wing parties and some of their vassals. I know of things that happened in the past (much of it before the 90s decade) which would cause a few individuals heart palpitations if they thought any of it was to see the light of day. I doubt if there is anyone in the Labour Party who knows the whole story.
Oh and the story re David Garrett will certainly be true. There’s more than one way to donate to political parties when you don’t donate to political parties. Secret Trusts anyone?
Ok well if you said it must be true then? It sure seems like you don’t have any proof and are just assuming that is what happened.
I have no doubt that many right wing parties have done many things that they do not want to see the light of day, but to be honest if you think Labour are pure as fresh snow you are definitely looking through red tinted glasses.
To be honest I’m sure that there are some parties which probably don’t have anything that bad too hide and those parties are more likely to be left wing (the Greens are one), however that does not mean that left wing parties are pure as fresh snow and all right wing parties are corrupt.
I get it I just have a problem with people saying Labour are as pure as fresh snow because they are comparing their current activities to the activities of right wing parties in the 80s.
You have a problem full stop Chris because your cognitive abilities are rather poor. Who said the ‘activities’ were confined to the 80s? Some were… some were after the 80s. The link between them is they involved the same handful of people.
Is that the Labour way? Charles Chauvel said he could prove a claiom in Red Alert recently, when I asked hime for the proof he said it was because he was “a good judge of character”. I know how to judge his character now.
Yep, anything and everything that they can think of will be thrown at the opposition parties over the next week all the while blaming the opposition parties for fighting dirty.
THIS Rugby World Cup has been a banquet of mana tane — the good aspects of manliness.
When men express their masculinity in a good way they are calm, strong, determined, competent, self-sacrificing, protective, ambitious, brave and humble, with vision for how events might play out.
Warrior energy.
This weekend the All Blacks are ambassadors for the mana tane of all New Zealand men.
so pete you agree with the position outlined in the article that,
“There has been a push to portray the differences between men and women as social convention rather than hard-wired biology.
According to this world view, women should compete with men for power, and not need their love.
Men tend to want power and women tend to want love
A man feels good about himself when he does good things. A woman does good things when she feels good about herself.
When a woman feels great she is compassionate, graceful, empathetic, nurturing, modest, creative, flexible, gentle . . . feminine.
The Ministry of Women’s Affairs advocates for it and women’s studies departments at most universities supply the indoctrinated staff.
It promotes the message that women should embrace assertiveness, compete with men and be protected from them.
The philosophy is called feminism but it would be more accurately called “femasculinism”, because really it is a rejection of femininity.
We believe the $5 million a year Ministry of Women’s Affairs should become the “Ministry of Gender Affairs” and address the unique needs of both women and men, rather than trying to socially engineer away biology.”
In the last couple of decades there’s been plenty of solid research, which is nicely summarised in Delusions of Gender that throws biological determinism/hardwiring out the window when in comes to everything bar gender identity and sexual orientation.
And to be really blunt – gender roles are cultural constructs, not biological determined.*
Aside from the whole pregnancy and breast-feeding thing, of which breast-feeding is not really a requirement thanks to formula if there’s issues, and due to the joys of biology with a few hormones you can get guys to express milk.
For Mad Science purposes. Of course.
____________________________________
*gender roles are not gender identity per the evidence from transsexuals and people born with ambiguous genitalia who were forced into a particular gender based on surgeons + parents decisions.
It’s July 2008. You are a “TBTF” bank CEO. You’ve been running a 30 year ponzi scheme using ever-increasing amounts of debt while GDP has languished in roughly the same place for the last two decades in terms of numerical growth. In the 3rd Quarter of 2007, when the S&P 500 hits 1576 and the DOW tops, the economy put about six times the amount of debt into the system as there was GDP growth, and at that point GDP had started to roll over. It had an obvious geometric progression look to it but only a few people in the blogosphere had been hollering about it. You wondered how much longer it was going to be before the people woke up.
Looking forward to end of RWC so that we can see Labour’s Policy being released. Appreciate you cannot compete against RWC so “Way Go Labour” from say Wednesday. Let’s know how you can assess the next 3 years/6 years (including 2014 win). Don’t copy the Greens – they are loving the limelight currently with a possibility of 15 seats. Let’s have the Labour alternative to Labour seats away from Greens (though they will be a good coalition party after 2014). Meld labour Policy with Greens not separately and we are on to a winner. Turning Left will not help.
This morning on Radio NZ just after 11 am austerity measures (which will occur for months – years) in Greece were reported as increasing suicide.
40% increase in reported suicide in a twelve month period.
Twice as many calls to crisis helplines due to the strain and anguish of the economy.
Payments can be deferred for months re business but eventually the cracks open up.
Nearly 17% unemployment.
I have not caught up with the European Euro Bank and IMF meeting because if Greece is not loaned 8,000,000,000 euros they cannot pay pensions in mid November.
I explained to a person the other day how governments are bailing out banks and that banks will foreclose on the family home rather than assist the home owner. A man on after 11 am this morning said that governments need to bail out home owners before the banks.
There were other interesting interviews in that post-11am slot (called ‘Ideas’, I think). It was all about the movements this year opposing capitalism and for democracy.
There was a good report on protestors from Tunisia, Israel, Chile and Wellington. The Tunisian and Israeli woman interviewed were particularly interesting. The report came later in the hour.
One particularly interesting comment from the Israeli woman (in response to the comment that the protestors appear to have about 90% support in the population) is that everyone from the religious Jews to Arab Israelis are part of it.
When they talk to each other, they realise they all want the same thing (a home, community, stable work, etc.) and they can’t get it because of the radical new right policies – including privatisation – that are being implemented internally in Israel.
She noted that not many people outside Israel realise all the internal tensions and think that Israel’s only problem is the ‘Israeli-Palestinian’ issue.
Labour’s water policy comes out tomorrow — apparently it will feature charging farmers for water taken for irrigation. I find it very interesting that farmers seem to have no problem for paying for electricity, but when it comes to water, they expect it to be free.
Well, back in my student days in the early 70s I shared a bedroom with another student for a few months. I knew a couple of (straight) male students who also shared a bedroom for a lot longer than that.
Actually, yes do think things are much harder for students today, but I’m not sure whether sharing a bedroom is that much of a sign of how much harder it is.
I would like to see some research done into the cost of housing for students in Dunedin and Auckland when it comes to affordability and choice. Wellington has a good transport system and the city is more compact. Christchurch is different again due to housing being a problem not just for students in particular.
There is a real housing crisis in Auckland which will not go away until the housing shortage is addressed properley. Heatley (if returned) will ruin HNZ.
Dunedin:
I think the inner circle (4 blocks from campus) goes for 100-150p.w. plus expenses, maybea bit more (I gave up looking in that area over a decade ago). $80-odd p.w. for a room a distance from campus, but that involves $30p.w. on public transport or getting reamed for parking.
I think student loan “living costs” are still around $170 p.w.? I don’t think it’s possible to get an education these days without constant value from parents (either free board or a hundred dollars a week) or serious amounts of work, to the point it stuffs your study.
As I said before, I wouldnt recommend full time study to a school leaver anymore. I would say get a job and study part time/extramurally. I wouldnt bank on the forces anymore, given that the jobs there are slowly being outsourced and privatised.
I think it must be the future job prospects that must be most worrying to young people/students these days, compared with when I was young. This means there is much more pressure to get good grades today.
My main full time student experience was as a teachers’ college student (not a degree course in those days). Money was quite tight, but I was bonded to work for 3 years after graduation and guaranted a job.
Before doing that course, in my late teens, I was working full time and was sharing a little flat (this was the late 60s). There were weeks when we had no money for food the day before payday. We didn’t have much to spend our money on – we had no TV, just a radio, a little record player, and one landline phone between us. There wasn’t much night life in Auckland, just movies and pubs, which we spent sparingingly on. Our transport was largely motor scooters or public transport.
I had friends around that time who shared a bedroom to make it easier for them financially. But we all had jobs, albeit not well paid, and we all felt these jobs would lead to higher paid ones in the future.
In contrast, the future must be quite a worry for young people today.
$164/week for living costs, and about $190 a week for a student allowance + living costs + rent subsidy if not living with parent(s).
And yeah, it’s pretty difficult to live off that alone unless you’re flatting with communal cooking/groceries or living at home, especially if you drive or bus.
Even with flatting, it’d be pretty dodgy math.
Back in the day I was on $150/wk loans, but that was ten or fifteen years ago. There was a period i was on rice and foodbanks for a bit, but in general I lived okay – not well, but okay. Forget dignity, I just don’t see how it adds up on current prices, even according to tory slide rules.
Yeap, last time I was flatting I only had $20/week left after rent. food and bills from $150/week living costs.
Bloody depressing and without student job search I would have had “fun”.
These days I wouldn’t even dream of trying to flat in Christchurch without a part time job as the increases in food and power make it tricky to live off $164-169/week and eat properly.
I still think that that the HNZ changes are more geared towards private landlords than anything else. The only thing I can see is rents rising across the board as a result of forcing thousands of vulnerable tenants and families into insecure private rentals.
I have always belived that the price of food, veges, milk, etc is a red herring. Its the fact that rents are so bloody high that we have bugger all left to buy anything else.
Why do they refuse to move to the suburbs – I’m in Mt Albert and pay only a little more than that for a nice two bedroom unit with a pool, gym etc in the complex.
Studying is bloody expensive and youre always poor. I was lucky that the qualification I’ve got I was able to gain at the local poly, so I could live with the parents while I was studying. Since then they chopped a lot of qualifications offered there so many young people have to move to another city into these situation.
It seems to be that the least financially hard way to ‘upskill’ is to study part time while working.
Tertiary education needs a huge shakeup in this country.
“Tertiary education needs a huge shakeup in this country.”
Same theme, the haves and the have nots. We know who the haves are.
Students have it so hard today due to constant limitations e.g. rising fees, cost of housing, limiting of courses, no job security when the qualification/degree is gained.
” no job security when the qualification/degree is gained”
Took me 2 years to find a job after I got my degree in IT. I was overqualified for non-IT jobs and underqualified for the IT jobs currently going.
In all honesty sometimes I wonder if my qualification needed to be at a degree level and whether a simple 1-2 year certificate or diploma would have been sufficent.
“If the minimum wage is raised, some workers will be laid off and prices will go up. End of story.”
“He may be mocked as Mr Smile and Wave, but doing that and carrying on as normal is not so different to the Keep Calm and Carry On exhortation during World War II.”
Yes John Key does remind one of Churchill in his efficacy. Thanks Kerre.
and for John Armstrong:
“Phil Goff, at least, showed some restraint in delaying his visit. He then blew it by calling for a moratorium on new deep-sea oil drilling until suitable environmental safeguards are in place. ”
So we handle an oil spill extremely badly, the population as a whole is rather worried about how we would respond to a much larger oil spill and yet somehow the opposition opposing a controversial and unpopular policy is in Armstrong’s words:
Im bloody over that tart. Its always those who are rolling in cash who think those at the bottom end of society are getting too much.
Same as above, it is always those who have spent their working lives in offices pushing pens and shuffling paper who think that the superannuation age should be lifted.
“Same as above, it is always those who have spent their working lives in offices pushing pens and shuffling paper who think that the superannuation age should be lifted.”
My father retired at 60, when that was the age. He’d worked for 46 years, mostly in factories. If he had worked until 65, let alone 67, I doubt whether he would have made it to 76 (when he died – of asbestos related cancer).
I’m always grateful that he had at least a reasonable number of years at the end of his life when he didn’t have to wake up at 5:15am to get to work for the 12 hour 6am shift.
Why of all the Social Welfare measures adopted around the world since the 1800s was the first and the oldest reform always the pension?
What working person hasn’t witnessed an older, once leading, and respected worker being humbled as they fall behind, affected by the afflictions of long-sighted-ness, bad backs and all the other ailments that begin past the age of 40 and accumulate past the age of 50.
Past the age of 60 this humiliation becomes unbearable for other workers to witness.
That is why cutting the pension, or raising the age entitlement is the third rail of Welfare Reform.
Any political party, and I mean ANY PARTY that dares to touch this issue will be severely burned.
Yes, I picked up on that newsense. Talk about double standards! Does Armstrong ever read what he has said in the past? Apparently not because he contradicts himself time and again. I’m actually of the view that he tries to appear ‘neutral’ while surreptitiously pushing the Nat. line as hard as he dares. In other words the subliminal message to the sheeples is “vote National”.
No power to cafes/bars in Kingsland. Four hours before someone says “I think we should get a generator in”
Once again NZ doesn’t have the capacity to react to emergencies and make command decisions or sort out the priorities.
Businesses, tourists, fans need power – bugger where the problem is, we can have one team continuing to work on that – but in the meantime get that generator on the move and get these people hooked up with 90 mins.
New development on the Rena incident….
with the new spill in oil today MNZ are deploying heavy duty booms that can “work in strong currents” and a skimmer that can collect the oil.
So, are they telling us that booms (of the right type) can be deployed in open seas? That oil can be corralled and then collected at sea?
Hmmm.
I thought that the government said such things weren’t possible.
I thought they said that once the ship hit the rocks there was nothing we could do about it.
I though they said that we had to wait until it washed ashore and then collect it.
Surely our government hasn’t lied to us? *lip quiver*
They wouldn’t do that to us would they? *sniff*
I don’t find the lies so hurtful as the fact that they can’t go a month without contradicting themselves, and I don’t find that as sad as the fact that the media almost never notice.
TV3 News didn’t say so. They just glossed over it as though there was no greater story there. I know where they should have got them – from their own emergency equipment storage facility and they should have got it on day one.
How do you topple a tyrant or popularize a foreign cuisine? According to a recent study in the journal Physical Review E, mobilizing an unyielding minority of 10 percent may be enough.
The human rights group reports that in the five years preceding the Arab spring $2.4bn worth of small arms, tear gas, armoured vehicles and other security equipment was sold to five specified countries that have faced or are facing popular uprisings – Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen.
And these sales were committed by at least 20 governments including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the UK and the US.
Of course it’s business before human rights – can’t make a profit if you go around around standing up for peoples rights. If you did that, they may not fight and then wouldn’t need the weapons.
Ritchie created the C programming language, and together with Ken Thompson, designed the UNIX operating system without either of which you wouldn’t be able to name that other charismatic pioneer so much in the news lately.
Ah well, they come and go. Good legacy left though.
… great result tonight from an enthralling game – and France were not walkovers at all.
(Anyone prepared to open a book on a call for the All Black flag to be adopted as our national flag.) – I give it less than two days to become a national discussion point – hope I’m wrong.
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Michelle Boag - Former National Party PresidentWhen Todd Muller decided not to discipline Hamish Walker for his horribly racist press release last week, you had to wonder if his lack of proper leadership had something to do with a shared belief system? After all, the whiteness of the blue “team” ...
On Twitter today, lawyer Felix Geiringer asked a good question: why are MP's exempt from the Privacy Act? The Act imposes its obligations on "agencies", and s8 of the 2020 Act states that this term does not include... a member of Parliament in their official capacity The 1993 Act, ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhat was the climate and sea level like at times ...
So now we know, beyond all doubt. The National party has no interest in joining the “team of five million” in our fight against the pandemic but its priority is to take every opportunity it can to damage the government. The cynicism is breathtaking. It was prepared to leak the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters The massive dust storm that formed over the Sahara Desert in mid-June invaded the southeastern U.S. June 25-28, bringing dangerous levels of air pollution, low visibility, and colorful sunsets. The air pollution event over parts of Texas and the Gulf ...
In 1987, as a British Labour MP, I was elected to the Shadow Cabinet by my colleagues and was asked by the party leader to direct Labour’s campaign in the general election of that year. The election was to take place at the height of Mrs Thatcher’s dominance and we ...
National MP Nicola WillisHousing, which I would argue is a fundamental human right, has long been a problem in New Zealand. Not only do we have some of the most overpriced houses in the entire world, much of the housing stock is substandard and therefore affects not just people’s health ...
If the government has not lined up behind a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum the way some reformers would have liked, one entirely laudable thing it did do was commission some science around the public's choice.That science landed today, in the form of the report from an expert ...
Associate Professor Sara WaltonAt the heart of the discussion on opening up our borders is the dichotomy of health and the economy – both of which are actually intertwined, like many things with our economy, as this epidemic has shown.If we think about our country as a system, ...
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Josh Gabbatiss This year will see the largest ever drop globally in both investment and consumer spending on energy as the coronavirus pandemic hits every major sector, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The crisis is accelerating the shutdown of older fossil-fuelled ...
A short opinion piece – Friday 26th June 2020 Whilst our Government has treated many financial victims of the current Covid-19 virus with appropriate generosity, the same cannot be said for those of the two earlier “epidemics” in NZ. The “Covid-84” virus (also called “Rogernomics”) spread systemic greed, with the ...
Everyone deserves a a decent life. We know this is possible with a fairer approach to income support and tax Read the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Poverty Action Plan here ...
After a long break, the government is back inserting secrecy clauses in legislation. This time its the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill (No 3), which in its clause allowing Ministers to exempt purchasers of farm land from the usual rules also allows them to exempt an exemption from the publication requirement: ...
Over the past two years the government has repeatedly delayed a scheme to put cameras on boats to monitor Mew Zealand's pervasively criminal fishing industry. But it turns out that the industry actually wants cameras: Three of the country's biggest seafood companies have broken ranks with the rest of the ...
Louise Delany (public health lawyer)Health and emergency laws have played a critical role in this country’s successful elimination of community transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic. This blog details key aspects of the legislation and comments on issues around testing, payments by incoming travellers for quarantine costs, and mask use. ...
I like Andrew Curry’s succinct and insightful futures blog The Next Wave. His most recent post is about social change. In particular, the decadal-long periods usually required for changes in values. He highlights a 2016 paper by Inglehart and Norris, who examined whether economic insecurity or a “cultural backlash” ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Stop making sense: why it's time to get emotional about climate changeThe science has been settled to the highest degree, so now ...
MONDAY JULY 6Washington (History, Sky 073, 7.30pm). The brilliant Doris Kearns Goodwin is the executive producer of this six-part series about America's first president. It combines interviews with live action and is narrated by Jeff Daniels. It's engaging, said Salon.TUESDAY JULY 7The ABC Murders (Prime, 8.30pm). Sarah Phelps has done incredible things with ...
I think we can all agree that the mainstream media in New Zealand has a very different set of rules for the right wing compared to the left. While Labour and Green Party politicians don’t seem to be able to fart without it becoming a sackable offence, National and Act ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, June 28 through Sat, July 4, 2020Editor's Choice'2040': A funny, entertaining, upbeat climate documentaryA timely Australian documentary takes a 'solutions' approach, with the filmmaker inspired by visions of ...
Racist National MP Hamish WalkerEven before Todd Muller's coup ousted Simon Bridges by a single vote, it was patently obvious that the National Party promotes and stands for white privilege. In fact they’ve always worked to ensure the discriminatory status quo in New Zealand doesn’t change.So it’s no surprise that ...
Dave HeatleyZero community transmission. Just a handful of active cases, all in quarantine. New Zealand is in an attractive situation, at least compared to much of the world. The situation could be robust and enduring – or it might be fragile, just one border incursion away from a “second ...
Is the consequence of the Simpson Report proposals for restructuring the health system poorer accountability to people? When in doubt, centralise‘ has been a persistent theme in New Zealand public policy throughout our history. The current government is no exception. Here are some examples. - The regional polytechs have been ...
I wrote earlier in the week about the Scientology front organisations Drug Free World and Drug Free Ambassadors and their quite prominent role in anti-cannabis reform "coalition" assembled by Family First and a newloca branch of the American prohibitionist organisation SAM.It turns out Family First aren't the only ones helping ...
Nik GreenMuch of the public debate about the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has focused on the extent to which government regulations have restricted personal and business activity.Oxford University Blavatnik School of Government Here in New Zealand, the question of when to change Alert Levels dominated the ...
James Higham, University of OtagoUnprecedented border closures and the domestic lockdown have paralysed New Zealand’s $40.9 billion a year tourism industry. In the process, the vulnerability of the sector to external shocks and the tenuous nature of tourism employment have been exposed. While New Zealand’s handling of the pandemic ...
Raising The Bar: Would that the Prime Minister and her colleagues would listen as intently to what the people – as opposed to the power elites – are saying as the Greens. Were they so disposed, the popular clamour for a transformational post-Covid reset would be loud in their ears. ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzDo you think the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown will slow or ...
A bit like a letter home. I have now been full-time at the University of Melbourne since 2019. Before that, I was 20 years at the University of Otago, Wellington. Indeed, I set up this very Public Health Expert Blog with Nick Wilson ten years ago. Now I am your ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections House Democrats have released a comprehensive report showing how – if they control the White House and both the Senate and the House of Representatives – they might move forward on climate change. Their “Climate Crisis Action Plan,” released June 30 by the ...
A ballot for three Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Electoral (Integrity Repeal) Amendment Bill (David Carter) Harmful Digital Communications (Unauthorised Posting of Intimate Visual Recording) Amendment Bill (Louisa wall) Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Bill (Judith ...
Not Ready: Todd Muller’s lack-lustre and self-contradictory performances offer conclusive proof that a political leader cannot be managed into competence. National’s new boss has Janet Wilson handling his media and Matthew Hooton writing his speeches. Both are highly professional political and public relations specialists, and Muller is lucky to have ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund is providing up to $19.5 million to boost innovative primary sector businesses and create training and job opportunities for Northland locals through the construction of an innovation and enterprise park at Ngawha, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones ...
The Green Party is today unveiling part one of its plan for a fossil-fuel free Aotearoa, including an immediate ban on new industrial coal boilers. ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industry New Zealand First is supporting calls by hunters and the New Zealand Tahr Foundation (NZTF) to halt a large scale cull of Himalayan Tahr by the Department of Conservation in National Parks. The calls are supported by a 40,000 strong petition and the ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First leader Winston Peters today scoffed at suggestions that a team of six political operatives have been dispatched to New Zealand to assist his campaign. ‘As President Ronald Reagan once said, ‘there they go again.’ ‘The clickbait journos can’t ...
New Zealand First is pleased to announce Jenny Marcroft as the party’s election 2020 candidate for the Auckland Central electorate. Jenny spent years working in Auckland Central, having spent a vast proportion of her broadcasting career there. She says she, "knows the place and knows the people." Ms Marcroft says ...
New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...
This week we moved into the second half of 2020 - and our Government delivered another week of big changes and major progress for New Zealanders. Read below for a wrap of the key things moments from the week - from extending paid parental leave, to making major investments in ...
The Green Party has opposed the COVID-19 Recovery Fast-track Consenting Bill which shortcuts normal consenting processes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), reduces public participation and narrows environmental considerations. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Regional Economic Development A regional freight hub for the lower North Island will be built just northeast of Palmerston North, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Government is investing $40 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to designate and buy land and design ...
Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson is calling for the introduction of a Guaranteed Minimum Income to lift hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty and prevent more families entering into further debt with the Ministry of Social Development. ...
There has been renewed focus on New Zealand First acting as a handbrake on the Government after our decision to not support Auckland light rail. We are a handbrake for bad ideas, that istrue, but our track record since 2017 has seen New Zealand First constructively also serve as an ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP New Zealand First’s Fair Residency for Superannuation Bill passed its First Reading in Parliament today. The Bill makes a significant change to NZ Super by raising the minimum residency requirement from 10 to 20 years, after age 20. “Currently, a migrant of ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order A New Zealand First member’s bill in the name of Darroch Ball introducing a six-month minimum prison sentence for assaults on first responders has passed its second reading in Parliament. The new offence of "injuring a first responder or corrections officer with ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Deputy Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First welcomes the launch of the new Criminal Cases Review Commission, gifted with the name from Waikato-Tainui - Te Kāhui Tātari Ture, announced in Hamilton today by Justice Minister Andrew Little. “New Zealand First has long believed in and ...
The Green Party is celebrating over $800m in new funding for green projects, which will get people into jobs while solving New Zealand’s long-term challenges. ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First is appalled that Meridian seems to have been unnecessarily spilling water from its dams to drive up its profits."While New Zealanders have been coming together in some of our darkest hours, we don’t expect power gentailers to waste water and ...
We wrapped up the first half of 2020 with a busy month, taking additional steps to support New Zealanders as we continue with our economic recovery. We rolled out targeted packages to support key industries like tourism and construction, helped create jobs in the environmental and agriculture sectors, and set ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Infrastructure Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has welcomed the appointment of Maurice Davis and his deep infrastructure and construction experience to the board of the Infrastructure Commission. Mr Davis (Ngāti Maniapoto), is the seventh and final appointment to the board led by former Reserve Bank Governor ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand’s click bait journalism is taking a turn for the worse, with yet another example of sensationalist, wilful-misrepresentation of the facts. “New Zealand First has worked constructively with its Coalition partner on hundreds of pieces of legislation and policy, and ...
The Green Party is today unveiling its Poverty Action Plan, which includes a Guaranteed Minimum Income to ensure people have enough to live with dignity. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Rotorua Museum redevelopment and Whakarewarewa and Tokorangi Forest projects will be accelerated thanks to a $2.09 million Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) boost, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
This week, we rolled out the next steps of our recovery plan, with new infrastructure investment, extra support for tourism operators, and a new programme to get Kiwis into agriculture careers. The global economic consequences of COVID-19 will continue to be a challenge, but we have a detailed plan to ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First welcomes the passage of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill through its final reading in Parliament today fulfilling a coalition agreement commitment. “This is an important step in saving the lives of New Zealanders and delivers a key coalition commitment ...
Whakatāne has been given a $2.5 million boost to speed up previously funded projects and create more than 450 jobs in the next decade. Of those, the equivalent of 160 full-time jobs could be delivered in the next six weeks. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is in town to make ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $2.5 million to accelerate three infrastructure projects in Whakatāne, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “This package is about ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones is throwing his weight behind a bid by the Auckland Council to fast-track the more than doubling of the city's water allowance from the Waikato River. And he's coming out strongly against anyone who plans on getting in the way of this campaign. "It is my ...
The Green Party is thrilled to see changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that mean consents for large projects can be declined if they will have significant climate change implications that are inconsistent with the Zero Carbon Act and Aotearoa New Zealand’s Paris Agreement obligations. ...
Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence The Royal New Zealand Navy’s new ship, Aotearoa, set sail for New Zealand on 10 June from the Republic of Korea, and is due to arrive in Auckland tomorrow, announced Minister of Defence Ron Mark. “Aotearoa is the Royal New Zealand Navy’s new fleet ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Racing Racing Minister Winston Peters has today welcomed the Racing Industry Bill passing its third reading, creating the legislative framework for revitalising the racing industry while limiting the need for future government intervention. “For too long our domestic racing industry has ...
The Green Party has today put forward an amendment to the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill to ensure all people in prisons can vote in general elections. ...
The Green Party welcomes the decision to not proceed with Public Public Investment (PPI) delivery of Auckland’s light rail project and to instead run the process through the public service. ...
Hon Ron Mark, New Zealand First List MP based in the Wairarapa New Zealand First List MP Hon Ron Mark welcomes the announcement of Provincial Growth Funding investment of $1.4 million to help secure the Wairarapa’s water supply. The funding boost will allow the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), and ...
New Zealand First list MP Mark Patterson has been selected to represent the party in the newly formed Taieri electorate at the upcoming election. Mr Patterson, his wife Jude and two daughters farm sheep and beef at Lawrence and Waitahuna. He previously stood in the Clutha-Southland electorate however boundary changes ...
Four celebrated Māori and Pasifika events will receive up to $100,000 each in funding from the new Creative and Cultural Events Incubator fund, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today. The four events that were successful in the inaugural funding round are: Kia Mau Festival, Wellington Māoriland Film Festival, Otaki ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio is pleased to announce the inaugural launch of Kiribati Language Week as part of the 2020 Pacific language Weeks programme. “I am so pleased that this year we are able to provide resourcing support to the Kiribati community in Aotearoa which will ...
Wildlife institutions affected by a loss of visitor revenue during the COVID-19 lockdown are set to receive government support with nearly $15 million of funding available announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. “Eco-sanctuaries, zoos, aquariums, wildlife parks, and wildlife rescue, hospital and rehabilitation facilities provide crucial support for the recovery ...
The Government is expanding and accelerating frontline mental health and wellbeing services at tertiary education institutes (TEI) to help students manage ongoing stresses related to COVID-19. “The lockdown has been hugely disruptive for students. Many of them have had to relocate and move to online learning, isolating them from their ...
The Minister of Police says a major operation against the Mongrel Mob in Waikato will make a big dent in drug harm and violent offending linked to organised crime networks. “Senior leadership of the Waikato Mongrel Mob has been taken out as a result of Operation Kingsville, which resulted in ...
The Government is extending the border exception criteria to enable some offshore victims and support people of the Christchurch mosque attacks to attend the sentencing of the accused beginning on 24 August2020, says Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. “We want to support our valued Muslim brothers and sisters who were directly ...
A project to support volunteer efforts to look after streams and rivers is getting a boost thanks to support from DOC’s Community Conservation Fund announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today. “The government is backing efforts to look after waterways with $199,400 for the Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust from ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter today announced that funding for the COVID-19 Community Fund for women and girls will be doubled, as the first successful funding applications for the initial $1million were revealed. “Women and girls across the country have suffered because of the effects of COVID-19, and I ...
The Government’s books were better than forecast with a higher GST take as the economy got moving again after lockdown, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Crown Accounts for the 11 months to the end of May indicate the year end results for tax revenue will be stronger than forecast. ...
A plan to revitalise New Zealand’s strong wool sector and set it on a new, more sustainable and profitable path was unveiled today by Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. The newly-released report - Vision and Action for New Zealand’s Wool Sector - was developed by the Wool Industry Project Action Group ...
Community efforts to create a Predator Free Whangārei will receive a $6 million boost, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced today. The new funding, through Government company Predator Free 2050 Ltd, will create around 12 jobs while enabling the complete removal of possums over ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced that the New Zealand Government is reviewing the settings of its relationship with Hong Kong. “China’s decision to pass a new national security law for Hong Kong has fundamentally changed the environment for international engagement there,” Mr Peters said. “New Zealand remains deeply ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced details of a multimillion-dollar investment in Whangārei for infrastructure projects that will help it recover from the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 200 jobs are expected to be created through the $26 million investment from the Government’s rejuvenation package ...
Following a second incident in which a person escaped from a managed isolation facility, security is being enhanced, including more police presence onsite, Minister Megan Woods said. “The actions of some individuals who choose to break the very clear rules to stay within the facilities means that more resourcing is ...
Waste reduction and recycling programmes in Kaipara are set to get a boost with Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage today announcing a $361,447 grant from the Ministry for the Environment’s Waste Minimisation Fund (WMF) Sustainable Kaipara. “The new funding will allow Sustainable Kaipara to partner with local schools, kura, community ...
The Government will support the Southland economy in the wake of multinational mining company Rio Tinto’s decision to follow through with its long signalled closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. “This day has unfortunately been on the cards for some time now, but nevertheless the final decision is a ...
New tools being developed to help boost Aotearoa’s Predator Free 2050 effort were unveiled today by Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau. A new rat poison, a camera with predator recognition software to detect and report predators, a new predator lure and a ...
The Coalition Government has approved the purchase of a fleet of Bushmaster vehicles to replace the New Zealand Army’s armoured Pinzgauers, Defence Minister Ron Mark has announced today. The new fleet of 43 Australian-designed and built Bushmaster NZ5.5 will provide better protection for personnel and improved carrying capacity. “The age ...
The Government’s three prevention frameworks to reduce family violence in Aotearoa were launched this week by Associate Minister for Social Development Poto Williams. The frameworks were developed in partnership with communities around New Zealand, and build on the work the Government has already begun with its new family violence prevention ...
The Government is pleased to confirm funding for improvements to radiology and surgical services at Hawke's Bay DHB, Health Minister Chris Hipkins says. "The Minister of Finance the Hon Grant Robertson and former Health Minister Dr David Clark approved funding for Hawke's Bay DHB’s redevelopment of their radiology facilities ...
• New funding for four beds at Napier’s Springhill Residential Addiction Centre • A new managed withdrawal home and community service, and peer support before and after residential care at Tairāwhiti DHB • A co-ordinated network of withdrawal management services throughout the South Island • Peer support in Rotorua and ...
Introduction, seafarers and POAL Good morning everyone, I am delighted to be online with you all today. Before I begin, I have to acknowledge that COVID-19 has disrupted the maritime sector on an unprecedented scale. The work of seafarers and the maritime industry is keeping many economies around the world ...
A $13 million investment from Government will create jobs and improve the resilience of the rail connection between Christchurch and the West Coast, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones and Regional Economic Development Under-Secretary Fletcher Tabuteau say. The funding comes from the tagged contingency set aside in Budget 2020 for infrastructure projects ...
The Government is investing $761 million to assist local government upgrade under-pressure water services across the country, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. The announcement was made at the site of the water bore that was found to be the source of the fatal ...
Recognised Seasonal Employers and migrant seasonal workers stranded in New Zealand will be able to continue working and supporting themselves with more flexible hours and roles, says Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. The time-limited visa changes are: Stranded RSE workers will be able to work part-time (a minimum of 15 hours ...
The Government is making immediate short-term changes to visa settings to support temporary migrants already onshore in New Zealand and their employers, while also ensuring New Zealanders needing work are prioritised, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. We are: Extending temporary work visas due to expire by the end of 2020 ...
Professor Peter Skelton CNZM has been appointed as Chief Freshwater Commissioner and Alternate Environment Court Judge Craig James Thompson as Deputy Chief Freshwater Commissioner for the newly established Freshwater Planning Process (FPP). Environment Minister David Parker today also announced the appointment of Chief Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook as the ...
Auckland Queen’s Counsel Neil Campbell has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Campbell graduated with a BCom and LLB (Hons) from the University of Auckland in 1992. He spent two years with Bell Gully Buddle Weir in Auckland before travelling to the United ...
The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to better enable the development and operation of commercial film and video facilities in Christchurch. The Proposal, developed by Regenerate Christchurch in response to a request from Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section ...
The Government has launched a bold plan to boost primary sector export earnings by $44 billion over the next decade, while protecting the environment and growing jobs. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today released Fit for a Better World – Accelerating our Economic Potential, a 10-year roadmap to unlock greater value ...
A new approach to prevent family harm that encourages greater collaboration across government and community groups is being celebrated at the opening of a new facility in Auckland. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today opened the Multi-Disciplinary Family Harm Prevention Hub Te Taanga Manawa in Lambie Road in Manukau. The facility ...
The Government has released a major new report on the options for relocating the Port of Auckland’s freight operations while deferring any decision on the issue. “That decision needs to be informed by policy analysis that is still to be completed. As a result it will be up to a ...
The history of Rāpaki is being restored through the inclusion of te reo in thirteen official place names on Te Pātaka-o-Rākaihautū / Banks Peninsula and around Lyttelton Harbour/Whakaraupō, the Minister for Land Information, Eugenie Sage, announced today. “I am pleased to approve the proposals from Te Hapū o Ngāti ...
Bookings for seats on Air New Zealand flights into New Zealand will be managed in the short term to ensure the Government is able to safely place New Zealanders arriving home into a managed isolation or quarantine facility, says Housing Minister Megan Woods. “Last week Air Commodore Darryn Webb and I ...
Grant Robertson has today announced the first major release of funding from the $265 million Sport Recovery Package announced at Budget 2020. “Today we’re setting out how $80 million will be invested, with $54 million of that over the 2020/2021 financial year for organisations from community level through to elite ...
The Government is maintaining current levy rates for the next 2 years, as part of a set of changes to help ease the financial pressures of COVID-19 providing certainty for businesses and New Zealanders, ACC Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “New Zealanders and businesses are facing unprecedented financial pressures as a ...
Small businesses are getting greater certainty about access to finance with an extension to the interest-free cashflow loan scheme to the end of the year. The Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme has already been extended once, to 24 July. Revenue and Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says it will be ...
A package of 23 projects across the country will clean up waterways and deliver over 2000 jobs Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Environment Minister David Parker announced today. The $162 million dollar package will see 22 water clean-up projects put forward by local councils receiving $62 million and the Kaipara ...
Tena koutou katoa Nga tangata whenua o tenei rohe o Pōneke, tena koutou Nau mai, haere mai ki te hui a tau mo te roopu reipa Ko tatou! Ko to tatou mana! Ko to tatou kaupapa kei te kokiri whakamua Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena tatou katoa Welcome. I ...
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $1.5 million to ensure QE Health in Rotorua can proceed with its world class health service and save 75 existing jobs, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development, Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. The PGF funding announced today is in addition to the $8 million ...
New Zealanders can’t get enough of The Chase, so why can’t we have our own version? And what would a homegrown version of the quiz show look like anyway? If The Chase were a pandemic, we’d all have herd immunity by now. The British TV quiz show has never been ...
In less than a week, Auckland Council will vote on an emergency budget that looks set to deliver severe cuts to facilities and services across the city. And still pleas for a commitment on shovel ready projects go unheeded by government, writes councillor Desley Simpson.As a country we can feel ...
The gunman of the Christchurch mosque attacks has chosen to represent himself at his sentencing next month. In March, Brenton Tarrant made a late guilty plea to 51 charges of murder, 40 of attempted murder and one under the Terrorism Suppression Act. He is due to be sentenced on 24 ...
A road freight industry representative says a new announcement that negotiations will be extended - again - is further confirmation that something is not right with the project An announcement that a new cash payout will extend negotiations and 'winter works' even further than first thought is being heralded as a sign ...
By Hamish Cardwell, RNZ News Grey Power is enraged by what it says is the “stupid and dangerous” behaviour of people fleeing managed isolation facilities, and says they need the book thrown at them. A person broke a window and absconded from an Auckland hotel on Friday, the fourth such ...
Crowd entertainment at sports games is a hard task, but please let’s stick to T-shirt cannons and on-field japes instead of watching strangers smooch, eh?Funny kiss cam footage is a key element of any viral fail video compilation. A “she’s my sister” sign pulled out of a pocket as the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rohan Clarke, Director, Monash Drone Discovery Platform, and Senior Lecturer in Ecology, Monash University This article is part of Flora, Fauna, Fire, a special project by The Conversation that launched this week. The project tracks the recovery of Australia’s native plants and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jess Marsh, Research fellow at the Harry Butler Institute, Murdoch University This article is part of Flora, Fauna, Fire, a special project by The Conversation that launched this week. The project tracks the recovery of Australia’s native plants and animals after last ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Lintermans, Associate professor, University of Canberra This article is part of Flora, Fauna, Fire, a special project by The Conversation that launched this week. The project tracks the recovery of Australia’s native plants and animals after last summer’s bushfire tragedy. Explore ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodi Rowley, Curator, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Biology, Australian Museum This article is part of Flora, Fauna, Fire, a special project by The Conversation that launched this week. The project tracks the recovery of Australia’s native plants and animals after last summer’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Matisoo-Smith, Professor of Biological Anthropology, University of Otago How did the Polynesian peoples come to live on the far-flung islands of the Pacific? The question has intrigued researchers for centuries. Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl brought the topic to public attention when ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Phillips, Associate Professor, Centre for Social Research and Methods, Director, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), Australian National University New research on disadvantage in Australia has found the gap between rich and poor is very wide in Sydney, while much of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Peters, Associate Professor of Wildlife Health and Pathology, Charles Sturt University This article is part of Flora, Fauna, Fire, a special project by The Conversation that launched this week. The project tracks the recovery of Australia’s native plants and animals after ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wee Tiong Seah, Associate Professor in Mathematics Education, University of Melbourne On Sunday, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced government school students in prep to Year 10 in metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire will learn from home for term three. The remote ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Phillippa Carnemolla, Senior Research Fellow, School of the Built Environment, University of Technology Sydney The stated purpose of the Morrison government’s HomeBuilder program is to stimulate the economy and create construction jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research shows home improvements could ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Davidson, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, UNSW Suddenly, the idea of a “job guarantee” is back in vogue. Lawyer, academic, land rights activist and founder of the Cape York Institute Noel Pearson has come out of it favour of it, University of Newcastle ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ann Kayis-Kumar, Senior Lecturer and Tax Clinic Director, School of Taxation & Business Law, UNSW For some people tax time will result in no tax paid this year, and if past years are anything to go by, about 50 of them will ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip C. Almond, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland From the 11th century onwards, the Legend of Barlaam and Josaphat enjoyed a popularity in the medieval West attained perhaps by no other legend. It was available ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level one – read about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. To support this ...
Investors still betting massive money-printing, despite growing fears of second wave lock-downs in America, India and Brazil, and as Australian cases spike ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Self-inflicted story puts National on the defensive, another escape attempt from managed isolation, and a series of party events ahead of election.There’s a convention in journalism called Betteridge’s law of headlines. Basically what it means is that headlines that end in ...
Nicky Pellegrino and Stacy Gregg continue their podcast interview series with popular New Zealand writers. This week: Amy McDaid, the author of Fake Baby. Auckland’s Amy McDaid is an exciting new talent on our literary scene. Her debut novel, Fake Baby, strikes an elegant balance between dark comedy and compassion. ...
Is it finally time for Pacific rugby to come in from the cold in a new Super Rugby competition? Jim Kayes says it's time to believe. In Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot, the two lead characters wait on a country road, by a tree, for Godot’s arrival. He never ...
A broken foot threatened to derail sailor Alex Maloney's second Olympic campaign. But she's back on track, with a little help from her brother and his America's Cup team-mates. From now on, Alex Maloney will always seek a second opinion. Without it, the Rio Olympics sailing silver medallist saw her ...
How authoritarian rule is applied to Hong Kong may make New Zealanders question whether closer interactions with China are necessarily desirable, writes Catherine Churchman Get ready for some in-your-face political repression, New Zealand. The Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has just extended its draconian rules on free speech and freedom ...
Using technology remotely to care for patients can go way beyond Zoom calls or basic telehealth measures. Professor Simon Malpas explains how tech can start to even out inequity in healthcare. Imagine you live in Ahipara, Northland. You also have early stage heart failure. It’s a 90-minute drive to your ...
Stephen Hoadley on how Donald Trump has moved the US from its decades-old role of international leadership, and why it might not be easy for a President Biden to restore that mantle. US elections and the resulting presidencies can be geopolitical turning points, whether reflecting them or causing them. Successive ...
The ACT party held its campaign launch in Auckland on Sunday and unveiled new policies, with a new team it hopes will bring a return to the days when it was more than a one man band. Mark Jennings reports. If the number of people paying to attend a political ...
With an election now less than 10 weeks away, the National Party is confronting the very real prospect of a crushing defeat, writes Pattrick Smellie for BusinessDesk.Only two things can now save Todd Muller and the National Party from the growing likelihood of a crushing defeat at the September 19 ...
It’s long past time we officially recognised the Māori new year on Māori land, writes Laura O’Connell Rapira.In May, Jacinda Ardern said more public holidays for Kiwis to experience Aotearoa New Zealand is among a number of things the government is “actively considering” to encourage domestic tourism.With many small businesses ...
The Kiwi nurse working in conflict zones, helping war-wounded, and improving hospital systems was forced to do a major pivot when Covid-19 hit Afghanistan. Gail Corbett tells Laura Walters about living her life in some of the world’s most dangerous places, and what keeps her going back. Gail Corbett was ...
This is a story about a Chinese shipwreck, the Māori guardians of the bones, and the documentary maker who' has upset two cultures with his efforts to tell the tale. Is a shipwreck with the bones of 499 Chinese miners a sacred gravesite or a part of history that should be ...
From RNZ Mediawatch New Zealand children use a lot less Kiwi media than they used to. New research shows its Netflix, YouTube and TikTok engaging their eyeballs big time these days. If our kids screen out our local media, what does the future hold for them? The news media seized ...
The Tahr Foundation has released a short video that shows just what Himalayan tahr mean to Kiwis and why so many people are fighting so hard to maintain them in New Zealand. The video is a powerful reminder of the extent that tahr are now woven into ...
Introduction Thank you very much. Elections in New Zealand – like everywhere - are a very special tradition, because they are driven by you. They’re an opportunity to change your future. If you think about it, the Government doesn’t do much. It ...
“This election and Covid-19 present New Zealanders with an opportunity to change their future and create a fair, modern employment insurance scheme,” says ACT’s Employment Spokesperson, and third-ranked candidate, Nicole McKee. “Covid-19 has ...
“A new approach to mental health and addiction will reduce bureaucracy, improve patient choice, and empower New Zealanders,” says ACT’s Deputy Leader and Health Spokesperson Brooke van Velden. “Each year, the government spends about $2 billion ...
"Working people have signaled their commitment to do more to address the most pressing issue of our time; climate change. The energy policies that the Green Party have launched today provide a meaningful contribution to addressing climate change," ...
Climate justice organisation 350 Aotearoa welcomes the Greens' plan to transform Aotearoa’s energy system and set Aotearoa on course towards a fossil-fuel free future in which workers are supported into new jobs, and communities have the power ...
The Old Guard, new to Netflix, is a resounding success because it doesn’t focus on what makes these heroes great, it focuses on what makes them human, writes Sam Brooks.The climax of Netflix’s new movie The Old Guard shouldn’t be anything new, but it feels exhilarating. The titular old guard, ...
A new Green Party announcement heralds a fast-exit out of fossil fuels through a massive state housing solar panel installation programme, a ban on new coal boilers, and the shifting of a target for renewable energy Solar panels and batteries would be installed in 30,000 State homes to create a "virtual power plant" if ...
As yet more male-led festival lineups are announced, Shaquille Wasasala, aka halfqueen, writes an open letter to the industry.To those whose career it is booking talent for music festivals, punters, and people who listen to music.As a DJ and artist who exists at many intersections that directly inform my lens ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level one – read about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. To support this ...
Dunedin writer Victor Billot pens topical verse every Sunday. This week: disgraced MP Hamish Walker.Showing promise The MP for Clutha-Southland did, it is true, post on Facebook that he had been door knocking in Mataura when he hadn’t. He lied. The MP for Clutha-Southland did, it is ...
It’s one of the most commonly used weedkillers in the world, but pressure to phase out use of the herbicide glyphosate could force us to come up with alternatives quickly. Listen to the full episode of Two Cents Worth below. Subscribe to Two Cents' Worth for free on Apple ...
The Covid-19 crisis has exposed gaps in the funding of early education that we should be bold in responding to, writes Sue Cherrington of Victoria University of Wellington Early childhood education has been in the media a great deal over recent weeks, initially with positive but increasingly with negative news reports. ...
It’s an economic theory that advocates tout as a solution to governments’ debt crises, but critics warn is a recipe for hyperinflation. Either way, modern monetary theory is getting a lot more attention in the era of Covid-19.Two big economic ideas have captured the popular imagination during the Covid-19 pandemic: ...
For one hour a week the supermarket lights are dimmed and the music stops. And it’s a kind of triumph, writes Michelle Langstone.I thought there’d been a power cut. The lights were out at the entrance, so you arrived into a kind of gloom. There was no music, and no ...
It’s no secret that New Zealand’s Covid-19 response was one of the world’s most effective. But to get an idea of how eagerly parts of our economy have rebounded post lockdown, take a look at our electricity demand data.Despite an impending wave of unemployment and looming fiscal challenges down the ...
In the second in the Spnioff’s Last on the list series, Dave King explains what inspired him to stand for the Act Party in Manurewa. At 20th spot on the list, if David Seymour’s party can win around 16% of the party vote, King is parliament bound.It wasn’t that long ...
Basketball is growing massively in popularity around the country, led by thousands of youngsters picking up the game every day. To The Line looks at what it’s like for New Zealand high school kids with hoop dreams.If there’s been a narrative rumbling away in the sports pages, it’s that of ...
Unbelievable. A first-rank world leader picks a needless fight with blameless allies, thus imperiling their unity. But that’s General de Gaulle for you.Impressive work, even by his standards. In 1967, Canada was to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge (their Gallipoli – except that they ...
From RNZ Saturday Morning Described by a Guardian reviewer as “superb hate-reading”, writer and columnist Anand Giridharadas‘s latest book Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World investigates the hypocrisy of billionaire “do-gooders”. He questions how and why we have become reliant on the philanthropy of the super-rich ...
The Professional Hunting Guides Association is welcoming the High Court decision on DoC’s controversial tahr campaign. The High Court in Wellington was asked on Wednesday by the Tahr Foundation for a judicial review of DoC’s plan to kill thousands ...
With the 2020 general election nearly three months away, a new campaign is asking voters to vote in line with the future. Vote Climate 2020 aims to highlight the opportunity to build momentum behind climate change, ensuring climate justice is a key election ...
“ACT will target the gangs by hitting them where it hurts – their pockets,” according to ACT Leader David Seymour and Firearms Spokesperson Nicole McKee. “New Zealanders deserve to be safe and secure, but violent gangs are a scourge on our ...
Waffles don’t need to be sweet – these cheese and onion numbers make an excellent savoury breakfast with an egg, or an equally tasty dinner with leftover mince.It’s easy to default to sweet breakfasts without thinking. At least that’s the case in our household, as porridge or bircher muesli is ...
The government is revitalising the wool sector, splashing out on freshwater restoration projects, relieving student stress and showing kindness to Muslims by extending the border exception criteria. It is also increasing its support (in announcements from two separate Green Party Ministers) for women and for wildlife institutions. And it is ...
People have called it for it be pulled from the service, but the escapist fantasy of 365 Days is nothing new, writes Alie Benge.To every generation, a bullish alpha-male psychopath is born, and is for someone reason considered a romantic hero. We’ve been through a lot this year, and instead ...
As Aucklanders reluctantly adjust to the inconvenient practice of water conservation, a drought-savvy Northlander shares the tips and temperament needed to get through the dry times.Auckland’s water shortage was recently reported on The Project, and viewers were earnestly exhorted to fill their dishwashers completely before turning them on. My husband ...
Open mike 23/10/2011 
Dr Kim Handley, University of Auckland Just how do cyanobacteria live in their natural habitat, and how do they coexist with other bacteria and microbial life forms? And what difference will knowledge on this bacteria have on maintaining New Zealand’s water quality? One of the consequences of declining water quality ...31 mins ago
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Climate Feedback Article Review... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... Global temperatures could exceed crucial 1.5 C target in the next five years In this aerial view ...40 mins ago
Three months on, and looking at the state of the world - 13 million cases, 560,000 dead, and both rising - it is clear that New Zealand's lockdown saved lives. But it didn't just save us from the pandemic and prevent future deaths - it also significantly reduced our background ...40 mins ago
National has a problem. And it’s time they said it out loud. It can’t be dismissed as a one-off anymore or excused because ‘everyone does it’. No, it cuts deeper than that. National has an ethics problem. Especially when it comes to privacy and using ordinary people as pawns in ...20 hours ago
The Council of Disobedient Women There is a regular segment in the Speak Up For Women podcasts called “Absolutely Blasted Mad Moment of the Week”. Each podcast the speaker and the host discuss a recent event that is the most insane thing they have seen in the gender critical space ...2 days ago
Todd Muller - Dishonest National Party leaderIt seems that dishonest Todd Muller is, like many right-wing politicians, entirely morally bankrupt. I mean just look at the National Party’s leaking omni-shambles over the last week or so. They’ve imploded in a spectacular display of backfiring dirty politics, the likes of which ...2 days ago
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Check out Speak Up For Women’s new podcasts: Episode 3 In this episode Speak Up For Women spokeswoman Ani O’Brien (@aniobrien) is joined by Beth Johnson (@beth_nosnhoj) to discuss the proposal from Statistics NZ to change standard data collection policy to “gender by default” rather than sex. They discuss why the ...3 days ago
Transcript: National Party policy announcement on roads – 8 July, 2020 Muller: Good afternoon everybody. Thank you for coming. Reporter 1: Is Hamish Walker a racist? Muller: Hang on… you haven’t even said good afternoon to me yet. Reporter 1: Good afternoon Mr Muller. Is Hamish Walker a racist? ...3 days ago
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Reprehensible: There is much that could be said about Michael Woodhouse, but what would be the point? Any man who willingly involves himself in a situation as reprehensible as the one depicted in the above photograph has already vouchsafed all that decent people need to know about his character. That there have ...3 days ago
Some are surprised at this sudden brain implosion on the part of both Michelle Boag, former National Party President, and the National Party in general, in exposing the private, confidential details of COVID patients. Others…? Let’s be blunt: not so much. Too many of that Party have long operated with ...5 days ago
...7 days ago
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund is providing up to $19.5 million to boost innovative primary sector businesses and create training and job opportunities for Northland locals through the construction of an innovation and enterprise park at Ngawha, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones ...1 hour ago
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New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...1 week ago
Four celebrated Māori and Pasifika events will receive up to $100,000 each in funding from the new Creative and Cultural Events Incubator fund, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today. The four events that were successful in the inaugural funding round are: Kia Mau Festival, Wellington Māoriland Film Festival, Otaki ...3 hours ago
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Unbelievable. A first-rank world leader picks a needless fight with blameless allies, thus imperiling their unity. But that’s General de Gaulle for you. Impressive work, even by his standards. In 1967, Canada was to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge (their Gallipoli – except that they ...2 days ago
The government is revitalising the wool sector, splashing out on freshwater restoration projects, relieving student stress and showing kindness to Muslims by extending the border exception criteria. It is also increasing its support (in announcements from two separate Green Party Ministers) for women and for wildlife institutions. And it is ...2 days ago
Going viral and very funny…
But is it satire? It wou
Hoots!
Those eyes just freak me out!
That is soooo gooood!!
This guy is unreal. Monckton’s ancestors were ‘famous’ pornographers in Britain’s Victorian era.
Thanks Bernard Hickey, great summary of advice to follow….if only….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10761003
Do have a nice day and of course ‘Go the All Blacks! ‘ and then hopefully this country can enter some serious political debate! I live in hope!
A good list. Now if you added to it a policy of not selling land to overseas owners and Gareth Morgan’s Big Kahuna tax proposal I’d vote for it.
If you then added in a solid streak of Green energy and sustainable agriculture … I’d line up to have it’s babies.
lololololol
mmmmm……I’d keep your knees together a while longer, Red, or at least insist on withdrawl – that big Kahuna might look irresistable after a couple of drinks, but reduced WFF and DPB will be one heck of a hangover….
Yum.. true. But both niggles could be addressed with a return to a modest Universal Child Allowance.
I see Bernard is being more circumspect about it now.
But his #8 really means “get rid of interest free student loans and working for families”. These are two policies he seems particularly offended by and has been bleating about them for years.
Yeah, I dont know how he expects people to pay their rent,etc when they lose their WFF, but I guess when you are rolling in it, you dont worry about those things.
I noticed that he wants the super age raised to 67. Which will be a kick in the teeth for those who have slogged their guts for 40-50 years doing manual work and then to find that they have to wait two more years to qualify for national super so they can retire at last.
I have noticed that those who wish to see the national super age raised are those who have spent all their working lives sitting on their asses in an office and eating chocolate.
Why can’t NS just be income tested? Not means tested bu INCOME tested.
It seems to be a foreign concept to a lot of people.
Why should people claim NS if they’re already earning 50k+ per year?
Why do people always expect an export led recovery to more growth to work?
We have limited resources so why are politicians and economists so enthusiastic about using them up as fast as possible? Do they want our children and grand-children to have nothing?
Is it really that important to force most people to work so that a few can have more
nothingmoney in the bank?Can we please start asking two questions:
1.) What is the economy?
2.) What is it that we want the economy to do?
I have a couple of answers:
1.) The economy is the environment
2.) To support our society in such a way so that everyone has a reasonable living standard without destroying the environment.
Unfortunately our “economists” and politicians believe that the economy is money and that it’s purpose is to make a few people rich and everybody else poor.
Election campaign needs a song
here is a starter. someone can improve it.
Smile and wave
Smile and wave
When the country’s problems are so grave
The economy’s in a stew, somehow we’ll muddle through
It’ll be all right if I smile and wave.
Tax cuts will make the country grow
Cut public staff to pay the way
If the unemployment rate gets high
Everyone can work on the cycleway
Australia equality’s our goal
How to increase our growth at all?
We’ll cut taxes and wages here
We’ll catch up if they follow us and fall
better then the gambler i guess
Smile and wave
Smile and wave
When the country’s problems are so grave
The economy’s in a stew, somehow we’ll muddle through
It’ll be all right if I smile and wave.
Tax cuts will make the country grow
Or maybe just our debt will blow
Cut public staff to pay the way
Though unemployment ranks are raised
Everyone can work on my cycleway
Smile and wave
Smile and wave
Australia equality’s our goal
How to increase our growth at all?
We’ll cut taxes, jobs and wages here
Sell our best assets all offshore
Perhaps we’ll catch up if they fall
NZ’s example is green and rich
The Ireland of the South Pacific
We’ll soon be a world financial hub
Yet another throw away line thats flubbed
The bankers now own the Irish blood
More downgrades and we’re in the bailout club
Smile and wave
Smile and Wave
Aren’t you getting bored?
Not just photo ops, it takes work to do the PM’s job
The criticisms are tiring, everyone’s got a beef
Last thing you need is a bloody ship on a reef.
Woodham pretends she isn’t shilling for Key. http://m.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10761026
Her logic is that we’ve had big disasters and Key handled them well. But he hasn’t and the economy is crap. There is zero analysis in this piece. It reads like a National party press release. And she’s hinting Key might last to a third term? Who pays her to write this simplistic shit?
Kerry’s Key Fantasy
It’s pure Sunday morning leave-brain-on the shelf polemic. Kerry Woodham can do better work than this…
I seriously doubt that Baron.
Indeed, she’s had plenty of time to prove her alleged abilities.
Not according to the Horizon poll. Which I suspect is the poll that has her so upset that she’s spouting about how great Jonkey and NACT are.
Exactly. Their assured victory is looking less assured so the memo went out: say that Key’s had a lot to deal with and yeah he’s not perfect but he tries so hard and he’s a nice guy…
Is qu & a just going to be about the RWC, today?
*yawn*. Have sound on mute. Of course the ABs will win. Now let’s get on to politics.
I’m the same with the newspapers Carol. First thing today was nothing but RWC. I was over it weeks ago.
Oh and vive la France!
Helen Clark – the prime minister we can thank for NZ winning the RWC staging rights – was only mentioned once on Q&A this morning. During a short segment at the end of the programme with Auck. Central’s Jacinda Ardern and Nikki Kaye, some political analyst (not Jon Johannson) made the comment that in 2008 he thought Judith Tizard was tainted by her association with Helen Clark and that is why she lost the seat to Nikki Kaye.
No response from anyone. I’m disgusted and am thinking I will not bother to watch tonight.
Vive la France from me too!
Actually, I’m also getting a little fed up with how late the games are. I may just record it. I nod off and wake early these days. Nodded off a couple of times during the Wales – Aussie match.
Thats what you get with the TV networks in charge. TV snaps its fingers, rugby dances. Night games have ruined rugby as a spectacle.
Anyway, come 11pm tonight, we wont be hearing about rugby till Feb.
Go the AB’s — though I have to admit that its hard to get excited about a match that is more or less a foregone conclusion.
And if NZ win, the self congratulatory wankfest could last about 2 weeks.
If NZ lose I figure it will be all over, bar the die hard rugby channel post mortem bullshite.
Et moi aussi!… I keep hearing that if the All Blacks win, so will NACT, and we don’t want that by any means!
As an alternative to the OWS vagueness, here’s a real occupation.
horizon poll relese 22/10/2011
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1110/S00384/horizon-poll-a-close-election-result.htm
Not the forgone conclusion that National has been relying on.
I wonder how dirty they are going to get when threatened – more throat slashing gestures? More blame shift?ing More tanties from Key?
I think we have “game on”!
Watch the dirty tricks come thick and fast… the rumours… innuendo… claims of electoral fraud and related activity… suggestions of social (throw sex in there too) deviation… you name it, it’ll be on the Nat’s agenda!
Not just Nat’s agenda
Rumours of social (an sexual) deviation – have the rumours about a prominent MP hopeful who had an affair with a drug addict going to suddenly go away?
Claims of electoral fraud and related activity – just two days ago David Parker posted on Kiwiblog implying that the Sensible Sentencing Trust had brought David Garrett a place on Act’s list, which as far as I am aware has been shown to be completely false given the SST has never given any money to Act.
I’m not trying in anyway to imply that National are squeaky clean, quite the opposite but don’t pretend like it’s a game that only right wing parties play.
On a different note I’ve noticed a lot of posts on here recently about the disappearance of Act, which is fair enough given how they are polling.
However polls like this (not withstanding other rumours etc.) would suggest that Act will get back in through Epsom, as I seem to remember an earlier poll in Epsom saying that many of the people who planned to vote National would vote for the Act candidate if they perceived that National needed them.
I’m not trying in anyway to imply that National are squeaky clean, quite the opposite but don’t pretend like it’s a game that only right wing parties play.
I’ve been following the ‘political game’ for 35 years, and I can tell you the left-wing parties are as pure as fresh snow when compared to activites of right-wing parties and some of their vassals. I know of things that happened in the past (much of it before the 90s decade) which would cause a few individuals heart palpitations if they thought any of it was to see the light of day. I doubt if there is anyone in the Labour Party who knows the whole story.
Oh and the story re David Garrett will certainly be true. There’s more than one way to donate to political parties when you don’t donate to political parties. Secret Trusts anyone?
Ok well if you said it must be true then? It sure seems like you don’t have any proof and are just assuming that is what happened.
I have no doubt that many right wing parties have done many things that they do not want to see the light of day, but to be honest if you think Labour are pure as fresh snow you are definitely looking through red tinted glasses.
To be honest I’m sure that there are some parties which probably don’t have anything that bad too hide and those parties are more likely to be left wing (the Greens are one), however that does not mean that left wing parties are pure as fresh snow and all right wing parties are corrupt.
if you think Labour are pure as fresh snow you are definitely looking through red tinted glasses.
Your ability to read properly is lacking Chris. The clue is when compared to activities of right wing parties… Get it now?
I get it I just have a problem with people saying Labour are as pure as fresh snow because they are comparing their current activities to the activities of right wing parties in the 80s.
There’s no difference between the antics of the ring-wing parties of the 1980s and today – they’re always despicable.
You have a problem full stop Chris because your cognitive abilities are rather poor. Who said the ‘activities’ were confined to the 80s? Some were… some were after the 80s. The link between them is they involved the same handful of people.
Ok well if you said it must be true then?
Is that the Labour way? Charles Chauvel said he could prove a claiom in Red Alert recently, when I asked hime for the proof he said it was because he was “a good judge of character”. I know how to judge his character now.
Yep, anything and everything that they can think of will be thrown at the opposition parties over the next week all the while blaming the opposition parties for fighting dirty.
Pete, if you’re going to be shilling for Dunne be honest and not this bs paasive aggressive crap. Dunne is done and should be.
Slightly related to rugby much wider:
so pete you agree with the position outlined in the article that,
“There has been a push to portray the differences between men and women as social convention rather than hard-wired biology.
According to this world view, women should compete with men for power, and not need their love.
Men tend to want power and women tend to want love
A man feels good about himself when he does good things. A woman does good things when she feels good about herself.
When a woman feels great she is compassionate, graceful, empathetic, nurturing, modest, creative, flexible, gentle . . . feminine.
The Ministry of Women’s Affairs advocates for it and women’s studies departments at most universities supply the indoctrinated staff.
It promotes the message that women should embrace assertiveness, compete with men and be protected from them.
The philosophy is called feminism but it would be more accurately called “femasculinism”, because really it is a rejection of femininity.
We believe the $5 million a year Ministry of Women’s Affairs should become the “Ministry of Gender Affairs” and address the unique needs of both women and men, rather than trying to socially engineer away biology.”
Oh dear, someone’s been reading Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus again.
/facepalm
The stupid, it burns.
In the last couple of decades there’s been plenty of solid research, which is nicely summarised in Delusions of Gender that throws biological determinism/hardwiring out the window when in comes to everything bar gender identity and sexual orientation.
And to be really blunt – gender roles are cultural constructs, not biological determined.*
Aside from the whole pregnancy and breast-feeding thing, of which breast-feeding is not really a requirement thanks to formula if there’s issues, and due to the joys of biology with a few hormones you can get guys to express milk.
For Mad Science purposes. Of course.
____________________________________
*gender roles are not gender identity per the evidence from transsexuals and people born with ambiguous genitalia who were forced into a particular gender based on surgeons + parents decisions.
Hang it all, I agree with some of that! But on balance, only this ..
After being ferociously attacked on another thread for disagreeing with Mr Man, I don’t feel any of the above right now, however..
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=196348
It’s July 2008. You are a “TBTF” bank CEO. You’ve been running a 30 year ponzi scheme using ever-increasing amounts of debt while GDP has languished in roughly the same place for the last two decades in terms of numerical growth. In the 3rd Quarter of 2007, when the S&P 500 hits 1576 and the DOW tops, the economy put about six times the amount of debt into the system as there was GDP growth, and at that point GDP had started to roll over. It had an obvious geometric progression look to it but only a few people in the blogosphere had been hollering about it. You wondered how much longer it was going to be before the people woke up.
To truly bring fairness back to employment we need a strong Green influence:
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.com/2011/10/industrial-relations-good-faith.html
Looking forward to end of RWC so that we can see Labour’s Policy being released. Appreciate you cannot compete against RWC so “Way Go Labour” from say Wednesday. Let’s know how you can assess the next 3 years/6 years (including 2014 win). Don’t copy the Greens – they are loving the limelight currently with a possibility of 15 seats. Let’s have the Labour alternative to Labour seats away from Greens (though they will be a good coalition party after 2014). Meld labour Policy with Greens not separately and we are on to a winner. Turning Left will not help.
So, you think a supposedly left-wing party shouldn’t actually be a left-wing party?
This morning on Radio NZ just after 11 am austerity measures (which will occur for months – years) in Greece were reported as increasing suicide.
40% increase in reported suicide in a twelve month period.
Twice as many calls to crisis helplines due to the strain and anguish of the economy.
Payments can be deferred for months re business but eventually the cracks open up.
Nearly 17% unemployment.
I have not caught up with the European Euro Bank and IMF meeting because if Greece is not loaned 8,000,000,000 euros they cannot pay pensions in mid November.
I explained to a person the other day how governments are bailing out banks and that banks will foreclose on the family home rather than assist the home owner. A man on after 11 am this morning said that governments need to bail out home owners before the banks.
There were other interesting interviews in that post-11am slot (called ‘Ideas’, I think). It was all about the movements this year opposing capitalism and for democracy.
There was a good report on protestors from Tunisia, Israel, Chile and Wellington. The Tunisian and Israeli woman interviewed were particularly interesting. The report came later in the hour.
The audio is here (about 52mins) here
One particularly interesting comment from the Israeli woman (in response to the comment that the protestors appear to have about 90% support in the population) is that everyone from the religious Jews to Arab Israelis are part of it.
When they talk to each other, they realise they all want the same thing (a home, community, stable work, etc.) and they can’t get it because of the radical new right policies – including privatisation – that are being implemented internally in Israel.
She noted that not many people outside Israel realise all the internal tensions and think that Israel’s only problem is the ‘Israeli-Palestinian’ issue.
I did hear this interview and noted how stressful life was due to internal politics.
Labour’s water policy comes out tomorrow — apparently it will feature charging farmers for water taken for irrigation. I find it very interesting that farmers seem to have no problem for paying for electricity, but when it comes to water, they expect it to be free.
Students sharing beds to save cash
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10761063
I keep harping on how there is a housing crisis as housing is unaffordable.
Well, back in my student days in the early 70s I shared a bedroom with another student for a few months. I knew a couple of (straight) male students who also shared a bedroom for a lot longer than that.
Cost of a room has gone up $50 a week in the last six months. Today students have to pay fees.
I think in 1973 the European Economic Community said NO to our lamb exports and the oil shock.
Do you think times are much harder for students today?
Actually, yes do think things are much harder for students today, but I’m not sure whether sharing a bedroom is that much of a sign of how much harder it is.
I would like to see some research done into the cost of housing for students in Dunedin and Auckland when it comes to affordability and choice. Wellington has a good transport system and the city is more compact. Christchurch is different again due to housing being a problem not just for students in particular.
There is a real housing crisis in Auckland which will not go away until the housing shortage is addressed properley. Heatley (if returned) will ruin HNZ.
Dunedin:
I think the inner circle (4 blocks from campus) goes for 100-150p.w. plus expenses, maybea bit more (I gave up looking in that area over a decade ago). $80-odd p.w. for a room a distance from campus, but that involves $30p.w. on public transport or getting reamed for parking.
I think student loan “living costs” are still around $170 p.w.? I don’t think it’s possible to get an education these days without constant value from parents (either free board or a hundred dollars a week) or serious amounts of work, to the point it stuffs your study.
As I said before, I wouldnt recommend full time study to a school leaver anymore. I would say get a job and study part time/extramurally. I wouldnt bank on the forces anymore, given that the jobs there are slowly being outsourced and privatised.
I think it must be the future job prospects that must be most worrying to young people/students these days, compared with when I was young. This means there is much more pressure to get good grades today.
My main full time student experience was as a teachers’ college student (not a degree course in those days). Money was quite tight, but I was bonded to work for 3 years after graduation and guaranted a job.
Before doing that course, in my late teens, I was working full time and was sharing a little flat (this was the late 60s). There were weeks when we had no money for food the day before payday. We didn’t have much to spend our money on – we had no TV, just a radio, a little record player, and one landline phone between us. There wasn’t much night life in Auckland, just movies and pubs, which we spent sparingingly on. Our transport was largely motor scooters or public transport.
I had friends around that time who shared a bedroom to make it easier for them financially. But we all had jobs, albeit not well paid, and we all felt these jobs would lead to higher paid ones in the future.
In contrast, the future must be quite a worry for young people today.
$164/week for living costs, and about $190 a week for a student allowance + living costs + rent subsidy if not living with parent(s).
And yeah, it’s pretty difficult to live off that alone unless you’re flatting with communal cooking/groceries or living at home, especially if you drive or bus.
Even with flatting, it’d be pretty dodgy math.
Back in the day I was on $150/wk loans, but that was ten or fifteen years ago. There was a period i was on rice and foodbanks for a bit, but in general I lived okay – not well, but okay. Forget dignity, I just don’t see how it adds up on current prices, even according to tory slide rules.
Yeap, last time I was flatting I only had $20/week left after rent. food and bills from $150/week living costs.
Bloody depressing and without student job search I would have had “fun”.
These days I wouldn’t even dream of trying to flat in Christchurch without a part time job as the increases in food and power make it tricky to live off $164-169/week and eat properly.
I still think that that the HNZ changes are more geared towards private landlords than anything else. The only thing I can see is rents rising across the board as a result of forcing thousands of vulnerable tenants and families into insecure private rentals.
I have always belived that the price of food, veges, milk, etc is a red herring. Its the fact that rents are so bloody high that we have bugger all left to buy anything else.
But sharing beds is another thing altogether!
Why do they refuse to move to the suburbs – I’m in Mt Albert and pay only a little more than that for a nice two bedroom unit with a pool, gym etc in the complex.
For some the location is the priority due to the advantages:
No transport required.
Time is shaved by not commuting.
Some people find it cheaper to eat out and the CBD offers a better choice generally.
Studying is bloody expensive and youre always poor. I was lucky that the qualification I’ve got I was able to gain at the local poly, so I could live with the parents while I was studying. Since then they chopped a lot of qualifications offered there so many young people have to move to another city into these situation.
It seems to be that the least financially hard way to ‘upskill’ is to study part time while working.
Tertiary education needs a huge shakeup in this country.
pics or stfu
“Tertiary education needs a huge shakeup in this country.”
Same theme, the haves and the have nots. We know who the haves are.
Students have it so hard today due to constant limitations e.g. rising fees, cost of housing, limiting of courses, no job security when the qualification/degree is gained.
” no job security when the qualification/degree is gained”
Took me 2 years to find a job after I got my degree in IT. I was overqualified for non-IT jobs and underqualified for the IT jobs currently going.
In all honesty sometimes I wonder if my qualification needed to be at a degree level and whether a simple 1-2 year certificate or diploma would have been sufficent.
Ugg Kerre Woodham can be insipid at times:
“If the minimum wage is raised, some workers will be laid off and prices will go up. End of story.”
“He may be mocked as Mr Smile and Wave, but doing that and carrying on as normal is not so different to the Keep Calm and Carry On exhortation during World War II.”
Yes John Key does remind one of Churchill in his efficacy. Thanks Kerre.
and for John Armstrong:
“Phil Goff, at least, showed some restraint in delaying his visit. He then blew it by calling for a moratorium on new deep-sea oil drilling until suitable environmental safeguards are in place. ”
So we handle an oil spill extremely badly, the population as a whole is rather worried about how we would respond to a much larger oil spill and yet somehow the opposition opposing a controversial and unpopular policy is in Armstrong’s words:
“a bout of MMP politics at its worst”
Im bloody over that tart. Its always those who are rolling in cash who think those at the bottom end of society are getting too much.
Same as above, it is always those who have spent their working lives in offices pushing pens and shuffling paper who think that the superannuation age should be lifted.
Millsy said:
“Same as above, it is always those who have spent their working lives in offices pushing pens and shuffling paper who think that the superannuation age should be lifted.”
Very good point.
Agreed.
My father retired at 60, when that was the age. He’d worked for 46 years, mostly in factories. If he had worked until 65, let alone 67, I doubt whether he would have made it to 76 (when he died – of asbestos related cancer).
I’m always grateful that he had at least a reasonable number of years at the end of his life when he didn’t have to wake up at 5:15am to get to work for the 12 hour 6am shift.
Why of all the Social Welfare measures adopted around the world since the 1800s was the first and the oldest reform always the pension?
What working person hasn’t witnessed an older, once leading, and respected worker being humbled as they fall behind, affected by the afflictions of long-sighted-ness, bad backs and all the other ailments that begin past the age of 40 and accumulate past the age of 50.
Past the age of 60 this humiliation becomes unbearable for other workers to witness.
That is why cutting the pension, or raising the age entitlement is the third rail of Welfare Reform.
Any political party, and I mean ANY PARTY that dares to touch this issue will be severely burned.
Yes, I picked up on that newsense. Talk about double standards! Does Armstrong ever read what he has said in the past? Apparently not because he contradicts himself time and again. I’m actually of the view that he tries to appear ‘neutral’ while surreptitiously pushing the Nat. line as hard as he dares. In other words the subliminal message to the sheeples is “vote National”.
No power to cafes/bars in Kingsland. Four hours before someone says “I think we should get a generator in”
Once again NZ doesn’t have the capacity to react to emergencies and make command decisions or sort out the priorities.
Businesses, tourists, fans need power – bugger where the problem is, we can have one team continuing to work on that – but in the meantime get that generator on the move and get these people hooked up with 90 mins.
Not 5 hours later!
Posts 17 & 18 the delay is probably due to who is going to pay the bill for the generators and the booms.
Pike River receivers and Christchurch insurers are good examples of why the job is not progressing at an acceptable pace.
New development on the Rena incident….
with the new spill in oil today MNZ are deploying heavy duty booms that can “work in strong currents” and a skimmer that can collect the oil.
So, are they telling us that booms (of the right type) can be deployed in open seas? That oil can be corralled and then collected at sea?
Hmmm.
I thought that the government said such things weren’t possible.
I thought they said that once the ship hit the rocks there was nothing we could do about it.
I though they said that we had to wait until it washed ashore and then collect it.
Surely our government hasn’t lied to us? *lip quiver*
They wouldn’t do that to us would they? *sniff*
I don’t find the lies so hurtful as the fact that they can’t go a month without contradicting themselves, and I don’t find that as sad as the fact that the media almost never notice.
Where did the booms come from?
TV3 News didn’t say so. They just glossed over it as though there was no greater story there. I know where they should have got them – from their own emergency equipment storage facility and they should have got it on day one.
From Sushi to Tunisia: A Guide to Swaying Majority Opinion.
How do you topple a tyrant or popularize a foreign cuisine? According to a recent study in the journal Physical Review E, mobilizing an unyielding minority of 10 percent may be enough.
Arms trade: Business before human rights?
Of course it’s business before human rights – can’t make a profit if you go around around standing up for peoples rights. If you did that, they may not fight and then wouldn’t need the weapons.
Another tech pioneer, Dennis Ritchie, passes
Ah well, they come and go. Good legacy left though.
… great result tonight from an enthralling game – and France were not walkovers at all.
(Anyone prepared to open a book on a call for the All Black flag to be adopted as our national flag.) – I give it less than two days to become a national discussion point – hope I’m wrong.