Hey Fisiani, now that I’ve stuck up for you (see yesterday’s comments) can you tell the truth on:
A. whether you’re a collaborative effort – i.e., actually more than one person.
B. whether your average age is under 25.
at the risk of causing the odd reader to spray coffee all over their keyboards and halfway up their monitors, it seems to me like you have some native wit that you’d be better off employing in straight pieces. puerile gets old, funnily enough.
Just one person with razor sharp insight and approaching 60.
I come here for the hysterical parallel universe comedy where the fantastic progress of the last seven years is seen as failure. Where Chicken Little would seem an optimist. Where the evidence of distorted thinking is so evident. i want to guide people to the light, the Force, the brighter side of life.
I’m afraid not @Paul. He might even lay claim to once even having voted Labour – especially in an FPP environment.
Rest assured though – he’s alright Jack. No doubt he pulled himself up by his bootstraps and is a self-made man (Get that? a M A N!) One with a ‘noble African’ handle (all trademarked, commodified and paid up in full)
Do a straight piece. too much pisstaking rots the brain. if you wrote a decent “positives of the last seven years” that was, you know, grounded in fact rather than posturing, I’m sure the guys here would consider throwing it up as a discussion piece…
Ho Ho Ho – looks like its turning to custard for the Government. 6.13 this morning on RNZ Morning Report everything in the economic department is failing – export figures you name it. Wonder why its now relegated to the summer break for news like this to emerge.
@ Hami Shearlie (2.1) – I think the distraction in the early new year will still be the flag (second referendum in March). It will hot up as the final vote gets closer, with FJK’s choice in our faces all day, every day.
But then after that one is all done and dusted, watch the panda issue become the main focus of msm acting on FJK’s instruction next April, when one very “prominent NZer” faces trial! Could even be a “choose the cutest panda” competition, just to distract from what will be going on in the court!
Wouldn’t mind betting there could well be a media blackout of the court case! Can’t have dear leader being embarrassed through some factual reporting, can we?
The first quarter of 20016 should be very interesting indeed, with the economy going down the toilet quick smart, the (rigged) flag result and then a “prominent NZer” facing his accusers!
Espiner made an ineffectual attempt to shut her up.Not easy with the Boags of this world.
Her strategy when asked what she thought of Andrew Little was dripping with fake condescendence and tried to make the interview about John Key. Viz.:’Well…Andrew Little …He’s doing quite well .. ..(insert patronizing tone here)..even though he hasn’t got John Key’s charisma or people skills…. Now John Key, this….and John Key. that…’.. ad nauseum. Must get people talking and thinking about John Key.
The other interviewee, Rob, when asked about Andrew Little, actually talked about Andrew Little as a serious person who hasn’t got time to talk about Key’s triviality .
I think the Left’s new year’s resolution should be to ignore Key’s banal clowning.
Oscar Wilde-“There is only one thing worse than being talked about and that is NOT being talked about.”.
He did not even try to call her on the blatant spin she was delivering.
Espiner is not an independent journalist; he is just another embedded corporate plant.
Michelle Boag should be removed from TV and the Radio, she is an assault on the senses, especially the ears – a true nightmare and heart failure material if you met her on a dark night. As for Espiner he is just a lap dog for Key and his Government – it couldn’t get any worse for this country.
Am off to do some lovely things like get a cake finished for a dear old lady I visit and get some soothing Baroque Christmas music on and just forget about the creeps who invade our lives by TV and Radio. Even the Listener is a load of hog wash. Whatever did NZ ever do to deserve this useless and corrupted lot dictating to us.
yea but nah ….. neither are the sharpest knAves in the drawer intellectually-woise. That’s why she has to play dress-ups all the time.
Two generations back she’d be putting a blue rinse through her hair, living in Karori and talking about what hubby got up to
I think the Left’s new year’s resolution should be to ignore Key’s banal clowning.
On the basis that I’m really slack at putting posts up (It was [may still be if it happens] going to titled ‘Jobby on a Stick’). Anyway, I’ll just say, I’ve had similar thoughts of late. I wouldn’t say ‘ignore’, though. Depersonalise – talk past the image.
There has been a huge and well crafted project devoted to creating an image of the current Prime Minister that many find appealing. As such, it’s flogging a dead horse to pivot any issue around that image or media personality.
Essentially people are being asked to take two psychological steps to address any issue at hand. The first step is to go beyond the knee jerk defensiveness (and immediate rejection of substantial matters) that comes from the positive relationship people have towards the image that’s been generated.
Refusing to name the fucker is a step towards undermining the…hmm…’cult of personality’. “The current Prime Minister” (of New Zealand?) is suitably depersonalised term. The PM…the leader of the Nats etc – they all work to degrees.
Did I say I’d love to see no more images of New Zealand’s current Prime Minister used as post images here on ‘ts’?
Bill.I agree. In he last two elections it seemed to me that those on the left
talked about Key most of the time.i.e. provided him with heaps of free publicity and not enough about their own policies.
The media is partly to blame as exasperation with Key’s antics makes better copy than dull old policies, sells more papers and gets people listening even if they then go ,”tut-tut” but give up on voting.
Yes Bill , ‘ignore ‘ is not the right word..maybe it should be dismiss with disdain.
dismiss= deliberately cease to think about.. (disdain = to regard something as unworthy of consideration).
Yes I’ll do that.
Why wait for Kauri dieback disease to decimate our heritage, we can just cut down or ring bark our ancient trees instead?
Thanks Auckland Council planners and “independent commissioners’ for not noticing the ancient Kauri’s in the 70 page report prepared by the applicants that failed to mention that. Instead burying within the document ‘high value vegetation’ is to be cut down. Deception?
Not to mention the developers also told the public they would not cut down the trees but since seemed to have changed their minds.
This story never ceases to amaze. I’m not sure why the developer didn’t change their mind at the start of this though, obviously not worried about their reputation.
Ironically, if it’s purely about money, anyone buying into that spot would likely pay more with the tree still standing and sensitively designed and built around. Certainly for me (and my neighbours, about 150m away from the site), large trees right around our houses was a major value-add.
A couple of other points: in this area the “permitted activity” for clearing bush for a building site is up to 150 sq m or 10% of the section area. There are two houses to be built on two sites of about 1000sq m each, so up to 300sq m allowed to be cleared. Eyeballing what’s already been cleared, it’s about 30m by 30m, so around 900 sq m. Plus a fair few more trees marked with “X” still for the chop. How the f*** did that get consented? Doing a drive past Lenihan and Greensmith’s listed home address elsewhere in Titirangi, it looks they’ve also cleared building sites there way in excess of what is a “permitted activity”.
So I can’t help wondering if they’ve got a corrupt relationship going on someone (or some people) in council. Also can’t help wondering what the other principals of RCG think of Lenihan’s activities.
The problem is developers moving into an area, getting a cheap site because they need a make a sensitive design and then undermining the atmosphere and ethos of the area to make money and not bothering with a sensitive design, all while profiting from the reputation of the area of being a bush green belt. These guys just got too greedy, but also exposes the role of the council. Are they just getting fees for plans and virtually rubber-stamping anything not adhering to the rules of district plan.
So the blame is the developers and planning consultants who have put together reports to hide what they are doing, and then the council for not bothering to do due diligence and then just doing some dubious activities to hide their role and let the trees be chopped further setting a precedent against the plan, public and community by allowing the travesty to continue.
From what I remember from earlier in the year they had back door access to council because they’re architects (?). So possibly not outright corrupt but certainly part of the old neoliberals network.
I hope they get pariahed. Good on the tree surgeons who downed tools last week, and shame on the ‘security’ company who wielded chainsaws this morning, hope they get named and shamed too.
“The United States is scarier than the Islamic State
Even our closest allies fear that we are a menace militarily and environmentally. The threat is lethal and real”
PHIL TORRES
Carpet bombing sorts out all the problems. It was chemical weapons in Vietnam!
Also I heard ISIS were being trained by the Israelis and ISIS were selling oil to Israel, also told ISIS are selling oil to Turkey for US weapon supplies- fact or fiction?
Thanks Red, compliments of the season. I have read his book Debunking Economic’s. Heavy going and I will have to read again to absorb all the facts. I can recommend that one if you have not already read it.
Morning Report this morning. Boag says it is only the Left who are opposing the change of flag.
Salmond says that 66% oppose the change of flag so Michelle, this is good news for the Left. Touche!
It’s a new 169 kilometre road from Tapawera to Karamea.
In the Stuff poll with 11,000 votes attached to the article, 57% supported it and 26% opposed.
Buller Mayor Garry Howard and Tasman Mayor Richard Kempthorne love it.
Their point is that 87% of Buller District and much of Tasman District is DOC estate and not open to any other kind of economic activity except tourism.
So the question of what their people do for jobs other than making life convenient for tourists is a real question.
Forest and Bird hate the idea. It’s (consultants’ thumbsuck) $100m, or about $2m per kilometre. The Treasury question that Cabinet will have to face is: if you had $100m to spend on the West Coast, would a road be the most beneficial thing for that taxpayer money?
Pretty similar to the Haast to Hollyford road that Minister Smith killed last year. With Joyce open to the idea and in need of a West Coast plan, looks like a major Parliamentary and Cabinet debate for 2016.
Minister Joyce and the Buller Mayor could possibly pop over to Ruby Bay and Collingwood and consider the high-value, high-capital and job-intensive horticulture and viticulture already going on in Tasman and get a few clues as to answer the question: if you had a spare hundred million for the West Coast ………..
+100 Ad
Yep, love the two main points in particular..
“So the question of what their people do for jobs other than making life convenient for tourists is a real question.”
and
“if you had $100m to spend on the West Coast, would a road be the most beneficial thing for that taxpayer money?”
It is about time that NZ has some sort of economic strategy that relies more on utilising what we already have here, making that better, instead of more roads, convention centres and falsifying our data to keep the illusion that NZ is clean and green (I feel after Key was laughed out of Paris the international community might be cottoning on…)
Instead the government is cancelling any innovation initiatives and giving our science grants and NIWA boats to polluting oil companies….
The tramping community has been aware of this one for a while.
Roads and cars are rapidly becoming a liability while undisturbed wilderness is regarded as increasingly valuable. Most people are still locked into thinking nothing has changed and that life is going to carry on a usual.
It isn’t.
Besides the capital and maintenance costs are absurdly poor value. Roads in this part of the country, especially in tight valleys, are subject to high rainfall and massive slips.
+100 Redlogix…part of the charm of that north end of the West Coast including Karamea is that it is at the end of the road and then there is untouched wilderness …just as Glenorchy is at the end of the road…and then untouched wilderness
People dont come to New Zealand to see roads
Wilderness and untouched nature is a draw card in itself
If I had $100m of taxpayer funds in my pocket (and as Minister I wanted to build some big stuff so I could open it), I’d look to what happened to Queenstown and Wanaka when they upgraded the nearest airport. Huge volumes of rich international people visiting longer, hotels springing up in town, and it becomes a real global destination, capital values through the roof. And for little mayors balancing little budgets, that means rates takes going through the roof.
“Pretty similar to the Haast to Hollyford road that Minister Smith killed last year”
I wish he had killed it but from what I remember he’s just said no to that proposal at that time rather than a blanket no.
It’s a collossal waste of resources to have to keep fighting these projects again and again. Both those roading projects (and the Queenstown/Milford transport one) have been repeatedly put forward in various forms for 3 decades or more. Time to put a moratorium on new roads in National Parks unless there is a conservation reason for the road, in which case it can go through the normal consent processes.
Time to put a moratorium on new roads in National Parks unless there is a conservation reason for the road,
Bloody good idea.
What’s even more aggravating is watching DoC complicitly downgrading the existing tracks in order reduce the number of people using the area. In fact there was always a great case for upgrading the Whangapeka to the same standard as the Heaphy, making for a fabulous world-class six-day round trip.
Instead they’re deliberately letting the tracks in area run down so as to discourage it’s use.
That idea should be a good starting postion for Labour and the Greens next election
Time to put a moratorium on new roads in National Parks unless there is a conservation reason for the road, in which case it can go through the normal consent processes.
Somewhat frustrating since Golden Bay, Collingwood and Ruby Bay (over in the Tasman region) all show what really intensive and productive use of land looks like. Granted, you’re not going to grow hops in Buller.
But then until the mid-1980s, no one thought you could make a wine industry out of central Otago, let alone right on the shores of alpine Lake Wanaka. But they did. And it didn’t take a new highway punching through the nearest national park to make happen.
“Probably no one-lane bridges left…”
There are quite a lot still there actually.
There is even one where the road and rail share the same bridge.
I hope that the train, whatever it is, goes slowly when they come to the bridge.
Mind you, I don’t know how many rail trips are still there on the coast.
Pity it rains so much though.
I hadn’t thought of it in quite that way. More Aucklanders?
Rain, damn it. More rain! More rain! More rain!
Send it down Hughie. Save the coast from the alien invasion.
Yeah, it’s a hangover from the pioneer culture on the coast. Mr Explorer Douglas still lives on.
There’s 1661.8 km of sealed State HIghway and rural road on the coast linking all the centres of economic importance as of 2009 http://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/land-transport-statistics/docs/2008-2009.pdf ( I doubt it will have grown much) which isn’t perceived to be bringing economic nirvana. How will a further 56km between two very minor townships change this? It doesn’t shorten the Nelson – Westport distance any, it’s the same, or longer.
So what’s the point, jobs for the consultants? Create a “concept” they can sell to an “investor”? It’ll probably come to an end once they discover their “thumb suck” is light by an order of magnitude, like Haast – Hollyford
For women with low-risk pregnancies, babies delivered at home with a midwife are at no greater risk of harm than those born in hospital with a midwife’s assistance, an Ontario study has found.
The three-year study of almost 23,000 pregnancies found the risk of adverse birth outcomes was low for both planned home and hospital deliveries and differed little between the two groups, said lead researcher Eileen Hutton of the midwifery education program at McMaster University in Hamilton.
But researchers found that women who delivered in hospital were more likely to have interventions such as pain relief, labour augmentation, assisted vaginal births or caesarean births, compared to those who delivered at home. There was also a higher rate of episiotomy among women who gave birth in hospital. An episiotomy is a surgical cut made at the opening of the vagina during childbirth to ease delivery and prevent tissues from rupturing.
Hutton suspects the differences may arise because women who intend to give birth at home may be “more intervention-adverse. For example, in terms of pain relief, they’re more inclined to think ‘I can manage without this and I trust my body and I’m going to do it.’
“There’s also probably the fact that you are at home, and in your home environment the physiological process of labour may work better,” she said.
hmm…well as a stoical person who tried to have a home birth( didnt like the idea of medical intervention,particularly male intervention, thought birth was a natural miraculous process etc) and ended up with an emergency cesarean at 3.00 am …after several days of labour…and getting the consultant out of bed
(and and one disappointed lovely home birthing midwife and another older home birther who was positively hostile after the event when I got home … I let the side down…should have tried harder )
….all i can say is thank God ( the Goddess) for medical specialists and monitoring…by the time I got to hospital the baby was under stress ( per moniters) and I was exhausted, couldnt take much more
…and I was later cheerfully told by my male obstetrics GP who turned up at the hospital ( and who also believed in home births or at least women’s choice)… that the baby and I would have died without medical intervention…I believed him!
at least I had the choice ( low tech/high tech)….and they were all wonderful( except the older midwife)…but for my daughter i would recommend a high tech birth and take everything that is going in a hospital …especially monitoring and epidurals
( cesareans are absolutely fabulous when you need them)
It’s the hostile politics between the two sides that is so damned futile and disappointing. My two kids were both home births so I’ve a little exposure to it all myself.
All I ever expected was that everyone involved should work together in the best interests of the babies and mothers.
well the “hostile politics” are not surprising given the stakes when things go wrong…birth always was potentially dramatic and dangerous for some women…just look at history and the plight of women in the third world
i was lucky in that I had a midwife who moved very fast when I said i wanted to go to hospital…lucky also that the high tech hospital was only 10 minutes away…lucky I had a GP /obstetrician trained in home births who met us at the hospital… and lucky he had a consultant mate who didnt mind getting up in the early hours and quickly pronouncing emergency cesarean …most lucky I had a healthy robust baby!
from what I can gather women these days are not so lucky for choice …it is either home birth with a midwife making all the judgment calls and when to go to hospital, with not necessarily immediate full support when they get there…(GP doctors have opted out)…or opting for hospital birth from the beginning with all the high tech ( and risk feeling alienated by the process)
From my experience , it is not worth the risk… I opted for hospital next time around and an elective cesarean…great for women who can have a home birth and great for women who can breast feed …but women who cant should be celebrated as well ( those babies on bottles look lovely and the mothers look lovely)….My Mother always said she envied women who had cesareans….their babies were so beautiful! ( not scrunched and red)
“That bitch is a ‘mother’ only in the technical sense.”
RETURN OF THE GRAVE-ROBBER: A REAL LIFE HORROR STORY
Five mental health doctors, all in white coats, gather round a computer screen to consider a particularly grievous case. Professor MORRISSEY BREEN leads the convocation….
DOCTOR No. 1: Oh Jesus, do we HAVE to look at this?
PROF. BREEN: Come on now. You guys work with mental health cases. This is your job.
DOCTOR No. 2: Yes, but these right wing fellows are, if not simply bewildered, then certainly depraved. They ARE all guys, aren’t they?
PROF. BREEN: Well, there’s one Catholic woman who writes crackpot stuff about religion and Russia occasionally, but, yes, I think they’re mostly male contributors.
YOUNG FEMALE DOCTOR:[grimly] Very SAD males.
PROF. BREEN: Indeed. We’ll start with this comment from someone calling himself “dime”. He writes “what a piece of human garbage”.
DOCTOR No. 4: To be honest, that’s pretty tame. Lame, but tame.
PROF. BREEN: Granted. Unfortunately, however, our friend “dime” is the intellectual heavyweight in this forum. It only gets worse from here on. For instance, a sad git called “mara” writes: “This Kahui ought to have fallen down the stairs in prison years ago.”
….Disbelieving silence for several seconds….
DOCTOR No. 1: Fuck me! These MORONS are in institutional care, I take it? PROF. BREEN: Sorry, but please bear with me if you can. A bit later a genius named “cmm” writes: “These people are always so keen to dis the white man that brings him the legal system that keeps him alive, gives him money for food, accommodation etc.”
ALL: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!… Jesus H. CHRIST, these people are D – U – M, DUMB!
PROF. BREEN: A bewildered soul called nasska writes: “Urban ferals never have & never will benefit from the millions thrown into the black hole that is the Maori grievance industry.” One “PhilP” writes learnedly that Chris Kahui is a “useless piece of shit.”
DOCTOR No. 4: Good Lord! This is like listening to a morning of Leighton Smith!
DOCTOR No. 5: Or Michael Laws. Or Sean Plunket. Or Larry “Lackwit” Williams.
PROF. BREEN: Yes, that’s right. Obviously these people get their talking points from the likes of Smith and Laws.
DOCTOR No. 3: And the ACT Party.
PROF. BREEN: Actually, No. 3, you’re close to the truth there. But we’ll get onto that in a minute. Let’s just consider the last couple of examples. Another fellow, “deadrightkev”, writes: “Kahui is a product of trash upbringing and fertilised by a social welfare state dependency problem out of control.” He then manages to top that with this gem: “Treaty settlements are fraud. They should be staying exactly where they should be – in the hands of the taxpayer.”
YOUNG FEMALE DOCTOR: More like “Deadweight” Kev, methinks.
ALL: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
PROF. BREEN: This one is my favorite, though, because he’s honest. Stupid, but honest. One “flash2846” writes learnedly: “Yet another good reason why I and others are racist! Just imagine a murderer of any other race in New zealand saying that shit. Filthy CUNT! needs castrating!!!!”
….A stunned silence ensues for several seconds…..
DOCTOR No. 1:[grimly] Farrar certainly seems to attract the intellectuals.
DOCTOR No. 3: You know what the most frightening thing about these guys is? They can breed and they can vote.
ALL: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
PROF. BREEN: Okay. Now some of you might remember this bloke. [He scrolls down the page] Sorry, fellas, before I reveal who it is, I know that like the rest of the country, you thought you’d never have to look at his ugly mug again or listen to one of his ill-informed, hate-filled rants, but he’s back—at least on Kiwiblog.
DOCTOR No. 1: Who? Murray Deaker?
DOCTOR No. 4: Not that fucking criminal JOHN BANKS?
PROF. BREEN: Now, No. 3, remember how you suggested these halfwits could be channeling the ACT Party. Well, get a load of THIS: “Of course he’s fucking unemployable… But of the two, his former “missus” is the worst in my view…male scum who couldn’t give a fuck about or abuse their progeny are a dime a dozen…somehow we expect more of mothers…That bitch is a “mother” only in the technical sense…and she is probably a killer…she certainly knows who did kill the poor little buggers… the useless mongrel – and I say that even if he didn’t kill his sons – has almost certainly sired a couple more by now….and you can bet your arse those children have “come to the attention of the authorities”
GENERAL HUBBUB: Jesus! …. What the HELL?… You can virtually feel the spittle!… Was that a quote from the late Paul Holmes?…. Sounds like Cameron Slater… Or John Ansell?… It’s hard to say which part of this is more offensive: the militant display of ignorance or the hatred. …. Are these people in care, and if not, why not? … They can vote, and they can breed…. So tell us, Prof. Breen: who was it? PROF. BREEN: I’ll give you three clues. Clue number one: he’s a disgraced ACT M.P.
DOCTOR No. 2: Doctor Muriel Newman, the dimmest medical practitioner in the world until the advent of Dr Ben Carson!
PROF. BREEN: All reasonable choices. But not the answer I’m looking for. Clue number two: he was convicted of assaulting a doctor in Tonga.
ALL: Oh Jesus, no!… I know who it is now. …. I’d blocked that person out of my memory, I’d thought…. No, no, no! Not him!… It’s that monster from the S.S. Trust!
PROF. BREEN: Clue number three: he stole the identity of a dead baby and was convicted for it, but it still didn’t stop ACT selecting him as a candidate!
GENERAL HUBBUB: The right dishonorable David fucking Garrett! … He’s the lowest of the low!… Thanks, Prof. Breen, I had banished that zombie into my mental trash can, and now you bring him back from the dead!… Absolutely reprehensible!… Compared to David Garrett, Chris Kahui is Albert fucking Schweitzer.
PROF. BREEN: Say, I LIKE that comment. I might just modify it a bit and post it up on Kiwiblog….
Unless you are privy to all the details of the case, from what was published – there does not seem to be enough evidence to make that decisive judgement call.
One of my relatives worked in the ICU at that time, and it had been noted by staff that the (somewhat regular) lack of bonding with the mother had occurred, and that substantial at home visits and supports would be necessary to address this. This did not occur after discharge.
It is by no means uncommon for parents of very premature births to have a resistance to forming bonds with their child. The children are often physically different from expectations of a healthy birth – very skinny, with loose and hairy skin, and it is a form of unconscious mental self-preservation to not invest emotionally if outcomes are uncertain.
Whether Chris Kahui was responsible for the injuries or not, seemed hard to define given the conflicting evidence that I can recall.
What is true however, is that a vulnerability was identified and a strategy defined which was not followed up on.
This is tragedy was indicative of a support system failure as well.
You could well be right, Tim. However, the discredited National Party hitman Cameron Slater is not fit to comment on him or anyone else.
The point of my post was not to defend Chris Kahui, but to show the hypocrisy of the ignorant and bloody-minded lynch-mob that were denouncing him on the right wing blogs. It’s perhaps no surprise to learn that the most foul-mouthed, crudest commenter of all on that particular thread was the disgraced ex-ACT felon David Garrett….
I enjoyed your post (as usual) and I’m glad you let those guys know how it is. It just prompted me to think about the case again and left me with a sense of anger – probably at the family as well as Macsyna and Chris, for the way in which all seemed complicit in preventing the truth coming to light at the time… Or at least that is what the media has it seem like.
…”The monument in Wiltshire has long been thought of as a place of magic used by the ancient druids, with mystery surrounding how it was built and its exact use. It is believed to have been built between 2000 and 3000 BC…
Following a monumental win against the controversial ‘Monsanto law’ in Guatemala last year, the notorious biotech firm took another big hit after Mexico’s Supreme Court suspended a permit to grow genetically modified soybeans across 250,000 hectares on the Yucatán peninsula.
The judgement stemmed from a constitutional law in Mexico that requires the consideration of indigenous communities affected by development projects. According to the Supreme Court, Monsanto failed to consult the region’s famous Maya beekeepers who filed the case against Monsanto. The beekeepers warned early on that Monsanto’s plan would require the use of “glyphosate, a herbicide classified as probably carcinogenic.” Given that bees are extremely sensitive to their environment, the beekeepers explained that Monsanto’s project jeopardize their communities, their livelihoods and the environment.
The judge commented in the ruling that co-existence between honey production and GM soybeans is simply not possible.
And yet many places in the world had thriving ecosystems before the arrival of the honey bee, which included plants that needed pollination. I’ve been following the bee problem for a long time but lately I’ve been wondering if the issue of the demise of hive bees is about global economics more than humans being able to feed themselves. We should be going back to eating local anyway. The issue isn’t that the almond orchards in California will fail when all the colonies collapse, and how that affects the global food supply, but the fact that that kind of orcharding created the collapse in the first place and is just wrong on all levels.
Yes, we should be concerned about any species decline, but if we focus on the honey bee/global cropping connections instead of the ecosystem that includes all pollinators then we will just keep shitting in our own nest (and everyone else’s).
Oh I agree – however the demise of the honey bee by wide spread applications of pesticide also includes the demise of all the other local pollinators, and that is what makes the Mexican Supreme Court decision so important.
This is why Douglas, Prebble and co should be hung by their fucking heals.
Most recently, the privatisation of the timber industry in the 1980s caused “massive job losses and severe poverty” in the west of the district, which had previously been relatively wealthy.
While the Crown did provide some support to communities in Te Urewera, they were “never near enough to counter the massive disadvantages holding back those communities”.
I remember reading an insider industry report in the early 80’s sometime, projecting that with the amount of timber potentially coming online NZ could support something like 16 world scale timber/pulp/paper mills.
We never built any of them. Most of the wood got shipped overseas as logs for other people to make money from.
Despite the injustice and deprivation of the past, which at the time I was only vaguely aware of, the people I knew and worked with in Galatea – Murupara in the 1970’s had found some measure of prosperity.
And then the 4th Labour Government, their party, my party, didn’t just sell their livelihoods out from underneath them, they did that to lots of us, they abandoned them and their communities became the poverty stricken gang dominated shit holes of the 1990’s.
+1 yep they sold us all out and so many of us are still paying the cost – while they get taxpayer funded travel and invitations to conferences – sickening.
A fucken disgrace, and I still hear of D Cagill. Did the dogs get their beach trip. 😉
Oh, and just too wind you up again, down here in Dunedin, the council have employed two Lawyers to save some money, have come up with the idea of getting rid of the word Bitch and heat from the dog control act, they don’t like blurred meaning.
The former will be replaced with, “female dog in season” I kid you not.
Or, A back handed complement to the Dog ‘male’ for always being in season, or at least in unison with the said ‘Bitch’.
But in all seriousness, that nonsense has got to stop, it’s a waste of money etc etc.
PS: leave those whitebait alone, alwyn…At lest till the first of September
Sorry, but I can’t read past the first line of Māori living in caves and eatint rotten potatoes. I love NZ but there are some shames that we will never get past.
If it was your job to ensure the people being allowed into the country did not pose a significant security risk do you think it would be easy? Would you be happy if people judged you and your entire society as sick because of a specific decision that was made which we have not heard the justification for? Do you think it is reasonable for someone to join ISIS because they were not allowed to go to Disneyland for reasons that have not yet been made clear?
“Would you be happy if people judged you and your entire society as sick because of a specific decision that was made which we have not heard the justification for?”
Isn’t that what happened to these people?
This is how they felt after, “The family were escorted from the airport but were first obliged to return every item they had bought from the airport’s duty-free shops”
“I have never been more embarrassed in my life. I work here, I have a business here. But we were alienated.”
disgusting – I hope their relatives in Southern California don’t find the spooks hanging around their kids now but I’m not hopeful.
Hey – when a kid gets arrested for bringing a home made clock to school. http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/16/14-year-old-boy-arrested-for-bringing-homemade-clock-to-school/
A female politican sends out a christmas card of her and her family packing guns http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3347927/Nevada-politician-arms-family-guns-controversial-holiday-portrait-support-Second-Amendment.html
And the number of mass killings is increasing and more deadly http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/02/mass-shootings-in-america-numbers-more-frequent-more-deadly
and people who are obviously not criminals are denied entry for no other reason than they are Muslim, you have to conclude that the states is now a highly paranoid society. Having witnessed first hand the paranoia of the USA, fostered by their main stream media, their politicians, right wing “think” tanks, and the NRA, amongst others, one can only conclude that the states is not a pleasant place to be. Frankly I couldn’t wait to leave and never wish to return, despite the fact that I met many good people and the countryside in the fall was simply stunning.
I’m sorry if you are fearful, I take it from your tone that you are a part of that society and wish to uphold it. Well take it from an outsider – its time to rethink USA foreign policy so that The US is seen not as the terrorist that it has become, but as a decent Country like it was many many years ago.
the poor and middle classes have been divided by race/ income/ religion and set against one another, and kept in perpetual fear, keeping the real gangsters in the Wall St Washington establishment safe from criticism
Not sure how that judge’s ruling makes NZ a puppet state of the US.
Best you read the judge’s full decision before forming opinion, many of those on the political right would have been well advised to do the same regarding the recent decision regarding the illegality of the police search of Nicky Hagar’s home before spouting uninformed opinion.
Dotcom looses the case but: “Dotcom’s lawyer Ron Mansfield confirmed there would be an appeal lodged over the extradition this afternoon.” Might take years to resolve.
Here it is folks, what you have all been waiting for. It’s about to begin. Episode one of the KEYdashian’s Hawaiian holiday! The fruit of FJK’s loins, begins by missing his girlfriend already! Ahhhh poor baby!
Yuk! Enough to make one have to dash rather hastily to the toilet!
…a family party of 11, about to embark on a dream holiday for which they had saved for months, were approached by officials from US homeland security (at Gatwick…in the UK ffs!) as they queued in the departure lounge and told their authorisation to travel had been cancelled, without further explanation.
“Every presidential contender says they want to destroy Islamic State, but John McAfee is the only one predicting a war involving cyberattacks, not conventional weapons. “We have to prepare ourselves” for an enemy that is “far more clever,” McAfee told RT.
Not many people know John McAfee is running for president, but possibly even fewer understand the scope of the war against Islamic State (IS, formely ISIS/ISIL) the way he does.
When asked if Republican frontrunner Donald Trump’s strategy against IS was reasonable, McAfee answered, “No, absolutely not.” That’s an answer most other rivals would agree with, but to McAfee, it’s not about where and how to use the military. To defeat ISIS, America must face its own “cyber illiteracy” and other faults before engaging in what he purports to be the next World War – a cyber war…
Cyber wars are going on already. Involving nuclear reactors, airlines etc. Worth doing a Google search on the subject. I read a few blogs on the subject which linked to all sorts of instances reported in the mainstream media.
But there are some scary parallels between the Nazi Empire of the 1940’s and the Washington Empire and conquests today that revolve around the Petrodollar system that has maintained the dollar reserve currency status since the end of World War Two. This dollar world reserve currency model required that oil was only priced and sold in dollars forced all foreign nations buying and importing oil to keep major dollar reserves to pay for their oil imports guaranteed a permanent and expanding demand for dollars around the world.
Three Middle East countries first broke the oil/dollar requirement and threatened the petrodollar system including Iraq, Libya and Iran hence the US military attempts to violently overthrow these governments to maintain Washington hegemony and the dollar.
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
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Opinion: New Health NZ commissioner Lester Levy is authorised to assume operational leadership – chief executive Margie Apa is effectively relegated to his operational deputy The post All-powerful Levy is feudal baron of a $28b fiefdom appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Open letter to Fisiani.
Hey Fisiani, now that I’ve stuck up for you (see yesterday’s comments) can you tell the truth on:
A. whether you’re a collaborative effort – i.e., actually more than one person.
B. whether your average age is under 25.
at the risk of causing the odd reader to spray coffee all over their keyboards and halfway up their monitors, it seems to me like you have some native wit that you’d be better off employing in straight pieces. puerile gets old, funnily enough.
Just one person with razor sharp insight and approaching 60.
I come here for the hysterical parallel universe comedy where the fantastic progress of the last seven years is seen as failure. Where Chicken Little would seem an optimist. Where the evidence of distorted thinking is so evident. i want to guide people to the light, the Force, the brighter side of life.
That’s irony, right?
No, just a typo. Should have been … guide people to the light, the Farce, …
I’m afraid not @Paul. He might even lay claim to once even having voted Labour – especially in an FPP environment.
Rest assured though – he’s alright Jack. No doubt he pulled himself up by his bootstraps and is a self-made man (Get that? a M A N!) One with a ‘noble African’ handle (all trademarked, commodified and paid up in full)
‘Razor-sharp insight” ??????????????????????? Ha,ha,ha to the power of 1000.
That’s GOT to be irony.
To the power of 1000.
“When you are dead, you do not know you are dead. It’s only painful & difficult for others. The same applies when you are stupid.”
Do a straight piece. too much pisstaking rots the brain. if you wrote a decent “positives of the last seven years” that was, you know, grounded in fact rather than posturing, I’m sure the guys here would consider throwing it up as a discussion piece…
fisi
You couldn’t guide a moth to a bright light in the dark, mate.
Ho Ho Ho – looks like its turning to custard for the Government. 6.13 this morning on RNZ Morning Report everything in the economic department is failing – export figures you name it. Wonder why its now relegated to the summer break for news like this to emerge.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201783928/time-for-a-rethink-of-the-export-target
If this starts getting more widely reported I can see pandas on the horizon!
@ Hami Shearlie (2.1) – I think the distraction in the early new year will still be the flag (second referendum in March). It will hot up as the final vote gets closer, with FJK’s choice in our faces all day, every day.
But then after that one is all done and dusted, watch the panda issue become the main focus of msm acting on FJK’s instruction next April, when one very “prominent NZer” faces trial! Could even be a “choose the cutest panda” competition, just to distract from what will be going on in the court!
Wouldn’t mind betting there could well be a media blackout of the court case! Can’t have dear leader being embarrassed through some factual reporting, can we?
The first quarter of 20016 should be very interesting indeed, with the economy going down the toilet quick smart, the (rigged) flag result and then a “prominent NZer” facing his accusers!
Then it will be stroking pussy cats in Parnell, nice photo of Sir John and Lady Key in the Herald with the Xmas Message.
Then Espiner hosts a whitewash of the government’s performance by allowing Boag to propagandise without any intervention.
That was an appalling effort by Espiner. While political journalist Jane Patterson sat there silently.
Espiner made an ineffectual attempt to shut her up.Not easy with the Boags of this world.
Her strategy when asked what she thought of Andrew Little was dripping with fake condescendence and tried to make the interview about John Key. Viz.:’Well…Andrew Little …He’s doing quite well .. ..(insert patronizing tone here)..even though he hasn’t got John Key’s charisma or people skills…. Now John Key, this….and John Key. that…’.. ad nauseum. Must get people talking and thinking about John Key.
The other interviewee, Rob, when asked about Andrew Little, actually talked about Andrew Little as a serious person who hasn’t got time to talk about Key’s triviality .
I think the Left’s new year’s resolution should be to ignore Key’s banal clowning.
Oscar Wilde-“There is only one thing worse than being talked about and that is NOT being talked about.”.
He did not even try to call her on the blatant spin she was delivering.
Espiner is not an independent journalist; he is just another embedded corporate plant.
Morgan Godfery and the Labour Party man, Mr Salmond, also sat there mute while Boag raved.
They only invite ‘Fox Democrats’ on.
Tamed Labour spokespeople only on the airwaves.
Michelle Boag should be removed from TV and the Radio, she is an assault on the senses, especially the ears – a true nightmare and heart failure material if you met her on a dark night. As for Espiner he is just a lap dog for Key and his Government – it couldn’t get any worse for this country.
Am off to do some lovely things like get a cake finished for a dear old lady I visit and get some soothing Baroque Christmas music on and just forget about the creeps who invade our lives by TV and Radio. Even the Listener is a load of hog wash. Whatever did NZ ever do to deserve this useless and corrupted lot dictating to us.
Boag is the pretentious, sanctimonious Queen of the superficial, emotive, and bullying bee-arches of the right wing B.S machine.
JK and Boag actually believe their own BS.
yea but nah ….. neither are the sharpest knAves in the drawer intellectually-woise. That’s why she has to play dress-ups all the time.
Two generations back she’d be putting a blue rinse through her hair, living in Karori and talking about what hubby got up to
“JK and Boag actually believe their own BS.”
Problem is so does half of NZ.
Very true +1 Rodel
On the basis that I’m really slack at putting posts up (It was [may still be if it happens] going to titled ‘Jobby on a Stick’). Anyway, I’ll just say, I’ve had similar thoughts of late. I wouldn’t say ‘ignore’, though. Depersonalise – talk past the image.
There has been a huge and well crafted project devoted to creating an image of the current Prime Minister that many find appealing. As such, it’s flogging a dead horse to pivot any issue around that image or media personality.
Essentially people are being asked to take two psychological steps to address any issue at hand. The first step is to go beyond the knee jerk defensiveness (and immediate rejection of substantial matters) that comes from the positive relationship people have towards the image that’s been generated.
Refusing to name the fucker is a step towards undermining the…hmm…’cult of personality’. “The current Prime Minister” (of New Zealand?) is suitably depersonalised term. The PM…the leader of the Nats etc – they all work to degrees.
Did I say I’d love to see no more images of New Zealand’s current Prime Minister used as post images here on ‘ts’?
Bill.I agree. In he last two elections it seemed to me that those on the left
talked about Key most of the time.i.e. provided him with heaps of free publicity and not enough about their own policies.
The media is partly to blame as exasperation with Key’s antics makes better copy than dull old policies, sells more papers and gets people listening even if they then go ,”tut-tut” but give up on voting.
Yes Bill , ‘ignore ‘ is not the right word..maybe it should be dismiss with disdain.
dismiss= deliberately cease to think about.. (disdain = to regard something as unworthy of consideration).
Yes I’ll do that.
haven’t timed it, but with 4 guests it appeared Boag had about 50% of the floor
In my opinion he can always be relied upon to live up to his family name of eSPINer.
Colin is often not too far behind.
I doubt whether Michelle Boag would understand much about economic performance?
Why wait for Kauri dieback disease to decimate our heritage, we can just cut down or ring bark our ancient trees instead?
Thanks Auckland Council planners and “independent commissioners’ for not noticing the ancient Kauri’s in the 70 page report prepared by the applicants that failed to mention that. Instead burying within the document ‘high value vegetation’ is to be cut down. Deception?
Not to mention the developers also told the public they would not cut down the trees but since seemed to have changed their minds.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/controversial-titirangi-kauri-viciously-attacked-ring-barked
This story never ceases to amaze. I’m not sure why the developer didn’t change their mind at the start of this though, obviously not worried about their reputation.
That would be Jane Greensmith and John Lenihan, who I suspect are more concerned about how much money they stand to lose.
Ironically, if it’s purely about money, anyone buying into that spot would likely pay more with the tree still standing and sensitively designed and built around. Certainly for me (and my neighbours, about 150m away from the site), large trees right around our houses was a major value-add.
A couple of other points: in this area the “permitted activity” for clearing bush for a building site is up to 150 sq m or 10% of the section area. There are two houses to be built on two sites of about 1000sq m each, so up to 300sq m allowed to be cleared. Eyeballing what’s already been cleared, it’s about 30m by 30m, so around 900 sq m. Plus a fair few more trees marked with “X” still for the chop. How the f*** did that get consented? Doing a drive past Lenihan and Greensmith’s listed home address elsewhere in Titirangi, it looks they’ve also cleared building sites there way in excess of what is a “permitted activity”.
So I can’t help wondering if they’ve got a corrupt relationship going on someone (or some people) in council. Also can’t help wondering what the other principals of RCG think of Lenihan’s activities.
The problem is developers moving into an area, getting a cheap site because they need a make a sensitive design and then undermining the atmosphere and ethos of the area to make money and not bothering with a sensitive design, all while profiting from the reputation of the area of being a bush green belt. These guys just got too greedy, but also exposes the role of the council. Are they just getting fees for plans and virtually rubber-stamping anything not adhering to the rules of district plan.
So the blame is the developers and planning consultants who have put together reports to hide what they are doing, and then the council for not bothering to do due diligence and then just doing some dubious activities to hide their role and let the trees be chopped further setting a precedent against the plan, public and community by allowing the travesty to continue.
From what I remember from earlier in the year they had back door access to council because they’re architects (?). So possibly not outright corrupt but certainly part of the old neoliberals network.
I hope they get pariahed. Good on the tree surgeons who downed tools last week, and shame on the ‘security’ company who wielded chainsaws this morning, hope they get named and shamed too.
Environmental terrorists?
From Salon… interesting perspective, Left wing Lite… too close to Right?
“Hillary Clinton is just Republican lite: Sorry, boomers, but this millennial is still only voting Bernie Sanders”
http://www.salon.com/2015/12/22/hillary_clinton_is_just_republican_lite_sorry_boomers_but_this_millennial_is_still_only_voting_bernie_sanders/
“The United States is scarier than the Islamic State
Even our closest allies fear that we are a menace militarily and environmentally. The threat is lethal and real”
PHIL TORRES
http://www.salon.com/2015/12/20/the_united_states_is_scarier_than_the_islamic_state/
Carpet bombing sorts out all the problems. It was chemical weapons in Vietnam!
Also I heard ISIS were being trained by the Israelis and ISIS were selling oil to Israel, also told ISIS are selling oil to Turkey for US weapon supplies- fact or fiction?
Interesting interview with Steve Keen author of “Debunking Economic’s”
Thanks for the linky halfcrown. I always find Steve thought provoking. Since moving to London he’s been doing well.
Thanks Red, compliments of the season. I have read his book Debunking Economic’s. Heavy going and I will have to read again to absorb all the facts. I can recommend that one if you have not already read it.
Cheers Halfcrown. 🙂
Morning Report this morning. Boag says it is only the Left who are opposing the change of flag.
Salmond says that 66% oppose the change of flag so Michelle, this is good news for the Left. Touche!
Those RSA folk are rabid commies, I tells you.
So Michelle Boag is predicting the next Government will be a Left NZF Coalition, probably 95% right the way the Natzi’s are going at present.
So Michelle Boag is predicting the next Government will be a Left NZF Coalition, probably 95% right the way the Natzi’s are going at present.
There’s a big push to punch a highway through Kahurangi National Park.
https://nz.news.yahoo.com/local/a/30362464/major-study-to-evaluate-new-road-linking-nelson-and-westport/
It’s a new 169 kilometre road from Tapawera to Karamea.
In the Stuff poll with 11,000 votes attached to the article, 57% supported it and 26% opposed.
Buller Mayor Garry Howard and Tasman Mayor Richard Kempthorne love it.
Their point is that 87% of Buller District and much of Tasman District is DOC estate and not open to any other kind of economic activity except tourism.
So the question of what their people do for jobs other than making life convenient for tourists is a real question.
Forest and Bird hate the idea. It’s (consultants’ thumbsuck) $100m, or about $2m per kilometre. The Treasury question that Cabinet will have to face is: if you had $100m to spend on the West Coast, would a road be the most beneficial thing for that taxpayer money?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/west-coast/75126825/forest–bird-attacks-new-national-park-road-plan
Pretty similar to the Haast to Hollyford road that Minister Smith killed last year. With Joyce open to the idea and in need of a West Coast plan, looks like a major Parliamentary and Cabinet debate for 2016.
Minister Joyce and the Buller Mayor could possibly pop over to Ruby Bay and Collingwood and consider the high-value, high-capital and job-intensive horticulture and viticulture already going on in Tasman and get a few clues as to answer the question: if you had a spare hundred million for the West Coast ………..
+100 Ad
Yep, love the two main points in particular..
“So the question of what their people do for jobs other than making life convenient for tourists is a real question.”
and
“if you had $100m to spend on the West Coast, would a road be the most beneficial thing for that taxpayer money?”
It is about time that NZ has some sort of economic strategy that relies more on utilising what we already have here, making that better, instead of more roads, convention centres and falsifying our data to keep the illusion that NZ is clean and green (I feel after Key was laughed out of Paris the international community might be cottoning on…)
Instead the government is cancelling any innovation initiatives and giving our science grants and NIWA boats to polluting oil companies….
The tramping community has been aware of this one for a while.
Roads and cars are rapidly becoming a liability while undisturbed wilderness is regarded as increasingly valuable. Most people are still locked into thinking nothing has changed and that life is going to carry on a usual.
It isn’t.
Besides the capital and maintenance costs are absurdly poor value. Roads in this part of the country, especially in tight valleys, are subject to high rainfall and massive slips.
yep – this is a non starter as it always is for anyone that knows that country.
+100 Redlogix…part of the charm of that north end of the West Coast including Karamea is that it is at the end of the road and then there is untouched wilderness …just as Glenorchy is at the end of the road…and then untouched wilderness
People dont come to New Zealand to see roads
Wilderness and untouched nature is a draw card in itself
…which people can tramp through if they wish
There’s nothing better in the world than getting to the point on a tramp when you can no longer hear cars.
“if you had $100m to spend on the West Coast, would a road be the most beneficial thing”
and the same for Northland – is a duplicate highway that doesn’t even reach the region the best way to invest $700m+ ?
If I had $100m of taxpayer funds in my pocket (and as Minister I wanted to build some big stuff so I could open it), I’d look to what happened to Queenstown and Wanaka when they upgraded the nearest airport. Huge volumes of rich international people visiting longer, hotels springing up in town, and it becomes a real global destination, capital values through the roof. And for little mayors balancing little budgets, that means rates takes going through the roof.
Yeah but the snow’s crap in Westport. 🙂
Those things haven’t improved queens town and Wanaka Ad.
“Pretty similar to the Haast to Hollyford road that Minister Smith killed last year”
I wish he had killed it but from what I remember he’s just said no to that proposal at that time rather than a blanket no.
It’s a collossal waste of resources to have to keep fighting these projects again and again. Both those roading projects (and the Queenstown/Milford transport one) have been repeatedly put forward in various forms for 3 decades or more. Time to put a moratorium on new roads in National Parks unless there is a conservation reason for the road, in which case it can go through the normal consent processes.
Plus, FFS, climate change (and Peak Oil).
Time to put a moratorium on new roads in National Parks unless there is a conservation reason for the road,
Bloody good idea.
What’s even more aggravating is watching DoC complicitly downgrading the existing tracks in order reduce the number of people using the area. In fact there was always a great case for upgrading the Whangapeka to the same standard as the Heaphy, making for a fabulous world-class six-day round trip.
Instead they’re deliberately letting the tracks in area run down so as to discourage it’s use.
That idea should be a good starting postion for Labour and the Greens next election
Rod Donald once said there would be a road from Karamea to Golden Bay over his dead body 😉
Good man was Rod. Peace to his family
In other words, we have no fucking idea on what we can do to revitalise the west coast economy, so we will build a road.
Probably no one-lane bridges left…
Somewhat frustrating since Golden Bay, Collingwood and Ruby Bay (over in the Tasman region) all show what really intensive and productive use of land looks like. Granted, you’re not going to grow hops in Buller.
But then until the mid-1980s, no one thought you could make a wine industry out of central Otago, let alone right on the shores of alpine Lake Wanaka. But they did. And it didn’t take a new highway punching through the nearest national park to make happen.
“all show what really intensive and productive use of land looks like”
what actually are you talking about? dairy farms?
You’re clearly not familiar with the area I describe.
It’s intensive horticulture and vineyards.
lol – I live in Golden Bay mate, what about you?
So, clearly I’m not talking about dairy farms then am I?
I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about in regards to The Bay – which is why I asked – and clearly you don’t know either.
“Probably no one-lane bridges left…”
There are quite a lot still there actually.
There is even one where the road and rail share the same bridge.
I hope that the train, whatever it is, goes slowly when they come to the bridge.
Mind you, I don’t know how many rail trips are still there on the coast.
Pity it rains so much though.
If it didn’t rain so much there would be no rain forest and the place would be full of aucklanders 😉
I hadn’t thought of it in quite that way. More Aucklanders?
Rain, damn it. More rain! More rain! More rain!
Send it down Hughie. Save the coast from the alien invasion.
Yeah, it’s a hangover from the pioneer culture on the coast. Mr Explorer Douglas still lives on.
There’s 1661.8 km of sealed State HIghway and rural road on the coast linking all the centres of economic importance as of 2009 http://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/land-transport-statistics/docs/2008-2009.pdf ( I doubt it will have grown much) which isn’t perceived to be bringing economic nirvana. How will a further 56km between two very minor townships change this? It doesn’t shorten the Nelson – Westport distance any, it’s the same, or longer.
So what’s the point, jobs for the consultants? Create a “concept” they can sell to an “investor”? It’ll probably come to an end once they discover their “thumb suck” is light by an order of magnitude, like Haast – Hollyford
It would be another “Road of National Significance”.
Not the first time research has shown this,
http://www.thespec.com/news-story/6203430-home-birth-with-midwife-no-riskier-than-hospital-birth-mac-study
Sighs … are we STILL fighting this battle?
I always thought it was blindlingly obvious most women will do better in the environment of their own choosing and familiarity.
Birth politics are still pretty fraught as far as I can tell.
hmm…well as a stoical person who tried to have a home birth( didnt like the idea of medical intervention,particularly male intervention, thought birth was a natural miraculous process etc) and ended up with an emergency cesarean at 3.00 am …after several days of labour…and getting the consultant out of bed
(and and one disappointed lovely home birthing midwife and another older home birther who was positively hostile after the event when I got home … I let the side down…should have tried harder )
….all i can say is thank God ( the Goddess) for medical specialists and monitoring…by the time I got to hospital the baby was under stress ( per moniters) and I was exhausted, couldnt take much more
…and I was later cheerfully told by my male obstetrics GP who turned up at the hospital ( and who also believed in home births or at least women’s choice)… that the baby and I would have died without medical intervention…I believed him!
at least I had the choice ( low tech/high tech)….and they were all wonderful( except the older midwife)…but for my daughter i would recommend a high tech birth and take everything that is going in a hospital …especially monitoring and epidurals
( cesareans are absolutely fabulous when you need them)
It’s the hostile politics between the two sides that is so damned futile and disappointing. My two kids were both home births so I’ve a little exposure to it all myself.
All I ever expected was that everyone involved should work together in the best interests of the babies and mothers.
well the “hostile politics” are not surprising given the stakes when things go wrong…birth always was potentially dramatic and dangerous for some women…just look at history and the plight of women in the third world
i was lucky in that I had a midwife who moved very fast when I said i wanted to go to hospital…lucky also that the high tech hospital was only 10 minutes away…lucky I had a GP /obstetrician trained in home births who met us at the hospital… and lucky he had a consultant mate who didnt mind getting up in the early hours and quickly pronouncing emergency cesarean …most lucky I had a healthy robust baby!
from what I can gather women these days are not so lucky for choice …it is either home birth with a midwife making all the judgment calls and when to go to hospital, with not necessarily immediate full support when they get there…(GP doctors have opted out)…or opting for hospital birth from the beginning with all the high tech ( and risk feeling alienated by the process)
From my experience , it is not worth the risk… I opted for hospital next time around and an elective cesarean…great for women who can have a home birth and great for women who can breast feed …but women who cant should be celebrated as well ( those babies on bottles look lovely and the mothers look lovely)….My Mother always said she envied women who had cesareans….their babies were so beautiful! ( not scrunched and red)
I was cut out of the womb, wasn’t I? You guys were excited when I was born……
Now Ian has to solve this BIG CASE.
Mike Hoskings christmas message:
http://www.watchme.co.nz/like-mike/mikes-christmas-message/
“That bitch is a ‘mother’ only in the technical sense.”
RETURN OF THE GRAVE-ROBBER: A REAL LIFE HORROR STORY
Five mental health doctors, all in white coats, gather round a computer screen to consider a particularly grievous case. Professor MORRISSEY BREEN leads the convocation….
PROF. BREEN: This is something that came to our attention late yesterday. It’s a blog post about Chris Kahui, so you can imagine some of the Paul Holmes-type comments that ensue.
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2015/12/chris_kahui_attacks_key_and_bennett.html/comment-page-1#comment-1639989
DOCTOR No. 1: Oh Jesus, do we HAVE to look at this?
PROF. BREEN: Come on now. You guys work with mental health cases. This is your job.
DOCTOR No. 2: Yes, but these right wing fellows are, if not simply bewildered, then certainly depraved. They ARE all guys, aren’t they?
PROF. BREEN: Well, there’s one Catholic woman who writes crackpot stuff about religion and Russia occasionally, but, yes, I think they’re mostly male contributors.
YOUNG FEMALE DOCTOR: [grimly] Very SAD males.
PROF. BREEN: Indeed. We’ll start with this comment from someone calling himself “dime”. He writes “what a piece of human garbage”.
DOCTOR No. 4: To be honest, that’s pretty tame. Lame, but tame.
PROF. BREEN: Granted. Unfortunately, however, our friend “dime” is the intellectual heavyweight in this forum. It only gets worse from here on. For instance, a sad git called “mara” writes: “This Kahui ought to have fallen down the stairs in prison years ago.”
….Disbelieving silence for several seconds….
DOCTOR No. 1: Fuck me! These MORONS are in institutional care, I take it?
PROF. BREEN: Sorry, but please bear with me if you can. A bit later a genius named “cmm” writes: “These people are always so keen to dis the white man that brings him the legal system that keeps him alive, gives him money for food, accommodation etc.”
ALL: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!… Jesus H. CHRIST, these people are D – U – M, DUMB!
PROF. BREEN: A bewildered soul called nasska writes: “Urban ferals never have & never will benefit from the millions thrown into the black hole that is the Maori grievance industry.” One “PhilP” writes learnedly that Chris Kahui is a “useless piece of shit.”
DOCTOR No. 4: Good Lord! This is like listening to a morning of Leighton Smith!
DOCTOR No. 5: Or Michael Laws. Or Sean Plunket. Or Larry “Lackwit” Williams.
PROF. BREEN: Yes, that’s right. Obviously these people get their talking points from the likes of Smith and Laws.
DOCTOR No. 3: And the ACT Party.
PROF. BREEN: Actually, No. 3, you’re close to the truth there. But we’ll get onto that in a minute. Let’s just consider the last couple of examples. Another fellow, “deadrightkev”, writes: “Kahui is a product of trash upbringing and fertilised by a social welfare state dependency problem out of control.” He then manages to top that with this gem: “Treaty settlements are fraud. They should be staying exactly where they should be – in the hands of the taxpayer.”
YOUNG FEMALE DOCTOR: More like “Deadweight” Kev, methinks.
ALL: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
PROF. BREEN: This one is my favorite, though, because he’s honest. Stupid, but honest. One “flash2846” writes learnedly: “Yet another good reason why I and others are racist! Just imagine a murderer of any other race in New zealand saying that shit. Filthy CUNT! needs castrating!!!!”
….A stunned silence ensues for several seconds…..
DOCTOR No. 1: [grimly] Farrar certainly seems to attract the intellectuals.
DOCTOR No. 3: You know what the most frightening thing about these guys is? They can breed and they can vote.
ALL: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
PROF. BREEN: Okay. Now some of you might remember this bloke. [He scrolls down the page] Sorry, fellas, before I reveal who it is, I know that like the rest of the country, you thought you’d never have to look at his ugly mug again or listen to one of his ill-informed, hate-filled rants, but he’s back—at least on Kiwiblog.
DOCTOR No. 1: Who? Murray Deaker?
DOCTOR No. 4: Not that fucking criminal JOHN BANKS?
DOCTOR No. 2: Not that dancing fool Rodney “The Perk Taker” Hide?
http://www.recipeapart.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/55ffd0ef0f2a4f2f0375.jpeg
PROF. BREEN: Now, No. 3, remember how you suggested these halfwits could be channeling the ACT Party. Well, get a load of THIS: “Of course he’s fucking unemployable… But of the two, his former “missus” is the worst in my view…male scum who couldn’t give a fuck about or abuse their progeny are a dime a dozen…somehow we expect more of mothers…That bitch is a “mother” only in the technical sense…and she is probably a killer…she certainly knows who did kill the poor little buggers… the useless mongrel – and I say that even if he didn’t kill his sons – has almost certainly sired a couple more by now….and you can bet your arse those children have “come to the attention of the authorities”
GENERAL HUBBUB: Jesus! …. What the HELL?… You can virtually feel the spittle!… Was that a quote from the late Paul Holmes?…. Sounds like Cameron Slater… Or John Ansell?… It’s hard to say which part of this is more offensive: the militant display of ignorance or the hatred. …. Are these people in care, and if not, why not? … They can vote, and they can breed…. So tell us, Prof. Breen: who was it?
PROF. BREEN: I’ll give you three clues. Clue number one: he’s a disgraced ACT M.P.
DOCTOR No. 4: Jamie “Lock Up His Sisters” Whyte!
DOCTOR No. 1: Rodney “The Perk Taker” Hide!
http://www.recipeapart.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/55ffd0ef0f2a4f2f0375.jpeg
DOCTOR No. 3: Heather Roy!
DOCTOR No. 2: Doctor Muriel Newman, the dimmest medical practitioner in the world until the advent of Dr Ben Carson!
PROF. BREEN: All reasonable choices. But not the answer I’m looking for. Clue number two: he was convicted of assaulting a doctor in Tonga.
ALL: Oh Jesus, no!… I know who it is now. …. I’d blocked that person out of my memory, I’d thought…. No, no, no! Not him!… It’s that monster from the S.S. Trust!
PROF. BREEN: Clue number three: he stole the identity of a dead baby and was convicted for it, but it still didn’t stop ACT selecting him as a candidate!
GENERAL HUBBUB: The right dishonorable David fucking Garrett! … He’s the lowest of the low!… Thanks, Prof. Breen, I had banished that zombie into my mental trash can, and now you bring him back from the dead!… Absolutely reprehensible!… Compared to David Garrett, Chris Kahui is Albert fucking Schweitzer.
PROF. BREEN: Say, I LIKE that comment. I might just modify it a bit and post it up on Kiwiblog….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4124887/Garrett-gives-details-of-Tonga-brawl-conviction
Chris Kahui does deserve to be in prison though. Or do you have some other plausible theory for how those injuries happened?
Unless you are privy to all the details of the case, from what was published – there does not seem to be enough evidence to make that decisive judgement call.
One of my relatives worked in the ICU at that time, and it had been noted by staff that the (somewhat regular) lack of bonding with the mother had occurred, and that substantial at home visits and supports would be necessary to address this. This did not occur after discharge.
It is by no means uncommon for parents of very premature births to have a resistance to forming bonds with their child. The children are often physically different from expectations of a healthy birth – very skinny, with loose and hairy skin, and it is a form of unconscious mental self-preservation to not invest emotionally if outcomes are uncertain.
Whether Chris Kahui was responsible for the injuries or not, seemed hard to define given the conflicting evidence that I can recall.
What is true however, is that a vulnerability was identified and a strategy defined which was not followed up on.
This is tragedy was indicative of a support system failure as well.
You could well be right, Tim. However, the discredited National Party hitman Cameron Slater is not fit to comment on him or anyone else.
The point of my post was not to defend Chris Kahui, but to show the hypocrisy of the ignorant and bloody-minded lynch-mob that were denouncing him on the right wing blogs. It’s perhaps no surprise to learn that the most foul-mouthed, crudest commenter of all on that particular thread was the disgraced ex-ACT felon David Garrett….
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2015/12/chris_kahui_attacks_key_and_bennett.html#comment-1639747
I enjoyed your post (as usual) and I’m glad you let those guys know how it is. It just prompted me to think about the case again and left me with a sense of anger – probably at the family as well as Macsyna and Chris, for the way in which all seemed complicit in preventing the truth coming to light at the time… Or at least that is what the media has it seem like.
‘Druids and pagans gather at Stonehenge for solstice (PHOTOS, VIDEO)’
https://www.rt.com/uk/326806-stonehenge-winter-solstice-celebrate/
…”The monument in Wiltshire has long been thought of as a place of magic used by the ancient druids, with mystery surrounding how it was built and its exact use. It is believed to have been built between 2000 and 3000 BC…
Worth a read to catch up on these victories
https://intercontinentalcry.org/15-indigenous-rights-victories-didnt-hear-2015/
Great News. A good decision based upon a fair perception of reality. If bees go we as a species will find our diet greatly reduced. ie we will never again live in a land of milk and honey ( or food produced by pollination)
http://www.ent.uga.edu/bees/OnEinsteinBeesandSurvivaloftheHumanRaceHoneyBeeProgramCAESEntomologyUGA.html
70-80% of the world food supply rely on bees for pollination and food production
Yes!
So we would have a very limited diet
fish and chips – if your lucky…
🙂
And yet many places in the world had thriving ecosystems before the arrival of the honey bee, which included plants that needed pollination. I’ve been following the bee problem for a long time but lately I’ve been wondering if the issue of the demise of hive bees is about global economics more than humans being able to feed themselves. We should be going back to eating local anyway. The issue isn’t that the almond orchards in California will fail when all the colonies collapse, and how that affects the global food supply, but the fact that that kind of orcharding created the collapse in the first place and is just wrong on all levels.
Yes, we should be concerned about any species decline, but if we focus on the honey bee/global cropping connections instead of the ecosystem that includes all pollinators then we will just keep shitting in our own nest (and everyone else’s).
Oh I agree – however the demise of the honey bee by wide spread applications of pesticide also includes the demise of all the other local pollinators, and that is what makes the Mexican Supreme Court decision so important.
This is why Douglas, Prebble and co should be hung by their fucking heals.
Most recently, the privatisation of the timber industry in the 1980s caused “massive job losses and severe poverty” in the west of the district, which had previously been relatively wealthy.
While the Crown did provide some support to communities in Te Urewera, they were “never near enough to counter the massive disadvantages holding back those communities”.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/75402505/crown-slammed-for-treaty-of-waitangi-breaches-in-te-urewera
(incandescent, taking dogs to beach)
I remember reading an insider industry report in the early 80’s sometime, projecting that with the amount of timber potentially coming online NZ could support something like 16 world scale timber/pulp/paper mills.
We never built any of them. Most of the wood got shipped overseas as logs for other people to make money from.
Yep! Douglas and Prebble et al did really well – for themselves.
Despite the injustice and deprivation of the past, which at the time I was only vaguely aware of, the people I knew and worked with in Galatea – Murupara in the 1970’s had found some measure of prosperity.
And then the 4th Labour Government, their party, my party, didn’t just sell their livelihoods out from underneath them, they did that to lots of us, they abandoned them and their communities became the poverty stricken gang dominated shit holes of the 1990’s.
That’s what pisses me off RL.
+1 yep they sold us all out and so many of us are still paying the cost – while they get taxpayer funded travel and invitations to conferences – sickening.
A fucken disgrace, and I still hear of D Cagill. Did the dogs get their beach trip. 😉
Oh, and just too wind you up again, down here in Dunedin, the council have employed two Lawyers to save some money, have come up with the idea of getting rid of the word Bitch and heat from the dog control act, they don’t like blurred meaning.
The former will be replaced with, “female dog in season” I kid you not.
👿
“female dog in season”
Is that like catching whitebait in season?
On the West Coast it means 1 September to 14 November.
Or, A back handed complement to the Dog ‘male’ for always being in season, or at least in unison with the said ‘Bitch’.
But in all seriousness, that nonsense has got to stop, it’s a waste of money etc etc.
PS: leave those whitebait alone, alwyn…At lest till the first of September
Privatised the forests.
Sorry, but I can’t read past the first line of Māori living in caves and eatint rotten potatoes. I love NZ but there are some shames that we will never get past.
How to win friends and influence people – to join ISIS.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/22/david-cameron-us-america-refuses-british-muslim-family-disneyland
What sort of sick sick society is USA now.
If it was your job to ensure the people being allowed into the country did not pose a significant security risk do you think it would be easy? Would you be happy if people judged you and your entire society as sick because of a specific decision that was made which we have not heard the justification for? Do you think it is reasonable for someone to join ISIS because they were not allowed to go to Disneyland for reasons that have not yet been made clear?
“Would you be happy if people judged you and your entire society as sick because of a specific decision that was made which we have not heard the justification for?”
Isn’t that what happened to these people?
This is how they felt after, “The family were escorted from the airport but were first obliged to return every item they had bought from the airport’s duty-free shops”
disgusting – I hope their relatives in Southern California don’t find the spooks hanging around their kids now but I’m not hopeful.
Hey – when a kid gets arrested for bringing a home made clock to school. http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/16/14-year-old-boy-arrested-for-bringing-homemade-clock-to-school/
A female politican sends out a christmas card of her and her family packing guns
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3347927/Nevada-politician-arms-family-guns-controversial-holiday-portrait-support-Second-Amendment.html
And the number of mass killings is increasing and more deadly
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/02/mass-shootings-in-america-numbers-more-frequent-more-deadly
and people who are obviously not criminals are denied entry for no other reason than they are Muslim, you have to conclude that the states is now a highly paranoid society. Having witnessed first hand the paranoia of the USA, fostered by their main stream media, their politicians, right wing “think” tanks, and the NRA, amongst others, one can only conclude that the states is not a pleasant place to be. Frankly I couldn’t wait to leave and never wish to return, despite the fact that I met many good people and the countryside in the fall was simply stunning.
I’m sorry if you are fearful, I take it from your tone that you are a part of that society and wish to uphold it. Well take it from an outsider – its time to rethink USA foreign policy so that The US is seen not as the terrorist that it has become, but as a decent Country like it was many many years ago.
Not forgetting the militarization of the police!
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/us/war-gear-flows-to-police-departments.html?_r=0
You really have to wonder just what the people are so afraid of!
the poor and middle classes have been divided by race/ income/ religion and set against one another, and kept in perpetual fear, keeping the real gangsters in the Wall St Washington establishment safe from criticism
Sikh!
I hear North America was quite a nice place to live for its 60 million inhabitants before Christopher Columbus arrived.
Officially a puppet state of the U.S.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11565399
Not sure how that judge’s ruling makes NZ a puppet state of the US.
Best you read the judge’s full decision before forming opinion, many of those on the political right would have been well advised to do the same regarding the recent decision regarding the illegality of the police search of Nicky Hagar’s home before spouting uninformed opinion.
Just wait and see.
Nuclear ships next.
Og God – I hate to agree with you – but I do, on both counts.
Its a Christmas miracle.
That is a hateful comment.
Dotcom looses the case but: “Dotcom’s lawyer Ron Mansfield confirmed there would be an appeal lodged over the extradition this afternoon.” Might take years to resolve.
Here it is folks, what you have all been waiting for. It’s about to begin. Episode one of the KEYdashian’s Hawaiian holiday! The fruit of FJK’s loins, begins by missing his girlfriend already! Ahhhh poor baby!
Yuk! Enough to make one have to dash rather hastily to the toilet!
http://spy.nzherald.co.nz/spy-news/max-key-pines-away-in-hawaii/
I’ll resist the (almost overwhelming) temptation to click that link.
son of the biggest narcissist in the land:
the apple does not fall far from the tree.
lol…mary_a…seems like a trashy magazine story …from one of those magazines that you find at the hairdressers
Some good news – we need it.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11565476
The Greens on the ball.
Welcome to the Empire
…a family party of 11, about to embark on a dream holiday for which they had saved for months, were approached by officials from US homeland security (at Gatwick…in the UK ffs!) as they queued in the departure lounge and told their authorisation to travel had been cancelled, without further explanation.
[the bracketed italic added]
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/22/david-cameron-us-america-refuses-british-muslim-family-disneyland
Obviously the Immigration Department is so badly understaffed that it continues to make horrendous decisions….
the two latest stuff ups:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/292617/brothers-cleared-of-human-trafficking-charges
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2015/12/23/gordon-campbell-on-the-rejection-of-a-pakistani-polio-worker/
NZ: once was a caring society, becoming cruel and heartless under the NatCorp regime
Great picture of where NZ society is at
‘ ‘More devastating than any nuclear war’: John McAfee on the coming cyber war with ISIS’
https://www.rt.com/usa/326181-world-war-cyber-attacks-mcafee/
“Every presidential contender says they want to destroy Islamic State, but John McAfee is the only one predicting a war involving cyberattacks, not conventional weapons. “We have to prepare ourselves” for an enemy that is “far more clever,” McAfee told RT.
Not many people know John McAfee is running for president, but possibly even fewer understand the scope of the war against Islamic State (IS, formely ISIS/ISIL) the way he does.
When asked if Republican frontrunner Donald Trump’s strategy against IS was reasonable, McAfee answered, “No, absolutely not.” That’s an answer most other rivals would agree with, but to McAfee, it’s not about where and how to use the military. To defeat ISIS, America must face its own “cyber illiteracy” and other faults before engaging in what he purports to be the next World War – a cyber war…
Cyber wars are going on already. Involving nuclear reactors, airlines etc. Worth doing a Google search on the subject. I read a few blogs on the subject which linked to all sorts of instances reported in the mainstream media.
Will Syria & Iraq become Washington’s Stalingrad?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-22/christmas-2015-will-syria-iraq-become-washingtons-stalingrad
If this Stalingrad metaphor is true then New Zealand is Bulgaria.
Is that a cucku coo clock I here