US President Biden told the Business Roundtable’s CEO Quarterly Meeting that the new world order is coming. Folks haven't been so excited since President Bush did likewise more than 30 years ago!
Joe Biden caused a stir on Monday during a gathering of business leaders at the White House when he alluded to a coming “new world order” in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, apparently not stopping to consider the awkward legacy of the phrase.
The New World Order conspiracy theory is the belief that a secretive totalitarian cabal of world governments are attempting to establish an international order that would see the people of earth suppressed under a globalist regime.
The common theme is that a secretive elite (for instance, the “Illuminati”) is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an authoritarian one-world government, which would replace sovereign nation-states.
Usage of the phrase can be traced back as far as the early 20th century, when figures like Churchill used the term…
Well, good luck with that. A couple of centuries of geopoliticking by American presidents has caused most of the free world to adopt a fairly jaundiced view of the prospects. But god loves a trier, so watch this space…
There's a new twist on this – the baddies are liberals.
He also referenced a “liberal world order,” which he said has helped the world avoid global conflicts since 1946.
Some might say the New World Order is comprised of the “Illuminati.” Others might say Freemasons, and some might say Communists. Antisemitic conspiracy theorists have placed Jews at the center of this cabal. These days, it’s often a hodgepodge of “liberal” villains, such as billionaire philanthropist George Soros (often the target of antisemitic conspiracies), the Clintons, and Bill Gates.
Jacinda Ardern saying she was going to the bakery department of a New World supermarket to order a birthday cake would be enough to get some in a lather.
They would quote that as her confirming that the NWO implementation was underway. That is the way of the wacky conspiracy world.
Interesting – as someone who has spoken frequently toward the necessity of a global order that supercedes the nations right to war – I am pretty familiar with these concerns.
In my view the choice will come down to this – a system of world governance that no-one likes, or nuclear annihilation.
Ambivalence around the topic is due to variable framing. For instance, if Biden were not afflicted by the habitual US as global policeman tacit default, he might have deployed a multipolar framing for the NWO.
Reform of the UN Security Council can always be declared as item #1 on the NWO agenda. If it were, those of us who look askance at the powers that be could then reframe somewhat: "okay, maybe they aren't really fos."
Just a question of authenticity & collective intent. Humans are self-organising systems by nature, but they became hierarchic by culture. If geopolitics were to produce a biodiverse global governance system, folks everywhere would see it as authentic – provided hierarchies collapsed, decision-making was consensual, the UN got re-organised to prioritise delivery of suitable results, etc.
Conservatives would argue that hierarchies are natural due to human nature inclining towards meritocracy rather than democracy. I think there's enough truth in that to preserve it as a working hypothesis – but not enough to use it to prevent progress.
Yeah, most likely. Dunno if that means Biden was merely frothing at the mouth though. And even if he's the archetypal liberal, I wouldn't assume incompetence will necessarily result…
Conservatives would argue that hierarchies are natural due to human nature…
I'm nearly finished Graeber and Wengrow (The Dawn of Everything) and I'm not reaching that conclusion at all. Matters of hierarchy and authority have historically been deliberate choices by self-conscious actors – and there is a pre-history of cultures deliberately preventing hierarchies from becoming fixed in nature or permanent in time.
there is a pre-history of cultures deliberately preventing hierarchies from becoming fixed
Whilst it's true that we can only speculate on prehistory re social structures, I suspect you're right – I've read books describing the pattern of hunter/gatherer societies as based on parity relations. Anthropological investigation of relic survivors into the modern era disclosed a culture of collectively punishing aspirants who tried to attain control.
The consensual view seems to be that hierarchy arose via settlement and the protection of grain stores – thus it first emerged in villages, then towns, then cities, before rulers achieved dominion over regions.
The economic analysis of the transition from hunter/gatherers to herding then settlement focuses on evidence that items valued had to be carried personally until storage became habitual & settlers became location-bound.
"The economic analysis of the transition from hunter/gatherers to herding then settlement…"
Jesus wept.
The assumption hunter-gatherers were not in settlements holds no weight at all. Australia's been settled for more than 65 000 years. Migrations or walkabout may also have been lifestyle choices, once an area was known. So entire continents may have been utilised aka settled with relatively small numbers of us on the scene. Back then, maybe everyone had a bach and a blind out the coast.
Settlements grew larger as populations grew larger. Cultivation grew around settlements. Security in numbers enabled survival against the odds – to beating the odds – and now finally stacking the odds back upon ourselves.
The various landmasses of the Earth have been settled as long as people have been here. While these cowboy-cosplay types flopping their missiles out still think it's a frontier to be conquered.
I'm all for cooperation. If US led the charge on how it is to be, I'd most firmly decline.
Yeah maybe you could do anarchic anti-hierarchy in a world with no technology and less than a few million people scattered across the planet in tiny groups.
They give examples of it occurring in what at the time would have been large groups. And although the technology was simple by modern standards, it existed. Flint-knapping for instance is a highly sophisticated skill, you or I would be utterly crap at it.
I think you are assuming that current arrangements are inevitable and are then doing a deterministic backwards projection. That – and making assumptions about what I think this knowledge of early human hierarchy formation and resistance actually might mean for the present day. On the latter point I have no specific idea at all, only that we might have more agency (to use a fashionable word, I prefer “free will”) than we imagine.
Bertrand Russel suggested at one time that world government would be necessary if we wished to avoid nuclear annihilation. He thought the best bet for bringing it about lay with the Soviet Union.
The largest obstacle remains totalitarian actors like the Kremlin and the CCP – and until they're gone the US will never let go it's objections either.
No. The main obstacle is the US, who won't countenance world government unless they get to be in charge. And the main reason they want to be in charge is so that can have first dibs on the worlds resources. The US fear that the massive continent, at the top of the world, a continent that includes Russia, China and Europe, will come to dominate. This why they meddle in affairs on the other side off the world from their own hemisphere.
They say they want to make the world safe for democracy; but in reality they want to make the world receptive to a predatory form of capitalism
Mindless marxist boiler plate anti-US bigotry. It is so pervasive on the far-left that even here on this thread we see one morally bankrupt fool after another unable to bring themselves to condemn the murdering of a country right under their noses.
To repeat myself – there is no moral difference between the extremes on the left and right – both will happily condone mass murder if they think it might promote their cause.
or a simple system which dis allows the United snakes States from doing what eva the fuck it likes in the world whether thats suffocating fledgling democracys or imposing totally illegal sanctions on sovereign countries
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Mike Hoskings "The Hosk" reckons the rot is setting in for Jacinda and Labour in the polls, when will this guy just disappear and piss off back to his relations in Australia.
I reckon it was just a one off spike for National after Jacinda has had some bad press about the Covid Protest in Wellington and the other issues associated with Covid.
Whatever decision Jacinda makes it will be deemed to be wrong by MSM and National/ACT/NZF as they are vying for the swing voters. She is on hiding to nothing Jacinda and Labour can only make the best decisions on the information that is available.
Hospo spokesman on the radio bemoaning the lack of patronage, blaming government messaging on covid and all ignoring the elephant in the room….diminished discretionary dollars.
Also, people not wanting to get Covid-19, so have changed their social behaviour.
We are at peak Covid right now with several dozen dying every week. Not sure why Hoskings or the hospitality sector don't seem able to acknowledge that.
Lol I've been going to the cinema a bit in the last few months, but accidentally went to a popular movie. Lots of people, even with spacing. Masked up, and no increase in coughs over pre-covid times, but the one or two that happened were a visceral fucking tension-raiser. Never again – obscure movies just before they finish their run for me from now on.
don't see why not. If we set aside the high vote because of covid, then they look like they're in a similar position as before, most likely a L/G government. Hard to predict though, it's not like the world is going to be particularly stable.
Best thing that could happen would be for not a lot to happen for six months and the PM and caucus getting to recover from the intense sustained stress the past two years.
Best thing that could happen would be for not a lot to happen for six months and the PM and caucus getting to recover from the intense sustained stress of the past two years.
Always a good idea to put oneself in other people's shoes. Thanks weka.
The moaners and the complainers have had stresses sure, but they are nothing compared to the PM and her ministers. Yet they reward the Govt. with bitter insults and the spreading of nasty memes like a bunch of 3 year olds denied cookies from the cookie jar.
I doubt the PM has had a single day's rest and recreation since the start of the pandemic. I doubt her ministers have had either. Yet they have had to put up with an unprecedented vitriolic lashing from a variety of sources including some in the media who apparently don't know any better.
General election is more than a year away and a week is a long time in politics. The mandates will be water under the bridge. It will be back to BAU before then and I think it will be much tighter than in 2020 producing a genuine coalition government this time.
I guess that point does need to be repeatedly stressed. Even to me. Oh How I LONG for days of old… but maybe I just long for less disasters, dictators and death.
General life, news cycle, politics, et cetera. Covid stats and those daily updates will disappear from the MSM front pages. People will forget Ashley’s surname. Even those QR codes will have disappeared from view. In 2023, we’re likely to see a Budget that’s no longer dominated by Covid and the parties will go into full campaign mode. That’s not to say that this pandemic is over – it will have a long fat tail.
I’d like to think that many would want to return to what they consider ‘normal’ or at least near-normal life. That might be wishful thinking, of course, and depends on how fat & long the pandemic tail will be. I have Stockholm Syndrome 🙁
One of the many things the government doesn't seem to be getting credit for is bringing house price growth under control.
If this stabilisation continues they'll have fulfilled their biggest election promise. That, on top of our stellar Covid response are things voters will remember in the booths.
If they campaign on that, expect activists and some organisations to go hard on how many people are living in poverty because Labour wouldn't sort the housing crisis.
slowing house price rises is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Likewise stalling them. There is nothing to celebrate there and if Labour try and trumpet that they deserve everything they get (unfortunately we don't deserve a Nact govt).
keeping housing prices high isn't stable and sustainable. It pleases the middle class liberals who want their cake and to eat it too, and keeps a lot of people in poverty and the poverty keeps compounding over time.
Very difficult for the Government to control house prices when NZ'ers are addicted to housing, like drug addicts are addicted to heroine or methamphetamine. It has been a road to riches for many NZers for very little effort.
This government has used some controls to obvious effect. This is what Labour had promised and they are delivering. They will have used political capital but this is what most people want.
Agree it is difficult to change a society which has accepted and promoted real estate agents being bigger than pop stars. How did we get to a situation where selling houses warrants shiny marketing billboards up and down main roads.
Given that they've presided over sky-rocketing housing prices during the last 4.5 years – the fact that it looks as though these may have reached apogee is not much to celebrate.
And, begs the question, if these strategies to calm the housing market are so successful, why didn't they apply them at the beginning of the Ardern government?
Frankly, I think that house prices may have plateaued because they've reached the maximum extent the 'market' is willing to pay, right now. Which (I think) says more about financial uncertainty (impact on international markets, cost-of-living, etc.) than it does about the strategies Labour may have put in place.
Looks like the market decided to grant Grant his wish – but only for half a year. Not sure how thrilled he'll be about that. These neoliberals get seriously addicted to rising markets & I wouldn't want him to be traumatised. However it is entirely possible that Muttonbird actually meant Reserve Bank signalling instead & wrote that bit accidentally.
Certainly telling the truth as far as I’m aware. I'm talking about the policy changes made by the government which I have outlined below @ 5.3.2.1.1.2.
Even the Reserve Bank's remit was changed by Grant Robertson when he asked them to consider housing in their monetary policy. This is also something the government has done to address the over-heated housing market.
And, begs the question, if these strategies to calm the housing market are so successful, why didn't they apply them at the beginning of the Ardern government?
Winston Peters, of course.
A lot of things have contributed to the current pausing of the market. Interest rates and uncertainty, but also the foreign buyers ban, extension of the bright line test and removal of interest deductions, stricter immigration management, and record house building too.
Some of this is external but some of it is policy and behaviour and the government should be congratulated for that.
Fair enough, I probably took controls too literally. Whether this mix generated the market result is a moot point but not one I'm in any position to argue about – I agree the mix would have influenced expectations significantly but competition for houses is hard to defeat…
Some evidence that Peters was a barrier in the way of the Ardern government implementing house price calming strategies, would be nice.
It's a lazy argument that all of the failures of the first Ardern government, can be laid at the feet of its coalition partner.
I don't hold much brief for Peters – but don't think there is any evidence that he (or the people who traditionally voted for him) wanted the skyrocketing prices for housing evidenced over the last 5 years. Stability, and possibly a slow but steady increase, yes; but the unsustainable levels that we've seen, no.
The foreign buyers ban (which Peters enthusiastically supported) had little, if any, impact on house prices. It was implemented in 2018 – and prices continued their upward spiral unabated.
The extension of the bright line test (with the continued exemption of the family home – a loophole through which you can drive a truck) – and applying only for 'new' buys – also had little immediate impact. It was implemented in March 2021 (so a year ago) – while prices continued their upwards trajectory, unabated.
The one policy which *may* have had an impact is the removal of interest deductions. Implemented in October 21, for property bought from March 21 – and phased in over 4 years for existing rental properties. There was no sign of immediate levelling off of prices – but it's possible that it did cause some medium-term unwillingness to invest in housing.
The policy which (unintentionally) may have an impact on house prices was the government's anti-loan-shark legislation – which caught up first-home buyers in its net. The result being that it was *much* harder to qualify for a mortgage with the banks (because of the liabilities accruing to lenders if the borrower was unable to pay back the loan). The impact was seen in the dropping numbers of buyers, and topping-out of prices in Jan/Feb this year. [It's unintentional, because the government is on record as saying that there was no intention to affect mortgage lending]
The factor which does look as though is having an effect, is inflation (which, as has been so eloquently expressed on this site – is primarily international in origin), combined with the financial uncertainty caused by the international supply chain and (now) the Ukraine situation. People are less willing to 'invest' in 30+ year mortgages in an uncertain financial environment – which has an impact on the number of willing buyers, and therefore the prices that the willing sellers may be 'forced' to accept.
The anti loan shark effect is exaggerated by banks ,by the opposition as a cause for a slowdown,when the reality is…the market is correcting..regardless.
So 3 months of prudent expenditure is too much to expect from home buyers…do me a..favour.
Every 2nd hand car dealer in Sth Auck should be out of business with this legislation…how come they ..aren't?
It may surprise you but I think 'every' is appropriate.
I actually had access to deals done in this sector and believe you me,I was appalled at the conditions and blatant profiteering inflicted on unsophisticated and gullible…people.
It does moderately surprise me that you believe, literally, that there should not be a single used car yard able to operate in South Auckland.
Sure, used car dealers are by reputation and often in practise capitalist predators upon the weak, but it's surely and exaggeration to say that there aren't enough fiscally-ok people in South Auckland to keep a single car yard running. We're still talking 100k+ people. Even at half the national rate of 0.8 cars per people, That's 40k lpvs. Ten year lifespan for a vehicle is still 4k car purchases a year, no? Wouldn't that be enough for one car yard at least?
The factor which does look as though is having an effect, is inflation (which, as has been so eloquently expressed on this site – is primarily international in origin), combined with the financial uncertainty caused by the international supply chain
Nah it is funny money, a decade of low interest rates (which made credit too cheap) drawdowns from existing home equity to fund " investment housing" and incorrect investment by councils to fund both vanity and Potemkin projects.
It was my understanding funny money (printed out of thin air) needs to be matched to goods or inflation occurs but all knowing folks here assured me I was wrong. It seems quite clear, and shows how easy a land grab from the investor class takes place. Pump in money, inflate goods, people throw their life savings at a seemingly vanishing (real estate) market… raise interest, Mom & Pop go into negative equity, mortgagee bonanza.
Glad I'm not the only one who's wrong all the time.
Arrogant pricks talked to one yesterday talked to me as if I was a child, I am 64 years old and have worked in the Real Estate Industry for 3 years, worst 3 years of my life hated every minute of it.
Yes, but it depends on the peter principle. If they have reached the plateau of their natural level of competence, policy delivery will continue to underwhelm.
Therefore parity with National is likely to persist. However the effect of the protest & the 20% to a third of the electorate resonance it achieved will diminish increasingly, so any achievements the govt produces will be likely to re-open a margin over National.
If they have reached the plateau of their natural level of competence, policy delivery will continue to underwhelm.
That sounds so pompous Dennis.
We have been delivered one of the better responses to covid, with fewer deaths plus support for people's wellbeing and work as we led as normal lives as possible during a pandemic.
We have more reality in bringing the housing "market" back to the concept of a "shelter", with the reason for speculation reined in by clever tax policy, begun by National but extended and improved by Labour.
We have recognition that "the rule of law" may need mandates to achieve health outcomes, that democracy allows people to get grumpy and not see the wood for the trees, and even burn down the forest at times in a childish tantrum.
I await the next budget with interest, as climate is our next big task, and there will be other difficulties to overcome, that shock jocks and poorly chosen candidates think they have answers for, or ways to ignore.
As the saying goes in Government and in Opposition. “Show me the Policy”
It is our right to sit in judgement of other's work, but praise where it is due is only fair, and sweeping generalisations are unhelpful imo.
So you glossed over my if at the start, huh? Pomposity is in your mind, realism in mine. I judge them only on the results they get – which is why my language is always carefully phrased to indicate an open mind.
But your bias is so powerful you don't notice that. And your addiction to exhibiting whataboutism merely makes you seem deviant. Evasion of poll results is the inevitable consequence. What if you were to get real instead? Then you might be worth reading.
I agree that "praise where it is due is only fair" and Labour "delivered one of the better responses to covid" – but I'd go further. I think they delivered the best out of all the nations, based on the evidence I've seen. However the voters no longer rate that highly, right? Only a third of them do currently.
My bias has been out there for ages lol. Bringing up items that may sway people's opinions is not whataboutism. Like you, I choose my words with care. I am not as clever as you Dennis, but I did say "It sounded.. not that it was pompous' There was no personal slagging in what I wrote. Cheers.
There is more vitriol on the PM's facebook, but generally doing a count of "thumbs up" plus "hearts", they outnumber all others by 2/3rds to 3/4s. The antis have just ramped up their criticisms. The worst perpetrators have very new pages, or they are full of religious cant or large oily vehicles.
Nobody “wins” it’s just that the incumbents piss off the voters enough to get booted out. Ordinary Kiwis lose if National gets in.
Jacinda used to be Labour’s greatest asset but now everyone is sick of her. I can’t be bothered with the weekly announcement of weird & complex new rules to be implemented in 6 weeks time that nobody will follow in practice.,
The Opposition parties have tapped into a rich vein of resentment and frustration. After locking up Auckland for 100 days and keeping MIQ going for too long with v thin justification, Labour has evaporated all its good will. The first lockdown was supposed to be a short sharp response not repeated endlessly.
Covid does not let the Government off the hook for their failures and betrayals of working class Kiwis by sustaining the housing bubble, suppressing wages for essential workers, allowing food banks to become the norm, ignoring beneficiaries, failing at mental health reform, & doubling down on neoliberal austerity
Arrogant pricks talked to one yesterday talked to me as if I was a child, I am 64 years old and have worked in the Real Estate Industry for 3 years, worst 3 years of my life hated every minute of it.
The Hospitality sector never stop complaining, ever, no matter what. Covid has changed the world in the last two years but Hospitality cannot seem to accept that people are not so ready to wine and dine among crowds of others. Perhaps there are simply too many cafes and restaurants now. And with the cost of living rising steeply people probably cannot eat out quite as often.
There were too many cafes and restaurants even before the pandemic! Though an upside of fewer of them would be increased home ownership for millennials and younger; no more flat whites and avocado toast denuding their deposits!
RNZ this morning reports the IMF has said the government has handled the economy and pandemic well. The economy is in a strong position because of "sound management".
Guessing we will not hear Hosking raise that on his morning hate rants. Nor will Luxon/Seymour.
A bit of good news today with the death of Allbright, the one that thought the death of…
In a 1996 interview with CBS, Albright defended the Clinton administration's economic sanctions against Iraq, saying that the deaths of 600,000 Iraqi children under the age of 5 was "worth it."
I hardly think celebrating someone's death is an appropriate reaction.
She described the quote you reference as being 'trapped' by a journalist asking an 'unfair' question (one to which there is no acceptable answer)- and said something that she did not mean.
It turns out, subsequently, that the mortality rates were fabricated by the Iraqi government as a piece of propaganda – and there was no major rise in child-mortality as a result of the international sanctions.
I suppose the deaths and ongoing deaths of Iraqi children by the use of depleted uranium used by her cohorts is fictitious too. I don't shed tears for dead american warmongers.
Good and rather chilling article by Gordon Campbell in his Werewolf blog about Luxon's dismissal of the "poor and unambitious". (a theme already covered on the Standard by Micky a couple of days ago). Predictably, Luxon's poor choice of words (Campbell unfavourably compares this to John key's more careful phraseology) has not been challenged by the MSM. Mind you, one wonders just how many politicians (of most stripes) think the same as Luxon, but are astute enough not to be so stupid to admit it?
This from the Campbell article worth a full repeat.
Jeremy Rose is so consistent with Luxon’s comments yesterday that it reads as confirmation:
“I met a former Air NZ flight attendant recently. She told me how their conditions were cut to the point that she had to pay for her own tickets to Auckland to work on international flights. On a return trip to Wellington she was told she’d be sitting next to Luxon. She asked not to be, but they said it was the only seat.
So, she told, me she had to decide whether to tell him how she felt or live with the fact that she hadn’t. So, she started to explain the situation and he interrupted her with: “You’re just waiters and waitresses…”. She said to me not only was that not true – there’s a lot of safety training, first aid etc, etc – but it was insulting to wait staff. She then pointed out to Luxon that the top 10 staff were earning $19 million between them to which he replied: “I could earn a lot more elsewhere.” He seems to lack any self-awareness, humility, decency or even intelligence.”
Don't we hear the same putdown about our Prime Minister's first job as an assistant in a fish and chip shop? Some observations about the worth of work follow.
First, f&c shops served our Catholic family with a weekly meal. That was always appreciated.
I'm the son of a grocer. My first paid job was mowing lawns. Then a shop assistant in Woolworths. Then working as a cleaner in a tyre factory got me through Uni. Those men sweated at their work, hard and long, in three shift work cycles. Then working as a coal trimmer one year at Uni for a holiday job taught me how wield a shovel, thirty six tons in a day emptying rail wagons of coal.
There I worked alongside medal-bedecked WW2 veterans and staunch unionists.
At the end of my working life and retired from teaching I went back to cleaning and met again with the same reactions about my worth sinceI was a lowly cleaner. The people I worked for, whose houses I cleaned, some of whom were openly despisers, did not realise that the people they employed were better educated than they were, brighter, better read judging from the bookshelves that did not exist, appreciating art better than the 'art' on the walls from accessory shops, more musical judging from the musical instruments not able to be seen. My fellow cleaner had an MA and had been a secondary school head of department.
Yet we were judged, as was Prime Minister Ardern, by our job status.
One last fact. hospital cleaners have a social value rating of x15 their actual wage, whereas bankers have a negative social rating according to an article in the Guardian in 2009.
As well as being open despisers the open despisers were arrogant and ignorant arseholes.
I remember in the early '70s a kid being upset about his father being a driver of a petrol tanker. They were on strike and the target of public opprobrium. It wasn't the drama of the strike or the criticism but the fact that his father was a mere truck driver. Of course his mates' fathers who were mangers doctors and lawyers were totally dependent on his father. Society could not operate without his contribution.
Seeing him become aware of that was heartening. If there weren't assistants in takeaway shops and cleaners how would things be? And how would Air NZ with Luxon have got on without cleaners and "waiters and waitresses?"
The PM is disparaged because she worked in a fish and chip shop as a teenager – somewhere I have seen a photo of Luxon as a teenager when he worked at McDonalds. Wonder when the right wingers will hone in on that and snort at him as they do with the PM.
However she went on to university, travelled quite widely, worked, and entered Parliament. The pathetic sneering seems to me simply to be jealousy because she is so popular and won an outright majority at the last election, and for some males it's because she is a woman. I will never forget the likes of the "girl in a skirt" comment – how dare a young, attractive woman think she can be the PM.
I think the majority of teenagers have worked at 'entry level' to earn some money before they start out on their career choice. It actually teaches them how to interact with others, some of whom may be very different to those they usually mix with. They learn how to listen, follow instructions, and concentrate on their tasks. Good on them.
The point isn't that teens and young adults shouldn't engage in retail as a first job, to supplement the family income, or to fund tertiary study. That is – in the neo-liberal centre-right rhetoric – a meritorious achievement. For all of the good reasons you've listed.
Their argument is that this fish and chip outlet is the only place Ardern has ever worked outside the political establishment.
And is 'evidence' that she is out-of-touch with the realities of those who run businesses, or who's jobs depend on business or trade.
It's the same level of sneering which is addressed to all MPs who've come through the ranks of political parties, unions or government departments – 'never had a real job'
[Please note, I'm not agreeing with them – simply explaining the thinking]
Nearly twenty years using the bench to harass, humiliate, and belittle women and girls in open court but it's unfair for “unsubstantiated allegations” to be aired in public.
My betting is that the judge [not naming or identifying – even though it's well known who it is] will resign – and take the (very) substantial retirement superannuation fund.
Then claim that 'nothing was ever proven'.
Judiciary needs to clean house much more effectively, and considerably more quickly.
Vladmir Putin and the white race imperialism of the Eastern Christendom. It began with Vladimir of Kiev and conversion to Christendom (so he could marry the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor).
On the eve of his murderous invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a long and rambling discourse denying the existence of Ukraine and Ukrainians, a speech many Western analysts found strange and untethered. Strange, yes. Untethered, no. The analysis came directly from the works of a fascist prophet of maximal Russian empire named Aleksandr Dugin.
But as the world watches with horror and disgust the indiscriminate bombing of Ukraine, a broader understanding is needed of Dugin’s deadly ideas. Russia has been running his playbook for the past 20 years, and it has brought us here, to the brink of another world war.
In his magnum opus, “The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia,” published in 1997, Dugin mapped out the game plan in detail. Russian agents should foment racial, religious and sectional divisions within the United States while promoting the United States’ isolationist factions. (Sound familiar?) In Great Britain, the psy-ops effort should focus on exacerbating historic rifts with Continental Europe and separatist movements in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Western Europe, meanwhile, should be drawn in Russia’s direction by the lure of natural resources: oil, gas and food. NATO would collapse from within.
Belladonna makes the point that some people think union reps, public servants and politicians are not 'real' jobs. Very narrow minded and blinkered. There are many cases of politicians from who have had 'real' jobs who are hopeless politicians.
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This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
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Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
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US President Biden told the Business Roundtable’s CEO Quarterly Meeting that the new world order is coming. Folks haven't been so excited since President Bush did likewise more than 30 years ago!
Novices may need to read this primer:
What he actually said was this: "now is a time when things are shifting. There's going to be a new world order out there, and we've got to lead it. And we've got to unite the rest of the free world in doing it." https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-new-world-order-conspiracy-qanon-1690335
Well, good luck with that. A couple of centuries of geopoliticking by American presidents has caused most of the free world to adopt a fairly jaundiced view of the prospects. But god loves a trier, so watch this space…
There's a new twist on this – the baddies are liberals.
Jacinda Ardern saying she was going to the bakery department of a New World supermarket to order a birthday cake would be enough to get some in a lather.
They would quote that as her confirming that the NWO implementation was underway. That is the way of the wacky conspiracy world.
Interesting – as someone who has spoken frequently toward the necessity of a global order that supercedes the nations right to war – I am pretty familiar with these concerns.
In my view the choice will come down to this – a system of world governance that no-one likes, or nuclear annihilation.
Ambivalence around the topic is due to variable framing. For instance, if Biden were not afflicted by the habitual US as global policeman tacit default, he might have deployed a multipolar framing for the NWO.
Reform of the UN Security Council can always be declared as item #1 on the NWO agenda. If it were, those of us who look askance at the powers that be could then reframe somewhat: "okay, maybe they aren't really fos."
Just a question of authenticity & collective intent. Humans are self-organising systems by nature, but they became hierarchic by culture. If geopolitics were to produce a biodiverse global governance system, folks everywhere would see it as authentic – provided hierarchies collapsed, decision-making was consensual, the UN got re-organised to prioritise delivery of suitable results, etc.
Conservatives would argue that hierarchies are natural due to human nature inclining towards meritocracy rather than democracy. I think there's enough truth in that to preserve it as a working hypothesis – but not enough to use it to prevent progress.
Oh you guys.
There's not going to be a new world order.
In 2009 the EU couldn't even act usefully on the GFC. So the hard right continues to rise despite strong multilateralism.
Last year we barely had a functioning world trade order. So we have instead trade agreements.
If the world's countries were now asked to vote on the existence of the UN, my bet is there's be a strong NO.
We have gradualist improvements like a global corporate tax floor, and the Paris Agreement.
I think we'll just muddle along.
we'll just muddle along
Yeah, most likely. Dunno if that means Biden was merely frothing at the mouth though. And even if he's the archetypal liberal, I wouldn't assume incompetence will necessarily result…
muddle, muddle – boom
I'm nearly finished Graeber and Wengrow (The Dawn of Everything) and I'm not reaching that conclusion at all. Matters of hierarchy and authority have historically been deliberate choices by self-conscious actors – and there is a pre-history of cultures deliberately preventing hierarchies from becoming fixed in nature or permanent in time.
there is a pre-history of cultures deliberately preventing hierarchies from becoming fixed
Whilst it's true that we can only speculate on prehistory re social structures, I suspect you're right – I've read books describing the pattern of hunter/gatherer societies as based on parity relations. Anthropological investigation of relic survivors into the modern era disclosed a culture of collectively punishing aspirants who tried to attain control.
The consensual view seems to be that hierarchy arose via settlement and the protection of grain stores – thus it first emerged in villages, then towns, then cities, before rulers achieved dominion over regions.
The economic analysis of the transition from hunter/gatherers to herding then settlement focuses on evidence that items valued had to be carried personally until storage became habitual & settlers became location-bound.
"The economic analysis of the transition from hunter/gatherers to herding then settlement…"
Jesus wept.
The assumption hunter-gatherers were not in settlements holds no weight at all. Australia's been settled for more than 65 000 years. Migrations or walkabout may also have been lifestyle choices, once an area was known. So entire continents may have been utilised aka settled with relatively small numbers of us on the scene. Back then, maybe everyone had a bach and a blind out the coast.
Settlements grew larger as populations grew larger. Cultivation grew around settlements. Security in numbers enabled survival against the odds – to beating the odds – and now finally stacking the odds back upon ourselves.
The various landmasses of the Earth have been settled as long as people have been here. While these cowboy-cosplay types flopping their missiles out still think it's a frontier to be conquered.
I'm all for cooperation. If US led the charge on how it is to be, I'd most firmly decline.
Yeah maybe you could do anarchic anti-hierarchy in a world with no technology and less than a few million people scattered across the planet in tiny groups.
They give examples of it occurring in what at the time would have been large groups. And although the technology was simple by modern standards, it existed. Flint-knapping for instance is a highly sophisticated skill, you or I would be utterly crap at it.
I think you are assuming that current arrangements are inevitable and are then doing a deterministic backwards projection. That – and making assumptions about what I think this knowledge of early human hierarchy formation and resistance actually might mean for the present day. On the latter point I have no specific idea at all, only that we might have more agency (to use a fashionable word, I prefer “free will”) than we imagine.
Bertrand Russel suggested at one time that world government would be necessary if we wished to avoid nuclear annihilation. He thought the best bet for bringing it about lay with the Soviet Union.
The largest obstacle remains totalitarian actors like the Kremlin and the CCP – and until they're gone the US will never let go it's objections either.
No. The main obstacle is the US, who won't countenance world government unless they get to be in charge. And the main reason they want to be in charge is so that can have first dibs on the worlds resources. The US fear that the massive continent, at the top of the world, a continent that includes Russia, China and Europe, will come to dominate. This why they meddle in affairs on the other side off the world from their own hemisphere.
They say they want to make the world safe for democracy; but in reality they want to make the world receptive to a predatory form of capitalism
Mindless marxist boiler plate anti-US bigotry. It is so pervasive on the far-left that even here on this thread we see one morally bankrupt fool after another unable to bring themselves to condemn the murdering of a country right under their noses.
To repeat myself – there is no moral difference between the extremes on the left and right – both will happily condone mass murder if they think it might promote their cause.
" Governance that noone wants "etc
or a simple system which dis allows the United
snakesStates from doing what eva the fuck it likes in the world whether thats suffocating fledgling democracys or imposing totally illegal sanctions on sovereign countriesThats my idea of a new world order !
No idea how that G got there !
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Mike Hoskings "The Hosk" reckons the rot is setting in for Jacinda and Labour in the polls, when will this guy just disappear and piss off back to his relations in Australia.
I reckon it was just a one off spike for National after Jacinda has had some bad press about the Covid Protest in Wellington and the other issues associated with Covid.
Whatever decision Jacinda makes it will be deemed to be wrong by MSM and National/ACT/NZF as they are vying for the swing voters. She is on hiding to nothing Jacinda and Labour can only make the best decisions on the information that is available.
Hoskins whinging hard about the PM's press conferences again. Doesn't like the way she promotes NZ's Covid response.
The desperation is real.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-omicron-calls-to-boost-vaccines-masks-as-pm-relaxes-covid-protections/WU52MEDIZUWVSH5Y5GDO5GPLX4/
The good thing about this is that Hosking is more often proven by time to be writing rubbish rather than accurate analysis.
I reckon the rot is setting in, in his mind
Hosk and NZ Granny Herald Setting the Narrative.
Not here they don't. Unless you let them.
Hospo spokesman on the radio bemoaning the lack of patronage, blaming government messaging on covid and all ignoring the elephant in the room….diminished discretionary dollars.
Also, people not wanting to get Covid-19, so have changed their social behaviour.
We are at peak Covid right now with several dozen dying every week. Not sure why Hoskings or the hospitality sector don't seem able to acknowledge that.
I got discretionary dollars to go out and get completely trolloped, and a strong desire to do so. What I don't have is suicidal tendencies.
Business folk think their overpriced drinks and muffins are so good we should risk death to consume them.
What a joke these people are.
"Your coffee wine and a serve of covid on the side"
Hear Hear
Jokes with soapboxes whining constantly like video store owners who haven't woken up to the world of streaming.
We, along with others, no longer consider restaurants and bars as places of interest.
Covid forced a change we will persist with as others are.
Lol I've been going to the cinema a bit in the last few months, but accidentally went to a popular movie. Lots of people, even with spacing. Masked up, and no increase in coughs over pre-covid times, but the one or two that happened were a visceral fucking tension-raiser. Never again – obscure movies just before they finish their run for me from now on.
People frequented their establishments because of the restrictions.
Wait untill they find out that people will have second thoughts about sharing spaces with other, previously ineligible patrons.
People do not really want a free side dish of Covid when they go out to dinner and to socialize with family and friends.
The mandates may be history, but can Labour recover enough for a third term?
don't see why not. If we set aside the high vote because of covid, then they look like they're in a similar position as before, most likely a L/G government. Hard to predict though, it's not like the world is going to be particularly stable.
Best thing that could happen would be for not a lot to happen for six months and the PM and caucus getting to recover from the intense sustained stress the past two years.
Always a good idea to put oneself in other people's shoes. Thanks weka.
The moaners and the complainers have had stresses sure, but they are nothing compared to the PM and her ministers. Yet they reward the Govt. with bitter insults and the spreading of nasty memes like a bunch of 3 year olds denied cookies from the cookie jar.
I doubt the PM has had a single day's rest and recreation since the start of the pandemic. I doubt her ministers have had either. Yet they have had to put up with an unprecedented vitriolic lashing from a variety of sources including some in the media who apparently don't know any better.
General election is more than a year away and a week is a long time in politics. The mandates will be water under the bridge. It will be back to BAU before then and I think it will be much tighter than in 2020 producing a genuine coalition government this time.
Bring it. This mandated to be meh is getting up my nose.
what will be back to BAU?
I guess that point does need to be repeatedly stressed. Even to me. Oh How I LONG for days of old… but maybe I just long for less disasters, dictators and death.
General life, news cycle, politics, et cetera. Covid stats and those daily updates will disappear from the MSM front pages. People will forget Ashley’s surname. Even those QR codes will have disappeared from view. In 2023, we’re likely to see a Budget that’s no longer dominated by Covid and the parties will go into full campaign mode. That’s not to say that this pandemic is over – it will have a long fat tail.
I imagine the election year will proceed as usual, although I don't feel as optimistic (or pragmatic?) as you on the rest.
I’d like to think that many would want to return to what they consider ‘normal’ or at least near-normal life. That might be wishful thinking, of course, and depends on how fat & long the pandemic tail will be. I have Stockholm Syndrome 🙁
One of the many things the government doesn't seem to be getting credit for is bringing house price growth under control.
If this stabilisation continues they'll have fulfilled their biggest election promise. That, on top of our stellar Covid response are things voters will remember in the booths.
If they campaign on that, expect activists and some organisations to go hard on how many people are living in poverty because Labour wouldn't sort the housing crisis.
(and afaik, it's not under control).
Perhaps under control is a bit strong, but there is no doubt house prices at the moment have slowed or stopped, and in some areas reversed.
You can tell by the tense doom and gloom articles in the property sections of the media.
slowing house price rises is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Likewise stalling them. There is nothing to celebrate there and if Labour try and trumpet that they deserve everything they get (unfortunately we don't deserve a Nact govt).
It's one part of the long process of changing behaviour. If it can stick, why shouldn't it be celebrated?
A stable and sustainable housing sector is what we want, isn't it?
keeping housing prices high isn't stable and sustainable. It pleases the middle class liberals who want their cake and to eat it too, and keeps a lot of people in poverty and the poverty keeps compounding over time.
Very difficult for the Government to control house prices when NZ'ers are addicted to housing, like drug addicts are addicted to heroine or methamphetamine. It has been a road to riches for many NZers for very little effort.
This government has used some controls to obvious effect. This is what Labour had promised and they are delivering. They will have used political capital but this is what most people want.
Agree it is difficult to change a society which has accepted and promoted real estate agents being bigger than pop stars. How did we get to a situation where selling houses warrants shiny marketing billboards up and down main roads.
Given that they've presided over sky-rocketing housing prices during the last 4.5 years – the fact that it looks as though these may have reached apogee is not much to celebrate.
And, begs the question, if these strategies to calm the housing market are so successful, why didn't they apply them at the beginning of the Ardern government?
Frankly, I think that house prices may have plateaued because they've reached the maximum extent the 'market' is willing to pay, right now. Which (I think) says more about financial uncertainty (impact on international markets, cost-of-living, etc.) than it does about the strategies Labour may have put in place.
Good comment. I googled housing price controls nz to see if Muttonbird was telling the truth but none showed up.
What I got included this Stuff report from six months ago where
Looks like the market decided to grant Grant his wish – but only for half a year. Not sure how thrilled he'll be about that. These neoliberals get seriously addicted to rising markets & I wouldn't want him to be traumatised. However it is entirely possible that Muttonbird actually meant Reserve Bank signalling instead & wrote that bit accidentally.
Certainly telling the truth as far as I’m aware. I'm talking about the policy changes made by the government which I have outlined below @ 5.3.2.1.1.2.
Even the Reserve Bank's remit was changed by Grant Robertson when he asked them to consider housing in their monetary policy. This is also something the government has done to address the over-heated housing market.
Winston Peters, of course.
A lot of things have contributed to the current pausing of the market. Interest rates and uncertainty, but also the foreign buyers ban, extension of the bright line test and removal of interest deductions, stricter immigration management, and record house building too.
Some of this is external but some of it is policy and behaviour and the government should be congratulated for that.
Fair enough, I probably took controls too literally. Whether this mix generated the market result is a moot point but not one I'm in any position to argue about – I agree the mix would have influenced expectations significantly but competition for houses is hard to defeat…
Some evidence that Peters was a barrier in the way of the Ardern government implementing house price calming strategies, would be nice.
It's a lazy argument that all of the failures of the first Ardern government, can be laid at the feet of its coalition partner.
I don't hold much brief for Peters – but don't think there is any evidence that he (or the people who traditionally voted for him) wanted the skyrocketing prices for housing evidenced over the last 5 years. Stability, and possibly a slow but steady increase, yes; but the unsustainable levels that we've seen, no.
The foreign buyers ban (which Peters enthusiastically supported) had little, if any, impact on house prices. It was implemented in 2018 – and prices continued their upward spiral unabated.
The extension of the bright line test (with the continued exemption of the family home – a loophole through which you can drive a truck) – and applying only for 'new' buys – also had little immediate impact. It was implemented in March 2021 (so a year ago) – while prices continued their upwards trajectory, unabated.
The one policy which *may* have had an impact is the removal of interest deductions. Implemented in October 21, for property bought from March 21 – and phased in over 4 years for existing rental properties. There was no sign of immediate levelling off of prices – but it's possible that it did cause some medium-term unwillingness to invest in housing.
The policy which (unintentionally) may have an impact on house prices was the government's anti-loan-shark legislation – which caught up first-home buyers in its net. The result being that it was *much* harder to qualify for a mortgage with the banks (because of the liabilities accruing to lenders if the borrower was unable to pay back the loan). The impact was seen in the dropping numbers of buyers, and topping-out of prices in Jan/Feb this year. [It's unintentional, because the government is on record as saying that there was no intention to affect mortgage lending]
The factor which does look as though is having an effect, is inflation (which, as has been so eloquently expressed on this site – is primarily international in origin), combined with the financial uncertainty caused by the international supply chain and (now) the Ukraine situation. People are less willing to 'invest' in 30+ year mortgages in an uncertain financial environment – which has an impact on the number of willing buyers, and therefore the prices that the willing sellers may be 'forced' to accept.
I suspect Labour also expected kiwibuild to actually work. The next obvious strategy was a CGT, but they'd ruled that out to get elected.
Agree about the anti-loan shark measures – lowered demand by making it difficult to buy a home to actually live in (sigh)
The anti loan shark effect is exaggerated by banks ,by the opposition as a cause for a slowdown,when the reality is…the market is correcting..regardless.
So 3 months of prudent expenditure is too much to expect from home buyers…do me a..favour.
Every 2nd hand car dealer in Sth Auck should be out of business with this legislation…how come they ..aren't?
Except your own exaggerations merely exaggerate the banks' exaggeration…
What exaggerations would they be..then?N.F.I
Every used car dealership isn't a teeny tiny exaggeration?
It may surprise you but I think 'every' is appropriate.
I actually had access to deals done in this sector and believe you me,I was appalled at the conditions and blatant profiteering inflicted on unsophisticated and gullible…people.
It does moderately surprise me that you believe, literally, that there should not be a single used car yard able to operate in South Auckland.
Sure, used car dealers are by reputation and often in practise capitalist predators upon the weak, but it's surely and exaggeration to say that there aren't enough fiscally-ok people in South Auckland to keep a single car yard running. We're still talking 100k+ people. Even at half the national rate of 0.8 cars per people, That's 40k lpvs. Ten year lifespan for a vehicle is still 4k car purchases a year, no? Wouldn't that be enough for one car yard at least?
O.K ,I agree at least one car yard will survive.
How's business.
no better idea than you.
Nah it is funny money, a decade of low interest rates (which made credit too cheap) drawdowns from existing home equity to fund " investment housing" and incorrect investment by councils to fund both vanity and Potemkin projects.
https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1469296635167526913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1469296635167526913%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2Fnntaleb2Fstatus2F1469296635167526913widget%3DTweet
The days of cheap money are over,high inflation is here and higher interest rates are coming NO mistake its in big yellow lights
https://twitter.com/business/status/1506792171193745417?cxt=HHwWkoC-peLfmekpAAAA
It was my understanding funny money (printed out of thin air) needs to be matched to goods or inflation occurs but all knowing folks here assured me I was wrong. It seems quite clear, and shows how easy a land grab from the investor class takes place. Pump in money, inflate goods, people throw their life savings at a seemingly vanishing (real estate) market… raise interest, Mom & Pop go into negative equity, mortgagee bonanza.
Glad I'm not the only one who's wrong all the time.
When investment appreciation exceeds productive growth ( output) both asset inflation occurs and inequality rises.
Until the great equalization occurs then its turtles all the way down.
Arrogant pricks talked to one yesterday talked to me as if I was a child, I am 64 years old and have worked in the Real Estate Industry for 3 years, worst 3 years of my life hated every minute of it.
Yes, but it depends on the peter principle. If they have reached the plateau of their natural level of competence, policy delivery will continue to underwhelm.
Therefore parity with National is likely to persist. However the effect of the protest & the 20% to a third of the electorate resonance it achieved will diminish increasingly, so any achievements the govt produces will be likely to re-open a margin over National.
So you glossed over my if at the start, huh? Pomposity is in your mind, realism in mine. I judge them only on the results they get – which is why my language is always carefully phrased to indicate an open mind.
But your bias is so powerful you don't notice that. And your addiction to exhibiting whataboutism merely makes you seem deviant. Evasion of poll results is the inevitable consequence. What if you were to get real instead? Then you might be worth reading.
I agree that "praise where it is due is only fair" and Labour "delivered one of the better responses to covid" – but I'd go further. I think they delivered the best out of all the nations, based on the evidence I've seen. However the voters no longer rate that highly, right? Only a third of them do currently.
My bias has been out there for ages lol. Bringing up items that may sway people's opinions is not whataboutism. Like you, I choose my words with care. I am not as clever as you Dennis, but I did say "It sounded.. not that it was pompous' There was no personal slagging in what I wrote. Cheers.
Okay thanks Patricia. I do try to be careful but sometimes fail…
All good. D. I should have asked..” Do you think they have plateaued and lack skill?”
There is more vitriol on the PM's facebook, but generally doing a count of "thumbs up" plus "hearts", they outnumber all others by 2/3rds to 3/4s. The antis have just ramped up their criticisms. The worst perpetrators have very new pages, or they are full of religious cant or large oily vehicles.
It's cruel but there's nothing Labour can do.
Still 2 months to Budget, and it better be a vote-suction machine.
National/ACT/NZF don't have a shit show in hell of getting anywhere near Government in 2023.
Tax cuts win.
Nobody “wins” it’s just that the incumbents piss off the voters enough to get booted out. Ordinary Kiwis lose if National gets in.
Jacinda used to be Labour’s greatest asset but now everyone is sick of her. I can’t be bothered with the weekly announcement of weird & complex new rules to be implemented in 6 weeks time that nobody will follow in practice.,
The Opposition parties have tapped into a rich vein of resentment and frustration. After locking up Auckland for 100 days and keeping MIQ going for too long with v thin justification, Labour has evaporated all its good will. The first lockdown was supposed to be a short sharp response not repeated endlessly.
Covid does not let the Government off the hook for their failures and betrayals of working class Kiwis by sustaining the housing bubble, suppressing wages for essential workers, allowing food banks to become the norm, ignoring beneficiaries, failing at mental health reform, & doubling down on neoliberal austerity
Arrogant pricks talked to one yesterday talked to me as if I was a child, I am 64 years old and have worked in the Real Estate Industry for 3 years, worst 3 years of my life hated every minute of it.
The Hospitality sector never stop complaining, ever, no matter what. Covid has changed the world in the last two years but Hospitality cannot seem to accept that people are not so ready to wine and dine among crowds of others. Perhaps there are simply too many cafes and restaurants now. And with the cost of living rising steeply people probably cannot eat out quite as often.
But they keep demanding subsidies, vouchers….
There were too many cafes and restaurants even before the pandemic! Though an upside of fewer of them would be increased home ownership for millennials and younger; no more flat whites and avocado toast denuding their deposits!
$12.00 Steinlagers and Heinekins, people do not have the discretionary spendinding these days especially after 2 x Years of Covid.
RNZ this morning reports the IMF has said the government has handled the economy and pandemic well. The economy is in a strong position because of "sound management".
Guessing we will not hear Hosking raise that on his morning hate rants. Nor will Luxon/Seymour.
https://www.interest.co.nz/public-policy/114965/imf-calls-significant-increases-ocr-more-targeted-govt-spending-fuel-tax-cuts
A bit of good news today with the death of Allbright, the one that thought the death of…
In a 1996 interview with CBS, Albright defended the Clinton administration's economic sanctions against Iraq, saying that the deaths of 600,000 Iraqi children under the age of 5 was "worth it."
hope they bury her face down.
I hardly think celebrating someone's death is an appropriate reaction.
She described the quote you reference as being 'trapped' by a journalist asking an 'unfair' question (one to which there is no acceptable answer)- and said something that she did not mean.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright#Controversies
It turns out, subsequently, that the mortality rates were fabricated by the Iraqi government as a piece of propaganda – and there was no major rise in child-mortality as a result of the international sanctions.
I suppose the deaths and ongoing deaths of Iraqi children by the use of depleted uranium used by her cohorts is fictitious too. I don't shed tears for dead american warmongers.
Presumably not for any other warmongers either….
She wasn't Kissinger.
Frankly, any job at the level of secstate/foreign minister is a bit like a surgeon in the 19th century: the best ones save more lives than they kill.
But even then, there's always the possibility of a single operation with a 300% mortality rate.
Lovely Lady RIP ?
Good and rather chilling article by Gordon Campbell in his Werewolf blog about Luxon's dismissal of the "poor and unambitious". (a theme already covered on the Standard by Micky a couple of days ago). Predictably, Luxon's poor choice of words (Campbell unfavourably compares this to John key's more careful phraseology) has not been challenged by the MSM. Mind you, one wonders just how many politicians (of most stripes) think the same as Luxon, but are astute enough not to be so stupid to admit it?
Yes a thought provoking read.
Nationals media never holds it to account.
Luxon knows that so has gone for the dog whistling, innuendo, rubbery tax claims etc
This from the Campbell article worth a full repeat.
“I met a former Air NZ flight attendant recently. She told me how their conditions were cut to the point that she had to pay for her own tickets to Auckland to work on international flights. On a return trip to Wellington she was told she’d be sitting next to Luxon. She asked not to be, but they said it was the only seat.
So, she told, me she had to decide whether to tell him how she felt or live with the fact that she hadn’t. So, she started to explain the situation and he interrupted her with: “You’re just waiters and waitresses…”. She said to me not only was that not true – there’s a lot of safety training, first aid etc, etc – but it was insulting to wait staff. She then pointed out to Luxon that the top 10 staff were earning $19 million between them to which he replied: “I could earn a lot more elsewhere.” He seems to lack any self-awareness, humility, decency or even intelligence.”
Classic Luxon Can he learn to mask his true colours?
'Honest John' pulled it off, on and off, for a decade.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/22/new-zealand-prime-minister-john-key-apologises-for-pulling-waitresss-hair
Donkey was just horsing around. You can lead a horse to a pony, but you cannot make the horse pull the ponytail.
Another failure to discern the difference between earning and being paid, commonly made, whereby the latter assumes the former. Not the same alas.
“You’re just waiters and waitresses…"
Don't we hear the same putdown about our Prime Minister's first job as an assistant in a fish and chip shop? Some observations about the worth of work follow.
First, f&c shops served our Catholic family with a weekly meal. That was always appreciated.
I'm the son of a grocer. My first paid job was mowing lawns. Then a shop assistant in Woolworths. Then working as a cleaner in a tyre factory got me through Uni. Those men sweated at their work, hard and long, in three shift work cycles. Then working as a coal trimmer one year at Uni for a holiday job taught me how wield a shovel, thirty six tons in a day emptying rail wagons of coal.
There I worked alongside medal-bedecked WW2 veterans and staunch unionists.
At the end of my working life and retired from teaching I went back to cleaning and met again with the same reactions about my worth sinceI was a lowly cleaner. The people I worked for, whose houses I cleaned, some of whom were openly despisers, did not realise that the people they employed were better educated than they were, brighter, better read judging from the bookshelves that did not exist, appreciating art better than the 'art' on the walls from accessory shops, more musical judging from the musical instruments not able to be seen. My fellow cleaner had an MA and had been a secondary school head of department.
Yet we were judged, as was Prime Minister Ardern, by our job status.
One last fact. hospital cleaners have a social value rating of x15 their actual wage, whereas bankers have a negative social rating according to an article in the Guardian in 2009.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/dec/14/new-economics-foundation-social-value
As well as being open despisers the open despisers were arrogant and ignorant arseholes.
I remember in the early '70s a kid being upset about his father being a driver of a petrol tanker. They were on strike and the target of public opprobrium. It wasn't the drama of the strike or the criticism but the fact that his father was a mere truck driver. Of course his mates' fathers who were mangers doctors and lawyers were totally dependent on his father. Society could not operate without his contribution.
Seeing him become aware of that was heartening. If there weren't assistants in takeaway shops and cleaners how would things be? And how would Air NZ with Luxon have got on without cleaners and "waiters and waitresses?"
The PM is disparaged because she worked in a fish and chip shop as a teenager – somewhere I have seen a photo of Luxon as a teenager when he worked at McDonalds. Wonder when the right wingers will hone in on that and snort at him as they do with the PM.
However she went on to university, travelled quite widely, worked, and entered Parliament. The pathetic sneering seems to me simply to be jealousy because she is so popular and won an outright majority at the last election, and for some males it's because she is a woman. I will never forget the likes of the "girl in a skirt" comment – how dare a young, attractive woman think she can be the PM.
I think the majority of teenagers have worked at 'entry level' to earn some money before they start out on their career choice. It actually teaches them how to interact with others, some of whom may be very different to those they usually mix with. They learn how to listen, follow instructions, and concentrate on their tasks. Good on them.
The sneering is real.
The point isn't that teens and young adults shouldn't engage in retail as a first job, to supplement the family income, or to fund tertiary study. That is – in the neo-liberal centre-right rhetoric – a meritorious achievement. For all of the good reasons you've listed.
Their argument is that this fish and chip outlet is the only place Ardern has ever worked outside the political establishment.
And is 'evidence' that she is out-of-touch with the realities of those who run businesses, or who's jobs depend on business or trade.
It's the same level of sneering which is addressed to all MPs who've come through the ranks of political parties, unions or government departments – 'never had a real job'
[Please note, I'm not agreeing with them – simply explaining the thinking]
Need more skills working in a Fish & Chip Shop cf to working in McDonalds imo.
Nearly twenty years using the bench to harass, humiliate, and belittle women and girls in open court but it's unfair for “unsubstantiated allegations” to be aired in public.
Boo-fucking-hoo, arsehole.
/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300548439/embattled-judge-loses-bid-to-have-conduct-inquiry-held-in-private
My betting is that the judge [not naming or identifying – even though it's well known who it is] will resign – and take the (very) substantial retirement superannuation fund.
Then claim that 'nothing was ever proven'.
Judiciary needs to clean house much more effectively, and considerably more quickly.
My SO has better work stories about the arsehole. Skin-crawling stuff.
White Man Behind A Desk on the Hobbit Law 12 years on. Utterly, depressingly brilliant.
White Man Behind A Desk – The Hobbit Law 12 Years On
Vladmir Putin and the white race imperialism of the Eastern Christendom. It began with Vladimir of Kiev and conversion to Christendom (so he could marry the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor).
https://wapo.st/3wvlhsn
Evidently, “Dugin is Putin’s Rasputin”. Here’s an incredible bit of fascist propaganda — deeply heretical against the basic teachings of Christ IMNSHO
https://twitter.com/contentinople_/status/1504533911979843603?s=21
Belladonna makes the point that some people think union reps, public servants and politicians are not 'real' jobs. Very narrow minded and blinkered. There are many cases of politicians from who have had 'real' jobs who are hopeless politicians.