a report prepared by Impact Lab, a company co-founded and chaired by former National leader Sir Bill English.
“While Impact Lab is a reputable company, it’s even more important for the Minister to at least seek advice from officials and show that some attempt has been made to verify the figures, when that company is synonymous with a former National Party PM Bill English,” Leary said.
Oh and there is this connector to Ol' Double Dipper himself
“Even more so at a time when the Government has authorised payment of $500,000 that would have been used for transitional housing to pay for the controversial Kainga Ora review to: Bill English.
The left seem really triggered by money going to Gumboot Friday. Is it the charity itself? Or Mike King? Or perhaps, it's own failures:
On Tuesday, the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission released its new report for 2022, finding there has been no change in access to specialist mental health services in five years, despite the Government's $1.9 billion cash injection in 2019.
Yesterdays story about English makes me so sad (getting funds from the emergency housing fund)when there's people really struggling out there, "cost of living" etc (which doesn't seem to be in the news anymore) & the likes of millionaires like English sponging off the Govt just seems so unfair, he doesn't need to do this, just unempathetic greed pure & simple (& those that troll & use slippery words to justify these policies are just cruel & nasty).
Also I was able to get the First Home Grant & was very thankful for it.
Maybe we could pay Bill English to report independently on the success of the parenting courses.
THE EMAIL EXCHANGE
MID-MARCH
Bill English’s office emails Treasury to inform it of decision to give $4.8m over four years to Peda.
TREASURY EMAILS THE MINISTRY OF PACIFIC ISLAND AFFAIRS
“We don’t know a great deal more about this initiative…presume someone in [Pacific Island Affairs] must know about it?”
MINISTRY REPLIES
“The information we have over here on this is very sketchy. Are you able to send us or point us in the direction of the Cabinet papers so we can proceed?”
TREASURY ANSWERS
“We are even more in the dark on this one – there are no Cabinet papers or anything else…Maybe worth asking your minister’s office.”
MARCH 25
Ministry advice on Peda says it is untested, unproven, does not work well with others and is proposing programmes that would overlap with existing ones.
In last year’s budget, the Nats awarded a $4.8m contract to an unknown organisation called PEDA without tender and against official advice. The people behind PEDA were apparently tied to Bill English via his wife. The full truth still hasn’t come out. Now, the Nats are up to the same trick with Parents Inc.
Paula Bennett’s Ministry of Social Development will pay $2.4 million to Parents Inc for “parenting courses for the caregivers of vulnerable children”. This contract was untendered and previously unknown.
Watch live: Ministers give more detail on new social housing plans
"The social housing waitlist is over 25,000 applicants and too many Kiwi families are living in emergency housing motels or sleeping on relatives' couches while they wait to move into warm, dry, stable housing," Potaka said.
For those who wondered how… and what the Nats were planning? They're building..stables?! Will there be enough money left for fresh hay every day ?…. ( fyi for those lacking in a satirical sense…it maybe is )
You do realise the weirdness of mocking a journalists typo when we have, by one measure at least, "one of the highest rates of homelessness in the developed world"?
"If you actually look at the reasons people can be evicted under the current regulatory scheme, I think it's very reasonable. You can evict somebody for not paying rent, or antisocial behaviour.
"I don't know if there are any more reasons that you should be allowed to evict somebody and I think National are actually saying we should trust landlords to act with impunity when it comes to people's livelihoods and their homes."
So you know its just a typo? uhuh. I realise most of you right wing trolls are humourless….why I put…. satirical !
Maybe you should address why Ol' Double Dipper English has any involvement or credo when he was quite involved in the selling off of same.
Sir Bill, whose Government sold off thousands of state houses and promoted the establishment of non-government community housing providers, said the state housing agency had racked up debt but little fiscal discipline or accountability.
"We'll go through a proper process; it may be that some have no value. If you're in a small town in a house that's been a P lab, it might be a wee bit hard to get rid of.
But have you thought about the irony in your criticism of Bill English, given the last government left "one of the highest rates of homelessness in the developed world"?
Given that plenty of us criticised the last government for being confusing and moving too slow (while still giving them credit for the good job they did in building some more housing and actually allowing people to get on the waitlist to better see the size of the unmet need problem) I don't see any irony at all.
Bill English was instrumental in kicking people off the housing waiting lists and National are making it harder to get on already.
They did the same thing last time with health as well.
You really don’t need to make it harder for us, Minister, with your new verification processes and eligibility checks. It’s not easy to get into emergency housing. Take my case: despite the fact that a social worker at my local MSD office agreed that the danger in my home was too high for me to remain, and paid for my kids and I to move, when it came to emergency housing, a different employee from MSD’s national team decided I did not meet the criteria. I spent three nights in a hospital where medics didn’t want to discharge me because there was nowhere for me to go, and then another night failing to sleep on a hard chair in the emergency department because the hospital was full and that was the best they could provide.
Laying more obligations on people seeking emergency housing and forcing our MSD managers to check on us more frequently won’t help the problem. If there’s one bright light in the system at the moment, it’s the pastoral care offered by the MSD integrated housing managers. I’ve had two, and both have made it clear that they really, really care. They’re already doing a lot; checking on my application with Kainga Ora and fielding calls from support agencies. At a time when the public sector is facing huge cuts, why double their workload by forcing them to check on me every four days?
Thanks DoS, I appreciate the reply and in your case I withdraw the comment about the irony. And I read Spinoff piece you linked to. Parking our political differences, it's unacceptable we have people living in transitional housing, and the "I was made to sing the “If you’re happy and you know it” song and heard the suggestion that homelessness is the result of financial irresponsibility and that a budgeting course would make us irresistible to the private sector." is downright disgusting.
Sounds like National dumping on its own support base, if I read this correctly.
FBT is a hangover from Rogernomics, it has more loopholes than an Instant Finance contract and costs a lot to administer compared to the amount of tax taken. Should have been retired long ago.
It affects me because the government takes a cut of the employer kiwisaver contribution.
I am interested in thoughts from those interested in philosophical debate.
One of the contentious topics in philosophy for a long time is whether we have free will, or whether our decisions are completely determined by external causal factors and internal causal factors. For instance, genetic factors etc we have inherited.
The deterministic argument essentially is that the sum of causal factors means our decisions are completely explained by those causal factors. Under that scenario, if we were able to travel back in time to before a decision is made, our decision would be exactly the same, based on those causal factors.
My argument is that there is room for independent human agency, apart from prior causes, depending on the ambiguity of the situation.
For example, a parent may have the option to either prevent their toddler from running out onto a busy road, or to stand back to see what will happen. In that situation, it is highly likely the parent would make the decision to prevent the child from crossing the road if faced with exactly the same circumstances again. The the deterministic argument would hold true in that situation.
But, where information is ambiguous, it is not so clear cut.
For example, say a person was driving down a road in Germany in the mid-1930s. The are contronted with an intersection where they must choose to go one way or the other. They both lead to the same destination, and there is no information as to which way is the best way to go. So, it is up to the person to decide which direction to take. In that situation, all the causal factors are the same. But, due to the lack of information, the causal factors have no influence on the decision to take. So, confronted with the same situation again, there is no reason to think that the same decision would be made.
They decide to go in one direction. In that direction, they have an accident and kill Hitler. Going the other way, they avoid the action altogether.
In this situation, it seems that the agency of the individual has started a causal chain of events depending on the decision made. That causal chain is independent of the preceding causal chain.
So, my argument is, the more ambiguous the situation, the more likely free will is involved. Where decisions are clear cut, then deterministic causal factors are more likely to explain the actions.
Incidental or scenario choice is one aspect – it is at the micro level of the decision-making.
So, my argument is, the more ambiguous the situation, the more likely free will is involved. Where decisions are clear cut, then deterministic causal factors are more likely to explain the actions.
Where people would make the same decision – again and again and others would decide the same, is not an important part of the free will debate because it is where instinctive behaviour conforms to deterministic causal factors decision-making.
I would look at free will in the context of cognitive psychology as per individual choice which does not conform to the expectation of evolutionary psychology as per group (herd) behaviour. Where individuals choose to be different is an act of free will. Such actions can influence the course of human society.
I tend to agree with you. The problem is that determinists would argue that individuals who choose to be different have causal factors that would explain that. For, instance, they may point to genetic factors where the individual's parents had similar tendencies. Or their parents brought them up to stand up for their own beliefs despite what the crowd may think.
My argument attempted to point out that the more ambiguous a situation becomes, the less effect previous causal factors will have.
At one end of the scale, decisions can be explained completely by causes. For instance, it has been shown that people react to pressing their brakes to avoid a crash before the thought arises in their mind.
But, in completely ambiguous situations, then the independent decision of the individual becomes much more of a factor.
So, I am proposing a continuum where at one end causal factors are a complete explanation, but at the other end independent individual agency is the complete explanation, and that the mix will change depending on the point along the continuum.
We learn to have instinctive reactions to situations (repetition – such as breaking without thinking) but also learn from considered experience, such as no right turn (or one term only).
I would see the upbringing of offspring to become educated and free thinking as a deliberation to impact on the wider society a capacity for progressive change (as nurture to ensure evolutionary possibility for the group over time).
I think it does end up coming down to whether we could have done otherwise. Or else there is always an argument that whatever we do was determined by a countless number of causes, many of which we may not be aware of.
The problem is that it is an experiment that is impossible to do because it would require travelling back in time to the exact situation that was faced back then. That is why the debate will always be at the academic level.
My thought experiment tried to show that it would be possible to do something different, given enough ambiguity in the situation.
Free will ignores the impact of genetics in terms of natural skill and ability, the impact on others and their decisions on your circumstances and luck.
None of us are where we are or where we could be by our choices alone. Being born into the right or wrong family or country, whether the wrong person got annoyed with you or the right person mentored you, whether we had an accident or a near miss, whether you were exposed to violence or poverty as a child – the cult of individualism as a means of success is just so non-sensical – it isn't funny that this gets promoted.
The caste system and the idea of next generation rebirth to a higher status reflects the reality that in some ways full exercise of (or equal) free will has an inter-generational aspect (is constrained by generational disadvantage).
That said providing opportunity (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) and having estate taxation (and CGT on wealth privilege) are or can be the ways in which democracy works to allow greater opportunity for exercise of free will (equality) within "society".
Even then though you can't escape genetics – I've rarely heard anyone suggesting someone born with Down's syndrome just has to change their attitude to become successful – society is at times quite accepting of highly visible disability (post institutionalisation more so) having limits on level of achievement – often to their, the person's, detriment.
There's far worse genetic and illness derived heath disorders. And there are plenty that are invisible and not obvious – think dyslexia. So where on the spectrum of variation amongst human beings does it become that magic point of "but you just need to get your shit together, work harder, make more effort". to be successful. What if in fact for a lot of people it just simply cannot ever happen and it isn't them that need to adapt but instead it is society and the rules, and structures we have built that are problematic for them that are the things that need to change.
That includes adverse consequences on the child in the womb of adverse factors (non genetic – such as fetal alcohol etc) and early life trauma experiences (physical and mental), early poverty diseases, accident disability, sexual violence .. mental illness.
It is however important to distinguish between the concept of free will and the concept of a Randian/libertarian individual centred order to society – given equality of opportunity does not exist, It is of our free will to design a better one.
IMO, the whole debate is a bottomless swamp that's best avoided altogether and often a jumping-off point for dodgy political agendas.
I think there's something of a false binary at play. Pre-determination is usually viewed as material in nature and based on prior decisions by other people, our backgrounds and accumulated experience; while free will is seen as a non-material and essential characteristic of all human minds. The false binary is that these two are seen as completely different categories of things, and that therefore one must always be in the ascendant over the other. I would prefer to say that they are both material in nature and that we are all an admixture of both – that bad experience and bad backgrounds can partially extinguish the capacity for free will, while good experiences will enhance it. Both always exist together in tension.
In practice we all believe something like this. As a good leftie, few things infuriate me more than the right's fondness for the "just-world fallacy" – the idea that we all have free will and therefore the rich deserve to be rich and the poor deserve to be poor – which is nothing but a self-serving lie. On the other hand, if I did not believe in the presence of free will I would not be in favour of (say) rehabilitation programmes for criminals that rely on them wanting to change. Nobody in their day to day life is a fundamentalist of either stripe – we might call that "sanity".
Cashmore's paper elicited some debate at the time, and is still being cited:
The place of Free Will: the freedom of the prisoner [23 Oct 2023]
After reviewing the definition of Free Will and the related literature, we conclude that the scientific evidence does not disprove the existence of Free Will. However, our will encounters several constraints and limitations that should be considered when evaluating our deeds’ personal responsibility.
If the question is how much control an individual has over their thoughts and actions, then it's likely most people will tend to believe they are fully in control most if not all of the time, but who knows whether this is the case – certainly not me!
My simplistic assumption is that what we consider free will is largely the outcome of stochastic processes in the brain over which we have little-to-no control, these process (in response to stimuli) dictating thoughts and actions that are largely predictable (the degree of predictability varying over time, and between individuals), but not absolutely so.
For example, travelling at speed and faced with a possum in the headlights, an individual might react in the same way (say) 99 times out of a hundred, but possibly not 999 times out of a thousand. Another individual might react the same way 100 times out of 100, but possibly not one thousand time out of one thousand. A third individual might react in differently each time – difficult to imagine, but not impossible, although such an individual probably wouldn't last too long behind the wheel. It is challenging to conduct such thought experiments in practice, for all but the simplest living systems 'learn', and in humans it might be considered impossible to do a genuine reset after each cycle, and unethical even if it was possible.
Hmm, in hindsight, AB said it best – it’s a rabbit hole. Thanks for the question – that's the next hour's reading sorted
The question could be reframed as "Is the universe deterministic?" and quantum physics say probably not.
ChatGPT sez:
Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics
Whether the universe is fundamentally deterministic or not depends on the interpretation of quantum mechanics. There are several interpretations, each with different implications for determinism:
Copenhagen Interpretation: This is the traditional interpretation, which embraces the inherent randomness of quantum mechanics. According to this view, the universe is not deterministic at the quantum level.
Many-Worlds Interpretation: This interpretation suggests that all possible outcomes of quantum measurements actually occur in separate, branching universes. In this view, the universe as a whole is deterministic, but it contains an infinite number of parallel outcomes.
Pilot-Wave Theory (Bohmian Mechanics): This interpretation posits that particles have well-defined positions and momenta, and their behavior is guided by a "pilot wave." This theory is deterministic but non-local, meaning that information can be instantaneously transmitted across distances.
Conclusion
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle shows that at the quantum level, we cannot have complete knowledge of all properties of a system simultaneously, leading to a fundamental indeterminacy in predictions. However, whether this indeterminacy implies that the universe is non-deterministic depends on the interpretation of quantum mechanics. Some interpretations suggest a non-deterministic universe, while others maintain determinism in a more complex or less intuitive form.
Every time someone comments I am in a quantum state of both agreeing and disagreeing and as a result the universe splits in two. According to the multiple worlds hypothesis,
It's good to see the support for structure literacy – IMHO that is our best chance to improve literacy in NZ after decades of decline.
Picking up on the final comments from Gail Gillon, I suspect the initial emphasis will be on changing the dynamic of literacy learning (to SL). Resources will be directly specifically to that. Reading recovery will become part of the overall picture, but in a form that integrates into the SL methodology. There will always be children for whom literacy is a challenge even with the very best practice.
And teaching reading using structured literacy, initially, in the classroom – will mean that fewer kids will need to be referred to programmes like Reading Recovery, at all.
At a time when climate change effects are all accelerating, we have predictions now for the collapse of the Thwaites glacier in Antartica in the next decade or two rather than next century.
Thwaites, which already contributes 4% to global sea level rise, holds enough ice to raise sea levels by more than 2 feet. But because it also acts as a natural dam to the surrounding ice in West Antarctica, scientists have estimated its complete collapse could ultimately lead to around 10 feet of sea level rise — a catastrophe for the world’s coastal communities.
It is pertinent to look at what is happening to the global effort to bring climate change into the urgent agenda now required and look at what is behind the current efforts to demonise climate change protestors.
It turns out that most of what has been happening with criminalising protest is driven by the Atlas Network.
But before it was a network, it was just one think tank: the U.K.-based Institute of Economic Affairs, or IEA, founded by a man named Antony Fisher..
By this point, his work with the IEA and the Centre for Policy Studies had succeeded in getting Margaret Thatcher elected. Famed “free market” economist Milton Friedman would later say that “the U-turn in British policy executed by Margaret Thatcher owes more to Fisher than any other individual.”
Fisher wanted to connect all the IEA-style organizations he’d started into a network so that they could more easily work with each other, and asked Hayek for introductions to his “friends in Houston”—oil executives—for funding. The Atlas Network, which launched in 1981, initially only included the first dozen or so think tanks Fisher had helped to found himself, but quickly expanded to include hundreds of like-minded member organizations, including all the Koch-affiliated think tanks in the U.S. (The Cato Institute, the Heartland Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the American Legislative Exchange Council—some of the most influential forces shaping U.S. conservative politics—are all members.) …
U.K.-based Atlas member think tank Policy Exchange, meanwhile, put out a report in 2019 describing Extinction Rebellion, an organization famous for shutting down parts of London to call for aggressive climate action, as “an extremist organization seeking the breakdown of liberal democracy and the rule of law.” As happened in Germany, several U.K. politicians and conservative media outlets have since repeated that framing. It wasn’t long before people began cold-cocking Extinction Rebellion activists as they blocked roads or staged other forms of nonviolent, disruptive protest…
…during a speech at Policy Exchange’s annual summer garden party in 2023, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak thanked Policy Exchange members for “helping us draft legislation” that significantly criminalized various forms of protest, increased police power, and created the criminal offense of “willful obstruction of the highway” to curb protests that block roads.
It began in the UK but now has it's tentacles right through the world, as we now know in NZ. It is the propaganda and influencer at arms length from the fossil fuel and mega rich corporations which fund it and as we know here, has bought and paid for national traitors, prepared to sell their citizens down the drain in exchange for power and money.
Well done Willie Jackson on jointly winning the Oxford Union debate. Sounds like a well constructed speech, clever, and with a touch of humour. Wonder how much we will hear about it in the news.
Not such a far-fetched idea, that. As I've already remarked, Hipkins just isn't right in the role of LOTO. Labour needs an Antony, not yet another Brutus.
Yes, good coverage on last night's One News. But oh dearie me, did he really have to recycle that tired old "smell on your breath" trope? Time that was permanently put to rest.
"Devastating"? Our CoC MPs are simply putting 'self' before 'service'.
Those simple-minded meddling experts – there’s still meat on public asset bones
Earlier this week, Bishop said the Government had “significant” concerns about the financial performance and governance of the Government housing agency. Kāinga Ora, the country’s biggest landlord, had assets of $45 billion and over $2.5bn of expenditure each year, owning more than 70,000 homes.
…
Among recommendations [in the independent review of Kāinga Ora by former Prime Minister Bill English] was addressing barriers “in order to increase provision of social housing by CHPs (community housing providers), iwi and Maori, and other providers”, leading to concerns of privatisation by stealth.
… reducing barriers (funding) to community housing providers (some Maori), iwi (all Maori) and Maori (let's guess urban authority).
(to Maori is OK when away fro government delivery).
Then
1.cancelling the role of Kainga Ora in buying places or leasing on the market to let out at income related rent.
2.not funding new Kainga Ora developments and with natural decline from demolishing old housing and then selling land not then being built on by tender to "developers in a flat market".
make it look like a great improvement in KO performance.
Problem less housing, less land for affordable new housing by future governments and a decline in assets held by KO.
The new social housing elsewhere not making up for the decline at KO (including loss of land assets).
It's just a transfer from KO and with no total increase in social housing intended.
Currently, social housing is procured from CHPs on a project-by-project basis. Around 500 new homes of the 1500 will be allocated quickly using the existing pipeline of CHP opportunities and with three objectives in mind: value for money from government investment, contributing towards the government’s target of getting people out of emergency housing motels, and a balanced approach between achievability and building capability in historically underserved regions.”
Once again the $!40M allocated is under $100,000 for each "home".
The Tories promised to get rid of no fault evictions in 2019 and finally brought legislation into parliament in 2023, but it will not pass before the election.
Here the coalition has brought in no fault evictions. Indicating a more pro landlord regime than the Tories of the UK.
"RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop says the Government is committed to
unlocking development and investment while ensuring the environment is protected."
[Excerpt from media release by Minister Responsible for RMA Reform and two other ministers, 24 May 2024]
So we can have our cake and eat it too? I don't buy that. At most, the government will only make it look as if the environment is being protected.
Mining on stewardship land is just the start. The government is trotting out the usual "jobs or the environment" argument.
Note too the use of the word "unlocking". It implies those nasty greenies have prevented bold entrepreneurs in the business sector from making this country great.
A teenager is stabbed to death in Dunedin 30 metres from a police station.
The police say they have known about trouble in the area for some time but their options to fix it were security men and CTV cameras.
They couldn't even manage a police officer to walk the beat in the area for about an hour 3-4 pm on school days even though he/she would within spitting distance of the station.
Doesn't say much about National's promise to crack down on crime does it?
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A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, June 9, 2024 thru Sat, June 15, 2024. Story of the week A glance at this week's inventory of what experts tell us is extreme weather mayhem juiced by ...
After a busy week it’s a good day to relax. Clear blues skies here in Tamaki Makaurau, very peaceful but for my dogs sleeping heavily. In the absence of a full newsletter I thought I’d send out a brief update and share a couple of posts that popped up in ...
Now in the land of Angus beef and the mighty ABsWhere the steaks were juicy and the rivers did run foulIt would often be said,This meal is terrible,andNo, for real this is legit the worst thing I've ever eatenBut this was an thing said only to others at the table,not ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from the Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is ocean acidification from human ...
She's not a girl who misses muchDo do do do do do, oh yeahShe's well-acquainted with the touch of the velvet handLike a lizard on a window paneI wouldn’t associate ACT with warmth, other than a certain fabled, notoriously hot, destination where surely they’re heading and many would like them ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past somewhat interrupted week. Still on the move!Share Read more ...
What does Budget 2024 tell us about the current government? Muddle on?Coalition governments are not new. About 50 percent of the time since the first MMP election, there has been a minority government, usually with allied parties holding ministerial portfolios outside cabinets. For 10 percent of the time there was ...
Somewhat surprisingly for what is regarded as a network of professionals, climate science misinformation is getting shared on LinkedIn, joining other channels where this is happening. Several of our recent posts published on LinkedIn have attracted the ire of various commenters who apparently are in denial about human-caused climate change. Based ...
1. On what subject is Paul Henry even remotely worth giving the time of day?a. The state of our nationb. The state of the ACT partyc. How to freak out potential buyers of your gin palace by baking the remains of your deceased parent into its fittings2. Now that New ...
Last time National was in power, they looted the state, privatising public assets and signing hugely wasteful public-private partnership (PPP) contracts which saw foreign consortiums provide substandard infrastructure while gouging us for profits. You only have to look at the ongoing fiasco of Transmission Gully to see how it was ...
The Democratic Façade Of Local Government: Our district and city councillors are democratically elected to govern their communities on one very strict condition – that they never, ever, under any circumstances, attempt to do so.A DISINTEGRATION OF LOYALTIES on the Wellington City Council has left Mayor Tory Whanau without a ...
I can feel the lowlights coming over meI can feel the lowlights, from the state I’m inI can see the light now even thought it’s dimA little glow on the horizonAnother week of lowlights from our government, with the odd bright spot and a glow on the horizon. The light ...
Another week, another roundup of things that caught our eye on our favourite topics of transport, housing and how to make cities a little bit greater. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday, Connor wrote about Kāinga Ora’s role as an urban development agency Tuesday’s guest post by ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s moves this week to take farming out of the ETS and encourage more mining and oil and ...
In 2019, Shane Jones addressed the “50 Shades of Green” protest at Parliament: Now he is part of a government giving those farmers a pass on becoming part of the ETS, as well as threatening to lock in offshore oil exploration and mining for decades. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the ...
Hi,Today’s newsletter is all about how easy it is to get sucked into “rage bait” online, and how easy it is to get played.But first I wanted to share something that elicited the exact opposite of rage in me — something that made me feel incredibly proud, whilst also making ...
Seymour said lower speed limits “drained the joy from life as people were forced to follow rules they knew made no sense.” File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, June 14 were:The National/ACT/NZ First ...
It sounded like the best word to describe yesterday’s talks between Chinese Premier Li Qiang and his heavyweight delegation of Ministers and officials and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and New Zealand Ministers and officials was “frank.” But it was the kind of frankness that friends can indulge in. It ...
Open access notables Wildfire smoke impacts lake ecosystems, Farruggia et al., Global Change Biology:We introduce the concept of the lake smoke-day, or the number of days any given lake is exposed to smoke in any given fire season, and quantify the total lake smoke-day exposure in North America from 2019 ...
Photo by Mathias Elle on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with special guests:5.00 ...
Don’t put it all at risk. That’s likely to be the take-home message for New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in his meetings with Li Qiang, the Chinese Premier. Li’s visit to Wellington this week is the highest-ranking visit by a Chinese official since 2017. The trip down under – ...
I know the feelingIt is the real thingThe essence of the soulThe perfect momentThat golden momentI know you feel it tooI know the feelingIt is the real thingYou can't refuse the embraceNo?Sometimes we face the things we most dislike. A phobia or fear that must be confronted so it doesn’t ...
Struth, what a week. Having made sure the rural sector won’t have to pay any time soon for its pollution, PM Christopher Luxon yesterday chose Fieldays 2024 to launch a parliamentary inquiry into rural banking services, to see how the banks have been treating farmers faced with high interest rates. ...
In April, 17,656 people left Aotearoa-NZ to live overseas, averaging 588 a day, with just over half of those likely to have gone to Australia. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, June 13 ...
Auckland’s draft Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP) 2024 is open for feedback – and you only have until Monday 17 June to submit. Do it! Join the thousands of Aucklanders who are speaking up for wise strategic investment that will dig us out of traffic and give us easy and ...
Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrives in Wellington today for a three-day visit to the country. The visit will take place amid uncertainty about the future of the New Zealand-China relationship. Li hosted a formal welcome and then lunch for then-Prime Minister Chris Hipkins in Beijing a year ago. The pair ...
We are still in France, getting from A to B.Possibly for only another week, though; Switzerland and Germany are looming now. On we pedal, towards Budapest, at about 20 km per hour.What are are mostly doing is inhaling a country, loving its ways and its food. Rolling, talking, quietly thinking. ...
The big problem with the last Labour government was that they were chickenshits who did nothing with the absolute majority we had given them. They governed as if they were scared of their own shadows, afraid of making decisions lest it upset someone - usually someone who would never have ...
This morning I did something I seldom do, I looked at the Twitter newsfeed. Normally I take the approach of something that I’m not sure is an American urban legend, or genuinely something kids do over there. The infamous bag of dog poo on the front porch, set it on ...
We have some news on the upcoming War of the Rohirrim anime. It will apparently be two and a half hours in length, with Peter Jackson as Executive Producer, and Helm’s daughter Hera will be the main character. Also, pictures: The bloke in the middle picture is Freca’s ...
The cows will keep burping and farting and climate change will keep accelerating - but farmers can stop worrying about being included in the ETS. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, June 12 were:The ...
This is a guest post by our friend Darren Davis. It originally appeared on his excellent blog, Adventures in Transitland, which features “musings about public transport and other cool stuff in Aotearoa/ New Zealand and around the globe.” With Te Huia now having funding secure through to 2026, now is ...
In some ways, there may be less than meets the eye to the Government announcement yesterday that the He Waka Eke Noa proposal for farmers to pay for greenhouse gas emissions has been scrapped. The spectre of farmers still having to pay at some point in the future remains. That, ...
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 ...
Since entering office, National has unravelled practically every climate policy, leaving us with no effective way of reducing emissions or meeting our emissions budgets beyond magical thinking around the ETS. And today they've announced another step: removing agriculture entirely. At present, following the complete failure of he waka eka noa, ...
The blue billionaireDistraction no interactionOr movement outside these glazed over eyesThe new great divideFew fight the tide to be glorifiedBut will he be satisfied?Can we accept this without zoom?The elephant in the roomNot much happens in politics on a Monday. Bugger all in fact. Although yesterday Christopher Luxon found he ...
What if New Zealand threw a fossil fuel party, and nobody came? On the weekend, Resources Minister Shane Jones sent out the invitations and strung up the balloons, but will anyone really want to invest big time in resuming oil and gas exploration in our corner of the planet? Yes, ...
This is a guest post by Meredith Dale, senior urban designer and strategist at The Urban Advisory.There’s a saying that goes something like: ‘what you measure is what you value’. An RNZ article last week claimed that Auckland was ‘hurting’ because of a more affordable supply of homes, particularly townhouses ...
A Prime Minister directs his public service to inquire into the actions of the opposition political party which is his harshest critic. Something from Orban's Hungary, or Putin's Russia? No, its happening right here in Aotearoa: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Public Service Commission will launch an ...
This is a repost from a Yale Climate Connections article by SueEllen Campbell published on June 3, 2024. The articles listed can help you tell fact from fiction when it comes to solar and wind energy. Some statements you hear about solar and wind energy are just plain false. ...
Politics were going on all around us yesterday, and we barely noticed, rolling along canal paths, eating baguettes. It wasn’t until my mate got to the headlines last night that we learned there had been a dismayingly strong far right result in the EU elections and Macron had called a ...
Respect Existence, Or Expect Resistance? There may well have been 50,000 pairs of feet “Marching For Nature” down Auckland’s Queen Street on Saturday afternoon, but the figure that impresses the Coalition Government is the 1,450,000 pairs of Auckland feet that were somewhere else.IN THE ERA OF DRONES and Artificial Intelligence, ...
Selwyn Manning and I discuss varieties of post colonial blowback and the implications its has for the rise of the Global South. Counties discussed include Palestine/Israel, France/New Caledonia, England/India, apartheid/post-apartheid South Africa and post-colonial New Zealand. It is a bit … Continue reading → ...
Victims of family violence could fall through the gaps in New Zealand, as Police stop responding to some call outs and the Government chooses to prioritise other things. ...
The lack of bids at today’s ETS auction is a sad indictment on this Government's staggering indifference to the climate crisis and their lack of a plan. ...
“I am deeply disappointed in the National Party's budget. Their broken promises and cuts to essential services, including health, education, and support for vulnerable groups, will have long-lasting negative impacts” – Raymor, Auckland ...
Today marks the beginning of Schools Pride Week in New Zealand, an important calendar event largely run by rainbow rangitahi to advocate for safer, more inclusive school environments. ...
The Government’s announcement of a roadshow consultation on work health and safety is a smokescreen for its plan to throw out regulations which keep workers safe. ...
The Government has reportedly scrapped a policy that would have gone far to fix gender and ethnic pay gaps and instead is implementing a watered-down voluntary system. ...
The Government knew its changes to the school lunch programme would risk achievement, attendance, nutrition and wellbeing of New Zealand children, as well as having wider impacts on reducing child poverty, and made the changes anyway, new documents show. ...
Two months have passed since the National Government said it was a question of ”when, not if” New Zealand would recognise Palestine, in response to Labour’s call. ...
Today the coalition government has announced that a select committee inquiry into banking competition will be led by the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee.New Zealand First campaigned to take on foreign owned banks, and we committed to that in our coalition agreement by ensuring the inquiry has a broad ...
The National Government is doing everything it can to delay taking action on climate as it announces that years of work on agricultural emissions will start from scratch. ...
Tens of thousands of people showed up to have their voices heard and march against National’s unpopular Fast Track Approvals Bill in Auckland over the weekend. ...
The Government deciding to lift the oil and gas ban in the middle of a climate crisis is a severe step backwards that will have serious consequences for our future. ...
This week the Justice Select Committee has heard numerous submissions on the removal of Māori Wards. “I am feeling invigorated by the powerful oral submissions that I have heard throughout the week.” Said Local Government spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “People from all facets of life: whānau Māori, whānau Pākehā, rangatahi, kaumātua, ...
Today’s March for Nature sends a clear message that our country is deeply against the Fast Track Approvals Bill proceeding because the cost to the environment would be unacceptable. ...
The recent attacks on Te Pāti Māori and its MP’s are part of a continuing narrative of attack on all matters Māori. If we could respond to baseless inuendo we would. If there is any evidence then show us so we have a reason to engage in a conversation. The ...
The Government’s move to pour billions into potholes whilst remaining inactive on climate change does nothing to solve our transport system's core problems. ...
“The Government needs to provide leadership for New Zealand’s mental health sector, which appears to have lost out in the Budget despite the promises Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey made on the campaign trail,” said Labour mental health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Today’s announcement that would see some workers’ entitlement to sick leave reduce flies in the face of yet another promise National made during the election campaign. ...
Cutting a third of the staff at Ministry for the Environment will undermine years of work to clean up our fresh water and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and leave us unprepared for a changing climate. ...
School attendance data released today shows an increase in the number of students regularly attending school to 61.7 per cent in term one. This compares to 59.5 per cent in term one last year and 53.6 per cent in term four. “It is encouraging to see more children getting to ...
The Government has announced a record 41 per cent increase in indicative funding for public transport services and operations, and confirmed the rollout of the National Ticketing Solution (NTS) that will enable contactless debit and credit card payments starting this year in Auckland, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“This Government is ...
GDP figures for the March quarter reinforce the importance of restoring fiscal discipline to public spending and driving more economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows GDP has risen 0.2 per cent for the quarter to March. “While today’s data is technically in ...
Women’s representation on public sector boards and committees has reached 50 per cent or above for the fourth consecutive year, with women holding 53.9 per cent of public sector board roles, Acting Minister for Women Louise Upston says. “This is a fantastic achievement, but the work is not done. To ...
The Coalition Government is supporting Māori to boost development and the Māori economy through investment in projects that benefit the regions, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones and Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka say. “As the Regional Development Minister, I am focused on supporting Māori to succeed. The Provincial Growth Fund ...
Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has announced that the review into better managing the risks of earthquake-prone buildings has commenced. “The terms of reference published today demonstrate the Government’s commitment to ensuring we get the balance right between public safety and costs to building owners,” Mr Penk says. “The Government ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has just finished a successful three-day visit to Japan, where he strengthened political relationships and boosted business links. Mr Luxon’s visit culminated in a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio followed by a state dinner. “It was important for me to meet Prime Minister Kishida in person ...
Significant business deals have been closed during the visit of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to Japan this week, including in the areas of space, renewable energy and investment. “Commercial deals like this demonstrate that we don’t just export high-quality agricultural products to Japan, but also our world-class technology, expertise, and ...
Minasan, konnichiwa, kia ora and good afternoon everyone. Thank you for the invitation to speak to you today and thank you to our friends at the Institute for International Socio-Economic Studies and NEC for making this event possible today. It gives me great pleasure to be here today, speaking with ...
The National Infrastructure Pipeline, which provides a national view of current or planned infrastructure projects, from roads, to water infrastructure, to schools, and more, has climbed above $120 billion, Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop says. “Our Government is investing a record amount in modern infrastructure that Kiwis can rely on as ...
The Government is modernising the Public Works Act to make it easier to build infrastructure, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk announced today. An independent panel will undertake an eight-week review of the Act and advise on common sense changes to enable large scale public works to be built faster and ...
New Zealand will enhance its defence contributions to monitoring violations of sanctions against North Korea, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. The enhancement will see the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) increase its contributions to North Korea sanctions monitoring, operating out of Japan. “This increase reflects the importance New Zealand ...
Good afternoon everyone. It’s great to be with you all today before we wrap up Day One of the annual Safeguard National Health and Safety Conference. Thank you to the organisers and sponsors of this conference, for the chance to talk to you about the upcoming health and safety consultation. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone for the Ōtaki to north of Levin Road of National Significance (RoNS), following the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) signing interim alliance agreements with two design and construction teams who will develop and ultimately build the new expressway.“The Government’s priority for transport ...
The Department of Internal Affairs [Department] is making a significant upgrade to their Digital Child Exploitation Filtering System, which blocks access to websites known to host child sexual abuse material, says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. “The Department will incorporate the up-to-date lists of websites hosting child sexual ...
A vaccine to prevent an infectious disease that costs New Zealand cattle farmers more than $190 million each year could radically improve the health of our cows and boost on-farm productivity, Associate Agriculture Minister Andrew Hoggard says. The Ministry for Primary Industries is backing a project that aims to develop ...
The Government has today announced that it is making it easier for people to build granny flats, Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters and RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop say. “Making it easier to build granny flats will make it more affordable for families to live the way that suits them ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Auckland King’s Counsel Gregory Peter Blanchard as a High Court Judge. Justice Blanchard attended the University of Auckland from 1991 to 1995, graduating with an LLB (Honours) and Bachelor of Arts (English). He was a solicitor with the firm that is now Dentons ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says new data released today shows encouraging growth in the health workforce, with a continued increase in the numbers of doctors, nurses and midwives joining Health New Zealand. “Frontline healthcare workers are the beating heart of the healthcare system. Increasing and retaining our health workforce ...
Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee has today announced a comprehensive programme to reform New Zealand's outdated and complicated firearms laws. “The Arms Act has been in place for over 40 years. It has been amended several times – in a piecemeal, and sometimes rushed way. This has resulted in outdated ...
The coalition Government is delivering record levels of targeted investment in specialist schools so children with additional needs can thrive. As part of Budget 24, $89 million has been ringfenced to redevelop specialist facilities and increase satellite classrooms for students with high needs. This includes: $63 million in depreciation funding ...
A substantial consultation on work health and safety will begin today with a roadshow across the regions over the coming months, says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden. This the first step to deliver on the commitment to reforming health and safety law and regulations, set out in ...
Forestry Minister Todd McClay, today announced the start of the Government’s plan to restore certainty and confidence in the forestry and wood processing sector. “This government will drive investment to unlock the industry’s economic potential for growth,” Mr McClay says. “Forestry’s success is critical to rebuilding New Zealand’s economy, boosting ...
Annual service charges in the forestry Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will be cancelled for 2023/24, Forestry Minister Todd McClay says. “The sector has told me the costs imposed on forestry owners by the previous government were excessive and unreasonable and I agree,” Mr McClay says. “They have said that there ...
Introduction Thank you for having me here today and welcome to Wellington, the home of the Hurricanes, the next Super Rugby champions. Infrastructure – the challenge This government has inherited a series of big challenges in infrastructure. I don’t need to tell an audience as smart as this one that ...
Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay and Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard welcomed outcomes to boost agricultural and food trade between New Zealand and China. A number of documents were signed today at Government House that will improve the business environment between New Zealand and China, and help reduce barriers, including on infant formula ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay, and China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, today announced the official launch of Negotiations on Services Trade between the two countries. “The Government is focused on opening doors for services exporters to grow the New Zealand’s economy,” Mr McClay says. As part of the 2022 New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement Upgrade ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at Government House in Wellington today. “I was pleased to welcome Premier Li to Wellington for his first official visit, which marks 10 years since New Zealand and China established a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” Mr Luxon says. “The Premier and ...
The coalition Government is taking action to reduce the gender pay gap in New Zealand through the development of a voluntary calculation tool. “Gender pay gaps have impacted women for decades, which is why we need to continue to drive change in New Zealand,” Acting Minister for Women Louise Upston ...
The coalition Government is boosting funding for Rural Support Trusts to provide more help to farmers and growers under pressure, Rural Communities Minister Mark Patterson announced today. “A strong and thriving agricultural sector is crucial to the New Zealand economy and one of the ways to support it is to ...
Spending on contractors and consultants continues to fall and the size of the Public Service workforce has started to decrease after years of growth, according to the latest data released today by the Public Service Commission. Workforce data for the quarter from 31 December 23 to 31 March 24 shows ...
Thank you to the Law Association for inviting me to speak this morning. As a former president under its previous name — the Auckland District Law Society — I take particular satisfaction in seeing this organisation, and its members, in such good heart. As Attorney-General, I am grateful for these ...
New Zealand is committed to working closely with Timor-Leste to support its prosperity and resilience, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “This year is the 25th anniversary of New Zealand sending peacekeepers to Timor-Leste, who contributed to the country’s stabilisation and ultimately its independence,” Mr Peters says. “A quarter ...
Promoting robust competition in the banking sector is vital to rebuilding the economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “New Zealanders deserve a banking sector that is as competitive as possible. Banking services play an important role in our communities and in the economy. Kiwis rely on access to lending when ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds, and Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard have today announced a regulatory sector review on the approval process for new agricultural and horticultural products. “Red tape stops farmers and growers from getting access to products that have been approved by other OECD countries. ...
The Coalition Government will reverse Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions by 1 July 2025 through a new Land Transport Rule released for public consultation today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. The draft speed limit rule will deliver on the National-ACT coalition commitment to reverse the previous government’s blanket speed limit ...
Minister Paul Goldsmith is making major leadership changes within both his Arts and Media portfolios. “I am delighted to announce Carmel Walsh will be officially stepping into the role of Chair of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, having been acting Chair since April,” Arts Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Carmel is ...
Food and fibre export revenue is tipped to reach $54.6 billion this year and hit a record $66.6b in 2028 as the Government focuses on getting better access to markets and cutting red tape, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones say. “This achievement is testament ...
A new export exemption proposal for food businesses demonstrates the coalition Government’s commitment to reducing regulatory barriers for industry and increasing the value of New Zealand exports, which gets safe New Zealand food to more markets, says Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard. “The coalition Government has listened to the concerns ...
New Zealand and Philippines are continuing to elevate our relationship, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The leaders of New Zealand and Philippines agreed in April 2024 to lift our relationship to a Comprehensive Partnership by 2026,” Mr Peters says. “Our visit to Manila this week has been an excellent ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Kirkland, Professor of Geochronology, Curtin University Lukas Gojda / Shutterstock Our planet was born around 4.5 billion years ago. To understand this mind-bendingly long history, we need to study rocks and the minerals they are made of. The oldest rocks ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra No one doubts Peter Dutton has a huge task to sell his radical nuclear plan, with many experts throwing buckets of cold water over it. But on Thursday the opposition leader received some welcome backing. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jordana Hunter, School Education Program Director, Grattan Institute The Victorian Auditor-General has just released an audit of Victoria’s A$1.2 billion tutoring program designed to help struggling students post-COVID. The report found the program “did not significantly improve students’ learning compared to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marta Khomyn, Lecturer, University of Adelaide Jonathan Borba/Pexels The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has just seen the listing of its first bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund – “ETF” for short. Issued by investment management firm VanEck, the new investment product is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alana Lentin, Professor in Cultural and Social Analysis, Western Sydney University Prudence Upton/Sydney Theatre Company Anchuli Felicia King’s new one-performer piece, American Signs, written for the talented Catherine Văn-Davies, thrusts us into the world of a campus hire at “The Firm”, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Parmeter, Research Scholar, Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, Australian National University Among the many sayings attributed to Winston Churchill is, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” This sentiment seems appropriate as Israel potentially appears ...
New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) have voiced concerns about Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora restricting the employment of graduate nurses into their workforce due to budget constraints. ...
The NZCTU is slamming a decision by the Government in Budget 2024 to cut a programme which ensured that disabled workers are paid the minimum wage. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Lowe, Emeritus Professor, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University Martin Lisner/Shutterstock It is very difficult to take Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s nuclear announcement seriously. His proposal for seven nuclear power stations is, at present, legally impossible, technically improbable, economically ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Senior Lecturer of Urban Mobility, Public Safety & Disaster Risk, UNSW Sydney Each year, millions of Muslims from across the world embark on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The mass migration is unparalleled in scale, and pilgrims ...
The Committee has recommended that the Bill be passed with minor amendments. The bill will create 12 new high protection areas, 5 new seafloor protection areas and 2 extensions to existing marine reserves. ...
“The Green Party campaigned on protecting 30 percent of our oceans. We will continue to fight for our marine environment so it can be enjoyed across future generations,” says Marama Davidson. ...
We asked public organisations for an update on their response to the recommendations in our 2022 report Improving value through better Crown entity monitoring. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra After beating a first-term South Australian Liberal government in 2022, Labor premier Peter Malinauskas has gone on to be a reform advocate on issues including social media and politcal donations. His government is looking ...
The economy keeps limping along, and people keep getting poorer. GDP per capita has fallen yet again, and it's now been in freefall for well over a year. ...
Alex Casey and Tara Ward look back at the best and brightest New Zealanders to appear in the greatest reality franchise of all time. It’s the hugely addictive reality show with a little bit of everything. “It’s got the high octane Hell’s Kitchen action in the chef’s galley, the nouveau ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Galloway, Professor of Law and Social Justice, Australian Catholic University Commonwealth Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has announced that the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) would review the Native Title Act to “rectify any inefficacy, inequality or unfairness”. The purpose of the ...
COMMENTARY:By Nick Rockel in Tāmaki Makaurau This morning I did something I seldom do, I looked at the Twitter newsfeed. Normally I take the approach of something that I’m not sure is an American urban legend, or genuinely something kids do over there. The infamous bag of dog poo ...
The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) has issued the government a "letter of demand" for complicity with Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. ...
You might say the best way not to be an arsehole is to avoid leaving any notes on cars, but if you must, here’s the etiquette. A fun fact that never fails to make me laugh is that something like 90% of drivers believe they’re in the top 5% of ...
Criminal justice advocacy group JustSpeak and human rights movement Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand are raising alarm bells about the social justice issues highlighted in this year’s data. ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist All parties, including West Papuan pro-independence fighters who took Phillip Mehrtens hostage, want the New Zealand pilot released but freeing him is “complicated”. In February 2023, Mehrtens, a husband and father from Christchurch, was working for Indonesian airline, Susi Air, when he landed his ...
The current coalition not lasting beyond this parliamentary term is an idea that’s been seized on by its opponents. History suggests it’s unlikely – but not impossible. Gabi Lardies explains.‘We have a very good chance of making this a one-term government,” said Labour leader Chris Hipkins at his party’s ...
FIRST Union members at St John have voted to take further strike action that commences today, with the aim of seeking public support for a fully functioning ambulance service before industrial action intensifies to the point of withdrawing labour. ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk New Caledonia’s security forces have arrested eight people believed to be involved in the organisation of pro-independence-related riots that broke out in the French Pacific territory last month. The eight include leaders of the so-called Field Action Coordinating Cell (CCAT), a ...
New Zealand air traffic controller trainees who previously spent up to 18 months training without being treated or paid as employees will now be considered employees ...
Close to a million artefacts found in post-quake Christchurch are now available to be viewed by the public. Alex Casey speaks to the founder of Museum of Archeology Ōtautahi.Charles Henry Cox would’ve got away with it, if it hadn’t been for those damn meddling archeologists. The talented grifter proudly ...
The director and actor shares what it means to commit to the work.Anapela Polataivao ONZM is an award-winning director and actor. She is a recipient of the Arts Foundation New Generation Award (2014), the Contemporary Pacific Art Award (2019), and Best Director at the Auckland Theatre Awards (2016). Her ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liam Byrne, Honorary Fellow, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne When British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the UK general election outside 10 Downing Street in the pouring rain last month, the ignominy of the moment was compounded ...
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More blurred lines from double dipton.
Nothing to see here….except
Oh and there is this connector to Ol' Double Dipper himself
scumbags.
The left seem really triggered by money going to Gumboot Friday. Is it the charity itself? Or Mike King? Or perhaps, it's own failures:
On Tuesday, the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission released its new report for 2022, finding there has been no change in access to specialist mental health services in five years, despite the Government's $1.9 billion cash injection in 2019.
Health Minister Andrew Little defends Government's billion-dollar mental health boost, despite report finding little has changed | Newshub
Maybe they should have given GF more than the $600k in 2022.
Well….you seem pretty triggered yourself there…what triggered you?
Mention of Ol' Double Dipper..double dipping…again?
Cmon, we all know.
Yesterdays story about English makes me so sad (getting funds from the emergency housing fund)when there's people really struggling out there, "cost of living" etc (which doesn't seem to be in the news anymore) & the likes of millionaires like English sponging off the Govt just seems so unfair, he doesn't need to do this, just unempathetic greed pure & simple (& those that troll & use slippery words to justify these policies are just cruel & nasty).
Also I was able to get the First Home Grant & was very thankful for it.
You cant take the Double Dipper out of Blinglish. Its in his DNA…
His DNA made him do it, again, and again, and again; he’s got no free will.
Sad..but true. All those years of Catholic Morality ?,,,counted for sweet FA.
And I am glad for Standardista I Feel Love to have got their chance at a Home.
NZ is going in a very bad direction. I hope we can turn around.
Just business as usual. Nothing to see here.
Maybe we could pay Bill English to report independently on the success of the parenting courses.
THE EMAIL EXCHANGE
MID-MARCH
Bill English’s office emails Treasury to inform it of decision to give $4.8m over four years to Peda.
TREASURY EMAILS THE MINISTRY OF PACIFIC ISLAND AFFAIRS
“We don’t know a great deal more about this initiative…presume someone in [Pacific Island Affairs] must know about it?”
MINISTRY REPLIES
“The information we have over here on this is very sketchy. Are you able to send us or point us in the direction of the Cabinet papers so we can proceed?”
TREASURY ANSWERS
“We are even more in the dark on this one – there are no Cabinet papers or anything else…Maybe worth asking your minister’s office.”
MARCH 25
Ministry advice on Peda says it is untested, unproven, does not work well with others and is proposing programmes that would overlap with existing ones.
https://thestandard.org.nz/inquiry-needed-into-english-peda-scandal/
In last year’s budget, the Nats awarded a $4.8m contract to an unknown organisation called PEDA without tender and against official advice. The people behind PEDA were apparently tied to Bill English via his wife. The full truth still hasn’t come out. Now, the Nats are up to the same trick with Parents Inc.
Paula Bennett’s Ministry of Social Development will pay $2.4 million to Parents Inc for “parenting courses for the caregivers of vulnerable children”. This contract was untendered and previously unknown.
https://thestandard.org.nz/parents-inc-its-peda-redux/
For those who wondered how… and what the Nats were planning? They're building..stables?! Will there be enough money left for fresh hay every day ?…. ( fyi for those lacking in a satirical sense…it maybe is )
You do realise the weirdness of mocking a journalists typo when we have, by one measure at least, "one of the highest rates of homelessness in the developed world"?
NZ among world’s worst developed countries for homelessness as Chris Bishop says action on Bill English report ‘very soon’ (msn.com)
Was it a typo though? Presumably the quote is accurate, and "stable" refers to having access to warm, dry housing for a decent period.
Good point!
Yeah…Good point ! Not so good for the Tenants though..
NAct scumbags.
“told RNZ's Midday Report current regulations were there to stop bad landlords behaving badly.”
The new regulations make it possible to stop bad tenants behaving badly. All fixed.
So you know its just a typo? uhuh. I realise most of you right wing trolls are humourless….why I put…. satirical !
Maybe you should address why Ol' Double Dipper English has any involvement or credo when he was quite involved in the selling off of same.
Oh yeah, Ol' Bill again back in the day…
Oh yea..the real manufacturing…mostly a dodgy means to empty NZ State Housing.
Thanks to Drowsy, I now see it could have meant "having access to warm, dry housing for a decent period" (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-24-05-2024/#comment-2000792), in which case it's great!
But have you thought about the irony in your criticism of Bill English, given the last government left "one of the highest rates of homelessness in the developed world"?
Given that plenty of us criticised the last government for being confusing and moving too slow (while still giving them credit for the good job they did in building some more housing and actually allowing people to get on the waitlist to better see the size of the unmet need problem) I don't see any irony at all.
Bill English was instrumental in kicking people off the housing waiting lists and National are making it harder to get on already.
They did the same thing last time with health as well.
You really don’t need to make it harder for us, Minister, with your new verification processes and eligibility checks. It’s not easy to get into emergency housing. Take my case: despite the fact that a social worker at my local MSD office agreed that the danger in my home was too high for me to remain, and paid for my kids and I to move, when it came to emergency housing, a different employee from MSD’s national team decided I did not meet the criteria. I spent three nights in a hospital where medics didn’t want to discharge me because there was nowhere for me to go, and then another night failing to sleep on a hard chair in the emergency department because the hospital was full and that was the best they could provide.
Laying more obligations on people seeking emergency housing and forcing our MSD managers to check on us more frequently won’t help the problem. If there’s one bright light in the system at the moment, it’s the pastoral care offered by the MSD integrated housing managers. I’ve had two, and both have made it clear that they really, really care. They’re already doing a lot; checking on my application with Kainga Ora and fielding calls from support agencies. At a time when the public sector is facing huge cuts, why double their workload by forcing them to check on me every four days?
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/22-04-2024/theres-no-need-to-make-emergency-housing-harder-its-hard-enough-already
Thanks DoS, I appreciate the reply and in your case I withdraw the comment about the irony. And I read Spinoff piece you linked to. Parking our political differences, it's unacceptable we have people living in transitional housing, and the "I was made to sing the “If you’re happy and you know it” song and heard the suggestion that homelessness is the result of financial irresponsibility and that a budgeting course would make us irresistible to the private sector." is downright disgusting.
Just in: Stupid tax for coalition voters set at modest 100 million.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/05/24/government-looks-to-scrap-tax-incentive-for-utes/
Sounds like National dumping on its own support base, if I read this correctly.
FBT is a hangover from Rogernomics, it has more loopholes than an Instant Finance contract and costs a lot to administer compared to the amount of tax taken. Should have been retired long ago.
It affects me because the government takes a cut of the employer kiwisaver contribution.
Greedy b….s
Add that to the nat supporting tesla owners etc who got simeon'd ….bet they never saw that coming.
They're in power now so unless you have a dead rat they swallowed be prepared for more.
I am interested in thoughts from those interested in philosophical debate.
One of the contentious topics in philosophy for a long time is whether we have free will, or whether our decisions are completely determined by external causal factors and internal causal factors. For instance, genetic factors etc we have inherited.
The deterministic argument essentially is that the sum of causal factors means our decisions are completely explained by those causal factors. Under that scenario, if we were able to travel back in time to before a decision is made, our decision would be exactly the same, based on those causal factors.
My argument is that there is room for independent human agency, apart from prior causes, depending on the ambiguity of the situation.
For example, a parent may have the option to either prevent their toddler from running out onto a busy road, or to stand back to see what will happen. In that situation, it is highly likely the parent would make the decision to prevent the child from crossing the road if faced with exactly the same circumstances again. The the deterministic argument would hold true in that situation.
But, where information is ambiguous, it is not so clear cut.
For example, say a person was driving down a road in Germany in the mid-1930s. The are contronted with an intersection where they must choose to go one way or the other. They both lead to the same destination, and there is no information as to which way is the best way to go. So, it is up to the person to decide which direction to take. In that situation, all the causal factors are the same. But, due to the lack of information, the causal factors have no influence on the decision to take. So, confronted with the same situation again, there is no reason to think that the same decision would be made.
They decide to go in one direction. In that direction, they have an accident and kill Hitler. Going the other way, they avoid the action altogether.
In this situation, it seems that the agency of the individual has started a causal chain of events depending on the decision made. That causal chain is independent of the preceding causal chain.
So, my argument is, the more ambiguous the situation, the more likely free will is involved. Where decisions are clear cut, then deterministic causal factors are more likely to explain the actions.
Incidental or scenario choice is one aspect – it is at the micro level of the decision-making.
Where people would make the same decision – again and again and others would decide the same, is not an important part of the free will debate because it is where instinctive behaviour conforms to deterministic causal factors decision-making.
I would look at free will in the context of cognitive psychology as per individual choice which does not conform to the expectation of evolutionary psychology as per group (herd) behaviour. Where individuals choose to be different is an act of free will. Such actions can influence the course of human society.
I tend to agree with you. The problem is that determinists would argue that individuals who choose to be different have causal factors that would explain that. For, instance, they may point to genetic factors where the individual's parents had similar tendencies. Or their parents brought them up to stand up for their own beliefs despite what the crowd may think.
My argument attempted to point out that the more ambiguous a situation becomes, the less effect previous causal factors will have.
At one end of the scale, decisions can be explained completely by causes. For instance, it has been shown that people react to pressing their brakes to avoid a crash before the thought arises in their mind.
But, in completely ambiguous situations, then the independent decision of the individual becomes much more of a factor.
So, I am proposing a continuum where at one end causal factors are a complete explanation, but at the other end independent individual agency is the complete explanation, and that the mix will change depending on the point along the continuum.
We learn to have instinctive reactions to situations (repetition – such as breaking without thinking) but also learn from considered experience, such as no right turn (or one term only).
I would see the upbringing of offspring to become educated and free thinking as a deliberation to impact on the wider society a capacity for progressive change (as nurture to ensure evolutionary possibility for the group over time).
I think it does end up coming down to whether we could have done otherwise. Or else there is always an argument that whatever we do was determined by a countless number of causes, many of which we may not be aware of.
The problem is that it is an experiment that is impossible to do because it would require travelling back in time to the exact situation that was faced back then. That is why the debate will always be at the academic level.
My thought experiment tried to show that it would be possible to do something different, given enough ambiguity in the situation.
Free will ignores the impact of genetics in terms of natural skill and ability, the impact on others and their decisions on your circumstances and luck.
None of us are where we are or where we could be by our choices alone. Being born into the right or wrong family or country, whether the wrong person got annoyed with you or the right person mentored you, whether we had an accident or a near miss, whether you were exposed to violence or poverty as a child – the cult of individualism as a means of success is just so non-sensical – it isn't funny that this gets promoted.
The caste system and the idea of next generation rebirth to a higher status reflects the reality that in some ways full exercise of (or equal) free will has an inter-generational aspect (is constrained by generational disadvantage).
That said providing opportunity (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) and having estate taxation (and CGT on wealth privilege) are or can be the ways in which democracy works to allow greater opportunity for exercise of free will (equality) within "society".
Even then though you can't escape genetics – I've rarely heard anyone suggesting someone born with Down's syndrome just has to change their attitude to become successful – society is at times quite accepting of highly visible disability (post institutionalisation more so) having limits on level of achievement – often to their, the person's, detriment.
There's far worse genetic and illness derived heath disorders. And there are plenty that are invisible and not obvious – think dyslexia. So where on the spectrum of variation amongst human beings does it become that magic point of "but you just need to get your shit together, work harder, make more effort". to be successful. What if in fact for a lot of people it just simply cannot ever happen and it isn't them that need to adapt but instead it is society and the rules, and structures we have built that are problematic for them that are the things that need to change.
https://listverse.com/2019/12/03/10-of-the-most-successful-people-with-down-syndrome/
That includes adverse consequences on the child in the womb of adverse factors (non genetic – such as fetal alcohol etc) and early life trauma experiences (physical and mental), early poverty diseases, accident disability, sexual violence .. mental illness.
It is however important to distinguish between the concept of free will and the concept of a Randian/libertarian individual centred order to society – given equality of opportunity does not exist, It is of our free will to design a better one.
Propose it as a post.
IMO, the whole debate is a bottomless swamp that's best avoided altogether and often a jumping-off point for dodgy political agendas.
I think there's something of a false binary at play. Pre-determination is usually viewed as material in nature and based on prior decisions by other people, our backgrounds and accumulated experience; while free will is seen as a non-material and essential characteristic of all human minds. The false binary is that these two are seen as completely different categories of things, and that therefore one must always be in the ascendant over the other. I would prefer to say that they are both material in nature and that we are all an admixture of both – that bad experience and bad backgrounds can partially extinguish the capacity for free will, while good experiences will enhance it. Both always exist together in tension.
In practice we all believe something like this. As a good leftie, few things infuriate me more than the right's fondness for the "just-world fallacy" – the idea that we all have free will and therefore the rich deserve to be rich and the poor deserve to be poor – which is nothing but a self-serving lie. On the other hand, if I did not believe in the presence of free will I would not be in favour of (say) rehabilitation programmes for criminals that rely on them wanting to change. Nobody in their day to day life is a fundamentalist of either stripe – we might call that "sanity".
Kiwi Anthony Cashmore has some interesting ideas about free will, and published on the topic in PNAS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Cashmore#Human_behavior,_free_will_and_consciousness
Cashmore's paper elicited some debate at the time, and is still being cited:
If the question is how much control an individual has over their thoughts and actions, then it's likely most people will tend to believe they are fully in control most if not all of the time, but who knows whether this is the case – certainly not me!
My simplistic assumption is that what we consider free will is largely the outcome of stochastic processes in the brain over which we have little-to-no control, these process (in response to stimuli) dictating thoughts and actions that are largely predictable (the degree of predictability varying over time, and between individuals), but not absolutely so.
For example, travelling at speed and faced with a possum in the headlights, an individual might react in the same way (say) 99 times out of a hundred, but possibly not 999 times out of a thousand. Another individual might react the same way 100 times out of 100, but possibly not one thousand time out of one thousand. A third individual might react in differently each time – difficult to imagine, but not impossible, although such an individual probably wouldn't last too long behind the wheel. It is challenging to conduct such thought experiments in practice, for all but the simplest living systems 'learn', and in humans it might be considered impossible to do a genuine reset after each cycle, and unethical even if it was possible.
Hmm, in hindsight, AB said it best – it’s a rabbit hole. Thanks for the question – that's the next hour's reading sorted![smiley smiley](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
The question could be reframed as "Is the universe deterministic?" and quantum physics say probably not.
ChatGPT sez:
Or not yet … as it has yet to conclude – in flux and all that.
Every time someone comments I am in a quantum state of both agreeing and disagreeing and as a result the universe splits in two. According to the multiple worlds hypothesis,
Free will in this case couldn't be distinguished from randomness?
"the more ambiguous the situation, the more likely free will is involved."
i.e. "the more ambiguous the situation, the more likely
free willRandomness is involved." ?The existence of free will isn't clear, but the existence of randomness certainly is!
The case for restoration of reading recovery in 2026 if not earlier is made.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2024/05/children-using-updated-reading-recovery-make-double-normal-progress-research.html
Thanks, that's an interesting piece.
It's good to see the support for structure literacy – IMHO that is our best chance to improve literacy in NZ after decades of decline.
Picking up on the final comments from Gail Gillon, I suspect the initial emphasis will be on changing the dynamic of literacy learning (to SL). Resources will be directly specifically to that. Reading recovery will become part of the overall picture, but in a form that integrates into the SL methodology. There will always be children for whom literacy is a challenge even with the very best practice.
And teaching reading using structured literacy, initially, in the classroom – will mean that fewer kids will need to be referred to programmes like Reading Recovery, at all.
At a time when climate change effects are all accelerating, we have predictions now for the collapse of the Thwaites glacier in Antartica in the next decade or two rather than next century.
Thwaites, which already contributes 4% to global sea level rise, holds enough ice to raise sea levels by more than 2 feet. But because it also acts as a natural dam to the surrounding ice in West Antarctica, scientists have estimated its complete collapse could ultimately lead to around 10 feet of sea level rise — a catastrophe for the world’s coastal communities.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/05/collapse-of-the-thwaites-glacier-has-accelerated.html
It is pertinent to look at what is happening to the global effort to bring climate change into the urgent agenda now required and look at what is behind the current efforts to demonise climate change protestors.
It turns out that most of what has been happening with criminalising protest is driven by the Atlas Network.
It began in the UK but now has it's tentacles right through the world, as we now know in NZ. It is the propaganda and influencer at arms length from the fossil fuel and mega rich corporations which fund it and as we know here, has bought and paid for national traitors, prepared to sell their citizens down the drain in exchange for power and money.
https://newrepublic.com/article/175488/meet-shadowy-global-network-vilifying-climate-protesters
Well done Willie Jackson on jointly winning the Oxford Union debate. Sounds like a well constructed speech, clever, and with a touch of humour. Wonder how much we will hear about it in the news.
Well done Willie indeed.
Willie Jackson's success has been covered by the media. A great achievement.
Apparently it was a job interview.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/could-willie-jackson-be-the-populist-leader-labour-needs-bryce-edwards-political-roundup/7MAMBG4AC5GZ7HWIX3NTCUEYF4/
Not such a far-fetched idea, that. As I've already remarked, Hipkins just isn't right in the role of LOTO. Labour needs an Antony, not yet another Brutus.
How about we skip Antony, and go directly to Octavian.
Both Hipkins and Jackson have far too much political baggage.
Yes, good coverage on last night's One News. But oh dearie me, did he really have to recycle that tired old "smell on your breath" trope? Time that was permanently put to rest.
"Devastating"? Our CoC MPs are simply putting 'self' before 'service'.![wink wink](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/wink_smile.png)
Those simple-minded meddling experts – there’s still meat on public asset bones
… reducing barriers (funding) to community housing providers (some Maori), iwi (all Maori) and Maori (let's guess urban authority).
(to Maori is OK when away fro government delivery).
Then
1.cancelling the role of Kainga Ora in buying places or leasing on the market to let out at income related rent.
2.not funding new Kainga Ora developments and with natural decline from demolishing old housing and then selling land not then being built on by tender to "developers in a flat market".
make it look like a great improvement in KO performance.
Problem less housing, less land for affordable new housing by future governments and a decline in assets held by KO.
The new social housing elsewhere not making up for the decline at KO (including loss of land assets).
It's just a transfer from KO and with no total increase in social housing intended.
Once again the $!40M allocated is under $100,000 for each "home".
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350282580/nz-politics-live-housing-minister-chris-bishop-outlines-how-1500-new-social
The Tories promised to get rid of no fault evictions in 2019 and finally brought legislation into parliament in 2023, but it will not pass before the election.
Here the coalition has brought in no fault evictions. Indicating a more pro landlord regime than the Tories of the UK.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd11ej9n5edo
A year longer in Belmarsh.
https://open.substack.com/pub/chrishedges/p/the-slow-motion-execution-of-julian-986?r=1s0xfs&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
"RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop says the Government is committed to
unlocking development and investment while ensuring the environment is protected."
[Excerpt from media release by Minister Responsible for RMA Reform and two other ministers, 24 May 2024]
So we can have our cake and eat it too? I don't buy that. At most, the government will only make it look as if the environment is being protected.
Mining on stewardship land is just the start. The government is trotting out the usual "jobs or the environment" argument.
Note too the use of the word "unlocking". It implies those nasty greenies have prevented bold entrepreneurs in the business sector from making this country great.
A teenager is stabbed to death in Dunedin 30 metres from a police station.
The police say they have known about trouble in the area for some time but their options to fix it were security men and CTV cameras.
They couldn't even manage a police officer to walk the beat in the area for about an hour 3-4 pm on school days even though he/she would within spitting distance of the station.
Doesn't say much about National's promise to crack down on crime does it?