Power is off all day for us so a swap/buy/exchange market up the road for us, then the beach – not bad practice for the times ahead where fun and experience will be had closer to home and closer to hand.
Capitalist extremist identifies homelessness as democracy.
During the Cold War, terms like ‘Democratic Society’, ‘The Free World’ became synonymous with capitalism. These terms were often used interchangeably, (and opportunistically, IMO), as antonyms in reference to Communist societies like Soviet Russia.
In an extraordinary blast from the past, this cold war dog whistle is being dragged up to justify keeping families in cars, on the streets, or bunked up in motels at huge expense to the taxpayer, while tens of thousands of perfectly good houses stand empty.
The problems of homelessness, housing stress, and the housing crisis in this country have been laid at the feet of the past National Government by the current Housing Minister, Phil Twyford. But that we should reverse this policy has been labeled, “Extremist nonsense” by Property Institute of New Zealand chief executive Ashley Church
The notion that people should be penalised for owning empty homes is “extremist nonsense” in a democratic society, he says.
Stuff.co.nz reporters Rob Stock and John Anthony debunk Ashley Church’s fallacious and self serving justification, noting that other democratic societies have implemented measures to crackdown on empty home owners.
Vancouver in Canada recently introduced a tax on empty homes expected to bring in C$30m (NZ$32.8m) of revenue in its first year.
I would encourage the current housing minister to push past the nasty bed baiting spin of Ashley Church, and other self interested parties, and copy Vancouver’s courageous, (and dare I say it, socialist) example.
New Zealand’s Housing Minister Phil Twyford blames the National Government for the proliferation of ghost houses but has stopped short of offering up any measures to discourage the practice.
See that? It’s the invisible hand of the market giving we the people the invisible finger…
Anthony Robins – June 16, 2015
To which I would add Anthony Robins’ invisible hand is attached to the very visible and self interested wrist of Ashley Church and the Property Institute, and the landlords and speculators whose interests his organisation exists to protect.
The notion that people should be penalised for owning empty homes is “extremist nonsense” in a democratic society, he says.
Proof, if you needed it, that capitalists don’t give a shit about anybody but themselves.
In a democratic society we’d ensure that everyone had a place to live and food on the table. It’s only in capitalism that we start accepting excuses from the capitalists as to why people need to be poor and oppressed.
That data doesn’t really tell us much Jenny. What we don’t know is how many of those 33,360 vacant homes are potentially available for rental/sale.
At any given point in time there will always be a large quantity of vacant properties and the reasons they’re empty are many & varied as is the duration of their vacancies. That 33.36k were only vacant at the time of the census, it didn’t mean they were permanently vacant.
Stats give this info;
“An unoccupied dwelling is classified as ’empty’ if it clearly has no current occupants and new occupants are not expected to move in on or before census night. Unoccupied dwellings that are being repaired or renovated are defined as empty dwellings. Unoccupied baches or holiday homes are also defined as empty dwellings.
A dwelling is classified as having ‘residents away’, where occupants of a dwelling are known to be temporarily away and are not expected to return on or before census night.”
The data table for the census unoccupied dwelling count has this at note 1;
“1. Unoccupied dwelling count is made up of ‘residents away’ and ‘empty dwelling’. ”
Anyone on holiday at the time of the census would be ‘residents away’ if they left the house vacant (no-one left behind)
The census recorded 36,597 cases of overcrowding, affecting 203,820 people.
There were two main classifications for unoccupied homes in the census “empty dwelling” and “residents away”. Just as you say, it seems that there was no further breakdown.
We can argue around the margins about how many houses might be empty for valid reasons, And I admit that I may be making a subjective call here, but I the sheer numbers, “empty dwellings” recorded, 141,366 nationally and 33,360 in Auckland, tells a story of unaffordability, in rents and house prices, that puts the majority of these “empty dwellings” out of the reach of many of the people captured in this survey suffering from housing distress.
Maybe when we can get to compare the 2013 figures, with the latest 2018 census figures for housing we might be better informed.
In the meantime we will have to go to other sources to get a handle on the problem.
Figures from the last census showed there were 141,366 empty dwellings in New Zealand, which are separate from houses that are vacant because their owners are away around census time.* More than 33,000 houses in Auckland were officially classified as empty in 2016.
Colleen Hawkes – May 16, 2018
*(My emphasis) J.
Minister of Housing Phil Twyford stated earlier this month that New Zealand will not be following Vancouver’s example in introducing taxes on empty houses.
“The Labour-led government has a comprehensive plan to address the housing shortage including cracking down on offshore speculators and changing rules around negative gearing,” Twyford said.
Christchurch Progressive Network convenor John Minto, who is advocating such a scheme, has criticised the government’s “poor use of money”. “It is stupid for the government to spend tens of millions on motel accommodation for homeless families when we have 33,000 empty homes in Auckland (2016 figures).”
I might ask Phil Twyford and Phil Goff both: is the suffering of middle and upper class bach owners, and housing speculators really comparable with the suffering of families living with overcrowding, insecurity and homelessness?
I don’t dispute the seriousness of the lack of housing Jenny. I was just making the observation that the numbers look to be wrong on the empty houses and it may be a dead duck. Wrong numbers lead to wrong decisions.
I honestly can’t see that many investors sitting on property like that, they exist for sure but my expectations are that it occurs in the high-wealth areas mostly. You’d need to be pretty cash rich to not need rental income, interest on borrowing chews capital and eats up profits real fast.
Kia ora DH, I strongly suspect that your expectations that many of the 33,360 “empty houses” recorded in Auckland in the census are at the high end of the market. (Of course it would be good to know for sure). But anecdotal evidence seems to back up this expectation.
But forcing these houses back onto the rental or housing market should free up more houses further down the housing ladder. The sheer numbers guarantee it.
Vancouver thought it was worth it.
Vancouver’s tax on empty homes will bring in $30-million of revenue in its first year, but that will come from only a tiny proportion of homeowners.
More than 5,000 properties out of 8,500 deemed vacant by city staff received exemptions under rules of the new tax bylaw, which is a first for Canada and is being watched closely around the world.
Nearly 61% of the homes declared empty in Vancouver were condos, and other multi-family properties made up almost 6%, according to the city government. More than a quarter of the empty properties were in downtown Vancouver.
The City of Vancouver released a heat map Thursday showing the distribution of residential properties where owners haven’t yet made a declaration to avoid its new empty-homes tax, and the highest concentration is in condo-rich Yaletown.
The city says about 182,000 residential property owners — about 98 per cent — have submitted their declarations but another 4,000 still haven’t. Most of the undeclared properties are in the downtown core and the highest concentrations are in Yaletown, Coal Harbour and the West End.
Homeowners in the three condo-dense neighbourhoods who have not declared occupancy risk paying a one per cent tax on their properties’ assessed values. Assessed values of residential strata units — such as condos — in Metro Vancouver skyrocketed this year by five to 35 per cent.
Residential property owners had until Feb. 2 to declare occupancy, however, the city extended the deadline to March 5 in order to give the 4,000 who had not declared a chance to avoid penalties and fines.
The empty-homes tax, a nationwide-first, was approved by councillors in 2016 as a tool to spur owners to rent out their empty homes. Any property owner that fails to declare by March 5 is subject to the tax plus a $250 fee. Declarations will be subject to an audit process and false declarations could result in fines of up to $10,000 per day, according to the city.
“With a near-zero vacancy rate in Vancouver, our key goal is to shift empty or under-used housing into the rental market. The city has done extensive advertising and notifications about the Empty Homes Tax for more than a year — all homeowners should know that they have to file a declaration, or their homes will be considered empty by default,” Mayor Gregor Robertson said in a news release.
Andy Yan, director of Simon Fraser University’s City Program, who has been researching the distribution of empty homes in Vancouver, said the city’s heat map matches well with a map he generated from city data identifying private dwellings not occupied by usual residents. It also matches closely with a map of population density he prepared based on 2016 census data.
I was moved to make my original comment about this issue by the Stuff.co.nz report yesterday that mentioned Ghost Houses. And also because I had followed Victoria Crone and Phil Goff’s debate on this issue with keen interest. I was hardly aware of what was going on in Vancouver.
However, the more I read yesterday about the Vancouver example, the more fascinated I became. It’s incredible really, Many of the exact same arguments, for and against, that were made by Goff and Crone during the Auckland Mayoral debate were shadowed by the opponents and supporters of this scheme in Vancouver.
One of the arguments made by opponents of the scheme in Vancouver was that it would penalise owners of two homes.
Yes it would, that’s the point, you will be penalised if you keep one of them empty, while other people are struggling to find accomodation.
The lack of self awareness of the ridiculous nature of this objection, as seen by families without any home at all, is breathtaking.
One of the biggest criticisms made here by Goff of Crone’s proposal, was that there would be no method of telling which homes were being left empty.
In reply Crone suggested that water usage would give a good indication of which houses were being left idle and unused.
In opposition to Crone’s suggestion that water use would give a good indication of whether a house was being parked up, I remember one numpty commenting at the time on this website, criticising Crone’s suggestion, writing that this would just encourage absent owners to leave the taps running.
In the end, it seems that Vancouver settled on using the lack of electricity consumption as an indicator of an empty address.
More Innovatively Vancouver also did a poll on property owners asking them to declare whether their properties were empty or not.
This gave some very interesting results, for instance the first thing revealed was that contrary to the racist scape goating of Asians and immigrants as being behind the Ghost House problem, many of the owners of these empty houses were revealed as being Canadians or Americans from across the border. Another thing revealed was that most of the empty properties were in condominiums.
Revealed by the tax itself, was that (in line with DH’s expectations above) many of these empty homes were higher valued properties. Another thing revealed is that the owners of these high end properties were prepared to pay the tax rather than let them out, or put them on the market. (Some paying as much as $250,000 for the 2018 tax period.)
In total the owners of the these properties paid the city $30 million for the privilege of keeping these properties empty.
But Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson is pleased with the results anyway.
“Thank you for contributing to Vancouver’s affordable-housing fund,” the mayor said wryly at a news conference outlining the details of the new tax. He acknowledged it’s not clear yet whether the tax has caused any owners to rent out their apartments or houses, which is one of the city’s goals.
But, he said, the city needed to do something to ensure that desperately needed housing is available.
“It’s unacceptable to have homes sitting empty when so many people are looking for a place to live.”
The 1,200 to 2,300 homeowners who may eventually pay the tax are far less than the numbers that have circulated for years about empty units.
Two years ago, the city said 10,800 units were unoccupied for a year or more, after a comprehensive study of electrical use.
At last count, 7 per cent of Auckland’s homes sit empty.
New Zealand’s Housing Minister Phil Twyford blames the National Government for the proliferation of ghost houses but has stopped short of offering up any measures to discourage the practice.
Maybe Phil Twyford instead of stopping short of offering up any measures to discourage the practice, could take a leaf out Victoria Crone’s mayoral campaign
In 2016 Independent Mayoral Candidate, Victoria Crone championed action to address Ghost houses as part of her Mayoral campaign.
Labour Party candidate Phil Goff vehemently opposed Crone over this policy, characterising it as unfairly affecting “bach owners”.
(For God’s sakes, as if bach owners hardships could be anyway comparable to the hardships faced by families with out any home at all, let alone a spare one to go to on for holidays.)
Instead Phil Goff, echoing the Trump Presidential campaign, chose a more traditionally Right Wing strategy; scapegoating immigrants for the housing crisis.
Not only was Goff’s anti-immigrant strategy Right Wing, it was dishonest – immigration policy is set by central government not by the Auckland Region, a fact which he well knows.
* (Except it seems, the interests of property developers, landlords and speculators and other wide boys. A fact we may all come to regret when the housing market is flooded with even more empty and unaffordable houses.)
‘A collection of research published last week in a special edition of the major scientific journal Nature showed that Antarctica has lost 3 trillion tonnes of ice over the past 25 years. Half of that melting has happened in the past 5 years. Professor Tim Naish is from the Victoria University of Wellington’s Antarctic Research Centre says we have less than a decade to stop a catastrophe.’
Top work Ireland taking out Australia in their Rugby series.
I’m really, really sorry about the last-minute decision by the ref.
Really, really sorry not.
Q&A (TV1) had a very good panel this morning.
I’m hopeless remembering names so you will need to link through yourselves.
Subjects: Business confidence taking a dip… the Mexican Border fiasco fallout… and EU Trade negotiations. No babies.
An inherent message to the Labour-led government:
You will need to do a much better job explaining your policy positions/decisions if you want to avoid confusion among voters and mischievous spin from your political opponents gaining traction.
Could not agree more. At the moment those opponents are having a free run on misrepresentation because ministers (with a few exceptions) are not stepping up to properly counter them. If they can’t do the political side of the job, then they need to be replaced with those who can. My cent-worth for the day.
Q&A (TV1) had a very good panel this morning.
I’m hopeless remembering names so you will need to link through yourselves.
Subjects: Business confidence taking a dip… the Mexican Border fiasco fallout… and EU Trade negotiations. No babies.
An inherent message to the Labour-led government:
You will need to do a much better job explaining your policy positions/decisions if you want to avoid confusion among voters and false spin from your political opponents gaining traction.
Could not agree more. At the moment those opponents are having a free run on misrepresentation because ministers (with a few exceptions) are not stepping up to properly counter them. If they can’t do the political side of the job, then they need to be replaced with those who can. My cent-worth for the day.
Yes, an interesting Q & A. Not one of Grant’s better performances. Very monotone, he looked tired and listless.
On business confidence, and in fact on forward spending/investment plans, as mentioned by Barnett, I can’t think of one thing the government has done to encourage business.
But I can think of plenty of government decisions that will increase regulatory burdens, that look capricious (oil and gas virtually out of the blue) and which will increase costs (fuel taxes, $20 min wage, a lot more union control, proposed CGT).
In these circumstances, it is not surprising that business are not making new investments, it looks too risky. Safer to keep spare capital in passive investments (either in NZ or offshore) or alternatively not borrow. The business will operate at a lower but safer level.
The cost is lower growth, lower taxes, less employment growth.
Why should business expect to be led by the government?
New Zealand business has had oblique and small policy markers from central government under National’s 9 long and directionless years.
Under Labour’s government, they are being led by the public sector through construction and transport funding, which are the economic policy areas this government really care about anyway. Those areas will continue to boom under this government for the foreseeable future.
Unless your business is rent, housing rent, in which case you are about to be shown the door. The Productivity Commission would firmly encourage landlords to find something else more productive to invest in.
Broadly speaking, this government seeks to tilt real estate capitalism, and that’s about it.
Business organizations in New Zealand don’t want to be led. They’ve been clear about that for a while. They are virulently and relentlessly anti-Labour and they don’t care who knows it, and it won’t change. It’s on business to determine if they want to make something useful out of this Labour-led government.
Meanwhile, headline unemployment is great, property prices are stabilizing, the governments’ investment direction and savings culture are fantastic, and the government is really popular.
”(fuel taxes, $20 min wage, a lot more union control, proposed CGT).””
How dare a govt actually do shit . And try make the country function ,I long for the days we had a bunch of greasy middle management tossers doing fuck all other than tell us how good they are.
On business confidence, and in fact on forward spending/investment plans, as mentioned by Barnett, I can’t think of one thing the government has done to encourage business.
How could you say that, Wayne? This Government signed TPPA-11!
And there are proposals for an ‘Amazon Tax’ and for R & D tax loss credits for companies that spend more than $100k pa on R & D.
CPTPP 11I will concede, although it has a sting in the tail with the new restrictions on foreign investment. The R& D tax credit is essentially the Callaghan growth grant repackaged (though expanded somewhat).
The furore over the Te Arai exemption just illustrated the problems. Quite a few proposed tourist resort projects had the intent of selling the units to overseas investors as a means of raising the capital.
Not one of Grant’s better performances. Very monotone, he looked tired and listless.
And there’s the standard RWNJ ad hominem.
I can’t think of one thing the government has done to encourage business.
The government isn’t actually there for business – it’s there for the people.
But I can think of plenty of government decisions that will increase regulatory burdens
That’s good. A market system can’t work without proper regulation. It was the lack of regulation and then followed by bad regulation that brought us the ‘legal highs’ fiasco.
and which will increase costs (fuel taxes, $20 min wage, a lot more union control, proposed CGT).
You don’t seem to be concerned with the rising costs of living that needs to be covered by wages. Costs that the capitalists almost always ignore which is why we need a minimum wage in the first place. It would actually be better to have a universal income rather than a minimum wage to ensure that everyone has a good living standard. Although, considering how greedy the capitalists are, I think we’d still need a minimum wage to ensure that they actually paid.
The cost is lower growth, lower taxes, less employment growth.
Which is, of course, a load of bollocks. We’ve been cutting taxes and regulations for the last thirty years and it’s made us all worse off. It’s cut productivity increases and wages while rewarding the bludging shareholders and speculators.
Maybe Grant Robertson needed a Redbull drink to pep him up before the interview. I have seen him give plenty more energetic and therefore more engaging interviews than this mornings on Q & A.
Saying grant looks tired listless is not at an ad hom. You throw it round so often I am beginning to think you don’t know what words mean.
An ad hom would be “Grant is fat/lazy/stupid therefore his argument is invalid”. Ad hom means to attack the person to denigrate the argument or point they are putting forward. Saying someone looks tired and listless is not an ad hom.
This is the second time I have had to point this out to you. Please try harder
“In these circumstances, it is not surprising that business are not making new investments, it looks too risky. Safer to keep spare capital in passive investments (either in NZ or offshore) or alternatively not borrow. The business will operate at a lower but safer level.”
There’s also the actions of a lot of New Zealand business that are causing these reactions as well. Take the actual and perceived losses of around 4 billion from Fletcher Building and Fontera, along with the M. Bovis debacle and there’s more than enough to give business the willies. This occurred under the leadership of the previous National government.
I look around Queenstown and see a lot of similarity to the situation in 2007 with a lot of developments that are unlikely to be profitable first time around. This has a chilling effect on business confidence.
Maybe New Zealand business, and the National Party, should look at their own actions and leadership before trying to blame someone else for their problems.
Unfortunately our “business leaders” and National politicians won’t be terribly affected by the fallout from the fuck-ups above, that will fall on the workers, subcontractors and share-milkers who will have their lives destroyed.
Wayne increasing wages means more money in businesses where this money is spent.
$880 million to bail out farmer’s.
Business confidence is over 50 which means business ha got over National loosing the election.
Just business leaders doing their expected “it’s a Labour government” hissy fit.
Saw it in 2000, same again.
Put Thompson & Clark onto them as they clearly need monitoring as a threat to the democratic process.
the Prime Minister’s baby name just announced: Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford. I am so proud of this Kiwi family, with both Jacinda and Clarke new role models of how men and women can be in the world – in my life time.
It has finally been revealed. Little Prime Miniature’s real name is – Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford. (Snap -I now see Venezia has already announced the name.)
An uncommon first name which apparently is ( or maybe from) from an Old Irish feminine name “Niamh” pronounced Neev, meaning “bright” or radiant”, according to Wikipedia.
The first part of this bit in the Wikipedia entry made me laugh vis a vis the proud new father – ” In Irish mythology, Niamh is the daughter of the god of the sea, Manannán mac Lir and one of the queens of Tír na nÓg, the land of eternal youth. She was the lover of the poet-hero Oisín” .
As mentioned by Jacinda Ardern in the press conference at 11am at the hospital before the Ardern Gayford family left for home, “Neve” also means “snow” in some languages – eg Latin, Italian and Portuguese.
Here is a link to the TVNZ article which includes video of the short press conference.
Mum looked radiant and not at all like someone who had had very little sleep over the last few days; and Dad is as proud as punch. Baby slept …
For the fashion conscious:
Neve was wearing a soft green home knitted hat, which virtually matched the jacket (and shoes) of one of their DPS minders. (LOL)
Mum wore a white top and black pants and white sneakers.
Dad wore his “trial father’s cardigan” as it was described in a (rather funny double act) video some months ago when he wore it for the first time. According to JA it was bought in an op shop.
I wondered who would bite when I submitted my comment – and sure enough … LOL.
Just the usual One Two type of shitty comment. He/she thinks they are soooo clever. I gave up reading his/her comments a long time ago and just pass over them so did not see this one until someone pointed it out to me.
As for knowing JA, I am pretty sure that you and I are in the same position there if I correctly remember a comment of yours some months ago – but I am not going to say what that was. LOL
The Dad cardie is getting a lot of air time – apparently from the Sally’s op shop in Gisborne according to JA in her latest Facebook video.
Jacinda and Clarke with their daughter, showed wonder grace happiness and kindness.
In her speech and answers she acknowledged all the kindness they had received, mentioning some had come from loss and sadness as well as open acceptance from NZers who had given love freely, from home made gifts to names, to the offer of placenta burial by Ngapui.
They looked a lovely wee family we can be proud of. I have had the good fortune to meet her prior to the election. She has gone from strength to strength and does us all proud, along with her clearly loving supportive partner.
Their selection of names shows a nod to their own choices coupled with a strong connection to love. “Love and happiness” the expectations for their daughter, Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford, are simple but profound.
OK, it SAYS “Flying car”, but it functions more like a human carrying drone. A car would surely be a more apt description if it had wheels and used the air current to lift about a meter or so off road so to speak.
Even so the Kitty Hawk is cool. Needs a roll bar type device.
It will be interesting to watch how this all develops. Safety will be a big concern I’d think, the potential for midair collisions will magnify very quickly if/when they become mainstream. Lots to think about.
I can imagine the rozzers scratching their heads wondering how they’ll get speed cameras up there…
Abstract:
Low Flying Aircraft (LFA) may be used to smuggle illicit drugs or illegal immigrants across borders. Sound radiated by LFA was used for their detection, tracking and classification by the developed Acousto Seismic Air Detection (ASAD) system. ASAD consists of several nodes, where each node has five microphone clusters and three geophones. Single ASAD node can detect aircraft sound, determine their bearing, and classify the target. Two or mode nodes provide target localization. Extended tests of various small aircraft flying according to planned test patterns were conducted in difficult mountainous areas. The comparison of acoustic detection and tracking with ground truth from the GPS carried by the targets allowed the estimation of acoustic detection, bearing and localization distances and their accuracy.
Weka disappeared at least two months ago. I recall ‘tracey’ responding to the same question with words to the effect “Weka is fine”.
I don’t know why she has left TS but suspect it might have something to do with some stoush in what is termed “the backend”. But that is no more than a guess and could be wrong.
Pile your firewood inside so you don’t have to go out.
Next three days is going to be incredibly cold; snow between 100 and 200 metres above sea level from Stewart Island and Fiordland right through Otago, and a long cold snap all the way up the centre and east of the North Island.
We’ve already had it pretty cold lately Ad. Highs of 4 or 5 and lows of -5 to -6 at my place most of last week. Ice has been building up in shady areas of the garden. The woodburner has been running day and night.
A snow laden southerly usually means temps around 0 to 2 across the board so a bit of a relief really.
Good morning The Am Show one should not count there chickens Peter Burling came second .
Loyd would have still celebrated as a Kiwi salior won the race on Chinese boat Dong Fang and Blair Tuke came 3rd Ka pai.
Duncan everyone knows that buildings construction slow down in the winter one just makes a mess when you dig holes in the rain also the timber framing don’t pass there moisture test so there cladding cannot be installed many other reason that construction slows in winter less day light hours. Thats were prefab house increase house building productivity . These prefab building could target using the renewable resource we have a lot of laminated timber this product is alot less energy in producing this laminated timber products
The Kiwi Rugby League team and management are in rebuild mode you wait and see they will get back to there best form .
With the Roseanne Show in the USA that shows that te Papatuanuku has had enough of the racial discriminating slander Ka pai but the show gives US a view into the reality’s of common tangata in the USA and how hard they have it just to survive in the USA the big picture is we were heading in that direction till the changes we have had with the new Labour lead Coalition Government. Duncan Te kumara never tells how sweet it is
Ka kite ano P.S it is a super food loaded with good minerals good for the mokopunas
Many thanks to Saudi Arabia for granting the rights for ladies to drive cars this is a win for Ladies Equality around Papatuanuku as Saudi ladies have won the right to drive there are many more rights these ladies need to be granted to get to Equality its all about a bright healthy future for all Tangata link below.
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You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...
Back in May, Destiny Church leaders Brian and Hannah Tamaki launched another political party. Despite consisting entirely of followers of their religion, they grandly called it "Coalition New Zealand", in a vain effort to suggest it was something broader. But when they applied for registration, submitters opposed the name, as ...
The following article is excerpted and translated from two articles in recent issues of Lutte de Classe (Class Struggle), the magazine of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the revolutionary workers group active in France. We don’t necessarily agree with everything in it – for instance, the 1956-62 war for independence involved rather more revolutionary forces than ...
The Pacific is on the front line of climate change, and if we don't cut emissions quickly, some countries are literally going to be underwater. Because of this, small Pacific states had tried to use this week's Pacific Islands Forum meeting to get Pacific countries to agree to ending coal ...
To Limit Another's Rights Is To Limit One's Own: Is it too much to expect senior members of our Government to be capable of explaining that we protect the rights of human-beings precisely because not even the most depraved act can cancel-out the fact that its perpetrator is also a ...
Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...
This section builds on Part 1 of this series to provide a theoretical basis for the final instalment (part 3 – to come). Self-determination: law or resurgence — or both? International law promotes the principal of equal treatment and self-determination, which includes peoples’ rights to freely pursue their social, cultural and ...
Everyone was outraged yesterday to learn that the Christchurch shooting accused had been able to send mail from prison to his Nazi fans, apparently pushing more hate. "How could this possibly happen", people asked. Simple: because New Zealand is a civilised country, and so we let prisoners send and receive ...
If we are to avoid dangerous anthropogenic climate change, we need to rapidly decarbonise our transport fleet. The good news: its starting to happen:The number of electric vehicles on New Zealand's roads have nearly tripled in the past two years. There are currently 15,453 registered electric vehicles (EVs), up ...
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...
Most economists agree that a currently slowing economy could do with some stimulus – and they would also agree that there is no shortage of infrastructure projects which could be brought to productive fruition with help from that stimulus. In view of the current practice of sub-contracting economic policy decisions ...
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
AN OPEN LETTER FOR SIGN ON BY ORGANISATIONS AND MOVEMENTS ACROSS THE WORLD, ALLIED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST INEQUALITY. This letter was released at the UN Political Forum on 9 July, where the Sustainable Development Goal on inequality was reviewed. The purpose of the letter is to call out the ...
We asked a young gay science student and critic of trans ideology and the trans activists’ assault on women’s and gay rights to outline his views on Redline. Thanks to him for his article. by Cian Ó Catháin Gender identity ideology (Gender ID) is ripping through western society at full ...
The Environment Committee is currently hearing submissions on the Zero Carbon Bill, and Stuff is reporting on the submissions. Today, they're covering yesterday they heard from "NZ" Steel:NZ Steel has told MPs it may be forced to close with the loss of thousands of jobs if changes aren't made to ...
Students are striking against climate change on September 27. And this time, they're asking everyone to join them:Students are taking to the streets, beaches and parks on 27 September, and we're inviting everyone to join us. That's right, this is an intergenerational issue, and you're all invited to put pressure ...
Peter McKenzie has a piece on Newsroom this morning about how local body politics is awash with property developer cash. 70% of all the donations in the 2016 Wellington mayoral election came from property developers. And its pretty obvious what they want in exchange:That’s particularly important in local government, according ...
Source: Unknown, twitter user Recently, I wrote a (relatively) short paper titled as above, to explore what self-determination could like in a practical sense. Maybe I’m a bit of an international trade truther or something, but I absolutely believe trade is at the heart of achieving peace and self-determination. Since ...
In the 1960s, after I had graduated with a first-class Oxford postgraduate law degree, I joined the British Foreign Office as the top entrant of my year. There, I worked for a couple of years on European affairs and was eventually posted to the Embassy in Brussels. After this exposure ...
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...
I heard a 45 minute interview with Monica Lewinsky talking to TED’s Chris Anderson on BBC Radio 4 over the weekend, and have listened to it another two times out walking. I recommend it. Highly. Man, I am so impressed with how this woman has integrated her life experiences and ...
Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure, London, Penguin, 2019, 352pp; reviewed by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s book The Coddling of the American Mind is a timely book, whose ...
When the Justice Committee reported back on the Administration of Justice (Reform of Contempt of Court) Bill, free speech advocates breathed a sigh of relief. As originally introduced, the Bill reitered the ancient offence of "scandalising the court" - basicly, a special sedition law protecting judges from criticism. The select ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. Since then - crickets. Which raises the obvious question: are they actually going to do this, ...
Back in March, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act. 285 people submitted on it. Now, Stuff has trawled through those submissions, and the case for reform is strong:The Justice Ministry asked Kiwis what they thought was ...
National's prisoner voting ban has gone down as one of the worst laws in New Zealand history. Passed after a farcical debate (including this farcial speech from ACT MP Hilary Calvert), it has subsequently been found to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act by the High Court, Court ...
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...
by Daphna Whitmore US social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt spoke on 1 August in Auckland to a crowd of around one thousand people. He is best known for his bookThe Coddling of the American Mind which examines the new climate of trigger warnings and acute sensitivity of Gen Z. ...
What an extraordinarily depressing experience it is to be compelled to watch, at 12,000 miles distance, the contortions and machinations of the British political class as they set about their determined attempt to overturn the decision taken by the British people that they wish to leave the European Union. The ...
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...
by Don Franks Way back when British guitar virtuoso Joe Brown was a beginning session guy he got to back a visiting American artist. Young Joe was an able technician but had yet to learn some points of professionalism. Part way through “Five foot high and rising” Joe tired of ...
Since scientists started studying climate change, they have warned that it will reduce food production. And now, its happening:The climate crisis is damaging the ability of the land to sustain humanity, with cascading risks becoming increasingly severe as global temperatures rise, according to a landmark UN report compiled by some ...
The Abortion Legislation Bill just passed its first reading, 94-23. Its a far bigger margin than I expected, even allowing for the Winston factor, and it reflects the overwhelming support there is in this country for reform. but that support isn't a new thing - it has existed for literally ...
The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Referendums Framework Bill. The Bill does what it says on the label - establishes a framework for referenda. Things you may want to address in your submission: Whether the bill should apply only at the 2020 election, or whether it should ...
The Thompson and Clark / MBIE spying scandal continues to result in fallout, this time in the form of a report on the implementation of MBIE's "Operation Exploration", its internal operation to enforce the infamous Anadarko Amendment which criminalised protests against the oil industry. MBIE's enforcement operation was tainted by ...
So, Winston Peters is defending his last-minute demand for a referendum on abortion by claiming he was "blindsided" by the bill. Really? The bill is a government bill. It has been working through the cabinet approval process since December last year. As part of that process, NZ First was consulted, ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...
‘Original Sin’ of Land Confiscation at Ihumātao is a wrong that can be put right by Government says Justice & Peace Commission of Catholic Diocese of Auckland ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a press conference on August 19 that her government is likely to impose new restrictions on prisoners’ rights to send letters. She said the law could be changed in “weeks.” ...
Heart-warming images of House Speaker Trevor Mallard cradling a baby in Parliament have been welcomed around New Zealand, but the Public Service Association warns most families can only dream of such support in the workplace. ...
Applying New Zealand’s international human rights commitments, particularly those in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, can help in resolving the situation at Ihumātao, Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt says. ...
Climate campaigners impersonating bank staff have taken to the streets this week to expose ANZ Bank’s sponsorship of the fossil fuel industry. In the series of satirical actions in Wellington, Dunedin, and Auckland, the ‘bank staff’ promoted ...
Auckland Action Against Poverty joins the Children’s Commissioner , The Green Party , The New Zealand Drugs Foundation , Child Poverty Action Group and other organisations in the calls for an immediate end to the drug testing benefit sanctions. ...
Negotiations between Port Otago workers represented by the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) and the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) and management failed today and the unions have issued notice of an overtime ban from Saturday 7th September. ...
Queenstown Lakes District Council’s comments that it has applied for a consent to pollute waterways to avoid 'prosecutions by the Otago Regional Council' are unacceptable,’ Fish & Game New Zealand Chief Executive Martin Taylor says. ...
On March 15, the real world impact of online hate became abundantly, horrifically clear. As a shooter opened fire at two Christchurch mosques, the online image board 8chan anticipated, celebrated and amplified his killing spree. ...
Friday, 23 August: Government delegates from around the world, including New Zealand, are meeting in New York for the third of four meetings at the United Nations to agree a Global Oceans Treaty that could help to protect 30% of our oceans by 2030. Greenpeace ...
The excuses about a reportedly unwanted $57,000 payrise for Dunedin City Council CEO Sue Bidrose are laughable, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. ...
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance has launched the “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” committing to no more than 2% annual rate hikes over the next Council term, and has written to all Mayoral and Council candidates asking them to sign. The pledge will ...
This Saturday, Pakuranga Hunt Day at the Ellerslie Racecourse will see anti-horse racing protesters demonstrating at the corner of Ascot Avenue and Greenlane East. ...
Mayoral candidate John Tamihere will meet with Pacific Island leaders and community elders today at Puhunui Reserve in South Auckland to commit to a Pasefika Cultural Centre. ...
Cruel and invalid Forced Swim Tests carried out at Victoria University of Wellington, will be exposed at the University Open Day today, so prospective students can be warned about the flawed and unethical research being conducted at the institute. ...
The organiser of the annual YWCA Equal Pay Awards has expressed her disappointment with the latest Gender Pay Gap figure for New Zealand workers. The figure rose slightly from 9.2% in 2018 to 9.3% for the quarter ended 30 June 2019. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to pass on information to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques now that the period for submissions has been extended to 27 September. ...
An application was filed in the Employment Relations Authority in Wellington today, seeking an injunction to prevent the Board of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation from removing the President from office. ...
The Government’s commitment to support literacy and numeracy training in the workplace is a strong signal from Government on recognising the importance of upskilling, reskilling and increasing productivity alongside their commitment to address the challenges ...
“The infrastructure sector sees a major role for the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission/Te Waihanga in lifting the nation’s sagging infrastructure performance,” says Paul Blair, incoming CEO of Infrastructure NZ. ...
The AA is calling on the Government to bring forward critical highway projects while time is spent properly developing the plans for a rapid transit system in Auckland. ...
Between 2015/16 and 2017/18, DHBs spent $280 million treating patients due to adverse drug reactions, reveals the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union in its latest briefing paper on health productivity . ...
The Pay Equity Coalition Auckland (PECA) is pleased the gender pay gap has decreased slightly. Statistics released today show the gap is now 11.9%, nearly 2 percent less than last year. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to make sure they pass on any information they have to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques before submissions close tomorrow (Friday). ...
The big electricity companies consider solar energy “disruptive” and want pricing to suppress it. In contrast, advocates of local energy say that solar, energy efficiency, and other local energy solutions are the cheapest ways to reduce carbon emissions. ...
The Earthquake Commission and Shine Lawyers are delighted to announce that EQC has reached an agreement with the Gibling family, agreeing to cover the cost of repairs of remaining earthquake damage on their property. ...
Four months into the inquiry, the Royal Commission is gathering significant information and continues to receive valuable submissions from the public, from current and former State servants, experts and community groups. ...
While Fish & Game New Zealand is pleased to see Federated Farmers Environment Spokesperson Chris Allen say that 'we all want good, fresh water', he conveniently overlooks some key facts. ...
What: Wellington demo “Save the Amazon Forest/Salve a Amazônia!” When: Friday, 6 September 2019 from 12:30-13:30 Where: Embassy of Brazil in Wellingtona ...
Rt Hon Trevor Mallard, Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, welcomes the visit of His Excellency Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal. ...
A cross political Mental Health and Addictions Wellbeing group will be launched on Wednesday 28 August hosted by Sir John Kirwan and Moe Milne (ONZM) who have both been at the forefront of our country’s often difficult conversations about mental ...
Confirmation that the government will be progressing an independent Parliamentary Budget Office is great news for democracy and transparency, Federated Farmers says. ...
At first glance, Simon Bridges’ strident opposition to the government’s proposal to establish an independent office to cost political parties’ election spending plans looks childish and petty. ...
Euthanasia-Free NZ is appalled that Parliament spent so little time debating Part 2 of the End of Life Choice Bill and voted to leave it full of holes. ...
Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance and its nationwide sister group the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Auckland Mayor Phil Goff for his comments today that John Tamihere would need the Government’s support to ...
A ‘one size fits all’, inflexible and punitive regulatory regime for water quality just gets backs - and costs - up and most importantly will not work, Federated Farmers says. ...
Mediation yesterday between secondary principals and the government has resulted in a deal that the principals' negotiating team is recommending to its members. ...
Clubs New Zealand welcomes the decision of Justice Minister Andrew Little to put forward a bill amending the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act to allow all licensed premises to remain open for Rugby World Cup matches. ...
The Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation has ordered a review looking at labelling of added sugars in food and drinks. An option under investigation is ‘a pictorial approach applied to sugary beverages / sugar-sweetened beverages’ ...
Labour market data released by Statistics New Zealand today indicates that a gender pay gap persists in New Zealand, despite improvement in some areas. ...
In the midst of the 6th Great Extinction Event the coalition, STOP Trashing Our Planet is urging voters to take full responsibility for the legacy we are leaving our children. ...
LGNZ will carefully consider the proposed National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) to assess if it meets the Government’s aim of enabling urban development or simply adds more red tape to the planning process. ...
Statistics out today from the Government show that the gender wage imbalance, or gap, in the average wage is 11.9%, a strong 2 percentage point improvement from 13.9% last year. The gender pay imbalance in the median wage is 9.3%. ...
Newstalk ZB Drive host and Herald on Sunday columnist Heather du Plessis-Allan is taking on the challenge of keeping 2019 Auckland Mayoral contenders Phil Goff and John Tamihere in line and on point in tonight’s live NZ Herald Newstalk ZB debate. ...
Analysis - The prime minister puts a stake in the ground over petrol prices, National balks at having its election promises costed and the government puts millions into helping the homeless. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danilo Ignacio de Urzedo, PhD candidate, University of Sydney Record fires are raging in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, with more than 2,500 fires currently burning. They are collectively emitting huge amounts of carbon, with smoke plumes visible thousands of kilometres away. Fires in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sean Docking, Post-doctoral researcher, La Trobe University Basketball fans around the world were recently sickened by the footage of NBA star Kevin Durant’s Achilles tendon rupturing during a game. But while many think it’s only elite athletes who suffer from Achilles tendon ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bruce Mountain, Director, Victoria Energy Policy Centre, Victoria University The possibility of blackouts affecting half of Victoria has attracted plenty of attention to a document once read only by industry insiders and policy wonks: the Electricity Statement of Opportunities. The Statement, updated ...
George Clooney sold his tequila company for a billion dollars – but is the stuff any good? The Spinoff finds out. Imagine being so stupidly sexy you sneeze and sell a billion-dollar booze company. That’s what George Clooney did last year, flicking off the tequila business he started accidentally with an ...
The departure of "two Pākehā men" from the government's justice reform group will not hurt the quality of its final report, another member of the team says. ...
Combatting internet-related harm is being stymied by inter-industry disagreement and a lack of information about the extent and nature of the problem, a new report says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Harcourt, J.W. Nevile Fellow in Economics and host of The Airport Economist, UNSW Amid the tributes to former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer and the stories of his authenticity, courage and quirky interests – like trains and military history – what ...
Current leader of the National Party, Simon Bridges.Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Is Simon Bridges really trying to channel Donald Trump? Or is he taking his cue from Scott Morrison? Or is he looking to emulate Boris Johnson? Whatever the inspiration, there’s been a clear change in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]Michelle Grattan talks about the sad news of the passing of former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer with University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini. They also discuss Scott Morrison’s recent announcement about joining ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabriel Crowley, Adjunct Principal Research Fellow, James Cook University In February, about 600,000 cattle were killed by catastrophic flooding across north Queensland’s Carpentaria Gulf plains. The flood waters rose suddenly, forming a wall of water up to 70km wide. Record depths were ...
Simon Day dined alone at Monique Fiso’s Wellington restaurant Hiakai, and discovered it was the perfect way to appreciate the meaning of this special food. “Would you like a few more minutes with your phone?” the waitress at Hiakai asked sympathetically as I mashed a final goodbye text to my wife ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Willamson, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Monash University Australia’s gender pay gap is diminishing, says a new report, but some contributors to it seem harder to overcome than others. For me, the finding hit close to home. The report, by KPMG for ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Te Tiriti o Waitangi: The Treaty of Waitangi by Toby Morris with Ross Calman, Mark Derby, and ...
Honey producer Comvita has confirmed a full year net loss of $27.7m with China market access restrictions and tougher regulations locally affecting the company's sales. ...
James Elliott realises John Tamihere's uncosted bridge proposal wasn't actually a metaphor, but a fine example of 'folks is mighty generous with money what they ain’t got'. ...
A new poem by Oamaru-born poet Nick Ascroft.SupermanHalfway up the ascent zigzagging from Royal Terrace to upper Stuart Street carrying four too-heavy grocery bags I begin to understand that I will not make it. My huffing personage – from the fingers, white with the strain, to a face the colour of rhubarb – will ooze into the pavement and roll slowly ...
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s.Sound the alarm, because it’s time for another absolute chaos pod. We’re talking haunted dolls in Waipu, we’re talking giant hands taking over Wellington, we’re talking soft serve cones dipped in powdered Milo. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Press, Adjunct Professor, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania This week, the ABC revealed that the Australian Defence Force wants to roll out military technology in Antarctica. The article raises the issue of what is, or is not, ...
New Zealand teacher aides say their pay reflects an outdated idea of what they do. Elizabeth McLeod hears from four TAs, and one parent, about the classroom realities they face every dayCleaning up poo, defusing violent situations, copping physical and verbal abuse: these are the realities of a teacher aide’s ...
The lanky sidekick from Jono and Ben journeys around New Zealand trying to solve small town problems. Does he succeed?Guy Williams, hardly a shy, retiring type, has been screaming out for his own vehicle for years. A loud, lanky, fearless comic, he’s spent nearly a decade in MediaWorks purgatory, sat ...
Ballot Box.Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – The nature of New Zealand general election campaigns could be significantly changed with the proposed establishment of an “umpire” to adjudicate over political party manifesto policies. A suggestion has been put forward by the Government for the establishment of a parliamentary watchdog ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Ihumātao Delphine Herbert and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Tainui to buy Ihumātao land – sources Danielle ...
Extinction Rebellion takes a tour of downtown Wellington to point out the coal industry stalwarts and ask why they’re still there in the face of a climate emergency. “There are coal companies in Wellington??”That’s the incredulous response every single time we mention taking the public on a tour of the biggest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel A. Ankeny, Professor of History and Philosophy, and Deputy Dean Research (Faculty of Arts), University of Adelaide The South Australian government recently announced its intention to lift the long-standing statewide moratorium on genetically modified (GM) crops, following a statutory six-week consultation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vicki Sentas, Senior Lecturer, UNSW Law, UNSW Being strip searched by the police can be intrusive, humiliating and harmful. Typically, strip searches involve being required to strip naked in front of police officers, who often give the direction to “squat and cough”, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Louise Remond, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Hi, I was just wondering if something’s wrong with me because I’m never happy and never want to do anything and I’m getting really lazy and I really hate school. Thanks – Anonymous ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Zaphir, Researcher for the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project; and Online Teacher at Education Queensland’s IMPACT Centre, The University of Queensland From as early as Grade 3 teachers start teaching children how to put across their own points of view. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW It’s four years since then Prime Minister Tony Abbott warned Australia had been heading to “a Greek-style economic future”. He was referring to what he said had been happening under the previous Labor government. When Labor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samia Khatun, Senior Lecturer, SOAS, University of London Some 1,000 kilometres inland from Sydney, over the Blue Mountains, past the trees that drink the tributaries of the Darling River, there stands a little, red mosque. It marks where the desert begins. The ...
Online gambling is growing fast in New Zealand, but critics say new government ideas for regulating websites focus on what's good for the industry, rather than protecting people from harm. ...
An "extreme pro-Beijing" writer has caused controversy in the Chinese community and awkwardness for the Labour Party by standing for political office in Auckland. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Concern about slow progress for major transport projects, smoking researcher under pressure over funding, and hikoi marches from Ihumātao to Ardern’s office.NZTA is struggling to get spending out the door, so the money isn’t flowing through the economy, reports Thomas Coughlan ...
Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard will look at whether people making submissions on proposed law changes should be forced to disclose conflicts of interest. ...
Rugby and league legend Honey Hireme has put all her careers on hold - including her Warriors debut - to take care of her mum, who has terminal cancer. ...
Open Mike 24/06/2018 
Speaker Trevor Mallard was left to look after Jones, while his usual caretaker, Winston Peters, underwent surgery. A truly adorable scene from Parliament yesterday has gone viral, after Speaker Trevor Mallard cradled an extremely drunk Shane Jones in his arms while the House was in session. Loud “awwww”s could be ...3 hours ago
Western media have defended their decision not to cover the fires so as not to give them any oxygen. Social media outrage continues to grow around the sentiment that mainstream western media is devoting too little coverage to an ongoing series of fires in the Amazon rainforest, and in doing ...4 hours ago
A Long Time Ago, In A Parallel Universe Far, Far Away: The political journalist scratched his head in confusion. Only then did he notice the name of the building: ‘The Jacinda Ardern Presidential Library and Public Resource Centre’. Making his way inside to the information desk, he asked the librarian ...10 hours ago
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Nothing from me tody - I'm off to Christchurch to pretend to be other people for a weekend. Normal bloggage should resume on Tuesday. ...11 hours ago
Spark is bracing for a customer backlash as rugby fans all across the country struggle to get a picture on their wireless router. With the Rugby World Cup fast approaching, an elderly Taranaki couple are furious after being told that they still won’t be able to watch the tournament, even ...1 day ago
Several explosions have been reported across Auckland, as well-meaning environmentalists have already begun purchasing too much petrol Starting from next week, customers will no longer need a car to purchase petrol directly from the pump, a development that two major fuel providers are billing as an opportunity to help fight ...1 day ago
A new study claims to find that a mother’s exposure to fluoridated water during pregnancy may decrease the IQ of male children – but is it correct? (Photo: Getty Images) Anti-fluoride campaigners are promoting ... 1 day ago
Television advertising has a huge impact on our lives. Even if we don’t recognise that, we know it has to be true, since otherwise why would advertisers spend so much on it? Its significance, however, is greater than simply the influence it has on what we purchase and consume. It ...3 days ago
by Jan Rivers More than 30 years ago a Commission of Inquiry was held in New Zealand to investigate, amongst other things, whether women with cervical cancer were aware that they had been part of a research project and whether they were properly informed of the treatment options ...3 days ago
Everyone Wants To Be Fuhrer: When fascist groups are discussed, the image conjured-up in the minds of most New Zealanders is one of pathetic misfits. This negative impression is reinforced by the latter’s idiotic embrace of the swastika. Even in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the baleful legacy ...3 days ago
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...5 days ago
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...5 days ago
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...1 week ago
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Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...1 week ago
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...1 week ago
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Watched “The Old Curiosity Shop” last night. Daniel Quilp shoulda let go those money bags!
Power is off all day for us so a swap/buy/exchange market up the road for us, then the beach – not bad practice for the times ahead where fun and experience will be had closer to home and closer to hand.
Capitalist extremist identifies homelessness as democracy.
During the Cold War, terms like ‘Democratic Society’, ‘The Free World’ became synonymous with capitalism. These terms were often used interchangeably, (and opportunistically, IMO), as antonyms in reference to Communist societies like Soviet Russia.
In an extraordinary blast from the past, this cold war dog whistle is being dragged up to justify keeping families in cars, on the streets, or bunked up in motels at huge expense to the taxpayer, while tens of thousands of perfectly good houses stand empty.
The problems of homelessness, housing stress, and the housing crisis in this country have been laid at the feet of the past National Government by the current Housing Minister, Phil Twyford. But that we should reverse this policy has been labeled, “Extremist nonsense” by Property Institute of New Zealand chief executive Ashley Church
Stuff.co.nz reporters Rob Stock and John Anthony debunk Ashley Church’s fallacious and self serving justification, noting that other democratic societies have implemented measures to crackdown on empty home owners.
I would encourage the current housing minister to push past the nasty bed baiting spin of Ashley Church, and other self interested parties, and copy Vancouver’s courageous, (and dare I say it, socialist) example.
Related:
The hidden homeless and the speculators
Ashley Church gives the finger to the homeless
To which I would add Anthony Robins’ invisible hand is attached to the very visible and self interested wrist of Ashley Church and the Property Institute, and the landlords and speculators whose interests his organisation exists to protect.
Proof, if you needed it, that capitalists don’t give a shit about anybody but themselves.
In a democratic society we’d ensure that everyone had a place to live and food on the table. It’s only in capitalism that we start accepting excuses from the capitalists as to why people need to be poor and oppressed.
In another context, it was Edward Snowden who once said he regarded meta-data as more valuable than personal data.
The raw data tells the story.
According to the 2013 census, New Zealand’s usually resident population count at 5 March 2013 was 4.242048 million.
In Auckland, the 2013 census counted 33,360 vacant homes.
Nation wide the census counted 36,597 overcrowded residences*
Nation wide 203,820 people in total were recorded as living in these overcrowded residences
Source: Statistics NZ, Census 2013
last updated 26 February, 2018
*Overcrowded means more than two people per bedroom, or bedrooms shared by adults other than couples or by opposite-sex children.
That data doesn’t really tell us much Jenny. What we don’t know is how many of those 33,360 vacant homes are potentially available for rental/sale.
At any given point in time there will always be a large quantity of vacant properties and the reasons they’re empty are many & varied as is the duration of their vacancies. That 33.36k were only vacant at the time of the census, it didn’t mean they were permanently vacant.
Stats give this info;
“An unoccupied dwelling is classified as ’empty’ if it clearly has no current occupants and new occupants are not expected to move in on or before census night. Unoccupied dwellings that are being repaired or renovated are defined as empty dwellings. Unoccupied baches or holiday homes are also defined as empty dwellings.
A dwelling is classified as having ‘residents away’, where occupants of a dwelling are known to be temporarily away and are not expected to return on or before census night.”
The data table for the census unoccupied dwelling count has this at note 1;
“1. Unoccupied dwelling count is made up of ‘residents away’ and ‘empty dwelling’. ”
Anyone on holiday at the time of the census would be ‘residents away’ if they left the house vacant (no-one left behind)
Kia ora DH,
The census recorded 36,597 cases of overcrowding, affecting 203,820 people.
There were two main classifications for unoccupied homes in the census “empty dwelling” and “residents away”. Just as you say, it seems that there was no further breakdown.
We can argue around the margins about how many houses might be empty for valid reasons, And I admit that I may be making a subjective call here, but I the sheer numbers, “empty dwellings” recorded, 141,366 nationally and 33,360 in Auckland, tells a story of unaffordability, in rents and house prices, that puts the majority of these “empty dwellings” out of the reach of many of the people captured in this survey suffering from housing distress.
Maybe when we can get to compare the 2013 figures, with the latest 2018 census figures for housing we might be better informed.
In the meantime we will have to go to other sources to get a handle on the problem.
From an attached link to the main report, Stuff.co.nz reporter Colleen Hawkes asks; “Is it time to address the question of empty ‘ghost houses’?”
*(My emphasis) J.
I might ask Phil Twyford and Phil Goff both: is the suffering of middle and upper class bach owners, and housing speculators really comparable with the suffering of families living with overcrowding, insecurity and homelessness?
I don’t dispute the seriousness of the lack of housing Jenny. I was just making the observation that the numbers look to be wrong on the empty houses and it may be a dead duck. Wrong numbers lead to wrong decisions.
I honestly can’t see that many investors sitting on property like that, they exist for sure but my expectations are that it occurs in the high-wealth areas mostly. You’d need to be pretty cash rich to not need rental income, interest on borrowing chews capital and eats up profits real fast.
Kia ora DH, I strongly suspect that your expectations that many of the 33,360 “empty houses” recorded in Auckland in the census are at the high end of the market. (Of course it would be good to know for sure). But anecdotal evidence seems to back up this expectation.
But forcing these houses back onto the rental or housing market should free up more houses further down the housing ladder. The sheer numbers guarantee it.
Vancouver thought it was worth it.
This is how you do it.
I was moved to make my original comment about this issue by the Stuff.co.nz report yesterday that mentioned Ghost Houses. And also because I had followed Victoria Crone and Phil Goff’s debate on this issue with keen interest. I was hardly aware of what was going on in Vancouver.
However, the more I read yesterday about the Vancouver example, the more fascinated I became. It’s incredible really, Many of the exact same arguments, for and against, that were made by Goff and Crone during the Auckland Mayoral debate were shadowed by the opponents and supporters of this scheme in Vancouver.
One of the arguments made by opponents of the scheme in Vancouver was that it would penalise owners of two homes.
Yes it would, that’s the point, you will be penalised if you keep one of them empty, while other people are struggling to find accomodation.
The lack of self awareness of the ridiculous nature of this objection, as seen by families without any home at all, is breathtaking.
One of the biggest criticisms made here by Goff of Crone’s proposal, was that there would be no method of telling which homes were being left empty.
In reply Crone suggested that water usage would give a good indication of which houses were being left idle and unused.
In opposition to Crone’s suggestion that water use would give a good indication of whether a house was being parked up, I remember one numpty commenting at the time on this website, criticising Crone’s suggestion, writing that this would just encourage absent owners to leave the taps running.
In the end, it seems that Vancouver settled on using the lack of electricity consumption as an indicator of an empty address.
More Innovatively Vancouver also did a poll on property owners asking them to declare whether their properties were empty or not.
This gave some very interesting results, for instance the first thing revealed was that contrary to the racist scape goating of Asians and immigrants as being behind the Ghost House problem, many of the owners of these empty houses were revealed as being Canadians or Americans from across the border. Another thing revealed was that most of the empty properties were in condominiums.
Revealed by the tax itself, was that (in line with DH’s expectations above) many of these empty homes were higher valued properties. Another thing revealed is that the owners of these high end properties were prepared to pay the tax rather than let them out, or put them on the market. (Some paying as much as $250,000 for the 2018 tax period.)
In total the owners of the these properties paid the city $30 million for the privilege of keeping these properties empty.
“Nothing is sacred…..”*
And it seems that nothing is profane, either.
Maybe Phil Twyford instead of stopping short of offering up any measures to discourage the practice, could take a leaf out Victoria Crone’s mayoral campaign
In 2016 Independent Mayoral Candidate, Victoria Crone championed action to address Ghost houses as part of her Mayoral campaign.
Labour Party candidate Phil Goff vehemently opposed Crone over this policy, characterising it as unfairly affecting “bach owners”.
(For God’s sakes, as if bach owners hardships could be anyway comparable to the hardships faced by families with out any home at all, let alone a spare one to go to on for holidays.)
“Crone would up rates on empty baches”
Instead Phil Goff, echoing the Trump Presidential campaign, chose a more traditionally Right Wing strategy; scapegoating immigrants for the housing crisis.
“Phil Goff: Limit immigration to fix housing crisis”
Not only was Goff’s anti-immigrant strategy Right Wing, it was dishonest – immigration policy is set by central government not by the Auckland Region, a fact which he well knows.
* (Except it seems, the interests of property developers, landlords and speculators and other wide boys. A fact we may all come to regret when the housing market is flooded with even more empty and unaffordable houses.)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2531852/Exorcising-Irelands-ghost-estates-Demolition-begins-housing-projects-built-economic-boom-left-country-300-000-homes.html
This TED talk is inspiring as hell. Ft. Curtis “Wall Street” Carroll. *must watch* (although best bits 3 or 4 mins in)
‘A collection of research published last week in a special edition of the major scientific journal Nature showed that Antarctica has lost 3 trillion tonnes of ice over the past 25 years. Half of that melting has happened in the past 5 years. Professor Tim Naish is from the Victoria University of Wellington’s Antarctic Research Centre says we have less than a decade to stop a catastrophe.’
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018650659/tim-naish-says-we-can-still-save-antarctic-ice
a timely and well conducted interview on RNZ this morning.
Top work Ireland taking out Australia in their Rugby series.
I’m really, really sorry about the last-minute decision by the ref.
Really, really sorry not.
Ireland! Celebrate long and hard!
Spiritual sunday tune
another
3rd uplifting hymn from the good oils
Q&A (TV1) had a very good panel this morning.
I’m hopeless remembering names so you will need to link through yourselves.
Subjects: Business confidence taking a dip… the Mexican Border fiasco fallout… and EU Trade negotiations. No babies.
An inherent message to the Labour-led government:
You will need to do a much better job explaining your policy positions/decisions if you want to avoid confusion among voters and mischievous spin from your political opponents gaining traction.
Could not agree more. At the moment those opponents are having a free run on misrepresentation because ministers (with a few exceptions) are not stepping up to properly counter them. If they can’t do the political side of the job, then they need to be replaced with those who can. My cent-worth for the day.
Q&A (TV1) had a very good panel this morning.
I’m hopeless remembering names so you will need to link through yourselves.
Subjects: Business confidence taking a dip… the Mexican Border fiasco fallout… and EU Trade negotiations. No babies.
An inherent message to the Labour-led government:
You will need to do a much better job explaining your policy positions/decisions if you want to avoid confusion among voters and false spin from your political opponents gaining traction.
Could not agree more. At the moment those opponents are having a free run on misrepresentation because ministers (with a few exceptions) are not stepping up to properly counter them. If they can’t do the political side of the job, then they need to be replaced with those who can. My cent-worth for the day.
Anne,
Yes, an interesting Q & A. Not one of Grant’s better performances. Very monotone, he looked tired and listless.
On business confidence, and in fact on forward spending/investment plans, as mentioned by Barnett, I can’t think of one thing the government has done to encourage business.
But I can think of plenty of government decisions that will increase regulatory burdens, that look capricious (oil and gas virtually out of the blue) and which will increase costs (fuel taxes, $20 min wage, a lot more union control, proposed CGT).
In these circumstances, it is not surprising that business are not making new investments, it looks too risky. Safer to keep spare capital in passive investments (either in NZ or offshore) or alternatively not borrow. The business will operate at a lower but safer level.
The cost is lower growth, lower taxes, less employment growth.
Why should business expect to be led by the government?
New Zealand business has had oblique and small policy markers from central government under National’s 9 long and directionless years.
Under Labour’s government, they are being led by the public sector through construction and transport funding, which are the economic policy areas this government really care about anyway. Those areas will continue to boom under this government for the foreseeable future.
Unless your business is rent, housing rent, in which case you are about to be shown the door. The Productivity Commission would firmly encourage landlords to find something else more productive to invest in.
Broadly speaking, this government seeks to tilt real estate capitalism, and that’s about it.
Business organizations in New Zealand don’t want to be led. They’ve been clear about that for a while. They are virulently and relentlessly anti-Labour and they don’t care who knows it, and it won’t change. It’s on business to determine if they want to make something useful out of this Labour-led government.
Meanwhile, headline unemployment is great, property prices are stabilizing, the governments’ investment direction and savings culture are fantastic, and the government is really popular.
”(fuel taxes, $20 min wage, a lot more union control, proposed CGT).””
How dare a govt actually do shit . And try make the country function ,I long for the days we had a bunch of greasy middle management tossers doing fuck all other than tell us how good they are.
How could you say that, Wayne? This Government signed TPPA-11!
And there are proposals for an ‘Amazon Tax’ and for R & D tax loss credits for companies that spend more than $100k pa on R & D.
CPTPP 11I will concede, although it has a sting in the tail with the new restrictions on foreign investment. The R& D tax credit is essentially the Callaghan growth grant repackaged (though expanded somewhat).
The furore over the Te Arai exemption just illustrated the problems. Quite a few proposed tourist resort projects had the intent of selling the units to overseas investors as a means of raising the capital.
And there’s the standard RWNJ ad hominem.
The government isn’t actually there for business – it’s there for the people.
That’s good. A market system can’t work without proper regulation. It was the lack of regulation and then followed by bad regulation that brought us the ‘legal highs’ fiasco.
You don’t seem to be concerned with the rising costs of living that needs to be covered by wages. Costs that the capitalists almost always ignore which is why we need a minimum wage in the first place. It would actually be better to have a universal income rather than a minimum wage to ensure that everyone has a good living standard. Although, considering how greedy the capitalists are, I think we’d still need a minimum wage to ensure that they actually paid.
Which is, of course, a load of bollocks. We’ve been cutting taxes and regulations for the last thirty years and it’s made us all worse off. It’s cut productivity increases and wages while rewarding the bludging shareholders and speculators.
Maybe Grant Robertson needed a Redbull drink to pep him up before the interview. I have seen him give plenty more energetic and therefore more engaging interviews than this mornings on Q & A.
He likes rugby and beer I believe .
Dissapointed to see you advocate for such lowlife company.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39427291
Saying grant looks tired listless is not at an ad hom. You throw it round so often I am beginning to think you don’t know what words mean.
An ad hom would be “Grant is fat/lazy/stupid therefore his argument is invalid”. Ad hom means to attack the person to denigrate the argument or point they are putting forward. Saying someone looks tired and listless is not an ad hom.
This is the second time I have had to point this out to you. Please try harder
Within context, within the opening statement, yeah it is. It was a declaration that he can’t handle the job.
No, it was a comment on how he appeared in the interview. Maybe you disagree with the statement but it was a statement, not an argument.
It was not an ad him however much you want to believe it was.
“In these circumstances, it is not surprising that business are not making new investments, it looks too risky. Safer to keep spare capital in passive investments (either in NZ or offshore) or alternatively not borrow. The business will operate at a lower but safer level.”
There’s also the actions of a lot of New Zealand business that are causing these reactions as well. Take the actual and perceived losses of around 4 billion from Fletcher Building and Fontera, along with the M. Bovis debacle and there’s more than enough to give business the willies. This occurred under the leadership of the previous National government.
I look around Queenstown and see a lot of similarity to the situation in 2007 with a lot of developments that are unlikely to be profitable first time around. This has a chilling effect on business confidence.
Maybe New Zealand business, and the National Party, should look at their own actions and leadership before trying to blame someone else for their problems.
Unfortunately our “business leaders” and National politicians won’t be terribly affected by the fallout from the fuck-ups above, that will fall on the workers, subcontractors and share-milkers who will have their lives destroyed.
“The cost is lower growth, lower taxes, less employment growth.”
Did you ever stop and consider that the problem may be growth?
Wayne increasing wages means more money in businesses where this money is spent.
$880 million to bail out farmer’s.
Business confidence is over 50 which means business ha got over National loosing the election.
Just business leaders doing their expected “it’s a Labour government” hissy fit.
Saw it in 2000, same again.
Put Thompson & Clark onto them as they clearly need monitoring as a threat to the democratic process.
QFT
the Prime Minister’s baby name just announced: Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford. I am so proud of this Kiwi family, with both Jacinda and Clarke new role models of how men and women can be in the world – in my life time.
Aww that’s nice.
Irish and Maori – love pure as snow
You’ve made that comment entirely about yourself…Despite the vicarious nature of the comment…
Focus on your own journey, family and personal development…
Don’t look outward for inward inspiration…
Don’t shit on someone else’s inoffensive happiness just because your ego wants you to be Buddha.
Thank you One Two. Food for thought.
Sadly lacking you are sad it is
Millsy came 2nd in the Sweep, they guessed Aroha a few days ago.
It has finally been revealed. Little Prime Miniature’s real name is – Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford. (Snap -I now see Venezia has already announced the name.)
An uncommon first name which apparently is ( or maybe from) from an Old Irish feminine name “Niamh” pronounced Neev, meaning “bright” or radiant”, according to Wikipedia.
The first part of this bit in the Wikipedia entry made me laugh vis a vis the proud new father –
” In Irish mythology, Niamh is the daughter of the god of the sea, Manannán mac Lir and one of the queens of Tír na nÓg, the land of eternal youth. She was the lover of the poet-hero Oisín” .
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niamh
As mentioned by Jacinda Ardern in the press conference at 11am at the hospital before the Ardern Gayford family left for home, “Neve” also means “snow” in some languages – eg Latin, Italian and Portuguese.
Here is a link to the TVNZ article which includes video of the short press conference.
Mum looked radiant and not at all like someone who had had very little sleep over the last few days; and Dad is as proud as punch. Baby slept …
For the fashion conscious:
Neve was wearing a soft green home knitted hat, which virtually matched the jacket (and shoes) of one of their DPS minders. (LOL)
Mum wore a white top and black pants and white sneakers.
Dad wore his “trial father’s cardigan” as it was described in a (rather funny double act) video some months ago when he wore it for the first time. According to JA it was bought in an op shop.
Ooops, forgot to put in the link to the TVNZ video of the press conference.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/name-pm-jacinda-ardern-and-clarke-gayfords-newborn-baby-announced
Here is also the RNZ article with videos, photos, live blog.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/360285/watch-pm-jacinda-ardern-leaves-hospital-with-neve-te-aroha
VV, are you as passionate and expressive about and towards people you know personally?
You’re an a******e One Two.
For all you know “vv” does personally know Jacinda.
Piss off and play your puerile little games elsewhere.
Well said, Anne.
I wondered who would bite when I submitted my comment – and sure enough … LOL.
Just the usual One Two type of shitty comment. He/she thinks they are soooo clever. I gave up reading his/her comments a long time ago and just pass over them so did not see this one until someone pointed it out to me.
As for knowing JA, I am pretty sure that you and I are in the same position there if I correctly remember a comment of yours some months ago – but I am not going to say what that was. LOL
The Dad cardie is getting a lot of air time – apparently from the Sally’s op shop in Gisborne according to JA in her latest Facebook video.
.
She is going to be a Green!
Absolutely! I’m sure she won’t be a neoliberal Labourite like uncle Grant or uncle Stuart.
With the need for additional workers within some sectors e.g. “While the construction sector is set to get policy tweaks to allow for more migrant workers, the aged-care sector has been lobbying Lees-Galloway for more people.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/104863218/government-set-to-greenlight-skilled-foreign-workers-for-construction-sector
Can anyone out there point out if this will still be requirement ?
“Construction firms will be exempt from applying the existing labour market test to bring in up to 1,500 foreign tradespeople at any one time if employers promise to take on a local apprentice for every migrant under a new ‘KiwiBuild Visa’ proposed by Labour.”
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/88240/labours-immigration-policy-targets-kiwibuild-workers-and-apprentice-boost-aims-cut-20000
Fine to source overseas works BUT shouldn’t we also expect the same industries to “future proof” themselves and give a little back in exchange for this govt intervention ?
Jacinda and Clarke with their daughter, showed wonder grace happiness and kindness.
In her speech and answers she acknowledged all the kindness they had received, mentioning some had come from loss and sadness as well as open acceptance from NZers who had given love freely, from home made gifts to names, to the offer of placenta burial by Ngapui.
They looked a lovely wee family we can be proud of. I have had the good fortune to meet her prior to the election. She has gone from strength to strength and does us all proud, along with her clearly loving supportive partner.
Their selection of names shows a nod to their own choices coupled with a strong connection to love. “Love and happiness” the expectations for their daughter, Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford, are simple but profound.
OK, it SAYS “Flying car”, but it functions more like a human carrying drone. A car would surely be a more apt description if it had wheels and used the air current to lift about a meter or so off road so to speak.
Even so the Kitty Hawk is cool. Needs a roll bar type device.
It will be interesting to watch how this all develops. Safety will be a big concern I’d think, the potential for midair collisions will magnify very quickly if/when they become mainstream. Lots to think about.
I can imagine the rozzers scratching their heads wondering how they’ll get speed cameras up there…
You can’t have flying cars while humans pilot them. Far too dangerous.
Acoustic detection, tracking and classification of Low Flying Aircraft
Yeah, not difficult.
Where is Weka? Is Weka ok?
Weka disappeared at least two months ago. I recall ‘tracey’ responding to the same question with words to the effect “Weka is fine”.
I don’t know why she has left TS but suspect it might have something to do with some stoush in what is termed “the backend”. But that is no more than a guess and could be wrong.
around the time psycho milt was banned if my recollection is correct.
Doors opening soon.
Be there, or be square
https://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2018/06/21/auckland-fundraising-event-this-sunday/
Wrap up warm New Zealand.
Pile your firewood inside so you don’t have to go out.
Next three days is going to be incredibly cold; snow between 100 and 200 metres above sea level from Stewart Island and Fiordland right through Otago, and a long cold snap all the way up the centre and east of the North Island.
http://www.metservice.com/maps-radar/rain-forecast/rain-forecast-3-day
Its shaping up to be a significant cold event.
mean sea level pressure
http://cr.acg.maine.edu/wx_frames/gfs/ds/gfs_nh-sat6_mslp_1-day.png
500 hpa mass levels.
http://cr.acg.maine.edu/wx_frames/gfs/ds/gfs_nh-sat6_gph500_1-day.png
Jetstream (the polar night jet) coming straight from the Antarctic.
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We’ve already had it pretty cold lately Ad. Highs of 4 or 5 and lows of -5 to -6 at my place most of last week. Ice has been building up in shady areas of the garden. The woodburner has been running day and night.
A snow laden southerly usually means temps around 0 to 2 across the board so a bit of a relief really.
what region are you?
Southern Lakes near Queenstown. It’s currently about 1c and rain has turned to a sleety mix.
Good morning The Am Show one should not count there chickens Peter Burling came second .
Loyd would have still celebrated as a Kiwi salior won the race on Chinese boat Dong Fang and Blair Tuke came 3rd Ka pai.
Duncan everyone knows that buildings construction slow down in the winter one just makes a mess when you dig holes in the rain also the timber framing don’t pass there moisture test so there cladding cannot be installed many other reason that construction slows in winter less day light hours. Thats were prefab house increase house building productivity . These prefab building could target using the renewable resource we have a lot of laminated timber this product is alot less energy in producing this laminated timber products
The Kiwi Rugby League team and management are in rebuild mode you wait and see they will get back to there best form .
With the Roseanne Show in the USA that shows that te Papatuanuku has had enough of the racial discriminating slander Ka pai but the show gives US a view into the reality’s of common tangata in the USA and how hard they have it just to survive in the USA the big picture is we were heading in that direction till the changes we have had with the new Labour lead Coalition Government. Duncan Te kumara never tells how sweet it is
Ka kite ano P.S it is a super food loaded with good minerals good for the mokopunas
Many thanks to Saudi Arabia for granting the rights for ladies to drive cars this is a win for Ladies Equality around Papatuanuku as Saudi ladies have won the right to drive there are many more rights these ladies need to be granted to get to Equality its all about a bright healthy future for all Tangata link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/24/saudi-arabia-women-celebrate-as-driving-ban-lifted Ka kite ano
Pity the rest of the laws in that country are based on a brutal and backward religion.