Looking at the demands of returning Kiwis. To be honest, they have made the runner when things got tough years back instead of contributing and pulling up the sleeves. Now that the going gets tough at the other end, they come home asking the taxpayer to foot the bill for all their needs. Really?
Well, my vote is now going to Winston, hands down. The only one not espousing political correct nonsense but rather dealing with the obvious. Logic and reason please.
That irony, coming back because we've been so successful in fighting this, yet not willing to help with that fight. Again, grateful to those that are just getting on with it, and all the staff and support people dealing with this, thank you.
I can remember Winston telling the Kiwis abroad to come back home.
Maybe the military should set up a tent / container city on an isolated island (maybe an unused ex-prison place). No fags, no booze, three meals from a field kitchen. That's the free option for returning Kiwis, otherwise you pay (and complain to) the quarantine hotel management, which is a private business, instead bitching and moaning about the government not providing you champagne and caviar for breakfast.
They probably want first class public government services and tax cuts at the same time.
I know of two New Zealanders that were not able to get to the "rescue" from China, and are still in China, hoping to be able to get to New Zealand in July, depending on flights . . .
The suggestion to return was heeded by a lot of New Zealanders – flights here were filled very quickly, and some may not have heard the warning in time. Certainly we now know there were a very large number of New Zealanders who were not able to get back to NZ at that time.
Or unwilling… when the NZ government took COVID seriously and sent out clear warning signs, most other countries played the impacts of the pandemic down.
While some might have "missed the boat/plane", as you describe, many overseas Kiwis ignored those warning and only now, after so many countries are seriously impacted, they decide to come home.
Also interesting to note, that in the early stages the incoming people would have had to organise their own self-isolation accommodation, either squeeze in with NZ family, pay for rental home or pay for a hotel. So not sure why they seriously expect the government to pay for their 2 week isolation/quarantine luxury hotels (like Stamford, Pullman, Novotel, which cost – when I stayed their last for work – several hundreds of dollars a day!).
That was a month ago and yes, perhaps the flights are cancelled but some repatriate flights were undertaken.
The point is: Many NZlaenders were going overseas because the grass was greener and they felt they did not get enough money to compensate for their work in their home country. Many were also fleeing the student loan repayments. Some might have gone on an OE.
In all cases – I bluntly refuse to pay for their keep. Full stop, end of story.
I mused that it was rather unfair of the Nat leader to call National a disgrace when the quarantine shambles was a govt failure. I wonder how many others did likewise. Tricky, these contagious complex memes, they get into peoples heads and do their subversive thing. Perhaps Todd needs a competent media adviser? Oh wait, he's got Hooton for that… 🤩
Apocalypse now? No. Soon? Maybe – another pandemic, driven by a more contagious bug could do it. Eventually? Yeah, later this century though, so no worries…
O’Connell zips around the world to meet people who are different in every way but their singular fixation on Armageddon. The book’s apocalyptic world tour journeys from the Scottish Highlands to the foothills of South Dakota, where a community of luxury bunkers built from missile silos peek out from grassy knolls, and onwards to New Zealand, the escape pod of choice for Silicon Valley’s millionaire tech-bros.
Capitalism takes a beating in the book, a critique filtered through characters like Peter Thiel, the billionaire venture capitalist who co-founded PayPal and was one of Facebook’s earliest investors. Looking at the ultra-rich through the lens of crisis is enough to disgust anyone. In the middle of a pandemic during which shortages on PPE are killing people daily, Jeff Bezos is set to become the world’s first trillionaire. But O’Connell knows that blaming capitalism can be a cop-out: “My editor suggested I reduce the number of times I refer to the evils of capitalism, so I went through and took out about 50 per cent of them,” he says.
Naomi Klein and David Wallace-Wells have both produced seminal works laying out what a future on earth could look like post-climate catastrophe – and it’s pretty apocalyptic… Doomsday capitalism is reaching younger generations, with designer face masks and Kardashian-endorsed bug-out bags stuffed with duct tape, waterproof matches and a 400-calorie apple cinnamon food bar with a five-year shelf-life. “Which Kardashian?” asks O’Connell.
Many of O’Connell’s most astute ruminations are framed through parenting, something which has always been a challenge but lately has become even more so. “You often hear people say, ‘Well you can’t protect your kids from the world forever’,” says O’Connell, ”but I do feel that you have to try.”
“You create this world that’s magical, good and safe. My kids believe in the tooth fairy and gnomes and Santa Claus, so does that mean I’m lying? Objectively speaking I am, but it’s also not that simple. You’re shaping their reality and I think it’s important not to let too much horror in at an early age,” he explains. “I suppose the job is to sort of mediate reality for kids that age, not terrify them and also not reveal how terrifying you yourself find the world.”
Sounds like he's got the right idea. The world has always been part imaginal, part real. It's how the psyche operates. To co-create a better world we must first imagine it.
Dennis is right, I can’t imagine Hell on Earth without gatekeepers to keep a lid on things the way they are. If not for them, all Hell would break loose.
Corin Dann doing a good job on Morning Report right now asking Muller why the border control system is broken when NZ has no community transmission at all. Muller floundering.
National’s problem is that they are attacking border controls that, by and large, are working very well.
Chris Trotter’s latest article on Bowalley Road is very odd where it attacks Labour’s performance and supports National’s hollow claims. Talk about over-egging it.
Note the "are working very well"…..earlier for a short period they were slow to implement the 3-day and 12-day testing but without military involvement I think this would have happened anyway.
So there was a small window where border controls were less-than-adequate but (as you say tc) this was quickly fixed. (Megan Woods was superb on Morning Report yesterday).
Muller and Woodhouse are whinging about controls that have prevented any community transmission-that is the acid test.
If Muller is floundering all it proves is that he is a git.
The fact remains that the significant number of people who left isolation without a test followed by the amount of time taken to find out what happened and source the data is an appalling failure and we've escaped another outbreak by good luck rather than good management.
There must be no more failures of this nature and i'm certainly pleased that the Minister Woods is now in charge from an oversight perspective rather than the Minister of Health.
Agree totally about Woods-she is a safe pair of hands. But the "appalling failure" line is the media's beat-up take on the situation-see my posts above.
You are correct in that. But nowadays perception prevails over reality much of the time, and the media are driven more by perception. Reality bores too many media consumers. They need more than that. So beat-ups get produced by human nature.
Be assured it is an appalling failure if this kind of stuff up had occurred in a secondary healthcare setting think missing this many cancers etc … there would be hell to pay.
In ODT today headline "quarantine possible in south island" or something and mentions hotels in Queenstown, & Queenstown mayor saying "I don't think so" (paraphrased), so fuk knows what National are on about.
It’s quite odd, Jim Boult, Queenstown Lakes Mayor, was all in favour of overseas students coming into town and doing their 14 days quarantine in Queenstown a couple of weeks ago.
In this morning's interviews Muller doubled down on the Woodhouse claims. He backed his MP so strongly that he can't now separate his own leadership from the allegations. (A more experienced leader would say "he's just asking the questions" or similar waffle, keeping his distance).
If he has evidence that Woodhouse is right, then Muller gets a win. If he doesn't then he is shooting himself in the foot, for no political gain. There are enough real issues with quarantine for National to focus on. They don't need to be making them up.
Woodhouse has backed himself and Muller into a corner, you are right, the only way out now is to comply because Woodhouse already looks slippery as an eel and it's all downhill from here if he tries weasal words again. In one sense I hope they front up with proof it happened, to demonstrate they don't have the best interests of the public in mind at all and are only interested in the political game.
The picture National is trying to paint is that the quarantine system is like a revolving door and people can just walk in and out as they please, all on the Taxpayers’ expense, while having unprotected kisses and cuddles.
National’s homeless person is a variation of their bene bashing theme, a no-hoper bottom-dweller who hacked the system and got something from the Taxpayer that they’re not entitled to without harsh consequences. JC would crush their carton board home, dirty old sleeping bag and all, with a swamp Kauri log covered in milk powder.
The story is a dead cat on the table unless the homeless person is a super spreader, which makes no sense because they have just self-isolated for 14 days in a posh hotel. I’ve heard that those isolation hotels are almost as posh as our prisons. Can somebody please ask National how much it costs per day to be in prison?
I hope they’ll find the homeless person and lock them up in prison. That’ll teach them what welfare is for: hardworking law-abiding citizens who find themselves in trouble through no fault of their own.
I may be wrong but wasn’t the original story based on the person in question not being able to provide an address when leaving isolation. That doesn’t mean they were a homeless person who walked off the street. They may genuinely not have known where they were going to be staying once released if they hadn’t lived in NZ for a while. With friends, family, or they needed a rental. I have family who moved back before lockdown who have been staying at multiple addresses while they work out where they will stay permanently.
If so, the story has morphed somewhat. As stories do. There was a children's game where everyone sat in a circle and the starter whispered something to the person on one side who then repeated the whisper to the child on their other side & so on. When it reached around the circle back to the source the message is never the same as it was.
Assuming Woodhouse is spinning it deliberately seems unfair. However if there was a Nat-sympathiser in the chain of messaging between him and the departmental source, or if that source was a Nat voter, spin becomes understandable.
The claim was that the person was not entitled (or presumably required!) to go into isolation but tagged along behind some people who had come from a flight to quarantine, and was given a room. Whether they were prepared to give an address when leaving is another matter entirely. Woodhouse needs to give his sources of information, or be seen as a liar.
Here is another one calling for perspective and good on Gehan Gunasekara:
Consider the attitudes of many of the very people now criticising the Government for its laxity in managing quarantine facilities towards bureaucracy and red tape. Those on the right of the political spectrum have tended not only to advocate for less regulation of business and society generally but have also blamed excessive regulation and administrative requirements for everything from the lack of affordable housing to business failures.
The new National leadership have been unclear about how much of the baggage they inherited from Bridges/Bennett is still their party's policy.
But we have to assume it still is, unless they tell us it's been dumped. So National still want to have a "bonfire of red tape", and scrap 2 rules for every new one.
Muller on Morning Farce this morning claimed that no evidence that anything actually happened did not mean that there was no evidence that something did happen. On that logic we should just bin the entire Justice system because Everything Did Happen. Or as the greatest philosopher of our time Walter Sobchak in The big Lebowski opines " Say what you like about National (ist ) Socialism Dude, at least it was an ethos ", meaning Todd is obliquely advocating that we should go straight to the firing squad anytime anybody says anything about anybody else.
And of course Universities should bring in overseas students immediately because they have plenty of Houses of Residence where they can isolate them. I'm 71 but I would be joining the thousands of students in the streets protesting that one, should be more fun than the 60s.
Remember those stories a while back about how Ardern was damaging NZ's relationship with Australia? That our reputation would suffer, across the Tasman?
Good to see this. Science is ruled more by convention than discovery – resistance to Gaia remains entrenched in the establishment.
Many meteorology textbooks still teach a caricature of the water cycle, with ocean evaporation responsible for most of the atmospheric moisture that condenses in clouds and falls as rain. The picture ignores the role of vegetation and, in particular, trees, which act like giant water fountains. Their roots capture water from the soil for photosynthesis, and microscopic pores in leaves release unused water as vapor into the air. The process, the arboreal equivalent of sweating, is known as transpiration. In this way, a single mature tree can release hundreds of liters of water a day. With its foliage offering abundant surface area for the exchange, a forest can often deliver more moisture to the air than evaporation from a water body of the same size.
The Amazon flying river is now reckoned to carry as much water as the giant terrestrial river below it, says Antonio Nobre, a climate researcher at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research.
This is paradigm-shifting research, so expect resistance from scientists who need proof to shift them. They will await replication.
China gets 80% of its water from the west, mostly Atlantic moisture recycled by the boreal forests of Scandinavia and Russia. The journey involves several stages—cycles of transpiration followed by downwind rain and subsequent transpiration—and takes 6 months or more. “It contradicted previous knowledge that you learn in high school,” he says. “China is next to an ocean, the Pacific, yet most of its rainfall is moisture recycled from land far to the west.”
I recall being taught the physics of atmospheric convection cells (but recall no details) so it's easy for me to intuitively accept this new paradigm. It deepens our grasp of how Gaia operates as a global system. Then just factor in all the emerging evidence of airborne bacterial flows in the upper levels and you will find it increasingly difficult to retain the old science view that only parts matter. Rejection of whole systems has become increasingly untenable with the rise of the science of complexity.
The Amazon flying river is now reckoned to carry as much water…
There are 'pineapple expresses' everywhere aloft. This summer's Fiordland flooding event, for example. In fact multiple floods in recent times on the West Coast.
Thanks, very interesting. Just described those deriving from Hawaii & northern hemisphere consequences though. Would be good to read the equivalent backgrounder for the effects in Aotearoa you mentioned eh?
I learnt about coriolis during my student days (physics grad) & it derives from global symmetry, but there's more to weather production than the spin of the planet. Land imbalance: more in the north than south. So weather becomes regional in consequence. Dunno how hemispherical assymetry affects/produces upper atmosphere flows…
How interesting. Making rain, making wind. What makes the wind blow?
Hanging washing this morning on a still winter's sunny morning. I played with the idea of making wind so as to get my washing dry and swept the rotary clothes line round and repeated, then change direction. When it stopped the clothes were moving slightly in a small breeze. By creating a small vortex could I affect the weather I wondered. Just a thought.
Looked up wind related things on google. Some of what I found:
For idle reading and learning this stack exchange post about USA parts, calling a very cold wind 'the hawk' is a great example of exchanging info about history and culture and knowledge from the past.
"I played with the idea of making wind so as to get my washing dry and swept the rotary clothes line round and repeated, then change direction."
Do I have the solution for you @Grey!
You just line the current crop of the National Party up adjacent to your clothesline and get them to let loose. Votices and directional changes come naturally
OwT That would require a sheep dog of enormous size and skill. And they would prove to have hollow lungs, even without Covid-19 they would run out of puff, useless puffters.
By the way, in your memory, have you heard of a contraption that can be put on a rotary clothes line to create air movement for faster drying. I think it was based on a spring attached to the line, that stretches and retracts which keeps the line going back and forth. I feel that some nifty craftsman in his shed once came up with that.
Don't be a wimp DMK -it's tiring that some are always looking for something to find fault with.
I was pleased to hear that killing people during rough sex is something that is going to be made illegal in Britain – now that was something to complain about.
Rome wasn't built in a day @Micky. It might have been quicker to have just given him a knighthood along with his BFF in the last QB Honours list, and an offer of some prestigious pozzy on the Whurl stage representing lil 'ole NuZull that punches above its weight.
As far as a quick, 'efficient and effective' option in this space going forward, I'm still not sure why we're not looking/haven't looked at alternative options for passenger travel from that bustling international metropolis of Orcas to the Earport.
Such as maybe getting on with 3rd railing where existing geography allows, and things like Tramtrains – off the heavy rail network at say Papatoetoe, down Wylie Road and then Puhinui Road. Bob's your Auntie. The freight stuff can come later after we've worried ourselves silly considering every other conceivable option.
Could even work in places like Dunners City and points north to Dunners Mosgiel Earport. Even Lyttleton and/or Rolleston to Christ's Church Earport.
Might even work work elsewhere – the Puke via Tearanga to points north.
Great OwT, you should have been writing the reports for this matter.
Seeing nothing was ever going to happen about it, at least the participants could have had a laugh and some lively discussion. And it may have actually led to some really practical ideas. I understand the light rail was going to decimate the shopping areas it went through so that would not have been positive, going forward.
DCC councillors have actually been looking at commuter rail over the recent few years. Apparenlty the delay is because schedulling a trial between heavy freight seasons needs to be done precisely, because it will have to use the main trunk line for the initial mosgiel/dunners (possibly not even palmerston) route
In image I'm viewing it has a wide area – two trains can pass side by side there is a vehicle lane each side; one has one lane plus along kerb parking and the other has two lanes plus a wide red area presumably for cycles, mobility carts.
This Australian farmers initiative is raising funds and worth supporting. It's one of the few positive things coming out of Australia at present. As all of we townies know, farmers are all-knowing and custodians of the land and wouldn't do anything that would harm it, wouldn't make sense would it?
However there may be some farmers who aren't really aware of what they could do better. I think that Australians are getting behind this group with new practices that they have proved work, and so are becoming more effective and more sustainable. Why they may become better at farming than we are, and burst that happy little thought bubble that has been floating above NZ heads for yonks.
So find out what they are doing, the farming fraternity in both countries may yet be able to turn around and adopt better ways that allow them to last out long droughts and high temperatures – Australians farming inland know about those, and we have had a regional taste in recent years.
Woodhouse gets clobbered in Parliament at Question Time and starts to backtrack. This, only hours after Muller was on TV insisting Woodhouse was telling the truth.
It is simply not good enough to shrug and "move on", the media have happily spread the lie, now they need to follow it up and spread the facts.
They seem to be saying that the info came from inside the Health Department. A good exchange of question and answer on QT today ridiculing Woodhouse included across the whole 3minutes. of Q5
Maybe Muller has a deep laid plan to basically kneecap Woodhouse. He keeps supporting him until the allegations prove false then he dumps on him hard, moves him down list places, out of shadow roles etc. Does Woodhouse belong to the same Nact faction as Muller or is he on the far right Judith Collins side?
But is Britain’s sensible, silent majority now awakening from its slumber? Could it be that Poole and Oxford are the first signs of a great conservative fightback?…Sensible small-c conservatism is the prevailing view in Britain – the Tories must not forget this
There are some statues toppled which I think should be thought about rather than Taliban-like torn down in a flurry. But while Conservatives are rallying themselves for a cause, could they do something about the inroads that neolib is having on the UK lower class? If they have a vestige of pride and care for their fellow citizens in their great country, then employ it on behalf of those suffering very poor conditions and treatment from govt.
Further from UK. First they came for Little Britain and I shrugged and said: “Fair enough, I suppose – although they could have just edited out the dodgy sketches and left the rest.”…
Yes, a week of Black Lives Matter-inspired purging of British comedies featuring white performers in blackface has reached its nadir with news that “The Germans” episode of Fawlty Towers has been removed from UKTV’s archives.
Ríu Ríu ChíuRíu Ríu Chíu is a Spanish Christmas song from the 16th Century. The traditional carol would likely have passed unnoticed by the English-speaking world had the made-for-television American band The Monkees not performed the song as part of their special Christmas show back in 1967. The show's ...
Dunedin’s summer thus far has been warm and humid… and it looks like we’re in for a grey Christmas. But it is now officially Christmas Day in this time zone, so never mind. This year, I’ve stumbled across an Old English version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen: It has a population of just under 3.5 million inhabitants, produces nearly 550,000 tons of beef per year, and boasts a glorious soccer reputation with two World ...
Morena all,In my paywalled newsletter yesterday, I signed off for Christmas and wished readers well, but I thought I’d send everyone a quick note this morning.This hasn’t been a good year for our small country. The divisions caused by the Treaty Principles Bill, the cuts to our public sector, increased ...
This morning’s six standouts for me at 6.30 am include:Kāinga Ora is quietly planning to sell over $1 billion worth of state-owned land under 300 state homes in Auckland’s wealthiest suburbs, including around Bastion Point, to give the Government more fiscal room to pay for tax cuts and reduce borrowing.A ...
Hi,It’s my birthday on Christmas Day, and I have a favour to ask.A birthday wish.I would love you to share one Webworm story you’ve liked this year.The simple fact is: apart from paying for a Webworm membership (thank you!), sharing and telling others about this place is the most important ...
The last few days have been a bit too much of a whirl for me to manage a fresh edition each day. It's been that kind of year. Hope you don't mind.I’ve been coming around to thinking that it doesn't really matter if you don't have something to say every ...
The worms will live in every hostIt's hard to pick which one they eat the mostThe horrible people, the horrible peopleIt's as anatomic as the size of your steepleCapitalism has made it this wayOld-fashioned fascism will take it awaySongwriter: Twiggy Ramirez Read more ...
Hi,It’s almost Christmas Day which means it is almost my birthday, where you will find me whimpering in the corner clutching a warm bottle of Baileys.If you’re out of ideas for presents (and truly desperate) then it is possible to gift a full Webworm subscription to a friend (or enemy) ...
This morning’s six standouts for me at 6.30am include:Rachel Helyer Donaldson’s scoop via RNZ last night of cuts to maternity jobs in the health system;Maddy Croad’s scoop via The Press-$ this morning on funding cuts for Christchurch’s biggest food rescue charity;Benedict Collins’ scoop last night via 1News on a last-minute ...
A listing of 25 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 15, 2024 thru Sat, December 21, 2024. Based on feedback we received, this week's roundup is the first one published soleley by category. We are still interested in ...
Well, I've been there, sitting in that same chairWhispering that same prayer half a million timesIt's a lie, though buried in disciplesOne page of the Bible isn't worth a lifeThere's nothing wrong with youIt's true, it's trueThere's something wrong with the villageWith the villageSomething wrong with the villageSongwriters: Andrew Jackson ...
ACT would like to dictate what universities can and can’t say. We knew it was coming. It was outlined in the coalition agreement and has become part of Seymour’s strategy of “emphasising public funding” to prevent people from opposing him and his views—something he also uses to try and de-platform ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Are we heading ...
So the Solstice has arrived – Summer in this part of the world, Winter for the Northern Hemisphere. And with it, the publication my new Norse dark-fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens at Eternal Haunted Summer: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2024/as-our-power-lessens/ As previously noted, this one is very ‘wyrd’, and Northern Theory of Courage. ...
The Natural Choice: As a starter for ten percent of the Party Vote, “saving the planet” is a very respectable objective. Young voters, in particular, raised on the dire (if unheeded) warnings of climate scientists, and the irrefutable evidence of devastating weather events linked to global warming, vote Green. After ...
The Government cancelled 60% of Kāinga Ora’s new builds next year, even though the land for them was already bought, the consents were consented and there are builders unemployed all over the place. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political ...
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashEvery morning I get up at 3am to go around the traps of news sites in Aotearoa and globally. I pick out the top ones from my point of view and have been putting them into my Dawn Chorus email, which goes out with a podcast. ...
Over on Kikorangi Newsroom's Marc Daalder has published his annual OIA stats. So I thought I'd do mine: 82 OIA requests sent in 2024 7 posts based on those requests 20 average working days to receive a response Ministry of Justice was my most-requested entity, ...
Welcome to the December 2024 Economic Bulletin. We have two monthly features in this edition. In the first, we discuss what the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from Treasury and the Budget Policy Statement from the Minister of Finance tell us about the fiscal position and what to ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua. “This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are ...
I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Kiwis planning a swim or heading out on a boat this summer should remember to stop and think about water safety, Sport & Recreation Minister Chris Bishop and ACC and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “New Zealand’s beaches, lakes and rivers are some of the most beautiful in the ...
The Government is urging Kiwis to drive safely this summer and reminding motorists that Police will be out in force to enforce the road rules, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“This time of year can be stressful and result in poor decision-making on our roads. Whether you are travelling to see ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...
The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...
The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...
Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...
Today the House agreed to Brendan Horsley being appointed Inspector-General of Defence, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Mr Horsley’s experience will be invaluable in overseeing the establishment of the new office and its support networks. “He is currently Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, having held that role since June 2020. ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...
The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed further progress on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS), with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approving funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.“The Government is moving at ...
The Government today released a request for information (RFI) to seeking interest in partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned land with low farming and conservation value (excluding National Parks) Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced. “Planting trees on Crown-owned land will drive economic growth by creating more forestry jobs in our regions, providing more wood ...
Court timeliness, access to justice, and improving the quality of existing regulation are the focus of a series of law changes introduced to Parliament today by Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee. The three Bills in the Regulatory Systems (Justice) Amendment Bill package each improve a different part of the ...
A total of 41 appointments and reappointments have been made to the 12 community trusts around New Zealand that serve their regions, Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones says. “These trusts, and the communities they serve from the Far North to the deep south, will benefit from the rich experience, knowledge, ...
The Government has confirmed how it will provide redress to survivors who were tortured at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (the Lake Alice Unit). “The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that many of the 362 children who went through the Lake Alice Unit between 1972 and ...
It has been a busy, productive year in the House as the coalition Government works hard to get New Zealand back on track, Leader of the House Chris Bishop says. “This Government promised to rebuild the economy, restore law and order and reduce the cost of living. Our record this ...
“Accelerated silicosis is an emerging occupational disease caused by unsafe work such as engineered stone benchtops. I am running a standalone consultation on engineered stone to understand what the industry is currently doing to manage the risks, and whether further regulatory intervention is needed,” says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister ...
Mehemea he pai mō te tangata, mahia – if it’s good for the people, get on with it. Enhanced reporting on the public sector’s delivery of Treaty settlement commitments will help improve outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders, Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka says. Compiled together for the ...
Mr Roger Holmes Miller and Ms Tarita Hutchinson have been appointed to the Charities Registration Board, Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Louise Upston says. “I would like to welcome the new members joining the Charities Registration Board. “The appointment of Ms Hutchinson and Mr Miller will strengthen the Board’s capacity ...
More building consent and code compliance applications are being processed within the statutory timeframe since the Government required councils to submit quarterly data, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “In the midst of a housing shortage we need to look at every step of the build process for efficiencies ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is proud to announce the first three recipients of the Government’s $10 million Mental Health and Addiction Community Sector Innovation Fund which will enable more Kiwis faster access to mental health and addiction support. “This fund is part of the Government’s commitment to investing in ...
New Zealand is providing Vanuatu assistance following yesterday's devastating earthquake, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. "Vanuatu is a member of our Pacific family and we are supporting it in this time of acute need," Mr Peters says. "Our thoughts are with the people of Vanuatu, and we will be ...
The Government welcomes the Commerce Commission’s plan to reduce card fees for Kiwis by an estimated $260 million a year, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says.“The Government is relentlessly focused on reducing the cost of living, so Kiwis can keep more of their hard-earned income and live a ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour has welcomed the Early Childhood Education (ECE) regulatory review report, the first major report from the Ministry for Regulation. The report makes 15 recommendations to modernise and simplify regulations across ECE so services can get on with what they do best – providing safe, high-quality care ...
The Government‘s Offshore Renewable Energy Bill to create a new regulatory regime that will enable firms to construct offshore wind generation has passed its first reading in Parliament, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says.“New Zealand currently does not have a regulatory regime for offshore renewable energy as the previous government failed ...
Asia Pacific ReportSilent Night is a well-known Christmas carol that tells of a peaceful and silent night in Bethlehem, referring to the first Christmas more than 2000 years ago. It is now 2024, and it was again a silent night in Bethlehem last night, reports Al Jazeera’s Nisa Ibrahim. ...
Summer resissue: Has the country changed all that much in three decades? Loveni Enari compares his two New Zealands. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member ...
Summer reissue: Alex Casey goes on a killer journey aboard the Tormore Express.The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member today.It was a dark and ...
Summer reissue: Speed puzzling is like a marathon for the mind – intense, demanding, surprisingly exhausting. But does turning it into a sport destroy it as a relaxing pastime? The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read ...
Summer reissue: In October, we counted down the top 100 New Zealand TV shows of the 21st century so far (read more about the process here). Here’s the list in full, for your holiday reading pleasure. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue ...
Summer reissue: Told in one crucial moment from every year, by The Spinoff’s founder Duncan Greive. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member today.2014: An ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 25 December appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The Court of Appeal has dismissed Mike Smith’s “ambitious” climate claim against Attorney-General Judith Collins.Smith, a Māori climate activist, and Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Kahu elder, appealed a High Court decision that found his claims against the Crown – that its action on climate change was inadequate – untenable.The Appeal Court’s ...
Trish McKelvey is listed 139 times in the index of the New Zealand women’s cricket tome The Warm Sun On My Face, authored by Trevor Auger and Adrienne Simpson.She wrote the foreword for the book and headlines two chapters addressing crucial events in the evolution of the sport.McKelvey’s appointment as New Zealand ...
Summer reissue: The New Zealand comedy legend takes us through her life in television, including the time she hugged Elton John and the unshakeable legacy of a girl named Lyn. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please ...
Summer reissue: You really won’t guess how it ends. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member today. First published October 4, 2024. Parliament’s Economic Development, Science ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary-Rose McLaren, Professor of Teaching and Learning and Head of Program, Early Childhood Education, Victoria University Collin Quinn Lomax/ Shutterstock Some years ago, my daughter was set a maths problem: how much does it cost to drive a family of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine E. Wood, Associate Professor and Clinical Psychologist, Swinburne University of Technology Asier Romero/ Shutterstock Christmas is coming, and with it many challenges for parents of young children. You likely have one festive event after another, late nights, party ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Nicole Driessen, Postdoctoral Researcher in Radio Astronomy, University of Sydney Tayla Walsh/Pexels With billions of children around the world anxiously waiting for their presents, Father Christmas (or Santa) and his reindeer must be travelling at breakneck speeds to deliver them ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Higgins, Professor & Director, Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University Feeling unsure about your child going to a sleepover is completely normal. You might be worried about how well you know the host family, how they manage supervision or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Senior Lecturer of Urban Risk & Resilience, UNSW Sydney Exactly 50 years ago, on Christmas Eve 1974, Cyclone Tracy struck Darwin and left a trail of devastation. It remains one of the most destructive natural events in Australia’s history. Wind ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Irmine Keta Rotimi, Doctoral Candidate, Marketing and International Business department, Auckland University of Technology Videos of children opening boxes of toys and playing with them have become a feature of online marketing – making stars out of children as young as two. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanna Nicholas, Lecturer in Dance and Performance Science, Edith Cowan University Tatyana Vyc/Shutterstock Once the end-of-year dance concert and term wrap up for the year it is important to take a break. Both physical and mental rest are important and taking ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kit MacFarlane, Lecturer, Creative Writing and Literature, University of South Australia Capitol Records For those looking to introduce some musical conflict into the holidays, Bob Dylan’s Christmas in the Heart remains a great choice in its 15th anniversary – like it ...
Opinion: It was February 2024 when my friends started getting in touch with me to suggest I run for the Tauranga City Council mayoralty. At the time, the council was governed by four Government-appointed commissioners, who had been in their roles since 2021. Their terms were coming to an end ...
Opinion: As the year winds down and we pause for some reflection, I find myself, as chair of the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand, contemplating the unprecedented hatred aimed at Jewish New Zealanders. Antisemitism – the prejudice, discrimination or hostility directed at Jews – has snowballed to record levels, so much ...
Summer reissue: Joy Cowley reveals her enthralling life story, from a difficult childhood, to getting drunk with Roald Dahl, to encountering an Arctic polar bear. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and ...
Summer reissue: Alex Casey chats to Nadia Lim and Carlos Bagrie about the challenges of life on a 1,200-acre farm in Central Otago, and why they continue to share it with the nation in Nadia’s Farm. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue ...
Summer reissue: Dominion Road has made a name for itself as a destination for authentic, regionally-specific Chinese food. How did it get here?The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 24 December appeared first on Newsroom. ...
By Emma Andrews, Henare te Ua Māori journalism intern at RNZ News From being the headline to creating them, Moana Maniapoto has walked a rather rocky road of swinging between both sides of the media. Known for her award-winning current affairs show Te Ao with Moana on Whakaata Māori, and ...
Kick Back has growing concerns about the impact that denying young people access to shelter is having on the mental health and physical safety of the young people we serve. ...
By Litia Cava, FBC News multimedia journalist Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has revealed how arms and ammunition used to conduct the 1987 military coup were secretly brought into Fiji on board a naval survey ship. Speaking at the commissioning of a new research vessel for the Lands and Mineral ...
Youth advocates are worried tighter rules for emergency housing could lead to someone dying due to the impacts on mental health and physical safety for those denied shelter. ...
“We urge the Health Select Committee to extend the date for submissions,” concluded Rev Bush. “There is too much at stake to leave the outcome of this review only in the hands of politicians or those with vested interests.” ...
A separate passport, citizenship and membership of the United Nations are only available to fully independent nations, Winston Peters' office says. ...
By Emma Andrews, Henare te Ua Māori Journalism Intern at RNZ News The New Zealand fuel company Z Energy is swapping out street names for “correct” kupu on service stops around the country, with the help of local hapū. When Z took over 226 fuel sites from Shell in 2010, ...
Summer reissue: Was it a false measurement, a full-blown conspiracy or just some mild incompetence? Mad Chapman uncovers the truth of Maddi Wesche’s final throw. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and ...
Looking at the demands of returning Kiwis. To be honest, they have made the runner when things got tough years back instead of contributing and pulling up the sleeves. Now that the going gets tough at the other end, they come home asking the taxpayer to foot the bill for all their needs. Really?
Well, my vote is now going to Winston, hands down. The only one not espousing political correct nonsense but rather dealing with the obvious. Logic and reason please.
That irony, coming back because we've been so successful in fighting this, yet not willing to help with that fight. Again, grateful to those that are just getting on with it, and all the staff and support people dealing with this, thank you.
Or they could have just been on their OE
Yet waited til now to come back …
I guess the consolation is that a few Student Loan Dodgers will get their comeuppance.
I can remember Winston telling the Kiwis abroad to come back home.
Maybe the military should set up a tent / container city on an isolated island (maybe an unused ex-prison place). No fags, no booze, three meals from a field kitchen. That's the free option for returning Kiwis, otherwise you pay (and complain to) the quarantine hotel management, which is a private business, instead bitching and moaning about the government not providing you champagne and caviar for breakfast.
They probably want first class public government services and tax cuts at the same time.
I agree with that, as I said on another post reopen Somes Island.
Because obviously wealthy 'kiwis' should be able to buy a luxury quarantine.
I know of two New Zealanders that were not able to get to the "rescue" from China, and are still in China, hoping to be able to get to New Zealand in July, depending on flights . . .
The suggestion to return was heeded by a lot of New Zealanders – flights here were filled very quickly, and some may not have heard the warning in time. Certainly we now know there were a very large number of New Zealanders who were not able to get back to NZ at that time.
Or unwilling… when the NZ government took COVID seriously and sent out clear warning signs, most other countries played the impacts of the pandemic down.
While some might have "missed the boat/plane", as you describe, many overseas Kiwis ignored those warning and only now, after so many countries are seriously impacted, they decide to come home.
Also interesting to note, that in the early stages the incoming people would have had to organise their own self-isolation accommodation, either squeeze in with NZ family, pay for rental home or pay for a hotel. So not sure why they seriously expect the government to pay for their 2 week isolation/quarantine luxury hotels (like Stamford, Pullman, Novotel, which cost – when I stayed their last for work – several hundreds of dollars a day!).
But Winston invited them back.
That was a month ago and yes, perhaps the flights are cancelled but some repatriate flights were undertaken.
The point is: Many NZlaenders were going overseas because the grass was greener and they felt they did not get enough money to compensate for their work in their home country. Many were also fleeing the student loan repayments. Some might have gone on an OE.
In all cases – I bluntly refuse to pay for their keep. Full stop, end of story.
I saw, on One News last night, Todd say "it's a national disgrace". The meme must be stuck in his head now: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/419646/covid-19-national-party-demands-answers-on-covid-19-testing-in-isolation
I mused that it was rather unfair of the Nat leader to call National a disgrace when the quarantine shambles was a govt failure. I wonder how many others did likewise. Tricky, these contagious complex memes, they get into peoples heads and do their subversive thing. Perhaps Todd needs a competent media adviser? Oh wait, he's got Hooton for that… 🤩
Muller taking the, 'we don't have to prove it, just trust us' line.
Not sure that will wash with most Kiwis weary of National Party untruths over the last 12 years.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/06/coronavirus-todd-muller-backs-michael-woodhouse-despite-doubt-over-homeless-man-claim.html
""it's a national disgrace" I see. You mean "its a National disgrace." So right.
mullers one liner reminds me of a protest sign that I've used for a couple of elections… it reads
"nick smith is a national disaster"
Apocalypse now? No. Soon? Maybe – another pandemic, driven by a more contagious bug could do it. Eventually? Yeah, later this century though, so no worries…
Notes from an Apocalypse: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/mark-o-connell-interview-the-notes-from-an-apocalypse-to-be-a-machine-a9578961.html
Sounds like he's got the right idea. The world has always been part imaginal, part real. It's how the psyche operates. To co-create a better world we must first imagine it.
Thankfully the world's remaining centrists, liberals and statists will save us.
Dennis is right, I can’t imagine Hell on Earth without gatekeepers to keep a lid on things the way they are. If not for them, all Hell would break loose.
Has it not broken loose?
Ain't seen nothing yet. Plenty left behind that could still break loose.
Corin Dann doing a good job on Morning Report right now asking Muller why the border control system is broken when NZ has no community transmission at all. Muller floundering.
National’s problem is that they are attacking border controls that, by and large, are working very well.
Chris Trotter’s latest article on Bowalley Road is very odd where it attacks Labour’s performance and supports National’s hollow claims. Talk about over-egging it.
Ahh no they weren't that's why JA put the military in charge, sorted now.
We have consistent themes; strong leadership from JA, DP and media assisted spin from national.
Woodhouse and his politics over people needs to be held accountable on behalf of honest kiwis if nothing else…..rip open the deception.
Note the "are working very well"…..earlier for a short period they were slow to implement the 3-day and 12-day testing but without military involvement I think this would have happened anyway.
So there was a small window where border controls were less-than-adequate but (as you say tc) this was quickly fixed. (Megan Woods was superb on Morning Report yesterday).
Muller and Woodhouse are whinging about controls that have prevented any community transmission-that is the acid test.
If Muller is floundering all it proves is that he is a git.
The fact remains that the significant number of people who left isolation without a test followed by the amount of time taken to find out what happened and source the data is an appalling failure and we've escaped another outbreak by good luck rather than good management.
There must be no more failures of this nature and i'm certainly pleased that the Minister Woods is now in charge from an oversight perspective rather than the Minister of Health.
Agree totally about Woods-she is a safe pair of hands. But the "appalling failure" line is the media's beat-up take on the situation-see my posts above.
You are correct in that. But nowadays perception prevails over reality much of the time, and the media are driven more by perception. Reality bores too many media consumers. They need more than that. So beat-ups get produced by human nature.
There’s also this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law
So 90% of journos will always be crap. Labour MPs likewise. Nat MPs? More than 95%. 😎
Agreed Dennis. Siouxsie Wills is doing a good job of putting the issue in perspective on Morning Report right now-well worth a listen.
Be assured it is an appalling failure if this kind of stuff up had occurred in a secondary healthcare setting think missing this many cancers etc … there would be hell to pay.
"This many cancers"
And how many is that?
🙄
If cancers were contagious.
Are you retarded ?
Wash your mouth out.
National knew there was no testing pre the move to Level 1 and argued for a move to Level 1 long before this was done – they are empty suits.
National say they would be more competent but the faulty repairs to houses in the Canterbury earthquake show National would be worse.
The report shows most repairs were as bad as the leaky homes another National failure.
Woodhouse should put up or shut up!
Natz more compeent.
HUH
Remember when the NATZ back in feb? wanted
To Have a bonfire of regulations
AND
Tax cuts.
And NZ should open the borders to foster trade and allow thousands of students in.
Tens of thousands of students
In ODT today headline "quarantine possible in south island" or something and mentions hotels in Queenstown, & Queenstown mayor saying "I don't think so" (paraphrased), so fuk knows what National are on about.
It’s quite odd, Jim Boult, Queenstown Lakes Mayor, was all in favour of overseas students coming into town and doing their 14 days quarantine in Queenstown a couple of weeks ago.
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/southland/quarantine-students-queenstown-plan-backedhttps://www.odt.co.nz/regions/southland/quarantine-students-queenstown-plan-backed
In this morning's interviews Muller doubled down on the Woodhouse claims. He backed his MP so strongly that he can't now separate his own leadership from the allegations. (A more experienced leader would say "he's just asking the questions" or similar waffle, keeping his distance).
If he has evidence that Woodhouse is right, then Muller gets a win. If he doesn't then he is shooting himself in the foot, for no political gain. There are enough real issues with quarantine for National to focus on. They don't need to be making them up.
Surely the easiest way to show that Woodhouse is right is to comply with Wood request.
Woodhouse has backed himself and Muller into a corner, you are right, the only way out now is to comply because Woodhouse already looks slippery as an eel and it's all downhill from here if he tries weasal words again. In one sense I hope they front up with proof it happened, to demonstrate they don't have the best interests of the public in mind at all and are only interested in the political game.
The picture National is trying to paint is that the quarantine system is like a revolving door and people can just walk in and out as they please, all on the Taxpayers’ expense, while having unprotected kisses and cuddles.
Right or wrong, Labour should be pushing the issue of the expense Woodlouse is putting the public to with his coyness.
National’s homeless person is a variation of their bene bashing theme, a no-hoper bottom-dweller who hacked the system and got something from the Taxpayer that they’re not entitled to without harsh consequences. JC would crush their carton board home, dirty old sleeping bag and all, with a swamp Kauri log covered in milk powder.
The story is a dead cat on the table unless the homeless person is a super spreader, which makes no sense because they have just self-isolated for 14 days in a posh hotel. I’ve heard that those isolation hotels are almost as posh as our prisons. Can somebody please ask National how much it costs per day to be in prison?
I hope they’ll find the homeless person and lock them up in prison. That’ll teach them what welfare is for: hardworking law-abiding citizens who find themselves in trouble through no fault of their own.
I may be wrong but wasn’t the original story based on the person in question not being able to provide an address when leaving isolation. That doesn’t mean they were a homeless person who walked off the street. They may genuinely not have known where they were going to be staying once released if they hadn’t lived in NZ for a while. With friends, family, or they needed a rental. I have family who moved back before lockdown who have been staying at multiple addresses while they work out where they will stay permanently.
If so, the story has morphed somewhat. As stories do. There was a children's game where everyone sat in a circle and the starter whispered something to the person on one side who then repeated the whisper to the child on their other side & so on. When it reached around the circle back to the source the message is never the same as it was.
Assuming Woodhouse is spinning it deliberately seems unfair. However if there was a Nat-sympathiser in the chain of messaging between him and the departmental source, or if that source was a Nat voter, spin becomes understandable.
Seems perfectly fair to assume a woodlouse doesn't change its stripes.
The claim was that the person was not entitled (or presumably required!) to go into isolation but tagged along behind some people who had come from a flight to quarantine, and was given a room. Whether they were prepared to give an address when leaving is another matter entirely. Woodhouse needs to give his sources of information, or be seen as a liar.
Here is another one calling for perspective and good on Gehan Gunasekara:
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/06/24/1245867/well-need-that-red-tape-if-we-want-to-beat-covid?utm_source=Friends+of+the+Newsroom&utm_campaign=e74bfd9258-Daily+Briefing+23.6.20_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_71de5c4b35-e74bfd9258-95522477
Yes, good piece.
The new National leadership have been unclear about how much of the baggage they inherited from Bridges/Bennett is still their party's policy.
But we have to assume it still is, unless they tell us it's been dumped. So National still want to have a "bonfire of red tape", and scrap 2 rules for every new one.
Muller on Morning Farce this morning claimed that no evidence that anything actually happened did not mean that there was no evidence that something did happen. On that logic we should just bin the entire Justice system because Everything Did Happen. Or as the greatest philosopher of our time Walter Sobchak in The big Lebowski opines " Say what you like about National (ist ) Socialism Dude, at least it was an ethos ", meaning Todd is obliquely advocating that we should go straight to the firing squad anytime anybody says anything about anybody else.
And of course Universities should bring in overseas students immediately because they have plenty of Houses of Residence where they can isolate them. I'm 71 but I would be joining the thousands of students in the streets protesting that one, should be more fun than the 60s.
Remember those stories a while back about how Ardern was damaging NZ's relationship with Australia? That our reputation would suffer, across the Tasman?
Let's ask the Australians how that panned out …
https://poll.lowyinstitute.org/charts/confidence-in-political-leaders
"So-called flying rivers are prevailing winds that pick up water vapor exhaled by forests and deliver rains to distant water basins."
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/controversial-russian-theory-claims-forests-don-t-just-make-rain-they-make-wind?
Good to see this. Science is ruled more by convention than discovery – resistance to Gaia remains entrenched in the establishment.
This is paradigm-shifting research, so expect resistance from scientists who need proof to shift them. They will await replication.
I recall being taught the physics of atmospheric convection cells (but recall no details) so it's easy for me to intuitively accept this new paradigm. It deepens our grasp of how Gaia operates as a global system. Then just factor in all the emerging evidence of airborne bacterial flows in the upper levels and you will find it increasingly difficult to retain the old science view that only parts matter. Rejection of whole systems has become increasingly untenable with the rise of the science of complexity.
Agreed. Nice response, Dennis. My fellow councillors were somewhat less forthcoming with encouraging words 🙂
Would be a waste of time telling them that even dinosaurs can dance. Would be fun watching them try to process that though! 🤣
There are 'pineapple expresses' everywhere aloft. This summer's Fiordland flooding event, for example. In fact multiple floods in recent times on the West Coast.
Thanks, very interesting. Just described those deriving from Hawaii & northern hemisphere consequences though. Would be good to read the equivalent backgrounder for the effects in Aotearoa you mentioned eh?
I learnt about coriolis during my student days (physics grad) & it derives from global symmetry, but there's more to weather production than the spin of the planet. Land imbalance: more in the north than south. So weather becomes regional in consequence. Dunno how hemispherical assymetry affects/produces upper atmosphere flows…
How interesting. Making rain, making wind. What makes the wind blow?
Hanging washing this morning on a still winter's sunny morning. I played with the idea of making wind so as to get my washing dry and swept the rotary clothes line round and repeated, then change direction. When it stopped the clothes were moving slightly in a small breeze. By creating a small vortex could I affect the weather I wondered. Just a thought.
Looked up wind related things on google. Some of what I found:
For idle reading and learning this stack exchange post about USA parts, calling a very cold wind 'the hawk' is a great example of exchanging info about history and culture and knowledge from the past.
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/481458/origin-of-the-saying-the-hawk-is-out
New ideas called for in the green economy – this one, what to do with old wind turbines.
https://www.politico.eu/article/small-old-wind-towers-make-for-big-new-problems 2018
and
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51325101 What happens to all the old wind turbines? 2020
This on google was interesting – ebook. "The Botanical Lore of the California Indians: with Side Lights on Historical …By John Bruno Romero"
On weather – folk lore: https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/22-old-weather-proverbs-that-are-actually-true/
Interesting on google: ‘The Lore of New Mexico by Marta Weigle and Peter White’
Apparently there was a Little Ice Age between 1450-1850 and that affected New Mexico and resulted in some extreme weather conditions. Studying those and how they dealt with them could be informative for now – my thought.
Publisher:Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, ©2003.
At the Victoria University of Wellington, Kelburn Library.
"I played with the idea of making wind so as to get my washing dry and swept the rotary clothes line round and repeated, then change direction."
Do I have the solution for you @Grey!
You just line the current crop of the National Party up adjacent to your clothesline and get them to let loose. Votices and directional changes come naturally
OwT That would require a sheep dog of enormous size and skill. And they would prove to have hollow lungs, even without Covid-19 they would run out of puff, useless puffters.
By the way, in your memory, have you heard of a contraption that can be put on a rotary clothes line to create air movement for faster drying. I think it was based on a spring attached to the line, that stretches and retracts which keeps the line going back and forth. I feel that some nifty craftsman in his shed once came up with that.
"useless puffters" – sailing a bit close to the wind there, but I like your style.
Don't be a wimp DMK -it's tiring that some are always looking for something to find fault with.
I was pleased to hear that killing people during rough sex is something that is going to be made illegal in Britain – now that was something to complain about.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018751998/uk-to-ban-rough-sex-gone-wrong-should-new-zealand-follow
You've ‘outed‘ me Grey; I am indeed a wimp, although I can be persuaded to 'get in behind' just causes.
MoT have just put put a note saying that Cabinet have failed to agree on a light rail decision, so it will be put to the next government.
Part of me says that sanity has prevailed, the other part says OMG another transport non-delivery.
Bloody Winston …
what would the Labour Party do without 'bloody winston'? Maybe try harder to get consensus? lol
Among others:
– The senior NZSuperfund execs who actively sabotaged the NZTA proposal.
– Twyford for entertaining the alternative in the first place
– Treasury for not stomping all over this with boots
– Infrastructure Commission for being conspicuously silent
– MoT and DPMC for not smacking heads together well before it got to the Cabinet table.
and of course…
– The Greens for getting smashed on a key transport issue, again
It's a big loss for the thousands who would have been employed on the job as well.
Rome wasn't built in a day @Micky. It might have been quicker to have just given him a knighthood along with his BFF in the last QB Honours list, and an offer of some prestigious pozzy on the Whurl stage representing lil 'ole NuZull that punches above its weight.
As far as a quick, 'efficient and effective' option in this space going forward, I'm still not sure why we're not looking/haven't looked at alternative options for passenger travel from that bustling international metropolis of Orcas to the Earport.
Such as maybe getting on with 3rd railing where existing geography allows, and things like Tramtrains – off the heavy rail network at say Papatoetoe, down Wylie Road and then Puhinui Road. Bob's your Auntie. The freight stuff can come later after we've worried ourselves silly considering every other conceivable option.
Could even work in places like Dunners City and points north to Dunners Mosgiel Earport. Even Lyttleton and/or Rolleston to Christ's Church Earport.
Might even work work elsewhere – the Puke via Tearanga to points north.
Patience! These things take time!!
Great OwT, you should have been writing the reports for this matter.
Seeing nothing was ever going to happen about it, at least the participants could have had a laugh and some lively discussion. And it may have actually led to some really practical ideas. I understand the light rail was going to decimate the shopping areas it went through so that would not have been positive, going forward.
DCC councillors have actually been looking at commuter rail over the recent few years. Apparenlty the delay is because schedulling a trial between heavy freight seasons needs to be done precisely, because it will have to use the main trunk line for the initial mosgiel/dunners (possibly not even palmerston) route
It is not only Winston’s fault…the Nats should be backing this too…look at the fantastic light-rail system they have put in in recent years in Sydney
Light rail in Sydney.
https://sydneylightrail.transport.nsw.gov.au/
In image I'm viewing it has a wide area – two trains can pass side by side there is a vehicle lane each side; one has one lane plus along kerb parking and the other has two lanes plus a wide red area presumably for cycles, mobility carts.
Wikpedia on it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_rail_in_Sydney
OK Winston you classic Boomer. You've had some good moments and some not so good.
https://twitter.com/kylemacd/status/1275575719838355457?s=21
This Australian farmers initiative is raising funds and worth supporting. It's one of the few positive things coming out of Australia at present. As all of we townies know, farmers are all-knowing and custodians of the land and wouldn't do anything that would harm it, wouldn't make sense would it?
However there may be some farmers who aren't really aware of what they could do better. I think that Australians are getting behind this group with new practices that they have proved work, and so are becoming more effective and more sustainable. Why they may become better at farming than we are, and burst that happy little thought bubble that has been floating above NZ heads for yonks.
So find out what they are doing, the farming fraternity in both countries may yet be able to turn around and adopt better ways that allow them to last out long droughts and high temperatures – Australians farming inland know about those, and we have had a regional taste in recent years.
https://themullooninstitute.org/donate
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwJWXQcJfqjJtSqLfBhdBNMPwJD
It's drawing people in to tell the story. So why not take the opportunity to listen?
https://themullooninstitute.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsJjHtfJv1c
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1woTLy4m2uw
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRPsS_Y36zM
Woodhouse gets clobbered in Parliament at Question Time and starts to backtrack. This, only hours after Muller was on TV insisting Woodhouse was telling the truth.
It is simply not good enough to shrug and "move on", the media have happily spread the lie, now they need to follow it up and spread the facts.
They seem to be saying that the info came from inside the Health Department. A good exchange of question and answer on QT today ridiculing Woodhouse included across the whole 3minutes. of Q5
https://ondemand.parliament.nz/parliament-tv-on-demand/?itemId=213277
Maybe Muller has a deep laid plan to basically kneecap Woodhouse. He keeps supporting him until the allegations prove false then he dumps on him hard, moves him down list places, out of shadow roles etc. Does Woodhouse belong to the same Nact faction as Muller or is he on the far right Judith Collins side?
Popcorn is toasting.
I look forward on labour campaigning on how they can deliver ….. anything they promise.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
At least ya won't get spaghetti and pineapple.
Tbh, I'd settle for Labour and National not campaigning on lies.
Find the $11.7 billion fiscal hole – come on boy, find it!
https://thestandard.org.nz/about-the-7-5-billion-surplus/
Nice to see you again James. You know better than to troll my posts though.
edit
Dear me.
But is Britain’s sensible, silent majority now awakening from its slumber? Could it be that Poole and Oxford are the first signs of a great conservative fightback?…Sensible small-c conservatism is the prevailing view in Britain – the Tories must not forget this
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/11/poole-oxford-seeing-first-stirrings-silent-majority/
There are some statues toppled which I think should be thought about rather than Taliban-like torn down in a flurry. But while Conservatives are rallying themselves for a cause, could they do something about the inroads that neolib is having on the UK lower class? If they have a vestige of pride and care for their fellow citizens in their great country, then employ it on behalf of those suffering very poor conditions and treatment from govt.
Further from UK.
First they came for Little Britain and I shrugged and said: “Fair enough, I suppose – although they could have just edited out the dodgy sketches and left the rest.”…
Yes, a week of Black Lives Matter-inspired purging of British comedies featuring white performers in blackface has reached its nadir with news that “The Germans” episode of Fawlty Towers has been removed from UKTV’s archives.
It’s a move as misguided as Basil Fawlty mounting a stuffed moose head on the wall or thrashing his Austin Countryman with a tree branch….
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/ze-germans-can-see-joke-fawlty-towers-earth-cant/
Kia Ora
Newshub.
Learning more about Aotearoa history.
Drones spotting Sharks it's cool how new technologies changes the Papatuanuku..
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora
Te Ao Maori Marama.
Its good to see more Wahine Shearing the leadership roles.
Cartoons being made in Te reo is good.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora
The Am Show.
That's great.
Duncan you can't count.
The Labour lead government has handled the virus issues much better than the previous government could dream of.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora
Newshub.
A tornado wow.
That's good to hear Tova.
That's the way welcome home be kind.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora
Te Ao Maori Marama.
I just hope Maori journalists get more putea for their mahi.
Toi tu toi ora contemporary art looks awesome is is great to see more Maori toi.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora
Newshub.
Yes lawyers can chew through the cash in litigation cases.
That's is cool the timelaps video of the Sun.
Ka kite Ano