Looking at the photo of the Parliamentary Stage with 9 flags a V shaped seating pattern and the lectern/podium, one is reminded of "Let the TRUMPets sound".
So Chief Pirate, Lord Luxon will proclaim.
Let the Raiding begin….
and the tide begin to go back out on his 3 patched raggle-taggle ship of state, as we are presented with the motley crew and a list of their victims.
I love the way Dunne quotes Many Rice-Davies, referencing a long forgotten scandal from sixty years ago that accidentally reminds us of what an anachronism he is.
Doubtful as gen z seems to be the opposite of gen y and lean more libertarian.
If anything politics is becoming for all generations, male vs female.
The left globally have absolutely lost the ability to speak to male voters, but the right still gets enough female voters to win elections.
Labour and the greens got bugger all votes from heterosexual males.
The left have abandoned collectivist equity based universal social democratic economic policies and replaced them with factional oppression Olympics identity politics.
Since the 2016 usa election, all the global left seems to do is scream about patriarchy, all men being rapists (hey marama), decolonization, lgbt+, race, abstract post modern theories of privilege, attack free speech and try to deplatform anyone they disagree with…
Totally unappealing.
And the left has no good male role models anymore, it's all very very very academic wine sipping nerds with no spine.
If the left had any brains it'd have the charismatic, young bogan Kieren Mcnullty as leader of the Labour party and seek out as many candidates like him as possible, he is the only candidate in Labour I can see winning over male voters and Labour needs a lot more of people like him and a lot less upper middle class robot professional student politicians
I think there's a fair bit of caricature and exaggeration in how you say that – but I agree with much of the underlying sentiment. I'd note though that the real poseurs now drink craft beer, rather than sipping wine, and it's the right that are the most notorious cancelers of unwelcome opinion, not the left.
You've drunk all the kool aid produced by the right wing narrative about the left as a feminist project – it's not a surprise that gay men are as vulnerable to it as some working class men (a privileged place in society over – as per women is all they had/have).
The thing is they also connect it to being a feminist socialist project – as per Perigo (the libertarian against a society order in either the personal life or economics) and onto Bridge.
A radio person in Auckland finished today and gets to have a goodbye in the Herald.
Kate Hawkesby comments on the awesome responsibility. "I’ll never forget when the Queen died and my producer just said in my ear, ‘The Queen’s dead’, that was it.It was just this surreal moment of, ‘Whoa, I have to communicate this breaking news’."
Yep, that's up there with brain surgery.
"The media landscape has changed drastically since I began. The insatiable 24/7 demand for clicks and content has, I believe, seen quality suffer," she says. Well, bugger me, that's a surprise. And to give context praises her husband with close reference to the previous government and Covid.
Regularly MediaWatch on RNZ featured his distortions, the 180° switcheroos and all over the shop logic with him. Quality suffer? What?
Far Right PVV party leader Geert Wilders good result in the Dutch elections is a worry. Wilders is an Islamophobe, hates immigrants etc. But contrary to the usual stupid headlines PVV has not "won". He has 37 seats where 76 are needed to form a government and most of the other parties have said that they will not work with PVV.
One Dutch expert predicts the final makeup of parliament here:
“Sarah de Lange, professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam, said the most likely outcome appears to be a right-wing government comprised of the PVV, Rutte’s conservative VVD Party, and Pieter Omtzigt’s New Social Contract party, which was formed in August with a pledge to “do politics differently.” This would likely require Wilders to give up the most extreme components of his manifesto, which include proposals to bring immigration to zero, ban the Quran and close mosques, many of which are unconstitutional….”
The GreenLeft-Labour Alliance did quite well getting 25 seats. One can only hope all the parties shun Wilders and form a coalition government with this alliance.
It's terrifying and happened in Sweeden and is due to happen in Germany where the AFD is polling more than their Labour, green, act coalition Combined.
Not working with these parties isn't sustainable in the long term because they keep growing.
It's deeply insane that this has been going on for the better part of a decade and the establishment, progressive, moderate and conservative parties of the world haven't bothered to try to find a way to combat it.
It's all a symptom of the economic fallout of the working and middle classes and systemic cultural shock from globalization, it's crazy that the mainstream left refuses to seriously address these issues in either a real politik or populist way as these are usually our traditional voters and instead of winning them over we finger wag and talk about how great globalization is because you can get cheap whitewear and "diversity is our strength"
Well, John Campbell will be very pleased that we will have a new Government.
I heard a story, although admittedly not from a terribly reliable source, that he has had a camera crew on standby for the last couple of weeks to start filming children living in cars. That was of course part of his stock in trade about 6 years ago.
The problem has been that until the new Ministerial roles have been announced he hasn't been able to waylay the Minister with questions demanding to know what is being done about it. Expect some stories by late next week. There are many more children in the situation today than there were back in 2017 I believe.
The number of children living in cars is very difficult to give an authoritative figure for as the Department wouldn't give a firm figure during the Labour years. The closest they would come out with was the number of families who were living in cars.
However here are a couple of stories that were published.
"The number of children listed as may be living in cars has gone from 51 at the end of 2017, to 228 in June this year (2022).
The numbers are pulled when people apply for help from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD). People are asked where they're living and if they have children."
"Shocking figures revealed yesterday when Labour admitted there are now 480 families living in cars compared to 102 when they entered Government in 2017."
Labour lifted 77,000 children out of poverty. Links @ 5.1.1.1
"She cast doubt on the use of the figure – 480 applicants for emergency housing living in cars – suggesting because it was “cumulative” and people were not moved off this list until they had permanent housing, so many may not be currently living in cars"
"The figure that the member is putting forth to us and using to assume there's an increase in the number of people living in cars, I'm told, is not an accurate way of capturing that data. What we are doing is building our way out of a housing crisis that we inherited that was created by that member's Government.”
are you meaning a dump of information on a friday, or, the government looks like it is a dump, or, looks the results of someone taking a dump on friday?
The National flag on the table is bigger than the other two flags, however the NZ First flag is above the other two and the ACT flag whilst lower and smaller has a stand that has three steps instead of two and it is higher. The National flag in in the middle, with the ACT flag on the right and NZ Flag on the left except on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when they take turns at being in the middle. Half way through the term NZ First and ACT flags will swop sides. National's flag is made in China, NZ First's flag came in an unmarked brown envelope along with $250,000 and a box of frozen Hoki fillets, and ACTs flag came in a Zuru box with $500,000 and a thank you note from Nick Mowbray.
According to Seymour, they are going to do "good for ALL New Zealanders ". Is that all rich/white/politicians/landlords he's referring to? Nothing like starting off your term with blatant lying.
Almost like they're the shadow opposite of a shallow, feckless, incompetent bunch of d-grade managers who bulk-funded us through a couple of crises, pushed waaay beyond any Overton window then rapidly fell apart in a year, and now sit on the steaming wreckage with not a note of apology.
So in comparison to a one (arguably, two) term government…..
And, anyone who believed that Key was concerned over National ‘losing’ the Mt Roskill by-election (one of the Labour Red Wall Auckland electorates – until Wood self-destructed amid the Labour collapse in 2023) – is entirely self-deluded.
It wasn't in comparison to a 2 term government. Who is the deluded one here? I just stated a fact, it is irrelevant that you didn't like it. Unlike you, I am not the one dreaming up a scenario that never happened.
It wasn't about the terms of government though. What I said was that Ad's post describes the key government, which didn't specify 'terms' and you are the one making up a scenario about Key that didn't happen.
He was, however, polling *substantially* (like 20%) above any of the other candidates.
And (setting aside the very weird and unlikely to be true Digipol results (in the mid 60s) – his polling stayed around 38-40 for most of 2015 (when the ponytail saga broke) – not showing any shift in the preferred PM ratings.
For comparison, Helen Clark was about the same (mid 30s) in 2008 when she was in her 3rd term. The problem for her, was that John Key was polling equal or better.
Fucking should have though, greasy powerful man gets away with repeatedly making young working girl feel uncomfortable, do to any girl I know and you would need police protection alright.
Revanchist policies. Exactly. Undoing all work done in a spiteful nasty way. Those three remind me of a pack of dogs, peeing on each post to mark their territory.
The allocation of portfolios… some who have been in Parliament since 2014 holding none, suddenly with 3 or 4. How will that work? Doocey case in point. Leader of the House.. Chris Bishop. Speaker Gerry Brownlee.Tama Potaka loaded with all things Maori… because Dr. Reti will have Health. This looks like a house of straw rather than a "Strong and Stable Government".
On a religious note Judith Collins has had her prayers answered. Resurrection indeed.
In light of the three clown’s coalition announcement this morning, Community groups, NGOs, unions and ordinary people have to organise and support each other. It is going to be a tougher time for the bottom 50% that have barely 5% of the wealth.
Various public sector unions were happy to take extensive strike action with a Labour Govt. they will quickly expose themselves if they do move on NActFirst promptly to fight cuts, clawbacks and sackings.
Working class people are going to be hit hard, and Māori especially. Bye bye to the incremental reforms from Labour. Unfortunately it “woz Nuzilundas wot dun it to thumselfs” this time. Three years of no winter energy payment, minimum wage rises, or free prescriptions will hopefully give some of the numpties and Jacinda haters time to reflect.
If it's got the balls then Labour has just been given a considerable opportunity. Nothing from what clearly is going to be a deeply unserious government will do anything to address the economic, social and climate issues facing NZ.
Luxon looks like he wants to go back to 2017 and stay there, Seymour is determined to cling to zombie neoliberalism with a nasty dollop of GOP style racism, and Peters will do little except bicker with the press and engage in casual corruption. The only thing uniting them is culture war issues.
Labour needs to shed neoliberal centrism & incrementalism, embrace the muscular state to regulate and legislate, and seize the left wing populist policy opportunity that has just been given to them on a golden platter. Take on the monopolies and duopolies. create new agencies to do things if old ones won’t. There is a huge opportunity.
Still … Labour need to treat their partners with more respect. I am so tired of Labour historically treating their partners like children and not giving them much to do; and when Greens does something substantial – it's rarely remarked upon or minimised if can't be ignored.
Labour need to realise that Greens (and likely TPM also) will play a role in Labour's future. And it better act like it whether Greens has a higher or lower percentage of votes in the 2026/7 election.
What have communitarians got to complain about? Gumboot Day is in the coalition agreement fully funded. Horse racing is fully funded. Guns will be deregistered.
Maybe? Not sure what stage the mandatory registry that was being set up was at , as being of sound mind I registered mine voluntarily when asked while redoing my license. !
until a firearms registry tracks the sale of guns and makes it harder for gun dodgy gun owners to sell them on to gangs. when ACT dismantles that register the flow of guns to gangs can flow freely. Makes a mockery of all the tough on crime rhetoric we have heard from them, empty snake oil words.
It seems apparent that most guns used in gang-related crime are not legally purchased/registered firearms. They are illegally imported, just like illegal drugs are.
The current registration process doesn't seem to be hampering firearms related crime in any way – based on the increased number of shootings over the last few years.
Just have to say how happy I am that Gumboot Friday will be fully funded.
This is the kind of 'on-the-ground practical solution which makes a difference to youth mental health.
For the time being Anker. Come April next year when the payment is soon to begin for the winter months, they're going to be taking the knife to everything they can lay their hands on in order to pay for the unaffordable tax-cut bribe. Muldoon did it in the 1970s and he ended up freezing wages and salaries in order to pay for the unaffordable superannuation bribe.
The country came within a whisker of bankruptcy. I bet the same thing is going to happen again.
Unions went on strike with Labour because they knew it had a better chance of succeeding than under a National government. It was a cynical but successful approach that gave national fodder to message anti-union. Labour however could have just increased pay rates and funding without all the bull-shit but chose not to – just as they chose not to implement WEAG recommendations, just as those chose to allow massive amounts of immigration and the abuse of immigrant workers.
Their failure to implement at times was atrocious – especially where MBIE was involved.
The last 18 months or so they allowed National to control their policies and fell away from ensuring implementation to kneejerk responding. Their struggle to break away from neo-liberalism is real.
A review by the Public Service Commission is under way to check whether processes around the checks and balances of the AEWV scheme have been followed.
The review is expected to be complete by mid-December.
Time travel would be useful – to be able to go forward and see what breaks, falls down, poisons people or wrecks the environment as a direct result of Seymour's reign as "Minister of Regulation"
For future home buyers, it will be wise to make the avoidance of a Seymour-era house a standard filter on decision-making.
He’s spent years saying there’s too much regulation and he’s going to get rid of it. Too many employed in Ministries like Education. So he’ll get rid of people. And all the necessary regulations around Charter Schools.and accountability checks? Who’s to do that?
The easy part is writing up the agreements. The testing bit will be putting stuff into action, especially the need to have the people in support – or not.
The Devil is in the detail, but Big Brains don’t concern themselves with minutiae; they’re about Big Picture stuff and vibes with considerable help from the Sales Department PR & Comms Teams to create that magical PR woo woo.
the new govt cabinet is pretty short on talent and intellectual heft. iy will be a big test for many of them to put things into action. the hypocrisy of act is stunning though
First thought on the new cabinet: there's only one South Islander (Doocey) in the entire bunch (Simmonds and Patterson are outside cabinet, making it 3/28 across the entire ministry).
1/20 is rather shitty representation when you make up a quarter of the country.
I was thinking we should all follow the baby boomers and just stop. Take some time to enjoy family and friends. If we not going to be slaves in this new economy.
Anyone know where I can get some used Stop Co-Governance signs cheap?. With Peter’s and Seymour sharing DP I’m over this co governance bullshit already!
The precursor for meth back on Pharmacy shelves, and an AR15 to facilitate the robbery. The Dairy owners can relax now – this lot have just cut out all the middle men.
And Visubversa the pharmacy will have a lot of extra work distinguishing those who get free scrips and those who don't. All in or all out would be much simpler.
Pseudo-ephedrine is back on the shelf because it gets people back to work more quickly than the alternatives, i.e. it's a sop to employers. Workers feel that if they're not snotting and sneezing everywhere it's less anti-social to turn up at work. More people will get sick overall, but hey, they can just pop some pseudoephedrine as well. Much that this government will do is to provide a short-term boost to business profitability with complete indifference to the long-term consequences.
It is also not advised for people who have to operate machinery. I have a Mast cell allergy and used to take it occasionally. I did not drive, or operate anything complex or dangerous on those days.
And with retained access to smokes and better armed robbers, greater reward with greater risk. One wonders when they take out the insurance of gang protection …
Removing the precursor for meth from pharmacy shelves has made zero difference to the amount of meth imported or cooked up in NZ.
Pharmacy pseudoephedrine was never a major ingredient source. And certainly not in this age of industrialized crime led by major criminal gangs.
And, I haven't had a decent cold-symptom suppressant since it was removed. None of the substitutes are anything like as effective.
Suppression of symptoms – not only makes you feel better, more quickly – you are much less likely to develop secondary infections – and then require antibiotics.
The Chief Science Advisor, Professor Peter Gluckman, wrote this in his report to the Prime Minister [John Key] in 2009:
Executive Summary
Domestically diverted pseudoephedrine is a precursor for a significant proportion of the methamphetamine consumed in New Zealand, and is the predominant precursor in small-scale clandestine laboratories.
Experience from other jurisdictions suggests that restrictions on the domestic availability of pseudoephedrine translate into reductions in the number of clandestine laboratories discovered. Given the high societal cost of such laboratories, this would be a public good.
And did the production and/or consumption of methamphetamine significantly reduce once pseudoephedrine was banned from commercial sale?
Given the explosion in the availability of meth – the evidence seems against it.
National-ACT’s coalition agreement wants anyone going for a “health and disability related benefit” to have to go through a more limited pool of doctors. You have the power to improve lives, and you decide to make life harder for people with disabilities/health conditions?
In other words, anyone with a “health and disability" condition and needs a benefit to survive, is automatically considered to be a malingerer who is trying to cheat the system – not to mention an insult to the vast majority of doctors whose recommendations are made on good grounds and in good faith.
This is a return to the 1990s – the days of Ruth Richardson and co. plus that vile woman, Christine Rankin! The truth is, these right-wing shits feel they have to demonise the less fortunate to assuage their own greedy and self serving guilt.
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
The protest outside the White House correspondents’ dinner hotel. Image: Anatolu video screenshot APR More than two dozen Palestinian journalists had called for a boycott of the dinner, writing an open letter urging their American colleagues not to attend. “You have a unique responsibility to speak truth to power and ...
“Our exporters should, therefore, be deeply concerned that the Fast-track Approvals Bill was not assessed for consistency with any of our free trade commitments prior to being introduced to the House,” says Gary Taylor, Chief Executive of the Environmental ...
NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff is calling on all political parties to support the new Member’s Bill from Labour’s workplace relations and safety spokesperson Camilla Belich MP that would ensure negligent companies are held accountable when their employees ...
A historian with an uncanny track record of predicting US election winners tells RNZ's Sunday Morning that President Biden looks to be on track for another term, but things could still go very wrong for him. ...
A historian with a track record of predicting US election winners tells RNZ's Sunday Morning that President Biden looks to be on track for another term, but things could still go wrong for him. ...
Ngaio Marsh House is one of Christchurch’s best kept secrets – and contains more than a few mysteries of its own.Trust Ngaio Marsh to leave more than a few mysteries scattered through her house long after her departure. For a start, there’s the curious concrete portal in the garden, ...
Appointment viewing has been lost to the mists of time, but memories of Montana Sunday Theatre can still be conjured by hitting play on a particular piece of classical music. “You’re not going to be able to sell it.” Over 30 years on, Karen Bieleski still recalls how the task ...
Performance Review King Luxon sat behind His massive polished oak desk. It is Performance Review time. There is a knock on the door. “Enter!” says the King. In steps Minister of Disabilities and Carer Pedicures, Penny Simmonds. “I can explain everything …” she begins. “Fine,” says King Luxon, pressing the ...
The pair opened their first fully collaborative exhibition, Nina for Flowers, last Saturday. Gabi Lardies visited their studio to find out who Nina is and what working together was like.‘It didn’t start out like, ‘This is a show about Nina,’” says Josephine Jelicich, gripping a thermos of peppermint tea. ...
Thank you, Dr Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner, for your brilliant invention. I’m another mid-20s Kiwi who had an OE last year. I hopped on my bicycle where France meets the Atlantic and cycled east. I pedalled through the Loire Valley, down rivers lined with willows and ancient wisteria-draped chateaus. I relished ...
Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
As we gear up for what I suspect will be a non-sensical three years of slogans and fake reality time to re-watch Adam Cutis's hypernormalization doco.
His 'Century of the Self' is also a good explainer as to how these yo-yos got voted in too.
The rise and rise of the individual to the detriment of community, unions and the family unit.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DnPmg0R1M04&pp=ygUfQWRhbSBDdXJ0aXMgY2VudHVyeSBvZiB0aGUgc2VsZg%3D%3D
Looking at the photo of the Parliamentary Stage with 9 flags a V shaped seating pattern and the lectern/podium, one is reminded of "Let the TRUMPets sound".
So Chief Pirate, Lord Luxon will proclaim.
Let the Raiding begin….
and the tide begin to go back out on his 3 patched raggle-taggle ship of state, as we are presented with the motley crew and a list of their victims.
But Patricia. Peter Dunne says this about our new illustrious PM.
You/we just misread the PM's delivery.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2023/11/23/luxons-challenge-is-stamping-his-authority-on-new-government/?utm_source=Newsroom&utm_campaign=f4cb0c5c70-Daily_Briefing+24.11.2023&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_71de5c4b35-f4cb0c5c70-95522477&mc_cid=f4cb0c5c70&mc_eid=88a3081e75
Good coming from someone who "wormed" his way into a coalition.
Notice Dunne didn't say "kind ".
I love the way Dunne quotes Many Rice-Davies, referencing a long forgotten scandal from sixty years ago that accidentally reminds us of what an anachronism he is.
But he would say that though, wouldn't he?
The ugly retreat from modernity begins on Monday. I hope the kids notice.
Doubtful as gen z seems to be the opposite of gen y and lean more libertarian.
If anything politics is becoming for all generations, male vs female.
The left globally have absolutely lost the ability to speak to male voters, but the right still gets enough female voters to win elections.
Labour and the greens got bugger all votes from heterosexual males.
The left have abandoned collectivist equity based universal social democratic economic policies and replaced them with factional oppression Olympics identity politics.
Since the 2016 usa election, all the global left seems to do is scream about patriarchy, all men being rapists (hey marama), decolonization, lgbt+, race, abstract post modern theories of privilege, attack free speech and try to deplatform anyone they disagree with…
Totally unappealing.
And the left has no good male role models anymore, it's all very very very academic wine sipping nerds with no spine.
If the left had any brains it'd have the charismatic, young bogan Kieren Mcnullty as leader of the Labour party and seek out as many candidates like him as possible, he is the only candidate in Labour I can see winning over male voters and Labour needs a lot more of people like him and a lot less upper middle class robot professional student politicians
I think there's a fair bit of caricature and exaggeration in how you say that – but I agree with much of the underlying sentiment. I'd note though that the real poseurs now drink craft beer, rather than sipping wine, and it's the right that are the most notorious cancelers of unwelcome opinion, not the left.
You've drunk all the kool aid produced by the right wing narrative about the left as a feminist project – it's not a surprise that gay men are as vulnerable to it as some working class men (a privileged place in society over – as per women is all they had/have).
The thing is they also connect it to being a feminist socialist project – as per Perigo (the libertarian against a society order in either the personal life or economics) and onto Bridge.
A radio person in Auckland finished today and gets to have a goodbye in the Herald.
Kate Hawkesby comments on the awesome responsibility. "I’ll never forget when the Queen died and my producer just said in my ear, ‘The Queen’s dead’, that was it.It was just this surreal moment of, ‘Whoa, I have to communicate this breaking news’."
Yep, that's up there with brain surgery.
"The media landscape has changed drastically since I began. The insatiable 24/7 demand for clicks and content has, I believe, seen quality suffer," she says. Well, bugger me, that's a surprise. And to give context praises her husband with close reference to the previous government and Covid.
Regularly MediaWatch on RNZ featured his distortions, the 180° switcheroos and all over the shop logic with him. Quality suffer? What?
A victim of a very bad bout of lingering covid, she modified his statements to a degree.
Far Right PVV party leader Geert Wilders good result in the Dutch elections is a worry. Wilders is an Islamophobe, hates immigrants etc. But contrary to the usual stupid headlines PVV has not "won". He has 37 seats where 76 are needed to form a government and most of the other parties have said that they will not work with PVV.
One Dutch expert predicts the final makeup of parliament here:
“Sarah de Lange, professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam, said the most likely outcome appears to be a right-wing government comprised of the PVV, Rutte’s conservative VVD Party, and Pieter Omtzigt’s New Social Contract party, which was formed in August with a pledge to “do politics differently.” This would likely require Wilders to give up the most extreme components of his manifesto, which include proposals to bring immigration to zero, ban the Quran and close mosques, many of which are unconstitutional….”
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/23/dutch-election-what-comes-next-after-shock-far-right-victory.html
The GreenLeft-Labour Alliance did quite well getting 25 seats. One can only hope all the parties shun Wilders and form a coalition government with this alliance.
Agree on that . Common in Europe with proportional party list elections for the largest party to be in low to mid 20% of the vote .
Even then coalition building takes 3-6 months
It's terrifying and happened in Sweeden and is due to happen in Germany where the AFD is polling more than their Labour, green, act coalition Combined.
Not working with these parties isn't sustainable in the long term because they keep growing.
It's deeply insane that this has been going on for the better part of a decade and the establishment, progressive, moderate and conservative parties of the world haven't bothered to try to find a way to combat it.
It's all a symptom of the economic fallout of the working and middle classes and systemic cultural shock from globalization, it's crazy that the mainstream left refuses to seriously address these issues in either a real politik or populist way as these are usually our traditional voters and instead of winning them over we finger wag and talk about how great globalization is because you can get cheap whitewear and "diversity is our strength"
I pray it doesn't happen here.
Praying may be all we can do about it.
Well, John Campbell will be very pleased that we will have a new Government.
I heard a story, although admittedly not from a terribly reliable source, that he has had a camera crew on standby for the last couple of weeks to start filming children living in cars. That was of course part of his stock in trade about 6 years ago.
The problem has been that until the new Ministerial roles have been announced he hasn't been able to waylay the Minister with questions demanding to know what is being done about it. Expect some stories by late next week. There are many more children in the situation today than there were back in 2017 I believe.
Still, John will sort it out.
At least Labour/NZF/Greens did something about it with the Child Poverty Reduction Act.
https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2018/0057/18.0/LMS8294.html
They passed a bill. Whoopee. There is no evidence that it actually achieved anything though is there?
77,000 children have been lifted out of poverty under Labour.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/continued-progress-reducing-poverty-challenging-times
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/portfolio/labour-2020-2023/child-poverty-reduction
National’s welfare changes will see benefits $2621 lower by 2028, push more children into poverty
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/election-2023-labour-says-nationals-welfare-changes-will-see-benefits-2621-lower-by-2028-push-more-children-into-poverty/GBCJMJZJZ5FEXKTDGWBWEIP5IA/
It's normal for commenters to back up definitive claims like this with links and stuff.
The number of children living in cars is very difficult to give an authoritative figure for as the Department wouldn't give a firm figure during the Labour years. The closest they would come out with was the number of families who were living in cars.
However here are a couple of stories that were published.
"The number of children listed as may be living in cars has gone from 51 at the end of 2017, to 228 in June this year (2022).
The numbers are pulled when people apply for help from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD). People are asked where they're living and if they have children."
https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/08/18/number-of-children-listed-as-living-in-cars-more-than-200/
"Shocking figures revealed yesterday when Labour admitted there are now 480 families living in cars compared to 102 when they entered Government in 2017."
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2023/07/21/480-families-living-in-cars-in-2023-compared-to-102-in-2017/
I think it is a reasonable assumption that the number rose during the Labour term.
National refused to measure child poverty.
Labour lifted 77,000 children out of poverty. Links @ 5.1.1.1
"She cast doubt on the use of the figure – 480 applicants for emergency housing living in cars – suggesting because it was “cumulative” and people were not moved off this list until they had permanent housing, so many may not be currently living in cars"
"The figure that the member is putting forth to us and using to assume there's an increase in the number of people living in cars, I'm told, is not an accurate way of capturing that data. What we are doing is building our way out of a housing crisis that we inherited that was created by that member's Government.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/132584396/some-480-housing-applicants-including-families-with-children-living-in-cars
I just read a comment from a troll about an unlinked story from an unreliable source.
Still, the Mods will sort it out.
"I heard a story, although admittedly not from a terribly reliable source" So why are you posting a baseless rumour? it makes you appear paranoid.
I see this government is starting out as they mean to continue. It is literally being born with a Friday dump.
Black Friday…fitting indeed.
Bleak Friday
are you meaning a dump of information on a friday, or, the government looks like it is a dump, or, looks the results of someone taking a dump on friday?
NZs first 3 party coalition government….a symptom of a surfeit of elites?
Peter Turchin studies the collapse of societies….and possible opportunities to avoid/delay such.
First review of the coalition talks….
The National flag on the table is bigger than the other two flags, however the NZ First flag is above the other two and the ACT flag whilst lower and smaller has a stand that has three steps instead of two and it is higher. The National flag in in the middle, with the ACT flag on the right and NZ Flag on the left except on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when they take turns at being in the middle. Half way through the term NZ First and ACT flags will swop sides. National's flag is made in China, NZ First's flag came in an unmarked brown envelope along with $250,000 and a box of frozen Hoki fillets, and ACTs flag came in a Zuru box with $500,000 and a thank you note from Nick Mowbray.
According to Seymour, they are going to do "good for ALL New Zealanders ". Is that all rich/white/politicians/landlords he's referring to? Nothing like starting off your term with blatant lying.
The long and the short of the announcement this morning- a spiteful and revanchist government that is going to borrow for it's tax cuts.
Accurate summary.
Seymour went out of his way to mention Firearms and 3 Strikes to emphasise your point Sanctuary.
Acts van Velden has work place relations, workers are fucked.
Almost like they're the shadow opposite of a shallow, feckless, incompetent bunch of d-grade managers who bulk-funded us through a couple of crises, pushed waaay beyond any Overton window then rapidly fell apart in a year, and now sit on the steaming wreckage with not a note of apology.
Describes the previous National-led government.
You mean the one which lasted for three election cycles, and would almost certainly have had a fourth, if Key hadn't resigned.
That's the one and Key was losing popularity and resigned two days after National lost the Mt. Roskill by-election.
So in comparison to a one (arguably, two) term government…..
And, anyone who believed that Key was concerned over National ‘losing’ the Mt Roskill by-election (one of the Labour Red Wall Auckland electorates – until Wood self-destructed amid the Labour collapse in 2023) – is entirely self-deluded.
It wasn't in comparison to a 2 term government. Who is the deluded one here? I just stated a fact, it is irrelevant that you didn't like it. Unlike you, I am not the one dreaming up a scenario that never happened.
How many terms do you think that Adern government had?
You can argue that it was 2 one term governments (given that the coalition didn't last into 2020 since NZF didn't get elected).
Or you can argue that it was a 2 term government (since Ardern was PM both times).
It's one or the other. So, the comparison is absolutely between Key (3 terms) and Ardern (2×1 term, or 2 terms)
You brought up the Key government, in contrast to the Ardern one that the OP referenced.
Seems to me that you're the deluded one, here. And your grasp of 'facts' is rather shaky.
It wasn't about the terms of government though. What I said was that Ad's post describes the key government, which didn't specify 'terms' and you are the one making up a scenario about Key that didn't happen.
If Key had not pulled ponytails….
Didn't seem to affect his popularity.
Those most agitated about it, would never have voted for him in any case.
Key was losing popularity.
Yes he was. Fairly typically for a 3rd term PM.
He was, however, polling *substantially* (like 20%) above any of the other candidates.
And (setting aside the very weird and unlikely to be true Digipol results (in the mid 60s) – his polling stayed around 38-40 for most of 2015 (when the ponytail saga broke) – not showing any shift in the preferred PM ratings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2017_New_Zealand_general_election
For comparison, Helen Clark was about the same (mid 30s) in 2008 when she was in her 3rd term. The problem for her, was that John Key was polling equal or better.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2008_New_Zealand_general_election
John key was losing support. He didn't complete a third term.
"Key's popularity plummets to lowest level"
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2016/06/newshub-poll-keys-popularity-plummets-to-lowest-level.html
Fucking should have though, greasy powerful man gets away with repeatedly making young working girl feel uncomfortable, do to any girl I know and you would need police protection alright.
Not arguing whether it "should have" – just pointing out that it didn't.
Bronagh had the right idea – not everyone did, or does.
Sanc….and for its 13 bloody RONS.
Revanchist policies. Exactly. Undoing all work done in a spiteful nasty way. Those three remind me of a pack of dogs, peeing on each post to mark their territory.
The allocation of portfolios… some who have been in Parliament since 2014 holding none, suddenly with 3 or 4. How will that work? Doocey case in point. Leader of the House.. Chris Bishop. Speaker Gerry Brownlee.Tama Potaka loaded with all things Maori… because Dr. Reti will have Health. This looks like a house of straw rather than a "Strong and Stable Government".
On a religious note Judith Collins has had her prayers answered. Resurrection indeed.
In light of the three clown’s coalition announcement this morning, Community groups, NGOs, unions and ordinary people have to organise and support each other. It is going to be a tougher time for the bottom 50% that have barely 5% of the wealth.
Various public sector unions were happy to take extensive strike action with a Labour Govt. they will quickly expose themselves if they do move on NActFirst promptly to fight cuts, clawbacks and sackings.
Working class people are going to be hit hard, and Māori especially. Bye bye to the incremental reforms from Labour. Unfortunately it “woz Nuzilundas wot dun it to thumselfs” this time. Three years of no winter energy payment, minimum wage rises, or free prescriptions will hopefully give some of the numpties and Jacinda haters time to reflect.
Fully agreed.
It is going to take a lot of people to resist whatever bad they might inflict upon us.
We need to unite against whatever terrible things they may have planned for us all.
If it's got the balls then Labour has just been given a considerable opportunity. Nothing from what clearly is going to be a deeply unserious government will do anything to address the economic, social and climate issues facing NZ.
Luxon looks like he wants to go back to 2017 and stay there, Seymour is determined to cling to zombie neoliberalism with a nasty dollop of GOP style racism, and Peters will do little except bicker with the press and engage in casual corruption. The only thing uniting them is culture war issues.
Labour needs to shed neoliberal centrism & incrementalism, embrace the muscular state to regulate and legislate, and seize the left wing populist policy opportunity that has just been given to them on a golden platter. Take on the monopolies and duopolies. create new agencies to do things if old ones won’t. There is a huge opportunity.
And Labour actually need to treat Greens like a real coalition partner. If the three coalition government NAT/ACT/NZF can do it, so can Labour.
There's no excuses left for Labour to electorally mistreat the Greens anymore.
+100 RoG
Act like a government-in-waiting from the start.
ROG exactly With conviction and purpose.
"There's no excuses left for Labour to electorally mistreat the Greens anymore."
The Greens do their own thing and as they are winning seats off Labour there is no need to give them an inch
Still … Labour need to treat their partners with more respect. I am so tired of Labour historically treating their partners like children and not giving them much to do; and when Greens does something substantial – it's rarely remarked upon or minimised if can't be ignored.
Labour need to realise that Greens (and likely TPM also) will play a role in Labour's future. And it better act like it whether Greens has a higher or lower percentage of votes in the 2026/7 election.
What have communitarians got to complain about? Gumboot Day is in the coalition agreement fully funded. Horse racing is fully funded. Guns will be deregistered.
A good Friday night out in Eltham.
The gangs will be happy , the license holding mates can supply them fire arms with little risk.
As they do now?
Maybe? Not sure what stage the mandatory registry that was being set up was at , as being of sound mind I registered mine voluntarily when asked while redoing my license. !
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2023/10/fifty-thousand-guns-registered-to-kiwis-since-firearms-registry-went-live.html
Yip it's live, actll kill it and National have completely u turned, gutless dicks.
until a firearms registry tracks the sale of guns and makes it harder for gun dodgy gun owners to sell them on to gangs. when ACT dismantles that register the flow of guns to gangs can flow freely. Makes a mockery of all the tough on crime rhetoric we have heard from them, empty snake oil words.
It seems apparent that most guns used in gang-related crime are not legally purchased/registered firearms. They are illegally imported, just like illegal drugs are.
The current registration process doesn't seem to be hampering firearms related crime in any way – based on the increased number of shootings over the last few years.
We'll have trouble identifying the gangs though because they won't be wearing their patches. And won't be hanging out in groups!
Guns will be deregistered, and cell phones will be banned from schools. This is so fucked-up.
From classrooms
Some schools already do so
Right you are; all good then.
https://www.national.org.nz/100dayplan
https://assets.nationbuilder.com/nationalparty/pages/18431/attachments/original/1696107664/100_Day_Action_Plan.pdf?1696107664
Typical National with ambiguous weasel words and slippery language that’s open to interpretation.
The practicalities of it mean classrooms as the pupils will still bring phones to school and use them on the journey to and from
National actually says use at school so it means some sort of cell phone caretaker to handle the collection and storage !!
https://www.national.org.nz/national_will_ban_cell_phone_use_at_school
in reality it will have to become a ‘choice’ for schools to implement as cant see the teachers union wanting their members to do this job
Just have to say how happy I am that Gumboot Friday will be fully funded.
This is the kind of 'on-the-ground practical solution which makes a difference to youth mental health.
Tiger Mountain, I have read the coalition agreements
The winter energy payment stays.
For the time being Anker. Come April next year when the payment is soon to begin for the winter months, they're going to be taking the knife to everything they can lay their hands on in order to pay for the unaffordable tax-cut bribe. Muldoon did it in the 1970s and he ended up freezing wages and salaries in order to pay for the unaffordable superannuation bribe.
The country came within a whisker of bankruptcy. I bet the same thing is going to happen again.
Well I don't have a crystal ball Anne, so you could be correct.
I think Winston would put up a fight if they tried to take away the winter energy payment, but who would know
Unions went on strike with Labour because they knew it had a better chance of succeeding than under a National government. It was a cynical but successful approach that gave national fodder to message anti-union. Labour however could have just increased pay rates and funding without all the bull-shit but chose not to – just as they chose not to implement WEAG recommendations, just as those chose to allow massive amounts of immigration and the abuse of immigrant workers.
Their failure to implement at times was atrocious – especially where MBIE was involved.
The last 18 months or so they allowed National to control their policies and fell away from ensuring implementation to kneejerk responding. Their struggle to break away from neo-liberalism is real.
Energy Hardship
https://www.mbie.govt.nz/dmsdocument/27802-doia-2324-0860-response-for-publishing-pdf
Employment action plans
https://www.mbie.govt.nz/business-and-employment/employment-and-skills/employment-strategy/
RSE
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/130915844/small-number-of-rse-licences-revoked-shows-government-agencies-and-businesses-burying-the-issue-union-says
A review by the Public Service Commission is under way to check whether processes around the checks and balances of the AEWV scheme have been followed.
The review is expected to be complete by mid-December.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/499394/border-alerts-placed-on-offshore-migrants-with-accredited-employer-work-visas
Time travel would be useful – to be able to go forward and see what breaks, falls down, poisons people or wrecks the environment as a direct result of Seymour's reign as "Minister of Regulation"
For future home buyers, it will be wise to make the avoidance of a Seymour-era house a standard filter on decision-making.
Seymour, Minister for Regulation. What the … does that mean?
It means that David will be this Government’s Manny.
Letting developers ,farmers, builders, and anyone else with money do what they want I expect
He’s spent years saying there’s too much regulation and he’s going to get rid of it. Too many employed in Ministries like Education. So he’ll get rid of people. And all the necessary regulations around Charter Schools.and accountability checks? Who’s to do that?
The easy part is writing up the agreements. The testing bit will be putting stuff into action, especially the need to have the people in support – or not.
The Devil is in the detail, but Big Brains don’t concern themselves with minutiae; they’re about Big Picture stuff and vibes with considerable help from the
Sales DepartmentPR & Comms Teams to create that magical PR woo woo.the new govt cabinet is pretty short on talent and intellectual heft. iy will be a big test for many of them to put things into action. the hypocrisy of act is stunning though
The real cabinet ministers but not on the list will be:
Bill English & Co Ltd
Steven Joyce Consulting Ltd
First thought on the new cabinet: there's only one South Islander (Doocey) in the entire bunch (Simmonds and Patterson are outside cabinet, making it 3/28 across the entire ministry).
1/20 is rather shitty representation when you make up a quarter of the country.
Most will have Queenstown holiday homes so relax you'll be able to hear their jewellery rattling down the ski fields.
And farmers are pretty well covered in all 3 caucuses.
Tough luck for the Dunedin proles.
I was thinking we should all follow the baby boomers and just stop. Take some time to enjoy family and friends. If we not going to be slaves in this new economy.
Anyone know where I can get some used Stop Co-Governance signs cheap?. With Peter’s and Seymour sharing DP I’m over this co governance bullshit already!
Oh.. and some Stop Three Wankers ones too.
I hear you Adrian.
The precursor for meth back on Pharmacy shelves, and an AR15 to facilitate the robbery. The Dairy owners can relax now – this lot have just cut out all the middle men.
And Visubversa the pharmacy will have a lot of extra work distinguishing those who get free scrips and those who don't. All in or all out would be much simpler.
Pseudo-ephedrine is back on the shelf because it gets people back to work more quickly than the alternatives, i.e. it's a sop to employers. Workers feel that if they're not snotting and sneezing everywhere it's less anti-social to turn up at work. More people will get sick overall, but hey, they can just pop some pseudoephedrine as well. Much that this government will do is to provide a short-term boost to business profitability with complete indifference to the long-term consequences.
It is also not advised for people who have to operate machinery. I have a Mast cell allergy and used to take it occasionally. I did not drive, or operate anything complex or dangerous on those days.
And with retained access to smokes and better armed robbers, greater reward with greater risk. One wonders when they take out the insurance of gang protection …
Removing the precursor for meth from pharmacy shelves has made zero difference to the amount of meth imported or cooked up in NZ.
Pharmacy pseudoephedrine was never a major ingredient source. And certainly not in this age of industrialized crime led by major criminal gangs.
And, I haven't had a decent cold-symptom suppressant since it was removed. None of the substitutes are anything like as effective.
Suppression of symptoms – not only makes you feel better, more quickly – you are much less likely to develop secondary infections – and then require antibiotics.
The first policy onto the bonfire was a Key legacy.
Cluxon was determined to be seen as his own man.
It may also have been a sop to ACT as their aim to reduce sickness leave entitlement was not part of the agreement.
The Chief Science Advisor, Professor Peter Gluckman, wrote this in his report to the Prime Minister [John Key] in 2009:
Executive Summary
https://www.dpmc.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2021-10/pmcsa-Report-to-the-PM-Pseudoephedrine2.pdf
And did the production and/or consumption of methamphetamine significantly reduce once pseudoephedrine was banned from commercial sale?
Given the explosion in the availability of meth – the evidence seems against it.
They're reversing most of the anti-smoking regulations. FFS.
That has a serious stink of corruption to it, hopefully a reporter will follow the money!!
All roads lead to Bishopville hill – Taxpayers Union (they also used to fund WhaleOil).
Back to the future with the Three Stooges.
The cruelty is a feature.
Max Harris
@maxdnharris
National-ACT’s coalition agreement wants anyone going for a “health and disability related benefit” to have to go through a more limited pool of doctors. You have the power to improve lives, and you decide to make life harder for people with disabilities/health conditions?
https://twitter.com/maxdnharris/status/1727849789914595614
This is why I was fearing NAT/ACT so much yesterday.
In other words, anyone with a “health and disability" condition and needs a benefit to survive, is automatically considered to be a malingerer who is trying to cheat the system – not to mention an insult to the vast majority of doctors whose recommendations are made on good grounds and in good faith.
This is a return to the 1990s – the days of Ruth Richardson and co. plus that vile woman, Christine Rankin! The truth is, these right-wing shits feel they have to demonise the less fortunate to assuage their own greedy and self serving guilt.
If memory serves that is very reminiscent of the key National govt's punitive ACC policy.
Oops, that was supposed to be in response to Joe90’s post.