Each election campaign has its own theory. Its own account of who New Zealanders are and what they want and what issues they will prioritise. Parties then come up with policies accordingly.
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Labour now has at least one theory: that New Zealanders are a positive bunch and that running an overly negative campaign carries real risks, particularly for National, which, as the Opposition, is trying to find things wrong with the Government and the country.
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The fact remains that, at the moment, the only credible path into government for National involves NZ First being knocked out.
While it would be foolish to rule anything out with NZ First, it seems highly unlikely that, if given the option, it won't simply continue in a government that looks similar, even if the proportions are slightly changed.
New Zealanders are a positive bunch and that running an overly negative campaign carries real risks, particularly for National, which, as the Opposition, is trying to find things wrong with the Government and the country.
It would be nice to think so, but don't wholly agree it is true. Yes, there is plenty of positivity in NZ but there is a lot of negativity too and sometimes the latter wins.
Take the 2008 election. The campaign waged by National was negative without precedence in this country and it worked a treat. Yes, they had a new charismatic leader who also pulled in votes but it was the negativity that won the day for them.
By all means run a positive campaign. It is what we would expect of them. But when the fake news, the lies and the misinformation starts flying (and it already has but can only increase in frequency) be ready to return the fire because if Labour doesn't, they risk a repeat performance of 2008.
I don't mean stooping to National's level. Far from it. But I do remember Helen Clark and Labour ignoring the lies, falsehoods emanating from National. I think they assumed the voters would see it for what it was…. misinformation. Many of them didn't. It was Crosby/Textor stuff – cleverly presented and needed to be swiftly rebuffed. It wasn't.
We can expect to see an updated version – with a degree of Trumpism thrown in.
Edit: and they need to be supported by the Greens when it is appropriate. There will be a concerted effort to discredit them as well.
There is no need for 'enemas' of Labour to generate fake news or promulgate misinformation or tell lies.
Allowing a bureaucrat with a decade long history of mismanaging MOH:DSS a front and centre position in the midst of major reform (as a result of long running Human Rights cases) is messaging of the most honest in nature.
This is Labour and its partners in crime giving a loud and emphatic Fuck You to those of us in the disability community who have fought long and hard for justice and a modicum of parity with our entitled ACC cousins.
Ditto allowing Pharmac unfettered authority to ignore international protocols and put the lives of Kiwis at risk.
Ditto largely ignoring the strong advice of the WEAG and CPAG to remove sanctions and significantly raise benefits.
Oh yes…Labour doesn't need its enemies to lose votes in the upcoming election…those of us who were hoping that there was the collective will in the Coalition for real transformation and hard reform of what is falsely called 'the Publc Service ' have only ourselves to blame for almost buying into their shit.
Labour just might capture the vote of the Muddles, the Woman's Weekly readership beguiled by cutesy family outing shots, and they may even seduce a few wavering National voters (unless That Mob comes up with more palatable spokespeople) but bet my bottom dollar they have well and truly shat in the pond of traditional Labour supporters.
Problem is that many bureaucrats do get ‘recycled’ and NZ just happens to be a tiny little fish bowl, which aggravates the problem with the small ‘talent pool’. In many ways, NZ still is a colonial outpost.
We’ll have to get through the euthanasia debate first.
It’ll be a busy year for the Moderators here 😉
Just one word of friendly advice, be careful what you say about specific persons, here or elsewhere in public.
Always happy to receive advice ,friendly or otherwise.
"My mate" has been more than happy to put her name and face out there trumpeting the Good Works of MOH:DSS for the past decade in their Newsletter.
ROFLMAO
I even have a letter signed by her in 2012 declaring that they were working on a 'non-discriminatory family carer policy'….you will no doubt remember the reaction from those who actually give a shit about NZBORA and sound legislative practise in 2013?
I have no fear of being accused of defamation…I don't lie…the truth is damning enough.
The only other risk is being punished by having MOH:DSS supports cut.
Already happened in 2012…we get nothing from them so have nothing to lose.
As a general point of information, i.e. not specifically addressed to you, if somebody defames another person on this site, it is the site or Trust(ees) rather that is liable.
Sorry, I cannot remember; my memory leaks like a sieve on a landfill.
Whoever is in that ‘boss of Disability Support Services’ role also has at least Legal and their Director-General to convince before something becomes policy. Likewise the DG is susceptible to whatever signals are coming from the Minister's office – which is why whoever is in there is critical, unfortunately.
However it is easy for it to become personalised when, as you note, you see the same person fronting decisions with direct and unescapable personal impacts over a long period of time.
All well and good in principle, but then we end up with an American-style bureaucracy where every change in government results in thousands of political appointees of varying professional competence and knowledge.
At the end of the day, you're criticising the bureaucracy for political decisions made because ministers don't have the guts to just take the budgetary impact of doing the right thing.
"At the end of the day, you're criticising the bureaucracy for political decisions made because ministers don't have the guts to just take the budgetary impact of doing the right thing."
In Pharmac's case they have well and truly brought all criticism upon themselves, and continue to do so persisting in attempting to defend their now indefendable actions.
I was under the impression you were capable of examining all the available material on an issue and forming your own opinion.
A tad sad that despite evidence available from a variety of sources you seem committed to the narrative that Pharmac's decisions are all justified under For The Good Of All rule and any criticism can be traced back to Big Pharma lobbying.
The key piece of data in whether an action is killing people via a specific cause is whether the death rate from that cause actually increased while or after the action was taken.
That’s the only way of looking at it. Each case has to be first investigated individually and then as a (population) statistic. One cannot ignore the deaths as ‘within the normal range of statistical probabilities’ or whatever because that doesn’t explain anything.
The most probable conclusion is that one can't prove a negative.
There's always the possibility that in ten or twenty years some level-5 bureaucrat will run the numbers and discover that this decision, statistically speaking, was associated with the deaths of three people more than would have been expected.
But that's the peril of every healthcare funding decision. You take funding away from some area, even if it looks like it will have no negative impact on the population, maybe you're wrong. And maybe the area you divert that funding to will not save more lives than covered by your miscalculated downside.
But you will never be able to convince someone that your decision had nothing to do with their loved one's death, even if there's zero actual evidence you had anything to do with it at all.
Understandably, people are upset and angry and they want to know what happened. They may also want some kind of justice if a preventable mistake was made and someone was found culpable.
I fear these people will be disappointed, disillusioned, and remain angry for quite some time because it is highly unlikely that the investigation into the brand switch will find that kind of information and identify culpability in a legal sense.
As you know, SUDEP is poorly understood and will remain so for the foreseeable future IMO.
This is not to say that it will be a whitewash. Hopefully, some lessons will be learned from this and avoided in future. Again, I believe they will in lowering the risk threshold and a stricter adherence to the first precautionary principle of healthcare: first, do no harm. In other words, if it ain’t broken, don’t try to fix it.
"For the lamotrigine brand change we identified the need for additional support for consumers and health professionals. A five-month transition period was put in place to allow people time to change brands."
The spokesperson said a "range of resources" for patients and pharmacists were circulated widely and information was put on the Pharmac website.
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Pharmac said patients should not stop using lamotrigine, and if they had concerns they should contact their healthcare professional. [my italics]
Patients are no ordinary consumers.
I know that a few people shove all blame onto PHARMAC because they went against international best evidence and Medsafe’s advice, which is within their rights.
However, PHARMAC is a funding agency and there are (at least) three other parties directly involved in a patient’s prescriptions: the healthcare professional (usually the GP), the pharmacy, and the patient him or herself.
It seems to me that at least one issue is the uncertainty about who takes responsibility for what, i.e. it might have fallen in between the cracks.
It could be a while before we find out if the brand switch has contributed to any of the five reported deaths and other reported adverse events.
In NZ health jargon they are pretty interchangeable. Hence the Health & Disability Commission having a Code Of Consumers Rights. Part of a broader attempt at the time to redefine people's relationship with health practitioners and services in the process of being neoliberalised, but not properly addressed since. Influences from the US.
Yes, it is unfortunate that the lines between these two concepts are blurred because there really is a fundamental difference between patients and consumers.
You mention the US and together with NZ, these are the only two countries that allow direct-to-consumer-advertising of prescription drugs (DTCA).
Personally, I don’t believe this is in the best interests of patients.
“American-style bureaucracy where every change in government results in thousands of political appointees”
There aren't actually that many of them, when you compare the number to either the total number of employees of the US Government or the population of the US.
There are approximately 4,000 political appointments in the Executive Branch, at least according to Wiki. That covers just about all of the Government except the Post Office and the Military.
The population of the US is about 70 times that of New Zealand. If we had the same sort of ratio that would mean around 55-60 political appointees here. I don't know but I would be willing to wager that there are far more than that in the Minister's Offices in the Beehive who serve at the Minister's discretion rather than being seconded by a Department.
After all, that is only a couple of people per Minister.
Except that they're mostly higher-level roles, so to argue a relative proportion it's the number of different functions and services rather than the number of employees. Even if population difference corresponded to difference in size of bureaucracy.
An, of course, there's the entire distinction between ministers and departments, which they don't seem to have in the US: their cabinet members have direct operational control over their departments, rather than a governance role.
Minister comes up with a goal, the department come up with the plan (including costs), minister signs off on it as a decision, department implements the plan.
Sometimes ministers want a plan, but it costs too much so they kick it back to the department to find savings (or the department doesn't understand that cost is less of a factor so automatically slips in ways of saving cash, like refusing to recognise previous experience of family carers).
that doesn't quite explain how someone could be fired or moved on though.
I think it does explain that much of what we see in welfare and health is on Labour (and NZF) rather the public servants (although I'm sure there are plenty of ways to undermine a new Minister's plan).
Someone would need to be actually held accountable for their previous decisions and actions while a public servant, which will never happen. It would also make them even more risk-averse.
As long as they competently do the job they are instructed to do, why would you fire them?
If they don't do their job properly, that's internal through the department or SSC.
If their job requires them to commit crimes, they and their superiors should be arrested.
If the incoming minister doesn't like the job the previous minister ordered the department to do, that's not the fault of the department.
That having been said, there is some fudging at senior levels where part of the role might be to have a good working relationship with the minister, but the responsibility for what jobs ministers are instructed to do rests with the minister. And ministers are constrained by Cabinet priorities, as well.
Arseholes who want to be arseholes when they are instructed to be fair and reasonable fail to competently perform their duties. The intractable arseholes fail to change and go through standard performance management. A purge would just flood the department with inexperienced staff who have poor job security because there will be another purge in three years.
It's bad enough already with restructurings to align with ministerial wishes and areas of responsibility. Basic stuff like differentiating researcher data requests from OIA requests, or knowing who is responsible for what subject area at the moment all fall through a myriad of little cracks because there's FA institutional memory or knowledge. Whacking a purge on top of that is just piling dysfunction upon dysfunction.
Despite doing a largish amount of physical work in an average day I still experience episodes of insomnia.
I am a ridiculously fast reader…but I admit to finding it increasingly difficult to read stuff on screen…my days of dilligence/ self flagellation may be seriously numbered.
Still..the BIMs are certainly a go to document if one has a couple of 'wtf!' moments and need to find the source of a new Minister's blunders.
I've been known to read the odd Treasury Report as well.
"It would be nice to think so, but don't wholly agree it is true. Yes, there is plenty of positivity in NZ but there is a lot of negativity too and sometimes the latter wins."
I tend to agree with you (Mathew) to SOME (and a growing) extent.
The 4 P's play an increasingly role too – from a sliding scale between apathy and desperation through to hope, and "positivity"
Pot, 'P', Piss and Prozac.
For the first time in my life, I'm about to change my vote from Labour to Green.
And it's not because the Adhern government isn't the best of a load of bad alternatives. It's because time is actually running out before populism become entrenched.
When I heard JA say (in a Henry Cooke interview), she didn't realise how long things take, AND THEN praised our public service (admitedly I assumed she was referring to the senior ranks), I thought – naivety maybe?
I'm not sure some in Labour have yet developed adequate bullshit detectors even if some will only ever have to face a used-car salesman (in this space going forward)
When I heard JA say (in a Henry Cooke interview), she didn't realise how long things take, AND THEN praised our public service (admitedly I assumed she was referring to the senior ranks), I thought – naivety maybe?
Yes, I think there is a bit of naivety and not just on JA's part. To my knowledge, she was never a P.S. employee – not in NZ anyway – and there are politicians on all sides who fall into that category.
As you know OWT, the P.S. was very much a dog eat dog place but whether that is still the case I don't know. In my day, "seniority" usually depended on how far up 'you know where' a person was prepared to go. Individuality was frowned upon, and anyone who dared to stick their neck above the parapet had it chopped off and thrown into the moat.
A period of P.S. employment should be a requirement for all senior politicians. 😉
Yep, well – Just can't do it anymore. I'm afraid JA may well have signed up to superficiality over substance.
Second time this week concerning an immigration issue ( and that's only 2 that've been made public after just watching 1 news ).
The good thing is that it won't just be me that does the big switch – there are now 3 generations of family that are in agreement.
Apparently, I seem to have misjudged Iain Lees-Galloway too. Nice bloke though he may be, he's obviously not as bright as I thought he was – or maybe its more to do with expediency over principle. Either way, cudda shudda wudda.
….All over the world, corporate lobbyists seek to brand opponents of their industries as extremists and terrorists, and some governments and police forces are prepared to listen. A recent article in the Intercept seeks to discover why the US Justice Department and the FBI had put much more effort into chasing mythical “ecoterrorists” than pursuing real, far-right terrorism. A former official explained, “You don’t have a bunch of companies coming forward saying ‘I wish you’d do something about these rightwing extremists’.” By contrast, there is constant corporate pressure to “do something” about environmental campaigners and animal rights activists…..
While I agree with Monbiot's main point. Personally I think that his notion that we should own the label of ‘extremist’ is wrong.
James Hanson, Naomi Klein and in particular Bill McKibben, are of the opinion that the polluters that we are protesting against are the ‘extremists’ and should be made to own this label. These corporate 'extremists' are out of control, recklessly conducting an experiment with the climate which will impact us all.
…Our government is helping propel us towards a catastrophe on a scale humankind has never encountered before: the collapse of our life-support systems. It does so in support of certain ideologies – consumerism, neoliberalism, capitalism – and on behalf of powerful industries. This, apparently, meets the definition of moderation. Seeking to prevent this catastrophe is extremism.
Let’s be clear the supporters BAU are not moderate but extreme
You can be sure that the label of 'terrorist' attached to Greenpeace by British Intelligence is the same label that the French Intelligence service the DGSE also attach to Greenpeace.
You can also be sure that the British Intelligence consider French Intelligence the DGSE, just like themselves, to be counter terrorists.
The French secret intelligence agency that murdered Nando Pereira and bombed Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior will not be on any establishment organisation terrorist watch list.
….Tarring environmental campaigners and terrorist organisations with the same brush is not going to help fight terrorism,” said John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace UK. “It will only harm the reputation of hard-working police officers … How can we possibly teach children about the devastation caused by the climate emergency while at the same implying that those trying to stop it are extremists?”
Peta’s director, Elisa Allen, said: “This appears to be a sinister attempt to quash legitimate campaigning organisations – something that is as dangerous as it is undemocratic.”
The bombing and murder carried out by the DGSE may be the most egregious act by an establishment Intelligence agency but it underlines what Elisa Allen said, that these views held by secret intelligence agencies and the police are dangerous and undemocratic.
Tens of millions form human chain in India's Bihar State in climate protest
Tens of millions of people have reportedly formed an long human chain in the northern Indian state of Bihar to raise awareness about the environment and social justice…..
……The official Twitter account of the United Nations Environment Programme tweeted: "An estimated 50 million people in India's Bihar State made a massive human chain stretching over 18,000 km yesterday. Why? To raise awareness that we are in a #ClimateCrisis and to show resolve to protect our planet."
The state has organised similar events for such causes in the last three years.
Stretching? 18,000 km is 18 million metres. If they squeezed 50 million people into 18 million metres, that's 0.36 metres per person. Even the rudest budget airlines give you a lot more than that in their stingiest seats.
The numbers (online) are all over the place but it seems to me that a major event did take place. Quibbling about the actual numbers is just semantics IMO. Maybe satellite images can verify the claims 😉
The problem with distinguishing between fake and fact is that things are never that simple and black & white (binary).
Professor Ann Marie Brady takes New Zealand's government to task for its lax attitude towards Chinese state and donor influence within New Zealand politics.
You do realise that it's racist to say anything critical of the CCP. Our very own wumao 'Mark' assured us of this repeatedly. 🙂
However my own personal Chinese sources tell me Xi's 'Presidency for Life' gambit is an act of desperation. China has four long standing problems:
1. At present they remain highly dependent on imported resources that only arrive because ships are still free to move across oceans. But to get to China they must pass through several choke points all of which are contested and highly deniable.
2. The four or five thousand years of civilisation is largely a myth. Just as modern Germany has only existed for a relatively short period, and prior to this it was an endless sequence of warlords, imperial expansions, invasions and collapses, the same with China. One of the most stable Chinese periods was when the Mongols invaded and ruled for 200 years or so. At least two major languages divide the nation, and numerous others remain. There is no particular reason why China’s current borders should be considered stable, and you only have to look at the intense resistance from the Taiwanese and HongKongers to the idea of reunification to get a taste of this.
3. Their demographics are terrible. Contrary to what I imagined a few years back, China is running out of young people. This will put an enormous handbrake on their internal expansion. They remain a very low trust society; inner circle/out circle is very much a thing. Together these factors makes it very hard for China to continue expanding on internal growth only
4. And to date most of that 'miraculous' expansion has been very much the result of China's entry into the global world trade order … mostly sponsored by the American Bretton Woods system. The USA tolerated the rise of Germany, Europe and Japan as competitors, because these nations largely played by the rules. China has not, it's policies of hypersubsidisation, and rampant IP theft have gone well past merely annoying. With the USA defaulting back to it's natural isolationism it's no longer interested in maintaining a trade system that largely benefits a nation that is posturing itself as an enemy.
So far the CCP has been able to maintain social order because everyone was getting richer. The raising of 800m people into the middle class is indeed a remarkable achievement, but the ground on which it was achieved is shifting from under them. Hence Xi Xinping's rampant authoritarianism and projection of influence beyond it's borders. Australia and New Zealand are notionally linked into the "Third Island Chain" , ultimately our geography makes us a clear target to be subsumed into the CCP's long term goals to create a New Middle Earth.
The primary reason China will continue to do great is: the United States.
The United States is the gift that keeps on giving in terms of talent pool for innovations, financial capital for expansion, right kind of customer base for all their kinds of products and services, innovations to copy cheaply, and because they have acted so badly for four decades that they are making China look reasonably OK as an alternative ally.
The United States has a fair number of problems which benefit China's place in the world for the remainder of the century.
1. It has squandered the massive moral authority it gained across much of the world after helping Europe defeat Nazi Germany and defeat global communism (I'm sure the very young and the last remaining commies will deny they ever had it but they're the ones who didn't fight).
China is on the other hand building a purely mercantilist and instrumental mode of transacting in the world. Trade deals are replacing the moral pacts built after World World 2 through the United Nations.
2. Its constitutional innovations from the Revolution have worn out, so it no longer functions as a set of ideals to aspire to. In particular its Constitutional checks and balances of executive power have stopped working.
China on the other hand has coherent government which is growing in precision and authority. Sure, I don't like it. But their Chinese social credit system may well turn into a more powerful system of corrective behaviours than the entire US judicial framework of law and prison. Imagine a world where the use of courts was less and less necessary, on China's scale.
3. The USA is about as addicted to oil-based products as one could think, despite having invented and promulgated the digital economy which has significantly decarbonised parts of it.
China is certainly addicted to oil, but it's making many of the right transformative moves, and if you want a 300km/h train to get you somewhere rather than a plane, look not to the USA.
4. The USA used to be ambitious for the rest of the world and could roll out truly massive nation-building programmes through massive instruments including the US armed forces, the CIA, the World Bank, and the IMF. It’s also proven incapable of winning or at least completing a war in 50 years.
China is now the world leader on nation-building systems, and only China has the instruments to roll them out now. Who knows if they will really come off – as in Pakistan – but they don't lack for will or ambit. China's the one that forges the really big trade deals.
There's a really good chance that China is now better positioned for the future due to the systems of governance and control it has rolling, its capacity to decarbonise compared to other major countries, and its diplomatic force stripped of non-mercantile idealism.
In the Year of the Rat, it's China that behaves like one.
And that's a compliment to both China and to rats.
All interesting and valid responses. Still I have to add some qualifiers.
Post WW2 the USA allowed competitors to flourish as long as they stayed on their side ideologically and didn't challenge them militarily. China has broken both of those rules and the USA is now rapidly disengaging with China. The past few years have seen an increasing return of US business back to North America.
The other big one that people keep missing is this; the USA never really needed the global trade order it established. It's imports/exports as a percentage of GDP are something in the order of 6%. They are now oil and gas independent. They simply don't need the rest of the world anymore and are certainly no longer interested in expending American lives in wars they have no interest in. As far as they're concerned they did their best to get the world on a more peaceful orderly basis but the effort has been largely spat upon. No US President since GW Bush has shown any real interest in global affairs and Trump is merely the clown show giving the middle finger to the rest of the planet.
China is now the world leader on nation-building systems
Which has to explain why it's nearest and most intimate neighbors, from Hong Kong to the Philippines are all anxious and unhappy about China's overt military expansion in the region. South China Sea pops into mind. The idea that China is a pacifist, merchantile power with only benign non-military intent is laughable to anyone in the region. Wherever they have the opportunity the Chinese are expanding and exerting their military muscle.
its capacity to decarbonise compared to other major countries,
What kind of travesty is this that pretty much allows us to be a satellite of US military power? …and a target..under the guise of plucky Kiwi ingenuity
The binary thinking is strong in this one. The third option, which we appear to be following, with the recent visit of a Chinese warship, is: both. Option 4 obviously is neutrality; 4(b) or 5, to suit those of us with a benevolent and inclusive nature being a foreign policy which is both neutral and pacifist.
Small nations like NZ that are utterly dependent of freedom of the seas and open trade will ultimately be forced to pick a side. Just to be clear, I've advocated for many years that the age of empires is going to end, but in the meantime we have to deal with the realities in front of us.
Wishful thinking about 'neutral and pacifist' will cut no mustard with the great powers.
"Wishful thinking"…How very dare I! As co-creators of our world, what we humans need collectively is a shitload more "wishful thinking" and way less of the fossilized acceptance of "the realities in front of us."
The problem with having typed out in excess of maybe 8,000 comments here over the past 13 years is that I tend to assume everyone has read all of them. Which is a terrible conceit of course.
But yes I've outlined in many comments a vision for a post-empire political world, based on a global form of federal govt. Not dissimilar in nature to the UN, but in which the nations give up the aspects of their sovereignty that relate to international matters, such as trade agreements, freedom of navigation, communications, diplomacy and most especially war. I've repeatedly argued that all of the big problems we face are global in nature therefore demand political responses and authority at the same scale.
However I've been a lonely voice on this for a long time now, and I'm assuming that none of this is going to come about for at least another generation. It may well take another catastrophic war to bring it about, who knows.
We don't need to make any decisions for a while yet.
Our security and military establishment will be independent in name only with Australia making almost all of our hard choices for us (no need for thinking there)…
… along with 90% of our banking (still no need for thinking)…
…whereas as a society New Zealand cares only cares if your Visa is good rather than where you are from (in all our guest nights, student nights, and exports) …
… and those three defaults enable China's rise in New Zealand and in Australia (and still not a fresh thought needed for any of the above to continue 🙂 )
Kiwibank aren't even 10% of our banking after 19 years of operation, and have needed massive bailouts so big they had to be hocked off to ACC and NZSuperfund.
Nor does it have the business and farm lending profits.
Which is all good until those sectors go down the tubes. Which may be why there's suddenly rumours that BNZ is on the block. This could easily be another Hanover / Allied Farmers situation, in which case Kiwi Bank and backers would be keeping well clear, or should be.
I've seen the evidence of US power (going back at least as far as Hiroshima and Korea , Vietnam, Cambodia ,Guatemala etc ad infinitum)and I'm not impressed….except in a fearful way.
China's military impact on the world?
Bases globally?
I know you put a case that American hegemony has resulted in less death, and widespread peace and prosperity, but I don't buy it
There may be fewer battle deaths, but economic sanctions are the new way of doing business..and war..and the deaths and ongoing misery are undeniable
Battle deaths also don't take into account the lingering and longlasting death count asscociated with land mines,depleted uranium exposure … disability, birth defects ,cancer,and denial of access to medicines and food, general poverty from sanctions,destruction of cultures and societies.The US has steadily retreated from international treaties intended to make the world safer
Peace and prosperity for the few, not the many
I'm not choosing China either , I guess I have more optimism (or stupid hope) that we humans can be better..and need to be
Compared to what? Short of trying to argue historic counter factuals in which we imagine that the USSR had become the dominant world power post-WW2, or whatever, we can only really compare with the past. The data clearly shows that the past was nowhere near as peaceful as you imagine, and that war between the 'great powers of the day' has steadily declined, especially since WW2.
Lol. Your solid data rich reference starts with the words "draft version".
There is an obvious reason for a cessation of direct conflict between the major powers, nuclear weapons.There is nothing in your link to suggest that there would have been more conflict overall if US foreign policy had been less aggressive. You are welcome to hold an opinion that there would have been based on conjecture, but "hard data" to support that there is not.
Obviously you didn't even get as far as reading the first paragraph, before you found a petty distraction to amuse yourself with. Well there is another version here that's highly visual, doesn't require a lot of reading and isn't a draft. Unless you care to refute this, then merely pretending it doesn’t exist is irrational.
There is an obvious reason for a cessation of direct conflict between the major powers, nuclear weapons.
Yes indeed. So now can we drop that idiotic 'nuclear free' policy?
As for American foreign policy being so 'aggressive' by exactly what measure are you judging this? For 70 years since then end of WW2 the US military has ensured freedom of trade and movement of peoples between all nations resulting in a huge reduction in warfare, the end of overt colonisation, the growth of democracy, and an immense improvement in living standards … as long as you were on their side. That was not an unreasonable demand.
At various points they've fucked up, the invasion of Iraq being an obvious one. Covert actions in Latin America having little to commend them either. Since the end of the Cold War their interest and competency in maintaining the global peace has become increasingly erratic and ill-directed.
No-one is arguing that Pax-Americana did not have it's ugly moments, but if you imagine that reverting to a pre-WW2 era in which multiple competing great power empires constantly vied and battled with each other over controlling territory and trade routes is going to be somehow an improvement … well the data I've presented suggests you're dreaming.
Which at the same time doesn't say this dominant US role in world affairs is going to be sustainable either; at some point we need to have some tough conversations about what will replace it.
The Green Party have been consistent in opposing genocide and helping its victims.
Syrian protesters: 'Nobody can deny this anymore
RNZ, 17 December 2016
…..The Green Party and Amnesty International have urged the government to consider another emergency intake of refugees from Syria, in light of the humanitarian crisis.
The Syrian Solidarity group said that needed to go further, and said the government needed to demand the Assad regime, Russia, Iranian and Iraq militias stop killing civilians.
Spokesperson Ali Akil said its rally in central Auckland this afternoon was a push for action.
One of the protesters, Fareeda Kassem, said she wanted New Zealand to take a stand against the violence.
"The innocent people, the children, the newborn, who are being bombed in hospitals and schools. And this is just so crazy to see the whole world is being so silent about it. We're seeing this live, it's like nobody can deny this anymore."….
……Green Party immigration spokesperson Denise Roche said New Zealand had the capacity to take more refugees.
"I do think it should be considered right now because of the conflict that's happening there, and there's some people who are seeking a safe haven."
Ms Roche said the Green Party was also calling for a permanent increase to the refugee quota, to 1500.
Does sound from that article like a straightforward failure to declare local body election campaign donations over $1500. Dalziel subsequently listing them on 18 December does not change that.
The wriggleroom in the law is only over whether a breach was 'intentional' or not. ('Ignorance not being a defence' somehow does not apply to candidates seeking local power, only to plebs).
Thus here is the defence argument:
Dalziel said she had acted on her [lawyer] husband's advice that none of the donors [at an auction organised by him] paid over $1500 for the auctioned items, so could remain anonymous.
Davidson later advised her to include the details of the donors "after taking additional advice" about the law.
There's a big difference in a few donations of $1800 ($300 over the limit) which was slap-happily overlooked in a local body campaign, and a donation of $100.000 from a single donor carved up into packages of $14,999 in a general election campaign.
OK. I hadn't seen that update. The last link I read was some time ago. There was "a few of them" but I thought they were all around the $1800 mark. That makes a difference I concede but (imo) still doesn't put it on a par with Nationals misdemeanor.
I'm with you over the need to be scrupulous about the rules being followed. No point in having them otherwise. It sounds like it was carelessness, but it should not have happened. Hopefully there will be less "carelessness" on both sides in the future.
I'd personally like to see private money completely removed from politics.
If we want truly democratic elections there's no other alternative but it will never happen cos… you know "we're not gonna fund politicians out of our money. Let em fund their own campaigns. It's bad enough we have to pay for em sittin around in parliament all day doin nothing. 🙄
Anne wasn't making this “shit” up though, was she James.
"a donation of $100.000 from a single donor carved up into packages of $14,999 in a general election campaign"
"In March [2019] National's Jami-Lee Ross nightmare back to haunt the party when the police handed its election donation inquiry to the Serious Fraud Office. Ross had claimed a $100,000 donation from a Chinese businessman had been split into smaller amounts so the donor's identity did not have to be revealed. The investigation is ongoing." https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/384516/sfo-to-investigate-jami-lee-ross-complaint-on-national-party-donations
…..There is something very telling about the fact that the election of Donald Trump in late 2016 — a great victory for incoherence — took place at the exact time that Russia and Bashar al-Assad were bombing Aleppo to smithereens, shamelessly breaking humanitarian norms established since World War II. For those paying attention to both stories, a sickening montage played out between Trump’s television debates, with their breakdown of discourse as we knew it, and the nonstop video evidence of barrel bombs bringing down hospitals and apartment blocks, with babies found in the rubble. Of course humanitarian principles have been broken many times before, but in the past there was usually some attempt to deny, to cover things up, to be ashamed, to pretend ignorance. Here it was done with the shrug of the Sovereign Murderer. We have never had more evidence, more facts, to prove that atrocities are taking place. And never has it mattered less. In 2019, we see this all again: as Idlib is obliterated and Trump talks word-salad.
This is the great paradox of the end of the Cold War: the future, or rather the future-less present, arrived first in Russia. We are only now catching up. Though maybe there’s a simple cultural logic at work here. If our own ideological coherence was based on opposition to the Soviet Union’s, when it collapsed we would invariably follow.
The Russian regime finds itself at ease in this environment because it has been acting in it for longer. There’s nothing mystical at work in its success: it simply has a head start. Matching its messages to different audiences, constantly capturing attention and conjuring the illusion of strength through spectacle, lying for fun, throwing truth to the wind, and reducing facts to feelings — this is all familiar territory for the Kremlin. Some politicians in the West have joined in, but most institutions and bureaucracies are still playing by yesterday’s rules.
In a final twist, a nostalgia can arise for “normalnost,” for a time of stable meaning, which for many, especially among media and intellectual elites in the United States, was the end of the Cold War. Perhaps this yearning for a time that still made sense explains the attention Russia now receives in the “liberal press” and in conversations among those “resisting” Trump. I don’t mean the quest for policies to deter the Kremlin’s invasions and information operations — which I consider a matter of urgency — but the language and iconography that is sometimes used in this debate: motifs from Soviet posters to advertise books and articles on the subject; Cold War secret service terminology to describe Russia’s behavior today. The Kremlin’s actual strength lies in having arrived at our future first, in how contemporary and similar it is to the thing once known as the West, but by describing it in ways reminiscent of the Soviet Union there seems a longing to recover a narrative and system of interpretation where we knew who we were. The more our reality becomes like the new Russia, the more we pine for the old Soviet Union.
The victory for incoherence.
‘There is something very telling’ about the rise of incoherence in the West that culminated in Trump's election victory, and the misinformation war against the Syrian revolution.
Colonial Viper a Trump supporter and apologist for the Assad regime, right from the earliest months of the protests for democratic rights in Syria, openly advocated in these very pages for the slaughter of anti regime protesters as CIA agents.
That for his efforts CV was then later elevated to ‘Author’ marked a victory for incoherence and the end of normalnost where facts don’t matter and opinion is everything.
[Colonial Viper authored his first post here at end of 2013. He authored his first post on Assad and Syria at the end of 2015. You can check for yourself using the search function. AFAIK, he was not a Trump supporter in those days.
CV’s comments and posts were highly controversial at times and he became somewhat unhinged later on and went off reserve. He no longer has Author status here and has not commented here for a long time AFAIK.
I don’t know if CV has openly advocated for mass violence as you allege and I doubt it would have been condoned if this were indeed the case. However, you seem to suggest that TS ‘rewarded’ CV for calling for mass violence and slaughter and that is a pertinent lie and utterly uncalled for.
Your latest insinuations fly in the face of the hard work that Authors and Moderators (and SYSOP) as well as most commenters put into TS to distinguish between facts and opinions; there is a place for both, but they are not the same.
I am done with your lies and falsehoods and the continuing snide remarks aimed at TS, which are a stab in the back given that you have been a commenter on this site for 11 years with thousands of comments.
Don’t bother with e-mail or any other attempt to communicate regarding this Moderation note; the only opinions I’ll take into account are those of the other Moderators and SYSOP. You can pray that they see your case differently and in your favour.
He has certainly red-pilled himself in recent years if you look at his Twitter feed. His latest pet peeve is drag queens reading to a few middle class kids at a public library.
Never mind the thousands of kids who have to live in boarding houses and hotel rooms along side all sorts of nutters each and every day in this country.
Abortion today, then sex before marriage, then same sex relation shops, then dress codes, then no more evolution in schools.
It's happening here as well. We all like seeing footage of the brass bands at Ratana church and Neve frolicking on the paepae, but Ratanaism is very conversative and reactionary. They are anti choice, anti women, anti gay, anti evolution and live in the dark ages. They are more or less brownwashed alt right.
Trump has proven that he won't defend U.S. troops in Iraq.
34 U.S. troops suffered traumatic brain injuries after Iran's missile strike. Iran now knows that the orange commander-in-chief has a big mouth and tiny balls.
“And one day we must ask the question, ‘Why are there forty million poor people in America? And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth.’ When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I’m simply saying that more and more, we’ve got to begin to ask questions about the whole society…”
–Speech to Southern Christian Leadership Conference Atlanta, Georgia, August 16, 1967.
You know that "I have a Dream" guy.
Did you know there was a trial that said he was assassinated by the US government?
Labours die hard neo liberal aligned members of whom D. Parker is a stirling example, seem to believe that “out fiscal scrooging” the Nats is a vote winner. The logic re sidelining Capital Gains given the holy war National was generating on CGT, and Coalition dynamics, was somewhat understandable as a one off tactical move, and may well have salvaged 2020 for them regardless of the negative messages it sent to many Labour Green supporters.
Likewise the Cannabis Referendum may play a part in the return of the Govt. But touching Super is a no no for many working class Kiwis as much as it is for the double dipping middle class who are happy to accept their super while they disparage beneficiaries.
National Superannuation at 65 is a de facto UBI for that age group, and despite the generational issues and calls from bureaucrats (often with their own personal retirement schemes) for change-Labour do so at their peril.
Not so sure this is a vote loser. It removes quite a lot of discrimination which I suspect skewed more towards women because of common life experiences. .
The partner with an overseas pension removing eligibility has been an issue for a long time- good to see it sorted.
A bit more thought needs to go into the rates of married couple, single person and two superannuitants sharing living space.
There is also other financial discrimination in this space- if a couple's adult children come to live with them there is no financial penalty , if they return to live with a single parent superannuitant then $50 a week is lost.
With respect to the partner age differences – if the qualifying partner dies – then the younger partner loses payment and has to depend on other welfare benefits.
I see that all current arrangements have been grandfathered. Personally I would have thought that there should have been a transitional period (shorter for youngest partners ) so that over a period of 2-5 years they transit onto the same rules as the newly eligible.Booting any under 50's off shoudn't be a hardship – I don't see why they should remain eligible for a better benefit. Conversely applying the reverse of these rules would ease the transition for couples with narrow age spreads close to retirement.
Hundreds of patients in Wuhan who have yet to be confirmed as carrying the new strain of coronavirus are becoming increasingly desperate as the city struggles to cope with the numbers reporting pneumonia symptoms.
One 36-year-old, speaking by phone outside a major hospital in the city, said she had spent the past week taking her sick husband from hospital to hospital in a vain attempt to get him tested for the virus, which has already killed 41 people and infected hundreds more.
“I have nothing. No protective clothing, only a raincoat, and I am standing outside the hospital in the rain,” said the woman, who gave her name as Xiaoxi.
“I am desperate, I have lost count of time and days. I don’t know if we will both live to see the new year.”
The internet and incompetence did not protect samoa from measles.
Dr Helen Petousis-Harris said given New Zealand's responsibility for the 1918 flu epidemic reaching Samoa and wiping out 22 percent of the population, the country should have done more to protect Samoa from this outbreak.
As measles reduces the immune response,there are significant risks for an outbreak in both the pacific islands and south auckland.The problem is it is already here.
Cohen, Omarosa and Parnas have all secretly recorded tRump.
Anyone think the mobster oligarchs don't have him on tape?
A recording obtained by ABC News appears to capture President Donald Trump telling associates he wanted the then-U.S. ambassador to UkraineMarie Yovanovitch fired while speaking at a small gathering that included Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman — two former business associates of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani who have since been indicted in New York.
The recording appears to contradict statements by Trump and support the narrative that has been offered by Parnas during broadcast interviews in recent days. Sources familiar with the recording said the recording was made during an intimate April 30, 2018, dinner at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Trump has said repeatedly he does not know Parnas, a Soviet-born American who has emerged as a wild card in Trump’s impeachment trial, especially in the days since Trump was impeached.
"Get rid of her!" is what the voice that appears to be Trump’s is heard saying. "Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. OK? Do it.
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
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 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
Straightforward and detailed read of where NZ political parties are at in election year (and broader than the headline): https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/119033188/what-will-the-nats-do-about-winston
It would be nice to think so, but don't wholly agree it is true. Yes, there is plenty of positivity in NZ but there is a lot of negativity too and sometimes the latter wins.
Take the 2008 election. The campaign waged by National was negative without precedence in this country and it worked a treat. Yes, they had a new charismatic leader who also pulled in votes but it was the negativity that won the day for them.
By all means run a positive campaign. It is what we would expect of them. But when the fake news, the lies and the misinformation starts flying (and it already has but can only increase in frequency) be ready to return the fire because if Labour doesn't, they risk a repeat performance of 2008.
'A Brighter Future'
for them and their enablers.
the rest are darn near hopeless, bludgers and lazy people whom the no mates party has no use for.
Also, we have become tenants.
Nope. We have had this discussion repeatedly in recent weeks.
I don't mean stooping to National's level. Far from it. But I do remember Helen Clark and Labour ignoring the lies, falsehoods emanating from National. I think they assumed the voters would see it for what it was…. misinformation. Many of them didn't. It was Crosby/Textor stuff – cleverly presented and needed to be swiftly rebuffed. It wasn't.
We can expect to see an updated version – with a degree of Trumpism thrown in.
Edit: and they need to be supported by the Greens when it is appropriate. There will be a concerted effort to discredit them as well.
Again, nope. Plan and deliver your own messages rather than reacting to and amplifying the reach of theirs.
There is no need for 'enemas' of Labour to generate fake news or promulgate misinformation or tell lies.
Allowing a bureaucrat with a decade long history of mismanaging MOH:DSS a front and centre position in the midst of major reform (as a result of long running Human Rights cases) is messaging of the most honest in nature.
This is Labour and its partners in crime giving a loud and emphatic Fuck You to those of us in the disability community who have fought long and hard for justice and a modicum of parity with our entitled ACC cousins.
Ditto allowing Pharmac unfettered authority to ignore international protocols and put the lives of Kiwis at risk.
Ditto largely ignoring the strong advice of the WEAG and CPAG to remove sanctions and significantly raise benefits.
Oh yes…Labour doesn't need its enemies to lose votes in the upcoming election…those of us who were hoping that there was the collective will in the Coalition for real transformation and hard reform of what is falsely called 'the Publc Service ' have only ourselves to blame for almost buying into their shit.
Labour just might capture the vote of the Muddles, the Woman's Weekly readership beguiled by cutesy family outing shots, and they may even seduce a few wavering National voters (unless That Mob comes up with more palatable spokespeople) but bet my bottom dollar they have well and truly shat in the pond of traditional Labour supporters.
Vote Greens, I guess. Stronger hand in next govt will depend on Winston being weaker in relation to them.
The bureaucrats will be mostly the same regardless of who’s in Government.
This is true.
But it is not right.
The buggers should be purged…unless they have performed outstandingly and according to the expectations of the Gummint.
Actually, that's very possibly the case with my mate Toni Atkinson.
Bring on the EOLC Bill!!!
Problem is that many bureaucrats do get ‘recycled’ and NZ just happens to be a tiny little fish bowl, which aggravates the problem with the small ‘talent pool’. In many ways, NZ still is a colonial outpost.
We’ll have to get through the euthanasia debate first.
It’ll be a busy year for the Moderators here 😉
Just one word of friendly advice, be careful what you say about specific persons, here or elsewhere in public.
Always happy to receive advice ,friendly or otherwise.
"My mate" has been more than happy to put her name and face out there trumpeting the Good Works of MOH:DSS for the past decade in their Newsletter.
ROFLMAO
I even have a letter signed by her in 2012 declaring that they were working on a 'non-discriminatory family carer policy'….you will no doubt remember the reaction from those who actually give a shit about NZBORA and sound legislative practise in 2013?
I have no fear of being accused of defamation…I don't lie…the truth is damning enough.
The only other risk is being punished by having MOH:DSS supports cut.
Already happened in 2012…we get nothing from them so have nothing to lose.
All good then 🙂
As a general point of information, i.e. not specifically addressed to you, if somebody defames another person on this site, it is the site or Trust(ees) rather that is liable.
Sorry, I cannot remember; my memory leaks like a sieve on a landfill.
Whoever is in that ‘boss of Disability Support Services’ role also has at least Legal and their Director-General to convince before something becomes policy. Likewise the DG is susceptible to whatever signals are coming from the Minister's office – which is why whoever is in there is critical, unfortunately.
However it is easy for it to become personalised when, as you note, you see the same person fronting decisions with direct and unescapable personal impacts over a long period of time.
All well and good in principle, but then we end up with an American-style bureaucracy where every change in government results in thousands of political appointees of varying professional competence and knowledge.
At the end of the day, you're criticising the bureaucracy for political decisions made because ministers don't have the guts to just take the budgetary impact of doing the right thing.
@McFlock
"At the end of the day, you're criticising the bureaucracy for political decisions made because ministers don't have the guts to just take the budgetary impact of doing the right thing."
In Pharmac's case they have well and truly brought all criticism upon themselves, and continue to do so persisting in attempting to defend their now indefendable actions.
The actions that seem to have resulted in no change in the rate of death while freeing up funds to help other patients?
Seriously, McFlock?
I was under the impression you were capable of examining all the available material on an issue and forming your own opinion.
A tad sad that despite evidence available from a variety of sources you seem committed to the narrative that Pharmac's decisions are all justified under For The Good Of All rule and any criticism can be traced back to Big Pharma lobbying.
Sigh.
The key piece of data in whether an action is killing people via a specific cause is whether the death rate from that cause actually increased while or after the action was taken.
That’s the only way of looking at it. Each case has to be first investigated individually and then as a (population) statistic. One cannot ignore the deaths as ‘within the normal range of statistical probabilities’ or whatever because that doesn’t explain anything.
SUDEP by its nature tells us nothing, like most "SU" deaths.
A person who was alive is now dead, with no obvious cause and only a condition or time of life as a common factor with other unexplained deaths.
At least a change in the rate of unexplained deaths would indicate that something has changed.
True, but given that the numbers are small and ‘soft’ I believe this will not lead to conclusions. https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15-11-2019/#comment-1666718
The most probable conclusion is that one can't prove a negative.
There's always the possibility that in ten or twenty years some level-5 bureaucrat will run the numbers and discover that this decision, statistically speaking, was associated with the deaths of three people more than would have been expected.
But that's the peril of every healthcare funding decision. You take funding away from some area, even if it looks like it will have no negative impact on the population, maybe you're wrong. And maybe the area you divert that funding to will not save more lives than covered by your miscalculated downside.
But you will never be able to convince someone that your decision had nothing to do with their loved one's death, even if there's zero actual evidence you had anything to do with it at all.
Understandably, people are upset and angry and they want to know what happened. They may also want some kind of justice if a preventable mistake was made and someone was found culpable.
I fear these people will be disappointed, disillusioned, and remain angry for quite some time because it is highly unlikely that the investigation into the brand switch will find that kind of information and identify culpability in a legal sense.
As you know, SUDEP is poorly understood and will remain so for the foreseeable future IMO.
This is not to say that it will be a whitewash. Hopefully, some lessons will be learned from this and avoided in future. Again, I believe they will in lowering the risk threshold and a stricter adherence to the first precautionary principle of healthcare: first, do no harm. In other words, if it ain’t broken, don’t try to fix it.
If money in the health system is being spent inefficiently, harm is already being done.
There was another article on the brand switch on Stuff today: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/118814341/bipolar-disorder-patients-suffer-terrible-side-effects-after-pharmac-drug-brand-switch
Patients are no ordinary consumers.
I know that a few people shove all blame onto PHARMAC because they went against international best evidence and Medsafe’s advice, which is within their rights.
However, PHARMAC is a funding agency and there are (at least) three other parties directly involved in a patient’s prescriptions: the healthcare professional (usually the GP), the pharmacy, and the patient him or herself.
It seems to me that at least one issue is the uncertainty about who takes responsibility for what, i.e. it might have fallen in between the cracks.
It could be a while before we find out if the brand switch has contributed to any of the five reported deaths and other reported adverse events.
" It could be a while before we find out…."
By which time most of the unaffected Muddles will have forgotten what the fuss was all about.
Convenient, and just what they are relying on.
SSDD
In NZ health jargon they are pretty interchangeable. Hence the Health & Disability Commission having a Code Of Consumers Rights. Part of a broader attempt at the time to redefine people's relationship with health practitioners and services in the process of being neoliberalised, but not properly addressed since. Influences from the US.
Yes, it is unfortunate that the lines between these two concepts are blurred because there really is a fundamental difference between patients and consumers.
You mention the US and together with NZ, these are the only two countries that allow direct-to-consumer-advertising of prescription drugs (DTCA).
Personally, I don’t believe this is in the best interests of patients.
“American-style bureaucracy where every change in government results in thousands of political appointees”
There aren't actually that many of them, when you compare the number to either the total number of employees of the US Government or the population of the US.
There are approximately 4,000 political appointments in the Executive Branch, at least according to Wiki. That covers just about all of the Government except the Post Office and the Military.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_appointments_by_Donald_Trump
The population of the US is about 70 times that of New Zealand. If we had the same sort of ratio that would mean around 55-60 political appointees here. I don't know but I would be willing to wager that there are far more than that in the Minister's Offices in the Beehive who serve at the Minister's discretion rather than being seconded by a Department.
After all, that is only a couple of people per Minister.
Except that they're mostly higher-level roles, so to argue a relative proportion it's the number of different functions and services rather than the number of employees. Even if population difference corresponded to difference in size of bureaucracy.
An, of course, there's the entire distinction between ministers and departments, which they don't seem to have in the US: their cabinet members have direct operational control over their departments, rather than a governance role.
Set new objectives and ask senior staff to leave if they cannot meet them? Not sure what kind of employment agreements they have.
Basically, that's the routine.
Minister comes up with a goal, the department come up with the plan (including costs), minister signs off on it as a decision, department implements the plan.
Sometimes ministers want a plan, but it costs too much so they kick it back to the department to find savings (or the department doesn't understand that cost is less of a factor so automatically slips in ways of saving cash, like refusing to recognise previous experience of family carers).
that doesn't quite explain how someone could be fired or moved on though.
I think it does explain that much of what we see in welfare and health is on Labour (and NZF) rather the public servants (although I'm sure there are plenty of ways to undermine a new Minister's plan).
Someone would need to be actually held accountable for their previous decisions and actions while a public servant, which will never happen. It would also make them even more risk-averse.
As long as they competently do the job they are instructed to do, why would you fire them?
If they don't do their job properly, that's internal through the department or SSC.
If their job requires them to commit crimes, they and their superiors should be arrested.
If the incoming minister doesn't like the job the previous minister ordered the department to do, that's not the fault of the department.
That having been said, there is some fudging at senior levels where part of the role might be to have a good working relationship with the minister, but the responsibility for what jobs ministers are instructed to do rests with the minister. And ministers are constrained by Cabinet priorities, as well.
What if their job asks them to be an arsehole and they turn out to be a little too good at it and keen for more?
Yes Minister gives a nice summary of both sides of the discussion.
Arseholes who want to be arseholes when they are instructed to be fair and reasonable fail to competently perform their duties. The intractable arseholes fail to change and go through standard performance management. A purge would just flood the department with inexperienced staff who have poor job security because there will be another purge in three years.
It's bad enough already with restructurings to align with ministerial wishes and areas of responsibility. Basic stuff like differentiating researcher data requests from OIA requests, or knowing who is responsible for what subject area at the moment all fall through a myriad of little cracks because there's FA institutional memory or knowledge. Whacking a purge on top of that is just piling dysfunction upon dysfunction.
For a number of years now I have been reading the post election Briefings to the Incomming Ministers.
Fascinating.
Quite plain that these documents are pitched at the level of the 'in control but mostly ignorant…let's baffle them with bullshit.'
Helps to read a few Yes Minister scripts for some grounding.
ooh, are those available to the public?
Not wanting to pre-empt Rosemary’s reply, yes, they are publically available – they are known as BIMs.
https://dpmc.govt.nz/our-business-units/cabinet-office/ministers-and-their-portfolios/ministerial-portfolios/briefings
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/feature/briefings-incoming-ministers-2019
Yes: https://www.beehive.govt.nz/feature/bims
Your diligence amazes me Rosemary. There are hundreds of them and they can be anything up to a hundred pages or so.
I have read a few of them on occasion but only a very few. The thought of reading any significant number gave me nightmares.
There’s a Moderation note for you.
Haven't watched telly for more than a decade.
Despite doing a largish amount of physical work in an average day I still experience episodes of insomnia.
I am a ridiculously fast reader…but I admit to finding it increasingly difficult to read stuff on screen…my days of dilligence/ self flagellation may be seriously numbered.
Still..the BIMs are certainly a go to document if one has a couple of 'wtf!' moments and need to find the source of a new Minister's blunders.
I've been known to read the odd Treasury Report as well.
Just for fun.
"It would be nice to think so, but don't wholly agree it is true. Yes, there is plenty of positivity in NZ but there is a lot of negativity too and sometimes the latter wins."
I tend to agree with you (Mathew) to SOME (and a growing) extent.
The 4 P's play an increasingly role too – from a sliding scale between apathy and desperation through to hope, and "positivity"
Pot, 'P', Piss and Prozac.
For the first time in my life, I'm about to change my vote from Labour to Green.
And it's not because the Adhern government isn't the best of a load of bad alternatives. It's because time is actually running out before populism become entrenched.
When I heard JA say (in a Henry Cooke interview), she didn't realise how long things take, AND THEN praised our public service (admitedly I assumed she was referring to the senior ranks), I thought – naivety maybe?
I'm not sure some in Labour have yet developed adequate bullshit detectors even if some will only ever have to face a used-car salesman (in this space going forward)
Yes, I think there is a bit of naivety and not just on JA's part. To my knowledge, she was never a P.S. employee – not in NZ anyway – and there are politicians on all sides who fall into that category.
As you know OWT, the P.S. was very much a dog eat dog place but whether that is still the case I don't know. In my day, "seniority" usually depended on how far up 'you know where' a person was prepared to go. Individuality was frowned upon, and anyone who dared to stick their neck above the parapet had it chopped off and thrown into the moat.
A period of P.S. employment should be a requirement for all senior politicians. 😉
Yep, well – Just can't do it anymore. I'm afraid JA may well have signed up to superficiality over substance.
Second time this week concerning an immigration issue ( and that's only 2 that've been made public after just watching 1 news ).
The good thing is that it won't just be me that does the big switch – there are now 3 generations of family that are in agreement.
Apparently, I seem to have misjudged Iain Lees-Galloway too. Nice bloke though he may be, he's obviously not as bright as I thought he was – or maybe its more to do with expediency over principle. Either way, cudda shudda wudda.
The right to protest defines democracy, but for some protesting is terrorism.
While I agree with Monbiot's main point. Personally I think that his notion that we should own the label of ‘extremist’ is wrong.
James Hanson, Naomi Klein and in particular Bill McKibben, are of the opinion that the polluters that we are protesting against are the ‘extremists’ and should be made to own this label. These corporate 'extremists' are out of control, recklessly conducting an experiment with the climate which will impact us all.
Let’s be clear the supporters BAU are not moderate but extreme
British tax payer funded state oganisations define environmentalists and peace activists as 'terrorist'
You can be sure that the label of 'terrorist' attached to Greenpeace by British Intelligence is the same label that the French Intelligence service the DGSE also attach to Greenpeace.
You can also be sure that the British Intelligence consider French Intelligence the DGSE, just like themselves, to be counter terrorists.
The French secret intelligence agency that murdered Nando Pereira and bombed Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior will not be on any establishment organisation terrorist watch list.
The bombing and murder carried out by the DGSE may be the most egregious act by an establishment Intelligence agency but it underlines what Elisa Allen said, that these views held by secret intelligence agencies and the police are dangerous and undemocratic.
The chicken-loving cousin of Fernando the photographer. 🙂
This is what democracy looks like.
No, that is simply fake news. 18,000km is more than the distance from London to Sydney.
The total length of your digestive system is quite a lot longer than the straight-line distance from your mouth to your ass.
Did you miss the word “stretching”?
Stretching? 18,000 km is 18 million metres. If they squeezed 50 million people into 18 million metres, that's 0.36 metres per person. Even the rudest budget airlines give you a lot more than that in their stingiest seats.
Yeah, I did the same and even tried to make some comparisons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_chain_(politics)
The numbers (online) are all over the place but it seems to me that a major event did take place. Quibbling about the actual numbers is just semantics IMO. Maybe satellite images can verify the claims 😉
The problem with distinguishing between fake and fact is that things are never that simple and black & white (binary).
Professor Ann Marie Brady takes New Zealand's government to task for its lax attitude towards Chinese state and donor influence within New Zealand politics.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2020/jan/24/new-zealand-needs-to-show-its-serious-about-addressing-chinese-interference
A couple of good links in there.
You do realise that it's racist to say anything critical of the CCP. Our very own wumao 'Mark' assured us of this repeatedly. 🙂
However my own personal Chinese sources tell me Xi's 'Presidency for Life' gambit is an act of desperation. China has four long standing problems:
1. At present they remain highly dependent on imported resources that only arrive because ships are still free to move across oceans. But to get to China they must pass through several choke points all of which are contested and highly deniable.
2. The four or five thousand years of civilisation is largely a myth. Just as modern Germany has only existed for a relatively short period, and prior to this it was an endless sequence of warlords, imperial expansions, invasions and collapses, the same with China. One of the most stable Chinese periods was when the Mongols invaded and ruled for 200 years or so. At least two major languages divide the nation, and numerous others remain. There is no particular reason why China’s current borders should be considered stable, and you only have to look at the intense resistance from the Taiwanese and HongKongers to the idea of reunification to get a taste of this.
3. Their demographics are terrible. Contrary to what I imagined a few years back, China is running out of young people. This will put an enormous handbrake on their internal expansion. They remain a very low trust society; inner circle/out circle is very much a thing. Together these factors makes it very hard for China to continue expanding on internal growth only
4. And to date most of that 'miraculous' expansion has been very much the result of China's entry into the global world trade order … mostly sponsored by the American Bretton Woods system. The USA tolerated the rise of Germany, Europe and Japan as competitors, because these nations largely played by the rules. China has not, it's policies of hypersubsidisation, and rampant IP theft have gone well past merely annoying. With the USA defaulting back to it's natural isolationism it's no longer interested in maintaining a trade system that largely benefits a nation that is posturing itself as an enemy.
So far the CCP has been able to maintain social order because everyone was getting richer. The raising of 800m people into the middle class is indeed a remarkable achievement, but the ground on which it was achieved is shifting from under them. Hence Xi Xinping's rampant authoritarianism and projection of influence beyond it's borders. Australia and New Zealand are notionally linked into the "Third Island Chain" , ultimately our geography makes us a clear target to be subsumed into the CCP's long term goals to create a New Middle Earth.
Great response thankyou.
I'm painting the roof this weekend so I won't respond until the evening.
Sorry to butt in….but isn't it too damn hot for roof painting?
Or are you perchance at Ross Base?
Sent from my phone with our Bus jammed into the only available shade north of Kataia.
I stop at 10 and reconvene at 4.
It's over a couple of weekends.
The primary reason China will continue to do great is: the United States.
The United States is the gift that keeps on giving in terms of talent pool for innovations, financial capital for expansion, right kind of customer base for all their kinds of products and services, innovations to copy cheaply, and because they have acted so badly for four decades that they are making China look reasonably OK as an alternative ally.
The United States has a fair number of problems which benefit China's place in the world for the remainder of the century.
1. It has squandered the massive moral authority it gained across much of the world after helping Europe defeat Nazi Germany and defeat global communism (I'm sure the very young and the last remaining commies will deny they ever had it but they're the ones who didn't fight).
China is on the other hand building a purely mercantilist and instrumental mode of transacting in the world. Trade deals are replacing the moral pacts built after World World 2 through the United Nations.
2. Its constitutional innovations from the Revolution have worn out, so it no longer functions as a set of ideals to aspire to. In particular its Constitutional checks and balances of executive power have stopped working.
China on the other hand has coherent government which is growing in precision and authority. Sure, I don't like it. But their Chinese social credit system may well turn into a more powerful system of corrective behaviours than the entire US judicial framework of law and prison. Imagine a world where the use of courts was less and less necessary, on China's scale.
3. The USA is about as addicted to oil-based products as one could think, despite having invented and promulgated the digital economy which has significantly decarbonised parts of it.
China is certainly addicted to oil, but it's making many of the right transformative moves, and if you want a 300km/h train to get you somewhere rather than a plane, look not to the USA.
4. The USA used to be ambitious for the rest of the world and could roll out truly massive nation-building programmes through massive instruments including the US armed forces, the CIA, the World Bank, and the IMF. It’s also proven incapable of winning or at least completing a war in 50 years.
China is now the world leader on nation-building systems, and only China has the instruments to roll them out now. Who knows if they will really come off – as in Pakistan – but they don't lack for will or ambit. China's the one that forges the really big trade deals.
There's a really good chance that China is now better positioned for the future due to the systems of governance and control it has rolling, its capacity to decarbonise compared to other major countries, and its diplomatic force stripped of non-mercantile idealism.
In the Year of the Rat, it's China that behaves like one.
And that's a compliment to both China and to rats.
All interesting and valid responses. Still I have to add some qualifiers.
Post WW2 the USA allowed competitors to flourish as long as they stayed on their side ideologically and didn't challenge them militarily. China has broken both of those rules and the USA is now rapidly disengaging with China. The past few years have seen an increasing return of US business back to North America.
The other big one that people keep missing is this; the USA never really needed the global trade order it established. It's imports/exports as a percentage of GDP are something in the order of 6%. They are now oil and gas independent. They simply don't need the rest of the world anymore and are certainly no longer interested in expending American lives in wars they have no interest in. As far as they're concerned they did their best to get the world on a more peaceful orderly basis but the effort has been largely spat upon. No US President since GW Bush has shown any real interest in global affairs and Trump is merely the clown show giving the middle finger to the rest of the planet.
China is now the world leader on nation-building systems
Which has to explain why it's nearest and most intimate neighbors, from Hong Kong to the Philippines are all anxious and unhappy about China's overt military expansion in the region. South China Sea pops into mind. The idea that China is a pacifist, merchantile power with only benign non-military intent is laughable to anyone in the region. Wherever they have the opportunity the Chinese are expanding and exerting their military muscle.
its capacity to decarbonise compared to other major countries,
Which has to explain why it's the largest emitter by far and growing faster than any other nation. Right? They have one hell of a trajectory to turn around.
I'm with the Greens on this
What kind of travesty is this that pretty much allows us to be a satellite of US military power? …and a target..under the guise of plucky Kiwi ingenuity
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/118957475/greens-concerned-about-rocket-lab-launch-for-us-spy-agency
The Greens are the only party to say it how it is when it comes to the US and its war mongering
That we happily collude with Trump…a street corner drunk in the international sphere…truly exposes us as the lackeys we are
Pick a lane … a satellite of US or CCP military power. There is no third option.
The binary thinking is strong in this one. The third option, which we appear to be following, with the recent visit of a Chinese warship, is: both. Option 4 obviously is neutrality; 4(b) or 5, to suit those of us with a benevolent and inclusive nature being a foreign policy which is both neutral and pacifist.
Small nations like NZ that are utterly dependent of freedom of the seas and open trade will ultimately be forced to pick a side. Just to be clear, I've advocated for many years that the age of empires is going to end, but in the meantime we have to deal with the realities in front of us.
Wishful thinking about 'neutral and pacifist' will cut no mustard with the great powers.
"Wishful thinking"…How very dare I! As co-creators of our world, what we humans need collectively is a shitload more "wishful thinking" and way less of the fossilized acceptance of "the realities in front of us."
The problem with having typed out in excess of maybe 8,000 comments here over the past 13 years is that I tend to assume everyone has read all of them. Which is a terrible conceit of course.
But yes I've outlined in many comments a vision for a post-empire political world, based on a global form of federal govt. Not dissimilar in nature to the UN, but in which the nations give up the aspects of their sovereignty that relate to international matters, such as trade agreements, freedom of navigation, communications, diplomacy and most especially war. I've repeatedly argued that all of the big problems we face are global in nature therefore demand political responses and authority at the same scale.
However I've been a lonely voice on this for a long time now, and I'm assuming that none of this is going to come about for at least another generation. It may well take another catastrophic war to bring it about, who knows.
In the meantime NZ has some hard choices to make.
The art of diplomacy for small nations isn't so much which side to pick, but when.
When still dodges the question … which side do you pick McF?
We don't need to make any decisions for a while yet.
Our security and military establishment will be independent in name only with Australia making almost all of our hard choices for us (no need for thinking there)…
… along with 90% of our banking (still no need for thinking)…
…whereas as a society New Zealand cares only cares if your Visa is good rather than where you are from (in all our guest nights, student nights, and exports) …
… and those three defaults enable China's rise in New Zealand and in Australia (and still not a fresh thought needed for any of the above to continue 🙂 )
So far so good.
… along with 90% of our banking (still no need for thinking)…
Not in the loop .
Kiwibank might need to fork out about $12 billion if it is to buy BNZ, industry sources say.
It is believed that negotiations are under way for the Government-backed bank to buy BNZ from Australian owners NAB.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/118989116/bnz-sale-price-likely-to-top-10b-experts-predict
That would be an interesting state-funded long-term infrastructure investment, I'm guessing through the NZ Super Fund.
i would suppose the NZSF would be the best vehicle.As a spend it would improve the sustainability of the nz current account faster then export growth.
Not going to happen and you know it.
Kiwibank aren't even 10% of our banking after 19 years of operation, and have needed massive bailouts so big they had to be hocked off to ACC and NZSuperfund.
Imagine if they had been capitalised enough a decade ago to take on the Aussie mortgage-floggers?
Kiwibank does not have business or farm lending portfolio risks either.
Nor does it have the business and farm lending profits.
Which is all good until those sectors go down the tubes. Which may be why there's suddenly rumours that BNZ is on the block. This could easily be another Hanover / Allied Farmers situation, in which case Kiwi Bank and backers would be keeping well clear, or should be.
no thanks Red
I've seen the evidence of US power (going back at least as far as Hiroshima and Korea , Vietnam, Cambodia ,Guatemala etc ad infinitum)and I'm not impressed….except in a fearful way.
China's military impact on the world?
Bases globally?
I know you put a case that American hegemony has resulted in less death, and widespread peace and prosperity, but I don't buy it
There may be fewer battle deaths, but economic sanctions are the new way of doing business..and war..and the deaths and ongoing misery are undeniable
Battle deaths also don't take into account the lingering and longlasting death count asscociated with land mines,depleted uranium exposure … disability, birth defects ,cancer,and denial of access to medicines and food, general poverty from sanctions,destruction of cultures and societies.The US has steadily retreated from international treaties intended to make the world safer
Peace and prosperity for the few, not the many
I'm not choosing China either , I guess I have more optimism (or stupid hope) that we humans can be better..and need to be
I know you put a case that American hegemony has resulted in less death, and widespread peace and prosperity, but I don't buy it
The hard data I've produced over and over is a bitch, but then you have your own pre-conceptions to look after. I've never argued the Americans have produced a perfect world, but it's a fallacy to condemn the good by comparison with an ideal of perfection that has never been achieved.
I guess I have more optimism (or stupid hope) that we humans can be better..and need to be
Indeed, yet oddly enough whenever I give concrete expression to that exact hope … everyone around here goes quiet.
The hard data I've produced
You are very clever to have created a control planet where the US has not been so aggressive.
US has not been so aggressive.
Compared to what? Short of trying to argue historic counter factuals in which we imagine that the USSR had become the dominant world power post-WW2, or whatever, we can only really compare with the past. The data clearly shows that the past was nowhere near as peaceful as you imagine, and that war between the 'great powers of the day' has steadily declined, especially since WW2.
I never said the past was peaceful. "Hard data", what a knob.
"Hard data", what a knob.
I produced a solid data rich reference you demonstrably failed to counter. Then you resort to name calling. Is that really the best you can do?
Lol. Your solid data rich reference starts with the words "draft version".
There is an obvious reason for a cessation of direct conflict between the major powers, nuclear weapons.There is nothing in your link to suggest that there would have been more conflict overall if US foreign policy had been less aggressive. You are welcome to hold an opinion that there would have been based on conjecture, but "hard data" to support that there is not.
Obviously you didn't even get as far as reading the first paragraph, before you found a petty distraction to amuse yourself with. Well there is another version here that's highly visual, doesn't require a lot of reading and isn't a draft. Unless you care to refute this, then merely pretending it doesn’t exist is irrational.
There is an obvious reason for a cessation of direct conflict between the major powers, nuclear weapons.
Yes indeed. So now can we drop that idiotic 'nuclear free' policy?
As for American foreign policy being so 'aggressive' by exactly what measure are you judging this? For 70 years since then end of WW2 the US military has ensured freedom of trade and movement of peoples between all nations resulting in a huge reduction in warfare, the end of overt colonisation, the growth of democracy, and an immense improvement in living standards … as long as you were on their side. That was not an unreasonable demand.
At various points they've fucked up, the invasion of Iraq being an obvious one. Covert actions in Latin America having little to commend them either. Since the end of the Cold War their interest and competency in maintaining the global peace has become increasingly erratic and ill-directed.
No-one is arguing that Pax-Americana did not have it's ugly moments, but if you imagine that reverting to a pre-WW2 era in which multiple competing great power empires constantly vied and battled with each other over controlling territory and trade routes is going to be somehow an improvement … well the data I've presented suggests you're dreaming.
Which at the same time doesn't say this dominant US role in world affairs is going to be sustainable either; at some point we need to have some tough conversations about what will replace it.
TBH, I'm starting to lean towards the Chinese.
Never saw a President for Life you couldn't love eh ….
The Green Party have been consistent in opposing genocide and helping its victims.
They should campaign on it and make it a public bottom line of supporting labour.
Best chance they will have of getting labour to agree to it.
Lol. I'd forgotten the joys of right wing advice for the left in election year.
You give him too much ‘credit’; he’s a stirrer.
I was being sarcastic 🙂
What can I say – I’m here to help.
Your concern is always appreciated.
And often repudiated. 😉
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/119036650/complaint-about-christchurch-mayors-election-expenses-taken-to-police
Complaint about Lianne Dalziel and her election expenses (naming doners) referred to police.
Great news.
Hiding donations from people with strong links to china or are china based. Here is hoping that justice prevails.
"If a candidate is found to have knowingly filed a false electoral return, the maximum penalty is up to two years in prison or a $10,000 fine."
That would do the trick !
My doner’s name is kebab.
Lol. Very witty.
Does sound from that article like a straightforward failure to declare local body election campaign donations over $1500. Dalziel subsequently listing them on 18 December does not change that.
The wriggleroom in the law is only over whether a breach was 'intentional' or not. ('Ignorance not being a defence' somehow does not apply to candidates seeking local power, only to plebs).
Thus here is the defence argument:
I was just following poor advice, your honour.
"I was just following poor advice, your honour."
Or perhaps she could try an earlier excuse.
"I'm just a housewife Your Honour. I always do what my husband tells me to do".
No call for that.
There's a big difference in a few donations of $1800 ($300 over the limit) which was slap-happily overlooked in a local body campaign, and a donation of $100.000 from a single donor carved up into packages of $14,999 in a general election campaign.
From the Stuff article that James linked to:
Not small money. What's a valid excuse for not following the few rules we have to minimise influence in elections?
OK. I hadn't seen that update. The last link I read was some time ago. There was "a few of them" but I thought they were all around the $1800 mark. That makes a difference I concede but (imo) still doesn't put it on a par with Nationals misdemeanor.
I'm with you over the need to be scrupulous about the rules being followed. No point in having them otherwise. It sounds like it was carelessness, but it should not have happened. Hopefully there will be less "carelessness" on both sides in the future.
I'd personally like to see private money completely removed from politics.
Looks like the SFO may finally be ready to say something about the Nat investigation: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/407687/serious-fraud-office-announcement-over-national-donations-expected-in-coming-weeks
Ah, I see that story has already been posted below too.
If we want truly democratic elections there's no other alternative but it will never happen cos… you know "we're not gonna fund politicians out of our money. Let em fund their own campaigns. It's bad enough we have to pay for em sittin around in parliament all day doin nothing. 🙄
And where in t link did it say that it was just a few donations $300 over.
either you are very lousy at reading or simply making shit up (I’m going with the later).
to help you out one donation – as clearly listed was over $17k.
Anne wasn't making this “shit” up though, was she James.
"a donation of $100.000 from a single donor carved up into packages of $14,999 in a general election campaign"
Who knew that Russians used to refer to the West as a place of 'Normalnost' . (But don't anymore).
The victory for incoherence.
‘There is something very telling’ about the rise of incoherence in the West that culminated in Trump's election victory, and the misinformation war against the Syrian revolution.
Colonial Viper a Trump supporter and apologist for the Assad regime, right from the earliest months of the protests for democratic rights in Syria, openly advocated in these very pages for the slaughter of anti regime protesters as CIA agents.
That for his efforts CV was then later elevated to ‘Author’ marked a victory for incoherence and the end of normalnost where facts don’t matter and opinion is everything.
[Colonial Viper authored his first post here at end of 2013. He authored his first post on Assad and Syria at the end of 2015. You can check for yourself using the search function. AFAIK, he was not a Trump supporter in those days.
CV’s comments and posts were highly controversial at times and he became somewhat unhinged later on and went off reserve. He no longer has Author status here and has not commented here for a long time AFAIK.
I don’t know if CV has openly advocated for mass violence as you allege and I doubt it would have been condoned if this were indeed the case. However, you seem to suggest that TS ‘rewarded’ CV for calling for mass violence and slaughter and that is a pertinent lie and utterly uncalled for.
Your latest insinuations fly in the face of the hard work that Authors and Moderators (and SYSOP) as well as most commenters put into TS to distinguish between facts and opinions; there is a place for both, but they are not the same.
I am done with your lies and falsehoods and the continuing snide remarks aimed at TS, which are a stab in the back given that you have been a commenter on this site for 11 years with thousands of comments.
Don’t bother with e-mail or any other attempt to communicate regarding this Moderation note; the only opinions I’ll take into account are those of the other Moderators and SYSOP. You can pray that they see your case differently and in your favour.
Take the rest of the year off – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 11:12 AM.
Our old mate CV.
He has certainly red-pilled himself in recent years if you look at his Twitter feed. His latest pet peeve is drag queens reading to a few middle class kids at a public library.
Never mind the thousands of kids who have to live in boarding houses and hotel rooms along side all sorts of nutters each and every day in this country.
I can never remember which damned pill was supposed to do what. I just know I'm up to half a dozen a day lol
edit: oh wait, I remember what the little blue pills are supposed to do…
Just never take the black pill!
https://pando.com/2015/05/17/neocons-2-0-the-problem-with-peter-pomerantsev/
He's an old time propagandist, a real master
Somewhere I read he was described as "ex-reality TV producer turned journalist and academic"
Hilarious I thought.
Paul and Pascale Hennessey established Park Homes five years ago.
This is the kind of business the government could be encouraging given our situation with unaffordable housing and lack of supply.
It is sad that the acts of evil people can destroy a business that can help with what many are desperate for but can’t get.
A home.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/118973205/couples-heartbreaking-loss-of-tiny-house-business-after-burglaries
Barrelling toward theocracy, and no one is lifting a finger.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/24/march-for-life-anti-abortion-rally-washington
Abortion today, then sex before marriage, then same sex relation shops, then dress codes, then no more evolution in schools.
It's happening here as well. We all like seeing footage of the brass bands at Ratana church and Neve frolicking on the paepae, but Ratanaism is very conversative and reactionary. They are anti choice, anti women, anti gay, anti evolution and live in the dark ages. They are more or less brownwashed alt right.
Trump has proven that he won't defend U.S. troops in Iraq.
34 U.S. troops suffered traumatic brain injuries after Iran's missile strike. Iran now knows that the orange commander-in-chief has a big mouth and tiny balls.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/34-troops-suffered-traumatic-brain-injury-iran-strike-200124173832457.html
“And one day we must ask the question, ‘Why are there forty million poor people in America? And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth.’ When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I’m simply saying that more and more, we’ve got to begin to ask questions about the whole society…”
–Speech to Southern Christian Leadership Conference Atlanta, Georgia, August 16, 1967.
You know that "I have a Dream" guy.
Did you know there was a trial that said he was assassinated by the US government?
https://www.globalresearch.ca/court-decision-u-s-government-agencies-found-guilty-in-martin-luther-kings-assassination-2/5320024
Oh well – feel free to keep dreaming and doing jack.
How to lose the 2020 General election…a continuing series from the NZ Labour Party Caucus.
The law change being discussed re changing superannuation payments for non qualifying partners is a blunder as sure as trumpeting “increase the age to 67” for two elections was. https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/118933472/pension-changes-remove-extra-payments-for-nonworking-younger-partners
Labours die hard neo liberal aligned members of whom D. Parker is a stirling example, seem to believe that “out fiscal scrooging” the Nats is a vote winner. The logic re sidelining Capital Gains given the holy war National was generating on CGT, and Coalition dynamics, was somewhat understandable as a one off tactical move, and may well have salvaged 2020 for them regardless of the negative messages it sent to many Labour Green supporters.
Likewise the Cannabis Referendum may play a part in the return of the Govt. But touching Super is a no no for many working class Kiwis as much as it is for the double dipping middle class who are happy to accept their super while they disparage beneficiaries.
National Superannuation at 65 is a de facto UBI for that age group, and despite the generational issues and calls from bureaucrats (often with their own personal retirement schemes) for change-Labour do so at their peril.
Not so sure this is a vote loser. It removes quite a lot of discrimination which I suspect skewed more towards women because of common life experiences. .
The partner with an overseas pension removing eligibility has been an issue for a long time- good to see it sorted.
A bit more thought needs to go into the rates of married couple, single person and two superannuitants sharing living space.
There is also other financial discrimination in this space- if a couple's adult children come to live with them there is no financial penalty , if they return to live with a single parent superannuitant then $50 a week is lost.
With respect to the partner age differences – if the qualifying partner dies – then the younger partner loses payment and has to depend on other welfare benefits.
I see that all current arrangements have been grandfathered. Personally I would have thought that there should have been a transitional period (shorter for youngest partners ) so that over a period of 2-5 years they transit onto the same rules as the newly eligible.Booting any under 50's off shoudn't be a hardship – I don't see why they should remain eligible for a better benefit. Conversely applying the reverse of these rules would ease the transition for couples with narrow age spreads close to retirement.
1918, again, or Stephen King writes nonfiction.
https://twitter.com/Tominmedill/status/1220627305728368640
https://twitter.com/Tominmedill/status/1220630749159677952
Hundreds of patients in Wuhan who have yet to be confirmed as carrying the new strain of coronavirus are becoming increasingly desperate as the city struggles to cope with the numbers reporting pneumonia symptoms.
One 36-year-old, speaking by phone outside a major hospital in the city, said she had spent the past week taking her sick husband from hospital to hospital in a vain attempt to get him tested for the virus, which has already killed 41 people and infected hundreds more.
“I have nothing. No protective clothing, only a raincoat, and I am standing outside the hospital in the rain,” said the woman, who gave her name as Xiaoxi.
“I am desperate, I have lost count of time and days. I don’t know if we will both live to see the new year.”
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3047613/china-coronavirus-wuhan-residents-describe-doomsday-scenes
In 1918 most people didn't really know what was happening. Today we have the internet and what you've posted.
Social cohesion could get tricky
We're in interesting times
The internet and incompetence did not protect samoa from measles.
Dr Helen Petousis-Harris said given New Zealand's responsibility for the 1918 flu epidemic reaching Samoa and wiping out 22 percent of the population, the country should have done more to protect Samoa from this outbreak.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/402251/samoa-measles-epidemic-immunologist-furious-at-nz
As measles reduces the immune response,there are significant risks for an outbreak in both the pacific islands and south auckland.The problem is it is already here.
The land of the free is now censoring Iranian media.
https://www.twitter.com/ASBreakingNews/status/1220911469686030336
Cadet Bonespurs' Space Farce gets their logo.
https://www.vox.com/2020/1/24/21080813/space-force-star-trek-starfleet-logo-trump
Sure looks like a probable copyright violation to me. Even if it's just derivative of a previous copyright violation.
Cohen, Omarosa and Parnas have all secretly recorded tRump.
Anyone think the mobster oligarchs don't have him on tape?
A recording obtained by ABC News appears to capture President Donald Trump telling associates he wanted the then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch fired while speaking at a small gathering that included Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman — two former business associates of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani who have since been indicted in New York.
The recording appears to contradict statements by Trump and support the narrative that has been offered by Parnas during broadcast interviews in recent days. Sources familiar with the recording said the recording was made during an intimate April 30, 2018, dinner at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Trump has said repeatedly he does not know Parnas, a Soviet-born American who has emerged as a wild card in Trump’s impeachment trial, especially in the days since Trump was impeached.
"Get rid of her!" is what the voice that appears to be Trump’s is heard saying. "Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. OK? Do it.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/recording-appears-capture-trump-private-dinner-ukraine-ambassador/story?id=68506437