Conservative writer for and about Asian perspectives, Dileepa Fonseka, has an issue with Chris Hipkins already.
The incoming PM spoke too much about where he comes from and not enough about the Lunar New Year!
Mr Fonseka feels immigrants new and old are being ignored because they don't know where the Hutt Valley is, therefore it is exclusionary to mention it. Why then does he spend half his article on referencing 1981 play Foreskin's Lament and the apparent dangers of Labour government borrowing 50 years past? Hardly accessible concepts for his audience.
He infers parallels between this government and the pace of change by the Kirk government and the upset that caused conservative voters, and references the apparent rise of Paul Spoonley's "working-class conservative". I suspect Dileepa's real audience are voters Asian and non-Asian who might like the spread the word that Hipkins is no good.
The writer complains about the new PM mentioning his local Cossie Club, but it might be worth him looking up the word, "cosmopolitan", and see what it says about diversity:
cosmopolitan
adjective
including people from many different countries.
"immigration transformed the city into a cosmopolitan metropolis"
Fonseka is just a writer trying to find an angle to justify being in work.
Maybe today one of his colleagues will fashion a piece about Hopkins being 'anti sports' and not interested in sports people because he hasn't included those in his initial comments.
Or doesn't care about old people as shown by not referring to retirement villages.
Fonseca is a shill for the migrant worker pipeline to business class interest.
An apologetic that the migrant worker is the new working class is of a design to obstruct labour focus on worker training, fair pay/industry awards, standards/regulations for businesses employing migrant labour.
This “salt of the earth” routine is an attempt to prevent a backlash similar to the one seen when Labour was elected with a thumping majority under Norman Kirk in 1972. Kirk had big plans and ushered in big changes, but by 1975 inflation was soaring, the country had borrowed heavily, and it had been hit by an oil shock.
The pace of change had disillusioned some of the conservative voters who had voted for Kirk, and then the major economic problems, like heavy government borrowing and skyrocketing inflation, had dislodged Labour’s urban “working-class” supporters.
Utter tosh, what pace of change? This is a specious effort to imply a comparison to the here and now (the only one is inflation). There was some economic insecurity because the loss of the UK market (EEC) and this together with the oil price shock impacted the BOP (and because this was pre floating the currency it was hard to make the right economic adjustment). National had no response either and thus 75-84 was a waste of 9 years (they needed to float and NAFTA 1967 to CER by 1978, not 1984).
“When he can afford to be really intellectual, he starts worrying about the mortgage, and the missus, and his next naughty on the side.
Here Fonseca is a shill for a business class who covet a generation of working class people who pay rent rather than own homes, because they do not want to pay people enough to own homes – they want a constant supply line of low wage migrant labour to exploit.
A future where National and a migrant labour supply on tap are the future of our economic and political society is a nightmare scenario.
Posing labour as of the past for getting in the way is classic apologetic for neo-liberalism global market hegemony.
a business class who covet a generation of working class people who pay rent rather than own homes, because they do not want to pay people enough to own homes – they want a constant supply line of low wage migrant labour to exploit.
Well summed ! Queenstown be the epitome of that, but theres nowhere to even rent …to paraphrase that famous song "Work and pray, live on hay"… and in a tent : (
This is why I comment here, to get ideas down on paper so others more knowledgeable can pick it up and expand.
Always been suspicious about Fonseka's motivations and wanted to make that point so everyone can see and understand when they read him next time that his loyalties lie with NACT and open tap rather than managed immigration.
One major problem for Hipkins in this strategy, is that it leaves the government open to a very simple and compelling response from National. That is:
"If you want to be sure that the policies you hate aren't regurgitated after the election, then vote National."
I imagine policies such as the RNZ/TVNZ merger will get the chop. But one of the tricky policies will be Three Waters. This is already a long way down the track with a lot set up. So, it is going to be very difficult to ditch this policy now.
Indeed. Eye watering amounts have already been spent on 5 waters (as it is now) with the new 'authorities' set up and staffed up to eight months before the legislation was passed in Parliament. Councils were instructed this week to remove water assets from their balance sheets for the 2024 financial year – so locals were informed yesterday. (no link just verbal from the council).
No doubt HUGE compensation and redundancy will be demanded if it is cancelled.
Personally, I don't think they can scrap 3/5 Waters now.
But, Hipkins might tinker with the co-governance aspect as that seems to be causing a lot of agnst about the policy. Though, that would likely buy a big fight with the Maori Caucus.
Yeah…that is a sad but true. On that….I read this. History an all…
For the first time in 76 years, the 28th Māori Battalion Battle Honours memorial flag will be fully displayed and recognised in Rotorua for Waitangi Day.
Great !….but then I read on….: (
Soldiers who fought in the battalion weren't allowed to enter RSAs, hotels and other public places, and were told to leave.
BTW, Quite a lot of WW2 Veterans never received their Gongs besides the 28th.
A large number & I mean a large number of the 3rd NZ Div never received theirs & nor did those serving with NZ Homes Forces Command who were mobilise during the Japanese Scare between December 41 to early 43 when the last Units were stood down.
And that's before we start looking at the rest from WW2 or even further back to WW1.
There are Thousands of Thousands of unclaimed Gongs sitting in a vault somewhere in Trentham from WW1 to WW2.
In many cases, like those assign to NZ Home Forces Command in WW2 like my NZ Grandfather was, he didn't even know he had a couple of Gongs until the RSA change their membership Rules in the late 90's as he need his War Services Records & 2 or 3 Gongs arrived with War Service Records. Needless to say, he & Grandma were a tad shock & so was Mr Gladstone their neighbours in Bronte St in Nelson who ex 27th MG Battalion 1939-45 who finished up in Italy with a Italian war wife.
His brother was in 3 NZ Div and the way that was treated during its draw down in late 43-44 was quite shocking and it no surprising that most of them never got their respective gongs.
Then you have the Next Of Kin who had Family members KIA or WIA never received their Gongs either.
As the Willie Walker Former RSM-A & ex Tankie (not of Long Tan Fame), who I last spoke in Nov 2017. Who was in charge of the NZDF Medals & Awards Dept. Said it's a Kiwi thing most, as Kiwi Families rather forget the about the Wars etc & they got on with life post conflict. Because in the end, the average Kiwi Male is Pacifist as we only to war when we need too as we rather be working, playing sport, fishing/ hunting, going to the races or doing whatever as we find war a bloody inconvenience.
Thence NZ's fighting reputation, even though Peacekeeping as Nation that you don't Fuck with unless you have signed your own death warrant.
But we need to keep them, because eventually someone does write in too claim pops or uncle's gongs etc. As attitudes do change or one is doing a family history etc.
They came on a bit of a roadshow to several small towns around Wellington eg Otaki.
I am sure that genealogists could help locate families of unclaimed medals. Genealogists worked with Nat Lib to locate families of many soldiers whose pictures were taken at photographic studios before they embarked to go overseas.
I do know that there will be the ones like my sister's father in law who refused to claim his medals. Apparently there was a process to go though and his words were:
'They know my address, it is on my enlistment documents, they should send them to me I shouldn't have to apply for them.'
I am not sure whether to this day anyone from the family has claimed
I am not sure what the process entailed, possibly a form & witnessed declaration.. There seemed to be some sort of signed form on the documents that came from NZDF when we applied for our dad's service records.
1) Fresh [White?] Water 2) Storm Water 3) Brown [Grey?] Water to which were added 4) Coastal Water and 5) Geothermal Water at the Select Committee stage.
The original "3 Waters" was Freshwater (the stuff that comes out of your tap), Wastewater (the stuff that comes out of your sinks, baths, toilet etc) and Stormwater (the stuff that falls out of the sky).
The first 2 you can charge for either providing, or taking away. The last one is a bit of a nuisance as it just arrives and has to be managed without providing any sort of return. It is however, very important as the others all depend on it eventually!
"critics (including former deputy prime minister Winston Peters, and the National Party) that the government's reforms aren't Three Waters, but "Five Waters."
But the prime minister insisted that was not the case.
"I've read the legislation, it does not change the scope. It's a reference to the impact that if you pump for instance wastewater into the ocean, it has an impact on coastal water," Jacinda Ardern said on Tuesday.
But she acknowledged that part of the bill could be clarified.
"It has caused potentially some confusion. So we'll ask the drafters whether there's a way to make it much clearer."
Well the truth is certainly not coming from you Maurice. Three waters reforms will make it harder to a future National govt to flog it off.
How can communities be sure these assets will not be privatised?
"Continued public ownership of these water services is a bottom line for the Government. Safeguards against future privatisation will be written into legislation to maintain ongoing ownership of the new entities by local authorities elected by communities. Beyond that, the Government will make communities the ultimate guardians of public ownership through a public referendum with any future proposal for privatisation requiring 75 per cent of votes in favour to carry it.
Additionally, any surpluses would have to be reinvested in water services to address significant infrastructure deficits, making the entities an unattractive proposition for investors. The involvement of iwi/Māori, with councils, in the strategic oversight and direction of the entities will enhance these protections"
"Councils will collectively own the water services entities providing services for their district, on behalf of their communities.
Communities will therefore retain an influence on three waters assets and services through their council and through other consumer and community interest forums"
they don't have to ditch 3 Waters, they just need to make sure the process brings people along instead of enforcing change that people either object to or don't understand. Remember the 80s? Yeah, let's not do that again.
I don't know if Labour or the central government departments understand how to do this. Or maybe they've been thinking they can force it through. Hope the lesson has been learned.
Three waters legislation is too far along to be pulled back. Water Services Entities Bill has already passed and the remaining pieces of legislation are at the committee stage.
Morning Report and what a swamp for Luxon to get caught in! Poor chap was totally confused about his anti-co-governence position. Corin Dann showed the terrible inconsistency of his position. Luxon did his usual word salad in defence.
Thanks Grey. Maybe that it was because it was Espiner that Luxon was being held to account. On reflection Dann would have helped Luxon get a more coherent answer.
Yesterday Mike the Lefty at #11 in the post about Jacinda Ardern's 5 years being remembered said that John Key left the PMship because his flag referendum was negative. Might it have offended the Royals having their symbols removed in a move towards a republic?
this needs pointing out. There are at least five problems here
1. A rapist (i.e. a man) decides to use self ID to get send to women's prison instead of men's prison. Whether that's because he will be safer in a women's prison, or because it gives him access to women to rape, or both, we don't know.
2. Self ID is being used as intended. Any man can say they are a woman at any time, and society will be expected to then treat him as a woman. Including institutions.
3. The Mail headline is a hot nonsensical mess and a gross insult to the women who were raped and women generally.
4. None of that serves transsexual women, men with extreme gender dysphoria, or gender non-conforming males. It probably does serve AGP males, and sexual offenders.
5. Gender ideology activists will argue that either he's not really trans and thus this is nothing to do with their politic, or he is trans and should be referred to as she and allowed to be in a women's prison. Wish they'd make up their minds.
the mail does as they are told to by their DEI advisor lest they get a shitshow for 'misgendering'
all of that actually actively hurts these people as it hurts women
Gender kultis will say what they need to say to keep this gravy train going.
The backlash to this will be extreme conservatism. The Handmaids tale only talks about the effects after the 'revolution' it does little to address what came before. I think it might have been unfettered liberalism coupled with extreme capitalism that now views the human body as the only profit center left and want to appropriately exploit that resource. We have fully gone down the rabbit hole. Good intentions badly applied lead to misery everywhere.
Don't know if this is accurate or not (only the vulnerability of the male is assessed before transfer), but if it is, the situation regarding the female prison estate in Scotland is worse than reported:
Wayne Brown is clearly out of his depth, so is kept on a tight leash by Matthew Hooten. He doesn't need to talk to non-Auckland based media, and fortunately he currently has an uncritical platform at the Herald to give his views unfiltered by any sort of pesky questioning. The other way he gets his views out is via "sources" giving press breiefings to the likes of Bernard Orsma, who is nothing but delighted that his sources have been upgraded from a few right wing councillors leaking documents to the mayors PR handlers giving him stuff.
The comments section of the linked article above indicates the Herald is basically the house journal of the sort of pricks who voted for him so as long as he dogwhistles them and they continue to block vote for him, democratic accountability can get fucked.
The tragedy is you can see that the CCO's have already decided that at 76 years old and not in the best of health they can afford to stonewall him for three years and see who comes along next, and the council itself is on a knife edge as to whether or not his agenda of cutting any service not used by well off boomers will succeed.
Wilson said Brown had two modes of talking to people, one being an off-the-record chat and the other, that he was good at telling people what to do.
Talking to the media did not fit into either of those, he said.
Wilson said Brown simply was "not good at talking to media" and believed a decision had been made that doing so risked him "looking less than he would like to".
Sooo anyone in IT working for a govt department get the memo today about offshoring IT jobs.
Despicable.
We spent billions on bureaucratic reforms to the health system, and not one new operation, not one new nurse or doctor will be provided, all it did was empower a shit load of overpaid middle management bureaucrats.
And now nz's health systems IT workers all have to prove that we are worth our meager pay or our jobs will be offshored so they can pay foreigners peanuts to access our health infrastructure critical information.
Thanks Jacinda. Thanks Chippie.
Bugger this country.
We had to work throughout COVID lockdowns, we had to work even if we were sick and now this country takes our jobs overseas.
Team of five million what a joke.
I'm so angry for my friends. This govt and this country stabbed us all in the back.
I feel bad for people who can't skip country but every young nurse, doctor and it worker should gtfo of dodge.
They like to throw around $$$ for foreign consultants so why not save a few billion and pay someone from india 25cents an hour to manage a national service desk
They’re quite obviously trying to copy the failed NHS mod that took 10 years to complete and they’re STILL having problems!
<blockquote>
ir Keir Starmer has publicly committed the Labour Party to the further privatisation of the National Health Service (NHS).
Writing in the <em>Sunday Telegraph</em>, the house organ of the ruling Conservative Party, Starmer declared in an op-ep that nothing was “off limits” when it came to the NHS. It should not be “treated as a shrine”, he said, repeating the formula employed earlier by his Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
</blockquote>
John Key’s asset sales outed by his own Minister [Nov 2014]
On Saturday, Paula Bennett, the Minister for Social Housing admitted, in a televised interview, that the sale of state houses by the Government was in fact an asset sale.
Nats treat public assets as their own, to flog off as they please – if it's not contributing to private profits it's worthless. Health/Education/Water could be good little earners.
Hollow Men confirm hidden agendas – asset sales [Oct 2007]
National leader John Key said today that New Zealand doesn't need to "rush in and sell its assets" – in stark contrast to the recent utterances of Bill English who confirmed the party would sell New Zealanders' assets down the road – as per the revelations in The Hollow Men.
The Nat party's masters will be salivating at the prospect of another good carve-up – it's been a long time between asset sales. Just don't scare the horses voters.
Ill thought-out restructurings are always 'pretty shit'.
In my working life I went through at least 8 though some masqueraded as some thing less by being called realignments (that made us feel soooo much better). Others that I started my working life with had been through 11 when I rejoined them in 2000.
I can say honestly that not a single one was well thought out and, dare I say, necessary.
Ironic really as when the first restructuring started back around 1985/86/87 (Envrionmental restructuring) started I had just finished doing management papers through Massey. One of these was fiercely saying that people who found themselves having to do abrupt shifts and changes in direction were poor managers as they had not been keeping their eyes one the ball. It was desirable & respectful of staff & markets to move in an incremental and slow-ish way respecting the value of staff knowledge and staff themselves. .
Funny that Stan Rogers, Richard Prebble, Roger Douglas and the eminence gris behind them from Treasury, Graeme Scott, did not seem to have read this stuff and treated the PS with absolute disdain.
Later I met one of my former restructured out staff members (with me in her first job out of Uni) in London where she was working in a Govt dept and she said her managers were agog (in a negative way) at the stuff that was happening in NZ and one said they were going to wait until the dust settled before seeing if they could learn anything but at first glance he felt an more incremental approach was usually better. (obviously having read the same types of management studies that I had!)
An incremental approach does not work for those wanting huge change, as part of an ill thought-out (ACT) or invisible (Nats) manifesto and who neither respect the PS nor the people who work there.
NZ decimated it's PS in the neo lib era (error) and though we have had some good years in the PS since there is a high degree of inherent suspicion of places like SSC/Treasury and their OTT influence on things, and a feeling that we may be slightly more politicised than is necessary. The importation of CEs from overseas increased the turmoil/churn with the restructurings.
Also to remember that it was Labour who started this neo lib madness and we should always be keeping an eye on them too.
Corey I am feeling for your friends in PS IT. I am feeling also for my young cousin who is part of a cohort of techies who were employed in the PS to provide a future/positive place to work across several departments. Hopefully he is not affected. It is so demoralising seeing those in their first jobs being swung around and spat out as part of terrible restructurings.
Think about the waste of lives and the slow down in departments as new entities tried to do what the old ones had been doing…what a complete and utter shambles this time was.
I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization
Having been through several local government restructures myself – this really resonated.
"An incremental approach does not work for those wanting huge change,"
It seemed that the majority of the managers on the restructure treadmill wanted to 'stamp their mark' on the organization – and it was change for changes sake, rather than actual improvements.
The general trend was to remove decision-making and responsibility (and therefore salary/pay) from the front-line site managers – to back-room people – nicely insulated from the consequences of their decisions.
The fact that you then have considerable 'churn' in those less-attractive front-line jobs (all of the stress, little responsibility, pay or job growth prospects) – all incurring ongoing hiring and training costs – never seems to get considered in the bottom line….
Waka Kotahi being doing this very same front-line to back-room shuffle under an Aussie CEO. Shame on Labour's government for weakening the Public Service.
[Please use the correct e-mail address in your next comment, thanks – Incognito]
Obviously Sanctuary has not been subject to an ill thought out and possibly unnecessary restructuring…..if so are you qualified to give any sort of opinion let alone a sneering dismissive one.
Oh, I've been restructured many times – it was practically a sport after the dotcom boom fell apart. First they come for the least productive, then they amputate whole departments and finally they fire the HR staff who made it possible to sack everyone in the first place.
The thing is a restructure/outsourcing isn't (usually) personal and they are always bad for the business, particularly harsh ones when everyone's morale falls off a cliff. They are shitty as, but you develop a bit of resilience and you realise you don't hang around waiting for the redundancy cheque if you've had a gutsful. Don't moan, just spend company time looking for a new job and leave. And if your leaving means they are in the shit because they planned on keeping you, tough luck.
They are shitty as, but you develop a bit of resilience and you realise you don't hang around waiting for the redundancy cheque if you've had a gutsful. Don't moan, just spend company time looking for a new job and leave.
And there is another myth, that you develop resilience. In the charts about life stressors losing one's job is in one of the 10 most stressful eg in the Holmes and Rahe scale.
Death of a spouse (or child*):
Divorce:
Marital separation:
Imprisonment:
Death of a close family member:
Personal injury or illness:
Marriage:
Dismissal from work:
Marital reconciliation
Retirement:
So imagine it happens once, at the same time as a marital break-up. Bad, so two years later it happens again and your dad dies, then again and again. I used to say to these outside consultant companies
'Please write your procedures so that there is recognition that losing one's job may not be the only sad or stressful thing happening to our staff'…..all to no avail.
This only plan only works if there are jobs 'outside' that are similar. Some PS jobs involve incredibly specialist work, that is hard to match in the private sector let alone even in the wider PS. I have been involved in some of the point matching jobs with others within yr dept and outside yr dept.
Some times the points matching comes down to a similarity only on generic attributes. Sometimes the resilience is to something akin to weekly beatings, or an inhumane living or home life, like the boiled frog syndrome. These are not necessarily good adaptations.
The damage to people, on going and the waste of potential is incredible. The NZ Govt must have spent/wasted $NZ billions on this.
One of my dad's wartime mates developed shell shock or PTSD 30 years after his war service ended. My dad was told that this was not unusual. I wonder if as retirement comes along for many of these folk involved in these restructurings if there will be a blip in the numbers seeking help for unresolved injuries to self now that the mind is free.
I know that many of us had much less to retire on than we were anticipating after raiding super and other savings after our redundancy monies were all gone. We were not eligible for any benefits, most of us, as we had 'earned too much', and spent it keeping family, hearth & home together.
I took early retirement once I became aware that I was not going to get a job in the last restructuring, too old (55) and had too much 'corporate baggage" I was told. You know the stuff they called 'goodwill' like having skilled, stable staff with a knowledge of the business where people pay money to secure it was labelled 'baggage' in this restructuring.
There is no good restructuring, it is a myth. The only 'restructuring' that is good is the ones we initiate ourselves as Jacinda Ardern did, and as happened in our workplaces, often after a long holiday.
With good training, good performance management/pay and good management much of the knee jerk obliteration of workplaces can be avoided.
If NAct gets it they are likely to use any cruel and unnecessarily damaging restructuring methods, wholesale, and 40 or so years after the last cut swathes through the PS we will have it again for our people.
It is ghastly to see it happening now under Labour.
I had some wonderful jobs after being restructured out, none in the skills I had been specifically trained in though. But it was wonderful to come back to the rump of the Dept I had been restructured out of all those years ago for 5 years before I took (forced) early retirement during a restructuring on account of my decrepitude
On another note related to misogyny/sexism/racism when I did come back all the corporate knowledge & goodwill about these 'isms' had been lost in the mists of time. We had CEs who had no working knowledge of concepts such as equal pay for equal work let alone evolving concepts such as equal pay for work of equal value (the police versus nurses pay), the glass ceiling, etc
"And now nz's health systems IT workers all have to prove that we are worth our meager pay or our jobs will be offshored so they can pay foreigners peanuts to access our health infrastructure critical information.
Sooo anyone in IT working for a govt department get the memo today about offshoring IT jobs.
…
And now nz's health systems IT workers all have to prove that we are worth our meager pay or our jobs will be offshored
I know people working in government IT (not Ministry of Health though) or are fully aware of all major IT projects in Wellington, so this is news to me.
Do you have some more information and/or a link to a news report?
I just listened to Neale Jones on the Kathryn Ryan RNZ show, saying 1 out of every 11 houses in NZ was built by the Ardern Govt. The biggest housebuilding scheme in NZ history. Is this right? Why the hell didn't I know that? Why doesn't everyone know that?
Just sad that no one can afford the loans at the high interest rates. So Yei, more houses, but sad high interest loans, inflation, high cost of living and a fair chance of high unemployment in the future. Never mind that what ever the number is, it is woefully inadequate.
State Houses new builds barely keep up with the amount sold.
As per the government from last year, they are happy to have overseen the build of 10.000 'permanent' public housing which comes to about 1800 per year, and is woefully inadequate to keep up demand.
There were 67,000 state houses in 2017, and now there are in 69,000 in 2022 (it was 68,000 in 2021).
They are also renovating old stock, so that they meet rental standards *.
Houses demolished are often on land for future state house building ** or for KiwiBuild *** or the sale for money (for * and ** and ***). That said they are also increasing capital invested in Kainga Ora.
My area with 1% of NZ's population will have 40 Kainga Ora houses go and 57 built. There are also initiatives being supported for house building by NGOs such as the Sustainable Housing Trust, and three local churches are building houses. Iwi also have some 4 ha of repatriated land that had been earlier donated by local iwi for hospital building being developed for housing. Abbeyfield is interested to build locally.
Rental houses locally are snapped up with but 16 houses available recently. Emergency housing continues to be built. Our area has a waiting list of 234 on the Housing Register, which contains applicants not currently in public housing who have been assessed as eligible and who are ready to be matched to a suitable property.
State houses go for all sorts of reasons- dilapidation, depopulation,- the big thing is that they are replaced with dry, warm houses in greater number and more suited for the aize of families who will live there.
There is still need but all is not gloom.
Dealing with our local Nat MP pre-2017 taught us that more state houses were being sold than built, even though the official line was that they would be replaced……
Hilarious … move onto a National government that sees holding down wages as the way to deal with inflation and wants to increase inequality by returning to mortgage interest deductability for multiple property owners.
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This is a cross post Adventures in Transitland by Darren Davis. I recently visited Brisbane and South East Queensland and came away both impressed while also pondering some key changes to make public transport even better in the region. Here goes with my take on things. A bit of ...
My daughter arrived home from the supermarket yesterday and she seemed a bit worried about something. It turned out she wanted to know if someone could get her bank number from a receipt.We wound the story back.She was in the store and there was a man there who was distressed, ...
New Zealand’s longest-running political roadshow rolled into Opotiki yesterday, with New Zealand First leader Winston Peters knowing another poll last night showed he would make it back to Parliament and National would need him and his party if they wanted to form a government. The Newshub Reid Research poll ...
Hi,As September draws to a close — I feel it’s probably time to do an Ask Me Anything. You know how it goes: If you have any burning questions, fire away in the comments and I will do my best to answer. You might have questions about Webworm, or podcast ...
The mediocrity who stands to be a Prime Minister has a litany.He uses it a bit like a Koru Lounge card. He will brandish it to say: these people are eligible. And more than that, too: These people are deserving.They have earned this policy.They have a right to this policy. What ...
Buzz from the BeehivePoint of Order has waited until now – 3.45pm – for today’s officially posted government announcements. There have been none. The only addition to the news on the Beehive’s website was posted later yesterday, after we had published our September 26 Buzz report. It came from ...
Alex Holland writes – In 2017 when Labour came to power, crown spending was $76 billion per year. Now in 2023 it is $139 billion per year, which equates to a $63 billion annual increase (over $1 billion extra spend every week!) In 2017, New Zealand’s government debt ...
Labour released its fiscal plan today, promising the same old, same old: "responsibility", balanced books, and of course no new taxes: "Labour will maintain income tax settings to provide consistency and certainty in these volatile times. Now is not the time for additional taxes or to promise billions of ...
The Facts has posted – KEY INSIGHTSOf New Zealander’s polled: Social unity/division77%believe NZ is becoming more divided (42% ‘much more’ + 35% ‘a little more’) 3%believe NZ is becoming less divided (1% ‘much less’ + 2% ‘a little less’) ...
The centre-right’s enthusiasm for forcing people off the benefit and into paid work is matched only by the enthusiasm (shared by Treasury and the Reserve Bank) for throwing people out of paid work to curb inflation, and achieve the optimal balance of workers to job seekers deemed to be desirable ...
New research shows that tenants in social housing - such as these Wellington apartments - are just as happy as home owners and much happier than private tenants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The election campaign took an ugly turn yesterday, and in completely the wrong direction. All three ...
Media awareness about global warming and climate change has grown fairly steadily since 2004. My impression is that journalists today tend to possess a higher climate literacy than before. This increasing awareness and improved knowledge is encouraging, but there are also some common interpretations which could be more nuanced. ...
If there’s one thing the mob loves more than keeping Māori in their place, more than getting tough on the gangs, maybe even more than tax cuts. It’s a good old round of beneficiary bashing.Are those meanies in the ACT party stealing your votes because they think David Seymour is ...
Labour kicks off the fiscal credibility battle today with the release of its fiscal plan. National is expected to follow, possibly as soon as Thursday, with its own plan, which may (or may not) address the large hole that the problems with its foreign buyers’ ban might open up. ...
While it may be unlikely to register in New Zealand’s general election, Britain’s PM Rishi Sunak has done something which might just be important in the long run. He’s announced a far-reaching change in his Conservative government’s approach to environmental, and particularly net zero, policy. The starting point – ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Canada is in uproar after the exposure that its parliament on September 22 provided a standing ovation to a Nazi veteran who had been invited into the chamber to participate in the parliamentary welcome to Ukrainian President Zelensky. Yaroslav Hunka, 98, a Ukrainian man who volunteered for service in ...
The big screen is a great place to lay out the ways of the salesman. He comes ready-made for Panto, ripe for lampooning.This is not to disparage that life. I have known many good people of that kind. But there is a type, brazen as all get out. The camera ...
The following is a message sent yesterday from lawyer Stephen Franks on behalf of the Free Speech Union. I don’t like to interrupt first thing Monday morning, but we’ve just become aware of a case where we think immediate and overwhelming attention could help turn the tide. It involves someone ...
The right-wing message calendar is clearly reading "cruelty" today, because both National and NZ First have released beneficiary-bashing policies. National is promising a "traffic light" system to police and kick beneficiaries, which will no doubt be accompanied by arbitrary internal targets to classify people as "orange" or "red" to keep ...
Buzz from the Beehive One Labour plan – for 3000 more public homes by 2025 – is the most recent to be posted on the government’s official website. Another – a prime ministerial promise of more funding for Pharmac – has been released as a Labour Party press statement. Who ...
As the National Party gets closer to government, lobbyists and business interests will be lining up for influence and to get policies adopted. It’s therefore in the public interest to have much more scrutiny and transparency about potential conflicts of interests that might arise. One of the key individuals of ...
Voters are deserting Labour in droves, despite Chris Hipkins’ valiant rearguard action. So where are they heading? Clearly not all of them are going to vote National, which concedes that the outcome will be “close”. To the Right of National, the ACT party just a few weeks ago was ...
Accusations of racism by journalists and MPs are being called out.Graham Adams writes – With the election less than three weeks away, what co-governance means in practice — including in water management, education, planning law and local government — remains largely obscure. Which is hardly ...
As the centre-right has (finally!) been subjected to media interrogation, the polls are indicating that some voters may be starting to have second thoughts about the wisdom of giving National and ACT the power to govern alone. That’s why yesterday’s Newshub/Reid Research poll had the National/ACT combo dropping to 60 ...
ANZ has increased its forecast for house inflation later this year on signs of growing momentum in the market ahead of the election. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR:National has campaigned against the Labour Government’s record on inflation and mortgage rates, but there’s now a growing chance the Reserve ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Katie Myers. This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Pittsburgh, in its founding, was blessed and cursed with two abundant natural resources: free-flowing rivers and a nearby coal seam. ...
Today the AT board meet again and once again I’ve taken a look at what’s on the agenda to find the most interesting items. Closed Agenda Interestingly when I first looked at the agendas this paper was there but at the time of writing this post it had been ...
Continuing my series on interesting electorates, today it’s West Coast-Tasman.A long thin electorate running down the northern half of the west coast of the South Island. Think sand flies, beautiful landscapes, lots of rain, Pike River, alternative lifestylers, whitebaiting, and the spiritual home of the Labour Party. A brief word ...
National leader Christopher Luxon yesterday morning conceded it and last night’s Newshub poll confirmed it; Winston Peters and NZ First are not only back but highly likely to be part of the next government. It is a remarkable comeback for a party that was tossed out of Parliament in ...
As this blogger, alongside many others, has already posited in another forum: we all know the National Party’s “budget” (meaning this concept of even adding up numbers properly is doing a lot of heavy, heavy lifting right now) is utter and complete bunk (read hung, drawn and quartered and ...
Everyone was asking, Are you nervous? and my response was various forms of God, yes.I've written more speeches than I can count; not much surprises me when the speaker gets to their feet and the room goes quiet.But a play? Never.YOU CAME! THANK YOU! Read more ...
Today's big political news is that after months of wibbling, National's Chris Luxon has finally confirmed that he is willing to work with Winston Peters to become Prime Minister. Which is expected, but I guess it tells us something about which way the polls are going. Which raises the question: ...
Buzz from the Beehive Under something described as a “rebalance” of its immigration rules, the Government has adopted four of five recommendations made in an independent review released in July, The fifth, which called on the government to specify criteria for out-of-hours compliance visits similar to those used during ...
Some of you might know Gerard Otto (G), and his G News platform. This morning he wrote a letter to Christopher Luxon which I particularly enjoyed, and with his agreement I’m sharing it with you in this guest newsletter.If you’d like to make a contribution to support Gerard’s work you ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – While there will not be another quarterly release of benefit numbers prior to the election, limited weekly reporting continues and is showing an alarming trend. Because there is a seasonal component to benefit number fluctuations it is crucial to compare like with like. In ...
A close analysis of the Treasury assessment of the Medium Term in its PREFU 2023 suggests the economy may be entering a new phase.Brian Easton writes – Last week I explained that the forecasts in the just published Treasury Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update (PREFU 2023) was ...
It’s been a while since we looked at the latest with the City Rail Link and there’s been some fantastic milestones recently. To start with, and most recently, CRL have released an awesome video showing a full fly-through of one of the tunnels. Come fly with us! You asked for ...
We are heading into another period of fast population growth without matching increased home building or infrastructure investment.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR:Labour and National detailed their house building and migration approaches over the weekend, with both pledging fast population growth policies without enough house building or infrastructure investment ...
Labour leader Chris Hipkins yesterday took the gloves off and laid into National and its leader Christopher Luxon. For many in Labour – and particularly for some at the top of the caucus and the party — it would not have been a moment too soon. POLITIK is aware ...
The leaders have had their go, they’ve told us the “what?” and the “why?” of their promises. Now it’s the turn of the would be Finance Ministers to tell us the “how?”, the “how much?”, and the “when?”A chance for those competing for the second most powerful job in the ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Over the past 30-odd years it’s become almost an orthodoxy to blame or invoke neoliberalism for the failures of New Zealand society. On the left the usual response goes something like, neoliberalism is the cause of everything that’s gone wrong and the answer ...
A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Sep 17, 2023 thru Sat, Sep 23, 2023. Story of the Week Opinion: Let’s free ourselves from the story of economic growth A relentless focus on economic growth has ushered in ...
Have you been looking out of your window for signs of the apocalypse? Don’t worry, you haven’t been door knocked by a representative of the Brian Tamaki party. They’re probably a bit busy this morning spruiking salvation, or getting ready to march on our parliament, which is closed. No, I’ve ...
Climate Town is the YouTube channel of Rollie Williams and a ragtag team of climate communicators, creatives and comedians. They examine climate change in a way that doesn’t make you want to eat a cyanide pill. Get informed about the climate crisis before the weather does it for you. The latest ...
A close analysis of the Treasury assessment of the Medium Term in its PREFU 2023 suggests the economy may be entering a new phase.Last week I explained that the forecasts in the just published Treasury Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update (PREFU 2023) was similar to the May Budget BEFU, ...
Back in June, we learned that Kiri Allan was a Parliamentary bully. And now there's another one: Labour MP Shanan Halbert: The Labour Party was alerted to concerns about [Halbert's] alleged behaviour a year ago but because staffers wanted to remain anonymous, no formal process was undertaken [...] The ...
Its that time in the election season where the status quo parties are busy accusing each other of having fiscal holes in a desperate effort to appear more "responsible" (but not, you understand, by promising to tax wealth or land to give the government the revenue it needs to do ...
JERRY COYNE writes – If you want to see what the government of New Zealand is up to with respect to science education, you can’t do better than listening to this video/slideshow by two exponents of the “we-need-two-knowledge-systems” view. I’ve gotten a lot of scary stuff from Kiwi ...
Buzz from the Beehive First, we were treated to the news (from Finance Minister Grant Robertson) that the economy has turned a corner and New Zealand never was in recession. This was triggered by statistics which showed the economy expanded 0.9 per cent in the June quarter, twice as much as ...
It has taken 17 months to get a comment published pointing out the obvious errors in the Scafetta (2022) paper in GRL. Back in March 2022, Nicola Scafetta published a short paper in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) purporting to show through ‘advanced’ means that ‘all models with ECS > ...
TL;DR: In the middle of a climate emergency and in a city prone to earthquakes, Victoria University of Wellington announced yesterday it would stop teaching geophysics, geographic information science and physical geography to save $22 million a year and repay debt. Climate change damage in Aotearoa this year is already ...
For nearly thirty years the pundits have been telling the minor parties that they must be good little puppies and let the big dogs decide. The parties with a plurality of the votes cast must be allowed to govern – even if that means ignoring the ...
Another poll, another 27 for Labour. It was July the last time one of the reputable TV company polls had Labour's poll percentage starting with a three, so the limbo question is now being asked: how low can you go?It seems such an unlikely question because this doesn't feel like the kind ...
After the trench warfare of Tuesday night, when the two major parties went head to head, last night was the turn of the minor parties. Hosts Newshub termed it “thePowerbrokers' Debate”.Based on the latest polls the four parties taking part - ACT, the Greens, New Zealand First, and Te ...
Hi,You can’t make this stuff up.People involved with Sound of Freedom, the QAnon-infused movie about anti-child trafficker Tim Ballard, are dropping like flies. I won’t ruin your day by describing it here, but Vice reports that footage has emerged of executive producer Paul Hutchinson being inappropriate with a 16-year-old trafficking ...
The trading banks yesterday concluded that though GDP figures released yesterday show the economy is not in recession, it may well soon be. Nevertheless, the fact that GDP has gone up 0.8 per cent in the latest quarter and that StatsNZ revised the previous quarter’s figure to show a ...
.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work..A recent political opinion poll (20 September) on TV1 presented what could only be called bleak news for the Left Bloc:National: 37%, down two points equating to 46 seatsLabour: 27%, down one point (34 ...
Open access notables At our roots Skeptical Science is about cognition of the results of climate science research in the minds of the entire human population. Ideally we'd be perfectly communicating understanding of Earth's climate, and perfectly understood. We can only approximate that, but hopefully converging closer to perfection. With ...
Coming Over The Top: Rory Stewart's memoir, Politics On The Edge, lays bare the dangerous inadequacies of the Western World's current political model.VERY FEW NEW ZEALANDERS will have heard of Rory Stewart. Those with a keen eye for the absurdities of politics may recognise the name as that of the ...
New Zealand First Policy Announcement:Law and Order New Zealand First believes that keeping society safe should be the priority of law-and-order policies. Every New Zealander deserves to feel safe, secure, and have their person and property respected. That is why New Zealand First continues to fix the flaws in ...
In last night’s leaders debate Labour Leader Chris Hipkins referred toaquote without giving any explanation of its content, which was about the ‘disease of co-governance’ that is perpetuated by the Māori elite, and he said it was racist. Then, without even examining the content, National leader Christopher Luxon agreed with ...
In last night’s leaders debate Labour Leader Chris Hipkins referred toaquote without giving any explanation of its content, which was about the ‘disease of co-governance’ that is perpetuated by the Māori elite, and he said it was racist. Then, without even examining the content, National leader Christopher Luxon agreed with ...
After years of criticising the Government on law and order, National have embarrassed themselves by conceding they have no new ideas and instead copied Labour’s Police policy announced three weeks ago, Labour Police spokesperson Ginny Andersen says. ...
Labour’s fiscal plan will continue its focus on carefully managing the books while protecting critical public services like health and education and investing to deliver high wage jobs and a low carbon economy. ...
New Zealand First today is announcing a policy on adjusting the rules and restrictions around access to the Job Seeker Benefit.New Zealand First’s policy is to introduce a capped time-period for any person to access the Job Seeker Benefit during their lifetime. Any individual will have the ability to access the Job Seeker ...
New Zealand First today is announcing a policy on adjusting the rules and restrictions around access to the Job Seeker Benefit.New Zealand First’s policy is to introduce a capped time-period for any person to access the Job Seeker Benefit during their lifetime. Any individual will have the ability to access the Job Seeker ...
The Green Party will double the Best Start payment and make it available for every child under three years of age - and it will be paid for with a fair tax system. ...
Labour will fund more medicines for more New Zealanders by investing over $1 billion of new funding into Pharmac if re-elected, Chris Hipkins announced today. ...
Labour has just announced a policy to increase Pharmac funding by $1billion over four years to fund additional medicines.With the current Pharmac budget of $1.2billion per year and needing a further $213million, by Minister Verrall’s own admission, just to keep up with current costs - then this is nothing ...
Labour has just announced a policy to increase Pharmac funding by $1billion over four years to fund additional medicines.With the current Pharmac budget of $1.2billion per year and needing a further $213million, by Minister Verrall’s own admission, just to keep up with current costs - then this is nothing ...
This matter begins with the Pike River investigation being inadequate, inexplicably lengthy, and after millions of dollars, the evidence that should have been placed before the public still has not been. We have always believed that Pike River isacrime scene, and thataproper investigation would have come to that conclusion. Blue ...
This matter begins with the Pike River investigation being inadequate, inexplicably lengthy, and after millions of dollars, the evidence that should have been placed before the public still has not been. We have always believed that Pike River isacrime scene, and thataproper investigation would have come to that conclusion. Blue ...
New Zealand faces a stark choice this election – vote for Labour to continue to confront the climate emergency with eyes wide open or bury your head in the sand alongside Christopher Luxon. ...
Labour is supercharging its plan to solve the public housing shortfall created by National, promising another 6,000 homes on top of what has already been committed says Labour Housing spokesperson Dr Megan Woods. ...
Labour will back migrant working families by introducing a 10-year multiple-entry parents’ and grandparents’ Super Visa, and make good on the Dawn Raids apology by providing a one-off visa for overstayers who have been in the country ten years or more, Labour’s Immigration Spokesperson Andrew Little says. ...
The Green Party is today welcoming Labour coming to the table to ensure an amnesty for overstayers, but only the Greens will ensure immigration settings actually reflect the reality of people who have been failed by our immigration system. ...
The Green Party is calling on Auckland Council to do more to protect urban trees and housing developer Aedifice Property Group to restore and replant the native forest it cleared, and protect all the remaining trees on Ngahere Road in Pukekohe after a significant number of native trees were cut ...
Latest Police data shows monthly ram raids have hit a two-year low, laying waste to Christopher Luxon’s false claim that there are two ram raids a day says Labour’s Police Spokesperson Ginny Andersen. ...
Free and healthy school lunches will be here to stay if Labour is re-elected, guaranteeing food for our kids who need it most and significant cost saving for parents. ...
The next Labour Government will build a new hospital in Hawke’s Bay, Labour leader Chris Hipkins and Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall announced. ...
The Green Party will keep up the fight to support exploited migrant workers, including pushing to end single employer visas, after the government picked up Green recommendations to improve immigration settings. ...
Green Party co leader James Shaw visited a home in Auckland today that has been upgraded with a wide range of energy improvements, similar to those that would be supported through the Green Party’s Clean Power Payment. ...
The Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta’s presence in New York today at the United Nations General Assembly is a contempt of New Zealand’s “caretaker government” convention. Despite the long-standing caretaker convention, Minister Mahuta is today at the UN to sign a highly contentious “Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement”, delivering a ...
The Pre-Election Fiscal Update Changes EverythingWithin an hour of this speech there is going to be a debate between the political parties that the media, under MMP, still think are the only parties that matter in this campaign. Both of those parties are riddled with inexperience, as evidenced by ...
National and ACT's tax plans don't add up, and that means deep cuts to the public services New Zealanders rely on, says Labour Campaign Chair Megan Woods. ...
Thank you for your invitation to speak with you this afternoon about New Zealand Foreign Policy. After offering one or two general thoughts about the nature of foreign policy, the focus today will be the Pacific Reset and why its goals remain even more important today as when they were ...
National’s plan to cut policies that are reducing New Zealand’s climate emissions will result in a huge gap in the country’s emissions budgets and could see Kiwis paying significantly more at the petrol pump as a result of Christopher Luxon hiking the ETS price. ...
Labour’s plan to support rooftop solar is a step in the right direction, but falls short of what could be achieved through the Green Party’s Clean Power Payment. ...
Labour will double the number of houses with rooftop solar in New Zealand, lowering household power bills, reducing emissions and boosting renewable electricity generation. ...
A re-elected Labour Government will continue its proud tradition of advancing women’s health, employment, and legal rights Spokesperson for Women Jan Tinetti said. ...
Speaking at the E Tū Election Launch in Auckland today, Green Party co leader Marama Davidson outlined the Green Party’s manifesto commitment to ensure everyone has five weeks of annual leave. ...
Seven more innovative community-scale energy projects will receive government funding through the Māori and Public Housing Renewable Energy Fund to bring more affordable, locally generated clean energy to more than 800 Māori households, Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods says. “We’ve already funded 42 small-scale clean energy projects that ...
The Government has approved new funding that will boost resilience and greatly reduce the risk of major flood damage across Te Tai Tokerau. Significant weather events this year caused severe flooding and damage across the region. The $8.9m will be used to provide some of the smaller communities and maraes ...
The largest public housing development in Napier for many years has been recently completed and has the added benefit of innovative solar technology, thanks to Government programmes, says Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods. The 24 warm, dry homes are in Seddon Crescent, Marewa and Megan Woods says the whanau living ...
Māori: Kua waitohua e Te Whānau a Apanui me te Karauna te Whakaaetanga Whakataunga Kua waitohua e Te Whānau a Apanui me te Karauna i tētahi Whakaaetanga Whakataunga hei whakamihi i ō rātou tāhuhu kerēme Tiriti o Waitangi. E tekau mā rua ngā hapū o roto mai o Te Whānau ...
Regions around the country will get significant boosts of public housing in the next two years, as outlined in the latest public housing plan update, released by the Housing Minister, Dr Megan Woods. “We’re delivering the most public homes each year since the Nash government of the 1950s with one ...
Judicial warrant process for out-of-hours compliance visits 2023/24 Recognised Seasonal Employer cap increased by 500 Additional roles for Construction and Infrastructure Sector Agreement More roles added to Green List Three-month extension for onshore Recovery Visa holders The Government has confirmed a number of updates to immigration settings as part of ...
Tangi ngunguru ana ngā tai ki te wahapū o Hokianga Whakapau Karakia. Tārehu ana ngā pae maunga ki Te Puna o te Ao Marama. Korihi tangi ana ngā manu, kua hinga he kauri nui ki te Wao Nui o Tāne. He Toa. He Pou. He Ahorangi. E papaki tū ana ...
40 solar energy systems on community buildings in regions affected by Cyclone Gabrielle and other severe weather events Virtual capability-building hub to support community organisations get projects off the ground Boost for community-level renewable energy projects across the country At least 40 community buildings used to support the emergency response ...
The lifting of COVID-19 isolation and mask mandates in August has resulted in a return of almost $50m in savings and recovered contingencies, Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Following the revocation of mandates and isolation, specialised COVID-19 telehealth and alternative isolation accommodation are among the operational elements ...
Susie Houghton of Auckland has been appointed as a new District Court Judge, to serve on the Family Court, Attorney-General David Parker said today. Judge Houghton has acted as a lawyer for child for more than 20 years. She has acted on matters relating to the Hague Convention, an international ...
The Government has today confirmed $2.5 million to fund a replace and upgrade a stopbank to protect the Waipawa Drinking Water Treatment Plant. “As a result of Cyclone Gabrielle, the original stopbank protecting the Waipawa Drinking Water Treatment Plant was destroyed. The plant was operational within 6 weeks of the ...
Another $2.1 million to boost capacity to deal with waste left in Cyclone Gabrielle’s wake. Funds for Hastings District Council, Phoenix Contracting and Hog Fuel NZ to increase local waste-processing infrastructure. The Government is beefing up Hawke’s Bay’s Cyclone Gabrielle clean-up capacity with more support dealing with the massive amount ...
The future of Supercars events in New Zealand has been secured with new Government support. The Government is getting engines started through the Major Events Fund, a special fund to support high profile events in New Zealand that provide long-term economic, social and cultural benefits. “The Repco Supercars Championship is ...
The economy has turned a corner with confirmation today New Zealand never was in recession and stronger than expected growth in the June quarter, Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. “The New Zealand economy is doing better than expected,” Grant Robertson said. “It’s continuing to grow, with the latest figures showing ...
The Government has accepted the Environment Court’s recommendation to give special legal protection to New Zealand’s largest freshwater springs, Te Waikoropupū Springs (also known as Pupū Springs), Environment Minister David Parker announced today. “Te Waikoropupū Springs, near Takaka in Golden Bay, have the second clearest water in New Zealand after ...
Temporary package of funding for accommodation and essential living support for victims of migrant exploitation Exploited migrant workers able to apply for a further Migrant Exploitation Protection Visa (MEPV), giving people more time to find a job Free job search assistance to get people back into work Use of 90-day ...
An export boost is supporting New Zealand’s economy to grow, adding to signs that the economy has turned a corner and is on a stronger footing as we rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle and lock in the benefits of multiple new trade deals, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. “The economy is ...
The Government has approved $15 million to raise about 200 homes at risk of future flooding. More than half of this is expected to be spent in the Tairāwhiti settlement of Te Karaka, lifting about 100 homes there. “Te Karaka was badly hit during Cyclone Gabrielle when the Waipāoa River ...
The Government is helping businesses recover from Cyclone Gabrielle and attract more people back into their regions. “Cyclone Gabrielle has caused considerable damage across North Island regions with impacts continuing to be felt by businesses and communities,” Economic Development Minister Barbara Edmonds said. “Building on our earlier business support, this ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little has turned the first sod to start construction of a new Maintenance Support Facility (MSF) at Burnham Military Camp today. “This new state-of-art facility replaces Second World War-era buildings and will enable our Defence Force to better maintain and repair equipment,” Andrew Little said. “This Government ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta will represent New Zealand at the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York this week, before visiting Washington DC for further Pacific focussed meetings. Nanaia Mahuta will be in New York from Wednesday 20 September, and will participate in UNGA leaders ...
Around 1,700 Te Whatu Ora employed midwives and maternity care assistants will soon vote on a proposed pay equity settlement agreed by Te Whatu Ora, the Midwifery Employee Representation and Advisory Service (MERAS) and New Zealand Nurses Association (NZNO), Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. “Addressing historical pay ...
Aotearoa New Zealand will provide humanitarian support to those affected by last week’s earthquake in Morocco, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. “We are making a contribution of $1 million to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to help meet humanitarian needs,” Nanaia Mahuta said. ...
The Government is investing over $22 million across 18 projects to improve the resilience of roads in the West Coast that have been affected by recent extreme weather, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. A dedicated Transport Resilience Fund has been established for early preventative works to protect the state ...
The Government has today confirmed a $2 million grant towards the regeneration of Greymouth’s CBD with construction of a new two-level commercial and public facility. “It will include a visitor facility centred around a new library. Additionally, it will include retail outlets on the ground floor, and both outdoor and ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta will attend the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, in Suva, Fiji alongside New Zealand’s regional counterparts. “Aotearoa New Zealand is deeply committed to working with our pacific whanau to strengthen our cooperation, and share ways to combat the challenges facing the Blue Pacific Continent,” ...
Economy to grow 2.6 percent on average over forecast period Treasury not forecasting a recession Inflation to return to the 1-3 percent target band next year Wages set to grow 4.8 percent a year over forecast period Unemployment to peak below the long-term average Fiscal Rules met - Net debt ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall proudly opened the Canterbury Cancer Centre in Christchurch today. The new facility is the first of its kind and was built with $6.5 million of funding from the Government’s Infrastructure Reference Group scheme for shovel-ready projects allocated in 2020. ...
$12 million to improve the resilience of roads in the Nelson, Marlborough and Tasman regions Hope Bypass earmarked in draft Government Policy Statement on land transport $127 million invested in the top of the south’s roads since flooding in 2021 and 2022 The Government is investing over $12 million to ...
Ko tēnei te wiki e whakanui ana i tō tātou reo rangatira. Ko te wā tuku reo Māori, e whakanuia tahitia ai te reo ahakoa kei hea ake tēnā me tēnā o tātou, ka tū ā te Rātū te 14 o Mahuru, ā te 12 o ngā hāora i te ahiahi. ...
The 70-year-old Wildlife Act will be replaced with modern, fit-for-purpose legislation to better protect native species and improve biodiversity, Minister of Conservation Willow-Jean Prime has announced. “New species legislation is urgently needed to address New Zealand’s biodiversity crisis,” Willow-Jean Prime said. “More than 4,000 of our native species are currently ...
Central and Local Government are today announcing a range of new measures to tackle low-level crime and anti-social behaviour in the Auckland CBD to complement Police scaling up their presence in the area. “Police have an important role to play in preventing and responding to crime, but there is more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Howell, OzGrav Associate Investigator; Adjunct Research Fellow in Astrophysics, The University of Western Australia Carl Knox / OzGrav, CC BY Every so often, astronomers glimpse an intense flash of radio waves from space – a flash that lasts only ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Saturday’s premiership tussle between Collingwood and Brisbane features the two top-ranked teams from 2023. Hopefully, unlike last year’s final, it will be a gripping match. The 2023 finals series has so ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Shutterstock Maybe you have hay fever, COVID, a cold or the flu, and are reaching for a tissue or handkerchief. But which one’s better ...
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Christopher Luxon looks like he will have to call Winston Peters on October 15 to form a government. But which Winston will answer the phone?Winston Peters has been booted from parliament on three separate occasions since he first entered in 1979. Every time it has changed him.In 1981 ...
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Conservative writer for and about Asian perspectives, Dileepa Fonseka, has an issue with Chris Hipkins already.
The incoming PM spoke too much about where he comes from and not enough about the Lunar New Year!
Mr Fonseka feels immigrants new and old are being ignored because they don't know where the Hutt Valley is, therefore it is exclusionary to mention it. Why then does he spend half his article on referencing 1981 play Foreskin's Lament and the apparent dangers of Labour government borrowing 50 years past? Hardly accessible concepts for his audience.
He infers parallels between this government and the pace of change by the Kirk government and the upset that caused conservative voters, and references the apparent rise of Paul Spoonley's "working-class conservative". I suspect Dileepa's real audience are voters Asian and non-Asian who might like the spread the word that Hipkins is no good.
The writer complains about the new PM mentioning his local Cossie Club, but it might be worth him looking up the word, "cosmopolitan", and see what it says about diversity:
cosmopolitan
adjective
"immigration transformed the city into a cosmopolitan metropolis"
Similar: international, multiracial, worldwide, global, universal
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/131051861/dileepa-fonseka-chris-hipkins-saying-cossie-clubs-misses-the-new-working-class
Fonseka is just a writer trying to find an angle to justify being in work.
Maybe today one of his colleagues will fashion a piece about Hopkins being 'anti sports' and not interested in sports people because he hasn't included those in his initial comments.
Or doesn't care about old people as shown by not referring to retirement villages.
@ Muttonbird (1) Thanks for this …
Here we go … and we are off to a nit picking start already, before PM Chris Hipkins has even been sworn in as our Prime Minister! For crying out loud.
Amongst other things, our poor Jacinda wore herself down, trying to be everything to everyone in NZ!
Fonseca is a shill for the migrant worker pipeline to business class interest.
An apologetic that the migrant worker is the new working class is of a design to obstruct labour focus on worker training, fair pay/industry awards, standards/regulations for businesses employing migrant labour.
Utter tosh, what pace of change? This is a specious effort to imply a comparison to the here and now (the only one is inflation). There was some economic insecurity because the loss of the UK market (EEC) and this together with the oil price shock impacted the BOP (and because this was pre floating the currency it was hard to make the right economic adjustment). National had no response either and thus 75-84 was a waste of 9 years (they needed to float and NAFTA 1967 to CER by 1978, not 1984).
Here Fonseca is a shill for a business class who covet a generation of working class people who pay rent rather than own homes, because they do not want to pay people enough to own homes – they want a constant supply line of low wage migrant labour to exploit.
A future where National and a migrant labour supply on tap are the future of our economic and political society is a nightmare scenario.
Posing labour as of the past for getting in the way is classic apologetic for neo-liberalism global market hegemony.
Well summed ! Queenstown be the epitome of that, but theres nowhere to even rent …to paraphrase that famous song "Work and pray, live on hay"… and in a tent : (
Cheers for that.
This is why I comment here, to get ideas down on paper so others more knowledgeable can pick it up and expand.
Always been suspicious about Fonseka's motivations and wanted to make that point so everyone can see and understand when they read him next time that his loyalties lie with NACT and open tap rather than managed immigration.
Hipkins intends to reprioritise the government's focus this year likely away from some of the policies that have been unpopular or controversial.
One major problem for Hipkins in this strategy, is that it leaves the government open to a very simple and compelling response from National. That is:
"If you want to be sure that the policies you hate aren't regurgitated after the election, then vote National."
I imagine policies such as the RNZ/TVNZ merger will get the chop. But one of the tricky policies will be Three Waters. This is already a long way down the track with a lot set up. So, it is going to be very difficult to ditch this policy now.
How will voters know what National Party policies they like or hate?
There simply aren't any.
Not so much core National voters. More swing voters who hate some of those policies for whatever reason.
Indeed. Eye watering amounts have already been spent on 5 waters (as it is now) with the new 'authorities' set up and staffed up to eight months before the legislation was passed in Parliament. Councils were instructed this week to remove water assets from their balance sheets for the 2024 financial year – so locals were informed yesterday. (no link just verbal from the council).
No doubt HUGE compensation and redundancy will be demanded if it is cancelled.
Personally, I don't think they can scrap 3/5 Waters now.
But, Hipkins might tinker with the co-governance aspect as that seems to be causing a lot of agnst about the policy. Though, that would likely buy a big fight with the Maori Caucus.
Yes, consensus left and right is that water reform is necessary, just no Maoris please.
Yeah…that is a sad but true. On that….I read this. History an all…
Great !….but then I read on….: (
I get that "most" NZers are 100% different in attitudes now.
But there is still a racist chunk..who arent. As shown daily….
BTW, Quite a lot of WW2 Veterans never received their Gongs besides the 28th.
A large number & I mean a large number of the 3rd NZ Div never received theirs & nor did those serving with NZ Homes Forces Command who were mobilise during the Japanese Scare between December 41 to early 43 when the last Units were stood down.
And that's before we start looking at the rest from WW2 or even further back to WW1.
There are Thousands of Thousands of unclaimed Gongs sitting in a vault somewhere in Trentham from WW1 to WW2.
Well..thats pretty sad ? Surely some few could be assigned to sort that out? I'd say there would be Interest..even from an Historical point.
In many cases, like those assign to NZ Home Forces Command in WW2 like my NZ Grandfather was, he didn't even know he had a couple of Gongs until the RSA change their membership Rules in the late 90's as he need his War Services Records & 2 or 3 Gongs arrived with War Service Records. Needless to say, he & Grandma were a tad shock & so was Mr Gladstone their neighbours in Bronte St in Nelson who ex 27th MG Battalion 1939-45 who finished up in Italy with a Italian war wife.
His brother was in 3 NZ Div and the way that was treated during its draw down in late 43-44 was quite shocking and it no surprising that most of them never got their respective gongs.
Then you have the Next Of Kin who had Family members KIA or WIA never received their Gongs either.
As the Willie Walker Former RSM-A & ex Tankie (not of Long Tan Fame), who I last spoke in Nov 2017. Who was in charge of the NZDF Medals & Awards Dept. Said it's a Kiwi thing most, as Kiwi Families rather forget the about the Wars etc & they got on with life post conflict. Because in the end, the average Kiwi Male is Pacifist as we only to war when we need too as we rather be working, playing sport, fishing/ hunting, going to the races or doing whatever as we find war a bloody inconvenience.
Thence NZ's fighting reputation, even though Peacekeeping as Nation that you don't Fuck with unless you have signed your own death warrant.
But we need to keep them, because eventually someone does write in too claim pops or uncle's gongs etc. As attitudes do change or one is doing a family history etc.
Just recently TPK (Te Puna Kokiri) had initiated work to track down the recipients of unclaimed Maori batallion medals
https://www.tpk.govt.nz/en/mo-te-puni-kokiri/our-stories-and-media/returning-unclaimed-war-medals-to-whanau
They came on a bit of a roadshow to several small towns around Wellington eg Otaki.
I am sure that genealogists could help locate families of unclaimed medals. Genealogists worked with Nat Lib to locate families of many soldiers whose pictures were taken at photographic studios before they embarked to go overseas.
I do know that there will be the ones like my sister's father in law who refused to claim his medals. Apparently there was a process to go though and his words were:
'They know my address, it is on my enlistment documents, they should send them to me I shouldn't have to apply for them.'
I am not sure whether to this day anyone from the family has claimed
I am not sure what the process entailed, possibly a form & witnessed declaration.. There seemed to be some sort of signed form on the documents that came from NZDF when we applied for our dad's service records.
what are the other two waters?
"Holy' and 'swamp'.They seem to resonate with the belief systems of our disaffected. Or am I just taking the piss/
😂
1) Fresh [White?] Water 2) Storm Water 3) Brown [Grey?] Water to which were added 4) Coastal Water and 5) Geothermal Water at the Select Committee stage.
Ta. Funny, because when I first heard about 3 Waters I assume they meant something like fresh water, oceans, and human uses.
The original "3 Waters" was Freshwater (the stuff that comes out of your tap), Wastewater (the stuff that comes out of your sinks, baths, toilet etc) and Stormwater (the stuff that falls out of the sky).
The first 2 you can charge for either providing, or taking away. The last one is a bit of a nuisance as it just arrives and has to be managed without providing any sort of return. It is however, very important as the others all depend on it eventually!
It is not 5 waters.
"critics (including former deputy prime minister Winston Peters, and the National Party) that the government's reforms aren't Three Waters, but "Five Waters."
But the prime minister insisted that was not the case.
"I've read the legislation, it does not change the scope. It's a reference to the impact that if you pump for instance wastewater into the ocean, it has an impact on coastal water," Jacinda Ardern said on Tuesday.
But she acknowledged that part of the bill could be clarified.
"It has caused potentially some confusion. So we'll ask the drafters whether there's a way to make it much clearer."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/479301/government-moves-to-address-three-waters-confusion
Ah! The One Source of Truth …. that's it then
Or perhaps ALL WATERS?
Gathering it all together and removing it from Council balance sheets makes it so much easier to privatise/sell surely?
Well the truth is certainly not coming from you Maurice. Three waters reforms will make it harder to a future National govt to flog it off.
How can communities be sure these assets will not be privatised?
"Continued public ownership of these water services is a bottom line for the Government. Safeguards against future privatisation will be written into legislation to maintain ongoing ownership of the new entities by local authorities elected by communities. Beyond that, the Government will make communities the ultimate guardians of public ownership through a public referendum with any future proposal for privatisation requiring 75 per cent of votes in favour to carry it.
Additionally, any surpluses would have to be reinvested in water services to address significant infrastructure deficits, making the entities an unattractive proposition for investors. The involvement of iwi/Māori, with councils, in the strategic oversight and direction of the entities will enhance these protections"
https://www.dia.govt.nz/three-waters-reform-programme-frequently-asked-questions
From the same link
"Councils will collectively own the water services entities providing services for their district, on behalf of their communities.
Communities will therefore retain an influence on three waters assets and services through their council and through other consumer and community interest forums"
they don't have to ditch 3 Waters, they just need to make sure the process brings people along instead of enforcing change that people either object to or don't understand. Remember the 80s? Yeah, let's not do that again.
I don't know if Labour or the central government departments understand how to do this. Or maybe they've been thinking they can force it through. Hope the lesson has been learned.
Three waters legislation is too far along to be pulled back. Water Services Entities Bill has already passed and the remaining pieces of legislation are at the committee stage.
Morning Report and what a swamp for Luxon to get caught in! Poor chap was totally confused about his anti-co-governence position. Corin Dann showed the terrible inconsistency of his position. Luxon did his usual word salad in defence.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018874960
Guyon Espiner. But yes Luxon was flapping around like a fish out of water.
Thanks Grey. Maybe that it was because it was Espiner that Luxon was being held to account. On reflection Dann would have helped Luxon get a more coherent answer.
NZ ratepayers deserve to know how much their rates will go up if National scraps Three Waters but Luxon doesn't want to talk about that.
Ahuh….theres still "some" (how many?) haters out there. Sad : (
this shit is getting out of control.
Its pretty messed up
John Key's head just exploded. "I went to your wedding and this is how you treat me!?":
https://twitter.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/1617975282983665664
Yesterday Mike the Lefty at #11 in the post about Jacinda Ardern's 5 years being remembered said that John Key left the PMship because his flag referendum was negative. Might it have offended the Royals having their symbols removed in a move towards a republic?
Her Penis ….will be send to a prison full of vaginas.
Holy Inclusivity!
https://twitter.com/HJoyceGender/status/1617945134687211520/photo/1
was just about to post this, from the 'it will never happen' files (again)
https://twitter.com/HJoyceGender/status/1617945134687211520
I will never figure out how to get the image to show. I am pathetic when it comes to that sort of stuff! Thanks.
use the tweet not the tweet picture. The former will embed, the latter won't.
this needs pointing out. There are at least five problems here
1. A rapist (i.e. a man) decides to use self ID to get send to women's prison instead of men's prison. Whether that's because he will be safer in a women's prison, or because it gives him access to women to rape, or both, we don't know.
2. Self ID is being used as intended. Any man can say they are a woman at any time, and society will be expected to then treat him as a woman. Including institutions.
3. The Mail headline is a hot nonsensical mess and a gross insult to the women who were raped and women generally.
4. None of that serves transsexual women, men with extreme gender dysphoria, or gender non-conforming males. It probably does serve AGP males, and sexual offenders.
5. Gender ideology activists will argue that either he's not really trans and thus this is nothing to do with their politic, or he is trans and should be referred to as she and allowed to be in a women's prison. Wish they'd make up their minds.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11670803/Transgender-woman-guilty-raping-two-women-man.html
The backlash to this will be extreme conservatism. The Handmaids tale only talks about the effects after the 'revolution' it does little to address what came before. I think it might have been unfettered liberalism coupled with extreme capitalism that now views the human body as the only profit center left and want to appropriately exploit that resource. We have fully gone down the rabbit hole. Good intentions badly applied lead to misery everywhere.
Don't know if this is accurate or not (only the vulnerability of the male is assessed before transfer), but if it is, the situation regarding the female prison estate in Scotland is worse than reported:
(Have time started at the relevant point)
https://youtu.be/CWlBaPXteuI?t=3400
Same as for Canada and the US.
In a radio interview with Kellie Jay Keen the interviewer told her about rape in prison by males – he mentioned two inmates and a warden.
Holy Inclusivity, here are your human offerings to keep you peaceful.
Yea…
His minders….dont want him making any more "gaffes"
Any idea which day will be the weekly morning interview with Mike Hosking?
Dont know. But I'm sure it'll be a mutual admiration show…
Wayne Brown is clearly out of his depth, so is kept on a tight leash by Matthew Hooten. He doesn't need to talk to non-Auckland based media, and fortunately he currently has an uncritical platform at the Herald to give his views unfiltered by any sort of pesky questioning. The other way he gets his views out is via "sources" giving press breiefings to the likes of Bernard Orsma, who is nothing but delighted that his sources have been upgraded from a few right wing councillors leaking documents to the mayors PR handlers giving him stuff.
The comments section of the linked article above indicates the Herald is basically the house journal of the sort of pricks who voted for him so as long as he dogwhistles them and they continue to block vote for him, democratic accountability can get fucked.
The tragedy is you can see that the CCO's have already decided that at 76 years old and not in the best of health they can afford to stonewall him for three years and see who comes along next, and the council itself is on a knife edge as to whether or not his agenda of cutting any service not used by well off boomers will succeed.
Simon Wilson…(He of nearly Urinal "fame")
And yea you are right…those who voted for him..could care less what he says or does. As long as he's in the tent….
Sooo anyone in IT working for a govt department get the memo today about offshoring IT jobs.
Despicable.
We spent billions on bureaucratic reforms to the health system, and not one new operation, not one new nurse or doctor will be provided, all it did was empower a shit load of overpaid middle management bureaucrats.
And now nz's health systems IT workers all have to prove that we are worth our meager pay or our jobs will be offshored so they can pay foreigners peanuts to access our health infrastructure critical information.
Thanks Jacinda. Thanks Chippie.
Bugger this country.
We had to work throughout COVID lockdowns, we had to work even if we were sick and now this country takes our jobs overseas.
Team of five million what a joke.
I'm so angry for my friends. This govt and this country stabbed us all in the back.
I feel bad for people who can't skip country but every young nurse, doctor and it worker should gtfo of dodge.
They like to throw around $$$ for foreign consultants so why not save a few billion and pay someone from india 25cents an hour to manage a national service desk
They’re quite obviously trying to copy the failed NHS mod that took 10 years to complete and they’re STILL having problems!
NZ can get f***ed
Thanks Andrew Little the great Union Man.
In the meantime in the UK the NHS is being set up to be sold – one brick at a time.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/01/22/jsic-j22.html
<blockquote>
ir Keir Starmer has publicly committed the Labour Party to the further privatisation of the National Health Service (NHS).
Writing in the <em>Sunday Telegraph</em>, the house organ of the ruling Conservative Party, Starmer declared in an op-ep that nothing was “off limits” when it came to the NHS. It should not be “treated as a shrine”, he said, repeating the formula employed earlier by his Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
</blockquote>
That's was a big
promiselie – can't trust 'em.Nats treat public assets as their own, to flog off as they please – if it's not contributing to private profits it's worthless. Health/Education/Water could be good little earners.
The Nat party's masters will be salivating at the prospect of another good carve-up – it's been a long time between asset sales. Just don't scare the
horsesvoters.Well lucky i am not a National voter 🙂
Oh no! A restructure! How can life BE so CRUEL??? Who knew your employer might kick you in the teeth?????
HOW DID WE LET THIS HAPPEN????
Will no one think of the children?
You know where the airport is. Less whiney talkie talkie and more walkie walkie!
I am sure foreign employers will be far more considerate of your views when making decisions.
Lol a big restructure so a bunch of jobs can be sent offshore… sounds like something Act would do… maybe Labour's just getting in first…
For the record if true its pretty shit.
Ill thought-out restructurings are always 'pretty shit'.
In my working life I went through at least 8 though some masqueraded as some thing less by being called realignments (that made us feel soooo much better). Others that I started my working life with had been through 11 when I rejoined them in 2000.
I can say honestly that not a single one was well thought out and, dare I say, necessary.
Ironic really as when the first restructuring started back around 1985/86/87 (Envrionmental restructuring) started I had just finished doing management papers through Massey. One of these was fiercely saying that people who found themselves having to do abrupt shifts and changes in direction were poor managers as they had not been keeping their eyes one the ball. It was desirable & respectful of staff & markets to move in an incremental and slow-ish way respecting the value of staff knowledge and staff themselves. .
Funny that Stan Rogers, Richard Prebble, Roger Douglas and the eminence gris behind them from Treasury, Graeme Scott, did not seem to have read this stuff and treated the PS with absolute disdain.
Later I met one of my former restructured out staff members (with me in her first job out of Uni) in London where she was working in a Govt dept and she said her managers were agog (in a negative way) at the stuff that was happening in NZ and one said they were going to wait until the dust settled before seeing if they could learn anything but at first glance he felt an more incremental approach was usually better. (obviously having read the same types of management studies that I had!)
An incremental approach does not work for those wanting huge change, as part of an ill thought-out (ACT) or invisible (Nats) manifesto and who neither respect the PS nor the people who work there.
NZ decimated it's PS in the neo lib era (error) and though we have had some good years in the PS since there is a high degree of inherent suspicion of places like SSC/Treasury and their OTT influence on things, and a feeling that we may be slightly more politicised than is necessary. The importation of CEs from overseas increased the turmoil/churn with the restructurings.
Also to remember that it was Labour who started this neo lib madness and we should always be keeping an eye on them too.
Corey I am feeling for your friends in PS IT. I am feeling also for my young cousin who is part of a cohort of techies who were employed in the PS to provide a future/positive place to work across several departments. Hopefully he is not affected. It is so demoralising seeing those in their first jobs being swung around and spat out as part of terrible restructurings.
Think about the waste of lives and the slow down in departments as new entities tried to do what the old ones had been doing…what a complete and utter shambles this time was.
Got it in one! In fact that came though to a secluded fax during one of the restructurings, mass-sent all around NZ to trusted faxes.
I used to keep a collection of these but I think I threw them out as it got beyond a joke.
Having been through several local government restructures myself – this really resonated.
"An incremental approach does not work for those wanting huge change,"
It seemed that the majority of the managers on the restructure treadmill wanted to 'stamp their mark' on the organization – and it was change for changes sake, rather than actual improvements.
The general trend was to remove decision-making and responsibility (and therefore salary/pay) from the front-line site managers – to back-room people – nicely insulated from the consequences of their decisions.
The fact that you then have considerable 'churn' in those less-attractive front-line jobs (all of the stress, little responsibility, pay or job growth prospects) – all incurring ongoing hiring and training costs – never seems to get considered in the bottom line….
Waka Kotahi being doing this very same front-line to back-room shuffle under an Aussie CEO. Shame on Labour's government for weakening the Public Service.
[Please use the correct e-mail address in your next comment, thanks – Incognito]
Mod note
Obviously Sanctuary has not been subject to an ill thought out and possibly unnecessary restructuring…..if so are you qualified to give any sort of opinion let alone a sneering dismissive one.
Or is this some heavy irony I am not getting?
Oh, I've been restructured many times – it was practically a sport after the dotcom boom fell apart. First they come for the least productive, then they amputate whole departments and finally they fire the HR staff who made it possible to sack everyone in the first place.
The thing is a restructure/outsourcing isn't (usually) personal and they are always bad for the business, particularly harsh ones when everyone's morale falls off a cliff. They are shitty as, but you develop a bit of resilience and you realise you don't hang around waiting for the redundancy cheque if you've had a gutsful. Don't moan, just spend company time looking for a new job and leave. And if your leaving means they are in the shit because they planned on keeping you, tough luck.
this is a political blog. I think pointing to the politics of this situation is warranted beyond 'stop moaning and get another job'.
And there is another myth, that you develop resilience. In the charts about life stressors losing one's job is in one of the 10 most stressful eg in the Holmes and Rahe scale.
So imagine it happens once, at the same time as a marital break-up. Bad, so two years later it happens again and your dad dies, then again and again. I used to say to these outside consultant companies
'Please write your procedures so that there is recognition that losing one's job may not be the only sad or stressful thing happening to our staff'…..all to no avail.
This only plan only works if there are jobs 'outside' that are similar. Some PS jobs involve incredibly specialist work, that is hard to match in the private sector let alone even in the wider PS. I have been involved in some of the point matching jobs with others within yr dept and outside yr dept.
Some times the points matching comes down to a similarity only on generic attributes. Sometimes the resilience is to something akin to weekly beatings, or an inhumane living or home life, like the boiled frog syndrome. These are not necessarily good adaptations.
The damage to people, on going and the waste of potential is incredible. The NZ Govt must have spent/wasted $NZ billions on this.
One of my dad's wartime mates developed shell shock or PTSD 30 years after his war service ended. My dad was told that this was not unusual. I wonder if as retirement comes along for many of these folk involved in these restructurings if there will be a blip in the numbers seeking help for unresolved injuries to self now that the mind is free.
I know that many of us had much less to retire on than we were anticipating after raiding super and other savings after our redundancy monies were all gone. We were not eligible for any benefits, most of us, as we had 'earned too much', and spent it keeping family, hearth & home together.
I took early retirement once I became aware that I was not going to get a job in the last restructuring, too old (55) and had too much 'corporate baggage" I was told. You know the stuff they called 'goodwill' like having skilled, stable staff with a knowledge of the business where people pay money to secure it was labelled 'baggage' in this restructuring.
There is no good restructuring, it is a myth. The only 'restructuring' that is good is the ones we initiate ourselves as Jacinda Ardern did, and as happened in our workplaces, often after a long holiday.
With good training, good performance management/pay and good management much of the knee jerk obliteration of workplaces can be avoided.
If NAct gets it they are likely to use any cruel and unnecessarily damaging restructuring methods, wholesale, and 40 or so years after the last cut swathes through the PS we will have it again for our people.
It is ghastly to see it happening now under Labour.
I had some wonderful jobs after being restructured out, none in the skills I had been specifically trained in though. But it was wonderful to come back to the rump of the Dept I had been restructured out of all those years ago for 5 years before I took (forced) early retirement during a restructuring on account of my decrepitude
On another note related to misogyny/sexism/racism when I did come back all the corporate knowledge & goodwill about these 'isms' had been lost in the mists of time. We had CEs who had no working knowledge of concepts such as equal pay for equal work let alone evolving concepts such as equal pay for work of equal value (the police versus nurses pay), the glass ceiling, etc
"And now nz's health systems IT workers all have to prove that we are worth our meager pay or our jobs will be offshored so they can pay foreigners peanuts to access our health infrastructure critical information.
Thanks Jacinda. Thanks Chippie."
Neo-liberals gotta neo-liberal.
Yes got it in one gsays
I know people working in government IT (not Ministry of Health though) or are fully aware of all major IT projects in Wellington, so this is news to me.
Do you have some more information and/or a link to a news report?
Angry, mean and spite are words too.
I just listened to Neale Jones on the Kathryn Ryan RNZ show, saying 1 out of every 11 houses in NZ was built by the Ardern Govt. The biggest housebuilding scheme in NZ history. Is this right? Why the hell didn't I know that? Why doesn't everyone know that?
All houses / dwellings or state houses?
I don't think we're talking all dwellings in NZ, which is over 2 million. And NZ builds around 25,000 to 30,000 houses a year.
For state housing: Kainga Ora manages 69,000 homes and around 1,500 are build a year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eXFzqWiCSI
I find that hard to believe
Which is why you immediately did some fact checking, right? Oh, wait …
Isn’t that bloody Labour through and through, building too many houses so the market falls by 20%! Bastards!
Just sad that no one can afford the loans at the high interest rates. So Yei, more houses, but sad high interest loans, inflation, high cost of living and a fair chance of high unemployment in the future. Never mind that what ever the number is, it is woefully inadequate.
State Houses new builds barely keep up with the amount sold.
Daily Blog is providing a nice run down here. https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2022/11/14/hundreds-of-millions-in-state-house-land-sold-by-labour-in-the-middle-of-a-housing-catastrophe-for-people-on-low-and-middle-incomes/
As per the government from last year, they are happy to have overseen the build of 10.000 'permanent' public housing which comes to about 1800 per year, and is woefully inadequate to keep up demand.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/10000-more-permanent-public-homes-added-under-labour-government
we also bought houses and i would guess that they are in the 'more permanent public homes' https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/kainga-ora-spends-1b-buying-state-homes-in-five-years/2AOGBWVRXTBFA4KP6VYX45Z65Q/
we also sold or demolished at least 2000 by April 2021 so feel free to guess how many we have sold or demolished by now.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/04/government-has-sold-or-demolished-nearly-2000-state-houses-since-july-2018.html
The whole housing mess has just gotten progressively worse, and to be honest i think it is going to get 'worser'.
There were 67,000 state houses in 2017, and now there are in 69,000 in 2022 (it was 68,000 in 2021).
They are also renovating old stock, so that they meet rental standards *.
Houses demolished are often on land for future state house building ** or for KiwiBuild *** or the sale for money (for * and ** and ***). That said they are also increasing capital invested in Kainga Ora.
My area with 1% of NZ's population will have 40 Kainga Ora houses go and 57 built. There are also initiatives being supported for house building by NGOs such as the Sustainable Housing Trust, and three local churches are building houses. Iwi also have some 4 ha of repatriated land that had been earlier donated by local iwi for hospital building being developed for housing. Abbeyfield is interested to build locally.
Rental houses locally are snapped up with but 16 houses available recently. Emergency housing continues to be built. Our area has a waiting list of 234 on the Housing Register, which contains applicants not currently in public housing who have been assessed as eligible and who are ready to be matched to a suitable property.
State houses go for all sorts of reasons- dilapidation, depopulation,- the big thing is that they are replaced with dry, warm houses in greater number and more suited for the aize of families who will live there.
There is still need but all is not gloom.
Dealing with our local Nat MP pre-2017 taught us that more state houses were being sold than built, even though the official line was that they would be replaced……
Don't you love the good Kiwi girl who has a column in the New York Times, to explain the failings of our out-going PM
Hilarious … move onto a National government that sees holding down wages as the way to deal with inflation and wants to increase inequality by returning to mortgage interest deductability for multiple property owners.
who is jenna lynch?
Where is Godot?